Painting Rain In Acrylics

There are a couple of techniques to use when painting rain. I show you one of these techniques when doing today's paintings, which is a set of two. I use heart-shaped canvasses as my backgrounds to illustrate my love of rain. As I do not mind getting wet, I go so far as to discard the umbrella in one of the paintings. I use acrylic paint as a medium.

I work on masonite backgrounds in these two paintings and start by prepping the surfaces with two layers of gesso. I wait for the gesso to dry in between coatings.

The surface is now prepped and ready to be painted on. Gesso gives the paint a proper surface to cling to, as well as to give you a stark white background to start on, which will help to make the true colours of the paint reflect more brightly.

I draw a discarded umbrella in charcoal.

I also draw the figure of a woman walking in the wind and rain, with an umbrella covering her face and head, in charcoal.

I start with a selection of blues that appeal to me as well as mixing white. This white is semi-transparent, unlike Titanium White which is completely opaque.

The canvas is covered in the four colours I selected above. In places, the colours mix as well, creating even more shades of blue.

I now add a brilliant red for the umbrella.

Do not forget to paint the reflection of the umbrella in the rain.

I paint the handle and the shadows of the umbrella in black.

I add highlights to the umbrella with mixing white.

I use the mixing white to paint the pouring rain at an angle.

Where the drops hit the surface of the ground, it splashes up in short v's with feathers.

Towards the back, the v's of the drops hitting the surface, must become even shorter to create the illusion of depth.

The second background is painted much the same as the first.

The umbrella is once again painted red.

Shadows are added in black.

Highlights are added with mixing white and blue.

I now add the opaque Titanium White to my palette to paint the figure with.

The figure in painted with the Titanium White.

White always reflects its surroundings and I now make sure it happens here as well.

The rain is painted in at a slant.

The drops are painted in feathered v's.

I paint the legs of the figure with a combination of blue and black as it is clad in shade. Add a bit of white for highlights and red to warm it up.

The finished painting.

The finished painting.

The two paintings side by side.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
You can follow Miekie's daily Bible Study blog, Bybel Legkaart, here in English & Afrikaans.
You may prefer to follow the traveling blog, A Pretty Tourist.
For more crafty ideas and great product reviews, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
If you are in a literary mood, follow Miekie's musings, stories and poetry on A Pretty Author - Miekie.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making life PRETTY.
You can subscribe to any of these blogs and receive regular updates by email. Simply register your email address at the top of the applicable blog.