Transcripts
1. Intro to class: Hi, everybody. Welcome to my casual landscape
drawing class. My name is Veronica,
and I'm an artist. I started teaching lettering
classes years and years ago, but slowly have been
moving into fine art. You can find my
website right here. It's called Veronica zubek.com, if you want to check out my
art and any other classes. This class, in particular, is geared towards beginners or just hobbyists who want to play around in their sketchbook. We will be using mixed media, starting with water
soluble crayons, colored pencils, gouache,
maybe even some watercolor, and we are going to be using
some mixed media paper. I am going to go over briefly composition so
you get the best out of your reference and
color theory just in case you need a little refresher
or you are new to art. I will also show you how I achieve this beautiful
deckled edge look. And then we are off to
starting the landscape sketch. So what you need for this class, all the supplies are listed down below in
the project section. And please find a photo
reference for yourself to use. You can either get one
of your own photos that you took or you can use a website like unsplash.com to get a free reference photo. When you are finished, please post a photo
of your landscape. I would love to see it. You can post it down below
in the project section. Thank you very much, and
I will see you in class.
2. Tools needed: Here are the tools
that I used to create this piece and all the other things that
we're going to be doing. I used a little bit of
these watercolor pencils. They are by Coran doch. I am not sure how
to pronounce that, but I have a set of
watercolor pencils. I will also be using a lot of these water soluble wax pastels
by Caron doch NocolorT. If you are looking for these, make sure it's No Color two. No one because one is
not water soluble, two is water soluble. They are awesome. I
love these so much. I use them all the time
because you can either use them kind of like pastels
like oil pastels. But then when you add
water, they mix together, and it's just wonderful. So I will be using a lot
of these to do this. I used a little bit of the
crayons, not too much. And for them to blend, you will need a brush. And some water. Minus dirty. Don't mind that. So a brush and some
water, and, of course, a little bit of paper
towel to clean your water. I mean, your brush. If
you need a sharpener, to sharp any of the crayons or pencils, of course,
you need that. I will also be using a lot
of not a lot of just I mean, more often, titanium
white gouache. I really love using
titanium white gouache for this mixed media drawing
because I can add those really, really bright whites on top of everything using this
because it is opaque. If you don't have this,
you can use, like, a watered down acrylic
white, if you have that. But please test it out first, like on a scrap of paper, do some swatches
with your crayons or your water soluble
crayons or whatever you got and just test
it out first, okay? You can also use zinc white, but it's going to blend more. It's not going to
be super opaque, but it'll do the job. Of course, you're going
to need a pencil, any type of pencil
that you have. You don't need anything special. I love using all
kinds of pencils. You also need a sketchbook. I am just using a random sketchbook I have laying around. Nothing special. It could just be a piece of paper because we're
just going to do some drawing exercises
as a little warm up. Now, for the final paper
that I am using right here, for this, this is
Stonehenge Colors. It is this little
pad right here. I love this paper so much because it is not
heavily textured, but it comes in
different colors. It does come in white
if you want just white. But I love this beige color. I think this one is
called pearl gray. As compared to white, you can see it's a
nice Biji color. I really, really like it. But of course, if you want white paper, that's
totally fine. You can also use
watercolor paper, that will work just fine, especially if you're using water soluble crayons
like I will be. You can also use This is
a big pad I have here. I don't have a smaller one,
but I have bristol paper, which is also amazing. Make sure you get
the smooth one. Because it is a little thicker, it can handle a
little bit of water. And even with these
water soluble crayons, guys, we are not going to
be using a ton of water. So if you just have
a mixed media paper, it should work fine. That's about it for my supplies. Oh, if you're using
titanium white, make sure you have, like, a
little palette to mix it on. It could be a plastic plate. It doesn't have to
be anything fancy, but I am gonna be using this. If you are going to be following my little tutorial
on how to make these beautiful
deckled edges out of just regular paper because this one didn't come
with these edges. If you want to do
that, you're going to need an exacto knife
or like a box cutter. If you have one, you
can use that, too. And another thing I have is like this little four by six
piece of cardboard, cut it down to four by six. Or, you can use, like a photo
like this one I have here. It's a four by six photo. You're just going to
use it as a template. To cut around to make a
four by six like this, and then we're going
to tear the edges off. You'll see what I mean
when we get to it. I think that's about it. I don't think you need to
worry about any other tools. Of course, if you
want to use gouache, if you want to add a little
bit of paint on top, a little bit more opaque, you're welcome to use gouache or watercolor if you really want to get into the mixed media, I sometimes use pen ink. I love these copic multi liners because they are waterproof. So if I draw my outlines or my main
sketch with these pens, I can then add watercolor and whatever paints and
mix things on top, and it will not
smear the black pen. So if you like a pen and ink and pen watercolor
type of look, you can use that as well. I'm not doing that
in this example, but I have done it
before many times. So those are your
little options. And let's get started.
3. Composition: This lesson we'll talk
about the four rules of composition that I feel
are the most important. There's many more
and this topic can get very confusing very quickly. But if you want to learn more and really dive
into composition, you should check out the book by Edgar Payne called Composition
of Outdoor Painting, if you're specifically
doing landscapes. But for this exercise, we'll keep it very
simple and easy for you to understand if this
is a new topic for you. You've probably heard
of this first one called the Rule of Thirds,
and this is what it is. You divide your
sheet of paper or the area where you're
going to paint into three sections this way and this way, horizontally
and vertically. The idea is that something interesting is
happening at the third, either this line or this
line, this line or this one. You don't want to
center your object, and we're going to talk
about that in a little bit. For instance, you want your horizon line to be
right here, your mountains, or you want the cloud,
the clouds in the sky, maybe there's a
cloud right here, more towards one side or the other instead of smack
dab in the middle. Then maybe there's a
tree growing over here. So for instance, in one of these pictures
that I have here, there's a tree right
at the third line. If I were to divide
this into three, there's a tree right here. And then if I were to divide
it into three this way, well, the horizon is right
in the middle, basically. So I would move it up or down. So you would just crop, you would crop your photo
either this way or this way. To achieve that rule of thirds. But like any rule, rules are meant to be broken. So if something really,
really has to be centered, go ahead
and center it. But first, try to follow
the rule of thirds. Now, the next rule
is the horizon, which I just kind of
briefly talked about. Is to not put the horizon
right in the middle of the page because that divides the page right in the middle, and it's just not
that interesting. So if you have a landscape and your horizon
is right in the middle, let's say there's,
like, distant mountains or something, it's
right in the middle. It's a little boring because it just cuts the
paper right in half. What you want to do is either
move it down or move it up and have the foreground and the midground
kind of take over. And have the sky very small, or you move the
horizon down and then have a nice big sky
opening up top. Okay? The next one is balance. That's a very important
rule, as well, because if you
don't have balance, it can kind of seem odd. You might be looking at
your painting and you might be like, there's
something wrong with it. I don't know what.
It could be balance. So balance goes back
to the rule of thirds. If you have a painting that is that just has a
tree right here, that's kind of boring.
There's nothing here. It feels like it's just
going to tip over. It's like a balance
scale, you know? You have a tree right
here and nothing here, and it just, like, tips
It's gonna tip down. It's gonna fall. So what you
want is to balance it out, and it doesn't have
to be another tree. It doesn't have to
be anything big. It could be a cloud, although now this
would be top heavy, so there's a lot
of stuff on top. Or it could be just
a little bushes or grasses or something
interesting on this side that
would level it out. You could do a mountain, and if you guys are working from a reference photo,
that's another thing. You can spice it up a
little bit on your own. Like, if I am painting this, I don't have to stick to this. I can put a mountain back here. I can eliminate this giant
weird branch over here. I don't have to paint
exactly everything that's in the photo because you're creating a separate painting,
a drawing or whatever. So you can manipulate it, okay? You don't have to have Photoshop
to, like, adjust things. You can just not
paint it in there. So for, like, balance purposes,
let's get back to that. You can just add a
mountain and now our little tree looks a
little more balanced, okay? And if you guys want more info
on this composition stuff, just email me, and I will start getting another class ready
because this is a big topic, and it can get confusing. So if you're confused,
let me know, and we'll try to solve.
4. Sketching exercise: The first thing we're
going to do is just do a bunch of little thumbnails, exercise the idea of sketching. Um, just letting loose with our hands and kind of getting
into the groove of drawing, especially if you
don't draw a lot, especially if you haven't drawn a lot in the past or recently, this is a good little
exercise to do before we get on with
the final project. So just grab yourself a
pencil and a piece of paper, nothing fancy and
just start sketching. I'm going to give you a few different ways
to go about this. The first way you can sketch
experiment and really play around is to do
blind contour drawing. Now, what it is, it means you draw without looking
at your piece of paper. So, you grab your
reference photo. You can just grab something
off the Internet. You're not selling
these. This is not copyright infringement
or anything. This is just
practice. Or you can go sit outside and look at a
nice view and try that, too. So, let's figure out how to draw this without
looking at our piece of paper. So I'm just going to draw myself a little frame just to kind
of see if I can stick to it. Now, I'm going to try not to look at the piece of paper
that I have right here. I'm going to try to keep
my eye only on this, but have my hand follow my eye. So when my eye goes
up, my hand goes up. When my eye goes this way, my hand will go this way. So try to coordinate your
hand and eye together, okay? But try not to look at
the piece of paper. Now, if you're starting this and you just are totally
all over the page. You can practice with looking, but still try to look at both, kind of go from looking
at your paper to looking at your picture, and just kind of
stick together, okay? And that will
really, really help with your drawing skills.
It does help a lot. I know it's going to look messy, but it's going to teach your
eye to draw what it sees. Okay? So let's start. And again, you're not trying to focus
on any of these details. We're not drawing all these
tiny little bushes in there and all these
tiny little branches and the leaves and the
grass and all that. We're just kind of following the main shapes and really
trying to tick to that. Just don't put any, um, details in the main shapes. Also try, that's another thing. Try to not lift the pencil off the paper because
once you lift it, you might not know
where to put it back since you lifted it and you're not
looking at your paper. You can eliminate some branches if you don't want to put
all the branches in. Like I said, no details because
that's just not possible. H. Alright. It's a mess. It's a mess, guys. But that's okay.
You're learning. This is just a fun exercise. So when you guys are sitting in a car and you're
waiting for somebody, you're waiting for your
kids to get out of school, grab yourself a pencil
and a sketchbook and just sit there and do
these blind contours, maybe draw the cars
in front of you or people if they're not moving a lot or trees or the
building, anything really. This is going to
really come in handy when you're learning
how to draw. Okay, so do a bunch of
these little exercises, however you think you want. The next one is just a
quick thumbnail sketch. So what you want to do is just
draw a few of these boxes. You can try different ones,
horizontal, vertical, square, whatever you want, and just
try to draw something. So I'm going to draw the same
thing. So I'm just going to kind of crop it to a square, like my little thumbnail here. And the idea is to quickly
get this down on paper. Like, just quickly sketch this
out, maybe like a minute. No more. You can set yourself a little timer on your watch. So when you're drawing, make sure you kind of figure out where to place your
item on the page. So you can do a grid. We did these in high school and college. We
always did grids. I remember gritting our paper in squares and then gridding
our picture in squares, and then our paper
in the same squares, and then you would
scale up or down. It's a whole thing,
and it's awesome. But if you're just quickly
sketching something, you can just kind
of divide it in half. Divide it in half. This is not the rule of thirds.
This is just sketching. And then just imagine a line going halfway through here and
then halfway through here. So we can see that this tree is kind of right in the middle. So we're going to quickly
just jot it down. We know that this end of the
tree is not in the middle. So we got to go a little below, and this branch goes out, but
it doesn't hit the middle. It goes a little above the
middle. So maybe over here. And then another branch
is closer to the edge. This is going to be a lot
smaller than I'm thinking. Another little tiny branch here, another branch right
below that one. Another tree back here. So you can see
quickly jotting down the main shapes and just
omitting the details. So we can see there's a
tree line behind there and the water edge
kind of right there. Another bush thing right here, grasses, and that's about it. We're done. So you
guys can, again, go find a bunch of pictures
you want to practice with, and you can fill this in if
you want. You don't have to. This is just a quick
exercise on how to proportionally kind of draw something on
a piece of paper. If you want to fill this in
and make your darkest darks, just get them in
there so you know, the value of what
they look like. So the darkest darks
are going to be here. I know that. There's a
highlight right here. So my darkest part of the tree
is actually on this side. And then this tree is not that dark. It's a little lighter. And then there's,
like, branches coming off here. We can put those in. And this branch is black. That is not as dark. Again, it's further
in the background, so it's not gonna be as black. Then there's shadows here, shadows coming off this tree, and then shadows kind of in these little
bushes right there. So we can put those in and
our water is going to be a little bit lighter
value. There we go. We've got our values down, and you can do the Oops. You can do the sky as well
if it's got some color, if it's not super bright. These bushes back there are
little darker than our sky. Alright, so that's it. So
just do a bunch of these. This probably took
more than a minute. But do a bunch. So fill up your page with
little tiny thumbnails and then fill up another
page with a few of these blind contour
drawings or not blind. If you don't want to
do that, that's fine. And that's about it for our
little sketching exercise. Make sure you do more
of these than just one. If your first one looks bad, do another one. Do another one. Draw the same thing
over and over and over till you feel like
you're getting better. And then you can move on to another photo and then do
that one over and over. Just do this before
you really get to the final piece that we're
going to be working on. That way you have a little
bit more confidence if drawing is not
your strong suit, which I'm guessing maybe isn't since you're here in this class trying to
learn a little bit more. Alright, guys, I will see
you in the next video, and we are going to
start our drawing.
5. Color: We all know the basics
of color mixing. Red and yellow make orange.
You know that much. But there's a few
little tricks that us artists use to
customize color even more. And that's mixing color. And it's not just the basics of red and yellow, make orange. There's so much more, and that's where the color
wheel comes in place, which I will show
you in a little bit. But first, what I need you
to do is make sure you know what your supplies can do. So the first thing
you want to do is swatch out your supplies. And that's what I'm
going to do right now. So grab your supplies, your either colored pencils, or your crayons, or whatever you're
gonna be working with, especially for this class. And you can go ahead and start swatching them out on paper. Okay, and now I'm
going to grab a brush and just give them
a little bit of water since these
are water soluble, I want to see what
they look like when they're wet because it'll
be a little bit different. So I'm going to zoom
in here for you guys. You can see this is my yellow, and I'm just going to
grab a little bit of it. So I want part of it to be
dry and part of it to be wet, so I can see what that's
going to look like. Then make sure you
clean your brush really good between colors. You can see how
different some of these colors are
when they're wet versus when they're dry. Like, this one gets so much more vibrant when it's got
water added to it. This one is green. See, it doesn't really
look very green here. It looks very dull and dark, but it doesn't have
that bright green. Whereas if you get it wet,
it looks so much better. It's got so much more color. Same with this blue. It just
comes to life with water. This one. This one is very light. So you can see if you want
this one darker, you really, really have to press hard with that pencil because
once you water it down, it's very, very light in value, which we will talk
about in a sec. Alright, so now that you
have your chart done, now you know to
reference colors. So especially if you have,
like, a bunch of colors, you do want to do this because you might pick up this
color and be like, Oh, I don't know exactly
what it's gonna look like. Then you can go
to your chart and really see exactly what
it's going to look.
6. Value: Now let's talk about value. You can make another value
chart if you have paints. Value chart is basically
something like this. It is dark, going to
the lightest color. So value is the darkness and
the lightness of a color. So let me show you right here. This is a value chart. So we go from the darkest
dark that that color can get to the lightest when you either add white or when you add water
for watercolors. So that is what value is. Now. Value comes into
play in landscapes because the further an
object is from you, the less detail and the
less saturated it will be. So it'll be less in value. That's why the mountains
and backgrounds, like on a landscape, the mountains all
the way in the back, those are very, very
light in color. They don't have a
lot of contrast. You can't see all
the details in them. They're a lot lighter because our eyes just
can't see that far. So let's look at
this one right here. You can see that the
mountain that is further away has less color,
less intense color. Same with this one right here. You can see that it
goes from very detail. Saturated color, dark values to less and less and less value, till it basically kind of
blends in with the sky. This one is a great
example of that, too. So we have our foreground, which is the closest and would most likely if you're doing
something more realistic, this is kind of
impressionist abstract. If you're doing
something more detail, you would have the most
detail in your foreground. So the objects that are
the closest to you, then the midground is
a little bit further. So like in the middle. So that would have a little
bit less detail. And then your background right here would have
even less detail, less color, less value
just further back. So that is where value comes in, and that's where your
colors comes in. So make sure when you
have new watercolors, like I said, new paints
or anything, make charts. I make charts like
this all the time. So you can really see the value, even with these watercolors, you can go from the
darkest ultramarine. If you keep adding water, this is what it will look like. So keep that in mind. And the first thing you do with supplies is test them out, play with them,
mix them together. Alright, now for
the little trick, let's talk about intensity. If you have a color,
let's say, green. Let's say I have this
green color right here. Let me grab one.
Let me show you. So I have a green right here, and it's a pretty nice green, but it's very green. So if I want to use this for, like, grass in a painting, that's going to
be just too much. It's almost like neon color. It's very, very green. If I want to take that intensity of the color down a notch and not have it so, like, in your face green. What you want to do is add
the opposite color to green. And the way to find
that opposite color is through a nice
little color wheel. If you don't have one, you
can easily make one yourself. Start with yellow, red and blue, and then mix yellow
and blue together. Blue and red together, and then red and
yellow together. So if we want to
find the opposite of this green color,
just look at green. Look how green it is. Is it more of a teal green, like it has more blue, or is it more of a yellowish green? So, for instance, this
one would be more of a tealish blue or green because
it has more blue in it. And then this one right here would probably
be more yellow green. You see that? This one has
a little bit more blue. This one has a
little more yellow. But this one looks like
it's kind of in the middle. So what you do is you
look straight across, and you know that red or red violet is going to
be the opposite. So let's play around with that. So let's grab a red right here. And I'm not going to
add a lot to this. So just a tiny bit. So we have our green.
Let me grab it again. And now we're going
to mix this green, and we're gonna
grab a tiny bit of that red. It's
probably too much. But do you see how it made it more of an earthy
green now instead of, like, really, really bright? And if you keep adding, you will eventually
get to brown. So don't add too
much of that red. You can play around with
adding a little bit of yellow or, like, a orange and making it even more different. Do you see that? If we added that
green to this yellow, it's even more of
a earthy green. Now, if we mix a lot of this yellow and that
green together, We have a more yellowish green. But if we grab some of that
red, now we have, like, a brownish earthy green
that's closer to, like, actual grass and
leaves and stuff and foliage instead
of this super, super bright, saturated green. So that's how you do
it. Same with blue. Let's say my blue
looks like this. And I want to make
it less less blue, not so vibrant,
not so saturated. What I do is look at my chart. Across from blue is orange, so I grab a little
bit of orange. And if you have
different oranges, this is where this comes in. Just play around with
the different oranges you have and see
which one works best. So grab a little bit
of that and add it to this blue a little
more of that orange. And you can see it's not
so so bright anymore. Let me make it again so that you guys can see the
actual difference. See how much more vibrant
this one is than this one. So if you don't have
a specific color in your kit of pencils or paints, you can easily adjust
them and mix your own. Alright. So please keep playing around with the
colors that you have. See what they make. So just grab them and spend your first day just playing
around with what you got because that's the
only way you're gonna know what you can make 'cause I don't know what you guys
have if you're using the same tools that I am. Alright, so let's get on with
our first little exercise.
7. Deckled edges: So I will be using this creamy, darker paper from Stonehenge. And what I want to do is make
those little deckled edges. So if you guys don't
know how to do that, keep watching, and
I'll show you. Otherwise, just cut out a size that you
want to work with if you've got a big
piece of paper, and you can tape it
to your surface or o. So what I'm going to do is trace this five by seven little
cardboard piece I have here. So I will just trace that on
here and then cut it out. Or you know what? I'm just going to cut it out right away. Okay. Now, for the little deckled edges,
I love doing those. I think this paper, it really does not matter
which side you draw on, but this will be my back. So I'm going to mark
it with a B for back. Now I have another cardboard
that is a four by six, and I'm just going to place
it right in the middle. And I will on the
back of your paper, just gently score the paper
with my exacto knife here. So I will not be
cutting through it. I'm not putting a
lot of pressure, but I do want it to make
a little bit of a cut. Okay. Now we're
going to fold it in. Oops. I'm going to fold it in. Not all the way, just
gently, just like that. Because if we need to
fold more, we can. But for now, we're just
gonna do a little bit. Now I'm going to start
tearing this way. So grab one of these
little corners and tear up and keep
moving your fingers down. So don't just hold it and
tear. Keep moving it down. In the areas where you
fold really, like, harder when you
fold all the way, it's gonna be a little
bit straighter. That's why we don't want to fold all the way we want a little bit of that
messy edge there, right? So you can experiment with this. But the whole idea of a decald edge is
it's unpredictable. It's messy, so it doesn't
have to be perfect. Also, you can avoid
this by not doing a decal edge.
Alright, there we go. So now we're drawing
on this side, and it looks so pretty. Look at those edges.
Looks really nice. So now you just hold
it back a little bit, and it's all good. Alright, so let's get started.
8. Landscape drawing initial sketch: Ready to start drawing. Let me get my picture. I put it away here. And we are going to do this
kind of quickly. We're going to focus
on the main areas of color and get
those down first. So you are welcome to sketch
this out with just a pencil. I am using this reference
photo right here, and I'm going to just start
by quickly sketching out the main shapes of
my landscape here. So I've got kind of
trees in the background, a little bit of a
mountain back there, more mountains in the distance. Then we have a little
patch of bright colors, a tree right here that goes
down all the way to here. Couple more trees right here. I'm not going to
do all the trees. I'm just going to try to
focus on the main ones. So I will do this main
one and that one. Okay. Now, grass. There's patches of grass here
that are kind of brighter, and then everything
else is kind of dark. So that's all I
have sketched out. I am not sketching out anymore
because I don't need to because we will be using
our colors to do that. I'm going to grab
my first color is this little peachy color right
here. It's called salmon. I'm just going to fill
this area with it because this whole area is
pretty much that peachy color. So you really have to kind
of squint and look at your reference and
figure out what are the main color areas. And this is the main
one right here, which is the peachy color. It's got variations in it, but we're going to
worry about that later. So don't press super
hard on these crayons. If you are using crayons or colored pencils or
anything really. Don't press super hard
because we will be going in with layers of other
colors and we don't want jeopardize that by using too much wax
on the first layer. So just like that, we have
a little bit of that color, just a little bit of
brightness right there, and then a little bit of a darker shadowy
area somewhere in the middle here on
the edges over here, roughly in those areas. Then we have some darker greens. All throughout that area. And trying to figure out
my tree placement here. I think I made it too
wide, which is okay. I can fix that up a
little bit later. So the back here they are green, but they are kind
of in the distance, so they're not very vibrant, which we can bring
down that color by just adding another
color with it. So this green, if
I add water to it, it'll be very much more
vibrant than it is right now. So in order to doll
down your greens, you want to add sort
of a reddish color. So I'm just going to add
just a tiny bit of it, just to the bottom half. Okay. And now we need I'm going to use this
yellow ochre color to add another little
strip of color back there and a little
bit right here. Okay, more green on this side. Darker green in certain areas. Alright, these are
our main colors. Oh, I forgot about the sky. The sky has got a
little bit of blue. It's not a very dark blue sky
or a very saturated blue. So I'm going to use
this very gently, lightly on the top. And then on the bottom,
we'll use some white. Now, if you've
used these crayons before and they're
a little dirty, just dip it in some
water and then use a paper towel to
just clean them off. We don't want all that brown
in our nice white sky here. So even the white blending with the blue is already giving it some more
color, as you can see. See that? Okay. And now I'm going to do this little
mountain behind there, which is just a tied blue. And then I'm going to
use some white to blend it and extend it to
color that background, that back mountain back there. And we'll still work with this
with our brush and water, and it'll look a
little different. So keep working
9. Landscape drawing: Right now I'm going to start
blending these colors. So I'm going to start with
the lightest color here, which is my peachy color. I'm gonna try to hit all
those peachy colors first. Okay, now I'm going
to get the greens and the darker browns. Okay, I'm going to do these
back trees right here. And if they are not dark enough, we'll just keep going over them and we'll make them darker. So don't worry about that. They are not dark enough, so we will be coming
back to those. Alright, so this is
our main colors. I'm gonna let this dry a little bit before I start adding color, but I'm going to add this
tree with a colored pencil. Just like that. Oh,
I didn't bland. I can't even talk today. I didn't bland Lok
blended the sky. So let's blend the
sky a little bit. Just to make that blue just
pop out a little bit more. Okay, I'm gonna grab a
black colored pencil here. Make this tree a little darker. Alright, so now I'm going
to add a little more white. Just bringing out those
whiter areas or not white. They're just brighter. So I'm going I'm making my strokes in the direction that I
see the grass is going, which is kind of that way so that they're not
just colored blobs, so it looks like grass. Or at least we're trying
to make your eyes think that it's grass, right? Because we're not drawing
every little blade of grass we see little
suggestions of them. Alright, I'm going to start
filling in my tree now, colored pencil,
so I'll use that. And I'm just filling it in. So I'm not really worried
about too many things. I am going to add
this tree right here, which I placed in
the wrong spot, but that's okay.
Nobody's gonna know. We're just gonna
draw it right there. And then it's got some
branches coming off. Not many, but there's some. And then they're mostly covered
with It is a pine tree. I just realized that I thought it was a different
tree, but it is a pine tree. So those are all little needles. Okay, I like the way that looks. I'm going to blend it in with
the brush a little bit to bring out some of that color
and see how dark it gets. And if you're not using
water soluble crayons or water soluble
colored pencils, then all you have to do is
just press a lot harder, but do it in layers. So do it gently at
first and then do another layer over it,
pressing a little harder, and then on and on
like that because if you start really
hard right away, then it's going to be hard to
kind of fix any mistakes or just the color once it's
already super dark. So just remember that. And yes, I need to make
these back trees a lot darker back
there. Not too much. I don't have to make
it exactly like this, but it is a good starting point. So I'm going to use, like, this dark green that
I have right here. And most of the shadow, most of that shadow is right
there on the bottom half. And then the top half is brighter because
all those leaves on those trees are picking
up the early sunlight. This picture was taken, I believe, early in the morning. So it is like a sunrise almost. This picture was
taken in South Dakota when we went on a little family
vacation a few years ago. And we went to this
National Park. I don't remember the name of it. I'm really bad with names. But we saw a lot of bison there, and it was really beautiful. We had the best weather, and there was, like,
no people there. So we could drive. Like,
there's a road there. We could drive really slowly
and just look at them. And I was freaking out in the car because they
would get close. I'm adding just these
little trees back here, and like I said, I'm not
gonna do every one of them. I'm just doing, like this. Just a suggestion that there
are little trees back there, and I will add
that shadow there. Alright, it's looking
good. I like it. Um, I don't need to blend
more with the brush. You don't always have
to blend everything. I sometimes like to
just because it if I have this area here
that's dark and I want to make this
one a little darker, then I can pull that color from here up a little
higher like that. So if you can see that, you'll know what
I'm talking about. I can blend this with my wet brush and then
bring the color up. Like that. And I'm creating these little trees in the
back just by doing this. Now I'm just going to blend
this little shadow here. Because your brush
your wet brush is picking up these colors. Let me get it wet again. It's picking up these colors. And then you can paint
with them almost. See how it got darker, and now it's getting all these other areas darker for me, which I kind of like. I like that little trick. Alright. I am going to start drawing in this little foliage in my tree back here, which I
haven't done yet. So I'm just gonna do, again, like we did down here,
big areas of color. So there's greens, a little bit of brighter
greens popping up there, so I'm going to add a
little brighter ones, and then darker as we get up here to the top because we are kind of
looking up at the tree. Well, obviously, trees
are taller than people, but I think this was
up on a little hill, as far as I can remember, if this is the area, then the tree is kind of
more at an angle, even more than it naturally is. Add a little bit of
highlight to my tree, and I want to do
that with purple. I really like using
purples and, like, a light blue or this type of purple for my highlights
on tree trunks. I did it a few times on some
of my other tree paintings, and I just really
love how that looks. It just adds a little bit
more life and depth to it. I really like it. But I do
have to make this tree darker. Now, I'm going to darken up my darks and brighten
up my highlights. And this time, I'm not going
to blend these in because I feel like I want to keep some of that
roughness in there. I want to keep that
sketchiness in there. So I will just add little spots
where I feel it needs it. Like, there's deep blacks back there all the way
in the distance, a little bit off the shadow. You can sharpen these as well. I need a little bit
of a sharper tip. I could use my colored
pencils, but at this point, there's so much wax built
up that I don't think my colored pencils will
really add more color on top. It'll just kind of
scratch the wax. So you can just sharpen these just to get a
little bit more of a tip. I don't like sharpening
them too much because I feel like it's just
wasting my tip. But sometimes you got to
do what you got to do. Okay, I'm adding just little
bits of the darkest darks. So don't go too crazy with this. Black is a very strong color. And if you add too much, you might just ruin it. It'll be just too
too much contrast, and it'll just not
look that great. So do a little bit, step back, look at it, and then come back if you need to add
a little bit more. Don't go too crazy too soon. Alright, a little bit
more darks back here. But maybe that'll be
it for the blacks. I feel like the color of that distant mountain needs
to be different. So I will grab my pencil just
shade it in a little bit. It just needs to not be so blue. I just needs a little more dark. Here we go. That looks
a little bit better. Now maybe I can use my brush and a tiny
bit of titanium white. I know I'm just undoing
everything I just did. Don't worry. Tiny bit because it'll blend
that. Oops too much. It'll blend that a
little bit better for me. Then I can extend it out. Oops. Here we go. That's a lot better. I love it. Alright, now, all I have to do is just come back
with some highlights, some tree holes, as they
call it, for my tree. So I am going to mix this blue. And the way I do it is pick
up some blue from my crayon. I just use a clean brush,
and I just do this. I know, I have
weird things I do. Um just make sure
it's wet enough. And don't do it
over your drawing. Don't get, like, a big
puddle on there. So do that. And then I'm just going to use my palette just right here. Look at that. It's
so much color. And then use a little
titanium white, mix it in there, and you've
got a nice light blue. And now I can just add little bits of sky
poking through my tree, and it's going to
match that blue. There's going to be
probably more the further to the edges you get
kind of blend them out. Alright, that looks better. I really, really love it. I think I'm going to add
tiny bits of highlights. So I'm going to add more of my titanium white on my brush, and I'm just going to add
little highlights where I feel. Oops, I need them. You can also use your finger for blending, like I just did. If you need to soften the edges because they're
a little too hard, you can just grab
your finger and dab it and just kind
of blend it out. So don't be afraid of
using your fingers. If you don't want
to get paint on yourself because some
paints are toxic. If you're careful
about all that kind of stuff, just wear gloves. Or you can also just use, just grab a little paper
towel or something and use that or a tip.
That works great. So I'm going to add
these white whites, and I know they're not
super white in here, but I just like a nice
bright highlight. We're pretty much done, guys. I can't believe it. I hope you learned
something from this class. Especially patients. This does feel like just
a quick, quick sketch, but it does take some time, and it definitely does
take some practice. I've done so many of these that we'll never
see the light of day because I feel like they are horrible because you
just need to practice. So if you guys finish this class and you feel like your piece
is just not that great, don't worry about
it. Do another one. Start over, go
back to the first, video or go off on your own, now that you have
some of the knowledge of skills that you need
to work on to get better. I need a little bit
of a different green. I feel like I've been using
the same green over and over. Maybe I'll take this dark
teal one a little bit. Just add some of these little
tiny bushes around here, these little things
that are popping up that I feel just need to be in there.
Not too many of them. We don't want to get too crazy, but it needs to be darker
around this tree as well. I didn't notice
that. Okay. I feel like we are nearing
the end here. Let me see. One more thing
before I call this done. I want to add just a
little little bit more of those branches pine needles. It is a pine tree, some
kind of a pine tree. I just want to add
a little bit more. I feel like it's just kind of it's kind of
naked back there. Mm gonna get my brush. Make it a little white. That is it. I believe
I am finished.
10. All done: That is it, everybody. Thank you very much for taking this class with me
and learning how to do a nice little easy
mixed media landscape. This wasn't supposed to be
anything super detailed. So do not worry about
those details if you are. And all the info and everything is found in the project
section down below, and I would love to see
your drawing, painting. Please post a picture of
your finished landscape. I would love to see it. So that is it for today. Thank you very much, and I will see you in one
of my other classes.
Weronika Z., Artist | Designer
