Watercolour Flowers - Tulips

With spring in full bloom and summer fast approaching it is a beautiful time of year to see some amazing colours and shapes as flowers blossom everywhere. This is great opportunity to be inspired by the beauty of nature and to sit back and relax while creating some delicate watercolour paintings. In this guide we show you step by step how to create your own beautiful flower watercolour paintings of Tulips.

How to Paint Tulips

This is a simple colour mixing and layering project that is ideal for beginners.

Follow our step by step instruction and learn how to paint your own tulip. We have included a handy time-lapse video so you can see the artists process, building up the layers of colour to create a beautiful flower.

Its easier than in looks just remember to to patient when waiting for layers to dry.

Watch the time-lapse to see the process

Start by painting the whole sheet in water using a large soft brush, mix lemon yellow and sap green to create your background colour. Apply the colour to the wet (wet on wet) sheet and leave to dry.

Next for the leaves add more sap green to the first colour and use to paint in the first layer the shape of the leaves.

Leave to dry.

Then for the first layer of tulip petals mix vermillion red with Indian yellow and dilute with a lot of water. Apply this layer in the shape of the petals.

For the tone and shadows on the leaves add more sap green to the darker areas of the leaves, leave to dry between layers this will create depth.

Do the same for the tulip petals but do this by mixing more Indian yellow to the mixture you have from the first layer of petals.

For the final layer of the leaves add the darkest section and lines on the leaves using olive green.

Lastly for the final layers of the tulip petals mix some vermillion red with quinacridone rose and a tiny bit if gamboge yellow. Using a small round brush size 0 add in the details and lines to the petals.

Watercolour Flowers – Tulips

Watercolour Flowers - Tulips

How to Paint Tulips

Watch the time-lapse to see the process

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