Transcripts
1. Welcome To Class: [MUSIC] Art is not about
creating perfect paintings, it's about painting
from the heart to capture the essence of the
things that make you happy. Hello everyone,
I'm Bianca Rayala. I started out as a
certified public accountant in the Philippines'
number one auditing firm. However, as the years went by, I felt a deep sense of
unfulfillment in my heart. Until one day, I discovered the joy in watercolor painting, which led me to make the
bold decision to leave my flourishing
corporate career and pursue my passion for painting. Over the years, I dedicated
myself in honing my skills by putting high premium on constant,
never-ending learning. I attend various
watercolor master classes by renowned local and
international artists. I also participate in
watercolor exhibitions and hold my own workshops in person and online classes as
Skillshare Top Teacher, Silver Brush, and
Etch Studio Educator. Throughout the years I've taught thousands of students
across the world, and it is my purpose
to inspire people to discover and pursue
their creative passion. This class is not
meant to provide you just a step-by-step instruction
on how to paint a flower. It aims to inspire you
to feel free to create paintings that will bring your
real joy and fulfillment. We will start with choosing the right materials
such as paints and brushes that will make your creative journey
much more exciting. Next, we will work on
building up confidence in working with a lot of water and color by learning to let go. I will also share unique brush works and special
techniques to allow water and colors to move freely and make the most
of your watercolor. After that, I will
share how to loosen up your painting style
and how to portray the essence of flowers by combining techniques and
expressive brush strokes. I will guide you step-by-step
through painting dazzling variety
of spring flowers. By the end of the class, you will experience the infinite
potential of watercolor, overcome the fear of watercolor
flow and color bursts, and gain a renewed sense of passion and enthusiasm
for painting. If this is what you
desire to experience, then grab your brushes and let's take the journey together. [MUSIC]
2. Materials: The materials that
you use are the key to your success as an artist. In this lesson, I
will help you choose the appropriate materials
you need to get started. The greatness is,
when it comes to painting flowers in watercolor, you don't actually need a lot of colors and brushes
to get started. Let's talk about paints. Watercolor is an excellent
medium for painting flowers in expressive style because of it's delicacy and transparency. Since water is it's primary
medium for watercolor work, it is perfect for creating flow, expressive strokes, and effects. Watercolor is made in
two different qualities, artist grade and student grade, but the main
advantage of choosing artist grade paints is that you prevent getting muddy mixtures. For this class, I'm using colors from Schmincke
Horadam Aquarell. What makes them really great is that majority of
their paints are one pigment tones
which means that the colors are
clean and remained bright when mixed
with other colors. Now colors in my palette are
as follows; Naples yellow, transparent yellow,
cadmium orange, yellow ocher, branch Jenna, Perylene in dark red. Perylene violet,
Quinacridone magenta, cobalt blue, cobalt
turquoise, deep-sea violet, cobalt violet, paints
gray, olive green, indigo, deep-sea indigo,
prussian blue, ice blue. This color is like titanium
white with a hint of blue. Oprah rose, manganese violet, yellow orange, sepia. In each lesson, I
will be carefully guiding you through
the color mixing, so you can easily follow along. I also encourage you to use the colors you have
right now and you don't necessarily need to get the exact same colors that
I use for this class. Now let's talk about paper. The special thing about
watercolor paper is it's ability to remain
undamaged from soaking. It is also rough in
texture called dude that washes and produces
beautiful watercolor effects. Watercolor papers are available in varying surface textures, namely hot pressed or
the smooth texture, cold pressed, medium
texture and rough. The one I'll be using
for the class is a cold pressed Baohong watercolor
paper in 300 GSM. It is made of 100
percent cotton. Cold press paper is the most commonly used
paper because it has just the right texture to hold the paint and create
fine details. Apart from the paints, the most important tool in watercolor painting
is your brushes. Round brushes are the most
useful and versatile brush for any paintings subject. Brushes come in a
range of sizes, but you don't need to complete each size or a huge selection. If you have a brush that has
a fine point and full belly, you are good to go. A good brush should have
these two qualities, so it can be used for both
broad and detailed strokes. The brushes that I use for all my paintings are from
Silver Brush limited. These are rennaissance
sable brush. This is made of
natural sable hair and has good water and
pigment holding capacity. I have Size 6 and 8 as my working brush and Size 10 for painting larger
washes on the background. Since these brushes are made
of natural animal hair, they are quite
expensive but last a lifetime if properly
taken cared of. Silver silk 88
ultra round brush, Size 8 and 2 are
synthetic brush, which is very flexible
and has a good snap. I loved it for
painting fine details. It is like painting
with a pen because you get good control
over the strokes. Other essential
materials we'll for the class is a mixing palette, tissue paper, two water pots, water sprayer,
pencil and eraser. All the reference photo and final painting are
available for download in the resource section found in the project and resources
tab below this video. Be sure to download them for your guide when
painting along with me. Let's learn about
your brushstrokes, brush control and more
on the next video.
3. Brushwork: Brushwork is the way
in which artists use their brush as evident
in their paintings. Knowing how to handle
your brushes makes a big difference to your
confidence as an artist, and not experiencing
the joy of painting. It is very important to
know your brushes and the various marks
they can create by practicing on
a separate paper. You can make different
strokes as you vary the pressure on the
brush when you change the angles or when you twist or wiggle the brush to
create the varied shapes. Let's practice this using the natural hair brush and
synthetic brush that I have. By doing this, you
can also compare the unique characteristic
of your brushes. Let's paint lines. Load the brush
fully with pigment, then drag a line
along the paper. Notice that by pressing
the brush down gently, you can create broader
strokes while applying very minimal pressure and with just the tip
touching the paper, we create thin lines. I encourage you to experiment with different hand positions. Try holding the brush near the febrile to get
maximum control. This position is perfect for
tight and fine detail work. On the other hand, holding
the brush near the end of the handle gives you a loose
and expressive stroke. I will do this same exercise
with my synthetic brush. Here we can see how much water and pigment the
natural hair brush can hold as compared to
the synthetic one. We can also see that this
silver silk brush is really made for fine stroke
and precise details. Another thing I'd like to
share is brush loading. The amount of water and
pigment in your brush depends on the result
you want to achieve. For example, here I fully
load my brush with pigment, then remove the excess
water by dabbing it on a tissue before
flattening the bristles. This technique is
appropriate when link colors to build depth
on petals or leaves. When they flatten the
bristles of my round brush, the color is well
distributed on every stroke. However, when I want to
lay the initial wash or to create special watercolor
effects like watercolor flow, I load my brush with
lots of water in it, this time not removing
excess water from the brush, and making sure that
the belly is really full to create a watery stroke. This is also applicable
when splattering paints. The brush has to contain
really generous amount of pigment and water in it for
you to create good splatters. Now for painting the details, I bring my brush back
to it's pointed tip, loaded with a creamy mix of pigment to create
precise strokes. Lastly, we create
dry brushstroke by loading our brush with a creamy mix of paint with
very minimal water in it. Remove the excess water on
the bottom part of the brush, flatten the bristles, then do quick gliding stroke to achieve the dry stroke effect.
4. Building Confidence: Let's admit it, whether you're a beginner or an
experienced artist, there can sometimes be
a fear of letting go. Most of the time you
are scared of using too much water when in fact, water is the key element to creating magic with watercolor. In this lesson, I'll help you build up your confidence by using water to get
incredible results out of your watercolor. Let's start with color puddles. Color puddles when left to dry, create watermarks like this. This background from color
puddles is sometimes under-appreciated as they
are perceived as a mistake. But this imperfection is
a perfect effect that can be used for soft and
expressive backgrounds. We create this effect
by dropping water or water pigment
on a damp paper. The key here is to
drop the puddle on a damp or moist paper. If the paper is still very wet, the two colors will just blend smoothly together as they dry. I will show you more about this technique on our
succeeding exercises. I repeat the same demo
on the right side, varying the level of moisture of the paper when I
dropped in the pigment. This time the paper is less moist as compared
to the first one. Then now I will dry the
puddles with my heat gun. The watermarks
will begin to show once the paper gets
dry completely. Drying time also has an
effect on the results. The quicker the drying time is, the less dramatic
the blooms get. In my case, since
I use a heat gun, I somehow control the
growth of the blooms. In contrary, when you let
the paint dry on its own, the blooms may get
bigger in size and will create more
dramatic blooms. Next is watercolor
dripping effect. We achieve this by
loading our brush with pigment mixed
with lots of water, then dabbing the
brush several times in the same spot until
the paint drips down, gravity will cause the
paint to start dripping. Next is watercolor bleeds. We do this by pre-wetting the portion of the paper
around the object, then touching a tiny portion of the moist paint
with a watery brush. The paint will bleed
towards the wet surface. Now let's do the
splatter effect. I do this either
with a paintbrush to splatter paint or with my
fingers to splatter water. We vary the direction of the splatter effect with
the angle of the brush. If you want a fading splatter, we apply it when the
paper is wet or moist. But the distinct and
hard edge splatter can be achieved on a dry paper. Splattering water
with my fingers on a moist surface is also a good way to create soft
and small watercolor blooms. Next technique that we'll talk about is the
softening technique. We do this by using a damp
brush or with a water sprayer. If you want to simply soften the edge to smoothly
blend layers together, we soften it using a damp brush. This technique is suitable
when doing negative painting, where you outline the shape of the object to show its form, then softening the edges to blend it on the
background color. On the other hand, I use
the water sprayer to soften the edge of the painting to
create a fading edge effect. I often use this not just
on flower paintings, but also on loose
landscapes where I don't use masking tape for
curious borders. The last technique I'll
share is scratching. I use this for creating
details by lifting the color on the paper
through scratching. I usually scratch
using my fingernail, but you can also use a palette knife or any
sharp-edged object. When scratching, the paint
must be moist already. If the paper is still wet, the paint will bleed through
the scratch fragment. When the paint is dry, scratching effect is
not possible anymore. Let's put all these brush and watercolor techniques
into practice with some floral painting
exercises in the next videos.
5. Putting Them All Together: [MUSIC] I truly believe that art doesn't
have to be perfect. It is a means of
self-expression and watercolor. If we build up the courage
to let go of control, be fearless in using water and allow it to move freely, yes, there will be mistakes
and imperfections, but I guarantee you won't
just enjoy the process, but you will also achieve
satisfying results. To put all the things
we'll learn together, we will be painting five
dazzling spring flowers with unique personality
and expression. I encourage you to paint on
your own personal expression and not get limited in how I
particularly painted them. We will start from
simple flower exercise, then gradually progress through challenging yet fun projects. Remember that our main
goal is to loosen up and experience
the joy of painting. [MUSIC]
6. Daisies: For our first flower exercise which is painting a
little bunch of daisies, we will learn to let
loose and embrace imperfection while
applying the techniques I shared in the previous lesson. Let's start with
a simple sketch. I'll draw three daisies, one will be here
which is off-center. To make sure I draw with
balancing perspective, I drew a guide for
drawing petals. All petals are also intersecting on one point in the
center of the flower. Next, I draw a single
side-facing daisy here slightly above
the first one. Lastly, I add
another daisy below creating a triangular
composition. I draw a rough sketch of the
stems and tiny leaves too. Let's start painting. Remember our main goal is to break the fear of letting go; particularly of
using more water, so let loose, don't
panic, and have fun. I prepared a mix of bluish green color using
deep-sea indigo and olive green. I use deep-sea indigo primarily because of its super
granulation property. It creates a beautiful texture
in the background wash. I also added a bit of Naples yellow to add
thickness on the mix. I begin by doing
negative painting. Negative painting is
a technique where you outline the shape of
the petals and spread the paint around the
negative space with a darker color to bring out
the form of the flower. Here I'm using my
sable brush since it has good water and
paint holding capacity. I carefully paint around the first daisy using
the initial color mix, and little by little
adding a portion of each color to create variation. Notice that they added
more deep-sea indigo on one portion and also some more cobalt
turquoise on another. Next, I load my brush with
lots of water and soften the edge by wetting from
the outside going in. I let the paint bleed towards
the wet surface freely. Next, I get a spray bottle to all then more create
watercolor flow. As you spray water, it is better to spray on
the direction away from the flowers to prevent
the paint from bleeding towards
the white petals. I continue on doing negative painting on
the second flower. I repeat the process of
outlining the petals with paint, then softening the edge
with a very watery brush. I also use my sprayer to
further wet the edges. Now, I notice that the paint
blend towards the petals. As much as possible
they should remain unpainted as we want to
portray white flowers, but in this case
we can simply lift the color with a
clean, damp brush. Just make sure to
clean your brush every after the lifting stroke, so you won't stay in
the fragment once more. Now I'm dropping some more
color on the corners of the petals to add depth while
the fragment is still wet. I also take advantage of the moisture of the paper
to create special effects, so I splatter some
Cadmium Orange mixed with transparent
yellow at the background. Remember when spattering,
your brush has to have a lot of paint in it to create
beautiful and bold splatters. Using the same color mix, I paint the center
of the daisies. I leave a tiny and painted spot in the center to portray light. Next, I soften the edge
with a clean, damp brush. Now let's paint the stems
using olive green and a bit of Cadmium Orange
for a warmer shade. I don't make the stroke
very strong and bold as I'd like to keep the
paintings soft and fresh. Now, I will speed up the drying process
using my heat gun. Watercolor tends to get
lighter as it dries. Drying time also has an
effect to the results. The quicker the dryer time is, the less dramatic
the blooms get. In my case since
I use a heat gun, I somehow control the
growth of the blooms. In contrary, when you let
the paint dry on its own, the blooms may get bigger in size and will create
more dramatic blooms. Now that my background is dry, I can add more depth around
the fragments of the daisy. Here I already changed to a synthetic brush to place thicker and more
saturated color, then I will use my
natural brush to soften the edge and blend it
to my initial layer. Since my synthetic brush
has a very pointed tip, I use it to bring out some petals by
partially outlining it. I use my natural brush to
blend the layer smoothly. When you do this step, make sure that your
blending brush is damp and has the water in it to
prevent further blooms. I do the same step with
the second flower, I added more contrast
on the upper fragment. What I love about to make up
paints is its transparency. I don't have to worry about
creating muddy colors when blending layers
because the paints are made of single pigment. As a final step, let's add depth on the
center by dropping some dark tone of yellow orange, and I simply dab the tip of
my brush as I do this step. I also add a bit of
sepia to my yellow, orange mix for the darkest
tone on the center. Finally, I add hints of dark tones on the
stems and tiny leaves. We'll let the paper dry
completely on its own, and let the puddles create unique watermarks on your work.
7. Tulips: For our second flower exercise, we will practice color bleed, splatter and scratching
techniques in painting tulips. Let's draw the three
tulips starting from the main one here
near the center. I copy the shape on
the reference photo but slightly tilt the
angle of the flower. I add another one here below. This one is blooming already
and has an open center. Next, I add some leaves
around the flowers. For the last flower, I drew a bud here on the
upper-right side part. I add another leaf, just to enhance
the home position. Now let's start painting. Using my natural brush I get the milky mix
of yellow orange. I dilute it with some water and splatter some paints randomly. Next I get connected with
magenta and add a bit of yellow-orange to paint the
other portion of the buds. I flatten the bristle of my
brush as I lay the colors. I let the red and yellow
colors blend naturally by keeping my strokes very
light and minimum. Also, the direction of my stroke follow the
flow of the petal. Now I paint the other petal with a thicker and more
saturated paint. Since the mix is thick, there was very minimal and controlled bleed between petals. I look at the tonal value on the reference and
dark and a fragment that needs to be deep and dark to create
form in dimension. Now let's do color bleeds. With the brush fully
loaded with water, I wet the area around tulip and slightly touch small portion of the bottom part of the flower so the red paint will bleed
towards the wet area. I also splatter some paints
both on wet and dry paper. Don't worry if you
feel that you lost the shape or form of the tulip, we can enhance it later on. Let's move on to
the next flower. Using the same color mix, I paint this front pedal
with a light tone. Next, I mix Berlin dark red
and Berlin violet to paint this side
petals and shadow. Notice that my brush has
almost no water in it, creating a thick mixture. To create depth and make petals distinguishable we place appropriate
tonal values on them. Let's paint the third tulip. I put the yellow-orange color, then blend in a red color mix. I darken the edge on the overlapping petals of
the bud to show its form. Now, I will enhance some dark spots to better show
the shape of the flowers. I mix Persian violet and
deep-sea violet to paint this dark violet color in the middle part of
the first tulip. Now, I mix color for the
leaves using yellow, orange, and cobalt-turquoise and
a bit of [inaudible] I get a muted green
color for the stem. I flatten my brush and drag
it as I paint the stem. My stroke looks
like a dry brush. Next, I mixed olive green
and [inaudible] making it watery this time to paint
the base wash of the leaves. I add indigo to my mix to
get a darker shade of green. As I paint the leaves, I add expressive
strokes like splatters. While the paper is still moist, I scratch the leaf part with my nails to show subtle details. There's actually no right
or wrong timing as to when to play special effects
like splatters and bleeds, it's all about how you feel
like expressing yourself. What's important is
as you place effects, you also take into
consideration the placement of correct tonal values
to make the picture more alive despite of
its expressiveness. I continue to add depth and
contrast on the leaves. Now, I do another
color bleed effect on the lower part of the leaf
then followed with a splatter. I make some scratches some more. I darken the stem a little
bit and I felt that there is a need to do another bleed here on the right
side of the leaf. This one is smaller though. As a final step, I play small spots of dark and deep red color
on specific fragments on the tulips and also add
a bit of contrast between leaves to further
emphasize the folds. This is our final painting. Let the petals dry
naturally and let the blooms make
magic in your work.
8. Iris: Iris may look intimidating
to paint because of its complex structure
but don't lose heart. Let's simplify the process, focusing on capturing the
essence of the flower. By looking at the reference, let's break down the form by focusing on the general shape. I observe the angle
of the flower and start with the upper petal. Next, I draw the other
one pointing to me. I do shaky strokes
to draw the petals, and since I focus more
on the general shape, I look closely on ensuring that the petals
are in proportion. I finish off by drawing the stem and a bird
attached to it. Lastly, I'll put light marks
as my guide for dark tones. Let's paint. I
load my brush with water then get a generous
amount of cobalt violet. I add some more water in it to paint splatters on my paper. This is a good exercise to
loosen up your painting style. Next, I start painting
the first petal. The base wash is milky
and transparent. Here I try to build the
tonal value in one layer. I control the amount of water in my brush so I can place strokes of dark tones over the moist
base wash in one layer. I mix a bit of
manganese violet to my cobalt violet to paint
the inner part of the petal. Now I get thick yellow-orange and do dabbing strokes
to paint the center. I paint this small
petal on the side, I use the same
purple color but I vary the tone to
separate the two petals. Now, let's paint the
petal in the middle. With my brush flattened, I lay the colors evenly, then drop strokes of dark violet color to
create depth and texture. To create a faded or
light-toned fragment, I simply lift the color
using a damp brush. Then to paint this
dark curved stroke, I load my brush with
a creamy paint then remove the excess
water from my brush. Let's paint the last petal. Since watercolor
fades as it dries, I continue adding some
more dark strokes on the curve or
folds of the petals. Now, let's paint the
spath and the stem. I use [inaudible]
yellow, orange, and burnt sienna to paint
this bottom fragment. I also add olive green to
make the holler deeper. Next I place burnt sienna in the middle part of this path. Here I paint with the
previous green colors, the stem with a dry brush. I add some splatters and the bleeding effect on
the side of this path. I drop darker green color on the edge off this path
to create color burst. I just let the paint bleed
richly on the wet surface. I also added some
splatters on it. Here I paint the bud with
light tones in loose strokes. Now I darken the edge of the petal to separate
it from the spath. I also add dark spots on the side of the
stem for dimension. Using cobalt violet, I enhance
the color of the petals. I apply paint then soften the edge to blend it on
the initial purple layer. I do the same thing
with the other petals. I add tone little
by little to avoid creating sudden dark and
irreversible layers. It is always better
to add layer in watercolor than try to make
up for an overdamped stroke. Here as I add tiny
spots for texture, my brush is damp having almost no water and very
slight pigment in it. Let's add a watercolor
puddle here on the upper left using a thin
mix of manganese violet. I drop lots of water on my
paper and splatter paint too. As you do this, make sure that the color puddle is
very light in tone, so it won't compete or overpower
the color of the iris. Next, I added some contrasts and details on the bud and spath. As a final step, I take my size two
ultra round brush to paint the tiny
beards of the iris. I use naples yellow and ice blue since they are
opaque watercolor. I make the mix very thick and saturated so it will
appear really opaque. I draw tiny downward
strokes to paint the beard. In watercolor you must
learn when to stop. Most of the time, you should
stop adding layers or details even before you think you're painting
is complete. This is our iris painting. Lets practice painting
white flower on feeding backgrounds
in our next lesson.
9. Calla Lily: Welcome to our fourth project. I hope by this time
we are slowly gaining the confidence in
playing with water. In this lesson, we'll
paint white calla lily glowing against a striking
yet misty background. We begin by drawing the main
petal of the calla lily. Next, we draw the folded
petal underneath, then the neck and the
stem of the flower. Now I'll draw this
paddocks making sure it is aligned
with the stem. Here I draw suggestive strokes to indicate the
curve of the flower. Let's begin painting
using yellow, orange, and the leftover
greens on my palette. I paint the yellow
portion of the neck. I softly blend a more greenish
color using my yellow, orange, and cobalt
turquoise mix. You can see that the
bristles of my brush are flattened to create
even strokes. I try to build the
form of the flower in one layer by
playing with tones. I continue painting the
stem with dry brush and add some more dark tones on the
right side part of the stem. Next we will paint the
shadows of the white flower. I mix cobalt blue,
quinacridone magenta, and burnt sienna to get a cool
gray color for the shadow. I start painting the shadow
underneath the petal curve. Next, I paint the shadow on the inner fragment
of the petal. I soften the edge so it
will look subtle and light. I reserve some white
unpainted spaces to retain the brightness
of the white flower. Now I add a light wash
of yellow-orange on this paddocks and then add another darker color
to build dimension. Now I paint the
folded portion of the petal with a
greenish-gray color, making sure its tone
is slightly darker on the upper petal to make the
fold more distinguishable. Here I enhance the
shadow portions of the petal by adding somewhere light strokes of gray then softening it with every stroke. Now let's paint the background. I use a very thick and
creamy consistency of perylene violet. I outlined the flower carefully then spread the color going out. I added some
quinacridone magenta on my perylene violet for a
richer and deeper color. I keep my strokes upward
and the paint very saturated so it won't
dry light in color. Now I spray some water
on the edge using a sprayer to create a
feeding edge effect. I continue painting the bottom
portion of the background, being careful not to
stain my white flower. Just a tip when using
a spray bottle, the position of
your hand is very important to set the
direction of the spray. Make sure you spray
away from the flower to prevent water from flowing
towards the white flower. I'm now just filling in the background around
the calla lily then spray water on the edge to
get the soft feeding edge. Next, using my fingers I
splatter some water on the moist background to create soft blooms also known
as cauliflower effect. Now, while waiting for
the background to dry, let's enhance the shadow
colors to add more contrast. I put a tiny stroke of gray here underneath and then soften
the edge with a damp brush. By doing this step, we highlight the shadow under the
petal fold even more. I do the same step here on the inner portion
of the petal. If your shadows are
already dark enough, there is no need to do
this additional step. Now, I paint this [inaudible]
with the darker orange. As a final step, I sprinkle some water for more
blooms at the background. Here is our calla lily glowing against a
misty background. I'll see you in
the next video for our next flower exercise.
10. Magnolia: Now on our fifth class project, we will combine almost
all techniques, including the very interesting
watercolor drip effect as we paint a Magnolia blossom. To start the sketch, we draw the Magnolia here in the
upper half of the paper. I make the petals
really big so it will almost occupy
the entire space. I simply copy the big
shapes that I see. Next, I draw the stem
with a jagged stroke. Lightly erase the sketch to
lighten the pencil marks. Now let's do the painting. I start with the shadows on
the petals using cobalt blue, magenta and branechena to
create a cool gray color. I load my brush with
lots of water to dilute the paint and
create a very watery wash. I don't cover the entire petal, but just some fragment that
appears white in the photo. I do the same thing
with the petals behind. Next using opera rose and
a bit of Naples yellow, I paint the soft pink
shade in the front petal. I still have my
brush flatten and do blending strokes to blend both bluish green
color and pink color. Now I get a creamy
mix of pink to start building the dimension
of the same petal. The paper is quite
damp this time that's why the stroke is both
defined yet soft edge. I slowly add darker
tone on top of this damp fragment to create the texture and also dimension. I move on to the
petal on the left. I start with soft and
light wash of pink, then add a thicker mix
of a darker paint. Here the strokes look
controlled because the brush doesn't have
much water in it. It contains almost only pigment. As I paint the
petal on the right, I place a stroke, then soften it
with a damp brush. I keep the front petal as the one with the
most vibrant color. All other petals behind
are very light in tone. Don't worry if you paint
beyond the sketch, since we will paint
the background, we can define the shape of the
Magnolia during that step. Here I'm just placing
some dots of colors on some corners and intersections and petal to suggest the shape. Now I mix the green color
using cobalt, turquoise, and yellow, orange for
the tiny green buds. I also add a bit of indigo to the mix to get the
darker green color. Next, I paint the stem
with the same color mix, but added a bit of perylene violet to get
a warm brown color. I do some broken strokes
when painting the stem. Now let's prepare the
color for the background. Using cobalt turquoise
and deep sea violet, I do negative painting to
create the background wash. I added some more paint
to make them mix thicker. This step is similar
on the daisy exercise, but this time we wanted a
more opaque background color. I make color bleeds by wetting the edge part with a
very watery brush, then tilt my paper
several times to make the dripping effect
from the water puddles. I do the same step
on the other side. Make the initial
layer very thick, so when you introduce
water on the edge, you'll get a soft gradient
from dark to light wash. I encourage you to let loose
and just play with water. Feel free to drop in water
puddles and just let water flow and colors
burst on their own. Don't be afraid to
play and experiment. Now to add some more
dripping effect, I dab my brush that
is fully loaded with water and paint on the spot until the paint drops or even tilt my paper so it will
flow down faster and easier. Here you'll notice that
the upper fragment is lighter in tone while the
bottom part is darker. It is an effective way
to drive the eyes of our viewers from top to bottom. I carefully outline the
flower petals and add a little more contrast between them by putting deep-sea violet. Here I get the other orange mixed with cobalt turquoise and splatter this green mix
on the wet background. You want colors to be
connected so I use the same color mixes
even on special effects. I also splatter some pink
colors at the background too. Here let's enhance the
flower a bit more. I get a thick mix of pink and do some dry brush strokes
to add the darker tone, then soften and blend
it with a clean brush. I dab few dark dots of color on some edges as a suggestive
stroke in between petals. While doing this step, I tried to keep
myself from placing too many highlights
as I don't want to lose the freshness and
looseness of the flower. Remember to stop even before you feel like
the work is complete. I encourage you to
take a step back and you'll better
appreciate your work. This is a Magnolia painting. See you in the next video for some special reminders on painting and sharing your works.
11. Share Your Works: [MUSIC] I'm so glad you've made it to the
end of the class. I really hope you discovered a liberating way of
exploring watercolors. It may feel scary to
completely let go at first, but as you keep on
challenging yourself, painting becomes
far more enjoyable. I'm excited to see your works, how you express yourself
through intuitive strokes, color bursts, and splashes. Please upload them in the project section
below this video. You can also share your
works on Instagram and tag me at Bianca Rayala, so I can see your works
and share feedback. Thank you so much
for joining my class and I'll see you on
my other classes. [MUSIC]
Bianca Rayala, Top Teacher | Watercolor Artist
