Create a Northern Lights painting

Want to paint the Northern Lights? In this video, we show you how you can bring this beautiful artwork to life using acrylic and oil paints.

To get a very vibrant Fluro colour give it a second coat once the first coat is dry.

1. Painting the background. The first step is to tint the canvas with Fluro Green Acrylic Paint. I use a 75 mm Abstract Expression Brush to apply the paint. I have given the surface 2 coats allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second coat.

2. Painting the trees. Refer to the image on page 7 and use a medium flat brush on its side to create a thin straight line to represent each tree trunk. Pay attention to the position of the trees as they are more angled the closer they are to the edge of the sides of the canvas. Once the lines are in, go back over them and thicken them at the base so they taper out to nothing. Refer to the image of the finished painting on page 9 and paint in the vegetation using Lamp Black Acrylic applied with the small filbert. When you put the trees in you might like to research different pine tree silhouettes.

3. Painting the Northern lights

Refer to the colour guide on page 8 and lay the blocks of suggested colour in as laid out in the image on page 7. At this stage you might like to add more colours or less colours, or you might like to add the colours in different shapes across the sky. Any areas that go behind the tree you can cut the colour around the foliage. To make a colour really bright Zinc White can be blended into the colour. Once all of the colours are laid right up next to each other use a large brush and blend them together so there is a smooth transition. The lowest blue/green colour will blend into the fluro green of the background. I mix a little Thickened Linseed Oil Medium into this area so I can blend the colour out to nothing. This way the sky smoothly transitions into that background.

4. Glazing the aurora The painting needs to be touch dry before this last stage is attempted. This step is optional but it really adds some depth to the sky. Essentially just pour a little Thickened Linseed Oil Medium into each colour that was used to paint the sky. The medium makes the colour transparent. For this stage don’t use any white. You can then lay each colour over the dried previous layer. Then follow the same steps and blend the blocks of translucent colours together.