Learn to Paint a Sweet Dream with this Step-by-Step Art Lesson!

Hello, everyone! 

I will begin this online painting lesson with some kind of unusual introduction. Here is a photo of the painting, which I am going to talk about.

Our task for today is to create a lovely interesting painting in the naïve style so that it does not resemble the childish picture too much.

Our today`s art painting lesson has several peculiarities:

• we will try to create a painting in the naïve style;
• we will simply draw more than paint;
• we will work with a colorful black canvas.

First of all I would like to say that I have really liked to work with this style and if I have time and inspiration, I will certainly create something lovely one more time. 

And now let`s start our painting lesson:

The necessary paints and brushes;

• a small square canvas (the black will be the best one);
• the acrylic paints (all the paints you have in your set) and the bronze.
• Several synthetic brushes (round №1-3,4 chisel №4);
• the water to wash the brushes;
• an airbrush filled with water;
• a palette;
• and a cloth for the brushes. 

Let`s come over to the creation of the fairy picture:

1. Composition.
Let`s start with a sketch. If you like my idea, you can copy it. But, of course, here you can give an outlet for your imagination and change everything you want. It will be great if you decide to create something new. In order to create something new, you should think over everything well. First you should make several sketches on the paper and then bring the best one onto the canvas. Think over the color grade, composition and subject.

2. At the second stage of the acrylic art lesson you can start working with paints.
First apply the basic color on all the objects. At this stage you should not revolve around the details: you should just give color to the bed (in my case), futons, girl`s clothes, her skin and hair. At this setting stage of the work you can play with colors and shades. You can change the color a bit or completely repaint some objects.
A black canvas has the certain advantage: all the objects show up well on the dark background. It is already clearly seen at the setting stage whether you have thought over the composition and you have a chance to change everything.
When you have colored everything and you like it, you can start drawing in the details. I have started drawing in the girl and then – the futons from up to down. Still you should not stick at one thing.

When drawing in the details, first you should paint the shadows and the light and then finish drawing the weaves, buttons and so on.

It is important to be mentioned that I almost have not used the open colors (pure paints without mixes). Despite the fact that the painting looks quite bright, each of the colors has been complemented with the other one which makes it softer. For example, the red was complemented with the white and the brown, the yellow – with the brown, the blue – with the white and so on (but using different proportions).

The important painting art ideas when using acrylics:

• In order to have more time for modeling the color, creating the smooth transitions from one shade to another, you should sprinkle the canvas with water.
• Also do not forget to sprinkle the palette with water from time to time in order not to let the paints dry up.
• And, of course, you should immediately wash the brushes.

In order not to make the painting too sad or dark, I have decided to highlight the girl and her bed in blue shade. I have mixed a bit of Prussian Blue with the white and slightly painted the background with this mix using the chisel brush.

3. As always, the final stage means emphasizing and finalizing the small details. In our case this means painting the light on the girl`s hair and highlighting some weaves.
Also you should draw the moon and the stars. For this purpose you can use the following mixes of paints:

• white+yellow medium, white+yellow+bronze.

At this stage you can finish your work or add something you want. 🙂 

Our free drawing lesson is over.

And I am sure that all of you have managed to paint this picture and there is a little child inside each of you who wants to believe in miracles and fairytales! 

I wish all of you good luck and new success in your creative work!