Sunflower

Sunflower - student project

I used my own quick snaps of sunflowers for reference:

Sunflower - image 1 - student project

Here are the paint colours I chose (the violet to be used just in small amounts at the centre). Most are acrylic paints, with a couple of inks added as well:

Sunflower - image 2 - student project

I decided to keep it simple and just have one single flower head, so I didn't feel the need to plan the colour distribution. I just went straight to the painting stage:

Sunflower - image 3 - student project

After removing the paper background, it was super-exciting to get Sidecar set up and start drawing! I chose Kyle's Real Oils 01 size 60 for the dotty details. I also added some smooth shadow and highlight lines to the petals. Here's a screenshot:

Sunflower - image 4 - student project

This is the finished sunflower with details and pale cream background added:

Sunflower - image 5 - student project

I did some small adjustments to colour to see how the flower would look with a bit more orange (I probably prefer the original colours though):

Sunflower - image 6 - student project

Thanks for a really fun class filled with great workflow tips, Bekki! Sidecar is such a handy tool to know about :) I'll definitely be using it again in future because I also love to combine traditional media with digital.