Supplies: 

  • Yellow Paint
  • Red Paint (preferable but not necessary if you have yellow and orange) 
  • Blue Paint
  • Orange Paint (preferable but not necessary if you have yellow and red) 
  • White Paint
  • Paint Brush (preferable ½ inch to ¾ inch – 1” at largest)
  • Canvas (preferable, but you can paint on a piece of cardboard, poster board, etc.)

***Any size will do, depends on what materials you have and how big you’d like your painting

Amazon: beware of shipping, this can take longer due to the current COVID-19 situation

Michael’s (offering curbside pick-up or delivery)

Walmart: shipping may not be necessary, Walmarts are open for groceries and can easily find supplies needed in their craft section — options may be different in-store as well

The items that have been involved in the links are not direct recommendations or in support of specific companies. These listed items are trying to stay within a lower price point, and are linked for your convenience. If you are searching for items, we still recommend looking at reviews, and making purchases that are within your price range and will be best for you. 

If you choose to ship items, please keep you and your family safe! Wash your hands before and after handling packages, wipe down packages, and wipe down materials

Welcome back to Roberta’s Art Gallery’s Craft Corner! Grab your paint brush, and a few paints, we are shaking it up and painting this week. The fun part about this blog is that it is meant to be more interactive. Join me TONIGHT, Tuesday, April 21 at 7 p.m. on Facebook for a LIVE Paint and Sip. If you cannot make it, no worries, tune in on Facebook whenever you can or just follow the steps of this blog and do your Paint and Sip at your own pace. This craft is all about bringing some bright and beautiful scenery into your home while also having some fun! 

Necessities: 

  • Yellow Paint
  • Red Paint 
  • Blue Paint
  • White Paint
  • Paint Brush (preferable ½ inch to ¾ inch – 1” at largest) 
  • Cup of Water
  • Something to put/mix paint on (plate, piece of cardboard, etc.)
  • Canvas (preferable, but you can paint on a piece of cardboard, poster board, etc.)
  • Paper towels

***Any size will do, depends on what materials you have and how big you’d like your painting

Before you start painting, please make sure that you are wearing and painting on places that you are comfortable with getting paint on.

Step 1: Starting at the bottom of the canvas (while it is horizontal), paint about ⅓ of canvas blue straight across for the water. 

Step 2: In the center of the canvas where the blue of the water meets the blank canvas, paint a yellow dome to represent the sun rising out of the water. Be careful when it comes to touching the yellow of the sun to the water, you don’t want to have green. With that said, if you accidentally do have mixing, we will cover it up later on, so do not panic!

Let your sun and water finish drying. While you’re waiting for the next step, mix a portion of your orange with some white to create a lighter orange; set this off to the side for later for Step 3. 

Step 3: Start with red or your darker orange, and start to paint around the sun. When you have painted about ⅓-½ of an inch, start to mix in orange to create a fade, and then paint orange to every side of the canvas. Wash your brush before starting to mix the orange in with the red, and then again after once the orange and red are blended. At the end, add in your lighter orange around the edges to exaggerate that fade.

Artist Suggestion: If you are not a fan of how bright the red is in the picture, mix in orange or yellow beforehand to simply make a darker orange rather than a red. This will help to give the sky a little more of a blended look with the sun and the rest of the sky.

**Note: If you do not have orange, mix ⅔ yellow and ⅓ red to create orange. Enjoy this process and make it the orange that you like best. 

Step 4: With your lighter orange, make little strokes in the red part of the sky. Now that you have a tad bit of red on your brush, make little strokes around the red halo in the orange portion.

Step 5 With your orange (light, regular, or both), create a reflection of sunlight on the water. Start at the water line under the sun and start the beam just larger than the width of the sun. From there, gradually make strokes, using just the horizontal tip of your brush, down the water to create the reflection, and start to narrow the reflection as you get closer to the bottom of the canvas. These strokes should not be even, so do not worry about them being even. Along with this, it’s okay to see some blue shining through, it is just water peeking through the reflection. Repeat this step once or twice, but make it “sloppy” – no perfect lines/strokes, and you don’t need to do it in the same spots. 

Step 6: With light blue, make strokes horizontally over the ocean water that you previously did. These represent waves and the movement of the water, so once again, do not worry about these strokes being perfect. Each wave is as unique as you and me! Allow these streaks to go into the reflection as well so that it looks as if it is all blended. 

**Note: If you do not have other shades of blue, THAT’S OKAY! Mix your blue with different amounts of white to make a lighter blue. 

–From the artist: If you feel like your water got a little too light like I did, feel free to go back through the water with your original blue like in the picture above.

Step 7: Once your reflection area is about dry, with yellow, paint small and thin strokes throughout the reflection of the sun on the water. After this, with your light blue, make a few more small, thin strokes in the reflection. This will symbolize the water movement through the reflection of the sun. 

Step 8: Mix yellow and a little bit of white together. We are going to use this in the center portion of the sun so that there appears to be a golden glow. With this light yellow that you have mixed, make a smaller, uneven dome within the sun using horizontal strokes. These do not have to be perfect, and you can always add in more of either yellow throughout the process to make the sun to your liking. Once this is mostly dry, go back through and blend in strokes of your original yellow. 

Step 9: Using your excess [original] yellow, add streaks around the edges of the sun and throughout the rays. This will give the painting character and texture. 

Step 10: With your darker blue, go back over the edge of the horizon on each side of the reflection to better define the skyline of the water. 

Step 11: Once everything is dry, now it is time to add in a few birds! Place these wherever you would like, and whatever size you would like. For the sake of this blog, I am going to place a few birds randomly across the painting. To make the birds, take your black paint, and make wide, hill-like M’s. **Note: If you have a smaller paint brush, I suggest using the smallest paint brush(es) that you can find. This will make your birds much easier to do. 

Your personal sunrise is complete! Don’t forget to show us your pictures in the comments and/or use the hashtag #RobertasCraftCorner. I, along with the rest of the University Center, want to see how beautiful and unique each of your paintings turned out to be. This week’s craft brought a smile to my face and gave me hope for warmer weather to come – I hope it did this for you too! 

Tune in next week for some fun with plants that NEVER need to be watered. Keep it creative! 

Your Craft Corner Guru,