Bring the outdoors into your house with a stream painting.
Techniques for painting a stream vary based on the type of paint you are using. Oil, acrylics and watercolors are the three major painting styles. Acrylic is a good choice for beginners. It entails less fuss than oils and is also less expensive; plus, acrylics have a more consistent texture than watercolors. Additionally, acrylic paints tend to dry the fastest. The following basic guide can be applied or re-purposed to suit any of these three mediums.
Instructions
1. Take and print a photograph of the stream you wish to paint. Alternatively, you can obtain pictures of streams from books or online. Although having a picture isn't essential, having a point of reference from which to work makes the process much simpler and increases the chances of a desirable result.
2. Apply gesso to the canvas, if using. Gesso primes a surface for painting by stiffening it and adding texture, thus preventing the paint from soaking in. Allow it to dry.
3. Use a pencil to lightly sketch the outline of the stream. Note that the stream should be wider in the foreground, toward the bottom of the canvas, and narrower in the background, toward the top of the canvas. Also sketch the placement of other major objects in your picture such as trees or structures.
4. Select the colors you wish to use and squirt a small amount of each onto your palette. Usually blues come to mind when considering streams, but a muddy stream appears more like a dusty road, with hues of brown and yellow, while any icy winter stream incorporates shades of gray. Don't forget to include white, which comes in particularly handy if you plan to paint riffles or rapids.
5. Mix together on your palette the paints that are going to compose the base color of your stream. Using a medium-sized brush, paint the base coat on your canvas, staying within the boundaries you sketched in pencil as much as possible.
6. Blend on your palette the base color with some white or other light color; in a separate area of your palette, mix the base color with a bit of black or a darker color. Streams can reflect light and shadows from the surrounding landscape. Use a smaller brush to mirror these reflections in your stream by using colors that are slightly lighter and darker than the base coat.
7. Add other images to your stream, if desired. Such items may include rocks, rapids, or boats.
8. Paint the surrounding landscape and banks of the stream. Let dry when finished.
