Get ready to dive into a world of vibrant blues and delicate petals as we learn how to paint a charming cornflower! Cornflowers are one of my favorite filler flowers to use in large compositions. They add a fun burst of texture and visual interest in large bouquets. Can you spot them in this painting? (Hint: they’re the cute blue ones!)
I taught over 7,000 artists how to paint this during one of my Watercolor Week floral painting bootcamps. This is one of my favorite weeks of the year where I teach a full week of in-depth watercolor lessons to an amazing community of artists. Join my email list to be the first to know when the next Watercolor Week is happening!
Now let’s dive into the cornflower painting tutorial!
Supplies
Clean Water
Paper Towels
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Painting the Cornflower
In this tutorial, I will show you two different ways that I like to paint cornflowers. The first one is easier to grasp for watercolor beginners so it will be a great place to start.
Before we dive in, here is a reference image of cornflowers so that you know what you’re painting. Cornflowers have layered spiky petals, usually with three to five prongs on them.
Cornflower Painting Technique #1
Start by painting a blue circle for the center of the flower. Then paint a long, slender petal stemming from the center.
Continue to paint petal by petal until the entire flower is filled out. Leave some whitespace in between each one, but most of them can be touching. This first layer is the background of the flower. We’ll be painting more petals on top of it once it’s dry. When you are finished filling it in, it should look like a blue firework.
After letting the first layer dry, grab more pigment on your brush and start adding additional, darker petals. Make sure to keep some variation in the spiky petal edges and fill in the center of the flower with dots of darker pigment.
Cornflower Painting Technique #2
For this technique, we’ll be starting by painting the petals before filling in the center.
But first, guidelines! With pencil, lightly draw a small circle for the center of the flower with a larger circle on the outside. This should look like a donut. These pencil lines will help give you a guide for where to place the petals.
Starting from the inner circle, paint a petal shape with water. Make sure the spiky edges of the petal hit near the edge of the outer circle.
Then drop some blue pigment into the petal and watch the paint bloom through the water.
Fill out the rest of the petal by pushing the paint up and away from the center.
I love this technique because each petal is like its own mini painting. It’s so relaxing to focus on one at a time!
Another way to make your petals look more realistic and interesting is by adding highlights. You can do this by drying your brush off on a paper towel and using the damp brush to soak up excess pigment from your paper.
Continue to paint petal after petal as you go around the circle. Cornflowers’ petals are layered and close together, so you want to make sure there is not too much space between each one.
After you’re done painting those beautifully pointed petals, add some blue paint to your brush and fill in the inner circle.
Next, it is time to add dimension through shading. In this example, I painted the petals on the bottom right with more pigment so they would look like they are in shadow. The petals on the top left part of the flower are lighter as if they’re in the sunlight.
We want the center of the flower to reflect that too. Add a shadow to the center of the flower while it’s still wet by loading up your brush with a darker blue pigment and painting a C-shape near the darker petals.
Cornflowers have a lot of petals, so you’ll want to continue to paint petals on top once the initial layer has dried. Play with using different amounts of pigment so that your painting has some natural variation to it.
To finish the cornflower, add details in the center by painting short brushstrokes with dark blue or purple paint.
Finally, grab some green paint and add a stem and leaves to your painting. You can create the long, slender leaves by starting with light pressure, then pushing the belly of the brush down with heavy pressure, and coming up to the tip of the brush to finish off the tip of the leaf.
And there you have it!
A beautiful wildflower that might just become your new favorite filler flower. The best part? It also looks so beautiful as a standalone painting!
I hope you enjoyed this cornflower tutorial and I’d love to see what you paint! Share your finished paintings in my Free Watercolor Facebook Group so I can see what you make!
Happy painting,
Alex
