Alie Watercolor Portraiture: Creating Expressive Anime-Inspired Art

1. Intro: Welcome back. I'm Nio Di Vere. I am an Italian artist and specialized in watercolor painting, as you can see here and in photography. I'm really happy and excited to show you today the full entire process to realize this watercolor painting right here. We are diving through some different techniques like inking, washing, wet and wet wet and dry a little bit, make details and other exciting things. I think this is oriented to an intermediate level, but I suggest you in case, if you like to try, if you like to painting, do not miss the opportunity to try to do a painting like this. It doesn't matter the final result because to be a good painter needs time, and this is absolutely normal. So I will show you all the full material I've used. I show you how I transfer the image on the final paper and step by step until the end. I also open a project about this. So if you want to share me your final result, what you did, what you learned, if you have dubbed, if you have questions, I am here for you. So now I think now is the best moment to start this new painting. So let's go to paint. 2. Materials: I am showing you material I've used for this particular painting. So start with the paper because I think it is the most important. I actually love to use these brands or the arches or arch because it's French. This is a grain torsion. I particularly like this kind of paper because I love to get some texture. In fact, this one, it's very, very, very textured paper. But you can use as well, cold breas paper. It doesn't really matter if you feel confit. With the cold press paper, go ahead with that. It's a little bit smooth and probably is better when you apply the ink. Just personal preference. The important the real important thing is better if it's 100% cotton because it can handle the water much, much better than the classical paper with some ellos. Okay, so and, sorry, 300 GSM or more. This is quite good. It's okay. I mean, no problem. So a technical pen to trace, you can use anything you like. About the ink. You probably know I love to use the fontaine pen for many different reasons, but if you do not have a fontaine pen, or you do not have the right ink, which is this one, I found very very good ink is called carbon ink because this ink is suitable for the fontaine pen, but is also 100% waterproof. This is very important because when you finish to trace to ink, your painting and you go over with the water, you need the ink stay in place and do not spread everywhere and make everything muddy or messy. If if you don't like to use a fountain pen or so, technical pen are very convenient, you can have this set for a decent amount of the price is not crazy, and you still have from 00512 sorry, 010203 until 08. This is actually exactly the same. I finish the 0.1 because it's one of the I use more, so I destroy basically the 0.1. I like fine lines. So this is from Stetler, and this is probably much a little bit more popular is micron pigma. Exactly the same. Um, This one. So I found this thing very, very useful because this is not normal pencil. This is a quarrel. Or watercolor pencil means you can use this as a normal pencil. But when you go over with water, this is going to melt into your color. The only thing you have to pay attention is, this is pigment added to your color. So keep in mind this because this is going to mix with your color. So if you use a different orange or I don't know, you're going to use I don't know, let's say with the blue, you touch the orange, you're going to get the magical brown color. Uh. I will show you where I used this in the final painting because I didn't trace everything just with the pencil, but I use this as well. Colors. I have another palette. This is the one I'm going to use today because I'm going to use a lot of oranges. This is a gold. Now, this is a yellow Indian yellow, something. This is the orange azul. This is the golden. I actually I like this is very, very bright. A couple of reds and then some browns until sepia. I do not use black. I never use black. I start to stop to use black. Ages ago, if you need to make black, this is pains gray. You mix with sepia and you're going to get a very, very, very wonderful black. Also, if you need a cold black, the percentage of sepia needs to be more than pains gray, if you need a cold black, do the opposite. Let's say, 75%, 90%, and a little bit of sepia if you need to swap. Brush. No. This first. I started to use this a few times a few not so long time ago, but actually, I love this. This is just a sponge. As you can see, it's a very thin sponge. So I use this instead of the classical tissue or the kitchen roll to clean the brush before go from the palette to the final painting or if I need to clean the brush, I actually love to use this tool. It's small, stay in a corner. It's not big as a tissue. It's actually, I'm impressed. Brushes. This one, I start with this one because this is a very bad brush. Why I use a broken bed, low quality brush, easy. Because this it's very useful when you pick up the color and you're going to the mixing area. Do not use the brush you are going to use on the main painting because this brush is going to do the dirty job, dirty work, the difficult things. This is going to be it doesn't actually really matter. This is for a critic, but the only thing actually matter for this one, pick up a lot of color mixing the color here in the area. And then with the real brush, you're going to pick the color already set and you go to paint. So if you have an old brush, bed brush, doesn't matter, use this for that kind of job, and then the main one. Start with this one because it's very strange to me. This should be a goat imitation. I don't particularly like this kind of brush, but sometime I found that convenient when I don't know, I have to spread the water all around some area to do wet or wet. Pay attention because this brush is the one I do not have a full control of the amount of water or amount of color. I'm going to use on the main painting, so I keep an eye. I use this very careful. Instead, I much, much, much more prefer something like a mop brush, especially this one because it is a Tintoretto number four, because as you can see the point is very, very thin, so you can have a good tank of water or water and painting, but you can still very precise in case you need it. I start to use this Tintoretto few months ago and I actually love a lot them. Of course, all the brush are synthetic. I'm not I stopped to use natural hair a few years ago. This is a value limitation. Basically, it is a squarer limitation, and actually it's perfect. Still on the same range, those are two, this is a zero and, and this is a 30, of course. This is for the medium details and this for the final details. Those are in the last few months became my favorite brush ever. This one is a Borcgi bonazzi. This is an Italian an Italian brand, and I actually love their brushes as well. They make also something similar to this one, but it's less pointed. So I use the other one when I have to do a kind of wet on wet, more wash and it's called Bocani bonaziOnk if I remember well. This one is the synthetical 800, and basically, this is a Kolinski imitation. The only difference is I'm going to wet. As you can see, the bristle are a little bit more strong than the squirrel imitation, which show you what happened. See? These stay in place like this. Is smooth compared to this one. This one is going back to stay very straight. And this is the brush I used for a very, very, very fine and thin details. There is another brush, but I don't have here right now at the moment, still for acrylic, but not the bad brush like this is a good brush. Why? Because in this particular painting, I'm going to paint with black ink. On the paper. So I'm not going to use a watercolor brush to use the ink because it's totally different color, and I don't want to mix both of them. You can just in case I could use this one, but the problem is, this is not a watercolor a watercolor painting. So because it's ink, if this is going to get dry for any different reason, I actually can trash this into the water because, again, when these get dry, there is no way to boom reactivate the color or clean the brush. So, just keep an eye on this one. I will show you later which brush I'm going to use. Nothing special. It's very cheap to brush. It's just to filling some area with black ink, nothing different. Let's say would be something between those two. Okay, let's go to painting at this point. 3. Transfer Image: I like to show you how I trace this image. So how I transfer the image from my device to the final paper. This is not the paper I'm going to use, of course. This is just an example. But imagine this is going to be your real watercolor paper, just the light. Okay. So first thing I have to do is take my phone and take another stand or whatever. You can use a bottle, you can use a bucket, anything suitable for you. Go and open Da vinci eye. I'm going to say draw and then collections, swipe, swipe, swipe until I found the right one. So this one. I use classic mode. And what I'm doing right now is place the piece of paper. Pretty much in the center. When you are set, you can just say move. You place your image wherever you want, so you can adjust the proportion, the composition, the position, the size, anything. Then take away move. From this moment, your picture and the paper are linked. Now it's important. The paper is not going to move anymore, so take a piece of tape and fix it. Important, the paper is not you has to stay in place, now you can zoom in and out and do whatever you want, and as you can see, you're going to see your hand through through your phone. And from this moment, you're able to report the trace. Your reference image, you can draw all the details you like, or you need to follow for the next steps. Sorry, so you can move. And as you can see, when you go back in the same place where you were where you were before, you can continue, you can zoom in out, move. It doesn't matter because now the image and the paper are linked. Okay? I think this is a very convenient method, very fast, very very helpful as well. So this is the method I usually use to transfer the image from my phone to the final paper, and then I can stick with the reference image on the phone next to me to continue on the next step. As you can see, this is just roughly image then you can adjust. Now I'm ready to start the real painting, and now it's going to be the inking steps. 4. Lines Inking: When you finish to transfer the image with the pencil, and again, check the main lines because in this particular case is actually very important. You didn't miss any mainline. But the main line, I mean, some reference lines, you actually need to properly understand the full global composition and painting. Subject. Um, as you can see, I am starting from the bottom, and this is something I did many times, even when I used to tattoo. I think it's important to start to the bottom because probably you think it's better to start from the difficult part of the painting, which is, I think, assuming is the face. In this case, the face of the subject. But, um, I know you probably many people want to start from the face just because I said, Okay, if I can do the most difficult part of the painting, I can do everything with no problem. There is two feedback I like to show you if and when you think to do something like that. First of all, is at least this happened to me many times. So when I start to do the most difficult part of the painting, I'm getting kind of relaxing. So I said, Okay, now I did the bad part. The most hard work is already done. So now I can do everything in chilling and without think so much. And this is when you make mistakes on the small details. So keep focus and decide which one is the best workflow, painting workflow for you to do. Why I start from the bottom and why I told you I did this many times when I was tattooing. When I applied the stand sell on skin of a client. And let's say in this particular case, okay, imagine this is a stencil apply on, I don't know, an arm of a client or on the back of a client. I start from the top, so start with the hair with the face. And so with my arm and with the side of my hand, I'm gonna kind of rub, I kind of delete, I kind of melt. The stencil underneath my arm, my hand. This happened a few times for me, especially the beginning a couple of years ago. But the thing is the main focus is I was thinking about to trace the eye properly, the lips properly, the hair properly. And as soon as I remove my hand and my arm, say, Okay, where is the rest of the stencil? It's gone, was vanished, was canceled. And this is pretty much the same thing could happen here. I know this is just pencil. This is not a skin of a client. You can recover everything, but why do twice the same job, the same things to do. So this is the main reason why I start from the bottom. As you can see, my hand at the moment, is not touching anything else. Of the main subject. At least, if I touch something when I go when I move on top, it doesn't matter if I spread the graphite of the pencil because I can't delete with rubber gum later. But the ink is going to stay there. And this is a method. Probably you agree, you do not agree is my suggestion for you. So as you can see, I just take my time because this is massive important. As usual, when you when you make a painting like this or actually, anytime you make a painting, take your time. Do not rush if you want to pay attention to the details. Many years of painting, I realize details like now, I'm just painting on a belt. And probably no one is going to pay attention on a belt. But the corner of your eye, when you will look this painting at the end, if that part is not good enough, you're gonna say, there is something I don't like. There is something I miss. So the same attention you pay on the main subject right now, for example, I'm doing the profile of the girl. So of course, if the line I just did was a bad line, I can trash basically everything because as you think I clearly as you think you probably can clearly understand is if you make a mistake right now with the ink, there is no way to come back. Many different reasons for that, first of all, because the main thing is because the ink is basically impossible to clean and to delete. And this is why earlier, I told you to use a cold press paper because if you do a mistake with a watercolor with watercolor paint, there is a chance you can reactivate the watercolor painting with the water. And because of the old press paper, leave you some time before the painting get completely dry. You can go back and try to recover even after a few minutes or hours. So this step is quite crucial because it's basically a no way back. If you trace a property line with a pencil, I think you'll be absolutely fine and you're not going to get any trouble when you apply the ink on top because basically you have to do the same thing with slightly more attention again. Because now you have to do, let's say, more detail compared to the pencil. This is going to be something. This step, the ink step is something you are not gonna be to touch anymore. So what you're doing now it forever. I mean, forever, of course, it's just related to this painting, but I think you got the point. So again, I don't know if you like to use back to the technical things. I don't know if you like to use fountain pen or if you prefer the technical pencil. In this case, if you're going to use a technical pencil, you can switch between thin thin nib like one or 005 between, let's say, 0.4, or 0.6, for example, now I'm feeling the eye with black. I will go back later probably with a brush, and I'm going to use the same ink. But if you like to use the foontinPen as I'm doing now, you can use more different pen tech sorry, you can use more different foontainPen. At the moment, I'm using a pen with small nib. You can find even with medium nib or maybe bigger. I don't know. So I actually know there is an extra fine, fine and medium. At the moment, I got just those three fountain pen not of the same brand. The brand that I actually recommend you is called worth worth and black, something like that. I like that because it's made in steel. They are very, very strong, and the price is actually very affordable. So in case you use or you damage your fountain pen, you're not going to lose a lot of money, like the more majority expensive brand around the market. At the moment, I'm going to trace the main line, and then in the next step, I'm going to use like an acrylic brush to fill some part because with the fountain pen and a small nib or even with a medium nib, it could take ages. But right now, for example, be sure you're going to make the right lines in the right way because I don't think I'm going to touch again this particular line with a brush and a blacking because, again, this is a no way back. Step. I will leave the top of the head open. Not just because the reference image doesn't have the finish. I can finish, of course, the head of the girl. But I think sometimes is a good way to be more interesting, more creative if you leave some part, not finish or something like that, because the human high at least for always from my point of view, the human high can finish in their own brain the final painting. Also, this is another thing I like to do when I print photography in fine art. I definitely love, and I think it's very professional to leave a kind of passepo all around the image. What is a passe parttu is basically a white frame. I calculate in base of the final size of the painting or the printing. In this particular case, this because it's pretty much around 30 by 40 centimeter. I think it's a good idea to leave 2 centimeters of passpartou or white frame. So if I'm going right now to finish the head on the top of the girl and the main subject, I will lose this idea to leave those hypothetical or let's say, virtual, two centimeter of frame and white stripe, like white passpartou. Sometime is a good idea. To broke this idea line and go over the passptu. But to do that, you have to make a kind of balance. In this case, for example, I have to do something like on the bottom of the main subject. But because on the bottom, there is nothing interesting, in this particular painting here, in this specific painting, I thought was better idea, not good, better idea to live on top and on the bottom, those two centimeter of passpu. I can extend the skirt. I can extend the arm, but oh, I can extend the background, but I don't think would be worth enough to try something like this, just because the final composition is not going to be very improved if you do something like that. So this is why I decide to leave open leave open the top of the main painting and the main subject. 5. Brush Inking: This can be the most difficult part of the full entire painting because we are going to use a brush with a black ink on the painting. So we're going to make to fill some area could take ages to do with the fountaine pen or the regular technical pen. So with the brush, we're going to speed up the process, but, of course, with the brush and the black ink is a combination which is quite difficult because you are not allowed to make any error now. So take your time. Don't rush because this is going to be crucial. Strong suggestion. As you can see here, I'm using some very different brush than I usually use on W, Watercolor painting, sorry. Why? Because the black ink is not a watercolor, even if it's water based and is liquid. I already told you when I show you the materials, but I love I like to do more precise here. So the black ink is more similar to an acrylic paint. It's not an acrylic paint. It's another technical kind of paint and color. But the thing really matter here in this case is you can use, of course, any kind of brush you want. But if you're going to use a good watercolor brush or an expensive brush, make sure to clean the bristle immediately. As you can see, and as already told you earlier, by the way, I'm using the same ink I used on the fountain pen. To main reason this is an extra an extra discussion. First of all, because black are not the same. So different brand makes different blacks. Someone could bid more shine, another one could be less waterproof than another one, another one can be more mutt, another one could be I don't know, with some strange cast, like, could be warmer or colder compared to the black of the fountain pen, and I am definitely assure you you are going to see the difference. So strong suggestion, use the same black ink you used with the fountain pen. Actually, I don't think is a difficult thing to do because as you can see there, you already have that kind of black if you use that kind of black. If you use a technical pen, try to use a black very close to the technical pen. The technical pen usually tend to be a little bit more matte, less shine, less bright. So if you if you think you be enough confident, go over the technical pen line even with the brush and the new black. Anyway, I'm using an acrylic brush, and in particular, two different kind of brush. The brush I used before this specific step was very thin is called a linear brush. Why? Because the bristle of that brush are very long. But the line is going to be very thin. Why the bristle are very long just because the final line is going to be very thin. You need to have enough painting and inking or whatever into the tank. So the long bristle means it's the kind of tank of the normal brush with the drown brush, okay? Um, if you have a flat brush in this particular, point of the painting is gonna be very, very suitable. I didn't use that, but I have a couple, of course, because sometimes I prefer to use the side of the brush, but a flat brush is gonna be very suitable again. Leave some part in white, as I'm doing right now because, again, when this is dry and I think you can clearly see it's gonna dry in seconds. I think it's visible, how fast is going to dry. Well, as soon as you dry, you're not going to able to use it anymore. Or you cannot correct some error. So take your time. Don't rush, please, because this is, again, very crucial. And another thing at the end of this video, I'm going to show you a quick tip. But actually, I think it's very important. So in case you don't want to go over with this step because this is basically feeling the black. Looking the reference image and where is black, I'm putting black. I'm not doing anything special. But at the end of this video, I'm going to show you and give you a very important tip. Because, well, I can give you a spoiler right now. So when I finish all this full enter process, you can see the broken piece of paper next to the ink pot. I'm going to make some lines and go to make I'm going to put some ink back when I finish the main painting. Why that? Because when I have to come back after a couple of minutes, my baby hour is better, I'm going to use that kind of broken paper to put the water on. If the black ink stay in position in the black ink is not going to spread everywhere, which means the ink is completely totally dry even on your main painting. So when you finish to paint the main subject, like I'm doing now, the hairs, if you're confident made some new lines, maybe sorry, maybe more bold. When you finish to fill the black area, just take the broken or the testing piece of paper next to you and put some black ink on top. I think is a very good thing to do because you are going to do that when you finish the painting. So it's going to be the last stripe, the last line, the last filling you are going to do with your brush. So which means if that is dry, of course, all the lines, everything you did on the main painting is going to be, of course, dry. And you can go over with the next step. You can do your wash. You can put water on there, and you'll be safe because if the black ink is not completely dry, or if the black ink is not completely 100% waterproof, when you will apply the water on the black ink, you're going to reactivate it or you're going to pretty much spread the black everywhere on your painting, and you basically have to start again from scratch. Because, again, this black ink, there is no way to remove it. There is no way to clean it, and there is no way to delete. So what you are doing now is going to be permanent. And this is the main reason why you have to be very careful, decide which one, what lines it's important to you as a reference. See, this is what I'm doing right now, and I told you a minute ago, do something like that. And when you are to come back to do the wash, put the water exactly on that piece of black paper. If the inks, if the black ink is gonna stay in position, you can be saved and go ahead with the wash on the main painting. 6. Watercolor Background: So as we just discussed, this is the final test to see if the black ink is completely dry. And so I'm going to take the piece of paper, I make the last scratch. I put water on top, and as you can see, it's perfectly dry. So which means we can go to set up the colors and then apply the colors on the main painting to set up the color, I'm going to use two different palette. This is my main palette, but on the other one, I got more different warm color. And this is the reason I told you during when I explain the material to use an old brush because this the work I'm doing right now, so pick up the color and put that in the mixing area. It's better if you do with, let's say, a brush with at least not expensive or the brush you usually use to do something else. Because I think with the real brush, sorry, with the main brush, you're going to use on painting, though this work can create two different problems. The first one is you basically fill up in between the bristles or the hair of the brushes, you're going to fill with too much color from my point of view. And also, you're probably going to ruin some bristle because this is a let's say dirty work, bad work. It's hard work for the brush. Uh, so if you have an acrylic brush, an old brush or something like that, I think it's going to be perfect to do this kind of this kind of work. I'm basically mixing different turquoise and bluish with a little bit of yellow green. So it's a turquoise as a turquoise, a little bit green, greenish, close to the green. So I want to find a color that can work very good close to the warm color like orange or red or something. Set up a quite good amount of color right now because if you're going to mix two or three different kind of painting, and you finish that to create, again, the same tint could be quite hard. So I'm going to take now a big mop brush just to spread the water all around the the background, I decide to start with the background, and I just notice the edge of the bubble is not inked and also is not made with the pencil. Plus, I'm using now smooth rubber gum to remove the excess of the graphite. I go also over the watercolor pencil, but this is not going to remove too much of the watercolor pencil because it's different than graphite, of course, because when you will go over the edge with the water, that will be melt with your color. Clean water, quite good brush, big brush, and then start to apply the water all around the area you will you decide to start with. You can start with the main subject. Also, let's say, with the skirt or with the belt, but in this particular case, I like to start with the background because I want to see in advance, I want to get a preview of what will be pretty much the final result leaving the subject black and white. So just ink as it is now with the background. Because if I start with the dressing of this subject. And I can lose the perception of what's going on in the next one. I mean, if the background doesn't work very well, I just lost time for nothing. So this is why I start to painting the background. Another important thing, as I told you in the intro chapter, the amount of water you have to put on the paper shouldn't be too much. Just enough because the paper is going to take anyway, a couple of minutes, maybe a lot of minutes before get completely dry. So you have plenty of time to work with your color on your wet area at the moment. I also using a different brush because the big one I like to keep it clean. If now I put the main brush into the, as you can see, into the turquoise, and I'm going to apply the color on the main subject. By the way, check your color on the piece of paper, the usual at the classical piece of paper on the right side, just to see if you like the final thing. If in the next step, let's say with the orange because it's going to be the next step, just a little spoiler. The bristle of this brush would be, let's say, dirty if a little bit of turquoise remain between the bristle, you're not going to pick up a clean orange, but you're going to pick up a dirty orange. So which means it will be pretty much close to the brown and known to the orange. And this is not what we want. Another important thing, as you can see here, the color, I can mixing, I can blend the color, but as you can see, there is not so much water, so I have a lot of control overall the turquoise I am plying. I think you can clearly see the color is not running away randomly with no control. Like you have 1 millimeter of water above the paper. So the color, you just put the color in there and the colors start to run away and you do not have any minimal control of what's going on. I think this is important because, yes, this is some splash, this is some splash of the background. But I think it's important to get the total control in this specific part of the painting. And this would be pretty much the main focus of basically all the painting, even on the subject, especially on the dressing of the subject and in the air. But if you still have control, like I am doing right now, you can have multiple different let's say, option. Okay? For example, you can set up two different colors, two different tint of turquoise, let's say, a dark turquoise or light turquoise, or you want to leave some area slightly light. Then you can wash your brush and go over. So you can extend a little bit the turquoise I'm doing exactly right now to make some three dimensionality, some part more light and some part basically filled with the main color. And this is something you can do only if you avoid to put a lot of water and the color start to run everywhere without any minimal control from you. And You also now because it's going to take time before these colors would be dry. So if you clean your brush, and if you dry your brush, you can also pick up some excessive color. Like check what I'm doing right now, exactly this. So I'm using the sponge and I pick up some color. Probably you're not going to see right now very well, but you will see later. When the color is going to be dry, especially if you here when I am where I pick up the color, the excess of color right now, so make it more light. In contrast to this, what I'm doing right now on the opposite side, you're going to use a darker turquoise. To make a dark turquoise turquoise is not difficult. You have just to add some color because don't forget the amount of water decide how the saturation of the color because we are mixing the turquoise with the white of the paper. Okay? So at the moment, this is a light turquoise. Because the watercolor is, of course, transparent. And then you can go over and over and over with other layers of turquoise and make the turquoise darker. If you see the real color in the palette, you're gonna see it's very, very dark. You can tell it's pretty much almost black. But it's not. You can get that dark hue of the color, of course. Another important thing about to pick up the color, this is possible from my point of view, only if you use a cold brass paper. And again, I know I said these things many time, and also I didn't. I'm doing something I just told you to do not do. So pick up the color with the main brush. But of course, in this case, it's not a big deal because the color is already reactivated, and as you can see, the mixing area is not full of color. So the amount of color is not too much like when we was going to set up the color. And as you can see right now, because of the cold paper and because the right amount of water, I have plenty of time to blend, let's say, dark turquoise, mid turquoise and pick up the excess of turquoise. So I'm going to create something more dynamic than just a flat column. And, yeah, this is possible if let's make it a cup. The right amount of water, you properly set up the color in the mixing area properly, and you're going to you are using colds paper. Sorry, and a brush with a good tank of bristle, okay? So this, I think, the mixing of those three things it's quite important to get the result you want. I'm setting now the orange because I'm going to do the top of the painting, and the technique would be exactly the same, but with a different color. And let's say, if you're going to do this job, like reactivate the color and mixing the color with a dirty bristle blue, the orange would be absolutely darker, brown, muddy, and so. I think the light is gonna help me right now because you can see on top how much water I put on is not too much. It's not just too to the amount is basically right, is not too much and it's not too less. And so I do not have you can still see the texture of the paper. So which means the right amount of water it's that one, okay? So you probably can have a visual representation of what is the right amount of water. If the water is gonna be too much, you probably see just a flat area full of water, and I'm not sure if you can see the text of the paper. Go ahead with exactly the same technique we did with two pis before 2 minutes before this. And again, in this particular case, I set up the main orange, which is going to be that one, the main the main color very bright, a yellow, and I used a I used to dark not dark. I try to increase the saturation of the orange with a little bit of bright red. I don't remember the name, but it's just basically a normal red. Do not use pink fuchsia or something like that because you're going to make you're going to change the tint of the orange. Just stay on classical, normal, medium red, if you have it. Just the classic Ferrari red, okay? Probably. You go. This is gonna be a very good example. So yeah, paint the color. Do not rush. As you can see, I'm not rushing at all because I know I have plenty of time to do everything. Pay attention to the edge, especially here because this can be pretty much the same thing about the black ink. If you go into the dress of the girl, these times could be quite difficult to remove because I think that part of the dress is going to I'm going to leave that part of the brass basically white. So I'm not going to touch with color. I like this kind of brush because it's very pointed and can help me to be quite precise, to be honest. And also just another extra tip. When you apply the color, you will add a slightly amount of water as well. So, I know I'm going to be quite knowing, probably. But this thing is very important to me because the right amount of water can avoid you to change the hue of the color because we are going to use transparent color. So if it's too much water, the color will be definitely lighter. And also, as you can see, you can have a very, very good control overall of the color you're going to apply on your main painting. 7. Dress and Arm Watercolor: A This is time to finally switch to the main subject, and I think this is basically the most exciting things. I'm mixing neutral tint is a kind of gray graphite gray with pains gray. Why Paine's gray Because it's the best gray. I actually love Panes gray because it's pretty much bluish gray, which is very, very photographic gray. Um and again, the techniques still the same. So slightly amount of water, the right amount of water. And as you can see, look how much control I have on the color. I can the area is completely full of water. So it is actually wet. But as you can see, I can have the full control of the color in the area I'm going to work on. I can create some shadow. I can blend the colors. I'm going actually to blend two different colors because on the right side of the painting, I can clearly see it's going to be bluish, so I will add some blue to the skirt. And this is totally fine because with this technique, you can do pretty much everything you want. Taking your time, pay attention to what are you doing can you imagine if this area was full of water? No way to do what I do now. Look how smooth and blend. Now, this is basically dry. Look how smooth and the transition between the gray and the blue is very soft. It's very natural, it's very clean. I think this is a very important part when you want to be precise in watercolor, of course, again, this is a very creative technique. So pretty much where everyone can do everything. But, um from my point of view, if you like to paint in a clean way, and you want to get much the most control possible, this is the way. I'm switching to the skin tone. You probably see from the video right now, I try to add some white. It's totally useless because we are going to use the white of the paper. So we have to make some skin tone. To make skin tone, it's pretty much a slightly amount of orange, very, very little amount of let's say a dark red is between red and brown. Of course, it depends of the color range, the dynamic range of your painting. But in this particular case, a dark red pretty much in the middle way between red and brown would be the best choice. The rest of the main subject needs to be very, very light. So I'm going to use in the mixing area, a lot of water, like, is the best way to make the watercolor color light. And then I will use the white of the paper to make the color light or darker. Again, the technique still exactly the same. So I pre pre wet the area, sorry, not pretty. I pre wet the area, and then I'm going to add some color. Um, I probably told you already 200 time, but look how much control I can have. And I am doing a wet on wet technique. For the people, maybe he's not a massive expert. This, I think is going to be the main tip of the class of today because Look how light I am right now, and pretty much in this area, I can do anything I want. I can pick up the color with the tissue if it's too much. I can blend the color. I can make the color smooth. I can create a smooth transition. I can add another color. I can mix two different colors. I can I can blend a dark, like the thing I'm doing right now a dark orange or red with the light orange or yellow. I can create a three dimensionality because remember, this is behind the arm, so I need to create a separation between the main subject and the arm. So the color here, the hue of the color, the saturation, the value of the color needs to be different compared to some other areas should be in light. But anyway, I think you can clearly see how pretty much I can control everything. It's like when I use the airbrush, in a couple of years ago, I start when I start to paint, I use I start to use only airbrush. And when I actually use an airbrush, I can have as much control as I want. Because it's going to be a kind of glazing. So layer over layer. I can make it dark, I can make it. I can leave it light. The only thing you have to keep in your mind in this particular step, you can make it dark as long as you want. To add color, you are always in time. But in terms of airbrush. But in this particular case, also because in the airbrush, I can't use watercolor I have to use pretty much acrylic and when acrylic. Will be dry, there is no way to remove it. But because here we are using watercolor on wet surface like a wet paper, you can apply the glazing techniques so layer over layer to make it dark, but also with a wet brush, clean brush, wet clean brush, you can pick up the excess of the color so you can make a very, very smooth transition, a very light blending between color and the white of the paper, you can actually do pretty much everything you want. In case you want to make it darker, just wait a little bit, wait the color. Sorry, the paper would be dry, and then you can do this technique again over what you already did. I try to be more clear as possible. Now we are basically painting a shirt or a t shirt. No, it's not a t shirt, but it's a clear dress. So if we need to make it darker and we don't want to be too strong in this transition, you just need to wait. The paper will be pretty much dry, and then you can put other water again on top of this and do this process again, over and over and over. As long as you need. But until you will be light, you can do basically anything you want. Now the dress is dry. Look how smooth, soft, blend it is right now. And the things still exactly the same. So as you can see, I'm using, again, this brush, the clean brush. So this brush never touch any color since I start to do this painting is just dedicate to apply the water on the paper. This one is brush because it's pointed and I can have more control. On the edge, like, I'm doing the shoulder right now. I'm painting on the shoulder, but I don't want to go into the back of the shirt of the dress of the main subject. With the pointed brush, I can do that. I can be more precise. And again, check, see the color is not spreading everywhere. He's not running even wear. He's not bleeding everywhere. Still in the position where I actually paint. I'm free to do everything here. I'm free to extend the transition of the color. I would be free to use another color like, I don't know, light orange or put some dark orange between, let's say, on the armpit, to make the final result more tri dimension, tri dimensional. Um, pretty much. I think you at this point, I think you got the idea and what is the main focus of this painting, not just of this painting. I mean, if you use this technique, on any paint you're going to do, I think you basically you shouldn't be afraid to do anything about creating a mess, make the color muddy, do not have control about the color can run everywhere. You can do pretty much you'll be safe to do anything you want. I'm doing a mistake right now. Which one is I didn't wait enough time until the paper is completely dry. So I just told you you can get basically the control of everything but not 100%. Take your time because later, I have to go back in this area and fix what I'm doing right now. Some part of the color spread a little bit too much. I'm talking about millimeters, okay? It's not a big deal. I can fix easy this, but many time I told you, Take your time, don't rush. And this is one of the main reason I told you that because in this particular case, right now, here I'm doing a mistake. I should wait five, 10 minutes just to be sure that the layer and the paper, sorry, the water and the color on the paper will be dry. And then I can go over with another layer. So we are switching between wet and wet to glazing is not a massive difference, but I think it's really important to tell you even this small detail right now. 8. Face Watercolor: Last very important step of the voluntary process of the painting, of course, we are going to do the main subject. I mean, the face and basically the face and the hair, but the face is the most important thing. Right now, I am mixing because the face still kind of warm color. I'm going to mix, again, orange and yellow like golden yellow. We are doing something different here, slightly different, not so much. So the techniques should be the same, but here we're going to do some glazing wet on wet. As you can see, I'm not using the brush the big brush I use for pretty much the full entire painting till now. This is one of the main brush I used to put the color on my subject. Why that? Because it is slightly smaller and it is pointed, more pointed than the other one. So I can be more precise around the edge of the hair, around the eye, and so. So as you can see here, I'm applying a very thin, thin, thin, small, light layer of color, and I'm going to do the same on the neck, of course. And I'm going to create this ideal line underneath of the hair. Basically it's the shadow of the neck. And here, as you can see, I am very, very careful. The color is very light. You can see in a minute what's going on. During the time I'm doing the neck. The color around the eye is going to dry. That because I use a small amount of water and just a thin layer of color. So at the moment, I am playing between glazing technique. I'm playing with timing because during the neck, the eye is going to be dry, so I can go on the eye in a few minutes on the dry eye in a few minutes during the glazing technique, this area knee on the neck is a little bit bigger, so I can play slightly more and they can be, let's say, less precise compared to the eye. But now, again, I'm using exactly the same brush, exactly the same color. So this color is not darker compared to the first layer. It is exactly the same color. As you can see on the right, I didn't change the palette, and I didn't mix other different colors. The only thing I'm doing right now is go over and over and over with layers, light layers to create the three dimensionality, the shadow, the blending, um and this is crucial because this is going to be the focus of the painting. Yes, it is the last step. Many people maybe like to do this at the beginning, but from my point of view, if you do this at the beginning, you could lose the full entire range of color of the painting. What do you mean? Now you can apply on the eye from my point of view, the right amount of color. And because we are doing something very light, like I'm doing right now now I'm basically drying the brush to blend the color to full color to nothing, okay? So what are we doing right now? This is the classical glazing technique. Layer on layer, light layer, light layer, over light layer, over light layer. If we do this at the beginning, and we go too dark, let's say, too dark or too light. This is going to be a strong influence for all the full entire painting. Do this at the end, instead, make you in a condition to put the right amount of color around the eye and on the face of the girl because you already have the full range of color of the painting, and you can clearly see that from the background. I'm pretty sure you're not going to do something darker than the background or lighter than the background because you have a huge vision of the painting right now. But if you do this at the beginning and you have all the painting without any color. The risk is around the eye, you could go to dark. And if you go to the color, when you if you will do the background afterwards, the risk is to go very, very dark with the background, to get the right separation between the main subject and the background. For the lips, as I'm doing right now, the game is not changing. I'm doing a very thin layer. I'm going over and over to create the three dimensionality and the round and dead idea of the lips. And during this time around the eye, the color is getting dry. So when I finish here on the lips and when I jump back to the neck, and then I go back again to the eye, I will apply a layer of color on a dry area. And this is pretty much what glazing is. Also, I could be able to go over and over and blend the color from dark to light without a huge amount of water. Right. You see now I pick up a little bit of red just because the top lip because it's in shadow, needs to be slightly darker than the rest of the painting just to make sure you got the three dimensionality, and this could be apply as well between the eye and the nose and underneath the hair above the eye. So again, you conclude, see, I'm not rushing. I'm taking my time because it's not so much. We're talking about probably ten, 15 minutes. As you can see here, my brush needs to be almost dry because I need to pick up the color. And also, I need to blend the color between the full saturation, the full value to basically nothing. I'm just going over and over and over, as you can see here, and I got patience. I got I'm taking my time because I think this is the most important the most crucial, the most delicate. Sorry. I think delicate is the right word. This is the most delicate part of the painting. I mean, if you are not precise at that level on the background or let's say, on the on the dress, I think no one can see a huge difference, but if you make some mistake right now here on the lips or around the eye or on the face of the main subject, the risk is to ruin the painting you did. This is one of the reasons people, well, not people, not everyone, but this is one of the reasons a lot of people tend to start from this area, because it's the most difficult and more is the most delicate. And then go ahead with the rest. So someone can think, Oh, if I'm not gonna do any mistake in this area, I'd be safe about all the rest of the painting. Yes, but it is true but not completely true. Again, the value and the amount of color you put you put on the eye and on the lips can influence the rest of the painting. The same thing here is on the hair. The concept still exactly the same. So now I'm using pretty much the same color I use on the background. It's not the same. It is slightly green, as you can see, compared to the blue, the light blue off the background because I want to stay on the same range of the color wheel, but I want to make the subject a little bit more separate to the background. So I'm not going to use a purple, for example. I'm not going to use a red. I'm not going to use, let's say, a strong Fuxia but I'm still on the same area of the color wheel. So this is another turquoise, slightly green compared to the turquoise, slightly blue of the background. I think there's a kind of harmonic view. And this could be an harmonic color Shoes, color No shoes. I choosing you're choosing the right area of the color wheel to stay in harmonic composition of colors. But without exaggerate. So you can get a good separation of the subject, but without exaggerate, changing the color so much. The hair, the area of the hair at the moment, still slightly wet. And again, I'm applying at the moment, again, the same color of the first layer because I think you saw I didn't add any green or any blue. It's just a second layer. And with the brush almost dry, I can blend the second layer with the first layer with pretty much no problem. Is nothing difficult at the end of the day. You have just to keep an eye on what you are doing, follow the reference image, and the mistake I made when I was at the beginning was very clear and very simple. I want to see color straightaway immediately in zero time. I didn't have any patient, pretty much, basically. Painting teach me that, because I trash many works, many time, a lot of hours for nothing, just because I didn't want to wait a little bit, and I want to put the color straightaway everywhere in 321. So take your time, be patient, and you can correct or avoid mistake. Maybe you can think slightly 1 minute before. What are you doing? As you can see here, I didn't do anything special. I just apply two layer of the same turquoise color on the hair. And as you can see, I got pretty much a good three dimensionality and a good shape of the hair. And here, again, I'm doing exactly the same with the orange. This is an extra separation between subject or a fusion, if you want. Between subject and background in a little bit of in the same area could be a good creative way to finish your work. Almost dry brush, and you can blend everything with no problem. 9. Greetings: Come back. I really hope you enjoy to paint this subject with me. In case you need some further detail, please feel free to contact me, and I will try to help you as much as I can, because unfortunately, my English is not my main language. I hope you can understand and you can stand my English because sometimes I miss some word, but I think the connection between art and my mistakes, my speaking mistakes could be fixed with visual when you see what I'm doing. This is I think I think this is much important than maybe some word, say in a bad way. Anyway, um, strongly suggest, again, a smaller cap, I strongly suggest that you use cold press paper and not hot press paper. I know it can be smooth the hot press paper and probably a few people or a lot of people like to use a smooth paper because it's helpful when you at the beginning, when you trace with the ink because with a rough paper, maybe it's not very comfortable to trace the line with ink, but I do not probably if you follow me for a while, you know, I don't I'm not a fan of hot press paper because I'm not able to make a good glazing and sometime I struggle a little bit. I basically, to me, the hot press paper dry too much fast, and it's almost like an acrylic when I paint on acrylic with acrylic on canvas. So sometimes if you need to retouch something, I think it's better a cold press paper. I don't mind if you use the rough one or the other one slightly smooth, but I suggest you a cold press paper because it is an easy paper to paint on especially if you're not very expert. I tried twice, probably, and hot press paper is definitely not for me. This still my favorite paper and the cold press paper in general. In the material, I forgot to say, I'm going to put the template of my palette, and I wrote the name of the color. Sorry about my calligraphy, but I think you can get it. Is not really important to get the precise name of the color, but just in case if you have an help, if you need bigger advice, say the color, maybe you forget if you have the name printed on that. I think it's better S means Jaminqe color, M G means gram color. At the moment gram, are still my favorite color ever. The problem is in Europe, I struggle a little bit to find that. So I stick with Schmincke. They are absolutely fantastic. But the gram, because they have a slightly honey inside, the reactivation and the creamy of that color is, I think, the best in the world at the moment. Anyway, feel free to contact me for any further details for any question, anything you want. I'll be here. I really hope you enjoy my class and see you to next painting or next photography class. I don't know yet. I will do both. So I wish you a great time. Now, never stop practice. Cho.