6 DIY Steps I Follow Painting Landscapes with Acrylics

Today I am sharing 6 DIY steps I follow painting landscapes with acrylics. I hope these simple steps will encourage and inspire you to consider painting a landscape of your very own!

If you have been reading my blog, or following me on YouTube or Instagram for a while, you know that around this time last year I began to paint. I am not a painter, in fact this time last year, I had never painted before! During quarantine and all the shut downs that were happening, I picked up a paintbrush and some acrylic paint that I had and started playing around with colors. Before I knew it, I fell in love with painting. I am no expert, but today I thought I would share 6 DIY steps I follow painting landscapes with acrylics.

After sharing my new found hobby with you all, I had so many requests to sell my paintings. I decided to open up a shop here on my blog and sell digital downloads of my landscapes for purchase. So many of you have been so supportive of this and I am so thankful for each and every one of you!

This post contains affiliate links. For my full disclosure, click here.

Another request I get a lot is to teach how to paint landscapes. I have been VERY hesitant to do this because I wouldn’t consider myself qualified, in fact I have not taken any art classes besides elementary art! My methods may be completely wrong and I apologize in advance to any real artists out there reading this! I am simply sharing the 6 steps I use to inspire those who have asked and those interested in a new, relaxing hobby.

Shockingly, as much as I love this hobby, I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since November when I painted the Christmas Bells that I shared with you all six months ago! Pregnancy, homeschool and the busyness of life have crowded it out, and I just haven’t made the time for it like I should.

Today was a very overcast day here and I decided to finally pick up my paintbrush again. I was very eager to get back to painting and I want to share with each of you the steps I like to follow!

Don’t forget, you can watch this entire process in the YouTube video linked above!

6 DIY Steps I Follow Painting Landscapes with Acrylics – Supplies

I like to start out with laying out all of the supplies beforehand. I am using simple paper that I am linking here as well as a 1″ paintbrush and acrylic paint from Walmart! Nothing fancy. I would love to learn how to work with oils in the future!

I am using a larger paintbrush today because I want to show you how simple this can be without getting super detailed.

Step 1 – Use a Photo for Reference

So many amazing artists can paint beautiful landscapes using only their creativity and imagination. I respect this so much! I have tried this several times, but nothing seems to come out quite right. I really like to start with a photo as reference to inspire what I am painting and to refer to it for specific details such as cloud shape, colors, etc.  

Step 2 – Start with the Sky

When I begin my painting, I like to start with the sky and move down from there. I usually use a darker blue on the very top of the painting, then mix in white so that the sky becomes lighter with lighter as it meets the horizon.

Step 3 – Add Clouds

Once the sky is finished, I like to add clouds. For this painting, my reference photo had billowy, fluffy clouds that were flatter on bottom. Again, be sure to watch the YouTube video so you can see how I paint these! Clouds are so much fun, I love to be creative and bend my brush in different ways as I form them.

Step 4 – Paint the Horizon

When painting the horizon, I like to paint the farthest point in the distance a lighter shade of green in order to trick the eye into thinking it is farther away. Then I paint what is closer a darker color to make it seem like it is more vibrant and closer to the viewer.

Step 5 – Finish with the Foreground

Finally, I finish off the painting by ending with the foreground. In this case, I painted a wheat field mixing yellow and cream, following the same technique that I did with the horizon line. The further back the wheat goes, the more white I added and the lighter it gets.

Step 6 – Add Details to the Foreground

Once I have painted the foreground of a landscape, I like to focus in on the details. Adding a few simple bushes and trees help make the landscape scene come to life.

6 DIY Steps I Follow Painting Landscapes with Acrylics – Tips and Tricks

As you shade things like trees and bushes throughout your landscape, it is important to keep the direction of the sun consistent.

For this painting, I brightened up the right side of my shrubs and trees with a bit of lighter greens, yellows and whites to give the illusion of light coming in from one direction. Having consistent shadows on all of your smaller painted details will really prevent your landscape from feeling flat, and it will give your painting dimension.

And that is it! I know this painting is nothing fancy, but I hope this tutorial showed you that you don’t need to be a super talented artist to paint a pretty landscape!

I hope these 6 DIY steps I follow painting landscapes with acrylics have helped you and encouraged you to give landscape painting a try. If you do decide to paint, please share your paintings with me! I am so excited to see what you all are able to accomplish!

Have you every attempted to paint landscapes before? I’d love to know in the comments below!

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