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Bouquet de Printemps, Acrylic and pastels flower painting tutorial

stepby step painting tutorial, painting flowers with acrylic and pastels by Sandrine Pelissier on paintingdemos.com
Painting technique / Step by step demonstrations

Bouquet de Printemps, Acrylic and pastels flower painting tutorial

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.

painting flowers

This is my reference picture.

Bouquet de Printemps, Acrylic and pastels flower painting tutorial

acrylic washes

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

spraying water on acrylic

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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Amsterdam Expert Series Acrylic Sets

The well-balanced sets are chosen from Amsterdam’s full range of 70 genuine artists’ colors, formulated with high concentrations of authentic, non-fading pigments. These heavy body paints are exceptionally durable and flexible due to their 100% acrylic resin formulation. – Expert Series Set of 12

acrylic glazing

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.

spraying alcohol on acrylic

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.

acrylic white wash

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

drawing on canvas

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

drawing on canvas

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.

painting with gesso

After painting all the flowers with gesso.

acrylic washes

I start working on the flowers with diluted washes of colors

acrylic painting step by step, painting the background

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

scrubbing off acrylic paint

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.

acrylic flower paintings tutorial, painting layers

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

acrylic flower paintings tutorial, painting layers

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

flowers painting techniques

A close up of the flowers.

flowers painting techniques

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.

Prismacolor NuPastel Color Sticks

NuPastels have a rich, creamy texture that blends and shades easily. Frequently used in advertising layouts, NuPastels are stronger than ordinary soft pastels, which means less breakage and easier cleanup. Use them to create broad strokes and fine lines.

painting flowers with acrylic and pastels

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

5/5 - (1 vote)

Comments (16)

  1. […] Bouquet de Printemps, painting flowers with mixed mediaARTiful: painting demos Cancel […]

  2. […] Spring bouquet […]

  3. So great to see your painting process. Thanks for sharing! Alone in my studio, sometimes I miss the sharing that took place in art school. I’m curious – what kind of fixative you use? I didn’t know you could paint over fixative. When I have used charcoal and graphite in my paintings I’ve been afraid to varnish them as they would smudge. Sounds like fixative may be the answer. Cheers!

    1. Hello Nicole,
      Thanks for your comment!
      I am using Krylon workable fixative and find it a great product. You have to spray outside because the smell is quite strong and I am pretty sure not the healthiest thing to breathe, but you can rework on it and I never had any thing smudge after using that one.
      https://store.opusartsupplies.com/sagro/storefront/store.php?mode=showproductdetail&product=14172

  4. Heidi Van Impe

    “Refraining the urge to burn the painting…” hahhahaha
    This piece is so lovely, I’m glad you kept going!

    1. Thanks Heidi!

  5. what an amazing process

    1. Thanks Megan !

  6. I absolutely love the step by step process…very informative – thank you! and a lovely outcome too, by the way! ;o) I’m curious to see how using the pastels over acrylics will turn out in my own work.

  7. What a great demo and lovely painting! Thanks for sharing :O)

  8. I really really like that strip of opaque blue zapping me up to the flowers which then take over, Sandrine. I love your work!

  9. Thank you for the wonderful photo/descriptive blog on painting the Spring Bouquet…it is delightful to see the process and the results so clearly and read exactly how you got there.

    Appreciate your efforts…and some new ideas for me to try.

    1. Thanks Siggi for your comments. I really appreciate it 🙂

  10. Sharka

    This is great and your step-by-step sounds so easy I want to jump right in and try something like this! The step where you add the dry pastel sure gave the painting that brightness and dimension you wanted… who says those little blossoms can’t be a BEAUTIFUL bouquet!!!

    1. Thanks Sharka! I am glad you liked the demo, and I am sure you will continue having fun experimenting with mixed media at the studios 🙂

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