Come paint with me today! I have 3 Easy Flower Paintings to share with you and you can recreate them by following along with this step-by-step painting tutorial for the easiest flowers to paint
Flowers make me happy and today I put together a couple of easy step-by-step acrylic painting tutorials showing how you can paint easy flower paintings- onto a canvas or into your sketchbooks! Make sure you also check out these Watercolor Flowers Easy Tutorial!
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Easy Flower Paintings:
SUPPLIES YOU’LL NEED:
- Deco Art Texture Medium Paint Tube https://amzn.to/2BZPANj
- Plastic Artist Palette Knife Set https://amzn.to/2Gyrn
- Cobalt Blue Hue Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2UXv3O1
- Quinacridone Red Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2Gn0bTP
- DecoArt Cerulean Blue Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2UVw3SJ
- Yellow Green Light Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2N7M2ul
- Diarylide Yellow Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2GzC17Q
- Vermillion Hue Americana Premium Paint https://amzn.to/2GD7Oov
- Canson Foundation Disposable Palette Pad https://amzn.to/2E4h2IG
- 16 by 12-inch canvas https://amzn.to/2I9irlb
Easy Flower Paintings STEP BY STEP TUTORIAL:
- Create a palette of colors. Choose 5 or 6 colors to use and then mix them with each other or by adding white to create in-between hues of color. Mix in some texture medium to create easy dimension.
2. Paint the background- by adding dots of paint directly onto the canvas itself and then using a wide brush moving the paint to cover the entire canvas.
Use up and down strokes to create a smooth even finish. I like to use a dry brush without any water to create the background.
3. Create simple flower shapes– using a palette knife. Pick up two shades of paint onto your palette knife and then create petal shapes.
Try not to overwork the paint- the colors will all blend if you work the paint too much. Let there be variations in color.
4. Add different shades of leaves– by using two or three hues of greens. All of our flowers are of different colors, so create different shapes and colors of leaves too. This adds interest to your composition and makes the flowers stand out.
5. Fill in the centers- of the flowers by using a smaller brush. I like to heap the paint in the centers- it adds texture and a pop of color.
6. Add fillers in the background- by painting in dashes, dots, and tiny leaves. I like to use white for this, it adds a touch of contrast and whimsy.
Add smaller leaves by mixing the leftover paint on the palette.
This is an important step that will tie in all the flowers nicely and create a flower bouquet feel.
ALL DONE:
I am calling this one “A summer day of rainbow flowers”
It’s everything that this dreary, cold, snowy Minnesota day isn’t. I’m definitely feeling the winter blues this week and this bright colorful flower painting cheered me up immensely!
More Easy Flower Paintings:
Easy Flower Paintings like the ones below look great on handmade cards, notebook covers, in your sketchbooks or journals, or as a piece of wall art! Grab your supplies and let’s paint!
Watch the Video Tutorial and paint with me!: https://youtu.be/e7vLLj6eiig
Supplies used:
- Paints: I recently purchased my first Gouache paints! This set is super inexpensive and comes with just the basic colors.
- Thick Paper: I used this super thick Watercolor paper that is 140lb in weight. The heavyweight paper allows us to layer paint and add water without too much warping of the paper. My paper is 11 by 15 inches in size.
- Paint Brushes: Use a Round Paint brush- you can paint leaves beautifully with a round paintbrush. I’ve used a Round 6 and Round 4 brush today from this set. I love that comes with a zippered travel case!
Tips and Tricks:
- Always start with a sketch or outline! Take time to perfect your pencil under sketch. This is the most important step- it’s easier to fix your composition at this stage with just an eraser 🙂
- There are a couple of ways to transfer a floral sketch onto your paper- You can freehand sketch the florals or use a graphite sheet like this to help transfer the image. I’ve used a lightbox to trace my sketch as well- and you can see that in my previous video here.
- I’ve used a Round no 6 paintbrush here because that suited the size of the petals I had drawn. If you are painting on a smaller paper, switch to a smaller paintbrush instead!
- For all the details- I used a thin Round 4 paintbrush. This brush is great to paint thin lines – like stalks and veins on leaves. If you find that your hand is shaky and the lines aren’t coming out too neatly- switch to a black pen instead to add these details.
- I like to mix my colors unevenly and then paint my petals. This adds so much more detail and color variation to each petal. Think nature, no two petals need to look identical!
Free Template Download:
Enjoy this free floral outline template friends! Print and refer to it while sketching if needed. You can easily resize this to be smaller or larger by increasing to 50% or 200% the print box on your computer.
Free Floral Template Download
Painting Flowers with in Sketchbooks:
I love practicing easy flower paintings in my sketchbook itself, make sure to read my tips for acrylic paint on paper! These could be the easiest flowers to paint, they are so simple!
Supplies used:
- Medium round paintbrush: I’m using a no 6 round by Silver Brush
- Mixed media sketchbook or a journal: or a dot journal
- Acrylic craft paints: Using DecoArt Americana paints today.
Start by choosing a color palette: Add your paint colors to a palette beforehand, this way you can focus on painting and not waste time thinking about colors midway.
Paint simple flower shapes using your first paint color, here I have pink. I like to scatter my flowers around the page and have them in odd numbers- 3 or 5.
Repeat with a second color. Vary the shapes and sizes of the flowers. Make some bigger, some smaller. Paint a few flowers partially along the edge.
Add at least two leaves per flower, again varying colors. I like to go whimsical use blues, aquas and even pinks for leaves.
Mix your colors to create extra shades: Here I mixed some of the blues with yellow and white to create a nice muted greyish green. Since you are mixing this color from the existing colors it will coordinate nicely with our flowers.
Add details to your flowers: Mix your primary color with a little bit of white to create a softer version of the color. Add this color to the flower petals. These will create the highlights.
Layer more colors onto the leaves similarly as well. You can go further and add another lighter shade on top of each petal, but I stopped here.
Dip your paintbrush into paints and add centers to each flower to finish off the sketch!
More Painting Ideas:
- Monochromatic Flower Painting tutorial
- Getting Started With Acrylic Pouring For Beginners
- Does Acrylic Work On Wood? How To Paint Flowers On Wood
- How to Paint Beautiful Tulips in Watercolor
CONCLUSION: easy flower paintings
There is something just so satisfying in sitting down and playing with paint. My happy place is always easy flower paintings- they don’t have to be fancy or perfect, but the flowers always make me smile.
I hope these step-by-step easy flower paintings inspire you and you learned something today! Today’s 3 examples were are geared for beginners. Happy painting friends!
