Easy Watercolour Monogram & Floral Doodle

Soma Author

Discover how to paint a watercolour monogram with floral doodles in this five-step tutorial. It's a fun way to make gifts for your family and friends.

Art Tutorial: Watercolour Floral Doodles with Monogram

Discover how to paint a watercolour monogram with floral doodles in this five-step tutorial. It's a fun way to make gifts for your family and friends.

Art is often about expression and communicating ideas, and floral watercolour doodles are a perfect example of this. They are simple and fun to make but can also be quite beautiful and expressive. They can be made in any colour scheme and can be customized to fit any craft project ranging from personalized cards to art for nursery. Whether you're looking to add a splash of colour to your walls or simply want to brighten up someone's day, doodled watercolour flowers are the perfect way to do it.

Art : Doodle Watercolor Flowers

To doodle is to scribble absent-mindedly. But doodling as an art form is a great way to relax. Watercolour doodling is one way to use doodling to make easy patterns, characters, and crafts. However, if you haven't painted with watercolours and fear it's a finicky medium that you must master before you can doodle with them, then you need not worry. In the same way that a child would colour on a colouring sheet, watercolours in this technique are used to colour or make shapes and draw objects.

But before you start here are a few tips for you to get the most out of the creative process:

1. Try to paint fast and loose to avoid getting fixated on perfection.

2.Focus on the bigger picture than the details. Remember this is doodle-art and meant to be fun, whimsy and imperfect! The trick is to focus on the repetitions of shapes around a tangible axis. For instance, in case of flowers, petals are arranged around a central core, or they might be in a cluster. Mimic that and the rest falls in place.

3.The best doodle-art or any art for that matter results when you create without over-thinking any step and fear of judgement.

4. Test run all your brushes including the dodgy ones to identify what marks they can make for you. Any mark can be used to create flowers by simple process of repetition and arrangement.

STEPS TO CREATE FLORAL DOODLES AND MONOGRAM

Step 1: Trace your alphabet right side up on watercolour paper using the reverse hatching technique (saturate the back of the print with pencil marks). The alphabet should be pencilled in with a very light touch.

Monogram S - Template and Tracing on Watercolour Paper

Step 2: With a 2b pencil and light touch, outline the shapes of flowers around and behind the alphabet. It's best to have one or two larger shapes for the featured flower or pair of flowers, along with an assortment of many smaller shapes for the smaller varieties. 

Step 2: Position shapes for flowers and leave around Monogram

Step 3: Paint the flowers using your favourite colours. Try different brush sizes and shapes. You can use smaller brushes for smaller flower doodles and larger brushes for larger flower doodles. In essence, flower doodles are repetitive brush marks made within a profile that mimic real flowers. For instance, an outline of a pyramid with violet markings within could be lavender or lilac clusters. If you press your brush hard, you will get bigger marks or petal shapes. If paint your doodle with a light touch, you will get finer marks for smaller petals and leaves. Tip is to mimic the natural arrangement of petals. The rest falls in place.

The red flowers seen in the image are stubby imperfect V-shaped marks around a dark centre. The rose doodle at the end of this tutorail are broken spirals wrapping into each other. In a few petals, I dropped some darker colours just to add more depth and that's it - rose doodle ready :)!

Step 3 and 4: Colour in the flowers and leaves

Step 4: Paint/Doodle the leaves: Liner brushes are ideal for the steps and tendrils. For the leaves, use a round brush and doodle two curves facing each other. Proceed to the next step once the doodled flowers and foliage have dried.

Step 4: Colour leaves using a round brush

Step 5: Make the alphabet stand out with contrasting watercolour pigments. You may use a sharpie if you are unsure of brush skills. Make sure to draw around sections which overlap the alphabet.

Step 5: Colour the monogram with contrasting pigment or sharpie

Step 6: Share your work. Put it in a frame and show it off to your family and friends. The smaller sizes make adorable greeting cards!

Step 6: Share your work with pride.

This type of art is often seen as being playful and fun, but it can also be used to create something truly beautiful. The best part about doodling watercolour flowers is that anyone can do it – all you need is some paper and some paint. So go ahead and give it a try – you might be surprised at what you can create!

Do give this project a try and let us know how you go @ www.facebook.com/tranquilcanvas 

Happy Painting!

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Categories: : learntopaint, Tips and techniques, watercolorpainting