Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Olivia and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. Welcome to my painting class where I will be showing you how to paint this loose acrylic beach painting. I'm going to walk you through the materials and how to prep your paper beforehand. We will then go through exercises with the brushwork and dimension and form. I will also show you how to block in shapes to simplify the process and then we'll go through the sketch phase. Then I'll walk you through step by step process of painting this loose contemporary beach landscape. Let's begin.
2. Materials: This is all the materials. This is just Gesso two prime my canvas beforehand. A bowl for water and then a rag of some sort, and then Strathmore acrylic paper, which I had to A6 by eight inch. This tape to tape down my edges. Then these are all the paints again, everything is listed in the projects and resources tab. Please check that out. This is my glass palette and then a scraper that comes with it. These are all the brushes that I've used. You will need some flat brush, that got small to medium-sized, one filbert brush. Again, this is a small one. I use a thin brush for detailing at the end, and this one is a flat, rough brush for a good texture. This last one is around rough brushes while again, it gives it a really good texture. This is optional, but I used a palette knife for some of the waves. Lastly, make sure to print out the reference picture that I've linked in the projects and resources tab below. Again for details, check out the links below.
3. Brushwork: Now, let's dive right into some brushwork. I'm going to showing you the different marks you can make with my most commonly used brushes. I'll show you how I apply and use them. Let's first begin with the flat brush. This one, super basic and clean. I use this one for the sky. You can get simple flat washes with this one, but extremely thin lines, if you use the tip of it as well. Similarly, the smaller flat brush works just the same. I use this for simple flat washes for my landscape, especially when I block off colors in the first step. Like mentioned, these next two brushes are my most used and amongst my favorite to paint landscapes. They are very versatile and are great for that loose style landscape paintings, which we love. You can get really great, clean, flat strokes with this. I love painting this when I am painting huge mountains, or just even to block in shapes. I love using this brush to block in the initial stages. This brush is also great for layering paint on top of one another as well. If you change the direction of the brush, and hold it vertically, you can get arch-like shapes that can be used for bushes, trees, and loose objects. Because of the brush's arch-like shape, it is great for bushes. Hence, will be great for landscapes. Using the side of the brush or its tip can also be very useful to paint faraway trees or houses, etc. Overall, it's just really great for detailing. The smaller size filbert brush is great for smaller bushes and objects far away. I use this long, thin brush in every single painting, which I mostly bring out at the end for detailing. Whether I'm painting florals or landscapes, I always bring this out at the end. This brush can really add some visual interest with just little tiny marks. Today's painting, I used this brush for the grass. I gave it some highlights, and just little tiny marks far away. This can really also signify and give impressions of little objects far away, maybe even houses or animals. I even actually sign my art with this brush. If you are wondering how I sign them, it's always with this brush at the very end.
4. Dimension & Form: In this lesson, I'm going to go over dimension and form. A form is a three-dimensional figure as opposed to a shape being flat. How would you add a form to an object? Well, in painting, you can do that by adding color. In this example here we have dark tones, mid-tones, light tones, and highlights. This is exactly what you need to tone a flat object and give it some dimension and form. I'm going to show you how. I'll be using red, black, and white to demonstrate this. First I'm going to block in the shape with just plain red so that we can have a base to start from. This right here is an example of a flat 2D object, which we will now turn into a three-dimensional shape. Now, I'm going to start adding in my mid-tones. I'm going to add some black and white to the red to create that. To get my dark tones, I'm going to add some more black and fill in that edge. Now we're going to take these two colors and blend them in between. You can already see how this is forming a shape. Now let's add in some light tones by mixing in some white. Notice how I'm painting in the direction of the ball. I'm not just painting this up and down. Since this is a round shape, you want to paint in that curve. I'm just going to go back and forth in between my dark tones, mid-tones, and light tones until I'm satisfied and I feel that this looks good. I am just giving it a rough background so that it doesn't feel like this is just floating around. Then for the highlight, I'm going to take a lot more white and a tiny dab of red. A quick recap. Dark tones are achieved by mixing your original color with some black, and then the more white you mix in, you will get a gradient. You can see how you can move from a dark tone to a mid-tone to light tones and then your highlights.
5. How To Block In Shapes - Sketch: Let's quickly go through how you can block this picture out to simplify it. Here we have our picture as our reference. Now what? You must be thinking to yourself, well, I have these beautiful pixel, these references you send me, but I struggle on where to begin because it may look overwhelming. Let's break this down into simplified shapes. First let's separate these shapes to begin with. We have the sky as our first shape, and then the ocean, then we have the rocks off to the side can be our third obvious shape. Then we've got this beach sand right here that we can block off, and last but not least, the foreground land in the front. Now you must be thinking, well, what does this mean? Now let's translate this into a quick sketch. Let's just start with drawing horizon line to separate the sky as our first shape. Then we've got the ocean as our second, and then comes the rocks off to the side, and then we have little beach at the bottom, and then the land in the front. You see how this becomes easy to translate our shapes if you block them off by obvious color. Here I'm just sketching out the darks and the lights, so you've got the foreground and the rocks are obviously darker than through meaning of the painting. I'm just making notes of that and preparing myself before I begin painting. Then once you have this, it is time to introduce paint.
6. Prep Paper : To begin, I am prepping the paper down which I saw, which is basically a primer and it just preps your canvas before painting. You can choose to thin this downs slightly if you would like or just use it directly off the tub, which I prefer. Then maybe dab your brush once or twice in the water to make it spread better. One or two even coats should be enough and once you're done with this step, we will move on to the taping section. A little disclaimer, before you tape down your paper, make sure to not have skipped the first step adjust on your paper down first and then allow that to completely dry and then tape it down. Prepping your canvas before hand will reduce the risks of any tears or bleeds once you take off the tape.
7. Sketching Beach Landscape: The first step is to sketch out this painting not in detail or anything just give some slight information that you need to separate these shapes. Always start with the horizon line, such as get a straight line across there. I'm just going to get the little beach portion that we see and then the land grassy bits in front of it. I'm just roughly drawing out some grass. Again, this is just for me for visualization purposes. You don't have to do this part, just draw whatever helps you with the composition. All of this detailing will be painted anyway. But it helps to know that it's there. The main thing you want to capture it when you get to the sketch phase is like the big portions, the sky and the ocean and the beach and the grass. Hope that helps. You're looking for obvious shapes that defines the ocean and land. You're just getting that outline. I'm just lightly placing a few rocks, not all of them, just a few, just to get like some placement for composition. I think that is enough for the sketch phase. Once you're done with this part, we'll move on to painting.
8. Painting Process 1 - Blocking In Base Layers: Like always, I like to begin with the sky first. I'm giving white and Othello blue. I'm also going to get out a rough bristled brush that can be used for oil or acrylics. This brush gives you good texture and I like that. Again, everything that I use, all the paint names will be listed in the description, so make sure you check that out. I'm mixing white and a little dab of Othello blue and giving a few strokes in the center. In the reference, it is a bit light towards the left, so I'm adding in more white for that. It also gets a bit darker towards the right, so I'm getting more blue in that section. I'm just looking for a slight gradient and then you just mix the colors in between. Let's keep the sky simple because there's a lot going on in the foreground, so it'll balance well. Let's dive right into the ocean, no pun intended, but I'm using a bit of Othello blue and some ultramarine blue with white and just the tiniest little black to deepen the tone. Looking at the reference, I'm simply adding that color to the dark areas I see. Now I'm mixing some white to the mixture, I'm going to work my way towards the left and also adding a few of those strokes of the same color to the right as well. We'll come back to the ocean in a bit but let's get our base colors for the remaining shapes first. Moving on to the beach, I'm using mars orange. You can also replace this color with burnt sienna if you have that. I'm also taking in some raw sienna and white, so I'm getting these three colors and mixing that in to get this pretty beige color. Using the same brush I am simply painting those areas of the beach for the base. Now I switched my brush to a smaller flat brush now to fill in the base for the rocks. Using some burnt sienna, black, and Othello blue I'm laying out the color for that. The idea here is to get the overall impression of the shape first before adding details. Mixing that color with the existing beach color we made gives this nice grayish tone, so I'm adding that to certain areas as well. For the foreground, I see some darker values between the green, so I'm laying those strokes out first in places I see them. Remember to keep moving your brush in different directions like you see me doing here, so horizontal, some vertical, and diagonal strokes are great to add some variety, even using different sides to your brush is important. Keep moving it around to add more interest. The key is to hold your brush from the far back of the handle to keep it loose. Here I'm just roughly laying out some of those rocks that we see far back. Now it's time to get in some of the base tones of the greens. I'm pulling in a mid-green and using a little bit of burnt sienna as well. I'm just filling in the gaps in the foreground. Pulling in some burnt sienna and white, I'm adding that to the rusty bits we see right here on this corner and also the lower half. Then this completes our base layers. Now it's time to add more layers to build this up and add more dimension and definition.
9. Painting Process 2 - Ocean & Sand: Now, let's get back to the ocean to give it more layers and impression of waves. I see the color in the middle of the ocean is a little lighter blue, so I'm adding in some white and just a tiny bit of pelo blue to that section. Remember to keep your brushstrokes loose so adding one stroke confidently and then leaving it alone. Also, reminder to hold your brush from the back of the handle, so this will really help in loosening up. I love using the entire brushes one stroke again depends on what size brush you're using, but it's like a small brush and it really adds value for smaller paintings. Yes, experiment with different sizes and thickness when you're adding your strokes. You want to keep some bold, long, and thick while you keep some thin and small. The smallest strokes can be achieved by using the corner of the brush or the tip of the brush or sometimes even the side of the brush will give you very tiny little lines. Of course, if you use the belly of the brush that will give you the long and thick ones. I'm using extra white for certain areas where I feel like the waves are more prominent and I want them to stand out. Now, I'm getting in some ultramarine blue and white to add some more variety to the colors of the ocean and I'm being intentional of where I'm going to add that. I see the color more towards the right and then reference picture and also at the bottom next to the shore. Adding some more white to ultramarine blue and just laying that out in a few places. I would highly recommend pulling up the reference pic to the side, you will see things in a lot more detail and the colors will be a lot more vibrant as well. If you pull up the reference on the side you will see that the color of the ocean where it meets the beach is very light blue so I'm getting a layer of that right here. We will come back to the ocean in a bit for some final details after we've added some more rocks, but for now, this will do. Let's build up this sand part a bit more. I'm taking some raw sienna mars orange and some light and taking in thick paint to add more texture. Make sure your brush has a lot of paint when you build on those strokes. Simple, small, short strokes added once and then just leave it alone.
10. Painting Process 3 - Foreground Layers: Okay, now I'm going back to my all-time favorite full-board brush because those are really handy when it comes to painting bushes. Because it has a rounded U-shaped tip. I'm taking some light green and Mars orange and laying out some brush marks wherever I see the greens. Remember to hold your brush from the back and keep your brush marks different, so keep them changing and constantly moving in different directions. Use different sides to your brush too. Feel free to add in your own color to make it unique and fun. You could even add extra green, which I think I do as well. You don't have to stick with the reference picture exactly. You can add your own colors and make it fun. Here I'm getting in some mustard brown for the left side here. Again, just mixing in Mars orange, raw sienna and white, and a little bit of dark. Flicking off my brush upwards to get impressions of grass. This brush stroke is really nice to add more variety to your brush marks. It breaks up the shapes and getting some water-cooled strokes that are long and thin are important to break up this horizontal painting. I felt like I lost some of those darker shadows in the foreground, so I'm going back with Phthalo blue, dark and white, and just defining some of those darker areas here. Adding a lot more white to this will give you this grayish, sort of greenish tone, which I'm going to put especially in the foreground and for the grassy bits that I see up in the front. Again using the flicking off upward method, I am adding in some grass to the front. Do this by using the tip of the brush. Hold your brush straight up and then just use it's fine tip to make your strokes upward. There's this little cliff right here, so I'm going to give a slight impression of that far back. You will be able to see it more if you have the reference pic pulled up, which by the way is in the projects and resources tab below. You can simply right-click and save it. I'm going in with Mars orange and white, and adding in some tiny strokes to that. Also this color is a nice contrast against the green so I'm going to definitely be adding that color a bit more to the foreground. Also for reference, if you are wondering, this picture is in California where I live. This was taken by me when we went on a little trip. This place is not too far from where I live actually, and we love going to this beach. If you're wondering, this is California. At this point, I'm just having fun and adding in coloring brush strokes to places I think enhances the painting. This is where your artist freedom comes along. Just go with your intuition to add whatever information you want the viewer to notice. For me it's all about color. I am making sure that each color that I add compliments the color next to each other and the painting on the whole.
11. Painting Process 4 - Rocks & Defining Details: Adding that same rusty color to the rocks for the mid tones and then the highlights. If you look at the reference picture, you do see the light source coming from the left and it hits the rocks ever so slightly. To build up dimension and give your objects a form or a three-dimensional look, you need to add layers and build them up with your mid tones and highlights. Otherwise, they can look flat. In a loose painting, small details like this is more than enough and very important to give impressions of a three-dimensional look. Here I'm just adding some of that highlight to the foreground as well and just brightening up some of the area. I'm going to go through the rocks and then do a bit of the grass. Again, just go with your intuition and add in whatever color you think looks nice, keeping in mind the different brushstrokes we talked about. Now, I'm actually switching to my smaller round bristle brush to add more texture. You can very well use the same brush that you've been using. But if you do have a more rougher, rounder brush, that will work. I'm taking in my light green to bring out the grassy green bushes a bit more. Again, simple, small strokes, and then leave it be. The more you mess with it, you will lose the texture and the brushwork. Take a nice choosy thick paint for this and just lay it down, holding the brush from the back. Keep switching directions of your brush marks to make it more interesting. White, halo blue, and a bit of green and black gives us beautiful grayish muted tones. It's like it's gray, but it has tones of blue and green in it that I found really cool. I'm adding some of that to the foreground. If you struggle with color mixing, then I would highly suggest experimenting with color before starting. I had shown this in my previous color classes as well. Once you decide on a color scheme, use those colors to mix it with white and black to see what you've got, and then also mix it with each other to see what you can come up with. It's quite fun and therapeutic to do so and it gives you a palette to work from, so you have a vision of what your painting will turn out to be. Here I'm just adding in some rocks and finalizing the placement for that. Just a few far-away details, adding a few specs to give impression of distance, and rocks and texture on the sand. Use a fine brush and just use the tip of it to add just few little specs and dots in places. Here I'm just using a palette knife. This is just irregular size pallet knife. Again, this is optional, you don't have to use it if you don't have it. You can very well just use a very thin brush or a flat brush and use the tip of it. But this is just something that can add some extra texture if you've got one. Using the side of it, you just simply place it on the paper so you get some nice little foamy texture for the waves.
12. Final Touches & Class Project: Last final detail to pop out the highlights just a little bit more with white. Using my filbert brush and white, I'm getting this down. This last highlight makes quite the difference and it's almost a focal point in the painting. Our eyes tend to see this first when you look at it. So be intentional where you're putting it down. Don't go overboard. Just a few details will be enough. I definitely wanted my ocean to have a stronger focal point, so I decided to give this a bold stroke to the left side here. This will then direct people to maybe look at this point first and then which actually points towards the rocks on the right and then they'll look down at the foreground. Or for some, they will look at the rocks first so that's towards the right, which actually leans down towards the highlighted ocean and then the foreground. Your goal as an artist is to make the viewer's eyes flow throughout the painting almost like a loop or a circle. Let's take this baby off and remove the tape so that we can see what we've got working with. To complete the look, I wanted some of those gorgeous, rusty rocky colors to pop more. I'm going directly with Mars orange. You can also use burnt sienna, especially if you have that color in different brand. It will look similar to this one that I'm using right now. I'm just using a fine detail brush. I'm adding some nice thick paint to certain areas and I will be done. This completes our loose acrylic landscape for today. I cannot wait to see what you guys come up with. Share your projects. I would love to see them and do not forget to leave this class a review. If you've enjoyed this class, make sure to follow me so that you do not miss out on future painting classes from me. Follow this class up with my latest acrylic painting class following of reference as well. To shop my art and merchandise, do visit my website where I sell all my original landscapes and florals, art prints in a lot of variety and much that includes phone cases and mugs and much more arrivals to come soon. To keep up with latest news, do follow me on Instagram where you can stay up to date with my new launches. Thank you once again and happy painting.
Alifya P. Tarwala, Artist | Acrylics, Watercolors | Painter
