Handmade greeting cards I.: Easy African violet (watercolor + liner)
Try these little watercolor paintings! The beautiful African violet design is so easy that everyone can make it.
Did you ever want to make your own greeting card and give it to your loved one, but you just didn't know how to make it? So for you I have created this series in which I will show you in detail how to make some lovely greeting cards. How to draw it with some cheap watercolor paint (which I'm sure you have at home too!), how to make a card from it and how to make envelopes that will emphasize the whole "homemade greeting card" look!
I love getting homemade greeting cards but I love making them by myself even more! Today we will draw a simple African violet design on some watercolor paper and use them in the following articles I have for you in this series.
For this painting you will need watercolor paints. Today I use cheap "classic school" watercolor paints with 12 pans , so you don't need anything expensive or special paints or brushes for making these little paintings. You can buy these paints in any stationery shop or bigger store, so they are pretty available everywhere. It's practically the same technique that we are using for every watercolor paints, it doesn't matter if it's cheap or professional. The colors can be mixed so you can mix the color and shade to your liking for what you need.
Supplies:
- watercolor paints (I use cheap paints with 12 colors)
- sketching paper
- black liner (size 5 or more)
- colored pens or crayons for sketching
- watercolor paper, ideally weight 300g/m2
- pointed round brush, size 3 (or more as you want)
- a glass of water
- paper towel or cloth for cleaning your brush
- pencil and rubber
The choice of paper is very important for watercolor paintings. Ideally you want to paint on watercolor paper, which can soak up more water, and although these papers are a little more expensive, they are definitely worth investing in. I highly recommend stocking up on higher weight watercolor papers (300 g/m2) which are great for making greeting cards as they are heavy enough.
This time we will start with a colored sketch on sketching paper, which will help us to lay out the picture and specify the use of colors. I'm using colored brush pens this time, but any other pen or crayons you have on hand will work great.
We'll be making two greeting cards. One is 10,5x15 cm, which is approximately A6 size of paper. And the other is 13x13 cm, which I cut out of watercolor paper.
Sketching
Mark out the specified measurement on sketching paper and use a brush pen to draw where our design will be, how big it will be and what will be on it . This step isn't necessary, but it's great to prepare a sketch this way. You'll become more confident in what you're painting and you won't waste expensive watercolor paper if your picture accidentally goes wrong.
Let's start with the blue design of African violet. This design starts at the bottom (on the wider edge of the paper) along its entire length and extends to approximately ⅔ of its height. I'm going to draw with a blue brush pen the round flowers of 5 or 4 petals in an oval shape. In the gaps, I'll mark 1 or 2 petals. Then use the orange brush pen to mark the centers of the flower.
For the second design , draw the same flowers with pink and orange brush pens but draw them only in the center of the paper. Around the flowers, draw the green leaves, which are wider and oval-shaped with a tip at the end. Also draw the stems of some of the flowers and leaves.
Watercolor painting
Redraw the designs with paints on watercolor paper and start by mixing the colors. Due to their dry texture, cheap watercolors need a lot of water to mix, so be patient. You can mix the blue paint with a little bit of violet to make the color less bold and use a round tipped brush to draw the flowers . Leave white centers of the flower and some areas in the petals. You can also add a little bit of extra darker color inside individual petals and for flowers that consist of just a few petals, you can lighten the color by just diluting the color with water. Paint the yellow centers of the flowers as well. I mix the color from the yellow with a little bit of orange to darken it. It's nice if the paint is still applied to wet paper and the yellow is lightly blended into the blue.
Paint the flowers on the second design with the same technique. This time, use a dark pink color, to which we can mix a little bit of violet. Don't be afraid to mix the colors and create your own shade for what you need each time. We also paint in the yellow centers of the flowers.
Then mix the green paint (again, mix a little violet for a more muted color) and paint the leaves and stems. We can darken the paint once more and add shadows or details to the leaves. Let both designs dry completely.
Adding black lines
After your paintings dry completely , take a thicker black liner (I use size 5) and draw in the details. On the flowers , draw the outer line of each petal. The line should be wavy and it is not necessary to make an outline on every part of the flower. This makes the flowers look more natural. In the center of the flowers draw a few dots just as a little detail. It looks very nice if the smaller, partial, lighter or marginal flowers are left without outlines. This makes the painting more interesting.
For the design with pink flowers, you can also outline the green leaves and stems and mark a centerline in the leaves.
If you want to add a message, into your greeting card, sketch it out in pencil first so you can see how big it will be. This time I wrote "happy birthday" (k narozeninám) at the top of the blue design. Go over with a black liner and erase the pencil once it is completely dry. And that's it!
We have two beautiful simple watercolor paintings with the design of the African violet for greeting cards! I hope this tutorial has inspired you to create your own and that you'll give cheap watercolors a chance!
In the following articles of my series "Homemade greeting cards" I will show you how to make beautiful cards from these little flower paintings and how to make paper envelopes for them!