WILSON: Let's get up close and personal with this Macro Sunflower project.

Join me next on Painting with Wilson Bickford and I'll show you how easy it really is.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] Hi, thanks for joining me today.

I'm Wilson Bickford and I'm going to show you a fantastic little sunflower painting today.

This is something out of my norm you probably don't see me do too often.

I do paint florals but I really do a lot of landscapes, old barns and animals, that sort of thing but I do paint flowers occasionally.

This is one that I've done in my workshops in the past.

It's a very popular one with my students.

I call it Macro Sunflower.

It's a very zoomed in, close view of the sunflower.

We're getting up close and personal with it a little bit.

Here's one that I've done on a stretch canvas.

It's a wrap canvas and sometimes I take it around the border.

This particular one isn't but sometimes I will paint the scene right around the edge of the border.

It's a very three-dimensional when you hang it on the wall.

This is actually one from my class and here's one I did with a painting knife, just a much looser representation of a sunflower, very whimsical, kind of fanciful but it's fun.

This one I painted the edges.

It's on a wrapped canvas so just to give you different ideas.

This is also one that I did with a painting knife.

It's a close-up of a poppy.

It's like you're right up close to it and very tight.

You can look right in to the flower, so just different ideas to give you some inspiration on how to do some of these.

This one today I've got a small 8 x 10 panel that I put a sketch on.

You will be able to download your own sketch and supply list from the WPBS website and there's directions here.

It says to lay it in the bottom corner of an 8 x 10 panel and trace your design on it.

It'll put the image on your canvas.

Once it was drawn on there, I took some black acrylic gesso and I just carefully cut in all the way around the flower.

It'll be to your best interest to have a paper towel that's damp.

If you get it on the flower, just blot it off quickly but touch it up.

Do a nice job on the background painting because that's going to count.

Neatness counts.

Take your time and just kind of get that filled in there.

From here we're going to just put some glazes on top of that, and in the interest of this particular approach, here's another one I've done.

This is one that I do in my classes.

I just call it simply Red Rose Bud and it starts the same way.

We put an image on there and we paint it with the black and we just add glazes to bring out the flower.

The glazes make the color really rich and make it really three-dimensional and very deep-looking, very lustrous.

That's why I like oils.

For paints today, I'm going to be using Cadmium Yellow Pale, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Cerulean Blue, Ivory Black, Titanium White, and I have a little bit of an alkyd-based, clear glazing medium here I'm going to put on the whole canvas.

This is primarily going to consist of just transparent glazes on here.

That's why the colors of the yellows are so luminous.

As far as tools go, I'm going to be using a two-inch scenery brush just to apply the glaze to the whole canvas.

I'll be using my number 10 flat brush for kind of filling in the petals and whatnot.

I also have the small flat brush if I need it to get in to a tighter area where it takes a smaller brush.

By all means use it.

I probably won't need that one but you never know.

I have my number 6 round brush which is going to be good for stippling in the texture on the button in the middle of the flower here.

I have my mop brush for softening the glazes together.

I have a fan brush, too just in case I need it.

Sometimes you need something a little more aggressive to get in there and blend.

I have that and I also have a liner brush if I need it to get in to some of the real finer points, if I need it so I'm going to take my two-inch scenery brush, and I'm going to take some of this clear glazing medium.

I'm going to put a thin coat over the whole canvas.

Now your graphite lines might smear just a bit, so try to go over those a little lighter, not as much pressure so you scrub them away completely.

The nice part is you always have your reference sketch to go by if you need it.

This just lubricates the canvas and makes it a little slick and slippery.

Notice how it also darkens the background and deepens the black gesso.

It gives it a really deep, dark, black finish so now the whole canvas is wet.

Now see, my lines started to dissolve a little bit.

You can always come back at this point with a pencil and restate those a little bit.

Do it lightly and use a hard lead pencil, not an everyday, run of the mill Number 2 pencil.

I got one little spot there I got to get better.

There we go.

I'm going to start applying glazes.

I'm going to start with some of the cad yellow.

A glaze is nothing more than a transparent wash of color so I want it very thin.

This is very similar to working with watercolors.

Watercolorists always say their color is luminous because the white of the paper shows through because their glazes are transparent.

It's the same with this.

See basically, I'm just going to put on a thin wash of yellow, and I want to stay in those ends of the petals fairly tightly.

Down in here I can just put it on in a broader fashion.

See how rich that yellow is, how bright and luminous it really is?

It's because it's transparent.

The light bounces off the white canvas underneath.

Light goes through the layer of paint and reflects back off that white, and it does give it a different look, rather than painting it with opaque paint that has white mixed with it and painting over a black background and sometimes I do paintings like that.

Now see, I went outside my border there a little bit.

I'll just wipe that off, not a big deal but when you're painting at home take your time.

You don't have to rush.

Once I get this glaze in place, then it'll be wet, and I can add the darker tones in towards the center of the flower.

This part here's a little tedious because we just have to cut in everywhere.

Once this initial step is done, we won't be working out to the edges much, and we don't have to be so critical with it.

This is a nice painting to even start out with, even if you've never painted.

Like I said, you have the sketch laid out for you.

You get that image on your canvas and get the black painted around it.

That's the hard part really.

That's the most finicky part.

Everything else is just going to be filling this in and coloring it somewhat, so don't be afraid to give it a try.

I know you can do it.

Now see, a few of my lines here dissolve but I can look at this as my guide, and I still have the sketch over here that I transferred if I need it.

More than anything, I'd like to clean up these edges a little bit.

I don't know if it's showing on camera.

You can see where the yellow went over the black just a little bit.

If I take this clean, dry number 6 flat brush, I can simply just rub that right off.

It comes right off the black, so anything that you do that you think is going to be a mistake can be fixed quite easily.

From there I'm going to start adding some of the Yellow Ochre and I'll add it right in to this same little puddle of the yellow I had.

This is a deeper, darker yellow.

Eventually, I'm going to come back with a little bit of Sienna in here as well.

Through the center of these petals, I'm going to do this.

I'm pulling through the middle out.

This flower is recessed in the middle so you get deeper shadows and shading in here closer to the button.

I call this the button of the flower, the center of the flower.

It's not really a button I guess but it's round like a button, isn't it?

So I pull this up and see already, this is coming right to life already.

I'm going to take my mop brush and I'm going to pull this out and let it feather away as it goes down the length of the petal, and each time I go a little darker with this, it's going to enhance the depth and the shading on the flower.

I build it up a little richer each time.

I'm going to take more Ochre, a little bit of Sienna this time which is kind of leaning more towards an orange, and I'm going to come in like this and see, the mop brush is really helpful for blending these out and fading them in and again, I'm looking at this one to get the general idea.

You can find your own photos of flowers to work from obviously.

You might have a different pose, different angle.

Just paint it the way you see it.

It's basically all painting is.

If you look at something you just duplicate what you see, how you see it and it'll come out the way you want, looking like it should, for what you're trying to mimic because all we're trying to do is just mimic nature on a canvas.

That's all we're doing.

It's coming together pretty easily, isn't it?

See, painting doesn't have to be difficult.

Some of the best paintings in the world were the easiest ones to execute.

Now there is some shading around on these, so I'm going to tighten up a little bit.

I can see the edge of this leading petal here in the front is a little lighter, so I'm going to put dark behind it which that one forward so you want to pay attention to your reference material, whether it's this painting of mine that you're looking at or you've got your own photos that you're working from.

Like I said, duplicate what you see and how you see it.

I put the shadows where they need to go and I put the highlights where they're supposed to go and everything will come out accordingly.

This one's a little darker in behind here because it's set back in, so I'm going to put a little more darkness in there.

See, it doesn't really take much for this to start pulling together.

Looking pretty good already, isn't it?

I think so.

Falling right together, falling right off my brush as they say.

Now I am going to come back and put a few little opaque highlights on here which means I'm going to add white to some of the yellow.

It won't be the clear glaze anymore.

It'll be opaque and it will cover.

I'm mainly going to target the edges of some of the petals and on the ends of the petals.

To do that, I'm going to have to rinse this brush out.

I have some odorless mineral spirits right here.

I'm going to swish that around, clean it out and dry it off.

If I take white and Cadmium Yellow Pale, a lighter value than I've already got here, so I have the glaze here so I can compare it right next to that on my palette and just make sure I'm getting a little bit lighter than what I had previously.

Then I know it's going to work and if I come up here and I try it and it doesn't work, it just means I may need to make an adjustment.

It's not a mistake.

It's an adjustment so I'm just going to load this up here and see what I get and I'll check it.

I'm going to start like this.

I'm going to pull inward and as I pull inward, I'm going to pull away.

See, that can stand to be just a whisker lighter so I'm going to add a little more white to this color.

I don't want it too white and too chalky but the fact is, it'll pick up some of that glaze that's on there so it won't stay pure white.

It'll be a very light, pale yellow.

See how it gives it that little bit of extra light?

Notice I have a little bit of an issue here.

I can't tell where that one's overlapping that one so I can do a couple of things.

I'll try the light first to bring it in the front and that definitely helped.

It probably helped more so to even put a little bit of shading in behind it, so I will come back and re-glaze that one in behind and just differentiate these edges a little more.

That's why I said, you want to paint what you see.

You're going to have a photograph there to work from, or you could just look at live flowers, whatever your reference is.

Just duplicate it the way you see it.

Put the lights where the lights go.

Put the darks where the darks go and make sure everything separates, so I'm going to pull this in like this.

Notice how that little bit of light is really enhancing these petals, bringing them out.

I got a little touch right here where I went over the line.

I'm going to scrub that away with this number 6 flat brush, pretty easy to get rid of, so anything like that that you do, you can touch those edges up very simply and it's starting to fall together pretty nicely.

Be aware of your graphite lines.

Anywhere your graphite lines are showing up, you might want to cover those with something a little opaque like this just to hide them a little more.

It's always a good idea and remember, you always have your mop brush to blend some of these edges in.

I'm going to swish this brush out and come back with a little bit more of that darker glaze that I had.

That'll be back to a transparent phase, where I was just using opaque color right there because it had white in it.

I'm going to take Burnt Sienna, a little speck of black, just darken this down a little bit, a little bit of this medium to loosen it up, make it flow a little easier.

Like I said, some of these have lost their distinction, so I'm going to come with a darker shadow around it and put it on the one behind and see how it pulls this one forward.

Once you outline it like that, you have to work it in so it doesn't look like we just put it on there.

If that's too much brush, you can use the small number 6 flat.

This is a softer bristle, smaller size.

It's easier to get in there actually.

See how it makes that petal stand out.

I've lost a little bit of the distinction in here, too so this is with the same idea.

I'm just going to put a little bit of extra dark in there.

You just want everything to separate nicely.

The only way to do that is to just constantly keep adjusting it, light against dark, dark against light, then just checking it out and see what you got.

You got to scrutinize it and analyze it and see what you got going.

That's looking pretty good.

I'll put a little bit extra in here to cause a little separation down here.

We're getting close to the edge here, not quite as critical but still, I want those petals to look like they're continuing around.

This is looking pretty good.

I think I need a little touch more of the dark right in here and right in here as shadow behind those front petals and see, I'm just making adjustments as I go.

I keep looking at it and whatever's not standing out, I make sure it stands out, either by putting shadow behind it or light on the element that's in front and see how that brings that right together?

It's pretty easy really.

You just got to look at it with a close eye and really scrutinize what you've got going on.

That's looking pretty good.

Now you can adjust that accordingly for however long it takes.

You won't be in a rush for that.

[MUSIC] If you'd like to add some little wrinkles and folds within your petals, it's an easy process.

Just use a darker value of what you had down here for the rusty, shadowed color.

Roll it on your liner brush with some thinner, and you can create these little folds and lines running up the length of the petal which do add a lot of dimension and more detail.

You come back with your mop brush and just lightly feather them out the length of the petal and that's it.

I'm going to take my number 6 round brush and I'm going to fill in.

Actually, I'm going to start with this one I think would be easier.

It takes in a bigger footprint.

I'm going to texturize it with the round brush.

I'm going to use the flat right now.

I'm going to put some colors in to this button area.

I'm going to start with Burnt Sienna.

That looks very orangey I know but I'm going to put other colors into that.

I want it a little rougher on the edge of the petals, so you'll notice I'm just tapping with the corner of the brush.

I'm not carving a smooth line.

Notice the light.

Whatever light's coming in to this painting is hitting this side, so we know the light's coming from this side, so when we highlight that, that will influence what we do there.

I want it darker and deeper in the middle like an opening, like there's a recess there in that center so let's see, the canvas down here is dry, except for the glaze so whatever color I put down here pretty much stays the tone that I want.

I'm going to take some Ivory Black into that Burnt Sienna and in the middle, I want to put a much darker tone, not necessarily maybe pure black but it's going to be really dark.

I can see the sienna in it.

It's not pure black but it's a first cousin to black I guess I would say and see, it doesn't take a heavy application but if I tap it, it looks pebbly, rather than smoothing it on, painting like you normally would, so I just soften it around the parameter.

You always have your mop brush, too.

We're going to end up putting some pebbly texture in to the center of this flower as well.

I want that a little bit darker, so I'm going to put a little bit of extra dark value in there.

See how it makes it look deep?

Then just soften it around the perimeter a little bit and like I said, always soften it in with your mop brush a little bit.

I don't want a hard ring there.

It should just slowly curve inward so it's going to be a gradual transition from the light to the dark, so you don't want a hard ring of that dark around there.

It's looking pretty good.

It's coming right to life.

I'm going to go back to my number 6 round brush.

I'm going to put a pebbly texture on here.

I'm going to start with white, a little bit of the yellow, Cad Yellow Pale, maybe a little bit of the Yellow Ochre, a lighter value yellow and if I come in and just pounce.

Now you're going to pick up some of that under-paint so you'll notice I reload quite often because I'm picking up that Burnt Sienna color underneath as I'm doing it.

This one is a little bit darker.

It looks like I might have put just a touch of the black with that sienna when I put it on.

This one's a little more orangey, which doesn't bother me because a lot of times these sunflowers have that orange color in them so it looks fine.

Again, that's your own judgment, your own call.

Use a color that you like.

As it goes into the middle, it goes kind of in the shadow and becomes less visible, so I'm going to use a lighter touch.

See, as it wraps in to that center, I let it become more obscure and just kind of disappear.

Now having gone in to that dark area, I picked up a lot of the black from the center so wipe the brush off.

As it comes around the shadowed side, I want a cooler tone, so I put Cerulean Blue over there.

Now I've got yellow in the brush so I got to swish this out really quick because otherwise I would get green, and I don't want necessarily green in there.

I'm going to take white, a little bit of the Cerulean Blue.

Now this is a pretty bold blue and I'm not afraid to use it.

I paint for color.

I love color and I'm not afraid to push the envelope of color a little bit.

If this is too blue for you, put a little speck of black with it.

When I want something that's cooler, to me the blue just sets that off.

With all the warm yellow tones, now we're getting something in there that's a cooler tone and so you just want to texturize it with all those little dabs.

Little sunflower centers are very pebbly and have that texture within them, so we're just trying to duplicate that, but the same as before on this side, I want it just to kind of slowly melt into the center and start to disappear so I wipe the brush off.

I use less paint and you'll see that it looks like it just folds over and goes in to that recessed area.

I want to lose the edge.

At this point, I kind of stop and look at it, and I make sure everything's kind of standing out the way I want it to.

I think I need a little more distinction in here against that button, from the button to the petals so I can lighten that up a little more.

I'm going to swish the blue out of my brush.

I'm going to come back with some more of that yellowy color that I had for the button.

I'll lighten it a little bit.

It was white, Cad Yellow Pale and a touch of ochre.

I'm going to use the same mixture but more white and Cad Yellow this time.

I'm going to see what I get, make sure it's bright enough.

I'm going to thin that down just a whisker, so it sticks to my canvas a little easier.

I just want that edge to be discernable against the petals so it brings it out, so it looks like the sunlight's hitting this side right here.

See how that brings that forward?

This is going to bring us to a wrap.

I really enjoyed bringing you this project.

I hope you guys liked it.

It's something different for you.

Don't be afraid to try it out and zoom in close on a flower and give it a shot.

I'd love to see what you do with it, so send me some photos on Facebook or through my email.

Until next time, stay creative and keep painting.

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