Negative Painting Watercolor: Flowers on a Wash
In this watercolor tutorial, we’re going to create soft, colorful washes first… and then use negative painting to gently reveal beautiful flower shapes from within the painting.
This is one of my favorite ways to approach watercolor because it combines freedom, flow, layering, and discovery all in one process.
Negative painting is such an important watercolor technique because it teaches you how to create depth, atmosphere, and shape without outlining everything. Instead of painting the flower directly, we paint around it… and slowly let the flowers emerge through layers of color.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn:
🌸 How to create expressive watercolor washes
🌸 How to use negative painting to reveal flower shapes
🌸 How layering creates depth and atmosphere
🌸 How to loosen up and let watercolor flow naturally
🌸 Why negative painting helps watercolor finally make sense
This lesson is wonderful for beginners who want to better understand negative painting, but also for watercolor artists who feel too tight or overly focused on detail.
You do not need perfect drawing skills for this process. In fact, some of the most beautiful moments happen when you allow watercolor to surprise you a little.
So grab your paints, relax, and paint along with me.
If you’ve ever felt unsure about what to buy or overwhelmed by all the options… then this is for you.
Inside my free mini-course“Supplies I Can’t Live Without!”, I walk you through the exact brushes, paints, paper, and materials I personally use in my own work and classes. And more importantly, why I use them.
Because in watercolor, your supplies shape how the paint moves, blends, and flows. And that directly impacts how confident you feel as you learn.
I’ve carefully curated this list to help you get started right away so you can spend less time guessing, and more time actually painting.
You can explore and shop everything through the links provided inside. These are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.