How To Paint A Zebra – Step By Step Painting

Learn how to paint a zebra with a beautiful vibrant rainbow background. The background of this painting reminds me of my ice cream cone painting I did one summer with the rainbow background.

I love how this rainbow background looks with the black and white. I found it very relaxing to paint all the stripes!

I also did this with a few neon paints! I love how the neon pink and neon yellow look with the background! In fact, when the neon yellow blended with the blue, we got a neon green. Same with the pink and the yellow to make a neon orange!

If you do not want to use neons, or do not have them, you can still do this painting. Just substitute out with primary yellow and medium magenta.

This tutorial has a free traceable that you can print and then transfer to your canvas. I did this on a 11” x 14” size, however, you can do this on any size canvas.

Add these animal paintings to your collection!

Picture of a painting of a koala — Koala

Enjoy and happy painting!

Materials

Yield: One 11” x 14” Canvas Painting

Zebra Painting

Paint beautiful zebra with a vibrant rainbow background! This painting is a very easy, beginner level acrylic painting.

Active Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours

Difficulty Easy

Materials

Acrylic Paint
Paint Brushes
11“ x 14“ Canvas
Graphite Paper
Traceable

Colors

Neon Pink
Neon Yellow
Light Blue Permanent
Deep Violet
Titanium White
Mars Black

Brush Sizes

Color Palette

Note: if you do not have or do not want to use neon paint, substitute neon pink for medium magenta and neon yellow for primary yellow.

Craft Paint Suggestions

If you are doing this with craft paints, I suggest the following colors:

Neon pink
Neon yellow
Black
White
Any Light Sky Blue
Any medium violet color

Traceable

Print this on standard size 8.5” x 11” paper and tape together to create the size that will fit on a 11” x 14”. You can also resize this for any canvas size by using the FABULOUS online software Rapid Resizer.

To get the PDF, visit my Traceable Library.

Directions At A Glance

Step By Step Directions

1. Draw or Transfer Zebra Design To Canvas

You can lightly draw the zebra with pencil onto the canvas.

Or you can use my traceable and a sheet of graphite paper. If you do not have graphite paper, you can apply pencil on the back of the traceable and then trace it over the canvas.

2. Paint The Rainbow Background

Load your palette with neon pink, neon yellow, light blue permanent and deep violet. Use both a 3/4” flat brush and a 12 bright brush.

Start at the bottom and apply about an inch to two inches of the light blue permanent. Paint in small vertical strokes.

Then load your brush with some neon yellow so that it turns into a bright green color. Blend that into the blue for the next row of color.

If you need to get into smaller areas, use your 12 bright brush (a smaller flat brush).

Continue working your way up the canvas adding new colors and blending. You will need to rinse the blue off your brush when you want that yellow to be a pure yellow .

Then blend a little neon pink so that it turns orange. Create the next row of color with this orange color.

Then rinse or wipe off brush and add just neon pink. Go almost all the way up the canvas with this pink.

Then add the deep violet. Be very careful with this color because it is dark and strong!

Go back in your background and do touch ups as needed. Paint the sides of the canvas as well!

3. Paint The Black Stripes

For the zebra stripes, I used a #4 round brush and mars black. Paint all the zebra stripes in. Pay attention to how some stripes have thin and thick areas.

If you need your black paint to flow a little better, add some water to your brush and swirl it into the black paint.

4. Paint The Eye

For the eye I used a 3/0 spotter brush because this is a smaller more detailed area.

Paint the inside circle of the eye, leaving the white dot unpainted.

Then outline the outer part of the eye.

5. Paint The Muzzle

The muzzle is gray on the top and black under the mouth. On your palette, mix black and white until you get a dark – medium gray. Paint the top part of the muzzle with this gray.

Then paint the bottom part with just black. Paint the inside nostril black as well.

6. Paint The Ears

Use that same medium gray to paint the inside of the ears.

Then outline the outer part of the ears black. Paint the back part of the ear black.

Tip: you can have your stripes go off the sides of the canvas too!

7. Paint The Hair

For the hair, I recommend using your round brush. Add a little black to the brush and stroke very fast starting from the back and going at an angle.

You want the paint stroke to sort of fade out and run dry. This creates the texture of the hair.

Do the hair that is in between the ears.

8. Paint The White In Between The Stripes

You can do the white all solid titanium white or mix a little gray to get some variation. I decided to make a very light gray and painted the white part with that very light gray. But I also added pure titanium white and this created some variation in the the white of the zebra.