How to Paint a Big Sunflower
There are few flowers as bright and cheerful as the towering sunflower, whose full bristling head and radiating yellow leaves mimic the sun as it moves across the sky. Planting a plot of sunflowers guarantees the enjoyment of their bright faces all summer long until the first frost, but once the heads go dark brown and begin to droop, the summer is officially over. Learning how to paint a big sunflower is a simple process needing only a few paint colors, and it can be easily done on canvas, wood or even a bedroom wall with the proper preparation.
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Things You'll Need
- Gesso -- or primer
- Paints -- yellow, green and brown
- Brushes -- one thick and fat, and one pointy
Instructions
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1
Prepare the painting surface before applying any colors. Cover a canvas with gesso and allow to fully dry. Sand wood panels until smooth and spray a coat of primer, then allow to dry. Wash walls with soap and warm water and allow to dry.
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2
Peruse a photo or painting of a sunflower to use as a reference. Notice the largest portion of the sunflower is the center, which is where sunflower seeds are clustered tightly, and see how the center tends to be slightly darker than the outer circumference. Observe how the narrow yellow leaves radiate from the center like the rays of the sun.
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Draw a large circle onto the painting surface using a light pencil. Make the circle as equally round as possible, but don't worry if it's not perfect as most sunflowers are not perfectly round either.
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Draw a narrow leaf shape with the pencil radiating from the edge of the big circle and extending perpendicularly a length approximately equal to half the width of the circle. Continue to draw leaves with the pencil all the way around the circumference of the circle until you reach the starting point, completely surrounding the big circle with long, narrow leaf shapes.
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Mix bright yellow paint with just a touch of green and cover the end of a wide brush with it, then spread the paint evenly inside the big circle. Apply enough paint to completely fill the circle right up to the outer edge of the pencil line you drew. Stroke the bristles of the brush back and forth through the paint to give the surface a nice, even swath of color.
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6
Mix a bit more green and a tiny bit of brown into the bright yellow paint mixture you have to make the yellow a bit darker, and swirl it around until it is a solid color. Dip the tip of a brush about the width of a pencil eraser into the paint mixture, then dab it onto the big yellow circle you have painted, pressing it just hard hard enough to leave a roundish dot of color. Use enough paint to make the dot you leave behind thick and three-dimensional.
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Continue to make thick dots of color around the entire circumference of the yellow circle, wedging each dot right up next to the one before it in a long continuous line, then make several layers of concentric circles of dots.
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Add a bit more green and a bit more brown into the mix of yellow paint periodically as you get closer to the center of the yellow circle so that the dots of color gradually begin to darken until the final rows of dots at the middle are a brownish-yellow with a tint of green as opposed to the bright yellow with which you started at the outer edge.
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Clean the paint from the brush, then apply bright yellow to the leaves you drew with pencil, filling the forms in completely to the edges of the pencil lines. Mix a little green and a touch of brown into the yellow paint, swirl around until solid, then apply a thin line of the slightly darkened yellow color through the center of each petal from the tip to the base that attaches to the head of the sunflower -- sort of like a seam that runs down the middle.
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10
Allow the painting to completely dry, then apply an outline of brown paint to the entire sunflower, tracing every leaf, then apply a thick line around the circumference of the head of the sunflower. Make the line as slow and steady as you can.
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Tips & Warnings
Spread out a plastic drop sheet beneath your work surface if you are painting on a wall to prevent damage to the carpet or floor. Don't be afraid to use thick dabs of paint when making the "sunflower seeds" in your painting as the three-dimensional effect it creates can give the painting depth.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit sunflower image by Lucid_Exposure from Fotolia.com
