Combine Flowers and People for Surreal Watercolor Portraits

Surreal Watercolor Portrait: Painting a “Bearded Iris” (No Sketch, Loose Wash + Texture Tricks) Hi, I’m Valerie Englehart, and in this video I’m painting a surreal “bearded iris” portrait—mixing an iris flower with a bearded man just for fun. I work on 11x14 Arteza Professional cold press watercolor paper, starting with a one-inch flat brush to carve in dark values and build a dreamy first wash without a sketch, balancing hard and soft edges and negative painting so it doesn’t feel like a cut-out. I use Rockwell Art Royal Purple, Palaiba Diamond Blue, and pops of Daniel Smith cadmium yellow hue and quinacridone gold, and I talk about timing with salt, lifting edges, and correcting shapes on good paper. I also share how I create references using Unsplash and Procreate, then move into a second wash to deepen values, refine features, and experiment with stencils while keeping the focus on exploration. Want to see more? Sign up to my email newsletter for a subscriber-only narrated watercolor lesson with downloadable line art and reference image and a cheat sheet for painting bold watercolor: https://valerieenglehart.myflodesk.co... Art prints available through Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/b... Follow me on Instagram: @valerie.englehart 00:00 Surreal Iris Concept 00:22 Paper Brush Setup 01:06 Purple Blue Palette 01:44 First Wash No Sketch 03:22 Loose Style And Salt 04:59 Yellow Beard Glow 06:21 Pushing Values Lifting 07:19 Fixing Facial Proportions 08:25 Building References Procreate 11:10 Background Placement Granulation 14:19 Second Wash Eye Details 16:02 Stencils Scrubbing Lessons 19:05 Final Touches Sign Off #lwatercolortechniques #watercolorpainting #watercolorportrait