A white wall can look surprisingly flat when you paint the whole surface the same white. The feeling of sunlight comes from relationships: one wall looks lighter and warmer, another looks grayer, and a cast shadow cuts across the light.
In this beginner acrylic exercise, we study those relationships using John Singer Sargent’s White Walls in Sunlight, Morocco. You will practice mixing a few related colors, placing a clear shadow shape, and keeping the large light and dark areas readable.
Watch the full painting demonstration
Watch the 2-minute-30-second demonstration, then use the steps below while you paint. Pause whenever you need to compare a mixture or place an edge. The video is edited; allow yourself more time to complete the exercise.
Start with four colors
Prepare titanium white, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, and burnt umber. You will also need a surface prepared for acrylics, a flat brush for the larger shapes, a smaller brush, a palette, water, and a cloth. Use supplies you already have.
These four colors are our teaching palette for an acrylic study. They are not a claim about the pigments Sargent used in the original oil painting.
If comparing light and dark is new to you, try our beginner apple painting exercise first. Value means how light or dark a color looks; that comparison matters here as much as the color itself.
Look for three relationships before painting
Compare the sunlit wall, the neighboring gray wall, and the diagonal cast shadow. In this painting, the sunlit wall is lighter and warmer than the wall beside it. The cast shadow looks darker and cooler beside the sunlit area.
Warm and cool are relative descriptions. They help us compare these particular colors; they do not mean every sunlit object must be warm or every shadow blue.
Block in the large shapes
Mark the two walls, the opening for the sky, and the ground. Keep the drawing simple enough to paint with broad strokes. Leave the doorway and small accents until the larger arrangement is clear.
Lay in the brown ground with burnt umber and yellow ochre, adjusting as needed. Its darker value gives the light walls something to contrast with. Keep the ground connected rather than breaking it into many little marks.
Mix the light wall and the gray wall
For the sunlit wall, start with titanium white and a little yellow ochre. Keep the mixture light. Paint a small swatch before covering the wall.
Take a separate portion of that mixture for the neighboring wall. Add tiny amounts of ultramarine blue and burnt umber to make it grayer and darker. Compare the two swatches side by side. The difference should be visible without making the gray wall unnecessarily dark.
For the sky, mix white with a little ultramarine and mute it with a small amount of yellow ochre or burnt umber as needed. Keep it as a simple, separate shape. These are starting directions, not fixed mixing ratios.
Mix and place the diagonal shadow
Mix ultramarine blue and burnt umber, then gradually add white. Test the mixture beside the light wall color. In this study, the shadow should be darker than the sunlit wall but lighter than the deepest doorway accent.
Find where the diagonal edge starts and ends before filling the shadow shape. Its position and angle matter: a convincing mixture cannot compensate for a misplaced edge. Keep the light and shadow distinct, then step back to see their effect together.
Add a few accents and compare
Add the warm doorway, a little muted green, and a few deep accents. Stop before these details begin to compete with the large wall and shadow shapes.
Compare the dry study with the reference. Check the relative wall values, the diagonal shadow, and the proportions of the light and dark areas. If the painting still feels flat, compare those relationships before adding more white or more detail.
Try the same idea on a white object
Place a white cup or box under a single main light source. Look for differences in value and color across its surface, then make a small study. Do not automatically reuse the wall mixtures: let the new setup tell you what needs to change.
For more help choosing your medium, read our acrylic and watercolor guide for beginners.
Artwork and music credits
Artwork reference: John Singer Sargent, White Walls in Sunlight, Morocco, 1879–80. Oil on wood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object 50.130.4. Image marked Public Domain. View the museum record.
Music: “Dream Culture” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Changes: 150-second excerpt, levels adjusted, fades added.