How to Paint a Sunset: 5-Step Acrylic Tutorial

Start with the warmest colors. Lay yellow where you want the sun, then add orange around it. Brush in horizontal strokes so the colors blend at the edges - sunsets work in horizontal bands, not vertical streaks.

Don't worry about precision. The bright colors will be softened and partially covered by everything you do after this. Acrylics layer well, so starting bright keeps the colors saturated when you go back over them later.

Now add the magentas and dioxazine purple above the warm zone. The colors get darker and cooler as you move away from the sun - that's the visual rule that makes a sunset read as a sunset.

Mix a small bit of black into the purple, then add a touch of white to make a gray. Lay narrow gray strokes between the warm and cool zones - this is the move that makes the bright colors pop. Without grays, the painting looks too saturated everywhere.

Paint cerulean blue across the top of the canvas. Blend it down into the cool clouds you laid in step 2. If you go over the magentas a little, that's fine - acrylics dry fast enough that the layers don't mix into mud.

Add a tiny bit of phthalo green to the blue near the warm zone for a turquoise band. The turquoise sits next to the orange and creates a complementary contrast that makes the sun area look brighter than it actually is.

Go back over the brightest spots with pure pigment - thick paint, no blending. Stab strokes of magenta and red into the cool clouds, swipe pure orange and yellow back over the sun area. This is the layer that makes the painting look like it has actual light in it.

Don't blend at this stage. The whole point is the unblended brushstrokes catch the eye and read as highlights. Use a smaller brush than you used for the base layers.

Soften the transitions with a light dry-brush stroke between zones. Then paint the foreground - water, trees, mountains, whatever fits your composition. Keep it dark so it doesn't compete with the sunset.

If your foreground is water, bring some of the warm sunset colors down into it as a reflection. If it's mountains or trees, fade the distant ones lighter than the close ones to create depth. Sign the corner and step back.