Transcripts
1. Introduction: Welcome to this A levels
watercolor class. Today, we're going
to be painting this amazing dragon together. Now, I know on first glance, this might not be
your cup of tea, but I think you're going to
love this no fush approach. It's my free flow technique
and it's most liberating. I'm Jane Davis. I live, paint, tech and walk my
lovely spaniels in the beautiful South Downs
National Park, England. Over the last 15 years, I've taught myself the free flow technique that
you see today. Not having been to art school, finding my own way has been
fun and sometimes daunting, but has allowed me to
develop my own style. This has led me to
teaching others, either on a one to one
basis or as part of a group in a wonderful studio in the heart of the South downs. I also run a successful
commission based business, painting pet portraits and wildlife art in my
own home studio. In all my classes, you will follow
along in real time, where I can guide you
to keeping your work loose and fresh
without over fussing. I have over 20 classes
available on skill share now. If you're just starting out, my three beginner
classes will guide you. Then you'll find over
20 master classes covering a wide range
of beautiful subjects. In each one, I'll share the techniques that I use in
my own professional work. We'll have a lot of fun together and you'll gain
the understanding and confidence to incorporate everything you learn
into your own work. Plus, I'll share a few of my tips and tricks
along the way too. As ever, I provided you with
a wonderful reference photo, along with a downloadable
template for you to print out. The template gives you a stress free drawing so you
can just enjoy the painting. And before you start, it's worth checking out the
mythology and history of the dragon bridge in Labinia where this dragon sits
with it three friends. I've popped a link
in the projects and resources pages for you. I'll be showing you
the magic of being spontaneous with
color and water, and all this is achieved
in just one layer. We will be creating that fabulous wing with all that wonderful
movement and life. I'll be demonstrating the
importance of detailing, giving that necessary contrast to all that wonderful looseness. There's a wealth of
other tips and tricks. I'll be sharing with you as we work our way through
the class together. If you'd like to learn
more about me or my work, please pop over to my website
at Jane Daviswcolors do UK. This can be found
on my profile page, along with links to my
Instagram and Facebook pages. I'm very active on my
social media pages, I love sharing my art, especially on stories
with many ideas, works in progress, and
tales of studio life. I really hope you will share all your paintings on the
projects and resources pages. As I love seeing
your masterpieces. And don't forget
I'm here to help if you get stuck or
have any questions. I want you to experience that buzz of painting
in this liberating, wet and wet, loose style.
So come and join me.
2. Materials: Yeah, so welcome along
to this dragon class. So before we get painting, let me run through
all the materials. I'm going to be using today. And as ever, I shall start with my light collection of
Daniel Smith paints. And to start, I
have cerulean blue. I have a rich, gold green. Ultramarine violet. I have unacrodome rose, and admin medium deep hue. No, hold on. Admin red medium
hue, no deep in there. And all these are listed in the projects and
resources pages. So they're all there for
you to refer back to. Now, obviously, it's
quite colorful. So if you're not into very colorful dragons and who knows what color a
dragon should be, I did paint a very
muted subtle palette. And bear in mind, this is a practice pieces a
little scrappy. But you can see the sort of
different effects you can get how much arma
it is actually. It's quite it's lovely. There were a nice
collection of paints, and I'll pop those on the
projects and resources pages if you're interested in having
a slightly muted palette. Yeah. Paper today is a hot
pressed paper. I have not. If I'm honest, I have no idea which manufacturer this
is or what brand, I say. I don't use hot pressed a lot. But for the dragon, I just wanted some
nice, unusual marks. I just seemed to be appropriate. And it's quite fun to play with. If you're not familiar
with hot press. It's worth having a play.
You may find it really nice. It's very different. So it's been sitting
on the bottom of my drawer for a little while, and I've lost where
it's come from. So anyway, is a
hot pressed paper. I've got my little pot of water. I've got some salt, which
is quite lumpy here, but if it's very lumpy, you can always ground
it down a little bit, so you have a mixture
of size pieces. I have my little trusty heart, which actually I don't use, but it's useful to have
something to tilt. Mainly only for the wing just
to allow that paint to run. I've got P kitchen roll, a little rubber. I have. How may I got three brushes.
I have a number ten. And a number 16, and a number two. So obviously, the bigger ones for the larger
parts of the body. Medium are used mainly
for the head and the little one obviously
very fine detailing. I've got a pencil to
sketch it out with. Now I have off
camera, a hair dryer, which I always find handy
just to finish drying it off so you can kind of get
going because you're not having to wait it
to dry completely, but a hair dryer is not
necessary by any means. Now, on the projects
and resources pages, there's a lovely
reference photo of him. So if you're able to get up on a different device,
that's really handy. I've also put a template
because the dragon You know, we don't see a
dragon very often. So we haven't got a mental image of what a dragon
should look like. So I would strongly advise you using a template just to get
all those nice closed shapes and curves in one of the
things that appealed to me about this dragon is
I just love the shapes. And he's Yes, just the
way he was positioned, so I would use the template. And there's also a list of all the paints and materials
that we're using today. I think that's it. I
don't think there's anything else to tell you about. So, come on. Let's go
and sketch him out.
3. Sketching Out: So let me give you a few tips on best how
to sketch him out. Obviously, we don't often
see a dragon every day. So I would strongly advise
using that template that's in the projects and resources pages because that will help you get right shape
before you start. A this is a really loose piece, The shape has to be right
because we're drawn to those nice crisp edges
and the shapes and the curves are so beautiful
in this reference photo. And I think that's why
I was drawn to it. It's that curve of the chest and the lovely placement
of the legs, so that's well worth taking your time and getting
this sketch right. I'm not sure if there's
a huge amount of tips really to offer, particularly, but just take your time get the curve of those
that lovely wing say the way those wing tip
of the curve in and the leg, particularly that breast
and how is very proud, isn'ty so try and get
that sort of feel. And before you start
painting and rush on, just stay take a
little step back, even just go out of the room
for at five or 10 minutes. Come back, check your
drawing looks right, and you're happy because
it's really hard once you start painting to rescue anything
that's a little bit out. And also, my pencil lines are really strong
just so you can see that I would strongly advise keeping your pencil
marks as light as you can. So Afterwards, you can rub them out and you
won't see any pencils, pencil marks,
especially especially on the bits that we're not
putting that much painting. It will give us that lovely
lost and found edges, I would say, the chest, particularly the tips of these wings back and tops of the legs and
make sure they are, you keep those pencil
marks are nice and light. Yes. So once you've done that, and you're happy, then
we can get painting.
4. Head and Body: Right, then, are you ready
to have a bit of fun. Bear in mind, this is a lovely, loose exercise just to enjoy. I haven't stretched my paper. We're just gonna go for
it, have a bit of fun. So I'm going to pick up and I'm gonna start with
my number ten brush. Switched out the way. You're
gonna get rid of that. Shouldn't need
that for a minute. Nice and wet and I'm going to
pick up my pink and my red. Just take a bit of excess
moisture off by brush. It's not sopping wet, we're just going to put
start off here, going to put a little bit
of color right at that tip. Make sure she says. Make sure you try and keep
that tip lovely and neat. So I'm just going to
pick up my little brush and neaten that up. I'm going to use my old excuse if you
follow me regularly. I'm not that close
to my painting. Okay. That's as neat
as I'm going to get, I think today from here. I say, you can probably
get a lot, Crisper. So make make sure you get
that nice nice and neat. So we're just gonna
pop a nice bit there. Get a fair amount on your brush, 'cause we're gonna let this run all way around
the body really. Stay within your lines.
Clean your brush. Take a little excess water off, and we're just going to try not to think
about it too much. We're just going to wet
the whole lot down. We'll least Holle lot down. These parts with lots of lovely water and we're
just going to allow. If you end up with little
dry patches, don't worry. This is all wonderfully loose. You're going to put a little bit there, wherever you fancy. So lets try and let
yourself be free. Give yourself a little bit
of wiggle, just be free. Just let it all run. We're
going to go over that here. We'll run it down there. I'm gonna stop
there for a second. Pop those two colors down. I've got my blue and violet. I'm going to put
the green as well. No right or wrong
with your colors. You may not have the
same colors as me, and I can see I've
got unfortunate. Water there. Let's that up. We're we're doing the chin. We're not going
inside the mouth, so just keep that a
little bit clear. The only reason is we don't want to lose where the inside
of that mouth is. We put paint over it.
There's a risk of losing it. Probably a little
bit blue on top because I like how this blue and green will
react with one another. Lots of nice water, we got
to keep this lovely and wet. Just wet your brush. Wp the end of that paint
and just allow it to run. You can give it a tilt. If
you feel you want a little bit more sort of
movement, you can. Let me top my big brush pick
that up. Let it wake up. And which go to drag
all this around. Let it all run. So you can see this paint a little bit of mist. This paint at the
end will start being dragged around the
neck. We can work away. Put it about this far down now. Let's have a little
bit of Again, I'm going to put a
little bit violet here because I fancy a
little bit of violet. Allow it to move.
Don't do it anymore. You're just placing and
allowing it to run. You can go over that wing tip. You can see that the wing
tip goes into the body. We're going to go
over the top of that. Drag it down. Let's Well, the trouble with having
a unstretched piece of paper. I don't have a board. It's trying to keep my paper
in one place. All right. I've got I've just picked
up a little bit of red. No, I haven't soy, the pink. A little bit of red on the
brush at the same time. We're going to tap
a little bit there. Get those little 'cause
we're only doing one layer. Make sure you get any sort of what do you
call those really. These little spiky bits. I make sure you get those in. Allow that. Whatever will happen will
happen kind of thing. So just let it be free,
and we're going to do. We're gonna swing
it right around, and we're gonna go under the belly and against
that front leg. So we're not going to
wet that front leg. I hope you can see that. What should I fancy let's have. Let's have a bit green. Why not? Well, I need to bear in mind, if I'm going to use some salt, I need to put some salt here
just at that right time, and it's if I can see mine, it's beginning to
kneel a little bit of salt. Oh, I can do. If that's drying
a bit too quick, I can just re wet it down again. Just give me a little
bit more time. So if you feel bits are
drying, just wet it down. It doesn't matter, 'cause
We're almost wanting some I'd say unfortunate
patternings. An watermarks, anything
like that. It's all. It's all good. All we need. We just want some really sort of interesting things happening. The biggest thing is
just not to over feel, put that paint down and allow. You could do Yeah, I would suggest probably
doing a few of these. It'd be quite fun, actually. I was good to say do
them simultaneously on one next to one another, but I think that
might be a bit much. You have to work fairly quickly, 'cause we don't want
the paint drying. I'll put a little
bit green there because I fancy a
little bit green there? Trying to very
vaguely keep an eye that my cooler colors
are at the bottom or wear a s. I'm visualizing visuing the
light coming this way. So the warmth of these sort of coming from the
right hand corner. So my cooler colors
are going to be more towards the back or
shadows under the belly. But it doesn't have to be, so don't panic if you think that doesn't tie up to what you want or the
colors you're using. As you go to put
the color there? So I'm just keeping an eye
long as that's loving wet and the bits are nice your
paper is nice and wet. We can continue if I'm going to drag that down,
going to go round. Try and stay within
because again, he's got some lovely sort
of muscles on his legs, says he needs to
try and stay within that line that you've taken
the time to get right. And we're going to go
round that back one. I hope you can see that,
and it's put a little bit of I have a little bit
of green under here. I like the green and blue. I'm just tapping that in
together and allowing it to run. Something that's
going into dry paper. My paper is quite saturated, so when I clean my brush now, I'm taking a little bit of
excess water off my brush. I don't want it too saturated. One, it's just going to
take a long time to dry. And I don't need. It doesn't need to be puddling. It needs to be wet
but not puddling. Now, I would like to put
a little bit of salt in, so let's put Let's put
those down for a second. Pick up a little
bit of salt again, wherever you fancy, but make sure you get them
at the right stage. It just needs to be going off. If it's sitting in a
puddle, it won't work. So move a bit up there, which is probably just
put it where I said. You shouldn't put it, but
put a little bit there. Now, I can see I haven't got all the color
here, so I want to. I can even use some
of the color from the corner here because I say
the paper is not stretched, so it's buckling slightly, but not actually too bad. So I can use a
little bit of that. The trick is to try your
best not to fiddle. But I just want a little bit of greeny blue just
to come up here. So, take your time
to get them in those horny bits, spiky bits. We want those in. Again, we can rustle that
around a little bit. Take your brush away,
see if you think. You can obviously go stronger
or you can go lighter. I did a few practice pieces, and I like I liked it. I wasn't too bold, so that is a little bit up to you how you
would like to see it. But try say if you're going
to do this a few times, try to do a little bit lighter, one a little bit bold
and see how that feels. Okay. It's a little bit wet
at the moment, but I want to. I'm going to go into
this leg in a minute. But I need to hang fire because this is actually
quite wet here, so see if I can suck
a little bit up to. Move the process
along a little bit. If I join up a little bit
too soon and it's very wet, I will lose it will just all
rush into that front leg, and you won't see
the definition. If I let it just dry a little
bit and we join them up, then it will give me a soft
impression of that leg. It won't rush in. I
can swap Brushes. I'm gonna pick up my little one. You're going to make sure I get these nice and tidy
while I'm waiting, so I can tidy those up. You see I don't know if you can see how wet it eat it really badly. I did that one. I would be careful not to
fiddle inside the body, you've probably got some just
really loose work going on, 'cause if you haven't fiddled, you are going to have
that lovely loose look. Nita nose up. I'm going to
look at my reference photo. Move around there.
Is it almost ready? I don't want to sort of
hold this up anymore. I would probably let it
dry a tiny bit more, but let's go for it. Just go to fill that leg in. I'm using the water that's actually there
already, actually, and just going straight in, joining all up coming
down to that foot. And just leave it at that. You might want to put. Yeah, I'm going to put a tiny little
bit of color there. Just to give an impression
there's something moving some sort of muscle
because it's very easy, especially if your paper
buckles a little bit, that it all runs
to the edges and you have nothing
left in the middle. Okay. We are then going
to pick up your green, pick up your blue, or
whatever colors you're using. Sort of the cooler colors
because we're going to do this tail tail sort of area. So put more blue
on the top there right on top. Cut those down. It's going to whip my bush. I'm just going to let that
run all the way down. We can give it a little
tilt. I have got my trusty little heart here
to give me a bit of tilt. But the danger is if
I want this to run, but I don't want to
hear this to run. I'm a little bit like, Oh, Yeah. You don't want the whole lot running for one part
that needs to run, if that makes sense, but
you can sort of drag. And this by flicking
off the page, we encourage this paint
up here to move down. And you want to try and get you can see on
that reference photo, there's a little bit of
shadowing underneath that legs just pop a little bit
of color underneath there. Okay, that's looking
looking great. Let me have a look see if
I need any salt anywhere. This I just need a little
bit of color up there. I've lost haven't
got much up there. What kind of am going to put. I just I got the violet in my
hand and I got the radome. Rose, it's properly little
bit of color there. Just a touch and just leave
it to leave it to run. I think that's almost
a joy of having the paper unstretched is
it's obviously buckling, so the paints going to run into all sorts of areas and create
you sort of some movement. Some will work
better than others, but just just allow it. It's really interesting
just to allow that to do its thing and not
intervene too much. Okay. I'm going to exactly like
we did with the front leg. Again, I'm probably getting
a little bit too soon, but it seems all right. We're just going to fill
in that back leg and just allow that paint that was
on the tail just to run in. Now, fairly quickly. You want to scoot
your way along. Touch that front foot. And we're going to put some of the green and some of the blue. I don't want to make too much of the sort of podium standing on. He's actually a gatekeeper. It's worth having
a Google of him, and there's four of
them on a bridge in, I'm not sure if I remember
the name of it now. Comeau with the
name in a minute. But yeah, they're fascinating. So that then we're going to
we'll drag all that down. If you get a little dry patches, don't worry. That's
all part of the charm. A little bit more
color in there, that should run
nicely up the foot. So we're kindly disguised and we're not
getting too quarried away we're doing all
the claws you can do. Is that's your thing
and you want to, then by all means, this is a nice sort
of class for you to Decide always on how
much you'd like to add, but I'm not going
to get too carried away with adding feet. I'm not the best at doing
feet if I'm honest, so it's a good excuse
and a good technique not to get too hung
up on all those. So if I take my brush away
and have a little look, it's going all right, and Achy I need to keep an
eye on that salt. A, probably about right there. Sprinkle some salt there. Sprinkle a little bit
up there on the body. I'm not going to put
any on the plinth. I think you can over
salt these things sometimes you end up with lots. I might put a little
bit on the wing, so I'm going to just keep the
bases as it is the plinth. So a little bit his nose
sit a little bit of bobble on his nose that
still needs to be. We tidy it up in a minute. Okay. I think I'm almost there. Let's push pop that
back for a minute. Just want to add a
little bit more. Get a little bit more
interest in here. Strike that right off the page. I'm going to add
a little bit more blue because I like how this
blue into axes of the green. I just started to dry a little
bit. Wet the foot down. And I'll say I'm allowing
anything to run, anything that's kind
of shifting around. I'm just going to
allow that to do it just to do its
thing as they say. So I think for this
little bit, I am there. We will do the wing
as a separate thing. So as a lot of my classes are, you're going to have
to leave this to. And I would strongly advise
Letting it dry on its own. I'd say strongly advised
may be a bit harsh. But you don't want to be
blowing all these pigments around because we've just put
the paint down and allowed. If we start putting
a hair dryer, we're going to start
mixing those colors up. So as best you can
allow it to dry. Once it starts to go off, you can probably put a deal
of hair dryer over it. But if you've got
the time and you can almost sort of walk
away for half an hour, then I would do so.
5. Wing: Okay, how did yours look so far? I'm pleased for how those
colors have all merged. There again my salt hasn't worked as well as I'd hoped I'm always a little bit. To many things trying to
turn to keep an eye on the salt as well as doing
the Saying everything. Right, so I'm just going
to brush my salt off, so hopefully you have
some nice salt pcknings. But going to get
rid of that now. And once but make sure it's really lovely and dried
before you brushed it off. I'm just going to
onto the floor. Was a little bit. I
hadn't dried properly. Let me. Let me just
rectify that for a second. Because that's
going to annoy me. And I have I don't know if you've come across
a magic sponge, which I haven't
actually got to hand, but they're brilliant,
and you may well have come across them. They're actually a
cleaning product, and they're amazing for getting the sponges like this off
clean pieces of paper. And you can. Can I
reach one quickly? Okay, this is a very
scrappy bit, I'm afraid. I just got it to hand, but
they come in little blocks, and they are amazing
for taking color out because it's really hard if you're working on a
clean piece of paper, not to do silly
things like that. So well worth
purchasing and I'll pop something in
the projects and resources pages so
you can find those. Right. Onto the wing. So this is Larvly The
wing is fabulous, which is going to put lots of
color and allow it to run. So bearing in mind, I'm going to try and keep
my warmer pinks and reds at the top and my greens and blues are a little
bit further down. So all we're going to do, let's do the Green
and blue first. So we can literally
just pop a little line. You need to work quite quickly. So that's all I would say, pop it down and move on.
Don't fiddle too much. None of this has to be accurate. You just need to get that up against the line of the wing, but it doesn't
have to be anymore than that can go right
on top of one another. That's fine. Let's put
those two colors down and pick up the Pink and red. Especially, say you
need to work quickly, especially if you're
somewhere warm, or like me, you just we the hair dry over
this piece of paper. It's a bit bold
on the red there. It's a little bit more pink.
A little bit up there. Okay, now, this is the fun
bit. But it colors down. A big brush, make sure
you not plenty of water. You want loads of water,
more than you think. That everything my
brush is saturated. All doing is touching
the edges of those. Make sure you give
it a little bit of rustle if you've
got any lines that may or you've been a little bit longer than
you'd like to have done. It may start to dry you. I'm going to pop you're going to prop it up a little
bit of salt, actually. Salt pop. I've got quite
a good angle there. What I'm going to do?
Again, brushes love in wet, can sort tease some of that out. Try not to think
about it too much. We want to get that
bit of movement. So by tilting, we're going to obviously encourage
that paint to run, so it will give us a sense of
sort of movement and life. Try not to do the whole lot. It's really nice if you can
leave little white patches. But just watch out
because it does part to puddle on these edges, so it's better in some ways, where your line is to
leave a little gap. So it just gives us a little space for if any puddle sort of gather
and move a little bit. It gives us a
little bit of room. If you want a little
bit of color, extra color anywhere, go for it. Just pop it down. Let it run. There's nothing to
stop be putting a bit of blue up there. Really? It's just you just
want to create movement and sort of life. And by keeping everything loving in light
and not fiddling, you'll get that's when
you start fiddling. Okay, I'm going to
do can see that. We're really puddling
on these edges. We kitchen roll. I give it a bit more of a tilt, then I can suck
up those puddles. And by sucking up also
encourage that paint to carry on running a
little bit further down. So if you feel you
need a bit more of a tilt, give it a
bit more of a tilt. You can almost, you know, hold your paper while
you're painting. Yeah, you can give
it a really good. But obviously, be careful
because the more you tilt it, the more these you're
going to encourage these blobs of water to run. Pop back down that's
not going to be very helpful for the camera if
I keep moving it around. Okay, I like what I've got here. I'm going to try
my best to feel. I'm going to make sure I get it. So he's got some lovely little spiky bits on
the end of the wing, so I'm just going to
make sure I get that in. I just using that a
little bit of pt. Again, these can be done
in the finishing off plate in stages, so don't
worry too much. I want to make sure
I get that nice swing that wing curve. Yeah. I think that's
looking great. And if you want to
put a bit of salt, you can do by all means. If your salt didn't
work much like mine, you can pop a little
bit of salt to get effect. I'm just needing. You want some of
these edges to have a little bit of
paint on just so we can see where that
wing sort of ends. And they do have
some lovely points, so now we can I want
to kick those in. I don't want to
necessarily go away around or fill them
wall up completely, but I'm going to
allow that to dry. I'm going to stand here I'm
standing as I normally do. And just watch this because
I want to make sure that doesn't run off the page
and go into my white paper. And I might put a
little bit of salt down because it hasn't
worked much on my body, so I need to crack on
with that if I do. So, So, yes, just
allow that to dry and try your upmost not to
sort of fiddle at this stage. When bits are starting to
dry and bits are still wet. If you go in there now, you will just make a mess. I'm afraid. So be patient
and allow it to dry.
6. Finishing Off: So I hope your wing has
dried sufficiently, and you're pleased with
the patterning you've got. Obviously, they're all
going to look different. I've practiced this
dragon quite a few times, and every single sort of wing
has dried better or worse. It's flowed differently. So, so, yes, it's always worth doing them a few times
because it's a great thing, and it's lovely been able to let that water sort of flow and create those sort of magical
patterns and movement. It's great. Anyway, Right. This is the sort of
finishing off bits, really. We just need to
obviously fill in the mouth and the
tongue, pop the eye in. We just need to pop the little I suppose that's
a horn, isn't it? I need a little crest. It's just going round and tweaking. We got this little
leg to do as well. So I'm No, I'm not. I'm going to say,
I'm going to wrap some pecel marks
out, but I'm not. I need to see where some of these bits are
obviously not the leg. But anyway, let me start. Let's start at the top and
work our way down so we're not going to put our fist in it. Right. Okay, so I'm
going to pick up my number Number ten brush. So I'm just trying to find
my note of where he's from. So Oh, no. Lab. I think that's
how you pronounce it. That looks like how
Google told me to say. So there's a city in Slovenia. Apparently, it's the Capital, and there's a bridge there that has four of these on
either side of them. And I'll pop a little photo in the projects resources page
because they're amazing. It's a brilliant, a wonderful
bridge's quite a lot of mysticinss as well. I can't remember all the
mythology of it now. There's something to
do with Jason and the Argonauts and
slaying dragons, which I'm sure we don't want
to think of our dragon being slayed. But yeah,
have a little look. Have a little
Google because it's nice being able to a
reference photo like that, being able to place it,
and know a little bit of its history and mythology. I think it just adds to the whole whole painting
when you're doing it. Right. Before I
prattle on anymore. I'm going to Just going
to wet that horn. Okay. And we're going to
put just a tiny little bit. I'm just going to use
the rose, actually. And I'm going to say that the sort of warmth
is at the front. I'm going to just tap
a tiny little bit. Now, because it is beautiful and loose at the moment, it's hard. What we don't want to do
is to add too much and it becomes sort of
quite hard and stark. So go very light. I'm going to put a little
bit of green on the back. And that's to clean my
brush sufficiently. Give me a squech. Better. Try to keep everything
light still. As I say, it's quite easy
to now at this stage, make it look quite hard. Some of my practice pieces
got a little bit too much. If you want to put a make
that crest a little bit more, we can just wet the crest. And then pop a
little bit of color in gain the color is a
little bit up to you. Have a look at your painting and be guided by your instinct. If you think you'd like
a little bit of pink, they're all blue, go for it. Pop a little bit of blue here. And as I got the
back wing there, so we're just going to
pop that in as well. So put a blob of water. I'm just going to
wet that little space in between the wing and where the neck finishes. With my green and blue. Pop a bit right up against the neck line a
little bit more blue. Again, I'm just going
to allow that to run. Anymore, I don't
want to make those. Obviously, it's you see on the reference photo,
there's a nice line. I'm I don't want to get too
involved with all that. So just go to tap so it looks like there's
something behind it. Lo Some of my practice pieces, I didn't put the wing
in looked a little lost and looked it's better to have the little
wing part in there. And again, just fill in that
little tiny little top bit. And say I've got
just enough color actually that's on
my bruh from here. I just pop that in. And
we just allow it to dry. Just remove that spod your
water there. I want there. Water over the place today. Okay. I'm going to hang onto my. I'm going to pick up the violet. And we're going to do
the inside of the mouth. Not the tongue, but the
inside of the mouth. So just wet that down. Okay. And we're going to put the two colors
right at the very top and just allow
that to run again. Try your best. It should run. If it doesn't, give
it a little tilt, but try not to paint
it in all the way in. But this is where we
can reshape the mouth. If we've lost a
little bit of that, we can give it a
little bit of shape. I would allow that to run, but we need to get those
little teeth in. It's best done now. So with the little small brush. Just have a look at
that reference photo. I've got a big old front one. That's good. Yeah,
that's enough. So I don't want it
to be too hard. It's very easy to get
this color quite stark, so that will be enough. Obviously, I've got to let that dry before I can do the tongue. So while I've still
got these two colors, I'm going to do that ear,
which we haven't popped in. So again, I'm just
going to paint that in. Put put blue in there right
on top of one another. Get the shape right. The
rarity, see me painting. Can you brush, and
we're just going to wet the top half of the ear. And that should just blend
and run in. She says. Give it a little if it doesn't, and just give it a little
bit of a bit of a tinker. And we can actually
run. There's vio seeing quite a lot
of some lovely, sort of subtle lines and wrinkles and stuff so we can very gently put
some of those in. Let's put the tiniest bit
color on the top bits. Probably because my papers
buckle a little bit, it's heading
downward, so it's not encouraging it to run upward, which I guess makes sense. So there's a little bit of I go a little bit of
rose and tight the tiny tiniest bit just so we can see that there's
a top of that ear. Okay, I think we will
leave it at that. I'll just say I've just wet
the bottom of that ear. You can see there's sort of something going
on there, isn't there? There's a little bit of
almost a little flick of could be a crest
or even sort of hair. Greg don't have hair, do they? But you know what
I mean, scales. Okay, let's do the eye. I'm going to put let's
put that one down. I've got hold of the
blue and violet. And I guess you're going
to do. The very top. Obviously, we've
got a stone eye. So it makes it a
little bit cold, but I'm going to go
round what will be the sort of eyeliner part. So we're going to go
we're just outlining it, and there's if you scrolling
to that reference photo. He's got a sort of a little
lump of color at the front. I'm going to go round, just like that, so
we've outlined it. And then very gently. Just wet the inside. I'm going to a
little bit of blue. Now, again, you can make the eye any color.
I've done red eyes. I've done pink eyes. I've even mixed it
and got brown eyes. The red bond was quite fun. So that is up to
you a little bit, and what am I going to do? Let's pop a little
bit of red in there. Yeah, that looks quite good. And there's a nice
flicks that go off that I marking at the back. So get those flicks in
'cause I like those. And just allow that to dry. We'll soften it down
a little bit because it's going to look a little
stark at the moment. But once it's dried, we
can have a little play. Then my inside the mouth is
just a little bit wet still, so I can't do the tongue. So we'll make our way
around a little bit. Bear in mind, that
little inside of the second wing is still
wet so careful with that. It depends now how much
detail you want to put in. You can put a wet,
let's do that. I mean, you can
leave it to it is if you're happy with
what you got there, or you can put a little
wet line in there. You can see there's a sort line where those scale rough sort of come
out, isn't there? So I want to try
and keep it warm. So go a tiny little bit of pink. Just a tiny little bit. So you don't need a lot. The risk is to over
fiddle and overdo this, so just a tiny, tiniest bit and allow.
That's probably enough. Again, if you want
to put some more, you've lost or you
didn't get some of those nice scales coming out, you can pop those in again. Yeah, I'm not going to do
anymore because I can see it's all going to start
looking a little sectioned off and
a little harsh. And if you feel that's
got a little harsh, you can always soften the edge. Just bring that in squide
it with your finger, so you lose some of
that very exact edging. That's just me. I'm not very
good at having hard edges. So yet be a guide of
how you'd like to see your pieces is a nice
one for experimenting. Now, this is a quite a
nice bit of shadowing. I like how my legs
sort of formed. I got enough definition
on the front, but we're going to
put a little bit on the back and we can
do some ops as well. So I'm going to pick up
violet and the green. I'm going to put a line underneath there. Let
you just paint it in. A brush. Squeeze that some along and go up against that back leg if you
feel some definition. And now with a nice loose brush, wrist, yes, hold on your brush. But just do some of
those ribs as well, so Touching the
paper and the paint, and then just pulling up. Quit it with your finger
if it a little bit much. Yeah, take your brush away, see what you think.
That's enough. I say, I don't want to
get into the detail of doing all those sort
of claws I could do, but it becomes, yeah, a little bit detailed for me. So I'm happy with
how that looks. And say if you like
detail and obviously, go for it and pop it in. But what I would say
is do one a lot loser, and see which one you prefer because it's quite interesting. It obviously depends on the view and how you like
to see your pieces of work. But To do two would be a
nice experiment, I think. Tiny. Just feel like I
needed a little tiny, little bit of line
up there just to give that leg a
bit of definition. A bit higher up. I don't
want to do too much. Even just a wet brush
with a tiniest bit of color will give you Enough. If you tell you take
the brush away and sort of look away from
it for a little bit, even pick up your piece of paper and hold it away from you. Okay. He's looking right. I think my inside of
that mouth is dry. So I'm going to do a red
tongue. He's a dragon. So I'm going to put
up a bit of red. Right at the top. Go easy. If you're using the cabman red, it's quite a strong color so
you don't need an awful lot. And then touch the The red and just same to do
with the rest of the body, really allow that to run down. Get that nice flick right in
the shape of that tongue. And we can bleed this in a
little bit as well so we can touch that grab a
little bit of purple. Bit hard at the moment.
Come off there, isn't it? Just going to drag that all
the way down, actually, a Are you saying I needed to allow that to dry
prefer put the tongue in. I've almost haven't got
enough color at the bottom. Again, I can be a
risk of overfiddling, getting this too neat, but take my brush away. I think that is enough. I'm almost going to take a
little bit of color out. I don't want it to be too
much. What would it be? Completely red. I think I think I've got a little
bit of a beak going on here, but, That's all right. Okay, how are we doing? What else do I need to do? Or, I know. The neck. There's a nice sort of
creases up the neck. Let's change brushes,
let's go to my number ten. I've got the green. You can
do any color, doesn't matter. But again, bit up the ribs. I keep it quite watery, so clean your brush off. Just get a tiny little
bit of color on there. You can test it on a little
piece of paper if you're not sure. And then
we're just going to Swing those up. Just a few. It gives you an
impression that necks, obviously, sort of
being pulled in, isn't it? Those
creases are nice. Now, if you didn't get
your little b on the wing, you can sort of pop that in. And some of them. I'm just pondering
move to do that. I will do it so you can see. So some of my little
practice pieces, I actually put an edge
on a little parts of this wing in those warm
colors, hot colors. I just gave a little
bit of crispness. Again just sort of
soften that down. You don't want to go all way
along all the way along. It's just a little
bit of hard edge. Okay, we just need to
get some of those sort of calls and soften that eye because my eyes
just about dry, I think. I'm a little way away, so struggle with them. They're very detailed bits
and where I have to stand. Let me So if you ever come
back to a lesson and think, Oh, something just
changed a little bit. It's only that I've been
able to get back to get a little bit closer to my
piece and I can just tinker, but it would never be anything I haven't explained to you. T that sorted it. So I'll be just
reshaping probably something you will
hopefully have done. So we just to pop some of
these little wrinkles on. Again, just a little lines. So keep some soft,
change the color. Don't have to have
them all done, or you can take the catual color out so
you can clean your brush. I've got a nice crisp point and then you can actually
take color out. Give it a squechw careful, you've got a nice
clean it kitchen roll. Is a little bit gubby, but you sort of suck those up. So you get it left
with sort of a white. Get back to the clear paper. Okay, I just want to soften
the eye us at the moment, it looks a little stark like
it's just been popped on, which has just been popped on. So I'm just going to run
a damp brush underneath. Now, you can see there is. Just was almost a
bit of shadowing, isn't there on the
actual statue, so that just allow
the paint to run. Just a tiny bit, if it
doesn't, you can always add. Just a tiny bit of color. Sort of soften it. And we also need to put
that. There's a good. What would it be? I don't know what you call
that on a dragon. But there's a good sort of
frowny bit here, isn't it? There's another maybe
it's another scale, is it that sits above the eye? So, get that in 'cause
that's quite nice. I like that. Just run that
over the top of the eye. Just tiny little things. So be careful say
take your brush away, have a look, see
how you're doing. I think I need to get a bit
close to this because I'm struggling to see
exactly what I'm doing. So I'm going to leave that
there, but do you take your time and to get that right. I'll soften this. Sit a bit of a puddle there. That's better. And we
needed some teeth. I knew there was something else. So obviously, we've got
some nice big front teeth, so I'm going to pick up
the red and the purple, so the red and the rose. We're just going to
pick the teeth in. Down. You can gain it if it looks like you've
just stuck them on, which we basically have. You can just run a wet
brush over the top. So you soften that edge, and you can again reshape this if it's going
to a little mines. You definitely got a little
bit more of the nose. Okay, I think we are
almost there, actually. So we can tinker and not get
ourselves a better result. Just take my brush away
saying if anything else I feel I could
do the back leg. B leg is terribly easy. Again, I'm not sure I want to put the second claw in there, so I'm just going to know, I'm chicken out of those bits. I'm just wetting that down. And I'm going to pick up the let's Let's Let's have
a little bit of the pink. Just going to put that
right up against the edge, two edges and just allow
that to run to the front. Just to give us a really
real slight impression, there's a front leg there. I know some of you
are going to do some amazing legs and claws, and I am looking forward to all these projects coming
in I think there's going to be quite
a varying amount of detail that you're
going to be adding. I'm looking forward
to seeing them all. Okay, say, we've been
painting for a little while. And I'm sure there'll
be a few little bits and pieces that you can
sort of tinker with. And I know I always say this, but it is such an
important thing is to literally step away from your
piece and come back to it. Sometimes it only
needs 10 minutes, and you will see it in a completely different
light and what needs doing. I think there's always
that temptation to over fiddle as we
come to the end because one we want
it sort of finished. And two, we're enjoying it, so we want to keep doing it. If you're really enjoy you
want to do another one, or you want to
carry on fiddling, do another piece or have two pieces you've
already sort of sketched out, so you can just get
straight into the painting. But yes, so as I say, I hope you enjoyed this rather. Quirky cuss. I say, it's just I really wanted you to just to
have a bit of fun, really, pick up your
piece of paper and paint. And as ever, like I said, please do share these
on the projects and resources pages. And I am really looking forward to seeing
these I think there's going to be a lovely variation on how you've sort
of tackled this. Yes. T. Thank you very
much for joining me. And, and just before
I do leave you, don't forget to rub
those pencil marks out. I knew there was something else is in the back of my mind. So again, make sure
all the painting is absolutely dry before
you rub those out, but that always makes
a big difference. So yes, thank you very much.
7. Final Tweaks: So it's me again. So
in this little lesson, I'm just going to go with
the little tinkery bits I did when I stepped away from this piece after I
switched my camera off, went away, had a cup
of tea, came back, and I knew there was going
to be particularly high, little bits that I
needed to adjust. So I'm just going
to run through. There were some bits I
actually missed out as well. The creases around the mouth. I didn't show you how to do. So literally that was popped a tiny little bit
of paint on my brush, painted them in, and then
just softened the edge. So just to give you a
little bit so it wasn't painted straight on on
a very strong line, so it was painted and then
softened at the edge. I did the teeth,
so we missed out these teeth going inside. So that was just taking
color out, so very gently, I could get a little
bit closer to my painting and take my time
and just take those out. They don't have to be exact. It's just an impression. You can see those teeth there. The eye was obviously a needed
a little strengthening. I was able to get a bit closer, which I can't do
when I'm filming. So I just looked at my reference photo
and adjusted and strengthened and
took a little bit of time to get the shape right. And again, neatned up that
lovely kind of winged eyebrow, I suppose I'm here. Gain tidy up round the he
lit up the front here. I don't know what
you'd call that beak. It's not a beak Bmin. There's
a little bit part here. I strength, put a little
bit more color on the very, very tip, and then just
took a bit more color out. I just went round and Neaton. Again, the horn just needed
a little bit of tidying. Wasn't anything really with the wing and the rest of the body. It was more round the head
to tidy those bits up. But because this piece
is ever so loose, you need to have a
few crisp details to really sort of sharpen it up. So it's always worth, like I probably said
in my last lesson, step away, come back and adjust and strengthen
where you need to. The other little thing
I did was just take a little bit of light out
this you see on the photo. There's a strong sense of
light along the top here. So, yeah. That was just
taken out with a soft brush. Because this is hot press paper, and I'm not as
familiar using it, so it acts a little
bit differently than I'm used to. So I
think that was it. So I hope you found
this sort of helpful. And just a little Tin
ings I didn't want you to look at the
finished piece and go, Oh, my goodness, that's a lot different. What has she done? So that was it really just taken my time to adjust
and finish it off. So thank you very much
for listening to this. And I hope your
piece is beautiful, and I look forward
to seeing them all on the projects and
resources pages.
8. Final Thoughts: So I hope you
enjoyed this class, and you fell in love with
this dragon and it mythology. How much fun was that? Just allowing your imagination and spontanerity to take over. But remember to add
plenty of water. I loved painting that wing with that easy technique to create that sense of movement.
I hope you did, too. Isn't it amazing how a smh can pull together the
details in that painting. You just need to
be a bit patient. As I always say, it's worth stepping away and
coming back and looking at your piece
with a fresh pair of eyes and tweak, if necessary. So we look forward to seeing
you in the next class.
Jane Davies, Professional Artist and Teacher
