Becoming a Watercolor Flower Painter
I've never been a flower painter. If you look at all those paintings in the image above, it sure doesn’t look like it, but it’s true. Some artists and designers devote their entire careers and projects to flowers. I've always loved flower paintings, but I generally opted for landscapes, fashion illustration, food illustration, but seldom flowers. Why? I think one reason is that so many other artists were already painting flowers.
I kept thinking, does the world really need another flower painting? I didn't think so, but boy was I wrong!
When my friend and fellow artist Fanny HH suggested we do a flower painting challenge on Instagram together last month, I was doubtful. "Here we go with the flowers again," I thought. But it’s for this reason that I thought it might be an interesting challenge for me. How would it be for a non-flower painter to paint flowers for 30 days in a row? Thankfully my curiosity peaked and I went for it.
It wasn’t easy at first, so I started with some more simple flower shapes like you see in the image above. I used my favorite Viviva Colors colorsheets which added a level of ease and vivid color, plus they are 100% sustainable which is awesome.
I also recorded the process of every single painting I did for this challenge so I could learn from it and possibly even share it in the future. That was the best decision I could’ve made. I ended up recording my own dauly growth and little did I know, how transformative it would be.
As I got more warmed up and saw some of the beautiful work from challenge participants at #30DayFlowerChallenge on Instagram, it started to motivate me even more. I didn't realize how much actual energy it would give me to see and feel the hard work and dedication going into this challenge by everyone who participated. Although, we didn't get a lots of artists joining in, the ones who did produced amazing work and came up with new ideas I would have never thought of. I really got into their stories and reasons for participating which made the challenge more of a community than anything else. You can read about one of those stories here.
I was so surprised at how much I looked forward to my next watercolor flower project!
Mojave Yucca landscape watercolor painting.
I really surprised myself by starting to enjoy the process of painting flowers in particular. I've always known that painting anything nature related was very therapeutic, but flowers sort of took it to another level for me. I think it was the absolute awe I felt for how many different varieties of flowers there were here in the desert, but also each of their, detailed characteristics.
Painting desert themed flowers was part of my motivation for doing this challenge since I'm so inspired by the Mojave Desert landscape where I live. I’ve used it as a backdrop for my logo, brand color palette, and brand photography. I knew that I was becoming obsessed with cactus and succulent plants as a subject matter but partnering them with their blooms was a revelation.
This challenge has transformed the way I feel about painting flowers.
Apache Plume desert flower.
It's summer as I'm writing this post, and all I can think about is painting more flowers. I can't believe this turn around! It's so shocking and funny all at the same time. Now I want to get into the finite details of any flower I can get my hands on, plus see how quickly and loosely I can paint it. I'm dreaming of flower patterns, since I am also a surface pattern designer. That's because a few of my paintings came out a bit more abstract than I intended, but when I stepped back, I could see the makings of a new and beautiful design for fabrics, stationary, and other things.
Some of these paintings did not come out the way I expected, but after I stepped away and came back to them, I was pleasantly surprised.
Some days I was really concerned about what I was painting. I just wasn't happy with the results, and wondered if I would have to start over again. Since this was a painting challenge, in the end I decided to go with what I had originally painted. It was kind of scary, but those paintings ended up being some of the biggest crowd favorites. How does that even happen? I can see that when our painting becomes too personal, we have a foreshortened view. That makes judging our own work really difficult and even unrealistic at times. Now I'm so glad I shared those supposed failed paintings!
The two paintings on the outside were “failed” paintings that turned out more like potential pattern designs.
If you are resisting painting a certain subject matter, I highly suggest you tackle it. It could be as life-changing for you as this flower painting challenge was for me. You don't have to join a challenge or do a forced march. Just dip your toe in and see how it goes. Then, see if you want to continue and make note of how the subject matter makes you feel, but do give it some time. It was that 30 day timeframe that changed my whole perspective.
What subject matters have you been resisting? Maybe landscapes or painting water? Food paintings perhaps? Share with us in the comments below. I can’t wait to cheer you on!
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