Watercolour Tutorial | Coronation Flowers, Thistle

Hello and welcome to another demonstration. For this series of four floral paintings, I've taken inspiration from the official coronation emblem designed by Sir Johnny Ive. In the emblem there are the four flowers for the four nations, so the red rose for England, the thistle for Scotland, the daffodil for Wales and the shamrock for Ireland. So in this video we're going to paint the thistle for Scotland. I've got four colours on my palette. I've got a pre-mixed green, the reason being is I actually like it. The green gold from Winsor & Newton. First thing I'm going to do is put some masking fluid on and I'm using the blue masking fluid so I can see where it's gone. It dries to a much stronger blue. I'm just going to put a few fine highlights because I want to remain white. I'm going outside my pencil marks because I can see the pencil marks are a guide. I'm just putting a couple of lighter spikes on. I can paint around but it is much easier just to put a bit of masking fluid on and make it easier to just paint over and then peel it off. It's actually quite nice, I think it's quite satisfying to peel off at the end. Okay I think that's enough and now you'll notice I have two water pots and I've got one in glass. The reason I've done this is because I want to make 100% sure that I clean my masking fluid brush off in water that I am sure that I will not be using with my watercolours because you can see there it's gone cloudy because the masking fluid from the brush has dissipated into the water and if I use that with my paint I could come across some problems. So I'm going to take that away and I'm not going to be using it for the painting process. I do need to let the masking fluid dry before I go and start painting over it. So the masking fluid is completely dry and you can see it's dried a little darker and now I can get on with the painting. The first colour I'm going to use is the yellow. I'm just going to do a light wash, put the stem into the leaf and into the green part of the thistle. So the thistle as a symbol for Scotland has been around for a long time. I first really recognised in about, officially recognised I should say, in about 1470 when it appeared on a coin but I was reading about the history and there's lots of ideas of how it came. The one I like was there was battling Scottish and some Norsemen, they came over and in order to be quiet and sneak up on the sleeping Scots they took off their shoes and of course the thistle is a common flower in Scotland and we all know how prickly it is. So they'd taken off their shoes to be quiet but they stood on thistles and the noise meant the Scots went on to be aware of their presence and win that battle. The purple part is known for its regal and the thistle for its strength, resilience and national flower for Scotland. This is the green gold on its own and you can see what beautiful colour it is. Just putting the colour down. I'm going to add a bit of blue and you can see how little colour I've put out because I know I won't be using a lot of colour. This Winsor & Newton artist's quality watercolour has got really nice pigment strength. You don't need just amounts of colour for it to go a long way. I'm using Saunders Waterford 300 gsm knot surface in the high white. The high white is giving me really nice clean fresh colours. I do use both, I use the natural which is slightly creamier but for this I wanted really clean fresh colours. This is a bit of the ultramarine, no, cobalt blue and the premixed green gold. A bit more blue than there is the green. You can see it's making really nice, much more natural green. Picking up the spiky stem, so it's got some spikes even on the stem. It is fully spiky this one. Putting the colour on, green, into the base where the stem meets the head of the thistle. Go back in again, darken starting from the bottom. I'm working this way up because I wanted to put the greens on first and work on this area. I work from the bottom, I can build up the colour that way. A bit more blue in that green gold. Using imitation sable full because this is quite a small painting. I'll probably make the thistle a little less pink than it is in the original, a little bit more purple. I'll just draw an edge on this. It's allowed this to dry a little bit more and you can see it's dried a lot lighter. I'm going to try and put on some of these lovely curving features that curve around and are part of the structure. I'm not putting every line on, I'm just giving it a suggestion of that curve and detail at green gold and the blue. Pick up the green part of the thistle, bring it around, damp brush, put the colour on, just move it around. It's much easier to put colour on than it is to take it off. I can build up the colour. It's quite strong but it's a nice colour. I'll just blend that in. Maybe do that again here. A little darker bottom. I think I can bring it out a little bit more than I've drawn. Even though I've drawn it out, the lines are a guide, it doesn't mean I can't still amend the painting. I like the way that the leaves flare here. I think the shape needs a little bit more green gold. Put the colour on and blend it out. The way I find, for me, works because I tend to like to put colour on quite strongly and brightly but for this I don't want to do that. I want to gradually build up and create that soft quality you see in botanical paintings. Start at the bottom again and add a bit darker. Bring that round. You can see I'm using a brush stroke that brings the colour around that shape. Revisiting down here because it's dried a lot lighter. By doing this and moving around, I'm allowing areas to dry before I move on. I've got that dark colour already on my brush, I will put it in some of the areas I think it needs. Maybe the stems a little bit more green. To mix the blue and the yellow just for a different green in there. I quite like that. Maybe I want it a little bluer so mix some blue, just do a light glaze so I don't put too much colour on. Need that to dry, so while that's drying I'm going to put on the colourful flower, quinacridone magenta and cobalt blue. I'm going to mix a few different variations of purple, just with those two colours. A much bluer colour there, a much pinker colour. Look at all those variations. I'm going to start with possibly this in a minute. This is the way I work, that's why I like to work on this flat palette because I can just have the colours mixed and it's a small area so I don't need a vast amount mixing. I'm just going to put on the colour, it's the bulk and then I'm going to pick up some purple. That's much further than the pink so I'm going to vary the colours I'm picking up, just build it up this way. Still probably a bit wet in the middle. You can see how it dries that much lighter, this is where I can enjoy just building up layers. You can also see where I have put the masking fluid on. Looking at the shape, so it's quite rounded with some of these longer areas extending over and above the pink. Really look at that shape that's quite solid here, make it a little bit more solid, more colour. Twisting my brush in order to get a point. Now I can put some more detail. This is the balance, is having not too wet a brush, but having it wet enough that it picks up the colour. Let's go deep in there, notice how I'm holding the brush, I change the way I hold it for different marks. This will just allow me to flick my brush. Bring that up a little bit more, I think that works. What I can do is once I take the masking fluid off, I can still work into it. I need to create a darker green, so I'm using the blue and the green gold. I'm also adding a bit of the magenta in, then dry off my brush. I think I might go down to a medium small brush, so this is a size two, and start to put on a few little spikes. I will also pick up colour from elsewhere on my palette, because I don't want them to all look the same. By doing this, I'm going to vary the colour. Some are going to be darker than others, and if you look as you go further down, they go in a different direction. These start to stand up, you're getting less area, get shallower as they start to change direction. I'm also using a bit of that purple that was already on the palette, so I think that ties it in and brings it all together. Let's do a bit greener ones, more blue, blue and green. Twist my brush to make a point, continue to pick up a bit of that purple. I've got some dark, I'm going to also see if I can bring back a little bit of this detail. A bit more blue and a bit more magenta. I find creating a nice purple is really a great start for any, you know, I need to darken, so I always create a dark purple like that, and then if I want a green purple, I add green to it. I always find using purple as my base, it gives me the darker. You can see there, it's nice and dark. Green to blue. Put some red in that, that will darken it. Quite relaxing, building up these spikes. Just put some more, remembering to crisscross them, change direction. And I've got to not fall into the trap of not taking some of them outside the shape, so you see here, it will sit here but go outside, so just the tip will sink. Just need a wash, blue, this area, and we can strengthen it. Damp brush, I can blend that in. Good. Just need to let that dry and then I can take the masking fluid off and just do a few little details and I think we're finished. So that's had a chance to dry and I need to make sure it's fully dried before I remove the masking fluid, and I'll be using a mask away. This is a really useful tool because I can rub it with my fingers and I may at the end, just to fill any areas I've lost, but this grips the masking fluid and lifts it rather than rubs it from the surface, and I find this really satisfying. Look at those lovely light marks. I think I put some in here, yes I did, look. Did I put any anywhere? Oh yeah, there's another stripe. Oh, found another one, and this is when I will use my fingers just to feel any lost areas. This is a really useful tool that it just lifts the top cleanly. I like those highlights. So now, using my size 2 brush, I'm just going to create a few darker areas just to make it make it ping a little bit more darker areas in here. Not too much, just stomp the pigment. That's enough. I could easily keep going with that, and then with the purple, I'm going to just finish off a couple of darker areas. Like I said, I find that the purple, it gives me that darker colour I'm looking for, without it being too harsh. Pick up a few edges, make it a little bluer, just so I don't have all the same purple, this edge, and I'm using the texture of the paper to create a little roughness in the stem. A bit of dry brush, so it's a little bit more textured. I think that's done. So there's our finished painting of the Thistle for Scotland, and don't forget to check out the other three paintings in this series.