I now bring you part 2 in this series of revisiting the Staedtler Pigment Brush Pens that I brought to your attention a few months ago! They’re a water-based pen that becomes permanent when dry – so we can use that feature of its properties to create some gorgeous layering to create very simple, pretty flowers. Staedtler sent me a package with the full line of the 60 colors, so I’m putting them to good use!

Tutorial: Transparent Flowers

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Plenty of water, little pigment

Create paper-thin looking petals by placing a nice amount of water on the paper, then letting the color just zoom into the wet puddle by touching it just barely to the edge.

Color will flow out into the whole petal – so when you start, use less than you think you need until you see how it dries. Too much color and the transparency might look more like mud instead.

Let them dry

After finishing the first petal and leaf, let the paper completely dry so you can freely paint other petals without worry. The Staedtler Pigment Brush Pens will dry entirely and any water painted on top won’t disturb them at all!

NOTE: If you use their Multi Ink liquid blender, that WILL lift the color underneath. 

ANOTHER NOTE: If you use a different type of water-based marker that isn’t permanent when dry, be very careful and don’t smooch the brush around ANY more than necessary. Lifting the underlying petals will wreck the effect of the layered transparency.

Make the flowers different

Create layered shapes and flower sizes that feel different – tilt one to the left and one to the right at slightly different angles off of 90 degrees so it won’t look overly planned. That’ll help the flowers look like they’re growing naturally. 

Try adding more petals to one of them so it’ll have the look of tilting more toward the viewer – forward-most petals will get a little shorter than the earlier ones painted in.

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Vary the value, but just barely

Value is the difference betwen light and dark; don’t get too crazy with value, but the more each petal has its own light and transparency, the more interesting it will be to look at!