An over-the-shoulder view of the work – so you can see how I build up the painting as if you were standing behind me in the studio.A close-up of the brush contacting the canvas – with extreme close-ups, so you can see the grain of the canvas and the bristles in the brush.
Floral Still Life Acrylic Painting for Beginners
Inspiration for a painting often strikes when walking around your garden.
Inspiration often ends when the mass of leaves and flowers you’ve picked are now strewn across your kitchen table, trying to pass themselves off as a still-life!
When you put paint to canvas, the whole thing looks unrealistic and a little dated. Is it the leaves? Is it the vase? Is the composition wrong? Why don’t the petals appear translucent?
Trying to transfer that feeling of simplicity and light into a studio still life can become very frustrating.
Greens that appeared bright outside, suddenly become more muted inside and if you try to paint them as brightly as you observed in the garden, they can appear fake.
Flower heads that appeared really white and flat outside, now need added contrast to make them seem three-dimensional on the canvas.
This course will guide you through the process of creating an Impressionistic floral still life painting in acrylics, recreating the colour palettes of nature from start to finish.
Over 3 hours of tuition, you’ll learn how to simplify and separate tonal values into areas of light and shadow, how to use warm and cool colours effectively and how to mix and balance naturalistic greens creating a subtle acrylic palette and a realistic sense of sunlight hitting the leaves & petals.
Categories: Beginners Art Courses, Still Life Acrylic Painting Courses
- Description
- Lesson Breakdown
- Course Delivery
- Course Requirements
- What Students Say
- Student Success
- FAQs
Description
Modern Simplicity, Classical Form
I’ve developed this painting course to show you how the arrangement of colours, composition and tonal value range result in a more contemporary painting that will still allow you to see good form.
We’ll be taking classical painting techniques to build up an in-direct floral painting in acrylics.
Once you’ve discovered the importance of accurate drawing, layout and establishing good tonal values – you’ll move on to using colour strings.
This method will develop your knowledge of pigments and allow you to create the perfect balance between warm and cool. It then means when you’re standing at the easel you can feel confident with your colours throughout every stage of the painting.
Working through these simple step-by-step tutorials, you’ll learn how to tune your eyes between subtle shifts of greys, creams and whites, mix a subtle modern colour palette, whilst still learning classical painting techniques.
In just a few hours you can create your own floral masterpiece!
What’s in the Course?
- 1 x Floral Still Life subject from start to finish, based in the studio working from a reference image.
- 8-downloadable video lessons, split into separate chapters that follow on sequentially.
- Step-by-step instructional videos so that you can follow along at your own pace.
- Each stage is a detailed yet easy-to-follow process.
- Lifetime access, downloadable on separate devices.
- Downloadable jpeg reference images, and reference line drawings.
- Printable Class materials list, 3 1/2 hrs of detailed video instruction.
Lesson Breakdown
Lesson One
A Classical Approach
Learn how form is the key to creating realistic florals and how a tonal study of a Lily, illustrates the ‘background effect’.
Lesson Two
Materials & Set up
A visual introduction to all the materials, paints, mediums, palettes and canvas and how to use and apply an archival ground to your painting.
Lesson Three
Drawing Out
Clean lines, drawing realistic ellipses and learning to ‘see’ the tones.
Lesson Four
Tonal Underpainting
Developing brush techniques, blocking-in the pattern of darks and pushing your tonal range.
Lesson Five
Painting the background
Controlling tonal steps using a ‘value strip’, mixing perfect greys, using only two colours, and using my favourite acrylic medium to softly blend edges.
Lesson Six
Introducing Colour
Introducing how to use a colour wheel, and a simple palette, to mix the perfect greens whislt using a stay-wet palette to create your own ‘colour strings’.
Lesson Seven
Painting the Flower Heads
Tuning our eyes to observe the subtle shifts within the petals, painting the flower heads using 3 base mixes and balancing warm ochres and cool greys.
Lesson Eight
Impasto & Glazing
Using a palette knife to add flair and texture and then finishing with subtle glazing for that final glow to your painting.
Flower inspiration
Painting flowers is a great introduction into painting and its easy to create pretty pieces of artwork. Simply choose a picture to work from or even collect flowers from your garden.
Starting off with a simple sketch or outline of your image, using a HB pencil draw onto your acrylic paper. Remember if your a beginner or not confident in your drawing skills its ok to trace the image.
Using masking tape to secure your paper to a hard surface this will create a nice neat white boarder for your artwork when removed at the end.
watch the video to see the process
Layers and tones
Acrylic paint is perfect for layering tones and creating areas of light and dark. To add contrast and give depth to a painting.
In the magnolia flower the petals are a white colour so the light and dark areas of the petals are created buy using grey and blue colours. Cobalt blue and ultramarine, use these colours to block in the darker areas of the petals. Leaving this layer to dry and then add a layer of diluted white paint to create a softness in the petals. The darker colour shows through underneath the white.
Top tip – when using a lot of white or diluting the paint its important to use clean water, this will stop the white from becoming discoloured or muddy.
Protea Flower
With the protea flower head the tone has been created using a one brush stroke technique by layering colours onto the brush.
For this its the way you load the brush with paints. In the protea example mix crimson red with white to create a pink colour, add a bit of water to give the paint a nice flow. Then using a round brush size 4-6 load the brush with this mixture. Then add a very small amount white to the tip of the brush and a very small amount of crimson to the very tip of the brush.
Applying the paint to the petal shape, drag across starting with the bottom of the petal with an upwards motion. The layers of paint on your brush will create a colour gradient effect. This technique is also used for the leaves, the order of the colours used is emerald green diluted, sap green and lemon yellow.
watch the video to see the process
Easy Acrylic Painting: How to Paint Flowers with Acrylics on Canvas Tutorial for Beginners
Learn how to paint flowers with acrylic paint! Easy step by step instructions for beginner artists!
If you are a beginner and you have always wanted to learn how to paint acrylic flowers on canvas the easy way, then this class is for you! In this class I will show you step by step how I created this painting with only a few simple brush strokes. All you need to do is be able to paint a line and a circle and you will be able to create your own floral painting! I start off by showing you the supplies you will need to get started, then I show you how I make a very simple sketch of my flower painting and transpose that sketch onto my canvas using pastels. Then I show you how to add layers to your painting to really make it pop! When you’re finished watching this class, you’ll have all the skills necessary to create your own acrylic flower painting!
Supplies I used:
10 x 10 inch student grade canvas. Paper works, too!
Strathmore palette paper – or use a paper plate.
Pastel stick (I used Prismacolor)
Paint brushes.
Paper towels.
Water to clean your brushes.
Acrylic paint (I used Liquitex Basics).
Paint colors I used:
Prussian Blue
Hooker’s Green
Olive Green
Neutral Gray
Light Permanent Blue
Titanium White
Yellow Oxide
Portrait Pink
Deep Violet
Cadmium Red
You can find all of my Skillshare classes here:
https://www.skillshare.com/user/ellebyers
You can also find me here:
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