Ideally you want the base (bottom of the stroke) to be brighter and have it fade out by releasing the pressure of the brush. Wipe a little paint off of the brush.ĭrag your brush upwards from the base of the aurora borealis line and release the pressure of each stroke so the paint dries out. Double load your brush in medium magenta and titanium white.

Next, use your 3/8″ angle brush to “dry brush” the aurora borealis. The third line is more like an “S” and was drawn on the right part of the sky. The first two lines are long and wavy and stretch across the left part of the sky. I did three lines and each of those lines met at the same point in a lower right area above the mountains. Use a piece of chalk to draw the base of the aurora borealis lines. Then add a little phthalo blue on the bottom of the large land area and blend up. Then paint a land area on the bottom left of the landscape with titanium white. Paint with slightly textured/ wavy strokes. Then paint a diagonal/curved line on the right to bring the land down into some of the lake.įill the land with titanium white and a little phthalo blue blended on the bottom. Paint a thin to medium size land line along the base of the mountain.Īdd a little “phthalo blue” on the bottom of the white land line and blend up. Use a #8 round brush to paint the land that is at the base of the mountain titanium white. Make sure to only add very small amount to keep the left side of the mountain dark and contrasted against the right side. Just a little is needed!Īlso optional: paint a small amount of Prussian blue & white on the left side (dark side) of the mountain peaks. To make smaller mountain peaks, you can use your brush to paint a peak and then drag paint to the right.Īdvanced: you can add a little Prussian blue to your brush to add some blue to the mountain highlights. Only dry brush the right side of each mountain and leave the left side black (for now).

Repeat this for each of your mountain peaks. Use the tip of your brush to drag the paint diagonally to the right and let it fade out. Then wipe off a little white off your brush so that the next strokes will be “dry brush style”. Divide each mountain peak with a curved line that starts at the point and goes down and turns to the left. Load the tip of the brush in a small amount of titanium white. Next, rinse and dry your 3/8″ angle brush. Paint all the way to the horizon line and don’t go below the line. Next, paint your mountains in solid mars black. If it helps, you can also draw your mountain line out with chalk first and then fill it in. These mountain peaks are pointed and have varying heights and widths. Use a 3/8″ angle brush (or a small flat brush) to paint a mountain line above the horizon line. Everything below will be the land, lake and trees. Everything above the line will be mountains and sky. Draw a horizontal line across the canvas with a piece of chalk. Then measure the center of the canvas with a ruler. Simply dip the tip of your 3/4″ flat wish in a little water before you reload the paint. Tip: thinning the paint with a little water as you are painting the canvas helps the acrylic paint dry slower and helps it to blend and flow easier. Basically you are painting the entire canvas with a gradient of Prussian blue to titanium white in the middle (turns light blue because it blends with the dark blue) and then to darker Prussian blue on the bottom. Start below the blue and blend upwards so the sky gets lighter as it reaches the middle of the canvas.īlend the white from the bottom to the middle as well. Load your brush in titanium white (without rinsing the brush. Then blend titanium white towards the middle of the canvas. Paint the top and bottom third of the canvas using left and right strokes. Load your 3/4″ flat wash brush in Prussian blue and a little water. Basically the center of the canvas is the lightest in color and the top and the bottom of the canvas are the darkest. The background is a blended gradient of Prussian blue and Titanium White.

Dark reflection painting tutorial