20 Jun A Beginner’s Guide to Brushwork, Lesson #27

It just occurred to me that we are SO CLOSE to the end of this brushwork series! There are 30 lessons in the book we are working through, Brushwork Elementary Brush-Forms by Marion Hudson. Today we’ll be doing brushwork lesson #27, A Design of Anemone, which is a follow up from Lesson #26, A Lesson on Pink Anemone.

A French anemone is a dramatic flower with large blooms on a long, strong stem. The beautiful petals surround a dense central cluster of pistils that create a dark center, which can look swirled when looked at from above.

Our Grid Paper

Your grid paper is probably going to be different than that in the book. I say this because I looked everywhere for grid paper that was similar to the book yet never found it. So, we settled for what we could find. I would estimate that the grid paper in the book is about 1/2″ squares. Our grid paper is twice that, with 1″ square grid paper. As well, our grid paper is probably a different size overall. Because of this, the pattern in the book does not translate well onto my 1″ grid paper, so with each lesson I am redrawing the design with a few adjustments, as you can see below.

Materials Needed

• The book, Brushwork, Elementary Brush-Forms by Marion Hudson (also available online HERE)
• 1″ absorbent grid paper
• Watercolor paints (green and brown)
• Watercolor Paintbrush, we used a Princeton Velvetouch, round size 6
• A glass of water (not used for drinking)
• A small plate for mixing paint and water
• A napkin to dry the brush

Happy Handicrafts Video: A Beginner’s Guide to Brushwork, Lesson #27

The Process

For this lesson, as for the previous brushwork lesson, we used two paint colors – red and green. I began with the red but ended up going back and forth a couple of times with the green paint. I hope Ms. Mason will not frown on us too much for this, but I found it easier to get things positioned on the page in our grid when painting.

As you will see, this lesson is very similar to Lesson #26, so if you have not already done that lesson, I would suggest you do it first. Then this lesson will come very naturally.

Come Join Us!

If you’re just finding us, you can get started with our first brushwork lesson and advance according to your skill. We store all of our videos on YouTube at Happy Handicrafts. You don’t have to start with brushwork – we have paper sloyd, needle-felting, crochet, and more. Go explore and choose which playlist will be the best for you and your family! We’ll see you there!