Beginner friendly Loose Watercolor Pumpkin Painting

1. About this Class: Hello. My name is Shari. Welcome to my class. This class is designed for beginner artists who are eager to dip their brushes into the world of watercolor. My goal is it to make the learning process easy, enjoyable, and most importantly fun. So I encourage you to let loose experiment and embrace the joy of painting. In this class, you will create a loose pumpkin painting, learning how to make a wash to start and then painting a pumpkin or two on top of it with beautiful watercolor paint. After finishing the class, I hope you gain some new skills and confidence in your artistic abilities for next projects. Let's get started. 2. Materials: The paper I used is the hamul cold pressed cotton paper with the dimensions 30 by 40 centimeters. For the colors, I recommend a bright yellow, an orange tone, maybe a dark red and also a purple for shadows, a green and also a blue and white gouache. The colors I used were Nickel Azo yellow and Aussie red gold. Alizarin Crimson and Azamin Violet. Undersea green and so blue turquoise. And for the accent colors, I used wisteria and lavender and, of course, white wash. And also a bit of blue proof white. Use brushes you are comfortable with. I use synthetic brushes like this one, and you will need a pointy brush or a iga and a wash brush if you have for effects, I recommend a toothbrush and a well used old brush, but feel free to experiment. You will also need some salt. It doesn't really matter what kind of salt. Whatever colors you will use in the end, I always recommend to try them out first, how they will react with each other. Some colors will get unsightly muddy when mixed, and it could ruin your painting in the end. But now to the fun part, 3. Watercolor Wash: Now, grab your main colors. I have my paper on an angle to let the paint flow better. I will start with just plain clean water on the page. I put the water in the direction I want the colour on the paper to go. Leave some dry paper in between. Begin with your brightest color. I have my nickel Azo yellow here. After that, I will go in with my orange color. Let the colors flow on the page and see what is happening. Try to have a loose grip on your brush. If you don't want harsh edges, just wash them away with water. Just play around and let those beautiful autumn colors do their thing. I'm not quite sure where my pumpkin will be, so I try to not plan my marks. If you already see the shape of your pumpkin, try to preserve it. Don't put every color in the same amount on the paper. Here, I use more orange because we want to paint a pumpkin. A azarin crimson is in the same color range, so I drop it in quite generously. Try to make different marks with your paint like splattering it on the paper. You can use your brush or the toothbrush. If there are any marks you don't like, just wash them away. But try not to fill too much or you wash every nice texture you already have also away. I go in with my green now. I will keep it on the right side because I decided that my pumpkin will be on the lower left. Because she's not to muddy your colors now. Don't bring in too much of green and blue now. The green is where my darkest area will be, so I drop some violet in. As you can see, the colors are mixing together in some areas. But because I tested them beforehand, I know that they produce a nice brownish color which suits the autumn theme. You can leave the other colors for the next layer if you are unsure to paint them in yet. With blue, I will use very sparingly, just as an egg in color. If you're ready to put the brush down, throw some salt on the wet paint and leave it to dry. My paint was already quite dry, so I decided to go in and throw some more paint on so that the salt can work its magic a bit better. And instead of throwing a lot of paint with water on it, I use the toothbrush, also to make more texture. Wow, I tried to make a rhythm with the green and blue paint a curve from the right upper corner to the left the lower left corner. Please don't overwork your wash. Better to stop before you think it's finished, than let it become may. I start to fiddle. That's an indication that I should stop now. So leave that all to dry. Because of the salt, it can take quite a while, but I would refrain from using a hair dryer to dry it. You would lose a lot of texture. Be sure that everything is really dry before you remove the salt. 4. First Layer of the Pumkin(s): Be sure that you have removed all of the salt. Now, look at your wash and find out where to put the pumpkin. I see a round shape here, and maybe I will put a smaller one in the back behind. We will take the colors that we already used for the wash. Find the edge of your pumpkin. I will begin with a darker side. So I take some of the green paint and paint a negative shape and also put it where the ground is. Nothing is set in stone yet. You can always change the position of form. I want to have a bit of green in my pumpkin later, so I don't mind if it runs into the pumpkin shape. I try to figure out where the outline of the pumpkin is and where I want to put the stem. Don't rush. Take your time. I want to let the green dry a bit for now, so I want to work out the form of the pumpkin with its ribs. I want to get a feel of how they are shaped. I want to establish a bit more of the outline so I get in with the proper Yeah, I go in with more green to establish the outline a bit more. I don't want to get too dark on the brighter side of the pumpkin, so I mix up some yellow and orange. But you can also paint the negative shape with these colors to preserve the brightness even more. That would have made the shape pop out even more. You can always take up paint with a damp brush if you want to carve out the shapes. Loosely paint the ribs. We are not making a riddle, little, little little. Take some dark red paint to darken the pumpkin where the shadows are and green where the ground is. Because I put a lot of paint on the texture is lost in the process. To get some back, I will sprit some water on the wet paint and hope it will make some nice marks. I loosely tap the handle of the spray bottle so fewer and bigger drops come out. I use palo blue turquoise to darken the green area further. Mix in some alizarin with a turquoise, and it will even get darker. I have to move from that spot so it can dry a bit. I decided to put a smaller pumpkin behind the main one. I let them overlap a bit to create depth. I try to work out the ribs more. And again, if you're unsure, just take your reference photos. Now, I take my rigor and try to make the shapes of the ribs. If you are unsure about anything, just put the brush down and step back, evaluate what you have on your paper, what you like, what you not like, and then pick up the brush again. If I am unsure, I mostly wrap the toothbrush and they're fun sprinkling some paint on. I want to have a bit more orange and yellow showing through the green, so I take my toothbrush and sprinkle some on. Paint some more details on the smaller pumpkin, but not enough so that it competes with the bigger one. Here, I hint at the stem and also paint in some wispy tendrils. It should just read as Pumpkin without too much detail. I pick a brush with a pointy end for the stem to work out the shape better. Again, look at reference photos to see how it is shaped. I hold my brush so that the pointy end touches the paper where the stem and the pumpkin rind meet. Twist your brush at the end to have some nice texture. And if you want to paint in some tendrils. The stem should also have some darker and lighter areas. So go in with more paint to darken it. To set the two pumpkins visually apart, I darken the edge here. And because I'm not sure what to do next, I grab my toothbrush and play a bit. Again, don't overdo it. You can also just let it dry for the next layer. I decided to paint some tendrils and And before the layer's dry, I want to get some of the accent color in. I have a lavender here. I don't put it on the palette because it is white in it, and I don't want that to mix in with the other colors. I just splatter it a bit in the dark areas and leave that to dry. 5. Second Layer and Details: Now, take your white gouache or white opaque watercolor. And let's start on some highlights. Wow. I will try the fan brush and see if we can make some interesting marks with it. Wow. Keep in mind that the pumpkin has a round shape, so the highlights should reflect that. You can make use of your finger, too. I think the fan brush was not a good choice, so I try an old broken brush. You can also put some highlights on the pumpkin in the back, but restrict it to just a few. The stem needs some highlights, too. D You didn't have to use plain white. I use lavender and wisteria together. If you have gouache colors, you could use them too. I just want to make some accents with those colors. So test out your color if it fits the painting and use it sparingly. It Wow. Wow. I decided that the shadows needed some more color, so I use zarin crimson and palo blue turquoise for that. We are at the stage where we can overwork a piece very easily, so be cautious. Wow, wow, wow. I want to warm up the shadows, so I use my red and orange for that. Next, I want to work out some details of the ribs and the stem, too. If you think your painting is finished, then just stop. You don't need to paint any further. Wow, Wow. Yeah, I try to mix some of my orange color into the white so that there is a variety of highlight colors. Wow. Wow, wow, to bring back a bit of light and variety into the shadow, I splatter some white in that area. I could very well stop here, but I still want to play a bit. Again, if you are really unsure what to do, take a step back, let it sit for an hour or even a day and evaluate again. W. Wow. The last thing I will do is to make some white tendrils and markings here and there. Wow, wow I know I should stop, but that would mean the fun would stop, too, so I have my difficulties laying the brush down. Yeah, I try out another tool you could use to make markings. I. Now, finally, let it try. 6. Outro: Thank you for watching this class. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the discussion section. I'm excited to see your projects and comments, and I hope you will see us in the next class.