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 short version
of this class where everything has been sped up
to make it a short tutorial. If you'd like a slower, more in-depth demonstration, 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 will 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. 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. 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. 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. Once we've marked
out our shoreline, then we're going to erase any leftover markings of
our guideline underneath. So we are left with
just the shoreline. 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. Next, I'm drawing another wavy
line behind my shoreline. 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 off 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 CFO
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
to make sure that you regularly dip your brush back into the masking fluid to keep your brush is
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 shoreline. 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. So those areas will
remain white once we peel the masking fluid
off the paper at the end. Once we've painted the
edge of the shore line, we're going to expand backwards. I'm painting the
rest of the CFO. 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. Earlier, we were talking about U-shapes regarding the waves
on the shoreline. Here. If you imagine that
each U-shape 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 frosts up. And this is essentially how
C 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. 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 to fall 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. Sea (Part 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
we're about 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 the seat. So we're starting
off by covering the paper completely
with clean water. I'm using a big square
brush to do this. 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. 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. 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. 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 the paper. 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. 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 that 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. Sea (Part 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. 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
our 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're 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. 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 C 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. 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 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. 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. 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 brush strokes. So 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. 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. 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. Then we're going to take some yellow ocher and flick that against
the sand as well. 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 pavement
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. And 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 by painting some short
thin lines in with our pointed 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. I'm just going to leave that
to dry before continuing. Once that's dry, I can add some more shadow onto the shore line 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
line 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
