Painting sunflowers provides opportunities for the artist to use dazzling colours. The challenge lies in knowing when to use subdued hues to bring out the colours of the sunflower heads without them looking gaudy.
Painting Sunflowers in Oils
Art Materials Required
Tips on Painting Sunflowers
When working on coarse canvas, use a stiff brush initially. This will get the paint into the weave. Doing this with a soft brush will cause unnecessary wear and tear to the sable hair.
Demonstration on Painting Sunflowers
Using a soft pencil, sketch the composition of sunflowers onto the canvas. Ensure the marks are sufficiently dark to show through the subsequent imprimatura. The imprimatura is a thin glaze of under-paint that sets the tone of the painting and rids the off-putting white. In this case, thinned ultramarine acrylic in water had been used. Apply this imprimatura with a wide brush. Allow to dry.
With a stiff brush, scrub in the background colour of the shed behind the sunflowers; cadmium yellow, white and a little burnt sienna had been used. Do not apply so thickly so that it will contaminate the colours of the sunflowers that will be laid later on.
The Colour of Sunflowers
Ladle a size 3 sable with cadmium yellow, a touch of lemon yellow and white. Dab this colour onto the sunlit areas of the sunflower heads. Repeat for the red sunflower heads by using cadmium red, permanent rose and a little white.
With a clean sable, mix lemon yellow, pthalo blue and load it with white. Apply the mixture onto the sunlit areas of foliage.
Reinforce the darkest areas of foliage by daubing on a mixture of permanent rose, ultramarine and burnt umber. Reinforce other areas of shadow throughout the painting. Suggest the middle tone of the foliage and soften the division between higlight and shade by dabbing a little viridian here and there.
Thick paint was used towards the end of the session to add an element of texture to the painting.