Paint a spectrum zebra using acrylic paint

This colourful spectrum zebra lesson is filled with all the colours of rainbow. luckily the Mont Marte Octo colour wheel will guide you through the steps that are required for each stripe. Teamed with the adorable Zebra such a great animal which lends itself nicely to such a colour licious art lesson.

Step 1 Drawing the zebra

If you have a look at the last 2 images on this PDF you will notice one is an outline and another with stripes and details. Draw up the outline first. When you do this, place the Zebra slightly off centre and keep your lines very light. After the outline is drawn take the second image and draw in the stripes and detail. Try to keep the stripes the same scale on the canvas as the print out. I’m drawing this in directly but if you don’t feel confident enough to do this you can grid the image and canvas up and transfer it like that.

Step 2 Painting the body

Now we can add colour. Use the # 12 angle Taklon and start from the left and move across to the right. The order of colours are :

1) Yellow / Green Lemon Yellow + Emerald

2) Green Emerald

3) Blue / Green Turquoise

4) Blue Ultramarine

5) Blue / Violet Phthalo

6) Violet Violet

7) Red / Violet Permanant Red + Violet

8) Red Permanant Red

9) Red / Orange Azo Vermilion

10) Orange Orange

11) Yellow / Orange Yellow Deep

12) Yellow Lemon Yellow

Step 3 Painting the head

Once the body is done, move up the neck and over the head. Observe the colour wheel and follow the steps. Paint the nose Lemon Yellow and blend in some Phthalo Blue. .

Step 4 Adding the details

Use the edge of the brush to create a thin line to suggest the ears. Next create a red eye ball and place a white spot on top of the red eye ball. This will represent a highlight, with that our Zebra is complete.