Howdy, folks! This here’s the wildest ride in the wilderness, that’s for sure! This project is an artsy silhouette painting of Big Thunder Mountain: the iconic mountain of Frontierland. It features the orange rocks, metallic gold paint, and blue and maroon contrasts. Here’s what you’ll need:

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Supplies List:	Tools List:
Hanging Wood Plaque	Acrylic Paint Brushes
Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint	Black Paint Pen/Marker
Champaign Colored Glitter Paint (optional)	White Colored Pencil
Orange Acrylic Paint
Navy Acrylic Paint
Maroon Acrylic Paint
Dark Brown Acrylic Paint
Gloss Medium/Varnish

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Instructions

Start by sketching an outline of the mountain with a White Colored Pencil onto your wood plaque. You can decide where you want the details at this stage as well. Because you’ll be painting over the white, you can make mistakes and changes here. It’s to get the general idea of where your blocks of color are going to go.

The shape is of a tall rocky mountain which you can draw using rounded rectangles and wonky triangles. You can copy my sketch or a picture of Big Thunder you might have/find on the internet.

Mix up some orange paint and fill in your drawing completely. I ended up painting over this part with a darker, more burnt orange. You’ll see in later pictures. This orange dried down to be too peachy. That’s what I like about acrylic paint. If you mess up, it’s okay!

Because it is a silhouette, you can add paint until you’re satisfied with the overall mountain shape.

Add in some dark brown paint in the background to give the mountain some depth. I also painted over this part to be darker than in the picture below. The paint dried down lighter than I anticipated. Again, sometimes you gotta just roll with it!

Dip into your Metallic Gold Paint and imagine where light would hit the mountain. Paint gold shapes that mimic the shape of the orange silhouette.

Think in vertical and horizontal lines for this part. Add bigger sections of gold to the lower-middle of the mountain.

Next, take Navy Blue Paint and fill in a large portion of the lower part of the mountain. The navy represents the shadows of the mountains. This area can be more abstract, though.

This time, think in vertical and diagonal lines. Leave a variety of small and large wonky triangles of gold. Smaller towards the top, bigger towards the bottom.

Fill the lower part of the mountain with navy.

To add some interest and warmth, take your Maroon Paint and sparingly, paint some wonky geometrical shapes over the navy paint. I know I’m using the word “wonky” a lot, but I really mean it! They’re weird shapes!

Also, can you see how the orange doesn’t stand out against the gold? That’s why I changed it to a darker orange. Like pumpkin orange.

Here’s the mountain separated into a couple pieces so you can have an easier time seeing the overall shapes. It’s all about the negative space!

This is where I repainted the orange and dark brown. It isn’t overwhelmed by the other colors now.

Optional: Paint the Orange parts with a Glitter Paint to add some sparkle. It adds a very subtle glimmer.

Using a Black Paint Pen or Marker, draw some lines to create a rickety fence. Avoid drawing any parallel lines.

Connect the vertical lines with horizontal lines.

Cover the painted parts with a Glossy Medium/Varnish to seal in the shiny! Leave the wood raw so it has a nice balance of glossy and matte.

You made it! Yee-Haw!

I’ll be darned! Amazing job, folks. I hope you had a good time. I really love this piece because it’s a subtle nod to Disneyland but still recognizable to any Disney fan. It’s warm, it has depth, and it’s shiny! Who doesn’t love that?

Thanks for making it all the way down here! Please follow us on Instagram and Pinterest for more projects like this. Don’t forget to share with your Disney DIY loving friends and family! We’d really appreciate it.

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