How to Paint Flowers in Acrylic on Canvas

Acrylic paint is beautiful and easy to work with making it a top choice by artists. Flowers are a common subject matter painted by artists. Learning how to paint acrylic flowers on canvas can be a daunting task. It’s important to learn the proper techniques to ensure your flowers come out beautiful.

1. Choose paint colors that are complementary opposites such as blue and orange, yellow and purple or red and green.


2. Create a still life flower arrangement with a coordinating vase.


3. Sketch the flowers onto your canvas.  Do not draw in the details right now, just the general shapes.  You will be painting over this later on.


4. Put a drop of each of the colors you will be using on your palette.


5. Use your dominant color on a bristle brush to paint the first flower.


6. Paint the flowers with a consistent brush stroke.  A crosshatched stroke will work best here.  To create such a stroke, paint a stroke in one direction then cross back over it in the opposite direction with your brush.


7. Mix some white paint with your dominant color.  Use this to paint some contrasting areas on your flowers.


8. Incorporate the complementary color into your painting.  You can choose to paint either one flower or a small group of flowers in this color.  Do this in an area that will catch your eye first as you look at the picture.


9. Paint the vase with crosshatch strokes in the color of your choice.


10. Create an imaginary source of light.  If this is coming from the left, then the right side of your vase should be darker.


11. Add some green to create leaves.  This should be done sparingly. Continue to add elements and details until you are satisfied with the painting.