Transcripts
1. Intro: Have you ever wondered what makes a portrait expressive and emotional? How to find your unique style? Let's find out by exploring three different techniques in mixed media. My name is Anna Sokolova and I'm a professional published illustrator based in Berlin, Germany. I've been busy in creative industry for more than 10 years, and creating portraits has always been on high demand. I mean, it's everywhere in the fashion industry, magazines, postcards, game design, comics, and books. It's the best way to give your art personality and dramatic interest. In this class, we'll discuss how to find your style and create expressive artwork. I'll share with you some tips that helped me personally and hopefully will help you to feel more confident. We'll start with minimal yet expressive technique with just a limited color palette and inks. Then we'll work on Marie Antoinette inspired imagery and apply a golden leaf. I'm sure you can imagine how it looks like, especially if you've seen the movie. In the third part of the class, we'll dive into dark magical routes to work on digital mixed media inspired artwork with a focus on atmosphere and personality. This class is for you, if you're illustrator, artist, or designer, and want to explore creative mixed media and hone and refine your craft. I'm sure that the emotional response to your art will grow. I'm very inspired about this topic, but before we begin, a small announcement. We've got really awesome prices this time, so just post your project in the project gallery before end of September for a chance to win the art surprise bag I've prepared specially for you. Yes, press this "follow" button above. Now it's time to start creating.
2. Materials: Welcome to the studio. Let's take a look at all the treasures we have here. It's a mixed media class, which means you can mix any art supplies you want or have. Of course, you don't need to have everything. To create an expressive artwork, two colors can be more than enough, like in this examples. What we've got? Different pencils are useful sketching, traditional one, mechanical one, you can see it's pretty unusual, I'll tell you more about it in the part 5 warm-up section of the class. I needed the razor to lighten this sketch, and this almost scientific looking tiny razor for details. Inks, like water resistant Indian ink, and these beautiful color of Sherlock ink. For this particular class, I wanted to use this color and other brands I have, are not water resistant, which means I can't paint over them in water colors. If you want to dive deeper into inks journey, which I'm sure you do, or if you're doing Inktober, please check my class called 'Think In Ink', where I cover all their materials and techniques. Now the brushes. I'm using entrepreneurs brush and some synthetic very inexpensive brushes from 0-3 brush bands. In the mixed media technique, we can use anything. So here are water color brush pens, and more vibrant alcohol-based ink pen. It's often used for illustration and it's really easy to put in the back. Well, I have so many things in the back already. But anyway, colorful oil pastels and the paints. We'll be working with water colors and gouache and now starts the occupied part. I'm so excited to show you the application of the golden leaves. Much more fun to learn together and you'll be able to create this beautiful effect. It's very shiny in real life. Of course, you need a leaf, yes, it's a limitation, but when you master the technique, you can even work with the real gold. Leaves are very thin, so some people prefer to use gloves. I just don't like gloves. A special water-soluble glue, it's sold in the same department as a leaf. That's the only one that they had in my local art supply store. For the glue, you can use old brush and ink pen for fine details. It's good to have a big soft sponge or also brush to press the leaf carefully, and of course the paper. Most of the time I'll be walking on water color paper, hot press for smooth surface and cold press for the texture. This deck old age ruler is awesome, we'll work with it too. In the digital part of the class, I'll be working on iPad using Adobe Fresco. But no words at all, all the tricks can be applied for any software. So just stick around. Now when our Solar Atelier is set, join me in the next video where we'll talk about what makes a good portrait and explore some inspiring examples together.
3. What Makes a Good Portrait? Inspiration!: Welcome back, if you've been drawing for awhile, you've noticed that just during the portrait technically well is not enough, to be expressive and to move the viewer, it should tell a story, be personal, and have a dramatic effect, what makes a great portrait? In short, it's your individual expression. You should always keep in mind how the artwork is presented is it's a huge poster or a book illustration, or a tiny fine art treasure somewhere in the gallery walls, the style plays a big part too, and we'll talk about it in the next video. Please remember that the way that we make things is different from the way that we see things, in illustration, the shape, the base is most important, and only then we add as little or as many details as we want. Now let's take a look at some function illustrations I've prepared for you, each style is unique and the well-recognized. Here are all the treasures I have on this topic, you can see they are very different. The first book is created by one of my favorite contemporary illustrators, Benjamin Lacombe, it's a gift edition of the Madame Butterfly story, and the quality is awesome, you can see this large landscape and fantasy art works. They were created with a big format in mind, it looks almost like a stage design, very beautiful. There's also another side of the book, it's like a zigzag with sketches, very interesting, my treasure. Another one is about Rene Magritte, a Belgian surrealist artist. I'm sure you've seen many of his paintings, like this one. He's famous for thought-provoking images, he's portraits are very interesting. Another one of my favorites, you've probably seen it many times, this one is very beautiful, and I will show you another portrait, I'm sure you've seen this insert, yeah, this one. You've seen that in some business training imagery, but of course it has nothing to do with it, great idea. Now it's time for the next one. This is Tamara De Lempicka, a Polish artists, famous for Art Deco portraits, very stylish person. She is also famous for stylized paintings of nudes and beautiful women, this one is very famous art she created for some automobile company. Her portraits are very expressive, with just minimal colors. This green serious, are pretty famous too, I love the vibrancy of that green, now not so serious, but also very inspiring book. It's about history of fashion and design, which also means history of society, some of this art works are really standalone, top quality illustrations, it's very interesting to explore, very different styles, men's fashion, which is not so easy to find, very different styles, all these colors. Yeah, really nice book. One more thing, for the second part of the class I've created a dedicated Pinterest board, so please check it out. It's the second board called Marie-Antoinette Rococ, you can find different interpretations of this imagery and time periods so you don't have to spend time searching for inspiration if you don't have it. I've gathered very different approaches, to this time period. Now, let's get back. I hope it inspired you and we can move forward. Now join me the next video where we will talk about finding your own style.
4. Finding Your Style: I've been asked a million times how to find your style. Well, the good news is, you already have it. That's right, even if you're a beginner. Here are some tips that helped me personally and hopefully will help you to feel more confident. The first one is obvious, practice. It's not enough just to find time for study, but to actually make it. In our study we can never stop. Of course, we all make tons of mistakes along the way. It's great if you can recognize it. Focus on your own artworks and don't worry about comparing yourself to other artists. Do art that impresses you and not the art that other people want to see. Don't force yourself to paint pink flowers on the white background if you're interested in moody, dark black landscapes. Another tip is to have inspiration folder, but as a real one. I have the old school album where it keeps some postcards and prints with things that inspire me. Because I don't want to be too dependent on Internet and I feel helpless without Wi-Fi. Another tip is to imagine your favorite characters and think about why you love them. One of the most important things on the way to final your style is the ability to make small decisions. Everyday, tons of small decisions, all by yourself without asking anyone. I know it's hard, I know it's tough, but it's a creek road to creativeness. Finally, pay special attention to the things that surround you that you'll love. I'm talking about music that raises your soul. Books, movies, nature, plants, everything. Dissolve a small hints to tell you about your personal taste. Even the color and the textures of the clothes that you chose. Of course, as you grow as a person, your art will evolve too. Personally, I'm really fascinated by the idea of this long journey. Now I think we're ready to finally move forward and start working on our projects.
5. Warm-up Sketches: Welcome to this studio. Before we start any project, regardless of the style, it's very important to make some warm-up sketches. I'll be using this indigo colored pencil, so you'll just see the marks better, but any pencil will do. I begin with straight lines. I use single direction just like this. Simple straight lines using tip of the pencil. It's a great exercise to concentrate. You can come down a little bit and yes, straight lines with single directions like this. Let me show you the mechanical pencil. It's slightly bigger than the usual one because I love to use the side of it. You can see I'm holding it in between two fingers not like a bounce. It allows us to control the pressure better. Like this, more pressure, less pressure here. If I will hold it like a pen, I can make a final lines. Once again, this is how I hold the pencil, between two fingers. I can create more freely using the pencil side and vary the pressure. It's very comfortable for larger surfaces. You can work in this manner with charcoal or some other sketching pencils. Now, let's draw a circle, but very loose circle consisting of many small circles and ellipse and one more ellipse and a swirl. Let's put the hand on paper and draw the radial lines like this. I'm moving only the tip of the pencil. It will help us in character drawling. I'm filling the space of the paper. Now, what comes next? This mark looks like a signature. Look, quick mark and a tail, mark and a tail. One of my favorite exercises is called a snail and you can guess why. You can draw endless snail, you can change directions of the lines. Another option is to draw a maze. It's the same thing as a snail, but a bit easier. We have some space left, so let's draw a circle inside the circle. It's really good training for ice. Another one is to connect two dots. It's really not easy and you won't get a single straight line, so just draw a few of them. We have some free space left, let's fill it with just anything, ellipsis, anything. It's like an abstract work. You can also try finger blending just a little bit. I think we're ready to move to our first artwork, which is called the shining mind. I really can't wait to start.
6. Style I : Shining Mind: Welcome back. Here is a creek pencil sketch I've prepared for the first portrait called the shiny mind. I used mechanical pencil and I used this shape and the radial line that we have learned in the previous part. The shape will look very effective in general and I am planning to paint red dots over here and over here. That's actually my plan. I'll be using masking fluid to secure some of the areas. But honestly, most of the times I've worked without it. It's a water-soluble masking fluid. But before that, I want to lighten the sketch and I'll do it with a kneaded eraser. It's the best way to lighten your sketch and I don't use any eraser afterwards because I don't want to damage the paint and I don't like the feeling of erasing over a gouache or water color. There will be some dust and I'll show you how to remove it. I'm lightening the areas which are not so detailed. So how to get rid of the dust? Don't use your hands. I have this fluffy friend instead. It's a great and funny way to clean your artwork. Now, using masking fluid, I'm covering the spots and areas that I want to protect. These are mostly highlights and the red dots I've mentioned. The masking fluid is dry. It takes about 10 minutes and we can start working with inks. I'll put some black inks in the bottle. It's really more comfortable to work this way to draw straight from the bottle. Well, for me, anyways. I'm going to use this small brush. With a small synthetic brush, I'm drawing outlines starting on the top left corner. Yeah. It's black enough. Just don't forget to put a little sheet of paper underneath your hand. The masking fluid can be really sticky. My plan is to draw the most important details and then cover everything else with dramatic black inks. I begin with very thin lines and then paint over them a few times if needed, for example for eyes. I love drawing eyes first because it helps me to connect with a character. So I will make my way further with the outline drawing. Finishing the outline and now I'm going to fill the background with very, very loose brush strokes. I'll be using my Japanese brush and dark black ink. That's my favorite part. Here I can create without thinking at all. I don't want to have strayed borders. It will really add artistic feel to have some textured borders all over the illustration. I really want to add some texture and that's why I'll be using dry brush technique. I'm taking paper towel and you can see the effect. Really cool, a bit grungy. I really love the look. You can control the quality of these lines and the texture. Now, I'm going to be drawing the full background. It's almost done and I'm finishing the final details. This part should be very precise. I'm working with Japanese brush because it can hold a lot of inks so I don't have to interrupt myself for that. I'm covering all the areas here. It's the most important part of illustration so I try to concentrate on the shapes. Every stroke is important. I think I need to add some additional layers too. Let's define the shape of the neck to achieve more graphic effect. The masking fluid protects all the areas. Now, let the inks dry and let's move to the next video and add some interest and color to our artwork.
7. Details and Final Touches: Welcome back. The inks are dry and I removed the masking fluid. You can gently touch the paper and get rid of the rest. It's okay to use your hands for small areas though, I know that many artists, don't do that. You can use a razor, probably, it's a good idea, but I somehow still do it with hands. You can touch the paper and feel if there's some masking fluid left. Now we need to get rid of the dust. I can do it with a big fluffy brush or you can do it with a feather, depending on what you got. It's finally time for gouache. I better sprayed it with water, so it will save some time. My plan is to paint, grab essence. I think I better take the paint in my hand. Let's see. I really love the color, but it won't be so comfortable. Pretty messy, so I'll take a paper towel. Yeah, it would be easier. Now, I work on top of the paper where the masking fluid protected the areas. It's a very high pigmented gouache, so I actually don't need many layers. Sometimes even one layer is enough, which I really love. I also want to make essence on the lips, but I should be very careful here. It's very important not to spoil the lines. These brush strokes can give a subtle face expression. My plan is to add red elements everywhere that I've planned. The most precise part is lips, and then, I'll continue with round circles. We're finished with red, and it's time to add some subtle wonderful new ones with blue, but I want to make a lighter tone, so I'll mix it with white gouache. I mix everything with white gouache. This subtle mix should work great. Let's see. Something like this. I'm mixing it. Even here. I really have doubts about this tint. I think we should pick another blue to complement the red better. I'll pick another one. Just a minute, and this one should work better. Let's see. Awesome. You can see the difference. Great, that's just what we need. My plan is to add very small, fine details on highlights and eyes. Very little, to create the glowing effect. Remember it's called the shining mind. Some shadows. It's a bit of science fiction style. By the way, alcohol marker can work really nicely too, I will show you a bit later.The marker can work great too, to add that color contrast. It's almost as bright as gouache. Yeah, I think it's enough of blue, and my plan is to dilute some inks to get a very light, shadowy gray, to add the highlights for this alluring look. Just a few strokes can make a great impact, and on the second eye, and here, a tiny bit. It's like makeup. Speaking of which, it's a mixed media class, so let's experiment. I've got this awesome pastel set, and it's so vibrant and bright, and here's what I'm going to do. Let's choose the brightest red, and put in some pigment on paper, I love this color so much, and then I gently apply it with my finger like this. A very beautiful effect. You can do it with any color. You can even work with just this technique. I think I need to add some highlights to the eyes, to the eye, to be more detailed. I know that something is still missing, and pastel is a great way to add this something. I'm drawing random shapes to define this piece of fashion clothing. It's really comfortable to work in this technique on the small piece of paper in the corner. I'm sure you can already see that by using just very limited supply set, we can create an effective character. We can try to combine very different mediums. It's always so difficult to decide when the piece is ready and I will always want to add more and more details to refine the pastel with yellow gouache. This small details are very important, I think, yeah. I also think that we are ready, and we can move forward to the next artwork, which is called passion poetry, and it is inspired by Marie Antoinette imagery. We will be also using golden leaf, which I'm very excited about, and I can't wait to move forward.
8. Style II : Fashion Poetry: Welcome to the fashion poetry this tail is special for me. I became inspired by Marie Antoinette inventory and prepared this Pinterest board for you. You don't have to spend the time searching. You can find the link below to video. My sketch is inspired by this artwork from Benjamin law calm. I showed you his book in inspiration parts of the class. I'll be working with acrylic inks. This is the exact whew I wanted for the outline. It will work great with color that I have for planned for this illustration. Yeah, it's a perfect color. But before I begin ink you, I need to lighten this catch like we did before. If you don't work with detailed outline, you can skip this step. You remember full life if round, here is, let's clean it up. I can start inking. This inks drive pretty fast. I better begin. I begin inking this sketch right from the top. There'll be some flowers, just outlines. In my style, I use different weight of lines, which I really love. I don't have to think about how much inks are a little bit in the brush. Sometimes I even draw shadows with initial color. It's very meditating parts of the process cause I already have the idea. I already have the sketch, and I'd just repeat the lines. It really takes pretty much time to ink. I'll speed up the process little bit. I'm sure you already have the idea of how I am applying the outline. It's acrylic inks. By adding 2 or more layers, I can show beautiful verity in lime color. You can see some parts are darker and some parts are lighter. I'm also paying attention to the direction of the lines, especially for hair and the face. Drawing eyes is very important. I'm trying to be very focused when working on this area. I'm trying to work on both eyes simultaneously to achieve more symmetry. I will add additional lines for the depth and the second line and draw the shape first and then continue with details. In the final life, I'm trying to work as freely as possible. No wedge for the inks to try and it'll be really quickly. In the next video, we'll add some water color washes, and limited color palette.
9. Watercolor Painting: Our inks are dry, this was very very quick. What I'm going to do is, add some watercolor washes, with not so many colors. But first, I want to prepare a mix of paint for the skin. It will be a very subtle mix. Some pale pink maybe not so pink, but more of an orange. This looks beautiful. I'll take my Japanese brush and put some water on the face area. These inks are waterproof so I have no fear. Some inks are left. I like to work on watercolor paper where we can fix all the mistakes. I think I need to change the brush. I saw some inks left. I have another Japanese brush but I don't use it very often and I think I'm comfortable with that. It's better to take the mop brush also known as French brush. It will be best of all. Once again, let's put some water on the piece. This technique is called wet on wet where you paint with a watercolor paint on the wet surface, it's pretty obvious. It's almost ready. You can learn more about this technique in my class on watercolors. I think it's enough and we can apply some paint very gently. That's right. For the Rococo time period we used to see brighter red cheeks and I think we can emphasize it too. But you should be really careful not to spoil everything. We don't want to paint a clown, not this time. It's too much so let's wash it off a bit. You can add red to the lips or it's just enough, maybe a little bit more. Now it's not so scary. Not like the penny wise or something like this. The next step will be to paint some shadows on hair. That's where this brush will work actually. I'll make a mix of gray, drop of blue, so it will be more interesting. It will also be wet on wet technique. I will need to put some water on the paper. Almost everywhere. I don't think much about the direction of lines on this stage. Now, I add washes and I add more pigment where the shadows used to be. This will help to show volume and values. Now I'm doing the same with flowers and mixing the rest, that will look more interesting and will work on the flowers. I'm leaving some white space on the borders because I really love the expressive look of it. Just try to fill not the entire outline or maybe your style is very different. It's just the way I work. I'm adding some detail, some flowers. Second layer of red and with the wide gouache, I work on tiny little elements here and there. This little details add interest and help to shape the decorations. I really love how the ink color we used is complementing watercolor washes. I'll just add a few details all with the paint and of course, I keep in mind the next video where we'll be adding the magic technique of golden leaf. I'll also show you how to use the deck old age ruler, for the beautiful effects. Small details over here and we're almost, almost ready for the next exciting step. Join me in the next video.
10. Applying Gold Leaf: Welcome back. You'll notice something is different. That's right, the edges. I made it with deckled edge ruler and I'll show you how it works. You hold it like this, and tear the watercolor paper. Just like so. Of course, you can make it more accurate. Yeah. Well, the perfectionist inside me just can't stand it, so I need to make it a bit better. But the effect itself is really beautiful and with different kind of paper, you can achieve different results. Give me a few seconds and I'll fix it. Wait, wait. Yeah. Now, it's perfect. Almost perfect enough. Yeah. I can't stop. Yeah, cool. So let's work with Golden leaf. First, we need a glue. Let's open it. I'll use a cheap synthetic brush to put the glue on the areas and elements which can look beautiful with Gold. This should be not so big areas I think. I chose some random objects and small shapes. One layer will be more than enough. Then you will have to wait till it's dry. So with accurate brush strokes, I'm adding the glue on different elements. You can also do it with a neat pen. This is how you can achieve precise hedging and really beautiful results. It looks like calligraphy when the Golden leaf is applied on these areas. Now we have to wait till the glue is dry. The exact time should be written on the bottle. This one, it takes around 20 minutes. Yeah. It's dry and let's prepare the treasure. Leaf is very thin, and some people like to use gloves to work with it. But I don't like gloves. So I prefer to work accurately with my fingers. We put it on the artwork with the shining side up and make sure it covers all the surfaces we need. We need another leaf. You can choose another color. It can be Silver leaf or Copper, Metal, Imitation. Gently pressing it and now, I gently press the leaf using sponge very, very gently. There is still some place left, so I need to put this piece on the top. That's right. Yeah. So I wait a few moments. The next step will be to remove the parts that are not glued. You will feel it. Just add more pressure, like this. It's a very satisfying process. Let's start. We don't have any Golden areas here, so it's removed easily. Soft brush can be helpful too. Oh, and those Golden chunks can be very precious, so I keep them in a bottle like a real alchemist. That's right. Working with a soft brush to clean it up. Removing the Golden dust with our fluffy friend to see the shining beauty. It looks great together, I think. So how it looks. I think you can make it even more accurate. Oh, it's so shiny and beautiful, a really magical effect. I love it so much. I think I need a frame for this. Oh, and one more important thing, don't forget to sign your artworks before we move to the next part of the class. It's a great habit for the future and for the present too. So let's sign. Then we can move to the next part of the class where we'll work on digital illustration using Adobe Fresco. I really can't wait to explore it together with you.
11. Adobe Fresco Overview: Welcome to the digital part of the class. I'll be working in Adobe Fresco, but no words any other software will do. There's a six month free trial version and I'll be working in it. Let's get started. Once you open Adobe Fresco, you want to create a new document. Here are the templates you can choose from. For print and digital formats, you can change the measurements, back ground and make sure you have 300 PPI resolution in case you want to print the artwork. Let's check out the interface, it's very intuitive for Photoshop users. On the left we have all the tools and brushes. You can choose the color using color wheel and here are very familiar brush settings. On the right you can see the layers, different layers options, and layer's properties we are also familiar with. You can remove it from screen if it distracts you. Here on top, there are different settings where you can resize and rename your file. Here you can quickly export the finished piece. Let's focus on the most exciting part, the brushes. There are three types, pixel brushes, where you can choose from variety of traditional media. You can see charcoal, pastel, pencils, anything you can imagine. There are also vector brushes and my favorites, called the live brushes. These are amazing oil and watercolor brushes, and I want to show it in details. I'm picking watercolor solved brush, some yellow color and here you can see some settings, brush size, water flow. These we don't need. Just play around and see how it works. Here we go. You can control how much water is loaded on the brush or how much pigment. Let's add another color and see how they react. Awesome. One more trick. Let's add that color. What's really exciting that you can paint only with water. Let me show you. You'd go to apacity and switch it to zero. It's like a brush loaded with water and the magic is happening. It's like real watercolors but with more control. It's very close to real watercolor technique and so It's still wet. We can dry the layer by clicking the Layer, Dry layer, which means that everything we paint over this layer will not interact with the base. You can see, sorry for the color choice, but it's the best way to show. Let's hide the layers and they won't distract us from the next demo. We're doing it again and begin working like with the real watercolors. I'm sketching the sky with light yellow. I'm planning to use two colors. Going around with settings. Let's choose the blue one. Due to the works great watercolor paper. Paper greenish mix. Make it darker. Now we can use some water to smoothen everything. You can hand, pick the color just by holding your finger on the surface. It's really comfortable. It's certainly landscape. I quick sketch to show you the idea. You can see the color sub leading, so I want to drive the layer. Now I want to paint with water, like we did in the previous demo. I'm planting some trees over here and I want to have unexpected results. I put some imaginary border here, it's like transparent trees. Then I'll add color and we'll see how it reacts. Beautiful, like real watercolors, really. Something is still missing, some very small details. I'm changing the size, so it's mega quick landscape just to show you the principle of how it works. Another thing I want to show you, let's hide everything. I showed this technique in my water color class called watercolors secrets. This part is called night glow, and it's based on how pigments work together. I create a blue background, I think it's like indigo, a bit darker. Afterwards, I plan to add really bright lemon yellow for the beautiful glowing effect. Let's pick the brightest one. I'm playing with settings and here we go. The paint is bleeding beautifully and it's really magical effect like on real paper. You can even add some white inside the glowing yellow stars or planets or something, so that it will be even brighter. I think you have the idea how it works. In the next video, we'll be drawing beautiful fashion female character and apply what we've learned. I really can't wait.
12. Digital Sketch Watercolor : Welcome back. I'll be working on some quick sketch I've prepared to save some time. I'm going to log the layer, create the new one. I'll be working with brush pen, dark color. By the way, you can use quick gestures. Two fingers for undo and three for redo, it's really comfortable. There is this tiny circle over here. If you hold it, the brush turns into eraser of the same texture, it's really comfortable. You could put it everywhere, anywhere and everywhere. I'll begin with some expressive lines. I always start with the eyes. Whether I'm drawing animal or character or something or someone that has eyes. I'll make the outline before and then some shadows. This is a very sketchy-looking facial illustration. It leaves some space for imagination, which I really love in this style. I'm finishing the sketch and now I'm going to add some light gray shades. I set opacity to 100 percent. Using the same brush, draw some shading. Just a few strokes not much. We don't want to overwork this style. Brows and nose, lips and cheeks probably, that will be enough for this style. Peruse up to elements. I think we don't need sketch anymore. We can delete it. Just click on it and select ''Delete.'' Let's lock our drawing and it's time to add some color. As you can guess, I will be using watercolor brushes since they are my favorite here. I want to pick some bright red and choose the size which is comfortable to work on this surface. Not this. A bit darker and then transparency. I play around with settings. Yeah, something like this. It looks beautiful. I think I should change the order of layers. I put it underneath the sketch, so we can still see the line. Another way to do this is to set the layer properties to multiply or something like this. Now I fill the layer with some beautiful brush strokes here and there. It's really mesmerizing to watch how the color bleeds. Of course, my next step will be to add some shadows and we don't want it to be black shadow. We want something more interesting. Since we have red, we can use complimentary green.I need something darker, I think darker green. Let's try. Let's see how it looks. It's not dark enough. Yes, so I add a few strokes near the folds but I don't paint all the shadows. It's a very light style. We don't want to overwork it. I really love dramatic effects and colors. I'm trying to hold myself still not to spoil everything. Few strokes here, here, here. I think we need bright green offsets to just cheer things a bit. There are three types of watercolor brushes and there is also this awesome effect splash brush, which we can try to use. Some water. You can change the direction of the water. Let's see, this splashes brush. That's just what we need, a few splashes over here. Perfect. Now let's create a new layer and start working on the hair. I'll be using this brush called brush band grittier, which I find the texture is great for hair. A few strokes, just a few. We enter the ink carefully. Something like this and more and more, and also straight. It should be very light. Something more on top to balance the composition. Yeah. I think like this. We may add a few more shadows to keep that contrast. I always use different settings to work intuitively, it's always the best. This kind of style. I think it's finished. Here you can quickly save the file with different options. We're ready to move to the next video where we'll get inspired by a magical forest and create very atmospheric art work.
13. Style III : Animal Spirit: I'm happy to see you again. So are you ready to dive into magical woods? I am. So let's get started. We create a new document and I always begin with very quick thumbnail sketches using graphite. By the way, if you hold the end of the line, Adobe Fresco, will turn it into the very straight line like this. I'm drawing a tiny frame for the thumbnail sketches. Using Transform tool, I copy and paste this shape. You could rotate it, but we don't need it. So I repeat this section a few times, to have four small thumbnails and one more. You can also stack the layers, like this to save some space and then you can merge it. Now, let's try some ideas. Charcoal is a great tool. You can see the very texture it can make. The illustration is called the Animal Spirit. When I think of it, I imagine the fox character in some enchanted forest. So there might be a goal here, and everything is in the dark but not scary, dark, magical dark with berries. If I add just basic shapes on their own with tones, something is lighter, something is darker. This shouldn't be very detailed if you morph are enough. So here we have a character, a fox, which is central, actually and some berries I think with leaves, tiny eyes. Yeah, oops. Or maybe the fox should be the central character. I mean, literally it's central. In the middle of the forest, magical woods with some dramatic light. Maybe it's a good idea. Or how about the lady in the garden hugging a fox? It's a Victorian beautiful garden. Well, maybe, or a standard dramatic contrast between two pairs of eyes, human eyes and fox eyes. In general, I'd say that the first one has the most magical certain potential with all this details and main characters, and I love the fox. So my plan is to refine the sketch a bit to make more detailed artwork. Let's do it in the new document. I will create a new layer, pick a color, brownish black. I'll be working with a pencil to create a detailed line work. Use tool settings according to your artistic style. You can change the pressure and many other options. So it will be close to the style you like to work in. Yeah it works. Now let's continue with the line work. The sketch is ready, and let's move to the next video to continue working with color.
14. Digital Painting and Final Touches: Welcome back so before coloring, I always make some tone sketch just to plan the radius, I will show you. You can see dark areas here and here. This piece is going to be very atmospheric so shadows are playing a huge part in it. It really worth it to create the tone. Study, now, I created a new layer underneath the line work and begin to color it using watercolor brushes. I'm using the same brushes we tried in the previous parts of this class. I already know where the shadows are, so I'm just enjoying the process. I play around with different water color settings to create depth and add highlights without using any white, because it'll be too bright for our atmospheric artwork so I use different colors to put special details and I continue coloring. I prefer working on one layer, like in traditional media. It allows the paint to mix with the previous layers and it really gives me the effect I want. Adding colors highlights is very important for the unity of the piece. They continue working in this manner. When the most parts are colored, we can fill the background. I create a new layer, make a selection and Adobe Fresco will ask how we want to fill this layer. I just pixel and I can see the results right away. Now it's almost finished and I want to merge this two layers. It's time to add some final touches. We're almost ready. I wanted to show you one more technique. You can create a new layer and fill it with neutral gray. It will help to add the style to the illustration. We fill it like we did with background. Then go to layer properties and choose multiply. Then we can play around with opacity and beat. It's not necessary at all, but it's just a small touch I really love to use. I wanted this piece to have a sketchy field so there is no need for polishing. I hope you got the idea that with just a limited color palette, you can create a very expressive artwork. Now it's time to join me in the next video to learn about your assignment for this class.
15. Your Task: Welcome back. Looks like we did a great job and learned a lot. So your assignment is to create a fantasy portrait. It can be your friend, a famous actor, game character, magician, imaginative character, anyone, may be self portrayed, who knows? Be brave. You don't have to show me the final artwork, just upload your sketches. The community here is very friendly and helpful. You can also post it on Instagram, just don't forget to tag me so I could find and see your artwork. Don't forget about art supply prices. It's time to move to the next video, and here's some final thoughts.
16. Final Thoughts: Thanks for creating with me. Please remember, that the most important thing is your individual expression. Mechanical means only help you to show it, but will never be the substitute. Your artistic taste and heritage is a great value, so don't lose it in chasing false trends and popular styles, which change so fast. Don't worry about comparing yourself to other artists. Do art that impresses you, that's the biggest secret to creativity. If you enjoyed this class, please take a few moments to leave a review. Just pressing this buttons will make a huge impact. You can also follow me here on Skillshare, and I'm on Instagram where I share your art and some process videos. Of course, you can check my other classes. For example, on inks, is really cool ink challenge, I've got a great feedback on it. Watercolor secrets. There are watercolor secrets. Monotype, this technique is great for all levels. Paper marbling, modern folk art, fashion illustration and more. Thanks again for joining me. I'll be waiting very impatiently for your artworks. Upload them on the project gallery to get some prices and see you very soon.
Anna Sokolova, Berlin-based Artist
