Step 1: Paint The  Sky

For this painting, I used an 11×14 stretched canvas but feel free to use any size! I recommend using a 2″ flat brush for blending the background.

While painting this, I only had a 4″ flat brush, which did the job but was difficult to work with.  You can definitely use whatever you have 🙂

Beginning with phthalo blue paint a stripe of paint on the top 1/4 of the canvas.

The goal is to produce a gradient effect, so under this, you will add a stripe of lighter primary cyan, followed by titanium white.

Next, blend deep violet purple with the white layer, being careful to leave a small amount of white at the bottom of the canvas.

For the final stripe, I went for a gold effect and mixed 2:1 primary yellow and burnt sienna, but feel free to use whatever colors you like.

Fill in the white space with the gold color, then blend upward into the purple.

Angsty Painter’s Tip: Blending works best while the paint is still wet. The more you brush, the more the colors mix together to produce the final color. 

Before moving on to the next step, take a moment to dry your painting using a hairdryer, or allow it to air dry for at least 15 minutes.

This is how it looks after drying.

Step 2: Paint The Grass & Tree

Here is where having a smaller flat brush works best. Using mars black paint and your 2″ flat brush, you will do short, upward strokes from the bottom of the canvas to create your grass.

Note: Due to lighting issues, the grass appears to be silverish…I’m working on this for the next tutorial, but this is definitely black!

Using a toothbrush, flick white paint on the background to create smaller stars, and use the 3 round brush to make larger stars.

Next, using the 2″ flat brush, draw the trunk of the tree with black paint. I switched to the 3 flat brush to draw the finer branches, but feel free to do what works best to get the job done.

Remember, it does NOT have to be perfect! Any time you are painting, things will go wrong. But the great thing about paint is that you can let it dry and try again!

Angsty Painter’s Tip: Holding the brush flat against the canvas will produce wide, broad strokes. When holding the brush at a 90 degree angle to the canvas, the edge will produce a straight line. 

Time to add the cherry blossoms!

So you can make the blossoms using whatever brush you’d like, but I started with the first layer using the 3 flat brush. I did a 2:1 mixture of deep violet and primary red, creating a wine-like color for the base.

Take the paint and in a dabbing motion, paint in circular patterns around the branches. Check out the video tutorial if you want to see what I did on this part. Using a rubber banded bundle of Q-tips works well too!

Now repeat the previous steps to layer on white paint.

I used a toothbrush at first, but then I didn’t like the effect, so I went back to the 3 flat brush to distribute the white paint better.

Much better! But I felt the cherry blossoms should pop a bit more, so using the same brush that still has white paint on it, I mixed it with the wine-colored paint to add the pail-pink color on the tops of the blossoms.

Step 3: Paint The  Swing, Dog, & Cat

Last step, yall!

Now we paint the seat of the swing with mars black paint. A steady hand will work just fine but feel free to use a ruler for this part if you’d like.

Next, use the straight edge of the 3 flat brush to draw the bench strings. Again, use a ruler if you want straighter lines.

Next, paint the dog and cat sitting on the bench. You can use the 3 round brush to paint the legs and bodies of the animals, and the 3 flat brush to paint the ears and tail.

To add the finishing touches, use a bit of the gold mixture from earlier to make some fireflies with the 3 round brush.

Now we’re done, and you’ve made it through your first Angsty Art Tutorial!

If you decided to paint Evening Blossoms, let us know in the comments! You can post a picture in our Facebook Group or tag us on Instagram 🙂