Painterly Abstract Acrylic Landscapes: Master Vivid colors and Textures

1. Welcome: Welcome to another gorgeous painting class. In this class, you will learn how to make this painterly landscape. This composition might seem complicated, especially if you haven't painted before. But this class is specifically designed for beginners. You'll understand concepts like composition, color harmony, and brush handling in order to create a beautiful result. Hi, my name is George, and I've been a professional artist for over ten years. Six years ago, I've fallen in love with teaching. Both online and in person classes with adults and children. I've developed a very interesting way of teaching that focuses on making engaging projects such as this and having a lot of fun while doing it. If you are ready to explore the wonderful world of landscape painting, let's jump into the class. 2. Materials needed: One welcome to another beautiful abstract landscape painting class. In this class, you will need a canvas. It can be a square, just like this one. This is 30 centimeters by 30 centimeters. You will need a mixing plate, some water to clean up the brushes. You will need some brushes, a big flat brush, a medium flat brush, and a small flat brush. You will also need some paper towels, some napkins, to clean up the brushes and maybe clean some of the canvas as well. You will also need acrylic paint. This is titanium white from Amsterdam acrylic paints. This is carmine red. This is brilliant blue. Some brown, also known as burnt umber, and some yellow. You can use lemon yellow. This is Azo yellow medium. It's just lemon yellow with a little bit of red into it. And that's all you need for this class. 3. Blue sky: First step, you will need some blue. Maybe a bit more. Just over here on the palette, I don't know if you can see the water. Let's place the water properly over here. Let's add some red on the opposite corner. Just a tiny bit because red is a very intense color. You will also need to add some white. And a touch of yellow. Protip. If you hold your paint upside down, it's easier to put on the plate. Now, for this step, you will need to mix some blue with a lot of white just mixing it in together. Notice, there is a lot more white than the blue. Don't go with one color inside the other color. Find another space where you can mix the colors together. That will save you a lot of time and headaches. Mix it well together, and let's add a touch of yellow into it just to make it a bit more different than just two colors. Let's add a bit more blue and a bit more white. Mix it very well. Notice how the brush is very loaded with paint, un mixed paint. You should press down and mix it together. Once you have this beautiful baby blue color that has a yellow tinge to it. Let's add it to the top of the canvas until about here. And just think of it as a sky. And you should go a bit faster, take some water to lubricate the paint. If you don't have enough paint, don't worry, you can mix some more. Once you've added the paint to this side, continue on to the middle. Take some more paint, take some water, and just drag it around. The goal of this first layer of paint is to have an opaque layer, an opaque surface that you can paint later on in the next step. So just focus on the edge and on all the pores that are still showing onto the canvas. You can do it very, very fast, or you can practice some brush strokes like this, just practice some. Notice how the brush can be handled in so many different ways. And then you can cover it all with a fast and loose painting technique. Once you've done that, you need to focus on the areas that have too much texture and smooth them out by dragging the brush, barely scraping the canvas, barely touching it. Just caress the canvas from left to right or from top to bottom. It doesn't matter. It will create this beautiful, let's say, gradient, but it's a flat color. And that's all you need to do for this step. In case you have some hairs, you can pick them up like this and brush them onto the side of the plate. Now, let's go into the next step. You don't need to let the paint dry. You can paint immediately after this step. 4. Painterly clouds: This next step, you will mix some colors straight onto the canvas, and that color will be white. Just take some white, find another space where you can mix it with the blue of the brush. The brush still has some blue in it. And now you're going to go onto the canvas on this beautiful side and start adding some of this color. Don't worry. It doesn't need to be perfect at first. All you're doing now is figuring out some areas to build a gradient. Notice how this gradient is a bit broken. This is called a broken gradient, and it's a very painterly thing to do. You take some white that is mixed with a bit of blue, and then apply it, change the brush, apply it in a different direction, and then you go further and further. And because the paint is wet underneath it, as you go further, It picks up some of the blue from the background and creates this interesting, painterly feeling. All you're doing right now is going like this, and then over it, this is so you can mix the two colors, the one that is in your brush and the one underneath. Notice how there isn't any more paint taken from the plate. That's because you want to build a bit of a gradient as you go. And when you feel the need, like, for instance, over here, let's add a bit more color to break that gradient and make it more visible. Once you've done that, you can focus on making some whiter colors, some lighter colors onto the other sides that are untouched of the sky. This will make a very interesting sky color. Okay. Let's take some more white this time, mix it together, notice how it's much more light and add it over here, continue to play around with some textures, maybe add a few touches with the corner of the brush. And you can also break the gradient a bit more around here just so it doesn't feel as if all the white spots are on this side. Notice how if you go lower, They need to be a bit longer and smaller, the lines. They are like beautiful little lines. And as you go up, you can make bigger shapes. Don't worry if you go and make a bigger shape over here. There isn't any rules. We are not really making traditional painting. This is a more abstract painting, a more abstract landscape. Let's say, We are mixing in the colors together. And if we see something we don't like, like, for instance, this, we can go with a brush mark over it. This is how you break that idea of just working all of the surface and baking painting that is very tiresome. You are making small, little, interesting brush marks. And all of these brush marks contribute to making a painterly landscape. And you can break it even more creating these interesting textures somewhere around here and here. And you can then just brush over the background, take a bit of water if you want to make it more smooth. And these brush marks are very unique. They have a different vibration and direction, which makes them way more appealing. And that's all for this step. 5. Contrast and of painterly recap: For this next step, you need to clean up the big brush, with some paper towels and some water just squeeze the paint out. Don't clean it too much. Just a tiny bit. It doesn't have to be perfectly clean. Take some blue. Put it somewhere on the plate where you can mix, take some red. You don't need a lot of color. Once you've mixed this, the painting is still wet. So you have to work on the wet surface so that it creates beautiful and interesting textures. Now, with this color, you can go in this corner and start making the same kind of brush marks. Now, an added and different type of thing that you're going to do now is clean up the brush. Take some water, squeeze it with some newly fresh paper napkins, take some more water, and then start to play around with this color. And as you go, you take more and more water on the corner as soon as it dries out. You will know that it dries out when it starts to make textures that are and it doesn't glide anymore. And as you build, just going further and further, you can go in between these marks as well. You can also pick up some more color and continue to add this color and extend it, take some water with the corner of the brush just to blend those colors together a bit better. Break it down. Notice how it's very It's just in one place as a sticker. You need some runaways. Take some more color and continue. You can break it down, make some runaways in order to break the monotony of the painting. Just play around with the colors. You will find it very relaxing, will be a very interesting way of painting. You are not thinking too much, focusing on the middle, on this side, and now let's balance out the composition by making some of this color on the right side so that it shifts the composition a bit this way. Okay. Just mixing it in slowly. Notice how the brush is not gliding and it's making textures, so we need to take a bit of water just to make it more blendable. Okay. Try to avoid making pillars or distinct brush marks. If they look like something, like for instance, this is too long, it needs a break somewhere and it needs some runaways over on this side. It just created this interesting look. Notice how this is very angular. We can break it down a bit, just so it doesn't take a lot of attention from the viewer. Let's take some more paint and add it to this side and notice how the brush is almost dry. So let's take some water and mix it in. Okay. Look at what a beautiful and interesting painterly sky you've done in just a few minutes. Let's add some more color. Let's actually mix some more of this blue to change the color a bit, and you can add it over some areas. Take some water. Let's add it over here and then over this area just to change the hue because the hue variation is what makes the painting interesting. It's just subtle shifts in hue, make the painting more than what it is. And it's such an easy way to improve a painting. You just shift the color just a touch and you create a new and interesting dynamic composition or balance or however you want to call it. It's just a shift in color, but it can change your painting tremendously. Continuing with the same motions. Just taking some water and adding it close. Don't go overboard with all of the marks. You can also chill some areas by going with some water over them, take some paint, and add a few brush marks over top. Creating this interesting sky. Now, let's focus in on some lines maybe in the distance and over on this side, giving the impression that it goes in the distance. So the lines will create this distant look of the painting. And that's all you need for this step. So until now, you've learned how to lay down a flat color and then make it painterly by using white over top, and you've learned how to work with light colors, dark colors, and change the hues in order to create a more interesting look. Notice how these colors play well together. That's because they are friends. They are called analogous colors. And that's why they play well together, because they mix and match in the same family, in the same friendship. It's very important to understand the ways that colors play together so that you can obtain a specific effect that you want. You've learned about brush vibration and how to create a painterly look and how to make things appear more complex than they are by just brushing and making different marks and understanding that if you make a sticker shape, then you have to break it apart and make some runaways in order to make it more complex. 6. Dark deep blue: This next step, you will build upon some more darker values this time on the lower side of the canvas. Let's take some blue. Mix it over here. Let's take some red and make a dark, beautiful purple. That is a bit towards the blue. It's important that it's towards the blue. Now let's make some interesting shapes. You're going to learn about beautiful shapes. Start by making a simple shape and then make it more complex by adding and subtracting, well, adding because you cannot subtract on this shape. Just create some edges. Notice how they were fuzzy, over here, it's quite fuzzy. That's a great opportunity to just go and create some sharper edges. As you go, you can think of this as a big shape, and now let's create a smaller medium shape. Okay. Small, medium shape, medium shape, actually. And let's add a small shape over here. So big, medium, small. Now, let's create on this side, let's create a huge shape. Let's take some water and create a huge shape. This will be a big, big, big shape. So let's fill in with the color. It's important to have a good edge at the top. The bottom doesn't really matter because we can change the hue later. Take some more blue and some more red, even though the color might not be perfectly matched. That's fine. It creates a more color variety. Now, you're going to notice that we are focusing on the edge and creating interesting shapes on the edge. Just adding with the corner of the brush, some interesting, maybe these are some cliffs or something else. We do not know. We are just building, and it will look quite good as you go and add more and more colors. A. And as you do that, let's focus in on this corner and brush all the paint out of the brush. Well, squeeze all the paint off the brush. Let's take some of the debris left from the color. Take some water and add it over here. Notice how it's too much of a square. Let's take some more color. And Ask yourself before you paint anything. Ask yourself, how can I turn this in not a square? The answer might be just make something that looks different than a square. But another different answer might be, let's take some blue. Imagine the square being over here. You can take some blue over on this side and add it over, and this will break that down even more into a different shape. Since you've taken some blue from over here, let's add it in the middle right here and building up another shape over on this side. Notice how these two are quite similar and in size and shape. So let's make them a bit more different. You don't need to worry too much on the fuzziness of each shape because you can also bring other colors into the mix. Now, this shape can be broken even more by adding some colors inside of it and some textures. This is another way to break a shape and a mass, exactly like you did at the top. And over here as well, let's add some color variety. And you can do the same for this one. Over here, just adding some more of that dark color. And that's all for this step. You've learned about edges, about big, medium and small, and you've added a lot of textures and broken things down to be more organic. 7. Emerald green: This step, we need to squeeze the paint out of the brush. We don't need to clean it perfectly. We're changing just a little bit of hue towards green so that you have a bit of a darker green at the bottom. For that, you will need some yellow, and over this blue over here, you can add it. You can also make it if you don't have it by adding blue and a touch of red. And then some more yellow to create this wonderful dark green. Notice how the color is not immediately changing to another color. It's slowly shifting. So you can also add it over these colors, and it will not feel lien. It will not feel as if it doesn't belong. Just add it and make some shapes. Notice how this can become a big shape. And then let's add another one here that is a smaller shape. We have one over here, so big, medium, small, we can make this a bit bigger, since this is the medium one, and you can break things down a bit more to make the edges a bit different. Now, let's focus on this shape bringing some more of this color over on this side. Just breaking these shapes a bit more by adding some color variety. You can also focus in on the soft fuzzy edges and make them a bit more crisp. And you can also take a bit of water on the corner and add different shapes, like create new shapes and connect some areas if you want. So this is a medium shape. Now let's add a smaller one over here. And a smaller one over on this side. Now, adding in more yellow will shift the color even more. And you can start to add this color just over here. Creating a shape. Notice how it's too mechanical and fuzzy. Let's add some more interesting textures to the edges. Let's take some water, bring in some more yellow, and add in between the blues and the greens, the dark greens, some of this newly found color. And just take some more water with the corner and some more paint and connect some of these trying to achieve and find a place where you can put some color and cover some of the canvas on this area. Notice how the painting is dictating where the color should go, especially when you have white spots around the shapes. Okay. And going on this side, making some more greenery. Let's add a highlight in quotes for this shape over here. And that's all you need for this step. You've learned how to shift the colors towards another color palette, and in the next step, you will shift it even more towards the green, eventually ending into a beautiful yellow, white, yellow, green, very light color. 8. Highlight green: Need to clean the brush, just take a bit more yellow and mix it in to this pile of color and add it in between the shapes. Even if you pick up some of the blue, it will create a turquoise, which will be very beautiful. Mix it in. Once you pick up some of the color, in order to have it be more bright and more Interesting, you need to mix it onto the plate once again, the color you've picked up and add it mix, add mix and add Notice how the distant ones are a bit more linear and small as you go to the top, and you are still keeping the shapes almost intact, but the big, big one, we've broken it down a bit more. Okay. Let's break this one down a bit by adding some shapes to the sides and maybe over on this side, creating a sort of a bridge. Take some more yellow this time on a fresh side of the plate and mix it with the green that you have in the brush. This is a beautiful light green, and you can start to add it continuing to fill in the canvas. You can even fill it in completely if you want. You take some water and fill in the rest of the canvas and the sides in a very fast and loose way. Okay. Now, this color, let's mix it again and add it to this side just so it brings some of this yellow onto the other side as well because it needs to notice how it created this very big green area. So you need to add it onto this side to balance out the composition. You can also go and build a bridge in between them. And another thing that you can do is grab some blue and a touch of red and some more blue and add some of this darker color onto the side. So you can bring the blues over here and the greens over there. Just focus in on creating some more balance. You balance the composition by covering all the white spots and bringing this dark blue over on this side, the darker spots. Let's also brush in between to bring some of that blue. A cool trick you can do is clean up the brush a bit. Take a bit of water and then just go and brush it from this blue and back and forth to create a beautiful little line, and then you can fuzz it up a bit, just to create some textures. Okay. And that's all you need for this step. For the next step. You will need to let it completely dry so that we can put brighter and lighter colors on top of these ones. 9. Let there be light: Step, you will need to add some yellow to the mixing plate, and the painting is almost entirely dry. There is some yellow still wet over here, but yellow is fine. You will need the medium brush and some white. Let's add some white over here and add some yellow over it. Will play around with more yellow first, just to add some interesting colors. Let's start in the darkest areas over here and add some beautiful marks over on this side, and then continue to add it wherever you see some white speckles of canvas. As you do that, it will build just a nice, beautiful layer of yellow. As you go further towards the horizon, the lines should be a bit smaller. And going from the outside with a bigger shape on this side, taking some more color, squeezing that brush down so you can take some more thick paint and add it over here. Notice how on the green, it creates a beautiful harmonious color transition, and on the blue, it is a bit more visible and contrast. It has more contrast. So let's take some more color and add wherever we see some white, and then let's build a bigger shape just over on this area. More smooth on the bottom and more texture. You can include some of these textured marks by rotating the brush and then smooth the bottom of the shape. Just add some interesting shapes and then smooth. Let's go over here and add some of this yellow. You can pick up some more yellow and blend it in. Creating some more lines in the distance. And over here, breaking some of these shapes into different colors. Let's go from the outside going in and over on this blue, adding some more. Perfect. Now let's take some more white. It has a bit of blue in it. That's fine. And mix it over this yellow. Let's actually take a bit of blue and mix it in, add some more yellow. Notice how this color is a bit more towards the green. It's a very interesting yellowy color. Mix it very thoroughly, and you can add it over top of the yellows, creating a transition between the greens and the yellows. You can also add some of this color in places that don't have any yellow. For instance, over here, coming from the outside and over here in the middle, creating this interesting field, this interesting color full layer of paint. Okay. Let's add some more long strands just going towards the horizon. Perfect. And over this blue. Now, let's clean up the brush. And we're going to go with the small brush and do the same thing, but with thicker paint and lighter colors. 10. Finishing touches. Thank you.: For this step, you will need a small brush. You don't need any water, yellow, find another space to add it, and with just yellow on the brush, create some textures, barely touching. Notice how there is a lot of texture in the brush, a lot of paint in the brush, and just place it on top, barely scraping the canvas, barely touching it just with the paint to create some ridges and some textures going over these colors. And don't worry if they are very tall, they will dry a bit flatter. Let's add some white to this color. And going back, creating some more textures. Barely touching the canvas. Let's add some more texture, some more paint to the paint brush and create some more texture in the middle. Notice how it's in the middle of the canvas. This is purposeful, so we guide the viewer towards the horizon line. Let's add some more textures over here. And over on this side, the left As you lose some of the paint, you can start to go a bit and smooth the bottom edges of these textures, just leaving the texture on top. Notice how I'm dragging that paint, and you can go in other areas picking up some more color and going and adding some more textures over extending these colors towards the left and the right and the bottom as well. Notice how all the textures are here. In fact, let's take some more white, mix it in over the yellow and take some of that paint. L et's pick up some more paint and add it, well, not that much and add it over continuing these texture, these textures, creating a sort of like a texture gradient and building some distant light. And you can go over here as you lose some of that color. Now let's go back to the yellow and add some more yellow on the plate, and in this area where you've created this light yellow, and add some more texture over the top, creating a play, a dance between colors, going back and forth with lighter yellows and darker yellows. That's maybe too much texture. Barely touching the canvas. You just want to leave a little bit of texture onto the canvas and create interesting painting blobs. They are very beautiful and textured. Let's go even more light by taking some white, mixing it here on the right of the paint of the yellow, taking some of this color and adding it, brushing it over the textures. Notice how it's magnetically adding itself to the raised textures, and it also blends as you go over the textures over the paint. Let's take some more color and continue over on this side and over on this side over here as well, and maybe over here. Perfect. Let's create some more texture over here, adding some of this color over on this area as well, and over on some of these shapes, just creating the illusion of some highlights. You can also take some yellow and do the same with the yellows, just adding some more texture on top. And over here, there's a bit of a blind spot. And let's continue this line. Perfect. And that's the course. Just a beautiful, painterly textured landscape, a very simple one. You've just created a beautiful brushed and interesting sky by mixing in and adding a flat color and then going with white over it and brushing it, so you leave these textures and then going to a darker color and adding some broken shapes around the you made some distant lines, just so it feels as if this is a big vast sky. And then there is a bit of a distance with the lines. So the contrast in between the shapes that are big and the small line create a distance in the sky. You did the same thing for the bottom part. Where we've created bigger shapes and then started to add small little lines and textures over top. You went from blue to green and then to yellow, and then to a lighter yellow, adding the texture where you want the viewer to look. And you've created these interesting abstract shapes. You didn't think of them as a field, you didn't think of them as a mountain. You just added textures over each other until you've arrived at this beautiful abstract landscape. Learned about analogous colors. And you've learned that if you want to jump from darker shades of color to lighter ones. You need to wait for them to dry for the dark colors to dry. And if you also want to shift the color palette to jump from something that is let's say an orange to something like a blue, you also need to do the same to let it completely dry. And that's all for this course. Thank you for watching. And if you are gracious enough, please leave a review. It will really help others know that this course is for them as well. See you in the next one.