How To Paint A Sunset Over Water With Acrylics

How To Paint A Dusk Lake Pier

Wouldn't you honey to be sitting on this pier right now!? This scene is and then peaceful and serene! I honey the combo of the pastel blues, pinks and purples in the sky. And, of course, the cherry blossoms bring a whole new level of joy!

In this acrylic painting tutorial, you volition acquire how to pigment a soft blueish/pinkish sunset over a lake with a rustic pier in the foreground.

Hanging to a higher place the pier are Red Blossom Tree Branches. Then, I think my favorite part of the painting, is that little silhouette duck on the bottom!

Don't permit that pier intimidate yous! It was actually really easy to paint. Information technology'southward a simple trapezoid shape painted blackness with some brown/white details. Information technology'due south zilch simply a elementary shape – easy peasy! Just if you still have troubles with information technology, I have yous covered with my traceable!

I hope you lot enjoy escaping to this "happy place" while painting "Sunset Pier". Enjoy and happy painting artists!

This design works equally a couples painting!

Do this on 2 11 x 14 canvases positioned vertically (or ii viii x 10s). Divide the blueprint in half. You lot can do one side and your partner can practise the other!

Materials:

Active Fourth dimension ii hours

Total Fourth dimension 2 hours

Difficulty Easy, Medium

Color Palette:

Traceable

Y'all are welcome to print this traceable to help you with the limerick of this painting! You lot tin besides find the PDF version in my traceable library. Need more than information on how to use traceables? Check out my traceable reference guide.

Directions At A Glance:

Video:

Step Past Pace Directions:

i. Paint The Unabridged Canvass Sky and Water

First load your palette with the colors: light blue violet, medium magenta. Yous will besides need a 3/4″ flat wash brush.

Since we will be filling the unabridged canvas with color and to assist it spread faster and smoother, use a nice even layer of h2o to the unabridged canvass. Employ your 3/4″ wash castor and gently paint horizontal strokes of water all over the canvas.

The sheet volition be painted a gradation of light blueish violet to titanium white to medium magenta, etc. The medium magenta is directly in the centre of the canvas and is where the horizon line volition be. Look at the image below:

Start with low-cal blue violet and paint horizontal strokes across the canvas. Go nigh four fingers down.

Next load yournot rinsed brush intitanium white.Alloy the white into the blue and work your manner downwards to almost the middle of the sheet. It should turn to a very light bluish and so nigh pure white. Keep in mind that your gradation might vary slightly from mine! In fact, after doing this painting several times, each time was different so don't stress to make the colors look only like how mine expect in the pictures.

When you arroyo the middle of the sail, use medium magenta. Also, you practice not need to rinse your brush. Blend the medium magenta into the white and so let it become a more pure course of medium magenta in the middle and slightly beneath the middle of the canvas.

Now that you lot are beneath the "invisible horizon line" use white to the brush and blend the medium magenta into a light pink and then well-nigh pure white.

Then apply the lite blue violet and blend information technology downwardly.

And finally add the cobalt blue on the bottom. Just exist careful with the cobalt when blending it dorsum up into the light bluish violet as that color is very strong and tends to have over.

2. Depict A Horizon Line With Chalk

Start, completely dry the painting (with a hair dryer or have a intermission and come back when it's dry). And then, using a ruler, locate the exact middle of the canvas. Describe a horizontal line using a slice of chalk.

3. Paint The First Layer of Mountains

For the mountains I used a #12 flat brushyou lot tin can besides utilise a round brush for this footstep. I fabricated a blend of the colorscobalt blue with a tiny bit of mars black.And then I watered that color down to a very thin ink like consistency and then that when painted on the canvas, it is a bit translucent. Pigment a lumpy line that is taller on the left and correct sides and dips down very shut to the horizon line in the heart.

Side by side paint the reflection in the h2o. Practice the same "mirror paradigm" of the mountains. I made this layer a flake more translucent than the mountains.

4. Paint The Dominicus

I used a circular sponge for the lord's day (also known every bit a pouncer). You lot certainly can do this with a paint brush if y'all don't accept a pouncer. Basically dip the sponge in both principal yellowandtitanium white.Using both colors will get a very vivid and opaque lord's day.

five. Paint Second Layer of Mountains

This step can be optional! However, it creates some nice depth to the painting having a darker shade of mountains in front of a lighter shade. I used pure mars black this time and painted another mountain range that was slightly shorter than the one in the back. So I mirrored it in the water again.

6. The Sun Reflection

For the sun reflection I used my #12 flat (very clean and rinsed off) and dipped it in the primary xanthous and titanium white mix I used for the sun. Paint horizontal lines forming an upside down triangle shape nigh all the mode down the canvas. Don't worry about where the pier will be.

7. Paint Blueish H2o Lines

Then completely rinse your #12 castor and pigment little horizontal lines of cobalt blue. Practise this all throughout the h2o and fifty-fifty a little where the dominicus reflection is and over the mount reflections.

8. Draw the pier with chalk

Next you lot'll need to employ chalk to draw a trapezoid. Just gauge the size of this trapezoid. I made mine get up to virtually half of the h2o and the width on the bottom is about seven inches. This is a very basic shape!

ix. Paint the pier

So utilize your #12 apartment brush to paint the entire pier mars black.

Next add a little scrap of titanium white & raw umber horizontal lines to the pier. Non too much! Since the blackness isn't dry, it should blend to a grayish color. Just a few lines here and there, nosotros volition add more details afterward.

For the vertical beams, I really used a chisel brush. This is only like a flat castor, only the bristles are much shorter. If y'all don't accept a chisel castor, you tin use a circular castor or even whatsoever of your flat/brilliant brushes.

#4 Chisel Brush (It's a very curt bristle flat brush)

To paint the vertical beams, starting time in the back and paint two vertical stroke lines. I did three beams on each side and each beam gets progressively taller (because of perspective).

Next I added color to the pier. I used white and raw umber and painted horizontal lines that sort of blended to make a rustic effect.

And so on the beams (the inner parts facing the pier) I painted a very faint white line. Blend that white line in a fleck if it looks to strong.

10. Paint silhouette of grass/ cattails on the bottom.

Utilisemars blackand a#iv circular brush.Basically paint unproblematic blades of grass and a few cattails.

11. Paint the tree branches & blossoms

For the branches I used my#12 flat brush and double loaded it inmars blackandraw umber. Start each branch at the corner with a thick line that gets thinner (like y'all're painting a triangle). Then use the tip of the castor to pigment thin branch lines that "branch off" like the letter Y. The color of the branch should exist a very dark brown/black color. Since I double loaded, it is not mixed all the way – the colors alloy on the canvas.

The branch on the left was painted so that it hung down very low.

To paint the blossoms, use a#4 round brushand the colorstitanium white, medium magenta and quinacridone magenta.Dip information technology in the colors and paint little clusters of dots everywhere. Yous don't need to rinse your castor between colors.

Yous may even paint little blossoms falling down, blossoms on the pier and perchance a few in the water.

12. Paint the duck

To do the fiddling duck silhouette, I looked upwardly google images for a item silhouette I liked. Then I used a color pencil to draw the duck onto the canvass. Color pencil volition come off with eraser. Then I used my #10/0 liner to fill in the duck shape a solid blackness.