Still life flowers in oils
1. Paint oil over acrylic
- Shade the back of the printable outline, tape it to your paper, and trace the outlines to transfer
- Or draw your bouquet freehand! Sketch until you’re happy with the composition
- Lay in the darkest shadows with Hookers Green acrylic paint
- Painting oil over acrylic is a handy way to speed up the drying time. Acrylics dry quickly which will stop this dark tone from mixing with the oil paints
2. Flower stem painting
- Begin painting green leaves and stems
- Mix Sap Green and Lemon Yellow and use a filbert brush to paint on leaves
- You can darken the green mix with Crimson for darker leaves and painting the flower stems
- A rigger brush will give you nice thin lines for stems and branches
-Lay down base colour for flowers
3. Foliage painting
- Mix a cool blue green with Sap Green, Cerulean and a touch of Titanium White for the gum leaves
- Colour variety is key when painting foliage! You can darken and lighten your green mixes to create interest, highlights and shadows
- Step back to look at your composition and feel free to add more branches, leaves and details to make the bouquet look lush
4. Glass vase painting
- For the tablecloth, add a touch of Burnt Umber to Titanium white to create the beige shadows
- Use pure Titanium White and a round or a rigger brush to paint the outlines of the glass vase
- Keep the linework thin and delicate – same with the waterline
- Add a couple of white spots with a flat brush to create the highlights
5. Painting a background
- Before painting the background we still need to paint on the banksia flower fibres. Mix a beige from Titanium White and Burnt Umber and create the pattern with a small flat brush
- Painting a background can be tedious but the effect will be worth it! Create a light mix of Titanium White and Phthalo Blue and lay it around the table and the vase
- Keep loading your brush with Titanium White as you move up the canvas to create a nice gradient
- Use a coarse hog bristle brush to create texture. Keep the brush strokes loose and imperfect for a painterly, Impressionist look
- Canvas
- Oil Paints – Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Crimson, Monastral Cerulean, Sap Green, Burnt Umber and Phthalo Blue
- Acrylic Paint – Hookers Green
- Refined Linseed Oil Premium
- Brushes: Filbert, Flat, Round, Hog bristle, Rigger
- Pencil
- Printed reference and outline