Stream "Wild Flowers Sketches: Watercolor & Watercolor Pencils"

was live on June 07, 2026

⏱ Total duration: 1.45 hour
 

🌿 Wild Flowers, Loose Hands, Watercolor That Breathes ✨

Wild flowers are different from garden ones. They're delicate, almost accidental — small shapes with quiet energy. And that's exactly why they're such beautiful material for getting loose.

In this streamed step-by-step lesson, we work through wild flower sketches from warm-up all the way to a full multi-flower composition — not to copy a reference, but to use it as a jumping-off point for freedom of hand, freedom of color, and freedom of mark.

This is not a decorative florals lesson. This is practice with a purpose 🤎🖌

We work through the things that matter most in loose painting — temperature balance, value structure, hard and soft edges, negative painting — using wild flowers as the perfect subject to practice them on.

💡 What This Lesson Is About

Three painting studies, each one building on the last:

🌸 Study 1 — Cornflowers: warming up with hand movement and brush marks We begin with an impression of blue cornflowers — not copying, just warming up the hand and feeling freedom. Focus is on brush position (90° to paper), pressure variation, the contrast between hard and soft edges, and working with two temperatures of blue plus greens and cool pinks. A perfect first exercise to loosen your wrist and your mind.

🌾 Study 2 — Thistle: building volume without a drawing A larger, more structured flower — the thistle — painted from scratch with no pencil sketch. Here we focus on simplifying a complex shape into a few bold forms, using concentrated paint for texture and quills, and building volume through shadow and light on the flower's distinctive rounded base.

🌼 Study 3 — Mixed wild bouquet: daisies and cornflowers in a loose composition The most visual, most layered study. We work on wet paper with a rich background, use watercolor pencil to lightly suggest placement (optional!), and then build the scene through negative painting, soft groupings, rhythm, and layered darks. Blue sky against yellow centers. Implied flowers and suggested ones. A whole meadow feeling on a single sheet of paper.

🎨 What You Will Learn

• how to use hand pressure and brush angle to create beautiful, varied marks
• how to work with two temperatures from the same color family (always — with every color)
• the difference between wet-on-wet and dry surface edges — and when to use each
• how to build volume without realistic drawing — just values and temperature
• negative painting to reveal flowers from a colored background
• how to use watercolor pencil on wet paper as a gentle guide (not a crutch)
• how to create rhythm across a loose composition with stems, lines, and directional marks
• how to know when a loose sketch is finished — and how to add final dark accents with confidence

📹 How You'll Receive This Lesson

This is a recorded live stream — delivered as an unlisted YouTube link sent directly to your inbox.

Keep the link for your personal use — please don't share it with others.

Watch and paint at your own pace, as many times as you like.