Transcripts
1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello, everyone. My
name's Will Elliston. And today, we'll be painting
a graceful ballerina in motion using soft
flowing watercolors. This is a truly
beautiful subject full of atmosphere,
movement, and elegance. In this class, we'll learn
how to combine loose, expressive brushwork
with delicate control to suggest motion,
softness, and light. From capturing the
gentle folds of a flowing dress to
creating dreamy, blurred backgrounds,
this project gives us the perfect chance
to experiment with both freedom and
subtlety in watercolor. I've been a professional
artist for many years, exploring lots of different
subjects from wildlife and portraits to cityscapes
and countryside scenes. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor. But when I started,
I had no idea where to begin or
how to improve. I didn't know what
supplies I needed, how to create the
effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now I've taken part in many
worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough
to win awards from well respected
organizations such as the International
Watercolor Society, the Masters of
Watercolor Alliance, Windsor and Newton, and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming
for those starting out, which is why my goal
is to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium
in a step by step manner. Today, I'll be guiding you
through a complete painting, demonstrating a
variety of techniques, and explaining how I use all
my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have some experience, you'll be able to
follow along at your own pace and improve
your watercolor skills. If this class is too challenging
or too easy for you, I have a variety of classes available at different
skill levels. I like to start off with a free expressive
approach with no fear of making mistakes as we create exciting textures
for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and
make it stand out. I strive to simplify
complex subjects into easier shapes that
encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty
of tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn
mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of
painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with
my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing
and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in the
discussion thread down below. I'll be sure to read and
respond to everything you post. Don't forget to follow
me on Skillshare by clicking the Follow
button at the top. This means you'll be the
first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston
to see my latest works. So let's learn how to
blend technique with emotion and precision
with spontaneity. Are you ready?
Let's get started.
2. Your Project: Thank you so much for
joining me in this class. I'm very much looking
forward to painting it. We're going to be painting
a ballerina mid spin with her dress
flowing around her, surrounded by soft
color and light. It's a subject that may look complex at first,
but don't worry. We'll take it step by step and keep things light and
enjoyable throughout. We'll be focusing on creating a strong yet gentle
figure silhouette, painting soft flowing fabric using wet on wet and
lifting techniques. And we'll also blend dreamy backgrounds that
complement the dancers movement. This class is about
expression, not perfection. There's no need to get
every detail just right. In the resource section, I've added a high
resolution image of my finished painting
to help guide you. You're welcome to
follow my painting exactly or experiment with
your own composition. As we're going to be focusing on the painting aspect
of watercolor, I've provided templates
you can use to help transfer or trace the
sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for
learning how to paint. It's important to
have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the
watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction
you take this class, it would be great
to see your results and the paintings you
create through it. I love giving my
students feedback, so please take a photo
afterwards and share it in the student project gallery under the Project
and resource tab. I'm always intrigued to
see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear
about your process and what you learned
along the way, or if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend
that you take a look at each other's work in the
student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see
each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your
fellow students. So don't forget to like and
comment on each other's work.
3. Materials & Supplies: Before we get started
with the painting, let's go over all the materials and supplies you'll
need to paint along. Having the right materials can greatly impact the
outcome of your artwork. So I'll go over all the supplies I use for
this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and will make it easier for you
to follow along. Let's start with the
paints themselves. And like most of the materials
we'll be using today, it's a lot to do
with preference. I have 12 stable colors in my palette that I
fill up from tubes. They are cadmium
yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium
red, Alizarin crimson, Opramarne blue, cobalt blue,
serlean blue, lavender, purple, Vidian, black, and
at the end of the painting, I often use white gouache
for tiny highlights. I don't use any
particular brand. These colors you can
get from any brand, although I personally
use Daniel Smith, Windsor and Newton
for Holbein paints. So let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is
a synthetic round brush like this Escoda Purl brush
or this Van Gogh brush. They're very versatile because
not only can you use them for detailed work
with their fine tip, but as they can hold
a lot of water, they are good for
washers as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few
in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for
broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth
transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details. But for really small details, highlights or anything
that needs more precision, I use a synthetic
size zero brush. All brands have them,
and they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles
and a very pointy tip. They're perfect
for adding texture or creating dynamic
lines in your paintings. You can even fan them
out like this to achieve fur or feather
textures as well. And that's it for
brushes. Onto paper. The better quality
of your paper, the easier it will be to paint. Cheap paper qwinkles easily
and is very unforgiving, not allowing you to
rework mistakes. It's harder to create
appealing effects and apply useful techniques
like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton based paper, not only allows you to rework
mistakes multiple times, but because the pigment
reacts much better on it, the chances of
mistakes are a lot lower and you'll be more likely to create
better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available
in my local art shop. A water spray is
absolutely essential. By using this, it
gives you more time to paint the areas you
want before it dries. It also allows you to
reactivate the paint if you want to add a smooth
line or remove some paint. I also have an old rag or t shirt which I use
to clean my brush. Cleaning off the paint
before dipping it in the water will make the
water last a lot longer. It's always useful to
have a tissue at hand whilst painting to
lift off excess paint. Also, you never know when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that needs
wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper
to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's
important to have them a similar consistency to what
they're like in the tubes. This way, it's easier to
pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful
to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the
dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this, of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding
around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on
painting to the edge, we'll allow you to create a
very crisp, clean border. And that's everything
you need to paint along. I encourage you to experiment and explore with whatever colors you want to use, whatever materials you
want to practice with. Now, let's get on and
start the painting.
4. Tips For The Sketch: This drawing doesn't
need to be highly detailed or heavenly outlined. We're just using it as a light framework
for the painting. So the lines should be
delicate and minimal, and you can take your time to make sure everything is
right and you can use my tracing template in the resource section to
help you get started. But before thinking
about the features or folds in the dress, it's important to first
capture the gesture, the general movement
and flow of the figure. We're aiming to get the posture and motion of the spin
of the ballerina. You can see how the head is just a simple circle
at the moment. So rather than
outlining everything, try thinking in terms
of simple shapes, blocks of the dress, ovals
for the arms and the head, and then refine them gradually. I'm still using a very
soft lead pencil at stage, and then we can swap
over to a finer lead to get more detail once we're sure everything is
in place, like right now. Since we're using soft
colors and light washes, it's really important to keep
your pencil lines light. Not too much pressure here, as it will make it
harder to maintain the airy quality we want
in the final painting.
5. Mixing The Colours: To start this painting
off, let's mix a nice watery, diluted purple. I'm using ultramarine blue, and a bit of a Alizarin
crimson to make this purple. And I'm keeping it
nice and diluted. I also have purple
on my palette there. That's just as a
shortcut, really. You can easily mix
your own purple, just like I've done here using that Alizarin crimson
and ultramarne blue. And you can play around with different kind of blues
to make your own purple, or if you already have a purple,
you can use it directly. We've got Cerlean blue, and we've got Camen red, so there's any mixture of red or blue you
want to put in there, whatever purple you like. Once you've mixed it, put
your brush to the side, and now we can start
preparing the paper. A nice way to do this quickly
is to use a water sprayer. So I'm just evenly distributing
water onto the page. You can also use a
very large brush to help fully
saturate the paper. And we're going to give
it a few minutes to fully absorb because we're going to add lovely soft
background transitions, and to make sure
everything's soft, we need to make
sure that there's no dry area on the paper. So take as much
time as you need to make sure everything's
fully wet. Also, you have to have
very strong masking tape. Even with high
quality cotton paper, the paper will definitely
buckle when it's this wet. So you need the masking
tape on it to make sure that it goes flat
again when it dries out. If you use cheap paper, though, sometimes the masking tape
can stick to the paper when you pull it off and it can create a tear in the paper. So you have to be careful
with that at the end. But as you can see, we're
starting from the edge, and we're slowly making the edge lighter and lighter
as we go towards the middle. So we're almost creating
a little bit of a border. And as long as we keep it wet, you can have that water
spray in your hand, add more water with the brush. As long as we keep it wet, there won't be any hard edges. And we can start off
light and add a bit each time so that we don't overwow
ourselves with color. And see on my palette
there how we've got a warm purple and a bit of blue. So we're having a bit of
a range of temperature. We've got the cooler
blue and the warmer red, and it's not very saturated. We don't want it to be
too vivid or bright. So when we mix it
together on the paper, it almost looks a bit
like gray at this stage. And gradually, as it dries, we can be a bit more deliberate
with our brush strokes. But if you're not at that stage yet, that's perfectly fine. You can just keep on
spraying the paper or adding more and more water with the brush until you get
the tones that you want. You can see how my paper
is starting to buckle now, but I'm not concerned about it because I know the
masking tape is holding it down and it'll
flatten out when it dries. Oh
6. Wet on Wet Background: I still don't think it's
dark enough for my liking, and I don't want to
make it too dark, so I'm going to continue adding
more pigment bit by bit. And I'm not really
going to mix it on my palette until it's perfect. I'm going to start adding
it directly onto the paper, a bit of blue here,
a bit of red there, and then with the wet on
wet blending on the paper, they'll mix together to make their own unique
blends of purple. When using techniques like this where you get the
paper super duper wet, you've got to make sure it's consistently wet because when it buckles like
this and you've got areas where the
paper folds upwards, the water will actually, like
in a mountain in real life, the water will stream
down into the valleys, and that's when it will
create unevenness. So you've got to tilt your head every again and make
sure that there's no excess water building up and you can use the brush
to help even it out. Luckily enough, I'm not noticing or seeing any
big pools of water. The nature of cotton based paper actually helps the spread
of water much easier. I found with cheaper vapor when I was first learning
how to paint watercolor, it was very difficult to stop the buildup of water and
uneven areas of water. So if you're willing to give
cotton based paper a go, it really does take your work to the next
level and it helps you. It makes it easier to
work with this medium. You can see that the center of the paper is
starting to dry now, and that's why I'm being a bit more conscious of
my brush marks. And I'm adding
directional brush strokes and using a very
diluted elsuan crimson, which looks like a pink when
it's so diluted like this. But you can also use
cadmium red as well. And because the paper is drying, it's holding the form
of those brush marks. So it's not going to
be a wash anymore. They're going to be nice
soft lines instead. And I'm gradually adding a touch of yellow ochre,
as well into that mix. Building up the amount of pigment and making
it slightly thicker, also using the tip of my brush here to make a lot of
those lines very thin. And there's going to
be a nice transition from the soft washes to the medium soft lines to eventually when the paper is completely dry,
very hard lines. And we're taking advantage of this transition from wet
paper to hard paper. And I haven't mixed any
other color with this. I'm just using that
alizarin crimson, but as I'm using it, it's, of course,
mixing and picking up other pigments on the paper
and creates that harmony. I don't want to go
too dark because this dress in particular has to have some
whiteness to it. It's a white dress
with pink shadows. And having these soft
little transitions helps the feeling of volume
with a soft, silky fabric.
7. The Dampness of The Paper: I'm always assessing the wetness or dampness
of the paper, and I think it's
still safe to add more pigment to the
surrounding background, basically, the edges. And I want there
to be a contrast because the edges have
to have that atmosphere, that feeling of space and depth. But I want the figure herself
to be against the light. So we've got a kind of
interesting dynamic element where the background goes from
dark to light to dark again. And that has to be a transition. We don't really want hard
lines in the background. We need to make it more
airy and atmospheric. And again, you can
see on my palette, there's light washes of blue, light washes of purple
and red, and even gray, adding elements
of gray in there, starting to get a
bit more deliberate, more and more deliberate
with my brush jokes as it's drying
because like I said, previously, the drier it is, the harsher and more obvious
the brush marks will be. Also, even though it's hard to see exactly where my
hand is on the brush, you can see that
I'm holding it at the end, not at the front. And that's because I'm not
trying to be so precise. I'm being deliberate
but not precise. And that holding the brush
at the end allows for more expressive gestorial
loose brush marks, more exciting, vivid
and alive brush marks. We're feeling. When I
hold a brush at the tip, that'll be for all the fine
details of the face and the lacing details of the dress later on where
we need precision. But for the time
being, I want to keep things loose and expressive. That's why I'm holding
it at the end.
8. Emphasising The Light: So now we've completely dried the paper,
and as you can see, it's completely
flattened out again because we've got the
strong masking tape, and it's cotton based paper. And I've switched to a
smaller brush because we're going to be a
bit more precise now. I'm pre wetting the
paper just above the elbow on the left arm
from our viewpoint of it, and I'm adding a bit more
of a controlled transition. I want there to be a bit more
shade or a darker tone in the background there and gradually fading it out
into the background. I'm using a purplish
gray for this. The reason I'm using
gray is because I don't want it to be overwhelming with bright vivid colors. I absolutely love
vivid colors and try to use vivid colors
in all my paintings, but you need some
element of gray or monotone or dullness to
contrast that vibrancy. If it's all vibrant everywhere, then there will be no
tension to the painting, which makes it exciting. It will even itself
out, so to speak. And now I'm very
carefully painting around the outskirts of her hand Again, to increase the contrast. She'll be holding onto
her dress there or skirt. I'm adding a bit of underlayer. I'm finding using the red by itself is making
it a bit too cool. I've added a yellow ochre to this pink to add a bit of warmth to it because it's
quite a cool background, so I want the figure and the
dress to be a bit warmer. Um, and now that the
paper is fully dry, we can start to add
very striking lines, but we want to be very
careful with them. We don't want to add
too many sharp lines. So just a few to
help guide the eye, leading them into the center, following the direction of
the wrinkles of the dress. See how I'm using
sweeping lines. Again, I'm holding the brush
far up, not at the front. I'm moving my whole arm, not just my wrist
and hand or fingers, using the very tip
of my brush as well. Increasing the contrast right there just below the
hand and in between the dress to help make the dress pop out
where she's holding it. H.
9. Abstract Brushmarks: Now we've pretty
much finished doing the light underlay
section, the light colors. Now we're going
to move on to the next tonal range, the mid tones. For that, we need a bit of
black and I'm going to use the cabman red with
the yellow ochre. It's the same color that
we're using before, just a lot richer and we need
to mix a lot more of it. It's interesting how
you can just make two different colors based on
how strong the pigment is. It's a very rich red color
when it's used heavily, but it looks pink when
it's used so light. Now I'm using serlean blue with a mix of viridian
green to make a nice turquoise color that's edging onto the blue side
rather than the green side. It's a bluish turquoise. Starting with the gray, adding a few abstract kind of brush
marks that imply the dress, but they're out of focus. They don't have to
be refined or detail because it's where the dress
merges into the background. So just a few organic shapes. Using a variety of thickness. Some of them are
thicker, and some of them I'm just using the
very tip of my brush. Because when we
think of silky dress in our heads or when
we look at references, there's all kind of
folds and reflections. So some of them are
going to be soft. I'm just softening out
the little edges there. You've got thin
little creases and thick bends and transitions. And there's a zigzaggy
nature to it. So I'm trying to add some
element of zigzaggy, but I'm not trying to be
too specific or clean. It's very abstract
brush marking. I'm not trying to think about
it too consciously either. I'm using that grayish purple as my main shadow color because
it's a nice, neutral tone. Later on, we can start
being a bit more adventurous and maybe
add blue shadows, pink shadows, green
shadows, even. But as a neutral
grounding color, we can use this purple. At the top edge of the
dress on the left, below the arm, I'm
going to have to make the dress a bit darker so that it's dark on
a light background. Because of course, tone tells the message and explains what's
happening with the shapes. And we could either have
a dark background with a light dress or a light
background with a dark dress, and the background
is light there, so that's what we have to do. We have to make the
dress slightly darker. That doesn't mean we have to
make the whole dress dark, that little area and then blend it out. A.
10. Light on Dark, Dark on Light: Now on this edge, I'm just going to add
a sharp little line at the top so that there's a clear definition on
the edge of that dress. But I do want to
smooth it downward. So I want a hard
edge at the top and then a smooth edge as we go down to imply that form, the curvature of the dress. And then we can start adding a few more shadows into this dress to give it
the feeling of fabric. And when it comes to these
expressive brush marks, it's actually better to
make a mistake and move on than to overwork
these areas into stiffness because we're
trying to imply a feeling of flow of freedom of gesture. And especially in these early stages of a
painting like this one, we're just beginning to suggest the movement and the softness of the dress with these loose
abstract brush marks. At this point, we're not
trying to define details. We're just trying to capture a feeling of that
lightness and that grace. And to do that, we have to
paint with a kind of freedom that doesn't allow room for
constant second guessing. And that can feel
very unnatural, especially because watercolor in particular needs a
lot of planning, but you plan your painting so that you can let yourself
go in these moments. And that freedom doesn't
mean carelessness. It means being
present, intuitive, and willing to accept that
what happens on the page, even if it's not exactly
what we envisioned, still works for the painting. Going back to the
other arm here, and I'm going to do the opposite of what we
do on the other side. I'm going to slightly darken the background and
make the dress white, so we can see both
ways of doing it. We had a light background with a dark dress
on the other side, and now we're darkening the background to make the
dress pop on this side. So that makes it quite dynamic. But we don't want to make it too dark where the torso is because if you look
at the final image, we actually darkened the torso. And when we paint it, the torso, it will be a lot darker
than the background. So we can't darken the
background too much. And this is where intuition and foresight comes in
because we got to think about the multiple layers
that we're going to add on but if you look at
the final painting that I've uploaded into
the resource section, you can see how I've arranged the different layers and
the different tones. So try and match it. And you can also make
the torso darker. If you go too dark
here, you can do that. And I'm just painting
above the arm here to help that transition of dark because we got a bit of
darkness underneath the arm, so it would be strange for it to suddenly stop above the arm. So we have to paint the other
side to help that illusion. When a brushstroke goes wrong, and it will, it
does all the time. With me in this painting, I
did many wrong brushstrokes. You just have to let it live. Let it sit there and be
part of the painting. Because often the most
memorable parts of a painting are actually the
ones that weren't planned, especially with watercolor that thrives with spontaneity and its magic comes from things that weren't directly
painted or intended. That strange splash, that bloom, that wobble in the line, these so called mistakes bring life and authenticity
to the painting, even if it might feel wrong to you after you've
disconnected to it and come back to it or for someone else who hasn't seen the
painting before, it gives them this
interesting feeling and that's what art is, that message, that unique
expression that you've created.
11. Painting The Bodice: Now we've dried it again, just so that we can check
mark it, so to speak. We can start on this next
section of painting the torso. I'm using diagonal brush
marks, cross hatching. So I'm coming from one side
and going across to the other and then like an X, going to the other way as well, using very thin lines to
imply that feeling of intricate tapestry
of lacework going on in arso we can build
it with layers as well. So if we want to
have more texture, we can paint one layer,
dry it off, and go back. I'm mainly using pink. Note how I haven't
used opera pink, which is the typical
vibrant pink, you see, and I've used it
in many of my classes. I just found that
was too vibrant for the mood and setting I
wanted to convey with this. I wanted to add a bit
of subdue color to it. Because I thought the opera
pink was a bit too loud, but that doesn't mean
that you can't use it. Maybe you want to
express something loud. It's a personal choice, and that's something
exciting to see if students choose to
use different colors. I don't want the brush
marks to be too clean. So every now and again,
I just swipe across them to roughen the edges a bit. The first thing I do
is create the texture, and that's what we've just done. And then once we've
created the texture, we've got to add form and
make it feel like a torso. So I'm starting to
go back on the edge, make it a bit darker, where the body curves
round into the shadow. A The left side of the body is in this
smooth transition of shadow, which we've just painted,
just finishing up now. And to contrast that,
on the other side, we can still add shadow, but we can do it in
a different way. We can make it crisper, add more texture there, more fine lines rather
than a smooth shadow, we can try and define the texture and the feeling
of lacework going on. But even here, I'm not trying
to overdo the details. I'm not trying to correct
every mark, smooth every edge. I'm not trying to
control everything about it because that will
lose the energy, and we'll end up with
something tight, cautious and a bit overworked. And in a painting like this with the ballerina mid spin
and full of movement, that kind of
stiffness would strip away everything we're
trying to convey. So instead of thinking, was
that brushstroke right, you can ask yourself,
does it feel alive? Because in the end, that's
what we're really after. We want our paintings to
breathe, to feel effortless, even if they weren't
effortless to make, we want them to be
alive on the paper. So give yourself
permission to move forward and keep
painting, keep trusting. Even if something
feels wrong now, it might become the
most interesting part of the painting later. So let the water and pigment do what they
need to do best. Allow them to be loose and allow them to be light
if they need to be light or heavy if they
need to be heavy.
12. Skin Tone Underlayer: Now we can start working
on the face using burnt sienna and yellow
ochre as the base. Burnt Sienna, yellow ochre, and Caban red are good base
colors for skin tones, and you can use a variety of those to get the color
that you choose. Basically burnt sienna with a touch of yellow ochre and camim red is a
good place to start. And I'm starting off very
lightly, as you can see, just a subtle influence of where those pigments
are on the face, a bit warmer at the top, a little bit more red at
the top, still very subtle. And we can use the brush to control how much pigments there. We can spread it around on the brush, and every
now and again, I use a tissue to
soak up some of that pigment where it's in the wrong place, or
if it's too heavy. And that's all we
need for the face for the time being,
just an underlayer. You can see how it's
stronger at the top and then fade it out as it
goes lower down the face. But I use that tissue to create
that little highlight on the forehead where the light would be reflecting on the top. The good thing about
the tissue is it creates a nice
soft edge as well. I'm using that same tone
to just fill out the arm, basically. Blocking it out. Not much tonal work needs
to be done at this stage. Have to be careful here. We don't paint over
onto the white dress. Make sure you have
enough pigment on your brush and where you're painting the area you want to paint because if
there's not enough, it'll start drying as you're applying the paint and it'll
start to become messy. But if you have enough
water and paint, then you can fill out
the area quite cleanly. The inside of this elbow, adding a bit more pigment there. Then carefully filling out
the fingers and thumb here. Now, whilst it's still dry, we can clean our
brush with the tissue and start to dab a bit more pigment
where we want it slightly darker because
it's wet on wet. As long as it's still
wet, we can just dab this color onto there and
it will softly blend out. And there's a little rim or highlight going along
the edge of this arm. I'm trying to emphasize there. And then you can even suck the
pigment out of your brush. After you clean the brush, you can use it to suck some
pigment out from the paper.
13. Adding Form: So that's the first
pass, and now we can go back and refine it a bit more. It's already quite
convincing as it is. So just being subtle and adding a few more tones just to
help build that illusion of form on the underarm you've got to think if the
light's coming from above, the shadow is going to be below, so make it a bit darker below. Think about where the other
curves are on the elbow, and we can add the shadow for the armpit area underneath the shoulder later,
that's a separate thing. We can break it
down step by step. If you're noticing your
papers getting too dry, you should stop and
make it all dry completely and then
rework it evenly. Because if some
areas are drying, then you're not going to get the smooth transitions
that you need. You have to wait for
it all to dry and then rewet it carefully with pure water without
nudging the pigments. But actually, as
it starts to dry, you can be a bit more controlled with where the fine lines are. So you can see the edges
have got I'm adding a little thin line along
that right arm there. Just on the edge. So
it has a defined edge, but there's a slight gradient towards the center of the arm. Now we can start
implying fingers the hands aren't the main
focus of this painting. And because they're so small, we don't need to add
too much detail. We just need to make them
believable as hands. So keeping them
fairly simplified, just a bit of tonal difference, making them pinker,
maybe defining the fum and then hiding the
rest underneath the fabric of the dress. Now on the left arm, I want to add a bit more of
a shadow where the bicep comes down and meets
the wrist or the elbow. So it's a bit too harsh there, so I need to soften it up a bit. Again, creating that hard edge, but then softening it as
it curves into the arm. Let's put a bit more
definition into these hands.
14. Left Hand: It's one of the more detailed and expressive parts
of the figure, and it deserves a
little extra care because it's a bit more complex than the more ambiguous
expressive marks of the dress or the background. Because even though it's small, every small curve
and subtle change in value helps bring
life to the gesture. So I'm moving quite
slowly observing carefully and being quite deliberate with
each brushstroke. And this is where we really feel that beautiful contrast between control and freedom
in watercolor. Parts like the
hand and the face, they ask for a bit more
patience and precision. They ground the painting, and they add that
sense of realism. These are the moments
where we tighten up slightly and rely on
technical control. But later on, we'll return to the soft folds of the dress and maybe a bit more
of the background. It's a completely
different feeling. We get to relax a little, let the water and
the pigment flow and embrace the more intuitive
expressive side of the medium. But still, we're not
chasing perfection. We're chasing that feeling, the movement in the atmosphere. And I think that's the
real magic of watercolor learning to play between
these two extremes, knowing when to slow
down and refine something and knowing when to
step back loosen your grip, and let the medium
speak for itself. And that contrast not only
keeps the process interesting, but it gives the final
painting a sense of life that balance, that contrast that moves
between stillness and motion control and freedom. When it comes to hands, it's best not to think
of it as a hand. I'm not thinking, here's
a thumb, here's a finger. I'm just thinking about
the tones and the shapes. Because it does
feel intimidating painting hands. That's
completely normal. They're complex shapes, but they don't need
to be overworked. It's ultimately again more important to capture the gesture and proportions than to
render every little detail. Start with the big shapes first. Before focusing on the
fingers or the knuckles, we painted the general
underneath tone, that burnt sienna tone,
the overall silhouette, the angle of the wrist,
the position of the thumb, and how the hand flows
out from the arm. I'm thinking of it as a
single expressive shape, not five separate fingers because that helps
avoid stiffness. And then I'm trying to keep the edges as soft as
I can where possible, because they're rarely
completely outlined.
15. Right Hand: Now I'm going to paint the main shadow underneath the armpit, again, using that burnt sienna, but then mixing that purple in there to make it darker
rather than just using black, starting off thin and then following that curve
around and filling it in. When looking at
different references, I'm trying to think of
the general shape of it. I'm not seeing it as an armpit, like the hands, I'm not
seeing them as hands. It's part of the illusion. I'm looking at the general shape and the darkness of the tone, and that creates the
feeling of depth. When it comes to
painting the figure, it deserves our
attention and care, but we have to be mindful
not to overdfine it. The ballerina shouldn't
feel like she's just pasted on top
of the background. She should feel like
she belongs to it and emerges naturally from
the atmosphere around her. So as we work on
the rest of her, the neckline, and the face, we're focusing on
subtle transitions. Adding some ambiguous dots of pigment of darkness in there, some soft shadows inside. We don't need to
outline every detail. In fact, too much outlining would harden the figure and
make her feel quite static. So instead, suggest form
through shifts in tone, letting light and shadow define the shape rather than
relying on harsh borders. Sometimes I even blend
out a section I've just painted just to keep
that softness there. Maintaining softness doesn't
mean we lose structure. We're still thinking about
the general anatomy, the balance and proportions, but we're describing it
with a lighter touch. It's a dance between
precision and suggestion. And when we get that right, which does take practice, and that's why we're doing
these classes together. When we get it right, it gives the painting an elegance
that's true to the subject. And this hand on the right is actually a bit more
simple than the one on the other side because
of the way it's facing, add the pink tip
to the finger and thumb blend that out as
it reaches the wrist. Then we can go in with a very
fine tip of the brush and emphasize that shadowed edge at the bottom where
it meets the fabric. Then adding that rich red underneath the thumb. A,
16. Starting The Face: So now let's move on to the shadows underneath
the chin and on the neck. And as I paint even
these details, I'm trying to remind myself
that we're painting a dancer, not just a body, and that means emotion matters
more than exactness. We're not here to render every single muscle
or bone perfectly. We're here to capture a moment, a mood and a movement. Something fleeting and graceful that hopefully speaks to the viewer on an
emotional level. And the beauty of
this subject lies in the atmosphere it creates
the softness of the dress, the upward lift of the arms, the delicate tilt of the head, all these invitations
to feel something. So if the proportions
aren't perfect or the anatomy is slightly off,
it really doesn't matter. What matters is
whether the gesture feels true or authentic, and true and authentic
doesn't mean exact. Or correct. You can ask yourself
questions such as, does the figure feel light? Is there a sense of motion? Does the painting communicate
elegance, grace, or poise? If the answer is yes, then the painting is doing
what it's meant to. Sometimes we can get caught up in the technicalities obsessing over curve or the shoulder or the placement of the
shadow underneath the neck. And we lose sight of
the bigger picture. What we're doing here
is evoking a presence. We're suggesting personality,
softness, even breath. And that can't always be
achieved through accuracy alone. In fact, chasing precision too tightly can often strip
the life from a piece. So let's lean into
suggestion and allow parts of the painting to remain open, loose and unresolved. These often are the
areas that feel most alive because they give
the viewer space to imagine. And that's where the
real connection happens. So as you paint, don't
be afraid to let go of control to trust your instincts and let your brush
dance a little. Let the water and the pigment
move in unexpected ways. This is what makes
watercolor so beautiful, the ability to mirror the spontaneity and lightness
of the subject itself. And at the end of the day, our goal isn't a perfectly
rendered figure. Our goal is to create
a painting that feels like it's still moving, still breathing, still
floating in the air. And sometimes that
comes from letting go and focusing on the
feel, not the precision. You can see how I'm breaking the shadows down into
different shapes. We first of all added
that very light layer. Now we added that mid tone that kind of zig zags
across the face. And now we are using
the tip of our brush to paint the shadow underneath
the eye or the eyebrow. Then even within those eyebrows or eye sockets, there's
slight variation. I'm keeping the outside a bit darker where the shadows are and then where
the eyelids would be, I'm just keeping it a bit lighter because if you
think about the form of it, the eyelids come back out
again and reflect the light.
17. Finishing The Face: Now we're moving into
the details of the face, and this is actually
the main focal point. So moving on to this area is where we really
want to slow things down. And I'm using a small round
brush with a nice point, something that gives me control without feeling too rigid. The first thing I look for
is the lightest areas. And we've done that
across the forehead, the cheek bones and the
bridge of the nose. And I leave those areas light, allowing the paper to
act as a highlight. Then for the base tone, we used a very diluted watch. Just a touch of warmth. Maybe you want to
use something soft. I used burnt sienna
plenty of water, and I applied it gently letting it settle
naturally across the face without scrubbing or dragging the pigment
around too much. And we kind of had it quite
flat that first underlayer. But there was a bit of
variation in the wash. It was a bit darker on the left hand
side, as you can see. While the paper is still damp, we started to drop in
slightly darker tones to suggest shattered areas. And we just did the eye
socket and around the neck. If anything looks too harsh, I cleaned it off with my brush, dabbed it slightly to soften
the edge with clean water. But there's some edges that
we do want to be hard, like the edges of the eye
sockets and the lips. When it comes to
features like the eyes, nose, and lips, I suggest
rather than define. It only takes a
few minimal marks, but you have to concentrate
to get those marks right. A soft stroke for the
shadow of the nose, a faint line for
the closed eyelids because closed eyelids add a bit more mystery I find
and they're easier to do.
18. Starting The Hair: Now I'm pretty sure the face is done so we can move
on to the hair. And I want to create
a kind of ashy blond, not a vibrant blond, so I'm going to have to
tone it down again a bit. So I'm mixing yellow
ochre, with a bit of blue. And purple as well. And it kind of makes
a grayish yellow, kind of ashy blond
I'm going for, and I'm very lightly starting
with fine wavy brush lines. This is one of those areas
where we want to keep a nice balance between
shape and softness. Keeping it nice and
diluted, not too heavy, just to block in the first layer
and the basic form and direction of the hair. I'm not thinking about
individual strands or fine details, thinking more about
the overall flow, the way the hair curves around the head and
how it responds to the composition and
the dances movement. A lot of the time I'm letting the brush follow the rhythm. Almost like I'm
sculpting the form of soft sweeping strokes. I'm using a small brush as well, but it still has a nice point, something that can give
me both broad shapes and finer lines
when I need them. But the thing that's
most important is water control, too much water, and the edges will bloom or run into the
surrounding areas, and too little, and the brushwork can look
a bit stiff or patchy. So I'm always adjusting, loading the brush just enough
to get a smooth, even flow. And now we're moving on with
a darker tone in which we can eventually blend to
transition the light to the dark. Coming back with this
slightly stronger mix. This adds more depth, especially at the roots or underneath where the light
doesn't hit as directly. These touches create dimension, and they make the hair
feel more natural as well. One thing to avoid is
getting too tight or fussy, which I understand is an
easy habit to get into. But if we overwork it,
the hair can start to look flat and unnatural. So let some edges fade
out into the background, especially near the tips. So it feels like
it's catching light or merging softly with
the surrounding color. Because that looseness helps keep the whole piece
feeling elegant and light. Just like the theme and
the movement we're trying to capture the rest of
the painting. Mm hm. Notice how on the
top of the head, I've gone for a
slightly warmer color, a bit of a more saturated brown, and then it blends to a
darker brown at the bottom. And this adds a kind of
feeling of sheen to it of reflection because when the
hair's tied back like that, it really you don't think
of it as loads of strands. It comes into its own shape, and it creates the form
of the head as it curves back now we can start painting those deep shadows at the
back behind the ear where the least amount of light gets
to hence wor, it's darker.
19. Finishing The Hair: When it comes to painting hair, especially in a piece like this, we're not just thinking
about anatomy or texture, we're thinking about the
movement, rhythm, and character. It's often those things that direct how we're
going to execute or plan our brush
strokes because every brush stroke needs
to be planned in our mind, how we're going to
do it, whether it's an expressive one
or a tight one, hair in a painting
isn't just an accessory or a detail to tick off. It's part of the
figure's expression. It helps tell the story of who they are and what they're
doing in the moment. In this case, the
ballerina's hair contributes to the sense
of flow and grace. Even though it's a
relatively small area, it echoes the same energy
we've tried to capture in the rest of the
composition in the dress, that feeling of motion,
of softness in action. So we're not trying to
paint every strand. We're painting an impression, a gesture, a suggestion of
movement caught mid spin. When working with dark
pigments like this, like I'm sure you've
experienced in other classes, when it's wet, it looks much darker than it'll
be when it dries. So you've got to
keep that in mind. And that's what it looks
like when it dries. You see the change there. So it doesn't it looked
like it was black before, but it dried lighter,
which is what we want. We don't want a full black. Unless that's the color of the hair that you
want her to have. And I'm going back with some highlighted gouache
paint, opaq white paint, just to add a few
fine lines on top of the dark because
it would have been impossible to do this
before the only way to get these highlighted textures is to come back after painting. There's also something about the relationship between
the hair and the head that gives subtle cues about the
dancers posture and balance. The way the hair curves
around the head or blends into the shadows can help define the
tilt, the tension, and the grace in the
figure's dance all without over explaining it. A,
20. Intentional Brushstrokes: Now we've done the hard part. We can go back to the
expressive loose style again with painting the
shadows of the dress. And I'm finding the main
theme of this class is actually brush strokes because there's a whole range of different kinds
of brush strokes. We've already done expressive
ones for the background. We've done all the defined ones for the hands and the face, features that take a
bit more concentration, and now we're going back to
the loose ones and there's so much power in the intention
of our brushstrokes, and you should often
pause and ask yourself, What is my intent with
this brush stroke? Because it's a simple
question, but it can completely change the way
we approach a painting. Watercolor is such
an expressive, fluid medium that it's
easy to fall into the habit of making marks
just to keep things moving. But if we're not careful, we can end up reacting rather
than creating or fixing, fussing, or chasing
a result without actually really knowing why we're making the
choices we're making. Every mark has the potential to either build or
blur your vision. It can add clarity or it
can create confusion. And sometimes that's
what we want. Have it with this expressive loose style
we're painting now, we're adding a bit
more confusion to contrast with the clarity
of the facial details. So that's why it's important
sometimes to breathe, take a moment before each significant brushstroke
and ask yourself, What am I trying to say here? Am I reinforcing? What am I trying to soften or what I trying to
draw attention to? When our strokes are guided by purpose rather than impulse, something quite
powerful happens, and the painting starts
to feel unified. Every part begins to
relate to the whole. You're no longer filling space or trying to copy what you see, you're composing and
you're making decisions. And that brings strength
and coherence to the work. But this doesn't mean
every stroke needs to be stiff or overcalculated,
not at all. In fact, the opposite is true. Even our loosest most
expressive marks can carry intention. Sometimes the intent is
simply to create movement, to balance the composition or to introduce a bit of
lightness or contrast. But the key is that we
know why we're doing it. Watercolor rewards this kind of mindfulness because it's
such an unforgiving medium. It teaches us to be deliberate. We learn to observe more
carefully to act with purpose, and then to accept the
results with grace, even when they don't
go exactly to plan. So treat each brushstroke
with a sense of respect, even the small ones,
especially the small ones. Ask yourself, is this mark
helping the painting? Is it reinforcing the
feeling I want to express? Is it bringing me closer
to the image in my mind, or is it taking it further away?
21. Let Go of Fear: As we go further into adding
these expressive shadows, experiment with
letting go of fear. Because if you paint with
hesitation or doubt, it will show in your painting, you'll see it in the
stiffness of the lines, the timid brushwork or the overcorrected areas where the life has been lifted out. And it's natural to feel hesitation and fear when you're learning
how to paint. It's something that most
artists have to deal with. Fear shows up in the
painting just as clearly as color or composition. It has a way of muting
everything else. It limits your expression, I dulls your instincts, and can even make the most beautiful
subject feel uncertain, and it affects me. And specifically
with this painting, it's something that has to be kind of acknowledged
and challenged. Watercolor thrives
on confidence. It asks us to trust
not just the process, but ourselves more importantly. To let the water and
pigment do what they do best without trying to
control every drop. And when you paint boldly, even your mistakes feel alive.
That's the magic of it. There's a kind of
energy that comes through in expressive brushwork, a clarity of intention that only happens when you're not second guessing every move. And sure, that does
mean that there'll be more mess and more failed
paintings, actually. But it's the only way
to capture the magic. So you've got to lose some
in order to win some. And it doesn't mean
you have to be or feel confident all the time. It just means being willing
to move forward anyway, to let the brush dance a little, to trust your eye, your hand, your instincts, to be
honest in your marks. Even if they're imperfect, they'll carry some kind of truth about the message or what you want to convey
what you want to feel, and they'll guide you. Your emotions will guide you, and they'll carry your painting. Painting is as much an emotional
act as a technical one. If you bring nervousness, it will tighten your work. And that's actually the
more natural response to painting because it's
outside. It's the unknown. So it's natural
to feel that way. So it takes a bit of exercise and practice to
break free of that, or at least it's not about
becoming free of it, actually. It's about accepting
it and being used to it. Being present with it. And through that, the curiosity
comes, and with that, the courage comes and it
will all show in your work, and your work will feel freer, more expressive and
more connected. So don't wait until
you feel ready. Don't wait until every
decision actually feels safe. Just begin. And remember, your confidence is actually
part of your brush, and you can let it
speak and come out.
22. Forget About Perfection: One of the ways fear comes up is because of our
pursuit of perfection. And something that you can try
to do I try to do as well, is forget about perfection because chasing it can stifle
your creativity, actually. And the moment we become fixated on getting
everything just right, every edge clean, every
proportion exact, every detail flawless, we begin to close off
the very openness that allows for discovery,
spontaneity and expression. In fact, if you think about the watercolor medium
compared to other mediums, it doesn't reward
perfectionism at all. It goes against it.
It rewards trust, looseness even, and
responsiveness. And the beauty of
this medium lies in that unpredictability,
the way colours bleed, the way soft edges form, and the way happy accidents often turn into the most expressive
parts of the painting. It's those parts that
we try to capture with watercolor that
makes it so unique. When we aim for perfection, we tend to overwork,
we lose freshness. We start correcting
things that don't need fixing and slowly the energy starts to disappear
from the piece. But when we let go
of that pressure, when we remind ourselves
that we're not here to produce
something flawless, but something authentic,
something that feels true, then the whole experience
becomes lighter, more joyful,
rewarding and honest. O. So what matters most isn't the
technical precision, but how the painting feels. Quite abstract questions.
Does it breathe, does it move? Does it connect? Those are the things to
ask yourself and in turn, will help guide you with how to go forward with your
painting when it comes to painting your own
originals and also how you might want to alter this to
your own unique take on it. Because it's these aspects that stay with someone when
they look at your work. And it's not that I mean, there's there's an aspect
of technicality that's impressive that people see
in artwork and they admire. But it's not necessarily
those aspects that stay with them that keep them thinking on a deeper level, the
emotional level. And they're not
looking whether you got every line or
shadow exactly right. If there's an emotional message, it will be much more
successful painting, and you can do a
painting like that with thousands of mistakes
and inaccuracies. So give yourself
permission to be imperfect to experiment
and to play. Some areas might be messy, some might not work out
the way you planned. That's perfectly okay. That's part of the process. And more often than not,
you'll find that it's in those imperfect places where
the real magic happens. So remember, we're not
painting to impress. We're painting to express, and expression lives in
freedom, not in control.
23. Finishing Touches: I've completely dried
off the painting now, and this is the final
stuff the painting, going back with white gouache, just to add a few highlights,
refine a few edges. Nothing major. We were
expressive with our brush marks, and this white gouache will help make a bit more
sense of the chaos. This is one of those moments where a small amount can
make a big difference. These final little marks
to pull the painting together and bring a touch of light and clarity
to key areas. And it might sound contradictory
to what I was saying before about overdoing details, but I'm not trying to
overdo it, actually. I'm trying to anchor it
rather than overdo it. And the reason I'm using gouache is because it's more
opaq than watercolor. It sits on top of
the layers beneath, which makes it perfect for catching the edges
of the dress or the glint in the hair or that soft rim of light
along the figure. And I'm being very
selective about where I place these
highlights just enough to suggest a shimmer or to guide the eye through
the composition. It's important not
to overdo it because a few very well
placed touches of white can be
incredibly effective, but too much can start to
flatten the painting or take away from the transparency that gives watercolor its magic. So treat gouache or gouache
more like an accent, a gentle nudge to enhance the
movement or the rhythm of the piece in areas where
it would be impossible to avoid with these little wispy curvy bits on
the edge of the dress, that would be impossible to do, using the white of the paper,
we could use masking fluid. But the point is just to
add little flex of light, just to bring final
breath into the painting.
24. Final Thoughts: Welcome back and
congratulations on completing this
ballerina painting. I hope this class
has shown you how magical it can be to paint
figures with watercolor, especially when you let go
and allow the paint to flow. We focused on creating
movement, softness, and elegance through loose
brush work, layered washes, and lifting
techniques, all while keeping the painting process
light and enjoyable. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and
personal style. I encourage you to continue
exploring, experimenting, and pushing your
boundaries to create your own unique
watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the
end of this class, I hope you feel
more confident and comfortable with your
watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes
to improving your skills, so keep on painting
and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for watercolor
painting is so inspiring, and I'm honored to
be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd
love to give it. So please share your painting in the student projects
gallery down below, and I'll be sure to respond. If you prefer, you can
share it on Instagram, tagging me at Will Elliston, as I would love to see it. Skillshare also loves
seeing my students work, so tag them as well
at Skillshare. After putting so
much effort into it, why not share your creation? If you have any questions
or comments about today's class or want any specific advice
related to watercolor, please reach out to me in
the discussion section. You can also let me know about any subject wildlife or scene you'd like me
to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate
getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews
fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best
experience for my students. Lastly, please click
the follow button Utop so you can follow
me on Skillshare. This means that you'll be
the first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. I look forward to painting
again with you very soon until next time.
Happy painting.
Will Elliston, Award-Winning Watercolour Artist
