Just Paint It: Hearts & Flowers–Easy Painting Project

Don’t get me wrong, I like pink. I do! I even painted a pink cupcake and a pink teddy bear.

But I’m not really a frilly, lacey, pink kind-a-gal. So I decided to paint one more Valentine’s Day project, but not pink.

I used 6 paint colors, although you could mix white into a darker green to make the light green, and the same with purple.

I used a liner brush, a #6 flat and a #10 flat. But, hey, you can use almost any kind of brush, as long as you’re comfortable with it.

With Raw Sienna, paint little stems on either side of the 3 hearts.

With a liner brush, paint Light Purple and make a bunch of little hearts.

Okay, so they don’t have to be hearts. They could be little dots, like forget-me-nots, or some other little flower.

Basecoat the side hearts with the same Light Purple.

Then the main heart with medium Green. I also added little green ‘leaves’ on the vines.

I thought at this point I’d be done. But, uh, no. Too plain. Too boring. It needed . . . something.

This often happens to me when I haven’t sketched anything out fully. I get stuck and don’t know what to do next.

Out comes Secret Weapon #1. You already know how I love this stuff, so I won’t go on and on again.

But I will tell you this – usually I tell students to load their brush with medium, and then pick up some paint, and then work the brush back and forth on the plate to blend the two together. But there’s another way to ‘float’ (apply a shading of paint).

With a clean brush, apply the medium where you want to float the paint. In this case, on the outer edges of the hearts. Then pick up some paint – just on a corner of your brush – and paint over the medium.

You have to work in small sections, but it actually does work.

I’ll also tell you this – I googled videos for “How to Float”. Nothing. Nada. Bupkus. Well, there were some swimming videos, but nothing to do with paint.

So, yes, that tells me somebody needs to make one. For floating paint, not swimming. Yeah, I put it on my now pages-long ‘To-Do’ list. I’ll get to it in March.

Of 2013.

Here’s the simple float on the edges.

But that was still boring.

So I stippled (paint-speak for pouncing motion) deep purple with medium on to the heart.

I thought I was done, again. But still too boring. That big green heart in the center.

What to do, what to do???

Morning glories. Really, really, really simple morning glories.

Since this wasn’t part of the original plan, I had to basecoat them with White on the Green heart.

Basecoat the blossoms with Light Purple.

Goop (not paint-speak) a Dark Purple oval in the center.

Spread the goop outward, almost to the edges.

Cover the blossoms with Light Purple to blend the colors. Basecoat the vine and leaves with light Green.

I could call it quits here. Better than before, I think. But still . . . it needs, well, something else.

Time for Secret Weapon #2 . . .

Have I told you lately how much I LOVE my colored Sharpies? Well, I do!

You can’t believe how much you’d use them, even if you don’t paint. They are fabulous!

A little brown on the vine, some green squigglies (again, not paint-speak) and a quick outline around the hearts.

Some dark green on the leaves and vine and some purple on the blossoms.

Now . . . isn’t that much, much better? Now it looks ‘finished’.

It was easy-peasy, lemon-squeezie too. You don’t even need a pattern.

{But if you want one, I’ll post it on Scribd.}

Hey, speaking of Scribd, my account got hi-jacked! I went on one day and everything was gone. Like 15 painting tutorials and a collection of feng shui charts. Gone!

So, if you are on Scribd, would you do me a favor and follow me? I lost all my followers, too. They’re checking into it, but so far, no luck. I uploaded most of my tutorials again, but I haven’t tagged them yet.

Note to Self: write descriptions and tags and file them in 2nd file for safe-keeping.

So, let’s say you paint this simple Hearts & Flowers painting. What would you do with it?

How about make your own greeting card? Super simple on Zazzle.

Hearts & Flowers Greeting Card by MuralMaker
make your own greeting cards online with zazzle