In this tutorial I’m going to show you how I painted this colourful bumble bee in acrylic paints! This bee was so much fun to paint and I loved making him look extra fluffy.
Watch the video tutorial below, or if you prefer to watch the painting process in real time so you can paint along at the same time, sign up to my Patreon to get access to all of my full length videos!
Let's paint a bee!
To paint this colourful bumble bee you will need:
- Acrylic paints (Yellow, orange, pink, blue, black and white)
- Paintbrushes
- Canvas
Step 1:
Start the painting by covering the canvas in a coat of blue paint, or another background colour of your choice. I added splatters to my background, if you want to learn how to do this check out my paint splatter tutorial!
Then begin painting the bee by using black and blue paint to paint the top of the bee.
Step 2:
Paint the yellow section of the bee using yellow, orange and white acrylic paints. I added a slight highlight on either side as well as a highlight in the centre. You can also add some shades of pink to this section of the bee to make it extra colourful!
Step 3:
Continue to paint the stripes on the bee using the same paints as before. Use bumble bee reference photos so you know where to add the shadows and highlights.
If you want to follow along to the full length bee painting tutorial then join my Patreon! You’ll get instant access to all of my full length animal art videos.
Step 4:
Add more detail to the bumble bee by painting fluffy lines! Use the same colours as the bee’s stripes and move the paintbrush up and down to get the fluffy effect. Also, paint the bee’s legs using blue and black paint.
Step 5:
Paint the bee’s wing using blue and white acrylic paint. Remember that bee wings are transparent, so make sure you paint the colours of the bee that show through beneath the wing. Use white paint to add highlights to the wing.
Step 6:
Add the antennae to the top of the bee’s head using blue and black paint. Then add the final details, such as more fluffy lines, more highlights to the wings, and little hair lines on the bee’s legs!
I hope you enjoyed this bumblebee art tutorial! If you want to get my FREE top 10 tips for painting colourful animals then sign up below.
