(soft music)
-: Well, my family loves visiting
Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, no matter what time of year.
We really have a lot of fun
during peak bloom season in the summer.
The water lilies and lotus flowers
are beautiful and worthy of capturing in a paint.
Don't think you have the skills,
need tips to enhance your painting expertise?
We've got you covered with a how to paint lotus flowers,
art session right here.
So press pause and grab your paint materials,
newspaper, scrap paper to cover your work area.
You're now ready to create your own lotus flower
to admire all year round.
-: Oh, hi there.
And welcome.
My name is Simone Agoussoye.
Today I'll be showing you all how to paint a lotus flower.
So for this demonstration,
you would need your painting surface,
whether it's a canvas or a sketchbook.
Today I'll be using a 16 by 20 white cotton canvas,
as well as a pencil so you can sketch out your flower.
That way it will make the painting process
a little bit easier.
For paints, today I'll be using a pink,
a brilliant magenta, aquarium blue.
I'm using also a permanent green light, as well as a white.
You feel free to use primary colors
if you don't have these colors nearby.
You can use yellow, red, blue, and white
to make your colors.
So to get started,
we're gonna sketch out our lotus flower.
I've already began sketching the beginning,
the prominent leaf, the prominent petal of the flower.
And you want to kind of make sure
it's centered on your canvas.
But again, this is your painting
so feel free to be as creative as you would like.
I have my reference photo here as well,
but I am in the beautiful Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens,
where we have inspiration of flowers and lilies
all around us, so enjoy.
So for this first petal, you want it to be pretty dominant.
The shape that I'm using is like an oval shape,
or you can think of an egg shape
to get this first petal down.
And off of this petal will be creating about
10 to 14 other petals to create the full lotus flower.
So once you have your prominent leaf drawn in,
we're gonna go ahead and draw two adjacent petals.
Again, keep in mind the oval shape.
Each oval shape would look a little bit different,
but as you're sketching, just keep that in mind.
And also remember that this is just a sketch.
So here we have three petals,
the center, and then the two on the left and the right side.
And from here,
we're gonna draw an opening petal right here,
and that's gonna be a shape of a bow.
You can also think of a half moon,
a crescent moon if you will, on its side,
or even you can think of a smile
while drawing in this petal,
this particular petal right here in the opening.
All right.
So again, we're gonna repeat this step
by drawing two other petals adjacent to the prominent one.
And don't focus too much about
perfecting your flower at this point,
because this is just a rough sketch,
just to help with the painting process.
You don't have to feel dedicated to this sketch.
It's just to help you work out the details
and the placement of where you want your lotus flower.
So I have my opening flowers here,
and I'm gonna go and draw some background petals
in the back.
So for this again, I'm following that egg like shape
thinking ovals,
but for this one, I won't be drawing the whole oval,
just focusing on the top part.
And as you can, if you notice
this side is kind of mimicking this side.
They don't have to be perfect, just mimicking.
So just take a step back and look at your drawing
and see how it's coming along in filling out your flower.
At this point, I'm gonna go ahead and draw
the behind part of the flower
because we want to make it look 3D.
So I will be drawing the same elements,
but in the background.
So we're just gonna be catching the top part.
Again, we're gonna start with this
prominent petal right here, the backdrop,
it's gonna be a little bit wider
and we're just gonna focus on the top part of the shape,
'cause this is the opening of the flower right here.
So we have those two and again,
we want to draw those side petals
on each side and creating that enclosure for the flower.
And then again, take a step back, take a look.
And I feel like it needs about,
probably about two to three more petals.
Again, this is just a sketch, we can add more later
and we can even subtract.
You just want to get a nice full lotus flower.
Okay, I'm gonna draw just some sketches right here,
some petals in the center,
just to give me a better sense of what
the flower will look like overall.
Again, take a step back.
Half of painting is looking,
you do more looking than you do you do painting in drawing,
believe it or not.
Okay, so once you feel satisfied with your drawing,
with your sketch,
we can go ahead and move on to the painting process.
Just gonna draw a stem here, a little stem,
but maybe your lotus is floating in the river
or in the pond so you don't have to worry about this.
Just kind of think of and imagine
where you want your lotus flower to be
and how you're gonna incorporate the background.
So if you're ready to start painting,
I'm gonna start with the pink.
Again, if you do not have pink,
you can use red and white to create your pink color.
And I'm gonna put my swatches right on the canvas
so that you can see.
So we want to start with a pink and a white.
And with this, we will be creating about
three different shades to create the dimension
within our lotus flower.
So if you have your paint brushes,
I recommend having three different sizes,
having a large square headed paint brush like this.
You can also have a medium size paint brush.
This is a Filbert paint brush,
and then also a small square headed paint brush.
So the shape doesn't really matter
as long as you have a large, medium and small paintbrush.
I also have some paper towels here
and I have a jar of water to help with the paint
and mixing colors and helping the paint to flow
on the canvas.
So to get started,
I'm gonna start with my small paintbrush.
I'm gonna use this small paintbrush
to go ahead and outline my flower.
So I have a little bit of water on here
to help the paint flow.
And I'm gonna grab my pink straight off the two,
I'm just gonna go ahead and trace over my sketch.
Trace out all the lines that you created in your first step.
Again, we may be doing two layers, two or three layers,
depending on your paint and how it flows.
With painting, you never have to feel
restricted to what you see.
And that's the fun part about painting,
and creating something new.
So here we just are gonna focus on
outlining all of our pencil marks.
Okay.
So this is nature.
We're painting nature right now.
So you don't have to feel like
all of your flowers need to look exactly the same.
Each petal does not need to look exactly the same.
Your painting might not look exactly like my painting
and that's fine because not all lotus flowers are identical.
We want them to be unique in their own special way.
So once you have all of your outlines traced with pink,
we're gonna go ahead and start adding in our color.
So as mentioned before,
we're gonna have three shades of the pink.
We want to have our straight pink from the tube.
And then for our next swatch of colors,
we want to add a little bit of white to it.
So I'm gonna take a little bit of the pink
and a little bit of the white.
I'm gonna mix it together.
And you don't have to put your swatches on your painting
or your canvas or your painting surface.
If you have a paint palette nearby, you can use that.
If you have some extra paper nearby, you can use that,
cardboard, whatever you'd like to use.
But I like to keep all the paint on my painting surface.
So I'm making three swatches here.
This one is gonna have a little bit more of the pink,
you see it's a little bit deeper.
And then this one is more of the white,
and then we have our straight white
and we have our straight pink.
Now from here, we're gonna go ahead and switch
to our medium-sized paint brush.
I'm gonna just dip that in some water,
to help get the paint to flow.
And I want to focus on my dominant petal in the center.
To make this petal 3D,
we really wanna focus this darker color on the edge.
That's why when we outline our sketch with that color,
it will make the process a little bit easier
because we're just gonna enhance that color,
deepen that color.
And I'm using strokes straight up and down strokes for this.
Again, feel free to paint how you like,
if you want to just use dabs when dabbing it,
your technique and your style,
it's all about finding what you like
and how you like to paint.
But for me, I'm gonna be doing up and down strokes
and that's going to create some texture
for the flower as well.
I'm gonna grab some more pink.
Again, it's dominant pink.
And I want to think about the light
as I'm painting this and where the light
is hitting the flower.
So in this particular painting,
I'm gonna say the light is hitting from this side
more so from the left side.
So with that, I'm gonna make it darker
on the right side of my painting.
So you see, I'm going in a little bit more
with this intense color.
Once we're gonna leave this as is,
and we're gonna work on the other petals.
This petal, I'm gonna add that dark pink,
right to the top of it and the edge of my petal.
I'm also working out the shape a little bit more,
but I'm just gonna focus on the top for this petal.
I'm gonna move on to my next petal
and kind of mimic the same painting technique,
just hitting the top edges of the petal
and really defining each petal as individual beauty,
which makes the full flower in itself beautiful.
So I'm hitting the edge.
Now we're gonna do a little bit
something different for here.
These opening petals down here,
we're gonna kind of leave them as is
because we don't want to hit it too dark
because these opening leaves are really
reflecting and catching the light.
So we're gonna leave those
and we're gonna go ahead and move on to this side,
our left side where a lot of light is hitting.
So I'm gonna hit the opposite side of each petal,
the left side.
Here we focus more so on the right side of each petal.
And now we're gonna focus on the left side over here
and the left side of each petal on this side,
and then the tip as well.
One good thing I like about painting flowers is that
I don't have to worry about cleaning my paintbrush too much
because all the colors blend together eventually.
So you don't have to worry too much about
cleaning off your paintbrush and things like that.
And we're still working with the one color,
and just creating that depth and fill.
Then once you've kind of hit each petal,
we're gonna go in with our medium color,
that is where we have more pink than white.
I would say about 75% pink, and 25% white.
And just grab some of that paint on your paint brush.
And we're gonna go ahead and paint in each petal.
Again, I'm using up and down strokes,
vertical strokes, and I'm trying to allow the paint
to blend with the edge,
keeping a very loose hand,
and then over here as well.
And this will serve as our base color for our lotus.
See, I've been doing vertical strokes,
and really keeping in mind the shape of the flower
and allowing my strokes to kind of mimic that.
And I'm skipping over a few petals
where I see that that light is hitting
a little bit more in those petals.
So for the remaining petals,
I'm gonna go ahead and switch to
my third swatch color here.
And this is where it's 75% white and 25% pink.
If you need to add some water,
just to help the paint flow a little bit better,
I'm not using it to clean my paint brush off or anything.
I'm just using the water to help the paint
flow on the canvas.
So from here, I'm gonna go ahead and paint in
all the remaining petals.
Again, I'm still using my medium sized paint brush.
And try to keep in mind the shape of the flower
and adding texture just with your paint strokes.
You know, I'm keeping that very loose.
I'm not heavy handed.
I'm just letting the paint glide on the canvas.
We really want to make sure you get all the paint covered,
all the canvas covered with the paint,
even your sketch marks.
You might see that peeking through
so try to get that to cover.
And that's why I said you might do two or three layers
for this particular painting,
just depending on your paint
and how prominent they are.
I'm gonna bring this up a little bit.
I left a little bit of space right here,
but we'll address that a little bit later in the painting
when we introduce another color,
but I already want the rest of these petals
to be the lighter pink.
And I'm using the edge of my paint brush here
to really create those lines and those textures
with each petal.
And I just picked up a little bit more white
and kind of go over those petals.
I'm just gonna get a touch more pink.
Fill in these.
Again, I'm using the edge of my paintbrush
and I'm working on the side that has more light
hitting the flower.
And I want to make sure the white of the canvas is covered.
Going back and forth with my medium and my light color.
Just around this edge.
We're really focusing on that lighter color.
So one thing I like about acrylic paints is that
they dry really fast, so that we can really work in layers
and really create depth with our flower.
So once you have the flower completely painted in,
and working outside in the garden,
my painting is drying a little bit faster,
so I don't have to worry too much about that.
Just try to find areas where you need another coat,
make your darks a little bit darker by picking up that
pink straight from the tube
and going over the edge a little bit more.
You notice I did not clean off my paintbrush
because I want the colors to blend in.
Even if you want some texture with the paint.
I'm just going over each petal, defining each one.
Take a step back,
always look at your painting while you're painting.
And I'm checking out my reference photo as well.
You really wanna clean up these lines for each petal.
Alright.
So at this prominent petal in the middle,
I just want to make it a little bit dark at the base.
I still have a little white space here.
I'm gonna add a peak of yellow there.
Just a little peak of yellow
so that's why I have it painted that section in.
And if you already painted it in, that's fine.
It's paint, the can paint over it.
All right.
And just keep looking and seeing
where you can improve on your flower.
So you always want to just take a look at your painting
and check out your process.
Look for any details that you want to add
and testing any of the colors.
For me, I like a really loose painting,
so for me, I think this looks good.
I'm just gonna go ahead and fill in
this petal a little bit more,
and a little bit more here.
And once you have your base down,
we can go in with details.
You can go in with details using your small brush.
So I'm just taking a look
seeing how I feel about everything, all the petals.
This one is a little bit more definition.
So you never can know as an artist,
you just had to make the decision that it is complete.
So you can spend a lot of time perfecting this,
really getting your darks as dark as you like.
But we're gonna go ahead and move on to adding details
once I add one little stroke here,
this petal to make it more 3D.
So I added a little bit of that medium pink underneath,
just to give it a more of a 3D feel.
Grab a little bit more pink,
I'm gonna just define this line a little bit more,
there we go.
All right.
So I'm gonna use my small paint brush now
and you see it still has a little bit of paint on there
and that's fine.
We're gonna use this to add details to our flower.
So I wanna create that lighter color.
Where it's more white than pink.
I'm gonna get some water just to help,
just to help with the paint to flow a little better.
I'm mixing that up.
I'm gonna get a tad bit more water.
So from here, I'm gonna create that texture with each petal.
I'm gonna start with the lightest petal,
which is this one off to the far left.
And I'm gonna just draw lines that create texture.
And you want to make sure that you have enough white
to stand out against the color that's already there.
So I'm gonna add a little bit more white and do a test.
See, it's very subtle and subtle is fine, subtle is fine.
Adding more water to help with the flow.
And again, I'm using the edge,
I'm using the edge of my paint brush.
And I'm just gonna go ahead and add some lines
to create that texture,
inside the petal and underneath.
These are the petals that are kind of
facing you a little bit and opened up a little bit.
You wanna add that dimension with the colors
and we want to do the same for this petal.
I'm gonna focus it mainly right here
in the corner, right against that pink.
Okay.
This open leaf right here kind of already has the effect
that I'm looking for.
So if you want to add a little bit more to it, by all means,
but for now, I'm gonna leave it as is,
and then move on to this leaf over here
and create a few strokes and lines in here as well.
Again, I'm gonna add more water
to help get the paints to flow.
And just doing some stroke lines like that,
very effortless light touch.
And if you want to, you can even add some white right here.
Okay.
A little bit underneath of the petal.
And just gonna repeat that same pattern for the rest.
I'm gonna add some definition.
Looking at that reference photo,
using my edge of my paintbrush to create some lines,
some texture.
Get some more water to really get this paint to flow,
especially being outside, it's drying really fast.
So if you're in your painting studio
or wherever you're painting,
if you notice your painting drying a little fast,
just grab some water.
And now I'm gonna add some of those strokes
to my dominant flower.
Just some vertical strokes.
Let the paintbrush do all the work.
And these lines are kind of curving in a bit.
Alright.
And as you can see, your painting is coming together.
Gonna create those lines for each of the petals.
And the last petal that needs some texture is this one,
just gonna add a little bit of lines.
Okay, so it is coming together nicely.
And again, I'm just gonna add a little bit more details
to this side,
but you don't want to get lost in the details.
You got to learn when you have accomplished
what you set out to accomplish.
Right?
I'm just adding just a little bit more
details to this flower and just making this petal
come in a little bit more,
but you don't want to overwork it either, okay?
You don't want to overwork it.
So looking at this as a whole, I am happy with this.
I'm happy with this, I'm satisfied.
I'm just taking a look at my reference photo.
I think this petal just needs a little bit more
love right in there.
Okay.
Again, you can spend as much time on these details
as you like,
but we're gonna go ahead and move on to the background.
I'll just do a faint little line here.
Okay.
So every time you say you're finished,
you just see something that sticks out.
Again, I'm just letting the paints blend together.
Okay, so let's work on the background.
So for the background,
I'm just thinking greenery and water
and really being in this garden today
is really having me inspired to create
sort of like a water feel for the background.
So for that, what I do want to do
since I use my canvas as the painting,
I'm just gonna paint some of the edge with that
and bring some of that onto the flower
and just blend it in really quickly.
Okay, I'm gonna hit my whites on the edge.
If you painted on your painting surface,
just make sure have it.
If you want it smooth, if you want to text her back there,
you can leave it.
So that is gonna be as is.
So now we're gonna pull out our big canvas,
our big paint brush,
point out our big paint brush,
getting some water, just to get our paintbrush ready.
And for the background,
we're gonna use some green and blue.
So I'm gonna add green directly to my canvas,
'cause I don't like wasting any paint.
And I want this green to kind of represent the leaves,
the actual leaves.
Sometimes I refer it to the petals of leaves,
but we're gonna the actual leaves of the flower.
And we're gonna just paint around our lotus.
I'm using the edge of my paint brush
to really get clean lines with this.
Right.
I drew on the stem,
but we're gonna just paint right over that.
If you want to keep it, feel free.
I want this lotus to kind of be floating.
It's a special lotus,
special powers, so it doesn't need a stem
not in my painting, maybe in yours.
Okay, and just let that green go right out.
Now, this is a light permanent green color that I'm using.
But again, it doesn't have to be exactly the colors
that I have here.
And I'm just loosely painting the background.
I want to go around and as I get closer up,
that's when I'm gonna go ahead and add in some blue.
So here I'm using horizontal strokes,
but as I go up the canvas,
I'm gonna introduce some blue straight onto the canvas.
Okay, so I have my ultra marine blue
and I'm gonna start at the top.
And again, I'm not gonna clean my paint brush or anything,
applying the paint directly to the canvas.
You can add yours to your paint palette
if you're using the paint palette,
and then I'm just gonna do horizontal strokes,
and this is gonna represent the water.
And I do like the texture that that other paint
is giving on my canvas.
Maybe I can mimic that on the other side,
by piling up the paint,
that's a good thing about acrylics
kind of work like oil paints,
the water paints, it's very versatile.
I'm even picking up some of that white,
but again, for the background,
you want it to be as loose as you can.
And I'm gonna go ahead and fill this in.
When I get closer to my lotus,
again, I'm gonna use the edge of my paintbrush
to create clean lines,
kind of trim up a little bit.
I'm using the edge of this paintbrush.
And then I'm going into the background, I'm using the sides.
So you can see the different use of your paint brush
and just let your paint brush do all the work.
You see, the green is blending in nicely over here.
You don't want to worry too much about your colors.
You want it to overlap.
I might even add a little bit more water to my paint brush
to help it flow a little bit better
so I'm not digging into the canvas
'cause you really want to have a light hand
when you're doing the background.
So grab a touch of water.
Okay, edge of the paint brush.
Edge, edge, edge.
Edge, catch it, clean up your lines for your flower
if that's the look that you're going for.
Again, this is all your interpretation,
all your style.
Okay, so now that you got (indistinct)
I'm just gonna go down here with the blue
and blend it in with the green.
You keep doing horizontal strokes for this
just 'cause I want it to have, represent water a little bit.
So I want to have horizontal strokes.
Again, your painting style, your painting, feel free.
I'm gonna go in here,
and you wanna probably add a little bit more blue
to get to the bottom.
Kind of (indistinct), make the edges darker,
blend in with the green.
And I really want to break up this green
so I'm gonna do some more strokes right here.
And then I'm gonna add a little bit more water
just to help blend out these colors,
just to blend out the colors a bit,
have a light hand.
And then there you have it.
You got a lotus.
Now I did mention, I did wanna paint that
peak of yellow right in the center
and then that will complete your painting.
So just a peak of yellow and add your details
and you have your lotus.
I'm pulling it right from the tube,
right in the center there.
Even if you want to fade it out a little bit,
I'm using my small detailed paintbrush for this,
and just add some little figures of yellow,
some light hitting the flower,
and there you have it, your lotus.
You want to continue with the background, feel free,
but I hope that you enjoy this painting lesson
on painting a lotus.