Transcripts
1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello, everyone. My name is Will Elliston, and
in this class, I'm going to guide you through a complete painting
exercise that I promise will unlock
your creativity and improve your
watercolor skills. This expressive painting is purposely designed to be
open for interpretation, leaving room for
individual exploration. Painting the sky will give us the opportunity to explore
textures and tones. And painting the field with
the house and the trees gives us the opportunity to explore different levels
of paper whiteness, different consistencies
of pigment, and how they all
affect each other. Each stroke and each wash
will be a step towards unlocking the expressive
possibilities of this captivating medium. I've been a professional
artist for many years, exploring lots of
different subjects, from wild life and portraits to cityscapes and
countryside seames. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor. But when I started, I had no idea where to begin
or how to improve. I didn't know what
supplies I needed, how to create the
effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now I've taken part in many
worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough to win awards from well
respected organizations, such as the International
Watercolor Society, the Masters of
Watercolor Alliance, Windsor and Newton, and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming
for those starting out, which is why my goal is
to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium in
a step by step manner. Today, I'll be guiding you
through a complete painting, demonstrating a variety
of techniques and explaining how I use all
my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have some experience, you'll be able to
follow along at your own pace and improve
your watercolor skills. If this class is too challenging
or too easy for you, I have a variety of classes available at different
skill levels. I like to start off with a free expressive
approach with no fear of making mistakes as we create exciting textures
for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and
make it stand out. I strive to simplify
complex subjects into easier shapes that
encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty of
tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn
mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of
painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with
my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing
and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in the
discussion thread down below. I'll be sure to read and
respond to every think he post. Don't forget to follow
me on Skillshare by clicking the Follow
button at the top. This means you'll be the
first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston
to see my latest works. So let's grab our brushes, embrace the watercolor magic whilst we embark on this
artistic adventure together.
2. Your Project: First of all, thank you so
much for choosing this class. I'm very happy that you're
joining me here today. Watercolor is a medium that
allows us to dance with spontaneity and embrace
the unpredictability of the creative process. We'll use a house on a
field as the subject, but it's merely an excuse, a grounding context
for our exploration. The main focus of this
painting is actually the expressive sky
and textured field. The goal is to embrace
the nature of watercolor, experimenting with
bold combinations, subtle gradients, and
everything in between. In the resource section, I've added a high
resolution image of my finished painting
to help guide you. You're welcome to
follow my painting exactly or experiment with
your own composition. As we're going to be focusing on the painting aspect
of watercolor, I've provided templates
you can use to help transfer or trace the
sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for
learning how to paint. It's important to
have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the
watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction
you take this class, it would be great
to see your results and the paintings you
create through it. I love giving my
students feedback. So please take a photo
afterwards and share it in the student project gallery under the project
and resource tab. I'm always intrigued to
see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear
about your process and what you learned
along the way, or if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend
that you take a look at each other's work in the
student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see
each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your
fellow students. So don't forget to like and
comment on each other's work.
3. Materials & Supplies: Before we get started
with this painting, let's go over the materials
and supplies I use. Having the right materials can greatly impact the
outcome of your artwork. So I'll go over all the supplies I use for
this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and will make it easier for you
to follow along. L et's start with the
paints themselves. And like most of the materials
we'll be using today, it's a lot to do
with preference. I have 12 stable colors in my palette that I
fill up from tubes. They are cadmium
yellow, yellow cha, burnt sienna, Cadmium
red, sarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, seran blue, lavender,
purple, Vidu black. And at the end of the painting, I often use white guash
for tiny highlights. I don't use any
particular brand. These colors you can
get from any brand. Although I personally
use Daniel Smith, Windsor and Newton,
or Holbein paints. So let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is
a synthetic round brush like this skoda Purl brush
or this Van Gogh brush. They're very versatile, because
not only can you use them for detailed work
with their fine tip. But as they can hold
a lot of water, they are good for
washes, as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few
in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for
broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth
transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details. But for really small details, highlights or anything
that needs more precision, I use a synthetic
size zero brush. All brands have them and
they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles
and a very pointy tip. They're perfect for
adding texture or creating dynamic lines
in your paintings. You can even fan them
out like this to achieve fur or feather
textures as well. And that's it for
brushes onto paper. The better quality
of your paper, the easier it will be to paint. Cheap paper crinkles easily
and is very unforgiving, not allowing you to
rework mistakes. It's harder to create
appealing effects and apply useful techniques
like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton based paper, Not only allows you to rework
mistakes multiple times, but because the pigment
reacts much better on it, the chances of mistakes
are a lot lower, and you'll be more likely
to create better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available
in my local art shop. A water spray is
absolutely essential. By using this, it
gives you more time to paint the areas you
want before it dries. It also allows you to
reactivate the paint if you want to add a smooth
line or remove some paint. I also have an old
rag or t shirt, which I used to clean my brush. Cleaning off the paint
before divving it in the water will make the
water last a lot longer. It's always useful to
have a tissue at hand whilst painting to
lift off excess paint. Also, you never know
when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that
needs wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper
to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's
important to have them a similar consistency to what
they're like in the tubes. This way, it's easier to
pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful
to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the
dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this, of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding
around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on
painting to the edge, we'll allow you to create
a very crisp clean border. And that's everything
you need to paint along. I encourage you to experiment and find out what
works best for you. Now, let's get ready
to start the painting.
4. How to Sketch It Out: If you want to sketch this out yourself rather than
use the template, start with a line
about two thirds down, and then on the left,
two thirds of the left, I'm going to mark where
my vocal point is, my house and trees. I'm just using simple
shapes at the moment, just circles and lines to
map out where everything is. As you can see, I've sped up the footage just
to save some time. I'm doing a few swirls
where the clouds may be. Then on the field, just indicating where
some grass might be. I'm using a very
soft lead pencil so that I can rub anything
out that I want to. And now I can go in with
a bit more pressure. Again, mapping out
roughly where things are. So the horizon line
and the distant trees, keeping it all very organic. Now for the house, I'm going to draw a
line up at the top. I've also switched
to a finer pencil now so that we can have
a nice clean line. It's like a distorted triangle, and keeping the angles on
either side que matched. Then a clean line at the bottom. A little awning on either
side of the house and then a window in the
middle of the house door. But you can make this
however you want, you can make the trees bigger. Maybe you want to put the
trees on the other side. You can position the house
wherever you want to as well. It doesn't have to be
exactly the same as mine. You can experiment with
whatever you want. Now I'm putting a few lines
to create an ill of depth, and that's the drawing done.
5. Starting With The Sky: Before starting the painting, I'll just go through some of
the colors I want to use. I do this at the beginning
of every painting. This is just my
sketchbook where I have all the colors from tubes, squirted onto the page, and then I just
spread it out with a brush just so that I can
see what I've got going. These are pure colors
straight from the tubes, and I've got my blues. So I'm trying to
look for a sky tone. I quite like these blues a bit more than the other blues,
particularly this one, this iridescent blue
from Daniel Smith, and I'm comparing it
with this turquoise, which is a lot darker. I don't think I need
to go that dark. And then you can see I've got three different
cerrillans at the top there from Daniel Smear for Windsor and
Newton and Cotman. So with that in mind, let's wet some of the
paper to begin with. I'm using a Chinese
calligraphy brush for this. I just experimenting. This is what these classes are for for experimenting
with different tools. It is the first time
I've used this brush, and you don't necessarily
have to buy one. You can still do this exercise with the tools
that you already have. I'm just wetting some of the areas where I
want there to be a soft line rather
than a hard line. Were you wetting my brush, having some water already in
the pan in my palette helps, getting some of
that cerlian blue. You can also use one of these a mock brush.
That's much more common. I just want to get
into the spirit of experimenting by using this brush that I
haven't used before. This Chinese calligraphy brush. They're very easy to find, and they're not too
expensive either. So I'm getting this to
quisy kind of color, this seran iridescent color. Again, you can choose
whatever blue you've got. I'm just working my
way from the top down and you can see where I've already added
the water on the paper. It's got a nice soft
finish to it on the edge. There are some areas where I do want there to be a hard line. And see right here,
you can see there's a hard line there because I
didn't wet that bit before. So you can experiment
with these edges here. And t. Of course, we all want to paint
masterpieces as natural, but these classes
are for learning, and in the long run, it helps so much more to experiment with
different things to push yourself outside
of your comfort zone. If you did three
or five paintings that are completely out
of your comfort zone and the results ended
up not so well, you probably learn much more and your next three paintings
after that will be much better than if you did three or five paintings very safe without
pushing yourself. Now I'm adding a bit more
pigment onto the areas I've already applied to create
a bit of a range in tone. Because it's all wet, it
will be nice and smooth. So you can see on the sky here, I actually used rubber to soften that pencil line because I don't want there to be
pencil marks at the end, so you've got to
be wary of that. And it can be quite
difficult to see where those pencil lines
are when you're painting. But it's just one of
those things that has to happen because you don't
want pencil lines showing at the end on the sky. So that's just a little guide. And that's why I use such a
soft pencil when I sketch it out because I know I'm going
to rub some areas out. Here again, the paper
is already wet, so you've got some hard
edges and soft edges. Now, I took the
water out my brush, and I'm just absorbing a
bit more of that liquid and soaking it up and cleaning
it on a towel off screen, just because I want some
areas to be a bit brighter. I ain't even going
to use a tissue in some areas just to really
make sure it's lighter.
6. Cheap vs Expensive Supplies: You can see how
wet it is because my paper is starting to curl. Of course, if you're
using very heavy paper, thick paper, it won't curl. But again, I like to experiment, and I feel like if I were to buy the
super expensive paper, then even now, I'd be too
scared to really push myself. So having the thin paper, it's still archers paper. It's still good
quality based paper, but it just allows me
a bit more freedom. Sometimes as a student. Well, when I first
started painting watercolor for the
first four years, I was painting on very, very cheap paper because I was too scared to paint
on expensive paper. And it was helpful. It
was very liberating. And I learned a lot, and it got me to the stage but when I actually moved on to professional paper, I had a lot more experience and control because I used difficult materials in the past. And feeling the
noticeable difference really helped me improve. So there's nothing wrong with practicing on cheap
paper to begin with. Of course, my
paintings were better once I painted on the
better quality paper, but being able to learn
the fundamentals on cheap paper really
gave me advantage. Because if you think about it, 600 years ago, 100 years ago, maybe even artists had far more resources
than we do have now, and their paintings still are
in museums today, admired. In fact, arguably the
most well known painting, the Mona Lisa, that was
painted 500 years ago, and I bet he didn't have the
resources that we had today, and he was still able
to paint that way. So of course, having
better materials hops, but if you don't
want to commit to expensive materials
to begin with or supplies, you don't have to. So now I'm starting at the bottom close
to the horizon line, and I'm using a slightly
different blue here. It's more cobalt blue than
cerlian blue up at the top. You can see a subtle difference. Cobalt blue is a bit cooler, a bit more purple, maybe. And seran blue is a bit more green or turquoise
on the color wheel. Again, I'm trying to
get a nice soft edge. Trying to keep it
nice and organic. And it'll be quite impossible
for you to follow exactly. So and I wouldn't advise you
to watch the video and pause and keep on watching I advise watching the video through
whole to begin with, and then use my
reference photo in the project and resource
section to use as a guide, because I go back and
forth correcting things, and I might add a brush mark
here that I later rub out. So if you are following it and painting along as I'm doing it, you might make my same
mistakes that I later correct, which you wouldn't have
to if you just followed my reference photo or
the final painting. Or you can do both.
That's a useful thing would be to watch it
fully to begin with, to see what I do. And then when it
comes to painting, you can start over again
from the beginning, watching it, having
it on one screen, and then maybe a printed out version or on a separate
screen on your phone, you can see what the
final image looks like, and you can compare it as you go along and see what
differences I made.
7. Varying The Edges: I go back and forth
adding more water. Always having this tissue in my hand so that I
can soften edges or take away marks or water that I don't
want there to be. I want there to be a
very fine line here. Hard line at the top and a
soft line at the bottom. Now, this sky with a cloud
has quite a lot going on. But you don't have to do it that way if you
don't want to. You can make it a little less complicated or you could just go with a pure wash. I'm deciding to go quite
ambitious with this sky. So that's why I'm doing
things in multiple layers, and right now I'm using yellow ocher just to do the underlayer
on the house. That's all we need to
do for the time being. I'm just going to use a hair
dryer to dry everything so far so we can move on to
the next level. Next layer. I'm just reactivating this
bit here just to soften it out and bring back some of
the whiteness of the paper. You can see it's quite
effective that way. Now, one of the things I
wanted to use this bruh for to experiment with is because
you can it's got a fine tip, but then you can also
use the side of it too, so it's quite versatile. It is a lot like a mop brush because that's what you can
do with a mop brush too. It holds a lot of water. So you don't have to keep
on going back and forth. What other things that goes
through my mind when I paint is trying to
conjure up spontaneity. I don't want to
overthink things. I want things to be quite
free and to do that, I have to have a pf
element in my mind, I have to get excited and forget about the outcomes a bit. I have to play with the
spontaneity of watercolor. Take a leap into the unknown. It might not turn out well, but I've got to try anyway, because otherwise it
will just be boring. We need to force those happy
accidents to come out. Because it's really
spontaneity is where the magic of watercolor happens. If you plan everything
out meticulously, the end result will
look too contrived, and it will lose its magic. So I'm trying to add
a bit of volume to these clouds by going
over with a second layer. But I want to keep it
all connected somehow. So trying to soften some of
the bits that have dried by activating it again and
scrubbing my brush on the paper to make sure
there's no hard lines. No hard lines where
I don't want them. For example, here, I
do want hard lines, and I'm using quite a lot
of thin lines together, a lot of hard edges together, which is completely
contrasted to the top where it's all smooth
and a large wash.
8. Varying The Blues: This is a ultramarine
kind of blue, similar to cobalt blue. I'm just mapping out
the outline of where I want to paint and then
filling it in a bit. It's a hot day where
I'm painting it, so the paper is drying
faster than I would like it. I have to work quickly. You see, I'm adding some
pigments into these wet areas, and it just blends, bleeds out into them. I'm trying to make
it quite dynamic, so I've got dark
on top of light, I've got light on top of dark. I've got hard edges
that transition into soft edges and trying to incorporate all those
different elements in a whole variety of
different combinations. Was trying to keep it
spontaneous and spontaneous and I'm trying not to
make it overwhelming. D The unfortunate thing
with watercolor, like a lot of
traditional mediums and the opposite of digital,
there's no undo. There's no going
back a lot of times. With oil and acrylic, you can always paint over or scrub it off or
scrape the paint off. But with watercolor, when
it's done, it is done. You can have a go with
another painting. But that's the scary thing, the intimidating thing
about watercolor is that You have to a
lot of the times, get it right, the first go. But it's that element
of watercolor, which makes it equally exciting. That's what gives it a thrill when it all works
out in the end. That's what gives it its magic. That's why we look at watercolor
paintings from masters, and we're just in
awe with how they did it because it just
looks like magic.
9. John Singer Sargent: I've been increasingly more interested in the works
of John Singer Sargent, his watercolors because
when I first saw them at the beginning of my watercolor journey more
than ten years ago now, I thought they were
quite abstract and not very representational and I found it difficult to
connect with them, but through the years and through painting more
and more with watercolor. I'm appreciating
them much much more. And I really advise
you go and look at John Singer Sergeant's
watercolors because a lot of them
can be quite messy. A lot of them can
be very detailed. And within all of them, he managed to capture
some kind of spirit, some kind of
authenticity with it. And it's very liberating to look at because
you can just feel the authenticity and the fun he must have had
when he painted it. And most of those
water colors he did on location, of course, because photography,
although it existed, it wasn't common like
it was nowadays. You can see some of his
paintings are so detailed. The architecture that he's
painting or his drawings. He had so much skill with how to use the
pencil and the brush. And then there's
also paintings that seem more abstract and
have a few inaccuracies. But they still have
this emotion in them. They are somewhat
emotionally accurate. And The reason I
bring this all up is because it goes
to show you don't have to be accurate to
create a good painting. You don't have to be detailed. You can make really
impactful paintings, even if they look quite messy, because there's some kind
of authenticity there. So the paper that I'm using today and in
most of my paintings is cold press paper because
it has great texture. Hot press paper is
completely smooth, and it's good for
lots of things, but not the way I paint. I prefer the toot of the paper because it allows
for dry brush marks, and it has more flexibility with the style that
I paint things. The toothy surface in cold press paper allows this
paper to hold more pigment, hold more water, and that means it results in more
vibrant colors. And the texture also
makes it ideal for most watercolor techniques
as it can handle washes, layers, and also detailed work. It doesn't inhibit you
from using detailed work. It's very versatile. Now in contrast,
hot press paper. It has a smooth valvet
service, like I said. It doesn't have much texture, and that can make it more challenging to
control the paint. But what it does mean is that it allows very fine details
and smooth washes. And that can be very good for
doing detailed work such as botanical illustrations
or any artwork that requires very fine lines
and a lot of precision.
10. Using Photo References: It may be useful to have a look online for photo references
of different clouds. Maybe a certain
cloud will inspire you or at least help guide you to what textures
you want to achieve. I have a file on my computer of a whole
range of different clouds, different skies,
sunset, sunrises, gray clouds on a white sky or
white clouds on a blue sky, a whole range of
different things and having fun trying to
incorporate them together. Using the side of my brush here, just to create a bit of texture, that dry brush effect slightly. A few gaps in
between the clouds, exposing the white of the paper. So continuing this second layer, you can see how I'm
using my brush at different angles to make sure I get the point when I want
it or the angle of the tip. I also twirling the brush
round in my fingers. Getting quite dark
with the pigment here. Always going back and forth to add more pigment
where it might be needed and depending how it is will depend
how it spreads out. Now, we're spending
quite a lot of time on the sky because actually, it is the main center of
interest of the painting. You have the house
there as a kind of focal point as a
kind of g context, but it's really the sky
that takes of the ation, so that's what we're focusing
most of the painting on. Of course, we'll spend some
time on the field too. But the field will be
a little bit easier, a little less time consuming
because of the nature of it, we're going to be a
bit more abstract and there's less margin Ferrera. So I'm bringing this was
down to the bottom again. Notice that where the sky meets the horizon line,
it's quite light, and I'm making a point not to go over that pencil
line onto the field. It's close, it's touching, but it's not overlapping.
11. Perserving The Whites: And I'm trying to preserve a lot of the little whites
of the paper here. It's all about shapes
at the end of the day. They're quite abstract shapes, but when I'm painting, when I'm taking my brush
and filling out an area, I'm thinking about
what shape it is and how it relates to the
other shapes around it. And maybe the shape is dynamic. Maybe on one side of the shape, it has hard lines and soft
lines on the other side. So within that shape, I'm splitting it into
different shapes. I'm seeing where the
transitions happen and the spatial differences about where those transitions might happen. There's, of course, so much to talk about and so much to
learn about watercolor. But sometimes that can be counterproductive because
it makes it overwhelming. 90% of the painting process
is quite intuitive. Of course, when, when you're
a student or a beginner, you're very conscious
of these things of all the different elements because you have
to practice them. But eventually, if you
continue your practice, these things sink into
you and it's automatic. Of course, there's
always room to grow, and I'm still thinking
about things and how I can improve them when I paint, and I'm still conscious. No everything is
natural and intuitive. But the best paintings
that I've done and the most enjoyable painting
sessions I've had have been when I'm in this
state of flow where everything just falled into place and I'm not
really overthinking it. I'm not being too technical. Maybe I have music on in
the background or a podcast or maybe I'm listening to
my favorite artists talk. And I'm just forgetting
about time and just allowing the watercolor to do its thing without adding pressure to it or trying to overcomplicate it. If I find myself in a place
where I'm painting and I'm being a bit too technical or
I'm struggling in an area, nothing seems to be working, or there's this hurdle. I just can't break
through in the painting. I remind myself that I've in fact lost touch with the
spirit of watercolor, and I'm not zoning into it. I've been too distracted with the details or the
technical side of things when I just let go. Usually when I find myself
in a point like that, I do something bold or rash, and maybe I take thick
pigment and splat it on there just to bring the
playful spirit back into it, and that usually sorts
out the problem. Because you can trap yourself in a corner in a painting really, if you're in a flow state, if everything's just clear in your mind and you're at peace with whatever happens
in the painting, then usually the brush and the pigment find a
way to make it work. Doesn't have to be so detailed, but that's usually when emotion comes in and that's
what makes it captivating, and that's what makes
it a special painting.
12. Be Bold: I really try to
encourage students in the project section
when I see that they've been almost heavy handed
or that they're not shy to push themselves because
With time and practice, the ability to do details and technical things can be
quite easily learned. It just takes time and practice. But what is impossible to learn, it has to be discovered is how to convey emotion
and expression. And it's a bit of a
more abstract concept. But it's a mentality that
you have to tap into. And when I see students
being bold and broad, I feel that is a very
good direction to encourage because
when starting out, it's easy to be overwhelmed. And like I was, in my early paintings,
when I first started, they look very timid because I wasn't brave enough
to use thick pigment, and I cared too
much about details. So Don't be concerned about being heavy handed or going over the top or
even creating a mess. Sometimes it's good
to create a mess, purposely create a mess because then you can get over
that feeling of perfection. I've cleared, blue
off my palette, and I've quite simply
mixed burnt sienna and yellow ochre on my palette. Where the blue was,
I've mixed it with a bit of yellow ochre
to create a green. And from the horizon
line downward, I'm just placing horizontal
zigzagged kind of lines, keeping it light
and playful again. So abstract, got a bit of
dry brush going on too. Of course, it's a lot thicker at the top
for the time being, and then lighter as
we get to the bottom. Because I still want to
maintain some of the whites. I'm adding to green and yellow
ocher again at the bottom. Using the same brush. But you can use a mop brush or whatever
you're most comfortable with. It's Burnt Sienna. I want some as a field, maybe a corn field. It's got a whole range of
different colors going on. You've got the orange
of the soil maybe. You've got the yellow
of the corn itself, and maybe there's green
for young or the grass. Mixing some cerlian blue into that yellow ochre to create that natural
looking green, being very playful
with the brush. Now I'm taking some cape and
yellow and mixing it with that burnt sienna and yellow ochre to make
quite a rich yellow here. A yellowy orange, and I'm
placing that in there. You can see I'm using the tip
of my brush, very abstract. I'm just implying textures, implying that things are there rather than thinking
about the details, and visualizing the feeling
of what it looks like, and trying to
express that rather than thinking about the
details of what it looks like. So the nature of
what it looks like.
13. Painting The Grass: I'm varying the angle
of these grasses, these strands of corn. I'm tilting to the left or
tilting them to the right. It's very important to maintain
that white of the paper. You don't need much, just some little bits
peeking through. Now I'm taking some cadmium red, and I'm using it to paint
the roof of the house. Being very careful not to
go over into the trees or underneath into the house
itself, just the roof. And I'm using quite
a light diluted wash of this red to begin with, just to fill out the area, and then I go in with a thicker pigment to get
it to its full vibrancy. Because then I have more control about where the vibrancy goes. Because I don't want it
to be completely flat. I want some areas to
be der than others, some areas to be lighter. Going back to the grass. Keeping the palette
quite simple, actually, I've just got Yellow Oka
in there, burnt sienna. Using a bit of that redness
from the house that mian red. Our main colors are Yellow
Oka and Burnt Sienna, and we make those
interesting by just influencing them with different
touches of other colors. Can be any color. Not enough to completely
overwhelm it, but just to influence it. Now we can actually start and do the underlayer of the trees. I used a hair dryer
to make sure that red of the house is very dry. I'm using Vigan green for this, adding a little bit of
ultramarine blue into there. Just to give it that
pine tree look. Even though they're
not pine trees, it's the kind of color
that I want to go with. And just coloring
in that section. Using the point of my brush. Notice that I've changed
to my Vangog brush. You can learn more
about that brush in the materials and
supplies section. I'm adding a bit more green
to this section here actually because I don't want there to be a hard edge from
the trees to the field. I'm letting it
bleed out a bit and using the hair dryer
to completely dry it. Now that that's completely dry, I'm just going to make
a nice mix of green. Quite a big mix because
we're going to cover a lot of ground quite literally
with this green. I'm using yellow ocher
and ultramarine blue. Maybe a bit of
cerlian in there too to make it a bit more
vibrant and colorful. Starting from the
left, actually, just where the horizon line, the sky meets the ground, I'm going to do a line of
green where it connects. And the thinner the line
is the fur away it looks. Maybe we can do another
thin line just below it, leaving the gap of the ground to further create
the illusion of depth. Way horizontal
lines like zigzags, most where the shadows look like lines because we're
seeing them as an angle. And we're incorporating some
yellow ochre into there.
14. Illusion of Depth: Using these thin
little lines close to the horizon line really
creates the illusion of depth. And the further away we
get from the horizon line, the thicker the lines will be, because we're closer
to them, obviously. Sum of thicker pigment there. I'm using the pencil markings as a rough guide to where I
want these shapes to be. Adding pure viridian green
into there whilst it's still wet so that it mixes
in in a nice organic way. Using my brush list of the
tip and then flicking it up. Very important, you get
a brush with a fine tip. These brushes aren't expensive,
they're quite cheap. So you might have to replace
them quite often if you want to maintain that tip. If you move your hand and
flick the brush very quickly, you're going to a a
bit of a brush effect. And I'm trying to
keep the bottom of these flicks of these strands of grass starting
from the same area. The tops of them
can vary in length, but they all generally start at the same point, the same line. I pre the paper here, and then going back with
a brush load of pigment. I'm trying to think
horizontally. Of course with the
sky, it's abstract, and we're not thinking in
terms of perspective so much. But here, we're thinking
of perspective, and we're trying to get fine lines that are
parallel to the line. Of course, there can be inconsistencies
because a field can be full of
inconsistencies itself. Maybe some lumps of
soil create unevenness. So mounds of grass or hay. Of course, the grass in the
distance is shorter and smaller than the grass
in the foreground. That's of course how we create
the illusion of depth too. Mixing some ardian
green with cobalt blue. I want these grass grasses
to have a variety of color from green all the way to brown and some
yellow eventually. We're just mishmashing
them all together. B
15. Starting The Trees: Quite a bold streak of green here to contrast with
that orange above. Orange and green are not
typically complimentary colors, but they do relate to
each other because they are both secondary
colors because, of course, green is made
with blue and yellow and orange is made
with red and yellow. I just wanted a burst of color of this green
and the yellow on this right hand side of
the painting to contrast against the kind of light
soil on the other side. Using quite dark green
pigment and spacing it a distributing it quite evenly
around the composition. Maybe one flick or two flick in the
foreground just like that, with a nice fine tip. I think for the time being, I'm going to forget about the grass. I'll come back to it later, allow it to dry a bit. I'm going to paint
the first layer of the trees using this green and I'm starting off
with quite a lot of pigment. And I'm going to use
this pigment to kind of carry a lot of the pigment for all of
it, if that makes sense. So I put in a lot of pigment
and then I draw it out. I load it on my brush
and I move it along. So I don't have to keep on going back and forth to my palette, and it keeps
everything harmonized. I'm trying to go for almost a Van Gogh kind of
feeling with this one. There's some kind of harmony
in the way he paints trees. Everything flows together
in a swirly fashion. This green reminds me of the kind of green that Van
Gogh would use or Vango. It's a kind of a spearmint
or peppermint kind of green. Even with these trees, I'm leaving some areas of
white of the paper below. Some areas are more
way than others, and I'm varying the green too. Some areas have a
bit more yellow to make them a bit more vibrant. Some areas I've got a bit
more blue and to make them a bit der and
not so vibrant. Some areas are lighter that might imply they're further
away in the distance, and the darker ones might be bigger or closer
in the foreground. Of course, the sky is
completely dry at the moment, so it's nice hard edge. And remember, this is the
first layer for the trees, so we don't have to
paint too dark because we're coming back for
a second layer later. Dabbing a bit more
pigment where I think it should be a bit darker
at the bottom there. Now, very carefully painting
down to the top of the roof. Making sure not to go over
the line on the roof. Painting around the
other side of the house. There's a little bit of the roof here that ned to preserve. Varying the yellow, varying the green with the
yellow rather. Filling out these trees just
with little streaks with a fine lines that come together rather than
a big broad brush. Then we can use the
side of a brush to fill it out at the bottom. Now I'm applying pure water into this to add a bit more
texture and interest. Because just as it dries, just as it's getting
close to drying. When you flick water onto it, it disturbs the pigment and
creates lovely textures.
16. Continuing The Field: Going back to the grass. Now that it's dry,
pretty much dry I can go on with a second layer to make
it a bit more dynamic. Starting with the foreground
with this yellow ochre, yellow och mixed
with capping yellow, and now some burnt sienna again. Now we're doing
vertical zigzags. We did horizontal zigzags
for the soil, the ground, where the horizon line is, and now we're doing vertical
zigzags for the grass. Wetting that area and doing
a bit of a green wash here. Now moving to the left hand side and working inwards from there, going right up to the border
where the masking tape is, and trying to achieve
nice organic lines. Me bold green at the
very bottom here, and connecting it
with the above. I'm trying to balance the
distribution of these grasses, not keeping them perfectly even. I don't want a perfect
even space between them, but I want there to be some
kind of harmony going on. Leaving some gaps in be so that we can still see that light
background in some areas. Some larger ones here. Some dry brush because we're
using very thick pigment, and you can see the
texture of the paper. Now, add a lot of
way pigment there. Very wet. So that it looks like the
base of it is full of grass, and then and then as
the grass grows up, goes up and spans out, it there's more gap, so it's less dense at the top
than it is at the bottom. And I'm using thick
pigment on wet paper so that it does just bleed
out ever so slightly. And then here, I'll
do thick pigment on dry paper to
contrast with that. That's a kind dark brown because the green is mixing
with the brown to create a browny color. Now I'm mixing a
nice bright green.
17. Using Thick Pigment: Using my finger even. I'm not afraid to
use my finger to just move the pigment around. Using the side of my brush
to spread it out a bit more. Now, I stopped the camera
to dry it out completely, and I must have forgot to press record again because I
started painting the trees, and I finished painting the trees only to realize
it didn't record it. So I had to scrub it out again, and I'm repainting
it on camera here. That's why the trees look slightly different than
how they did before. So I'm using very thick
pigment for these trees. The same mix of Vian green
and ultramarine blue. I'm using the end of my brush just to scratch it in to
get it really abstract. Because it is a very pasty
thick pigment at the moment. Filling in the darkest areas because we want a full range
of tones in this painting, and this is where the
darkest parts will be. Using the tip of
my brush to paint the little branches or the
leaves or whatever they are, creating a flow, a
movement of direction. Mixing more of this dark pigment to have a high contrast between the trees and
the building there. Again, trying to implement that van Gough feeling
of the swirliness, the movement of the trees and
how everything just flows. Being very careful here, not to go over the
roof of the house. You can see now
that we're painting the dark pigment next to
this red, making the red pop For the whole of this
tree section so far, I'm just using the
tip of my brush. Allowing those little
gaps to come through. Then this house has
a little awning, so I'm just painting
underneath there. And I'm using this kind of blue, this turquoise blue for the darknes of the trees because
I like the way it feels. It might not be
natural, but to me, it has a certain feeling to it, and that's why I want to convey.
18. House Details: So this painting is
coming together. Now we've got about
10 minutes left. And whilst painting
these details, we can just look at the
overall composition and see if there's anything
off or what more to do is, we go to do these windows
on the trees and the door. Maybe a few more grass
in the foreground. Use the very tip of the brush to fill in the
shadow of this roof. Let's paint the door.
Using any dark color, I'm going to use blue
ultramarine blue. And then on the
front of the house, there's some underneath that awning escaping some
of that hot sun. I'm going to use that same
green to start off with. I painting a little strip underneath the roof
of the awning, few lines coming down. Maybe there's a few windows
in there or a second door I'm not too sure of that mark, so I'm using a tissue
just to wipe it out. A few thin lines to maybe imply paneling on the
side of the house. Very subtle details,
but they do. They might not be noticeable, but they help
collectively build the. So now let's go
back to the grass, and we need a bit
more depth, I think, so I'm going to add
this dark green here and take a few strokes
of grass up from there, and use a tissue just to
soften the bottom of it. A bit more on this side, to contrast with
that bright yellow. There must be a mound
of grass or dirt, and then on the other side,
there's a bit more shadow. Nice fibert green with some
yellow oak quantum of it. Using the back of
my brush just to scrape down some leaves. I've got this, this
palette knife that can help spread out that wet
pigment with nice thin strokes. You can use a pick or anything. And those grass strands are just just about
touching the house, slightly overlapping the house.
19. Bringing It Together: Adding a bit of blue. Even though I'm adding blue
because there's yellow there, I will look like green. I'm not too sure of
that because it's touching the door of the house, so I need to clean that off. Now we've reached the final
part of the painting, which is applying white
highlights using the ga. I've got it already
in my palette but you can use it directly
from the tube. And if you can't get
the consistency right, I try to paint it as thick as I can before it turns into
a dry brush effect. Because if you paint too light, it will dry gray or it
will be too transparent. Also, if it's too wet, you can have a bit of carbo
to dry it out of bit. I'm not doing much
here. I'm just using it to boost what
we've already done. So helping some of
the horizontal lines in the perspective and also
going back over some of the bits of grass to break through few
architectural details. A few small dabs of white on
this background tree area. Just because when
you look at trees, there's always little
gaps in the trees. It's not a solid bush. Sometimes there's little
gaps of light coming. That's what I'm trying
to convey here. Also trying to make the tops
of the trees a bit, bit. And then lastly, we can go up to the sky with this whitewash and boost some of these clouds, the highlights on the clouds. Clean up some of these
lines, some of the edges. Of course, we tried our best with getting the hard edges
when we painted them. But using this white
gouaches house, exemplify it a bit more, makes it look a bit cleaner, polishes it up a bit. So swirly lines on the
bottom of this cloud. That is done. I'm just going
to take the tape off now. The most satisfying part of the whole painting process
is taking the tape off and revealing that
nice clean border. And then I'll disconnect
from it for a few days or a few hours so that I can
come back with a fresh eye and see if there's any
more that needs to be done or any obvious changes. But that's pretty much done. Let's review what we've
done in the next video.
20. Final Thoughts: Welcome back, and
congratulations on completing this class. I hope you found it both
insightful and enjoyable. Now it's time to apply
what you've learned and let your creativity
shine on your canvass. Remember, that with
this exercise, the house is just a
simple focal point, a foundation for your
expressive journey. It only serves as a means for your imagination to run wild
with the sky and field. Feel free to let your
creativity flow, interpreting the scene
in your own unique way, allowing for a beautiful fusion of technique and expression. The beauty of watercolor
lies in its unpredictability and the ability to capture the essence of a moment
with spontaneity. Try things that make
you uncomfortable. There's nothing to lose, only more insights to gain. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and
personal style. I encourage you to continue
exploring, experimenting, and pushing your
boundaries to create your own unique
watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the
end of this class, I hope you feel
more confident and comfortable with your
watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes
to improving your skills, so keep on painting
and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for watercolor
painting is so inspiring, and I'm honored to
be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd
love to give it. So please share your
painting in the student project
gallery down below, and I'll be sure to respond. If you prefer, you can
share it on Instagram, tagging me at Williston, as I would love to see it. Skillshare also love
seeing my students work, so tag them as well
at Skillshare. After putting so
much effort into it, why not share your creation? If you have any questions
or comments about today's class or want any specific advice
related to watercolor, please reach out to me in
the discussion section. You can also let me know about any subject wildlife or scene you'd like me
to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate
getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews
fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best
experience for my students. Lastly, please click
the follow button up top so you can follow
me on Skillshare. This means that you'll be
the first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. Make sure to carry the
adventurous spirit of today's class into your
future artistic endeavors. I'm excited to see you all
again in future classes. Happy painting in the
meantime. Bye for now.
Will Elliston, Award-Winning Watercolour Artist
