Vibrant Poppy: Painting Without a Sketch (and Without a Studio)
Hi, I'm Valerie Englehart, and in this post, I'm walking you through a pair of poppies I painted without any preliminary sketch. I recorded this one from a side angle because I wasn't in my studio. I was staying in a cabin up in the Lake Huron area for two weeks, and that was far too long to go without picking up a brush.
Is the Poppy Red, or Is It White?
Even though I didn't technically need to record a video, this piece felt worth sharing. My inspiration was simple: most poppies are red, so what if I used negative painting to build a red background and dragged some of that pigment into the petals? That way, you could say the poppy is red, or you could say it's white. Schrödinger's poppy.
I started by laying down Aussie Red Gold, an orange, and dropped in some Daniel Smith Permanent Red on top. Everything came from the palette I'd brought from home, and I painted with Escoda travel brushes, the kind where you can remove the bottom and cap the top to protect the bristles on the road. Even outside of travel, these are fantastic quality brushes to work with.
Building Texture With Salt and a Dark Center
I love using salt in my work, so I grabbed some table salt from the cabin's cabinets and sprinkled it into the piece. I was painting on a small four-by-six block of cold press paper, and while I didn't get a dramatic effect, it did leave some nice little dots.
While the center of the flower was still wet, I dropped in some Rockwell Art Cosmic Sound, a dark indigo blue, since the center of a poppy is usually a dark value. I let the whole thing dry naturally so the salt could finish doing its work.
Shaping Petals With Negative Painting
Once the poppy dried, I started shaping the petals on top of the wash. Even painting over an existing layer, I can define petals wherever I want just by placing a hard line and a dark value. Any lines left in the white become shadows, like a petal turning away from the light.
This is exactly why I love painting on a preliminary wash: it lets me do negative painting and make up the shapes as I go. I paint around the petal, bleed the edge away, and drop in more color where I need greater contrast.
I also glazed some of the petals afterward. All that white space felt a little jarring, and petals are soft; they fold and overlap. Negative painting, dark and bold, is great for separating a subject from the background, but a soft glaze does the opposite job: creating a cast shadow, or saying one petal sits behind another, without going as dark as the outer line.
Chasing Contrast (and a Little Bit of Mood)
I've noticed lately that I've been reaching for red a lot, that bold, fiery, in-your-face punch of color. It's interesting how mood shapes color choices, even for a quick study. I went back in with the Aussie Red Gold to glaze a bit more, since I'd been leaning so heavily on red.
So why keep the poppy itself white? Contrast. My red was only ever going to get so dark, so keeping the flower white made it feel like it was glowing and popping off the page. To push the contrast further, I added some Cosmic Sound into the background, which also pulled that center color out into the rest of the composition for better color harmony and made the flower feel like it was moving forward in space.
Composition: The Rule of Thirds
Even at this side angle, I placed my main subject about a third of the way down the page and a third of the way from the left, the classic rule of thirds. That keeps the poppy out of dead center, sitting in the lower portion of the painting, but not so low that it would fight with matting and framing later.
Giving the First Poppy a Friend
With all that empty space up top, I could have left it. The colors and textures were already gorgeous, but I wanted a second poppy, this one from the side. I painted its outline the same way, leaving gaps here and there.
I love lost and found edges. Painting loosely keeps things dreamy, and yes, there's a little laziness in it, but it's also a purposeful stylistic choice. It creates a dialogue with the viewer; art isn't only what I create, it's also how it's interpreted. Where does a petal stop and where does it start? Missing sections that blend into the background still read as "poppy" because the brain fills in the rest. I want that whimsy and wonder, alongside recognizable, realistic proportions.
For the side-view poppy, I used positive painting: painting the outline of the lower petal directly, then bleeding it into the shape itself. I like things loose and blended overall, but I've found it's important, especially with poppies, to leave plenty of hard edges. You can really see it in the crinkled texture of the lower petal's folds. If I blended everything out, that crinkle would disappear.
Why I Paint With a Limited Palette
Aside from a touch of gouache at the very end, this entire painting used only three colors. I prefer a limited palette because it makes color cohesion so much easier, and it lets me focus on values to build my shapes instead of juggling a dozen colors at once.
That's just personal preference. Plenty of artists work beautifully with an array of twelve, eighteen, or more colors. When I try that, it doesn't look "fun chaotic," it just looks messy. I love chaos, but that particular kind isn't mine to pull off. It's fine to admire another artist's approach and even want to bring pieces of it into your own work, but sometimes it's simply not how you communicate.
I ran into this myself with a style of minimalist owl illustration I loved, just a few lines to say "this is an owl." I painted my version of it three times, and it never clicked. It took a while to realize that maybe that's just not how I paint. Don't get discouraged if a technique you admire doesn't translate for you. You can appreciate work without needing to replicate it.
Fine Details: Stamens and a Forgiving Center
For the poppy centers, I pulled out my smallest brush, a size two, and carefully worked in the little pollen bits and that starburst shape in the middle. Most of these stayed hard-edged, but since I like an atmospheric feel overall, I softened just a few spots. A little softening goes a long way; I don't want everything too neat, but I don't want it all soft either.
Your focal point should carry the most definition, and here, the poppy, especially its center, is the focal point, so it gets the greatest range of contrast.
Painting Without a Sketch Means Painting on the Fly
One of the fun parts of skipping the sketch is making decisions in the moment. At one point I decided there needed to be another petal, no plan, just imagination and what I know about how poppies are built. I painted a line, bled it away, added a darker value, and there it was.
I also dropped in more Cosmic Sound in a few other spots to add impact to the shadows, since watercolor dries paler, sometimes up to 50% paler. If you think you've laid down the perfect color, you probably haven't; you'll likely need to go over it again once it dries. It can feel a little scary to go darker than you think you need, but be brave. It makes for a much stronger painting.
Lifting Pigment (and Knowing Your Paints)
For one petal that was already a mid-tone, I didn't want the crinkled details to go too dark, so I lightly lifted pigment with my brush instead. Luckily, that particular pigment lifts easily without lifting too easily, which comes down to knowing your materials.
I gravitate toward pigments that let me lift softly, almost with just the threat of it. Daniel Smith Lunar Black is a great example. But not everyone wants their layers to move at all, and that's fine too. A pigment that's perfect for me on one painting might not be right for a different one. If you don't want any lifting, I'd point you toward transparent paints in the phthalo or perylene lines; I find those very hard to lift.
(Also worth noting: I sped this video up about 150%, so if it looks like I'm moving fast in places, that's just editing, not real-time speed.)
Finishing Touches With Gouache
To finish, I used fresh gouache straight from the tube with my size two brush, adding a few highlights just to make the piece sparkle and bring the center forward. I kept this strictly to the center of the poppy; for the petals, I wanted the white of the paper itself to do the work rather than reaching for gouache. With gouache, less is almost always more.
Final Thoughts
Negative painting on a red wash let me leave the poppy's "true color" genuinely ambiguous: red or white, depending on how you read it
A three-color limited palette makes color cohesion and value-focused painting much easier
Hard edges (not just soft blends) are what give poppy petals their crinkled, lifelike texture
Watercolor dries up to 50% paler than it looks wet, so don't be afraid to go darker than feels comfortable
Knowing how a pigment lifts (or doesn't) is as important as knowing its color
It's okay if a technique you admire in someone else's work just doesn't work in your own hand; appreciation doesn't require replication