Watercolor & Acrylic Marker Sunflower Tutorial
I’ve recently started making ACEO’s, and I wanted to share a little step-by-step of my recent creations. These are watercolor and acrylic marker sunflowers, and I love them!

Watercolor & Acrylic Marker Sunflower Tutorial
To create these sunflower ACEOs, I used watercolor for the background and acrylic markers for the sunflower, along with a fineliner pen to add detail at the end. I also created these on Arches cold-press watercolor paper (my favorite).
Supplies:
Watercolor Paint (any will do) 🙂
Step 1: Paint the background

I painted several pieces of watercolor paper and then cut them down to an ACEO size, which is 3.5″ x 2.5″. The color I used is Sap Green by Daniel Smith. I also used a lot of water and added salt to create texture. Check out my blog on the watercolor-and-salt technique here for info on that process.
Step 2: Base layer with acrylic markers


I started with a simple brown circle in the middle of the paper and then used my darkest yellow to create petal shapes. This creates a base outline for the sunflower.
Step 3: Continue to layer markers


After the first petal layer dried, I used a white acrylic marker to create more petals. I did this so the yellow would have a nice layer to build up on. After the white layer dried, I used a pale yellow and went on top of the white petals.
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Step 4: More layers and details


I continued to build up the yellow petals by using a warmer yellow color. Then I started to add small details to the middle of the sunflower.
After that, I used a fineliner pen to add some small details in the center and lightly outlined some of the petals.

Here is the finished sunflower ACEO!
These are so much fun to make and are so cheerful. 🙂 I cannot wait for sunflower season!
Check out all of my original art for sale here.
Thanks for reading!
-Amanda




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