How to paint echinacea in mixed media

Equipment

Colours

Benzimidazolone yellow light

Benzimidazolone yellow medium

Quinacridone magenta

Light magenta

Quinacridone burnt orange

Light violet

Dioxazine purple

Phthalo blue

Prussian blue

Cadmium red light

Cadmium yellow dark

Painting coneflowers

Echinacea Medley, mixed media, (45.5x56cm)

Soraya French shows how to paint the intense, lush colours of echinacea using acrylics and mixed media to bring them to vibrant life.

Echinacea purpurea

One of my favourite herbaceous flowering plants, the beautiful Echinacea purpurea. This is a truly eye-catching perennial flower from the daisy family of plants.

My first introduction to Echinacea purpurea or purple coneflower was as a health supplement, as it is mostly known for its medicinal properties, but it is also a stunningly showy ornamental plant that can grace the flower border for quite a long season of flowering.

Echinacea are native to north America but have been popular in Europe for many years now, both as decorative plants and as a health supplement.

It is an easy plant to grow and known to be tough as nails; it can endure all sorts of weather conditions and brings a banquet of intense, lush colour to the garden.

Flower shape

Echinacea Field, mixed media, (54x71cm)

Above is a quick sketchy impression of a field of Echinacea. I enhanced the centres of the flowers by applying some clear granular gel to suggest their bumpy surfaces.

The most commonly known coneflower has droopy purple petals that radiate from a strong cone-shaped centre and strong, sturdy stems, which make it ideal to bring indoors as a cut flower.

As with other plants from the daisy family it thrives in a sunny position in the garden and its rather untidy clumps with their uneven stem height provide a perfect ready-made composition.

There are many varieties available nowadays, some have thinner, more spikey petals, and not all varieties have droopy petals. Colours range from creamy white to yellow, orange, magenta and a few different shades of purple, all known, however, as purple coneflower.

For me, the purple form of Echinacea purpurea remains the favourite. Its classic shape and the wonderful dark burnt orange centre with hints of lighter orange at the tip make a dream combination for painting.

The added effect of sunlight shining on and through the petals of the stunning blooms and the glistening orange centres all make for inspiring subject matter.

You can further enhance the beautifully rich centres by adding texture material such as Golden clear granular gel or glass bead gel.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT GOLDEN MEDIUMS HERE

Observation

As ever, observation is key to finding nuances of colour that help the subject come to life.

Try to see the variations in colour that you need to use, rather than applying an even pink-purple for every petal.

Local colour can be seen in a few places, balanced with shadow colour and highlights.

Composition

The sturdy and robust stems make this flower suitable for inclusion in still-life paintings as cut flowers, but I love them in their natural habitat in the garden, glowing in the sunshine.

Uneven size blooms and different height stems will help create a composition with variety that is not dull and boring.

Fading flower heads against more in-focus ones brings recession and interest to the composition. Balance is the key word here.

Demonstration: Echinacea Medley

For this painting I recycled a water board prepared with a few layers of Golden white gesso.

I used Golden Heavy Body acrylics (colours shown above) for their brilliance, to bring the subject to life, and added highlights with Sennelier oil and soft pastels.

ORDER YOUR GOLDEN HEAVY BODY ACRYLICS HERE

Sennelier soft pastels:

Brilliant blue
Vivid green

ORDER HERE

Sennelier oil pastels:

Teal
Light violet blue

ORDER HERE

Applying gesso with a rough brush can leave interesting marks behind that show through the subsequent layers, here I applied three layers of gesso to my water board.

Using a water-soluble wax crayon lightly outlined the flower heads.

Choose a medley of different flower colours to show variation and choice, as well as the variety of shadows.

Begin by applying benzimidazolone yellow light and medium to some of the yellow flower heads as well as the negative spaces around the flowers for future abstracted foliage.

Content continues after advertisements

Add medium magenta to the purple flower heads as well as a few random marks in the background for future balance.

Then add light violet blue to the shadow side of the white flowers as well as in the background and also apply cadmium orange to the centre of the yellow and purple flowers.

Top Tip

In the absence of cadmium orange you can always mix a vivid orange with an orange-biased red, such as cadmium red light, and add a warm yellow into the mixture for a bright orange.

Start to add darker yellow to some of the petals of the yellow flowers and medium magenta to the purple flowers.

Don't attempt to make these marks as perfectly-shaped petals, as this stage of the painting is still about blocking in the shapes and colours.

Mix a grey from cadmium red, phthalo blue and white to block in the shadow side of the white flowers and add this on top of the earlier light violet blue.

Top Tip

While working onto the positive shape of the flowers, pay attention to the negative spaces around them. These shapes need to work together for the painting to be successful.

Start to add the darker tones – darker values add depth and structure to a painting.

Going around the flower heads with phthalo blue will make the blooms came forward.

Introduce some Prussian blue to create more natural green hues in the background.

Top Tip

I chose phthalo blue as I love the sweet undertone of this strong and beautiful cool blue. I also brought in Prussian for its versatility and for making more natural green hues in the background.

There are times when we don’t need the most vibrant colour, and I didn’t want the greens to be too vivid. Notice how the components of the subject have started to gel and the painting looks less disjointed.

At this stage start to add more definition to the flower heads and their centres whilst also paying close attention to the negative shapes around them.

Use bright blue and light magenta soft pastels and turquoise and royal blue oil pastels to blend and smudge some of the colours to create some out-of-focus shapes in the background, which helps to create recession.

Apply quinacridone burnt orange heavy body acrylic to the base of the cone-shaped centres and started to go around the petals.

Top Tip

Keep things loose and free rather than rigid and detailed.

The finished painting

Echinacea Medley, mixed media, (45.5x56cm)

Paint the darker yellow petals of the yellow coneflowers with a mix of cadmium yellow dark and a touch of cadmium red light, then add titanium white to benzimidazolone yellow light to bring in the petals lit up by sunlight.

Repeat this process for all the yellow flowers. Then add darker magenta to the shadow side of the purple flowers and mix titanium white with the magenta for the highlights.

Add some light violet to some of the petals of the purple flowers.

Add the highlights to the white blooms with titanium white and apply highlights to the orange centres with light orange.

Apply vivid lime green mixed from benzimidazolone yellow light and a touch of phthalo blue with a card to suggest some of the stems for the flowers: these vertical lines stop them looking as though they are floating.

Use a bright green pastel for some of the stems.

Continue with dabs and dashes of pastels to create a more interesting background.

To find out more about Soraya visit her website, www.sorayafrench.com

Unlock a wider world of advice, expertise, news and exclusive offers specifically tailored to your passion for painting with our inspirational Painters Online emails today.

Sometimes we may include links to online retailers, from which we might receive a commission if you make a purchase. Affiliate links do not influence editorial coverage and will only be used when covering relevant products.

How to paint echinacea in mixed media

Equipment

Colours

Painting coneflowers

Echinacea purpurea

Flower shape

Observation

Composition

Demonstration: Echinacea Medley

Sennelier soft pastels:

Sennelier oil pastels:

Top Tip

Top Tip

Top Tip

Top Tip

The finished painting

Associated Articles and Videos

How to paint a Spritsail Barge on the Orwell

How to paint a still life with dried poppies

British Plein Air Painters’ top tips for painting outdoors

How to paint a still life with grapefruit and pears

Drawing the natural world in pen and ink

How to paint a floral still life

How to paint a white chicken

Comments