How to Paint Snowdrops in Watercolour with Artist Alison Hargreaves

Hi, I'm going to show you how to paint snowdrops today on watercolour paper using the SAA watercolours in Lemon, Prussian Blue and Magenta. I'm using the SAA paints and I'm using the number six silver brush because it's got a lovely point on it and this is my favourite brush of all time. I'm going to start by putting some very strong Prussian Blue onto the paper around the flowers to really make those stand out. Just starting with very strong colour by only adding a little bit of water to start with. I'm just getting the idea of the stalk around there. I'm working quite quickly because I'm going to put wet and wet around these flowers so I've got some strong colours in there. I'm now going to add some water. I always get rid of at least one bit of the water onto the kitchen towel because that way you don't have too much water. I'm just going to add a little bit more. This varies the tone so we've got some nice light tones and dark tones in there. Now I'm going to get some more strong colour on my brush and just pop that through as well. I want to get the idea of stalks coming down vertically. Now I'm going to add some lemon in there to get some lovely limes. These colours, the reason I use them is to get some very vibrant colours and they work fabulously together. I'm going to work right around all of these snowdrops now using this strong colour, around like that, around each of these flowers. This way you're leaving the white of the paper for those snowdrops to really show. The main thing is to use a creamy consistency in your paint and that way you get that nice strong colour following through. I'm just going around all these flowers quite quickly to get quite a loose look to the painting. Adding more water to get rid of the excess like that and then add some more water to get those tones in. A little bit on the vertical like this to look like the stalks or a little bit of foliage there. The idea is that it'll be very strong on this side and it'll dwindle into absolutely nothing on this side so using more and more water towards the edge. I'm just putting a little bit of colour in there and then I'm going to use water right across there until it goes into nothing. That way there's less interest on that side and much more interest on that side. At this stage I'm just going to add a little bit of the magenta in. Not a lot, just a little bit, just to add a bit of colour but I don't want to detract from the flowers so I'm just putting a little bit in there to link it all together. Going back to the lemon now, pop quite a few green bits at the bottom here for the idea of foliage. I'm using the number six brush with a lovely point it has to just brush up from the bottom to get a few of those grasses and stalks and the idea of that. Now I want some more strong tones here so I'm just going to add a few more of those and a few at the bottom. Again I want that to dwindle into nothing. I'm going to add a little bit of water and a bit more water and then add water right over the whole thing. Now the flowers, I want those to show up and so inside I'm just going to put a very, very fine line of purple made up with the magenta and the prussian blue. Make a lovely colour, very strong violet. Pops in there on a very fine line, very fine indeed. Then completely clean the brush, water onto the paper to get rid of the excess and on the side of the brush just to let that roll in a bit, just to give an idea of shadow between the petals and then a little bit on the outside of that petal there but not too much, you want the white showing of the flowers. I'm going to just do that on each one, vary the purples, it makes it more interesting, so more blue in some of them and more of the magenta in others. A very fine line under there and then the water. I'm going to add a little bit of magenta in there to warm it up a bit, a little bit on that side. I'm doing the same on each of these flowers but varying the colour. A very fine line, a couple at a time will do but if you do it, if you do too many together what will happen is the paint will dry and you won't be able to get that lovely wet and wet happening. Just a couple at a time will do. A couple more, one there, one there, water and a little bit of the shadow on the side of the flower. Now what I wanted to do is make it a very bright lime green for the inside of the flowers here, they have that lovely little bob. I don't know if you've ever noticed but snowdrops are all very individual and so these can be different shapes, sometimes they're heart shapes, sometimes little dots. Just add those on like that and then finally underneath, I want a little bit of green under there just to show these green bits at the top. I'm putting some prussian blue and lemon together and more of the prussian blue this time to make a dark green for the top of the flower. Do that on each of those and then just going to add some water again for a wet and wet effect. The next thing is to get some corrugated cardboard. I'm just going to cover this in various greens by going across the cardboard like this with the watercolour paint. I'm going to print this onto the bottom to give some extra lines. I did print at college and so I often put this into work, it's just an extra media that makes it quite interesting. The next thing is to use some acrylic white onto a textured wallpaper. This is my favourite one, I use it for all sorts of things. I'm using an SAA flat brush, don't want too much paint on, you want to use it like dry brush effect over the top of the textured wallpaper like this. I'm using it quite long and thin and then you just press this on top of the whole thing and it gives the effect of snow, these snow drops. Don't go overboard with this, if you cover it entirely then you lose the effect. I'm going to do that once more, just press it in the bottom and just the last bit is to put some snow on the bottom. I'm just putting one layer like that on the bottom there but this time I'm going to over layer it. I'm going to put one layer there, I'm going to put some more on and do it again. So multi layers of the acrylic paint, giving the idea of snow. There we have it, I hope you enjoyed it. Please look on my website for other ideas because I cover all sorts of subjects. Thank you.