Painting, Drawing, & Collaging Flowers: A Free Mixed-Media Guide

By admin in Art Tutorials > Painting Tutorials

Welcome back to another FREE eGuide Saturday here at EmptyEasel!

Today, four very talented artists have come together to share their own personal tips and techniques for creating gorgeous floral artwork. The resulting guide—Creating Flowers in Mixed Media—is available exclusively at Craftsy, at no charge, and contains 5 different tutorials that are sure to get your artistic juices flowing.

Click above to get your own copy, or read on to learn more about what’s included!

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Flowers and floral arrangements have always held particular appeal for artists and their patrons, but it seems that they’re gaining in popularity now more than ever. Walk into any department store and you’ll find botanical designs on clothing, dishware, home decorations, toys, furniture, and everything else—in short, it’s a great time to be a floral artist!

In this eGuide, Antonella Avogadro starts things off with two brief tutorials using graphite, watercolors, and colored pencils. She begins with a short lesson on drawing individual flowers, and quickly moves on to a more detailed explanation (featuring several “in-progress” photos) of how to paint a full bouquet of flowers.

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Next up, Jessie Oleson Moore demonstrates how to create a whimsical, garden-inspired illustration using pen and ink and watercolors. Jessie actually starts with a pencil, after giving some advice on composition and where to find reference material, and then moves on to pen and ink only when her composition is set.

watercolors-ink

Personally, I love the style she chose to demonstrate, but she leaves it open to your own creativity as well. She also included quite a few tips for avoiding common mixed-media pitfalls—like how to keep colors from bleeding into each other, or how to keep from smearing ink lines when adding a layer of water-based media over the top—which is very helpful!

After Jessie’s tutorial, the very talented Sandrine Pelissier takes a turn with a water lily tutorial that incorporates masking fluid, watercolor, india ink, and pen.

masking

In this section Sandrine goes step-by-step from the initial drawing through the final layers of visual texture that she added with pen. Each section is illustrated with a close-up image of her work-in-progress, leading to a surprising reveal at the end.

Last but not least, Sara Barnes finishes out the eGuide with a vibrant acrylic and paper collage tutorial. Sara also starts from the beginning and shares several excellent techniques for making sure your collage looks polished and finished.

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The end result is, of course, stunning—and as an oil painter, I can’t help but feel just a tiny bit jealous. . . You just can’t get that kind of dimensionality with paint alone!

With four great artists sharing their secrets, it’s no wonder that there’s something in this guide for everyone. Plus, at such a great price (free!) it’s definitely worth picking up for yourself. :) Head on over and grab it today!

Editor’s Note: special thanks to Craftsy for sponsoring this post with a free download. Click the following link to get your own copy of Creating Flowers in Mixed Media.

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