Transcripts
1. About the Class: Hello, my name's Emily Curtis. I'm a 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 lovely sunsets and fairy lights watercolor painting. We're going to start off by going through all the art supplies we'll be using and any replacements you can use. Then we'll paint a color chart with all the colors we'll be using and how to mix them. In the main section of this class, I'll show you step-by-step how to paint this lovely evening sunset. 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. This is the short version of this class. If you'd like to see the painting painted in real-time with more instructions. Then go and see the longer version through the link down below. 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, we have watercolor paints. I'm using these ones. You don't have to have the same watercolors as I do. Just use whatever you've got. We'll also be using watercolor paper for this class. I'm using 300 GSM watercolor paper and it can be bought in pads like this. Then we're going to take that paper to the table to stop it from bending when it gets wet. I recommend using scotch tape. Next we have a water pot and tissues to wash and dry your brushes. We'll be using three brushes in this class. The first is a big square brush and it's about an inch wide. This brush isn't essential. I'm just using this to apply water to the paper to prepare it for the wet-on-wet technique. So you just use the largest brush you have for this. The second is a smallest square brush, and this is about a centimeter wide. And lastly, we have a pointed brush in size three. If you don't have a pointed brush, just use the smallest brush you have to paint in the details. And we're also using acrylic paint at the very end to paint in lights. I'm using heavy body Liquitex, acrylic paint. But you can use whatever paints you have. You just need something that's opaque enough to paint in the lights.
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. First up, we're doing the colors in the sky and we're starting with yellow. I'm using lemon yellow, but you can use whatever yellow you have. You don't have to have the same paints as I do. Just use the closest colors you have. Next, I'm mixing up a peach pink with permanent rose and a bit of lemon yellow. Be careful not to use too much yellow here, or you'll end up mixing an orange instead. Now I'm mixing up a blue for the sky. I'm mixing this super-rich with Prussian blue, Winsor blue, and just a tiny bit of lemon yellow to give it a turquoise tint. Again, be very careful how much yellow you add to these colors. Because we don't want to accidentally make this guy green. Next, we're mixing up the darkest color in the sky. This is a deep blue made up of Prussian blue, Winsor blue, and a little lemon yellow. Make sure you mix this color super opaque. So it's a nice contrast against the first blue. Now we're going to mix up the color will be painting the silhouettes with here we're trying to mix up a dark blue, almost black color. We're going to do this by first mixing up an orange out of permanent rose and lemon yellow. And this is going to be our complimentary color, which will darken our Prussian blue when we mix that in next. Because complimentary colors are on opposite sides of the color wheel, when they mix together, they dark and each other. And as you can see here, once we mix in our Prussian blue with the orange, it's a nice deep dark blue color. Here we have the finished color chart. I recommend mixing your own color chart and keeping it with you during the class so that you have something to refer back to in the rest of the lessons.
4. Painting the Sky: Now we're ready to get started on the class project. And we're going to begin by preparing our paper for the wet on wet technique. We're doing this by soaking our paper with clean water. I'm using a big square brush for this, but you can use the biggest brush you have. Depending on the thickness of your watercolor paper, you may have to use several layers of water to fully soak the paper. Then you want to leave your paper for 10 seconds to allow the water to sink into your paper before applying your paint. While we're waiting for the water to sink into the paper, we can start mixing up our first color. This is a rich deep blue mixed from Prussian blue, Winsor blue, and a little bit of lemon yellow, just to give it that slight turquoise and blue tint. Now I'm picking up my smallest square brush and I'm starting painting the sky. I'm starting at the top of my sky and painting downwards when I apply the blue. This is because the light source, in this case the sun, is at the bottom of the painting where the sun is setting. So we want the bottom of the painting to be lighter than the top of the painting. By starting painting, the blue at the top of the painting and working downwards, the color will naturally become lighter as we work down the paper. I'm keeping the blue to the top two-thirds of the paper for now and leaving space on the bottom third to add the colors of our sunset. The next color I'm going in with is my lemon yellow. And I'm starting by putting this on the bottom third of my painting and blending it upwards into the blue. Next, I'm going in with my pink. And just like with the yellow, we're going to start by painting it mostly on the bottom third of the sky and blending it into the yellow. And then we're putting a few strokes of color further up the paper into the blue to show where the sun is catching the clouds. So we get an even amount of yellow and pink. I've decided that I'm doing yellow on the left-hand side of my sky and pink more on the right-hand side. You'll notice that I'm leaving the wet on wet technique to do the blending here. And I'm using quick sweeping motion side-to-side with my brush to apply the color to the sky. Leave your painting to dry completely before starting on the next layer. Now our painting is dry. We're ready to start on the second layer. Make sure your painting is completely dry before starting on this layer, or else we risk the colors becoming muddy as we paint, we are starting the second layer the same way we did the first one by preparing the paper for the wet-on-wet technique. By applying clean water with a big brush. Leave your paper for about 10 seconds to give the water a chance to sink in before we apply the paint. This time we're starting by painting the lightest colors. So we're starting with our lemon yellow. And I'm going over all the sections that I painted in yellow on the first layer to brighten them up. Then I'm going in with the pink. I'm once again painting that all over the same sections as we did in the first layer. Make sure you're still using soft sweeping motions with your brush as you paint and leave the blending to the wet-on-wet technique. This is going to give a lovely come cloudy evening sky look once it's dry. And finally, I'm mixing up my blue and going over all the same areas as in the first two layer to build up the richness in the color. If there are any sections you'd like to lighten up a little bit or take some paint away from. You can swipe over that section with a clean brush and this will help to lift some of the paint off the paper. And then you can go back in and adjust to that section. Now we finished the second layer. We're going to leave the painting to dry before starting on the third layer. Once again, make sure you leave your painting to dry fully before starting on the third layer, or else the colors will become muddy as we paint. I'm starting the third layer by preparing my paper for the wet-on-wet technique, by applying clean water to the paper using a big brush. Remember to be very gentle with your brush as you're doing this, because applying water over the top of watercolor paints may disturb the paint below. Then leave your paper for about 10 seconds to allow the water to sink in before we start painting. Now we're ready to go in with our first color, which is our yellow, and paint this over the same areas as we have in the last two days. Tried to mix your yellow as bright as possible here as this is our last Nia painting, the sky. So we want it to dry as rich as possible. Next week going in with our pink, I'm just the same as with the yellow. We're going to paint all the same places as we have done in our previous layers. Once again, try to mix this color as rich and as bright as possible so that the painting dries and a really vibrant sunset. And finally we're going in with our blue and painting this all over the very top of the sky and then bringing it down a little bit into the pink and the yellow to help carve out the illusion of clouds with some shadows. You might have noticed that I have one nail missing in the nail varnish idea. Basically the choice was to either fix the nail varnish over cold this lesson. So you should be glad I put you first. As you can see here, mixing up my blue as dark and as rich as possible for the very top of the sky. And then I'm painting it using sweeping brush strokes to look like clouds. Then I'm finishing off by going over the yellow and the pink once again, to get in as much vibrancy as possible. We're going to leave this to dry before adding the final touches onto our sky. Okay, so you know how I said that the last layer was the last layer. I lied. This is the last today. Uh, I, I promised this time. We're starting this layer in the same way as we did all the others by preparing the paper for the wet-on-wet technique. On this layer, we're going to mix up our blue, super dark and rich. And then we're going to use the thin edge of our brush to paint that blue onto the sky in sweeping side-to-side motions to paint the impression of clouds. You want to leave some gaps in-between your brush strokes so that we get some contrast between the lighter and darker blues in the sky. We're keeping this column may lead to the very top of the painting, but bringing it down just a little bit in small sections to blend it into the pink and yellow. I'm finishing off by painting in a little bit more of my pink to make sure it's as vibrant as possible when the painting dries. Once you're happy with the way your sky looks, leave your painting to dry before starting on the next lesson.
5. Painting the Silhouettes: We're going to start off by mixing the color we'll be using for the silhouettes. I'm mixing a super dark blue, almost black color. The reason I'm not using black is because black can look very harsh against the other colors. Whereas dark blue, we'll harmonize with the rest of the painting because we have a lot of blue in the painting. So I'm starting with Prussian blue and then I'm mixing a bit of my pink and yellow into that to darken it slightly. This works because pink and yellow make orange. And orange is opposite to blue on the color wheel, which makes them complimentary colors. And when to complementary colors are mixed together OK. And each other and can even make black. Now we've got our dark blue color. I'm going to take my pointed brush in size three and paint very thin lines for the wire that my fairy lights for light bulbs are hanging from. Try to use the very tip of your paint brush to paint this line and hold your brush so that it's just skimming over the top of the paper. We're going to paint three y's of lights on this painting. This is the top wire. So you want to leave yourself room underneath this one for two of us tried to paint this top wire across where there's quite a bit of blue in your painting so that the light bulbs will stand out against the dark blue. Once we painted those in. This line doesn't need to be perfectly straight because when you're stringing up lights like this, they usually hanging from trees and fences. So the while often dips and rises depending on what it's tied up to. Next, we're going to paint in the second wire. Once again, holding your brush so that it's just skimming over the top of the paper. One tip I have for this is instead of trying to move your brush to paint the line, hold your brush firmly in position in your hand, and then move your hand across the paper, which will slide the tip of your brush over the paper. And it should help you paint a neater line. If you all looking at this and thinking there is no way I'm going to paint those lines either because you're not confident with your fine line work at the moment, or maybe you just don't have a brush that's been enough to do this, then you can always get out a black pen and just draw the y's in with pen. Now we finished the wires, we're going to add in some other silhouettes. I'm going to paint in the tops of a few trees to help set the scene of where this painting actually is. I like to imagine that this is some kind of evening garden party. So I'm painting in trees. But you can paint whatever you like. He really you could put in the tops of some buildings or some lampposts, or a few birds flying around or nothing at all. Just talk the lines of fairy lights. It's entirely up to you. I'm starting by painting a tree on the right side of the painting. And I'm using the very tip of my brush with a light squiggly motions to paint in the impressions of leaves and branches at the top of the tree. The beauty of silhouettes is they don't have to be exact. We're just painting the vague impression of a tree here. Now that's done. We're going to paint in the tops of a few smaller trees and bushes at the very bottom of the painting. Again, using the same light squiggly or dotting motion with the very tip of your paint brush to paint in the impression of leaf shapes. Next, we're going to mark out where the fairy lights will go. There are actually two parts to the fairy lights. Wanda is the light bulb themselves, and the second part is where the light bulb clips onto the wire. Right now we're going to paint the bits where the light's clip onto the wire. This is super easy. We're just going to take our dark blue and paint in little dots evenly spaced across the top of the wire where we want our light bulbs to sit on the wire. And we're going to do this on all three wires. The bits to focus on here is just making sure that the light bulbs are roughly the same distance away from each other. You don't need to be too precise. There's no need to get out a measuring tape or anything. Just try to paint them evenly spaced across the wire. Once you're happy with your painting, leave it to dry before starting on the next lesson.
6. Adding the Lights: Now we're ready to paint in the fairy lights. I'm using Liquitex heavy body acrylic paint in titanium white for this. You don't have to use this exact one. You can use whatever white acrylic paint you have. Or you could even use something like goulash or a white pen. Is it goulash or wash? I've heard it said both ways and I'm so confused. I'm mixing my white, a critic in with a little bit of my lemon yellow to give it a slight yellowish tint. This should give the lights a bit of a yellowish golden glow to them, just like real fairy lights have. You don't have to add any yellow if you don't want to, you can just apply the white paint directly to your painting. And now we're going to paint the fairy lights onto the wire in little white dots using the very tip of the paintbrush. In the last lesson, we painted on the black dots where the light's clip onto the wire and you want to paint on one fairly light underneath each black dot. These don't have to be perfect circles. In fact, they could be more oval shapes because lights are often oval or teardrop shape. Make sure you're dipping your brush back into your paint regularly so that all the fairy lights are nice and opaque. I think you can see now why I wanted one of the y's to be over the blue section of the sky because those fairy lights stand out the most against the dark blue. And they stand out less when the over the yellow. Once you're happy with your painting, leave it to dry before painting off the tape.
7. Class Project: Here is the finished piece, up-close feel class project. Try creating your own watercolor, sunset and fairy lights 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. If there's anything you want me to do a class on, let me know. You can find more of my work on Instagram, on Tiktok, at art of Emily Curtis, and on my website, www dot many curtis dot art. I hope you enjoyed this class and I'll see you in the next one.
Emily Curtis, Artist/Painter
