How To Paint Roses : Tackling a Beautiful Yet Complicated Flower

About Connie Nelson

I have always liked to draw and paint. In elementary school I was known as the “school artist”. Drawing and painting was a blissful and ‘easy’ activity for me.

I was also inspired by my father, who was a sumi painter. Still, I did not see myself an artist until after taking a job as a registered nurse. The toll exacted by the job on my body and soul made me question my purpose in life.

One fateful day, while I was still working as a nurse, I stepped into an art teacher’s studio and took my very first formal art lesson, and I have never looked back. I soon quit my nursing job and began seriously pursuing painting through continuing art lessons, supplemented by various workshops.

I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States, surrounded by water and mountains. It’s an enchanting place to live out an artistic life.

The world is more colorful and interesting since I became an artist; every morning I wake up and wonder what to explore next. It is a wonderful way of life. What a blessing!

Please visit Connie’s Websites to learn more about her and to view her work:

Her Art Instruction Site:

http://www.explore-drawing-and-painting.com

Her Portfolio Site:

http://www.connienelsonart.com

How To Paint Roses : Tackling a Beautiful Yet Complicated Flower

Do you find the thought of learning how to paint roses a bit daunting? All those petals and subtle shades of color! On this page I’ll use a step-by-step oil painting demonstration to show you that the process of how to paint roses is very doable. The same procedure work with acrylics, too.

I took this picture of some roses on a beautiful summer day in my kitchen. I like the soft glow of the roses and the variety of colors. The focal point is obviously the deep red rose in the middle.

My intention here is to create a quick oil study that will convey a sense of spontaneity and freshness. I want to give the viewer an impression, but avoid overworking the canvas,

Let’s started to learn how to paint roses together.

First, I prepare two copies of the main image. In one, I used image processing software to blur the picture. Squinting at a subject is a great way to spot the main shapes and tones, but it gets tiring.

A blurredimage allows me to do the same thing without getting a headache. Once I have the painting blocked in correctly, I find that details are either easier to paint or not necessary.

The second copy is a gray scale version, which helps me see the tones I need to mix for different parts. Tones are a compass that guides the mixing of colors, because everything will be tied together by tonal relationships. If the tones are right, the painting looks unified.

I use a gessoed 6”x 8” (15cm x 20 cm) mat board. I have three bristle filbert brushes (ranging from number 6 to 4) plus a small round number 1 brush for sketching and details.

My color palette consists of 4 water soluble oil colors: cadmium yellow medium, cadmium orange, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue (plus titanium white).

I limit my time to 20 minutes. I find that the less time I have, the less likely I am to fuss around, and the result is a stronger painting. It’s a technique I learned from Craig Nelson.

1) First, using the blurred image, I sketch the composition—editing out the details and smaller shapes. Even with the blurred image, I squint so I can narrow the tones down to just a few. It is important early on to catch the “thrust” (or “gesture”) of the roses. For now, I treat them as cylinders, and only depict the largest dark “crevasses” to indicate where things are going. I don’t dwell on the details.

2) Once the sketch is satisfactory, I use the largest brush to paint the center of interest: the large rose in the middle. The strokes are bold…even a bit sloppy. I mix ultramarine blue into alizarin crimson for the dark tone and adjust it by adding more alizarin crimson for middle tones.

Note that this is the more crucial stage of learning how to paint roses – initial differentiation of large masses with the correct color notes.

3) I continue to cover the large masses with different flat colors. I am still squinting to keep me from getting lost in details. The objective is still to create approximate shapes—an impression of the roses.

4) Returning to the large red rose, I add some vibrant, lighter tones over the initial darker tones. I mix a bit of white, and cadmium orange into alizarin crimson. I am careful about adding the white into the red mixture, because I want to avoid any chalkiness. Still using the big brush, I rough in the full canvas

5) Once the flat tones and large masses are laid down, I start to mix tonal variations to create more depth. I compare the new tones with the previous ones to keep the all-important tonal balance. I add some of the brightest tone to the roses in the background. As you learn how to paint roses, remember that the basic shape of a rose is cylindrical, and lighting will affect them accordingly. Here, the light is coming from the right side.

6) Using my smallest brush for added control, I paint the highlight on the middle rose. Because roses have a velvet-like matte surface, the highlight should be soft—not shiny.

7) The final stage of the painting is edge control. I want to make “soft” edges recede and to sharp edges come forward. Laying down blocks of color with the big brush, as I did earlier, is likely to leave a lot of harsh edges. They may be either where two shapes connect or where planes meet within the same shape. I use a clean brush (or my finger) to soften the edges of the top left rose and also the rose at the top right corner. I also soften the furthest petals of the middle rose to keep the focus on the sharp center of the large rose. Soft and hard edges both have their place in achieving strong visual impact.

8 ) I notice that the red rose in the middle is in danger of being overworked. So I stop.

I often do this kind of small, quick oil study to prepare for larger paintings. It is like a trial run before a long marathon. When Itackle the larger format, I have already practiced the brushstrokes and worked out the composition. It really smooths the process.

There are other benefits to this type of painting. Click here to learn why quick oil/acrylic studies will advance your painting skills.

Practice painting all the roses in front of you. Remember that artists are made, not born. You can learn how to paint roses, too!

Color Mixing Tutorials & Resources For Oil Paints

One of the biggest challenges for artists just starting out with oil painting is mixing colors. Color is a powerful tool. If handled improperly, things can become quite messy. Improperly mixed colors lead to muddy or unbalanced paintings. The good news is, with practice, you will become more skilled at mastering color in your oil paintings. I have collected a number of color mixing tutorials below including links to articles, videos and books. I hope you find these oil painting color mixing resources helpful.

VIDEOS:

How to Mix Colors for Oil Paints

All About Color

How to Mix Oil Paint -- Video Lessons with Hall Groat II




ARTICLES:

How to Make Better Oil Paintings: Tips & Techniques for Correctly Mixing Color

This is a great post from EmptyEasel.com that talks about correctly mixing colors from a limited palette of only 8 colors. Read the rest of this color mixing tutorial here.

Oil Painting Tips Part 2: Mixing Colors to get Brown and Black

Here is another great post from EmptyEasel.com and is a continuation of the post above that demonstrates mixing oil colors to get browns and blacks. Read this lesson here.

Bill Martins’ Guide to Oil Painting -- Mixing Colors

In this post, Bill Martin talks about his full spectrum of oil colors and how he mixes tints of these colors using titanium white. Read this tutorial here.

Color Theory & Mixing -- 16 Lessons in Colour Theory

This is a very thorough 16 part lesson from Wet Canvas covering color theory and color mixing. It covers everything from the history of color to the Psychology of Color. View these lessons here.

Notes on Colour Mixing by Andrew Newland

On the following page, artist Andrew Newland has provided an introduction to the theory of colour mixing.
He has intended this tutorial as a practical guide to the art of mixing oil paints. Also included is a related color mixing excercise to give yousome It is intended as a practical guide to the mixing of paints and has a related Colour mixing exercise. View this lesson and excercise here.

 

BOOKS:

Old Masters Oil Painting Techniques

In this video, Artists Chris Smith and Paul Thomas recreate a painting by an old master on a very large scale. This is a long video, over an hour, so grab your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy this informative and interesting oil painting demonstration. You will learn a great deal about the old masters oil painting techniques in this demonstration. This is an excellent video and do hope you enjoy!

Oil Painting Tutorial – Learn to Paint Like Monet

About Connie Nelson

I have always liked to draw and paint. In elementary school I was known as the “school artist”. Drawing and painting was a blissful and ‘easy’ activity for me.

I was also inspired by my father, who was a sumi painter. Still, I did not see myself an artist until after taking a job as a registered nurse. The toll exacted by the job on my body and soul made me question my purpose in life.

One fateful day, while I was still working as a nurse, I stepped into an art teacher’s studio and took my very first formal art lesson, and I have never looked back. I soon quit my nursing job and began seriously pursuing painting through continuing art lessons, supplemented by various workshops.

I live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest of the United States, surrounded by water and mountains. It’s an enchanting place to live out an artistic life.

The world is more colorful and interesting since I became an artist; every morning I wake up and wonder what to explore next. It is a wonderful way of life. What a blessing!

Please visit Connie’s Websites to learn more about her and to view her work:

Her Art Instruction Site:

http://www.explore-drawing-and-painting.com

Her Portfolio Site:

http://www.connienelsonart.com

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You Can Learn How to Paint Like Monet: His Techniques and Color Mixing Approach

Have you ever wondered how to paint like Monet or wanted to paint like he does?

When you see his works, like the huge water lily paintings in the Orangerie Museum in Paris, you know that he was truly a master colorist.

Those paintings made such an impression on me that to this day I’m still inspired to follow in his footsteps. I want to venture outdoors, see the natural world around me, and paint it the way that he did. It is an invigorating change from the studio painting approach I normally use.

Learning how to paint like Monet is easy. There are three aspects to keep in mind: how he mixed his colors, his technique of applying the paint, and his process for creating paintings.

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First–How to paint like Monet? Learn what’s on his color palette.

Monet started out as a tonalist. He later chose the impressionist approach because he wanted to study the effects of light on the objects around him.

Take a look at his choice of colors to get an idea of what he used for his landscape and still life paintings:

Lead white, chrome yellow, cadmium yellow, viridian green, emerald green, French ultramarine, cobalt blue, madder red, and vermilion.

An impressionist palette to begin with…

You will see some ivory black in his paintings before 1886, but he abandoned it for his later work and used more vibrant colors to mix his grays.

Be aware that lead white is toxic, so use titanium white as a safe alternative.

You can also replace chrome yellow with cadmium yellow light, and use alizarin crimson instead of madder red.

Whatever you do, make sure you have two intense yellows and reds, a vibrant blue, and a green. Once you are familiar with a limited palette, you can gradually add to it.

Many colors have been developed since Monet’s time. You should definitely experiment with them (it’s fun!) but only after you are proficient with a limited palette. You can start with as few as three colors plus white as a reduced palette.

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How to Paint like Monet- Use Broken Colors: Visual Color Mixing

To learn how to paint like Monet, you will need to adopt a technique called “visual mixing.”

Monet did this by, for example, putting a stroke of pure red right next to a stroke of pure yellow. Side by side, the two spots of color produce a rich and vibrant orange.

He also laid in large masses of vibrant color first. Then he would apply strokes of pure colors over them to enrich the original color masses.

As an example, see the chart below for mixing orange.

The first spot on the far left is orange color straight from the tube. The second is a juxtaposition of pure yellow and pure red side by side. The middle spot uses the same yellow laid on top of a wet spot of red.

The fourth is the result of yellow mixed into red using a wet into dry technique (scumbling—painting opaque or semi-opaque colors over dried darker colors). It is almost the same as the third, but more vibrant. The last patch on the far right is the result of directly mixing the red and yellow paint.

You can see that the second, the fourth and the fifth spots are more vibrant and interesting. The colors are not only mixed but seem to vibrate.

Monet mixed his colors using either a wet into wet technique or scumbling (wet color spots on dried layers). Monet would mix a series of secondary colors on the palette, and placed them side by side or, dabbed them all over keeping the color spots separate.

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How to paint like Monet’s- the process.

Although he painted outdoors, Monet did not finish paintings in one session. In fact, many of the canvases were so large he had to hire an assistant to haul them in and out. He said that he brought many canvases outdoors and worked on each one for a short time at the same time of day over several days.

You can imagine how he had very little time to work on a painting each day before the “moment” was gone and he moved on to the next. This approach allowed the paintings to dry a day or two between sessions, which makes scumbling easier.

So if you want to learn how to paint like Monet, keep in mind that you don’t have to finish everything in one session.

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A Demo of how to paint like Monet

To demonstrate all of this, why don’t we take a painting of Monet’s, the “Haystack in Winter,” and recreate it?

“Haystack in Winter” is a charming, simple, and unmistakably Monet painting because of both the subject matter and the brushstrokes. No complicated drawing is needed, which makes it perfect for this demo.

First, I draw the large shapes with a brush, and then cover the large masses to create an underpainting on the white canvas. (I am partial to toning canvases for oil painting, but this is the exception).

I use slightly diluted paint (diluted with some water since I use water soluble oil paints). I use a blue tone for the mountain in the background, and a warm green and yellow in the foreground and on the haystack. I mix some white into the sky to match the value in Monet’s original painting. I then let the layer dry completely.

Once the first layer is dried, I begin to scumble colors all over. Starting from the top, I scumble pale yellow into the lower sky. I mix a pale grayed green into the lower part of the mountain. I  scumble blue into the cast shadow of the haystack. I mix a brown using orange, yellow, and burnt sienna with a bit of blue for the hay stack and the village on the right. I also dab the same warm brown in the foreground.

In the next step, I dry brush the white colors into the ground. I tone the white down with a tiny amount of yellow or blue. I do not want to use the starchy white paint directly from the tube,  because it attracts too much attention. Even when Monet was painting the most vibrant colors, he was still very deliberate in maintaining harmony of color and value.

Here is a close up of the broken color dabs that I used. Notice that I let the underpainting show through. The white paints are thick impasto passages.

I then modify the sky and the mountain by adding more dabs of grayed green and yellow. I continue to scumble white paints over the ground. I keep the dabs separate as much as possible.

I continue using the same scumbling technique to dab more colors onto the canvas. I keep the overall value relationships correct by squinting. Every time I find that I have misjudged the value of a color, I modify it. Even if the colors are interesting and vibrant, they still need to be tied together to make a united whole.

I begin to zero in on small masses and details. I mix some grayed red color for the trees on the middle left.

Almost done….I see in Monet’s original painting that the haystack’s shadow has violet colors on top. I could have added that color immediately, but I am afraid that it might make the shadow look muddy and heavy. So I wait until the whole painting is dry and then I scumble that color over it for an airy and light effect.

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The original haystack painting’s size is 25¾ x 36 3/8 inches (65.4  x 92.3 cm). Monet painted it outdoors. The demo I did is only 6×8 inches.

I could have painted this scene in one session, but with Monet’s broken color technique, I have to wait for each layer to dry until it is tacky or semi-dry so that the colors I scumble or dry brush  over will not disturb the layer underneath.

As a plein aire painter, I know that it is out of question to create a painting the size of Monet’s outdoors in one session.

It’s nice to know that I do not have to make a painting ‘right’ on the first day; I can rework it over many days until it’s finished.

If you want to learn how to paint like Monet, it is best to copy his paintings. That will give you a better understanding of how the process works. It will make you appreciate the optical effects achieved through his techniques and his respect for faithfully catching the natural effects of light.

The revolutionary water soluble oil paints

Oil Painting Tips – Different Methods For Starting an Oil Painting

Oil paint is an exciting medium to work with. One will never become bored while painting with oil paints. There are a variety of materials and other mediums at your fingertips and when you combine these materials and mediums with the versatility of oil paints, you have a variety of interesting ways to begin an oil painting. There are certain drawing and painting mediums that are compatible with oil paints and when utilized, will make your painting experience more interesting and enjoyable.

CHARCOAL

Charcoal works beautifully as a preliminary step to oil painting. There are three main forms of charcoal used most often by artist’s and they are compressed, willow and vine charcoal. Willow and Vine charcoal tend to be more highly favored for preliminary drawings as they leave a lighter mark and are easier to erase. Compressed charcoal, because it leaves a much darker line, is more difficult to remove and not as widely used to start an oil painting. Some helpful tools to use for working with charcoal are kneaded erasers, stiff bristle brushes, blenders and tortillions. Whatever type of charcoal drawing you create, make certain not to go overboard with your application. Charcoal is very forgiving with oil paints, but too much, and it can effect the paint in adverse ways.

PAINTING ON A TONED GROUND

Depending on the type of final picture you are working towards, sometimes the white of the canvas can be too bright or have too much contrast which makes starting a painting rather difficult. Using a uniform toned ground on your support, will make it much easier to judge the values in your painting. You are welcome to use any color you like to tone your canvas. Some of the more popular tones are warm reds, yellow and browns.

Toning your canvas is pretty straight forward and will not require that much time. Here is an example using one of my favorite tones. First create a thin wash using Yellow Ochre and Burn Umber. Apply the wash to your support generously. Use a large bristle brush to spread and cover the support entirely. Allow the wash to dry for a couple of minutes and then wipe off the excess with a cloth. You don’t have to use oils to tone your canvas. You can tone your canvas with any of the water mediums described below.

ACRYLIC PAINT

Acrylic paint is an excellent choice for starting an oil painting and one of my favorites. One of the most attractive features of acrylic paint is its fast drying time. This property of acrylic paint makes blocking in your underpainting very easy. Ideas can be worked out quickly on your canvas and instead of waiting days for your underpainting to dry, you are ready to paint in mere minutes. This really does depend on the type of acrylic paint you are using and how thickly you apply it. Not only is the fast drying time attractive, but as in other water based mediums, there is no need to thin the paint with dangerous substances like turpentine.

WATER SOLUBLE PENCILS

Water soluble pencils provide an excellent way to begin an oil painting mainly because of their versatility. The beauty of this medium is that when dry, it acts like a normal colored pencil, but when water is added, it magically mimics the properties of water color. This enables the artist to both draw detailed lines as well as create colorful washes.

WATER SOLUBLE OIL PAINT

Many artists are not that familiar with this last medium as its a relative newcomer to the world of painting. Enter, water soluble oil paint. With normal oil paints, a traditional method for starting a painting is by diluting the oil paint with turpentine to apply washes. The problem with turpentine is its a very dangerous substance. Many artists develop allergic reactions to this substance and are unable to use it. The beauty of water soluble oil paints is that no turpentine or other harmful substances are needed. They can be thinned with plain old water. Water soluble oil paints behave just like normal oil paints and your brushes can be cleaned with soap and water, again, avoiding the need to use harsh chemicals.

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