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The Easiest Way to Paint a Sunflower!

This is a simple yet dramatically beautiful sunflower painting in acrylics. Beginner friendly and great for a paint party at home. Paint an easy sunflower on canvas, rustic wood, or anything you can think of. I made this sunflower painting easy, even for very-beginning painters.

Simple sunflower paintings are so fun because you can complete them in a short amount of time with just a few colors!

large sunflower painted in acrylics on a black backbround

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Paint Supplies

The majority of the colors used in the painting lesson are in this set, I wrote a post all about the best paint for beginner painters that I recommend and why.

Plaid Folk Art Paint and Donna Dewberry Brushes

  • Daffodil Yellow
  • Cinnamon
  • Licorice Black
  • Burnt Umber
  • Pure Orange
  • Coffee Bean
  • 3/4 Flat
  • 3/4 Scruffy

Draw a Sunflower to Paint

Use anything you have to trace a circle. I used a flower pot. You can use a plate, can, or a pot as I did.

using an upside down flower pot to draw a circle

If you prefer, you can print the PDF pattern available below at the end of this post.

Don’t want to join the Exclusive Content Club? That is fine, here is the PDF printable workbook and pattern here for $5.

Next sketch in some petal shapes with a watercolor pencil or you can transfer the design from the traceable pattern available.

Not sure how to transfer patterns effectively? I show you here, Transfer Painting Patterns.

using a watercolor pencil to draw sunflower petals on white canvas

Paint the Petals

Using the 3/4″ brush and Daffodil Yellow paint on the front petals.

painting sunflower petals with yellow paint on white canvas

Just fill in and enjoy the process.

Add a Touch of Cinnamon

Every now and then add a touch of Cinnamon paint to the very corner of the brush and pull it along the outside edge of a petal to add definition.

painting details on edge of sunflower petals for dimension

Blend a touch of Pure Orange at the base of the petals around the center. (this is optional, you will notice I did not do this all the way around but you could)

adding orange acrylic paint to yellow sunflower petals to add some shading and interest

Paint Back Petals

Paint in the back petals with Daffodil Yellow and use the size brush that suits you. I used the 3/4″ brush.

With the Cinnamon on the corner add some shadow where the back petal emerges from behind the front petal.

Adding second layer of sunflower petals to sunflower painting in acrylics on white canvas

Highlight Sunflower Petal Edges

Clean your brush and load with Daffodil Yellow. Run the chisel edge along different petal edges to create a spark of brightness to.

Do this in a hit-and-miss fashion. (the video below will help you see exactly how it was done)

Adding highlights to sunflower petal edges with bright yellow acrylic paint

Paint Sunflower Center

Use the 3/4″ flat brush and Coffee Bean to paint the center. Paint the strokes to follow the circle

paint center of sunflower a light brown color

Paint Black Background

While letting the center dry load your clean brush with Licorice black and paint in the background.

Paint carefully and take your time getting around the petal shapes.

Don’t forget to paint the edges of your canvas.

Paint white canvas of sunflower background black with acrylic paint

Finishing the Center

Using a 3/4″ scruffy brush, load it with Coffee Bean and a touch of Licorice Black. Paint the very center circle.

Wipe the brush clean, it won’t be perfectly clean but get as much paint out as you can without wetting the brush.

add mixture of browns and black to center of sunflower with a scruffy brush for textural effect

Load the Burnt Umber and pounce on the paint color outside of the inner circle.

Don’t make it opaque, leave some of the Coffee Bean color showing through. Let the edge bristles overlap on the petals to create the textured effect.

Add a touch of Daffodil to one edge and pounce the bit of highlight as you see in the photo.

yellow sunflower with dark brown center painted on a black background

Once your painting is completely dry add a couple of coats of varnish to make the colors really pop and protect it.

Wasn’t this Sunflower painting easy?

Do you love painting flowers? Here are lots more for you!

Ready for the video? Here you go…

Don’t want to join the Exclusive Content Club? That is fine, here is the PDF printable workbook and pattern here for $5.

For the free traceable pattern to download and print, sign in or sign up for a free account. This also gives you access to other exclusive downloads available on this site!

Large Sunflower Downloadable PDF Pattern

grab it here

Sunflower Traceable Pattern

Just press the button to grab the free printable pattern to transfer to your surface of choice to get started painting a big, beautiful Sunflower today!

Sunflower Painting Easy Supply List

large sunflower painted in acrylics on a black backbround

Supply list to paint a Sunflower Painting easy!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Active Time 30 minutes
Additional Time 10 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Difficulty Easy

Materials

  • Paint Supplies - Plaid FolkArt Acrylic Paint
  • Daffodil Yellow
  • Burnt Umber
  • Coffee Bean
  • Cinnamon
  • Pure Orange
  • Licorice Black

Tools

  • Donna Dewberry Brush set
  • 3/4" flat
  • 3/4 scruffy brush

Instructions

  1. See blog post for step by step instructions
  2. Or see video

Notes

You can use whatever paint colors you have that are similar

Please enjoy and share!

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