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How to Paint Texas Bluebonnets

Texas Bluebonnets cover Texas fields with a blanket of blue in Spring.  Learn to paint these beautiful flowers and create your own Spring anytime.

How to paint Texas Bluebonnets in acrylics was a special request from a reader and I am so happy she asked.  This was so fun for me to do and I hope you all enjoy it too!

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

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A supply list is available at the end of this post. The size of brushes can vary depending what size you are painting. I used a #6 or #8 filbert and a #12 flat in this lesson.

Paint Stems and Leaves

I am using watercolor paper for this demo so sometimes my brush dragged.  Start with a flat brush double loaded with your greens on the chisel edge.

Start on the chisel edge of the brush and pull up a line to create the main stem.

Make smaller chisel edge strokes for the side shoots.  No need to be perfect, you will cover much of these with the bluebonnets. 

(for a complete tutorial on learn basic painting brush strokes and double loading click here)

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

Paint Texas Bluebonnet Blossoms

Load your filbert brush with the Ink Spot dark blue paint.  Using a reference photo or drawing start adding your buds to the stems.  To create the bud shape you press, twist and drag your bristles to a point towards the stem.  (see video at end of post)

Fill in more buds as needed.  Remember, less is more, so start with a few, step back look at your flower and add where needed.  Adding is easy, subtracting is more difficult.

Remember, no two flowers look the same so embrace diversity in your flower painting.

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

Keeping adding petals until you like it, but don’t do too many!

Adding more detail

Rinse your filbert brush clean.  Load it with Wicker White. 

With the side of the brush add white strokes to your blue buds and at the top.  Here I had put a background of green so the white top would show up.  Make the white tip a bit more conical than I show here, to get it truer to a bluebonnet.

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

Paint Bluebonnet Leaves

Bluebonnet leaves are star shaped.  Using brush of choice (I used a flat brush but you can certainly use your filbert if you like) double load with your greens, pull chisel strokes towards a dot you place on the end of the stem for a aiming point.

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

You can thicken the strokes as you see fit once you have the basic chisel strokes done.

Paint Texas Bluebonnets, an easy painting tutorial for these fabulous flowers of Spring. Easy enough for beginners.

You can add more leaves to the other side if you wish.

Tap here for an ad-free Downloadable Workbook of this lesson that you can print or read on your mobile device.

Painting Texas bluebonnets workbook

Video

Supplies:

Ink Spot Blue
Fresh Cut Grass
Thicket
Wicker White
Look at Me Blue
Filbert Brushes
Flat Brushes
Watercolor paper

Paint Brush Cleaning Caddy

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Painting texas bluebonnets on canvas with Indian paintbrush, text overlay, Paint Texas Bluebonnets with step by step video

I have more painting lessons you will enjoy, like how to Paint a Basket of Pansies, or How to Paint Lavender and a very popular lesson is How to Paint Leaves.

Please enjoy and share!

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6 Comments

  1. I love all of your posts, and in particular, your painting lessons. I just wanted to let you know that your bluebonnets were so realistic, that I could recognise them as lupins, which is how we know them here in Australia. Keep up the lessons please.

  2. I am just started in painting with acrylics and I would like to learn how to paint a field of bluebonnets. Do you have any tutorials for that? Thank you.

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