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Watercolour Challenge 1 (Patreon)

Published:
2020-09-08 08:00:02
Edited:
2023-05-31 16:11:19
Imported:
2026-10
Tags:

Content

We are going to paint the same loose watercolour poppy three times with a small, a medium and a large brush. Each brush has its strengths and weaknesses when painting a piece such as this but everyone has a different preference. 

Watch my video above and then you can crack on! This is a private youtube link which only you sweet pea patrons have access to.

There is a quick warm up to start and if anyone feels they would like a bit of general guidance before tackling this challenge, please go and have a look at my Watercolour for Beginners playlist 

A loose watercolour flower means a painting with minimal detail. The aim is to paint with as few brush strokes as possible and achieve a smooth blend of wet colour.

Challenging your preference and getting out of your painting comfort zone is all important to develop as an artist and this is a very gentle introduction to that.

I've attached a photo of a poppy and seed head just in case anyone is unfamiliar.

You will need:

A few sheets of watercolour paper

3 brushes: one small, medium, large (You don't need to have the brush sizes I am using, just find three in your set.)

water jar

Paint: For the poppy I used Cadmium Red, Sap Green and Mars Black, you can use any three colours you wish if you want to make a psychedelic poppy! If you would like to see a very quick tutorial on loose watercolour wildflowers click here! (the poppy is at 6 minutes in).

After watching the video...

Once you've painted the three poppies have a think about which brush was best suited? Did one work best for everything or would you prefer having all three to hand to paint this flower. There is no right or wrong answer, it is your preference. Experiment until you've painted your perfect poppy. 

If you would like to share your findings with me please use the hashtag #dwpcchallenge on Instagram either in your IG stories or on the grid, or please feel free to comment below or message me. 

I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable sharing their work so it's not obligatory but I would encourage it so we can see how we all reacted to the challenge.

Have a great week, don't put too much pressure on yourself with this, it's meant to be fun and a relaxed, open mind is the best way to be for successful watercolour painting.

Harriet

xxx

Files

Water Colour Challenge 1

Comments

Kathy

New to Patreon! First lesson completed. Excited to see what I can do. 🌟

de Winton Paper co.

Yay, well done Kathy! Can't wait to see your painting progress. Have you joined our discord server yet? You can share your works in progress and finished pieces and join the community https://discord.gg/wkaX7Ts4

Linda C

Flowers, stems and leaves oh my! lol. Have only been painting for a year and am horrible (for now) at all three. But am determine to get better!

Anne Ridley

Hi. I joined Sweet pea yesterday. My 1st attempt was too heavy handed with the med (4) and large (8) brushes on the stalks but the 2nd attempt showed that it can be done and in fact the largest brush got the thinnest line because its point was good and i used a lot of control. The small brush (0) was the easiet to draw the stalk with because i could be more relaxed (and it didn't run out of paint).

Anne Ridley

to continue - the large brush also seemed the best to paint the poppy and the seed head, but not the details or the black dots. I'm not sure what to do now. I've taken pictures but have never used Instagram. I'll try to paint my perfect poppy and then onto the next challenge. Thanks Harriet. Sorry, I managed to post this the under the wrong challenge (challenge 4 I think). I'm no good at this technical stuff.

Anne Ridley

Sorry - my second comment was wrongly posted under challenge 19, not 4. Please remove. Too much to learn! ha ha

Susan Fairbairn

Hi Harriet can I get a discord invite please?

Ina Beeston

Really enjoyed this. Found the middle brush probably the most versatile but also like the fine brush, just painted a smaller flower head. Very good for getting the fine hairs on the stem too. The most tricky thing was probably getting the correct amount of water/paint ratio for the black paint

Ina Beeston

And I found painting the stem top to bottom easier than the other way round. More control as I was pulling rather than pushing the brush

Lewisia Larke

I posted my photo to my story on Instagram but thought I'd share my findings here too. I used sizes 2, 6 and 10 for this challenge and found the size 6 the best for control and colour deposit. I think for the petals using the size 10 brush I probably could have loaded more paint on my brush as it holds a lot of water! Thoroughly enjoyed this first challenge though and looking forward to more 😊

de Winton Paper co.

I was also surprised by the fine brush, I worried at first that I was doing too many brush strokes with it for the poppy head but it turned out to be a nice smooth action. It's nice then the brushes surprise us! Yes the black paint is so extreme and can really dominate. It's worth trying out a few poppies and letting the red dry for different amounts of time before adding the black to see how far it travels across.

de Winton Paper co.

The poppies looked great on Instagram. Yes I find the largest brush - even though I think it's going to be best for big blousy flowers and petals, it can almost have too much water hidden in its bristles and it can go a bit too far!

Lewisia Larke

Thank you! I think the largest brushes may be best for larger background washes

Maria b

Am I the only one who likes the big brush best? I am rubbish at loose watercolours but I think that being the one that holds more water the big brush is the one that achieves the best effect with less pain. Used Silver Black Velvet 8 and 4 and Graduate by Daler Rowney 1.

de Winton Paper co.

This is brilliant that we're having different outcomes. It will be great to see other people's responses to this during the week!

Shirley M

I used an 8, 4 and 2...enjoyed different results. Looser, fuller with the largest brush, but had harder time with detail. The smallest brush surprisingly could produce full petals, but with more strokes, and handled the detail on the seed pod. Enjoyed the first challenge!

Elise Cliche

Wow, so many things to learn and play with for such a simple flower! After my first three using sizes 8, 4 and 0, I did more experimenting with brush sizes, paint/water ratio, how much black to add, etc. My best poppy came from using a size 2 for the stem and seed pod and a size 8 for the petals :) I was definitely stuggling with painting speed and amount of water to get the little bit beneath the seed head to blend with the stem. They would either not blend at all and be a separate oval on top of the stem, or blend in to make a darker toned section on the stem that run the whole length. It was a great challenge and I will be painting more practice poppies this week. Looking forward to the next one! Thanks!!

Kerry Persing

I used 8, 4, and 0 brushes as well. Found the most control on the flowers with the 4, but best detail on seed pod with the 0. Had a happy accident on several attempts on the 0 brush stems. The dry brush effect made the stems look hairy without having to try and add that detail. Struggled a bit on water/pigment ratio with all of the brushes. Seemed to take more strokes than necessary to paint a loose poppy. I suppose this will come with lots more practice!

Amélie Dullstein

I just had my first try at this challenge. I used brushes in the sizes 1, 4 and 8. The size 4 brush is my favourite one for most things anyhow, and it didn't disappoint me today. However, size 8 was really nice for the flower itself. Size 1 was an absolute mess! None of it looked good. I must add, my size 4 brush is much better quality than the others, so that might have some influence too. Lovely challenge anyhow!

de Winton Paper co.

This is great that you kept experimenting with the different variations following the initial challenge. This is what it's all about.

de Winton Paper co.

I credit happy accidents with a lot of my watercolour development! This all sounds great, but yes, it's all about practise, more in the sense that doing these tasks again and again gives you a greater instinct as to how it will turn out and a more fluid motion of your hand with the paint brush

de Winton Paper co.

Sounds like a great start Amelie! Yes the quality of a brush can help - although the main thing with brushes, whatever quality, is that they are able to form a fine point when wet. That's my general test for seeing whether I need to get rid of the brush.

Jane Fryer

Hi, tried this with my easel upright and flat, and found I had better control with the easel flat but preferred what I produced with the easel upright ! Also tiny change in colour mix seems to make a big difference too. Generally preferred the medium sized brush. Not sure how to upload here, but have uploaded on instagram and tagged #dwpcchallenge xxx

de Winton Paper co.

Ah interesting, I've always been a flat painter, mainly because of trying to control the water so I'd be really interested to see your perspective on these challenges when using an easel. So glad you're finding little changes and tweaks are making a difference. It looks like the best way for us to see work is via instagram using the hashtag, I've loved seeing everyone's work over the weekend and can't wait to set the next challenge tomorrow.

Lisa Parkhill

I'm late to the party but have been at work. My poppies are on ig but sharing the experience, I used a size 10 squirrel hair, equivalent size 6 quill and a size 4 squirrel hair. Although I love the natural hair brushes my favourite today was the quill brush. Its a synthetic brush but holds so much water or colour and has such a beautiful point. Having said that my favourite poppy dried is probably the size 4 squirrel. But I love the backrun from the size 10 😂 can't make up my mind! Anyway was fun, thanks Harriet 😊

de Winton Paper co.

Thanks so much Lisa, and no worries at all about when you manage to fit in the challenge. So interesting about the brushes you've used, I have found for years now that I love a synthetic brush over sable etc as I like the springy-ness in the bristles. Great that this has posed more questions than it has answered! The quest continues! It will be interesting to see which brush you find works best for challenge 2 xxx

Katherine Campbell

I seemed to mix up my big brush and my small brush! I tried painting very gingerly with my largest brush, and got very dainty lines in the stem and pod. On the other hand I think I overcompensated with the small brush and used a little more pressure, producing a thicker stem. So I think I learned that it’s not just the brush you use, but how you use it 🤗

de Winton Paper co.

Absolutely Katherine, technically the big brush if it has a good enough fine point should be able to do everything the small brush can and it's down to our technique (and confidence!) amazing work!

Julie

So, I know I‘m way too late to the party but I wanted to give it a try and I have to say I was quite surprised. First of all I really enjoyed this practise... short and very calming.... So thanks for that! Now regarding my experience with my brushes: I used a 2, 4 and 6 pointed brush....the two bigger ones are travel brushes... Usually I prefer 6 as my standard size of a brush for a 9,4 x 11,8 inch size of paper... but this time I struggeled a lot... started with the smaller brushes and have to say the smallest was the easiest for me... so I gave a second try for 4 and 6 and now I prefer the 4...it was the easiest to control... anyway will have to work on the shape of a poppy leaf.... @Harriet: will there be a more detailed tutorial for loose watercolor flowers soon?

Julie Diazoni

I just joined and this is my first of the challenges. I only began watercolor painting about a year ago. This was helpful, trying the same flower with different size brushes.

de Winton Paper co.

Well done Julie, I saw your flowers on instagram, they were brilliant, you clearly have a natural ability!

Robyn Mills

Hi Harriet I just signed up so, I’m just starting. I am well behind your challenges, but am starting at #1 so hopefully I’ll catch up sooner or later - much later I’m figuring..... Robyn poppies with 3 brushes here I come....

COLEEN FERRIS

I am very new to watercolor. I had to skip this challenge because I only have 2 brushes. One I paint everything with, and one is a liner for very fine lines. And a big fat brush for wet on wet. I see I need a few more supplies...

Katie Hubbard

I'm a very new sweetpea and thought I would start at the beginning with your weekly challenges. This was great as it made me realise I probably need to pay more attention to which brush I use rather than just using 1!!

Deborah L Shehane

I used #6, #4, and #1. I thought I'd like the 6 best, but I liked the #1. I was surprised how much paint it held.

Courtney Obermayer

This is a Must-Do first challenge!! I just joined and I almost skipped over these early challenges and I am sooo glad I didn't!! Im eager to jump right into painting something I can frame and hang on the wall but this is well worth it and im glad im starting at the beginning and calmed my eagerness haha! I learned so much from this poppy exercise! I learned that my little brushes (that I have strayed away from out of intimidation mostly) have so much more to offer than I realized!! Thanks so much Harriet!

Priscilla Basilio

I used brush sizes 8, 4, and 0. I tried to be conscious of the amount of water on the brush knowing that each one would hold a different amount. For the most part that worked out but I still had to work out some kinks. Size 0 was obviously too small. I didn't run out of paint like Harriet did but because I had in my mind that the brush was small, I could squish it down more so unfortunately I got a thicker stem than I wanted. So it seems like it's all mental haha. Except for the petals themselves which were way too big to do with size 0.

Annick Van De Wiele

I used sizes 8, 6 and 4. I liked 4 the best because of the watercontrol and drawingabilities especially for the stems. I also liked the 4 for the petals because i felt I had it more under controle. The black with the 4 also blended better.

colleen

This was a good exercise, I'm very new to watercolour so I thought it best I start from the first Challange. Looking forward to leaning more so I can improve

Pauline Prynne

I just used the brushes I had as I hadn’t the patience to wait until I’d bought