Transcripts
1. Introduction: Gradients. They are everywhere
and for good reason. They're gorgeous. Let's learn to paint them. Hey, I'm Shelley. I'm a Scottish painter and I work mainly
with watercolors. I like to create
other worldly things with a touch of onesie. Watercolor was made for
creating stunning gradients. Just look at them. When I started out, I didn't know how
to get them to look so smooth and effortless, and I spent a lot of time, maybe too much time figuring out how to
get them just right. In this class I'm going to share the results of that obsession and show you how to create different kinds of
watercolor gradients, demystifying the
process along the way. You're going to learn
what a graded wash is, and how you do it, how to fade from one
color into another, even with tricky
color combinations, and how to create a
complex gradient, taking it step-by-step to
create something fabulous. We're going to look at doing this with materials
you already have. You don't need expensive
fancy supplies to make beautiful-looking
watercolor gradients. By the end of this class, you will have painted a colorful
and complex sunset sky. This class is for everyone. If you're new to watercolors, this is a great place to start. If you've been painting
for a little while now but struggled to get
smooth gradients, this will guide you
through a process for getting consistently
good results. If you're an experienced artist, this can give you a
no-pressure space to play and explore gradients. Are you ready? Get your art supplies,
and let's get started.
2. Your Class Project: [MUSIC] Hello again. So what are we going to do in this class? We are going to paint a complex gradient
inspired by sunset skies. We will explore how to create
three different kinds of gradients before
using them all in combination to create
our sky gradient. The lessons are arranged
to draw on one another, from an understanding
of how to create a single fading
color through fading four different colors
across one piece of paper to create a
glorious sunset sky. Along the way, I'll
share what I've learned about working
with watercolors, as well as offering
practical advice on how you can get the
best out of your tools. You will need the following
materials for this class. Some watercolor paints
that include blue, red, and yellow. A palette with wells, a ramekin, or a
cup could work here. Papers suitable for watercolor, so that's heavier paper, usually around 300
grams per square meter. You can use loose paper like I'm doing or sketch
because fine too. Your big brushes, I'll
be using a flat brush, but Ryan brushes are fine too. You'll also need two containers
for water, masking tape, washi tape, or painter's tape. If you're using loose paper, you'll also need something
firm to tape your paper too. A bit of board or thick
cardboard would work for this. You'll need a paper towel
or a rag and a bit of time. You might also want
a drawing tool like a hairdryer or a heat gun. Along the way, I
encourage you to experiment with your
paints, brushes, and paper to learn what
works best for you and to produce results that
are uniquely yours. I would love it if you
felt willing to share these results by adding a project to the
project's gallery. If you'd like to share what
you've made on Instagram, feel free to tag me so that I can see what you've
made there too. I'm @shelleyskail. My aim for this class is to
give you the tools to create any kind of watercolor
gradient you like confidently, to get comfortable working with this incredible medium and find as much joy in it as I do. I hope you find this a
fun and helpful class. If you've got any
questions, comments, or thoughts along the way, please post them up under
the Discussions section. Are you ready for
your first lesson? Come join me there. [MUSIC]
3. Preparing Your Materials: Hello, let's get our materials
ready to paint with. In each of the next
practical lessons, we'll need damp brushes, tape down paper that has
already been wetted, and paint that's
ready to work with. Damp brushes will
carry the paint better because watercolor is
a water-based medium. Swish your brushes around
in the water for a moment and then set them
down at the side wet, we'll come back to them later. Whether you're using
loose or bond paper, tape around the edges. For loose paper taping
it to the board helps keep it in
place but either way, it gives it nice neat edges. Once you've secured the
paper thoroughly dumping it, the water helps our
paint move around and blend seamlessly
and is essential to creating these
smooth gradients. I mean, you can do
this with dry paper, but it's significantly
more difficult. In all of these lessons, we need pre-prepared paint that won't run out in
the middle of painting. The exact amount of paint
you'll need is tricky to say because it depends on the size
and kind of paper you have. But these little
Winsor and Newton introductory pilot whales hold enough for this size
of paper that I'm using, which is around A5
half-letter size. To get my paint ready, I either activate my pans by leaving a little water on
them for a minute or two, or squeeze some paint
out from a tube and then mix with water. We're going to need a liquid
not creamy consistency. Once you've got your
materials prepared, come and join me
in the next lesson and we can start painting.
4. Ombré: One Colour Gradient: The graded wash. This is a watercolor technique where we cover an area with a color that transitions
into something else. In this lesson,
we're going to do an ombre, a one-color gradient. We're going to look
at how to smoothly fade into a single color, going from the light of your paper to the
dark of the color. Pro tip, if you turn your paper around
after you're finished, it looks like a
gradient going from deep to light instead. For this, we need two
palette wells to work in. Make sure you've
got a couple clean, and then pick a color, whichever color is
calling to you in this moment and get it
ready to paint with. I'm making one of
my favorite mixes, a turquoise made from viridian green and
ultramarine blue. Whatever color you pick, you'll need a fairly
deep mix of the color. In the other palette well, just add some water and
we'll use this for mixing. I'm using my tape roll to prop my board up for this exercise. This lets gravity do some
of the work for me here, but is completely optional. You can get a nice gradient
without doing this. Wet the entire surface of the paper first
with clean water. We want it wet, but not so wet that the
water looks like a puddle. Take your time to really work the water into the
fibers of the paper. This will help it
stay down for longer. We're going to start painting just below the top of the page. This leaves a slim, unpainted band which will be the palest part of our gradient. We're going to deepen the colors as we
go down the page. I add a little of
the deep color mix to the palette that just has water in it to create a very watery pale
version of the color. Then I paint a couple of
bands with this mix going back and forth to
ensure a smooth blend. Now, I add a bit more of
the deep paint mix to my watery mix and paint
an overlapping band, blending it in as I go. I repeat this process, working down the page
with each band of color getting
progressively deeper, making sure to overlap each band so it forms
a smooth gradient. At the very bottom of the page, I paint with the
deep paint mix and blend this up into the
rest of the paint. Because I've got my
board propped up, gravity is helping me a little bit by pulling the
paint downwards, which is the direction of
the deepening gradient. You can leave your paper to dry or use a heat
tool to speed up. I suggest using a paper
towel or a rag to soak up any excess paint
or water on your tape. It will help at all dry faster, and also make it less
likely you'll have much paint seep through
when you remove the tape. Once the paper is
completely dry, you can take the tape off
and admire your work. You might find it
some helpful to make some notes about how you got
the results that you did, size and type of brush, the paint you used, and that the paper was dump. If you did this exercise with your painting surface
propped up like I did, I suggest you try
again with it flat. If you did it flat,
have a go at trying it propped up and
compare your results. It's helpful to learn which ways of doing things you
enjoy the most. Then snap a quick picture and add this to
your class project. When you're ready, come join me in the next lesson, where we'll look
at gradients where one color blends
into another color.
5. Simple Two Colour Gradient: In this lesson, we're going to look
at what I refer to as a simple two-color gradient. The bit that makes it simple
is that we're going to use two colors which are near each
other on the color wheel. We're going to transition
from one color to the other through the color which is in-between these two. If we go from blue to green, we would have turquoise
in the middle. If it was yellow to red, we'd have orange in the middle. You'll need three clean
palette wells for this lesson. Pick two colors that
are fairly close to one another and get them both
ready to paint with. Keep your third palette
well free for mixing. Wet the entire surface of
the paper with clean water again and once it's
thoroughly dump, begin painting using
your first color to paint a band across
the top of the page. I didn't feel like the
color was deep enough, so I went over again with more paint to
strengthen the color. Then create a mixture in that
third empty palette well using a lot of the first color and a
little of the second color. Paint a band on your
page with that mix, overlapping it with
the band above to help it blend smoothly. Add a bit more of the
second color into the mixture and
paint another band, again blending it thoroughly
into the one above. Keep working like this, adding a bit more of
the second color with each new band until you're
almost at the bottom. Then use the second color for the very bottom of the page and blend upwards to smooth out
any uneven patches of color. Look over your paper
and if there's any bits that look like
they need extra paint, add in using sweeping
movements of the brush. You can also remove
any excess paint using the same
sweeping movements. Then leave it to dry or use your heat tool to
speed up that process. Once the paper is dry and
you can remove the tape, have a look at your work. You might find it helpful
to make some notes about how you got the
results that you did, the size and type of brush, the paint you used and
that the paper was dump. Then snap a quick picture and add this to your
class projects. When you're ready, come
join me in the next lesson, where we look at complex
two-color gradients.
6. Complex Two Colour Gradient: In this lesson, we're going to look
at what I refer to as complex two color gradients. The bit that makes it complex is that we're going
to go from one color to the next without
the in-between color. For example, between blue
and yellow is green. Using the approach
in the last lesson, we would have a
gradient that goes blue into green into yellow. But in this approach,
we're going to go straight from blue into yellow. This means we need to avoid that middle color and we do this by fading each color into
the water where they meet. Essentially we're making
two half-page versions of the single color gradient and these two meet
in the middle. You might ask why we would
want to do something so needlessly complex. That's a great question. Part of it is the
answer to why humans do any unnecessary thing,
because we can. But mostly it's
because nature has an annoying habit of
doing things like this. If we want to be able to capture what we see in the
natural world, we need to be able to do this. Choose your two colors and get them both
ready to paint with. If you choose different
colors for me, make sure to pick
colors that are not right next to each other
on the color wheel. Avoid things like blue and
green or red and orange. You'll need two containers
for water this time, one to use with each color. Once you've got
your colors ready, wet the entire surface of
the paper with clean water. Again, as before, we
want to damp, not wet. Now we're going to start
with our first color. Paint, a band width
this pure color so we've got a nice strong
version of that color. This will help give us some
contrast as we fade out. What I had in my palette
wasn't quite strong enough, so I took a little directly from the pan to deepen the color. To start to fade this, I mix in some clean water which dilutes the mixture and
paint a band with that. I take care to blend this
into the line above. Then I add even more water into the mix and paint
a band with that. Again, thoroughly blending
it into the one above it. As I'm about at the
middle of the page, I paint a band with pure water and blend that up
into the yellow. The first half of our complex
two-color gradient is done. At this point, you should
have a gradient of the first color fading
into the water around the middle of the page like
a half size version of the first gradient you
did painted in reverse. Now we're going to brighten up into a strong version
of the second color. Start by painting
another band with water. Then using a very damp brush, pick up a little of
the second color. We could use a third palette to water down the second color, but using the water on the brush is a quicker way of doing that. Paint a band with
this watery mix and blend it into the
previous water band. We're going to get a bit
more paint on the brush now and paint a band with
this stronger mix, again, blending into
the previous bands. The final lines should be with the deepest version
of the second color. You may want to use it
straight from the pan like I do if you're using pans. To finish, I thoroughly
blend the color up, creating a smooth gradient. I also darken the
very bottom line to create a nice strong contrast
within the gradient. Now we've got two
different colors that fade into the center, creating a gradient effect
from one color to the next. Dry off the masking tape, then leave the painting to dry or use your heat tool
to speed that up. Once the paper is dry, you can remove the tape and
have a look at your work. Again, you might find
it helpful to make some notes about how you got
the results that you did, what brushes you
used, the paints and that the paper was damp. Then snap a quick picture and add this into
your class project. When you're ready, come
join me in the next lesson, where we take everything we've
learned so far to create a colorful sunset
inspired gradient. See you there.
7. Painting a Sunset Gradient: I noticed that the sky does this frankly ridiculous
thing in some sunsets where it goes from
orange to yellow, normal enough, but
then goes straight into blue with no
green in-between them, and then sometimes into
a twilight purple. Doing all those
gradients on one-page became a bit of a
challenge for me that I'd like to share with you. To manage it, we'll
use both the simple and the complex two color
gradient approaches. We use the simple
technique to go from orange to yellow and
from blue to purple, and the complex technique
to go from yellow to blue. That way we can avoid
getting green and our sky. I'm using a smaller brush
this time a half-inch flat. This is half the size
of my earlier brush and I'm using it to
make sure I can fit all those different
gradients onto one page. So let's start by activating
all of our colors. We need orange, yellow,
blue, and crimson. I'm using three
palette wells to hold mixes of orange,
yellow, and blue. For the purple,
we'll add crimson directly into the
blue palette well, and change it to
purple as we go. If you don't have an orange, you can make this by
mixing red and yellow. We thoroughly wet
the page as usual, and then we're ready
to start painting. Because there are a lot of color changes to
fit on one page, I start with a bond of pure
orange direct from the pan. Just to mix things up, I'm
starting at the bottom, but feel free to start at
the top if you prefer. Next, I get some of the
yellow from the pan onto my brush and mix that into the orange in the palette well. I use this to paint the
band directly above the pure orange one
and I blend these two. I repeat this process, adding a lot more
yellow into the mixture which I use to
paint another band and blend this into
the previous bonds, and then repeat this again so that this line
becomes very yellow. Next, I paint with my
pure yellow mixture and blend this in. At this point I've covered
over a third of my page. Now we've got to yellow. We're going to switch to the
complex gradient technique and blend this yellow into water for the center of the page. From this watery center, I blend out into blue and exactly the same way I
did in the last lesson. I gradually add more
blue into the water, deepening the color
as we move away from the watery center until I'm painting with blue
straight from the pan. With the little bit of
paper we've got left, we'll create the final simple
gradient moving to purple. I add a little bit of crimson into the blue palette well, then paint a band with that blending it fully
into the blue below. I add more crimson into the mix, then paint that
as my final band, taking care to thoroughly blend that into the color below. I've got a pill of water setting in the
middle of my page, so I dry my brush
to make it thirsty, then use it like a
little sponge to carefully soak up this excess. Dry off the masking tape and then you can either
leave your painting to dry or use your heat tool
to speed this up. Once the paper is dry, you can remove the tape and
have a look at your work. You might find it helpful
to make some notes about how you got the
result that you did, taking into account the
different techniques that you used and the
supplies you used. Then snap a nice picture and add this into
your class project. When you're ready, come
join me in the next lesson where we talk about other
uses for these techniques.
8. Other Applications: Hello, again. In this lesson, I'm going to talk
about other uses for gradients in
watercolor paintings. As you've hopefully experienced, making gradients can
be super satisfying, and honestly, I think that's
reason enough to paint with them using whichever
colors bring you joy. But it is also something
that's used a lot with landscape watercolor paintings
to represent the sky, as we did with our
sunset gradient, and also the way that the foreground fades as
it nears the horizon. For land, sea, and sky, colors fade as they approach the horizon and get
less saturated. To get a faded version
of your color, mix it with a little bit of its opposite from
the color wheel. You can then make
a gradient between these two colors to show
this fading effect. It's also really
helpful in showing deepening water as the water gets darker the further you go. A pale-to-dark gradient
works well for this. I'm sure you'll come up
with a whole bunch of really cool ways to use
gradients in your own work. When you do, please come
back and let me know. I would love to see them. Now we're just about finished. Come join me for
the last lesson, and I'll share my
final thoughts.
9. Final Thoughts: Hey, you made it, well done. Thank you for joining
me as we learn titanic, increasingly complex gradients. We started with a
single color gradient, working through two colors that fade happily
into one another, and then two colors that don't. Then we took all this knowledge and applied it to create a
colorful sunset sky gradient. Along the way, we learned
how to use the supplies that we already have to
get the best from them. What I would really like for you to take away from
this class is that watercolors are made for this kind of gorgeous
color blending. To have the confidence that
with a little bit of practice you can create these
stunning effects yourself. If you feel like sharing
the gradients you made, I'd love to see them. You can post them in the
class projects gallery. If you'd like to stop by there and leave a kind word for
other people's projects that would be really nice. If you enjoy sharing these
things to Instagram, feel free to tag me there. I'd love to see what you create. If you want to find out when
I release another class, you can follow me here. There should be a
little green button up there that says follow. If you click on my name, that'll take you to my profile which has my other classes on it as well as links to my website where you can see
more of my work. As a follow-on to this class, I suggest my class
is on flat washes, dispersion, and layering. If you could leave
this class a review that would be super helpful. It can flag to other
potential students what kind of classes is and if it's the
sort of thing that they might be interested in too. Thank you again for joining me to learn and practice gradients. I hope that you've
enjoyed this time and I'll see you in one
of my other classes soon.
Shelley Skail, Artist, Illustrator, friendly nerd
