FLORAL PAINTING TUTORIAL "MY HEART REMEMBERS," ARTISTS HELPING ARTISTS

It's no secret that I love to paint flowers!  This time, my focus was on the little pitcher that, for as long as I can remember, housed my stepfather's toothbrush. It wasn't bone china or anything valuable, but it was his and I miss him.

floral-oil-painting-tutorial-merrill-weber

Step 1, I used my handy dandy View Catcher to select what I was going to paint from my still life setup.  I purchased my View Catcher HERE

floral-oil-painting-tutorial-merrill-weber

Step 2 brings the ugly stage. Think: chrysalis. I began by covering the entire surface (canvas, in this case, although sometimes Gessobord) with transparent oil paint. I generally use a color that relates to the local color of what I am depicting. I do this even in the areas that will end up light, despite the fact that the transparent oils are dark.

THESE ARE THE TRANSPARENT COLORS ON MY PALETTE:

  • Indian Yellow
  • Purple Dioxazine
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Sap Green
  • Permanent Rose
  • Magenta
  • Transparent Red Medium (Rembrandt)
  • Caribbean Blue (Old Holland)
  • Transparent Oxide Orange (Rembrandt)
  • Transparent Oxide Brown (Rembrandt)
floral-oil-painting-tutorial-merrill-weber

Step 3, I used what’s called a Kemper wipe out tool to make a quick sketch of my still life setup in the first pass of wet oil paint. I often use this same tool to sign my paintings while they’re still wet.  I bought mine HERE. Sometimes I sketch in the wet paint, and other times I just add big blocks of opaque paint and skip this step. Try both methods and see which one speaks to you.

floral-oil-painting-tutorial-merrill-weber

Lastly, I added opaque and transparent oil paint, working from dark to light. With big brushes, I added big blocks of color, reducing the size of my brushes with each pass. Since my light source was to my left, I used warmer tones on the left side. I added detail to the pitcher, as that's the highlight of this painting. 

Here's a peek at my palette:


floral-oil-painting-tutorial-merrill-weber
 
I hope you enjoyed sharing my painting process. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to post them below.

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