How to paint a seagull in acrylics - Full tutorial with Mark Waller @ExploreAcrylics
How to paint a seagull in acrylics - Full tutorial with Mark Waller  @ExploreAcrylics
Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 45 minutes ago
How to paint a seagull - impressionist style with Mark Waller. We hope you enjoy this full tutorial showing you how to paint this gorgeous seagull and learn how to create the realism that goes with placing this seagull in shallow water and showing suds receding off into the distance.

Materials needed for the whole project:

Stretched and pre-painted Canvas - 40cm x 40cm pre-painted with a mixture of Dioxazine Purple + White.

Atelier Interactive Artists Acrylics:

Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Pthalo Blue
French Ultramarine Blue
Burnt Umber
Dioxazine Purple

Atelier Free Flow:
Cadmium Orange (for blocking in)

Brushes:
10 Eastart 1600 Flat
8 Micador 1600 Flat
4 Micador For Artists Roymac 956 - India
Another scrappy brush that is somewhere in between the 4 and 8. All these brushes are cheap synthetic brushes and range in price from .50c each to about $6 each.

Large water pot

Large palette for mixing paint

Palette knife for dishing up your paint

Reference pic for this painting located here:

s3.amazonaws.com/MarkWallerDVDTutorials/PDF+Docs/Paint+a+Seagull+Reference+pics.pdf

Feel free to download! Unfortunately these pics were taken with a phone from a distance and then cropped, so the resolution is not good. But see how you go!

White chalk
Pink/Red chalk

00:00 - Begin!
00:28 - Chalk in shapes
02:40 - Block in outlines
05:18 - Dish out your paints
06:45 - Mix up darkest colours
07:06 - Paint shadows on gull
08:36 - Mixing up mid-tone gull colour
09:17 - Adding highlights
10:48 - Mixing underbelly colour
11:00 - Painting underbelly colour
11:34 - Adding strong highlights
11:58 - Mixing beak colour
12:12 - Painting the gull's beak and eyes
12:53 - Mixing gull's shadow colour
13:52 - Paint gull's shadow
14:29 - Mixing light reflected on shadow's colour
14:45 - Suggesting ripples in the shadow
15:07 - Mixing the background colour
16:00 - Paint the background in
17:30 - A great tip on gradation!
19:08 - Create depth in your background colour
20:41 - Painting the suds
21:41 - Create depth in your suds
24:12 - How to create realism and distance in your painting
24:51 - Mixing shadow colour for the suds
25:21 - Adding shadows to pop your suds!
26:27 - Creating distance in your suds shadows
27:31 - Refining the beak
28:23 - Adding more colour to the details
28:41 - Refining feathers
29:41 - Adding detail to seagull's tail
30:12 - Mixing reflected sand colour for gull's belly
30:37 - Painting reflected colour for gull's belly
31:13 - Painting the eye
32:23 - Creating the gull reflection on the wet sand
34:44 - How to create exceptional depth and realism in your painting

Join this channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCIzzJZa8_Obui-WGHgdUnng/join

For more great acrylic painting tips, techniques and tutorials to improve your painting processes, make sure you check out Mark's tutorial website at:
explore-acrylic-painting.com

For Mark's tutorial products including his Beachscapes Paint Recipe Book, downloadable and streamable DVDs on painting water and waves, painting "start to finish" downloadable tutorials (the V-Logs) and ebooklets, go to his shop here:
explore-acrylic-painting.com/shop.html

Want to look at Mark's available works? For limited edition prints and artworks go to his art website at https://www.markwaller.com.au

For more info on upcoming workshops (or digital one-on-one lessons), go to:
explore-acrylic-painting.com/workshops.html

Mark uses Atelier Free Flow Artists Acrylics and Atelier Interactive Artists Acrylics by Chroma Australia.

Mark uses Micador for Artists Future and series 1300 brushes (amongst others, usually whatever is within reach). Micador is a fantastic Aussie company doing their best for the environment. For more info on their sustainability efforts see https://micador.com.au/green_earth

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Facebook:
facebook.com/exploreacrylicpaintingcom
facebook.com/MarkWallerArtist

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instagram.com/explore.acrylic.painting
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How to paint a seagull in acrylics - Full tutorial with Mark Waller

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