Sunday 1 March 2015

Step By Step: Australian Banksia Flower

An artist on the forum asked about methods to paint this flower:

It's called a 'Banksia' and is an Australian wild flower.

The artist had concerns about painting it fast because it is a very detailed looking plant, so I gave it my best shot trying out two different methods. All colors used are TAG brand.

Method Number 1
I painted the flower in color blocks to start, and then added detail over top. Pretty basic. It was about 7 steps in all using 1 #4 round brush. (there are 10 photos in the image just to show the progress, but it was only 7 steps).


1. Used Berry Wine mixed with a little red for the top of the flower
2. Orange for the bottom
3. Started to layer some white flicks starting from the top, and flicking up. Layered like scales.
4. Top part finished
5. Yellow flicks, random pattern, making X's and such,
6. Finished bottom. Also adding in some light white flicks for more depth.
7. Laid down the base of the leaves.
8. Mixing a bit of white into my brush I made some of them more pale for color variety and depth.
9. Added white pale lines to the leaves
10. Finished it off with a brown stem

Estimated painting time: 2.5-3 minutes

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Method Number 2
This method was about 5 steps over all using 2 brushes.

1. Using a flat #10 brush, shown here loaded with berry wine/red mix, and white.
2.  I used a one stroke method using just the edge of my brush for the upper flower part, starting at the top and working my way down. Much faster.
3. Used the same technique for the bottom using white and yellow/orange.
4. Switched to a #4 round for the leaves, and double loaded in in my one stroke green, with dark and light green. Then added white lines.
5. Finished off with a stem.

Estimated painting time: 2 minutes

Over all I think I would combine a few of the methods used,. Method 2 using one stroke for the flower, and Method 1 for the leaves as I like the pale green better. Perhaps if time permits even touch up with some more detailed flicks on the flower using a #4 round.

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