Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to this
advanced watercolor class. Today we're going to be painting this pretty little
tabby cat together. Now, this has been a
much requested class and I always aim to please. Now, have you ever been
curious how I paint my own pet portraits
that I think this is going to be an insightful and very useful class for you. I'm Jane Davis. I live, paint, teach, and walk my lovely spaniels in the beautiful South Downs
National Park, England. Over the last 15 years, I've taught myself the free flow technique that
you see today. Not having been to art school, finding my own way has been
fun and sometimes daunting, but has allowed me to
develop my own style. This has led me to
teaching others, either on a one to one
basis or as part of a group in a wonderful studio in the heart of the South Downs. I also run a successful
commission based business, painting pet portraits and wildlife art in my
own home studio. In all my classes
you will follow along in real time where I can guide you to
keeping your work loose and fresh
without over fussing. I have over 20 classes
available in skill share. Now if you're just starting out, my three beginner
classes will guide you. Then you'll find over
20 master classes covering a wide range
of beautiful subjects. In each one, I'll share the techniques that I use in
my own professional work. We'll have a lot of fun together and you'll gain
the understanding and confidence to incorporate everything you learn
into your own work. Plus I'll share a few of my tips and tricks
along the way to, as ever, I provided you with a wonderful reference
photo along with a downloadable template
for you to print out. The template gives you
a stress free drawing, so you can just
enjoy the painting. I'll be showing you how to keep the whole painting lovely and soft by adding two subtle layers that add depth and interest. I also want to show you
how to add those stripes. I have a nice technique that
keeps them lovely and loose. I'll be guiding to
creating those beautiful, all important eyes that
hold so much character. There's a wealth of other tips and tricks I want
to share with you. From sectioning areas off to adding the final crisp details. If you'd like to learn
more about me all my work, please pop over to my
website at Jane Davis, Wardcolors.com.uk This can be found on my profile
page along with links to my Instagram
and Facebook pages. I'm very active on my
social media pages where I love sharing my art, especially on stories
with many ideas, works in progress, and
tales of studio life. I really hope you will share all your paintings on the
projects and resources pages, as I love seeing
your masterpieces. And don't forget,
I'm here to help. If you get stuck or
have any questions, I want you to experience that buzz of painting
in this liberating, wet and wet loose style.
So come and join me.
2. Materials: Welcome along to this much
anticipated cat class. Actually, many of you
requested this subject. Here it is, okay. The materials I've used
today are as normal, a lovely selection of
Daniel Smith paints. There'll be a little swatch on the projects and
resources pages. If you haven't obviously
got the same colors as me, you can color match
up the colors. We don't be afraid to
experiment with your own. Don't let that be a
limit to this class. But what I'm using today, and there are some
favorites here that I've used in multiple classes. Pa, I got soda light genuine. I've got great titanium
goite brown Oka. I have admin, a yellow, deep hue just for the eyes laps last just
because I love it. Slight genuine and a
very tired looking tube now of white Gh. Now my paper is Bockingford
and it's been stretched. And I would recommend stretching
your paper because it's quite a complex
subject you don't really want to be
tackling also with it, buckling and dipping on you. I would highly recommend
stretching it or buying a gum pad which is gummed obviously around
most of the edges. That gives you a little bit
more of a stretched paper, been stretched on a
perfect paper stretcher. And I will put a link to that because it's a useful board. I've got my pot of water, I have got my normal things, a rubber, got my little heart
which is just an inch high. I don't tilt the board
a lot in this class, but there are times when I have, it might be useful for you to little bit of kitchen
roll, paper towel. Then I've got my brushes
and obviously a pencil, I've got a number that's for doing the eyes and
the smaller details. If you haven't got
a not a number one or two would be
absolutely fine. I got number 16 for
the bigger parts. Watering, wetting stuff down and applying some
of the wet washes. I've got a number ten and my trusty little
eradicated brush, which is just had little
bits of light out. Now I have a magic sponge. Some of you may have
come across these, but they're a handy little
thing for taking color out. And I'll explain further
in the class about that. I've got some masking fluid. I've used that to
create those whiskers. If you haven't got
masking fluid, you could use white paint
when it comes to it. Again, it's something that everybody has, but quite useful. What else is there? I've got a hair dryer,
which is off camera but handy to dry your painting
in between layers. There is that in the soil, in the projects and
resources pages that larvly reference photo, which is beautiful to have open. If you can have that open
while you work the template. Use the template. As I say, it's a, it's a tricky class. I always find cats a
little tricky and harder to do than dogs. But
maybe that's just me. But it's nice to be
able to feel confident that you have everything in the right place
before you start. Because as I always say, this is a painting class,
not a drawing class. So don't feel
afraid to use that. So I don't think
there's anything else to remind you about. I think let's go and sketch them out and I'll
see in the next lesson.
3. Sketching Out: Right then it's onto the
sketching up out part. Again. There's that lovely reference
photo in the projects and resources pages
get that nice and opened up and so you can
see this lovely cat. Don't be afraid to
use that template. It's there for you to
have a nice shapes. You've got this right before
you start the painting, as I say in the introduction. So you can just enjoy the painting knowing you've
got all this correct. Obviously, as you can see, I've already got
this sketched out. So I'm just going to give
you just a few pointers that will hopefully help you
when you come to sketch. Her, I think is a her.
Let's go with her template. If you've used that to go
round, as I always say, I'm probably repeating this
if you follow me regularly. So apologies for that. But I'm not sure. We pit, I'm going
to have to point my brush but yet make sure you get that
larvly shape right. We section off the head, ears, and the body. So just make sure you've
got these lines down here, which I'll make sure I've
popped on the template for. You can see, you can
see quite clearly, this is obviously
where the coat goes. You've got a lovely white chest, and this is where
the coat starts to get that in and the leg, obviously the eyes
are super important. They're always important. But I would probably say more important for this cat because they're
such a focal point. Really take your time
getting that shape right. She's on a slight angle, so it makes it a little harder. What I would suggest
is draw them in, go away 10 minutes
sometimes enough, come back and then
look at it again. Because you'll see if there's any other tinkers you have to make little
small adjustments. So it's always worth giving yourself a little bit
of time before you start painting just
to make sure you got that really lovely and correct. I have put the eyeballs in. It's just nice Sometimes if you've got a nice
sketch in front of you, it gives you a boost
when you start painting, because some of my
students have said, there's always that
ugly stage where I'm feeling like it's
all going a bit wrong. If you've got a nice drawing
in front of you, it helps. I think what I'm
doing for you today, we're going to do the eyes a lot sooner than I normally do. Which I hope will help some of you with, with that problem. That middle stage
looking a little odd. Anyway, I think I'm rabbiting on a bit
too much as normal. So what I'm going to do first, we're actually going
to use a little bit of masking fluid today. Don't often use it,
but those whiskers, they are terribly
prominent, aren't they? We're going to put a
little bit of masking fluid in top off. Put that down. Now,
word of caution, if you haven't
used masking fluid before, get an old brush. Whatever you do do, use your best brush because
you will never get it out. As you can see, it probably was a nice
brush at one point, but it doesn't wash
out very well. You can use any,
sometimes the actual, the end of your old brush, or I have used in the past the little
toothpicks and stuff. Something very small
and it's got an edge. Or I saw point. This is an ideal I must admit. But I've got a little tip
that will help you to reduce the size of them in
the finishing off bit. Don't panic if they get
a little bit chunky. First off, with the whiskers. It's a nice movement
with your hand. If you want to practice out on a little scrap of paper just to get that nice movement in, then that's worth just spending
a little time with that. Just to get your
wrist action right. But we're going to start then. We're just going a
bit scary, isn't it? Do a few lines, if
they go a bit chunky, if they go a bit wrong. Before you start painting, you can always rub out
the ones you don't like A quick wrist action. I think the large
you paint this cat. If we were to be
doing this on a, say, two or something really big, then obviously these whiskers
would be proportion. If you're painting this cat even smaller than the
template you'll find. Obviously in
relation you'll have chasers one up here as well. I think that's probably enough because as with
every you can get carried away because you can add a little bit of white
paint as well to incorporate in that so you
can mix it up a little bit. When we do the
finishing off bits, we can add a little
bit of white. I'm also going to do
just a few splatters. Just gives a little bit of movement that you
might not like this, but that one's a bit big. But let's have a
little splat tick you around the chest again, if you don't like switch
your angle a little bit. Can use in another
hand you don't like. Once they drive then
you can rub those out. Obviously this is too
chunky, I don't like that. But once that dries completely, make sure that the garmin
is completely dry, then you can just rub them out, which I will show you in
the next little lesson. But for now, I've got
to allow that to dry. And you can see a big one
in the middle of the eye, which I really
don't want anyway. Allow that masking fluid
to drive you have used it. And I'll see you in
the next lesson.
4. Ears: Okay, before we
start these ears, let's just get rid of some
of these little bits of gum before we get distracted
and forget about them. Obviously, that
one I don't want, so I'm just going to
gently peel that back. Probably probably haven't
left that quite long enough, has left a little bit of a mark, but get the one out the eye. These have dried thoroughly, but a big splodge like that
takes a long time to dry. Okay. Anything you don't like? I didn't really want anything around the chin of that one. Probably. That one there. Okay. I think I like the rest. They look All right. So
just take your time. Have a little look.
See if you have used the gum then
just take those out. Okay. Nice and easy as ever. I've been kind to you, so we're going to start with those ears. I'm picked up my number
ten brush and I'm going to wet the two ears down. You can see whether we
would put that line in just wet to there. Make sure you have
plenty of water. On to number two, make sure
you stay within those lines. Not so important on the lower
part that joins the head, but on the outsides of the ears, it's nice to get, keep
it nice and crisp. Now with this whole
cat, we're actually doing two layers
over everything. The first layer we're doing is just to put a little bit of base color down
and get us going. It's always quite
scary, isn't it? When you've got that
blank piece of paper, they're looking at you, it's nice to start with
something simple like the ears, which I always tend to do
with most of my pieces. I've picked up the Gradanium, the sug light, let's just, I just want to get a
little bit of color. It's obviously quite light here. Now, if you have a pink, you could have a little
bit of blush pink here. I'm honest, I didn't want to add too many more colors
here for this color choice. But if you have got
a little bit of potters pink, it
is quite pretty. But the equally a little bit
of gray is absolutely fine, just mixing it up a bit, just tapping it in and
allowing it to move. I'm not trying to do too
much trying to round it, Getting any particular shadows
or anything particular. That's all all I want. Put those two colors
down. Clean brush. Just picked up Pia. Actually, I'll have the Gothit
have these two together. I just want to stop picking up some of the darker
edges around that ear, Around the outside
of that ear gain. Just tapping,
wheeling, allowing, get a little here, Mix the
colors up a little bit. You can see there's
spa probably at the base and a little
bit of Gothyite. Oh, that's too much
spa around the top, so let's just get rid of that. But it doesn't matter too much. So put a little bit
of Gothite there. If it runs a bit too much, just gently suck it up,
push it back again. You don't want to
do too much because say we can build up the color on the next layer just to start
getting some interest. And body down a little bit
more spa there, tap in. Of course, the first
layers will always move once you start. Partly if you start going
over three or four, you'll find the paint
won't move much at all. If you want it to spread, it's always best to do that on your very first layer because the paint
will move the most. If you see something
you like and it's looking pretty,
then leave it. You're just after something
that's pleasing to your eye. Brush away. See what we think. I think for now that will do me. I've got started, I've
got some color down. I feel like I'm on my way. So all we're going to
do, we're going to need to let that dry ideally, but we are going to
be doing the eyes, if you're careful
and you're quite confident you aren't going
to touch those ears, you don't need to
dry in between, but I will allow that to dry. And then we start
with those eyes. A little bit of a mix up today.
5. Eyes Part One: Okay, it's on with the eyes. Which seems a bit strange to be saying that at this
stage in the painting, if you haven't followed me
in any of my classes before, I generally leave the eyes
right to the very end. This time we're going to do them earlier on and see
how that feels for you because I think I'm
in the majority minority, should I say that, paint
the eyes at the end. Most artists will do
them at the beginning. See how that feels. You may find it's a game
changer for you. Okay. So it's very simple. This first layer, we're
just going to wet both eyes down and we're going to pop some yellow and the go tight down. It's all in little
stages to say, make sure you stay
within those lines. I suppose the beauty of
doing the eyes right at the beginning is
when we come to do the face, we can adjust. If we've gone a
little bit too big, we can then adjust
a little easier. It will be interesting
for me to revisit doing this way round as
well, if I'm honest. Let's have the yellow not
doing anything complicated, I'm tapping rather than
actually painting it in. Just allowing it all to blend and move around, rather
than actually painting. I could have painted
it in, but I just find this just gives me
more softness somehow. Again, just tap, allow
it's quite a strong color. This cabin, lovely. As
soon as you got that, probably shouldn't
need any more of that cabin actually.
It's nice and strong. Then with the GothiteI'
going to tap underneath, we're starting to put a
little bit of shadow we don't want below the
lower part of the eye, it's just the upper part
of the eye you can already see that's creating a little bit of shadow and a bit of interest. It's a really important tip
to do to get that strength. Obviously, we can add more in
a minute on the next layer, but this is just starting
to build that up, honestly. You don't want to do too
much more than that. You know, you're going to say you're just going
to have to allow that to dry before we can
do the next little layer.
6. Eyes Part Two: Okay, once thoroughly dry, we are going to wet back up. Wet the back down
again very gently, because we've already
got one nice layer. You don't want to
rustle that up. So you want to keep your
brush ever so light. Try not to scrub,
just gently add. Sometimes by doing this, you'll find you've got a
little bit of a puddle. All you have to do is then
to soak that puddle up. But it's better to have a puddle than to rustle that first layer. You can quite easily see by bobbling your
head up and down, whether you've got a puddle. I think that looks
all right, from what I can see, lovely. I'm going to pick up
the sepia and the sod. Like genuine. We're
going to start putting that eye make up on eye makeup, but you can see she's got some lovely dark
around that eye. We're going to stay
with inside that eye. We're not going to
the outside of it, we're going to be
painting inside of it. The idea of wetting it down, it will give us a
nice soft edge rather than a very hard line
which you would create. We were painting
this on a dry eye. I hope that makes
sense. But yeah, make sure you stay with
it inside the line of as you'll end up with a cap
with some very large eyes. Sometimes when you look at animals or reference
photos like this, it can get a bit
confusing whether you're adding the color
inside or outside. And they have all this
little gentle marking. Yeah. Make sure you
stay with it inside. Too much color there. Strike that. Away talking
and not concentrating fully. You see she's got, it's dark at the top again. And we're going to add just a little bit of that was a CPA. Just a tiny little bit
of so light genuine. Now just say very
gently, little taps. It can be the eyes of
the minutest thing. Tiny little bit of color can make or break.
So take your time. If you're in a warm
climate and we have wet both eyes
down together, if you find your right eye to think about right
and left has dried, you can always add a
little bit more water. And we'll do that
in a minute because I can see mine has
starting to dry. Just take my time. And
if you like sitting, I am standing and I like
to stand when I paint. But doing the eyes
is a nice time to take your weight off your
feet and get nice and close. Sadly, I'm a little
way away as normal, so I don't get my head in the shot as often
say in the classes. Something looks a
little bit different When you come back
to the next lesson, it's just because I've been able to get a little bit
closer to my painting. It would be nothing I haven't told you about in that lesson. Okay, I can see that my right height has
dried a little bit. Add a little bit more water
in there just to get a nice, you can see the top of
the grain of the paper, but it's not sitting on a paddle either and it's
obviously not dry. Again, we're doing exactly
the same. Start with the Pia. I tend to start at the top because that's a
darker at the top. And gives it a
little more paint, a little more freedom to move. And then very gently, stay inside the eye,
don't go outside. If you find it moves too much, you just your brush, Take the color out off your brush and then
just gently guide it. Do the same. We're going to add a little
bit of P at the top. Again, keep your eye on that reference pot squint your eyes is a corny
thing, isn't it? Squinting your eyes,
but you can see if you feel you need a little
bit more, go again. You can pick that up and
add a little bit more go. That would give you
a bit more strength without too much color. Genuine and P is quite dark. Gothit might be enough for you to my CPI. I can see something gone a
little astray with this eye. Quite work it out at the moment. That looks better. Okay. Once you got something
you're pleased with and to say you may have
got there before me. If you do, then stop and if you feel you haven't
quite got there, then take your time, pause the class and get that right before you
move on to the pupil. So you want to be happy with it? Yes. I'm sure you
know what to do, so just pause it and get it right and allow it to dry
before we add that pupil.
7. Eyes Part Three: All right. Once thoroughly dry, we are going onto
the scary spot. Pick up your PA and
you so light genuine. And we're going to paint
those eyeballs in. Take your time. And they're going to look ugly for a minute. Bear with it, starts
in the middle. You've probably got that
sketched out because it's always helpful to
get them sketched out. We're just, I would go with,
honestly, it doesn't matter. I've got both colors actually on my bush
at the same time. It doesn't matter too much. But you're starting in
the middle of the pupil, slowly working your way out. If you did the owl
class before this, then you know the thing we're doing slowly.
Make your way out. Take your brush away, have
a look a little bit more. She almost loses that
pupil under the lid. We're going to wet
that way down in a minute to soften it, so don't worry too much. And we're going to go onto the
next one exactly the same. Just keep going round
and round around. Keep an eye on that
reference photo. Take your brush away. If you get something
you're like, oh, that's it, I'm done. Maybe it's not the right size
how you've sketched out. It's not quite right,
but it actually looks really good on the
painting. Then stop. Have a little look.
Don't blindly follow your pencil marks if what you have in front
of you looks good. Okay, I'm going to leave
it there for a minute. P, two colors down per second. I'm going to rely the eye
including that little pupil. It shouldn't be, but if it is very wet for any
reason, just hang fire. Just let it dry a little bit. Now this will gently soften that pupil from looking
too stark and round. It also gives you
the opportunity, let's go to add a little bit more color
underneath that eye because I think I
need a little bit more underneath the lid. You may not be a judge
of your own piece again. You think the shapes may be gone a little something not quite right for the
shape of that eye, but just gently tinker
everything's very loose. Also, if you feel like
your color is running a little bit and you're
losing that yellow, you can just, again, clean
brush and wipe the color away. So you then get back
to that yellow. You can add a little
bit more yellow if it feels a bit too much yellow, If you feel like it's
escaping you a little bit, add a little bit more color. It's just a case of really
looking your own piece. We're all going to be slightly
different at this stage. Take your time. Just
have a little tinker. And if it's all getting
a little bit beyond you, just break for a minute. You can let that
dry and re wet and then go over it again
and have a little look. Sometimes you just
need to step away. But I would say maybe the advantage to doing
this now with the eyes, which are the trickiest part, we're fairly fresh
into the painting, we shouldn't be too
fatigued with it. Also, it may help you. Sorry, I'm doing
exactly the same as I did with the left eye. The same on the right eye. Just gently adding a
little bit more color. Just trying to get that eye but eye just right so it's soft but a nice man of shadowing in better go fight
in that corner. Maybe you can pick up
the yellow again if you feel your yellows
escape you a little bit. It's a little odd in
some context because you've got nothing
else around the eye. You're just painting two
eyes and there's no body. I think that's probably why I prefer generally putting
the eyes in later, but that's just my personal
preference, probably. Okay. I'm going to leave
it at that for a minute. I'm going to allow it to dry. I'm also, if I'm honest, going to get a
little bit closer, which I can't do at the moment, and just tidy anything up and then we will put
that catch light on. But again, just take your time. Don't be afraid to
have a little tinker. This is a good time to tinker. There's a good time
and a bad time in the eyes you really
want to get right. So it is worth taking your time.
8. Eyes Part Four: Okay. So how did your tinkering
go have you got there? They're tricky cat's eyes. They're a lot harder than dogs because
obviously you've got that pupils very exact as dogs eyes are
particularly soft. So they're harder.
Definitely harder. Okay, I'm fairly
pleased with mine. I think they look alright.
I say I did tinker. I must confess, I did spend a little time
trying to get those right, but what we're going to do
now is take a little bit of color out underneath,
you can see this. And especially if you squint your eyes and a lovely light. So we're just going to
slightly bigger brush, Gently wipe some of
that color away. You can use your finger just
to give it a little squidge, another one under here. Try and get them in
the same places and probably funny light sources coming in from that
reference photo. But I'm going to try
and just take it out from the left hand
corners on both eyes. Take your brush away.
See what you think. Let's say I find it hard not to have the rest
of the animal in context. It will hopefully make sense once we start
painting her in a bit more. But let's do those
catch lights because I think they are always a
lovely thing to put in. I'm going to pick
up my white gresh, give a bit of a rustle
my little brush, there's actually
two little dots. We are actually going
to put two little catch lights on each eye. I'm going to roughly follow
the reference photo, so it's one up top. One a little bit
lower, isn't there? You can see that even with
no body that's bottom to more to life, lovely. Okay. Now, if like me, I think some of my ages aren't quite
the right shape, but as we then do the head, we can then sculpt the
eye a little bit more. That should be fine. But what we're going to do
just very quickly is the nose, it didn't really warrant
a whole a lesson on that. All we're doing, we're
wetting that nose down a little bit of, just tap that right
at the very top. And then pick up your, like, genuine, tiny a little
bit at the bottom. So you can see there's a bit of shadowing there, can't you? That's all we're doing
because we'll put all those nostrils in
and the more detail, the shadowing around the
nose in the next layer. That's all you need to do.
Of course. Let that dry.
9. Body First Layer: Okay, let's get some color
on this lovely body. So I'm going to pick
up my number 16 brush, get it lovely and wet. And what I will do, which I think is helpful, this is just for you to
see where I've wet down. So don't add color. Just get your brush
nice and wet and we're going to wet this area. If you look at your
reference photo, there's a dark, I'm going
to call it a collar. It's obviously not
a collar, it's just part of her markings. But just for ease, I'm going to call it
the brown collar, so you kind know what
I'm talking about. So we're going to wet that
part down and we're going to wet it roughly to that
leg joint, see there. And then we're it
halfway down that leg. You can see where the stripe
starts somewhere there. It doesn't have to be
exact again on this side. And then carefully stay within your lines and
then fill it all up. You don't want dry patches. You can easily see if you
duck your head up and down or even move your paper. If you can do that, you can see where there's
any dry patches. I've just got rid of my
yellow and the grass. If you're wondering why the desk looks a bit bearer because I
shouldn't need those colors. We might do a little
bit of fiddling with the eyes in the
finishing off bits, but mix it, less likely to
pick up the wrong color. Okay, once that's lovely and wet and you've
got no dry patches, then let's put that one down. I've got the labs, Lazaro
and the sug light. I'm going to pop some
color where I'm trying, I'm going to pop some
color underneath the G in. Just allow that. It's just, again, a bit like the ears. We're just trying to get a
little bit of color down. Doesn't have to be exact. I just want this just to be a
little bit blue, obviously. She's got a white bib, so we're making up a
little bit of color here just to give
us some picked up. The gray, that's a
really nice color. It pushes other colors around. As I mean, it you
can see, can't you? It moves the colors
around. It's a nice paint. Sometimes you end up
using the paint for their character
and what they do, almost as much as they're
beautiful colors, you can see there's a
shadow line, isn't there? So we're going to try and
fill in that shadow line. Just tapping and all you could. I don't necessarily
think I need it, but I've got my little heart, so I can always just
talk my ball a touch. And that will encourage all this lovely painter move
a little bit more down. We can tap a little bit
more so we're not putting any strong coat colors on that will come on the next layer. So say just a little
bit of color. Okay, I'm just going to leave my flax because I don't
really want to tilt on it. And I can see if
you are tilting it, watch out for your water
puddling on the bottom. I don't really need that in
the moment. Suck that up. That's quite puddly.
Okay. I've got something. Got it
off down there. That's enough color. Just make sure Gomer that in. I put those colors
down for a second. I'm going to pick
up the Go site. We're saying we are
putting coat color in. We're not doing the stripe. I'm misleading you. There were just along that
coat line you can see where the color she
obviously got a white bib. You can see where
her coat color comes in because she tap
along that line, along that back as well. You can pick up some
slight whatever colors. You don't worry too much just getting a little
bit of base color down. I don't want it too
heavy on the top, so I'm going a little bit light
weather, so light genuine. But there's a bit
of strength there. Go way down in a minute, we're going to wet
further back into this area and this color
will then be dragged down. Get a little bit of color in. Just tap. It doesn't have to be anywhere,
say no where exact. We're not doing anything
fancy at the moment. We're just putting color
down and just tapping. Okay. I'm going to
clean my brush. Put those colors down for a second and we're going
to wet that edge down. We're just going to pull, so we're wetting all
this paper back. And pulling it right off. That will drag the color
that's here into the body. We'll get down this way.
You can see it moving now. You can just keep moving
it, keep pulling it back. Now I've got a little bit, I've stretched my paper. It's got a little bit
of a kink in here. It's sitting in a puddle. It's not moving
particularly well. I'm going to give it a
little bit of a help. I'm just going to tilt
my board as well. Now, I can now add a little bit more color because
obviously that's moved. I've lost a lot of
the strength now. Just add a little bit more, keeping ever so soft still. I don't want to add
too much color. I want this to be, there's
quite a lot of color in there. I just want it soft. I don't want to add too
much in there really. I think the interest is mainly going to be around her
face and their head. This is Sbviously got a body and we've got those lovely stripes to
put in next as well. Which will be done on the second layer, pulling those out. So if I can get that to move, doing a fantastic
job that's going. Now actually once
that starts to move, you want to then
just do the same with the leg and just
drag that down as well. And will be the back leg lovely. A little more stripped up there. I don't want to be
doing any flicks even though we'll
do those later. So say this is just a
little bit of bad color. Now if for any reason
you've lost this white, because we want this to
be this little area here. There's a nice, a nice amount of light
there, isn't there. So you always pop a little
bit of water in there and just clear and that will run, just give you a bit of interest. Mine stay quite
white and I'm okay. But you can easily do
that and should almost clear that area for you without having to sort
scrubbleor doing anything else. Okay. Last thing I'm going to do is she's going
to put those colors down. She's going to lay
her flat again. I want to start to put
up just a little bit of strength down as a
really strong line down this leg where the join is. I just want to get
that in and we can strengthen that again
on the second layer, but it's, it's quite pronounced, so we want to make sure
it's nice and strong. I also want it to move
quite nicely as well. By doing that on
the first layer, that should encourage
that paint to move a little bit more. Okay, always a
temptation is to fiddle, but I'm going to be good. I'm going to put that down and I'm going to
allow that to dry. Now obviously you can speed things along
with a hair dryer, which is obviously fine just
if mine's quite puddly here. So you don't want to put
a hair dry over white. It's puddly because you'll end up just blowing
pigment around. Just hold on until it, if you
can see it on the camera, but it's just
starting to go off. That's the perfect time to
run a hair dryer over it.
10. Head First Layer: Okay. So once that body's fully dry or if you're clever and not
likely to put your hand in, you could then carry on with the head and allow that
to dry on its own. But to me, it's a little
risky because it's so easy to smudge things as you're
then working on the head. Anyway, aren't these
lovely colors? I think there's such a
pretty combination, right? We are going to wet
the whole head down, but we're not going to include what I'm going to say
calling that brown color, which we haven't put in yet. But again, let me, again, this is just for you, but I'm just going to pop
a little bit of color down so you can see
the areas of wet down, particularly the lower parts. You can see what I mean. So you can see the lighter
parts of her head. It's almost like two
joints to the head, so we're sticking
with the lighter. The upper bit go carefully
around the nose. I tend to if I'm
missing parts out, I tend to go around those first. So I know I've wet that area down like the eye as well with the eyes
carefully around those. I think I might have just
gone into the eye a little. We're going to miss out the
ears because we're going to do another layer again. Just want to get a little
bit of color down on this first layer carefully around the eye, But
you want to touch it. If it starts to be a
little, that's perfect. I could say that's perfect, but I wouldn't lower myself
to such a Cory joke. Okay. Once it's again, once
it's nice and wet, which you can see by dipping your head up and down,
gone over that chin, round the nose, and
carefully around those eyes we are going to pick up I've
got my buff titanium. I'm going to where I did
the sug light and I'm also going to have
a little bit go, may be a bit of
so light genuine. I've got four paint in my
hand as you can see this, this is the lights
probably coming from the left hand side. The right hand side is going
to be a little bit darker. Making sure I've got that plenty wet enough because we want this paint to move your paper. If you just what
the hair dry over your lower part of
the body like I did, then the paper can warm up and then obviously dries
quicker, right? A little bit of titanium, little bit of the goiteI'm literally working right
on that corner and just tapping if your
paint doesn't move and it didn't get that quite
wet enough like maybe I did. You always add, make sure
your brush is also wet. And just keep tapping and allow that to move
into the center. Come up to the ear a little
bit. Touch that line. See you, you're touching it so you're not
leaving any white mark. Sorry, just continue
adding colors. Have a tiny little bit. So generally, I don't
want to get too heavy, just scrap the PA as well. Let's go for a five
paint handful. Just squint to the photo. You're looking for the
dark areas, really. You're just putting
this heavier color in and allowing it to
move to the center. You can, like we did with
the lower part of the body, drag some of this, we encourage
that paint over again. You can give a
little bit of tilt to be fill it and
find it hasn't moved. I'm going to keep mine flat. But it's just another
little trick bear in mind. You've got a white
chin down here, so you don't want too much
color in that white chin. So I'm going to actually put
some of these colors down. I really need such a big handful I'm going to keep hold of. I've got the Gothite,
the sug light, and the gray titanium. My hand still, I'm going to
put a little bit of gray. A little bit of sug light. Just tap it on the forehead. Just a little bit. Movie a little bit. Just give it a little
bit of a squeech. Put a little bit of other
color over the top of it. That's absolutely
fine. Just allow it. Just allow it to move. Have a
look. Take your brush away. See, see what you think. Say, keep bearing in mind, we will do another layer. My paper stretching has
not worked very well. A little bit of a puddle
going here as well. Me telling you to
make sure you have your paper ice and
stretched and flat. That's fine, right?
A little bit. She's got some lovely
colored cheeks, has it? She said, let's just
just pop that in. It doesn't have to be
exact because we can take color out and tinker
on the next layer. We're just getting a little
bit of something down. Although this is quite
a dark nose and we will put more strength
on the second layer. Let's just get something
down there already. It will help the paint
not move so much. When we come to do
the second layer, there's something already there. Okay, let's have
a little lap side because I love this color. I'm just going to put something. There's quite a dark, it's obviously just
her coat markings. But there's quite
a dark coat color on this left hand side, which I'm not as keen to put in because it then boxes
her in a little bit more. So I'm not going
to, I don't think, add too much color onto
the left hand side, although it is there as we're not actually painting
this as a pet portrait, so I don't have
to be that exact. We can have an artistic
license on that part. The other thing I'd
want to get just to start getting some
little bit of color underneath because she's got some lovely dark
markings underneath. Again, it's all just tapping and allowing if your paper
starts to dry on you. If you have a little, it's just starting to go off and you still want to do a
little bit more work. You can just gently tap a little bit more water
into that drying area, but if it has dried completely, you want to just down tools, allow it to dry
completely and re, wet the whole thing again, you can end up with some rather nasty watermarks if you carry on tinking
like I'm doing now. But if there's an area that's completely dry and
you'll find you end up with a rather hard line, Right. I'm having a step back from that because
the eyes are there. You can see her coming
forward, can't you? Now, she's, she's looking more
like a completed painting while gush creature
without any eyes, which my friend, if I
ever show her painting, my works in progress, she
hates to sing the bare eyes. She will be pleased I've painted the eyes in
first on this one. Okay, I'm going to stop
thinking because I know I'm doing another layer
and we've got all those lovely
stripes to put in. That again, needs
to completely dry.
11. Body Second Layer: Okay, now once this is dry, we are going to be doing the
second layer over this body. Before we continue any further, I have done a little
demo of the stripes, A useful little exercise. You're not confident of how your paint will react to the
wet paper on a second layer. It's worth doing a
little swatch like this. This one here obviously put these base colors
down to start with. Allowed that to completely dry. So I'm really replicating
what we're doing here. I then re wet my
little splodges and then put with CPA,
the stripes on. Now this one was done while
the paper was quite wet. You can see how that has
disbanded and bled quite a lot. This was just as it was. It's hard to explain, especially given that I'm not sure how
well you can see the paper. And obviously
everybody's paper and paints are going to react
slightly differently. But it's an exercise worth doing as it begins to
dry and you start to see some of the tops of your grain of your
paper emerging. This was done about
that sort of time. This one again, hit
dry a little bit more. It wasn't, it was almost dry. So you can see that hasn't
moved as obviously. If we were to do a stripe
when it was completely dry, it would obviously look
something like that. So it would have a
very hard edge to it and you wouldn't have
any bleeding whatsoever. Hopefully, that's, it's
a helpful example. I will put this up
on the projects and resources pages for you to have a look at and maybe
it'll be useful little guide. But it's worth doing one of your own and gauging how your
paper and paint works. Right? With that
said, we're going to say wet the lower
part of this body down. The whole body
down. I don't think it's going to be very useful to put a color on my
brush for you to see. But we're going to be
wetting the whole body down. Even this lower part here
as well if it's a gentle, because we're obviously working
on the second layer now, so you don't want
to disrupt what you've done on the first again, I'm just letting my
brush just fall. Finally going to be
doing the color color. We're including that area and
we'll put that down quite soon, the way down it, off that page. In theory, you would mount
this and frame it, obviously it would be somewhere
like something like that. So obviously you lose
a lot of the edge of this lovely again, just make sure that
the top bit is nice and as we've worked
our way round, some bits will start to dry, especially if you're lucky you are in a war, slightly
warmer place. Where are we now? We're
coming into April, still waiting for
spring to arrive with any warmth that's
been ever so cold here. Right. So, first thing first, I'm going to pick up my CPA, and I should have explained this was CP I used on these stripes. It's a nice color because
it doesn't move as much. If I'd done that
with light genuine, say for instance, the stripes
would have moved more. But obviously, you may
not be using the CP. It's worth doing
that little exercise and seeing how the
paints that you have react I CP and light genuine
actually downsize brush. So I've got my number ten. It's nice to work as
large as you can, but sometimes a large brush
can feel a bit clunky. I always feel I have
a bit more control if I downsize a brush. Start off with, let's finally
get this color color on. We're just, we're tapping
up right up against that edge and allowing
it to move down. Now if we've done this
on the first layer, this would have
moved a lot more. But because we're on
the second layer, it's not moving as much that you can gain the control
like that as well. We have to be mindful to do a few of these
little flicks as well, which I might do because I can see this is starting
to dry already on me. Picked up my little tiny brush, just wake it up. I'm just going to pull
out some little flicks, not starting right on the
edge, coming in a little bit. And just just gently flicking,
You only want a few. But I don't. I want
the flicks to be done. While that paints, nice and wet, they will look like
they've been stuck on, again, on the left hand side. She has got some color there. And I'm just going
to put a little bit, I don't want too much. I might pick up
the gray as well. Just tap a little bit
of the gray in there. I want to make it softer. I want to think too hard. I want that to be a little
bit more lost, that edge. Okay, now let's put that down. This now depends a little bit. If you feel you want a little bit more strength on the body, you can go ahead and add
a little bit more color. Let's put a little bit
more color for you to see. Pick up the gray again. You can tap a little bit more
color in pick up the Go. Let's have these five handle so you can add a
little bit more color. If you feel you want a little
bit more strength, you can. Anything down the back, we want it a little bit
more down the back. I'm quite happy with
mine. But again, to say we're strengthening now. Let's put that
down for a second. For that one slight, we need to do this edge as well. She's got some
nice markings down this outer right hand edge, genuine and spieth. I'm again tapping that right on the outside edge and
allowing it to move in. I know if I put this a little
bit of this gray here, you'll see if my paper
wasn't buckle dated, it would move a little bit more. I say I've got of course, a bit of a buckle going on here which isn't helping things. So I picked up the
go flight as well. Just make that a little bit
light as we're going down. I don't want that
to be too strong. Further down, I know you
can obviously see more, but we want that to be ever so. I want this to be loose.
I want it to almost to disappear. Too much color there. Push some of that
up. Okay. I'm going to leave that just to work
its way in on its own. Let's put those two down now. You have to be a
little bit of a judge. Now, say with that little
example I showed you, my my paper is drying
at different rates. I can see this little
top part where it's sadly started to
buckle and this is the higher part, it's
starting to dry. I need to get some little
stripes on in here. It's going to be a
little bit of a case. Find the stripes you want to add and find the piece of paper that's ready
for your stripes. Because I think we're
all going to be at different stages at different times and
different stripes, you may only want to
put a handful down. You might want just a
suggestion of them. You might want to add
a little bit more. That's going to be
a touch up to you. I'm never a fan of lots of
stripes but that's just, again, just me, these classes. I hope it just a bit of a
guide and I'd like to think. I allow you to. Yeah. Make up your own mind of how some of the elements
of this painting goes. The Stripes I think
is one of them. I little bit of Goite's ever
so week, just a hint of it. Just a suggestion
of those there. I can see this area is
beginning to dry and there is quite a nice stripe here,
a little bit more sepia. Again, you can mix the sepia and so the light genuine together
striped coming up here, go sit, mix them up. Don't be afraid to put
the different colors on your brush at the same time. This is quite puddly down here because it's
where it's buckled. Taking my paint brush away, seeing what's happening,
keep you all nice light, keep your eyes squinting. See where that papers drying on where it's
not drying on you. You may want some lovely soft
stripes similar to this. You can carry on adding those
into the quite wet paper. But if you want more
defined stripes, you're going to have
to wait for the paper to dry a little bit more on you. So I don't know why I did that. I'm just trying to
get rid of that piece of a bottle of water
in there really is sitting there not being
very helpful for me. I just want to strengthen
this line up here a bit. Sug light, don't think I'm going to get there is an very obvious stripe and
it goes all the way down. I'm not going to follow
it all the way up. I don't want to
section her off too much because I think if
we join those stripes up, it's going to look a
little bit too much. So I'm going to leave a gap. See what's running into my
buckled part, aren't you? Sometimes these things you
just have to work around them. If you got a little
bit of a bobble mine, sometimes they just
work in your favor, put that stripe over there. I don't want that too exact, although that paper
is quite wet there. I want it quite soft. It's probably about
the right stage. Okay. Keep squinting your eyes, seeing what your
painting looks like. Take your brush
away bearing mind, got a lot of water sitting here. But if you're drying here, you need to do those
little flicks as well. Also the back as well,
you can see mine. Let's put those down, Jane, clutching too many things. I can see my back
is starting to dry. So I'm going to do some of these flicks along the back here. This is too wet. I was
going to say, sorry, but yours might be ready to go, so have a look at
your own piece. They're ideally done
when the paints here, there's a certain
amount of paint there and it's doing
quite nice and wet, but not puddling like that. I think she's coming together
quite well actually. This long shadow down here, once we do the face and on the finishing off bits will run that shadow down
a little bit more. If yours is a goal loss, don't worry too much about that. This stage I'm liking
what I'm seeing. Actually, if I'm honest, I don't want to put too
many stripes in her. She's coming together
quite nicely. Again, I'm going to
leave you to put how many stripes you want in
there and how you want them, But I will just show you this. I want to put some
little bits of kitchen roll marks which
will give the impression. You can see the coat is
crinkling a little bit. Just this area here. I folded up a little bit of kitchen roll if
you did the eagle, similar to this but
just going to soak up. I don't know if I've
got enough paint here. I make some just some
little random marks where the kitchen always
going to soak up the paint. She says, I may have left
that a little bit too late. Chatting away, Yes, I think
I have it starting to dry. But the theory is it will take a little bit of paint out and
give you some little lines. And I'll show you
on this part here, you can probably see
it's only very subtle. It just gives you another, a little bit of texture.
Can I do it here? Oh, look, it's working over here because it's
still nice and wet. Can you see It's just a very, very random way of adding
some texture in like that. I'm going to allow mine to
dry and I will monitor it a little bit and I
will do those flicks when this feels ready. Yeah. As I say, just do your
stripes in your own time. Don't panic if it begins to dry, you can add a little
bit more water, just like I explained,
hopefully on top of the head. But if it does start
to dry completely, I can see this area here is dry. If I was to start adding
water here again, you'll end up with
a very nasty water. Yes. Enjoy doing your
last, a little bit of tinkering and then allow
that to completely dry.
12. Head Second Layer: Right, it's onto the second
layer over the head. This is a lovely layer
because we end up, we put the stripes in,
we do some tinkering, we pull it all together. Obviously there's going to
be the finishing off lesson, but this really does pull
all together, this one. Let's put that one down now. I'm going to pick
up my big brush, and we're going to do the ears, the head, the eyes, the nose. Let me start down here. We're going to include
this collar this time. And a little bit further down. I don't know if you can make
out on the reference photo. She almost looks like
she has a double chin. Bless her. We're going to go
a little bit underneath it. Probably just because
I've wet this area down doesn't necessarily mean we're going to put
any color here. But what it will allow is this
collar, if it needs to be, just to allow it to bleed
into this area with wet down, it just helps keep
everything soft, gently, say keep everything gentle because this will bleed. The brown color will
bleed into the head. And that's just what we want, just allows everything
to stay lovely and soft and we get away from those dividing lines
that we've divided up to allow us to control
some of this paint. Okay? Carefully around the eyes. Again, touching the eye, make up carefully
around the ears. Again, that's where this line, the joint between the ear and the head will gently soften. If it doesn't, you
can always give that a rustle as we work away along. Again, if you wanted more
color in those ears, this is a good time as well, we can add a little
bit more color. It's quite a big layer, a lot going on to say
it's not a large, expansive area, but
it's going to be a few bits to do
and keep an eye on. Again, if it starts to dry
and maybe you've put the hair dryer over to dry the body, you'll find your paper
will dry quicker. Again, you can
just tap water in. Just keep an eye on, don't allow any area to
completely dry on you, but as long as it's damp, you can just tap a
little bit of warm water in and it'll allow you to say, continue playing and tinkering. Just make sure
everything's nice and wet. Now, I'm going to
start up at the ears because I want to put a little
bit more color up there. I don't want to do my stripes
yet because it's too wet. I don't want that really
bring the sample back. I don't want this
really expanded stripe and that's when the paper was quite wet. I
want more of this. I would have said as the
paper begins to dry, you have to judge a
piece, keep an eye on it. It's going to be a little bit down to you
to keep that nice and wet so you can
add the color. Keep it nice and damp. Right? Let me put my
bigger brush down. I'm going to pick
up my number ten. I just want to put a little, start putting just a
touch more strength on those ears. I'm good. I've picked up sepia
going to tap and I might actually have a tiny
little bit of light genuine. I can do just some little flicks in over a wet so it's not
going to show too much, but it will give
just an impression of that white hair almost. Again, we can do
on the other side, let's pick up the sight. See why I haven't wet
area down. Got you. Oh, legit. And CP down this side. Because it's a little darker
area down here, isn't it? Again, it doesn't matter if that bleeds into the head.
That's what we want. We want to get away from
that strong dividing line. Again, we can just
flick a few in here because it ever so wet, you will only get a
slight impression of some hair lovely. I actually put just because I like the color
more than anything else. A bit of that satellite
right at the very top just to give a little, sometimes you just have to, if your intuition tells
you to do something, sometimes you need to trust it. So I just wanted a, a little
bit of color up there. Now I'm going to do
exactly the same, this side, just
strengthen that ear. Of course, if yours is
strong enough and you're happy with your ear, you
don't need to do this. As we work our way through, we all end up in slightly
different places and how we also want the painting to ultimately
finish up again. I will just do some
flicks in there. If you get, you see the little dots where I've
flicked and the paint sil, sat in little bubbles
a little bit. You can always just flick it back a little bit
of your finger. We're just after a little
bit of texture, really, not after trying to put all
those delicate hairs in. Yeah, take your brush
away. See, we think you can see this is almost gone. You almost lost it. But it will just give enough. Hopefully, now she has depends if we want to
put them on in or not. But she has got some little whispy hairs which
would be better done. My little bush dry, it should be enough paint
already on your ear. If not, you can just put a little bit, tiny
bit on your brush. Just flick up some eir, you might want to put the
ear hair on. It's up to you. You may be trying to replicate your cat a little bit more
and your cat might not have a little whisky bits.
Okay, that's enough. Put those down again. I'm keeping an eye
on that paper. I've got quite a puddle here, but this is beginning to get, I'm just going to put a
little bit more water that's beginning to
dry a little bit. So I just want to the ability to be able to keep
working on this. Now, as I said, I want to
keep this quite clear. I don't want to put
too much color. She obviously has got some
dark markings down that side, but I'm not inclined to
put too much in there. So, I'm going to
pick up the Gothite. I'm going to start working mainly because this is
quite puddly this side, this is dryer swap bushes.
Pick up my number ten. I'm just going to start adding
a little bit of detailing. I say I love this
patch underneath the eyes and you also
want to maintain, you can see there's obviously a light area right
underneath the eye. If that which she hasn't done, it shouldn't do too much. Say we're on our second layer, we can just wipe
away just to keep that white area and
clear, squint your eyes. If you're ready to do
some little stripes. I'm going to do some very
subtle ones this side, she's got one coming
down here, hasn't she? And there's obviously
a lovely one actually, off the eye of the
corner of that eye. That's probably
worth putting in. That's where we picked
up my little brush. It gives me a little
bit more control. They both gone in
the same direction. I just wanted to split
that up a little bit. So I'm going to sticking with my brush just to give us a horizontal line rather than both going vertically,
shut down. Okay. Now I can see you
saying my little bit is starting to get a
little bit right? I'm going to go back to my
number ten, brush clean, got hold of the now there are nice dark markings right on that corner of that eye and it starts to make up
the muzzle as well. You can see that
tapping those in, I got picked up a little
bit to go light and also because mine's starting
to dry a little bit, I'm going to get that marking in that's running up the
nose because that's, again, another nice bit to get in and you've got a nice
clear area as well, a white area, weather
white marks coming. So you can just
for cleaner brush, just take off your excess water and then just pull that down so you gain you reclaim
that white paper. She looking okay? I think I need to add some little bit
up at the top here. It's got a little bit a little
markings up here as well. I'm going to pick
up the sug light. Just tap them in
so I could want to keep that little bit
a little bit lighter. Squint my eyes, that's
too much water in there. And white brush, just a tiny of satellite boight
in that corner. Now I'm losing that
quite nice flick of her eye to put that back in. Again, this is just about right for me to start
adding my stripes in, so I'm going to start
tapping those in. Okay. That's a, it's probably enough for me get a
little bit more strength on. Over the top of the
eyes, you see a bit of Goth height and a little
bit of the sug light. I'm still quite puddly
here, but let's, I can see that's creeping
up underneath the eye. Let's get back a bit of multitasking and watching everything going on
at the same time. Actually just a
little bit more color above the top of the eye. And as that begins to dry, and we want to do
a few flicks just from the top of the
head, just a few. It's beginning to
a little bit dry. Just gonna put a
little bit of paint on my brush just to be
able to pull those up. Just watch your your
side of your hand. You don't put your hand
fist in in the wet bit. Yeah, that looks
right. I don't want to do too much again. It's still quite wet, but
this is beginning to dry. So I'm going to continue
working round the nose. I want to get that nice, it's quite dark round there, so you want to start adding some nice color around
the round the nose, start to start
forming that mouth. Pick up my little brush again, because it is just about
the right stage of dryness. I can then start
putting that mouth in, it's just soft enough. I'm probably at this
number three stage here, that's just going to give me
a little bit of softness. We have got the
finishing off stages, so we can always have
another little play. But ideally we won't
be wetting areas down, we'll just be adding bits onto dry paper any bit you want. So you need to get in in this
layer taking my brush away, see if I need anything anywhere
else, or I'm losing some. Sometimes bits will
get Wd or washed away. We had this nice bit of
color here on the cheeks, which we put on the first lane. It's got a little bit lost. So I'm just should have my
slightly larger brush for this, squint my eyes. I need to keep an
eye on that bit. Going all over the place
here, not particularly. If your paper is drawing
the same rate as mine in the same
place, you're fine. We're drawing at
different rates. You have to be a guide
to your own piece and to judge your paint
needs to be applied. Depending on how
wet your paper is, you want to put a
little bit more strength underneath this are. Let's pick up my filling
around with the tiny brush. Let's pick up my number ten, tapping a bit of sug light
under underneath that. That's pretty color, a
little bit of gray titanium. Keeping my eye on
that reference photo, taking my brush away. Seeing how she looks. Yeah, I think she's
doing al right to put a little bit of go
a little bit of gray, try and get that mouth, chin a little more defined. Yeah, that's looking
quite pretty now. I need to I think those down for a
second all out of place, I'm sure, but Okay. Just hang onto my CPA,
I'll try and start. Get those stripes in there
a little bit wet down here, but it's not too bad. Sometimes you can just start and see how it looks, how it feels. Because you might
find, depending on your paints and how
your paints react, you might find that's
just about right. You can always start. If it looks like it's moving too much, just stop and just allow it
to dry a little bit more. One going in there.
Pop that one down. Take my brush away.
Lost a little bit on the head there
because I probably started a bit too soon. Let's just put those back
in again, running the risk. This is almost dry here, to be a little bit careful. I can still work on here because I'm only working
on a small area, in small little bits, but I won't want to be doing
a sort of a large wash of color now because
this area has dried. Okay. How are we doing? Let me put my brush away a little. Look, I think she's
doing all right. Actually, I think she's
looking quite pretty. Have a little bit of lapse
Lazari down here on that chin. Now the mouth can be, can tell a lot of stories
depending on literally how you run this line. You can look sad, happy, smiley. Careful not to go to cartoon, but you don't have to
go all the way along. You can add a little
bit of color here, leave a bit here that's softer. And then add a little
more strength here. Be careful, have a play around. You can almost add it
in and take it out. If you don't like almost the
character it's giving you, keep, keep this
nice and clear ups that's got a bit color my bush. Put those down to keep, make sure I keep that
clear underneath the eyes. But it can be taken out on
the finishing off bits, so don't worry too much. But if you take it out now, it allows it just to be soft rather than too much
of a hard line. If you take it out
once the paints dried, you can then end up
with quite a hard line. With this way, while it's
still nice and soft, you'll end up with a nice
soft line. Too hard. I'm getting to that stage
where I fiddle too much. This is began to dry. I don't want to
fiddle here too much. It's gone off too much
now. It's almost dry. Here is quite soggy, so I could continue
playing here, but if I'm honest, I feel like
I've probably done enough. I know what we haven't
done, I haven't done. You just want to
go with your CPA. You just go in and
do those nostrils. You're almost just going in and painting
those nostrils in. That makes sense. I think I can see
this is a little bit away away from doing
very detailed stuff. Probably have a little
tinker in a minute, get that in properly. But yeah, just take your
time on that little area. Let's have a look at her what
I would quite like to do. Well, this is still drying. I'm just going to wet my
brush and drag some of that color down and give us a little bit more
sense to that shadow. This, it's almost
dry, most of it. And if it runs a little
bit, that's lovely. Keep it lovely and soft. I just want to add a little bit more color underneath here. It's lost a little bit. I can just then
add a little bit. It's probably enough
actually. I probably don't want to do too much more. I can just gently move some of that out into
that white area. I can never squeech my
finger what I want to avoid any hard lines by doing this, I should avoid anything because it's quite
a soft color there. Anyway, we haven't
done a very hard, not a lot of paint and it's
not a particularly hard line. Should keep it nice and soft. Just keep an eye on it now
as that begins to dry, careful about adding
too many stripes if this starts to go off. Ideally, I'm not so keen
on the very dry this line. When the paper is completely
dry, that's nice. If you can, as long as your paper stood
a little bit, Dan, you can add a few more
little stripes if you're doing a little bit more. If you're feeling
like I really want to add more everything's
sort drying on me. I'm getting all a
little bit muddled. Allow this completely dry. There's absolutely no
reason why you can't, once it's dried, re, wet the whole area
down again and just start almost doing
this layer again, but just adding
those stripes in. You don't want to
tinker too much because the more layers you add, the mud it can potentially get. But it's another way. Quite often pet portraits, I will do four to five layers. I would let that dry, add another layer if I needed
more stripes in there. But I think I'm happy
with those stripes. I don't think I want
to add too many more. I'm just going to allow that to completely dry and then we can do those very last
little tinkery bits.
13. Finishing Off: Right. This is probably
my favorite bit now. We're just going to
pull it all together. We're going to
take off this gum. We're going to do any
tinkering that needs doing, if you like a bit of tinkering
and really who doesn't, we can sit down, we
can take our time. We're not going to be wetting
lots of big areas down, making just little bits
and pieces we need to. This is a good time to
take weight off your feet. Go and get a cup of tea and
enjoy this a little bit. But what I would say and
which I find useful, and I'm sure many
of you probably figured this one out already. If I take a picture of
my work at this stage, nothing's fancy to
me, it always helps. I can see issues. Hopefully, that doesn't
reflect on my phone. Looking at my image, I've taken almost more
than I can actually see my actual original pieces
sitting in front of me. I quite often finish my portraits by looking
at the image on my phone. No, that sounds weird
and I'm sure there's a very logical
explanation for that, but I find that a useful tip. Let's make sure, really do, make sure this is dry Before we rub out this gum and
any pencil mark. I'm going to fairly
confident it's dry. I'm just going to very
carefully take off these gum splatters and the whiskers can see some of those whiskers
are quite chunky, but I have a nice useful tip to make them a
little bit smaller. Obviously, if this had
been a big painting, they would have been
absolutely fine, but they're not a huge piece. But the way bush those away, I'm also going to rub out
any pencil marks as well. So it's just going to
go in there gently now, especially if they're
inside the painting, because you can actually
rub some of the paint away. You can almost see how
that improves it already. Just taking out the pencil marks that many around the face,
some around the chin. And hopefully you haven't gone quite as strong as me either. So I think that's
enough for taking out. I don't think I can
see too obvious there. I'm going to shut down some
of those whiskers as it were. Let's make them
not quite chunky, are quite particularly
chunky actually. It's very hard to be, to
make that gum very light. It's a trickier thing. I picked up the go, I want a similar color that's
underneath the whiskers. All I'm doing is just literally just inside some of that white. Let's pick up where is it the light you want to end up with a very
hard line like that. But all you have
to do is just just gently wet the underneath of it. You can go round all your
whiskers if you've made them. You may not, you
may have had found a better brush than mine to
keep them lovely and thin, but this is quite a nice
way to shut some of those down a little bit thinner. Bit of a wrong
mismatch of color. Again, you can squeitz
it by your finger. Finger is very useful for just sort of softening things down
because you're not actually soaking the paint up, you're just squeezing it. I'm quite sure why,
but really big, chunky bit there, you
can get the gist. We're going to spend a long
time here, I can do that. It's not being filmed. I'm going to have a little
tinker a bit later on. But you get the general gist. I think you can then
shut them down. You can see they now
appear more whisker like. You can also add a little
bit of white gouache. You need to get
this really creamy. It doesn't show up
particularly well, but you can paint some on. It works quite well over the darker areas,
you can see that. But yeah, it just adds
again to the variation, variation on color as well. So what I'm going to do next,
I'm just going to go round and take some little
bits of color out. Firstly, there's all little white hair
here, wasn't there? So you can see on that reference
photos a little bit of, a little bit of fluff there. I'm just going to squidge it
and just brush it upwards. That will actually give
you a little impression of fur as well. Just a little squitchjust
bush upwards. See, that's just as giving
you a sort of divide line, but not, not anything too hard. Keep an eye on that
reference photo and where you think
you need light out. We're all going to be, say all our cats are going to
look slightly different. Now I'm just going around, I think is quite important. This line underneath the eye and beside the nose, just
going to take that out. And again, I can sculpt
the eye if the eye has got a little bit big or
bit misshape and you can just gently sculpt it, it will be only tiny
little tinkers probably. It's quite a nice way to change the shape of
the eye if it need be. Again, she's got some nice. If you haven't managed to
keep that nice and clear, then we can take that out and say it can end up
looking a little hard, but just give the
squid of your finger, it usually softens enough. Now I'm going round here, I want to lose this corner here. I know there's color, but I want to almost
release that, give it a little bit
of a sense of light, Take it out of the
kitchen role because I want it gone here. That's looks better
already to me. I think where the gum, we I use a quite a
lot of gum here. Some of the paint has it's
got a bobbled round the gum. I think I've lost
some of the shape of the face. Yours might be fine. I say I'm almost tinkering
my piece at this stage and hopefully showing you how to alter a little bits
and just finish them off. Say I've just put a
little bit of color on my brush brush dams,
definitely not wet. Just so as you can see, there's a little sense of
flick there if you want, this is a little bit
more defined, the color, you can do exactly
that. Just flick up. When you put the
color on your brush, try and make sure the hair is going in the right direction. Obviously, chin hair is coming down, sweeping
down this way. If we sweep up, we will create the impression of the chin hair coming
into that collar. Doesn't make sense. Okay,
same with the mouth. Really? Let's stick with, I'm jumping all over the place that's trying to be methodical. Again, I can put just a little bit more color here if I need, again, not ideal to pull out these colors fluff here
when it's very dry. But actually, as long as
you've got enough paint, you can flick out when you don't have enough
paint and actually paint, paint them onto the edge. They can look a
little bit stuck. Have I gone around enough?
Yes, I think I have. Doing a little bit that there
is this nice line here. I don't know, we lose
this a little bit just in the nature of
having to wet whole area, but I quite like to have a defined line
here for a change. I'm actually going to wet
that little portion here, like the top of her thought it would be a muzzle on a dog. Wouldn't it default to dogs, We just just wet that little area down
there and I'm going to put a little bit of
slight get that off. I'll get that off in a
minute with my magic sponge, which I got the
pleasure of showing you that a little bit of gram. I just want to get that edge. I want to actually want to create a little bit
of a line here. It goes to the corner of
that nose, doesn't it? That is also where we can add
a little bit more strength. Let's put those two
down with the Pia. She's quite dark
around her eyes. Just a little tiny bush. I just want to create
that sort of darkness that's in the corner of the eye and goes
down to the muzzle. If there's any part
you think, oh, no, I don't want to be doing that, I don't like the idea of that. Especially the
finishing off bits all become a little individual. So don't feel you
have to do these. You can just put
your brush down and watch and decide at the end, when I finish fiddling what you would like to
do to your piece, I just go back into the
nostrils, tiding those up a bit. And there's a little tiny little line that runs down the middle. It's just that little crease, but make sure again that
goes in the right direction. It's heading to 11:00 All the little things
make a difference because obviously got a head a little bit tilted now we'll keep hold of that and
I'm just going to pick up the gray titanium mouths. She's got a little
bit of an attitude. It's just the way I've painted
this corner of this mouth. So I'm just going
to a little bit of sepia we can alter that
looks better already. I think it was just a
little bit of a gap there which is where the
paint had run up. They can just take the edge and just soften it
down to the chin. Just blend it round. Say, be careful not to do a
very obvious smile. What I would be inclined to do is add a little bit of color there and leave a gap in the
middle. See what you think. If you see, be like that, you can always join it out. It's harder to take it out. Again, just soften that again. Just squid you your finger. Always Just tiny
little movement, tiny little bits of paint. Just take my brush away. See what I'm thinking? I quite like it.
He's coming along. I would like this ear. It's got a little bit lost. It's all a little bit merged in. So I'm just going to
pull those colors there. Let's grab hold
of the go sit and the sulinight paint on your
brush would be helpful. Try not to put my
hand in anything. Almost want to
squinting my eyes. I can see a little bit that
kicks around off the ear. Yeah, it's tiny,
tiny little thing. Again, I think the
thing with the gum, it can create like
a little bit of a barrier that stops the
paint some sort of running. I think up here I've,
I've picked up the sepia. I've had quite a
lot of the sort of eyebrow because I've lost it's gone round
them a little bit. I want to see if I can put those ears a little bit more
defined around those ears. My brush away. I almost want to create a
little bit of a line. Although we soften
the, that layer. On that very last layer
we added that we wet the ear as well as the
head to avoid the line. Now I feel like I need a little bit of a
line to define it. Only a little, it's only tinier. Say you repeating myself, but yeah, you may find you've already got that
already in there now. I think she's looking
quite pretty. But I do want to I didn't put quite enough color when I was doing the layer on the leg. I just want to make sure I
can see it at the front leg. All I'm going to do,
I'm going to wet down. This was a pencil line, so I'm just wetting
beyond it into the leg. I'm going to pick slight,
something very soft. I don't want to think too hard and I'm just going to get a tiny little bit of color
on that edge. Just allow it to bleed in. That's all I probably need. And I will then just gently
switch that out on my finger. I don't want to line. Hopefully you can just see now there's a scent of
Ellg coming in there. Now, there's magic sponge. I don't know if
you've come across these, you probably have. They're actually a cleaning
product on Amazon. I'll pop you a link in the
projects and resources pages, but they're wonderful,
particularly, this is why I
initially bought them, is to take little
sponges out like that, but you can take, if you're careful, little
bits of color using this. They're quite harsh,
so be careful because they can take
out a lot of color. But you can see she's got
some nice color color, even lack nice little
white patches just here. Just very carefully.
You can almost touch it side it
with your finger. That's just taken the color. Where else can I show you? Let's take a little bit
of light out of here. You just sort of tap it. If I had a piece a
clean kitchen roll convenient on my desk and
I can just soak it up. But for taking any splodges
any splodges like this, it's amazing the you're
working on a I tend to work, I don't often do backgrounds, so it's always tricky to keep your paper very clean
and splodge free. So these are brilliant
for taking that out. Okay, if you've lost the white, I've managed to retain that
quite a nice light there. But again, you can
just squidgero that magic sponge there. They're useful. They're useful thing to have. Again, is that I
have a little bit of light just underneath that. Muzzle, Muzzle. Cheek? Probably not muzzle. I think I would like to see
if I can find the chin again. I'm just taking that off. You can do this,
but if you haven't got one of these magic sponges, you can do that with
a soft bush as well, then it's probably
it's a little easier. There can be a little
clunky in these. Yeah, I think that's
enough because I can end up taking too much out, but worth the investment. They're not expensive but
they're great for this. And soft lines out, if you want to
soften a hard edge, that line there would be
nice, a useful thing. One other thing. Although we pulled some of that hair out, you can just see the
impression there, can't you? But I've got my
eradicated brush and I can then take a little
bit of color out, see if we can description
color out just a little bit. You don't want too much,
it's just an impression. You could have
done this for gum. And I did try on one of
the practice pieces, it looked a little bit too much. If I'm honest, that's enough. I don't really want to
do too much. Right. The only other thing, and I think when we were
doing the eyes, I said I would show you if they all got a
little bit muddy and it's quite small area and we've done quite a few layers over those so they can
get a little bit, my lot man to something on hand. Yes, we can take
little bits of color out from that eyeball. These eradicated brushes
are great for this, but another soft brush
will also do the trick. I'm just wiping a
little bit of color out just to bring that p
of light into the eye. So take your brush away.
See what you think. I think she's looking. All right now. Again, I've been same as you. We've been working on
this for a little while. So I did a little
bit of color at the top of the nose
for the brush that's soils quite nice and you can
reshape the nose with this. But it will be useful to
step away from this piece. I know I always say it, but do come back
and look at it with a fresh pair of eyes because
it is amazing what you see. Because I think we've been
painting together now for a good couple of hours. You almost don't see, even
though you can do the, take a photo and look
at it on your phone or even a camera
surprise. Surprise U. There's nothing quite like
coming back and seeing your piece sitting
there on the shelf, on the table and going. I can see now I can see
what I need adjusting, which you just can't
see when you've been painting for this
amount of time together. Even if you think
you do, you're quite likely to make odd mistakes because you just get
tired and you almost get, I say frantic is a
little bit wrong, but desperate to
get it finished and get it right and looking right. And you don't almost sometimes know what you need to
do to make it right. And often where mistakes happen
is you rush the end bit, trying to complete your bit. So you've gone, I've finished. But it's well worth
stepping away. I'm sure there'd be little bits that would need
tinkering with this, especially as I'm always standing a little
way away from it. So it's quite hard
to get close to it. Like I'll say at some
of my later classes, if there's a lot of
little tinkerings I think would be
helpful for you to see. I will recatill recall a
little U in times two, finishing off bits and how I've finished and
adjusted my final piece. I think she looks all right. I can't see anything
starkly obvious that needs adjusting the whiskers need tidying. I can see that. But I will do exactly
what I was doing when I first showed you anyway
before I go on and too much. Yes. I hope you enjoyed
this class as ever. And thank you for joining me for those who
requested the cat. I hope she's lived
up to expectations because there was
quite a lot that you wanted a cat class. I hope you've enjoyed her. Please do share these on the projects and
resources pages. Any questions you got stuck on something,
something didn't make sense, so I didn't explain
quite well enough. Which more than likely
please do put that in the discussions
and I'm quite good at getting back to
the quite promptly. I do try my best and
if I don't then please do re reply and some things do get a little
lost along the way. So yes, thank you very much. I am going to carry on
waffling if I'm not careful. Thank you very much
for joining me and I really look forward to
seeing all your pieces.
14. Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed the
class and it's given you some useful insights on how I
paint my own pet portraits. Did you enjoy adding two layers? It's a nice way to
build that depth and takes the pressure off having to do it
all in one layer. How did your stripes go?
It's important to learn about the timing and how your paints and
how your paper reacts. It's a really useful
thing to learn. What about the eyes? Remember to take your
time. Don't panic. And if it gets a little muddled, give yourself five or 10 minutes away and come back to it. As I always say, it's
worth stepping away, coming back and looking at
your whole painting with a fresh pair of eyes and
tweak if you feel necessary. So we look forward to seeing
you in the next class.