Capture the moment in your sketchbook: Playful watercolor sketching

1. Welcome!: What if you could sketch just anything you wanted in a playful and joyful way? You've seen regularly your sketch book can help you to see it in a creative and intuitive way. Find your unique hand drawing and have fun. Maybe you'll feel uncomfortable with your sketching skills or overwhelmed by the environment. Sometimes we even wonder if we have the gift to draw well. Such pleasure may take away even the joy of sketching and using your sketch book. Inspired by Frederick Graham's book Zenzin Zen drawing, I try a meditative approach to sketching, to make drawings more accessible, intuitive and to take away the fear of making a bad drawing. Let's make our sketching more fluid, satisfying and joyful. It focuses on paying more attention and looking differently at a subject, and trusting what you see and put that onto paper. Drawing that way it will give more pleasure in observational drawing. We will also try different watercolor methods. Watercolor sketching is my way of relaxing and meditating. In this class, we will experience different ways of what is called a sketching, as well as different ways of using color. Hello, I'm Barbara, I'm an architect, watercolorist, an author of two books of watercolor sketching about Japan. My passion is teaching people how to draw and transmit to pleasure of drawing and painting. If you think you can't draw, don't leave, you've come to the right place, I will show you how to do it. 2. Classproject: I started this sketch book to document the house where I live in. Because as it was sold, we have to move out next month and I love this house. So it's my way to say goodbye to it and to take time to really look and see it and to document my life in the present moment. Frederick Frank said it is in order to really see, to see even deeper, even more intensely. Hence to be fully aware and alive that I draw what the Chinese call the 10,000 things around me. Drawing is a discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn, I never really seen and that when I start drawing an ordinary team, I realized how extraordinary it is. Sheer miracle. As a class project I invite you to choose a scene in your surroundings for you to draw, and these steps we will do it together. It's important to choose things to sketch that are important to you, that make you happy. If you choose something boring to you, you won't even have pleasure in drawing it. We will develop our own daily sketchbook and document parts of our daily life. Your sketchbook is your safe place to experiment and play and dump your ideas and emotions. You will get the most out of this if you do at least three sketches. We will explore different ways of watercolor sketching. Make sure to post your sketches in the class project section and leave a comment on the project of your classmates. It will make someone very, very happy and let yourself be inspired by the work of others. I will show you how to do it. You can share your sketches in the "Project and Resources" tab by clicking on the green button, "Create Project." Under that button you have resources where I share my class notes with you and some pictures. You'll click on "Create Project" and then you can upload image on the next page. You'll either upload a scanned image or you'll take a picture of your sketch. Then you can give a project title, and you can also make a description of your projects to tell others what you have drawn. Then you click the "Publish" button. When you will do that, your project will be online. I invite you to sketch daily. It empties your head like meditation and it's your drawing work out to boost your skills. Let's get started. In the next video, I share you with art supplies and materials we can use. 3. Art Materials: In this video, I will explain my material. In this class, I will use normal graphite pencils like these, they are soft graphite pencils like soft Toby pencil. Then I will use water soluble pencils, water soluble graphite, which is this soluble graphite pencil. Then also, water are soluble graphite paste, this is Viarco Portugal, it's a Portuguese brand, it's a graphite paste which is hard. Then there's a softer graphite paste that comes in a bag and I put it in a little can. I will show you how to use it. I will also draw with a ballpoint pen like this one. It's a fine black waterproof ballpoint pen. Any waterproof ink will be good. You don't need absolutely this one. I will also use watercolor brushes. I will put it in the class notes which type of brushes, this is Japanese sable brush, I choose fine arc tip. For example, I like daggers, these are two synthetic ones, one by Rosemary brushes, the Red Dot series is imitation sable synthetic. Then this by Escoda. It's a Japanese family company. The Perlas series, it's a white synthetic dagger. It has diagonal point which is very handy because you can make large brush strokes, but also very fine lines and also with the tip you can paint very fine. I like brushes with fine tips, and especially in a small sketchbook, it's better to have a smaller brush, yes this one, it's the eradicator. I will show you how to use it. It's a hard, nylon synthetic brush, which is used to erase a bit watercolor in a sketchbook, I will show you how to use it. Then, of course, you need a water bucket and a tissue to clean up your brush and to clean up stains. Then of course, you need the sketch books. You don't need all the materials I showed you. If you don't have all these, that's no problem. You can do your art with other art supplies anyway. But I advice you to use good-quality watercolor paper if you want to paint watercolor. You can't make good watercolor on printer paper. You also can use watercolor pencils, I forgot to explain them. These are Caran d' Ache, you have different brands, I have different types of Caran d' Ache. Then I have this Faber-Castell box, which is this one. It's also watercolor pencils. This Museum series of Caran d' Ache are much more greasy, they're really very greasy. Ten there's this jewel, very handy. It's greasy white wax pencil, which I use to leave white on the paper instead of masking fluid. I will also show you how to use it. I will use this sketch book. It's made in Portugal by Laloran. Its guardian album, made by hand and it's a cold press watercolor paper. Don't hesitate to ask me if you have questions, I can answer in the comments of the class. About the watercolor palette, I have made these palettes for my traveling to [FOREIGN] I needed a lot of colors. I use two paints. For example, [FOREIGN] some spring colors. But I have a lot of Daniel Smith colors in here. I will put a picture of this in the class notes. This is palette by Art Toolkit, it's aluminum palette, and you can take out the pans, they are magnetic and then you can just change them and put other colors. But of course you don't need all these colors. These are already a lot of colors. You can do much with much less colors than this one. This is a special one. It's a gray mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent orange and I mixed it beforehand and put it in the palette. I mix two paints, blue and orange with a palette knife and I put it in the palette. You can see how I do this in my watercolor class. In the next video, I will explain you some tricks about stopping to be afraid to ruin your sketch book. 4. Afraid to Ruin your Sketchbook? Try this!: [BACKGROUND] [MUSIC] I got this great question from one of my students that made my heart jump because I still feel it sometimes as well. She wrote to me, "I have this terrible issue with not being able to paint or sketch [NOISE] because I find my sketch books too precious. I know I need to stop this, but I can't. Any sketchbook or paper you can suggest so I wouldn't be afraid with that precious feeling. So I can paint freely? Thank you. Because I feel paralyzed thinking I will ruin the paper. That is not a good subject to sketch or paint, etc. This ends up with me not doing anything." I know that feeling I need sex. I often feel it as well. So I developed some tricks to come over it. I will tell you. First I replied with a tip of good quality paper which isn't expensive. But that's not a good answer because sketchbooks are made for sketching. Buying very cheap bad quality sketchbooks isn't a solution because you can't make good watercolors on bad quality paper. It's essential to buy good-quality paper and some decent brushes. Better buy less, but good-quality. Buy the paper that fits your technique. So you have to experiment. For watercolors. You need decent watercolor paper. [NOISE] Don't put your nice sketch books aside for when you'll be able to make a masterpiece. That's the perfectionist in you who's talking. Today, it's the best day to use them. Because guess what? The perfectionist in you will never find your art good enough for the sketch book. So be kind to yourself. You don't need to make a masterpiece. You just need sketching and playing, be kind to yourself and that's the best way to become better and better at your art day-by-day. Bits by bits. Do it a bit every day, at least. Just trick the perfectionist in you and tell him or her, "I'm just going to paint five minutes now." Before you know it, you'll be painting more than an hour. Here are some tricks I developed. Are you afraid to ruin the paper? Just start by splashing. Splash paint on the paper. So that's done, its ruined. Now you can start sketching on the splashes and you'll end up with a fun, great painting. [NOISE] Afraid to ruin the sketch book? Don't start on the first page. So it's less intimidating. I never start on the first page, usually on the second or third page because the perfectionist in me tells me I need to keep the first page for something special. But usually on the first page now I sketch my art supplies I'm using. A palette, brushes, ballpoint pen, pen, pencil. That's fine and it's a good record of which materials you would at that moment. So, afraid to ruin your sketchbook? When I like a type of sketch book, I buy several of them. So I feel less reluctant to ruin it. I think that's the fear of ruining the sketch book will never go away. You know why you should use your favorite sketchbook now? Because you only live once. Tomorrow something terrible might happen, like an accident which will prevent you from painting. So don't leave good stuff for later. Another important reason, using the precious sketchbook will make sure you won't be sloppy and you'll do your best to improve your drawing and painting skills because if we use cheap stuff, we tend to be sloppy. Use that, then flow rate sketchbook and make the best out of it. Another problem, you don't know what subject to draw or paint in your sketch book? Well, guess what? Any subject, which makes you happy is a great subject. Paint subjects you like and that will make you feel good and make you happier if you paint. So you will enjoy yourself. [NOISE] When you enjoy yourself, your painting will automatically make you happier than if you paint something which doesn't really make you feel good. There's no such thing as not good enough subjects. Just one thing to keep in mind, if you draw a weird subject you're drawing will look weird as well. Last but not least, be kind to yourself. You're not making a masterpiece. You are just drawing and painting, leave yourself alone. Just play and have fun. Now, let's start sketching. [NOISE] See you in the next video. 5. Lively Lines Thumbnail Sketches: [MUSIC] In this first sketching video, we will explore our linework and way of looking at the subject you want to get onto the paper. We make small sketches, and afterwards we will apply small touches of color to emphasize what we find important. What do you want to tell with the drawing, and how do you choose a subject? I think any subject that brings you an emotion is a good subject. Here I will make more sketches to illustrate objects that I can't take with me when moving to a smaller home. These are already objects that I had to give away, then I will make some more of these small sketches of other objects that I don't take with me. It's a nice way of documenting life if you find a story behind it. What is your focal point? Your focal point is the part of the subject that means most to you. That's the part you want people to look at. We can find different ways to emphasize the focal point. I will explain that to you. This small sketches, thumbnails, I mean, small squares, is also a good way to start sketching, warming up because it's very small, it's quickly done. If you are tired one evening, you can just make one of these small sketches instead of bigger one. Let's get started. We will especially pay attention to the line work because to get the lively drawings, it's a good trick to take care of your line work. By making these small exercises, you'll get to exercise your lines very efficiently. Let's get started. I start by making four rectangles. That doesn't mean you have to stay indirect angle when you sketch. You can make anything you want. There are no rules. You can just take artistic freedom. Like I have larger one and smaller one. I will fill these rectangles with small object. I don't make them the same, and also afterwards, if you want to sketch outside the rectangle, that's fine. This row, you have total artistic freedom. I will start by drawing my easel. It's a big easel I bought and to make large paintings, and I can't take it with me because it's too big. Just some wheels. This is just small thumbnail sketch. I tried to make it more or less like it's in reality, but it wont be of course, totally correct, and that doesn't matter. It's really a huge easel to make a big old painting. I try not to lift my ballpoint pen up too much, and I tried to emphasize where its light and dark and where is dark shadow, I press a bit harder. This is a thing to move up and down to adjust to the painting. It's quite complicated construction of the easel and also the respective is not totally correct, but that doesn't matter. It's just a small sketch to tell a story and to say goodbye to my easel. I think this is what the easel looks like. In this square next to it, I will draw a cupboard be covered in which we keep our shoes. It's not going with us because it's too big, but it goes with my husband's son who will enjoy it. Actually I was wondering if there were some rules to which start best drawing. I have always learned that it's best to first draw the contour, but I don't like to draw like that anymore. I started to beat randomly according to where my intuition wants to start. I start with what I find most interesting. I'm sure that that part of the drawing is well situated on the page, but it doesn't always work out well. Sometimes I just end up with not being able to fit everything in the page. It's a nice old wooden cover. There's something wrong here, but doesn't matter. We keep all our shoes in there. It's a nice souvenir to have drawings of all the objects and places that you liked in the house. Inside, it has two shelves with some shoe boxes and shoes. Another object we don't take with us is a big desk. Actually it's a huge desk, my husband's desk. It's so big that actually I need the whole width of the paper. I will just draw over my two squares because I wanted to show that its big. The people who bought our house are keeping it. That's good. My husband always leaves his desk open, the drawers, so you can see inside and things sticking out. [MUSIC] This gets full of stuff. There is the scanner, there is a big screen. I think this is a great way to exercise the line work. To get the lively drawing, a good trick is to take care of your line work. Line work is very personal to each artist but it's not a question about gallons. Like anything else, it's just a muscle you train and like you trained yourself how to write, you will train yourself how to make beautiful drawing lines you like. Linework can make your drawing really come alive. If you want to emphasize dark parts, you can press harder, and also, I think it's interesting to be careful not to make too many back and forth on the same place. If you go too much over lines you have already drawn, you will get the hairy drawing. To make lively line, I think also it's important to try not to lift up your pencil or your ballpoint pen of the page where you draw too much. Each time you lift your pencil of the page, you lose contact with your drawing, and with what you what you see. [MUSIC] 6. Playing with Color: [MUSIC] Let's add some colors to our sketch. It doesn't have to be the real colors, you can add the colors according to your mood or depending on what you want to show. I have my favorite colors and also I try to be careful not to make the whole surface the same color or like here I mixed a very granulating brown because it's a old cupboard, and then I add some raw umber because it's a light colored wood, a warm happy cupboard. I add some raw sienna to give it some life, and also I try to add some dark values there where is a shadow. Here you can see the floor shadow on the floor and inside is dark as well, but I will add that later when this is dry. Now, this shadow is going all over the place and I don't want that. If you want to take away paint when it's wet, just press your brush in the tissue and then you can suck up excess paint. This is a very handy trick. You see my brush except the pool of paint I had here. Well, it is also nice to give it some life, is to splash. You just take a lot of paint and water and move your brush upside down, and you tap on the brush when you are close to the paper. You can tap some fresh paint also in the still wet paint to have some extra texture here. Here is darker as well. Now this is again too much. I clean my brush in the water and I soak up the water to dry my hair, and then I go in the pool of paint and I suck up the excess paint where there is too much. This is becoming a nice cupboard with nice variations in the color. It's not too similar everywhere because if it's too similar everywhere, you will have just a flat surface of same color. Let's move on to this one. I don't know what wood it is. It's a bit reddish wood, so I add some light red. I don't want to spend too much time on this. I just have to see it's a easel. When you have this flat brush, if you want to make a straight line you can just do like this on the side. This is a very handy brush. You can make large washes like this or you can just make a line like this. [NOISE] If you did something you don't want, you can clean it off like this to clear spots that you don't want. Why not just make a big square here around? You have variation in your page. What was I going to say? You have these small wheels, like this. Don't try to control everything in your watercolor. It's nice to have some surprises. You can also use these little thumbnail squares to exercise some special effects and just to play around, that's the purpose of this sketch book. Now, let's go over to the desk. Under the desk is shadow, and as a shadow I use a mixture of orange and blue. I will make a color chart. So blue; ultramarine blue plus transparent orange makes a beautiful gray. That's the gray and I premix it and put it in my palette, then I use a lot here as raw umber and here I used also this digress IG9 by Daniel Smith. It's a very granulating brown, and here I used Potter's pink. I used also in the easel [MUSIC] some light red by Winsor & Newton , a whole [inaudible]. I think I'm not going to paint the whole desk. All the objects on the desk are not really important because we take them with us. I just want to show the desk, and so I just want to [inaudible]; see this is a desk. Alrighty, this looks like a desk. Here's dark because it's under the desk here as well, so that's a huge contrast. Maybe I can emphasize this straight line a bit. Now we've painted the inside of this cupboard and I don't want to put too much details. I just want to show this is the inside, it's almost dry. I put some shadow here. You can also make this shadow with watercolor brands here or whatever. If you want, it don't have to be watercolor. You can experiment with whatever you want. I think [NOISE] the inside of the cupboard has to be dark, and if you want you can add some colors of your objects inside. Best is to paint your own cupboard and not my cupboard, but if you want you can paint mine. I think the most interesting is to draw something that is important to you, so that would be your own favorite cupboard with your own shoes or whatever in it and to tell a story with it. [NOISE] I can put something here from the screen to give it some funny color. Why not orange? Things are not always going as planned in the watercolor, but that doesn't matter. You can add also splashes to have fun and experiment. I can splash here so I can show there's something happening in the drawer. [MUSIC] How about putting some pink? Maybe this is too much. Just take it away a bit. Now you see something's happening here and also on the screen. I'm not going to paint this. You can also add something here, there's some orange box. It's not really orange. My boxes are white but I want to make something happen in here, and so I just put any color I want. You have artistic freedom to use any colors you want. Have fun. Also stop in time so you don't overdo it, and so that would be now. 7. Painting & Sketching at the same time 1: Now I'm going to sketch my kitchen window and the sink and the view to the garden. [MUSIC] I wet the watercolors before I start, so they would be nicely mushy. I'm going to change the colors of the reality a bit, because the kitchen tablet is covered with marble and this marble is white with gray stripes. I'm going to put to bit another color so it wouldn't be too boring sketch. You can change the colors like you want. You don't have to do like it's realistic if you don't want to. Of course, if you want to, you can. You can do whatever you like, it's artistic freedom. In this video, we will be sketching and painting at the same time. We will paint and sketch with the brush and continue with the pencil, and drag the watercolor, and create colored line work. Are you playing enough in your sketch book? Your sketch book is your safe place to play. In this lesson is to purpose to change some habits in watercolor sketching. I draw and paint at the same time, and it feels liberating. In this way I feel less obsessed about my drawing being correct or not. Whereas I usually look, draw, look, draw, draw, look, and draw and then paint, paint, paint like coloring design drawing, and then I forget to look properly. Now I do different looking. I look, I draw, I look and I paint, and look again, and paint and draw. Actually, the most important lesson is that it's all about playing. Are you playing, or are you struggling with your sketches? Most of the time, I find I'm struggling and freaking out to make a bad drawing. In this lesson, when I paint and draw at the same time, paint, draw, paint, draw, paint, paint, draw. I feel it's liberating and it invites to play. When the pencil slides through the wet paint, it leaves a trail of color behind for awhile, I love it. As well the watercolor pencil in the wet paint is very crazy color, but also the normal graphite pencil leaves a color trail from the paint. Another remark about the subjects, it's best to choose something with life in it. Something with mess and clutter. Clutter means human activity, and it's more interesting than something empty. I love clutter, and the clutter is the focus point. Also interesting, if you're afraid of the white cleanness of your paper, you can destroy it by splashing watercolor on it from the beginning. It really helps. You best use a brush with natural hair, and a brush with flexible hair. Exercise your splashing. Try big, medium, and small splashes. Are you playing enough? How does it feel for your creativity? When are you most free to play? [MUSIC] You have to best paint what is meaningful to you, and what has a story behind it. You will have the most fun while drawing and painting and you can tell your story. [MUSIC] 8. Painting & Sketching at the same time 2: [MUSIC] Now we will add some details. I will do this with this Lumocolor permanent greasy pencil. I go over the light bulbs so they would stay white. I will darken a bit the outside [NOISE] because it seems a bit empty there. You see, when I go for it, the watercolor doesn't stay on a crazy pencil. I will splash a bit and make something heparin in here outside because it's the garden. Also, I will add some yellow splashes here to pretend it's giving light. A bit too much. Also, splash a bit for the flowers. We let the colors flow into each other. Let me also give you some tricks to make corrections. If you have too much paint, you can soak it up with hairs of your brush as long as it's still wet. If you want to erase something, I have this synthetic brush. It's eradicated by Rosemary core, but we can do it with any hard synthetic brush. You will wet it in the water. For example, this tap is a bit too thick, so I rub it with the hair. It has to be synthetic brush otherwise it'll damage your natural hairbrush. The hair over here. This is also synthetic but it's imitation sable brush, it's too soft. It has to be quite stiff brush. I rub it and then I tap it with a tissue. Be careful not to damage the paper. It's a bit eradicated. I want to draw the radio. We have a small radio here. I will just do it in pencil. I like this mixture of drawing and painting. Then here is a skyline, in metal. Skyline of Tokyo. As you probably know, I'm a big Tokyo fan. Here is Rome. I'm also a big Rome fan. Then there are some small postcards. Here's a small postcard and here are small quotes of teabags. I will also make a line here. It's the support of the light bulbs. Here's is a small painting. If you want crazy lines with watercolor pencil, so you wet the paper first. It's just full of stuff here. Doesn't matter very much what it's really like, it's just full of stuff I like. I'm curious to see your kitchen. Well, if you feel like painting your kitchen, that would be fun. If everyone posts his kitchen in the class projects. [MUSIC] 9. Water soluble Graphite & Color Sketch: Now I'm going to draw a door, very simple. Well, there are these nice wooden doors in the house, and I'm going to use the water soluble graphite paste. I want to show it to you. You have this water soluble graphite in a paste, in a solid block that you can wet like this. Now we will compare both, and you'll have also water-soluble graphite. This is the lid of the paste and I use it, because then you can make it a bit more diluted, because if you take it here like this, it's really very black. I can show it to you. Then there's these water soluble graphite, and also in a pencil like this. I can show it to you here. You have this, it's a Jaco, it's Portuguese, you see some very black and granulating, and then you have this paste, which is a bit more intense, but with the same results. Then you have this pencil also, and so you can also dilute it. But that's really more like for drawing, I use it a lot for trees. Let's draw a door. What I will draw now is the door of my studio. I will use this graphite and draw with the brush, and I will mix it with a bit of color in it. It's experiment, that's what the sketchbook is for, it's to experiment. If you want to control the tip of your brush, hold it quite vertical and you can rest with your little finger on the page to have more control, and we will try to add some color to it, this is the turning buff, so I only draw a piece at the door. I want to show how decorated the door is. I like these old doors with decoration. You can go really black with this graphite. This is the side of the door, and then there will be the door handle, it's the door of my drawing room, and I will add some color it, it's the door handle and it's in like copper. What I am doing is, I take it here because as you saw here, and I take it here, it's really black, so I dilute it in the lid. This door has three beautiful moldings, fine piece of carpentry. Maybe I go a bit more down so I can show other moldings over there. They are really amazing huge doors. Just look in what direction the lines are going, is the line going up, is the line going down, or is it a vertical? There's a piece of flat wood, a panel, I will do like this. There's a shadow I can do with this pencil. If you find it easier, just play an experiment and see what you like most. But I think this brush lines with a different atmosphere. The splashes also help to draw your attention to what you like best in the drawing, so it's a necklace, but I never wore it as a necklace. I think must come from India or something, it's a monkey. It's fine like this, on a big string. It's not totally correct, but it doesn't matter. It's a monkey monster, something weird. Just give the impression, to add some color. I'm not sure I like this. I'll add some wet watercolor pencil. That will do. I'm curious to see what you make in your sketch book. Make sure to share within the group, and have fun and play. 10. THANK YOU !: [MUSIC] Congratulations. You made it to the end of the class. I hope you had fun with these exercises and that these exercises give you a new way of observational painting and give you the feeling to experiment. I hope you will continue to regularly use your illo sketchbook to continue boosting your sketching skills and have fun and at the same time document your life. I hope also I gave you extra ideas to experiment and document your life and play with your sketchbook, and a new way of keeping a sketchbook. When we draw, we are more present in the moment. When I look at the drawing I made on site during the trip, all the smells, sounds, and lights of the place come back to me. It's a wonderful way to travel, but it's also a wonderful way to document a home like we did in this class. Your class project is mainly about finding for yourself a fun way to sketch and enjoy sketching without stressing over the result. Experiment, look your mistakes, and discover your own hands drawing. By the way, I still make mistakes every day and start over and make it better and better, and also better mistakes. Please continue experimenting in your sketchbook. That's the best way to document your life and improve your sketching skills. Even if it's in a small thumbnail. Even a small thumbnail a day will boost your skills the whole way. If you'd like to keep in touch or see other paintings, you can follow me on Instagram. Also, thank you again for taking my class. Please leave a review to tell me what you think and don't hesitate to reach out if there's some questions or if you want some other details of something, I can help you further. [MUSIC]