Stargazing Watercolor Style

Simple tutorial for painting a stunning night sky using watercolor and salt.

What you'll need:

• Watercolor paints, Yellow, Blue, Black & Red

• White Acrylic Paint

• Salt

• Brushes

• Artist Sponge

• Disposable Toothbrush

• Watercolor paper

• Masking Tape

Prepare Your Paper

First thing you need to do is prep your paper. Use a large paint brush to wet your entire page and tape it to a flat surface using masking tape.

Apply a Base Color Wash

Apply a wash of light color to your damp paper. Start with light yellow on the bottom eighth, followed by a stroke of orange, then another eight of the paper in red, a stroke of purple, and finish it with blue slightly darkening toward the top.

Outline the Sky

Using the same palette of colors used for the base wash paint the sky. Start with yellow about a quarter the way up your paper and near the middle. Paint a column of color with yellow in the middle, then orange, then red, then purple. Paint two layers of blue on the rest of the sky, leaving a quarter of the page blank other than the base wash.

Apply Salt

While the paint is still wet apply salt generously over your page and leave till completely dry. It takes at least an hour for it to dry out enough to move onto the next step.

Darken the Sky

Using an artist sponge or paper towel apply dark blue and black paint to the blue areas of the sky, making the top and corners the darkest. Sprinkle a small amount of salt on the newly painted areas of the sky. Don't apply too much or the sky won't stay dark.

Sketch Your Silhouette

While the sky is drying sketch out your silhouette. I like to do mountains! However, a beach silhouette, or a city skyline, or a forest would all look great!

Add Acrylic Stars

First, protect the sketch with masking tape, do not press the tape down on the painting.

Next, dip the top of your disposable toothbrush in white acrylic paint.

Using your thumb, carefully spray acrylic paint over your painting.

Finally, Paint Your Silhouette

...and allow it to dry