Learn how to create five ideas for heart drawings with watercolor backgrounds. Then mix and match them for your Valentine’s Day cards.
I’m not a super mushy person. I can be a little sentimental and movies often make me cry, but I tend to want to give silly, funny or just plain punny valentines.
Maybe because it’s become more about my kids and an excuse to celebrate … and eat chocolate, of course.
Or maybe it’s because April Fools’ Day is my real holiday.
Whatever the reason, I’m giving up the punny for this tutorial, but beware, it may return for the next one.
This week, we’re creating five watercolor heart backgrounds and five calligraphy heart drawings that you can mix and match for your Valentine’s Day cards. Maybe we’ll even put one together for the next tutorial.
Are you ready?Jump to the video or read along for extra help and hints.
Gather your supplies.
- Basic calligraphy supplies with Ziller Soot Black Ink
- Basic Watercolor supplies
- Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketcher’s Pocket Box
- Pink watercolor (optional but here’s my favorite)
- Dr. Ph. Martin’s iridescent brass ink (optional)
Watercolor Heart Backgrounds
1. Blue Green Heart
Paint a basic heart shape starting with green on the upper left. Rinse your brush. Then paint blue for the right right side. Leave space between the colors until you’ve painted most of the heart.
Then, while both colors are still wet, gently brush the blue to touch the green. Try not to blend them too much with your brush. They will blend naturally.
2. Moving Pink Heart
This heart will look like a complete heart with wisps, like it’s moving to the left.
Paint a pink heart outline. Fill it in with quick swipes from left to right, extending past the right side of the heart.
3. Pink Offset Heart
Use pink (or another favorite heart color) to paint a heart with one side noticeably bigger than the other side. It can be on either side.
Leave a few white areas when you fill it in and an open heart shape in the middle, just for character.
4. Pink Half Heart
Paint strokes from left to right, about as wide as you want your heart.
Then, add a heart outline to the left side and part way up the bottom of the right side.
5. Blue Heart with a Fade
Paint the top of the heart in blue.
While it’s still wet, brush some of the edge down quickly with the side of your brush. Vary the lengths of the strokes to vaguely resemble the pointy bottom of a heart.
Heart Drawings
Here are some ideas to get you started.
I noted where I normally start and the direction of the stroke I take when using a calligraphy pen to draw. You may run into a few problem areas as you draw (like I did), so feel free to lift your nib and change the direction of your stroke if you need to. I’ll try to point this out as I explain my steps.If you see arrows going in both directions from the start point, that means I started there twice.
Use Ziller ink on top of your dry heart backgrounds. It tends to bleed less on top of watercolor.
Hint: Especially with symmetrical objects, I find it helpful to draw in pencil first. Then, I can pay attention to my strokes without wondering if the heart looks like a heart.
1. Heart with a Loop
Place your nib in the middle of your heart drawing. Start with a light upward stroke transitioning to a heavy downward stroke as you come down the side of the heart into the loop at the bottom.
Finish the heart with a light upward stroke.
Hint: If your nib catches on the watercolor paper (like it sometimes does on textured paper), just lift your nib and try a new direction. Watercolor paper is rough. A normal upward stroke might work better as a light downstroke. Feel free to move your paper around. You’ll see me doing this periodically in the video below.
2. Open Sided Heart
Start in the middle of the heart again, but only draw one side with a heavy downstroke. Bring a light stroke partway up the right side of the heart from the bottom.
I used gold ink here because the shimmer looks so nice on hearts.
3. Offset Heart
This heart has thick strokes on all of the longer sides. Start your stroke at the top of the biggest heart side. Pull your nib down and to the left.
Start the next stroke in the same spot at the top of the heart. This time, pull down and to the right.
Finish the heart by starting at the top of the small side. Pull down to meet the stroke from the far left side of the heart drawing.
4. Broken and Uneven Heart
Begin this heart in the middle and draw your line up and over the left side with a thin upstroke and a thick downstroke.
Pick up your pen and move a little farther down that side before you finish the thick down stroke on the tail of the heart.
Finish the heart with a thin upward stroke for the right side.
Hint: You may need to try a thin downward stroke for the right side of this heart. I found that my nib caught a little. Adjust your direction as you need to.
5. Flourished Heart
This heart is a little more complicated than the other hearts, but it’s rewarding when you get it. Drawing with a pencil first really helps.
Look at the idea sheet above. Notice the starting point. At this point, you will start two strokes, one going to the right and one going to the left. Make both strokes thick downstrokes. For the stroke to the left, continue on to create the top of the other half of the heart shape. Draw a light downstroke through the center of the heart and finish with a loop.
And you’re finished!
Watch the 5 Drawings with Watercolor Backgrounds
I couldn’t help playing with a few other heart designs.
And remember … you can easily mix and match the watercolor backgrounds with the heart drawings.
I hope these heart drawing ideas give you some creative inspiration.
Have fun with the process!
