DAY 4: SUNFLOWER IN PURPLE

We’re already onto day 4 of our Painting Challenge – welcome!

Today it’s all about joy and we’re painting one of my favorite flowers, the sunflower. Painting with this yellow color will hopefully brighten your day a little bit. Sometimes yellow can feel a bit too intense, which is why I blended it with some brown tones for this sunflower. The center is almost a black charcoal with the pollen starting to appear and you can almost hint the seeds starting to appear.

I’ve painted several large sunflowers over the years, and I grow nearly a 100 of them in my garden. I think the sunflower surpasses all others in terms of its universal power to bring joy to people.

The Painting Practice

Remember to turn off your phone notifications before you start.

  1. Draw a rectangular the size of 8×10 or 4×5 inches on your paper.
  2. While looking at your reference photos as your inspiration, do a simple outline of the flower on your paper. Just a rough sketch will do.
    • Start with the center of the flower.
    • Then draw the center petal first, followed by the other petals. Nothing have to be exact.
  3. Choose your colors: I love the contrast of the bold sunflower with the soft and gentle purple sky. You pick whatever color you want but for this challenge, I encourage you to at least use yellow petals. Add some darker colors for the shaded areas and to add texture to the petals, then add some lighter color (or white) for some highlighting effects.
  4. Grab some water and your brushes, and don’t forget a towel to clean off your wet brush. Clean your brush often!
  5. Now, set a gentle timer* and paint for 20 minutes for some meditative joy and playful painting. We’re going for fun and not perfection.
  6. Claim your creativity and honor your journey of showing up for yourself by signing your art work.

*remember if the timer is bringing you more stress than guidance, skip it and just playfully paint for a little bit.

SHARE YOUR CREATION:

Take a photo of your finished challenge and share in our Facebook Group. How did this challenge feel? Did you enjoy painting with yellow? Does sunflower bring you joy? What colors did you choose and why? Let me know when you share your photo. I can’t wait to see how yours turned out.

If you feel called to continue painting past 20 minutes, please do so and let us know when you share it.

NEXT UP

Tomorrow we’re in for something completely different, but you can’t do this one wrong.