Do you want to paint something that is cute, fun & easy and the same time will also amaze your friends and family? Then I have you covered with this tutorial, 6 easy steps to paint cute miniature glass bottle with leaves.
Painting with watercolors is a great way to relax and calm your mind. Miniature painting has an added benefit as you would need to take out just a few minutes to paint something fun. Anyone can try this tutorial, whether you are a newbie or an experienced Artist, you can give this a try for some calming me time, and create something fun and cute!
7 Ways Painting Miniatures help you Become Calm & Relaxed
Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day.
— Winston Churchill
- Needs Focus – You need a lot of focus when painting miniatures and concentration on one thing with all your mental capacity stops unwanted thoughts and makes you feel calm.
- Mindfulness – With focus also stay present in the moment which enhances mindfulness and makes you feel relaxed & calm.
- Sense of Accomplishment – making something with your own hands sure brings in joy and happiness.
- Reduced Screen Time – Instead of mindlessly scrolling on social media you spend your time doing something productive, this reduces anxiety.
- Increased Creative Time – Art is a creative hobby! When you paint the creative juices start flowing this reduces stress and makes you calm and happy.
- Joyful Experience – Miniatures are cute to look at, now imagine the joy of creating something cute.
- Relaxing Activity – Art is a relaxing activity and it helps you become calm and centered and will gives you a sense of peace.
Before we hop on to the tutorial, let’s break a few myths! There are a lot of inhibitions and myths when it comes to painting miniatures. People get discouraged even before trying, thinking they are hard or not for everyone etc. Lets have a look at the three most common beliefs about painting miniatures and find out if they are true or not.
Biggest Myths about Painting Miniatures
Myth No. 1 – Miniatures are very difficult to paint
This is not completely true. As a beginner if you are aware of the following you can easily paint beautiful miniatures!
- Keep your subject easy – As a beginner don’t try to bite more than you can chew, Choose a simple subject with fewer elements, like this project one glass bottle with a twig and just 2 colors!
- Keep the scale doable – When you start it is better to work on slightly bigger version like 1inch X1 inch, so that it is easy to do. Once you get the hang of it them you can gradually move down to a reduced size.
- Use the right tools- Use proper watercolor paper, small number good quality brushes and proper paint : water ratio.
- Have an open and learning mindset – Don’t start with a mindset that miniatures are hard and you can’t do it, believe me you will never be able to do it for real in such a case! Instead affirm that if others can do it so can you. All it takes is time and practice.
- Learn from mistakes- Don’t get scared with disasters and mistakes, instead learn from them and move on.
- Keep practicing – Practice is the only key, the more you paint the better you will become, as simple as that.
Myth No. 2 – You need special equipment to Paint Miniatures
You don’t need anything special for painting miniatures. Simply cut the regular paper to the size you want, use either no.1 or no. 0 round brush, use normal paint, normal palette, water jars, tissue and you are all set! You can even use your failed paintings and cut out mini paper from that! That way you can have the satisfaction of using the paper finally and you can paint quite a number of them from a single paper! So it is a win win!
Myth No. 3 – You need a lot of patience to Paint Miniatures
It is actually opposite! It takes much less time due to scale! You might need focus and concentration and that’s it! You mini art will be done in just a few minutes even it it has detailing, this is because it is small or too small!
6 Easy Steps to Paint Cute Miniature Watercolor Glass Bottle With Leaves
Materials Needed
- 100% Cotton Watercolor Paper
- Professional Watercolors
- 2 Jars of Water
- Tissue
- No. 0 Round Brush
- Scissors
The 6 Steps
1. Outline
First choose your color, this is very important, that’s why I mentioned professional colors as they are more likely to be better quality when it comes to transparency. However you should still check the label and choose.
I am going with this lovely cascade green from Daniel smith, if there is no information on tube swatching the colors can help you choose too.
Start with the outline, use wet on dry technique, you can create any shape, long, rectangular, squarish. oval, round, anything you wish! If you are not that comfortable with starting right away with the brush then draw the outline b-very lightly with pencil first, or choose a simpler shape.
2. Create the Bleed
Next clean your brush completely, load it with clean water and run around the still wet outline. Watch it bleed beautifully! make sure you still stay on the edges and leave the center part white.
3. Blending and Highlight
After that blend the outline with the bleed to remove hard line and make the edges soft.
Leave white space to show the highlights on the bottle, paint the base of the bottle by creating a fine outline and then blending it for a softer look.
4. Paint the Handle
5. Paint the Twig
Choose your brown to paint the twig. Make branches to make it look more delicate and tender.
6. Paint the Leaves
Lastly paint the leaves, you can use same brown o change the color as per your preference. Use just the tip of the brush to paint the tiny leaves.
I hope you enjoyed this fun tutorial! Do give it a try, share your creation with me! You can tag me @bytheartbug on any social media channel. If you wanna experience the calming powers of painting always paint with a free and open mind, enjoy the process rather than focusing on the end result!
Until next time,
