This sunflower is for beginners and is so easy!

Tip (look at a real sunflower or photograph). Paint what you see and express your own unique style! 

Paint the background light blue:  white and blue mixed (add yellow to lean toward teal blue or add red for more of a cool baby blue shade use more white to lighten as desired) You can make a flat (1 shade) of blue or play with different ratios of paints to create some depth in the background for this I added lighter colors toward the top use and I added red in the blue to cool and darken around the bottom.

 Switch to the medium round brush (#6 round) mix some red and blue and add black until you see a dark color. You can use any dark colors such as dark brown for this part or pure black. Add the dark shadows to the center and paint the stem and leaves.

Clean your brush in between each color to avoid mixing mud! Make sure you dry your brush after each rinsing as well. Next use the medium round brush to paint over your medium green shades using yellow and blue moving from darker to lighter as you move up on your leaves  and to the left on your stem. For a lighter shade of green simply add more yellow around the edges.

Clean the brush and add yellow mixed with a little white to your brush to add your petal base color.  Petals should be thicker at the base and come to a point at the tip.  You can add some personality here and curve them this way or that and make some various sizes (not all petals are exactly the same). You can use a slightly darker shade of yellow by mixing a little bit of red and yellow to make a light orange or dark yellow to add some strokes feathering from the bottom of the petals out and to the tips.

Add darker shading to the center pulling out into the petals for some medium shadow colors using more red added to the yellow and even add a tiny amount of blue to get a burgundy shade and accent your mid tone shadows more. 

Next use some pink (red+white) or orange (red+yellow) to stipple the center of the flower. Small tiny dot taps in a circle shape. You can brush this lighter color on to the centers or edges of the petals (make sure to ADD to the other colors while layering not cover completely). You can also use this as a highlight color for the stem and petals.

Lastly, add your highlights!  You can use the small round brush and use your white (or very light pink or yellow) Tap and stipple toward the top of the center and the top of your leaves and the far right of the stem.  You can also add highlights to the tips of the petals. Add some petals in pinks and light orange or light yellow floating all around for a more stylized look and to create some movement and energy in the finished look. Make any fishing touches and sign your creation! 

To learn more about painting and for full step by step videos visit my recorded sessions collection here.

STAY CREATIVE!

XO WENDY