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Spooky season is in full bloom! This is an easy, simple and fun halloween floral painting featuring little skulls and bat decor! We will be doing simple flower painting techniques in this acrylic tutorial.
Have fun and let loose with this one! It looks great on the stretched canvas because you can paint the sides with fun, eye-catching patterns! I did orange and black stripes on the side of my canvas.
You can also get crafty with this one! Add black glitter on the bats and/or white glitter on the skulls.
Not feeling halloween? You can make this more of a fall painting instead! Take out the bats, skulls, etc and replace them with acorns and fall leaves. You can do an orange pumpkin instead of a white one! Be creative & have fun!
Enjoy and happy painting!
Materials
How To Paint A "Haunted Bouquet"
Halloween vibes are in full swing with this skull and flower bouquet! 🌸💀 Dive into this halloween painting tutorial and let’s get creative together!
Materials
- 9 x 12 Canvas (can use any size!)
- Acrylic Paint
- Brushes
- White Chalk (optional)
- Toothbrush For Splattering (optional)
Colors
- Titanium White
- Mars Black
- Dioxazine Purple
- Cadmium Red Light Hue (Or Orange Hue)
- Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue
- Hooker's Green Hue
- Quinacridone Magenta
Brushes
Color Palette
Directions At A Glance
Video
Step By Step Directions
1. Paint Background
This is a very simple background consisting of only two colors! We will be using “dioxazine purple” to paint the outer edges of the canvas and the inner parts will be “titanium white” mixed with that same purple. The goal is to create the center slightly brighter and the edges will appear darker.
Start by loading your 3/4″ wash brush with just “dioxazine purple”.
Then paint large, full width paint strokes that go in different angles. You want this background layer to be thin but not watery. Make sure you are not laying the paint on too thick. If needed add a small amount of water into the paint.
Paint all of the sides of the canvas using just this dark purple. Leave the middle part blank. Do not let this dry! We will be blending in “titanium white” into this color in the middle to make the little look like a light purple.
Without rinsing the brush, add a small amount of “titanium white” to it. Then paint the same large, angle paint strokes in the center of the canvas. The goal is to get the white and purple to blend “wet on wet” on the canvas. You will get different variations of the color on your canvas. It is okay not to blend the color all the way. Add more white if needed or add more purple if needed.
Keep blending your color so the center of your background is light and all of your edges are dark. If needed, rinse or wipe the brush and add more dark purple on the edges.
Wait for this to dry before going onto the next step.
2. Paint & Draw Pumpkin
Use a piece of chalk to draw the pumpkin. The height of this pumpkin is about 1/3 the height of the canvas. For example: my canvas is 12″ high so I estimated this to be about 4″ high.
Start by drawing the center oval as an “arc” shape. You only see the top 3/4 of this pumpkin so you don’t draw the bottom of it.
Next, you want to draw a set of 4 more curved lines for the pumpkin. Start each curve at the top and go all the way down to the bottom edge of the canvas.
Use the #12 bright brush and titanium white to paint the pumpkin. Start by painting the middle oval area of the pumpkin. Use the full width of the brush to fill the shape in and make your paint strokes starting at the top and going down and off the edge of the canvas.
Paint each of the “pumpkin bumps” white. Leave a tiny gap of the dark purple showing through where the lines of the pumpkin are.
Next, add a little bit of black to your brush (without rinsing the brush). Blend this little bit of black into the white where the lines of the pumpkin are. This will create dark shadow areas where those lines are.
Blend a little gray on the bottom of the pumpkin and blend that up into the white. Try not to “over blend” your pumpkin. You also don’t need to add any details on the top because there will be flowers covering that area.
3. Paint Roses
Use a #4 round brush. Load your paint palette with: cadmium yellow deep hue, quinacridone magenta, cadmium red light hue (or orange) and titanium white.
Use the #4 round brush. Double load the brush in titanium white and yellow (about equal amounts). Paint the first rose which is overlapping the top left part of the pumpkin. Start in the center of the rose and paint small “comma” strokes.
Continue to paint staggered little curved strokes that form the shape of the rose. Right now it may look like a solid color. We will add shading/ highlighting to this later.
Repeat this step for the next rose. I didn’t rinse my brush for those. Load the brush into “cadmium red light hue” and “titanium white”. Paint this second rose next to the yellow rose using the same technique.
Repeat this technique for the magenta rose. I also didn’t rinse my brush here. However, if it is an “over loaded” brush, you can rinse or wipe it. Load it into the “quinacridone magenta” and paint this third rose.
The fourth rose was painted by making a light “peach” color. Mix titanium white with the “cad red light” and a little bit of the “quinacridone magenta”. Then paint this rose using the same technique.
I did a total of five roses going in a circle and left the middle area blank. The fifth rose was painted using the “quinacridone magenta”. You are welcome to change the colors and positions of these roses!
Next, rinse the #4 round brush. Load it into “mars blacK” paint and then “stipple” little dots in the centers of each of the roses.
These roses need to dry before we add anymore detail to them.
4. Paint Skulls & Bats
Use titanium white and the #4 round brush to paint little skull shapes in your bouquet.
Use mars black to paint little bats next! Paint them solid black and then paint a stick/ line that goes to the pumpkin.
I did two bats! Then highlight the bats with titanium white. To highlight these, lightly outline some of the edges of the bats with white. It’s okay if some of the white blends with the black.
5. Paint Detail On Roses
Paint highlight on the rose petal edges. To do this, mix white with the base color of the rose on your palette. For example: mix white with the “cadmium yellow deep” colors. This will make a lighter tint of that color. Then paint little curved/ comma paint strokes on the roses. Start around your little black dots. Then paint staggered curved lines that go to the outer edges of the roses.
Add these tinted rose petal lines to each of the rose petals. For each color, simply add white to the base color to make it a lighter color. Then paint the curved strokes starting from the center and going outwards. Make sure to leave a lot of the darker first layer showing through.
Optional: paint thin black lines on the rose petals for loose, dark outlining.
6. Paint Yellow Daisies
Mix a brown on your paint palette by mixing: 1 part purple, 1 part orange (cad red light), 1 part yellow and a very small amount of black. Mix this until you get a dark brown color.
Use the #4 round brush to paint two small cone-like shapes for the centers of the flowers.
Next, rinse the #4 round brush. Paint the petals of these flowers next! Since these flowers are seen on their side, paint the petals only on the bottom of the cone. If needed, paint smaller petals on the top but they look like they are going behind the top brown part of the flower.
Each petal is a curved paint strokes that changes direction based on where you are painting it around the brown center.
Fill petals on both of the flowers. I also added little yellow/ light brown dots on the top of the centers of the flowers.
7. Paint Leaves
Load your paint palette with “hooker’s green hue”. Paint various leaves throughout your bouquet. You want to create variations in your green color by mixing a little white into it and even a little black to make a gray-green.
I started by making a “leaf spray” on the right. This is a stem with little rounded leaves on each side of the stem. Also, paint leaf shapes next to the roses.
Adding a little more black into the green makes a really pretty dark green!
Little leaves help to fill the gaps between the roses. You can also paint little marks to fill the gaps. This helps the bouquet to look full.
Optional: highlight some of your leaves using white and yellow. Use your brush to dry brush the light color on the leaves. I usually add the light color on one side of the leaf and leave the other side dark.
8. Paint Spider Web
Use the #4 round brush and titanium white to paint the spider web. I started by painting three diagonal lines from the upper right corner.
Connect the lines to flowers/ leaves or let the lines be “floating”. Then paint curved “web lines” between your diagonal lines.
You can fill other gaps and openings around your bouquet with more spider webs. I did another web on the lower right.
9. Paint “Boo!” and Final Touch Ups
This is optional! I did a “Boo” lettering attached to a stick in the bouquet. Alternatively you can do a ghost, a different word/ quote, more spider webs, etc.
The “Boo!” was painted using “cadmium yellow deep hue”. I used black and white to add some shadowing/ highlighting to the letters to make them look a little “three dimensional”. I also attached this to a white line/ stick into the bouquet.
Some other final touch ups could include painting more leaves, more “spiral vine lines”, more skulls, etc.
Another fun thing you can do is use an old toothbrush to splatter little white specks over the canvas. You can also add glitter in some areas such as black glitter on the bats or white glitter on the skulls!
And another fund final touch up could be painting a fun/ funky design on the side of your canvas if you are doing a stretched canvas. I did black and orange stripes on the side of mine!
Finished!
