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A Fun Floral Painting - With Rebecca Watkins
Step 1 - Floral background color. Start at the top of the bottom row of flowers and paint all of the space in between the circles with orange and touches of yellow. Do not paint below the bottom row of flowers.
Step 2 - Background color. Start at the bottom of the bottom row of flowers and blend from dark to light. Start with a dark blue and gradually add white as you work down the canvas. Around 3/4 of the way down, repeat this process, starting with dark blue and blending down to light blue. This will serve as a horizon line for the back edge of a table.
Step 3 - Flowers. Paint 3 or 4 flowers pink and yellow. Overlap your brush strokes in a circular motion. Flowers aren't perfect circles, so keep the edges irregular. Paint a couple of flowers dark purple and a couple of flowers in light purple (add white). Yes - this stage is pretty ugly...but it's all just the background.
Step 4 - Flower petals. Get loose!!! Think yin and yang and work outwards. Use curved brush strokes to lay on lighter or darker colors, creating three layers of petals. On the dark purple flowers, use light purple. continue in a circular motion, leaving the yin and yang center open and gaps between the loose layers of your flower.
Step 5 - More flower petals. On dark purple flowers, use light purple. On the pink flowers, use light pink. On yellow use orange or light orange. At this point, feel free to add some additional small flowers or pops of color to your flower arrangement.
Step 6 - Greenery. Using Green, white, and yellow, mix three different shades of green. Add stems and leaves. Add yellow-green highlights to leaves and greenery. It's OK if some leaves overlap flowers. Make sure your stems extend over the horizon line (table edge). This will help visually hold the vase to the table later on. Remember to bunch your stems within an area that equates to 1/3 to 1/4 of your canvas width...flowers need support and they all need to fit into a vase!
Step 7 - Vase. Make sure that your greenery is dry. if it isn't dry, wait a few minutes. Then, use your small brush to paint the outline of a simple glass vase. Trick! Turn your canvas sideways on the easel and use the edge of the easel to steady your hand as you make the sides of the vase. Flip your canvas back up and do the top of the vase (make it curve and open gently, wraping around the stems). Add a gently curved water line and the bottom of the vase.
Step 8 - Baby's Breath. Clean your small brush thoroughly. Then using white paint, add dots of baby's breath in the floral arrangement between flowers and leaves.
Step 9 - Glass reflection and table shadow. Add glass highlights in thick white strokes. Use the black lines as the guide to where the edge of your vase is. Add a subtle blue shadow in the base of the vase and on the outside table. Sign your name and you're finished!
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