Going Bigger And Growing As An Artist | Acrylic Painting Tutorial

Hi everyone, welcome back for another video. Today I'm going to be showing you how to paint a big canvas. So if you were ever thinking about wanting to try the canvas but intimidated by them, I understand the fear of that. Now today I'm going to be showing you how to paint a beautiful lake scene with a little swan in it. I'm going to use a lot of moody blues and greens and then some complementary colors in there. So I'll have everything listed below the video in the description box and we're going to jump in and get started. Okay so I'm going to take a little bit of white and because I'm painting on a big surface, I'm just going to a lot of the time just apply the paint right to the canvas and I'm going to be using a little bit of yellow and pink. So just add a little bit of pink right here, a little bit of yellow. I'm using neon pink, lemon yellow and titanium white and I'm going to continue with this big brush here which is four inches but you can use any large brush you want. I'm going to add a little bit down here. I'll take a little bit of water just to release that paint. I'm going to come in with some hooker's green hue and a little bit of purple. This is phoenix violet. So if you see me kind of glance off to the right, which I will be doing often, it's because I have a little sketch, a few different sketches and ideas in mind of where I'm going with this. But like I always say and what usually ends up happening is my paintings take on a life of their own and they tend to transform and go in different directions, which I might add is really exciting. I like that. So yeah, you may see me kind of glance off to the right a little bit here and there. So I'm kind of creating a little opening here. I'm going to come in and add some more purple, really just blocking in colors right now and we'll build up to details one step at a time. What I find easiest is to break up the light and dark areas first. I'm going to take some of my gorgeous phthalo blue. You guys know if you've been watching my channel for some time you know how much I love my phthalo blue and I'm not the only one. I know many of you out there love it too. It's such a happy, gorgeous, rich blue. So I haven't rinsed my brush out. I've got all that green, a little bit of purple, but mostly green and I'm coming down low here with that because I want to have a waterfall or two in this area. I'm going to come in with some aqua green. This one's a beautiful shade, bright aqua green by Liquitex. I've been using this one for years and I'm going to come in right here below where the waterfall is going to end, where it drops down to and then just brush over here and I've got another one of my favorite shades which is lime green also by Liquitex. I only mention the brand and the name of it because so many of you ask. So I'm going to drive these areas off in here and then I'm going to come in and it looks like a little frog. I'm going to stipple in some of this beautiful lime green after. I use a hairdryer to speed up the time. Make sure you're turning it to the lowest heat setting so you don't damage your canvas. I'm going to use this one, not preferably, but it is shorter than, it's a two and a half inch and I can still get some, it's a little bit softer than my four and a half inch brush and I can still get some nice poofy shapes going in here to create that nice texture. Okay so I'm going to take some of this beautiful, just tapping in, my brush is dry. I want to mention that because that makes a difference and I'm just going to start, oh this is actually turning out quite nice. I'm pleasantly surprised. I don't often, you don't often see me use a flat brush for stippling. I prefer to use the round mop brushes but this is working out nicely. I like this. Now at this point I could take this in a different direction. This is what happens to me, my mind starts changing my ideas part way through. This now is kind of like coming out to me as or looking more like it could be a big tree coming out from down here. I don't know if I'm going to go with that. I'm just going to keep applying the process here of tapping lightly. I know I want this to be shadowed in here and I want the lightest areas to be in this section here, above and like beyond this waterfall sanctuary going on in here. So I'm just going to keep tapping lightly here and I like to mix in a little bit of purple with my darkest greens to create more shadows and earthiness. I'm going to just use this same brush. I've got some purple, that phoenix violet right and the hooker's green and I'm going to take a little bit of this and tap a little tree in this section here. Now this is more in the front. This is behind where you see that light and this tree is in the front. I'm going to add a little bit more purple in here and apply that and I'm going to go over to another flat brush. This one is also two and a half. Now you can see the difference in the bristles. This is just synthetic. I really like synthetic brushes. I need to get a little bit of water in this brush just to dampen the bristles so that I can pull this glue around a little bit better. When you're using really thick heavy-bodied acrylics like this, you need a little bit of help sometimes to guide that paint along. I'm going to take just a little bit of white because this is going to dry a little bit darker than what it's looking like right now. What I'm going to do is take my brush and come down here with the waterfall. I'm going to take some of that green, blue, purple, a little bit of white and on an angle just pull and drop that down. Come down from the other side. Maybe add another one there. I picked up some of that green, which is fine. I'm going to just pull up, turn my brush over like this. I'm going to take a little bit more white, tap the base, tap, tap, tap right above here. I'm going to add a little curve in here and then drop and then drop. So okay, let's take some white, mix that up to make a beautiful shade of blue-violet, so Phoenix Violet and Phthalo Blue. Then we'll add some of these beautiful shadows can be part of the the water as well. You can use this color for shadows on the water. I'm going to use this for a little bit of a spray effect. I'm going to soften that in a moment. And before that dries, I'm going to soften. So I'm going to use this. It's already a little bit dry, so what I'm going to do is just take my misting. This is just water and add a light little spray, a mist of water to create, help me create a little bit of a mist effect. So I'm going to create my mist of water here. Then I'll add a touch of white and make this a little bit softer. So this is the trick right to making your acrylics act like oils and look really buttery and smooth and soft like this. It's just wet into wet. It's all about that timing. So a little bit more blue. Okay, now I'm going to add some branches. I'm going to use the blue-purple, a little bit of white, and come in and add a few trees down here. Okay, now I'm going to add a few trees down here. I'm going to use a combination of purple and green. I want it to be the darkest. I'm going to work these branches out more towards the waterfall. I'm going to use a little bit of water just to help spin the paint out. I'm going to add a few little steps going up here. I'm just pulling the lines a little bit wider here at the base. Then I'll come in with a little bit of white with that blue-violet shade back again. We'll add this for the highlights so that they're a little more visible. Then as it trails off, it can just be a little wiggly line like that because it's going to get narrower as it gets further away and just look a lot smaller. I'm going to come down here and just add a little railing, I think. I'm painting these ideas as they come to me. If for some reason you don't like what you've painted, you can paint over it or you can take it off. I'm going to mix it with some purple and I'm going to tap in some treetops here. If you guys are enjoying this video, don't be shy to leave a comment below. I always love hearing from you. If you have any requests, if there's something you haven't seen me paint on a big canvas that you'd like to, let me know. I'm going to come over here and add some on this side as well. Not to cover up all the green, but just add a little bit here. I don't normally come over to this side to apply paint at all, but I feel like with this size I need to come over here. This is going to dry darker, and if you want yours to stay a little brighter, then you might want to think about adding a little bit more white. Stagger and tap for some instant wisteria-looking dangling flowers. I feel like all of my paintings lately, if you put them all together, they kind of tell a story. Where one is leading you in, it's taking you to maybe this tranquil sanctuary, and then where you go up the stairs and you go over, maybe will be my next painting. I think I might have to put another little waterfall in here. I'm going to take my dagger brush again, blue turquoise, and bring it over here. It's got some twists and turns, and just kind of disappears into the mist. A little bit of blue and turquoise. I'm going to add a little bird here. I'm just going to do a little beak on a few different angles. I have a double one there. Some water lilies. Let's make some blue-violet again. Purple, blue, and white. Add a little white in the center of those. And then a little reflection. Take some more blue with the purple. We still have a little bit of white in here. We'll add some little petals that are more in shadow. Maybe we can add a little swan over here. Adding a little bit more white to the blue-violet. A darker line in between any dark color, blue and purple, or just purple. I'm using blue and green. A small liner brush here I'm going to use. And I'll take a little bit more of the white, a little bit of green, and just pull the tail feather in like this. And then the other feathers, just to give them a little bit more light on the ends. And then, again, any dark color for the beak and the eye. Just add a little line in there. Add a little bit more white to them. And just stagger them. In the centers. Add a little stem right here. Some purple and white. It's kind of muted, mixed with a little bit of green. And a little bit of blue. I still want to capture a little bit more blue up in here. So I'm just going to dry brush around with my blue and my white. My rigger brush, long liner brush, purple, some water. And add a few branches up here. These are separate from this tree. This is coming in from another tree. So I'm combining some thicker branches with some thinner ones. And then I'm going to come in on this side too and just add a few. It kind of creates this, even exaggerates this little scoop even more. Just mix up a little bit of white, purple, and blue. Add a little bit of color here. Aqua turquoise. All right, I'm going to stop the video here. I might add a little bit more, and we'll see where it goes. If you want to see the final finished product, you can check that out on my website, joneyyoungart.com, or on Facebook or Instagram. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this one, and have fun creating one yourselves. See you soon. Bye.