How to Paint a Lighthouse Tutorial – Acrylic Painting for Beginners

Painting on canvas at home by yourself or with a group of friends or students has become a very trendy pastime and a great way to practice and hone your art.

Many people pay to take canvas painting classes and find them very relaxing.

Once you’ve done a few of these exercises, you’ll find it’s not difficult to do them yourself, if you don’t want to join a class.

*This article contains affiliate links*

I’ll walk you through the steps to painting your own lighthouse, along with a list of supplies you’ll need. Don’t feel like you HAVE to follow it exactly if you feel like doing something a little different.

This idea not only helps you but also encourages your creativity, so if you have an idea and want to do it your own way, don’t be afraid to try it!

The great thing about using acrylic paint is that in most cases, with a few exceptions, you can paint over something if you mess up and don’t want to continue working on it.

It dries quickly and you can complete the painting in a very short time if you prefer to do it that way.

So with a lighthouse, the first thing you need to decide is the color of the lighthouse and whether you want a night or day sky.

Choose a few accent colors for your lighthouse, and then you’re ready to get started.

How to paint a lighthouse

What you will need:

• plastic tablecloth or a cover to protect the area below you
• palette or paper plate
• cup and tissue
• paint in shades of blue, turquoise and navy, white, red, black, grey, brown, yellow – or any other colour you decide you need, maybe another yellow for the sun or moon or green if you want grass
• Paintbrushes come in a variety of sizes, from small for detail work, to about 1 inch, some of this is really what you prefer to use, but it’s best to have a few long, thin brushes for sketching and at least one smaller brush with a nice flat edge for drawing straight lines.
• pencil and eraser
• ruler
• easel if you prefer to use one

Step by step instructions

The first step is to use a pencil to lightly draw the lighthouse, waves, and rocks or whatever you choose to place around the bottom.

You can erase on fabric as long as you erase gently, not using too much force, and make sure to brush off any eraser crumbs so you don’t get paint on them later.

First, use a ruler to draw the outline of the lighthouse.

Leave room for the top of the lighthouse and some sky above.

Also, leave room for rocks and waves underneath. This should take up about 2/3 of the height of the tarp.

I recommend looking at some lighthouse pictures online to choose the style that best suits your lighthouse.

Most are the same, but some have more decorative details like iron. You will need to choose how you want your product to look.

Don’t stress too much about drawing the small details here, as you’ll be painting over most of them. You can paint these small areas in with a small brush later.

If you are designing stripes on a lighthouse, use a ruler to draw the stripes on it now.

Draw an area for the light – this area should be rectangular, with a circle in the middle to act as the light source.

Now sketch out some rocks or cliffs, or grassy areas, even if it’s just a simple hill line running under the lighthouse.

This is where you need to get creative and choose how you want it to look. If you like the style of the pattern here, you will need to draw some rocks first, making them rough and not completely smooth, then some waves.

I wanted my waves to be rough, crashing against the shore, not flat water, but you can choose whatever you want.

Once you have drawn the main outline for the water or grass, you are ready to begin.

Time to paint!

First, you’ll be painting the base. I recommend shaking the paint well before pouring and not pouring too much, but for the base you’ll need at least 3 or 4 palette sized cups of paint.

If you use a darker blue, you may need to apply two coats.

Start by using a long, thin brush and sketching before filling in with a larger brush.

This helps you focus on the area you need to paint and avoid accidentally splashing paint on the lighthouse.

Wet the brush to start and blot it with a paper towel, then dip it into the paint. This will help loosen the brush and allow the paint to flow. You should only use water when you take a new brush out for use or to clean the brush otherwise.

Water will damage the finish, causing the paint to become transparent and runny.

Sketch the entire area around the lighthouse, the rocks and waves using the background color you chose.

For my painting, I also added a line between where the rocks and waves merge towards the bottom of the painting.

Once done, continue painting the background with a large brush.

Be sure to paint along the outside edges, top and sides, and on the bottom if any areas are exposed.

While waiting for the first coat to soak in for a few minutes, rinse your brush and move on to a lighter color.

If you are making stripes on a lighthouse, pick one of the colors for the stripes and paint the stripes there. One thing to note: If one of your stripes is black and you are adding iron railings or anything on top, make sure you don’t start the lighthouse stripes with black, so the iron parts show through.

Mine was red and black so I painted a small section of red there to start creating balance, then painted thicker stripes alternating with red and black.

This paint color may need two coats, so if you want to switch back and forth between the lighthouse and the background, this is a great option.

Add another coat of paint to the background and return to the lighthouse.

The next step is to start with rocks, water or grass, whichever you choose.

First, I painted the rock where the lighthouse sits in gray, so that when I painted the waves, they would overlap the rock.

This is also a good time to add the gray in a light spot so the color has time to dry before you do the rest of the steps.

Then I started with a lighter blue and painted all the areas with waves and water.

I used the dark blue line I drew earlier to help shade the second waves and to help break up the waves so they don’t look like one big blue area. They need depth and movement.

The best way to do that is to use a few shades of blue and a little white.

Go towards the light and paint a light yellow in the middle of that area.

Once you have a nice base coat of the main water color (in my case a light blue), you can use a smaller brush and paint a few lines on each wave, following the shape of the wave to give it movement.

This is also a good time to let the paint dry on the water if needed and return to the lighthouse.

Start painting the other colors on the lighthouse at this point, including the other stripe colors and the roof. If the first color needs touch up, go ahead and do so.

The background color, lighthouse and water or rocks must be almost dry.

If you see any fabric showing through the paint, touch it up immediately to get a nice, uniform color across the entire painting.

Now, you’re ready to add the finishing details.

For the waves, add any light or contrasting blue with a small brush – you can add lines in the water if you’re not painting waves, just make thin wavy lines here and there, and on the waves you can add a frothy effect to the top of the wave with white paint, as well as a little blue or white in the waves if you like.

For the rocks, use a brown (I mixed a little white into the brown so it’s not too dark and harsh) and use a small brush to create contrast and shadow on the rocks.

Small, squiggly lines and a few dots give it a textured look. On the lighthouse, use a small brush to paint the railings and ironwork.

I did a zigzag pattern for my railing and I also added small black lines along one side of the lighthouse to create shadows and make it stand out more.

Also, if your sky is darker like mine, use a small brush and paint a few yellow lines downwards from the light source to highlight the light source if you like, and also paint a small window/cutout in the middle of the lighthouse in a small rectangle.

You can also shade it black if you like, by painting along the bottom and one side black or gray.

If you want to add birds in the sky or draw a sun or moon, this is the last step. The birds are painted with a small brush, in a V shape, with the tip of the brush emphasizing the “V”. Keep them small and they are easier to draw.

Finally, review the entire image to see if you want to edit any details, then add your signature!

Let dry completely.

Happy drawing!

Want instant access to all of our printable crafts, activities, and resources?

With thousands of printable crafts, activities, worksheets, coloring pages, and drawing tutorials, you’ll always have the resources you need at your fingertips. Perfect for parents and teachers alike!

Sign up now and start printing!

Categories: Activities for Kids
Source: fetb.edu.vn