Watercolor Trillium Tutorial – Blow Painting with a Straw

Calligraphy Watercolor Trillium Tutorial using the blow painting with a straw watercolor technique. To learn about some more watercolor techniques, check out this post, Watercolor Techniques.

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One of the first flowers I think of in spring is the Trillium. I enjoy looking for their unique sets of three leaves during hikes in the woods near our home. I keep an eye out for other three-leaved plants, too (poison ivy), but with less thrill when sighted.

Trillium bloom in white, yellow or burgundy, but it’s rare that I actually get to see one blooming.

Today, I’ll show you one of the watercolor techniques that we talked about last week, on a calligraphy drawn trillium. You could use any of the techniques for this project, but I decided to try the blow painting with a straw watercolor technique.

What you need:

• Watercolor paper of choice (I use Canson Watercolor Paper to play)
• Watercolor paint (I like Winsor and Newton Cotman tubes or pans when I play)
• Paint brush, any medium round brush (I used a Simply Simons Round, size 8)
• Pipette
• Straw
• Water
• Paper towel
• Trillium printout from the resource section (picture below) … or
• Dip pen holder with nib and sumi ink (to draw the trillium)

And now … on to the blow painting tutorial!

• Draw or print your trillium on watercolor paper, and tape the watercolor paper to an art board or flat surface. This will help the painting to dry flat.

• Use the pipette or brush to place a drop of water onto a petal, near the middle of the flower.
• Then, fill your brush with yellow (or color of your choice), and add the color to the water droplet.

• Point your straw at the droplet, and angle it in the direction you want the paint to splatter. Blow. If you blow quick;y and hard, it will spread differently than if you blow slowly and easily.

Note: The blow painting technique can only be controlled so much. Enjoy the unpredictability.

• Repeat for the other two petals.
• Next, add water droplets in several places on the leaves. I kept mine near the middle because I wanted the splatter to go out.
• Fill your brush with green paint, and add it to the droplets.

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• Point your straw and blow. Feel free to turn your paper and blow on the paint from different directions.

• Let the paint dry.
• Leave it as it is or add another layer of color. My yellow trillium looked too light after the first layer, so I added a darker layer on top.
• Print it again and try another color.

I hope you enjoyed using this watercolor technique as much as I did. Share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear about your creating process.

Play often …

and Happy Creating!