Tulips in a vase always makes a unsophisticated composition. Slightly childish especially if the background is white. You risk having all the colour in one part of the painting and all the stems and leaves in the other (image 1).


1. Paint the leaves and flowers so they touch and go off the edge of your paper. Tulip leaves bend around and twist

2. You only need to paint 1 or 2 tulips correctly, you can be really free with the others as your viewer will fill in the details

3. Work out the colour scheme with a sketch before starting

4. Avoid all the stems going off the bottom of the paper in a V shape.

5. Tulip stems are quite thick and wave around

6. You can put the leaves where ever you want

7. Don't forget to leave some little white shapes in the middle of your painting. Mark them before you start painting, these give the composition some lightness



free tulip sketch 1

free tulip sketch 2
A really difficult and boring composition Decide which parts between the leaves are going to be white Paint the background and flowers at the same time don't paint all the flowers first then add the back-ground. Aim fo some strong and lost (fuzzy) edges
pink tulip1 pink tulip2 pink tulip3