With a few days of sunshine here in Vancouver, I feel again like painting flowers.

So here are the steps I took to paint latest mixed media flower painting : Bouquet de Printemps.

I started with a picture I took on my garden of those little flowers on fruit trees, might have been the peach or pear tree, anyway I am posting the picture I used here as a reference to give a better idea of the process. I want to paint those flowers but I want to make a bouquet in a vase out of them even though this is not really possible, in real life.

This is my reference picture.

Bouquet de Printemps, Acrylic and pastels flower painting tutorial

I start with very watery washes of acrylic, just oulining a few shapes, then I spray the painting with water

I add a bit of brown and black that I also spray with water.

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

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Then, to make colors blend more, I glaze the whole painting with a mix of white paint and acrylic medium, except the black shape at the bottom that is beginning to look like a vase.

I liked the lime green on the original picture and would like to incorporate some of it in the painting so I make a wash with liquid acrylics that I paint all over the surface and then spray it with alcohol to make textures.

Once the green wash is dried i add another wash of white, mostly in the central part of the painting.

Once the green wash is dried i add another wash of white, mostly in the central part of the painting.

Because the flowers are mainly white and acrylic can be transparent, I paint a layer of gesso where I want the flowers to be. The idea is to paint them after with light washes, watercolor style.

After painting all the flowers with gesso.

I start working on the flowers with diluted washes of colors

I add a little bit of brown in the background as well, but then decide it was looking better with s lighter background

So I scrub a bit of the last layers off, retrieving some of the green and white underneath. I continue working on the flowers with washes.

I start working on the vase, keeping my black shape but making it larger. I add some foliage

At this point I start to be unhappy with the painting, mainly because the flowers look dirty ( see next closeup) and the colors lack some brightness

A close up of the flowers.

Refraining an urge to burn the painting, I decide to work with dry pastels on top of the acrylic layers because of the brightness of the pigments. I recover the white of the flowers and add touches of bright blue here and there and on the vase.

I am a Blick Art Materials affiliate and I receive a small compensation for sales. That does not effect in any way the cost of the purchaser’s order but it helps me keeping the content of this blog free.

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I continue working with the pastels adding mainly white, yellow, blue and green. until I am satisfied with the result, spraying workable fixative in between layers. At the end I varnish the finished painting to fix everything.

The finished painting: Bouquet de printemps