Materials List
Canvas: 6x6 inch canvas or paper.
Acrylics: White, Black, Cadmium Yellow (or any Yellow), Sky Blue (or any Blue), Orange (or Red with Yellow), Phthalocyanine Green (or Grass Green), Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna.
Brushes: Small round detail brush, Small flat brush, Micro or liner detail brush.
Reference: No reference photo included.
Create a mixture of White and Sky Blue. Use very little Sky Blue. Cover the entire canvas using this Light Blue mixture. Let canvas dry entirely before moving onto the next step!
Using just Raw Sienna, draw a fish bowl in the center of your canvas.
Wash out your brush and mix up a Light Green using Cadmium Yellow and Phthalocyanine Blue. Fill the inside of the fish bowl with this Light Green, but be sure to leave a small gap between the surface of the water and the opening of the fish bowl.
Add in more Phthalocyanine Blue to your Light Green mixture to create a Darker Green. With a small round detail brush, create the seaweed using this Dark Green. First paint a thin curvy line, then create small leaves along both sides of that line.
Add in even more Blue to your Green mixture. Paint another seaweed plant using this Darker Green.
Wash out your brush and mix Cadmium Yellow with a bit of Raw Sienna and Orange. Using a medium flat brush, paint the surface below the fish bowl using this color. Use more Raw Sienna on the right side of the fish bowl.
Wash out your brush and with just Orange, paint in three tiny gold fish. Wash out your brush again and mix Raw Sienna with Burnt Sienna. Paint in the brown pebbles at the bottom of the fish bowl.
Add highlights of just Raw Sienna directly onto the pebbles. Wash out your brush and using leftover Dark Green, create a thin dark line on the surface of the water.
Wash out your brush and mix up a Lighter Green than what you mixed for the water. Add random dabs of this Lighter Green overtop the water (just the water).
Wash out your brush and mix up a Light Grey using Black and White. Outline the outer edge of the fish bowl and opening with this Grey.
Artists Tip: To make it look like realistic glass, keep the highlights inside the outer edge of the glass. Don’t paint the entire line, but create a smaller line within that line using a thin, round detail brush.
Add more White to those highlights to make them stand out even more.
Wash out your brush and mix Cadmium Yellow with Orange. Add this Light Orange mixture to the top of each goldfish.
Wash out your brush and add White highlights overtop the front of the fish bowl.
Mix up a Light Grey using White and Black. Paint in cat tail and ears. Keep the tail both inside the fish bowl and sticking out from behind it.
Artist Tip: You can see I made a mistake on that tail and painted over it. Fixing mistakes is easier than you think. I can just repaint that water once it’s dry.
Using just Black, fill in ears and paint in stripes on tail.
Artist Tip: Create fur by clustering short, thin lines next to one another. Keep strands of fur the same width and height, while also having them go in a similar direction. Use a small thin round brush for this or a very small flat brush.
Layer thin strands of hair inside the ears using just White.
Wash out your brush and mix a little Burnt Sienna with Raw Sienna for the little shadow being created by the tail. Paint this shadow overtop the table.
Add Black stripes to the top of the cats head.
