Dreamy Landscape with Watercolors

1. Introduction!!: Hi everyone. I am Shanan Subhan, an artist and an art educator based in Bangalore, India. Welcome to my Skillshare class on this dreamy landscape. In this class we are going to cover all the basic watercolor techniques to get our hands dirty before working on the main project. We will also discuss the supplies and colors that will be required for the project. The class includes subjects like painting the sky with a single color. Along with painting the distant treelines, painting grasslands, reflections, and many more subjects. It also touches on topics like dimension and depth of the painting, which helps you improve your watercolor skills. Without any further delay. Let's get started. I'm excited to see you all in my class. 2. Art supplies!: Before we begin the class, let us have a look at all the supplies that we are going to need for the class. Firstly, talking about paper. So I'm using BOAHONG, 300 GSM, a 100% cotton paper. This paper has cold press texture. As you can see, this has this, slightly rough texture. So you can use any textured paper. I would highly recommend you to use a 100% cotton paper so that you can easily follow along with me. You can use paper from any alternative brands. just make sure it is a 100% cotton paper. Next, let us talk about the brushes. I have four brushes here. Let's talk about these brushes one by one. So firstly, I have this Princeton mop brush. This is size 4 brush I'll be using this for the water washes. Like to wear larger areas because it pulls lots of water and it is easier for me to cover the entire area. Next I have this silver black velvet brush, silver black velvet brush of size 12. This is again a larger brush. I'll be using it for the larger brushstrokes. Then I have a size eight-round brush. This is for the medium brush strokes. Lastly, I have size two, silver black velvet brush. This is used for ending the final details like these branches or these grass blades. That's all about the brushes. Moving on to colors. We will be using these colors and I'll be explaining all about the colors in the upcoming chapter. I have stored the colors in this palette. I'll be using it directly from this. For mixing the colors. I have this palette, I'll be mixing it. Then we have this glass sheet where I'll be keeping down my paper. Using a masking tape. You would need any hard surface and a masking tape to tape the paper down so that it doesn't buckle up when applying water. Next we have a spray bottle. I'll use this for row, swing the water in some areas. Then I would need two jars of clean water. One is to clean the dirty brushes and other one, who take the clean water for the mortar washes. You would need two jars of water. Alright. We would also need a napkin or tissue paper. Wipe off the paint. Water, something like this. That you can have a damp brush. That's all about the supplies that we would need for the class. 3. Colors..: The colors that we would need for the class. Scarlet red, crimson. Burnt umber, sap green. 4. Composition : Let us discuss the composition of the painting. On the top part, we have sky with angular shaped clouds in the distant area. That is this clustered realign. In the midground area. Vibrant red grassy area. Some smaller batches of water bodies. In the foreground area. We have Lake, which reflects the color of the sky. And closer to the viewpoint, there are some detailed grass hips, awesome beard trees, pine trees as well. Okay, so I'll draw a simple thumbnail to explain it further. We will draw the horizon line on the upper half. Then we have this in distant treeline, which appeals quite blurry. Another layer of trees closer to the midground. Then we will define the boundaries for the red grassy area. The foreground part will be the lake. The grasses in the foreground will be detailed ones because it is closer to the viewpoint so we will be able to see the details. Then there are some where trees. We will add some ripples in the water. Alright, that's all about the thumbnail sketch. Let us move on to the next chapter. 5. Techniques and Practice: Before we start the class, let us go through some of the basic watercolor techniques that would be required for this class. First one is wet on wet technique. I'll be waiting the surface using clean water. Next, I'll be applying wet paints on the same surface. With this technique, the colors spread really well and we get a soft background. This is ideal for painting the sky and the base layers of the painting. The next technique is wet on dry. We apply wet paint on wet surface and it helps us create sharp edges and the detailing work. We will be using this to paint the trees and the grasses. Other sharp edges that we wanted to achieve. Next we will perform lifting technique. Now, imagine we have painted something and we want to lift the colors. You can use your **** brush and our tissue paper to lift the paint from a painted surface. This is used to create highlights and fix the mistakes that we have made. Next, we will learn to soften the sharp edges. So imagine you have painted something. It looks very sharp and unappealing. Then you can fix it by using a damp brush. Just have those mashed up brush to soften the paint on the edges. Next is flattering technique. You can splatter the paint on a surface or on a dry surface. So depending on the texture that you want, you can either pick any one of this technique. Moving on, let us practice the elements of the painting. So first one is the grass blades. We will paint the bottom part, take God. And the upper parts of these blades in shape. Something like this. There are these wild grasses with some flowers on the top. So you can paint those plus or both pips. Then I add these tiny lines. You need to control the pressure on the brush in order to achieve finer grass blades. Next, we will use dry brush technique to create the texture. You have to wipe off all the extra paints from the brush and then glide the brush to achieve the sort extrude effect. This can be used to paint the texture on the grasses. Next, we will practice though distant grasses. In the distance area, we will be adding these tiny grasses because it is away from the viewpoint, so it appears smaller. We are going to paint it something like this. Next we have bare trees. We're going to start with the trunk of the tree. Then we will slowly add the branches. You can fork the branches as many times you want. The more you add the tiny branches, the denser it is going to look. Also, we would need all fine liner brush for the tiny tweaks. Lastly, let us practice though distant trees. To achieve this ten blurry trees. We are going to first have a wet surface. Then we will apply wet paint in the shape of trees. You can paint any kind of tree. It will kill those same effect. You can vary the dollar values as well. This reason the paintings will be painted with this technique. Similarly, for the reflection of sky in the water, we will use the same technique that is wet on wet. Some of the techniques. 6. Dreamy Landscape - part 1: Okay, so let's get started. I have a glass sheet here. On this. I'm going to tape the paper down using a masking tape. This is 3 fourth inch masking tape. I'm going to give it a nice border. It also helps us prevent the paper from buckling up when we apply water washes. Once you have the paper, just drawn your finger on the edges to make sure it is tightly sealed. I'm placing this masking tape under the paper to give it a little while we paint. Before we begin, let us just roughly mark the composition of the painting so as to know where the elements will be placed here in the painting. Somewhere in the upper half. I'm going to mark the horizon line. This is the sky and the trees. Below. This is the land and the water body. Mixed, mocking the area for the lake water. This need not be exactly same as mine. You can just randomly do it. These are the purchase of line lake upon. Okay. These are the this part is for the water and this is for the sky. This one is for the land. Okay. I hope I'm clear. We will proceed with the painting now. I'm going to apply clean water above the horizon line. This is wet on wet technique. Use a large brush to easily cover the area. New Brush multiple times. Make sure that the water is evenly distributed. We will add wet paint on this wet layer. We would depict our sky in the painting. Next, I'll take my palette and size eight round brush. I'll take Payne's gray in thicker consistency on my palette. Paper in the tilted position to allow the paint to flow downwards while painting. Load your brush with this thick paints gray. Apply some diagonal brushstrokes on the upper part. This will act as the darker clouds in the sky. Also apply some tiny brush strokes. Since we have applied paint on a wet surface. Just move the board around that we don't get these Haley lines. Next we will apply some darker strokes to add a sense of depth in the Cloud. Some diluted paint. The lower part of the sky. All right, The sky is done. Next, we would be in the distant trees on the same damp layer, mixed a tiny bit off bond on board with the Payne's gray mix. This will create a darker color. Now apply this mixed to suggest the entries. We will pin the disjunct trees in irregular shape and size. The reason behind going with wet on wet technique is to achieve or soft and blurry layer of treeline. This point, the paper is 50 to 60% damp. It is easier to retain the shape. I didn't get in some concentrated on in-between to ruin the uniformity in this layer. I feel that is a button or a similarity in all the trees. So to break that uniformity, I'm adding some color trees, your alright, this layer is done. We have painted those sky and distant treeline. Now let us allow the paint to dry. I'm using a blow dryer to speed up the drying process. Alright, no panes have dried. Now, look at those blurry trees at the horizon. Next we shall move on to paint the layer below the horizon. I'm applying clean water. We are applying only below the horizon line and not on the sky and the distinct area. Alright, the paper is wet. Now, let us move on to paint the red grasses. The colors needed a scarlet red. I'm going to mix this color in thicker consistency. Next we would need crimson. So these two are shades of red. Scarlet being warm tone, and Clemson is cooler tone of red. On this wet surface, I'm going to apply scarlet red. Applying it only inside the sketched area. And we will leave this blank space for the lake. Now I'll remove this masking tape because I do not want the paint to flow downwards At this point of time. Applied domains. And here on the left side, I leave some whitespace again for the lake water. Again, we will apply the scarlet red in the bottom part. On the right side. I do not want this area to be blocked by red color. I lived the painting choosing or damp brush. I'm adding some more patches of red gases in the foreground. Next we will add some overlapping brushstrokes on the red area using the same scarlet red. Now, as you can see, the colors have spread on the blank areas and created these heavy textures. We will treat those areas using a damp brush and our tissue paper. Lift all the colors near the edges of the lake. I will not lift the paint on the upper areas of these grass patches because we will use those hairy texture to our advantage and give it a glassy appearance. Soften the sharp edges using **** brush. Next we will take Crimson. Apply some brushstrokes on this red area. This will act as the darker patches on the grasses, which in turn creates a send. So for grassy area, we will leave it here. I loved the paint to dry. All right. No paints have right. Now, let us paint the water. We are going to wet the entire area for this to perform wet on wet technique. When you are applying water over the red surface as though it might live the paint. Clean your brush after applying each and every stroke. Also, you can lift the paints if at all the expert on the blank area. Next, we'll take Payne's gray in medium consistency. We are going to add the reflection of the sky in the water. The sky is grayish in color. Theme will be reflected in the water. Apply the same on the edges of this grassy area. In the foreground. We are going to roughly apply this paint. Because we are going to paint some grasses in the foreground. This will act as the base for the grasses. You don't have to worry if this Payne's gray and red gets mixed up. Applying some darker tone of Payne's gray. On the lake. I had some horizontal strokes to suggest a moment in the water. This will basically act as the ripple in the water. Now let's make so these three colors, not as Scarlett crimson, Payne's gray. This will create a darker shade. Now, I'm adding this darker shade on the base of this grassy part. This will act as the shadows and creates or dimension in the grassy area. Right now let us allow this layer to dry. So I'm going to use my blow dryer to speed up the drying process. If you do not want to use a blow dryer and you can leave it as it is for around ten to 15 minutes to completely let it dry. 7. Dreamy Landscape - part 2: Alright, the paper is completely dry. We will apply another layer of treeline in the district area. This will be suggested as the trees in the midground area. We will apply clean water along the horizon line. On this wet area, I'll apply some red color. Load your brush with paint gray. And Abbott worked with a link to create these three shapes. This is not the final layer, the green trees, but this is just the base photo upcoming layer. The upper area of these trees have sharp edges. So in order to soften these edges, I'm going to spray some water. It's okay. If you do not have the spray bottle, you can leave it as it is. Next, I'm going to mix bond number paints gray and crimson, because this will create a very darker color closer to black. I'm going to dab this color near the horizon to create or dark or APRN. Next we shall mix green color for the distant treeline. I'm going to take some green. A bit of white gouache paint will make it a little opaque. The reason behind using white gouache paint is to cancel out the transparency property of watercolor. Now I'm going to apply this and green paint along the horizon in the shape of trees. Next, we'll tape or mics off burnt umber and Payne's gray. Similar to black color. We will add in-between these green trees were depicted as the shadows off these trees. Apply some brushstrokes on the red area as well, creating some more loose purines in the district area or something I need to tell. You guys need not replicate each and every step that I paint. Just understand what I'm trying to do and then try to paint it in your own way. How fun. Enjoy the process. Okay, So I will stop it. And I'm going to let the paint dry again using a blow dryer. Okay, So we are done drying the people. Now let's take one plus Payne's gray to paint the trees. I'm using a fine liner brushes. This is size two round brush by silver black velvet. Somebody in the center of the paper. I'm adding this tree here. Start with the trunk and then gradually keep adding the branches. Since this isn't the midground area. So we will not be able to see all the details. You can add as many trees you want. It's totally up to you. If you are intending to paint a tree somewhere in their district area, then make it smaller in size. Closer to the horizon, I'm adding some smaller lines. I just though distant trees. Next year really much closer to the foreground. We've learned the bottom part of the trunk using your fingertip. You can fork or tree branch as many times you want, will make the tree look. Also, you can add more straight trunk as well. It's totally up to you because it's your painting and it's your choice. You can move your paper and board to find a comfortable position to paint certain shapes. Third, one page, or for taping the paper on a separate surface. I personally find it very difficult to pin certain shapes on a fixed surface. So I tape my paper on a separate hard board or any hard selfies Rather than or keeping it on a fixed table. So moving on, we will paint some texture on the grasses. So I'm going to mix a darker shade with red and add some tiny lines on the glasses. I'm using my size two fine liner brush. We have a base red layer. Now we just need to add some texture to it. Simply add some grass blades. In some tiny grass blades on the midsection. Gliding the brush to create extra. Next we are going to take our darker mix, all four Payne's, gray and red, we will get a darker color. Now with this mix, we will add some widely. But officers in the foreground, these glasses need not have a defined shape. You can just randomly add some lines and some flowers on the top. The brush horizontally near the edges of the lake. Next, we will add some tiny grasses in the midground area. By painting these tiny lines. Using darker mix for these grasses. Since these gases are away from the viewpoint and are present in the midground area. So we will move them as smaller lines. Again, there is no fixed position or shape. I'm just randomly adding these tiny lines on random areas. Going back to the foreground area, I've mixed up, I'm gonna add some more grasses like the brush to create this rough texture. Go into stamp, really create a noise and texture in the foreground. Since these glasses are in the foreground in demand, some more detailing work right here in the foreground. I'm adding some vertical brushstrokes, very roughly, just some shot glass plates. Okay, so I hope you have achieved similar results so far. Next, let us add some pine trees in the middle ground area. I'm using r.com mix to paint a pine tree paint or pine tree using zigzaggy brushstroke. Use your fingertip to blend the bottom part of the tree. Next, we will add another pine tree on the other side of the painting. We will leave these trees yard and come back to them. Once this layer dries. Moving on, we will add some ripples in the lake water. So I'm going to take diluted paints gray, and add some horizontal lines on the Lake area. These lines in the water makes it look organic and gives us, And so for movement in the water, we will add some darker color. Near the boundaries of the lake. You can smudge it using your fingertip or leave it as it is. Now going back to the pine tree, I'm using the same green color that I had used for the decision trees. Make. So widen, gosh. Now on this black country that we have splintered, we will add these details. Why we are adding gouache painters, because it will make it appear opaque. If it was only watercolor, it would have appeared transparent and we could see the background layer. So to prevent the background from seeing through this layer, we are using gouache paint. Alright. Lastly, we will splatter some black paints on the foreground area to add some extra to the grasses. All right, We are done with the painting. Now let us remove the masking tape. Gently peel off the masking tape and opposite direction. There you go. This is how our painting looks like. Let us take a moment to appreciate this beauty. Such a dreamy landscape, right? I hope you like it. Guys. I'm waiting to see your class projects. Go share them under the projects gallery. I would love to share my views on them. Thank you all for watching my class. Please do share your review or feedback in the review section. So I'll see you in my next class. Until then. Happy painting, Bye bye.