Transcripts
1. Trailer: Let's paint some super cute and easy watercolor sweets and treats. Any skill level can do this class. Along the way, you will learn new techniques, improve your skills, and most importantly, you will become more competent in using watercolors. We will start the class off with a quick chat on supplies. Then we'll do a short but sweet brush exercise warm up. Then I'll guide you through 12 easy to do sweet illustrations step by step. We'll finish off the class with fun and quick challenge that will help you two loosen up your paintings. This class will be a blast. So grab your brush and paints and get ready to please your sweet tooth without any consequences. Let's get started.
2. Supplies & Challenges: Welcome to the class. Let's talk with the run-through of all the supplies we'll use. You will need water color paints, any kind will do. I used to paint and mix a lot of different brands. You will also need a brush or brushes. I will be using a size 10 Princeton Neptune round brush and only this brush for the entire class. I challenge you to pick one round brush and to do the same thing, this will help you to master that brush and improve your painting skills. In the next lesson, we'll do a fun exercise with your brush that will boost your confidence and skills. You can use a size 6, 8, 10 or 12, whatever suits your needs and the size of your paper. If you don't want to do the challenge, that's totally okay too. You can use a variety of brushes if it really makes you feel uncomfortable. As for paper, you can use whatever you prefer as long as it's at least a 140 pounds. This is the most important thing, anything below that will warp. I highly recommend Canson XL paper for the price and it makes interesting washes. This is the paper I will use throughout the class. Arches paper is very high-quality if you don't mind spending the extra money. I recommend Hot-pressed if you're going with Arches because Cold pressed is just the little too rough for these delicate sweets. But that's really up to you. Now we'll also need two water containers. This way our dirty water will collect in one container and will always have a clean brush and you also need simple paper towels. An optional and highly recommended supply is a unique bawl signal broad point gel pen. I will use it to add highlights to every piece once it's done. But this is not necessary. You're piece will look good without it as well. Or you can instead use any white you like, like white ink, whitewash, acrylic paint, a coal pick white. Any opaque media that works in top of watercolors will do. I will also use artist's tape to tape down my work to help prevent warping. This isn't necessary, but it really helps and is simply done by laying your paper flat on a hard surface and putting tape on each sighed. Have you noticed that I did not include a pencil? Well, this is the second challenge. I made sure to make each illustration as simple as possible and did not use a pencil in any of them. I encourage you to freehand it with your brush like me. Don't be afraid of making your chips imperfect. This will give your lines and paintings more character, increase your confidence and it will be overall freeing and fun. If this really terrifies you or you a complete beginner in drawing, you can use your pencil, but just keep your lines light since watercolors are transparent and once you paint over them, you cannot erase the pencil marks. Also a note about the color. I will not be giving us specific colors that I used throughout each painting. I don't work thinking like that. I just intuitively makes my colors to my liking and I encourage you to play around with your colors and pick out your own combinations for unique illustrations. There is no wrong answer since we are not trying to be realistic and the things we were painting are universally recognizable. If mixing feels hard for you, I encourage you to check out my previous class on color mixing. Also, this is a beginner level on above class, but I do expect you to known basic watercolor terminology and have some experience. If you're a completely newbie to watercolors, checkout my anyone can water color class and which I will walk you through everything you need to know to get started and then come back hear to put those skills to use. Your two challenges are only using one brush and no pencil. Can you do it? I think you can. Gather your supplies and get ready to surprise yourself. But first, let's warm up with a quick exercise.
3. Brush Warmup Exercise: Before we jump into painting, let's do a quick warm-up that will help you with brush control and make the illustrations that we do super easy. This shouldn't take more than five minutes but if you find one of the exercises extra hard, take out another page and practice it until you get the hang of it. We'll start with the long thin line by only using the tip of our brush. Then we'll press down a little bit more on our second line. Try to keep the pressure consistent for a consistent thickness. Now, press down even more for a nice thick line. Next, start with the tip of your brush and gradually get thicker. You can all tray the lines like so. Next is practice making quick strokes in a similar direction. Next, practice what we did earlier with the thin to thick stroke but much faster and going back to thin at the end, to start with a light pressure and then press down and then end with a light pressure. This shape is great to use for leaves. Try making a continuous line like this to practice. Next, be more loose and playful with your brush and try making random shapes with no meaning, just get the hang of letting go. Next, practice painting small dots with the tip of your brush. Now, do very short strokes. This one is a little different. Paint out a loose circle and practice filling it in loosely so that you leave lots of random white space. Do this again but this time make your lines more horizontal and rounded so that the highlights follow the shape. For this last one, make an abstract shape with rounded edges and fill it line by line mimicking the shape by keeping space between them for a nice white highlight and just fill in the whole thing like this. This one is super important so if it's hard to do, do it again. Now, just go crazy. Fill the rest of the page with random brush strokes and squiggly lines and just experiment and get used to playing with your brush. There is no right answer so just be loose and have fun. That's it for the exercise, simple. You'll seen how these techniques will come in handy in future lessons. Now, let's start with painting a juicy watermelon.
4. Juicy Watermelon: The first thing to do is load your brush with lots of water and paint out the shape of the part that will be pink. It's just a simple triangle with a rounded bottom. I'm just using plain water. I mix a nice reddish pink as you I drop in paint into the water. Then I add in a slight purple color that has a darker value. Notice how random my placements are. I want the colors to blend on the page and make even more colors. I don't want the paint to gather at the bottom in a puddle because it will dry with hard edges and I want a softer look down hear. So I use a piece of paper towel to lift the paint and then continue to add different purples, pinks and reds in random places. The water puddled on the side, and that's okay because that will make a beautiful texture when it dries and I want that area to be hard. If you have to much water on your page, you can just draw your brush on a paper towel and pick it up with a thirsty brush or you can use a paper towel to pick up the excess water. If there's not enough water, just simply add more. It's a balancing game but the more you do it, the better you'll be at it just like any other skill. When I'm happy with how it looks, I'll leave it alone to dry. Remember that watercolors always dry later. Next they pick up a light green with a good amount of water and paint in the bottom by using the same rounded shapes I did for the bottom of the pink part. Make sure to leave a decently sized space between the two. You don't want the colors touching and bleeding into each other. Watermelons do have white between the pink and green part. I pick up a darker green and drop it in randomly spaced. You can leave it like this, but I'll let them blend a little more by lightly moving the paint with my brush. Next, I use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Make sure to set yours to low and go around the whole painting. Don't just sit in one spot. I found that puddles dry with more defined edges when I use a hairdryer and I really like that, plus it's a good remedy for impatience. It's mostly dry now, but there was a little too much water at the top, so I picked it up with the dry brush. Now we're doing the second layer. Since watercolors are transparent, when you layer them, you get more intense colors and unique color mixes. This is called glazing. It's also really great for layering cool textures, as you will seen. I paint over the same shape, but this time I use a little less water so that the paint doesn't spread too much and stays darker. Notice how I laid down some dark shapes but the edges are very defined. To fix this, I simply dampen my brush and just smooth out the edges by painting next to them with a tiny bit of clear water. I add a little more concentrated paint in random areas and I leave to do its own magical watercolor thing. The green part is almost fully dry now and it's a good time to introduce some yellow to make it pop. It blends in the parts that are still wet, but in the middle where it's almost fully dry, it stays where I put it and it will dry with harden edges because the paint wasn't fully dry. I paint in a random texture and this will be more visible once it's fully dry. I use a hairdryer to finish drying and now it's time to add seeds. I never use pure black because I like a slight coloring in my blacks. This time I'm using concentrated sepia. To do that, just load a little water and lots of paint on your brush. Just make sure to have enough water or you'll do the dry brush technique. If you're not sure you're doing it right, you can just use a piece of scrap paper to test it up before painting. I use the tip of my brush to draw in torn drop shapes. I messed up one of my seeds, but I don't panic because it's easier to fix while it's still wet. I simply half wet my brush in plane water and put it over the seed, picking up some paint and replacing it with water. Then I use a paper towel to pick up the rest of the paint in water. Notice how it took some of the paint below with it even though it was dry. This technique can also be used to add more highlights or textures to your paintings. To fix it, I just use a damp paper towel to pick up more paint around it, making the light area more random and large. Now i fit some with rest of the piece and actually made it more dimensional. You can also use this technique with a damp press two add highlights, and we will do so in future lessons. I dry the area and continue painting my seeds. Vary the size of your seeds and whether it's just an outline or it's filled. The trick is not overdoing it or under doing it, it's always better to do less than more. So stop yourself as soon as it feels done. Now you can stop here or you can add whiten. To do this, you can use whiten, white gouache, white gel paint, or any other media that is safe to use on top of water colors. I use a white gel pen to add slight highlights on every seed. Just drawing a dot or two, or a line is sufficient enough to do this. I don't care about lighting sources because this is a loose piece and doesn't have to make sense. So go crazy and do what feels right. I also add a lot of little dots at the bottom. I love to use this technique to make things look shiny or like they have glitter on them. It's easy to do, it's just a lot of dots clumped together and it gets sparser and sparser the more you go out. Varying the size of them can also make them look like stars. I also add in some white seeds with just simple white tear drop shapes, but notice that I only added three. I don't want to overdo it since it already looks done. The end result is gorgeous and it was made easily using only simple shapes and layered washes. If you squint your eyes, you will notice the values constantly changed throughout the piece. Notice how the piece is not perfect. None of the lines are straight and every brush stroke was loose. Also notice how cool this part of the watermelon looks because we layered two loose washes on top of each other. I use this same technique to paint galaxies. Now let's move on to a simple and QD donut.
5. Sweetie Doughnut: Start by mixing the color you want your icing two be. Now paint a loose donut shape, which is just an imperfect circle. Now paint a smaller circle in the middle. Donuts are pretty shiny, so paint around the parts you want to stay light, and make two rounded shapes for highlights, a small one and the other is shaped like a rounded teardrop. Now while everything is still wet, lose this on the rest of the shape. It's okay to leave specks of white, they'll add more character. I pick up hot pink, which is a darker value, and so dropping it around the edges of the circle, and in random places within. I also pick up some turquoise and put it in randomly, and use my brush to help it mix on the page creating some beautiful purples. I covered up the big highlight by accident. So to fix it, I just dry brush on a paper towel and use it to pick up excess paint. The great thing about this technique is the edges are soft and blended. I also pick up excess paint around the donut, making it lighter within. I use a hairdryer set on low to speed up the drying process. Now if you squint your eyes, you can see how much lighter the areas I picked up painting are and how smooth the transition is. Also, notice a cool texture at the edges of the donut. That's because water and paint were puddled there. These effects are truly magical and why I love watercolors so much. Now let's paint in the dough of the donut. I make sum mustard beige colors. You can also use light brown or black to make your donut chocolate flavored. Now, I paint a half-moon shape at the top in a little circle, and the same shape below the whole donut. With this little detail, a donut looks three-dimensional. I drop a darker color within and use a paper towel to pickup excess paint. If my paint was little drier, it would have left a texture from the paper towel. Notice how the paint bled into the donut right hear because it was still a little wet. I really like small mistakes like this, so I'll leave it be. It makes things look handmade and gives them more character, so embrace your happy accidents. Now it's time to add the sprinkles. You can pick whatever colors you like and do whatever shapes. Just be sure to pick up a concentrated amount of paint. The pink underneath will show through because watercolors are transparent, but it is light, so it will just give it a warm glow. I start with my first color and I accidentally paint it in a wet area. To fix this, I just use a paper towel to pick up the fresh paint. I use a hairdryer to make sure it's fully dry and continue painting in the sprinkles. They are just short lines like the ones we did in the warm up exercise. If you're finding this to hard, you can use a smaller brush, but I believe in you, you can definitely do this with your round brush. Get as creative as you want with the colors and shapes of the sprinkles. I just did plain ones, but you can do hearts or circles or chocolate chips or whatever you want, maybe even gummy bears. Once the sprinkles are fully dry, you can use your gel pen or other white media to add white sprinkles or shapes, and maybe some highlights in the doughy part. Viola, this cute little donut with super easy and quick to make, we only use simple shapes and all these imperfections give it the trademark watercolor feel. The best part is we didn't gain a single pound in painting the sweetie. Notice how beautiful the watercolor is drying the icing part. Just because you played around with adding different colors and letting them blend inside and we let puddles be, watercolors do magical things when you let them. Now let's do another easy and tasty treat, a chocolate chip cookie.
6. Tasty Cookie: I start by mixing yellow and brown to make a nice cookie dough color and paint a loose outline for my cookie. Remember that cookies are handmade, they most certainly are not perfect circles and are not symmetrical in any way, so just do this as you want and you can keep changing the shape until you're happy with it by simply expanding it. Now, the idea is to make a shape of something cute like a heart or even write something with cookie typography. Here is the final and important part. Very loosely fill in your cookie shape but leave a lot of random pieces of paper or white showing through. This is the same thing that we did in the warm-up exercise. This will give your cookie a beautiful crumbly texture. Now, I add different browns and let them mix on the page, helping them by gently nudging them with a damp brush. I continue doing this until I can see a noticeable value difference throughout the piece. I use a hairdryer to help it dry faster and now it's time for chocolate chips. Wait, you asked, don't I want to add another layer? Well, you don't have to, it's really that simple. You can if you really want to but be sure to leave bits of white or your cookie might look a little too realistic. The white part gives it a lot of character and keeps it loose and playful. Now, for the chocolate chips, make sure to use dark brown paints and paint them randomly. I use random shapes and sizes. Notice how I leave little white highlights in each one just by not filling them in fully. Even though my shapes are random, I try to keep most of them a little triangular because chocolate chips come in little cases that have rounded triangle fill. Remember, some melt and some are more within, hence a smaller and weirdly shaped ones. Putting some of the edges outside the cookie makes it look more dimensional. When there seems to be enough chocolate chips, I just add little dots all around to make it even cuter. Now, I pick up a really concentrated brown and put a little in each chocolate chip. This makes them more dimensional and like I said earlier, don't think about lighting too much. These are loose and playful and don't have to make sense. I dry my chocolate chips and add slight dots, varying the size for cute highlights. The huge contrast between the dark chocolate chips and the white make them extra sparkly. I also draw in some dots around the edges of the cookie and within, randomly, our cookie is done. This was extremely easy to do and look how much character it had just because we left white specks of the page all around. In the previous two I didn't really use this technique but it works perfectly for the cookie because cookies have a crumbly look and fill to them unlike smooth doughnuts or watermelons. I encourage you to try this in a unique way with your favorite type of cookie. Now, let's paint some fun ice cream.
7. I Scream for Ice Cream: We're going to do things a little differently this time. Instead of painting one dessert at a time, we're going to paint three different types of ice cream at ones. We'll paint all of them at the same time and do one detail at a time, while we waited for the others to dry, which is a very efficient way to use your time when working with watercolor. My first ice cream flavor is vanilla. Since it's white, I'm just going to paint in some light shadows using turquoise. I start by painting a half circle and then a loosens slightly curved shape below it, which is wider than the half circle. I start painting the shadows within. This is similar to the way we did the cookie illustration, and we did the same thing in the warm-up exercise with the slightly curved horizontal white spaces left within. Just be loosened random. While the paint is still wet, I drop in some pink to let it blend on the page into purples. Now, let's let that dry and start the second one, which will be a mint chocolate chip flavored. I mix my color and you can get a similar result and mixing green and blue, with more green in the mix. This time, I'm a lot more loose with the shape. Notice I left white inside again, but the shape is not a perfect circle or anything, just a randomly shaped blob. As long as the overall shape is round, it will look good and like a scoop of ice cream, some be scared of mistakes. Drop some turquoise in it to let it mix on the page and now it's time for the third ice cream. I make the same shape as the first one, but make the shape you load the half circle bigger for a slight variation, and because our cone will bee wider this time. I added purplish pink, and since it is going to be cherry flavored, I pick up a concentrated amount of paint with almost no wider and drop it in his well. This way the paint will stay dark and not move as far. Now I use a hairdryer and a low setting to drive all of my ice cream. I'm only doing one layer, but you can do to if you want more dimension texture, just be sure not to cover the white parts. I started drawing the column by drawing a slanted straight line, and then I added curved line from the top of it towards the middle and close it off by connecting it to the bottom line. I draw a second line inside that is symmetrical to line on the left. If you want to do something simpler, you could just do a simple triangle. To finish off the cone, I simply loosely pane a grid inside of it, which is just a bunch of parallel lines perpendicular to each other. You can make them closer together or further apart. I make sure to change the angle slightly in each part because it's supposed to be a twisted cone. To do this, just vary the angle of your starting line. For the next cone, we're going to start with half a circle and then draw thin triangle. Again I draw grid inside and this time I dropped on a little bit of pink paint in random areas to give it a pop of color. I also added my first color and the pink color because it looks a little blend. For the third ice cream, we're going to add a second scoop, and you can use this technique to add a third or even fourth scoop. All you have to do is paint in the same shape as slightly cut off the top part by pretending it's under the top scoop. This flavor is blueberry, so adding some purple and let it mix on the page again. Now, let's finish off for first come with some sprinkles. This time we'll do a little dots or circles. I use dark blue, pink, yellow. But you can use whatever colors you like. I also vary there sizes slightly. Our second ice cream is mint chocolate chip. So I add little brown chocolate chunks with simple random shapes. I keep this spacing random and add little dots like we did for the chocolate chip cookies, for the cherry ice cream, I add and randomly spaced magenta shapes like little pieces of cherries. Now, let's paint the last cone. We start with a rounded rectangle and then another smaller rounded rectangle beneath it, and then two straight lines connected by a curved line at the bottom, and we're done. Your lines don't have to be perfectly straight or symmetrical, mind sure aren't. The imperfections will make hymn more interesting and alive. I grid it like I did the other cones and while that's drying, add in some blueberry chunks there using a dark blew and painting randomly spaced shapes like we did for the cherries. I also drops and blues into the cone to make a slight color variation, and to unify the colors more. Everything is now complete and it's time to add small highlights. I add some white sprinkles in the first ice cream and some highlights on the cone. I did the same for the rest of them. The white dots and the other ice cream don't look like sprinkles, but they do make it look more shiny and cute. A simple polka dot pattern always does that. If you want two do a cute background, a fun idea is to do one color and polka dots in it with a white pop in. The final result is good enough to eat and it's full of fun and cuteness because the brush strokes used to make this were imperfect and dynamic and we liked colors mix on the page. Try doing this with your favorite ice cream flavors and get creative with the details and colors. Now, let's paint the final assortment of sweets.
8. Even More Sweets: In this lesson, we will again work in more than one sweet at a time. Our first sweet will be a white chocolate covered strawberry. How does one paint white? Well, the same way I painted the vanilla ice cream, just paint the shadows and mix purple and turquoise and paint out this shape. It's a mix between a sideways triangle and a heart. Just make sure all your edges are rounded. Next, I fill in the bottom half of the shape and leave a triangle highlight on the top but not putting paint there. Also, use of dry brush lift some of the paint around the highlight to soften the transition between blue and white and add in a little bit of purple on the bottom to make it even more interesting. While that dries, let's start painting our cherry. First, paint the outline and be sure to define some highlights within. I do a big rounded one on the right and a small one on the left. This is similar to the warm-up excess that we did with a rounded shape, and you could just do simple circles. I add in some dark reddish purple at the bottom and decide that I don't like the shape that much so I simply expand the edges and mold into the shape that I want. In the end, I decide on a simple circle. But you can keep yours with a dip in the middle. Either way, all ready to cherry. I throw in a little more purple and leave it to mix and mingle on its own. Now, we're going to paint a blueberry. I almost close off a circular shape and draw a small oval under the opening. Next, I get a darker blue and paint in little shapes around it, almost like flower petals. Next, just use water to fill in the blueberry loosely. Be sure to leave some white in it or it'll be too realistic. I add in a darker blue and blended, but I don't think the contrast was good enough. I add in a purple as well and move it around the bottom edges with my brush, and now, it's time to let it dry. For our next sweet, I do a thin and slightly curvly shape. This is the cream and that's why I use the light blue and purple colors paint in the shadows, which are just curved horizontal lines. It's crucial to leave a lot of white to make it recognizable so I go on with a dry brush and pick up excess paint, which also smooths out the rough edges and makes the gradient from white to light blue smoother. Now, I dry all my sweeties and it's time to continue adding details. Strawberries have little craters full with yellow seeds, but since we're simplifying, we're just going to paint little circles. Now, paint the outline of the strawberry with just a long curved line and you can fill in the rest around the circles. I pick up a little paint to make slight valley variations and let it dry. Now, we can paint some dark chocolate on the white. Just mix a chocolaty brown and paint a wavy line zigzagging from they bottom of the strawberry to the top. Notice a little detail with protruding from the strawberry at the top, which makes it look like it's going all the way around to the other side. There isn't a perfect way to do this and everyone's results will be a little different, but as long as you keep the lines curved and brown, it'll be recognizable as chocolate. While the lines are still wet, I drop dark brown in random places and in some of the rows, we use the strawberry's body. Now, we let it dry and mix a nice green for the cherry's stem and paint in a long line that's slightly curves at the end. I drop in some more paint and then pick up some brown and paint a few close and loose lines to make the stem. I paint in the leaf shape in one quick stroke by starting with the tip of the brush then pushing down to a thick stroke and then ending with the tip of the brush. This is exactly the same technique that we practiced in the warm-up. I drop in more greens for it to be more interesting, and then I clean up and slightly dry my brush. With a dampened clean brush, I pick up the excess green and then I pick up the already dry paint of the cherry. This is the same technique that we used in the watermelon painting with a damp paper towel. If you feel like you took up too much paint, you can just add another layer. I did the same with the bottom left side of the cherry and it makes a huge difference. As you can see, it looks more dimensional and shiny and I love this technique because the highlight is so smooth and natural. I finish out the cherry by adding more blue and green to the leaf. Now, the blueberry was complete in one layer but I want to show you guys what you can do to make things more realistic. The simple answer is to layer and not leave white spots like I did. I darken the little petals with a second layer or blue, and then I add a second layer on the berry and cover up the white spots. It's still lighter in those areas, but the contrast is much smaller just like in a normal blueberry, which are not very shiny. I pick up excess paint with a dry brush and lightly cover up the small white area inside the petals. I darken the petals even more for contrast and the blueberry is complete. Notice how realistic it looks compared to the other sweets I painted. This is because the colors blended gradually and there aren't random spots of white inside. Now, let's paint in a raspberry on top of the cream. This is simple to do. It's just a bunch of little circles like we did for the strawberry and the shape of the raspberry is also similar. It's just the curve. Make sure to paint the raspberry as if it's on top of the cream. This means parts of it don't show because the cream is covering them just like the strawberry is inside the white chocolate. I do what I always do with picking up excess paint with a dry brush and adding another color with a darker value in random places. Now, I start painting in the dough of the pastry. This is done with the similar technique as the ice-cream. I start by loosely painting the outline of the shape and then I loosely fill it in, leaving lots of curved horizontal white lines. I add a dark brown and gently help it move around with my brush. Next, I want to define the cream more so add light-blue lines toward the shadows from the crease's whippie. Now, I leave this to dry, back to the strawberry. I make it sleep the same way that I did the cherry leave and I paint them in as if the fan out from the center. Be sure to curve your leaves a little bit and vary the sizes and shapes. This will make them feel more organic and real. Next up, play around with the colors in the leaves and add one more stray leaf to balance the composition. This one is facing sideways so it's thin. Now, back to the raspberry. I lift color from the top of the raspberry and to give it a slight highlight. Be sure your brush is clean and slightly damp to do this properly. Also slightly smooth out the edges in the cream. As you can see, I'm working on more than one illustration at once, and it is framed because you're not just staring at one thing. If you get stuck on something, you can just work on something else until you figure out what to do. Next, we're going to paint easy-macaron. Pick a fine color and start by making two symmetrical shapes; the space between them. The shape which is made up of a long curved line with the straight line. Now, fill the shapes and then be sure to leave a highlight somewhere. You can do them both pieces or just one on the top like I did and a speck on the bottom one. I add in one more similar color and let them blend. Now, I'm going to dry two rows of circular squiggly lines between the two sides. Be sure to leave lots of white specks when doing this. There's no right way of doing this. It's just messy, overlapping, circular lines. Next, I play around with the colors inside the shapes again. I add a similar color, in this case purple since it's right next to magenta on the color wheel, and then I use a lifting technique to lighten some areas by drying my brush in a paper towel. I add in more purple because I like how it interacts and I add one thin and long line in between the two shapes. This is the cream that holds both parts together, and now I can let it dry. While I was busy with painting the macaron, I didn't notice that the dough from that pastry blend into the cream. This is easy enough to fix with just a little bit of water and then lifting it with paper towel. I also decide to adapt with the dough with it because I want a slight texture and I didn't like how dark I made it. Then, oops, I quickly make a mess of things by using a blue that is much too dark to darken the cream, and again, just use the lifting technique with the slightly damp paper towel to erase my mistake. I also use a slightly damp brush to help pick everything up. I make sure to dry it fully before fixing it. Notice that the pure red at the page is now gone, and that was very important here. But I didn't have any white that I could put on top, the painting would be doomed. This is why I like using extra white on top of watercolor. It really keeps things less stressful. Now that it's fully dry, I go on with the purple and paint out the shadows again. I use a slightly damp brush to smooth it out and pick up excess paint and the day is saved. I hope that little mishap took away some of your fear of making mistakes. We all do them from time and time and that's okay. Even in watercolor, there are many ways to fix them. Add a second layer onto the pastry with a different shade of brown. Notice how it's just a bunch of loosely curved lines in random places. These are just supposed to be shaded areas. I look at the macaron, remember how I tried to add highlights by lifting? Well, there was too much water so It didn't work very well because the paint just went back to those places. Now, that it's almost dry, it's a better time to do that. I go on with an almost dry brush and lift at the edges. I decide to add a highlight on the strawberry with a slightly damp brush and also painting a small shadow on the bottom with the color I pick up. I make it softer with a paper towel and then I add a warmer brown to the chocolates to give it more life. Now, it's time to paint our last sweet, a chocolate with filling. I start with a slightly angled, rounded rectangle and paint a circular shape around two of its edges. Then I fill in the outside and drop into warmer Brown. I dry everything with a hairdryer and now we can give it a filling of whatever we want. I just pick colors that I like and leave it to your imagination for flavor it is. You can make it lighter with lifting or you can make the filling with GUI by painting rounded shadows like this. Now that the macaron is dry, I put on finishing strokes by painting darker lines above and below the squiggly lines. Back to our chocolate. I decide I want the filling to be dark so I blend some pinks and blues and purples, and once it is fully dry, I add a bunch of little dots and shapes to make it look like a piece of something. Maybe this is a blueberry chocolate. It's up to you what it is. Whatever colors you use, we'll give it a different flavor or you could even leave the filling white and light blue for vanilla. All our deserts are complete and it's time to add highlights. I use my gel pen to add little dots and lines in each piece. Don't overdo your highlights and keep the place playful. By varying the size and spacing of my dots, I keep them fun and organic. I also use straight lines in some areas where it's relevant. Notice how some of the dots are bigger and some are smaller. This will also make it look better. The results are super adorable and alive, and by doing so many of them in one page, I got a lot more done in a short period of time. This is great to do if you're doing more than one small watercolor illustration. All of the sweets that we made were done with simple lines and shapes and you can do this yourself with any reference photo or a live object just by practicing observation and simplification. In my class, you can draw cute animals, I went over this in detail. It is a skill. The only way to learn it is by doing. Now, let's do a fun and quick challenge that will put the skill to use.
9. One Last Challenge: Now let's do one last and final challenge. Your first task is to find a reference photo of your favorite sweet food. The simpler the photo is, the better. Before we start, observe your object and break it down to simple shapes like so. Now grab your phone or something with a timer and set it to three minutes. You can do two if you're feeling brave or you can do four you if you think three is too little. Start the timer and paint your subject loosely and quickly. You're only doing one layer, so make it count and use bold colors. Doing this forces you to simplify and stay loose and also just forces you to paint. Your illustration will turn out very playful and full of character. The colors will bleed into each other and if you don't like that, you can leave white space between the different colored parts or you could just embrace it like I do. In fact, something I love to do. Once I paint in the cupcake, I use a wet brush to push colors away from the illustration for background, and then I picked up excess colors in the background with a paper towel and I added splatter effect by gently tapping my brush on my finger. This is just something I like to do for backgrounds. When the time is up, let your illustration dry and notice how mine doesn't look very good. It's not supposed to be perfect at this stage. The second part of this technique is to outline your painting. You can take your time and do it perfectly or be loose and quick like I did. It will look awesome either way. You can use watercolor and a small brush or markers or ink like I did, or marker and pen for a thin outline or even just colored pencils. It doesn't matter what media you choose. You can also add highlights if you like. You will be left with a beautifully loose illustration that you did quickly from a simple reference. This is a fun little three-minute challenge that'll help me paint more loose and will increase your observation skills. So I encourage you to do it, and remember, you can do them in your own style. Like for example, the cherry on the left was done very loosely with layered washes and the cherry on the right was outlined in ink afterwards. I like to use both of these styles and the point is that you can add your own touch to all of these illustrations and do your own thing. So I encourage you to do that, and I want to see what you create. So be sure to upload all the sweeties that you make to the project gallery. So that's it for this class. I really hope you enjoyed it and you feel more confident in your watercolors skills. If you have any questions, just leave them in the community section below, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Stay sweet my friends, and I'll see you in the next class.
Yasmina Creates, Artist & Creativity Cheerleader
