Transcripts
1. Botanical Introduction: [MUSIC] What is it about
the natural world that captures our attention and that inspires
us to recreate it? As artmakers, there's so much beauty in colors
and shapes to explore. If you love the
effects of pen, ink, and watercolor but you're
not sure where to start, perhaps you have a little
experience but would like to know how to create a
more complex composition, this class is for beginners to the most seasoned
artist who wants to create and compose
their own artwork in a unique style
without the overwhelm. Hello there. My name
is Sarah Corren and I'm a watercolor artist
and nature journaler. My background is working
in a variety of fields, such as art writing in
an advertising agency, working with incredibly
inspiring and talented people as a background artist for
the Sydney Disney Studios, as well as a teacher and mom. Each field is uniquely creative in its own
right yet watercolor has been the
constant pullback in play and exploration of
the botanical world. In this class, we
will work in stages, each building upon the
next to create and compose a beautiful, free-flowing
botanical illustration. Each lesson will
build upon the next, introducing more shapes
and color so that you can confidently move
on to the next stage. Gently, we'll move forward together so that
before you know it, you will have a stunning
composition in pen, ink, and watercolor. Not only will you have
the gorgeous piece of artwork that you've created, you'll be able to translate those skills to other projects. If you're an art and nature journaler like me this is one of my favorite ways to warm up for a painting and study
the natural world. If you're an artist or
illustrator who wants to develop their style and composition
skills, this process works. For those of you
who want to inject some freshness and
play into your work, this method is a fabulous way
of loosening up your style. I invite you to get
started and let's go. [MUSIC]
2. Project Overview: Today's project is creating and composing a botanical
illustration. Because we will be
working in stages, it's a great place for
beginners to start. We'll warm up using simple
plants and flowers. These studies are
a terrific way to familiarize ourselves with
the botanicals so that we can later incorporate all of
these individual studies by redrawing and painting
the same subjects into a new, more
complex composition. I've provided guides in the
resource section down below. If you're not a
confident drawer, I've given a line template
to help you get started. Yet the beauty of this process is that if you can't
draw a straight line, you're definitely
in the right place. Your success is more
about slowing down, being mindful, and appreciating the simple beauty of
what you're focusing on. In that way, you've
already struck gold. Yes, you will have
created an illustration in your own style by
the end of the lesson, but my bigger hope
is that you also use these exercises as a
meditative practice. It's definitely helped me
personally to take time-outs, slow down, and appreciate the
beauty of color and lines. Look at the project resources
where I have downloads. I've not only drawn templates but photos of what
we'll be studying. That way, we can paint
and draw together. Each lesson is designed to
build more confidence as we move along to creating
our final illustration.
3. Materials: Let's briefly talk
about materials. I do love art supplies, but I'm still an advocate
of use what you have. When it comes to paper, practicing with cheap
cartridge paper is more than sufficient. An an example of this. This paper is a
little bit nicer. It's the Hahnemuhle cold press, which even though
it has a tooth, it still works with pen and ink because
it's quite smooth. I do like to use
hot press paper. This is an example from my
journal with hot press paper. It's from ETRA, which is a lovely journal brand. You'll see in the tutorial that I'm using this lovely
White Night palette, but if you have
something smaller, feel free to use that. The way that I designed this
lesson is that you could get by with using
only three colors. A cobalt blue, a permanent rose, and transparent
yellow is my choice, but feel free to
substitute a blue rose color or reddish
magenta color and a yellow of your own choice. I'm using a natural haired
brush and also synthetics, which I'm really happy with. I think these two other Peggy
Dean pigeon letters ones. This is a Neptune
snap rigger brush. As you can see, it's quite
old and dilapidated, but I like synthetic
for drawing with ink just because I
won't damage the brush. Never use natural hair brushes with ink because
they'll destroy them. I'm using a dipping
pen here and a nib. Also I love using walnut ink because I find that it blends beautifully
with watercolors. There are different brands. Daniel Smith, I think
this one is Tom Naughton, and also I've tried some beautiful handmade Warner
inks which are lovely too. [NOISE] This is a Winsor &
Newton black drawing ink. Feel free to use a colored ink for one of
the projects or experiment. Again, a luxury, not a necessity for all of us art supply lovers out there.
4. Simple Line Drawing: For our first lesson, we are going to be
drawing this branch, which I have picked up on one of my many walks that I
go daily with my dogs. I find that the
biggest inspiration I have is from nature
and it definitely resonates more when
you are drawing something that is personal
and meaningful to you. As you can see,
before I've started, I've mapped out a
light blue outline of the drawing that
we're going to do. And this drawing is available as a template
in the resource section. So if you don't feel
confident with drawing, feel free to use it. When I'm drawing in my art
journals or sketchbooks, I tend to draw freehand because it gives
you an expressiveness of line and exploration
which is really conducive just to being present to the
object that you're drawing. Here, I'm picking it up
and I'm turning it around. I think another
advantage of drawing freehand is you're not locked into shapes
or ways of drawing, and you can add or remove elements of the
plant as you see fit. I'm also working
from top to bottom. I'm doing this because
I'm a very messy artist, and I find that my hands and my clothing can sometimes get just as much ink
on them as a paper. Speaking of paper, the
paper that I'm using is just a cheap, lightweight
cartridge paper. I think for warm-ups, it's good to use something that is perhaps
not as expensive or special, so we don't get nervous about our art supplies,
and ruining it. Because really when starting off a new technique
on new medium, the idea is to make as many messes and mistakes
as you can in order to learn more about how you
work and what you do. I think one of the reasons
why I am attracted to pen and ink is
the line variation. You have this
wonderful flexibility that you can get
with a pen and nib. You'll also discover
what artist who are. For example, I tend to
be quite heavy handed. The way I draw, and using a pen and ink really
helps me to be mindful, slow down, and be conscious of the weight of the line
that I'm pressing down on. Because the paper
here, as you can see, is quite lightweight and we've got a little
bit of bleeding, and dips, and pools where
the ink is settled. This is just an exercise in creating a simple line drawing. Getting used to your own
expressiveness of line. So I'm not too bothered. Actually, I like
to see the hand of the artist in drawing. So when you have those
little spills or splatters, it shows the personality
and character of the hand. I'm also dipping my pen into my water jar and that's
because if you don't, the ink could potentially clog
up the knee and get stuck. So this is a good way of
rinsing it out so you can keep your lines fluid. As you can see from
this branch there are little serrations and
indents into the leaves. One thing also to be
conscious of is edges. When you're trying to get the illusion of a representational
drawing in nature, you really do need those
little deviations of edges. For example, if I were to draw my branch and
just depict circles, like so, not only does it
not have the expressiveness, it just doesn't look as
natural as what it would. For example, if I just came
in and was just mindful, even in this line, you can see these
tiny little nibs. And it's not that you
need to draw each one, but travel a little bit, a little bump, and you have more of that naturalistic look. Now we've come to the
end of our first lesson. And I'm really happy
with the form of it. I hope that you will share your project as
well in the gallery. I would love to be able to
see what you come up with. Our next lesson, we'll be
adding a pop of color, and I will see you there.
5. Adding One Colour : For our next lesson, we will be drawing this flower. I think it's beautiful. It's a humble little flower, but it has that beautiful, deep rich magenta
color of the petals with the green of
the stem, and leaf. Choose your favorite
magenta or purple, the one that makes you happy. I'm using a muted green ink, which is the real go-to for
me because it's a rich color, but it's still quite
natural looking. On the base of my paper, I've used a Derwent light wash water-soluble
graphite pencil. I really like doing this because
I can map something out, but the water will wash it away. It doesn't interfere
with the drawing. First of all, we're
going to draw in these beautiful petals. Another good thing about using water-soluble pencil is because
water does wash it out, you don't really feel like
you're restricted by the line. You can come back in the
second or third pass, and the pencil has
pretty much disappeared. I think that gives
you a freedom. The brush that I'm using
is a synthetic brush with a lovely point so I can get those
edges of the petal. At this stage, I'm keeping the water and tone quite light
because when it's wet, I want to go back in and drop in the stronger purple just to give it some visual interest
and some shadow. I'm looking on the edges and the undersides of
the leaves coming underneath and just dropping in some of the rich
color wet and wet. This is such a meditative and
reflective way of painting. I sometimes just like
to do little studies without getting into more complicated
designs or paintings. Because I think there's
just a real beauty in just these simple forms. Also, watercolor is such
a wonderful medium. It dries delicious. Even now I can see
because I'm working on a smooth hot press paper, I'm starting to get these interesting little
watermarks here. Now one tip I can give you is if you don't have the same
colored ink as the petals, sometimes I will go in and just gently put some
watercolor in my nib. [NOISE] Just test
it and then come in just to add a few little edges and definition around the side
because it's the same color. If it bleeds into the
petals that aren't dry yet, it just add some visual
interest as we're doing here. If you don't like
it, with a clean, damp brush, you can come back in and lift out the parts
that you don't like. It softens it, but it
still gives the edges. While it's still drying, you can come back in and add a little definition
to the forms. I think working like this, you can get some really
interesting effects of line wash, color, and shape as
you build it up. It's a really lovely way of
warming up for larger pieces. As well as just appreciating a little garden
flower such as this. Another tip is also to
leave some areas unpainted. That way you have contrast in your drawing and it helps
create some visual interest. Now I'm just cleaning up my nip so I don't
muddy up the green. [NOISE] I'm going to work my way down the stem of the flower. Hear that sound? I just
find it so comforting, just that scratchiness. That old world feel
of dip against pen. Much more pleasant than
chalk against blackboard. [NOISE] Let me just put a little
bit of color in here, draw it up, and
bent some leaves. I think the best way to approach a study like this is with
a little bit of whimsy. Add things, take things away. Here where I'm drawing, I'm definitely not following
the sketch that I've created because I can
see different things and I'm not constricted. I think this process of
drawing is really more intuitive and more playful. I'm adding these little
rings around here to get that sense of white on
the bottom of the stem. [NOISE] Do another
little leaf here, as this, and also I think I
might just invent one there. Looking at this area, I think I could leave as
is or I could come in with a darker purple just to add some shadow areas
just here and there. I'm really happy with the
way this one has turned out. I think it's really good
to see how using a strong, vibrant purple against
the muted green of the leaves can create a
dynamic illustration. Just those two colors are enough to make a simple line
drawing pop, and I think it's also good
to warm up and reiterate how drawing with a brush can give us the
liveliness of the petals. Our next lesson will be
introducing more color and work on creating harmony in a limited palette.
See you then.
6. Three Colour Harmony: I love color and
like a bowerbird, I will spy a new color of brand to hoard in my nest
of art supplies. However, one thing
I have learned is the maximum many colors
limited palette, and using a three-color
triad of red, blue, and yellow will definitely create harmony and
interesting blends. I've used a transparent
yellow, cobalt blue, and permanent rose,
but feel free to use what you like and
what resonates with you. I've created a template
for you to use if you're not confident with drawing. But in this lesson, I'm going to show you how I
would approach this at home and it would be not
using a pencil. Particularly, if I'm
working from life, I just find my
drawing and painting is a lot more expressive
and interesting to look at. If I just allow
myself the freedom of exploring with color and shape, I can see there is a grainy
soft yellow in the center. I'm just adding a tiny bit of cobalt blue with the yellow
just to dirty it up. I'm also using a
cold press paper, which is a lot friendlier
for watercolor, but there is not enough
texture that I feel that the nibble drag when
I get to the drawing part. Another thing as well when you're using a
limited palette is just experiment with drawing and mixing colors on
the actual paper. Here, I was using the
template and I found the resulting drawing just didn't have the energy and
expressiveness that I wanted. I thought, just do it again. Really, I do a lot of
drawing the same subject again and again because as an
art teacher one said to me, "Every painting is a
possibility of a new one." I think when you look
at it like that, it's quite freeing because you think you don't need to get
it right the first time. In fact, you're not
expected to get it right. It's just a lot of
exploring, playing, finding out the way
you like to mix colors and draw new things. Now, this is sketchy here. It's got ragged edges. I'm not going with a natural hairbrush
and just stop to lift some of these areas out. Just because I want to
introduce some light parts. The paint is not too wet, the shane has just
lift the surface, so it makes it more
conducive to lifting it off. That way you have this marvelous effect of
sculpting your plant with water. That's lovely I think. I love watermarks. I think they just add so much character and
mystery to a painting. I'm looking at this
area now and I think I can see a
slight drop shadow, and I might just utilize
that at a little bit of the transparent yellow to my cobalt and make a
dirty shadow color. I'll just bring it here. I'm going to put to the side so, we're just going to
make a little vignette. Now's the time to
make a cup of tea. Let it dry and come back and
incorporate some detail. I really liked the way these beautiful star-shapes
come into the plant. Wouldn't you know it? All right. I'm going to leave
that in because I know I am not
alone in doing this. What do we do when we find something we love
and that happens? I'm going to get a paper towel, I've slightly dampened it and I'm just dabbing
it up, lifting it. You can say a slot imprint
it up. There we go. You can still see a little
imprint of the circular thing. But truly, once we go in with our second part of watercolor,
you won't even see it. Did I do that intentionally? I'll never know. Let me
be a little more careful. As I said, you find out
what artist you are and I think if I had to tell myself or someone else's
is just sometimes slow down and be more aware of
the mark-making and process. Sometimes I get a little
too excited and I just want to race into the net stick. But the thing is, it's letting
the layers dry in-between. It's slowing the process. I'll dip pen to paper. That really is
going to help you. I can see this
formulation curling over. I'm remembering to dip my pen in water so I don't clog it up and create another unintentional
lesson of what not to. But it's all part of it. Also, for those journalists, that's another reason
why I love journaling is because you can just turn
the page and start over. But with this process, there really is
always a way out. As I said, once we put that second pass
of water coloring, only you and I will
know the truth of this. When I'm looking at
these watermarks, I think they are too delightful. Not to key, so I don't
think I'll go over them. As I'm drawing from life, I can see that's longer
than the actual petal. But by drawing in the line, it still adds some unity to
the picture, so it works. Now I'm going to draw it
again and come back in. Now that it's dry, you can see that I haven't
outlined all of the shapes, I've left some gaps
in between just to keep the energy
going off the flower. Now I'm going to go in with a cobalt blue and
permanent rose mix and just add some deeper shadows here and there off the flower, but not too much because I still want to keep
it light and fresh. I'll come back in here. I'm using a brush to
draw. There we go. Just going over that little
indent that we didn't see. No one will know our secret. That's the thing.
Using this process of drawing with a brush, going straight into
the line work, it is more of a
commitment for sure. But I think it definitely trains your eye to be a better drawer and to be more conscious of what
you're creating. It's coming together. Now,
this particular leaf, I think what I'll do is draw some clean water and
then drop some coloring. This side we'll
travel not uniformly. This process is really all
about expressive line drawing. See, it's all starting
to come together now. Now I'm just going to make the curve of
that particular fold, introduce a little more
of that drop shadow just to delineate the flower
from the background. There we go. Maybe here, the shadow of the stem. Now, as a finishing touch, I've got some white gouache, and using my rigger brush
which is synthetic, I find synthetics
are better to do these detailed lines because they're stiffer than
the natural hair, and also with natural
hair brushes, I tend to only use them for true paint because I
want to protect them. I can be quite brutal
with making with my pens, so I don't want to
destroy brushes, and synthetic brushes
today are pretty sturdy so I can be confident I won't destroy them
or be a bit heavy-handed. Just with a few key
lines here and there, you can see it starting to come together and I really like it. Just come in with a
bit more purple here. Honestly, I could keep pottering around and adding, subtracting, but I don't want to overwork it, so I will keep as is
and load it up in the project gallery so you
can see what I've done, and maybe I'll put
one up to show you how it would look if
I'd spent more time on it. I look forward to
seeing what you create. For our next lesson, we are going to
introduce more colors.
7. Creative Shapes: Welcome to the next lesson where we will be applying the principles that
we've learned before. Using the photo reference
in your download, or berries of your own, if you're fortunate enough
to have them in season, we'll be applying
the same principles we discussed in our
previous lessons. As you can see, I'm working
over a light pencil drawing, and I'm mapping out
shapes in yellow. Why I'm doing this is having
a soft pale yellow under wash is really
your secret weapon to creating a little magic
in your illustrations. This is because it will dry
in a soft yellow glaze. When you come back to
successive watercolor washes, what will happen is that you'll
have this beautiful under glow with your
leaves and berries, which will make it
look more luminous. I'm also dropping in a
little bit of opera pink. You can use permanent rose if you're worried about
light [inaudible] issues. But I find if I go back later with a deeper
red or common, it tends to make it
more light fast. The idea with this one is to lightly create some light and movement with the paint, and then come back
in and just draw any elements and highlight
certain features of the plant. One of the biggest
lessons I've learned is to remember to dry
between stages. I think when I first
started with watercolors, I was so excited to
get onto the next step that I sometimes didn't
heed the advice, and that is one way you can
end up with muddy colors. The whole principle
of watercolor is letting the light of the white of the
paper shine through. If you're in a hurry
and don't draw between layers
allowed in that time, you can get yourself into
all sorts of trouble. As you can see, you've got that lovely yellow
glow underneath, and it just shines through the leaves giving it
that lovely effect. I can see that the paper has some beautiful watermarks here. Because I really liked them, I'm going to just very paly wash over the top because I want to see
that texture on the leaf. I'm using a hot press
watercolor paper. This one is ash which is one of my favorites for hot press. I think it holds
the water really lovely and dries beautifully. I'm using my synthetic brush because it's got a
bit of snap to it, so I can draw in the
features of my plant. I'm keeping this one pretty
simple because I like the expressiveness and the
way the paint is drying here. I don't want to go back in with too many passes
and cover that up. I think with watercolor, the beauty of it is just
embracing its character, which is the unexpected and the spontaneous nature
of the way that it dries. Just going to get some red now and just highlight
certain berries. Not all of them.
Because as I said, I just want to keep
these loose and fresh. I'll draw in the stem just here. Adding some yellow
and green together. Coming in to draw the
stem here. Joining it up. Now I'm going to let
this dry and bring out just some of the elements
using the pen and ink, and this time I'll
be using walnut ink. But as I said, I do like little
features of these, so I don't want to overwork
it and lose that freshness. Now we're going to
add some walnut ink, just to pull out some of the details and accentuate
parts of the plant. Walnut ink is a favorite
of mine because it is quite soft and it has
this beautiful earthy tone, which I think works
really beautifully when you're working
with a natural element. I'm looking at the plant
as I'm going down. Align the draw around
certain elements, because I want to
keep the freshness and provide contrast
in the drawing. Also, I'm not going to
color in all of my shapes. I'm going to leave some of them just as line work because I think it just gives a little
bit of visual difference. As I'm doing the lesson
and sharing with you, just be mindful that I'm
definitely working at a much faster pace
than what I would be if I was at home, music on, candle lit, and doing it for myself. I think it's important
too remember that this is a very reflective
and considered way of working even though it does look quite
loose and gestural. The fact that one is using a nib means that you have
to be a bit mindful. It's starting to come together. I'm happy with all these
beautiful watermarks, so I'm going to leave them. Just as I said, pull out a few little elements. I like the delicacy
of these leaves. You can see the undertone of
the gold wash that we put, and also that opera pink, so a white come in and
do too much over that. I'm just going to create some line
work to pull it out. I'm happy with the
delicacy of my drawing. Now I'm coming in with a
fine tip synthetic brush, and I'll just
highlight some areas and add some white to the lines using a darker watercolor. I don't want to put
too much in because I think it would destroy
the freshness of these, and I really think looking at it before it gets
too overworked. What I would do at this stage is brushes down and maybe try
another version of it. I don't just come back in
and destroy what I like. For our next lesson, we are going to
pull in everything that we've learned and bring all of these elements in to create
a botanical illustration. Look forward to
seeing you there.
8. Painting our Final Composition: Welcome to our last lesson
where now we're going to incorporate
everything that we've learned in the previous lessons, and create a beautiful
botanical composition. The best way I think of creating a more complex
design is really by starting off with simple studies and building your way up. You get a feel for the
plots that you'll be incorporating and creating
in your final piece. For the first wash, I'm just going to
link it all together using the colors of
what we have learned. I have the berries
and the petals of a flower are in these
lovely pinks and reds. I'm going in and just lightly mapping and drawing them
with my paintbrush. I think even though we're
using the same template, I think what we'll find is everyone will have a
different interpretation. Even if I paint and draw with you as I'm
doing now, I can go back, use the same template, and have really a million
different interpretations because we're drawing in a way that's quite
free and expressive. The paint draws
differently every time, and then that way we can create interesting and new designs. The color pallet of this particular one is basically pinks,
purples, and greens. Definitely, a favorite of mine. I don't think it's
necessarily important what brand or particular purple
or pink that I'm using, it really is about finding
things or using what you have. Because I think everyone's
taste is unique and different. You might like muted colors
or you might be someone that really embodies bright colors, and you like the spirit that, that brings to
your illustration. I think really, I tend to gravitate towards more muted
colors and Earth colors. But in saying that as
soon as spring hits, you just say this beautiful
world of color and growth and then your
tastes might change again. I'm just blocking in as I go. I'm quite happy with the way
that the blue will bleed in two sections of
the flower because it all just keeps it
linked and harmonious. Now I'm picking up
some purply-pink. I'll go a little bit different. This one was more of a muted
color and this one is more reflective of the actual
flower that we used. The idea is that we want to
keep it loose and gestural. Now it's getting dangerous. At this stage, if I want to come in and
draw with my pen and ink, so I'm going to let it dry
and come in with my nib and perhaps bring out
certain elements with a thin paintbrush. Because I'm left-handed, I'm going to be working from the right around
the arc that I've created just to avoid any particular potential
smudges I may have. Again, even though I'm
working from a template, I'm letting whimsy dictate me. If I want to put in an
extra berry, I will. If I don't want to follow
the lines because I have used a water-soluble
graphite, I don't have to. As you can see in
this area here, I like the way that muted aqua
has bled into the flower. It just creates a
continuity in a way of bringing the illustration
and the elements together. Using an arc or a wraith is a really lovely way of creating a composition
with botanicals. It's really effective now. Again, I've just added some background
petals in here that weren't in the drawing. I think I'm going to keep this really fresh and
organic looking. Keep that free-flowing nitron by not putting too
many details in. It you love detail and
creating more finessed works, please feel free to share
that with all of us, we would love to see your work. But I think for the
purposes of this exercise, I'm just going to keep
that looseness and that really gestural feel
of the illustration. The walnut ink is working nicely as a foil
against these muted, delicate colors of
the first wash. I like to keep some areas open. It has that feeling
of movement and looseness being kicked
in the illustration. It's starting to come together. What I'll do now is
put some music on and speed the process up so you can follow the
intricacies of what I'm doing. [MUSIC] Here I'm drawing
the white gouache straight into the
width of the leaf. I think this is effective
because it will dry blurry and have a more natural
and expressive look. Again, because I've made
that vignette feeling here, I might introduce it up here, behind a branch leaves. Put a bit of clean water in. Just drop in some
of that purple. [MUSIC] A way of linking all of the
elements together is just to repeat shapes and
forms and colors. Now I'm going to just
bring in a deeper red, some of the berries,
not all of them. Leave some of them
completely empty, like this one over here. If you have any questions, let me know in the
project section, I'm really looking forward to
seeing what you've created. I know that I love this
process of drawing.
9. Wrapping Up: [MUSIC] Hello there, back again. I hope that you enjoyed sharing this with me as much
as I enjoyed creating it. Honestly, I get so much out of studying nature and
using the dip pen and ink. I can't reiterate enough. It really helps you to slow down and just appreciate
the subtle beauties. Thank you so much for
spending this time with me. I really enjoy creating
this class and I am so excited to see
what you've created. I can't wait. I'm looking
forward to seeing and answering any questions that you may have in the gallery down below. Take care and see you soon. [MUSIC]
Sara Corren, Watercolour Artist and Teacher
