How to paint coneflowers in acrylics

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I love painting coneflowers, also known as echinacea. I grow them in my garden and every year, they’re an inspiration for a painting. I painted a loose acrylic painting of three coneflowers, and you can follow along with me.

I snapped a few photos on my phone so I would have images to help develop the composition. Then, I uploaded those photos into an image viewing app that lets me see several photos at once on my iPad. I use VizRef, and keep the photos open on my iPad so I can keep referencing the images as I paint.

For this painting, I gessoed and then toned a 5×5 birch panel, then added a layer of matte medium. The matte medium allows me to sketch out the flowers using a white charcoal pencil. I used artist quality acrylic paints because I find they work better than student grade paints. If you just have student grade acrylics, feel free to use them but expect that you may need to do additional layers.

Follow along with me as I paint coneflowers in acrylics on my YouTube channel.