How to Paint Hyacinths

I am beyond excited this morning! It’s no secret that I use and love Plaid paints. Or that I adore little (and big!) doggies. But to have my clay pot painting tutorial featured by Plaidie Laddie on Paint Me Plaid is just too cool!

If you haven’t been to Paint Me Plaid, go check them out. They have a ton of fun & EASY paint ideas! (Including mine!)

Okay, are you ready to paint some hyacinths? It’s the perfect painting project for this weekend, especially if you’re still being drenched with rain/snow like we are.

My inspiration for this painting tutorial came from one of my all-time fav blogs, The Pioneer Woman.

Isn’t this photo gorgeous?!? Now, I totally get that most people can look at flowers, or even take pictures of flowers, and take full enjoyment from that.

I’m not most people. When I see a beautiful flower or a photo of beautiful hyacinths, I have to try and paint them.

I’ll admit, this was a bit challenging. I could still be working on them. But I wanted to create a painting tutorial that you could complete in an hour or two.

I used seven FolkArt paint colors:

• Medium Blue
• Lavender
• Hydrangea Blue
• Ballet Pink
• Hauser Green Medium
• Sap Green
• Fresh Foliage

You could get away with fewer colors, but I think you’d lose some of the richness of color in the hyacinths.

Here’s the line art pattern, inspired by Ree’s photo, which I took a little artistic license with. (I was tempted to add Kitty Kitty into the painting, but I restrained myself.)

First, paint the hyacinth leaves with Hauser Green Medium.

Then add some depth with Sap Green. A little on the wide part of the leaves and then some where the leaves curl over.

See how some shading on the curl adds to the realism?

With Fresh Foliage, add a quick wash over the entire leaf.

Now for the stems – I used Real Brown.

Then add some Hauser Green Medium to one side on each of the stems.

It’s a subtle thing, but it does make a difference in your painting.

Next, I used Medium Blue for the first layer of blossoms. Just little ‘funnels’. And I did it fast. Really fast.

Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to duplicate each and every little floret (blossom). You’ll be painting for days. (Of course, sometimes that’s a fun thing.)

If you’re gonna get that detailed, you might as well just take a photo.

On the fuller stem, slap on some Medium Blue, leaving a little bit of the stem to peek thru.

Then slap a little more on the other side, finishing with some ‘funnels’.

Now, Lavender. Don’t freak out here. It might look a little blotchy, but we’ll fix it in a minute. Paint Lavender from the outside of the floret and move inward towards the stem.

Still with me? Good!

On the fuller stem, do the same thing, but go ahead and paint some Lavender star-like strokes closer to the stem – not just on the outside of the stem.

Make sense?

Now, this will pull it all together. With Hydrangea Blue, go over all the Medium Blue & Lavender.

To add some ‘centers’ to a few florets, just dot Real Brown into a few areas.

As a final touch, take Ballet Pink and just highlight here and there with it.

Simple, huh? Now . . . think about this one . . . you could ‘plant’ these hyacinths into the clay pot!

Really! Not sure how to do it? Okay, I’ll do a tutorial over the weekend. It’s easy-peasy! You’ll love it!

You’ll be able to make all sorts of fun paint projects for, lessee, uh . . . Easter? or Mother’s Day?