Hooray for spring, warmer weather and FLOWERS! As a Florida native, experiencing my first PNW spring has been quite the experience. By far, the prettiest sight was when the cherry blossom trees bloomed. It seemed like it happened over night! Seeing the streets lined in beautiful bright pink trees was an inspiration.

It inspired me to paint!

So, that is what 4 years of art school will get ya.. But for the beginner, I have a simple step by step How-To.

Step 1: Paint the background, I took light blue and dark blue and painted the center the lightest and got darker as I went to the edges.
Step 2: Using a white dry pastel, draw the outlines of the flowers, leaves and branches.
Step 3: Paint over the branches with dark brown.
Step 4: Using light brown, paint half of each branch.
Step 5: Paint all the leaves in half dark green, half light green. (each leaf)
Step 6: Paint all of the flowers in pink. We will add more details next.
Step 7: Add dark pink. Paint each individual flower petal half dark pink.
Step 8: Add very light and very dark pink stripes to each petal. Also, add a very light brown highlight to the bottom of each branch, and a very dark green line down the center of each leaf.