Intuitive Painting #1 - Vintage Flowers

Flowers are something I feel like I've always struggled with. I've used the excuse "I'm just not good at painting flowers" more times than I can count. But whenever I hear that excuse from other people, my response is always the same; "practice painting it and you'll get better at it!" I don't want to be that person who never follows their own advice, so I've been working on painting flowers more!

These flowers were an exercise in letting things happen. Rather than forcing the flowers to be something or fighting to get the details just right, I let my intuition guide me. If a petal suggested to me that it was folded over, I followed it down that path rather than trying to force it to be something else. I find that there's so much joy in painting that way. It's like solving a little mystery as you create something that hasn't existed until this moment. It's really quite thrilling!

Now, since this was a little practice painting, I feel good about noticing things I could do better. When I go to paint flowers again, I'll take those lessons with me. My main critique is that I want to focus on creating petals that are ever so slightly more distinct. I don't mean I want to spell it all out, but, for example, in the center of the main flower, I feel like I could have taken the time to create just one or two more specific petals, and that would make the center of the flower read a little bit more like a flower.

Other than that, I'm quite happy with it because it shows progress. No longer can I say that I don't paint flowers well. Instead, I can say that I'm making progress and developing my floral style. Doesn't that sound so much better?!

Ready to get started on your own flower painting? Check out the materials list and video below. Amazon links are affiliate links. That means that if you make a purchase, I might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me continue to bring you free painting videos! Yay!

Materials:

• Fredrix canvas sheet (cut and glued to a foamboard)

• Black gesso (or use a black Fredrix canvas sheet!)

• 1/2-in flat brush (mine is old and puffy. If yours isn't, use an old, puffy brush)

• Fuzzbert #8 filbert (or any old, small, puffy brush)

• #3 round brush

• Pencil (literally ANY kind of pencil you have will work)

Colors

• Buff or Unbleached Titanium

• Permanent Maroon

• Payne's Grey

• Naples Yellow

• Matte Fluid Medium or Gloss Fluid Medium or Glazing Medium