DIY: How to Paint Lilly Pulitzer's Lulu Print

If you follow me on Instagram (@KraftyKellzster), you'll see that I have been painting throughout the past couple months, but I haven't had time to do any tutorials.  I only have 3 more days until my Thanksgiving Break begins and I finally found time to do a tutorial on my new favorite Lilly pattern, Lulu.  Resort has been out for a few weeks now and I LOVE IT! All of the patterns are absolutely beautiful.

I pinned my First Impression tutorial on Pinterest and the amount of repins for it was unbelievable! I have received so many compliments that it has pushed me to create another tutorial so here it is!

This was my first time painting Lulu and I decided to free hand it because that's how all of Lilly's artists do it so I decided it'd give it more character.  However, since this was my first time painting Lulu, I just simply painted it on a piece of paper as opposed to a canvas, so I apologize in advance that this painting is on computer paper and not a canvas. I will update this post once I paint it on a canvas and add it on here at the end :)

Now let's get started...for real this time!

Here are the materials you will need:

Materials Needed:

JoAnn's

- 12" x 12" Canvas: $6

-Thick, medium, thin paint brushes: $2

-Color palette: $0.80

-Americana Baby Pink Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Americana Bubblegum Pink Acrylic Paint: $0.83
-Americana White Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Americana Citron Green Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Americana Festive Green Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Americana Red Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Americana Yellow Acrylic Paint: $0.83

-Delta Creative Turquoise Acrylic Paint: $0.83

I also had a set of cheap acrylic paint from Target that had the fluorescent pink, purple, yellow, and green that I used. Here's the link to the product: http://goo.gl/uzkhgp

Now that we have the materials we need, let's get started on how to approach this painting! 

STEP ONE: Take the fluorescent pink and looking at the Lulu pattern, paint the head and neck of the flamingo along with the other parts of the print that are the same color.  Just try to space it our as well as you can with your eye. This doesn't have to be perfect and you can always go back over and touch up parts as you fill it in.

STEP TWO: Take the baby pink and paint in the flamingos beak and the parts of the flower petals and leaves throughout the pattern.

STEP THREE: Take the fluorescent green and citron green and mix them together to create a vibrant lime green color.  Next, paint in the palm tree leaves.  I just used my eye to space them out as best as I could. It wasn't perfect, but neither are any of Lilly patterns and that's what makes them truly unique.

STEP FOUR: Using the turquoise paint, fill in the flower and fill in the background as shown in the print.

STEP FIVE: Using the turquoise mixed with some festive green, create a teal-like color fill in the palm trees and other leaves.

STEP SIX: Using the fluorescent purple color, fill in the background.  It's okay if you miss some purple spots because we will go back at the end and fill in the rest of the painting with the purple after all of the other components are painted.

STEP SEVEN: Mixing the red and yellow together to create an orange color.  Then outline the flowers and leaves and other parts of the painting following the original print.

 STEP EIGHT: The very last part of this painting is to use the white and purple to paint the eye onto the flamingos head.  If you missed any leaves, flowers, or you just have some open space, feel free to fill in those spots as you wish.  

TA-DA your Lulu painting is now complete!!

As you can see, I had a lot of empty white space at the bottom so I decided to paint my name in the bottom right hand corner and fill in the background with the really pretty purple.  When I paint this on a canvas, I will do the full print instead of filling in the space with purple and my name.  

Anyways, I hope this was easy to follow and I apologize this isn't as structured of a tutorial as the first impressions one.  It's a little difficult to explain how exactly you paint the leaves, flowers, etc.  I think it's more fun to let your own creative and artistic style do the painting :D

If you decide to give this pattern a try, please take a picture and tag me on Instagram @KraftyKellzster. I'd love to see your work! Also, I'd love to hear how I'm doing with my tutorials so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please feel free to comment below or email me at louieke@gmail.com! Happy crafting!