Painting Tutorial Acrylic Sunset for Beginners

Hello and welcome to my studio. I'm Katie Jobling and today we're gonna be painting this beautiful acrylic painting together of a sunset ocean scene. And if you really love painting tutorials, make sure that you also sign up for this exclusive mountain painting tutorial. In this one, I actually guide you through the five things that every painting needs, step-by-step. This tutorial is not available on YouTube, but it is a 90-minute session packed with incredible painting techniques, color mixing tips, and also I'm gonna share with you a process that you can apply to every painting going forward. So don't miss out on that. I'll include the link in the description box and also in the comment section so you can join me on a painting adventure. But for now, let's focus on this beautiful sunset painting and I'll let you know what supplies you're gonna need. So for supplies, I've got titanium white, magenta, orange, yellow, and phthalo blue. I've also just gonna be using one brush. This is a Galleria one-stroke brush. They're my favorite kind of brushes because I love a flat edge, they're so versatile. And this one is the 19-millimeter version. And then I've just got a palette, some water, an old rag, and I'm using a canvas panel, but you can use this on any surface and any size that you wish. Okay, so I'm gonna take my brush and I'm just gonna dip it in some water just to create a nice dampness. You don't really want it wet, but you just want it nice and damp. It'll help the paint travel more easily across the canvas. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna pop down our base layer and what's really nice about this is it's gonna be reflective. So we kind of want to go from blue into a light orange and then back to a light blue again. So what I'm gonna do to start with is take some phthalo blue and I'm gonna add white. I'm gonna want quite a little bit of white to blue ratio so that it's a very, very light color. I'm also gonna add just a little bit of the magenta just to create a nice, almost like bordering on like a purpley blue. And then I'm just gonna add a little bit of water into that and I'm gonna just take that into the sky. Now I like to do quite a thick layer here. Don't be put off of, you know, the myth about wasting supplies or anything like that. I want you to be able to use your paint freely. This layer's gonna add some really nice texture and we want to be able to really see and feel that pigment. Also, we're gonna be doing some blending here and for blending to really work, it's gonna have to be kind of like wet paint. So we don't want it to dry too quickly. Now what we're gonna do is take some of the orange and add in some white and probably just a little bit of yellow actually. And I've already run out of white, already. I've only just begun. I've got a feeling we might be using quite a little bit of titanium white today. May have to do an emergency run to the shop at some point. Okay. And then what I'm gonna do is take that straight into what we've put down and I'm gonna just take that side to side to give that a really nice blend. And then I'm gonna wash my brush really well and I'm gonna dry it really well. And I'm just gonna take that blend in side to side. Feel free to add a bit of water. You can also do a bit of a diagonal motion to really blend those colors and then back to side to side again. So this is just kind of creating a bit of a base that we can go on top of. And then we're kind of gonna do the same again. So I want a bit more orange, a bit more white cause that's dried a little bit now. I'm adding a little bit of water. And I'm gonna add just a little bit of the magenta too just to warm that up a little bit. I'm gonna put that here. And then I'm gonna wash my brush out and I'm gonna pop down. We're gonna be doing some phthalo blue. This is gonna be quite a tricky color to get actually. Want some phthalo blue, some magenta and also a bit of orange and probably some white. Yeah, that's a really nice color actually. Kind of like a muted purple and then I'm gonna pop that along the bottom. Now we are gonna be going over these layers. This is just the base layer. This is just to provide a bit of a backdrop throughout all the layers. So don't be afraid that it has to be perfect or anything like that. And here, I'm not actually gonna blend it too much because this is gonna be the sea and I think these little lines and such could actually help give that effect of the waves and the reflection. In fact, I might even take some of that light pink and kind of bring that right down to the bottom. Okay, so that's our first layer. Now we're gonna wait for that to dry. So make sure to wash your brush out really well and grab a nice little drink or snack and we're gonna wait for that to completely dry before moving on to the next layer. Lovely, so what we're gonna do next is really start to bring that vibrancy back because we've added kind of like the background layer but what we're gonna do next is take a little bit of orange and we're gonna add in a little bit of yellow to that and lots of white. Now we can add white to lighten this color but adding yellow is also a really great way to lighten the color without losing that intensity or vibrancy. I'm just gonna pop that down. I'm also thinking about moving the sun to around here and playing around with that composition a little bit. So I'm just gonna pop that color down, see how I feel. I think that is pretty much the color I was hoping for. So I'm gonna continue to kind of take that into the sky and I'm going backwards and forwards to really add that kind of effect of it going through those wispy clouds and through the waves of the sea. So I'm just going backwards and forwards and I'm only letting my brush go down very, very lightly and almost like letting the canvas kind of decide where it's gonna pick up these little lighter moments. Okay, and then I'm gonna rinse off my brush. Now I'm gonna create another mixture. I'm gonna add in a little bit more orange into that mixture and maybe even a little bit of magenta, just a tiny bit and some more white. And especially at the edges, I'm kind of gonna blend into what we've just put down. I'm gonna rinse my brush off and just using like kind of a mixture of these colors, I kind of wanna blend these through and I might even add a little bit of white to that, a little bit of a lighter streak. Also noticing a bit of a harsh line between the blue and the yellow, so what I'm gonna do is kind of marry those two together and to do that, I'm gonna mix a little bit of the magenta in and I'm kind of gonna mix these two together actually with a lot of the white. It's a bit like a gray really, it's kind of like a nothingness but I think that will just help blend these two colors together. And you can see the layers kind of sitting on each other and forming. I'm gonna use a little bit of water here to meld those two together because I didn't mind it in the sea but in the sky, I kind of want it to be a bit more blended or you can also use something like a glazing fluid, something like this would also be fine and then I'm just gonna take that yellow back in and then I'm gonna use that same kind of color and just kind of pop some little bit of, you see that like foamy, frothy bit in the sea, I'm just gonna use the corner of my brush to kind of pop in some little areas of this foam because it's going to be reflecting the sky so kind of whatever we put in the sky, we can also choose to reflect that in the sea. Okay, and I'm gonna rinse off my brush. Now something that is kind of bugging me at the moment is this, where the brush picked up on this kind of darker, this lighter yellow bit. So I'm just gonna take some of that blue and I'm gonna kind of take that in and obviously yours might look a little bit different anyway at this point. So if there's anything that's kind of bugging you, you can just go in and kind of amend that and I've created like a darker color, I've got some phthalo blue, orange and a bit of magenta here and I'm gonna use this to create some kind of waves and some little lines that you can see in the sea. So I'm just gonna very lightly take the edge of my flat brush and I'm just gonna work it side to side. We're just gonna pick up some of that canvas to show where some of these waves might be. And also add just a little bit of texture in this foamy part. And then I'm gonna rinse off my brush. And I think now I'm gonna wait for this to dry and then what I'm gonna do next is pop in the rocks. So as that's drying, we can start to make the kind of, the color mixture that we're gonna be using. So for that, I'm gonna take a little bit of black and I'm gonna be using phthalo blue, a bit of magenta and a bit of orange. You're gonna see what that gives us. If it looks a little bit too orangey, I'm gonna add a little bit more magenta till I get this really dark color. I'm gonna take that all over my flat brush. I'm gonna use my flat brush kind of like perpendicular to the canvas. So rather than kind of putting it down like this, I'm gonna hold it kind of flat against it and I'm gonna use this to kind of like carve in the shapes. Now, we don't have to use the reference image for this. We can kind of just go with how we feel. We can move things around. You kind of lead the eye into the painting. I'm gonna definitely have this one here. I think that's a really nice placement. And I'm gonna pop this one here. And you can see already how much instantly it just gives it so much depth. One of the common mistakes I see a lot of beginners make is adding in a rock and thinking, okay, because it's a rock, I need to make it brown or kind of add that dusty color. But what we need to always remember is anything in the environment only reflects the colors that surround it and the lighting. When you think about where's the light coming from, what color is that light? Is it warm light? Is it cool light? And this all makes such a big difference on how those colors look. And especially with sunsets, most of the time, it's very dark because it's a silhouette, especially if you're looking kind of against it. I'm also just gonna add in a few little bits of shadows here. Not too much, using that dark color just to lead into the painting. I'm just gonna pop in a little bit of details in some of those waves just to give it like a really crisp line. And I don't even think that I am gonna add in these rocks in the corner. I think I kind of like it very open like that. And I'm gonna rinse off my brush. And next what I'm gonna do is take a little bit of a lighter color. So maybe this kind of orange, maybe a little bit of magenta, maybe a little bit of blue just to take that down a notch. That's perfect. And I'm kind of gonna think about where the sun might be reflecting on these rocks or just kind of covering the top and kind of just thinking about where that light is hitting on those rocks. It's just gonna add a little bit more depth and shape. We're gonna kind of start to build up some of these layers as well and the colors. Okay. That's fine. And then just to pretty much probably finish that off, I'm gonna take some of the yellow, lots of white, just a very, very light yellow and kind of add just a few little bits of highlights. We don't want too much. Just some highlights of where that sun is hitting on the rock. And sometimes I'm popping a little bit of the color down and then I'm just kind of smudging it with my finger. You don't wanna do this too much and always make sure to wash your hands because it's actually not very healthy at all to get paint on your skin. Sometimes I just can't help myself. You can also get a glove and do this with a glove on too if you like this kind of effect. Okay, I think I'm happy with that. I'm gonna leave it there for now and I'm gonna rinse off my brush. We're gonna let this fully dry now and I'm gonna go wash my hands. So next what we're gonna do is work on some of the clouds. So to do that, we wanna be mindful that as the clouds go out, they wanna get a bit darker. So we'll start with the lightest color first and we can probably use mixture of what we've already got on the palette. If it's already dry, you want a bit of magenta, a bit of orange, tiny bit of blue, like tiny, tiny, tiny, and a lot of white. Actually, not too much white. Now I've said that. We obviously want the clouds to be kind of like a shade darker in the middle there. So this kind of reminds me, this color reminds me of those fruit salad sweets. I don't know if you have those where you are, but in the UK, we used to get something called fruit salad sweets and that color just reminds me so much of that. So that color's perfect. You just want it a shade darker. We can go in heavy with the purple kind of like at the sides, but just in the center, we just kind of want a little bit darker than the sky itself. And I'm just using my brush in the corner of my brush to kind of go round and round, kind of building up those shapes. And where do I want my sun? I think I kind of want my sun about here. So I'm gonna kind of go around with kind of like a spiraling motion, kind of just making up these little wispy bits, kind of really letting my brush do most of the work. And I will basically do all the cloud in this, but then what we'll do, we'll go over it with the other colors. And it's kind of coming down here. I love that. I love that when the clouds kind of come down from the top of the painting. It really frames the painting really nice. Draws the viewer's eye in. Okay. And then continue at this side. Just going to keep making up these little formations, taking my brush round in circles, and you can really play around here with the technique. Okay, I think I am pretty happy with that. So now what we want to do is kind of add in a little bit more on top of this. So we're gonna add a little bit more magenta into that same mixture, and a little bit more blue. And I'm telling you, be really, really careful with that phthalo blue because it's a very strong pigment. I've kind of got this like purple shade, and I'm happy with those that are closest to the sun, but you could just start bringing in these more purple shades, just kind of like at the top of these clouds. Give them a bit more of a fuller appearance. And I'm just using the corner of my brush. I'm getting some paint on just using the corner of it, and just letting that kind of pick up the canvas and the texture on the canvas. Okay, and then what I'm gonna do is add a little bit more phthalo blue into that mixture. So we want magenta, phthalo blue, and it's totally up to you how kind of purple or dark you want to go because this is very dark. But I'm just gonna bring that in. Again, you can kind of use your finger to smudge it, or a very soft brush would also do the trick nicely. I've got one lying around. Do use your finger, just make sure you wash your hands straight after. And building up clouds in acrylics is one of my favorite things to do. You can get some really cool effects. Perhaps we'll do a lesson on clouds, just all about clouds. One day. Okay, so I'm pretty happy with that, and I think I'm gonna leave it there for the clouds. I'm just gonna rinse off my brush, and again, I'm gonna wash my hands, but also I'm gonna go and change my water because it's looking a little bit grubby, and we're gonna need some nice, clean, fresh water for the next part. So yep, that's what I'm gonna do. Okay, so now we're gonna move on to the final part of the painting, and I've got a very clean water, clean brush ready for this final part. Now, you can also use a small, little round brush, something like this would also work really nicely for this stage. I'm gonna stick with one brush because I just really like using one brush, but what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna put paint right on the corner and use that almost just like a detailed brush, and it is a nice habit to get into as well, using your brush in different ways. So I'm gonna take some of the yellow, and then I'm gonna use, in fact, it may be easier if we add yellow to the white because we want this very, very light. This is basically gonna be the sun now, and I don't like to use white, but I like to just use a very, very, very, very light yellow, something like this. So I'm just gonna kind of wipe off any excess paint so that it's not too heavy-handed, and then what I'm gonna do is pop some paint just on the corner like this, and this is where we pop in our sun. So I'm gonna pop mine here because I'm just changing it a little bit from the reference photo, and to do that, I'm just gonna pop it down and just kind of go round and round and round in circles until I feel like it's big enough, and you'll see as we add the lights and the darks into a painting, this is what brings it to life. This is what gives a painting such depth is when you have these lights and darks really playing into each other. Then I'm gonna continue to take some of that on the edge of my brush, and I'm just gonna very, very small line some of those clouds that are around the sun because it's just such a bright reflection that it's kind of picking up on those clouds. And then I'm also gonna take that just below where the reflection is, and I'm just gonna go side to side, bringing that down into the water, and I might just actually wipe off my paint off my brush and kind of take now the flat edge of the paintbrush, not too much, just a little bit so that you can kind of work that down in lines coming down the water. And as it gets closer, we wanna take it from the lines because they're not like tight waves, now it's just kind of like free-flowing water that's pooling around. I'm gonna take my corner again and just kind of move my brush back to forth, just let the canvas pick up little areas of that. Sometimes we can have like almost too much control over where the paint goes, and it gives this feeling that it's not actually very, what's the word, it's not very authentic because in nature, we don't get to place things where we think they should go, they kind of just, these moments happen. Sometimes we need to relinquish that control. Also, what I'm gonna do is just with the corner of my brush, I'm just gonna pop a little bit on this rock here, just pick up that reflection and maybe just in a couple of areas on this rock also, not too much, just a little bit here and there. And I think that's pretty much done. Maybe need to go this way and balance that out a little bit more. But it's really good now just to kind of like step away, have a look at your painting because your painting will look also different to mine at this point. And it's good just to step away, maybe grab a drink and then come back to it and just see if there's anything that's maybe bugging you or if there's anything that doesn't feel quite right. In fact, there is something that I would like to change and I really love this reflection but also I think it needs breaking up slightly here. I think it feels a little bit too block heavy all the way down. So what I'm gonna do is take a bit of the phthalo blue and a little bit of white with some of that magenta and I'm just gonna break that up slightly. Yeah, I think I'm a lot happier with that now. So it's kind of just kind of going in and editing bits here and there about the way you wanna do it. And there's always just one touch that I like to add just to finish on and that is taking up a tiny bit of white on the corner I brush just a tiny, tiny bit and just add in a very small center to the sun, very, very slight, it just really makes it pop. So yeah, I think that's finished. Thank you so, so much for painting this beautiful painting with me. It's been lovely hanging out with you. I would absolutely love to see your painting. So make sure you post on Instagram and tag me in at katiejoblingart. It is such a joy to see your versions as well. And also before you go, don't forget to register for the exclusive painting tutorial with this painting. I'll pop the link again in the description box and in the comment section. In this session, you will not wanna miss it because we explore some incredible painting techniques in acrylics and I'll be sharing tips on color mixing and also the process that you can use with every painting going forward. It's a pretty special tutorial. And so make sure that you don't miss out on that. Thank you so much for painting with me today. I hope you have a beautiful day. Bye.