No Formula Florals 2.0: Giving your flowers direction

Turn your watercolor brush strokes into flowers that dance and move across your paper

It’s time to get off the hamster wheel of finding the next ‘easy’ or
‘full proof’ tutorial

Instead, learn how to paint beyond the 5-petal flower by applying floral anatomy with your brush strokes so that your flowers look expressive and move in various directions.

You notice there is something missing with the way your watercolor flowers look on paper.

Despite spending time following tutorials and getting all the recommended materials, your flowers feel lifeless and static - Now you’re looking for a better way to give your flowers direction, perspective and movement

You want to paint loose watercolor flowers that are expressive so you...

Started searching for
step by step tutorials

BUT you end up focusing on your end result and it feels discouraging to have a different outcome from a "beginner friendly" tutorial.

Plus: a blank sheet of paper feels intimidating as you don’t feel confident starting on your own, only to find yourself stuck in the loop of needing to find the next tutorial to help you get started.

Look for flower photos and paintings that you can paint from

BUT you cannot translate what you see on your paper and end up painting mostly front facing flowers that appear overworked and lifeless. You struggle to get pass the details and find it impossible to know how to simplify floral shapes without a tutorial

Bought a variety of brushes and paints that promises to improve your success

BUT you don’t know how to maximize the tools you own without buying the next ‘recommendation’ leading to decision fatigue and feelings of shame and guilt for not ‘living up’ to your investments.

Started searching for
step by step tutorials

BUT you end up focusing on your end result and it feels discouraging to have a different outcome from a "beginner friendly" tutorial. Plus: a blank sheet of paper feels intimidating as you don’t feel confident starting on your own, only to find yourself stuck in the loop of needing to find the next tutorial to help you get started.

Look for flower photos and paintings that you can paint from

BUT you cannot translate what you see on your paper and end up painting mostly front facing flowers that appear overworked and lifeless. You struggle to get pass the details and find it impossible to know how to simplify floral shapes without a tutorial

Bought a variety of brushes and paints that promises to improve your success

BUT you don’t know how to maximize the tools you own without buying the next ‘recommendation’ leading to decision fatigue and feelings of shame and guilt for not ‘living up’ to your investments.

Here’s a bold question for you:

What if you could stop wasting time searching for the next best painting tutorial and instead, start to simplify the common themes in the floral anatomy, and translate them into brush strokes that are expressive?

Sounds too easy?
Keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how!

Here’s a bold question
for you:

What if you could stop wasting time searching for the next best painting tutorial and instead, start to simplify the common themes in the floral anatomy, and translate them into brush strokes that are expressive?

Sounds too easy?
Keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how!

I have taught and shown this method to over 150 watercolor artists who want to start owning their art

Hi Jillian, Thank you for the replay for the No Formula Florals 2.0. 1 want you to know that with your courses, I have learned so much more than I ever did before, thank you, thank you, thank you! Its almost a year in November 2023 I started watercolor. Thank you so much for your thorough teaching. I think your the best teacher I ever had.

Miriam

It was so fun!!! I love learning so much from you! Great class! The breakdown of the drawing aspects was so practical and helpful... I can't wait to practice the shapes and perspectives -- I also love hearing how to handle folds, reviewing all the terms. I understood the process. Thank you!!!

Charlotte

So useful Jillian, I really want to watch it again to give more detailed feedback as you covered such wide ground in two hours!! The section where you traced the shapes over the photo to illustrate the shapes and petal directions and the flower centres really resonated and helped me understand the anatomy of the flower and how to better represent it in my paintings. I especially liked the lemon shape you traced, showing how not all shapes are exactly oval or round!

Jilly

Jillian, thanks for the wonderful class. I notice that I struggle with finding a good composition to practice with. I see your paintings have a lot of different flowers and they all come together so nicely. But now that I have techniques for flat flowers and ball flowers, I will see what I can put together without having the major flowers compete for attention.

Sylvia

2019: Painted from imagination and mostly front facing flowers

Another piece with front facing flowers

2019: First A4 sized painting painting from a pinterest bouquet reference

But then...

Posting artwork online that was ‘inspired’ by artists or created from tutorials did not align with how I defined what an artist should be - creating original works of art.

I started to question my own ‘artistic’ ability and wondered if I could truly call myself an artist if I was following someone else’s formula.

Furthermore, I could not let go of the idea of how my ‘rose’ looked like everyone else’s rose. This was the early days of imposter syndrome growing

And that's when it hit me!

I had been painting from my imagination all this while.

So I shifted from following tutorials to studying floral shapes in books

And this time, I finally started to let go of my imposter syndrome:

✅ I started a personal project of 100 days of painting flowers where I based all my paintings off reference books instead of tutorials.

✅ I tried new brush shapes and started to find brushes that I enjoyed painting with instead of brushes that were recommended by others (and discovered a new-found love for flat brushes to paint florals!)

✅ I learnt to simplify and match brush strokes to floral shapes by selecting the right brush AND brush strokes for the job

The best part?
I no longer have to waste time on tutorials that aren‘t pegged at my level.

I can confidently call each piece of floral art my own

So what is this method exactly?

All it takes are
3 Simple Steps
To start painting like you

Step 1

Know how to choose, move and work your paint brush

Step 2

Simplify floral shapes and match brush strokes

Step 3

Use contrast to give life and movement to your flowers

These artists have got the right stepping stone with this 3 step method to painting loose florals

...I really liked how you explained strokes and I couldn't love my stroke brushes any more. Game changer!!! It gave me more confidence that I could make a floral shape even with something that I thought was "ruined"

Erin

I find it very helpful, especially in the composition of the flowers. It clearly give me a clear idea on how to really try out loose flowers. Also I didn't know flat brush can do so many things!

@naZtraordinary

It was absolute pleasure to be part of the workshop. It really showed me more scope in terms if moving my brush in more than a dozen ways!! For me strokes you showed with flat brush was very interesting.

Pragya