Floral Oil Painting of Sunflowers Demonstration
Learn How to Paint Sunflowers Step-by-step Via Oil Color
Sep 21, 2009
Few pastimes are more therapeutic than the joy of painting flowers. Sunflowers in particular are a challenging yet satisfying subject matter, for their bold colors offer great scope for expression.
Oil Painting Materials Required
- A suitable photograph of sunflowers or alternatively a still life setting
- Ultramarine acrylic paint
- Oil colors consisting of titanium, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, permanent rose, cadmium red, burnt sienna, burnt umber, viridian and pthalo blue
- Coarse grain stretched canvas (although an artboard or primed MDF will do)
- Sizes 3 and 6 round sable brushes
- A ½ and a ¼ inch wide bristle brush
- A palette consisting of a china plate or varnished wood.
- Small pot of artists’ white spirits
- Soft pencil
- A few rags
A Sunflower Oil Painting on Canvas Step-by-step
A thin glaze of diluted acrylic ultramarine had been applied first, to set the tone of the painting and kill the off-putting white of the painting surface. The paint was allowed to dry before the composition was sketched onto the canvas.
The background colors of the shed had been scrubbed on via a stiff brush to get into the weave of the canvas. Cadmium yellow, white and a little burnt sienna had been mixed. The paint had been applied thinly so that it would not contaminate the colours of the sunflowers that will be laid on top (fig 1).
Oil Painting Technique for the Sunflower Heads
The sunflower heads consisted of bright, bold colors applied neat. Cadmium yellow, a little lemon yellow and white had been mixed together and dabbed onto the sunlit areas of the sunflower heads. This was repeated for the red sunflower heads but with cadmium red, permanent rose and a little white (fig 2).
Next, lemon yellow, pthalo blue and white had been mixed in various ratios and applied onto the sunlit areas of foliage. Additional pthalo blue, some viridian and permanent rose was mixed in various portions for the dark areas of foliage. The background was reinforced in order to see how the sunflower heads would look withinin context of the sunlight and shaded areas (fig 3).
Completing the Sunflower Painting
The background was reinforced by adding deeper colors onto the shadows of the shed, the window and the foliage. Divisions between light and shadow were softened by blending the seams with a clean brush. Similar blending was used throughout the painting to make it coherent. The painting was then completed by introducing shadow onto the sunflower heads to make them appear lit from the side. Burnt sienna and rose were used (fig 4).
The Joy of Painting Sunflowers
Oil painting flowers, such as petunias, clematis, St John’s Wort and in this case, sunflowers, particularly in the context of the garden, offers the artist great opportunities for using bright expressive colors. Applying the background colors thinly first will help the artist judge the tones of the sunflower head and also prevent their colors from being contaminated. Completion of the painting can then be done by working on the background and the sunflowers simultaneously in order for the artist to balance out the sunlit areas and the shadow.
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