Beginner Friendly Watercolor Class: Yellow Rumped Warbler

1. Materials: Hello, friends. Welcome to another tutorial. Today, I'm going to show you my process for painting this yellow rumped warbler. Now, for this session, we're going to use a 100% cotton 300 GSM cold pressed watercolor paper. This is seven by 10 ". It's a block. Now, for the watercolors, I'm going to show you each color that we're going to use later. Of course, we're going to need a mixing palette. This is a ceramic palette, which I recommend. And then this is a leaf blade for separating the paper later on. Okay? Again, I'm using a block, and there's a small portion there where you can insert the blade, so you can separate the paper from the rest of the block. Here's a pencil that I'm using. I'm using a two B pencil, but you can use any regular pencil that you have. Have a blunt tip, if you can, because that will ensure that you don't scratch your paper. For the brushes, this is a 1 " flat brush. This is good for wetting your paper. Now if you don't have a flat brush, that's fine as long as you have a round brush with you. So we're also going to use a round brush for this session. This is a size 12 synthetic round brush. Get one that's springy and has a nice fine tip. I also recommend that you have an angle brush. This is a size eight angle brush. Now, if you don't have one, you can use a size eight round brush. Okay? Next, of course, a clean bottle of water for rinsing your brush, some tissue paper, and that's it. So have everything ready, and let me just show you the reference photo for this session. This is a copyright free image from Unsplash. 2. Color Mixing: Now, before we get started, let's prepare the colors. For this particular artwork, we're going to use cadmium yellow medium. Now, any warm yellow that you have would be perfect for this. Now, if you really don't have one, then you can take a cool yellow like a lemon yellow, and then just add a little bit of orange to it or a tiny tiny bit of red to make it warm. This is around 50% color and 50% water. Now the next color is Hooker's green deep. Now I'm going to mix this with some cadmium yellow to make this a little bit more like a yellow green color. Same as the color before. This is about 50% color and 50% water. The next color that we'll be using would be Teal purple. Some brands will have this as permanent violet. If you're curious what brand I'm using, this is Grumbacher, the artists grade water colors. And then this one is Indigo. This is such a strong color, so it's a bit dark. So I'm adding a little bit more water to it. Let's say about 30% color than 70% water. Then the last color is French ultramarine. And then we're going to mix this with a little bit of burnt sienna. This would be the brownish gray color that we'll be using for the background of this artwork. This is a bit diluted. This is about 40% color, 60% water. 3. Outline Sketch: Okay, now that we have all of the colors ready, we can start sketching. Let's start with the head. Of course, a round figure, but it's not perfectly round, so we're going to add a bit of curve here at the top. Now we're going to do an outline sketch. We're not going to do a very detailed sketch for this one. So next, we're going to add the wing. This is a pretty chubby bird. So there's going to be a lot of circles and ovals on here. So the body is more like an egg shape. And then this is going to extend a bit. So that's the rest of the wing over there. And then let's add the tail. Notice how I'm holding the pencil, not very close to the tip, but midway. This allows me to move the pencil more freely. Now, let's just add a bit of lines over here to guide us later on over here as well. Sketching is actually a good practice to do because it makes you more familiar with your subject so that when you're painting it later on, you're more comfortable doing the strokes. So sometimes, you'll notice that as you're actually adding the layers, the lines get a bit diminished, and some actually just disappear. Now, aside from your reference photo, the sketching part actually helps to, you know, put that image in your brain. And so even when the lines have diminished, you're actually able to still add the details. That's more or less accurate with the reference photo. For the head, the beak is actually a bit just a little above the center of the head. Then there's this radiating curved line that the crown of the warbler. And then there's this really nice yellow part over there. And then here we'll have the eye shadow. It's like an eye shadow of the bird, adjusting the head a bit over there. All right. And then, of course, we're going to add the eyes. When you're painting this later, just make sure that there's enough white space between the eyes and the rest of the head. That's it. That's the body and the head. Now let's try sketching the legs and the feet. Okay. Now, I've noticed as I have been sketching birds that this part of the bird is actually made of sections. So tiny, tiny sticks that are connected on the joints. So that's actually what I'm doing right now, but later on, when we are going to paint this, We're primarily going to do a lot of brushtrokes. We're not going to follow we're not going to fill in these sections with color. But we're going to use this to guide us in doing the brush strokes. Next, let's paint the branch that the bird is resting on. Just make sure that when you're drawing this, the claws are actually clasping the branch. The branch should be just the right size, the same as how the claws are formed, and not too narrow or not too wide. Then let's add a few more stems and branches. Okay? Now, at this point, I am just looking at the reference ph and getting some ideas as to how to position the other elements on the artwork. So We're not going to copy what's on the image, but we're going to take bits and pieces of it. Like, you'll see later, the leaf formations would be a bit different from how they're actually presented on the image. Basically what we want to achieve here is the main focal point should be the bird, and then everything else would be supporting that main focal point. I'm already happy with the composition. Now let's erase the things that will just confuse us later. So here, we're just going to get all those unnecessary lines out. And also here, where the leaves are overlapping with the tail of the bird. I just keeping everything clean so that later on, we won't be confused which ones to paint. What color? H. 4. Painting the Background : We're now set, so grab your flat brush and wet the entire area. So we're going to wet the entire area around the bird, okay? Now, again, if you don't have a flat brush, feel free to use a mop brush or a round brush. Now, when you're wetting the space surrounding the bird, just make sure that everything is adequately wet. Not dripping wet, not just damp, but really wet, especially here in the Philippines right now, it's summertime, and the paper can get dry pretty fast. So if you need to, you can go back to whatever areas you've already wet and wet them again if they seem to have dried while you're adding water to the other areas of the paper. So, see how I do the same thing that I've just said. I'm going back to the other parts of the paper just to make sure that they're adequately wet, so that as I'm painting, all of these areas remain wet, and we don't create any hard edges. All right. We're now ready to add in the first color. So we're going to use the round brush for this. This is the mixture of burnt sienna and French ultramarine, okay. So when you're adding in the first layer, it's best to make sure that the colors are really light because you don't want to have an overwhelming range of colors for your first layer. You want everything to be soft and light and transparent. And then later on, we're going to add darker tones to the artwork, which will emphasize our focal point, which is the warbler. Now, you'll notice that I've actually kept some of the background white, k. So we're not really doing a flat wash for the background that's surrounding the leaves and the stems and the branches, k? Again, keep in mind that the bird is actually on a tree, and there's a sky behind that bird, okay? So the sky will, of course, sometimes have clouds, and so that's the impression that we're trying to do here. Next, we're going to paint the leads, When you're painting the leads, it's okay for for the color to start spreading because this entire area is wet, okay? So we've already expected that. But to minimize having to Having the color spread so wide, so wide and far from the leaves. Make sure that your brush is just loaded with enough of the color mixture, okay, that it's not too wet. Because if your brush is too wet, there's a lot of water, then the tendency would be for that color to really burst and spread much farther than it is spreading right now. We're done with the leaves. Next. Let's paint the stems and the branches. We're going to use purple for that. Okay. So as you can see, because this section of the paper is still damp, we're not creating any hard edges, and that's exactly what we want to achieve. Now, you'll notice that some of that purple actually went on the feet of the bird. And if that happens to you as well, that's fine. Just leave it. It's a very soft color to begin with. And later on, as we add a thicker mixture on the focal point, this would no longer be seen, ok? Now we're done with the stems. We can now move on to adding a darker tone to the leaves. For this one, we're going to use Hookers green deep. As you can see, this is a very thick consistency. So my brush actually doesn't have so much water, and I just took a lot of pigment from my palette. And I'm adding that to just some parts of the leaves. So basically the middle, the middle line of the leaves and some parts of the outline, just leaving some of that outline bare to create a nice, interesting, soft touch to it. So for this one, again, the brush is highly pigmented. So it's more or less 80% pigment and just 20% water. The brush is barely wet and I'm getting as much pigment as I can. So as you can see, the addition of colors doesn't create very hard edges, but it also prevents the color from spreading too much, okay? It also helps at this point that the paper is just a bit damp. It's not as wet as before, because even as we were adding the colors to it, the paper is slowly drying up. So timing is really, very important here. Now, I'm getting a bit of that purple. And let's add a bit of indigo to it to make it a bit darker. Okay. And we're going to add this very thick mixture also to the branch, the main branch, and also to the other stems. Now, at this point, I want you to observe how I'm doing the brush strokes, you'll see that there are various ways that I'm doing the brush strokes. Like, there are times when I start with a sweeping motion with pressure with greater pressure at first, and then just lifting my brush. And here I'm actually just adding very, very fine lines to some of the stems. And then also the manner in which I'm holding the brush. So there are times when I'm just letting my the hair or the bristles of the brush lay flat on the paper and then put pressure in it and then lift. And then here, you can see that I'm actually holding the brush upright for finer lines. Now, you can see here that there are still no hard edges. And this is what we're actually trying to achieve because we want to have a stark contrast between the focal point and the background. So the background should not have any hard edges at this point. Now, there is a mistake here. The color actually spread too much more than I wanted it to do. So, when this happens to you, just clean your brush, take off the excess water using a tissue paper or cloth, and then just lift. Now, I'm already happy with how the background is at this point. But let's just add a bit of detail on the leaves to make it more appealing. So here I'm just adding some of that purple and green. And we're going to just add tiny, tiny details on certain parts of the leaves, just to add contrast to them. So You'll see that I'm not actually tracing the entire mid lines or the outlines of the leaves, Just parts of it. Some are heavier than the others. Now, let's do the same for the stems and the branches. L et's add a bit more detail to the stems in the branches. Let's do some protrusions like this. Random places where we can place them. Now, at this point, we're done with the background, and we can now move on to painting the bird. Oh. 5. Painting the Focal Point : Grab your smaller brush, and we're going to start with the lightest color first, which is Cadmum yellow medium, and we're going to add this to the top of the head and also to the two sides of the breast. Now, let's mix some French ultramarine, a very diluted consistency, around 30% color and 70% water. And we're going to use this as our base layer for this part of the wing, as well as the area on the breast surrounding that those yellow portions. Now, when you're doing this, make sure that you're leaving this layer very well, not very wet, but adequately damp because later on, we're going to tap tap our brush onto these portions with indigo, and we want the color to burst a bit when we do so. Let's add a bit more of that color over here because I see that this area has already dried a bit. Okay. So at this point, k, I'm going to get some of that indigo. And my brush is actually not too wet at this point. It's mostly pigment. And like I said earlier, we're going to top our brush onto these bluish sections and allow the colors to burst. Now, at this point, let's do some diagonal brush strokes. Very quick strokes. Okay? Add a bit more lines over here. I'm constantly looking at the reference photo at this point to see whether I need to add the dots or if I need to add any lines onto this part of the wing. L et's sort of close these diagonal strokes together with more dots and a few curved lines. Okay? And we can actually add more dots on other parts on the breast to add a darker shade or shadow. Again, I'm looking at the reference photo at this point, just to see which parts need more of that detail. Okay. This is good. Now we can move on to coloring the head, this part of the head. For this one, we're also going to create a base layer of French ultramarine, similar to what we did for the breast and the section of the wing. Again, this would be a very consistency, and we're going to start with the tip of the crown. Okay. At this point, the yellow part is already dry, and so we can safely color around it. Then we will be adding this light blue color as well on the eye shadow. Make sure that you leave that that thin line of white surrounding the crown, And then at this point, I'm going to grab some more indigo. And with this section still wet, as you can see, I'm dabbing my brush onto the section as well to create the same effect as we did earlier. And then we're going to the eye shadow with indigo as well, okay? So the left side is actually good because the color has spread very nicely, but the white portion has not. So with this, we can actually remedy that by wetting our brush a bit, k. And then just very lightly brushing over near the edge of that part that we want to soften. You can grab a tissue paper or cloth, and then just also soften this portion over here so that there's no super hard edge. Now, if you're going to look at the reference photo, this portion over here actually has very fine hairs emanating from the edges of the face. So what we're going to do is we're just going to disturb the color a bit. With a damp brush, rub your brush against this section very lightly. And then from here, you can see that the color is actually being spread a bit. Now, with a damp brush. What you can do is continue to rub that color. And then when the timing is right, you can actually start pushing the color towards the other direction. Okay? This is how you create the fine lines on the face. Now, let's start adding the straight lines on the wings. Now, you can continue using your small round brush, or if you have an angle brush, that will be better. So again, as I've said earlier, An angle brush will actually help you create better straight lines, okay? It's going to be easier for you. And so, okay, let's start. So here I'm just using the indigo color that we mixed a while ago. This is around I think 30% color, 70% water. Okay. So just sweeper brush from left to right, just like so. All right. Now, let me get a thicker consistency straight from my palette and just go over the edges of those thicker lines that I created earlier. Okay? All right. So see how nice that looks. Okay. So next, we're going to use the whole brush and just see how that quick downward sweep made this part of the bird look really nice. Okay? It just completed the that wing. Now, this longer tip. We're going to use this to add the curved lines on this part of the wing. So we're going to do some curve strokes, curvy strokes. But before that, let's do this outline because we want to keep that area white. Here, I'm using the more diluted mix again. And I'm using this This tip to add a darker contrast, like what we did to the left side of the wing. Let's also add some dark color on here and over here as well. All right. Next, let's do the tail. So let's go back to this mix. And add straight lines again. But this time, I'm using the entire width of the brush to fill the tail. Now, once we have that, we're going to grab a thicker color. Again, with just the tip of the brush, we're going to add those thicker and darker lines. Okay. Let's add a bit more darker tones over here. Again, it helps to look at the reference photo from time to time. There you go. Now, this point my brush is barely with water, but it still has a lot of pigment. So I'm going to go ahead and continue with the bottom of the body, with very dry brush effect. And then we can also move on to paint the legs. So again, I'm just using the diluted indigo mix that we have and applying this using the longer tip of my ankle bruh. Again, if you don't have the angle brush, you can use the smaller round brush that you have. Okay? So keep in mind the small sticks that we were drawing earlier. That's how we'll do the brush strokes. And then I just got a more pigmented mix, and adding them to the joints and the tips. Now let's paint the eyes. I'm going to zoom in so you can see. So it's very important that you keep the center of the eye with a slight white portion. And as I've said earlier, there should be a white surrounding the eye and separating it from the eye shadow. It's also important that when you're doing this, your brush is not too wet. Otherwise, you'll find a very hard time keeping the color to just this very small portion of the paper. Now, after that, I'll just continue and add a few hair like details onto the crown of the head. By the way, this is how my brush looks when it barely has water. Okay. So next, we're going to paint the beak. Again, keep your brush with minimal water, and we're going to use French ultramarine for this. So for the beak, it's just about outlining the shape of the beak with the center kept white. Okay. And then let's just add a bit of dark tone on the bottom right so as to define it more. 6. Adding More Color to the Background : Here, I just mixed Hooker's green with indigo, and loaded my brush with that mix of, let's say, the color is about 50%, and water is about 50% as well. So now the artwork is coming to life. So we're going to do that all over, starting with painting along the edges of the bird and just moving the color. So basically, after outlining the central part of the artwork, just rinse your brush, top off the excess water, and use that damp brush to soften, soften the edges and move the color farther from this part outward, just to soften that color. 7. Fun with Splatters!: Okay. So, we're practically done, actually. I'm already happy with this. But since I still have a lot of color on my mixing palette, why don't we do some splatters, okay? So just load your brush with color. In this case, I'm using indigo, and just hold your brush on one hand and pat with the other. Now, when you're doing this, just make sure that you're doing this on the portions of the paper that's away from the focal point so that you do not add any unnecessary colors to the bird, okay? Alright. So, yeah, just have fun doing this. This is actually the fun part. L et me just clean this outline of the leaf a bit. And, I guess we're done. All right. So there you go. There you have it. O warbler for this tutorial. I do hope that you enjoyed painting along with me. I'm looking forward to see your output. I'll see you in the next class, okay? Have fun. S.