Daisy painting gives you one of the friendliest subjects in flower art: a few flat petals, a round sunny centre, and endless little scenes to tuck it into. There is something genuinely cheering about mixing up sunny yellow, sky blue and grass green and watching a page fill with daisy chains, gerbera bottles and sleepy cats in the grass.
Below you will find 27 ideas that go beyond a single flower in a vase: girls with daisies in their braids, dogs in daisy crowns, a pony grazing in a meadow, a cake topped with blooms. Every one works in flat, happy gouache shapes, so pick whichever scene makes you smile most and start painting today.
Using these images: free for personal projects such as printing, coloring, cards, journals and gifts. Handmade items that include them may be sold up to 30 pieces per design. More than that is commercial use and is not permitted, and neither is selling or sharing the images themselves or passing them off as your own. Please ask before any other use.
Start with the easiest scene in this whole list: a girl sitting cross-legged on the lawn, threading daisies into a chain. Block in her simple shape first in flat skin tone and a bright dress colour, keeping arms and legs as soft rounded forms rather than detailed limbs. Paint the lawn as one flat sweep of grass green before adding her.
Lay the daisies last, as small white ovals with a dab of yellow in the centre, scattered loosely across the grass and a few linked in her hands. If the chain looks too stiff, break the line so it curves naturally rather than sitting in a perfect row. A great first project if you are new to painting figures, since the body stays so simple.
No watercolor paper on hand works fine here too, since gouache sits happily on any smooth drawing paper. Measure her head against her seated height before you paint, roughly one head to two and a half heads tall, so she does not end up too long or too squashed.
Keep her face to two dots and a small curved smile; any more detail fights with the flat style.
Palette: Sap Green,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Pale Rose
Move from a girl to her dog, now crowned in daisies for the sunniest portrait in the bunch. Choose a simple breed shape, a round-headed spaniel or a floppy-eared mutt works best, and paint the head and shoulders large in flat warm brown or cream gouache. Leave the background as plain sky blue or soft white so the crown stands out.
Once the fur colour dries, paint a ring of small white daisies across the top of the head, each one just a few oval petals around a yellow dot. The crown often goes wrong when it looks pasted on flat; curve the ring slightly so it follows the shape of the skull, dipping a little between the ears.
Eyes are two simple dark ovals with a small white highlight dot, nose a black triangle. If your dog’s face looks flat, check that the eyes sit at the same level and roughly one eye-width apart, which keeps the expression friendly rather than lopsided.
A short-haired breed is the easiest first attempt, since you can skip painting individual fur texture.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sky Blue
After two character pieces, slow down with a quieter still life: one gerbera standing in a glass bottle on a cafe table. Paint the bottle first in a pale transparent wash so it still reads as glass, leaving a thin white highlight stripe down one side unpainted. Add the tabletop as a flat warm stripe beneath it.
Build the gerbera next, a wide flat disc of petals in hot pink or orange radiating from a dark centre circle, painted larger than you think it should be so it fills the top of the page. This is where eye level matters: paint the bottle’s mouth as a narrow ellipse, not a straight line, since you are looking slightly down onto the table.
If the petals look too neat, vary a few in length rather than making a perfect sunburst, which keeps the flower lively. Swap the bottle for a simple jam jar if that is what sits on your shelf.
Finish with a thin cast shadow under the bottle to settle it onto the table.
Palette: Quinacridone Magenta,Cadmium Yellow,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey
Try an orange gerbera instead of pink for a warmer cafe mood, and keep the tabletop a flat mustard or cream so the flower stays the brightest thing in the scene.
Carry that still-life confidence into a fuller bouquet: a jug of shasta daisies on a kitchen table. Paint the jug shape first in a flat solid colour, white or soft blue works well against a daisy palette, then let it dry completely before adding stems.
Build the daisies from the back of the bunch forward, placing the furthest flowers slightly smaller and higher so the bouquet reads as rounded rather than flat across the top. Each flower is the same simple shape as before: white petals, yellow centre, just varied a little in size and angle.
Bouquets often collapse into a messy blob, so keep three or four flowers facing fully forward and turn the rest at a slight angle, their centres painted as thin ellipses instead of circles. If your table is cluttered, simplify it to one flat colour band behind the jug.
Finish with a few loose green leaves threaded between the stems to break up the white.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green,Sky Blue
For something with a little story, paint a single daisy losing its petals one by one in a girl’s open hand. Start with her hand as a simplified flat shape, palm up, fingers slightly spread, painted in one smooth skin tone with minimal creasing lines.
Paint the daisy resting across her palm with a few petals clearly missing from one side, and two or three loose petals falling or scattered on her fingers and wrist. This is a nice moment to try ten minutes versus forty: the quick version stops at the hand and flower, while the longer version adds a soft blurred lawn or sky behind her and a gentle cast shadow under the hand.
Hands often go wrong when fingers look like sausages of equal length; glance at your own hand and note the middle finger is longest, the little finger shortest, before you paint.
Keep the daisy centre a warm flat yellow so it stays the brightest point of the piece even with petals missing.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Pale Rose,Sky Blue
Widen the scene now into a small landscape: a field of oxeye daisies spreading out around a picnic hamper. Block in two flat bands first, a pale sky above and a wide grass-green field below, meeting at a simple horizon line roughly a third of the way down the page.
Set the hamper slightly off centre rather than in the middle, which keeps the composition from feeling too stiff, and paint it as a flat woven-brown basket shape with a simple curved lid and lighter cloth peeking out. Scatter the daisies across the foreground field thickest near the hamper and thinning out toward the horizon, which gives the field a sense of distance without any real perspective drawing.
If the field looks too busy, paint most daisies as tiny white dashes and only a handful as full flowers with visible petals up close.
Add one or two small flowers tucked right beside the hamper to anchor it into the grass.
Palette: Sap Green,Sky Blue,Titanium White,Burnt Sienna
Bring the daisy family indoors with a cosy still life of chamomile tea beside fresh chamomile flowers. Paint the teacup and saucer first as simple flat ovals and a curved handle, in white or pale blue, leaving the inside of the cup a warmer honey tone for the tea.
Chamomile flowers are smaller and daintier than a garden daisy, so paint their petals thinner and slightly downturned around a raised golden centre, scattered loosely around the cup and a few floating on a small side plate. A toothbrush flick of white gouache gives a light steam-like texture if you want extra atmosphere rising from the cup, flicked gently from a distance rather than close up.
The flowers often end up looking too large for the scene; keep them noticeably smaller than the teacup so the scale reads correctly.
No real chamomile sprigs to reference just means looking at any small daisy and painting its petals finer.
You Will Need
- toothbrush for splatter
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sky Blue,Raw Sienna
Settle into something quieter next: a cat curled asleep in a patch of lawn daisies. Paint the cat first as one soft rounded shape, tucked into a tight curl with the tail wrapped around, in a flat solid colour like ginger or grey with minimal shading.
Once dry, surround the cat with small white daisies scattered across the grass, denser near its body and thinning further out, so the eye naturally settles on the sleeping shape in the middle. Keep the cat’s face simple, closed eyes as two curved lines and no visible mouth, which reads as peaceful rather than fussy.
A common slip here is making the cat too small against the daisies; let the cat take up at least a third of the page so it reads as the subject, with the flowers as the setting around it.
If grey feels flat, warm it slightly with a touch of yellow ochre mixed in for the fur.
Palette: Payne’s Grey,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Shift to an accessory now: a sunny bucket hat with daisies tucked into its brim. Paint the hat first as one simple flat shape, a soft dome with a wide curved brim, in a solid summery colour like pale yellow or sky blue.
Once dry, tuck a small cluster of daisies along one side of the brim, each flower painted slightly overlapping the next so they read as tucked in rather than stuck on separately. Painting from the first eye level matters less here than light direction: decide where your light sits and keep one consistent soft shadow along the underside of the brim so the hat feels like a solid object rather than a flat cutout.
If the daisies look too stiff against the curve of the brim, angle a couple of them slightly downward as though resting against the fabric.
A plain straw-coloured base works as a swap if you do not want a bold hat colour competing with the flowers.
Palette: Cadmium Yellow,Titanium White,Sky Blue,Sap Green
Lean fully into the retro mood with a rounded scooter helmet covered in a daisy print. Paint the helmet shape first as one smooth dome in a flat bright colour, pastel pink or sky blue suits the era, leaving a soft white highlight patch near the top where light would catch a glossy surface.
Once dry, cover the surface with small evenly spaced daisies in a simple repeating pattern, alternating white and pink flowers with yellow centres across the curve. The pattern often looks flat and sticker-like if every flower sits at the same angle, so rotate a few slightly as you go around the curve of the helmet.
Painting on a curved object without real curvature is a perspective trick worth noting: space the daisies slightly closer together near the edges of the dome to suggest it wrapping around, rather than drawing a flat grid.
Add a thin dark outline around the visor opening to ground the shape.
Palette: Pale Rose,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sky Blue
Head outdoors again for a pot of marguerites standing on a balcony railing. Paint the terracotta pot first as a simple flat trapezoid shape, slightly wider at the top, before adding a narrow strip of railing beneath it to ground the scene.
Build the marguerite plant from the pot upward, starting with a loose cluster of green leaves before layering white daisy flowers on thin stems above and around them, facing in several directions rather than all forward. If the balcony background feels empty, add one soft flat band of sky colour and perhaps a distant rooftop shape, kept simple so it does not compete with the flowers.
Pots often tip visually because the plant looks too narrow for its base; let the leaves and flowers spread a little wider than the pot’s rim on both sides.
A simple windowsill stands in nicely if you prefer an indoor version of this scene.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Sap Green,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow
Give yourself a break from realism with a bold cluster of painted daisies in rainbow colours, each flower a different hue rather than the usual white. Sketch five or six daisy shapes loosely across the page first, varying their sizes so the cluster does not feel like a grid.
Paint each flower in one flat saturated colour, working red through to violet across the group, and keep every centre the same warm yellow so the rainbow reads as one coordinated bunch rather than a scatter of random flowers. This is a good one to try quick: ten minutes covers the flat petals and centres, while forty minutes adds a thin darker outline around each petal and small fine lines radiating from the centre for extra detail.
If the colours clash, place a daisy of one hue never directly beside its opposite on the colour wheel.
Leave the background plain white so the rainbow stays the whole focus.
Palette: Cadmium Red,Cadmium Yellow,Sky Blue,Quinacridone Magenta
Try a slightly different flower shape next with African daisies settled among a small rock garden. These daisies have a distinctive dark ring just inside the petal base, so paint the petals first in orange or purple, then add a thin dark circle before the final bright yellow centre dot.
Build the rocks beneath them as simple flat grey and tan shapes of varying size, overlapping slightly so they read as a cluster rather than scattered pebbles, with the flowers growing up through the gaps between them. Keep the light source consistent across the whole scene: if you paint one soft shadow falling to the right of each rock, keep every shadow falling the same direction so the garden feels like one lit moment.
Rock gardens often look too tidy; let a few small weeds or thin grass blades poke up between the stones for a lived-in feel.
A handful of grey pebbles works as a simple swap if real rocks feel fiddly to paint.
Palette: Cadmium Orange,Payne’s Grey,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Return to gerberas with a bolder still life: a cluster of them standing tall in a striped vase. Paint the vase first, blocking in its base shape in white before adding even horizontal stripes in a contrasting colour, letting each dry before the next so the lines stay crisp.
Build three or four gerberas above it in different colours, pink, orange and a deep red work well together, each with the same flat radiating petal shape as your earlier gerbera but larger and more confident now that you have practised the shape once already. Vary this one for next time by swapping the stripes for polka dots or a solid colour vase, which changes the whole mood of the piece without touching the flowers.
If the stems look too thin and wobbly, paint them slightly thicker than feels natural, since thin stems tend to disappear against a patterned vase.
Finish with one or two leaves low down to balance the tall flower heads.
Palette: Quinacridone Magenta,Cadmium Orange,Titanium White,Sap Green
Try the acrylic version of this same bouquet using the ideas in these acrylic flower painting ideas if you want a sturdier finish for a canvas.
Switch to something playful: a pair of daisies sprouting straight out of an old rain boot. Paint the boot first as one simple flat shape, a cheerful colour like red or yellow, with a slightly scuffed look achieved by leaving a few rough edges unpainted rather than a clean outline.
Once dry, paint the daisies growing from the top opening of the boot, stems curving slightly outward before the flowers open at different heights so they do not look like two identical twins. This is a nice one for edges and texture: dry-brush a thin streak of darker colour down one side of the boot to suggest old rubber, dragging a barely loaded brush lightly across the surface rather than a smooth coat.
If the boot looks too stiff standing upright, tilt it slightly to one side as though it has been left out for a while.
A watering can works as an easy swap for the boot if you prefer that shape.
Palette: Cadmium Red,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Zoom right in for a close-up study: a single bee resting on a large daisy flower. Paint the daisy first, filling most of the page with its flat white petals and yellow centre, since the whole point of this piece is scale.
Add the bee once the flower is dry, keeping it simple: an oval striped body in black and yellow, two small rounded wings as pale translucent shapes, and thin legs gripping the edge of the centre disc. Measuring the bee against the daisy centre keeps the proportion honest; the bee’s whole body should be noticeably smaller than the yellow disc it sits on, not nearly as large as the flower itself.
If the wings look too solid, leave them almost unpainted, just a faint outline and a touch of grey, so light seems to pass through them.
A ladybird makes a fun swap if bees feel fiddly to paint.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Ivory Black,Payne’s Grey
Bring the daisy indoors onto the kitchen table with a plate of daisy-shaped sugar cookies. Paint the plate first as a simple flat oval or circle, white or pale blue, then build three or four cookies on top, each a round flattened shape with icing petals piped around the edge and a yellow dot of icing in the centre.
Vary the angle of each cookie slightly, some flat and round, one tilted up on its edge, so the plate does not read as a row of identical stamps. The icing often looks too thin and flat; add a touch of white gouache slightly raised in texture by applying it a little thicker with the tip of the brush, which reads as piped icing rather than a painted pattern.
If plain white cookies feel dull, tint a few petals pale pink or blue for variety across the plate.
A simple saucer works fine in place of a full plate if that suits your composition better.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Pale Rose,Raw Sienna
Return to a portrait now with a girl wearing daisies woven into her braids. Paint her face and hair first as flat simple shapes, two braids falling over the shoulders, before any flowers are added, since it is easier to judge their placement against a finished hairstyle.
Tuck small white daisies along the length of each braid, spacing them unevenly so they look tucked in naturally rather than lined up like beads. If this is your first time painting a face this close up, keep features minimal: two dot eyes, a small curved mouth, no nose line at all, which suits the flat print style far better than realistic shading.
A common mistake is making both braids identical; vary their thickness slightly and let one curve a touch more than the other for a natural feel.
Freckles added as a few tiny dots across the cheeks give her extra warmth without adding real detail work.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Burnt Sienna,Pale Rose
Tell a smaller, quieter story with a single daisy pushing up through a crack in the pavement. Paint the pavement first as a flat grey rectangle filling most of the page, with one jagged crack drawn across it in a slightly darker grey line.
Grow the daisy up from the crack, stem bending gently as though it had to find its way around the broken edge before opening into a flower near the top. The pavement texture is where this piece can gain character: dab a dry, barely loaded brush across the grey in a few places to suggest worn, uneven stone rather than leaving it perfectly flat and smooth.
If the crack looks too straight and mechanical, break it into two or three angled segments rather than one continuous line.
A cobblestone path works as a nice swap for plain pavement if you want more surface pattern.
Palette: Payne’s Grey,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Settle into a cosy scene next: a mason jar of daisies standing on a porch step. Paint the jar first with its distinctive ridged shoulders simplified into two or three flat horizontal lines, leaving the glass itself as a pale transparent wash so the daisy stems show faintly through it.
Build the porch step beneath the jar as one flat wooden-plank shape, a few thin darker lines suggesting the gaps between boards, before adding the daisy bunch above in the same simple white-petal, yellow-centre shape used throughout this list. If you want more atmosphere behind the jar, add a soft flat strip of blue dusk sky and a hint of a railing rather than a fully detailed porch.
Jars often look too narrow for the flowers crammed into them; widen the mouth of the jar slightly if the stems feel cramped.
A simple glass tumbler works as a swap if a mason jar shape feels fiddly.
Palette: Sky Blue,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Burnt Sienna
Paint a more casual gift next: a loose daisy bouquet wrapped in newspaper. Start with the paper cone shape, a flat off-white or cream triangle with a few faint grey lines suggesting print, folded slightly at the top where it gathers around the stems.
Build the daisies rising out of the top in a loose fan, facing several directions rather than all straight up, which gives the bouquet a gathered, just-picked feel instead of a stiff arrangement. The paper wrap is where texture work pays off: once the base layer dries, drag a dry brush loaded with a slightly darker cream along a few fold lines to suggest creased paper catching the light.
If the bouquet looks top-heavy, widen the base of the paper cone slightly so it reads as sturdy enough to hold the flowers.
Plain brown kraft paper works as a swap for newsprint if you prefer a simpler wrap.
Palette: Titanium White,Raw Sienna,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Zoom in again for a tiny, slow story: a snail making its way up a daisy stem. Paint the daisy first, tall and slightly larger than usual since the snail needs a long clear stem to climb, flower open at the top in the familiar white and yellow shapes.
Add the snail partway up the stem, shell a simple flat spiral in warm brown with a lighter swirl line, body a soft grey curve gripping the green stem. If this is your first time painting a spiral shell, start from the centre dot and work outward in one continuous curving line rather than trying to draw rings separately, which keeps it looking natural rather than mechanical.
A short squat snail often reads better at this scale than a long stretched one, so keep the body compact.
Two tiny curved lines for antennae finish the character without adding real complexity.
Palette: Sap Green,Burnt Sienna,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey
Scale back up for a bigger animal subject: a pony grazing quietly in a meadow of daisies. Paint the pony first as one flat rounded body shape with simple legs and a lowered head reaching toward the grass, keeping the silhouette soft rather than anatomically detailed.
Once the pony’s base colour dries, scatter small white daisies around its hooves and across the meadow behind it, denser in the foreground and thinning toward a simple flat horizon line. Checking proportion here matters: the pony’s body length should run roughly twice its shoulder height, which keeps it reading as a pony rather than accidentally stretching into a horse.
A flowing mane and tail painted as a few loose curved strokes add movement without needing individual hair strands.
A darker pony coat like dapple grey or chestnut sets off the white daisies especially well against the green field.
Palette: Burnt Sienna,Sap Green,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow
If you enjoy painting animals in their own little scenes, browse these farm animal painting ideas for more grazing and meadow subjects.
Bring the daisy to a celebration with a round cake decorated in piped flowers. Paint the cake first as a simple flat cylinder shape with a cake stand beneath it, choosing a soft icing colour like pale pink or cream for the base.
Decorate the top and sides with small daisy shapes made from dabs of white gouache applied with the tip of the brush rather than painted flat, giving the icing a slightly raised, piped texture once dry. This is a nice one to try at two speeds: the ten-minute version scatters daisies loosely across the top only, while the forty-minute version wraps a ring of them around the base and adds a thin drip of icing down one side.
If the cake looks like a flat rectangle rather than round, add a thin darker ellipse at the base to suggest the curve of the stand beneath it.
A cupcake works as a quicker swap for a full layered cake.
Palette: Pale Rose,Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Sap Green
Slow down for a tiny, personal object: a daisy-shaped hair clip resting against the edge of a mirror. Paint the mirror first as a simple flat oval or round shape with a thin metallic-looking rim, leaving the glass itself nearly white with a soft diagonal streak of pale grey to suggest reflection.
Add the daisy clip propped against the frame, a flat white flower shape with a small coloured centre and a hint of the metal clip peeking out behind the petals. Light direction matters even in a small still life like this: decide where the streak of reflected light falls on the mirror glass and keep the clip’s shadow falling the same way, so the whole scene feels lit from one consistent place.
If the mirror looks flat, a thin curved highlight along the rim suggests it catching the light.
A simple hand mirror shape works as a swap for a round wall mirror.
Palette: Titanium White,Cadmium Yellow,Payne’s Grey,Pale Rose
Build toward the most atmospheric scene on this list: a couple standing together in a daisy field at sunset. Paint the sky first as a soft gradient of warm pink into golden yellow, blending while the gouache is still damp so the colours merge without a hard edge.
Add the two figures as simple silhouette shapes standing close together, facing the horizon rather than the viewer, which keeps the focus on the mood rather than detailed faces. Scatter daisies across the foreground field in flat white dashes, slightly warmed with a touch of the sunset colour near the horizon so the whole scene feels lit from one direction.
If the silhouettes look stiff, vary their heights slightly and let one lean a little toward the other.
A single figure works just as well as a swap if a couple feels like more than you want to tackle today.
Palette: Pale Rose,Cadmium Yellow,Payne’s Grey,Titanium White
For more ideas on blending soft sunset skies behind a simple scene, the techniques in these summer painting ideas translate well into gouache.
Close the list with something a little sentimental: a daisy pressed flat inside the open pages of an old book. Paint the book first, two open pages shown as a flat cream shape with a soft curved spine line down the centre, a few thin lines suggesting text without writing actual words.
Place the pressed daisy across one page, flattened and slightly faded compared with the bright daisies elsewhere on this list: mute the white petals toward a warm ivory and soften the yellow centre to a dustier tone. If your page looks too plain, a faint ring of brown around the flower suggests an old press mark left behind on the paper.
A kneaded eraser lifted gently across the edges of the flower, if you are working over a light pencil underdrawing, softens any hard outline into something gentler before you paint.
A pressed clover or small leaf works as an easy swap alongside the daisy for extra variety.
Palette: Raw Sienna,Titanium White,Payne’s Grey,Cadmium Yellow
Pair this piece with a book stack drawing for a matching cosy still life if you enjoy painting quiet reading corners.
What to Do Next
Pick one scene that makes you smile, whether that is the daisy chain on the lawn or the quiet pressed flower in an old book, and start there on a sheet of smooth gouache paper. Keep the petals flat, the colours sunny, and let the next idea on this list wait for another happy afternoon.
Frequently Asked Questions
What paint works best for daisy painting in this cheerful style?
Gouache works best for this flat, graphic daisy style because it dries matte and opaque, letting you paint clean white petals over a coloured background. Acrylic is a fine substitute if that is what you already own.
How do you paint a daisy that looks right without shading it?
Keep the petals as flat ovals around a solid yellow centre, varying petal length slightly so they do not look stamped. This flat approach suits the 1960s print style far better than realistic shading or gradients.
What is the easiest daisy painting idea for a first attempt?
The daisy chain scene and the lawn daisies around a sleeping cat are the gentlest starting points, since both rely on simple shapes and loose scattering rather than tight detail or complicated figures.
How do you stop a bouquet of daisies looking too messy?
Vary the size and angle of each flower rather than painting them identically, and keep a few facing fully forward while others turn slightly, which gives the bunch a natural rounded shape instead of a flat scatter.
Can these daisy scenes work in watercolor instead of gouache?
Yes, though the flat opaque look softens into translucent washes, which still suits daisies well. Keep white areas as untouched paper rather than white paint, since watercolor cannot paint over itself opaquely.