Painting a Minimalist Winter Berry Bouquet in Watercolor

Hi, I'm Valerie Englehart, and today I'm taking you through the process of painting a minimalist bouquet of winter berries. This is actually my first time doing a bouquet in a vase on this channel, and honestly, it's been a long time since I've painted anything in a vase at all. What am I saying? Flowers. This is more like foliage, really.

Let's dive into the techniques I used to create this piece.

Creating Dimensional Berries with the Parentheses Technique

I started with Daniel Smith permanent red, painting directly from my dried palette. Since this is such a small study, working from a dried palette is perfectly acceptable. Using a small synthetic size two mimic brush, I painted what I call the "parentheses technique" - essentially painting two curved lines in red that look like parentheses: ( ).

Then I switched to my favorite go-to brush with just clean water and filled in the middle section. This creates the rounded, dimensional form of the berry. Of course, I accidentally smudged some of it with my hand, so I just bled it away, which gave it that atmospheric effect I was planning to add at some point anyway. So having my hand smudge it was actually a happy accident!

One thing to watch out for: this paint dried faster than I anticipated. If you look at that bottom berry, you can still see the parentheses marks showing through. But that's fine - we're going to build this up in layers, which is the beauty of watercolor.

Adding Shine and Highlights

With a clean but damp brush (not wet), I used a paper towel to control the moisture level. Then, with a curved brush stroke, I added a little bit of shine on each berry. I didn't want it to be stark white - if I wanted that, I'd probably go in with gouache later. But for this piece, everything is 100% watercolor, keeping things soft and subtle.

Working with a Complementary Color Scheme

This painting uses a complementary color scheme of red and green - very popular for wintertime. I was pulling colors from my palette, and honestly, I don't remember what all the colors are. With some of those darker pucks of paint, I have no idea what they even are!

I actually tested colors on the side in one of the palette wells to figure out what I was working with. I finally found a green that worked, which I believe is Rockwell Art's Lime Green Brown. It's a nice, cool, earthy green color - perfect for winter foliage.

Painting Broken Stems: Leaving Things to the Imagination

For the stems, I used broken lines rather than continuous ones. When I paint, I like leaving some things to the imagination. Broken stems feel more natural and loose to me, and they give the viewer's eye room to fill in the gaps.

How to Paint White Objects in Watercolor

Next came the vase, which looks almost like a tumbler or cup - maybe porcelain, but not super shiny. The question is: how do you paint white in watercolor?

The answer is you paint with reflections and shadows. I used whatever colors were already available on my palette and painted the shadows on the vase. One of my favorite approaches to painting white objects is either creating an atmospheric wash or just using suggestion, but in this case, I was painting positively rather than negatively.

I used very light values - meaning the color itself (that Lime Green Brown) is quite dark, but I diluted it heavily with water. Look at how dark it appears on the stems, but when I used it on the vase with lots of water, it created those subtle shadows beautifully.

Creating Organic Bleeds and Lost Edges

I decided to add another berry touching the vase because I wanted some of that natural bleed effect - I wanted the red from the berries to naturally bleed into the vase.

Notice my brush strokes here. This is a curved vase, so my brush strokes are curved, moving in the direction of the form. At the bottom where the base begins to narrow slightly as it reaches the ground, those brush strokes are largely horizontal. Meanwhile, the curved brush strokes toward the top of the vase remain vertical, curving in the direction the vase seems to move.

Building Color Harmony and Cohesion

At one point, I pulled another dark color from my palette - honestly, I don't even know what it was! But when you create your own palette like I do, choosing colors that work well together, you can take these little gambles. What's most important is getting your values correct.

I used that Lime Green Brown again to place where I wanted the leaves to go, doing just a center stroke for each leaf. The idea was similar to the berries - put down a line and then soften it to create form. However, this dried much faster than I anticipated, so I had to go back in with my round brush and a very light application of paint. I wanted the leaves to be airy since they're not the focal point, but they're still important.

When introducing a new color, especially one you're not familiar with, dropping that color into a couple different spots in the painting brings color harmony and cohesion to the whole piece.

Embracing Loose, Atmospheric Painting

At this point, I decided we needed another berry, so I used my same berry technique. The area around the leaf was still wet, so that berry got diffused and bled into the space around it - and that's perfect. I want there to be lost and found edges. I want some of these edges to be ambiguous and, as I've said before, atmospheric.

I like to paint loose. I like it to be dreamy. But loose doesn't mean I don't understand shape, composition, or form. And it doesn't necessarily mean it's quick to do, even though this was a pretty quick painting. Loose is just a way of painting - a style and an approach.

Understanding Light Source and Shadows

I went back under the vase to differentiate it from the surface it's sitting on, using shadow. Pay attention to the light source. When I was painting the vase, the right side is lighter, with some areas completely unpainted, and it darkens as we curve away from the light source.

The same principle applies to the very bottom of the vase where it begins to dip inward - that shadow gets more extreme. I blended that shadow on the vase, connecting it to the cast shadow, so there isn't a definite line showing where one object stops and the table starts. I like that loose, ambiguous quality.

Layering for Depth: Adding the Second Layer of Red

Even though we can tell what this is, those berries looked pretty washed out. Watercolor dries much paler than it appears when wet. So I went in with a cooler red - Daniel Smith Permanent Alizarin Crimson. I didn't want to cover the entire berries like I did the first time (otherwise, what's the point?), but I did want to strengthen some of the shadows and create more dimension.

Some of those berries needed to be placed either more forward or backward in space, and I achieved that with edges and shadows. But here's the key: you need to pay attention to your light source. If I had put the shadows on parts of the berries that didn't match where the light was coming from (as we can see on the vase), it would look confusing. Even if viewers couldn't consciously figure out what was wrong, their brains would sense something was off.

When painting, be cognizant of where that light is coming from. It's easiest to paint with one dominant light source, especially if you're using your imagination. Multiple light sources creating contrasting shadows can get more confusing - not impossible, but definitely more challenging.

Adding Final Details

For berries that were blending into the leaves, I only added the Permanent Alizarin Crimson to the lower parts and allowed the tops to fade away into that washy section.

Next, I grabbed my size two round brush and painted those little dots on the ends of the berries. With the exception of one berry that I wanted bleeding into the leaf, I added these details to give the berries more character. Then I took my clean damp brush and softened the part of each dot that connects to the berry, keeping everything soft and organic.

The leaves needed more detail, so I added broken lines, staying consistent with my approach throughout the painting. I tried that center-line-and-bleed technique again, but it didn't work as well as I hoped, so I went back in with my round brush to pull in more color and definition.

A Note on Paper: Arteza Pro Watercolor Paper

I forgot to mention the paper I'm using! It's Arteza Pro Watercolor paper, 140 pounds. This was part of an 11 by 14 inch piece that I cut in half. I really like this paper - it's a good budget option that holds up well, and I love how my watercolors show on it.

It's cold-pressed paper, so it shows off granulation quite nicely. All in all, if you're in the market for budget-friendly paper, I'd recommend Arteza. But make sure you get the Arteza Pro Watercolor paper specifically - there are a couple of types, and one of them I don't like at all.

Final Thoughts

And there you have it - a minimalist winter berry bouquet painted in watercolor! This piece showcases so many fundamental techniques: creating dimension with the parentheses method, painting white objects through shadows and reflections, maintaining a consistent light source, building layers, and embracing that loose, atmospheric style.