From there, build very slowly up to the pale yellows, apricots, and pinks you can see in the lightest areas of your photo.
How to Paint a Sunset with Acrylics Step by Step
Is there anything more beautiful than a sunset? Isn’t it only natural as artists that we would want to capture something as beautiful and precious as the setting sun in our artwork? I think so, that is why one of the first things many beginners want to learn is how to paint a sunset with acrylics.
Today I am featuring the work of the very talented artist Chuck Black with a handful of beautiful step by step acrylic painting demonstrations of sunsets from his YouTube Channel which you can visit here. Chuck has a really great channel filled with lots of free tips, techniques and demonstrations. Show him your support and subscribe to his channel today! Be sure to check out his website as well!
Painting a Realistic Sunset in Acrylics
How to Paint a Sunset with Acrylics
Full step by step tutorial for painting a stunning sunset. In this real time video you’ll learn how to paint clouds, the glow of the sun, and creating a strong sense of realism.
Painting One of the BEST Sunsets I’ve Seen!
Step by step, I show you in real time how to paint this sunset scene with acrylic paint. Painting colorful skies where the yellows, oranges, and reds blend into the darker blues can be super tricky. I show you how to layer those colors correctly so that it doesn’t turn out to be muddy and instead glows bright.
Acrylic Seascape Painting Techniques | Sunset at the beach
Seascape painting tutorial with Golden fluid acrylics. Acrylic painting techniques for water and light.
Top tips for your acrylic sunset painting
- Acrylics dry really, really quickly: Blending with this type of paint can be difficult. Work with this element of the paint, rather than fighting against it, by painting in lots of layers.
- Blend, then combine colours on your palette: Once you’ve blended two areas of colour, simply combine the two on your palette, and use that colour to blend between them again. This is really helpful when painting features like clouds.
- Start with the lightest areas: If you want an area to be bright, your base layer needs to be bright too. Bear this in mind when painting your sun, the brightest star of every sunset painting!
To create your sunset painting, you’ll need to make sure you have the right art materials. Here are our recommendations:
Liquitex Basics acrylic paints
At the moment, we’re using a Liquitex Basics set. The coverage might be a little bit thinner, but you can get a wide range of colours for an affordable price, and the paints feel nice to use.
It’s also advisable to have a bigger tube of white paint on hand, as you will go through this very quickly.
Filbert paintbrushes
For this acrylic sunset painting tutorial, we’re using filbert brushes (which have a curved, flat tip) for blending colours together and smaller round brushes to add details (such as highlights).
A palette
Your palette is essential for mixing up the right colours before you start painting. It’s especially important for sunset paintings, as you’re going to want lots of subtly different shades for blending.
Canvas or paper
It’s your choice whether you’d prefer to end up with a painting on canvas or paper. If you decide to use paper (like I did for this acrylic sunset painting), look for a minimum of 300gsm or paper that’s for mixed media, so that it doesn’t warp when it gets wet.
We’d recommend buying a pad of mixed media paper from Cass Art, which does a good job of holding the paint.
How to paint a sunset in acrylic step by step
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You Will Need
- Acrylic paints
- Canvas or mixed media paper
- paintbrushes
- A palette
- A cloth , Keep a rag or piece of kitchen paper to one side to remove excess water from your brush
- A jar of water , A jar of water on hand makes it quick and easy to dampen and clean your brushes
Total time:
An afternoon
Drafting your spectacular sunset painting
Step 1
Choosing a striking sunset photo to work from
Before you get started on your acrylic sunset painting, you first need to choose a reference photo. If you haven’t taken a photo yourself, there are a few sites which offer royalty-free images you could use instead. We recommend Pixabay, Pexels, or Unsplash.
For our sunset painting tutorial, we’ve settled on this dramatic photo by KeYang on Pixabay.
Sunset photo by KeYang on Pixabay
Step 2
Tape the paper down to create a neat border
If you’re using paper, start by taping this down to a hard surface. We’re using masking tape.
Stick the tape to the surface of your desk once and peel it off again before sticking down the paper. This makes it less tacky and will stop the paper from ripping when you remove the tape.
Taping down your paper helps prevent it buckling when a lot of water is added, and leaves a crisp white border around the edge of your painting.
Step 3
Sketch out the rough shapes of the painting
Whether you’re using paper or canvas, we’d recommend sketching in a light outline of your sunset painting before you get started.
This can be as simple as a curved line to mark the edge of a dark cloud, or a line where the horizon will go. It’ll help make sure everything’s in the right place before you begin painting.
Sunset Painting. A Simple Strategy To Uncover The Nuance Behind The Romance.
Sunset painting and painting at sunset! The time you have to document colours at sunset is limited. You have to get throw some colour down fast – so that you have a basic record of the colours, paying particular note of the important ones.
Digital photography now makes the process of saving information a lot easier, so as well as your rough colour record, take some photographs and go back to the studio, away from the mozzies. (And close to the bar fridge!)
Ahhhh. Time to paint.
The approach for me is as usual. get colour down fast. This will give you something to start with. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that you just hurl any colour down anywhere. Have an educated first attempt. With pretty much any sunset or sunset painting that I can think of, follow a simple rule:
Colours are generally:
Warmer – closer to the light source
Cooler – further away from the light source
When painting clouds at sunset, a handy trick is to look at the highlights on the cloud furthest from the light source. At some point closer to the light source, that highlight colour will become the shadow colour of a cloud. The highlight on that particular cloud, may also be the shaded colour of another cloud even closer to the light source. A strategy that I use to understand the colour process when painting sunsets, is this:
Imagine you have the colours of a sunset laid out on your palette. For example, blues transitioning into purples, reds, yellows, and ultimately possibly white.
Imagine those colours painted in a smooth gradation on your canvas. We are following the rule of cool to warm. The clouds at this time of day will also follow that same rule. (As will trees, mountains, grass etc etc).
Think of it like this:
Perhaps the furthest clouds may contain a bluey-grey colour. The next cloud closer to the light, will almost invariably have less blue, and tend more towards a reddy colour. Clouds closer again will contain probably none of the blue, and tend more towards oranges and yellows.
The highlights on those clouds will do exactly the same thing. That is, if the highlights start at a red colour furthest away, the highlights will transition in the same way that the shadows do.
Always remember when you’re introducing clouds into your sunset painting, consider that different types of clouds will occur at different heights, and therefore will reflect different light. The warm to cool rule still applies. Even if there are multiple layers of clouds.
As noted before, pay particular attention to the way colour is altered as it gets closer to the light source in the late afternoon. Get this wrong, and even the most beautiful skyscape will appear very ordinary. Cool to warm.
The truth is, despite all the formulas, sunset painting is still a challenging experience. Get it right, and all the stars line up, dolphins leap from the water, and the lotto man knocks on your front door. Get it wrong, and you’ll spend hours weeping under your desk (or mumbling incoherently at the neighbours).
Put all this wonderful theory into practise with our newest downloadable step-by-step tutorial, Tropical Sunset!
Download it now from the Explore Store for only AUD$25. Whaaat?? Bargain. Get on it people!
