"Baby Beach Bungalow" Step-By-Step

A few weeks ago I received a commision painting job from Sherri. She and her husband were visiting the island of Kauai on their honeymoon (Congratulations!), and she wanted to have a painting created of the bungalow where they stayed.

She came across my website and loved the style of my Kauai Coffee Visitor Center painting and wanted something similar. After a few emails (we've never met in person), I took my camera and headed out to the famous "Baby Beach" of Kauai's south shore. I snapped several pics of the house and also a few of the beach itself (look for an upcoming painting of this one in a future post).

Well, I always wanted to capture the "steps" that I take to create an acrylic painting. So I remined myself to take a picture every so often while working on this piece. In my acrylics classes, I always stress the importance of blocking in the major colors and shapes before painting the details. This is what you see in step #1. I love the bright blue color of the sky here in Kauai!

Step #1

Next, I started to slowly develop the painting. Added a few details, but mostly working on the underpainting. Acrylic paint can be very opaque especially when mixed with titanium white. Therefore, if you make a mistake at this point, you can cover it up and keep on paintin'!

Step #2

In Step #3 I started to develop more of the house, porch and garden. I didn't like the blue color I put on the left-hand side of the house because it looked too much like sky, so I greyed it out a bit. This was challenging to get the right shade.

Step #3

Finally, I started to work more on the palm trees on the sides. I wanted to get a lot of detail in the underpainting part of the trees. Lots of details in the background without worrying about the foreground until last.

Step #4

In Step #5, I worked on more detail of the house and palm trees. I also painted the adorable coconut that was so appropriately placed near the entrance to the house!

Step #5

Drum roll please! LOL! Here's the final version of the painting! I hope Sherri likes it! I spent lots of time on the palm tree details. Whew!

Baby Beach Bungalow

11"x14" on Canvas (painted on the edges in a Gallery Wrap Style)




Baby Beach Bungalow (Detail)

Hope you have enjoyed this demo of my acrylic painting technique! I offer classes in acrylics, watercolor, silk painting, scratchboard, drawing, and soon to add a class in pastels! I teach Tuesdays through Saturdays at my Waimea studio on the island of Kauai! All materials are provided so you can drop in anytime to experience the "Creation of ART"!

Aloha,

Marionette

Website: http://www.kauai-artist.net/

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