How to Watercolor Paint Raspberries & Blackberries Tutorial

I had so much fun with the fruit infusion recipe inspiration for my bullet journal. Painting the raspberries and blackberries was more fun than I expected. So today I wanted to show you how to watercolor paint raspberries & blackberries. It’s really easy and requires just a few items.

Watch the Video Below – I walk you through all the steps

You’ll see how easy it is to paint raspberries & blackberries. You’ll want to start creating your own today!

Supplies Needed

Watercolor Paper – when starting out with watercolor, it’s important to use the right paper. Printer paper is thin (typically people buy 20lb paper) and it will only cause frustration because the paint will bleed through and you won’t get the same effect.  I started painting in my journal after I experimented with water and paint for a while. Watercolor paper is designed for watercolor and will hold up a lot better than other paper.

Round brushes – Round brushes are good because they hold water well and the bristles form a tip which will allow for finer detail work when needed. I have several different kinds and some I like more than others. How the bristles hold water and paint make a difference to me…now. When I first started, I wouldn’t have noticed the difference.

Tip: What I would not recommend is buying that 50 pack of brushes for $5. Choose a brush that won’t fray and will hold their shape. You don’t need the most expensive brush, but you need something more than the cheapo bargain pack.

Watercolor Paint

I used two different types of paint but choose your favorite. I like the rich color with Windsor Newton paints, but I haven’t had any issue with the store brand version from Michaels or Hobby Lobby. As a beginner, learning the techniques is more important than having the fanciest tools. After all, Bob Ross painted with a pallet knife.

One thing to note is if you’re starting you don’t want to spend a lot of money on supplies. Learn the basics, and then if you really like it, keep going and find other supplies. (Read: welcome to the rabbit hole.) If painting or drawing turns out to be a worthwhile hobby to you – it brings you joy and peace to your soul, then there’s time to expand your supplies.

Other Supplies You’ll Need:

Papertowel (not tissue or bath tissue), two sets of water (one for rinsing the paint off your brush) and the other for getting new, fresh, clean water.

Good lighting is essential. I have terrible lighting in my house, very little natural light, so I bought photography lights with daylight bulbs and use them for my art projects & videos. If you have natural light, that’s always best.

Start Painting

To paint the berries, we will use what’s called ‘wet on wet’ which means we will start with a wet surface (add water to the paper) and add a lot of water to the paint. (See the picture below for what I mean.)

If using a pencil – lightly sketch the individual circles that make up the raspberry or blackberry. Draw lightly! Erase most of the lines once done – just so you can see the shapes. Now, dip your paint in fresh water and with the very tip, paint circles with the water, but don’t close in the circles, do mostly outlines. Start in the center and add half-circles around it to complete the shape of the berry.

Tip: if you’re having trouble seeing the water on the paper, try looking at the paper from an angle. The light reflects differently at a 30 or 45-degree angle versus straight down. If you’re still having trouble, use your phone flashlight at an angle to highlight the markings.

Now to Add Paint to your Raspberries & Blackberries

Now for the fun part. Get some more water on your brush and dip it in the paint, but don’t be satisfied with just one swipe across the paint surface, especially if you’re using the hardened watercolor paint cakes. You’ll have to experiment a bit, but I found that I wanted the watered down paint to almost drip from the tip of the brush.

Touch the brush to the circles of water and watch the color spread. Coax the water along the design you made earlier with the water. Add more paint if needed. Add a little variation of color if you want, especially near the bottom so it looks like a shadow. Fill in the circles a little bit, but not so they’re completely filled in. Use the tip of the paintbrush to direct the pigment where you want it to go next.

The parts left white on the paper act as a highlight for the berry.

For the blackberry, you could try starting with a blue on some parts and adding black to the other parts, so the two colors run together. Follow the same technique for filling in a portion of the circles but still leaving a highlight.

How to Paint a Blueberry Bonus:

As a bonus – I added How to Paint a Blueberry! Use water to create a circle and then mostly fill it in, leave a couple of parts uncovered and leave a crescent shape near the top as a highlight. Add quite a bit of paint to the water areas and let the paint fill in the water. Once you’ve got it nicely covered, use the tip of your paintbrush to pull the ink upwards into a crown. Basically, little triangles poking out of the top of the blueberry.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial on how to watercolor paint raspberries & blackberries. Make sure to follow my YouTube Channel and leave a thumbs up on the video!

Let me know in the comments below what you’d like to see in the future.

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