Now for the fun part—let’s paint!

STEP 1: I have chosen to begin this mural with the birds of paradise. They compose a large section of this mural and I’m going to use the leaves and dramatic shapes of this exotic South African flower to ground this piece.

The image on the left shows my first approach. I am using the gesture of this wildly exotic flower to build a sense of energy on the canvas. Gesture is the essence of a shape. My brush and experience allow me to quickly capture the first shapes of this flower. You can see how large these flowers are compared to my palate.

STEP 2: I am now going to begin adding color and depth to the main ‘body’ of the bird of paradise flowers. I happen to know from experience that these flowers come in many color combinations. I like to choose colors that inspire me and I’ve chosen to begin with some magenta toned down with soft mixing white along the top part of the flower. The bottom parts of the flower have blues, greens and purples. Large tropical leaves will be painted where the flowers abruptly cut out of the scene. You can see that the first leaf is already in progress in the lower right.

To be more specific, the paint that I prefer to use is Windsor & Newton and I mostly stick to the Artist Series, which is the professional division of this paint brand. I like their colors and have been familiar with their color palate from my decades as a watercolor painter. The colors that I am using are: Sap Green, Windsor Violet, Indian Yellow, Permanent Magenta, Cobalt Blue and Soft Mixing White (which falls under the Winton brand).

STEP 3: The leaves can be painted with large brushes. Sap Green and Soft Mixing White are the primary colors that I am using. You can also see that I’ve filled in and softly blended the main colors of my flowers. I am using the small brush for detailing the lines in the leaves. I’ve paid careful attention to natural highlights in the leaves. The highlights and the shapes give my leaves a natural three-dimensional feeling. I am not a fan of flat looking tropical leaves that are often seen in murals with tropical flowers. I like my leaves to be large and flowing.

The central vein of this particular leaf tends to be a soft greenish or yellowish color though I have seen these leaves have veins of red and magenta as well. The outer edges can have yellow, orange and burn umber colors. All of this adds character. Because this is a very large painting I am making the decision to capture the general feeling of these flowers first. At a later point I will come in and add detailing and extra color to the leaves and flowers. Such details will include super bright highlights as well as dark lines where the leaves are burned by the sun. 

This image shows the progress of the first section of this painting. To the beginners out there: I’ve been painting seriously for over 20 years and am quite fast because this is what I do full-time. My natural style of painting allows me to capture the essence of objects pretty well within the fist sitting. When this section is dry I will return for additional layering of color and detail.