Introduction to Bohemian Watercolor Techniques

1. Introduction: Hi, everyone. Welcome to my class introduction to Bohemian watercolor techniques. My name is Casey Sock Amano, and I am a textile designer that lives right outside of Philadelphia. For the last nine years, I worked in the fashion industry in textile industry, developing garments and prince for mass market. Within this time, I've developed my own style and my own ways of painting. And I would like to share some of those with you in this class. So if you take my class, you're gonna learn a few different techniques on how to apply watercolors and feel more comfortable with the medium. And then you can decide how you want to apply it to your own artwork or your goals. So the first thing that I'm gonna cover is my inspiration process a little bit and what gets me inspired because a lot of the subject matter in this class is gonna be based on what inspires me from which is nature. So I'm gonna ask you to create a color palette, and then I'm gonna give you some of resource is to do that with. I'm gonna create some Pinterest sports and you can pool your own inspiration from photos in that board or you can find your own inspiration as well. On the second, I'm going to go through a few techniques on how to create painted moons using some different techniques and different mediums. Next, I'm gonna teach you how the pain, watercolor, feather and what color feathers are fun because you can choose how much detail you want to put into them and decide what you want to use it for your and you. So it will be completely up to you. How many you want pain, how many you want to use for your project. But when you paint these, you can refer back to your your color palette that created so that you have my friends point, and it will make it easier for you to dive into painting on a blank page, which can sometimes be very overwhelming. And then, lastly, I'm gonna just show you a really interesting technique using something something called masking fluid. And basically it's a glue that you apply onto paper and then you paint over it. You peel the blue off, and it creates this really cold negative space effect. So this has been really useful I think this could be a really cool technique for you to learn as well. So those are some of the skills that you'll take away from my class, and I hope you enjoy. And I'm excited to see your projects. 2. Class Supplies: so I just want to go over a few different supplies that you'll need for the class and all the details will also be put in the class description. So if us anything from this video, you can easily reference the class description as well. So, first you're gonna need a nice watercolor paper. Some can get really expensive, but I like this brand from Strathmore, and I think 11 by 15 inch size is a good size for whatever you're gonna be painting in this class. This one is only attached at the top with a spiral ring. I also like this brand fluid watercolor paper, and what's nice about it is that it is attached on all four sides. If you paint with a lot of water, the paper doesn't curl, but either are fine. This isn't necessary. The Strathmore works perfect. I use it for almost all my work because it's a great price point for the quality. Next, you'll need just a basic water cup for water. I like toe have some extra just paper on the side, like sometimes I use the back of the cover of the watercolor paper. This is just a test out your color so you're not testing them on your final paper. You can see exactly what they look like, just like a little test sheet to create colors before you please thumb on your artwork, you're gonna need a hand of some sort of mix your colors. Ah, lot of watercolor pellets. Come with one here. Or there's this nice ceramic one that has the seven little bulls, and you can mix your color palette here a swell. So then next, I want to go over some of the water colors that I typically use. I probably use this the most, and it's ST Petersburg pan set, and I just like a lot of the colors in it, especially the indigo. As you can see, some of them are running low. I use more than others, but this is great because it gives you a lot of colors that are already mixed up. And you want to spend too much time mixing colors because some of the colors are really great in this palette. So this watercolor palette is great for a muted colors. If you want an option to get some brighter colors mixed with muted colors, it's really fun to play around with thes pH Martin's radiant, concentrated watercolor little bottles. So when it's just go over some of my favorite colors, I love sunset. Orange is really beautiful. Moss Rose is a nice pick break pink persimmon is almost like a Coralie orange, and ice pink is a nice light pink color that's kind of difficult to mix if you have a really basic pansa, So those were some of my favorite colors. These aren't necessary, but it's just really fun to play around with them. And then you could also use water colors from tubes. With these, you would just squeeze a little bit into your palate. Add some water, and then you could just mix in different tones. Do you get your color right? Okay, so for the brushes that I use a usage a few different sizes, I usually purchase all synthetic brushes, and I use round brushes for the most part, so I would recommend you have a few sizes to play with. For your projects. I would recommend zero toe, one size for small details a size two or three, which is great for small details as well. But we'll bring a little bit more water to your page before five. I honestly probably used this one the most, and then a larger one. I would say an eight or a 10. This will be great toe, apply a lot of water and just to move colors around really quickly. So those air the round brushes that I recommend, and then you can also buy a few different shapes of brushes if you want to play around with , Um, lately I've been playing around with this filbert, which is different than the round, because it's a little bit flat and this is a size two, and it's just a fun, different way to play around with applying your paint to the watercolor paper. Okay, so next I want to go through some of this Moeller materials that are just great toe have before painting. I always like to use a pencil outline what I'm gonna be painting. That way I can concentrate on how the water is flowing, and I have to concentrate on also the shape in the detail of what I'm maintained. It just is a nice guideline for you, so you can just focus on your technique. Pencil sharpener an eraser? A good thing to remember is if you use pencil, I would use a three h or ah, ah, harder type of lead so that it creates a really light line. Because once you paint the watercolor over the pencil, you're not gonna be a little race it. So you want something really light That's not gonna be distracting to your vital our work. So next you just need some sea salt. This is great for applying it toe wet watercolor, and it creates of granulated effect to the pain. It creates a really awesome effect. And we're gonna use this a lot when we paint the moves and then metallic paint Windsor and Newton in Creates A Gold Inc. That's great. You can apply it right toe wet watercolor, and it will kind of flow into your other watercolors will uses for the moons, But this is also great for painting onto dry paper for some really small metallic details that you can use your side zero brush for. So, uh, this is a great metallic that shines really nicely, but also you can get some metallic gold pens to just add some detail as well So you get both of these or just one of them. It's just nice to play around with, and then you want some white wash or white ink. I use the Coptic brand optic white. It comes in this little jar, and all you need is a little bit. And you can apply this to your dried water cars to add some details. So this will be great for when we're working with feathers and then, lastly, the masking fluid. This tends to come in a few different bottles and types. This one's Windsor noon and this one you would have to pour into your palate and paint with a brush. This one is kind of hard because masking fluid, it can dry really quickly within 10 seconds, and it can ruin your brushes. And I've definitely ruined brushes in the past. Using this one s o. I actually prefer this brand all post all the information in the class description, but it's great because it has a really fine tip to it, so you can just draw right onto your paper, let it dry, and you don't worry about a paint brush. Okay, so a few other supplies that I recommend you have is a paper towel is nice to dry off your brushes, and it can control how much water is on them and how much you're applying to the page. Sometimes I'll uses if I apply a little too much water to the page, I'll use it just to soak up a little bit of the water before I continue working. And then second, this waterproof India ink by page Martins is awesome. I'm gonna be using this when I demonstrate my color palette. It does some really interesting things when it's applied to water. Go went on with method. So this can create some really interesting FX as well when combined with your watercolors. So those were the supplies that you're gonna need for my class in the next part. I'm going to talk about my design process a little bit and show you how to create a color palette. 3. Get inspired and create a color palette!: Okay, so now that I went over some of the supplies we're gonna need for the class, I just want to dive into my design process and inspiration process a little bit further. So in the introduction, I told you that I'm inspired by nature. But just to take that a little further, I hope to travel. I love to travel to a lot of different countries, and when I go there, I get a lot of inspiration from nature. But also the culture of the colors, the fabric, the food that they eat their. So some of the most inspirational places I've traveled Teoh, I would say, is India, Copenhagen, Italy, Costa Rica and all those places offered inspiration in different ways. And it helps me to come back and feel inspired to dive into my work. And that's something I would recommend to anybody also, that has a hard time with the blank page and getting inspired and figuring out what to paint. I find that when I get out of my apartment and explore, it doesn't even have to be going to a different country. It could be simply just going to your local botanical garden and getting inspired and taking photos when you get back. You have so much more ammunition to dive into the blank page with, I would say that my work usually has a very organic look to it. It usually is very hand painted or hand drawn. I am drawn to you did colors. So even if I'm drawing a really bright floral, I will meet the colors down. So it fits more into my artistic style. I think one of the most interesting things is how you're looking at something, and you don't necessarily always have to paint it exactly how it looks in real life. You can put your own artistic twist into it, and that's what makes print design graphic design any artistic practice or medium so interesting. Just because I'm using muted are darker tones doesn't mean you have to. I encourage you to find what inspires you and play with the colors that you're most comfortable with or that you want to experiment with. So, yeah, our next project is going to be creating a color palette. As I was speaking of when I travel, I like to take a lot of photos and get inspired. I would like you to pull photo or an object that inspires you, and you can use that to create your color palette. I think creating color palettes could be really fun because you can play with the medium with watercolor. You can see how the different colors mixed together, and it will be good practice because whatever color palette you create, you could then use those same colors that you practice with to create your moon project to create your feather project and to create your masking fluid project. And it may seem like all of these different projects are kind of separate, but each of them I'm gonna be teaching you different watercolor skills that you can use and apply to your own work and then, in my future class, going to be diving and a little bit further and explain how you can use all of these skills to create a print or pattern that you can eventually sell on society. Six. Also, I wanted to let everybody know that I did create some Pinterest page inspiration boards just in case you're stuck and you don't have a photo in mind that you want to use. I'm gonna have a color palette, inspiration page, a moon inspiration page and a feather inspiration page that you can use as inspiration before you dive into your own project. So I'm gonna be using this photo. It's of these mountains, and you can kind of see the erosion that happened in the layers of rock and has a lot of neutral colors, and it and it kind of the sea Peotone. But in addition to the photo, I have some objects that I'm going to use. I have this beautiful rock that my dad gave me, and it has some, like, really beautiful layers and like a shine to it that also has neutral colors. And then I have this show that I just got a Virgin Islands when I was there a few weeks ago , and I love the textures that are in the shell. Mixing with the cream in the brown acorn that I collected from a hike, I recently went on. How I start a color palette is that I go from the warm and light colors, and then I try to fade to the dark, cold colors. You could go in whatever order you think works best for you. So what, you're gonna need tohave ready for this part of the project is you'll need your water, your watercolors, whatever types you choose to use, you're appellate to mix your colors in the paper to mix your colors and test the mouth before you apply it onto your final page and a little bit of paper towel on your brushes to start off, I'm going to do a wet on wet method. So what this is is just applying some water without pain, too. Your paper. So I think I'm going to start with some blush and pink tones. So I started to make some colors over here. Usually all mix the colors and just test them out all my test page. What I did for this specific palate is I am using a little bit of squash as well and mixing it with my watercolors just because of the shell pink color. It's very hard for me to mix with my watercolor palette, so I'm just using this and you'll find if you mix and watch with your water cars, it doesn't react a little bit differently, but sometimes it could be really interesting. So we're just testing it out over on my page. I think this color is pretty good. So I'm just going to start by slowly dropping it in to the wet paper. So I think of my palate is going to go probably from the top of the page down to here. I don't wet all the way down. I just went where I'm painting and a little bit extra. So I'm dropping in the pink color and there's no wrong way to do this. You kind of just have to, like, work with your pain and, like, kind of figure out how you want your palate toe look and sometimes just dropping in the color. It reacts a little bit differently than you think it's initially going to. That's okay. And then you can always go back and add more color if you want as well. So I like to mix metallics into my color palettes as well. I think I would be really interesting to have some of this gold interact with the pink I dropped down, so I'm just gonna add like, a little bit of gold. So after the pink, I'm going to dive into like, a little bit of the lavender. There's some lavender on the top of the rocks that I'm looking at, just a light hand of lavender. So I think that color would be really pretty next to the pink. So I'm running out of wet papers. I'm just gonna add a little bit more water as much as I work my way down. Now, my colors were really light, so I'm just gonna keep dropping in a little bit more color. And I'm alternating adding color, cleaning off my brush, dropping in water, seeing how it reacts with the water color. Sometimes when I'm doing this process, I like to turn on some music and just kind of zone out and just kind of enjoy the medium and help of colors or mixing. And, yeah, just focus on the color palette. Uh, sometimes it's like a little bit like meditation for me. So I'm liking how this purple is curving down here, some just dropping some of the lavender. So in the rock sediments in this photo there's like some cool cognac colors that I think could makes really well with this peach light pink some good, I dropped some in there. Continue my way down. So at this point, I feel like I may be getting a little too much water on my paper. So I used the paper tell just to dry it off a little bit throughout this process to it's kind of interesting if you add a little salt to some colors, usually a Cockney axe and into go colors raft. Really? Well, now I'm just gonna some more neutral brown shades towards the bottom. So I don't feel like I got enough representation of the cognac. Appear that one was a little red or so gonna A little bit. We are with them. Mix it with brown on again, like when I have the wet a pool of water. I kind of like toe let my watercolors just like, go to the edge of the paper. And it has, like, more about organic edge to it. I'm bringing some into go in here as well, so you can kind of see, I'm just jumping around the page and just adding colors where I feel like I need, Um, it's also interesting for you to go back after dries a little bit and see how it reacts if you add more color. This is just a really good exercise to get really comfortable with your paints and how they react to different amounts of water. So I think it's kind of interesting to how, like I'm looking at these like layered rocks and the water colors kind of given me this layered look in some areas, so it's directly correlating back to my expiration. And again, if you're not sure how your color is gonna look on the page, just test it out on your test page over to the side here if you need Teoh, where you can just go for it and see what happens. If you don't like how your color palettes running out, you can always start over. Just have fun with it. So now at this point, I am looking at my inspiration. But I'm just looking at my color palette as a whole. Since I already had a starting point, I'm just kind of deciding what color's I'm gonna need for my projects going floor went on, painting the moon's and the feathers. If you're using bright colors, I do recommend that you have some neutrals, whether it's in to go or a nice Toepfer Brown Appellate as well. I just find those colors are really nice when you're painting others. Okay, so I love Eddie metallic, um, to my color palette. So maybe sometimes I go a little overboard, but it just creates a really nice shine, especially if you decide you like the way this looks and you wanna hang it on your wall afterwards. When it's hanging in the sun hits, it creates a really nice reflectively dimensional effect. So I have the foundation. Color is laid out. Now I'm just going in and just adding some detail again. This is a great time for you to just play around, and that's more color. So even though this kind of fuchsia color isn't in my original inspiration photo or in any of the objects I'm looking at, I just think it's really interesting. Uh, so again, just to reiterate, I started for my warm colors, moved down to some lighter, warms mixed in some coals and then went to my darker shade. Um, this is just how my brain works. Looking at color palettes, um, makes the most sense you could do it in any order that is right for you. And again, I'm collecting a little bit of a pool water here. I just use the edge of my paper towels to soak some of that up. You can use your paper to tell to to dry off your brush a little bit if you just want some more concentrated, darker shades to drop in without adding too much water. So while I was creating this color palette, I mostly used the size for and the size too. But you can use whatever brushes I recommend trying them all. So, as I said, sea salt works really nicely on Interco. So I'm just gonna All you need is a little bit. I'm just going to drop some and it might not look like much right now, but after it dries, it's going to create a really nice effect. So now I'm just making some final adjustments, just making sure I have some nice lights and darks in my palette. I can't really give you an answer of when to know that you can stop working on this. It's just kind of when it feels right. Um, sometimes I could mess with this kind of thing for 20 minutes and just enjoy the process of it. You can also let the whole thing dry and then go in and tells just your colors won't believe into each other. I see also as I'm switching between my warm and cool colors, do wash my brush out. I tend to use a lot of pain when I'm painting. So through a project, some people don't have to change their water for like two days of working. I've changed my water probably two or three times a day. It's different for each person. So I think I'm almost done here. I think I'm just gonna let it dry. Then add some small details. Let my color palette dry for about 15 minutes. In the time it was drying, I decided to drop in some of the black India ink just because it really usually has a awesome effect. It bled here really nicely and at the bottom with the indigo. So that was a good final touch. Now I'm just gonna go in with, like, some slightly darker colors. Then you notice as I'm adding these colors, they don't flow as easily because my paper is dry. So sometimes I'll add some of the darker color and come in and take some of it away just so that it looks a little bit more natural. After your artwork drives, you might feel like you don't even need to go in. And I had some details, which is fine, too. So I just want to add a little bit more of the darker proud over here for this technique. Hi. Applying the wet color onto dry paper and then I'm adding some water to my brush to kind of pull the color through the palate. So I'm just adding a little dark over here to kind of balance the black that I have over here. Visually, I think that would look, that looks nice. And then up here, I just want to add a little bit more color smooth out this line a little bit. So yeah, I think we're set, um, colors that I used here, Um, and then e think if I look at my original inspiration objects, they sit really nice with the color palette. Kind of creed. A nice mood. Once you feel like your color palette is in a good place, just let it dry all the way and we're gonna move on to exercise number two. I encourage you before you move on to exercise number two to let your color palette dry, scan it in and posted on the project speech because this will be your first project out of four different parts that you will post. So I'll see you in the next class where we're going to learn how to paint a moon. 4. Paint a moon!: Okay, So in this tutorial, I'm going to go over how I create moons and this is pretty open ended toe. How you wanna approach it? You can create one large moon that takes up your whole space for your page. I'm gonna do kind of experiment with four different sizes, starting with a small and then getting a little bit larger. I did a light pencil outline of the circles that I want to paint into. I recommend you do this, but keep the line really light because once you paint over it, you can erase the pencil markets. But I think I'm gonna paint a little over my edges so you won't even be able to see those. In addition to sketching out the shapes that you want a pain into, I would recommend on the side, maybe have some photos of moons and the creators in the moon's and texture to kind of get you inspired. And I think it's also helpful to have the color palette. You just create it right in front of you as a guide again. Don't feel like you have to use the colors in this color palette. There just a simple guide, and at this point, you probably already have some of the colors mixed up. So the color that I used my color palette I'm just gonna use for this moon exercise. And this kind of exercise is really experimental. Like, as I'm going into it, I'm not really sure how each one is going to turn out, and it's kind of cool to just see how they dry. I do use sea salt a lot in this exercise to create that create ary texture, look and then also the undying could be really helpful and the metallic. So let's get started. I think I'm going to do some of my mom's with a little bit of color in them and then some more neutral. So Well, I start doing is taking my paintbrush and just creating a wet circle kind of following the pencil line I created. So I like to be kind of careful how I apply my water down to make sure I have the edge pretty smooth, because I'm just gonna let color that I drop into this circle just kind of lead lead out to the edge to create kind of organic edge. So I think for this top one. I am going to bring a little color into it. So starting out, just dropping some of the pink, some of the purple and and if at any point you feel like you have too much water, you can just use the paper towel to get the water out. You don't want too much water sitting in this. You can always add more water. Um, it's also interesting if you have some parts that don't get any color that are dry, any place that's dry, the color is only going to believe within the wet areas. So added some color, and they're just gonna drop some neutral in here, dropping certain dark colors in interesting with the screener facts. So now going in, just adding a little gold. This move then with India ink, you can either use the dropper to drop it right in, or you can put some off to the side in your palate. Just remember, whenever you're using that Yankee right after you use it, you just want to make sure you wash your brush with the water really well. Indiana can really ruin brushes very easily, so I'm going in with a small brush because I just want a little bit more control because this leads through wet paper really easily. And it's easy that you could end up with a circle. That's all black new textures. Um, again, Just enjoy the process with this. Any shape you don't like after a drives, you could always paint over it too. Um, all right, so that's my first moon than I created it. So they go back to that one in a little bit, but I'm going to start on my second. So now I'm using my larger brush, which just supplies water a little bit faster. This is asides 10 brush. So I was going out to my pencil edge, and I'm gonna use some of the lilac for this move. Some of them to go. This one. I think I'm going to go in and drops to it. You could see my first moon. I added a lot of and kidding. So that one is mostly black, probably because I have a little too much water in it. But that's okay, because you can also go in and add some white quash or the White Coptic Inc and create some crater textures that way. So what's kind of like the effect that's going on over here into go a little bit of warm? So we're gonna switch to smaller brush, just drop in a little bit, but this cognac lunch color just drop in a little bit and you can see it leads really fast . I think that was pretty interesting having just the color on the sides. So my point now when you're taking the Whiting, just make sure you have a very clean brush. I just take a little bit eloped container, put it in my palette and work with it from there. You don't want to be putting in a dirty brush. They were really getting this whiting to a consistency that I can almost just drop it into . So I'm just dropping it into the black. I'm pulling it for the ankle a little bit to create these creators. So I'm looking at this one specific moon photo very dark, but it does have this interesting greater to it from its metallic in here as well. So also as your India in control rise, let's see the most break the top layer of it to create textures as well. And if you just get a little bit on the side, it's what you can easily remove it just gonna move onto my 3rd 1 I'm just gonna watch these two as they dry to kind of decide what else I want. Okay. Going over my pencil line. So now I feel like I want to bring a little bit more color. My color palette, a little bit of the sea salt to this one a little bit this so I don't want to overwork that 3rd 1 too fast. I want the water to dry a little bit and show you when there is just a very little bit of water with Indiana does. Because the 1st 2 there was a lot of water, so it bled really fast, and you really can have more control over it. If there's a little less water on your paper, there's no wrong way to do this, except you do want to start with the wet on wet method, and as it drives, then you can add your dry tells with small brush. After the whole thing drives, I go in with a small brush and at some little sparkles and creators with the gold. And I keep just looking up my color palette and seeing what colors I like together and what colors I like mixed together unexpected textures I achieved. And I'm just trying to replicate that my boots. Okay, so now that the water is dried a little bit on this third moon, I'm just going in and adding the black and you can see a more control with where it goes because there's less water. And to avoid overworking that my kind of just switch nothing for, um, if you're working on one large moon, work from one side and then switch to the other kind of wait for the left side to dry. Well, bid while you're painting, it kind of has to be painted in layers only you layer on top to create interesting like textures. But if there's one area that you love the texture of, just stay away from that area and just let that drive as this they just looking at this opinion. I know this area looks very dark. I need to let it dry a little bit, and I could easily break that up. And at some white pain in there. I'm loving help. This area is open. Actually. Want a little bit more color there? So these two have a pink thies to have more of Laconia. I like that again. This is a project just for you to experiment with the medium and see how your colors blend together. Also, while you're working just like overall, she just make sure you have a nice round This it all doesn't look over. I love the way into go reacts with water. So if you have a pellet with a nice deep indigo color, spend some time to experiment with it. It's just such a beautiful color. And it mixes so nice with bright colors and neutrals and holds. Okay, so just gonna add a little bit more salt. All you need is a little bit. You won't see the textured effect first, but when it drives really pretty. So I want to test out how wait mixes with this cognac, too. Engine. - Okay , so I'm just gonna Paul's and let this trial the way, and then I'll be back to add some finishing details to it. Okay, so I let my painting dry for about 15 20 minutes, and now I'm just gonna go in and add some final details to it. Applying with the metallic gold paint, too. The dry paper will really shine nicely during this exercise. I just constantly switch between the water colors, the metallic pain, India ink just adding water back in port this school because every I follow the same technique each time, but every single time turn out differently. So I have some some nice effect from the seas hole in here a little bit. I want to leave that, but do you want to talk a lot of the work that I do. It's just not a 123 step process, which, I think said my process apart from a lot of watercolor tutorials out there. So I really encourage you to kind of enjoy the process and the open Tobin spirit of it and not be frustrated that there's not set steps for you to follow. But look at that is a good thing. Teoh. Just play around and have fun. A lot of the things that I create that I'm most proud of turnout a lot differently than high first envisioned them, and I think That's the best part of being a designer. Is that you? Surprise yourself. So I just felt done again. There's no set time that just says, okay, you're done with this. You just have to to feel that you just can't add any more. And if you have any more might take away, Just wait till you feel that feeling and then just step back away from your paper. And in the second part of you just adding details, I've been working with my size to round brush. So next we're gonna be working on the feather tutorial. But I encourage you before you start working on the feather tutorial toe upload your moons that you just paint it to the project gallery. I can't wait to see all your work, and I'll see you in the next tutorial. 5. Paint a feather!: Okay, so now I'm gonna dive into to show you how I paint watercolor feathers. So I usually paint from real life feathers. But if you need, if you don't have real life, others and you need some inspiration I created a Pinterest page and you can find the link on the course description. And also, my friend Aaron has a really beautiful instagram page with painted fellers and different colorful feathers that she uploads each day So you could go to her Instagram page All I'll include that link on the course description as well, if you just need some inspiration individual to start painting. So as I begin my process, I use a to h pencil and just sketch out the shape of the feather just to make sure I get the movement right. I made my lines a little bit darker on the page, just so you can kind of see them. I would recommend making your pencil lines as light as possible. Once you paint over the pencil line, you're not gonna be able to get rid of it. So you just want it really not distracting and so you can barely see it. I start painting the feathers with a wet on what methods. So I just start wedding. Wherever I know. I want to drop the color in to the feather really loosely. Then I'm going to start placing my colors, and I'm just gonna use the colors that I've been using throughout this whole class. So for this first feather, I'm gonna use shades of brown cognac and indigo because I think they blend really nicely together. So while I do this, I'm gonna stop talking, and it's more of a visual process. And you can kind of just see how I dropped the colors and then we'll pick up for when I add actual details to this feather. Here we go. Okay, so now I've laid down my main colors. So now I am going to be using the wet paint and kind of pulling it out in our motion towards the outer edge of the feather to get kind of these, some these nice little strokes of the different strands of the feather. So I'm gonna continue to do that a muddy my collars blend, and then I'm going to go down to the bottom and add some more speed details at the bottom of the feather. So I'm gonna just demonstrate all of that to you right now. Engine. Nice to know that I base color for my brother. I'm distracting a little bit of so onto this feather, and I'm just going to move onto the next one, so I'm doing all of the foundation later colors first gonna work through the three feathers , and I'm gonna add all the wet details, let it dry, and then I'm gonna go in once it's dry and, uh, with a really small brush, some metallic and darker details Teoh each other. So I'm gonna start the next feather with same process. I'm gonna wet the areas that I want the pain to kind of leave through and then just work with the same technique. I'm also trying to keep just like the center of the feather with a little bit right in it. I always think that looks nice to indicate the center of the father. Okay, so, no, I finished painting my 1st 2 feathers. I'm going to my 3rd 1 I just wanted to stop and let you know that for this larger feather I used a size for brush on as they get smaller. I'm using the size two. I just prefer to use smaller brushes. I feel like I have more control, but I I encourage you to play around with your different brushes and see what you're most comfortable with. So I'm just gonna finish painting this third feather that I'm gonna let them all dry and then just go back in. And that's a small details. Okay, so I have the base foundation for my three brothers. I'm actually just gonna add a little bit of C sold into this one. The reason lies just sped up through that process so that you could see me paint three different ones is I kind of approach them all a little bit differently and approached the way and mix the colors Or how drew the shape of a feather a little bit differently and there's no right or wrong way to do it. So I just kind of wanted you to see my process, and then you kind of develop your own from there. So I'm gonna let these dry for about 15 minutes. I'm gonna come back and just pain in some smaller details, which is a really fun part of the process, and then we'll be done. Okay, so now that my feathers have dried, I'm just gonna go in here and just removed. I need a pencil that's still showing. So they're still pretty like right now, So I want to go in and just add some details to these. I'm gonna start details with a black marker. This is just a pigment liner. Black fine tip. Just go in. Just adds details. The reason I'm doing this now is that this it is waterproof, so I can add water cooler details on top of it. But it's really hard, Teoh that these marks when the papers wet. So I'm just trying to add some now, so these are gonna be as obvious once, I had darker details, but it's a good way to draw all in, like any movement that you feel like you're. And if you just want really light colored feathers and the darker colors don't really fit into your palate, you completely skipped any of these many of the parts of this process. Okay, now I'm gonna go in and just add some details using slightly darker colors in my palette that still would go with the other colors with feathers to just add some details. And I'm doing this with a size to brush, I'm gonna switch back and forth between the size two size one. Yeah, Okay, so I kind of just jump between the three different feathers toe, add some small details. I do like to put some dots in my feathers. A lot of times I'm looking at these two feathers that have these, like, dots and weird patterns in them so I could try to incorporate that. So you kind of saw. I just jumped around back and forth between the three different feathers, adding details, So they are a little wet still, but I'm gonna go in now with some gold and white. Just make sure that when you're getting your wife think again, using the topic optic way. But if you have white quash, you could work as well. Just make sure you have a really clean brush when you're taking it out of the container. So I just putting the white just like one of my hands on the side here at some details. So anywhere I feel maybe a little too heavy. It needs a little bit more air. I could go in and bring this fight to kind of soften Soften it. Okay, so, no, I'm just going to go in and add some gold details. And this gold might not pickups that well on the camera, but it's nice. Have this touch because if you're gonna be using this as wall art or hang it somewhere like when the sun hits your artwork, it looks really nice. Texture when it has this gold metallic touch sonando I am, which is a more water color. So I'm just going in to give some of these feathers a little more detail. I think the best brush to use for this kind of is zero. And again, this exercise is kind of similar to the previous ones where I was saying, there's no right or wrong place to stop or like, no indication of like when you're done when you just feel like it's finished, you put all the details you want. Great. I'm just obsessed with out in gold Two things. So go back in my old if you don't have gold paint was a gold marker as well. So these are my final feathers. I'm gonna let them dry and skin them in. And these are just some examples of some other feathers I painted just to kind of give you an idea. Not all of them have to have a bunch of color this once. More of the graphic pen. And I just went in with a little bit of gold in a little bit of watercolor wash. So there's so many different ways you can approach this in so many different ways you can sketch them. So I'm gonna leave up to you, and I'm really excited to see what you create. The next video tutorial I'm gonna walk you through is the masking fluid exercise. But I encourage you to finish your feathers and upload them before you start the next project. See you that 6. Practice with masking fluid!: So in this fourth exercise, I'm gonna be demonstrating. Working with this masking fluid again in the intro, I noted that you can get this kind as well in the bottle. With this you just poured into your palate and use a very cheap brush that you don't mind if it gets ruined to paint it on with this. If you use a really small paintbrush, the masking fluid dries very quickly. It's hard to get a fine, then line. Where is this? It has a point up at the top, so it's very easy for you to just Raul. It's almost like using a marker or something. It's very easy to control the line with this brand, whichever brand this one. You do want to get the slightly off white yellow. It's nice to see the contrast when you paint it onto the paper versus the white paper so you can see where is gonna be messed and masking. Flu is basically your drawling onto the paper with glue that's going to resist the paint, and then you're gonna peel the glue away after the paint dries, and it creates an interesting negative space effect to your painting. This gonna be applied in so many different subjects. So many different ideas, so you can draw whatever subject matter you want. What I usually do is with a light pencil throwing. I just kind of sketch out what I want to dio and then just use this to just draw Freehand after I have my basic outline. So if you're only able to get this brand, you can experiment with this. But I would say once you paint with it for 10 seconds, dip your brush and water, wipe your brush off and start again just so it doesn't dry on your brush permanently with this one. You just want to make sure the point is not clubbed and you can just start to rolling. So what I'm drawling might be a little abstract. I'm going to try to do this coal texture with butterfly wings because I like all the lines and vein structures in butterfly wings. So the harder you push onto the bottle, the thicker your line is gonna be. And I would experiment with filling in some areas, getting really thin lines really thick lines. So while you're drawing, too, I have a reference of butterflies off to the side here, which helps me engine. If you find that your tip starts get clunked or you get some air bubbles, just bring your bottle off to the side with paper town just kind of clean it off air bubbles do happen from time to time. So I'm almost thinking of this. Kind of like how I was layout a pattern, how the different wings interact with each other. It's okay with this to get a little sketchy to to kind of pick up your your hand and what it looks like when you pain, it's different. My goodness is when I'm working on the composition of something kind of try to focus on how the shapes move with each other. I'm usually designing Prince for a fabric. It's on a fabric that's probably very flowy, so we kind of want to flow of the pattern to match that. But it's kind of the same concept if you're a graphic designer and you have a certain size page you need to work with, I just want to make sure all of the elements kind of work together and flow, and nothing looks police be kind of interesting to. After you finish painting or drawing your masking fluid onto your paper, take a photo or a scan so you can show us your process, your masking fluid. And then after you painted it and removed the masking fluid, sometimes the most interesting part of a project of scene the work in progress in the process that you followed. So feel free toe upload your process on the Project Beach. All right, Perfect. So I'm gonna let this dry after a drives. It's going to still feel sticky, but it's gonna feel like a gel that you can easily peel off. Don't peel it off. We're gonna paint over this when it's dry. Then you have to let your paint dry 100% dry, and then you peel off all the masking fluid. So I'll see you back when this is completely dry. Okay, so I let my masking fluid dry for about 20 minutes. It still feels a little sticky to the touch, but even when it's fully dry, it feels that way. So I'm going to start painting. So for this part, I use, uh, pretty big brush. I have a 10 you can even use a bigger brush, depending on how big of a piece of paper you paint it. If you painted something much smaller, you can use whatever size brush feels right to you. So again, I'm just looking at my color palette that I create it and I'm gonna start dropping color. And so I'm just looking at my color palette at what colors? I think pretty together. It is a little hard to paint over this masking fluid because it's a little sticky. See, you kind of just want to make sure you get your pain to completely cover them asking. And it's good to start with later colors and then drop in. You're darker shades, placing my colors in pretty quickly, huh? Just so you can get the idea of how I work. Hold they like this, but even take your time on yours. Think about your color policeman balance and what it does to the composition of your our work working on different parts of my page because I will avoid any paint drying. I don't want to need sharp pain. Binds in my artwork. I want to read very water. Yeah, floor. I think once I have all the paint down on here. Gonna a little bit of so in here because, well, to my end ago. Because I want to get some text. You can apply the salt right over the masking fluid. So working with the same colors used my color palette. But maybe I'm just making some a little bit more saturated and testing them a little less. I'm not using my test sheet. I'm just going for it. Speed up the process again. As before, if you feel like an area just has a little too much liquid could go in and dry up and then just start painting again. I felt like the cognac was leading a little too much, so I wanted to remove some of the water So you can also add India ink to some parts, which will probably be my last step. You can add Metallica's well for this. You want to cover up all over the white with pain because once you peel them asking blew it away. It will be a bright, vivid white that contrasts nicely with color. You applied to your paper? I'm gonna go in just kind of playing some. I'm actually trying to just place it in some of these shapes that I have. It's bleeding a lot over here, but it's okay. Good. Turned into something really cool. A little more over here to balance all of the Indian going on with the right hand side. So I just want a little bit of white on top again. You can decide what techniques are best for your vision and the subject matter. Your painting. I think we're in a pretty good place. I'm gonna. But this it I would say this is really wet, so I'm actually gonna let this it for a very long time just to make sure the pain is completely dry. Okay, so I have allowed my pain to completely dry. None of it is wet at all. So now I'm going to start removing the masking fluid from the paper. To do this, you can just use your fingers and just slowly kill it. This kind of takes a really long time to do it this way. Eso To do this, I usually use a harder reserve, a plastic a razor and just rub it on the paper and it will start picking up the masking fluid engine. So this is my final painting. This'd is after I removed all the masking fluid so you can see some of the areas where I put salt. You can see the textures and work with India and create some really interesting textures. I love the Indian next to the stark white where the masking fluid was placed. So this is just a really fun exercise for you. All the practice to kind of combine all the skills you learned in the previous videos. Once you finish your final project just uploaded to the project's page and I can't wait to see what you all create. 7. Closing Remarks: So this is the end of my class. I'm hoping that you all feel more comfortable using watercolors and using the different techniques that I showed you in the videos. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your class projects. So please upload your color palette, your moons, your feathers, and you're masking fluid exercises to the skill share project page. And I'm looking forward to giving you comments and feedback on all of your hard work. I hope you learned a lot and I'll see you in my next class.