How to paint a peony in acrylic › The Weekend Beckons

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Peonies are one of my favourite flowers. They are a large, multi-layered riot of petals, especially the double-flowering versions. I am fortunate to have several peony shrubs in my front yard and love when they bloom. Unfortunately, their blooming season is very short. Today, I’ll share how to capture their essence in a beautiful, loose acrylic painting so you can enjoy their beauty all year long.

Supplies you’ll need to paint a peony

Acrylic paint. I’m using artist-quality paints but you could also use student-grade.
- Quinacridone red
- Cadmium-free red medium
- Cadmium-free yellow medium
- Ultramarine blue
- Titanium white
Brushes
- Size 8 flat Princeton Aspen brush
8×8” canvas. I’m using a canvas panel.
Paint palette
Water for rinsing your brush

How to paint a peony

Painting a peony in acrylic takes a few steps. They are very doable, even for beginners, as long as you paint them in a loose, expressive style.

I recommend you watch me paint a peony on my YouTube channel so you can see the brush strokes in action and get more details on each step.

Step 1:

Take quinacridone rose and paint out the general shape of the peony. Think of a peony as a ball shape. If the flower is a bit older, it’ll also have some petals draping downwards. Add a bit of purple to your quin rose to create a darker areas for the base of your petals, and add white to the quin rose for the outer petal area.

Step 2:

Layers, layers, layers! Acrylic paint is made for layering. Continue to add layers to your petals. Remember that the outer layers generally get the most light and the inner petals get the least.

Think of each petal as a C-shape. Sometimes they’re small, kind of flat Cs, and other times they are big, dramatic Cs, especially near the bottom where peony petals completely open up and drape downwards.

Don’t try to paint each individual petal – with this style of painting, you want to capture the energy of the peony rather than all the details. The exact colour isn’t necessarily important. The peonies in my garden are either dark magenta or a pale, pale pink. I like to add in some mid-tones and colours other than pink too, like red or blue.

Step 3:

Add your final highlights to the petals. Do not add highlights to every petal. Only add them to a few that would be catching the light. Choose an area that you’d like as the focal point of the painting, and that will be where you add your highlights. You can build up your highlights using very, very pale pink until you add some pure white.

Don’t forget the darks! Add some darker shades to the bases of the petals. The combination of light lights and dark darks are what give a painting depth.

That’s it – you’re done your peony painting! Now hang it in your home and enjoy the beauty of a springtime garden all year long.

Get your own

Pick up supplies for a similar painting at your local art supply store or on Amazon:

Canada