Using Vincent van Gogh’s sunflowers as inspiration, make a small impasto sunflower painting of your own.
You will need:
• 6" X 6" canvas board • Acrylic paint (cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, light blue)
• Small flat paintbrush (about 1/4" wide) • Medium flat paintbrush (about 1/2" wide) • Plastic or foam plate • Water and paint rag • Copy of one of Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings for inspiration
Print a picture of a completed sunflower painting to show your artists. Post on your bulletin board to create interest in the activity.
Introduction:
As described on blog.vangoghgallery.com, impasto is a painting term that refers to the use of thickly textured, undiluted paint that appears three-dimensional on the canvas with visible brush strokes. When the painting is viewed from the side, globs of paint can be seen sticking out from the canvas. The Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh was a pioneer in using the impasto technique. He used impasto to add dimension as well as emotion and movement. While in France in 1888, Van Gogh made a series of still-life sunflower paintings using the impasto technique. Using his Three Sunflowers in a Vase painting as inspiration, paint a small close-up of a sunflower using the impasto Three Sunflowers in a Vase technique. ActivityConnection.com – Impasto Sunflower Painting 1 Directions:
1. Like Van Gogh did, start your painting by applying a thin wash of burnt sienna to the canvas. Water Center of down a small amount of the paint, Flower making it like watercolor paint. Use the 1/2" brush to quickly brush it on over the entire canvas.
2. Using a little thicker paint, loosely Leaf block out shapes for the flower, starting with a circle about 3" wide for the center. Add some strokes for Stem the petals and block out a stem and Leaf Steps 1 & 2 a hint of two leaves.
Step 3 Steps 4, 5, and 6
3. Loosely apply yellow ochre to the center of the flower with the 1/2" brush. Add a ring of cadmium yellow on top of the ochre. Remember to use thick dabs of cadmium yellow paint for the impasto effect.
4. Apply thick dabs of burnt sienna, creating an outer ring and an inner ring.
5. Mix blue and yellow together to make green. Add dabs of green paint to the flower’s center and around the outer ring.
6. Loosely block in the stem and leaves with green paint. Remember that this will be an expressionist painting, so apply your paint expressively—quickly and without great precision.
ActivityConnection.com – Impasto Sunflower Painting 2 Step 7 Steps 8 and 9
7. Using the 1/4" brush, add small dabs of raw umber to the center of the flower, creating the illusion of seeds. Apply a few strokes of the umber to the stem as well.
8. With the 1/2" brush, paint the background blue.
9. Paint the petals with the yellow ochre color, using a thick application of paint.
Steps 11 and 12 Step 10
10. Use the 1/2" brush to create long petals in cadmium yellow. Allow some of the ochre to blend into the brighter yellow. Notice the thickness of the paint in the photos above.
11. Create more depth by adding dabs of burnt sienna around the outside edge of the flower’s center and a few streaks along the petals using the 1/4" brush.
12. Finish by layering shorter strokes of thick cadmium yellow, allowing some burnt sienna to streak and blend with the yellow.
ActivityConnection.com – Impasto Sunflower Painting 3
Three Sunflowers in a Vase Vincent van Gogh
ActivityConnection.com – Impasto Sunflower Painting 4
Impasto Sunflower Painting
ActivityConnection.com – Impasto Sunflower Painting 5