The mystery of Painted Brownie Tulips

March 1, 2023

The mystery of Painted Brownie Tulips

I dedicated a few weeks of my life to creating these painted brownie tulips. I’ve always been fascinated by the pattern with plum veinings, the mysterious color tones, the twisted petal shapes and the layering of the double tulip or the elegance of an opened simple tulip.

I got the impulse to start creating these flowers from paper, when I received a set of liquid watercolors from Carol, the owner of@petalandpearlsdesign. I’ve never worked with this type of colors before but I’m grateful I got the chance to try something new and reinvent my coloring techniques.

I started by dyeing some fine crepe paper, 90 gr. with a mix of diluted acrylics (ivory tones) and a few drops of watercolors; I used yellow and brilliant red for the light salmon pink and I added some magenta for the dusty pink. I’ve also created a dark tone of muted purple to paint the veins on the petals.

After I laminated the paper and sculpted each petal into the desired shape (you can learn all about how I make the tulip petals, techniques and templates in my written course called “Paper Tulip Creative Process”), I started to carefully paint each line using a long thin tip paintbrush. Actually, this pattern with all those thin long veins is what motivated me into making this tulip in paper… I was curious to test my painting abilities. It took me a few days and a lot of patience to paint all these petals, but it was all worth it.

The color palette of these flowers that goes from dark purple plum to dusty pinks and nude tones is so intriguing and the green from the leaves balances everything. I’m sure I will revisit this flower over and over and I will integrate it into my future bouquets and centerpieces.