Easy Galaxy Forest (Long) - Watercolour Step by Step

1. About the Class: Hello, my name's Emily Curtis. I'm a full-time artist based in the UK and especially in acrylic and watercolor painting. Today, I'm going to show you how to paint this beautiful watercolor galaxy using the wet on wet technique. 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. First, I'll take you through all the art supplies we'll be using in this class and any replacements you can use. Then we'll make a color chart of all the colors we'll be using in this class and how to mix them. In the main section of this class, I'll guide you step-by-step to painting this beautiful purple galaxy sky and how to add stars and painting the trees. For your class project, or you have to do is follow along with my instructions and make your own painting. Let's begin. 2. Art Supplies: Before we start the class, we're going to go over all the art supplies we'll be using and any replacements you can use. First up is watercolors. These are the water colors I'm using. You don't have to have the exact same set as I do. Just use whatever you've got. And to go with those, we'll be using watercolor paper. I'm using 300 GSM paper, which 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 like to use scotch tape. Then we'll want to use a water bowl and tissue to wash and dry your brushes. We'll be using two brushes in this class. One is a big square brush and this is about an inch wide. This brush is not essential as we'll just be using it to wet the paper. So just use with the biggest brush you have. The other is a small pointed brush in size 5. We'll also be using white acrylic paint to paint in the stars. I'm using Liquitex, heavy body acrylic paint, but you can use whatever white acrylic paint you have. It doesn't actually have to be a critic paint you could use Gu, ash or tube watercolors. I don't think watercolors from the pan would be opaque enough to paint the stars in, but you could always give it a go. And that's all the art supplies we'll be using in this class. 3. Colour Chart: Before we start the class, we're going to go over all the colors we'll be using and how to mix them. You don't have to have exactly the same colors as I do. Just use whatever you've got. Or if you want to challenge yourself, you could use completely different colors. All the instructions in the class will still apply. I'm going to start with the colors in the sky. The lightest color we'll be using for our galaxy is permanent rose, which is a nice bright pink color. The next color I'm using is a pinky purple mixed from permanent rose and ultra marine blue. This is our mid-tone color. That's going to help us transition from the lightest color to the darkest color in our gradient. The final color is a deep purple mixed from permanent rose and ultramarine blue. I'm still keeping this as a pinky purple, but this time mixing it darker and more intense. Next we're going to mix the color, will be painting the trees with, I'm going to be painting the trees in our silhouettes. So for this, I'll be mixing up a black out of ultramarine blue and burnt umber. You can use the premixed black in the pan if you wish to. Entirely personal preference, ultramarine blue and burnt umber make black because they are complimentary colors. So you can also mix your own black out of any two complimentary colors that you have. Complimentary colors are two colors that sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. And here we have our finished color chart. I recommend keeping this Coase to you during the class so that you can refer back to it as we paint. 4. Painting the Sky 1: Now we're ready to get started on our class project. We're going to start by painting the galaxy in the sky. We'll be using the wet on wet technique to paint the galaxy. So we're beginning by covering the paper in clean water using a big square brush. Make sure not to leave any gaps here. Or the wet-on-wet technique won't work. The wet-on-wet technique basically just means to apply wet paint onto wet paper so that the paint will bleed outwards as we paint onto the paper. You want to make sure your paper is completely soaked before you start painting. If you have very thick paper, you're probably going to need to use more than one layer of water to do this. Then leave your painting for about 10 seconds to allow the water to sink into the paper before we start painting. Now I'm switching over to my pointed brush in size five to paint the galaxy. We're going to start painting with our lightest color, which is permanent rose. I'm starting by painting this from the top right corner of the paper, going diagonally downwards to the bottom left corner. And then I'm going to paint pink all along the bottom of my paper. Don't worry about making the colors super vibrant for now. This first layer is just to map out where each of the colors are going to go. We can build up the vibrancy over the next few layers. Generally speaking, when using watercolors, we paint from light to dark. This is because you can layer a darker color over a lighter color with watercolors, but you can't put a lighter color over a darker color. Next, I'm mixing up my medium purple. And I'm basically painting this in the gaps left between the pink. On the left side. I'm overlapping my purple with my pink slightly so that they will blend together with the wet-on-wet technique. On the right side, I'm painting over the whole of the right side in my mid purple. And I'm leaving a small streak of white down the diagonal center of my galaxy to separate the two sides of the galaxy. You might be wondering why we painted the bottom of the galaxy pink if only to go cover it up in purple immediately after. By starting with pink, it just helps to blend the two sides of the galaxies together. At the bottom of the painting, I'm making sure to take the purple right to the very edges of the paper so that we get a nice base layer of color to build our galaxy on. Now leave your painting to dry before starting on the next layer. Once the painting is fully dry, we are ready to start on the next layer. We're starting the second layer the same way we did the first one by preparing the paper for the wet-on-wet technique, by covering it in clean water with a big square brush. Be quite gentle with your brush when you're rewetting your paper from now on. Because watercolors can start to move around again when they get re-wet, so we don't want to disturb the paint on the paper too much. Leave your paper for about 10 seconds to allow the water to sink in before you start painting. Now we're picking up our size five brush again and going in with our pink. With the pink, we're going to go over all the same areas we painted in pink in the first two layer. You want to try and work quite quickly with the wet-on-wet technique. Because if the paper dries too much as you're painting, the wet-on-wet technique won't work. If you find that the paper is too dry when you're using the wet-on-wet technique, you can either add some more water with a clean brush or if you don't want to disturb the paint that's already on there, let the layer fully dry and then add clean water over the top as a new layer and just continue your blending over into the next layer. Next we're going to mix up our mid purple and paint over all of the same areas as we did in the last two layer. We're overlapping with the pink slightly so that the two colors blend together with the wet-on-wet technique. Finally, we're mixing up our deep purple. I'm painting this on the outer part of the galaxy, starting at the edge of the paper and painting in just a little bit to help blend it with the mid purple. We want to keep this deep purple concentrated to the top left and bottom right of the painting. So that there is a gradient of darkest out the outside all the way to the lightest parts at the center of the galaxy. You'll notice on the right side of the galaxy, I don't bring the purple as close to the center as I did on the left. This is because I want the center of the galaxy to be lighter than the rest of it. And to have a bit of contrast between the left and right sides of the galaxy. Once you're happy with the second layer, leave your painting to dry before starting on the next lesson. This isn't the end of painting the sky, but I've split up the sky into several separate lessons so that it's easier to watch. If you don't always have a lot of painting time, you can let your painting dry at the end of any of the lessons and come back and finish it later. Don't worry, it won't affect the results are to all. Now leave your painting to dry before starting on the next layer. 5. Painting the Sky 2: In this lesson, we're continuing to paint the sky. Make sure your painting is fully dry before starting on this lesson or else everything will mix together and to become muddy. We're starting the next layer by preparing our paper for the wet-on-wet technique, by covering it in clean water with a big square brush. As always, leave your painting for about 10 seconds before adding your first color to allow the water to sink in before we start painting. The first color with going in with is our pink. And you want to mix this up as rich as possible and to then paint it down the left side of our central line, just over the same areas we painted in pink last time. Track the pink out a little towards the edge of the paper so that we have a little extra pink to blend our middle purple into. This will help us to create a nice smooth gradient. Next to a going in with our middle purple. And we're starting at the edge of the paper and blending this inwards towards the pink, overlap the purple and the pink slightly so that the wet-on-wet technique can blend them together seamlessly. Then we're going in with our deep purple and painting this starting at the very edge of the paper on the left side. And we're going to blend it in towards the center. You can see how this is creating a lovely gradient from dark purple on the outer edge and then gradually lightening towards the bright pink at the center of the galaxy. I'm just adding a little bit of extra pink at the end, kid, to help blend all the colors together. On the right side of the painting, I'm taking my pink again and first just painting that all over the right side of the painting. But leaving a gap where our lightest pink at the center is. I'm using my paints slightly less saturated on the right side of the painting. So that there's going to be some contrast between the left side and the right side of the painting. Next, I'm taking my deep purple and I'm painting that just at the very edge of the right side of the painting and blending it in towards the pink. Unfortunately, because there is so much water on this painting, the lights in the room or reflecting off the surface, which is making it difficult to see the bottom of the painting. I do apologize for this. So what I've done is taken recordings of the painting when it's about halfway dry so that you can see the color placement here without the reflections getting in the way. Once you've finished this layer, leave your painting to dry before starting on the next lesson. 6. Painting the Sky 3: Once your painting is dry, we're ready to start painting the next layer of the sky. Yes. Yes, we are still painting the sky. Don't worry. I'll let you know when we start something different. We're starting this layer the same way as all the others by covering the paper with clean water using a big square brush. Leave your paper for about 10 seconds to allow the water to sink into the paper. Then we're going in with our first color, which is our pink. Try to mix this as rich as possible. Because now it's the time when we're trying to build our painting up to be as vibrant as we can make it. We're starting with the left-hand side, painting, our pink down the left side of the center of the painting in the same places as we have done in the previous layers. As our middle purple is more of a transition shade in between the pink and the deep purple. I'm not going to be using it this time. The previous layers have already put down a base of middle purple, which will make sure that the gradient between our lightest and darkest colors remains very smooth. This time, I want to focus on getting in as much contrast as possible. So I'm going to be focusing on my lightest and darkest colors. Next, I'm going in with my deep purple. And then painting this starting at the top left corner of the painting and blending it inwards towards my pink at the center. Now for the right-hand side of the painting, I'm starting with my pink, again, slightly less saturated done before to keep the contrast between the left and right sides of the painting. Then I'm painting the pink down the edge of the painting and blending it with clean water towards the lightest part at the center of my galaxy. I'm using clean water to blend my pink at the center so that it becomes less saturated the closer it is towards the center of my galaxy. Then I'm going in with my deep purple again and painting it just at the very edge and corner of the painting and blending it in towards the pink. You might notice that some of the water has collected at the top and left side of my painting. To prevent the painting from drawing on ii7. I've cleaned off my brush and I'm just dragging the excess water back towards the center of my painting. Once you've finished with this layer, leave your painting to dry before starting on the next lesson. 7. Painting the Sky 4: Now we're ready to start on the final layer of painting the sky. Start this layer by covering your paper in clean water with a big square brush. Once again, be very gentle with your brush as you do this, because we don't want to disturb the paint layers underneath too much. Leave your painting for 10 seconds to allow the water to sink into the paper before we start painting. And then we're going in with our Permanent Rose and painting over all the same sections on the left side of the painting in pink as we have in the previous layers. Next we're going in with our middle purple and painting that just next to the pink so that they blend together with a smooth gradient with the wet-on-wet technique. And finally, we're mixing up our deep purple. And I'm putting that on the top left of the painting at the very edges and then blending it in towards the center of my galaxy. I'm only painting on the left side of my galaxy, on the last layer, because I want the left side of my painting to be slightly darker and brighter than the right side. So I'm creating some contrast by adding an extra layer to the left than on the right. But if you would like to do any final touch ups to the right side of your galaxy, then now is the time to do it while the paper is still wet. Once you're happy with the way your galaxy looks, leave it to dry before starting on the next lesson. 8. Adding the Stars: Now we're ready to add the stars to our painting. I'm using Liquitex, heavy body acrylic paint for painting the stars, but you can just use any white paint you have. It doesn't actually have to be a critic paint. You could also use goulash or tube watercolors, or even something like a white pen. I don't think using white watercolor paint from the pan would work because I'm not sure you can mix it up opaque enough to get the stars to stand out against the sky. But you could always give it a try. We usually put the stars in last. But this time, because we're having a tree line that goes in front of the sky. We want the stars to be behind the trees. So we're going to paint the styles on first and then paint the trees on after. Make sure you use clean water for this so that your water doesn't tend to the white paint. We want our stars to look as bright as possible. Mix your paint with enough water so that while it's still opaque, It's also easy to flick with your brush. There are two methods you can use to paint stars. One is to load up your brush with paint and then flick the bristles of the brush with your finger. This will make small styles. The other method is to saturate your brush with paint and then tap the stem of your brush against your finger to flick the paint off the brush. This will create larger stars. I recommend using a mixture of the two methods so that you get some contrast and depth in the stars in our galaxy. While neither of these methods give a lot of control over where the stars go, we still want to try and concentrate the stars to the top half of the galaxy. Because that's the bit we're going to see the most wants the trees have been painted in. Next, we're going to go over any stars that we want to brighten up a bit by taking some paint on the very tip of our brush and just lightly dabbing over the top of the star to give it some extra shine. I decided to add a few more stars right at the very end to fill in the sky a little bit more. Once you're happy with the way you'll stars look, leave your painting to dry before starting on the next lesson. 9. Painting the Trees: Now we're ready to paint in our trees. Make sure that the painting is fully dry. Before adding the trees arrest the stars might smudge into the trees. I'm starting by mixing up a black out of ultramarine blue and burnt umber. This works because ultramarine blue and burnt umber are complimentary colors and complementary colors make black when they are mixed together. Mixing your own black is not an essential if you don't want to do it. All, you're just very new to watercolors. Then feel free to just use the black that comes in the PAM. It's all about personal preference. For me. I prefer to mix my own blacks because I feel it harmonizes better with the painting. But other people prefer to use a premixed black because they are often darker and more opaque. I'm using a black from ultramarine blue because I've used ultramarine blue to mix my purples. So I know that this black will harmonize well with the rest of the painting, but you can mix a black using any two complimentary colors that you want for anyone who doesn't know. Complimentary colors are two colors that sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. Now that I have my black, I'm going to start painting in the trees. When painting trees, we want to start with a central line for the trunk of the tree. Then we want to build the branches of the trees outwards from the central line using free side-to-side motions with the very tip of your brush. Try to keep a very relaxed hold on your brush in your hand when you do this. As the trees are just silhouettes, we don't need to focus on being super detailed. It is to really just paint the impression of the top of a tree line, which is why we're going to be using squiggly lines in a side-to-side motion to painting the branches and leaves of the trees. These trees are based around the same type of tree that would make a Christmas tree. So the very tight at the top of the tree and the branches get wider as we go down the tree so that it creates a triangular shape overall. Sort of makes me realize I should have done this class in December. Well, never mind. Then repeat this method for every tree. To get a bit of depth into the painting, I'd recommend painting the trees at slightly different heights so that there's some variety. When painting the trees, you want to think about what's going to best show off your sky, because that's the central piece here. We've just put a lot of work into painting the sky. So we don't want to suddenly cover it up with all the trees. You can do whatever tree formation you want. But for my sky, I'm going to have it so that the trees at the center of the painting are quite short. And the trees will get told around the edges of the painting. This will create a sort of v-shape with the tops of the trees that will guide your eyes towards the center of the painting and frame the galaxy very well. I recommend making sure you leave gaps between the branches of your trees, which will make them feel more natural and prevent them from turning into triangular blobs. Okay. Excellent. Okay. Okay. It's interesting, right? I think you can see now why I wanted to paint the stars in first with the stars behind the trees. It means that we can see some stars in between the gaps of the branches, which gives the illusion of depth. Once you're happy with the way your trees look, leave your painting to dry before peeling off the tape. 10. Class Project: Here is the finished piece, up-close feel class project. Try creating your own watercolor galaxy by following along with my instructions. Don't forget to post your results down below as I'd love to see them and do leave a review as it helps me out a lot. And if there's anything you want me to do a class on, let me know. You can find more of my work on Instagram and Tiktok at art of MED Curtis and on my website, WW dot Emily hyphen curtis.com. I hope you enjoyed this class and I'll see you in the next one.