With the whole of France now in ‘lockdown’, I find myself with a lot of studio time ahead. Painting en plein air is now off the agenda so I’ve decided to supplement our Painting in France YouTube channel with a series of  ‘How to Paint..’videos.

Movement is limited to trips to supermarkets and pharmacies and a printed statement and passport is even needed to walk the dog! On these brief strolls I’ve noticed that Spring is in the air and the Irises are beginning to bloom. So, I thought I’d start – with an Iris. In reality, wild Irises are seriously complicated to draw so I found some simple reference for use in this tutorial.  The reference photo and my initial sketch are at the bottom of the post. You should be able to right click, save them to your desktop and print them out as a guide.

The six images below give a rough step by step guide as to the stages of the painting but you’ll find the full video tutorial by clicking on the ‘How to Paint..’ image just beneath these images. This video is relatively complicated but I am planning on doing some other videos explaining some basic watercolour techniques too. If you do try this tutorial, or any others on this Tutorial page, email me a copy and I’ll give you some positive feedback! Happy Painting.

 

 

Click on the image above to go through to the video. Reference photo and initial sketch below.