Painting a Floral Arrangement
Sponge stamp petals and brush on stems for a still-life art project for beginners!
Jun 19, 2006
This project is for the person who thinks they can't paint. The truth is you can not only paint, you can paint a beautiful floral arrangement. Just follow along and you will amaze yourself.
Materials Needed:
- Paint brushes (I will describe below what to look for)
- package of sponges (the cheap kind with lots of holes in them)
- canvas or canvas board primed (8x10 to practice; you can always go larger later)
- paint - blue, violet, yellow, green, black, white, and red. Pick the shades you like but try to keep in mind the colors you see in nature.
- scissors
- black permanent marker
- poster board - one sheet
- an old plate or disposable food container for palette
As for brushes, you can go with an inexpensive variety pack or pick up a 3/4" flat brush and the smallest brush you can find.
Prep work: Using the poster board, you are going to cut triangles. The base and the height of the triangles is as follows:
- Base 6" Height 5"
- Base 3" Height 6"
- Base 4" Height 2"
- Base 5" Height 4"
Now take the sponges and cut them as follows:
- teardrop shape 3/4" wide by 2" long
- teardrop shape 1/2" wide by 2" long
- teardrop shape 1/2" wide by 1" long
- teardrop shape 1/4" wide by 1 1/2" long
- leaf shape 2" long by 1" wide
- leaf shape 1" long by 1/2" wide
- leaf shape 1 1/2 " long by 3/4" wide
Now you are ready to paint!
Take your largest triangle and lay it on the canvas. You do not ever want anything dead center or straight up and down. Always shift the triangle off center in either direction and cock it left or right. Just be sure to keep the points of the triangle on the canvas. At each point, using your marker, put a dot. Lift off the triangle.
You are ready to begin your first flowers. These are also going to be the larger flowers. Look through the sponge teardrops you made earlier and choose any of the larger ones. Pour some paint onto the plate or other paint surface and dab your sponge into the paint. At your first dot imagine there is a dime on the center that you cannot paint on. Now using the dot as the center of your flower, sponge stamp petals all the way around the dot.
Now add a little white to the paint and mix well. Once more sponge stamp petals in the same flower, moving them in slightly stamp between the previous petals. Don't worry if you start going into the center. You can add another color besides white. Try adding a little yellow to red or red to blue.
You can continue to add as many layers as you like. Do not try to fill in the holes the sponge creates. These are part of the charm. Allow to dry before adding the next flower.
Then take your next triangle and next sponge size and continue working the same way. Repeat this procedure for each of the triangles using different sizes of sponge each time.
For the center of the flower, cut small circular shapes from the scrap sponge about 1/8th of an inch across or smaller. Using your black paint, stamp dots in the center of your flower. You can even tint the black first to add an interesting shade.
For your leaves, first using your small brush paint small random branches or vines. Then add leaves with your sponges and larger brush making sure they overlap the flowers occasionally.
Before you know it you will have your very own masterpiece. Move over, Michelango.
Copyright 2006, Mary Welling-Bonney & Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright."
