How to Paint a Flower in a Vase? There are probably a thousand tutorials and guides on how to do it. In this article, you’ll see how I painted my own daffodil in a terracotta vase – step by step, image by image.
For this painting, I used a pre-stretched canvas with a weight of around 330 g/m² and measuring 40 x 40 cm. It’s mounted on a sturdy pine stretcher frame, which I ordered custom-made from the online store Artikon.cz. The canvas is primed with four layers of gesso, so you can start painting right away. As usual, I first apply a base color, which I like to let peek through in a few places in the final piece. My favorite color for this step is pink.
In the second step, I used colors that would peek out from the background behind the daffodil, together with the pink base layer.
I also used a few simple pink and blue colored pencils.
Next up: the table. I chose a gray color because I thought it would make an interesting color combination with the terracotta vase. I added just a touch of black to the white paint to create the right shade.
I used acrylic paint from the brand Renesans, specifically Colours S15 Natural Sienna. I mixed it with a bit of yellow and red to make it a little brighter and livelier. I deliberately didn’t cover the entire area, leaving some spots to peek through.
In the next stage, I worked on the background. As a base, I used white paint with a touch of pink and yellow. Then I added a bit more pink, and to suggest the shadows behind the daffodil, I mixed in a drop of violet – which I had left over from previous painting sessions.
I painted the daffodil in a minimalist way. After all, for me, the main subject of the painting is the vase.
I love using mixed media in my work, so for the final strokes, I used a charcoal pencil and an ordinary graphite pencil I bought from Flying Tiger Copenhagen.
And the result? See for yourself.
Simona