How to Paint Fireworks | Step by Step Tutorial with Video | Watercolour Painting

yashny (65)in #art • 5 years ago

Hello Steemians! I hope that everyone is pumped up for this year with motivation to pursue all your new resolutions or any pending goals if you have any. Today, I would like to share a tutorial on how to paint fireworks. I painted this for the new year but I couldn't share it because the year didn't start in the best way. It is just the 10th day of the first month and several mishaps have happened in my family so I wasn't not able to focus on this. Coming back to the tutorial, I learned how to make this artwork from Makoccino (click here) and sir @shibasaki (click here). The links will take you to their tutorials. Now, let me jump into the steps on how I painted the fireworks.

Tools and Materials

A good quality artblock that can absorb water
Buncho water colours
Paint brushes
2 containers of water (one to mix paint and one to clean brush)
A candle or a white crayon
A 2B pencil

Step by Step Tutorial

First of all, I drew a very basic sketch of my painting as a guide using my 2B pencil. I drew a few circles for the fireworks, a river and some buildings. This is to help me get an idea on where I would like my details to be. You can skip this step if you believe that you can handle it without making a basic outline.

P_20190103_134623_HDR g.jpg

Then, I started painting. I painted some water on the center of the circle first. Then, I painted my colours around them. I added multiple blobs of colours and rings of new colours around each blob. Feel free to go wild and mix colours to make new shades if you like. Then, while waiting for the firework blobs to dry, I painted some yellow on the buildings. This is to indicate lights on them. After that, I moved on to paint the river. I made a few horizontal strokes to indicate the reflections of the the fireworks on the surface of the water. Then, I left my artwork for a good 15 minutes so that everything was completely dry.

P_20190103_135639_HDR g.jpg

Once everything has dried, I used my birthday candle to draw some blooming flower-like stroke to indicate fireworks. These are the areas that I would like to keep my colour on. Please watch my video at the end of this tutorial for a better picture on what I am referring too. I made many strokes using my candle to draw the fireworks on all of the blobs. Then, I did similar thing to the buildings and the river. I used the candle on the areas that I have chosen to keep its colour.

Then came the time for the most exciting part! It was the time to paint the background! All you need is a dark colour, preferably black and another dark colour of your choice if you would like the gradient effect on your painting. I chose the colours purple and black. Since purple is lighter, I painted that at the bottom areas and painted black on top. Just paint straight across your fireworks and watch the magic happen. You will be able to notice that the parts with candle wax keep their colours.

P_20190103_141531_HDR g.jpg

I also painted the river and this is how it looks after painting the entire artwork.

P_20190103_161012_HDR g.jpg

Then, I used black with a very small amount of water to paint the buildings. I wanted them to stand out and have a contrast along with the yellow lights. Another way to do this is by layering your paint with 2 or 3 times so that the paint looks more opaque. I also painted the shadows of the buildings on the river.

P_20190103_161329_HDR g2 - Copy - Copy.jpg

Well, I wasn't happy with one of my fireworks because I thought that it looked too dull. So, I used my brush and picked up some yellow paint and made some strokes to make the firework brighter. This is my completed painting and I enjoyed painting it so much because I got to use almost all of my colours. If you would like to watch me painting, please watch the video below. I have also added my voiceover on the video to walk you through the steps.