Paint clematis flowers in watercolour

Make sure you draw in the outlines of the petals so that when you paint you know where each petal finishes. Take the outlines right to the point where the stamens start. Don't do any shading or superfluous detail but do try to let the flowers overlap each other. Also draw in the thickness of the stem. ( Use two lines rather than just one).
Add leaves and buds. Notice how one bud comes up in front of a flower. That helps to give the picture depth.

Mix four washes of colour which should all be liquid and quite delicate. But don't forget that watercolour always dries lighter. If you make the colours too pale they will almost disappear when the paint dries.
Your washes should be
1 a pale winsor violet
2 aureolin (Yellow)
3 a yellow green made with aureolin and a little paynes grey
4 and a purple grey made with paynes grey and winsor violet.
Now....take the phone off the hook and tell everyone not to interrupt you for the next few minutes! This has to be done quickly and confidently!!
With clean water THOROUGHLY wet all the paper and while it is still wet start painting by putting a little yellow in the centres of the flowers followed by a pale violet for the petals. Next put green for the leaves and then go straight into the background with yellow near the top right and the purple grey at the bottom. You need to complete this while the paper is still wet. notice how the background is done with slightly diagonal strokes.
Yes it will all run together and the colours will mingle together. Let this happen and resist the temptation to assist things with a brush. Just leave it alone to dry completely. This is a good time to go off and do something else for half an hour so you don't fell tempted to interfere.

Once your initial washes are dry (use a hairdryer if you are not sure) you can start to define the flowers and leaves.
Use the same washes that you used for the first stage. There is no need to mix a darker colour. Paint the flowers with pale violet and don't try to make separate petals at this stage. That comes later. Avoid the yellow centres but you can go straight on to the leaves and buds with varied greens. If leaves and flowers run into each other don't panic. Let it happen.
Again let everything dry

at this stage you should make slightly darker colours and use these to define the edges of the petals. Where one petal lies over another it will cast a shadow on the lower petal. So if you make the lower petal dark with another brushful of violet next to the overlying one you can achieve this effect. The trick is not to make the WHOLE petal dark and this can be done by softening the colour with a clean damp brush over the surface of the lower petal. You will just "stretch" out the colour until you are painting with almost clear water.
Leave the undersides of the petals unpainted this time so that they have a sharp edge and are paler.
You can use the same technique with the leaves. The central vein of the leaf can be left unpainted to show pale. You need a steady hand for this!! also add a little dark green to the buds to give them shape and volume.
Use the rigger brush and a stronger mix of yellow to draw in the stamens adding a little spot of permanent rose to the end of each.
Now use a bit of the initial violet and paynes grey wash to draw in leaves and stems in the background. This helps to create a depth to the picture.

You are nearly done.
Make a darker green with aureolin and paynes grey. Using less water will make the colour darker and also adding more paynes grey to the mix will help. Use this to paint the shadows cast by the flowers on the leaves. Pay attention to the shape of the shadow and keep the edge nice and crisp.
Mix a darker purple (less water) and do the same for the shadows on the flowers.
That's it.
You can use this technique for most flowers. It is a good way to solve the problem of what to do about a background which most people leave until all the flowers are meticulously painted. Then it is SERIOUSLY difficult to paint round them. This way the background is done at the beginning............no problem!

If you would like some advice just send me a jpeg of your painting and I would be happy to help. Go on........I won't bite!

Contact Me