Paint Expressive Flowers in Acrylics - Learn How To Paint Simple Daisies

1. Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Alifya, and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. Welcome to my painting class, where I will be showing you how to paint simple, expressive daisies and acrylics. We'll walk you through prepping your paper, painting the background, and how to add expressive movements through painting. I will also show you how to roughly sketch your daisies, and we'll walk you through the painting process and how you can add your own unique expressive marks. This class is perfect for all levels; beginners and beyond are welcome to try this. I will also be adding a class project at the very end, so be sure to complete the entire class, and then hop on over to the project section where you can share your results with us. Let's get started and dive right into painting. 2. Materials : This is everything that I used and it will be listed in the description so check that out. These are the acrylic basics that I used and only two colors of greens. Phthalo green and olive green. I also used gesso to prime my canvas before painting. This brush is just for the background, you can use anything you have. This one is the main brush that I use for my flowers. If you have this, it's called a filbert brush, it's really handy. Then two flat brushes and one round brush. This one I used to do the splatter paint in the background. The others I just used for details in the background and the stems. The tape. Then we have acrylic paper. I cut mine down to a six by eight. You will also need a pallet bowl for water and a paper towel or rag. 3. Prep Paper : So to begin, I am prepping the paper down with gesso, which is basically a primer and it just preps your canvas before painting. You can choose to thin this down slightly if you would like, or just use it directly off the tub, which I prefer, and then maybe dab your brush once or twice in the water to make it spread better. One or two even coats should be enough, and once you're done with this step, we will move on to the taping section. A little disclaimer before you tape down your paper, make sure to not have skipped the four-step and just so your paper down first and then allow that to completely dry and then tape it down. Prepping your canvas beforehand will reduce the risks of any tears or bleeds once you take off the tape. 4. Painting Process 1 - Background: All right. Now, let's begin our painting with the background. I am using a mixture of burnt sienna, yellow oxide, white, and black to create this or the toned background. Now, you don't have to use the same color of background, but I like how the whites can pop off of this. But feel free to create your own mixture. For this, I'm just using acrylic basics, but again, you can use whatever paints you have. This may require two or more coatings, depending on how thick your paint is. But just get an even layer. Once you're done, we will move on to painting the flowers. I do want this painting to be a little bit more expressive with the background of the leaves here. The goal here is to give it an impression of stems and leaves, and make it a little bit more abstracty looking. I specially paint here [inaudible]. Using olive green, we will be making some quick stems. The first step is to capture the composition of the painting. Using a flat brush by its tip, I am simply now getting my way through the stems. This is where our daisies will sit on top of it. I am creating short swift movements here by indicating some leaves and foliage that we'll have in the background. Doesn't have to be too precise. For the leaves, I'm using pale green and some white. I will be diving my way through the stems. Just in random spot here and there. Again, we're not looking for precision or details, just movement. Think of short, simple, swift strokes. Also try adding a variation of different brush strokes. You can do that by using different sides to your brush, by twisting it around. Maybe at times use its belly of the brush, or then just the corner of the brush and so forth. Similarly, we also want a variation of color to add more value and depth. Mixing it with white will give you some lighter tense. We will keep coming back to the background as we paint along. But for now, this is a good start. 5. Painting Process 2 - Daisies: Now let's get a head start with painting the daisies. But first we will sketch out the daisies roughly. Trust me, you doing so will make this process so much easier and a lot more fun as well. I'm using a thin round brush and some olive green to start with the central ground portion of the daisy. Please feel free to look at some reference peak if you have one, I will try and find if we download link for you, and I'll link it below so you can use that for inspiration. Drawing other daisies is like drawing a basic flower except they have a lot more petals. Now that you've laid out your sketch and composition, painting these is the easiest step. You'll see what I mean, because you can literally paint each petal by one simple brushstroke. This process will be much easier if you use a full broad brush that has a petal-like round shape at its tip. I have linked it below if you're interested, so check that out. I'm using plain white here. Simply going over the shapes we have sketched out with one stroke. This is just the first initial base layer, so add these to your flowers all over, and then we'll move on to the next step. I don't mind some of that sketch marks peeking through behind the daisies, I just think that they add some more character and additional layer to your painting, which I personally like. You see some yellow ocher directly after tube. I am using that color to fill in the center portion. 6. Painting Process 3 - Details : I like painting the background and the flowers at the same time back and forth. So I'm going back to the background here and getting in some additional foliage by mixing in some phthalo green, olive green, and a tiny smudge of black to create this darker green. I'm focused on keeping my strokes casual and random, experimenting with different brush strokes. Remember you can do this by using different sides to your brush. So using its tip of the brush, the belly of the brush, the side of the brush will all give you different brush strokes in the painting. This is where you can add your own touch to the painting. There is no right or wrong really. I'm just simply looking at my composition and the color placement and adding in different shapes and colors based off of that. Since this is a more expressive painting, no two paintings can look alike, even if it's like a realistic painting, it's impossible to recreate a copy of an exact painting. I cannot recreate my same painting again. Just add your own loose marks based on your painting and what you feel like doing. Mostly just enjoy this process, I think this part of the painting can be very expressive and unique to you, so just keep it loose, keep it fun, keep it short, keep it swift, and you just want to add some movement. Just enjoy and just let loose. I wanted to get a different [inaudible] of the tone background that we have. I'm using some burnt sienna and white to create this neutral toned color, and just adding in a few marks throughout the painting. Now, I'm adding in some black to the burnt sienna and white to make some expressive marks. In a few seconds, you'll also see me using some olive green and white as well, and basically mixing in these colors, we have to create more depth and value. Now I'm going in with some yellow ocher and some white to add to the middle part of the flower to give it some more dimension, just one little stroke. Here I'm taking some olive green to add just a tiny stroke to the yellow sections as well. Using that same color, I'm adding light marks to few of the petals of the daisies. Just add that to the base and slightly pull out the color outward. Doing so will give your daisies some shadow and depth and your flowers won't look so flat. Toping my daisies out with a bit more white to highlight and accentuate some of the areas. 7. Final Touches : I've pulled out a small flat brush and adding a bit of a splatter with white paint here. So to do this, dip your brush in water and then you're white paint and simply flick off your bristles for some lights splatter effect. Here I'm just making some fun little dots and some marks using a round thin brush. For some last-minute details, I'm adding in a few buds by creating a little crisscross motion with my brush and then closing it off at the base. But just add an imperfect circle or just a few short marks on top of one another. It should give the impression of buds. Finishing this piece after bit final touches to the background. Again, like I mentioned before, this process will be very unique to you, so feel free to add your own expressive marks here and just have fun. Now it's finally time to take off that tape so that we can see the final picture of how this painting has turned out. When you do peel off your tape, remember to do it in the opposite direction of your painting so that you don't tear into your painting. Since we did gesso our paper prior to taping it down, you should not have any paint leaks. But just in case you do, a tiny bit, it is very easy to correct with a bit of gesso on top of it. Just thought I would mention it in case you were wondering how to fix that. 8. Conclusion & Class Project: I really hope you all enjoyed today's loose acrylic daisy painting, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with in the class projects. Feel free to make the background your own. Remember to keep it loose and expressive to give the impression of your flowers dancing, which I believe adds a really fun element to the painting overall. With spring right around the corner, this painting can add the perfect touch to your home. Once you're done, like always, please do not forget to share your results with us, you can post your projects in the project hub below. Now also don't forget to follow me, so that you know when I upload and that you don't miss any updates from me in the future. Once again, thank you all so much for watching and for completing your class. I will see you very soon.