Acrylic Landscape Painting

I love painting. It's very rewarding to create a painting and hang it on the wall. None of my paintings are perfect but I love the process, starting with an idea and then following through.

Here is a step-by-step simple but pretty landscape scene.

You will need the following supplies:

Canvas, mine is 12" x 16"

Acrylic paints: white, black, brown, blue, green, orange, red and yellow

paint brushes

paint rags

glass of water for cleaning brushes

dish for mixing colors

tabletop easel

Mix a small dab of blue paint into some white paint, Mix well. Paint the entire canvas with this pale blue color.

Allow to dry completely.

In the world of painting, there's a thing called the "Rule of thirds". It refers to the idea that the canvas should be divided into sections, the top 3rd, middle 3rd and the bottom 3rd. So, in this case, I chose to place the horizon at bottom of the top 3rd section.

If you've ever seen a painting that has the horizon right in the middle, it kind of cuts the painting in half.

With the horizon up high, the eye goes toward the part below the horizon, in this case, it is the water.

If the horizon is at the bottom 3rd of the painting, the eye is drawn up toward the sky.

Using a small brush, paint a dark green line across the canvas, where you want the horizon to be.

Lightly brush some small vertical strokes up across the horizon.

Mix a small dab of red paint in with some white and mix well to make a pink color.

With a fan brush, lightly sweep this pink across the sky.

Load a medium size paintbrush with brown paint, paint the ground below the horizon and near the bottom of the canvas.

Allow the painting to dry for at least 30 minutes.

Using a narrow liner brush paint the vertical lines for the pine trees. Don't make them all the same size.

Fill in the pine trees with the fan brush.

Mix a small amount of black paint to some white paint to make a light grey.

Very lightly, using the fan brush, paint vertically just below the pine trees. Then brush across horizontally very lightly.

This will create a reflection of the trees in the water.

Paint a few reddish-orange bushes in between the pine trees.

Add some light brown paint along the dirt at the bottom of canvas. Blend it in, creating an uneven shoreline with shadows.

Add some light green and white paint to the pine trees to create depth.

With the fan brush, lightly paint some green and orange paint upwards from the shoreline.

Create some patches of grass and dirt areas using a small paintbrush.

Using white paint and a medium size brush, paint the tree trunks on the left side of canvas.

Take a small brush and mix a bit of grey paint, paint several markings on the tree trunks. Mix a bit of light brown paint and paint a few markings on the tree trunks.

With a small, narrow liner brush, paint a few dark brown limbs coming off the tree near the top.

Mix up a small amount of medium green paint. Dab the leaves on the tree.

Mix up a bit of dark green paint and dab more leaves on the tree.

Now dab some yellow leaves randomly around the tree.

Add a few highlights here and there.

Dab a few orange leaves to the tree.

Step back and take a look. Only the artist knows when he or she is finished with a painting.

The most important thing to remember is to have fun!

Now, clean out your paint brushes and stand back and admire your work!