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Greens as bright as those in this painting are only really seen in spring. The painting may look a little complicated, but the leaves are mostly painted in one hit and it's not as tricky as it may look.


Paper of choice, I have used rough paper
size approx 5 x 7"

Colours used

pure yellow
transparent orange
indian yellow
sap green
sepia (just a touch with the sap green to deepen it a little)
paynes grey
ultramarine violet

1
Draw or trace the outline. If you are drawing freehand, make sure the leaves are of differing heights, as two ending at the same point will draw attention to that point and will look a little odd.

2
I haven't masked out the flowers but you may choose to. So long as the paint is wet enough there shouldn't be a problem with background areas drying before you want them to. This wash is a fairly weak one using ultramarine violet at the top, various yellows in the middle and mixes of green at the bottom. Try adding a touch of paynes grey around the leaves to be dark around the bottom Be careful painting around the flowers and leaves. Let dry thoroughly.

3
This is the second, deeper wash for the background. Do the same as in the previous wash but use just a little more paint. Don't worry about run backs where the colours meet each other as this can give a nice effect in floral backgrounds. The greens should get darker as they get to the bottom. Leave to dry.

4
Start on some leaves. Daffodil leaves don't have much detail on them. Why not practice a few on a piece of paper. Some of these had a pale yellow wash, then while it was still wet, a darker green over the top. You can dab in places with paper towel, put drops of water onto wet paint, drop some pure pigment onto wet paint, run a line of thick paint along the leaf....just experiment. Remember, dropping water or paint into wet paint, will disperse the paint and give hard edges to the leaves. I think this has given a nice effect here. If you end up with too many hard edges, wait until the painting is dry then go over the edge with a fine wet brush and dab over with paper towel, this will soften the edge. Make a start on the main daffodil using a dilute wash.

5
Carry on painting the leaves, taking a break to continue with the daffs. Remember the main daff will need the centre to be darker to create the illusion of depth. Though the outer petals of the daffodil are off white, that would look too boring, so add a little colour there too but keep some parts untouched. You will see I have added a random shape just under halfway down on the right, that at a quick glance looks like another daffodil. This was done using the method I will show in the tips section. It doesn't need to look like any particular flower but should be roughly the same basic shape as the flower you are painting.

6
Close up of the background flower shape.

7
We're almost there. To create depth, some of the leaves in the background should be blue/green and the leaves in the front will look fresh and bright if some of them have a transparent yellow glaze painted on top of the green.

8
Just a few finishing touches. I've really deepened the middle of the main daff and put a splodge of orangey yellow top left to help the eye travel up there. The daff top left peeping from behind the leaf doesn't really need much detail in my opinion, but in your painting you may feel that it does....your painting, your choice.

Hope some of you will give this a go.