Faber-Castell Floral Illustration

We love this handy set of watercolours from Faber-Castell. The set contains 36 vibrant colours, including gold, silver and 3 bright neon’s. Perfect for taking on your creative adventures, it contains a water brush that you can keep filled with water, rather than a jar or bottle. The lid transforms into a palette with plenty of space to mix extra shades and tones.

To paint this pretty floral piece, just follow the guide and be prepared to have a play about and maybe a few practice runs. Watercolours can create an unexpected but pleasant surprise! We’ve created a very loose piece, so there are no particular rules! But we can provide you with a few useful tips.

1. Find inspiration of watercolour florals and real florals, print these off to use as a visual reference.

2. We used a Faber-Castell watercolour pad. Take a sheet of watercolour paper and secure to your work surface with a little masking tape in each corner.

3. It may help to very lightly draw out your composition of flowers first, you can rub these marks out once your painting has dried.

4. Once you are happy, begin to mix a nice array of colours in your palette. You can always change the tone of each colour by adding more water when needed. 

5. Use the tip of the brush for the finer detail like the stems and buds. Press down on your brush to get a fuller mark, perfect for the leaves and flowers. A nice way of creating delicate marks is to add water to your paper first and then gently add the colour, this technique is called ‘wet on wet’. Always keep a little bit of tissue close by so that you can soak up any excess water.

6. Once you have the main elements painted you can fill in any space around with more grass and stem details, using a mix of green, brown and blue tones. If you want to fill the composition out any more you can add petals and flowers, like confetti through the stems.

7. Keep adding detail and colour until you are happy with the balance.

8. Allow to dry and then rub out any pencil marks. Now frame your illustration and show off your creative skills!

Shopping List:

• Faber-Castell A4 Creative Studio Watercolour Pad (WD862119)

• Faber-Castell Watercolour Pan - Set of 36 (FC169736)