How to Paint “Sea of Dreams” Acrylic Tutorial

Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. I'm so happy you're all here to join me today for this fun painting tutorial and another fantasy for you. This is a 9 by 12 double-primed and stretched canvas. Now you can use anything larger, smaller, whatever size canvas that you like. And I've got the following colors, white, cool yellow, neon, neon yellow warm, neon pink, phthalo cyan blue, aqua green turquoise, and a light pull of green. So I'm going to start this painting by working on the sky first and then we're going to lead up to this big wave here that's full of fantasy and whatever kind of comes to mind as I paint this. So I'm painting intuitively on the spot. I don't have anything to go by right now, just I like to trust my imagination and my thoughts and paint whatever comes to mind right now. So I always love to have a camera rolling and talk my process through and make it a tutorial for you guys at the same time. I'm going to be using uh, let's see here. I've got my number 30 filbert brush. I'm just going to wet the canvas down a little bit. Adding a little bit of water to the canvas prior adding to adding the paint really really helps to blend your paint out and it takes your paint further so you're not frustrated with it drying out too quick. You're not constantly going back for more paint wondering why it's not spreading. There are mediums out there to extend your acrylics but water works just fine and it's free. So just a little bit of water and again I'm using a number 30 filbert but you can use any brush you have or you want to use just for this background. So the first color I'm going to take is my pink. I'm using Holbein Luminous Neon Heavy Bodied Acrylics but you can use any bright pink that you want. There's other brands, there's Arteza, Liquitex Basics and a few other ones so you don't have to have these exact ones I'm using today. And I'm just going to start spreading across the top of the canvas. So a little bit of pink first working it out of my brush as I go down. The next color a little bit of that neon yellow warm. I'm going to overlap where I left off so we get a nice gradation from pink to that yellow and then to the cool yellow. Again I'm going to overlap where I left off and I'll take a little bit of white and I'll just add a little bit right there and I've got a clean brush here now. The next thing I'm going to do is go into my phthalo blue or phthalo blue cyan. You don't need the cyan phthalo you can just use regular phthalo it's very very similar. And what I'm going to do is go down like this on a slant just pull back up and then what I'm going to do is curve curve and I like having these see-through spaces in between. You can even go from the bottom up use a little bit more of the phthalo blue right in here make it a little wiggly like this. This is where it's going to be darkest is right next to where it's going to be the brightest so we'll have the bright foamy bits on top and then a little bit down here at the bottom. I'm going to let this completely dry and then we're going to filter over with our turquoise. So we're going to apply the turquoise paint over the entire weight but we have to wait for it to dry and that way it's going to give us a beautiful glowing effect. But what I want to do right now is add a few clouds in the sky and I'm going to be using my number two filbert brush. I'm going to make a light blue violet color and I'll show you I've got it in a tube already in my light ultramarine blue or light blue violet depending on what brand you get. I've got one already that I bought but I want to show you how you can make it with these colors if you already have them on your palette. So I'm going to take a bit of white a little bit of my neon pink and just a tiny bit of that blue. Now let's see it doesn't look like blue violet yet it looks like more of a lilac color. Let's take a little bit more of the phthalo blue now it's a little bit too blue let's add a little bit of white a little bit more pink and I think we're pretty close here lighten up with some more white very very close so there you go you can take blue and pink and depending on what shade of blue you're using it'll just kind of change slightly and you'll get something really similar. I'm going to take a little bit more white because I know it's going to dry a bit darker I want these clouds to look soft and dreamy so I think I'm just going to start up here now I don't have a lot of water in my brush at all just paint I'm just gonna gently push and wiggle okay then I'm going to come in from here and if my orange and yellow is wet underneath that's gonna um mix in a little bit look what I do here on the end just because I'm wanting this to have a little bit more of a whimsical look I'm gonna play up on the ends and make them kind of look curvy like a vine would look take a little bit more white and not over blending just kind of adding that there and then leaving it and then a little bit more white so we get different tones in our clouds see beautiful light effects you'll get it'll add a few little scattered ones up here twisting and wiggling and really not being careful people overthink and overwork their clouds and that's where you get the frustration spending too much time staring at your clouds thinking they're wrong when really all you need to do is just put that paint on squirtle it around the canvas a little bit and then just leave it come back to it later if you're not sure and then I always like to come in and add a little bit of light or dark depending on if it needs it I think they're dark enough so just adding a little dab of white not covering up the entire cloud though now what I can do is get my brush wet rinse out that paint clean brush just sweep if you really want to have some sweeping dreamy looking clouds take a little bit of water maybe a little bit of white and sweep out from the bottom a little bit like that all right so I think I'm going to leave that for now I was hoping this would be totally dry most of it is but you can see wherever there's some little shiny bits where it's a little bit thicker is where it's still wet so I'm going to speed the process up with my hair dryer and then we'll come back in like I mentioned earlier with our turquoise with our bright aqua green turquoise okay so this should be dry enough now I'm going to go back in with my number 30 of dirt just gonna pull both sides evenly just a quarter of the way up the paintbrush and I think I'm just going to start from down here I can see I need just a little bit of water on my brush so just to show you how much water I'm adding there's no drips if you have anything dripping that'd be about way too much water on your brush another green that would be really nice is phthalo green and I'm going to go to back over to my number two filbert brush and I'm going to pick up a little bit of white I've got a tiny bit of water and you know the little foamy bits that you get on on the water we're just gonna scumble along here wiggle wiggle and then go up and then bring it flat down here so we'll have some dark ones and then we'll have some lighter ones like this if you really want to create more of a glow and you'll push and add a little bit more it's only if you really need it if your wave isn't bright enough just loading the very tip of my brush like this you can do this with a liner brush too I find it can be a little bit challenging with a liner brush especially for my beginner students you just check back and see if it starts to fade too much and you want to have a little bit more go ahead and just slide in there and get a little bit more on your brush just on the very tip and just create all these little wiggles and squiggles okay the next thing I'm going to do let's go back into my phthalo and add a little bit more depth here that's how we're going to start to make our wave look I'm coming down lower than the top because we do have our that foam on the top too taking a little bit of water and again just to show you how much water I've got it's not dripping and you can add a few of those little squiggles in there too sometimes you get a little bit of seaweed that's getting tossed up and rolled in with the waves you just want to make sure you're paying attention to the shape the direction that your wave is going a little bit down here so when the wave gets picked up it's thin here and you're seeing the light filter through but then down below we've still got the the deep water and there's shadow there so we need to create that shadow by adding the same dark colors some more of the turquoise and the blue down at the bottom and this is the easiest way to paint a wave some more turquoise with the blue mix it up and we'll start coming in here as it starts picking up when it's my brush out and then I'm just going to slide and scramble slide scramble and wiggle a little bit extra shadow in here let's get into that little spot right there okay I think this wave is looking pretty nice so far I think we're ready to start coming in with the top for the top of the wave I'm going to be using my number 16 filbert brush you can use any size filbert brush you want fan brush stipple brush it's really how you're using the brush is what's going to give you that look of the foam and the brightest spots on the top of the wave so I'm going to be making that light ultramarine blue color again or light blue violet a little bit of pink blue and white okay there we go mixed up and I'm going to start tapping partially partially above the wave and partially over the darkest parts if you want you can even pull over like that it all depends on what kind of wave you want to create I think I'm going to take a little bit of white a little bit more pink a little bit of yellow in I don't want to over top because then I'm going to just make brown tap a little bit in here see the color reflecting on this wave the colors are going to be coming from the sunset above okay I'm going to rinse my brush out I'm going to add a little bit of this color in the water with my number two filbert I'm just going to tie all these colors in together that same technique and I'm going to go under the water again under the top of the wave have a bit more shadow and I'm going to make the beginning stages of some castles so I'm just going to pull out a little flat base here and I'm going to pull it up wiggle wiggle wiggle flatten that out again and just pull different turning my brush to the side like this or you can pull up like this if you want different heights for a castle and then I'll take a little bit of white and do a little arch like that just for the tops some smaller ones and please you use brushes that you feel comfortable with you know you might want to use a little round brush but you can use a little filbert and then take a little bit of white I just think this is so whimsical and fun and it doesn't have to be people think that they this is for a child's room big for any age never too old for some fun and fairy tale and some whimsy you can make it a little bit darker you want it to be a little bit more moody and have a bit of a mysterious almost kind of gloomy feel to it that can add a lot of mood just by changing the color tone just rinsing my brush out and I'm going to go into if you look at my pink and this time I'm going to add a little bit of that warm yellow and a little bit of that white violet in there that we made and then we'll go underneath those little turrets and in between we'll just add a little bit of shadow in here and I'm going to tap tap tap little taps and we'll add a little bit of our light olive green this for some grass and some trees and bushes that that may be there so we'll just right away go into that pretty shady green you can use any green that you want there's no rules I just really like using these olive earthy greens like it ties all the other colors together and take a little bit of let's take a little bit of white and the neon yellow we'll have some highlights a little bit more and it's far away so you don't have to have a lot of detail you know what's funny about this is this little bit of a cloud that I have there lines up perfectly here and it looks like a flag doesn't it so we'll go into that darkish color that we have there and go with that and take a little bit more of my white a little bit of yellow orange and white a few little dabs for windows and then what I'd like to do right about here is have a little magical portal or opening and then kind of have feeling like these are almost like stairs blending in becoming one with the wave so I'm going to take white clean brush orange and yellow and I think I'll add it right about here a little oval shape and then I'm just gonna add that light and have it start to become one with a wave do that again a little bit more okay take blue pink yellow and I think we'll have a few little plants bushes around here I always like to add some foliage and buying some flowers and stuff on around my little garden archways or little portals I think these were just so fun to paint they add a lot to a painting I'm going to take my light olive green dab dab dab have a little bit kind of dangling down there too and pull in a little bit of neon yellow I'm going to have this sort of blending in as well and take a little bit more yellow both yellows tap that out a little bit more warmth in there I think I look a little bit more warm and inviting mix those colors up again the same colors and I'm gonna add some here on the top I'm gonna start having little lights that come down so a little bit of flowers here still using the same brush pink flowers a little bit more white mix up what's left on my brush tap and dab over where I left off and then just kind of gently sweep up like that I'm going to switch over to a liner brush now I've got a size zero liner brush and I'm going to go and take those darker colors again and add a few little dabs and some windows these little easy easy simple details make a big difference I will add just a little bit more shadow in here again it's the yellow one blue and pink and I'm going to add some glowing lights here I think I'll take some yellow and white I'm going to use both yellows I'm going to start dabbing so it looks like little glowing beads they're just trailing down take this yellow with a little bit of white add a little bit over here really helps to steady your hand and make these better by placing your your pinky on the painting of course you want to make sure that it's dry and then they'll get smaller and smaller let's see it's nice to tint your white with these neon paints because then you get the most beautiful pastel tones I'll add a little bit in here and we can make some pink ones too even with a little bit of yellow in there yellow pink white all those colors that we have up top right all work so nicely together I'm going to add a little bit to this pink one here I'm just going to mix my brush out and I'm going to go back into my neon yellow I'm going to add a few extra highlights on some areas here I'm going to add some little twinkling sparkly looking stars right at the very center with a little bit of white and just take whatever tinted white color you want whatever pastel color you want add a few more a little bit of white in the center I'm just going to lightly brush over the dark windows there because it's a little bit too dark for something that's far away you can go back in a little bit of water and that's for those little squiggly foamy bits and I thought it would be really fun because it is a fun and musical painting why not have a little lamp post right here you guys know how much I love my lamp posts in my paintings they just have so much charm and character so I'm gonna go ahead and do that cleaning my brush off and take those colors again just to make something kind of dark twist and roll my brush you might need a little bit of water on your brush to help work the paint out and go across the top add a little triangle come down narrower on either side a little line there and then we're gonna do the post and when that happens definitely need a little bit of water so just adding a little bit of water there we go and then we'll gradually make it a little bit wider for the base no that's just like a little bit of shadow right there okay so narrower here a little line and then a triangle on the top get a little bit more inside my lamp here just so pass more room for adding the lights on my lampshade I'm gonna add some flowers here little hanging baskets I've been starting to add these to my lamp posts and they're so pretty just a little bit of light olive green and a little bit of neon yellow for highlight and then a little bit of the bubblegum pink you can just use the neon pink and just add a few little dabs like this clean brush I'm gonna go back to my blue go top again another little dark basket dark colored basket and then we'll add a line down there and see how it comes in start from the outer edges and then bring it in like that blue and tap and dab for a few more shadows and a little bit of got my filbert brush again this one is the number 16 a little bit of cool neon yellow and white and I'll just add it right there and we still have that bare canvas I'm gonna take a little bit of yellow neon yellow cool a little bit of white and light olive green and just pull that out a little bit I'm just gonna have a few more stars coming down here some of you need a little bit more and I'll pick up a little bit more of this yellow mixture I'm just a little bit more light olive green now I've got a bit of a shadow here on this side we've got this underwater blend now this star here is pretty white I want to add a bit of color to it take a little bit of that pink I'm just going to go around so I can go over and glaze a little bit of white yellow in the center that'd be pretty to incorporate a few little water I'm going to do that so I'm going to take a little bit of yellow blue and light olive green I'm just going to add some little flat ovals right there and there will be some kind of coming up a little bit of yellow white a little bit more everything to just kind of get swept in and look really dreamy in this wave there's a little bit more of my yellow blue okay and then some white and that pink just add a little blobby center like that first rinse my brush out as you can probably hear and then take some white yellow the yellow so you can add a little bit of pink if you want I'm just going to pull little petals like this nothing too detailed we don't need a lot of detail to know that these are little water lilies just some little ones tap and dab a little like that take a little bit more yellow and white and give them a little bit more glow in the center I'm gonna have just a little bit more up into this wave just a little bit of yellow blue light olive green rinse your brush out before you begin adding your flowers add a little dab both yellows and white dab push and dab and we'll take a little bit of white and pink without washing my brush off I've got a little bit of all those colors in there and just simply a few little petals like that don't get lost in trying to make everything look like a full-on detailed flower you really don't have to do that oh this is fun I really like this I love just you know not worrying about if I'm going to like it after that's the best way to paint it's just to paint whatever you feel like painting without thinking about the outcome it's the most fun okay I'm gonna call this painting all done thanks so much for joining me today and don't forget to subscribe to my channel for more check out the links below this video you can become one of my patrons I really appreciate all of the supporters both here and on Patreon have a wonderful day and I'll see you all soon in my next video bye everybody