Want to learn how to paint realistic bubbles with acrylic paint? You’re in the right place! In this simple step by step tutorial, I’ll show you an easy technique to create beautiful, transparent bubbles that pop off the canvas!
Painting bubbles can seem tricky at first, but this simple technique builds up the reflections to give a three dimensional and transparent effect. All you need is some acrylic paints and some circular objects.
I’ve also created a video of this bubble painting tutorial on my Youtube Channel, which you can watch below. If you’d like to watch the full length tutorial in real time, you can find those over on my Patreon, along with all of my other full length art tutorials!
If you’d prefer to follow the written step by step instructions then just continue below.
To paint your own bubbles you will need:
- Acrylic paint (white, pink, yellow, blue, and your choice of background colour
- Glazing medium (or water) to make the paints more transparent
- Paintbrushes
- Circular objects of various sizes to print the bubbles (such as a jar, paint tube lid, pen lid, small bowl etc.)
- Canvas/paper or any other surface to paint on
Step 1:
Start by painting your background in your choice of paint colours. Avoid using a white background, as the bubbles will be painted in white, so they will need to stand out. I’m using a mix of pastel paint colours including pink, purple and blue acrylic paint. Check out this tutorial if you’d like to know the best way to blend your backgrounds!
Step 2:
Leave your background to dry. You can add splatters if you want at this stage! This is my favourite technique to add splatters to a painting.
Then, spread some white acrylic paint over your palette. Take your largest round item, I’m using a jar, and press it into the paint, twist it a few times to make sure the whole circle is covered in paint.
Step 3:
Press the circular item onto your canvas to print a white circle onto your background. This will form the edge of the bubble. Continue to print bubbles in various sizes all over your canvas. Remember to keep the layout random and even overlap some bubbles to make it look more natural.
Step 4:
Mix some pink paint with either a some glazing medium or a little bit of water to make it more transparent. Then paint either edge of the inside of the bubble using this mixture. You want the paint to be transparent enough to see the background behind, but opaque enough so that you can see some of the pink.
Step 5:
Repeat the same technique from step 4, but this time using blue paint and then yellow paint, at different points around the inner edge of the bubble. This will create the colourful reflections that you often see in bubbles.
Step 6:
Use white acrylic paint to paint a reflection in the top left section of the bubble. Then paint a smaller reflection in the bottom right section. This step really makes the bubbles pop from the canvas!
Step 7:
Repeat steps 4-6 on all of the bubbles on your canvas.
Your colourful bubble painting is now finished!
I hope this tutorial helped you feel more confident about painting bubbles with acrylics! Now you’ll be adding dreamy, realistic bubbles to your artwork in no time.
Don’t forget to check out the step-by-step video tutorial on YouTube if you’d like to see the process in action.
And if you’re ready to really grow your painting skills, my full-length tutorials are available on Patreon!
Happy painting!
Rachel x
