Color Theory, Mixing Tips&Tricks, Watercolor Birds Step By Step From Easy To Advanced

1. Introduction: Welcome to my Art Studio. I'm Evgenia, a professional watercolor artist from Belgium. I've been painting for over 20 years and I'm happy to share with you my experience, knowledge, tips and tricks. Let's capture winter magic in three cards. We will start with an easy project and with each new card you will learn something new and improve your painting skills. We will draw the burds together, step-by-step. Or you can download a stencil so you don't need to draw them from scratch. During the class, you will learn about warm and cool colors. It can be very confusing to understand the color theory, but in this class you will learn it step-by-step and practice while painting. And this is much more fun than just the theory! We will use different watercolor techniques like splashing water in wet paint, masking, scratching with a knife, using white gouache, removing paint in wet paper. You will learn how to make wet watercolor technique a relaxing painting process. Let's get started! Oh, I forgot to mention. You may probably know me from Instagram and YouTube. Where I share with you my free watercolor tutorials and techniques. I would be happy to see your artworks in the class project gallery! And if you'd like to share your creations on Instagram, please use this tag. I look forward to see your artworks! See you soon! 2. Get Started - Materials: Let's have a look at the materials. Watercolor paper, 300 g/m2 Pieces of used paper. Paper tissues, water jar, ceramic palette or a plate. Brushes, knife, watercolor set, white gouache, cotton kitchen towel, tape, masking fluid, eraser, kneading eraser, soft pencils. For all the cards you will need a warm yellow like Cadmium yellow, a cooler red with more rose in it like Permanent Alizarin crimson or Madder lake deep, a blue like Cobalt blue or Ultramarine, Cadmium red, or Vermilion, Emerald green,Phthalo green or Viridian, Payne's gray or Black mixed with blue. Emerald green we will use for the first and the second card. What about a brown color? We will need it for the birds and the twigs. You can mix your own browns from the colors we will use. Let's learn a little about the collar. 3. The Color Theory - Easy Explained: The color spectrum in nature, you can see in a rainbow. It's built from three colors, red, yellow, and blue. Like ink cartridges for a printer. These are primary colors because they can't be mixed from other colors What about the other three rainbow colors? Let's draw a circle and put the three primary colors in it. Now mix the two colors to get a new one. The baby's of the two primary colors are called secondary colors, violet, orange, and green. The two opposite colors in this circle we call complementary colors because they emphasize the qualities of each other. You can use them to add more contrast or to create an effect of light. You see the examples of complementary color in nature. Like poppies in the grass. Red apples between the green foliage, autumn leaves against the clear blue sky, yellow and violet flowers. Violet clouds and yellow of the sunset. To get a brown color, you need to mix two complementary colors with each other. Let's mix crimson and green. First, we will mix some green and then we will add some crimson. This way you can mix your own Indian red brown. Now you can try this with other greens in your set. For example, sap green and crimson will get a little bit darker brown. So you can try all your greens are reds to get different browns. Let's mix yellow and violet. I will mix violet from crimson and cobalt blue on my palette. This is again another brown color. We will test this with permanent blue-violet from my set. Now we will mix blue and orange. You get a light brown or if you add a bit more blue a gray color. Let's try it with permanent orange from my set. A slightly darker gray brown. This way you can test all your oranges and blues together and see what grays or browns you can get. It's fun to try! If you mix the three primary colors, you'll get brown too of course. You can add more blue or crimson or yellow to get different colors of brown. But what about black? It's not in the natural color spectrum. Is black the absence of color? In nature black is the absence of light, and color is the phenomenon of light. But a dark object painted on white paper is made from pigments, not light. Artists must use their darkest color of paint to approximate black. You have Payne's gray, a lovely bluish black, Mars black, Lamp black. If you choose to use a premade black color, then it's better to use the cold Payne's gray. It mixes nicely with other colors and you can get it as dark as you want to paint the details. You can mix your own black too. Dark brown or burnt umber plus blue ultramarine. 4. Cool And Warm Colors: What colors are warm and cool? Warm colors - think about sun, yellow, orange, red. The colors based on primary yellow or orange will be warm. Let's paint these colors together for a warm color palette. Yellows like lemon yellow are considered cool yellows because they look more greenish than warm primary yellow. It's not always accurate to call the color cold or warm. It depends on a feeling like a flavor. You may consider a color warm, but another person will consider it cool. Also, the feeling of colors depends on what colors are near them in the painting. A nice example is a rose color, combined with many yellows, It will be warm. The whole picture will have a warm color palette. But combined with blues, it will become cold, the same is with crimson. Let's add rose and crimson to the two groups of colors. Cool colors. Think about winter, snow, cold water, blue, blue-green, blue-violet. Colors based on blue will be cold. Paint a couple of swatches for a cool color palette. To help you to identify warm and cool colors let’s mix the primary colors together. Download a stencil for this exercise the description of this class or just do it along with me. We will make seven circles. The first one is a primary yellow, the last one will be blue. The circles in-between we will make by mixing yellow and blue with each other in different proportions. The second circle we will paint slightly smaller. The third smaller than the second, and so on. The sixth circle will contain just to drop of yellow. Now, do the same with blue. More blue in the first circle from a primary blue, then less blue in the third and so on. The sixth circle from blue or the second from yellow will contain just a drop of blue. While mixing, you create different shades of green. Warm or cool depending on more yellow or blue in it. Greens with more yellow in it are warm and with more blue cold. In the next line we will do the same but with blue and crimson. The purples and violets are tricky. We see the two colors almost the same. Purple is more reddish and violet is more bluish. Actually, purple is formed by mixing red and blue colors in the natural color spectrum. Violet is a spectrum color and it's perceived by our eyes as containing more blue than red. While painting, we mixed pigments so to paint violet add more blue to crimson. Crimson and yellow. With more orange in it are Reds with more orange in it are warmer than reds with rose or blue in it. Brown, gray, black and white can be warm or cool depending on more yellow, red, or blue in it. 5. Bird 1 - Color Palette And Swatches: Let's see what colors we will need to make this card. A pale rose you can get from adding water to crimson. Notice that you don't need to use a white watercolor. You can get a light color by just taking a little bit of color and water. Pale yellow from yellow and water. Very bright orange for the breast we can get by mixing cadmium red or vermilion and a bit of yellow. At the end of this chapter you will get a table with all the colors and mixes. For a light brown mix yellow, crimson, and a drop of blue, a dark brown, you can get by mixing complimentary colors like we saw in the previous chapters. Let's mix yellow and blue for a green color, then add Crimson in it and the bit of Payne's gray. If you have a sap green in your set, you can also mix it with crimson and Payne's gray. For the feathers we will need pale violet. You can get it by mixing crimson and blue and a bit of Payne's gray. For the background we need a cool blue-green. Let's mix a bit of yellow and more blue. Or you can mix emerald, green and blue. That more greenish color in the background you can get by mixing emerald green with yellow. Let's mix crimson and blue for the violet in the background. For a golden yellow in the wood I wanted to try sap green with crimson and yellow, but I don't like it much. Let's mix it better from yellow and a bit of crimson. 6. Drawing Bird 1, Painting Wet On Dry, Bleeding And Splashing Techniques: I've used a sheet of watercolor paper 15 cm wide and 21 cm high, or 5.9 by 8.3 inches. I've printed out a reference photos so that we can better define the simple shapes the bird is built from. An object we can interpret as multiple simple shapes together. Let's try this out with this cute little bird. The basic shape is an oval. The head is a half circle. Draw an egg-like shape. A half circle for the head. An eye, a beak. The wings and a tail. Draw the feet and the wooden stick. You can download a line drawing stencil attached to this course. So you don't need to draw the bird from scratch. If you'd like to learn about three fast ways to make a splendid drawing. Please watch my class "Your artworks will never be the same after mastering wet on wet technique in watercolor", where I explain it in detail. Remove a line with an eraser, then use a kneading eraser to soften the pencil lines. That's a very nice way to avoid erasing the pencil lines after your painting is dry, An eraser can take some color away together with the pencil lines and some lines are difficult to remove. So that's a good practice to use a kneading eraser before you start to paint. Now take a masking tape. That's not that brown gummed tape that you find for watercolor. A brown tape you can't remove without damaging the paper or you have to cut it off. I find it's nice to have a white frame instead. The masking tape also hold the paper in its place but doesn't damage it and it's easy to remove. Mix yellow with a drop of crimson and blue lightly paint the feathers. Mix blue with a drop of yellow. Now, we use vermilion with a drop of yellow to get an intense orange color. Touch the edge of the previous strokes, that will let the color flow and it’s called bleeding. The effect of such a fuzzy edge is very nice. A bit of yellow in wet red. Mix some brown color. With a clean wet brush you can remove the paint you don’t want. Rub lightly on the paper to remove it and clean your brush with a tissue. Mix a brown color. Like we saw in the previous chapters you can mix different shades of brown's from complementary colors. Add a darker brown in wet paper. Mix some crimson with water to get a light rose color,. then add a drop of yellow. Touch the edge of the just painted wood in just a couple of places to let the color flow in wet areas. Add some brown drops and now you can see how the paint flows very nicely! Stretch the rose color. Add yellow in wet rose wash. Paint with yellow on the other side, take some rose and paint along the edge of the wood. Mix blue and a bit of yellow. Paint along the edge of the bird. Touch the previous wash to let the colors mix with each other. Some water drops on the edge , that will create some more texture along the feathers. With a darker color paint first carefully along the edge of the bird. Add some emerald green to make the color brighter and cooler. A drop of yellow in it to make it greener. I use a bit of permanent blue-violet to mix the colors faster but you can always mix crimson and blue to get a violet as we saw in the color theory And then add more blue and Payne's gray. Notice how the orange color of the breast pop out from the cool blue-green background. The complementary colors orange and blue work here nicely. Touch the paper with the same color on your brush in a couple of places on the previous wash. And create more texture in the background. Wrap with a wet brush on the edge, then dab with a paper tissue to remove some color. We do this to soften the edge stretch the blue color a little bit. The paper is now wet but the color is already soaked into the paper. It’s a perfect moment to splash some water. clean the brush and place it on your finger and tap a couple of times. Rub on the edge to take some color away. Dab your brush with the tissue. Add some water drops with the brush. It will make a kind of glow, and the edge will be softer. You can also dab the edge with a paper tissue and then stretch the color. Some more water drops on the edge of the bird for a glow. Add some more water drops in the background. Add some light shade of blue. Then dab the brush with the tissue. And with this almost dry brush stretch the blue color, it will make a rough texture on the paper like feathers. Add some brown-green strokes for the feathers. Clean your brush and smooth the strokes with it. Do the same for the other feathers, paint the strokes, then clean your brush and smooth the strokes with a clean wet brush. Paint the head with the same brown-green color. Mix violet and Payne'sgray. If you take the color to paint some details, dab the brush first on a paper tissue and then take the color to avoid to to avoid water dripping from the brush. Paint with the same mix of violet and Payne's gray the darker lines in the feathers. Mix some blue with Payne's gray, then make it lighter by adding a bit of water. Paint a couple of strokes under the wing for a shadow. Touch the paper lightly and paint some lines in the feathers. If your paint is watery, dab the drops with the tissue, dab your brush, then take again a bit of color and paint the shadow again. Rub on the edge to soften it and dab with a tissue. Week some light yellow. just yellow and some water. Payne's gray for the beak and the eye. Mix some darker brown, paint around the eye and paint the head with a couple of short strokes. Clean your brush and smooth the edge of the strokes to make it soft. Paint the feet with Payne's gray. Soften with a wet brush. Let you card dry or use a hairdryer. 7. Bird 2 - Color Palette And Swatches: Let's see what colors we will need to make this card. Yellow. If you add more water, you can get a light shade of yellow. The same is with crimson and blue. Mix orange from crimson and yellow. For a dark crimson as the shadows of the berries, you mix crimson and a bit of Payne's gray. An intense orange we can't mix from primary colors. So let's mix cadmium red or vermilion with a drop of yellow. Violet from crimson and blue. Violet contains more blue than purple, as we saw in the previous chapters. I like the mixed violet much better. But if I need to add just a bit of violet here and there I use permanent blue-violet. Purple you can mix by adding a little bit of blue in crimson. One of my favorite colors is indigo. You can mix it from blue and Payne's gray. I also use a pre-made indigo color, but if you don't have it in your set, just mix it from blue and Payne's gray. The other wonderful color that I use a lot is Indian red. Mix it from green and crimson. Green you get by mixing yellow and blue. There is also a pre-made color from Winsor & Newton that you can use. Yellow ochre you can mix from yellow and crimson and then add a drop of blue or use a pre-made color if you have it in your set. Let's mix a couple of browns. For the first mix indian red, and a bit of Payne's gray, for the next use more green than crimson and add a bit of Payne's gray. Mix orange with Payne's gray. A very dark shade of brown you can make by mixing Payne's gray, blue or indigo, Indian red and violet. Add more indian red for a brownish color, or more blue or violet for a dark gray. 8. Drawing Bird 2 - Masking, Painting Wet On Wet, Correcting: Let's draw this card together. Feel free to download the line drawing stencil attached to this course so you don't need to draw it from scratch. The basic form is a circle. The head is a half circle. Always begin with a basic shape and then draw some details in it. I draw the lines to define the place of a bird on the paper and the branch above Draw the branch. Draw the lines again to define the position of a branch. Draw an oval like shape for the bird. A piece of tail. The breast. The head is a half circle, the beak and the eye. Remove the line in-between with an eraser. Lighten up the lines with a kneading eraser. Now draw the twigs with the berries. Draw the lines very lightly. Draw the berries. Use a kneading eraser to lighten up the pencil lines. Take a masking fluid. Let's mask the places that must remain white. The edge of the snow and the edge of the berries. Take a bowl with warm water and a cotton kitchen towel, one you don't need anymore. To protect the table from moisture I use a desk pad from IKEA. Stretch the towel. The paper on two sides. Moist the paper on 2 sides, first on the back side then on the front side. Moist the watercolors. I like to use a spray to avoid too much water on the paint. Begin with a pale yellow. Apply the color on wet paper. Notice that I use very little water while taking a color. If you use a watery paint, It's a real flow on the paper and the colors that you will add, will not mix properly with each other. Mix yellow and crimson color. Apply the color with light strokes. Add a little bit more yellow. Add some crimson strokes for the berries. A drop of vermilion for an intenser color. A rose color I use works here the same as crimson. For a primary red it is best to use cold reds with more rose in it. A cold red will mix beautifully with blue and yellow and you get nice clear colors. To mix colors faster. I use a little bit of permanent blue-violet. If you clean your brush, dab it regularly with a tissue to avoid too much water on your brush. Add some yellow in the background. Mix some orange from yellow and crimson. The paper is wet but not too wet. Because of the wet towel underneath The paper stays wet for a long time and it gives you enough time to paint. Just wonderful and very relaxing to do! More crimson for the berries. Mix a purple and add more color to the shadows. define the twigs. Mixing an orange color to paint the gaps between the twigs. Stretch the applied color, dry your brush with a tissue. and with this almost dry brush diffuse the applied color in the other color. The watercolor on wet paper is very flexible! Dab a little with a tissue to remove the color from snowy places. We will paint them when the paper is dry. With a fine brush, paint some twigs. Mix a brown color from yellow, crimson,Payne's gray or violet. Mix indian red and Payne's gray. By holding the brush far from the point you can create loose strokes. Mixed Payne's gray, indian red, violet and indigo. Paint the twigs. Mix again the previous colors to get a darker mix and gently paint the twigs. Add more crimson with a drop of yellow. Mix vermilion, violet and indigo and add some shadows and branches. With cadmium red or vermilion and a drop of yellow paint the breast of the bird. Mix some yellow ochre from primary colors and a bit of previous dark mix and a little of indian red to make the colors warmer. Paint the head, a couple of fine strokes to define the feathers. To remove the color from the white feathers. Little bit of indigo and water. A bit of light blue and violet to define the shadows of the snow. So, let's add a little bit more color. A shadow of the snow with a light color. A bit of yellow ochre to add more roundness. If you make a mistake, removes the paint with a clean, almost dry brush or dab a place with a tissue and add some color again. Don't use too much water before you add the color. Try it on your palette or dab the brush lightly on the paper tissue. Yellow with a drop of vermilion to add more color in the background. It's always nice to add an intenser color is the wet paint, because when the painting is dry, the color will always be a little bit lighter than when it was wet. Let's the paper dry just a little or use a hairdryer. 9. Bird 2 - Painting Details Wet On Dry, Scratching Technique, Splashing Gouache: Gently remove the card from the towel. The paper is very soft and flexible now. Dry the pad with a tissue. Now dry the paper with a hairdryer. I love using a ceramic palette or a plate to mix the colors. It has such a smooth surface that makes painting really enjoyable! Add some indian red to the previous dark mix that is probably over on your palette and a little bit more Payne's grey. A fine brush from the Winsor & Newton sketchers set is nice to paint the long lines like branches. Take just a little bit of color. so that the brush stays almost dry. Without taking water take just the mixed color and with this dry brush apply some color on the branch, it will make a rough texture. Mix a little bit of indigo and violet. Clean your brush and dab it with the tissue so that it's almost dry. Take a bit of mixed color, apply the color. Hold your brush almost horizontally. You can see that the color covers the paper just a little and you get a rough texture. That is a nice use of dry-on-dry technique. Now with a little of crimson and vermilion paint the berries. Take a drop of crimson and and touch the paper lightly between imaginable circles of berries to add more shape and shadows. With crimson I start to build up the berries. See a reference photo in the attachment of this class. The light places will be the reflections on the berries but they are not white that's why we added some color on the background previously. Build up the berries with a light shade, later we will add more layers above it. Smooth the edge with a clean wet brush. Mix crimson and a drop of violet and Payne's gray for a dark color. Paint between the circles of the barriers to add some shadows. With the point of my brush I stretch the color in small lines making a fluffy edge of the bird. Now with a bit of crimson we make the berries darker. With indigo-violet make the branches darker. Lightly touch the paper to add more color. Mix some orange-vermilion and apply on the breast. Dab the brush and with an almost dry brush stretch the color, because of the dry brush it will create a rough texture for the feathers. A bit of dark crimson, Payne's gray a nd orage to add more texture. Mixing indian red and Payne's gray. We paint the head. Hold the brush much more horizontally and just lightly with the point stretch the color to get a rough feather-like texture. Don’t forget to dab the brush with a tissue before you take a mixed color. To make a rough texture the brush must be almost dry. Paint a piece of tail. Often I take the color from my previous mixes. I just add a little bit of water if my paint is dry. Here I take some light brown. Paint lightly with a dry brush and a little bit of color for a rough texture. Do the same with a light shade of blue. Some tiny strokes for the feathers. With crimson and Payne's gray add more texture. Paint the shadows of the berries. Paint the small details. I add some details here and there. A bit of orange to make the color more intense. Add a layer with a bit of crimson mixed with water above the previous layers of berries. That will make the color intense. With a wet brush smooth the edges between reflections and shadows. Add tiny strokes of dark crimson to define the feathers. Rub gently on the masked place to remove them. With a bit of white gouache add a reflection in the eye. You can also use a white gel pen or a fine acrylic marker. With a light yellow add the shadow on the snow. Use some light blue to create more texture on the snow. I add some details here and there. Darkpoints on the berries. Fine tuning the twigs, add a little bit more of shadow with a dark shade of brown. A little bit more darker feathers on the head. There is a nice technique to make frost-ike texture. We will use a knife like a Stanley hobby knife and scratch the paper along the twigs. The lines that we get look very different from those that are masked. First let’s try it together on a painted piece of paper you don't need anymore. Place the knife with its blade perpendicular on the paper, and move your hand while pressing on the paper. The lines look like frost or water drops. Exercise a little to get nice lines before you try it on the painting. Let's do it now along the twigs on the painting. Now we will splash some white gouache for the snow. Therefore we will mask the bird first with a couple of pieces of used paper. Place the brush on your finger and tap a couple of times, or you can place the brush on another brush. The drops will lay randomly on the paper and it looks more natural than to paint each drop of snow by hand. Then you can add some white spots by hand where you want them. 10. Bird 3 - Color Palette And Swatches, Granulation: This last card is painted in cool colors. Even with a warm yellow light, it has much more cold colors like blue and violet. One of my favorite colors is Indian red. We can mix it from green and crimson. When dry. I like the texture of this color very much, much more than of a pre-made paint. But if you need to add, just a little of indian red here there, then a pre-made color is very useful. Here we will mix Payne's gray, with a bit of Indian red to get a warm gray brown. Light blue for the feathers. Like with indian red a mixed yellow ochre will have a texture with tiny spots of blue. That special texture in watercolor is called granulation. It makes the painting look very different than when you would use clear premade colors without mixing them. If you have a yellow ochre in your set, try to paint these two near to each other and compare them. Yellow ochre we can mix from yellow and crimson and a drop of blue. But to paint faster when you need to make this color with other colors it's nice to use a premade paint. For the tail, we will use a very dark bluish color from blue and Payne's gray, or a pre-made color indigo. An intense orange for the head from cadmium red or vermilion and a drop of yellow. I like this greenish gray from yellow ochre and indigo. Let's mix purple from crimson and a bit of blue. In violet as in indian red, or yellow ochre you will see the granulation when the paint is dry. Tiny spots of blue like a texture. So if you ever would like to use a violet on a big wash, it's best to mix it, just mix crimson and blue. If you need to add a little bit of violet in other mixes, then it's useful to use a pre-made color blue-violet A nice color from indian red and violet. This one I call "Indian red mix". In the lesson, you can mix it from indian red and orange and purple. A pale color from indigo and water. Let's mix too cold dark shades for the background. Violet and indigo, and violet and blue. 11. Drawing Bird 3, Painting Wet On Wet, Drawing With Water, Removing Paint Technique: I've used a sheet of watercolor paper 15 cm wide and 21 cm high, or 5.9 by 8.3 inches. Let's look at the reference photo. As we saw in the previous lessons, all the objects we can interpret as a combination of simple shapes. Let us define the edges of the bird. Draw the lines lightly. Draw an oval-like shape for the body. Half circle for the head. The eye will be just where the oval line crosses the head. I draw on the photo to study the shape, then I draw the same shape on my paper. The tail, the feet. The shadows from the feet. Some snow. Lighten up the lines with a kneading eraser. Let’s mask the places that must remain white the breast edge and the reflections on the feet. We begin with the painting the bird's first layer on dry paper. As you probably know, it's called wet on dry. A classical watercolor technique. This layer must not be perfect. It will serve as the first color layer to build up our bird. Some yellow, orange for the head, a mix of vermillion and Indian red. Then mix yellow ochre with indian red and a bit of paynes gray for the head. Light blue for the head. Add a bit of Payne's gray in blue and paint the feathers and the tail. Intense blue for the feathers. Add a bit of yellow ochre in blue and paint the body with this greenish mix. Some blue drops in the wet paper for a texture. Apply indigo on the tail. Dab the brush a little to avoid a very wet brush and water drops in the paint. Stretch the color. A little bit more orange and yellow. Take a cotton kitchen towel, one you don't need anymore. Moist it under the tap thoroughly, wring it out and lay on the table. Take the painting and moist it thoroughly under the tap on all sides and let the bird to get blurry from water. Place the painting on the wet kitchen towel. With an almost dry broad flat brush makes the painting flat on the towel. The dry brush also takes an amount of water away from the surface. Wait a little till the water is soaked into the paper. With a warm yellow we start painting the background. Make a greenish color from yellow and emerald green, Add a little yellow ochre and apply the color in the background on the edge of the painting. More yellow for an intense color. Add a bit of crimson and mix it with yellow, apply on the edge above. The yellow in the middle of the painting must be lighter than the edges to create an effect of flight. Crimson and a bit of blue for a purple. More yellow, add yellow circles in the background.. Mix yellow ochre with crimson and add a bit of indigo. We make the edge darker. Dab the brush if it becomes too wet. A little bit more yellow. Stretch the color. Take some color away from the snow with a paper tissue. We add blue on the previous purple, the colors will mix with each other on the wet paper. I really love this amazing technique! With a paper tissue dab on the log and snow to make the paper dry. That will prevent the color from the wet background flow on the log and snow. They must remain light. I didn't mask them because they are big and it's easy to dab them a couple of times with a tissue. We will add the first layer on the log also in wet on wet. More blue, violet in indian red with violet. To connect the dark shadows in the background to the light, I add Indian red to orange on my palette and mix this with purple. Make the circles between dark and light colors. With the point of your brush make the circles in the dark color. A little bit of violet or purple mix on the edge above. Connect it with the light with the previous indian red mix. Take more blue and add it in the background. More indigo and violet to make a darker places. Take a fine brush and some dark mix that we've made. Paint the lines for the twigs. Take some Indian red mix and paint the lines farther into the dark background. Apply more color on the twigs. Dab the log and the snow with a tissue. Apply some mix of blue and yellow ochre on the feathers, A little bit pale blue, blue on the head, the wings and the tail. An intense orange on the head and some yellow. This layer will be blurry. The strokes will not have sharp edges when dry. It's perfect for a background to paint the details on it. With the point of the brush I draw some more twigs. This time without color just with a wet brush. Fine tune the twigs with brown strokes. Dab your brush with a tissue and make circles in the wet paint. Then dry your brush again and so on. You remove some color but the edge of the circles will be blurry when dry. It gives an effect of blurry light spots. With a dark mix of violet and indigo paint around the circles with a fine brush. Between the twigs add a line here and there. With indigo and water we paint the log the lines on it. With a clean little bit wet brush smooth the edges of the lines. A little yellow ochre for the lines in the log. I add some water drops on the edge and dab with a tissue to remove some paint. In wet paint add some indigo-ochre strokes. Some places of the paper are still dry, some wet and it gives different effects. Take the painting carefully and remove the towel. Dry the pad with a tissue. Let the card dry or use a hairdryer. 12. Bird 3, Painting Layers, Painting Details Wet On Dry: Now we will paint on dry paper. Mix paynes gray and indian red and paint the head of the bird. With yellow ochre add some light color Paint the head further with blue, touch the previous brown to let the colors flow in each other, dab the brush and stretch the color. Mix orange and indian red and paint a shadow on the head. Because we have a previous layer the colors will be intenser. Greenish gray color from blue and yellow ochre. Apply the color, then dab your brush and then stretch the color. An intense blue for the feathers. Dab the brush and soft the edge. Lightly paint the wings. Dab the brush and diffuse the colors with each other. Paint a line of the wing to define the edge. With a very light shade define the feathers under the wing. Now let's add a shadow under the wing. Take some brown from your palette. apply the color, dab the brush and smooth the edge. Add a bit of blue. With indigo and a bit Payne's gray paint the dark tail and define the edge of the wing. dd a bit of blue and stretch the color. Don't forget to look at the reference photo when you are painting. Dab the brush and smooth the edge to make it lighter and softer. With the point of the brush, paint the lines in the wings. The back wing has three parts in it. Add more darker lines and a bit of shadow. A very light Payne's gray and blue to add more shadow and define the feathers under the wings. Dab the brush and smooth the strokes.. I dab the place a little with a tissue. Now to let the bird pop out of the background I add darker yellow, yellow and a drop of indigo integral in it. Paint around the bird. Clean the brush and smooth the edge. You can also dab the edge with a tissue. I add a little bit of crimson to connect the yellow and the darker shadows. Dab the edge so that you don't see an edge between the colors With violet blue and a bit of indian red we are going to paint around the log to define the sharp edge of the wood. Clean the brush, dab it with a tissue and stretch the color, paint a bit around the circles of light, Smooth the edges with a clean brush. dab the edge of the applied color to let it melt with the background. With yellow and drop off indigo paint behind the bird. Create a couple of circles. Smooth the edge with a clean, wet brush. It's time to paint the log. First let's add a light blue shadow on the snow and smooth the edge. With a flat brush, take a bit of water and wet the log, dab lightly with a tissue to make the surface dryer. With a light indigo paint the lines on the wood, They will get blurry. With yellow ochre paint the lines, add a bit more indigo in it to make it greenish. To add more texture in the wood we will splash some color. Mask the painting with a piece of paper, take some indigo on your palette. Place the brush on another brush and tap a couple of times. The drops will be blurry and we'll add more texture. You can remove some drops from the snow by dabbing it with a tissue. Some more shadows here and there. Add a shadow under the snow and smooth the edges with a clean, wet brush. I add a light blue to define the texture of the snow. 13. Bird 3, Adding More Layers, Painting Details, Splashing Paint: Let's paint an eye with a fine brush and pines gray. Clean the brush, dab it with a tissue and take some color away to define a reflection in the eye. With Payne's gray and Indian red paint a beak. dab the brush and stretch the color. The brush must be almost dry if you paint some small details. Let's add a layer on the bird with an indigo-ochre mix. Apply the color, then clean the brush and stretch the color with an almost dry brush. Paint the wings lightly with the same color. Add a little bit more blue. Just a little more shadow under the wings. With a dry brush and a bit of color define the feathers. I make the edges darker. With a very dark indigo-payne’s gray draw the lines on the log, A couple of dots for the texture. Add more light indigo to make the wood darker here and there. With layers in watercolor you can make different textures and build up a shape. Because of the transparency, the layers will make the color more intense. Remove the masking fluid with an eraser and a brush. Add more yellow on the head. The circle around the eye with a light shade of brown. Probably you have some shade of it on your palette. just add a bit of water to it. Some yellow on the breast, but let the edge white for a sunny effect. With a very fine brush and Payne's gray I paint around the reflection in the eye. Add a bit of dark accents on the beak. Make the shadow a little darker by adding some orange and indian red. Now let's paint the feet. Let's the edge white. We paint first with a light color of brown Then add some dark color in wet light brown do the same with the second foot. Look regularly at the reference photo that you’ll find in the attachment of this class. To make more contrast and emphasize the light we will paint the shadows with cold blue. Yellow will look warmer when the shadows are cold. I find painting the details at the end is always satisfying! If you make a mistake, you can always remove by rubbing on it with a wet brush and then dab the place with a tissue. Like this, and now let’s paint the shadow! A little more blue and indigo to make it darker. As the final touch let’s splash some indigo drops on dry paper. These drops will stay sharp and give a nice texture to the wood. I hope you have enjoyed this class and learned something new and interesting about watercolor. If you have any questions, I'm ready to help! I would be happy to see your artworks in the class project gallery. And if you'd like to share your creations on Instagram, please use this tag #magical.watercolor I look forward to see your artworks! See you soon!