How to paint a seagull in acrylics - Full tutorial with Mark Waller

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:

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:

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

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:

For more info on upcoming workshops (or digital one-on-one lessons), go to:

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

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[Evekerlz]

Thank you for this! I am painting a seagull as a birthday present and you have given me some great ideas.

[dalet]

My seagull came out so realistic! Thank you so much for the time you take

[yvonnerobertson]

I love watching you paint and your explanations how to and why you are doing that step.

[sumeyyeoruc]

you’re so chill and humble, I love your laid back way of teaching. I’m learning so much from your videos thanks so much for sharing 🙌

[isaacanthony]

Thank you so much for this full tutorial you have no idea how much this means to some folks that cannot afford to buy your full lessons thanx good sir

[MsHeidiland]

Thanks for your detailed description also for mixing colors👌🙏

[trappy]

Always great to watch you paint will be painting this later. Thanks

[damiendavisisraelcom]

Thank u so much for that, someone asked me to paint a seagull on glass, im going to give it a go.

[lovelyworld]

Thank you for sharing , greeting from Australia

[manuelamagalhaes]

Great and beautiful tutorial. Thank you for your sharing 😊

[wisdomite]

Its amazing to listen to you tell what you see. I have to admit that I don't understand the red outline. But thats the only question I have, the rest is explained beautifully.

[judithbrown]

I think i will like how you paint because i am not a good drawer either, so thanks for that

[chriswhitehouse]

Very nice Mark. Love the start-to-finish tutorials😀👍

[gwen]

As a beginner, I truly enjoyed watching this lesson.

[pinkzinc]

You're a great teacher.  
Loved how you stepped us through the painting showing your techniques.  
Thanks :)

[hinakhabalooch]

Oh I you heard what I want to ask you 😂.. Thanks lovely.. You are brilliant

[susanbaker]

I really love this!!!! Thank you for making this tutorial! Bless you!💙💙💙💙💙

[judesmith-cooper]

Our amazing tutor rocks more, lol. AMAZING... as usual, big hugs xx

[sylviemazou]

Ce tableau, ce tout, cette simplicité, m'est très agréable au regard.
Vous avez réalisé le sujet avec beaucoup de talent. Merci l'Artiste pour cette douceur.
Sylvie de France.

[lindaclark]

You are amazing! Really enjoy watching you paint! Thanks!