Celebrate spring and the lovely flowers blooming on our local trails with a fun, mixed media art project inspired by modernist artist Georgia O’Keefe’s enlarged flower paintings. This project guides artists through the process of creating a California native Tidy Tip bloom, however, you can make your favorite local bloom using the same materials.
Materials:
– white medium-weight paper
– black crayon or oil pastel
– paper plate to mix paint
– medium paint brush
– acrylic or tempera paint (white, yellow, brown, green)
Step 1: Draw a circle
Draw a large circle in the middle of your paper with your black crayon. You can use a bowl or cup to trace if you’d like.
Step 2: Petal placement
Make small dots around your circle to decide where the petals will go.
Step 3: Draw the petals
Using the dots from step 2 as a guide, draw lines to create the petals ensuring that they run off the page.
Step 4: Choose colors
You can choose any colors. For this example, we will use white and yellow to create a Tidy Tip bloom, brown for the flower center and green for the grass and leaves.
Step 5: Paint the petals
Paint a petal white, then while the paint is still wet add yellow working from the base of the petal outward making sure to leave some white at the ends to create the Tidy Tip. Continue to paint each petal similarly without cleaning off your brush.
Step 6: Paint the center of the flower
Use brown or dark yellow paint, for the center of your flower.
Step 7: Paint the background
Now clean your brush and select your background color. For this example, we will use green.
Step 8: Retrace your petals
Let paint dry. Retrace your petals with a crayon to make them stand out. Trace the center of your flower with a squiggly line to add texture.
Step 9: Add finishing touches
Add yellow dots to the center of your flower (pistil) to create the effect of the Tidy Tip. You can create veins on your flower with a yellow crayon.
What other California wildflowers can you be inspired by?
Created by Andrea Minobe
