Paint Expressive Florals: A 7 Day Watercolor Challenge

Juliet Meeks' seven-day challenge is less a technique course than a demonstration diary. Each of the seven core lessons follows the same rhythm: pick a reference photo of a flower, mix a small family of colors, paint the petals loosely, let them dry partway, then add a darker center or inked detail on top. That rhythm is repeated across poppies, larkspur, lilies, geraniums, iris, hydrangeas, and Peruvian lilies, with the species changing but the method staying fixed. By day three or four, the structure becomes predictable, which is either reassuring or repetitive depending on what a viewer wants from the class.

What actually gets taught

The class opens with a brief supplies rundown covering watercolor paper, a plastic palette, two rinse cups, and specific product names like Dr. Ph. Martin's concentrated watercolor, Winsor & Newton Cotman paints, and gouache used for opaque highlights. A short warm-up exercise with painted leaves introduces the wet-on-wet bleeding effect that recurs throughout the challenge, along with the difference between using a pointed round brush for detail and a mop brush for big, water-loaded shapes. That warm-up is arguably the most instructive single segment, since it isolates the core mechanic (paint wet, then drop detail into it while it is still damp versus after it dries) before applying it to actual flowers.

From there, each daily lesson is largely observational narration over a live demo. Juliet explains her color choices and occasional compositional decisions, such as leaving white paper space on iris petals for contrast, or switching to a darker Sumi ink for poppy centers because it is cheaper than black watercolor. But there is little instruction on brush control, paint-to-water ratios, or how to recover from a mistake. Petals bleed, dry unevenly, or come out looser than intended, and the class treats this as a feature of the style rather than something to troubleshoot. For a total beginner, that can read as freeing or as a missed opportunity to learn actual control.

Where it delivers and where it thins out

The bonus Photoshop lesson is a genuinely useful add-on, walking through scanning at 600 dpi, removing a white background around a watercolor's soft edges without losing detail, and using the Healing Brush to erase scanner dust. It is a practical skill many painting classes skip entirely, and it extends the class's value past the seven days of painting.

The weakest point is that the class assumes a viewer can already handle a brush reasonably well. Beginners are told to "just experiment" and "be loose" more often than they are shown how. There is no discussion of paper stretching, wash consistency, or basic color mixing theory, things a true beginner would benefit from. Anyone who already paints and wants a fast, low-commitment way to generate a week of botanical sketches, and doesn't mind imprecise, illustrative results, will get the most out of this. Anyone hoping for a structured skills-building curriculum should look elsewhere.

What you will learn

• ·How to mix and layer watercolor and gouache for varied leaf and petal textures
• ·A repeatable approach to simplifying a reference photo into a loose, illustrative flower shape
• ·Wet-on-wet bleeding versus dry-brush control for different line effects
• ·How to build contrast using darker centers, ink details, and layered color
• ·Basic supply choices for beginners, including paper, brushes, and paint brands
• ·How to scan a finished painting and clean up the background in Photoshop