you can confidently do a daisy painting with oils, it's easy and fun - try it

  • Today we will be doing an easy daisy painting with oil paints.

Learn professional painting tips and speed up your art journey. Oil paints were the favorite medium of the Old Masters. Oils produced an undeniable richness to their classic paintings.

Daisies come in a variety of bright cheerful colors. We will be painting five white daisies.

Odd numbers make the viewers feel more comfortable. Any number like 3, 5 or 7 is fine for your painting.

You may want to add a butterfly or a bee to give your painting added interest.

How to do a Daisy Painting with oil paints by artist by Carol MayLet's Paint Daisies

what do you need for your daisy painting?

Get your supplies together for your painting.

all you need is 5 colors

Modern oil paints are easy to use. Unlike the Old Masters we don't have to make them. We just head out to the paint store for these classic paints.

  • Winsor Yellow
  • Burnt Sienna
  • Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson
  • Thalo Blue or Ultramarine Blue
  • Viridian or Sap Green

Naturally you will need white for the white daisies. Titanium white is the best.

This painting is done with Griffin alkyd paints made by Winsor & Newton.

Alkyds are the modern 'oil paints'. They handle and look just like the classic oil paints, except they dry overnight.

what do you paint on?

A gallery-wrap canvas is great because you may continue the painting around the sides of the canvas. Then the finished painting may be displayed without a frame. How awesome is that!

This painting is on a 11x14 gallery-wrapped canvas.

how to paint a daisy

Sketch the daisies on the canvas with an ordinary graphite pencil or thinned yellow paint.

paint the background

Start painting the background around the daisiesStart painting the background

Start painting the dark background colors around the white flowers.

  • A variation of colors in the background gives added interest to your daisy painting.

Use your blue, plus blue mixed with Permanent Rose to create a purple.

There will be warm yellow in the flower petals. So purple (the compliment of yellow) will make the white flowers stand out and come forward from the background.

paint the petals

Paint some background color on the base of the daisy petalsPaint the base of the petals
  • Use the background color (either blue or purple) at the base of each petal where it attaches to the center of the flower.
  • Mix some white with the background color and paint the middle section of each petal.
  • Mix white with a bit of yellow. Paint it on the ends of the petals and pull it back into the middle section color.

Softly blend the yellow-tinted paint into the middle color, so there is no definite line from one color to the next color.

indicate the light source

Paint the background darker around the focal daisyContinue painting the background
  • Add some yellow into the top left background to indicate the light source.

Paint the background on the top right side somewhat lighter.

Make the background darker around the center daisy.

The high contrast around the center daisy will draw the eye into the painting.

What are more ways to create a focal point?

Softly blend the background colors.

paint the daisy buttons

Paint the daisy buttons dark at the base and highlight with orange and yellowPaint the daisy buttons
  • Put the dark color on the bottom edge of each center button.

Mix the dark with Thalo Blue, Permanent Rose and Burnt Sienna. The dark color on the bottom of the buttons indicates shadow and gives them contour and form.

  • Paint burnt sienna on the center of the buttons.
  • Paint yellow on the top of the buttons facing the light source.

When you do a daisy painting, there is generally a dark indentation in the center of each button.

paint dark to light

Paint the background before the white daisy petals Work dark to light in oil paintingsWork dark to light
  • Oil painting is done from dark to light, the reverse of watercolor.

Continue painting each daisy and its background.

It works best to do the background first. Then paint the white petals out over the background.

If the flowers are painted before the background, you are taking a chance of pulling the white off of the petals into the dark background.

Notice the bottom left flower overlaps the center flower to set it farther back into the painting. The petals on the left flower are a warm white. The flower behind has cooler, greyer petals to set it behind.

What is the theory behind mixing and using paint colors?

stems and leaves

Suggest some stems and leaves on the daisiesSuggest some stems and leaves

Continue with each daisy, painting the background around it before you paint the daisy.

Use the corresponding background color at the base of each petal.

Paint the button after the petals. Add a shadow on the underside and highlights on the top of the button.

  • Suggest some stems and leaves with your green.

Notice the side of the stems and tops of the leaves are lighter toward the sunlight.

It's your choice, how many leaves and stems are in your daisy painting.

get a fresh look at your painting

Turn the paintings upside down to check for any glaring errorsLook at your painting upside-down
  • Looking at your painting upside down will give you a fresh look at the composition, values and color movement.

Make any adjustments that catch your eye.

I decided to make the lower right corner and the center bottom darker to help ground the painting and keep it from floating.

I also lighted the purple and blue background above the two left flowers to soften the painting a bit.

What a delightful daisy painting!

Finished oil painting of daisies - Try it!You Can Do It!

5 easy steps for painting daisies

1. Assemble your materials and sketch the daisies on the canvas.

2. Paint the dark background before the white flowers.

3. Paint the petals with the background colors in the shadowed areas and highlight the sun-kissed areas with a warm white.

4. Paint the center buttons from dark to light to show their contour.

5. Paint the leaves and stems as you desire.


enjoy painting the daisy flowers!

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