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How To Paint Lilacs with Q-Tips & Acrylic Paint

 Love lilacs? Grab your Q-tips and dollar store supplies because today we’re making a fun and easy Lilac painting thats perfect for all skill levels.

Lilac Painting With Q-Tips

Lilacs are one of the easiest flowers to paint with acrylics. It gets even easier (and fun!) with Q-tips. This painting can be done by all skill levels even beginners and kids & teens.

The key to painting the Lilac flower is it’s iconic shape. The shape of a lilac flower kind of reminds me of corn on the cob. It’s wider at the base and then slowly tapers to a narrower top. However, the top of the lilac flower is rounded and not pointy. Also, there a hundreds of individual flowers that make up each lilac bunch so painting it with a Q-tip helps keep it super simple and perfect for beginner artists.

Yield: 1

How to paint lilac flowers with acrylic paints

How to paint lilac flowers with acrylic paints

Learn how to paint lilacs in this easy step by step tutorial with acrylic paints.

Active Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour
Difficulty Beginner
Estimated Cost FREE

Materials

  • 9x12 canvas
  • White acrylic craft paint
  • Black acrylic craft paint
  • dark purple acrylic craft paint
  • light purple /lavender
  • green acrylic craft paint
  • light blue paint
  • Yellow paint
  • Q-tips
  • 3/4" flat brush (for the background)
  • Small detailing brush (round) size 1

Instructions

    1. Follow the Youtube video tutorial here.
    2. Take a little bit of black paint on your wide flat brush and use these back and forth strokes to apply it right at the bottom of our canvas. Then pick up some white paint without cleaning off my brush blend it right into that black to lighten the black as we go up that canvas. Pick up a little bit of lavender and white on your brush at the same time. Apply this pale lavender color all the way to the top of the canvas. Let background dry
    3. Next we're going to paint stems with some green paint and a thin brush. Make 8-10 stems clustered in the bottom right corner. Wait for this layer to dry.
    4. Paint the outline of your glass jar with black paint and your detailing brush. You can also download the free traceable to make it easier to paint. FREE download is below. Wait for this layer to dry.
    5. Grab a bunch of q-tips (in a group of 3-4). Dip them in dark purple paint and start dabbing the shape of a lilac flower on one of the stems. The shape of a lilac flower reminds me of a corn on the cob. It's wider at the base and thinner at the top. The top is rounded (not pointy). Repeat this on the other stems. Leave 2-4 stems without flowers (we will use them for leaves and greenery in the final steps) You can also grab a single Q-tip to get more control (especially at the top of the flowers). Don't wait for this layer to dry.
    6. Now grab some light purple/lavender and pink on your bunch of q-tips and dab some highlights on each lilac flower. To make it easier, imagine the sun shining down from above. That's where the highlights should go. Leave the other side of the flower with the dark purple (which will be the shadows).
    7. Without letting layer before dry, grab a single Q-tip and dip it in white paint and dab some white highlights ontop of the lavender/pink highlights. Dab the white sparingly. You want the original dark purple, and pink/purple layer to still show through in the end.
    8. Use your detailing brush and some green paint to paint in some green leaves and greenerie. You can add leaves of any shape and size. You can also use different shades of green to add depth and dimension.
    9. Add details to the glass jar. Paint a heart with black paint and detailing brush to give your jar a decorative look. Then use light blue paint as accents next to the black outline of the jar, since glass has a natural blue tinge to it. Then repeat the same thing with the white paint as the highlight on the glass.
    10. Paint in a beautiful honey bee buzzing near the lilac using black and yellow paint. Also paint in a "buzz" line which shows the path the bee took. You can also trace in the shape of a heart to give it an extra special loving vibe.



Did you make this project?

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FREE Lilac Painting Stencil Printable

You can print the free stencil below and transfer it to your canvas to make it easier to make this lilac painting. Just right click and select “save” on the image below to save it to your computer. Then print it on standard

If you liked this lilac painting tutorial please share on Pinterest

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