Fire's dynamic qualities are difficult to capture in paint.
Painting realistic fire can add flare to your designs and allow you to create astonishing effects. While most people think of flames as being orange, red and yellow, the key to painting realistic flames lies in understanding the other colors present in different types of fire and capturing the qualities of light and motion that make flames so dynamic. While acrylic paints are most commonly used today, oil paints and enamels can also be used to create flame looks using similar steps.
Instructions
1. Paint any background that will be behind the flames on your canvas and let it dry.
2. Light a candle and observe the flame. Keep it lit throughout your painting so you can use it as a reference when mixing colors.
3. Apply Cadmium red, cadmium yellow medium or light, titanium white and cobalt blue to your palette, leaving space between the colors for mixing. Also apply some semigloss acrylic gel medium to your palette.
4. Start from the origin of the flame, which will be at the base. This is the hottest part of the flame and is usually clear with a small amount of blue. Mix a small amount of the blue paint into the gel medium and paint it on the canvas, then work your way out from the base of the flame, adding more white, then yellow, then red, blending as you go.
5. Compare the colors you are mixing to your candle flame and add white or red to tint the yellow as needed. Keep a small amount of gel medium mixed in, even with the more opaque parts of the flame, to retain the quality of light that the gloss adds. Keep the paint thin and allow the background colors to show through slightly.
6. Add the illusion of motion to the flame by ending the flame points with brushstrokes that wave back and forth as they blend out against the background. Include a few sparks by adding tiny points of bright orange (red and yellow mixed without white but with a bit of the gel medium) above the flame.
7. Dip a fresh paintbrush into the gel medium---without any color---and use this to blend the outer edges of your flames. You may want to add a little bit of your primary background color to the medium to blur the background slightly in imitation of the distortion that heat from fire provides.
