Beginning Acrylics: Christmas Wreath Decor

1. Introduction: Welcome to another class in my beginning acrylic series where I teach the ins and outs of painting with acrylics so you can grow your skills one project at a time. In this class, I'll guide you step by step to paint this festive Christmas wreath to add to your decor for the holiday season. If we haven't been acquainted, my name is Bridget Miller and I'm freelance decorative painter in my trade. I use the acrylic medium primarily and now teach others what I've learned over the years. Them started with this wonderful medium, which in my opinion, is the perfect medium to start with. As a beginner painter, acrylics are very versatile, they adhere to most surfaces. They clean up with soap and water. They're nontoxic and they're relatively easy on the pocketbook. In this class, I'll be using acrylic craft paints, which are the least expensive on the market. However, any acrylic paint will work for this course. This course is designed for the very beginner that wants to learn how to paint with acrylics. However, if you're a more seasoned painter looking for a fun project, this would also be a good fit for you. I will demonstrate step by step how to paint this Christmas wreath decor, teaching you tips and tricks along the way to build your skills further with this medium. You can paint along with me each lesson, or you can watch through and then paint the class project on your own. Once you've completed the wreath painting, I'll then ask you to upload it to the gallery as your class project. It's there. I'll be able to view it and give you input and answer any questions you may have. Other students in the class will also be able to view your project. And we can all encourage each other in our artistic journeys. With all that being said, join me in the next lesson and we'll get started painting with acrylics. See soon. 2. Class Project: For the class project, I'll take you step by step to create this festive Christmas wreath. First, I'll show you how to prepare the canvas and sketch the design. Then I'll demonstrate each element of the design. Lesson by lesson, we'll paint the foundational greenery, the background. And then add ribbon pine cones, bells and berries. You'll learn how to mix a variety of colors, which brushes to use. How to use values to create dimension and some fun, extra techniques to level up your work. You're welcome to follow along with me pausing as needed. You can watch through and paint on your own. Once finished, you can add a photo of your art piece to the Submit Project area under the Project and Resources tab below the video. Once your project is uploaded, I'll be able to see your wreath. And I can give you feedback if you'd like. I look forward to seeing your project and getting to know you as you learn how to paint with me. Now in this next lesson, I'll go over the materials you'll need for this class. See over there. 3. Materials: For materials, you'll need one canvas. Choose any size you like. The rounds come in many different sizes, but the wreath looks great on a square canvas as well. Just keep in mind that if you choose a smaller surface, you'll need to use smaller brushes for the design elements. I'm using a 20 inch in diameter. Next you'll need paint. I'm using craft paint for this class. However, if you'd like to use artist quality heavy body acrylics, those will look very nice and the colors will be much more brilliant than craft paints. For specific paint colors, I'll be using black, purple, dark blue. Ocean Breeze, which is an aqua blue color. Green, apple green, which is a brighter green, Bright yellow, orange, red and white. Oh, and brown. Also, for a palette, I'll be using an uncoated paper plate. I would have some extras on hand so you can practice before you commit to your final piece. The uncoated paper plate surface is very close to the canvas surface. They make for a great practice surface. I'll be using sidewalk chalk for sketching. The brushes I used for the project are a 34 inch flat brush, a two inch flat brush, 12 inch filbert, or sometimes you'll see it as a number eight, a number six round, a number three round, and a number one liner brush. These are just the ones I use, the brushes that work for you. If you'd like to use exactly the same brushes as I did, I use a variety of brands, mostly artist loft brand that you can get from Michael's crafts. But my number one liner brush is a Princeton and my Filbert is a low cornel. I'll also be using a number two pencil eraser to add berries. In a stamping technique, you could substitute a dowel for that or the end of a pounce brush handle. Anything that'll stamp out a nice round dot, you'll need some water for rinsing your brushes. I like this old container because it has two compartments and I use one half for rinsing my brushes and the other half I keep my water clean. If I need to add a little water to my paint, I can use this clean water to thin it. Paper towels for blotting my brushes and removing paint from the canvas. A hair dryer acrylics are known for drying fast, but if you want to speed up the drying even more, a hair dryer comes in handy in lesson number 12, which is step nine. In the process, I'll show you some finishing details where if you choose to do those, you'll need a toothbrush at the very end. For the very last step, I'll demonstrate how to apply some clear coat to protect your artwork. For that, I use Deco Arts Duro clear by Americana. It's a gloss varnish. There's a variety of clear coat products to use. Just use one that's available in your area or online. You want to look for something that's non yellowing, something that dries clear and water based. I also make sure it protects for indoor and outdoor use. I've made a handy list of these materials for your convenience, and you can download a copy by clicking the Projects and Resources tab below this video. Now, once you've gathered up all your supplies, meet me in the next lesson for our first step to painting your Christmas wreath decor. See as soon. 4. Step One - Underpainting: The first step in the class project is to underpaint your canvas with this orange color. Underpainting as a first step is optional, but I almost always do it because of these four reasons. Number one, it immediately covers the white. So in the subsequent layers of my design, if I've missed an area instead of the white of the canvas showing, I have this beautiful, warm orange peeking through. Sometimes a lot of it show and sometimes just a little. But I always feel like the final looks more finished. When I include this step, don't fret about brush strokes showing most of this will be covered. However, I would paint the sides because those little edges may show depending on how you frame it. The second reason to have this orange, or any midtone hue as your underpainting is that while I'm painting, this background will help me gauge my values as I paint. The values are how light or dark your colors are. Knowing how light or dark to make your colors helps with contrast, giving your artwork more dimension. Thirdly, this extra layer of paint will smooth out your surface a little more and make finer details easier to achieve. Lastly, this color peeking through, we'll give your artwork an overall continuity in color, giving your piece a very pleasing cohesiveness. And I feel it looks a lot more professional and finished looking. In the end, after you've finished painting the entire canvas orange, blow it dry with a hair dryer, or wait 30 minutes for it to completely dry. In the next step, we'll start the greenery. See there. 5. Step Two - Greenery: For this step, I found some photos on line of wreaths that I like, so I wouldn't have to rely on my memories for accuracy. I also have a couple trees in my yard that make wonderful, real wreaths and swags. I cut a couple pieces to use as reference material to create this class project. I included these photos in the resources area of this class, so you can use them too. Painting from real life is ideal. Using photographs is the next best thing when you want to paint realistically to create the greenery, I start by sketching with chalk onto my dry canvas, a large circle, about 4 " from the edge. I'm not concerned about it being exact because my subject is organic and very forgiving in that regard. The chalk will not interfere with the paint, and if it's not completely covered by paint, in the end, when your painting is completely dry, you'll be able to remove any chalk residue left over with a moist cloth. This simple sketch just helps guide me as I paint. I draw where I want, my individual evergreen sprigs and the big red bow, and I also place the pine cones before I start to paint. Now, if you need help with the bow, I have a sketch that I did that you're welcome to use. You can download it from the resources area and then transfer it to your wreath by using carbon paper or graphite paper. I do not teach sketching courses, but there's many teachers here on skillshare that do. One that I highly recommend is Victoria Mico. She has a class called How to Draw Anything That is superb for beginners and anyone who wants to brush up on their drawing skills. She great teacher. After I have the basic sketch where I want my main elements, I begin the painting process. I start with my darkest color, which will be black, or you could use dark purple or even a very dark blue like if you're using artist quality heavy body acrylics. Using my 34 inch flat brush on its edge, I make lines where I want each sprig and then I add the needles on each side. You could also just paint the needles if you like. You can work out from the stem or start on the outside and pull in. That's up to you. I find that if I start my stroke coming from the stem outward, the individual needles become more tapered. If I start on the outside and pull in, the needles look less tapered and look a little thicker on the ends. Do what you prefer and have fun with it. Experimenting on some uncoated paper plates that mimic the same feel as canvas will help until you find the method that suits your taste and then you can move to your project when you feel more comfortable. If you prefer a round brush, I find a number six works well for the size canvas I'm working on. As you end your stroke, pull away from the canvas and you'll get a nice taper just like 34 inch flat you can brush out from the stem in towards the stem. Try both methods to see what you like best after you've added an even amount of dark evergreen sprigs with your dark color switch to a medium green, and add more sprigs in between the dark ones, filling in the blank areas. At this step, try not to get two carried away and cover too much of your darks. You'll need to leave a lot of the darks for your piece to look three D at the end and have to add them back in. Once you've filled in the greenery with the medium green color evenly throughout the piece, dry your artwork with a hair dryer for a few minutes or allowed to hair dryer for about half an hour. To give our greenery more dimension, we'll add a lighter value using the same brush strokes and whichever brush you prefer to lighten the value of your medium green, Add white or yellow, or a little of both. In this step, again, I'm filling in, but I'm not completely covering the previous steps. Now if you like this look, you can call it done right here. Or if you'd like even more greenery, you can add dark cedar sprigs here and there, just grab a dark color. And then with little short strokes, you can just add different little branches and come out from other evergreen here and there. Just to give it a little bit different look from other type of evergreen, I'm using my 34 inch flat, but you could also use a number six round. This completes the second step. Join me in the next lesson and I'll take you through the third step which is the reverse back ground. Meet you there. 6. Step Three - Background: Welcome back. In this step, we'll cover most of our underpainting. Make certain that all your layers so far are completely dry. I'll be using craft smart ocean breeze color. But any color you'd like will work for this background. As long as it's not too dark, the value should be about the same as your lightest color in the greenery. I'll be lightening up my main color with white as I go to give my background a loose, very expressive quality. But you're welcome to paint it one color if you'd prefer that not use multiple values. Using my 34 inch flat brush, I'm going to paint the entire background with my ocean breeze color. I use the flat side of my brush for the open areas. And I use the edge to cut in between where my greenery and where my ribbon will be leave as much of the orange background as you'd like. I will also paint the edges of the canvas as I don't plan to frame this piece. And I think it looks better, like much more finished with the edges painted. After you paint the first coat, add another coat of paint. While your first coat is still wet. This second coat should be a lot lighter in value. Add a lot of white for this coat. I don't cut in as close to my greenery this time. Repeat this step one more time and then you're dead. Don't forget to paint the edges again. With that done, now you're ready for the next step. Meet me in the next lesson and we'll paint the red ribbon. See su. 7. Step Four - Ribbon: Hi there. For the red ribbon, you'll need black, red, orange, and white. I'm also going to use a two inch flat brush. I'll start with the darkest color as I like to paint from dark to light in value. Remember, value is how light or how dark a color is. I'm mixing some black with a little red to make a very dark, maroon, red color. Using my two inch flat brush, I'll fill in all the recesses of the ribbon areas with this color, Using my reference photo to guide me. I use my flat brush on the edge for lines and the broadside to fill in larger areas. Next, I switch colors to straight red and I'll fill in all the other areas of the boat. Then dry it completely with a hair dryer or allow it to dry for around 30 minutes. Then I clean up my lines a little bit and add at more red. Over the top, craft paint is not the highest quality. You may need two coats, depending on the brand that you use to get it to completely cover the layers beneath it. Here I dip my brushing orange and for some additional dimension and interest, I'm adding this color where the light is highlighting the ribbon. Now I've made a very light pink paint mix by adding a lot of white to red. And I'm highlighting a little more to show that there's a sheen to the ribbon. Dry it completely again and meet me in the next lesson and I'll show you how to paint the pine. Got. See you soon. 8. Step Five - Pinecones: Hello again. In this step, I'll be using black, brown, and white to add these pine cones to the wreath. If you don't have brown, you could also mix orange with blue or mix a little red, yellow, and blue together. My darkest value will be black, my mid tone will be brown. And then I'll lighten the brown with white for my lightest value to give my pine cones a three dimensional appearance. I found some reference photos online at Pexels.com and I also found some pine cones in my backyard. As I have a couple evergreen trees, the Pacific Northwest, where I'm from is very well known for its vast evergreen forests. It's also where most Christmas trees are grown. As usual, I'm starting with my darkest color, which in this case is black, with a little brown mixed in. And I'm adding that to my wreath, where I want my pine cones. The pine cone shape is oblong with a slight point on one end. Next, I mix a little white with my brown to get a lighter brown. And using a half inch filbert brush paint onto my oblong shapes in a manner that resembles the pattern I see on these pine codes. The shape of the brush aids. In making this look, be careful not to cover all the dark brown from the previous step. Next, I mix a little more white into that mixture to make an even lighter value. And I highlight the pine cones further by tapping a little of that color onto each previous stroke that I made. That's it for pine cones. Now we're ready to add the bells. Meet me in the next lesson, and I'll show you that step. See over there. 9. Step Six - Bells: For the bells, you'll need purple, yellow, white and black paint. And I'll also be using a two inch Filbert brush to add the bells to the wreath. I start with a yellow ochre color. For my darkest value, I mix a tiny amount of purple to bright yellow to get this color. The first step in making the bell is to make a round shape with this yellow ochre color. I make this round by making a half circle counter clockwise, and then another half circle clockwise. And these two strokes complete the shape after you paint as many bells as you'd like, dry them completely, and we'll add the midtone value, which is bright yellow. For this step, I'm imagining that my light source is at the right, so my bells will be shinier on that side that's catching the light. So I'm only adding bright yellow on the right side of each bell. Now I've added a lot of white paint to my bright yellow paint. And I add this lightest value to my bells to make them appear shiny and three dimensional. For more contrast, I switch to my number six round and add my darkest value, which in my case is black. But you could also use dark purple or dark blue as well. I add this color on the left side of the bells and pine cones as if they're casting a shadow. This makes my pine cones and bells stand out more and appear as if they're protruding a bit. Adding to the three D illusion, then I dry completely before moving on to the next step to add the criss cross opening on the bell. I will use my darkest color again and switch to a number one round. I also add a little water to the paint to make it flow easier. The lines are slightly curved to give it a round appearance. I use my photo for reference. There are times when my line gets wobbly or just doesn't look right. If that happens to you before the paint dries, wipe it off with a moist cloth and then dry it and then you can give it another try. All right, those are the bells. Now for the next step, we'll add some more green. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Step Seven - More Greenery: This step is optional. If you like your wreath as is, feel free to skip this step and move on to adding the berries. However, if you want to add and refine the greenery, I'll take you through the steps to do that. Here you'll need black, blue, green, and yellow for brushes. You'll need a number three round and a 34 inch flat. The first color I'm using is a dark blue green. I mixed a little black with blue and green using my number three round and my reference photo, I'm adding a little sprig here and there, add some more interesting textures and colors to my wreath. For this breaststroke, I dab short marks onto the canvas, mimicking loosely the pattern in the sprig of evergreen. In my reference photo here, you'll see that I've switched my 34 inch flat and I'm adding some lighter green paint mixtures to give the wreath some added contrast. I'm using the same strokes as I did in step two for the greenery, making sure that I don't completely cover my previous layers of paint. I'm just highlighting a little bit. Now I've dipped into some green paint to fill in any areas that look empty or that need another green to add interest. Okay, now we're ready for the next lesson, which is adding the red berries. So I'll see you very soon. I just couldn't resist that pun. 11. Step Eight - Berries: Hello again. For this step, you'll need red, orange, and white paint and a new number two pencil with an unused eraser or a small dowel for applying the paint. I'll start with red and my eraser, end of my pencil in the paint. Then perpendicular to the canvas, I press lightly everywhere I want a berry on the wreath, I then dip into orange or an orange red mixture and add more berries. I group them together in clusters, just like they appear in the photo references, even overlapping some, I vary the amount of berries in each cluster and I place them fairly evenly apart from each other on the wreath. I then add a little white to my mixture, and I paint a few more berries to give them a more three D appearance. Now we're almost done. In the next lesson, we'll add a few more details, then we'll move on to the last lesson. 12. Step Nine - Details: The wreath is beautiful as is. However, I like to add little details to give it a little more op. I'll show you those here in this lesson. The first thing I do is a technique that's fun but messy, spattering. You'll need a dark paint color like dark green, black, dark blue or purple, and a toothbrush. I add a little water to my paint so it's not too thick. If it's too thick, it'll fling large batter. And if it's thinner, the spatter will be I dit my tooth brush in the thinner paint mixture, then I pull back on the bristles and let it go. The paint flings off the brush onto the canvas everywhere. It can be difficult to control. I have a moist cloth handy and I remove any spatter that I don't want, leaving only the marks that I do, like you need to do this quickly before the paint dries. Next, I assess the values of my colors. I ask myself if there's any areas that could stand out more. By bumping up the contrast in the ribbon, I add a little more white to highlight where the light is reflecting off of it. Then I also darken the recessed values further to make it stand out even more. I do the same thing to my pine cones and bells and berries. You may not need to do this if your values are correct. I just feel like mine need to be bumped up to make things stand out a little more. This will help the entire wreath look more three dimensional. Here I'm adding a few uniform dots of dark blue here and there. Again, this is optional for this technique. I use the wood handle of my brush to make the tiny dots. By dipping them in any color that you like, and then dotting the canvas. I usually make three to five little clusters in several areas. I feel it gives a more organic feel to my wreath. Next, I do the same technique using white to some of my berries. The highlighted ones will appear to be more forward of the rest, adding to that three D illusion after I've added these details dry completely before adding my protective clear coat. If you have some thick areas of paints like where your spatter or your dots are, make sure to dry them thoroughly. These thicker areas take a lot longer to dry. Sometimes I've had it where just the surface part is dry and it can still smear if just underneath that surface is still wet. Once your wreath painting is completely dry, you can apply your protective coating. If you're using Deco Arts, duro, clear gloss varnish like I am. You'll need two or three coats waiting until it's dry to the touch between your applications. If you're using a different brand, make sure to follow the instructions for your product as they can vary. I use a large flat brush dedicated to this task. And I paint slowly with long, deliberate criss cross brush strokes to coat the product as evenly as possible. Don't forget to paint the edges. This protective coating will give your painting a beautiful sheen and protect your artwork from scratches, making it much more durable over time. Okay, now you've completed this course, your class project. Good job. Meet me in the next lesson and I'll wrap everything up with the conclusion. See you there. 13. Conclusion: Hey, thanks for joining me in this class. I hope you learn a lot and you come away with a project that you can proudly display in your home for this wonderful festive season. Each class in this acrylic painting series will go over some of the same brush strokes and techniques and color mixes. And I'll introduce you to more as well. Follow me here on Skillshare for more classes in this beginning acrylic series by following me as an instructor. You'll be the when I roll out new classes in this beginning colic series. You can also find me on Youtube. My channel is called Creatively. I'm also on my Instagram and Facebook. The links are on my Skillshare profile page. When you upload your project, let me know if you have any questions. I check every day and I'd love to hear from you. You could also let me know your thoughts about this class by leaving a review. It's helpful to know how I did as an instructor so I can improve my skills in teaching. And in turn, better help you understand and build your skills as a beginner painter. Well, that's a rap, have a great holiday and I hope to see you again soon in the New Year for some more painting.