Lemon Acrylic Painting
Learn how to do a lemon acrylic painting in this blog post. A lemon painting on canvas is an easy painting to try for a beginner painter. Try a lemon acrylic painting by following the steps below!
A Lemon Painting on Canvas - Supplies You Need
Palette
Cup of water
Rag
Cadmium yellow paint
Titanium white paint
Mars black pant
Cadmium red paint
Cobalt blue paint
Number 6 round brush
Round detail brush
One inch flat brush
canvas
A coloured piece of chalk
Lemon Acrylic Painting Step 1 - Paint the Background
For the lemon acrylic painting first you want to start by painting the background on your canvas with your flat brush. You can plan whatever colour you would like as long as it isn't yellow because we want the lemon to stand out. I chose to do a grey background by mixing titanium white and mars black together. You can also paint a table or a counter surface where we will set the lemon in the painting. I chose to mix cobalt blue, cadmium yellow and a bit of titanium white together. You can paint a couple layers of the background to make sure the canvas surface is completely covered.
Lemon Acrylic Painting Step 2 - Draw the Lemon
With a piece of chalk you can draw the shape of the lemon. It helps to have a picture of a lemon or a real lemon that you are drawing from so that you capture a realistic shape. I like to draw in chalk because the chalk will rub off easily if you make a mistake. Once you have the outline you can begin to paint the lemon painting on canvas.
Lemon Acrylic Painting Step 3 - Paint the Lemon
Next, you can start to paint in your lemon drawing with cadmium yellow paint. You can outline the lemon painting with your detail brush and fill the rest in with your number 6 round brush. Painting the total lemon in yellow will be our first layer.
Lemon Acrylic Painting Step 4 - Paint in the Texture
With your lemon or photograph of your lemon you will notice that a lemon isn’t just yellow. You will want to recognize where the highlight of the lemon is to put in your lemon acrylic painting. The highlight of your lemon should have a light yellow. You can mix yellow and white to get the highlight. You will also paint the shadow. You can mix some black and yellow for the shadow. When painting the second layer of your lemon you will want to make sure you are painting in a curved direction to help make the lemon look round and not flat.
With your round detail brush you can start to paint some of the details like any green splotches or brown or reddish spots on the lemon. Challenge yourself to make the lemon look realistic by adding lots of details and a variety of different yellows.
Lemon Acrylic Painting Step 5 - Paint the Shadow
Once your lemon is complete you will want to paint the shadow on the table. Whatever colour you painted the table you can mix a bit of black with it to paint the shadow. Notice the size and shape of the shadow in your photograph or on the lemon in front of you. You can use a dry brush or dab your rag to create a soft shadow texture.
Now you have completed your lemon acrylic painting. You can click the link to see the YouTube painting tutorial if you prefer to see the steps of the painting! I hope you enjoyed completing your lemon acrylic painting!
If you want to learn more tips be sure to download my FREE 16 page Ebook that will help you become a better acrylic painter!
