Sunflower Still Life - A Loose and Impressionist Style

1. Introduction to a Sunflower Still Life: Hi, welcome to my studio. My name is Kris In this Skillshare class, you're going to learn to paint this sunflower, painting in a loose and impressionist style. I'm going to show how I paint from a floral still life. I'm going to show you various techniques that I use to get this loose impressionist style. And in the end, you'll be able to paint your very own sunflower still-life. Let's get started. I believe that painting florals from a still-life is a very important skill to learn. So while I will provide a picture of my still life, I encourage you to go to your local florist, buy yourself a bouquet of sunflowers, set it up on your kitchen table and use that as your reference for this class. Sunflowers are one of my favorite types of flowers. I love their bright colors. I love their big bold style. They just make me happy! So what can you expect to learn from completing the project? in this class? You will learn how to paint a floral still life in a loose impressionist style, which is my favorite style in watercolor. You will learn how to use glazing as a technique to add richness of colors and depth to your paintings. Next, you'll learn how to use negative painting to really make your floral subject pop off the paper. And finally, I will show you brushstrokes that lend themselves to this loose, impressionist style. If all of this sounds interesting to you, then let's get started. 2. Project Supplies: In order to complete the project in this class, you're going to need some supplies. Let's take a look at the supply list. Let's start with the paint I use in this painting. I used two brands: Daniel Smith and M. Graham. In the Daniel Smith brand, I use French ultramarine, new gamboge, transparent pyrrole, orange, and ultramarine violet. I also use M Graham, and in that brand I use Azo Yellow, permanent alizarin crimson, and sap green. I use six different brushes in this painting, starting with the largest an OKUU. Number 6, professional quill brush. Next largest. a #6 Delgado, squirrel hair quill brush. A number four Delgado. Quill brush. Number 2, Delgado quill brush, a number 12 round Princeton Aqua Elite. That's a synthetic blend. And finally, a silver black velvet script liner. If at all possible, I encourage you to use a 100 percent cotton paper. I'm using Arches 140 pound rough. I use a good quality painters tape, to adhere the paper to my board. And finally, you'll need a good container for fresh water. I like this one by Mijello that has three sections in it. And last but not least, a little spray bottle. In addition to these supplies, I also encouraged that you download the reference images off the Skillshare site. There's a number of files that you can use as reference and inspiration for this project. Before proceeding to the next video, make sure you transfer your image of your sunflower still life to your watercolor paper and adhere it to the board. 3. The First Wash: Focus on Undertones: It's time to start the painting process. So the first thing I'm going to do is take my large quill brush. This is an OKUU #6, and apply clean fresh water to the paper. I'm not getting the entire piece of paper wet, but just kind of randomly around the surface. Here is my reference image, I encourage you to have this in front of you the entire time. This is a picture I took of my still life. One of the goals of this project is to learn to paint from a still life -- from life. So I encourage you to have that in front of you. Either a photograph of it or the actual flowers. Here I'm using Azo Yellow, the 3 first colors I'm using in this first wash is Azo Yellow, French Ultramarine and Sap Green. Again, this is a wet on wet application. I have wetted the paper and now I'm putting down a nice juicy wet application of my azo yellow. The other goal of this project is a loose impressionist style. So I encourage you to not be slavishly, bound to my reference image or even your own. But interpret what you see in a loose way. And you can see I'm doing that here with the petals. Now I taking a mixture of French Ultramarine, which is my blue there and my Azo Yellow. And I've mixed it into a nice green. I'm just laying down the primary stems and the leaves on these first two flowers. I've now dipped into my sap green a little bit. because that's just a darker green than I can achieve right now with my other colors, I'm going to just take that darker sap green and just dab it into the wet areas of the leaves that I previously put down and you'll see it spreads out. Now taking that same green mixture of French ultramarine and Azo Yellow, I'm coming back up to my upper flower. There are three flowers in this composition. The primary one and then one above it and one to the right. Now this green I'm applying here. This is the green stems that go up to the Phlox. Phlox is the purple, reddish purple flowers in the upper right corner. So now I've taken up my ultramarine violet. I want to put down an undertone of violet. The flowers are more reddish, but I'm going to start with an undertone of violet. So the color I used here was ultramarine violet. And you can see my technique. I've got a large quill brush, very full of water and the color. And I'm just really holding it straight up and dabbing it onto the paper. In the places where I see the Phlox flowers. Once I'm satisfied with the Phlox, I'm going to go over and take a little yellow, orange and go ahead and paint in the centers of the flowers that are a darker color. And again, still using my large quill brush. And you can see I'm using the sides of the brush to really put down a heavy application of this color. For all three flowers here. I'm working wet on wet still at this point. Now I've taken my brush and fill it with just pretty much water, a little bit of green and I'm just coming in and touching along those areas of the stem that I already did and just kind of give a softer edge to some of the stems. You always want to achieve a contrast between hard and soft edges throughout your painting. And so in some places you'll have a real hard edge and other places of softer edge. Now at this point, of course, is our first wash and we're pretty much painting wet on wet. So pretty much everything is going to be a soft edge. Unless I put down paint in an area that's dry, like you see I do with some of the stems. So the edges are harder. Now I'm taking an even darker color here, my transparent pyrrole orange. And I darken the center of one of the flowers. Now I've taken my new gamboge here and little darker, yellow, orange. And I'm darkening the areas of that central flower there in the primary flower. Also coming back and just applying some details and texture to the flowers in between the petals. Now a darker application of my sap green. Again, kind of a dry brush technique there in some places where I took the brush with paint on it and applied paint into an area that was dry. So I get harder edges and more of a dry brush technique. Now I'm applying that green in the background. I'm noticing there's some green foliage behind this flower on the right. And so I'm just wanting to emphasize that a bit, but I'm using a really light value here. I don't want to draw attention to this background. So I'm going to use a really light value. Again, coming back with some of my yellow orange, still working wet on wet, just dropping some color and as you see as it's dropped in, it just begins to spread out. This again, is what this entire first video is all about the first wash. And that first wash is all wet on wet. And you're really laying down what are called undertones. These are colors that will shine through the subsequent layers of color. And this is the beauty of watercolor because it's a transparent medium. The colors you lay down in the first stages will later still be visible coming through the other transparent layers. Don't worry if it looks exactly realistic or anything at this point. You just keep reminding yourself I'm putting down undertones of color. And these colors will shine through later and create a real brilliance to the painting. So focus on that. Back to my violet here, Ultramarine violet. Now this has dried a little bit but it's damp. So now it won't spread as much when I put down these second applications of the violet, you're seeing it's not spreading as much because it is dried a little bit. Not completely; a little bit. Okay, Now I've taken some quinacridone lilac, love this color. And I'm going to apply it over the ultramarine violet that I applied earlier. And now I've taken my spray bottle and I'm just going to soften that whole area of color by gently spraying some water - clean water - in that area. Okay. It's still wet at this point because I've just applied some spray water but I'm taking a little bit of sap green tip of a brush - a smaller brush now. And I'm just putting in some little strokes that represent the stems. 4. The Flower Centers: Add Contrasting Values: Now in step two of this project, we're going to darken the centers of the sunflowers. If you look at a reference image of the sunflower still life, you'll see that there is a very dark center to a sunflower. It's got an orange undertone covered with really what's ultimately going to be a blue, a blue overtone, which is going to create a very dark brownish, purplish color. So I've started with my Alizarin crimson here, Permanent Alizarin crimson and the paper is still somewhat damp. So I'm still really in the first wash though the paper is only damp at this point, it's not real wet. And I'm applying this just with the side of the brush. Now I've just taken the French ultramarine and I am going to drop this blue into the Alizarin crimson and I just added, and it's going to spread out as you see it's doing here. And it's going to be creating somewhat of a purplish color, a neutral color to the centers of the flowers. Now I wouldn't work this too much at this point, I would drop the ultramarine blue into the reddish orange tones and just let it spread and allow the painting to dry fully. 5. Adding Details: Glazing Technique: In this step of the project, and we're going to be adding details to our painting. I've taken my Dugato number 6 quill brush with Azo yellow. And I'm just going and adding petal detail to the painting. The painting is completely dry at this point. So you should allow the painting to dry. And we're going to be taking here as well yellow a little new gamboge which is more of a orange yellow. And just emphasizing the petals of that primary sunflower there in the center of the painting. I'm focused on the petals and the shapes of the petals. But again, I'm using an impressionist and loose style. So I'm not trying to render each pedal exactly. But I'm trying to get a sense of the flowers shape here. Again. As I add more and more colors, the colors are blending together on the paper. May also using a couple techniques here. The first of those techniques is these glazing. Glazing is when you apply transparent watercolor paint over existing colors that are already dry. So you're working usually wet and dry. And these transparent colors or are applying a glaze or a second color layer over the previous color layer. And this creates a beautiful effect of water color because of the transparent nature of the colors. I use it in a lot of my paintings. And so I'm doing that here with transparent colors over the previous colors. Now I'm taking my french ultramarine and adding that to the center of the primary flower, the blue will blend in with the orange and red colors that are already there. Taking my brush with just water on it and softening the edges of that blue. I don't want to be too overpowering. Coming back with Alizarin crimson now and dropping that into the blue. Achieving the right color and doing most of my color mixing on the paper. Here I've taken the side of the brush and I'm just kind of twisting the brush into a circle. And that's giving me that the shape that I want. Now doing the same thing with the flower in the upper left and now the flower in the lower right corner. This flower, as you can see from the reference image, is viewed from the side. And so you can only see small portions of the dark center showing through the individual petals. As I'm doing here. All right, Now it's time to darken the stems. I've taken my sap green and a pretty pure application of that sap green. And in the areas where I already laid down an undertone for the green stems, I'm gonna come back with a much darker and more opaque application and really emphasize the direction and shape of the stems. Now I'm taking my french ultramarine and also darkening the stems. I'm darkening them more on the left side and the areas underneath the green leaves. It's important to develop contrast in your paintings where the darkest, areas of your painting are... where they touch the lighter areas, that's going to be the area where your eye is naturally drawn, areas of high contrast with values. So make sure that those areas of high contrast are in a focal area of the painting. In other words, the main focal point and the flowers, in this case, it goes high contrast areas in your main subject area. Okay, Now I've taken back to my azo yellow and my new gamboge. And I'm emphasizing the petals of the flower. And again, softening some of the edges where the yellow petals touch that orange of the center of the flower. It's important to have lots of contrast in your painting. And not only the contrast between values of light and dark, but also the contrast of soft and hard edges. And so you'll see many times I will apply paint and then come back with a wet brush and just touch up along the edge of that paint that I've just applied and soften the edge, allowing it to blur. I'm taking my Azo yellow, going back up to my upper flower. Again, that paint in the center is still wet. So when I just barely touch the yellow up against that, you're gonna see it will soften the edges. Now it's time to add the green leaves around each of the flowers. Since these leaves are somewhat oval shaped, it's really easy to take my green, which is a sap green, and simply lay the large quill brush and I'm using down on its side. And it applies a plain paint in a shape that looks just like a leaf, works pretty well. It's often best to work with as few strokes as possible. What do I mean by that? If you can make bold brushstrokes and create a shape with one stroke. Many times that's much better than painting, dabbing, dabbing, dabbing, and using lots of strokes to create a shape. It's better to be bold to use single strokes as much as possible. So in order to do that, encourage you to use the entire surface of the brush. Always use the largest brush possible for whatever you're trying to paint. Don't paint with small, tiny little brushes that require you to make many, many strokes. Instead, use a large brush and use fewer strokes. 6. Negative Painting: Make the Flowers POP!: In this step of the painting, we're going to use a technique called negative painting. Negative painting is where you paint the shapes around the subject or around the main shapes. So instead of painting a petal, here, we're painting around the petal. And as we do that, the main subject, the petals, begin to emerge from the paper and we begin to see them more clearly. This is again, one of my favorite techniques to use, especially in floral paintings. And I think at this point in the painting, as you begin to do the negative painting around your main subjects. The subject begins to emerge off the paper, begins to coalesce and come together. And really you get to begin to see your subject much more clearly. So I'm using sap green here and using my quill brush. I believe this as my number 6 Dugato And I am doing a combination of hard edges and soft. I am painting wet on dry at this point. I've allowed the painting to dry prior to doing this because I really don't want these colors to blend together. Using the side of the brush. Again, somewhat like I was doing with the foliage in the earlier step. I'm just laying the brush down onside and adding the shapes. And some places I'm using a much darker application of green as you see I've done there and now softening it with some freshwater, other areas, I'm using a lighter green. I want there to be a contrast of values. Next, I want to differentiate between the individual petals of the flower. So I'm using my sap green and just putting down lines of green color in between each petal. I don't want them to be too strong however, so I'm taking freshwater and softening and lightening those values. In the final step, I want to add a real strong opaque yellow. This is as all yellow to my flowers and really emphasize some of the petals. The nice thing about as well, yellow is that it is a pretty opaque color. I usually like to use transparent colors, but however, at times, being able to take an opaque, lighter color like this as a yellow, and applying it over previous colors. And really getting a nice opaque application is really helpful. Again, I want to emphasize these petals and how they are overlapping some of the background colors. And I can do that with Azo yellow. For my brushwork, I'm using big bold strokes. I'm trying not to use too many strokes. I'm using a large brush again. And I'm really looking to create an impressionist and loose style hair. And again, the fewer strokes and the bolder strokes you use, the more you're going to create that look. We're really nearing the end of this painting process. Now, in the final step, we will just put in the final details and our signature and we'll be done. Here is the finished painting. 7. The Final Step: Congratulations, you've reached the final step in this project. In the final step, go ahead and add your signature to your artwork. I always encourage my students to take pride in their work and to add their own signature. And once you've done that, I encouraged my students to go through a three-step reflection process. First, see the good, name, the positives you see in your work. I think it's really important to do that and say it out loud. Number 2 - set a goal. Always set a goal for the next painting, something you'd like to improve. And finally, number 3, share your artwork with the world. You can share online, with social media, you can give your paintings away. There's lots of ways to share your work. I really hope you've enjoyed this class and have gotten something out of it. I would love it if you would take a picture or scan your artwork and share it here in Skillshare as a part of this class. If you do so and if you want a critique of your work, please say so. And I am happy to give you some feedback on your progress. Thanks for being a part of this class. I hope to see you in one of my other Skillshare classes real soon. Have a great day.