If you’ve ever looked at an alpaca and thought, “I need to paint that adorable face,” you’re in the right place!
In this tutorial I’m going to show you exactly how I painted this cute alpaca in acrylic paints. This colourful alpaca painting was so much fun to paint, and I hope you enjoy painting him too. Alpacas are such cute animals with so much character, making them the perfect animal to paint!
If you would prefer to watch the video of this painting being created you can see that below, or at this link.
Watch the video below:
Whether you’re an experienced artist or just starting out, painting an alpaca in acrylics is a fun and rewarding project. With their soft, fluffy fur and sweet expressions, alpacas make for a charming subject that’s so much fun to paint.
If you want to watch the full process video of the creation of this painting, then you can join my Patreon, where you get instant access to all of my full length animal art videos!
You will need:
- Acrylic paints (turquoise, teal, orange, yellow, brown, white and black)
- Paintbrushes
- Canvas
Step 1:
To begin your alpaca painting, sketch the outline of the alpaca onto your canvas using pencil. Then, use a mix of teal and turquoise acrylic paints to paint the background. I used a wide flat paintbrush to paint large and thick brushstrokes to create texture and interest.
Step 2:
Once the background paint has dried we can start painting the first layer of the alpaca. Use a mix of brown, orange and yellow acrylic paints to block in the shadows, midtones and highlights in the alpaca’s fur. Your painting may look a little strange at this stage, but don’t worry it will all come together when we add the next layers!
Step 3:
Use brown and black acrylic paints to paint the alpaca’s nose and mouth. You can see the process of this much better in the video.
I used a slightly smaller paintbrush to paint the nose and other details.
Step 4:
Use a mix of black and white and brown acrylic paint to paint the alpaca’s eyes. This is my favourite part of the process because there’s so much personality and character in alpaca’s eyes!
Step 5:
Use the same shades of brown, yellow and orange paints that you used before to paint the second layer of the alpaca’s fur. Alpaca wool is really thick, fluffy and curly, so using layers to paint this helps us to build up the texture and depth. Using a large pointed paintbrush helps to create the fluffy fur texture.
Step 6:
Continue to paint the second layer of the alpaca, including the tuft of hair on top of his head. This hair is slightly longer, so remember to look at lots of reference photos so that you know where to paint the shadows and highlights.
Step 7:
Use a small paintbrush to add details in the alpaca’s fur, and neaten up the edges around the nose, eyes and mouth. Continue to add details until you are happy with how your alpaca looks!
I hope you enjoyed painting this cute and colourful alpaca painting! Sign up to my Patreon to get access to all of my full length animal art tutorials.
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