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How to Paint an Owl Silhouette & Moon

Description: 

Learn how to paint and easy moon lit sky with a tree branch and owl silhouette in the foreground.

This painting is one of several paintings that I have that require you to trace a paper plate for the first step! The circle is painted completely white for the moon. Easy!  

You can leave the owl as a silhouette or add some cute details on the face.

Enjoy and Happy Painting Artists!

Materials

• Acrylic Paint (Liquitex BASICS or Apple Barrel Craft Paints)
• Paint Colors:
  • Cadmium Red Medium (Flag Red)
  • Cadmium Orange Hue (Jack O Lantern)
  • Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue (Bright Yellow)
  • Deep Violet (Purple Iris)
  • Mars Black (Black)
  • Titanium White (White)
• 16″ x 20″ Canvas (You can use any size you want!)
• Paint Brushes
• 9″ Paper plate for tracing the moon (or smaller or larger depending on canvas size)

Directions At A Glance:

Download Free PDF For this!

Download: How to Paint an Owl Silhouette & Moon

Video Directions: 

Step By Step Pictures: 

1. Trace A Circle For The Moon & Yellow Ring

Trace an 9″ paper plate with a pencil for the moon.

Paint a yellow ring around the moon using a flat brush. This is about 1″ thick. Use a 3/4″ flat wash brush for this. 

2. Paint The Second Ring & Blend

Then paint an orange ring around the yellow ring. The orange should be about the same thickness.

3. Blend the Colors

Blend the two colors together. You can use a wet brush if your paint is still wet and do the “wet on wet” technique to blend the two colors together. If your paint is too dry, try “double loading” your brush with yellow and orange and blend the two colors that way. You can also use a soft dry brush to go over and blend the colors. Or…you can mix orange and yellow on the palette and then apply that color in between the rings!

The two colors are blended together.

4. Paint Red Ring and Blend

Next, paint a red ring around the orange ring. Then blend the red with the orange in the same way you blended the yellow with the orange.

5. Paint The Purple Sky & Blend

Paint the rest of the canvas (except the moon) purple. Blend the purple with the red.

6. Paint The Moon White

Paint the moon in a solid coat of white. Try to keep your strokes circular. Use a 3/4″ flat wash brush for this. 

7. Paint Moonbeams

Add some white “C” lines of white around the moon for added interest. You can do this dry brush or wet brush.

8. Paint The Tree Branch

Get your angled brush and load it with black paint. Hold the brush to where the longer bristles are on the left. In the LOWER LEFT CORNER start painting a large branch.

9. Paint The Owl

Use either the angle brush or the round brush to paint the body of the owl. Paint two curved lines. 

Then paint a circle for the head. 

Paint two ears. 

Then paint the owl solid black. 

Paint a small tail under the branch. 

10. Optional: paint some details on the silhouette

You can add details on the owl such as facial features and talons. This is just an added design element I did on the recorded version of the painting.

11. Paint Leaves

Use the #4 round brush to paint little dots of color on the brushes. Use a combination of the yellow, red and orange. 

12. Finished!

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