I haven’t had this much fun with a class project for ages! In this class, Fantasy Garden Watercolour Abstracts, you will learn a step-by-step approach to painting a fantasy landscape, beginning with creating the document and adding a sumptuous watercolour for a background. Once that is done, we will paint our fantastical forest or garden elements, and I will show you many ways to make these more interesting. We will utilize the skill of creating custom brushes as well, for tree or plant elements, and then we will use texture to add plenty of depth and detail.

My goal for you is that you will learn to see space like an artist, conceptualizing from the real world to a whimsical or fantasy world. Creating depth is a challenge we will tackle head-on, and you will get tons of advice as we work our way through the lessons. This will be accomplished by practicing and learning different techniques like brush-making, use of alpha lock, hue and saturation adjustments, drawing assist, layer blending modes, shading and texturing and finally, adding fine detail.

The objective is for you to just let go and explore your creativity and imagination, and to just enjoy learning new ways of painting! I know I have!

This new class, Fantasy Garden Watercolour Abstracts, will show you some of my illustration and painting routines, and ways to use brushes with wild abandon. In the class, I take you from start to finish in creating a full fantasy landscape, with a fantastic realistic watercolour background. The star of the show is definitely creating and using brushes to add much depth and dimension to the paint projects you do in Procreate.

In this class I’ll walk you through:

research and planning for your garden
a look at artists to inspire your work
tips for creating compositions for a varied and appealing forest or garden
my workflow for use of layers and other great features like snapping
adjusting motifs to make them more interesting using shading, highlights and texture
methods for keeping organized

If you’re an aspiring illustrator with a good basic knowledge of Procreate, you’ll be able to go through all the steps with no issues. This class will benefit anyone who wishes to have fun and explore new techniques. If you get the chance, take my other Procreate brush creation classes, including Watercolour Floral Abstracts with Procreate and Simple Brushes in Procreate for Quick Compositions. Between all my Procreate classes, you will learn all there is to know about Procreate brush customization.

The key concepts I will include:

review of my brush alterations and adjustments
a look at Procreate brushes and their various idiosyncrasies
approaches you can take in your creative work

Intro to Easy Watercolour Seamless Patterns in Procreate using Brushes

This short intro will give you an overview of the class.

Lesson 1: Inspiration and Artists

In this lesson, I will show you the objectives for class and explain the techniques I will use throughout the class. We will look at artists Joel Nakamura, Lauren Lewchuk, Yellena James, and more.

Lesson 2: Brushes and Document Set-Up

In this lesson, I will show you the structure of the document and explain how the blending modes work to add the texture. We prepare for the next lesson by laying down color that will eventually become our watercolour background.

Lesson 3: Creating the Watercolour Background

In this lesson, we will take what we created in the previous lesson and fully develop it for use as a background. In so doing, you will learn about my favorite DeloresArt Blenders, as well as a few other brushes. The focus is on techniques for creating foreground, middle ground and background in an interesting way.

Lesson 4: Plant Construction Tips

This is the lesson in which I teach you about creating the individual plant elements. We will use numerous techniques including drawing assist to help us make a perfect radial repeat for one of the elements. I also talk about layering and proper use of Procreate layers, as well as using hue and saturation to make adjustments.

Lesson 5: Effects and Using Alpha Lock

In this lesson, we start getting to the nitty gritty of the final artwork. You will see me use several different techniques to add interest and detail. I show you a brush I have created, and I explain the settings. Throughout the process you learn much more about brushes in general and I explain how you can add a lot of depth with blending modes.

Lesson 6: Final Pattern Testing and Correcting

At this stage, we pull our layout together, and I will correct the small details that make it work. I change the appearance of many of the motifs and make many other small adjustments. We take a quick look at color adjustments and use hue and saturation as well as blending modes. We review brush making to make alternate brushes. This will show you just how versatile the technique can be, and how valuable experimentation can be in the development of your composition.

Lesson 7: Layering for Interest

I use the techniques I observed from the work of Lauren Lewchuk to add even more detail with a brush that I show you how to adjust. Even the simplest brushes can be used for these techniques.

Lesson 8: Finessing the Layout

I love this stage! Here we will add a bunch of finishing touches that elevate the finished look of the art.

Concepts covered:

Concepts covered include but are not limited to Procreate brush creation, layering, transparency, Procreate canvas settings, Procreate Draw Assist, radial symmetry, Procreate snapping and guides, Procreate brush creation and editing, the brush studio in Procreate, creating original brush stamps in Procreate, adjusting Procreate brushes, sizing of documents and brushes, using the streamline setting in the brush studio, compositions with brush stamps, adding texture brush stamps, procreate brushes for adding interest, workflow best practices, painting best practice, Procreate composites, adding a texture overlay for a watercolour look, techniques with paints and blending, and much more.

You will get the bonus of…

1 hour and 11 minutes of direction from an instructor who has been in graphic design business and education for over 40 years
free paper textures and a document set-up
20 brushes and a printable brush chart
knowledge of multiple ways to solve each design challenge
an outline with links to further research
a list of helpful online sites to further your education into surface pattern design

Gretchen Slagle

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