Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi I am Nadine. I'm a watercolor artist
from Melbourne, Australia. And today, I want to
do a class with you, which is painting a bit
of a Melbourne scene. I want to keep exploring this idea of being
fast and loose. So this is a really quick paint. I don't want you to think
very much during this, and we're going to
go from start to finish all in one hit. So we're painting as the paper is drying and
seeing what kind of marks our brushes
are going to make and seeing where we end
seeing where we end up. But it's all about
letting the pigment do the work for you and
letting it mix on the page, getting a mix of wet and wet and wet on to dry as we move
through the painting, and very much about getting
a full tonal contrast. So I want really
light lights and really strong darts because
I think that's really important in making a painting effective is having a
good tonal contrast. So we'll go through two
second sketch, very, very simple, few lines in that, and then we'll go straight
into the painting. Doesn't matter what
colors you use for this, you can pick whatever you like. I'm going to keep it a bit moody because it's
winter in Melbourne, so I've got real blue indigo purples going
on in my painting, but you can choose
your favorites. So have a cup of coffee first. That might actually
help you go faster, and I want you to get
into this and start and finish all in 15 minutes
and see how you go.
2. Materials: So materials for
this class First up the reference photo.
This one is mine. You can download that directly
from the Skillshare site. Now, the first thing
you'll notice is that this doesn't look
like the painting. I'm just using it as
a guide because we're painting really loosely and I want to be a
little bit abstract, so I don't want to get
too hung up on the photo. I'm painting on 300 gram
Arches coal pressed paper. I'm painting on a board, and I'm taping it down. And when I go to
paint, I'm going to tilt the board just
ever so slightly. Got a regular HB pencil, you're not going
to need an eraser. You don't need to rub
anything out on this. I want the sketch
nice and messy. In terms of paints, I'm
just using the three. It doesn't matter what you use. Just keep the palette simple. I've got some Daniel
Smith indigo, some Winter Non cobot blue, and some permanent rose. In terms of brushes, I would say really you just need two,
a big one and a small one. I'm actually using four just
to make it easy for myself. The details of these are
under the material section. First up, I've got these
two big brushes because I want to move quickly and so I want to be able to
cover a lot of areas. This one is for making
nice random shapes, getting in the sky, getting
in some of the water. It holds a lot of water, so it's nice to work with. This one, similar size, but the shape here makes
it really easy to get in these geometric shapes of the building and some of
these straight lines. Doesn't matter if
you don't have this, but it's quite handy to have some flat brushes in your kit. Then I've just got
to smaller brushes for some of the details. This is a squirrel taklon mix, and this is just a
straight synthetic. Other than that, you'll
need your pallet jar of water and always have
some tissues on board.
3. Sketching Up Make it Simple: Okay. I'm not going to
give you a template for this one because I
want to keep it really, really loose so that we can
stay loose in the painting. What I've decided
to do this bridge is actually a little
bit of an angle. I'm not doing that.
I'm just giving myself a nice horizontal, little bit higher up the page
because I want to start. I want to focus more on the
water than I do the sky. I've got the bridge quite just a little bit above halfway, maybe a third, not quite. Then I just want to
give myself a bit of an indication of these arches. You'll note that
they're really rough. Lots of different pencil lines in there because when
I start painting, I'm not really going to be
able to see a lot under there. I just want a bit
of a guys and I'm going to give myself
this little diagonal. Here. The only other thing I'm
going to do is give myself a little bit of an idea of where these buildings are going to be. That's it. That's all I'm
going to do for this sketch, and then we can start painting.
4. Keep it Fast 1, 2, 3 Go!!: Okay, the fun bit. Now I'm going to took my board slightly. I've just got sitting
on my computer. I've got a bunch of
brushes and two main ones, they're big because
I want to move quickly and I don't want
to get too hung up. I'm going to start
with this one. I've got clean ish water. I'm going to start in the sky. I'm going to start
with this side because I don't know
how clean my brush is. Not very, that's okay. I'm just painting the page
with a bit of water first. I'm going to grab got a little bit of permanent
rose, and a bit of cocot. I check it on that, so I've got more permanent rows in
that than I do colt, so I just put a bit more. Then I'm just going to work
across the sky quickly. I'm just whacking some paint on. Now, I want to keep
light around this area. What I'm going to do, I want my brush to be a
little bit drier, so I'm going to dry my
brush on the page down here and see where
I'm now getting these little broken strokes. Going to use that to paint
across that bit of the bridge. I get little speckles of
white paper in there. Load my brush up again. And just chuck on
a bit more cobot maybe a bit down the bottom. Remembering that I'm going to be darker on this side
than this side. What the paint on, chuck
a bit under there. Maybe I've got this
diagonal there. Messy first flatwh. Going to now pick up a
little bit of my indigo, chuck on a bit in the pylons there and that first idea
of a bit of an arch, drag some across where the
pylons finish and then a little bit just to give myself the indication where the buildings are going to be. You can see why I wasn't
too hung up on the sketch because it's just whacking
on a bit of paint. I might just drag a couple of dry strokes just through
that walkway there. Then I'm going to
switch to this brush and I'm going to get a bit
more paint out on my palette. So I've got thick indigo, I've got thick permanent
rows and thick cobalt here because I want to now use a little bit less water on
my brush than the page. I'm going to I might pick
up some indigo first. I'm just touching
my brush into it. Don't want a whole lot of water. Maybe I've got a building, maybe another one down here. Just starting a horizontal, vertical couple of
strokes in there. Then I want to think,
while I'm still wet, where's this bridge? That's pretty heavy
and that's fine. I can just let it bleed, come across, and
I'm just dragging my brush just so I can see
where that railing might be. Actually, maybe I
want a bit wider. It's going to go a
bit higher there. Dragging a bit of that dark because I know this
side I want darker, so I can just keep
loading up in that side. Going to go again. Now I'm going to restate same amount of pigment where my flines
disappeared and where my arches. Really messy drag across. I'm just making use of all
this water in the page, trusting that it will work
out on the end in the end. Now I'm going to
pick up a bit pink, a bit of my blue and chuck
a little bit not thinking. I'm just thinking I want a
bit of color on that side. Maybe I'll drag a bit through. Now I can start playing with
varying my strokes a bit. You can see if I'm just
touching that brush, I've got those little
vertical strokes. Be I've picked up bit blue, bit pink, bit of indigo, not made a mix in my well, I'm getting this little
variation in the colors and pigments that
I get on the page, which is what I'm after. Still really light on this side, picking up a bit more
indigo, there's my pylon. Going to drag a bit
more into the water. Darker on this side,
lighter on that side. It's good to test. That makes it easy to test out
how much pigment I've got. If I know that this side
is going to be dark, I can play around here, get the right
consistency of paint, and then I can come into
this other side if I want. Again, another pylon. That was a very straight
line, but that's okay. Restating that. We just deciding where I want my
pylons to hit the water. Okay. Now, I'm still wet. I'm going to switch
brush of brushes now. I'm going to take
this finer brush. Really thick indigo now and I'm going to drag
across the top. Don't care that I've got those broken strokes, that's fine. Now I'm going to put in
a few of these railings. My brush is my
pigments pretty dry. I'm getting these
broken strokes. Again, really messy, where's the bottom maybe there. Okay. Now I'm going to
put in a few fine. I'm dry up here now. I'm giving myself a couple
of little verticals, couple of little
horizontals in really fine, much finer lines now. But as I come into this side, it's still damp, so those
are going to bleed a bit. And that's right
because where I want my focal point I want my
focus to be around here. So my fine lines and sharp details can be around
here, not this side. Now, this is all drying
off really quickly. So I'm going to grab
my medium size brush, load up now with some indigo, and I'm going to pop
just a couple of really strong lines to show
me where my arches are. Switch back to my flat brush
and drag those down a bit. I've lost my curve there, so I'm just going to
grab my little brush. And make that a bit
more of a curve. It feels like you dark
every time you go on and then it dries lighter. I'm still not drying there. I can get away a little bit more still strengthening
up those darks. Then I'm going to pop in
a couple of horizontals. I keep struggling for my
horizontals versus my verticals, just to show the pylons. Straightening up
where my bridges. Now that my brush is quite dry, see I can get these
nice dry brush marks in there for the buildings. I'll put a few of those in
walking around really fast, intentionally fast, no
time to think for this. I switch back to
my smaller brush and think about a bit more about the detail on the bridge. I've got these probably here, nice shapes that I'm putting my brush down
and dragging it across. Maybe there. This one, I'm thinking about
where's my photo. I'm thinking about these
funny little shapes in here. Now, I think that's
going to hurt me. I think I need to
bring that arch both sides just down a bit. Again, keeping it rough. Now, you can see shore on the other side,
show how I feel about that. Let's see if we can put in
maybe a little touch of that to suggest where the
water is hitting the shore. Really messy lines. But where I want sharp is across the bottom there.
Drag that one in. I know where the
water actually stops. I'm going to drag a few
random lines into the water, and I'm still really
light down here. I'm going to go now. I'm just switching between all
the different brushes, still a bit of water in there. I'm just going to drag
a bit more dark across. I've got all that bleeding. That doesn't matter. So I want this combination
of bleeding and sharp lines. You know what I'm doing?
As I'm sitting here, I'm taking off my
glasses because I think it helps to not focus too much. If you've got good eyes, squint, squint and look at it and I'm
just looking to make sure that I'm darker on here
and what jumps out at me. Now this is too light because I've got dark
dark and this light here. Before that fully dries, now I'm drying pretty
quickly because I'm a wimp and I've got my
heater right next to my desk. I might depend on what
your room is like. Now, I want to put a little bit more
something along here. Just to show that diagonal, but I don't want to paint it in. Brush from being here
now is pretty dry, so I'm just pulling
over a few strokes. All right. Now.
5. A Few Small Details: All right. Now, I want my main
focus to be around here. I've got a few of these lines, but I want to put
in that little. It's a little of their lights, but they could be anything
a statue or whatnot. Just with my fine
brush, I'm going to pop a little bit of
detail in there. I'm picking up not much water on my brush and my fine brush. I'm just going to pop a
little bit of something. I didn't look at the reference, I didn't overthink
what was there. I just want a few little marks. Going to put another ones
like calligraphy almost. I'm going to put one on this
side too where it might be wetter in there so it doesn't
matter if that one bleeds. But that's what I'm
after to show you that there's something above each of those piles on the bridge. Then I'm going to jar
with my fine brush. Put a few more little
lines, little something. Again, I'm just trying to
bring attention to this area. Sitting back. There
maybe I'm going to throw in it's got those spots over there. I might put a couple of
those in Okay. Okay. And underneath here. I need you to keep in mind that this is meant to be messy, it's meant to be
fast and furious. I'm working up. That's not what I
wanted to do there. Working up my tonal contrast. This is probably tidier
than I wanted to be, but there's something
about filming that makes it really tricky to be
as loose as you want. Now, I'm looking here,
what I'm doing here, I can see that little
light probably hurts me, so I'm just backing
that little light off. As I'm sitting, I'm just
watching to make sure that when I go on and
it's really dark, you think, Oh, gosh,
that's too dark. Then as you sit here and it
dries, you go, it's gone. I've lost it. It's too light. You have to sit and keep
building up those darks and just I'm just deciding whether I want to soften
these back a bit. I'm just washing my brush. I've got some water.
I've got a dirty brush. What I'm doing, the indigo
will bleed for a long time. I just want to soften some of those hard lines back and get a little bit more bleeding
in there where my city is. I might need a few
more verticals? Okay. So I'm just say and move my hand so you
can see what I'm doing. I'm just putting in a
few little fine lines. Make sure you've got a
nice sharp brush for this. You know, good tip on
your brush for that. Okay. So yeah, I think that's
probably all I'm going for.
6. A Final Word and Photos of my Test Runs: So a couple of things to keep in mind now that we've come
to the end of this one. Each version you do of this
will be wildly different. And that's part of the fun of it that you get different
things each time, and there'll be bits that
you like in different ones. I've done this probably, by the looks of my desk, maybe five times now, and there are bits in
each one that I like. So don't overthink it. Use lots of scraps of paper
and just try and be fast. The point of this is that I
want you to get a feel for. You know, we went
really from start to finish without breaking. So it's seeing how
wet the page is, seeing kind of marks
that your brush makes, depending on how
much water you've got in your page
and your palette, and just really
having fun with it. So what I'll get you to do
is I'll get you to post a photo of your painting
up in the project section. What I'm going to do
and I mentioned this in the discussion post is I'm going to have a play with a
few different colors, and I'll post those in a discussion when
I've done that only because most of us get really stuck in the
colors that we like. And I paint in this kind of purple and go mix quite a lot. And when I go to pick
up something else, I always fall back on
the paints that I like. So in an effort to
break out of that, I'm going to do a
few more of these, and I'll post the
results for you. So thanks for joining me. I hope that it's loosened
you up a little bit and just really remember
to have some fun.
Nadine Dudek, Professional Watercolour Artist
