Create Watercolor Gradients + Paint Fruit

1. Intro: Hello, I'm Kansas and I am a watercolor illustrator and a calligrapher. I started my journey off as a graphic designer, and I slowly made my way into word and color illustrations and calligraphy by practicing hand lettering first and then jumping into watercolor hand lettering [MUSIC]. I fell in love with watercolors the very first time I tried it. I loved to jump back and forth between watercolor illustrations and calligraphy. My purpose for this class, and for any class that I create is to show you how to use watercolor as a medium while painting a fun illustration [MUSIC]. For this class, I'll show you how to create gradients using watercolor paints, and I'll show you how to put that in practice while painting through [MUSIC]. I hope you will enjoy this class, and I also hope that you can pick up some tips and tricks on how to paint gradients using watercolors [MUSIC]. Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my class. I hope you enjoy it. 2. The Materials: So the material that we will be using today is going to be very simple. We're just going to use some watercolor paints, and I am using my Mission Gold Watercolor paints that I've just put into little half paints, and this is the 24 set. Remember you can always use whatever watercolor paints you have on hand, and the next thing we'll be using a some watercolor paper, I'm using Canson the 140 lb, and this watercolor paper is a little bit cheaper, it's perfect for practicing though. That's what we'll be using this today instead of arches, you can also use some painter's tape to tape your watercolor paper down, and of course a brush, and some water, and a napkin. So those are the materials, and let's get started. 3. One Color Gradient: Practice: Okay, so let's begin with the one color gradient and for that, we are going to use, some Hooker's green. No that one is Sap Green, excuse me. This one is Hooker's green, and we are going to add a little bit of yellow to this. So we're just mixing these colors together to make our one color for the pear that we will be painting. I want to kind of make a lemony yellow green. But then I am going to desaturate it with a little bit of red. This is my Permanent red here. I'm just going to add a little bit. When you want to desaturate a color, you just add the opposite color on the color wheel. That's going to tone that color down a little bit. This looks pretty good to me here. So now what I'm going to do is, just off to the side, I'm going to show you what a gradient will look like when you work from dark to light or dark to clear. So you want to just start off with the darkest shade that you have for your color. Then once you have that, just add a little more water and then just keep bringing it down. We're just going to bring that color down, move that color around a little bit. Then you want to just keep rinsing your brush, until you get a nice clear at the end. Now I'm just going in and just cleaning this gradient up just a little bit. That way you can see how easy it is to create a gradient from light to dark using one color. Then if you've added too much water, you can always take your paper and just move it around just to encourage that water to move around a little bit. At the top I'm just going to add just a little more pigment, a little more paint, and just slowly work that down. That is how simple it is to create a one color gradient. 4. One Color Gradient: Pear Painting: Now we're going to work on our gradient using a pair. We're going to put this in practice by using a pair as our first fruit that will be using. When you paint a pair, it's essentially a curved shape. I'm going to start off by using the lightest wash I can get. You can paint down just with plain water to create your shape first. Well, I'm just going to use a really light wash of the green mixture that I created. We'll start off by making a upside down U at the top and curving those ends out. Almost like you're drawing a Leo symbol. Then you'll go down and create the belly and just bring that line out. Then just circle it around to the bottom and bring that back up to the top. We're free handing this. It doesn't have to be perfect. It gives it a little bit of character. Just go in and just damping your paper a little bit. Then to give it some depth and dimension, we are going to go from dark on this side to light here, and then dark and then work our way into light. The light essentially it will be in the middle of the pair. Just like we did our gradient, we started from dark and went into light. Will start on this side and go dark and then just leave that bleed into the light and they can bring your color around the bottom and then on this side we will do dark. Then just let that bleed into the light. Then you can just go in and clean up your edges if you need to. Another thing you can do too, I'm just going to add a little bit more is when it's wet, just place that color down on the ends and just let the watercolor do its thing. That's what the wet on wet technique is. Then if you've added too much paint in the middle or in the areas that you want to be light just quickly dab it up with the napkin before it sets. Then we're going to add just a little bit of color here, just to make it seem like this part here is protruding or sitting facing towards you, coming out. Then we'll go in and bring this color up wards and just keep moving it around. Do the same thing to the other side. Just add a little more color there, and blend it out to the light. Then once you have this, you can go in and add a second layer if you'd like to. Or you can just go in and agile dark is shade. I'm going to just take a little bit more of migraine. I just need a little more paint. I'm taking my hookers green and my yellow to get the yellow shade. When you're trying to desaturate this since it has yellow in it, you can add a bit of purple. That's the opposite of yellow on the color wheel is purple. But I want my color to be warm, so I'm adding red. That red is going to desaturate the green versus desaturating the yellow. That's what the purple will do. But it's going to stay a warm shade because I'm using red to desaturate. That's just the part of color theory. We have that goldenish green shade again. I'm just going to while it's still wet, just add a little bit more so I don't have to work another layer. Again, you totally can go in and add a second layer if you want to let that layer dry. But for the sake of the class, I'm just going in and adding that color right on top. While it's still just a little bit damp, you don't have to do it that way though. If your edges are a little too harsh, you could just go in with some water. Again, just blend it out. Just be light and loose with your brush strokes. It doesn't have to be perfect. This is just so you can get the hang of doing gradients, which will essentially let you lay down a nice foundation where you want to go in with a more detailed piece. Then we'll just let this dry and then we'll come back in and add the stem. 5. Pear Final Touches: Once you're all done adding the layer to your pear, the gradient layer to your pear. You can add some finishing touches if you'd like to. I'm going to take some brown van dyke, and I'm just going to put it on my palette and you can just go in and add some splashes. Just by lightly tapping on your paintbrush. This brown might be a little bit too dark so I am going to take some burnt umber. I'm actually going to add a little bit of migraine. I'm going to make some of that green in there. Maybe a little bit of the brown as well,the van dyke brown just to darken a little bit. I don't want it too dark, but just dark a little bit. Then I'll just go in and tap and add those little specks that you see in a pair. Then I'll go into some of them and just dab it out. That's optional you don't have to do that. Once you're done you can use any kind of paper to block off your watercolor paper around the pear. Now I'm going to go in and add my stem. I'm just going to paint a line and bring it down just a little bit inside of pear, the top of the pear. Add a little bit of van dyke brown just to darken in that line a little bit. Near the top make a little bit wider and then mimic the first line and bring it down. Try to leave a little bit of white space if you came for highlight and there you have it. There is your pear. 6. Two Color Gradient: Practice: So now let's talk about our two color gradient. So for this one, we are going to use some red for our first color. Red with just a hint of permanent rose or a magenta shade because we don't want it to be too overpowered with red. So we'll just add a little bit of that and then we will take yellow again. That will be our second color. With this one, we're going to paint a peach but you'll see when you use two colors for a gradient, the colors will blend together and it will make more colors in between. So we'll start off with the red mixture and we'll lay that down first. Then you can either take more water and add it to the bottom of it, to pull the color down or you can take your second color and start at the bottom and blend it up. That way the two colors will meet in the middle. So you can do it either way. I'm just going to take the red and I'm just going to pull it down and then take the yellow and bring it up. Then we all know that red and yellow makes orange. You can see that orange color mixing in the middle. That's what I love about watercolors. They're transparent. So when you blend them together on paper or do a gradient like what we're doing now, you can see how those colors mix together very easily and then one shade can easily become a bunch of different colors just by adding a little bit of water to it. So when you're doing your gradient, you just want to try to blend those colors together and have it be seamless, as seamless as possible. But again, the watercolor does most of the work for you. Then you can see how you get all those pretty shades in between. Like this is a really pretty peach color. There is your gradient. 7. Two Color Gradient: Peach Painting: We have our gradient. Now, we are going to work on our peach. As I said before, and we're going to start with a very light base. I'm just going to take a light shade of yellow, a watered-down shade of yellow, and I'm going to basically sketch out my peach with my brush. When you draw peach, you want to start with a circle on one side or an oval rather. But the one side, this side over here, you don't want to bring that line all the way down, you want to just bring it down until it almost touches the bottom. Then bring your other line curve this way so there's a little space in between. Then another curved line on the opposite side of that, and bring that all the way to the bottom. You can make it peak a little bit, not too much towards the bottom. Then go in, and just dampen your paper just a little bit on the area that we are going to work, leaving a little bit of white space. I'm making my peach a little bit bigger. Now, we are going to have this side be dark and work its way into light, and then it'll be like right here. Then on this side, we'll have it be dark, and then work into light in the middle, and then just dark here, just a little bit. We'll start off with just a little bit of red, we don't want too much red. You can have a bit of red, a little bit more red. But for this one, I wanted to be more of a peachy color, so I'm going to blend that red out, but I want the edge to be a deep red color. Mix a little bit with that rose matter. Then you can already see how that color just wants to move, that's the way watercolor works. It automatically wants to gradate. Then from the red, we'll add some yellow, and then we'll let those to become a gradate, let it bleed into each other. I'm just cleaning up my edges, going to add a bit of red just to deepen that edge, the red on the edge. Now I'm just adding a bit more yellow just to have that blend in with that red. Then from the yellow, we will blend that out. I started on this side, you can start on this side first if you like, but I just wanted to start on this side first. Because from this side of the peach, basically, this is going to be its own section. What I mean by that is that I'm going to have this be red as well, because it's going to create that indentation that's in the peach that you see. Then like I said earlier, you're going to stop right before it hits the bottom, and then take your yellow, and just blend that with the red. Then we'll go in and just fade and feather that out. Just like that. Then for the middle, just add in some clean water. Not necessarily clean because your water is a little shady, but it still works because it creates a natural highlight. Again, if you want to, you can take your paper if it has so much water and just move it around, and encourage that water to move. Typically, when working with watercolor, you want to let one section dry before you work on the next. But since we are letting our colors blend together, and this section right here is going to be light, we can go ahead and work on this section of the peach. We'll start with our red here. I'm just adding a little bit more water because it was a little bit too saturated. I just want to dilute it just a little bit, and then just bring in that lie to where it just meets the other section of the peach. Then just continue your curved line all the way down, and then fix that little pointed area at the bottom. Then go in where you place your red down and wet that, again, to create your gradient, and just add in a bit of yellow. Just be careful as you blend out to not touch this part because we want that line there. You can touch the bottom part and just blend that out, just a little bit. You see how it created a little highlight there? That's good, right there, and then just blend that yellow out, but leave that area here so that the colors, and you can see I touched it just a little bit, but it's okay. If you do, you can just dab it, and then go back in and add that color, that pigment once you're all done. Just be careful to not touch it or you can wait until it's dry. But I can be inpatient sometimes. You can also use a blow dryer or a heating tool to quickly dry your painting. I'll just splash that up. Then I'm going to just go in and add a little more red to the edges. Again, you can work this as many times as you like. But for the sake of the class, we are just going to do one layer just so we can get the practice, and the hanging of creating gradients, and blending it out. That is the base of the peach. 8. Peach Final Touches: Okay so once your peaches all dry, we can go in and just add those final little details or final touches and that is the little cut-off stem and some leaves or maybe a leaf. I'm just going to take my burnt sienna with a little bit of the Van Dyke brown. I'm just going to mix those two together. It doesn't have to be super detail. You can just draw in a little stem right on top of your peach, leave a little white space and just have it kind of in a square with curved edges and that's the cut-off stem. Then for the leaves, I am going to take some Hooker's green and a little bit of my sap green. I'm going to mix those two greens together, maybe add a little bit of brown. I'm going to go this way with it. I'll just start off with a fine point. Be careful not to get too close to the stem or else it will bleed into it, but since it's brown, it's okay, you can't really see it. I start off fine and then use the belly of my brush. Need a little more water. I'll press down with the belly of my brush. Then I'll go in on the other side and do the same thing. I start off light and then press down with the belly and then lift up. Then at the end I'll just make it come to a point and then connect the two. You can see how the brown is trying to make its way up. I'm just going to take a little bit of water and just blot that out. If you don't want to wait until one section dries, try not to touch it and then you can go back in later and connected to once it's dry. Or you can just wait till it dries or you can also, like I had mentioned earlier, you can use a heat tool or a blow dryer. I couldn't think of it and I'm just cleaning that up. That is it for our peach. 9. Three Color Gradient: Practice: Now we're finally going to practice our three gradient painting. We are going to be using red and I'm just going to get a bit of water. I'm just going to play some red down along with some lemon yellow and some hookers green. When you're creating a gradient, you are basically just blending one color into the next. Here I'm starting with my red and I'm bringing it down just enough to add my yellow on top of that. The thing that I love about watercolors is that they blend beautifully when you add just the right amount of pigment and water. They pretty much do the work for you. Now I'm just going to bring that yellow down just a little bit more to add some green into that and I think fruits are such a fine subject to paint when you are practicing your wet on wet technique and your blending technique when you're using watercolors because the form is so simple, all you have to do is really focus on your blending. Before you begin painting your mango, you can just practice blending your colors together and that will get you in the swing of blending when you paint your mango. Next, we're going to start painting our mango. 10. Three Color Gradient: Mango Painting: Let's start painting the mango. The first thing we're going to do is start with our yellow shade, which I'm using a lemon yellow. That is on the cooler side. You'll want to dilute that color just a little bit so that it's not overpowering. We're going to paint the base shape of the mango. You'll want to have a circular shape or an oval shape. Start from the top, bring it down and around, and then once you start going back up, you want to go in just a little bit, and then bring it back out. It looks like a bean. Then just go in and move that pigment around and just keep applying water. You want just enough water to where your paper looks shiny. You don't want to add too much. Then once you have enough yellow, and the reason I like to start with my lightest color first, is because when you start with the darker shade first, it's hard for you to see the lighter shade because watercolor is a transparent medium. You always want to work from light to dark. Even though on the gradient scale here, we have red into yellow, into green, we start with the yellow first for the base. Then once we began painting, we'll go into the gradient to paint the red, yellow, and then the green. Now that we have the yellow shade down first, now we can go in and just apply our wet paint onto the wet paper, which is the wet-on-wet technique. Then we'll just apply this to the top half of the mango. I'm using the permanent red shade. I'm telling you guys, this is one of the easiest subjects to paint when you want to practice watercolors and it's really fun. Then I'm just going go in and just get some straight from the paint, just to make that a little bit darker. You can do it this way or you can wait until your water dries, the paint dries, and then go back in and add a second layer. But you can go ahead and also just add that in on the first layer if you don't want to spend too much time on this. Then I'm going to let that do its magic, clean up these edges a little bit. You can also take your paper and just move it around to just help it out a little bit. Then the next thing I'm going to do is go in with my yellow and then like we practice, blend that into the red and just bring it down. I am just going to go in and get some more yellow and bring that down. Mix it in and bring it down. You can also just go into your pen and then just bring those colors down. The thing I like about free-handing fruit or any subject is that if you go out of the line, you can just go in and clean up those edges and you don't have to worry about the line from your pencil. If your paper dries on you while you're working it, just re-wet it. I'm actually going to start from the bottom this time. That way I can start from the bottom and blend upwards. I want a little bit of green, but not too much green. Again, this is the Hooker's green. I'm going to go in and just get a little more Hooker's green from my pan and just add that to the bottom. Now just blend those colors together. Once you are done and you like the way it looks, you can let that dry and then we will come back and add the leaf. 11. Mango Final Touches: Okay. We've only done one layer, but you can add two- three layers if you'd like to. But for the sake of the class, I'm just going to do one layer, and then now we're going to go in and paint the stem and leaf just to add interest. We're going to get a little bit of burnt sienna, and also a little bit of burnt umber, and I'm going to mix those two together and then we can paint just a little oval shape on top, but you can just dab in that color and leave a little bit of white area for a highlight. This is really going to go in and clean that up a little bit. You'll want to do this when your mango is dry or at least the top part of your mango is dry. If not, it will bleed in to it. Just going to go in and pick some of that color back up. Now I'm going to take my sap green, and I'm going to mix a little bit of hookers green with that for my leaf and the leaf is simple. You can go on either side. I'm going this way. I'm just going to take my branch. I'm not going to touch this stem just yet, I'll fix that once the brown has dried completely, but for now, I'm going to just go in and with a thin line and then they get it back out. I made a thin line and then with my belly of the brush, I press down and then I lift back up and going in and clean that up, round this side out a little bit, then just go in and round that out as much as you need to or clean it up as much as you need to. Sometimes this message is add a dab of water to let the watercolor just do its own thing. It just creates interest especially when you're practicing and your colleges being loose with it in our worrying about being too perfect or precise. You just want to experiment and have fun. Now I'm pretty sure that brown is dry, so I'm just going to take the very tip of my brush and just connect the leaf to the stem and that's height for our Mango. 12. Final Thoughts + Project: All right, so that is the end of this class. I hope you guys are a little more confident in painting gradients in watercolor and using fruit to do so. For your project, you can select any one of these fruit, or all of the fruit and just try different gradients, either the one, two or three color gradient to paint and practice. You can also try out different fruits such as a cherry or watermelon. Just take a look at different fruit and see how they naturally gradate. That's it for this class. Please leave your projects in the section below and also leave a review and just let me know what you thought about the class. Thank you so much for joining.