How to Paint Sunflowers | Acrylic Painting Tutorial for Beginners

​Learn how to paint a realistic sunflower in this, step by step, acrylic painting tutorial. This lesson is easy enough for beginner artists. 

You can become a Createful Art Member to get weekly art lessons, my reference photos & more,  Join here.  The reference photo to help you with this painting can be downloaded here. 

Here is the list of supplies I recommend and used for this painting (Amazon affiliate links below)
1. Paint Brushes - and wash brushes 
2. Acrylic Paints - The paint colors I use include: cobalt blue, cadmium red medium, cadmium yellow hue, titanium white and ivory black. You can get the lesson on how to mix my colors exactly, right here. 
3. Large Canvas - Dickblick Premier Canvases
4. My PALETTE (Colors don't dry out!)
5. Water
6. Paper Towels
Optional supplies include- 
Easel 

Watch the Tutorial

steps to Painting a Sunflower

Step 1: Draw your sunflower. I used an an acrylic paint marker to draw with. If you don't have that, a watercolor pencil also works great.
Step 2: Start with the background and block in the shape of the sunflower. You can either paint around your drawn sunflower or once you have your background painted, draw the sunflower and then paint it white. 
Step 3: Paint the petals. Start with your light yellow and paint the tips of the petals. With a darker yellow paint the rest of the petal. This is your first layer.
Step 4: Paint the center of your flower. Start by painting your first layer tan. Add highlights and shadow in layers as seen in the tutorial. 
Step 5: Add more shadows and layers to your sunflower. Watch the tutorial to help you with this step.
Step 6: Paint leaves and stem, the same way you painted the sunflower by adding layers.
Step 7: Final Touches. Bring some of the background color into your painting. For example the sky color and yellow are seen in my leaves. This creates harmony. Personalize your artwork. Your painted shouldn't look exactly like mine, because we are both unique. Have fun making the painting yours and be creative!

​My story: My name is Ashley Krieger and I'm traveling and painting in all 50 U.S. states. I share what inspires me and teach how to paint. Today I take you to South Dakota to capture a sunflower. You can learn more about me and  find my artwork here. 

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