Watercolor. Tulips in watercolor in stages

Flowers always cheer up, give smiles and positive emotions. Due to their variety of colors, they look great as elements of landscape and interior design. However, it is by no means always possible to use real flowers to decorate a room, for example, tulips. In this case, they can always be depicted on paper, for example, using watercolor. Tulips can be painted in this case with a simple pencil and brushes. How to do it step by step?

How best to draw: from nature or improvise?

Before you go to the main stage of drawing with colors, decide for yourself whether this is a drawing from nature or you prefer to come up with your own flower arrangement. Accordingly, in the first case, you need to pre-purchase or tear a bouquet of tulips, put them in a vase and create an interesting drapery. For this purpose, you can use a beautiful cut of fabric, neck scarf, towel, etc., install the vase in a suitable place and proceed to create the outline.

If you plan to paint the tulips with watercolors arbitrarily, for clarity you can find their image on postcards and photographs. In this case, you only need to close to you to arrange a sample picture and start to throw it on a sheet of paper.

What tools are needed for drawing?

Prepared to create an artistic masterpiece? Then for drawing you will need the following tools:

• A blank album sheet (you can also use professional paper for watercolor);
• A drawing board or any hard surface (table, book, folder);
• Well sharpened simple pencil and eraser;
• Brushes (ideally these are round brushes No. 2, 3 and 5).

After all this is at your fingertips, you can begin to paint the tulips with watercolor. How to do it?

Step 1: Make a pencil sketch

Take a sheet of paper and attach it to a wooden board or put it on any hard surface. Next, take a simple pencil and eraser. The next step is to create a pencil sketch. For this, just pressing on the pencil, select the upper and lower plane of the sheet, the middle.

Suppose you draw watercolor tulips. In this case, the flowers will be in a beautiful vase. So, first select a place on the sheet, where it will be located. Measure out the approximate place for the vessel and flowers. Next, in the place of the vase, draw a large oval, from it take a few curved lines (these will be the stalks of tulips), on each of them draw circles (or ovals) and take two lines for the leaves.

Step 2: Form a pencil sketch

Before painting the tulips with watercolor, we will give them more understandable shapes. To do this, work on each element of the picture separately. Let's start with the vase. At the first stage, our empty oval is divided in half vertically and horizontally. Then we will outline the top and bottom.

In the next step, we draw three horizontally arranged ovals in a pencil: above, in the middle of the vase and in the region of its bottom. In this case, pay attention to the dimensions of your vase: it has a thin or thick and wide neck, widening or narrowing downwards. We take as a basis a standard vase with a narrow neck. About how to draw a tulip watercolor, we will tell further.

From the base of the upper oval we draw two lines (one on each side). We connect them together, forming a kind of acute angle. Inside of it we draw another small flat oval. In this case, do not forget that all the extra lines will be erased, so it is too much to press and direct. The same applies to the sharp corner and ovals that will be eliminated when you form the neck of our future vase.

Tulips in watercolor in stages: we paint the middle and the bottom of the vase

The next step is the drawing of the middle and the bottom of the vase. To do this, we return to our oval in the neck region and from it we lead two delicately curved lines to another oval in the middle of the vase, and from it the bottom of the vessel.

At the same time we should have something like a heart, but without a notch in the middle and a too narrow sharp corner from the bottom. Now it remains only to bring the contours of the vase and erase the extra lines of the eraser.

Step 3: Draw the tulips in pencil

After a complete sketch of the vase is ready, you can begin to draw the tulips themselves. Suppose you plan to draw 5-7 flowers. In this case, they need not be the same type. You can draw, for example, a few opened and a couple of closed buds. If you make such a variety in your picture, you will get very realistic tulips. Aquarelly will only have to emphasize their shape and color.

So, if it's a bud, then our oval is slightly zaushivaya downward and stretching upward with a pencil. On both sides draw along the entire bud of the strip and erase the extra lines. If your flower is open, then over each petal you will need to work individually.

Attention! When creating tulip drawings with watercolor, pay attention to the varieties of colors depicted. For example, some species have six petals, and they are arranged in two layers. Others have five, and they all have only one layer.

Begin drawing of petals is from the axis of symmetry, located in the middle of each of them. Draw a similar axis in our oval, "pull" it (as in the case of the aforementioned bud) and remove the excess. From the top of the oval, draw a small line (approximately 1-1.5 cm long) upwards.

Mentally divide the resulting pattern in its horizontal plane in half, put it on both sides on a barely noticeable point, first put a pencil in one of them and draw an arc-shaped strip to the end of the elongated strip emanating from the top of the first oval, then repeat the same with the other Side. Should get a small oval in a large oval. Then we draw incomplete petals, which are hidden behind the two main ones. One flower is ready. Similarly draw the rest. Next, we will have to draw stems and leaves and get watercolor. Tulips do not forget to circle. This will help in the future when painting.

And remember, your flowers should not be too big, since they will look unnatural.

Step 4: Draw the stems and leaves of the tulips

The next stage will be painting stems. To do this, draw clear lines, starting from the base of the neck of the vase and ending with the lower part of the tulips. From the stems, draw additional lines. It will be leaves. In the middle of each of them, draw a vertical strip. Point everything in a pencil. And, finally, let's move on to drawing out the outline.

Step 5: color the drawing with paints

To do this, take paints, brushes and draw water in a jar, a glass or any other container. Then you need to determine the brightest places in the picture and the darkest ones. Begin to paint the picture should be with light colors. They need to be painted with light green (buds and petals) and light pink (leaves). Look at the picture. Pay attention to those places where there will be dark areas (shadows).

Most often, the shadow falls on the inside of the petals of the tulips. It is on them to apply pink and green paint in two layers. Further, the areas of the shadow should be gradually darkened. To do this, apply to the inner parts of the petals, first a bright red color, and then a darker burgundy color. Yellow tulips, first paint in yellow, and then draw red veins. Likewise, the leaves and the stem are drawn: where the shadow from the petals and adjacent colors should fall on them, make it darker.

After the flowers, paint the vase, not forgetting its lighter and darker parts, and make a suitable background. This is how tulips are painted in watercolor. Step by step they are much easier to draw and much more convenient. Now you know how to do it.