How to Paint Poppies (Part Two: The Flowers)

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Busted Button

OKAY! Here is part two of my poppy-painting tutorial: The flowers!

If you haven’t seen my Remembrance Day post, check it out here. It’s where I first shared the painting I did for my dad, and I also talk about my Grand Daddy,  so it’s worth a read!

I got so many requests for a tutorial, that I decided to paint another poppy painting and document the process! It turned out pretty long, so that’s why I’m sharing it in three parts: The background, the flowers, and the stems/ paper airplane.

 

 

Here is a link to part one: the background. 

If you just want to learn how to paint poppies, you don’t really need my nifty background, so you can come along to learn some flower painting tips too 😉

Now that you have completed your background, and washed the paint off your table, you can get started organizing your paint while the canvas is drying.

For the flowers I used a combo of black, burnt umber (brown), red, and an earthy green acrylic paint. I have them in a row on my palate (AKA dinner plate) like this for a reason, but they kind of resemble a slug…

Aw, he’s such a sad little guy.

He’s probably hungry…

That’s better. Back to painting. Sorry about that, sometimes I relapse into insanity.

Using my fave brush ever (a half-inch angled flat brush) grab some of the brown and black paint.

OH MY GOODNESS I HIT A VEIN!!!!!

That was such a mess!

Okay, I’m done with the distractions, I promise.

Get yourself a nice mixture of dark blacky-brown. Don’t mix it to well, nature isn’t only one color 😉

Make a blob on the canvas. (I should probably get a teaching award for this tutorial, just sayin).

Or you can make a blob look like this! No two poppies are the same, plus, you’ll wind up fixing up anything you need to in a later step.

For this sized canvas I just did 3 blobs, AKA poppy centres, and I did them all at once, so I didn’t have to go back and forth thru different colors and washing my brush etc. I am lazy.
Grab some red paint (don’t worry about getting it perfect!!!! How many times do I have to tell you!?!?!) and use small strokes with the same 1/2 inch angled brush to create petals, like-a this:

Notice how I covered up the center?? That’s okay, and that’s why you don’t need to worry about anything being perfect… you’ll eventually get back to it 😉

Next you want to give the petals some different color and a bit of shading.

Just take your same red color, but darken it up with a bit of brown. Pull some of that paint up the petals, making sure to not hit the ends of them. You want to keep the ends pretty red.

Now go back to your blackish- brown color and fix up your center! As you can see, I got my dab on. Dab it good.

WOAH, helloooo flowers! So, as you can see I did my first 3 poppies in the same way as I just explained, but then there is another style of poppy I’ll show ya! It’s the half-opened and sad looking droopy ones. They are super-easy to paint!

I chose to paint one here because ther was a patch on the background that I missed somehow, so I wanted to cover it up! Start with one side,

Then add the next side! Easy peasy.

Just add a few of each type here and there until you are satisfied with your poppy field!

And THAT is where this part of the tutorial ends- We are done the background AND the flowers, so stay tuned for Part Three- The Stems and Paper Plane 🙂

~Dot

 

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How to Paint Poppies (Part One- The Background)

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Busted Button

As soon as I shared this painting I did for my dad in honor of Remembrance Day, (you can see the whole post, along with a story about my Grand Daddy here), I quickly got a handful of requests for a tutorial. Well I wanted to make another similar painting anyways, so here is your tutorial!

Obviously this painting is a lot more detailed than my usual more-fun button trees, but I really wanted to share this so you guys can be inspired and realize that even if you are a new painter you can totally do this! The process took a few steps, and I took A LOT of pictures to make it really clear, so I’m going to be sharing this tutorial in three different parts: The background, the flowers, and the stems/ paper airplane (ya, there’s a paper airplane hiding in there!)

Let’s start with the background!

For the background of this particular painting, I used a combo of white and burnt umber acrylic paint. You can use any shade of brown (or any color at all for that matter) and white. And if you are just starting out, those craft paints that are a buck from Walmart will do just fine!!!

This background (like a lot of my backgrounds) features blending techniques that are pretty basic, but if you want to see a quick video on blending and how to make something go gradually from dark to light, check out this link.

I wish I could make a video for you guys but my voice kind of sounds like a transvestite going through puberty, and when I’m nervous it gets all shaky. Trust me, it would be the kind of video that makes you very uncomfortable LOL!

For this painting I used a 16″x20″ canvas. But you could use pretty much anything… a piece of wood, or a chunk of circle mat board like I did the first time around works just fine.

Begin painting at the bottom of your canvas with the darkest color that you will be using. I didn’t use straight burnt umber, because it would wind up so dark that the poppies and stems wouldn’t show up very well. So I mixed it with some white paint until I got this shade!

I just used a bunch of crazy-person strokes (I’m not an art teacher, sorry about the unprofesh lingo!) like so. Just go back and forth, and up and down, crissy crossy, and even a little swirly. This background should not be perfect.

I made sure to have the dark paint climb up the edges of the canvas, and a few spots in the middle to keep it interesting.

Now get a lighter shade of your color (just add white) and ‘fill in’ the un-painted areas like this:

This is where being quick and not over-thinking it come in really handy. As long as your paint is still wet, you can easily blend the colors together or even cover them up with a different shade if you went too light or too dark.

While you are trying to get rid of any stark contrasts, you still need to just let go and have fun, not aiming for perfection. If your paint is feeling thick or is drying out too quickly, you can try adding a bit of water to thin it out.

It’s getting there!

If you are using a stretched canvas, don’t forget to bring the paint down the sides like this:

That will give it a nice finished look!

Keep adding white and moving up the canvas using the same crazy man strokes and blending as you did before.

You might get to a point where an area you paint looks kind of… plain:


That definitely needs some help and different shades! With this type of background you don’t want to have a big area of one solid color:

Ewy. Thankfully this is easily remedied! Make sure the paint is still wet, and add a small amount of your dark color to your brush:

And get your crazy man strokes on here and there.

That’s better!

Now keep painting up until you have a nice light color at the top of your canvas and you are happy with the background! Note that this background might look different every time, depending on your strokes and mood. Compare it to my original poppy painting:

Totally different, but it’s the same idea, right?

Next, Wash the paint off your table, you lazy slug!

Much nicer. Man, sometimes my messiness during creative endeavors is just embarrassing! I could have so easily put newspaper under my canvas, but I was so eager to get painting! Of course there is a huge amount of work in the end that could have been avoided, but it’s just so obnoxious to have to stop what you’re doing!

Okay, THAT’s yer background!!! I’m using this background for my poppy painting, but you can feel free to do your own thing now! A button tree or silhouette or anything really would look great over this!

Okay, let’s move on to the pretty part- The flowers!!!

~Dot

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Remembrance Day

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Busted Button

I’ve wanted to paint poppies for a while now, and I finally unpacked my painting supplies, (it was a long month without them!) so I figured it was the perfect time to try it! And it happens to be Remembrance Day in a few days too, so this is extra-good timing.  I painted this for my dad: (Can you see the hidden paper plane in the sky? I thought that would be an interesting touch!) I used a big, circle piece of mat board as my canvas and acrylics as my paint of choice. My dad’s dad died in World War II, so I think he will extra-appreciate this painting. Here is a write up about my grandfather and his aircrew that went down on Feb 20 1944: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/raf1944/2/bowenjack.html

He was Pilot 2. It’s so crazy to see how young most of these men were when they made such a huge sacrifice! My Grandfather was only 26 and his wife had just had her second child, my dad,  a few months before- he didn’t even get to meet his new baby! Poppies are one of the prettiest flowers, in my opinion, but sometimes they look so sad. They needed a paper airplane to cheer them up: My lil brudda is just finishing up his basic training right now… and I can’t help but think about what other teenaged boys seem to be doing with their lives. I understand that not everyone feels they should be in the military, but it’s just been crazy to read all these stories about young men who volunteered to do huge things with their lives and gave up so much just so they could help others. It’s a lot different than prestiging in Call of Duty.  So nuts.

I got around to making a 3 part series on how to paint this painting- and I have had a lot of good feedback from you guys! I have seen people who have NEVER painted, creating masterpieces! So try those out here.

UPDATE: Crazy story- After I posted this 2 years ago, I was contacted by someone who was claiming to be a relative, who found me because I had linked the aircrew remembrance society, who in turn added my painting to their memorial page. He saw that I was Clifford’s granddaughter and contacted me, and indeed it was my dad’s long lost cousin! Since then I have been blessed to have been able to connect with amazing relatives I didn’t know existed!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!

I will end this post with my fave Remembrance day quote:

Our battlefields, safe in the keeping

Of Nature’s kind, fostering care,

Are blooming, our heroes are sleeping,

And peace broods perennial there. ~ John H. Jewett

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