For about two years I've been featuring one of my paintings each week on my daricemachel.com website. Today I'm changing things up a bit. Instead of doing a featured painting I thought I'd show you one of my newest paintings along with the reference photo I used to create it. After visiting the sunflower field and taking about 50 photos I couldn't wait to paint sunflowers. This photo of a bee and his shadow really caught my eye. The color and texture was very appealing to me and I felt the challenge to paint it.
I used acrylics on a 9x12 gesso Masonite board for the painting. The smooth surface of the board allowed the paint to glide and blend perfectly. I always begin my paintings with a sketch, this one was no different. Once I was satisfied with the drawing I began painting the background of green foliage. Then moved on to the flower petals. The center of the sunflower was next. This section took quite awhile as you can imagine. I painted each seed on a dark background, shaping and highlighting as I went. The bee and his shadow were the final elements. I had the most fun painting the transparent wings.
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