Barn And Flower Field Landscape in Watercolor

1. About The Class: Hello, everyone. Welcome to my old barn and flower field watercolor class. My name is Bianca Rayala. I'm a watercolor artist from the Philippines. I love painting and I'm so passionate about sharing my love for watercolors through teaching. In this class, I will show you how to paint this beautiful landscape in watercolor. In the first section of our class, I'll talk about understanding your subject and planning your composition. I will share also the materials that you will need and the techniques that you can apply to paint loose watercolor landscape. I will show you step-by-step how to simplify sketching, how to paint the soft blue skies, which is essential to create the mood and atmosphere of your painting. I will also talk about the different color mixtures that we can create using a few number of pigments to help us paint the flower field with depth and to make the old barn stand out through adding textures. I will lead you from painting the base wash to enhancing the foreground, and finalizing the painting by adding details and highlights. I hope you continue watching and enjoy the class. 2. Materials: To create this landscape, the basic materials that we will be needing are first, watercolor paper. This is 300 GSM made of 100 percent cotton. Next is watercolor paints. For our project, I will only use just a few colors from my palette, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, neutral theme, and this genuine horizon blue, this one is indigo, and then olive green. I'll be mixing these colors together to create the shades for the sky, the field, and even the barn and trees in the picture. We'll be using also whitewash for highlights. For the brush, I'll use the flat brush in pre-wetting the paper. If you don't have one, you can use a mop brush as an alternative. I'll mainly use round brushes like this one, the silver black velvet, and also the golden natural in laying colors. I will also use an angle brush like this one, and the liner brush for lifting colors and for painting details on the field. Prepare also pencil, eraser, a mixing palette, cup of water, and some tissue paper. You can download the reference photo from the resource section for your guide in sketching. 3. Understanding The Subject: Before we start, let's understand first a picture that we'll be painting. Whenever we paint, it is important to know the mood that we want to portray. In our image, we can feel that it is a bright and sunny day. Here, there's an old barn situated in the middle of a wildflower field, so we imagine ourselves standing by the field and looking towards the old barn. Let's do a quick sketch for the composition. This is your workspace, we divide our paper into three. We will allot a larger space for the bright sky, so we position the ground somewhere here in the bottom. Let's just do a rough guide for the trees on the side, and then we will position the barn right next to the trees. I will show you later on how to easily sketch the barn on the next video. We want the old barn to be the main focus in our painting. We will also put some clouds up here in the sky, but we don't have to sketch it on our actual working paper. Now we are good to start. 4. Pencil Sketch: Let's start with our pencil sketch. Identify the lower third of your paper as your basis of the ground. I'm doing a rough sketch here of a slope as my guide for the field. Next, let's draw a rough guide for the trees here on the right. Then we can proceed in drawing the vine. As you can notice, I try to copy the angle of the sides of the roof to get the right perspective based on the photograph. This technique is an easy and quick way to draw without worrying if you get the correct angles and perspective of the object. Using your pencil, copy the angle of each side of the roof from the photograph and then transfer it to your working paper. I will also not be placing too much details on my sketch as I will let the watercolor create details and textures for me. This is our pencil sketch. 5. First Wash Painting The Sky And Field: [MUSIC] Before we begin painting, erase excess and unnecessary pencil marks on your sketch. Our first step is to pre-wet the entire paper with clean water so we can create a soft transition of colors. Using my flat brush I pre-wet the entire paper, making sure that nothing is left dry. Let the paper absorb the water first before painting so the paint would not spread uncontrollably. While waiting we can prepare the color for the sky. I'm mixing horizon blue and a bit of amity genuine to create the bright blue sky. You can test the color mixture on a separate paper so you can have your desired tone. When the paper is ready tilt your board on a slight angle and then paint the sky starting on top and leaving some white spots for the lighted part of the clouds. I'm just following the shape that they see on the reference photo. That's why it's important to have the reference photo right next to you so you can be guided in painting the sky. Notice that the paint doesn't move uncontrollably. It still creates soft edges as I lay down the colors. That's because I applied the pigment when the paper is not too wet, not too dry. In painting, it's important to know the right timing and the temperature of your paper as different temperatures will affect the movement of pigments on your paper. Now, we can see little by little an illusion of clouds on the bright sky. I will add a little darker tones on some areas to show shadow. The upper part of the sky should be darker in tone to show perspective in the sky. Using a clean dry tissue I will leave the color and define the shapes of the clouds. Always use the clean portion of the tissue when lifting colors to avoid staining the white areas on your sky. Next, I will paint a light wash of yellow ocher here at the horizon for a warm light glow. I will softly blend the warm yellow with the light blue to avoid a green mix on our sky. Let's add some contrast on the clouds by building up the shadows. Always remember to follow what do you see in the reference photo so you can apply the correct tones in your painting. When you're done with the clouds, let's proceed on painting the field. Since the field fragment is still moist, I won't be pre-wetting it with water anymore. I create a mix of yellow ocher and a bit of olive green for my base wash of the field. I will also add a little bit of horizon blue since I use horizon blue for the sky. I just laid down the color first with bold strokes. Next, I mix indigo and olive green to build up the color of the field. If we look at the reference photo, we see a mix of yellow-green and dark greens in the field. We will try to depict what we see while we maintain the looseness of our painting. For the foreground, I use branch and now mixed with the other colors are used for the field. Remember the rule of perspective that the foregone should always have the darkest tone. In this way, you avoid making our picture flat and we put depth in our picture. I Just paint with bold strokes and I darken the foreground even more. It's important to work wet on wet on this particular stage to avoid hard edges in our field. To keep our painting harmonious we maximize the limited palate that we have by mixing colors among the pigments that we have in our palate. I also sprinkle some water on the field for a nice effect. When the paper has absorbed the pigment, I use a liner brush to lift color and show an impression of grass here at the foreground. Since we want to direct our viewers towards the barn, this stroke for the grass should be directed to the barn. Be careful not to overdo and place too much strands or place too much strokes for the grass so that the old barn would still be the main focus in our painting. I just add some more splatters on my field using greens and yellows. You may also cover the sky part with a clean tissue to protect the sky from having these splatters. 6. Second Wash Painting The Field: [MUSIC] When the film fragment is almost damp, we can lift again some more paint, to show grass blades. You can do this step using a synthetic brush. I will be using an angled brush and also a liner brush. When lifting colors always clean your brush every after lifting. Using the same angled brush, I will paint the trees here on the right. I start first with a light yellow green color to show this top of the tree being lightened by the sun and then top it with another layer with a darker color. As you can see I lay the belly of the brush flat on the paper to create rough strokes with a semi-dry paint. I will also darken this bottom part to show shadows. Another technique that I will share is scratching the paper. I scratch some parts here under the threes to show an illusion of tree trunks. You can use your fingernail or a card to do this technique. Now, we don't want the trees to look separated from the field, so to blend the trees with the field, I will use my flat brush and drag the color from the base of the tree going down. The flat brush should not be wet. I'm going back to my field to add some more colorful splatters to make it more interesting and vibrant. Always remember that water color tends to fade in color when it dries out. I will splatter their brunch henna, ocher, purple and also whitewash to show impression of different wild flowers in the field. I will make my color mixture a bit creamy so this splatters would be bold and vibrant instead of being too transparent. Splattering is a wonderful technique to add details that are loose and very natural. Since we don't have control over the splatters that we make, what we can do is to position the brush at the correct angle so that the direction of the splatters would be appropriate on the picture. Now I'm mixing my white gouache and yellow ocher to create an opaque yellow. In this way, when they splatter this yellow pigment, it would stand out even more since it is now opaque because of the whitewash. If you want bigger splatters, you use a bigger brush. If you want finer splatters, just use a finer brush. You can do this splattering technique both when the paper is still wet to create soft textures in the field and also you can do this when the paper has already dried to create more detailed and vibrant details. [MUSIC] 7. Painting the Barn: [MUSIC] My paper is completely dry and this is the right time to paint the barn. I will use yellow ocher as my base paint for the barn. To darken the tone a little bit, you can add a hint of barn channel in purple. I will follow the tonal value of the barn on the reference photo so that object would not look flat and so I can show the right shadow and light in the object. Now, to paint the sides of the barn, I will use barn channel with a bit of amethyst genuine. My mixture is a bit thick and my brush is a bit dry. I will blend the barn with the field using my flat brush. This is the same technique that I did with the trees. Again, the flat brush should be down, it shouldn't be wet. Now, let's add more contrast between the barn and the field. I'll add dark color on this side even more. After this let's repeat the same process of blending the barn with the field using the flat brush. Our focus is to make the barn be the main focal point in the picture, that's why we put additional contrast. Now, I'm adding some strokes to show the windows with a dark brown color. I will be adding some other details once the layer is dry. Since the layer is still moist, I can add some textures that will naturally blend in as it dries. You can also use your finger to blend the paint on your first layer, and then add some more dark tones here to enhance the shadow part of the trees. [MUSIC] 8. Final Details: [MUSIC] As we finalize the painting, let's add some more contrast on the trees and here on the barn. [MUSIC] This will help us make a barn and to support the element which is the trees to stand out in our picture. [MUSIC] I am creating a dark green mix using indigo and olive green. [MUSIC] I paint the base part of this group of trees here. [MUSIC] Then again, I will scratch the paper, to show an illusion of branches and trunks in-between these greens. [MUSIC] As you add another layer, don't forget to smudge the paint, to blend it with the base layer. Next, I'll add a few more grass here in the foreground. I make a very fine, thin strokes using a dark brown color. I will also add splatters too. [MUSIC] Here I'm using my liner brush. [MUSIC] I'm putting just very few strokes here on this side. This strokes are leading towards the old barn. This will serve as an element that would lead viewers to our focal point. [MUSIC] Using a whitewash. I will splatter some of it on my field to create white flowers glowing on top. [MUSIC] When we're done, for the last step I'll put on some details on the barn. First, I'll start with the shadow under the roof. I'm mixing a dark brown color using my neutral tint and burnt sienna to paint the shadow right under the roof. This will give the barn more dimension. Using the same color. I'll also add some lines and details on the wall for added interests. [MUSIC] My brush is semi dry and I always rubbed the paint after applying it to have a nice blending on layers. Next, I draw the windows by the roof and also add the shadows too. [MUSIC] I'm adding horizon blue on my dark brown mixture to paint the cool shadow. [MUSIC] I'm using again, my whitewash to add some tiny details that will also serve as highlights on the barn and also some parts of the trees. [MUSIC] I actually mix this whitewash with a little bit of yellow ocher so it won't be too bright, when I apply it on a dark old barn. [MUSIC] At this point. I'm also checking my work as a whole and I try to figure out if there are areas that needed to be enhanced. [MUSIC] If you feel the need to add some more splatters, feel free to do so. Just add a darker splatter of the same colors that you use in the field. I think it is also a good idea to add some birds in the sky so that there will be dynamics in the picture. Be careful to place the birds with appropriate size, not too big, so that it would be realistic and it would match the image. [MUSIC] Once your painting is done and completely dry. Carefully take off the masking tape to get a clean and crisp border around your painting. [MUSIC] Don't forget also to sign your work and share it with me so I can see and help you in your project. Refer to our next video for the important things that we need to remember as we summarize this landscape class. [MUSIC] 9. Class Summary: To review us with important things we need to remember in painting an old barn in a flower field landscape like this one, we need to remember to paint the sky using wet-on-wet technique. This is important to create a nice, soft blend in the skies. To create the clouds, we leave unpainted spaces in the sky to set up the clouds and we also use the tissue paper to lift the pigment from the paper. We also paint the field by blending in the colors on a wet surface. Always remember the rule in perspective that the foreground should always have the darkest tone. We also add the base texture of the field while the layer is still wet using splattering technique and lifting technique. For the barn and the trees, we refer to the reference photo to identify where is the light coming from so we can place the shadow accordingly. The most important thing in painting is to enjoy the process and to keep on creating, to learn, re-learn, and unlearn things. It's fun and exciting to discover new things as we mix and blend colors and experiment on different techniques to bring life to the picture. If you wish to learn more about watercolor painting, I invite you to join my other classes on painting seascapes, still-life, flower subjects, and more. See you there.