We are going to be painting on my favorite watercolor support "Ad" Ampersand's Aquabord, an 8"x10".

When I was learning how to paint watercolor I used paper, but now I much prefer Aquabord.

For the composition I placed the butterfly to the right of center, facing into the painting.

The color scheme is a triad of colors equally spaced around the color wheel.

painting colors

• orange, Cadmium Orange and Coral Orange
• green, Viridian Green and Sap Green
• purple, Quinacridone Violet and Dioxazine Violet

• In this painting I used two common methods of preserving the whites in watercolor paintings.

1. Leave some areas of the paper white by painting around those areas.
2. Apply frisket to areas on the flower and leaves.

The frisket needs to be dry before painting. It takes about 30 minutes to dry.

You may speed the drying with a hair dryer. But don't get it too hot or it will not be removable later.

I mixed a dark color with Viridian and Dioxazine Violet and painted around the white spots on the butterfly's wings.

Add orange to warm the mixture and make it brown for the areas closer to the body.

Use less water for darker colors. And obviously more water gives lighter colors.

When you near the butterfly's body start adding orange, blend it into the brown.

What are my favorite watercolor paint colors?

I would like to note just a bit of butterfly anatomy. Butterflies have four wings and six legs.

The wings and legs are attached to the thorax, the fat part of the body behind the head.

You can faintly see the division between the fore-wing and the hind-wing going at an angle up to the thorax.

Paint the dark border on the hind-wing.

Feather the colors together by running a clean damp brush along the juncture of the dark and orange.

• Using more water produces lighter colors.

If necessary, darken the areas around the white spots. Adjust the shape of the white spots where needed.

Now turn your attention to the butterfly's body.

Paint the left, shadow side dark. Lighten the value toward the light and leave a few highlight for interest.

The body is partially covered by the edges of the hind-wings. The tail end of the body peaks out behind the wings.

Add a few dark veins to the fore-wings with brown.

Lightly suggest veins in the hind wings.

We will do the butterfly head and antenna after the flower is painted.

When you are satisfied with the butterfly, move on to the flower.

What butterflies are seen in the United States?

Paint the flower with dark and light purples.

Loosely paint the flower with a stippling motion.

Use your red-purple on the light side of the flower.

Use Dioxazine Violet on the shadow side.

Notice the masking fluid preserves the white highlights on the flower.

Use a variety of grey-greens for the leaves.

Mix a green from Viridian and Dioxazine Purple.

Paint the leaves with light and darker greens.

Leave a center vein on some of the leaves.

We will paint the stem after the masking fluid is removed.

Start painting the background.

I loosely paint the background with a flat brush.

Loose backgrounds are one of the joys of learning how to paint watercolor.

Start the lower left corner with Dioxazine.

Continue painting the background

Change to warmer violet and a variety of greens farther up in the painting.

Use a smaller brush for the tighter areas.

Mingle the background colors together to make them out of focus.

Above the flower a spray of water mixes the colors to make them look out of focus.

• Use water on the edges of the background color to soften the colors into the white.

In the tighter areas below the flower, use a damp brush to mingle the colors and soften the edges.

The wet colors flow together.

That's the beauty of painting with watercolor.

The painting is dry when it is not cool to the touch.

• Now comes the fun part of how to paint watercolor. It is always exciting to see the whites revealed.

After the painting is dry remove the masking fluid (the frisket) with a rubber cement pick-up tool or your fingers.

When the frisket is removed the white paper is revealed!

• One of the basics of how to paint watercolors is to repeat colors throughout the painting.

The butterfly is obviously orange.

So use a pale orange wash on the edges of the leaves.

The twig in the lower left was painted with brown and orange highlights.

The flowers on the purple Butterfly Bush have orange centers.

Lightly indicated some orange in a few places on the flowers.

Now we can finish the butterfly's head.

Paint the butterfly's head and leave highlights for the eyes.

A script liner brush works for painting the antenna.

the painting is finished

This is how to paint watercolor using the white of the paper.

• The whites in addition to bold colors make this a lively painting.

Original painting - for sale