Preparing to Paint
Picture what a hanging flower basket looks like. Close your eyes and let the image form in your mind. Certain things are given; the flowers fill the basket and often spill over the edges. The colors are as varied as the rainbow. The greenery can be lush and hanging down or tall, peeking out from the crowded blossoms or straight and spiky.
Study container possibilities. The holder for the flowers can be any number of items. Google unusual flower basket containers. A few are commonly used, sold at flower shops and nurseries, but, anything is possible. If it will hold soil, water and flowers, and can be hung, it has potential to be a hanging basket.
Pick a piece of heavy watercolor paper. Any size is fine. Depending on your mood and the time available to work, perhaps start small and do a larger one later.
Sketch, in pencil, the design. Your design should have three parts; the basket or container, the flowers and lightweight rope, chains or thin plastic strips supporting it. You can embellish this drawing and make it as detailed as you want. Or leave it sketchy with just the various elements lightly blocked in.
Draw the design of your choice on watercolor paper. Do this freehand by sketching it out again or blow up your preliminary sketch on a printer and trace it onto your paper using pencil.
Painting Your Subject
Open your watercolor box and activate the colors. Use drops of water on a brush to prepare each of the colors. Have at hand, a few brushes of varying sizes, including a small, pointed brush for details. Also, have a container of clean water and tissues to keep runs and drips in control.
Paint your design. Start at any point you wish; the container, the leaves and flowers or the hangers of strings or ropes. Move your brush over the objects, painting sections and leaving dry paper between them to keep the colors from bleeding into each other. If you want to do two sections close together, leave a tiny strip of untouched paper between bands of color. These can be filled in after the whole thing is dry.
Paint another element. Working out from the central image, the basket.
Work until you are satisfied with the piece. Let it dry thoroughly. Stand it up and study the results. If it needs more work, paint over any sections you wish. Again, let it air dry or use a hairdryer to hasten drying time.
Consider ways to add to the piece. Darken or intensify the color in places with another coat of the same color. Put in details with a small, pointed brush. On leaves, you might add spots, lines or veins. For the flowers, use contrasting color to show shadows within them. Give the container added interest with texture, a colorful pattern, or shadows to show its roundness and depth. Make the background more interesting that leaving it white. Add any number of environmental things; clouds, diagonal strokes for rain, yellow for sunshine, purple or dark blue for evening or night. Wash on a layer of any one color for a background. Use varied colors for a lively background, make horizontal or vertical stripes. Let your imagination be free. Give the piece its own frame with stripes of color from a flat brush all around all sides of it. Do a large geometric shape in pencil behind the hanging basket and paint it a contrasting color.
Enjoy the fact that your art can bring flowers into your life at will. They will be extra special since you thought them up and made them appear on the paper. This container of flowers will always be in bloom and can add happiness and fun to a place where it hangs.
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