Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement Painting Tutorial

Have fun with watercolors as we paint this colorful floral arrangement together.

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Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement paintings on my desk with all my painting supplies

Have you tried any of the watercolor paintings I’ve been doing this summer? Some of you have told me you’re intimidated by watercolor. I understand, but I want you to give it a try. I LOVE playing with them. It’s just very relaxing and chill.

You know how much I love painting flowers and I know you love them, too. So I hope you’ll enjoy painting this colorful watercolor floral arrangement with me!

Tip: If you don’t have watercolors, you can just water down acrylic paints to get a similar effect. Get all the details on using acrylic paints like watercolors HERE.

Materials Mentioned

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How to Paint this Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement

Faber-Castell 8 pack of pens next to the Colorful Watercolor Flower Arrangement painting on the desk

Lightly sketch the vase and blooms.

Let’s get started.

We’re going to start by sketching the vase and blooms. As always, sketch lightly, keeping your wrist and your movements loose.

We want a simple round shape for the vase. Think of it like parentheses to start and then fill in the top and bottom.

Next, get an idea of where you want your hydrangeas by lightly sketching some round shapes where the blooms will go. I always suggest sticking with an odd number – it’s more pleasing to the eye, so consider three or five blooms.

close up of the flowers in my Colorful Watercolor Flower Arrangement painting tutorial

Remember, we’re not worrying about being perfect. The little imperfections in our paintings – especially when using watercolors – are what make them more interesting.

Don’t worry about your pencil lines showing through after you paint. These light sketch lines will probably not be visible when your painting is finished. If they are, use a gummy eraser to easily get rid of them.

Start with the greenery.

Work on the background first, especially with watercolors.

Using a small, round brush, get plenty of water on your brush and go right into one of your greens. Use a thin brush to paint a couple of skinny, little stems.

I like to add a little extra green between my flowers. Play with adding yellow and darker green to your green paint to get variations in color.

Paint leaves using different greens and yellow to create variation. Use your skinnier liner brush to pull out a thin stem and add some buds and small leaves.

Tip: You can leave some white spaces to act as highlights.

Remember to go with the flow and just see where the painting takes you.

Paint the hydrangeas.

Using a pretty, ultramarine blue, paint loose shapes around the bottom curves where the hydrangeas will be. Paint one layer and then immediately afterward go over that same area with more paint to make it darker.

close up of painting the hydrangeas flowers in my Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement Tutorial

Add some pinkish-red to create a purple shade. Use that to add some dots to the blooms to create some separation. Add in a few touches of a limey green – I love how no matter what color hydrangea blooms are, there are always touches of that pretty, limey green color.

Add roses and larkspur to your watercolor floral arrangement.

Load up your brush with red paint and paint little, circular shapes. They should not be perfect circles. And leave some white spaces for added depth.

Use these roses to fill in some of the negative space. There is no rhyme or reason to the placement of these roses.

close up of the flowers in my Colorful Watercolor Floralr Arrangement Tutorial_The Social Easel (3)

Grab a little burgundy paint and use it to create shading.

For the larkspurs, I chose a pretty shade of lavender. Start with bigger “blobs” toward the bottom and get skinnier as you go up.

A lot of flowers start out as blobs that you connect to make different shapes. That’s part of what makes them so fun to paint!

close up of the flowers in my Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement Tutorial

Introduce a little yellow to the bouquet to add some warmth to your painting. Start with golden yellow and then come back with a light, lemony yellow to add some variation.

Add details and contrast by going back around the hydrangeas with thin lines of ultramarine and sky blue.

Colorful Watercolor Floral Arrangement painting on my desk with watercolor paint, markers. paintbrushes, overlooking the yard

Paint the vase and the table.

Use a slate blue color and make it darker around the edges. Then immediately go back into the water with your brush and start dragging your paintbrush around the vase to create variation and shading.

Colorful Watercolor Flower Arrangement painted on rough edge natural paper

Our vase needs a table to sit on! I started with a plum-ish shade and added some yellow to warm it up. Paint loosely and create the idea of some reflection.

At this point, I used a black paint pen to add some scribble lines to my painting. I love the sense of fun and whimsy that scribbles add to a painting. It’s up to you how many to add or whether to add any at all!