The Mountains at Sunset Painting

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have spent a lot of time admiring the sunset over the Olympic Mountains. With this painting, I wanted to recreate our magnificent sunsets with some of my own twists. If you enjoy color and texture, this painting is for you!

• One 11x14 " Canvas
• An old towel that you don't mind getting paint on
• One wide-tip paintbrush Amazon.com: 16 Piece Large Flat Tip Paint Brushes Hog Bristle Tempera and Artist Paint Brushes for Kids with Short Stubby Plastic Handle-Assorted Colors : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
• Two narrow-tipped paintbrushes Amazon.com: 16 Piece Large Flat Tip Paint Brushes Hog Bristle Tempera and Artist Paint Brushes for Kids with Short Stubby Plastic Handle-Assorted Colors : Arts, Crafts & Sewing
• One tray palette Amazon.com: WNATN Paint Tray Palettes, Plastic White Palettes for Kids & Students,Paint Tray for Art Class ,Craft DIY or Have a Birthday Painting Party-8pcs
• Acrylic Paints; Magenta, orange, peach, white, black, and gold.
• 1 Sharpie Marker
• A cup with water to rinse brushes

Turn your 11x14" canvas horizontally. Using your Sharpie marker, sketch the outline of your mountain range. You can look at a reference photo to do this part, or free-sketch from memory.

Begin this step at the top of your canvas. Using your wide-tipped paintbrush, paint a magenta, peach, and orange stripe from one side of the canvas to the other. Make sure each stripe is about 1 1/2 inches wide. You may have to go over each color a few times to completely cover the white of your canvas.

Using your narrow-tip paintbrush, take a small amount of peach paint and blend your 3 colors together. You can blend your colors by lightly sweeping your brush across the canvas. Do not be afraid to let your orange paint blend into the peach, and your peach paint blend into the magenta. The peach paint should cause your orange and magenta paint to lighten in color.

Repeat your 3 stripes from step 2 (Magenta, peach, orange). Your stripes should go over the Sharpie outline of your mountain range. This is to make sure there are no white spots left showing on the top half of your canvas.

On your palette, blend together the orange and peach paint. Using a narrow-tip paintbrush, paint over the orange sections of your canvas.

Using a narrow-tipped paintbrush, lightly paint over the Sharpie outline with black paint.

Using a wide-tip paintbrush, fill in the mountain range with black paint. Use long strokes with your paintbrush. Short strokes can give the paint a "textured" appearance.

Using a narrow-tipped paintbrush, use a "blotting" motion with your brush to blend white paint into the right side of each mountain peak.

Using your narrow-tipped paintbrush, use a "blotting" motion to blend gold paint into each mountain peak. At this stage, you may choose to add some more black paint to your mountains to create a shadow effect.