Transcripts
1. About the Class: Hello, my name's Emily Curtis. I'm full-time artist
based in the UK, and I specialize in acrylic
and watercolor painting. Today, I'm going to show you how to paint this
beautiful shoreline. This is the long version
of the class where everything is done in
depth and in real time. If you'd like to
watch the shorter, more sped-up version, then click the link down below
in the description. We'll start the
class by going over all the art supplies we'll be using and any
replacements you can use. Then we'll make a
color chart for all the colors we'll
be using in the class. I'll show you how to
draw the shape of the shoreline and how
to use masking fluid. In the main body of the class, I'll guide you
step-by-step to painting, this beautiful
shoreline painting. You don't need any
prior knowledge of watercolors for this class. As I'm going to walk you through all the techniques step-by-step. Let's begin.
2. Art Supplies: Before we start the class, we're going to go over
all the supplies we'll be using and any
replacements you can use. First up, we have watercolors. You don't have to have the
exact same set as I do. Just use whatever you've got to go with these. We'll be using watercolor paper. I'm using 300 GSM paper, and it can be bought
in parts like this. You'll want to
take that paper to the table to stop it from
bending when it gets wet. I recommend using scotch tape. We'll be using masking
fluid in this class. And to go with that,
you'll want to mix up a small part of soapy water
to wash your brushes in. We'll be using a pencil and rubber to draw out the
shapes in our painting. Then we have a water bowl and tissue to wash and
dry our brushes. We'll be using three
brushes in this class. The first is a
large square brush, and this one is
optional because we're only using it to put a wash of water over our paper to prepare it for
the wet on wet technique. Then we have a
smaller square brush, and this is about
a centimeter wide. And finally, we have a small
pointed brush in size five.
3. Colour Chart: Now we're going to go
over all the colors we'll be using and
how to mix them. We're going to start with
the colors in the sea. First up, we'll be using
a light turquoise on the C. And this is mixed using
Winsor blue and lemon yellow. I just want to note that all of these colors in the
class are replaceable. If you don't have the
exact same paints as I do, then just use the
closest you've got to add the shadows into the sea will be mixing up a
darker turquoise. And this is using Winsor blue, but more concentrated this time so that the color
comes out darker. And then a little
bit of lemon yellow. We'll also be putting a few of our sand colors into the sea
to harmonize the painting. The first one is a dark reddish brown mixed using yellow ocher, burnt umber, and a little
bit of permanent rose. And the second color is just some watered-down
yellow ocher. Now for the colors we'll
be using in the sand, these are actually the same as the sandy colors we
used in the sea. First up, we have a repeat
of the dark reddish brown mixed using yellow ocher, burnt umber, and a little
bit of permanent rose. And our second color is a slightly watered-down
yellow ocher for a nice bright
golden sand color. And this is what the color chart looks like when it's dry. I recommend making your own
color chart and keeping it with you during
the class so that you have something
to refer back to.
4. Drawing the Shape: We're going to start by drawing the shape
of the shoreline. First, I'm going to mark out the start point of my shoreline. And this is where the sea
washes up onto the sand. As you can see, I'm just drawing a small dot at the bottom
left of my painting. To mark this out. I'm going to draw
a diagonal line, which will just show the general direction that my shoreline is going to follow. And I'm turning my pencil
sideways onto the paper to figure out exactly where
I want this line to go. Consider here how much of
the painting you want to be sand and how much you
want to be. The sea. Above the diagonal line will
be the C in this painting, and below it will be the sand. So you can use this as your guide to decide where
you want the sand and the sea to meet and which aspects of the painting
you want to dominate. As I'm focusing on the see more than the
sand in this painting. I want the C to
dominate the painting. So I'm going to make just over half of the
paper to be the sea. Then I'm going to draw a straight diagonal line
right across my paper, following the same direction I just showed with my pencil. Make sure you draw
this in lightly with your pencil because we're
going to erase this line. Once we've finished
drawing the shoreline, we're going to use
this line to guide the general direction we
want the shoreline to go in. But also just how high we want the waves to be
washing up onto the sand. Often when drawing things
like waves in water, because the subject matter
flows in such gentle shapes, we can get caught up
in those details and then forget the overall
shape of the shoreline. So it's helpful to have a guide to keep us
on the right track. Now, I'm going to go in
and draw my shoreline following the diagonal
guideline we've just put down. I'm doing this by drawing
a wavy line that follows a kind of up and down U-shape
right across the paper. You don't have to worry too much about the exact drawing
of your shoreline here because there is no incorrect way to draw
waves coming onto the beach. Keep your markings
very relaxed and draw a wavy line
following our guideline. And you'll do just fine. Again, make sure that you're keeping your markings
very light here because we don't want
them to show through at the end once we finished
the watercolor painting. Once we've marked
out our shoreline, then we're going to erase
any leftover markings of our guideline underneath so that we're left with
just the shoreline. What next? I'm drawing another wavy
line behind my shoreline. We're keeping this one
very free and very light. This is to mark out how far back the sea foam
is going to go. You want this line of
the sea foam to mirror the general ups and downs
shapes of your shoreline, which will help to enhance
the shape of the shoreline. Don't worry about making this line too
precise because it's just a guideline for
us to know roughly where we want the limit
of the sea foam to go. In some areas, I'm
going to draw a line connecting the shoreline
back into the sea foam. This is to mark out where the sea foam is going to
be more densely compacted. As you can see here. What I'm actually doing
with these lines is just exaggerating that U-shape of the shoreline that I was
talking about before. Don't worry if you don't
understand this at the moment, it will become clear once we start putting the
masking fluid down. And I'm finishing off by just tidying up some sections
of my shoreline. Once you're happy with the
shape of your shoreline, move on to the next lesson.
5. Masking Fluid: Now we're ready to
apply the masking fluid to mark out the sea foam. I haven't taped my
paper to the table yet, just in case I want to move
my paper around to make it easier to paint certain
sections of the masking fluid. You want to mix yourself
up a little pot of soapy water to clean
the brush you're using to apply the
masking fluid. Soap helps to remove
masking fluid from the bristles of the brush and to stop them from
sticking together. And then I've got my little
pot of masking fluid, which I'll be keeping
off to the side out of view to make it easier for
myself to work on the paper. Just to make sure
that you regularly dip your brush back
into the masking fluid to keep your brush saturated so that you have enough
masking fluid to work with. I'm starting by painting
the masking fluid along the very edge of the shoreline to mark out the shape
of the shoreline. Just follow the shape
of the pencil markings we put down in the
last lesson for this. You'll notice I'm
moving my brush in little wiggly shapes as I'm
painting the masking fluid. This is to mimic
the shapes we see the sea foam take in real life. And to avoid having a harsh line around the
edge of the shore line, I recommend looking
up pictures of shorelines during this
part of the painting so that you get some idea in your head of the
types of movement and shapes that we see sea
foam form along the shoreline. You don't need to be exact
when painting in the sea foam. This is just to get
the feel of it in your mind and understand that
we want to use very free, loose movements
with the brush to capture that sense of
movement in the sea. Masking fluid works a little
bit like a wax resist in the water and the
paint won't settle on the areas that have
masking fluid on them. Those areas will
remain white once we peel the masking fluid
off the paper at the end. This is what makes
masking fluids so good for painting sea foam. It allows us to be quite
detailed with the formation of the sea foam and still paint
the picture very easily. At the end we'll have nice crisp white sea
foam on the waves, just like we see at the beach. Once we've painted the
edge of the shore line, we're going to expand backwards. I'm painting the rest
of the sea foam. You want to keep using the same free wiggly movements
with your brush to do this so that we capture the loose random formations that sea foam breaks off into, further back into the waves. Earlier, we were talking about U-shapes regarding the
waves on the shoreline. Here. If you imagine
that each U-shaped that we see along the
shoreline is a different wave. Then the lines where each
U-shape meets each other is where each wave connects
into the wave next to it. The C and C foam is a
lot like a bubble bath. In that if you leave a
bubble bath very calm, all the bubbles will pop and
dissolve into the water. But if you stick your hand in
and switch the water about, then the disturbance will
cause more bubbles to be created because
the water froth SAP. And this is essentially how
the firm is formed as well. Let's hope there aren't
any marine biologists watching to correct me on that. There is more disturbance
in the water where the edges of the waves
connect into each other. Because water coming from slightly different
directions is colliding together and that churns up
the water in those areas, which then in turn creates
more sea foam in those areas. Whereas in the center
of our U-shape, the water is a lot calmer because this is the
center of the wave, which means that the water is coming from the same direction. And because there is less
disturbance in these areas, less sea foam gets formed. So overall, the
sea foam should be denser around the
edges of our U-shape, where the waves meet
each other and more sparse in the center of the U-shape where
the water is karma. Varying the density of the sea foam in
different areas will help to give life to the painting and prevent
it from looking flat. This is where our second
pencil line comes into play. We're going to use this line as an outer limit to how far
back the sea firm can go. You don't have to paint
the sea foam all the way up to this line
in every section. If you don't want to. This is just supposed to be the absolute limit so that
we don't end up with a C entirely covered in sea foam to the point where we can't see any of the colors of the water, which believe me,
can easily happen if you get carried away
with the masking fluid. Make sure you're just
trying to capture a general sense of sea foam when we're painting
in the masking fluid. There's no need to
attempt to paint exact shapes that you
might see in pictures. The more relaxed you
are with your painting, the more you'll capture a
sense of movement in the sea. Now we've painted in the
main body of the sea foam. We're going to go
right at the back of the sea foam and painting just a few loose squiggly lines to show the way the C phone
breaks up at the very back of the wave and start separating
off into smaller sections. This helps to blend the waves
into the rest of the sea. You want to keep these
smaller sections of sea foam detached from the
main body of the rest of it. But still generally around the outer limit
line we drew in for the sea foam to make
sure that it isn't going too far back into
the rest of the sea. Once you're happy
with your sea foam, leave the masking fluid to dry completely before starting
on the next lesson.
6. Painting the Sea 1: Once the masking fluid
is completely dry, we're ready to start
painting the sea. Do make sure that
the masking fluid is absolutely dry
before you do this. Because otherwise
it won't do its job and resist the paint
whereabout to put down. I've also taped my paper
down to the table in-between these clips to make sure that
it doesn't warp and bend. Once it gets wet. We're going to be
using the wet on wet technique to
paint to the sea. So we're starting
off by covering the paper complete
today with clean water. I'm using a big square
brush to do this. The wet-on-wet
technique basically means to apply wet
paint onto wet paper. Which is why we're
dampening our paper to give us that wet
base to work on. This means that as we paint, the colors will diffuse
out onto the paper and merged together and give
us a soft flowing look, just like we see with
the water on the C. Makes sure that you
cover the paper as evenly as possible
with water and don't leave any gaps so that the
paint will go on smoothly. If you're using a larger
piece of paper than I am, then you could just only cover the sea with water instead. Leave your paper for about
ten seconds before you apply the paint to allow the water a chance to
sink into the paper. While we're doing this, we
can mix up our first color. I'm switching to using my pointed brush in
size five to do this. First up, we're
going to be mixing a light turquoise color out of Windsor blue
and lemon yellow. And we want to put a wash of
this color all over our C, just leaving a gap along the shoreline where the
sea foam is for now. What? In this gap, we're
then going to mix up a reddish brown color and paint that just in front of
where the blue stops. Don't worry about trying to blend everything
together perfectly. In this painting, we're going to be placing colors next to each other and then allowing the
wet-on-wet technique to do its work and blend
everything together for us. Following up by taking a
bit of yellow ocher and putting this right
along the front of my C along the shoreline. But I thought the sea was blue. I hear you say we're putting in a few sandy colors along
the front of the sea. Because as the water
washes up onto the beach, it becomes more
transparent and we can see the colors of the sand
underneath through the water. This will help to merge
the C and the sand into a cohesive and balanced
painting at the end. Instead of just having a very harsh blue sea
and yellow sand Split. Next, we're going to mix
up a darker version of our first turquoise color to
add in some deeper tones and shadows were painting this
color mainly at the back of the sea and blending what's left on the brush down
towards the front. The further back
we are in the sea, the darker it's going to be
because that's further away from the shore and so the
water is deeper there. As a general rule, we're going to be putting
most of our darker colors on that top left corner
where the C is deepest, the lightest colors will
go down by the shoreline. Now leave the painting to dry before starting on
the next layer. We're starting the
next layer the same way we did
with the first one. By covering the paper with clean water using a
big square brush. Be very gentle with this
because watercolors can reactivate when they get wet and start to move
around to the paper. Once again, leave
your painting for about ten seconds to
give the water a chance. Thinking before
painting in the colors. I'm going back to
my pointed brush in size five to
paint in the colors. We're going to
start this layer by mixing up our light, turquoise. And this time we're
painting it by starting at the top
left-hand corner and dragging it in long diagonal brush strokes
down towards the shoreline. This is going to help
capture the sense of waves moving towards the beach and
washing up onto the shore. I'm also leaving
some gaps between my brush strokes to get
in some natural contrast. The C is constantly moving, so we get lots of
shifting areas of light and shadow where the
dips and peaks of the waves are being
very free with our brushstrokes
is going to help capture that sense of movement. Next, we're going to take our darker turquoise and
just do the same thing. Starting at the top
left hand corner. And painting in
long diagonal brush strokes down towards
the shoreline. On the right-hand side,
you can see this, I'm adding in a few horizontal
brushstrokes as well. This is to suggest
to the shape of the waves behind
our main shoreline. Then I'm going back in with the light turquoise
briefly and just filling in that right side of the Sea to help build up
the richness in color. Next, we're going back in with our reddish brown
and yellow ocher and putting these two colors along the front of our
shoreline to show where the colors of the sand below
the water shows through. Now, leave the painting to dry before starting on
the next layer.
7. Painting the Sea 2: Make sure your painting is fully dry before starting
on this layer. Or else all the
layers will smudge together and we'll end
up with a muddy mess. We're starting this
layer the same way we did with
all the others by covering our paper with clean water using a
big square brush. You've probably
noticed by now that watercolors dry a lot lighter than when they
were first applied. This is why we're
working in layers, allowing each layer to
dry in-between lets us see how rich the colors actually are once they've dried. And it allows us to build up
the colors gradually over several layers that our end
result is nice and vibrant. We're starting this layer by mixing up our light turquoise. And I'm just putting a
wash of this all over the sea to help build up
some lovely rich colors. We're going to mix up
a darker turquoise and use that to put in some shadows
and depth into the sea. We're starting by painting this color on the top
left of the painting, where the water is
deeper and then dragging it in long streaks
towards the shoreline. I'm then using lots of sweeping, swelling brushstrokes with this dark turquoise
tracing around the shape of the sea foam to enhance the sense of
movement in the sea. Keep your brushstrokes very
free while doing this, because it will help to
capture that sense of constant shifting and changing
of movement in the sea. Next, we're going
to take some of our reddish brown and paint
this along the front of our shoreline to show
where the colors of the sand are coming through where the shore is more shallow. I'm using this color
very likely this time. I don't want it to be too
strong because we just want to capture the suggestion
of sand showing through. Then leave your painting to dry. Before we start on
the final layer. We are starting the
last layer of the sea, the same way we did with
all the others by covering our paper with clean water
using a big square brush. Leave your paper for about
ten seconds to allow the water to sink into the paper before
adding the colors. We're starting this
layer by mixing up our light turquoise
and just putting this in any areas where
you want to build up the richness in color
just a little bit more. Then we're going to go in
with our dark turquoise. And we're going to put this
mainly on the top left of the painting to show
where the water is deepest and
therefore darkest. And then we're using some longer brushstrokes to
drag that color down towards the shoreline to help
merge the colors into the rest of the sea using
the wet-on-wet technique. Once you're happy with your C, leave the painting to dry before starting on the next lesson.
8. Painting the Sand: Now that we've finished the sea, we're ready to
paint in the sand. We're going to start by putting a wash of rich
golden brown color all over the bottom right of the painting as a base
color for the sand. I'm using a small square
brush to do this. And then we're going
to leave that to dry. Once the base layer is dry, we're going to mix up a
rich reddish-brown color. And then once again, we're going to paint
that as a wash all over our sand to build up the
richness and depth of color. It might seem a bit
counterproductive to put one color immediately
over another. But this is actually
quite common in painting, especially when you
want to build up more complex areas of color. In paintings. Sometimes it's
impossible to mix up the color you want just
straight out of the palette. And we can get around
these limitations by layering two or more colors
directly over each other. And this allows the tones
of each layer to shine through and give us a much richer and more
vibrant painting. Next, we're going to mix up some more dark reddish brown and paint this along the front of our shoreline where the
waves meet the sand. This is where we're going to start putting in some shadows. You'll notice when I do this, That's why I'm painting using short diagonal
lines with my brush from the shoreline and dragging the paint brush
back into the sand. This is because on
the beach the waves wash up onto the sand
and then they drag backwards out into the sea for the next wave to then
wash up onto the sand. This creates a sort of line
defect on the sand where we can see the sand and water being dragged back into the sea. So we can mimic this appearance by using these short lines, brushstrokes with our
square brush to show the water and the sand being
dragged down the beach. It's very easy to accidentally spill some paint
onto your waves. If that happens, just take a tissue and dab the
paint off the paper. Then we're going to
leave our painting to dry before starting
on the next layer. In the next two layer, we're getting a bit more
refined with our brushstrokes. I'm switching over
to my pointed brush. In size five. We're starting by going in
with our dark reddish brown. And without pointed brush, we're going to line the
edge of our shoreline with some shadow where the waves are washing up
against the beach. We're going to soften
this line by taking some clean water on our
small brush and just painting over the
outside edge of that line so that it blends softly into the
rest of the sand. The other thing we
see on the beach is we get these
horizontal lines across the sand parallel
to the shoreline where the waves have washed
up against the sand. You can usually see these
lines going up and down along the beach to show
how high the tide is. We're going to put in
some of these lines by taking that same
dark reddish brown. And we're going to paint
in some lines parallel to the shoreline using
our pointed brush. We're then going to soften these lines the
same way as before by going over them using clean
water on a square brush. Notice that I'm making
these lines wavy to mimic the wavy lines that
we see on our shoreline. Because these lines
have been created by previous waves washing
up against the sand. Then we want to leave
the painting to dry before starting
on the next layer. Next we're going to put in the speckled appearance
that we often see on sand on the beach. First, we're going to cover
the sea using a tissue so that we don't
accidentally dark blobs of paint all over the sea. Then we're going to
dot our reddish brown over the sand by loading
our pointed brush up with paint and tapping
the stem of the brush against your finger to flick
the paint against the paper. This is going to
represent the pebbles and shells that get mixed in
with the sand on the beach. Then we're going to take some yellow ocher and flick that against
the sand as well. You can't see this
very well on camera. But in real life, this helps to get in
a bit of contrast and also put in some of that
grainy texture into the sand. Remember when you're doing this, that sand isn't perfectly smooth and it's
made up of lots of crushed up rocks and shells that have been ground
down over the years. So we want to replicate that slightly uneven
appearance and texture in this part
of the painting. Once you're finished, you can remove the tissue from the sea, then leave the painting to dry before starting on
the next layer. Make sure your painting is fully dry before starting
on this layer. Or else the payment
will smudge as we work and we don't want that
to happen just at the end. We're starting this
layer by putting some more shadow down by the shoreline with that
dark reddish brown. I'm using my pointed
brush for this. Once again, we're going to soften the edge of this line by going over it with clean water
on our small square brush. Next, we're going to enhance the appearance of waves dragging the sand down the beach that
I was talking about before, by painting some short
thin lines in with our appointed brush along the
left side of our shoreline. I'm going to allow
these brushstrokes to sit on the paper for a moment before softening
them into the sand using clean water
on my square brush. And I'm just going to leave that to dry before continuing. Once that's dry, I can add some more shadow onto the shoreline with my
dark reddish brown. I'm doing this the
same as before by painting along the edge of my shoreline with
the pointed brush. And then softening this
dine out into the sand by going over it with clean
water on my square brush. Once you're happy with
the way your sand looks, leave your painting
to dry before starting on the next lesson.
9. Class Project: Now that we've finished the
painting and it's fully dry, we are ready to peel off the
tape and the masking fluid. As I put the tape on
after the masking fluid, I'm going to peel the
tape off first because some of the masking fluid
might be stuck underneath. Do leave a review, by the way, if you enjoyed this class and do post your
work down below, because I'd love to see it and it helps others find the class. If you'd like to see
more of my work, you can find me on Instagram
and TikTok at Art of Emily Curtis and on my website, www dot Emily hyphen curtis.com. All of which I will link down
below in the description. Now that we've removed the tape, we're ready to remove
the masking fluid. By gently rubbing your finger
over the masking fluid, it will start to
pick up and just peel off the paper very easily. Or you can do what I'm doing, which is taking an
actual rubber or eraser, rubbing that gently
over the top of the masking fluid to
peel it off the paper. As you can see,
we're now left with bright white highlights
for our sea foam. I hope you enjoyed this class and I'll see you
in the next one.
Emily Curtis, Artist/Painter
