Cottage in the Scenic Landscape

1. Introduction : Hello, I'm Shanan Subhan. If you are somebody new around here, then I am an artist and an art educator who is passionate about painting nature landscapes in my own semi-realistic approach. I mainly work with and also teach watercolors, gouache, and acrylics. On Skillshare, I have put up various classes all ranging from beginners to advanced level proficiencies covering basic to advanced level concepts. You can check out my Skillshare profile for more information. I love teaching detailed art classes, group sessions, and one-on-one sessions where I share my tips and tricks that I have learned over the years along with the syllabus covering the class. I take pride when my student testimonials mentioned that I break down complex objects into simpler and actionable steps, achieving a pitcher perfect painting, which they initially thought was difficult. I personally believe that art is a skill and if you're truly passionate about learning, then you can master it with regular practice. Welcome to my class on painting cottage in the scenic landscapes. In this class we will be painting two class projects, so these are the class projects. Along with the class projects, we will be learning about their composition, the techniques involved in the class. I'll walk you through my approach of painting all these complex subjects, so that it is easier for you to attempt any other paintings as well. We will be learning about painting concepts like layering and achieving depth, adding shadows and highlights. Painting tree foliages, grasses, and many other elements. Each project will be painted in a step-by-step manner, so that it is easier to follow along. Come join my class, and let us together create these stunning masterpieces. I'm much excited to see you in my class. 2. Art Materials: [MUSIC] Welcome to the class. I'm glad you're here. Before we begin, let me walk you through the art supplies that I'm going to use for the class. I'll be using Brustro gouache paint. You don't need to have all these shades. I'll be using some of the basic shades for the painting. Next we have paper. I'll be using the [inaudible] 300 GSM, 100 percent cotton paper. It has cold-pressed texture, which makes it very easier for us to perform watercolor techniques as well. Next, let's talk about the brushes. I have this three fourth inch flat brush, size nine round brush, filbert brush, fine liner brush, and size two round brush. I also have the size 000 round brush with pointed tip. Then we will need a pencil, eraser, ruler and kneading eraser for the sketching part. Then we would need masking tape and cardboard to tape down the paper. Next, I have ceramic palette for mixing the colors. I also have a water spray bottle for wetting the paints and also to wet the surface of the paper for watercolor techniques like wet on wet or so. Then two jars of water and an air dryer. You need not have the exact same supplies. You can go with anything that is readily available with you. 3. Composition: In this step though, we will talk about the composition of the painting. The first painting comprises of a deep forest area in the background that we use a pure hazy due to the mist and atmospheric vapor. There is this tiny house which is reflected by the light, partially on the front side. The other side is darker. There is the shadow of the house on the ground. Similarly, the grassy area has a partially sunlit effect and behind the house, it appears darker. In the foreground area, there are these lovely trees. Here are some thumbnail images I did before painting this. Making these smaller thumbnails really helps to get a better idea of how to go about the painting. The second painting comprises of a hazy distant tree line. In the midground area we have the spatially sunlit house, and there are shadow areas as well. Towards the foreground area, there are some dried grasses loosely spread, more like an abstract painting. The foreground area is covered with the tree foliage. Here is a rough thumbnail painting I did. I hope you are clear with the composition part. Please feel free to reach out to me to clarify your doubts. 4. Techniques: [MUSIC] Before starting the painting process, we will have a look at the techniques that will be used in the class. First, let me show you how I paint the trees. My approach to paint the trees is usually very easier and simple. You can take any color and dab the paints to create the impression of foliage. Next, we will add some darker color as the shadows. Here the basic idea is to have a balanced or contrast or tonal values of lighter, darker, and mid-tone colors. For the lighter highlights, we will apply white color. Now, you'll see there are three tonal values. Once you have painted this, then you can add some branches using a thin brush or any pointed brush. This gives the tree an organic look. Here, you can either paint the foliage first or you can paint the tree trunk and the skeleton, and then add the foliage using any desired color. Now in order to add the foliage, you need to first dry the base layer. Once it is dry, then you can add the foliage. Here I'm mixing crimson and white to achieve a lighter pink color. This is going to be the mid-tone color. Next, we will add darker color. Here, if you add on the wet paint, the brush will start picking the base color so you have to be careful of the wetness factor. You can add it on the dry area, but if you are trying to add on the wet surface, it will pick up the paints from there. Let it dry first, and then you can add the different tonal values. Next, I'll be using white as the highlight. Next, we will learn to paint the distant forest in the background area. Here here, pick any blue color. I'll be taking portion blue. Then we will mix a bit of brown, and some white to it. We have to take a very lighter tonal value for the distant area. This is the farthest point from the viewpoint and it appears very hazy and lighter in color. Then we will take a mid-tone color by adding more of blue and brown and less of white. Just by adjusting white, we can get different tonal values. Here, you can paint as many layers as you want. This will add a sense of depth in the painting. Lastly, we will add this darker color as the midground area. You can add details once they're dry using different tonal values. Next, let us learn to paint the tree foliage from the second painting. This area in the foreground is darker, so we will start with the base layer as black color. Once you have applied the black paint, let it dry. Once this black layer is dry, you can add different tonal values of green in order to achieve highlights and darker shadows. In Gosh, some colors appear darker when they are wet and after drying, it looks much brighter. You can swash the colors in order to know their behavior. So here, I am using lighter green by mixing yellow and olive green. Paint the foliage using mid-tone and darker tones. Once we have the foliage ready, we can add the branches using a thin brush. [MUSIC]. 5. Project 1 - Sunlit Cottage: [MUSIC] In this chapter, we are going to learn to paint this beautiful painting. Let's get started with the painting. I'm taping the paper using masking tape, and this is an half-inch masking tape. The paper is home, 300 GSM, 100 percent cotton paper. Once we have taped down the paper, just run your fingers over the edges, just to make sure that it is tightly sealed. Next I'm going to take a pencil and mark the composition of the painting. Somewhere in the lower half, I'll be marking this horizon line. Next, I'm going to draw this house here, so draw parallel lines. Then we will draw two diagonal lines intersecting at the midpoint. Now we will paint the sides of this house. Draw two horizontal lines. Draw two parallel horizontal lines adjacent to the front part. Now draw a rectangular shape. Notice that these vertical lines are all of different height. Erase all the unnecessary lines, and using a kneading eraser, I'll remove the darker graphite marks. We are done with the sketching part. The rest of the details we will add as we paint. I'm going to take the colors on the palette. I have yellow ocher and white. We'll start with painting the sky. I'm going to use the spray bottle to water the paper, and this will be wet on wet technique. You can even use a large brush to wet the paper. Now take yellow ocher and white, mix it in a yellow-ish pastel color. Apply this mix on the leftmost part and a very watered down version on the right side. This is the sky. Next we will be printing a distant blurry forest in the background. We will take ocean blue and black. Next, take these two colors, a bit of black and Prussian blue. Mix a white to it to make a very lighter blue color. Take the same mix and add a bit more white to it to make a little lighter version of the same color. Now I'm applying this right below the painted sky area. This is the distant misty area. Apply a bit darker tone for another layer. I'm dabbing my brush to create the impression of three foliage. Next, we will paint slightly darker layer. This time we will add less of white and more of blue and black. [MUSIC] Leave the blank space for the house and gently paint around that area. [MUSIC] Dab the brush gently to create the impression of foliage. [MUSIC] Here to add a sense of dimension, I'm taking a darker blue or more of black-ish color, and I'll add the foliage shapes in-between. This will make it look over dimensional. Next, we will paint the grassy land from mid-ground to the foreground. I'll be using olive green and mid yellow, then we'll mix them together to achieve a yellowish green. We will be painting the base layer of the ground with this yellow-green color. [MUSIC] Towards the right right of the painting, the grasses will appear bright due to the reflected light. On the left side, it is going to appear darker. We will add shadows using darker green color. [MUSIC] Moving on, we will add some trees and some tiny shrubs in the mid-ground area. Here, I'm using a black color. [MUSIC] Next, we will be painting the house. So here I'm going to paint the darker shadow part of the house. So I'll mix a little muted dull color. The light is reflected on the front part of the house. The backside of the house is going to appear darker. So apply a grayish tone. [MUSIC] Applying a slightly darker tone on the edges. Now for the front face of the house. We will retain the white areas, so I'm going to apply clean water and then apply this gray tone only on the edges. So this way we will achieve the reflected part of the house. [MUSIC] Next I'm going to take purple and apply a very watery washing on the shadow part [MUSIC] Adding shadows under the roof using darker color and also on the bottom part. Next, we will mix olive green with black and Prussian blue mix. So this will be a very darker mix. We will use these to create the shadows of the house. [MUSIC] Moving on, we will use a gray mix to add some foliage in the distant or mid-ground trees use a fine tip brush to achieve this tiny foliage. [MUSIC] Using the same color mix. We will add some foliage and the distant blue layer. Now I'm adding some black on the same layer. So here when we have different tonal values, it makes it look over realistic and makes it more dimensional. [MUSIC] Next, I'm going to paint the roof using black color. [MUSIC] We will first paint the outline and then fill in the inner areas. Leave a tiny whitespace over the roof so that it stands out from the background. Adding some tiny windows [MUSIC]. The shadow part of the house still looks so bright. So I want it to be a little darker. So I'm adding a darker color again. [MUSIC] Painting a window on the front side using gray color. [MUSIC] Moving on to the grass part. Now we will add some dimension on the grasses. So mix a mid-tone green color and add some tiny lines and dots on the ground. This will make it appear like an uneven surface. [MUSIC] Use various tonal values of green color. Let's say lighter green, darker green, or any mid-green. This will add a sense of variation and depth to the painting. [MUSIC] You can glide your brush to create this random texture on the ground. [MUSIC] Moving on, we will paint the tree trunks. So I'm using black color and painting these tree trunks of different heights. Notice the area where the tree trunk originates, this decides the distance of trees from the viewpoint. The one that starts from the mid-ground area is far from the viewpoint. [MUSIC] Okay so we will leave it here for drying. [MUSIC] Next, I'm going to darken the shadow of the house on the grassy area. Here, I have mixed green with black, right now it is appearing like a black color, but after drying, you will see those shades of green in it. Add some more grasses near the base of the trees and some grasses closer to the foreground. [MUSIC] Since the light source is on the right side, the shadows of the trees will be accosted on the left side. So I'm painting the shadows here using darker color. [MUSIC] I'm randomly adding some grass texture in the foreground and mid-ground areas. [MUSIC] Next we will move on to paint the highlights on the tree trunk. Here I'm using a mix of yellow ocher and white. We'll be adding the highlights on the right side because the light is on the right side. [MUSIC] Extending this tree trunk, I'm making it a little more closer to the viewpoint. [MUSIC] Once we have painted these tree trunks, we will add the tree branches. Paint the branches in different directions and paint them irregularly so that they appear organic and cheap. I find it comfortable to add these branches when the paper is in tilted a position. Next I'll take a thick white paint to add highlights on the tree trunk. [MUSIC] I'll also use burnt sienna on the tree trunk. I'm adding this brown shade on random areas of the tree trunks. There is no fixed part such that I want to achieve, I'm just randomly adding the colors on the tree trunk. [MUSIC] You can add colors of your choice, there is no restriction, but the end result should have a variegated pattern. [MUSIC] We're done painting the trunk of the trees. Let us move on to paint the tree foliage. I'm taking crimson and white. Mix these two colors together to form a lighter pink color. Now with the help of a Size 9 round brush, I'm dabbing the colors to form the foliage. The tree on the right side is more like a cherry blossom tree, so I'm painting it with pink color. If you want, you can use any other color as well. Make sure you're using a damp brush when you're performing this because if it has water in it, you won't be able to achieve the foliage or leafy texture. Moving on to the trees on the left side, we will use yellow ocher as the tree foliage. Use thick paint with a damp brush and dab it on the trees to suggest the tree foliage. You'll need to wait for this layer to dry and then you can add any other color or any lighter or darker tonal value. Going back to the pink tree, the base layer has dried, so now I'll add the highlights using white color. Again, I'm using thick paint here. The tree foliage should have a nice balance of lighter and darker colors. Right now we have added a mid-tone and a lighter tone. For darker tones, we will add darker paint or black later on. Similarly for the tree on the left side, I'm adding some white highlights now. [MUSIC] Also dabbing the brush on the grassy area depicting the fallen leaves. Next I'll be adding darker colors on the cherry blossom tree, so here I'm using crimson. Next we will take a darker mix and dab it on the tree foliage, depicting the darker shadows in the tree. [MUSIC] Also, I'm darkening the shadows that I had already painted. [MUSIC] In gouache, some colors dry lighter and some dry darker. After drying it might look a bit different, so it's okay to go back and add darker colors as per the outcome you want. Next, let us add some more fine branches on the trees. I'm using my fine liner brush to add these tiny twigs and branches. Use any darker color, mostly black or darker brown, and add tiny twigs at the ends of the foliage. Even though we painted the foliage using a loose approach, but adding these tiny stems and twigs makes the whole painting beautiful and adds a realistic touch to it. This is the trick that I use to paint the tree foliage. [MUSIC] Adding some distant trees in the background and also outline for the house. Next we will add some lighter highlights in the foreground area. I'm using yellow ocher to dab the foliage or the grasses in the foreground. I'll also be using lemon yellow for the lighter highlights in the mid-ground area. [MUSIC] I'm using darker brown to add the shadows on the trees. [MUSIC] You can go back to the elements to add some shadows and highlights. [MUSIC] We are done with the painting. Now let us remove the masking tape. [MUSIC] There you go. This is how the painting looks. I hope you enjoyed painting this with me. Do share your class projects under the projects gallery, I would love to see your recreations. 6. Project 2 - Cottage in the Dark: [MUSIC] In this chapter, we are going to create this painting. Let us get started with the painting. I have already tapped down the paper using masking tape. Now, let us start with the sketching. I'm marking two horizontal lines. One is for the horizon line and the other one is to create a separate section in the ground level. Now draw two vertical lines. This will be the house in the painting. I'm marking this mid-area to connect the intersecting lines. This will be suggested as the roof of the house. Then we will draw the backside part. You need not draw the exact same shape of the house. You can come up with your own shape for the house in this painting. We are done with the sketching, now let us move on to the painting part. I'm using the spray bottle to wet the paper. The colors that I'm using for the sky are; cobalt blue, burnt umber, and white. We'll mix these three colors. Take a very little amount of brown. Apply this color mix on the wet surface starting from the upper part. Here it is not mandatory that you apply same brushstrokes or choose the same colors. You can change it as per your choice. Carefully apply the paint when you're raw painting around the roof of the house. If you're getting any sharp edges in the sky, then you can use clear water. It will soften it out. Next I'm going to apply slightly darker tonal value. To achieve this color, I have added a very little amount of white to the cobalt blue, and burnt umber mixture. Here I'm running my brush in a diagonal motion to achieve these angular diagonal strokes in the sky. Next we would paint the street trees in the background. For this, I'm going to take the same mixture which is cobalt blue, burnt umber, and a little bit of white. Now to make it a little darker I'll mix a bit of black to this. You can see we have achieved this really dull and pale blue color, more like paints gray. I'm applying paints in the shape of green here. You just have to dab your round brush to get this shape. I'm adding trees of different sizes and shapes to avoid that uniform look in the background. Next we will be painting the mid-ground trees. I'll take olive green and cobalt blue, mix it together and add a bit of black and brown to it. Basically, we want a darker, greenish-blue color. To avoid the confusion, you can simply use a black color. Here, I'm just dabbing the brush to achieve the shape of the trees. In the next step, I'm just applying some random horizontal strokes. This will appear like a random bumpy surface on the ground level. Now let us allow the paint to dry completely. The colors have dried. You can pause the video if your colors are still wet. Next, I'll take olive green and dab it on this darker layer. At this point, the colors appear darker because they are wet. Once they dry, you will see the actual shade. Here we will be working layer by layer so each layer needs to dry before we apply another layer. If you are applying colors on the wet layer, then you will end up picking up the existing paint. Next, I'll be mixing lemon yellow and olive green so this will give us a lighter green color. I'm using this for the highlights in the distant trees. [MUSIC] Moving on, we will paint the elements that are closer to the foreground. Here I have taken yellow ocher. Take the paint in medium consistency and apply it right in front of the house. [MUSIC] This will be depicted as the dried grasses. Towards the foreground, we will apply these slant lines. [MUSIC] Next, we will take black and apply some random lines. [MUSIC] Next apply clean water and we will apply this bluish tone. [MUSIC] At this stage, we need not add all the details as it is going to be covered with the foreground elements. [MUSIC] Apply the same bluish tone inside the blank spaces here, [MUSIC] in black and draw the shape of grasses. [MUSIC] The distant trees here doesn't have enough shadows so I'm adding some black. [MUSIC] Whenever you paint with gouache or acrylic, it is okay to go back and fix the elements that you feel need some correction. [MUSIC] Next with the help of fine liner brush, I'll be adding some branches at the crown part of the trees. [MUSIC] This is just to add an organic for effect in the painting. [MUSIC] In the foreground area, we will paint some grasses and some random texture. [MUSIC] I'm adding those because I do not want this area to be blank and simply flat. [MUSIC] Add some tiny grasses here and there. [MUSIC] We will leave it here and move on to paint the house. Let's take vermilion red. You can take any red color, mix it with the brown and the black shades. [MUSIC] I'm going to paint the back side of the house of it darker. Considering it has the shadow part. [MUSIC] We will paint the mid area in the next layer. right now we will paint this darker layers and allow it to dry. [MUSIC] The paints have dried. Next I'll be painting the front part. I'm applying clean water. [MUSIC] Make sure you are not using excess water. Now, I'll be using the same tone, but in very watery consistency, so that we have a very light tone on the upper part. In the bottom part, I'm dropping some darker shades. [MUSIC] Again using a blow dryer to dry the paint. [MUSIC] Moving on, let us paint the roof. I'm using black color and a filbert brush. [MUSIC] Paint the windows and the outlines. [MUSIC] Here you can use a fine liner brush for better precision. [MUSIC] At this point in the painting process, you might feel like the painting is almost complete. We can just wind it up here. But we are going to take a very bold step. Take a large round brush and load it with black color. Here we will dab the brush to create an impression of tree foliage. When you apply this black color, the painting might look ugly initially. But all I would say is trust the process and keep going. Once you have painted this foliage, we need to add some branches in order to make it look organic. I'm switching to my size 2 round brush to add the final branches. When I was painting the darker foliage, there was this inner voice that kept telling me, "No, you cannot do this. Just stop, else you will spoil the painting. But I had to ignore that fear and allow myself to take the risk of painting this. I'm adding some grasses in the ground area as well. Next, we will be adding the shadows of the foliage on the walls of the house. Use a darker color and add the shape of the foliage. Here in the middle ground, I'm covering up the yellow area with some black strokes. I want the right side of the painting to be dark due to the shadows of the tree foliage. I'll be applying some more darker color using wet on wet technique. Apply clean water on the area, so you want it to be darker. I've applied it on the right side, on the white and the low areas. Now I'm applying a very diluted version of black. The overall idea would be only the left part of the painting will be bright, and sunlit, and the right side would be covered with the tree foliage and the shadows. Next, I'm dabbing the brush very gently to create this tiny impression of foliage, and the outer ends of the whole tree or the foliage. Next, I'm painting all partially visible tree branch and the foliage. It is the same technique, you paint the branch first and then dab the brush to create the impression of tree foliage. Adding some darker colors at the bottom of the distant trees. Paint the tree branches irregularly, so paint them in different directions and angles. If you're not comfortable with a large brush, then you can use a fine liner brush as well. Here in the foreground area, I'm adding darker grasses. Next, we will be painting the highlights in the darker foliage. I will be using olive green and lemon yellow. You can mix these colors and dab it on the black layer. Since it is going to be the shadow part in the painting, it's okay if it is not that vibrant. Do not completely cover this black area. Apply the shade on the grasses as well. Next, we will take a mid-tone green color by mixing a bit of red to olive green, and again, we will be dabbing the paint. In order to have a nice contrast, you should have darker, lighter, and mid-tone values in any composition. Switching to my fine liner brush and adding these tiny twigs at the end of the foliage. Do this only if you have a fine liner brush. If you're using a thicker brush, then you might end up getting very thicker branches. Here, I'll be adding some final details, some shadows and highlights. You can add some free-flying birds in the sky. We are done with the painting. Let us remove the masking tape. There you go, this is how the painting looks like. I hope you enjoyed painting this with me. Do share your class project under the projects gallery. I would love to see your recreations. [MUSIC] 7. Conclusion: Thank you for watching this class. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did creating it. Do leave your valuable review and also post your artworks under project gallery. Thank you once again, happy painting and bye-bye. I'll see you in my next class.