Deer in the Moonlight

Hello everyone!

In this instructable I will be giving you step by step instructions on how to paint a deer in the moonlight!

It is a simple painting that I hope you enjoy!

Supplies

8x10 Canvas

Palette

White, black, dark blue, and light blue acrylic paint

Dish filled with water

Pencil

Large flat brush

Small flat brush

Angled brush

Small pointed brush

Step 1: Base Color

To begin, take your large flat brush and lighter blue shades and slowly shade the perimeter of your canvas with small strokes.

Continue by mixing the darker blue with the lighter blue on the same brush and deepening the edges of your canvas.

Then, slowly add black to the corners of the canvas in small amounts with the same brush until you've achieved a well blended look while keeping the center white.

Step 2: Making the Moon

Next, with the small flat brush, pick up your white paint and begin to carve out the moon into a more rounded figure.

It doesn't have to be perfect!

Step 3: Creating the Grass

The deer will need something to stand on, so in this step take another large flat brush (or clean off the same one) and dip into your black paint to create a black strip about an inch thick.

Then with a small pointed brush begin to make hair-like strokes mimicking the grass like texture on either side of the moon, staying away from the center.

Step 4: Drawing the Deer

For this next step grab a pencil and begin to draw the deer. You may use a stencil if you'd like!

Then with an small pointed brush start to fill in the deer outline using black paint.

With the same small brush draw out the antlers. (If you don't want them you can skip this part!)

Step 5: Making the Trees

To create the pine trees shown, begin by taking the angled brush and black paint and draw three straight lines in different sections of your painting.

(Keep in mind that they do not need to be even since they are resembling trees!)

Then with the small pointed brush, go back into the black paint and begin to add the pine needles with small, hair-like strokes.

Step 6: Final Touches

Once that is complete, add dimension to your painting by grabbing the small flat brush and mixing 2 parts white paint to 1 parts light blue paint and carefully add that to the moon.

Then using a small pointed brush, dip into the white paint and add stars to the background.

After that, you're finished!