Spring Flowers, Orange – Acrylic on Watercolor paper

This Spring Flowers, Orange painting Happened very quickly. I spent most of my time on the focal point, the center of the flower. I used my pencil in the sketching process to find the shadows and highlights and variations in colors. The sketch has wild lines and sketchy marks which really show my attempt to find all the elements.

I had fun mixing the different colors and drawing the shapes that I found in the center of the flower. I used two different shaped bushes both small giving me the ability to paint the details I wanted to capture. The focus on the center of the flower is what gave my painting a unique and individual style. Finding that area of intense interest and allowing yourself to focus on that area will help to develop your own style of painting.

To create the feeling of overlapping leaves and the difference in the lighting from one leaf to another you need to have a gradation in your colors or light, medium to dark shades. In practical painting terms you need to mix a lot of different shades of green when painting leaves. I have a yellow green and a blue green and a forest green in this one area. I like to let my brush get a little dirty with all my different shades to allow for a more natural transition between colors and shadows.