Watercolour Tutorial: Basic Botanical Illustration Techniques

Explore watercolor with Luli Reis and learn how to create matte and glossy textures for botanical illustrations

Luli Reis (@lulireis) is an artist, illustrator and designer who specializes in botanical watercolors. This self-proclaimed daughter of biologists and art lover has always found an endless source of inspiration in nature. Years of dedication to her specialist subject have given her incredible technical precision and a talent for capturing the details of flowers and leaves. She teaches you how to create your own in this easy tutorial.

Learn more in the video:

4 Steps to create botanical textures with watercolor

1. For matte textures, start with a basic wash

Don’t wet the paper beforehand: apply a pretty ‘dry’ (or not too diluted) layer of color. Try to create an even, uniform layer. You can add extra drops to areas that are naturally darker.

Luli always has the plant she’s illustrating to hand, so she can observe it as she works, which helps her notice details like texture, highlights and shadows.

She uses a number 6 brush for versatility. This brush covers the whole area you want to paint and is small enough to be good at details.

2. Progress to the glossy textures

You can now moisten the paper with your brush to obtain a fine layer of water. This will give you shinier, more translucent coverage and helps bring out the highlights. Carefully observe the various sections of your plant, and decide where the shine is. Don’t paint these spots. In watercolor, whites and highlights are left blank.

Apply your pigment and use a slightly damp, clean brush to remove any excess from areas that are naturally lighter.

3. “Lift” color off the paper

After allowing the paint to dry, you might notice zones with too much paint or that need whitening to highlight a detail. This technique is known as ‘lifting’ and is achieved with a slightly damp brush.

Luli uses it to draw in the central vein, for example. It’s very simple: as soon as you use a watery brush, you’ll see the lighter area starting to form. Simply dry it off with kitchen roll to remove any excess water and you’ve done your lifting.

4. Dry brushing

This method involves applying ‘practically dry paint’ (in watercolor terms). It’s used to create lines, textures and ‘defects’ for example apple skin.

Check the amount of paint on your brush, to confirm the effect it's going to have before applying it to your illustration. You can use a separate piece of blank paper to test things out.

Luli believes this is one of the harder techniques to master, as you have to use the bristles to create textures and lines. But it gets easier with practice.

Like this tutorial? Then you’ll be interested to know that Luli Reis teaches you how to create a botanical painting using plant shapes, colors and textures in her online course: Botanical Watercolor: Illustrate the Anatomy of Flowers.

You may be interested in:

- Botanical Watercolor for Patterns, a course by Isabela Quintes.
- Illustrating Nature: A Creative Exploration, a course by Laura McKendry.
- Negative Watercolor Painting for Botanical Illustration, a course by Cristina Cilloniz.
- Botanical Illustration with Watercolors, a course by Paulina Maciel · Canela.