18 Jul A Beginner’s Guide to Brushwork, Lesson #29

We have reached the second to last lesson in our Brushwork Series! Wow! If you’ve been working along side of us, learning the beginning skills of watercolor painting, YOU ARE AMAZING! Staying committed to the lessons and practicing in between is really paying off! Our lesson today is brushwork lesson #29, from the book, Brushwork Elementary Brush-Forms by Marion Hudson. It is called A Lesson on the Primrose.

In this lesson, we learn how to paint the delicate petals of the primrose and its textured leaves. This will serve as a foundation for many other flowers to come!

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 (yellow, green, and orange or red)
• Watercolor Paintbrush, we used a Princeton Velvetouch round size 8 and a 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 #29

The Process

We began with the yellow paint, painting the primrose petals across the top of the page. Each petal is painted separately with two overlapping brush forms. Each flower is made by painting a pair of petals at the top on each side of a center line. Next is the lower petal, and finally, the remaining two petals on each side. The primrose buds are simple brush forms to the left and right.

We then changed color to green (I didn’t like the first green I chose, so I switched to a different one). With this, we painted in the buds, stems, and leaves. The leaves were painted with a succession of brush forms placed side by side, resulting in the distinctive appearance of the primrose leaves.

And that completes our Lesson on the Primrose! Don’t miss our next, and final, lesson, coming soon!

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!