3 Steps to Paint FIRE in Your Acrylic Portrait (Lion and Soldier Series)

Published 2024-08-05

Most of us love a nice warm fire. It adds heat and light, and makes so many things possible. Fire is the cornerstone of civilized life.

Yet many artists struggle to paint it realistically. Flames often look chalky, dull, maybe even cartoonish. Why?

In this video, I'll give you three practical steps you can incorporate into your own painting, if you ever desire to paint fire. The result will be a fire that looks vibrant and realistic. I'm continuing with the Lion and Solider painting, and contextually, the forest fire is symbolic of trials that we go through in life, so it's important to make the flames look as real as possible!

Here is my 3-step process of painting fire, using the acrylic glazing technique:

Step 1: Darken the area around the flames first.
Step 2: Enrich the color of the entire flame with yellow.
Step 3: Darken specific mid-tone shapes within the fire, leaving the highlights lighter and vibrant.

Let me know how this helps and be blessed in your painting!
—Matt

►► Learn how to paint portraits realistically with my FREE lessons: realisticacrylic.com/

👉Want to know how to get better skin tones? Get my FREE "Fix Muddy Skin Tones" PDF Guide and improve your portrait! → realisticacrylic.com/fix-mudd

Check out my other video tutorials as well. 👇👇👇
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👉Painting a Grisaille in Acrylic—Using Titanium White Highlights over Dark Brown    • Painting a Grisaille in Acrylic—Using...
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👉How to Paint Dark, Wavy Hair in Your Acrylic Portrait    • How to Paint Dark, Wavy Hair in Your ...
👉How to Paint Foliage Using the Acrylic Glazing Technique    • How to Paint Foliage Using the Acryli...
👉How to Trace for an Accurate Portrait Sketch    • How to Trace for an Accurate Portrait...
👉How to Sketch an Acrylic Portrait with a Grid bit.ly/3OPP3Oi
👉 Beginning a Pet Portrait in Acrylic: bit.ly/3NBWV4S
👉Paint Realistic Reflections on Eyeglasses in an Acrylic Portrait: bit.ly/3AgLXPm
👉How Do You Begin an Acrylic Portrait: bit.ly/3I3LLF8
👉How to Paint Hair in Your Acrylic Portrait: bit.ly/3yMwLbR
👉How to Paint a Mustache in an Acrylic Portrait: bit.ly/3NpP5fe
👉Techniques for Painting Realistic Hair in Your Acrylic Portrait: bit.ly/3Lo047j
👉Questions About Glazes: Where and How Many? bit.ly/39zAnDE
👉Demonstration: 30-Minute Freehand Portrait Sketch: bit.ly/3MpZMhE
👉30-Minute Acrylic Portrait: Man in the Dark Brown Cap: bit.ly/3FZf7Dk

For more video tutorials, you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.→ bit.ly/3i8uT3C

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My recommended acrylic paint and matte medium: Nova Color Paint (affiliate link): realisticacrylic.com/get-nova-color

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