Charming Watercolor Castle in the Woods

1. 1 Class Intro: Hello. I'm Daniella Melon, an artist and author here. Scale share. Thanks for joining me to create a charming watercolor castle in the woods. While this is an intermediate watercolor project, I've created 12 steps broken down into two to formulate classes to make it achievable and fun. We'll use basic painting supplies like water color pigments and eight by 10 watercolor paper. I've included a template of a line are drawing of our image, which you can download and print onto a piece of copy paper. Use this as your template to make your pencil sketch. Then I'll show you the 12 sets, each with its own layer to create intriguing and elaborate rustic castle. Surrounded by rich green foliage, this image is reminiscent of an old fairy tale. We'll use warm and rich tones for the castle and in the class wrap up. I have included a variation example for an image using cool colors for your class project. Create your own version of a charming castle in the woods. Using the steps shown, take a photo of your artwork and posted in the project section. Be sure to follow me here on skill share to get notified of future classes. Please consider leaving a review. Now. Let's it started painting 2. Class Supplies: the class supplies that will need for our watercolor charming castle in the woods include the class template, which you can download, and it fits on a standard piece of copy paper. I have some water color paper cut to eight by 10 for this painting, so it's a rather large one for one of my classes. To use the template, I use Paris systems or light box, a heavy pencil in an eraser, a jug of water and then my watercolor paints, as well as some brushes. I use a 64 in a one brush, and for the pains, I have the list included on the class reply list. But I made a little template of the colors that I want to use. I'll use a lot of browns and greens, a lot of earth tones, so I have yellow Oakar, burnt sienna sepia and Van dyke brown. So there I have my four shades of brown. One is a golden brown, and then three Brown's one a little more red than the others. And then I use three greens, a deep green of already in hue and a yellow green. So then I have three shades of green and then I will also use some blues and some other colors. The next chapter we'll go over using the template. 3. Using the Template: now you could just trace your image around by using a light source behind the template, and in this case I have just a little light pad. It's very fin. Turn it on, brightest setting. I put my template down and then I'll put my paper on top of it, and from there I moved my paper to see where I want to trace it, where I want the image to be if I want to be up a little higher or lower, and then I could just trace right on top of that my image. I can also use a window. I don't need a light box. Anything with a light is coming in from behind would work just as well. And then I can start my tracing. It's a very simple Leinart image, and we'll go over it further and add to it or change it up when we do our painting. But it's nice to have just a reference point. You don't want to use the light box method. The other method includes just taking the template after you have it printed out and cutting out the image. Now you can either cut out the building. The castle here and then just draw in the lines, or you can kind of do a little bit of both. So I'm just gonna cut right over here, and I'll cut the perimeter of my building. Then I'll cut the perimeter of my foliage around the building, and then I can place my image where I want it and make my tracing from. They're using this as a template that was intended just like this, all filling the lines for the windows as I see fit. And then I can either just draw the lines for the foliage. Freehand it or it can continue by cutting out the template further. So I'll show you this back one here and I'll do that with all the pieces, fit it right down to my template. And there I have the outline of the shrubbery that we're going to make, so I'll continue to draw this, create my image, and then we'll start painting 4. Step 1: The Sky: now if they have my image drawn for my template right onto my paper I'm gonna start with my first layer is gonna be the background sky and I'm gonna have a light blue right behind all the greenery and the building And then it's gonna just get a little darker as it goes up where it just fades out So I'll start my largest brush here Number six I'm just gonna wet the paper And I'm just wedding the top background Where I want the sky to be And I'm not worrying about getting it all wet I'm gonna have some variation with clouds So once the paper is saturated to my liking Just go mix my color I'm gonna take a lot of water And I'm gonna make some of this light blue a cerulean blue And I'm gonna take a little bit of this Prussian blue It's a darker blue, much darker blue And just mix that in and a little bit more water And then I'll start The outline could start here on the right side, on the left side. Let's start here on the left side of the castle. Well, just dip my brush in the water and blend that color up and out. I'll go back in some water on my brush and pull that color away from the edge as well, making it lighter where it meets the trees closer to the bottom of the page. We'll go in and get my pigment adding darker up top and then with a paper towel. Just gonna create a little spot here and just Dad Cem variation, and I'll repeat this process, the darker color up top, and then I'll go back in here, closest to the building at my color and then add water on the brush and pull that color up . Take more pigment at the top, announced to pull that color up from the bottom with some water on my brush with my paper towel. I'm gonna pull some of that color off the sides, and they just make a few dabs to look like clouds, and we'll let this layer completely dry. 5. Step 2: The Trees Layer #1: So now we're gonna add our second later, we're gonna introduce color to the trees here. And so we're gonna have our darkest color on the left hand side, and it's gonna go lighter as it goes to the right. However, there are gonna be shades of shadow in between each of the layers of trees. We want to be careful not to introduce any color to the castle at this point. So I'll start by mixing my colors. I'm going to start with this lightest yellow green here. I like the way that looks just as it is out of the two. But I can always add more yellow, warm or green as I like. I'm gonna start with that just as it is. And then since I'm gonna make my latest color on the right hand side and go start here and for each section of each tree cluster, I'm gonna wet it and then add color. But I'm not gonna bring the color all the way to the edge. So there's a leaving a little dry paper on the right hand side and I'll go for each section and do this. This painting is gonna be very loose. So it's OK if you leave white highlights throughout your work for this section. My goal is to not. My major goal is to not get paint on that castle. I know this is gonna dry lighter, so I might go in, just dab in a little more color. A little more pigment, then here on this back one take a little color on my brush. Start closest to the building so I can control it. And that's moving away. Go back in there and introduce more pigment closest to the building. Now for this bottom layer here. This is where I wanted just to fade into the paper. I'm gonna take a lot of water on my brush, wet that paper, and then there's dropping some pigment. Go back in, dropping a little more pigment, the higher up on the paper, and then I'll let this layer completely dry. 6. Step 3: The Castle Layer #1: Now that we have our first layer of our foliage in our sky, I want to work on the first layer of the castle using my number six brush. I'm gonna mix the colors Now here's where you can choose what colors you want to use. These air gonna be the tones that I use you, the yellow Oakar, the burnt Sienna sepia van dyke brown's You could also those air warm colors. You can also choose to use cooler colors with more graze. I wanted to look like stone in the for the castle. So what I'm gonna do is again I'm gonna echo the same color scheme or the same shadowing scheme of the greenery wearing that have the darkest color on the left and moved to the right, being lighter with highlights and then also going to paint this very loosely. So I'm going to start with my yellow Oakar and I'll mix up a bunch of that and because it's a little too yellow for me, I want to tone it down a little, so I'm gonna add a little bit of blue to that. So I'll take a little pressure in blue and mix that in. That makes it a little more tan rather than orangey just starting on my left hand side because I'm right handed. I'm going to color in the areas of the castle, each area separately, leaving a nice dry paper border. So I'll start here with this tall tower. I'm not gonna get any pigment in the windows. I'll take a nice sharp point and this is just my first layer. So this is where I want to create the darkest area to go by and kind of create my shapes. So I started this. I'll add color to my water to my brush and just bring that color to the other side of the tower much later than it was in the left hand side. I'll go back in with some pigment and drop splotches of that in the left hand side again, making sure the right hand side has the lightest amount of color but my brush and just pull color around here. Then I'll come over here and I'll do the same thing, this house area again. I'm painting it loose, so I'm leaving some speckles of white on my paper, and since I want oh, right here inside to be the lightest. I'll just take some clear water on my brush and add that in. Don't go back and drop in some pigment Do the same thing over here. And finally, this last section of the house here and leading the roof undone. You know what this layer dry? 7. Step 4: The Trees Layer #2: So at this point, I want to add a little more shading to the trees here. So with my water for the mix, a darker color green and I'm gonna use my meridian hue and deep grain. So here's my middle color Green mixed that and then my deep green at a little bit of water to that. So now with a very sharp point on this brush is is the number six brush. I'll start with the one on the far left because I'm right handed. I'm going to create that darkest shadow. Um, splotches. So I'm just gonna add with my brush, just gonna make some points and some shapes very organic. And this is our biggest bundle on the side of trees. I'm just gonna keep dipping, leaving brush marks right to the bottom. I want to make sure that I leave a little bit of paper not painted underneath toe adds some texture, and I'm gonna go back here and do the same thing on this side because I'm trying to create organic shapes. I'm I'm not stopping at the line. I'm going over the line in some sections, and my darkest point is gonna be the shadow area here where the trees overlap. We'll continue doing this again. I'm only going anywhere from about 1/3 to maybe 1/2 of each section of tree with this color green this nice, deep tone. - When I come to the top of the house here, I want to make sure that I'm leaving a nice, dark color closest to the house respecting the line of the house. And then I'll just build up a little bit of color, Not to the top of the sketch that we did again. I'm sticking close to the house with this dark color, and I'm just echoing the shape that we made of this little tree. Coster. I'll go back in, drop more color and then with my color, that's remains. I had a little bit of water just to lighten it up a little more variety in green, and then it's gonna drop in some spots along the edge at the top again, making a haphazard line. But the intention is to stay with that shape. To echo the shape we sketched out. Take my color. Just do a few strokes here and there to make a second layer so it doesn't look like one line on Lee, and they will let this layer dry 8. Step 5: The Trees Layer #3: When our second layers dry on our trees here, it's a good time to go in and erase the pencil marks surrounding the trees. So now I remove the pencil marks on the trees, leaving the ones by the castle taken number four brush and go in here and work on our next layer. So what? Putting some water on my palette? And then I'm gonna put some of this variety in green and then more yellow, green, maybe just even a little more yellow, green or even a little more yellow. We have a very bright green there again, starting on my left hand side of my paper, putting it on my brush. Now I'm gonna make just a transition color again. I'm not coloring all the paper and just making little brush spots to create foliage. And I'll do this around all my pieces, still keeping a little space between each section of tree and still keeping an organic shape for the treetops here. When I come to the last section here, the bottom I'm gonna just echo the shape I've already created again, leaving the bottom kind of bear this point. I just want to add one more layer while the paint is damp. I'm gonna take just the yellow mix. A little of that was just a dab of the green that we already next. So it's still very yellow, just a hint of green. And I'm gonna add some splotches of that throughout a little heavier on the right hand side of the paper. Where are highlights are, and I'm gonna use that as a way to blend sections without making it uniform. So just put a few spots here and there, and then the same thing on the bottom just gonna echo it on the very bottom shape again, trying to keep the shape very organic, and we'll let the Slayer completely dry. 9. Step 6: The Castle Layer #2: So now that our background is starting to come along, we're gonna work on the castle a little bit. First thing I want to do is I want to add a little tone here to this little part of the tower. So I'm just gonna wet my paper, and then I'm just gonna take some of that yellow Oakar just to give it a base coat in there . I'm not worried about making all the area covered. Now I want to work on my next few layers, so I'm gonna start mixing my color first. We started with a base of yellow Oakar Swell at a little yellow Oakar. Now I want to take some burnt sienna, mix that in, and then I want to add some of the sepia. So now we have a nice brown color. Gonna put a little on the side here and mix up a lighter version of this adding more of this yellow Oakar. So now we have a blend from the color we have on the paper, a medium version and then a darker version using my number four brush. And I'm gonna go in here and I'm gonna create just some pent marks brush strokes here of the shadow area. So underneath where the roof is going to be on all the sides and then I'll just go on the left hand side, up here at the top of this tower, and then I'll pull it down on the left hand side of the tower. I'll dampen my brush. Not too much water and blended out in all areas. I want to soft soft transition. And I'm gonna leave this spot where it's bleeding, just as it is again. I don't have a wet brush, but ah, damp brush. Really Over here, it seemed to have dried. So go back in, introduced some more pigment just so we could make a softer blend. I'm gonna take that darker color, remade and just drop in some spots on the wet pigment, their areas, it doesn't blend. I'll take a damp brush. Help it along, I'll make damn brush. And I'm just gonna with a very like puppet of coloring on the brush little pigment, he's gonna make some texture on this stone house. Here. Stone Castle. I'll go back in with my light color at a little water. I don't want a very wet brush. Justo, Just enough to add a little pigment. And again, I'm just gonna add a little texture here in there to the castle. Still trying to preserve some white spots, and we'll let this layer dry. 10. Step 7: The Castle Roof: now that this layer has dried like to work on the roof, a little gonna mix my color, but it takes some of this burnt sienna. It's a nice warm color, and I'm gonna mix it with some of this Van Dyke Brown, which is another warm color but a little darker. Got a rinse off my brush and I'll start with the largest roof here and we're just wet. The largest roof leaving about the last 1/8 dry on my paper and I'll do the same thing with the smaller roof. I'm leaving that area dry, so I have a little more control when I add the color. The drop in the color Regis mixed scandal create the perimeter, leaving a teeny white line in between the roof and the house kind of created a just smaller version of the roof and then with my clean, wet brush, I'll go in here and bleed that out. The same thing with smaller one will come back and drop in a little more pigment in a moment, but I'm leaving a teeny little white line between the roof and the house. So we did our many roof going back in with a wet brush not sopping wet but little heavier than damp. And I'll go in there and bleed that color out. It will come in, pick up some more color. Drop that in on the left hand side. Much more of that pigment. No, till my page a little. Let it run, do the same thing over here on the smaller roof, and then I'll take a little of that color that's on my brush. I'm just gonna add a little bit to the top of this tower just to tie that color in a little . I'll come back in, get some van dyke brown on my brush. Nice sharp point drop in some spots of that on the roof, mostly on the left hand side of each of the little rubes, and then we'll let these layers dry. 11. Step 8: The Windows: So now I'm gonna go in and finish the windows here with my number six brush. Gonna mix some of this black, and I'll make some sepia in with that. So that's the dark brown in black. So it's a nice deep color, but not pure black. Good. Put it up on my brush, make a sharp point, and I'm gonna create a color in the windows. But not making it a solid black well, outline a portion of it and then a few other portions of it. Then I'll fill it in with paint dams. I want to give the effect of the window without it being a perfectly solid in color. Go back in with my brush to do the same thing on the remaining windows Here. - Here's my shapes aren't matching, so I'm just gonna try and change the shape so it's more in line with the window over here. And I'm careful to create these shapes but preserve the, uh, foliage over growing them. So it's like a little castle in the woods, and I'll let this layer dry 12. Step 9: The Castle Layer #3: Now that our layers air dry, it's a good time to go in and erase any pencil marks on the castle. Then we'll add some details. So with my number four brush, I'm gonna work on outlining this little atrium, I guess, in some of the areas around the castle. So I take some water and all mix some burnt sienna and some van dyke brown. Get that nice, rich color. Make a sharp point on my number four brush and very, very lightly touched the paper and create that little overhang. I'll go in, rinse off my brush, dry it just so that's barely damp and just blended out somewhat. Make a little soft edge. Actually, pull that color down just a little further and then drop in some teeny bit more color. Get a switch to my small brush. My number one brush with that same pigment gonna go in and start to create the outline. Start here in the left hand side. Move my paper, make a nice sharp point with my pigment very barely touching the paper outline all the elements of the castle to really emphasize the beautiful shape. Then I move over here to the next roof. Create that light outline again. We don't want to make a harsh outline. Just enoughto signify the end of one structure. There we have it like this. Gonna go in there with a little bit of that same color, create a little more shadow underneath that roof again, leaving just a little bit of a white outline in between the roof and the castle. And then when the damp brush will just blend that out slightly, making a soft shadow I'll do the same thing over here, underneath this tower peak and then with a damp brush. Blend that out. And I had a little more pigment here on this left hand side. I want to go in with a little bit of dark color on a sharp point and create shadows over here to really emphasize this little tower shape. So I kind of make triangles with the damp brush. I'm just gonna go in and blend that out a little more pigment. Then I'll go in there and take some of that brown that we did is well, blend that So the pigment isn't so harsh. Well, let this layer dry 13. Step 10: Trees Layer #4: now we could stop here if we like. I want to add a few more details in really sharp contrast in colors. So with my number six brush, I'm gonna make some burnt sienna with a little bit of the deep green. Well, more burnt sienna and a little more deep brain make a sharp point of my brush. My breath brushes pretty wet at this point. And I'm just gonna create some brush strokes of some brown throughout the foliage. Again, I'm trying to keep a shape. Very organic. I'll do this on not every section, but a few of them. This helps create a few more shadows amongst the green foliage. 14. Step 11: The Castle Layer #4: then I'm gonna go in there with some of the sepia and all makes a little burnt sienna with that as well. Make a very sharp point on my brush and it's gonna add some, Um, that's that's a little too much pigment. Pull that off. Just gonna add some stonework here. Little spots of it because the colors darker. I want toe. It weighs down the painting, and I want to do that on the left hand side, where my darker shadows are. Do that just a few spots here and there helps to create a shadow, and it creates a little texture in our castle. Switch to my number one, brush this small brush and I'll go in there with some black. Keep a very sharp point. Just make a few little specks throughout the castle here and there. Then I'm gonna go in with that color remix that sepia color, and I want to just outline this overhang with a very light touch, and if use more spots with that, could it pull some color out from the sides of the roof here where we're creating our shadow, Hold the brush completely flat to the paper and just pull it up and we'll let this layer dry 15. Step 12: Final Details: And now, for our last layer of details, I want to do two things. I want to add some yellow hue to our foliage, and then I wanna add some yellow Oakar to our castle. So I'll take some of this yellow and mix it with a little bit of that yellow green. So it's still primary yellow, and I want to just drop in some spots throughout just to create a little bit of of a glow in a contrast between the browns of the castle and the foliage. This will also fill in any spots that I thought need a little shape or a little direction just like that, with the same brush in number six brush. I'm gonna take this yellow Oakar, mix it with a little bit of water so it makes somewhat of a glaze, and I'm just gonna create a few speckles of texture throughout. And because it was our base color, it'll come in nicely and tie everything together. You can go in there and just dab it here and there and then with the damp brush on the roof . Just blend some of that out. It's more of a glaze, and there we have our castle in the woods 16. Class Wrap Up: So here we have our completed castle in the woods using the color scheme. It attacks. We have a lot of Brown's and very warm colors with the green. It's kind of nice to have the castle nestled in the woods and kind of something like from an old fairy tale kind of a cute look. We did lots of layers. We created lots of texture and because we kept it loose, there's a lot of white peeking through, and I think that gives it kind of a dreamy effect. It's one of the ways that watercolor is most beautiful if you want to vary it. So here are warm colors that we used. I did one, and I used a bunch of cool colors. And so using the same template with just different colors. Here we have another stone castle in the woods, still charming, but yet because of the blues and the grays we used, it came out very differently. It's quite interesting. Look, I used ivory black oppression, blue, ultra marine blue and then the same colors we used previously for the greens, the deep Green meridian, Hugh Yellow green and burnt Sienna. And I'll include this as well in the class supply list, in case you want to use a cool colors to make yours. So here we have both of our images, all complete. And these are color schemes that we used with them. For your class project. Try creating your own castle in the woods. Take a photo of your image and posted in the project section or on social media. And be sure to tag me. Please be sure to follow me here on skill share to get notified of future classes and please consider leaving a review. Thanks for watching.