.png){kind=small}
_edited_edited.png)
You are...
-
A beginner-advanced mandala artist, in love with the process of growing in your meditative painting practice
-
Looking for a unique means of up-levelling your artwork and creating truly breathtaking paintings
-
In love with the visual aesthetic of incorporating florals into your mandala designs
-
Looking for a new challenge and to take your skills to a fine-art level (even if you *think* you're not skilled enough, I'm about to light the path up for you)
-
Perhaps looking for a "palette cleanser" to introduce into your existing skillset; a practice or approach that's looser, more expressive, explorative, and that allows for more flow when you need it
Learning life-like florals is for the artist wanting to bridge fine art skills with the meditative, spiritual nature of mandalas.
I was about a year into my mandala painting journey, when I started to wonder about how I could take things further.
While I absolutely adored my art form, I also at times felt like a looser, more expressive & organic approach would allow me to access a state of flow and ease within my painting practice when I needed it.
I also wanted to see just how much I could elevate the visual impact of my pieces, and so I began to brainstorm: incorporating my past experience as a landscape painter and art teacher, into my current niche of dot paint mandalas.
The fusion of the two was born out of a lot of research and experimentation, and I ended up with two distinct approaches to creating life-like floral mandalas.
The first, is a looser, "wildflowers"-inspired aesthetic (pictured), and the second is a true-to-form mandala painting style, that brings together realistic flower painting with geometric mandala designs for a truly unique final piece.
Inside The Florals Course, you'll learn to paint both styles, with two full-length guided masterclasses that walk you through a start-to-finish painting of each one.
How it works...
The Florals Course is unlike my other mandala courses. It focuses on technical skills and exists to help its participants understand fine art concepts like chiaroscuro (the study of using light and dark to create depth & shape), 3-dimensional painting techniques and the ability to draw(/paint) organic subject matter.
Inside, students will start out with learning the fundamentals of realistic florals. Together we'll walk through a large variety of different flowers and how to paint them stroke-by-stroke, so that you can seamlessly begin integrating them into your paintings.
Then, we'll move on to two different full-length masterclasses, each one showing you start-to-finish how to complete two different styles of floral mandalas.
The first masterclass is in the "field of wildflowers" style (as I like to call it), and will first cover starting with a blurred-out background (how to master the "bokeh" effect without an airbrush), and then layer wildflowers overtop for a truly expressive look.
In the second masterclass, you'll take the florals you've learned from the first masterclass, and learn to piece them together into a geometric mandala pattern, for elevated integrations into your existing mandala paintings.
The pieces we paint together are yours to do with as you please, including selling them to collectors should you wish to!
The Floral Course Curriculum
Module 1: Specialty Tools & Brushes
There are a few specific tools and specifically floral-friendly brushes that you'll need to work through the course and accompanying masterclasses (but don't worry, none of them are expensive and I've provided links and suggestions for the few upgrades from your regular mandala supplies that you'll need). Module 1 will go through what to grab and from where, so that painting striking flowers is as simple as having the right brushes, and knowing how to use them.
Module 2: Drawing & Painting Floral Fundamentals
Module 2 is where you'll start to learn the differences between drawing simplistic flowers, and drawing ones that look like you could pick them off of the page. You'll learn how to train your eye to see what's really there in terms of shape and movement, so that you can look at any flower and know how to translate it into a painted, life-like floral.
Module 3: The Study of Light vs. Dark for 3-Dimensional Florals (Chiaroscuro)
Understanding light and dark (and how to capture them accurately with paint) is the key to making 2-dimensional paintings look like 3-dimensional flowers. Inside module 3, you'll learn how to choose a light source and use it to inform where you place your highlights and shadows for life-like flowers and petals that jump right off the surface of your piece.
Module 4: The Painted Florals Tutorial Library
Before we dive in to painting not one, but two entire pieces together, I wanted first to walk you step-by-step through the top 10 different florals and floral designs I use in my flower mandalas, so that you can understand the exact process behind creating each and every one of them. This module alone has 10 separate trainings and a guided workbook to turn you from floral newbie to floral pro, all before we dive into creating stunning paintings together in modules 5 and 6 of the course.
Module 5: Mandala Masterclass #1 - Field of Wildflowers
Module 5 is where we dive all the way in, and start our first of two pieces together in the "Wildflowers" style that can be viewed on my Instagram here. This is the looser, more free-flowing of the two styles, and students will learn how to create the blurred "bokeh" effect in the background and then fill the piece with gorgeous, realistic florals.
Module 6: Mandala Masterclass #2 - The Floral Mandala
The final module will be full-length masterclass #2, where students will be guided step-by-step through creating a patterned, more geometric mandala design like the one here. This style of floral mandala will pull from the experience students gained through completing modules 1-5, building on it by learning how to lay out realistic-looking florals in patterns that make for a modern mandala that's as captivating as it is unique.
Masterclass #1:
Together we'll paint this 22" piece inside Masterclass #1. Students will learn the "Bokeh" background effect, and then how to map out, paint and shade a non-patterned design using the florals we learned together inside Module 4. Click here to watch the process.
Masterclass #2:
Inside the second full-length masterclass of The Florals Course curriculum, we'll take what we learned in Masterclass #1, and apply it to a more structured, 16" patterned mandala design using life-like florals. The second masterclass builds beautifully on the first, by teaching students how to combine the organic nature of flowers, with the geometric magic of mandalas.
About The Creator
Hello creative soul, I'm Lauren. I'm a painter and former high school art teacher turned course creator and mandala artist.
While I absolutely love the practice of painting mandalas, I'm always looking to push boundaries and to grow as a creative.
I started toying with the idea of adding florals into my mandala designs in January of 2024, and then spent about 6 months researching and executing on that idea, by combining my knowledge and experience as a former landscape painter, with more modern floral painting techniques.
I had no plans to turn this new approach into a course, but after receiving countless requests from my audience, I pieced together a tentative curriculum for this course and instantly knew I had to share it with the world.
I've been breaking down artistic how-tos so that other people can learn them for almost 2 decades, and if there's one thing that my time as an art teacher and professional artist has taught me, it's that there is immense power in learning and breaking down processes.
Any artist who’s a master at their craft, simply understands the “how” of any particular element of an art piece into tiny steps. They become really good at the tiny steps, and then piece them together to create the whole.
That's precisely what The Florals Course has been built to help you do. Breakdown the step-by-step process to painting gorgeous, lifelike flowers, even for those with no background in art of experience in realism painting.
Together we'll cover the hands-on and theory-based components of floral painting before putting it all into practice and executing on two beautiful pieces: a 22" and a 16" mandala painting that you're guided through stroke-by-stroke.
What students are saying...
.png)
Get Lifetime Access
Join The Florals Course for one payment of $99
By enrolling, you get lifetime access to:
-
An in-depth, 6-module video curriculum covering everything you need to know about painting gorgeous, realistic florals and incorporating them into your mandala practice
-
Two full-length mandala masterclasses that you can follow along with and master floral painting as you go
-
A 10-page workbook + 4-page practice guide that you can print out and use to follow along with, putting the course teachings into immediate practice and developing your skills as you move through the course material.
-
A 10-part "Florals Tutorial Library" covering the step-by-step of a large variety of different flowers and how to paint them
-
Everything you need to start and master your florals painting practice, and elevate your works of art into all-new places and opportunities
*Scroll down to bundle The Florals Course with my other courses and save $39 - $195
Prices listed in USD. For additional details, click here.
Add a second course for just $60 and pair The Florals Course with Mandala Design Blueprint, The Advanced Course, or any of my other mandala painting courses (save up to $195 with custom course bundles):
_edited.png)