Figures in Composition: Painting people in landscapes with watercolor

1. Introduction: Hey everyone, my name is Rainbow. I'm a painter, illustrator based in Hong Kong. One of my specialization's in watercolor. I paint them on cityscapes, landscapes, night scenes. I love working with different colors and lighting to create a story behind my paintings. So in this class today we'll be looking at how to paint figures in landscapes and cityscape compositions through using watercolor. And I'll be showing you a few different approaches from painting a simple standing figure, adding variation to the poses, and utilizing negative space. I'll also be walking you through the entire process of this painting, which is a group of people waiting at a bus stop and you really apply the things that we've learned in this class and put them in context. By the end of this class, you'll be able to finish this painting here, as well as have a better understanding to create your own figures and how to place them within a composition. I'm so excited to have you here. So let's get started and I'll see you in class. 2. Tools and Supplies: Before we begin, we'll look at some of the materials and tools that we'll need for this class. First you'll be needing some watercolor paper. Any brand or type is fine as long as the paper is thick enough to withstand multiple layers of water. This is usually the difference between watercolor paper, and sketching, and drawing pads. I usually use paper with a thickness and weight of 300 GSM. You can also choose between paper that has more of a rough or smooth texture. I normally prefer a rougher texture because it works better with painting sceneries, with figures. I think the strokes come out a bit more natural and loose. But this is all up to you to what you want and you can definitely experiment with what works best. We will also be needing watercolor paints, and this is my palette. I use tube paints and I squeeze them out here. But you can also use watercolor pads and they will work just as well. In terms of brushes, it's very simple. You will only be needing a small round brush for painting the figures. Now, I'll show you how to paint figures individually as well as in a landscape composition. For the individual figures, we'll only be using that small brush. Before the landscape composition will also be needing a flat brush for painting the background. Other than that you will also need a mixing palette to mix your paints, some water to wash your brushes, a pencil, a towel, and masking tape to tape the edge of your paper. Great. Now that we have everything, in the next section I'll briefly talk about how to use these water color paints and brushes, some basic techniques, and things to keep in mind before jumping into our figure painting. 3. Using your watercolor brush: [MUSIC] As I briefly mentioned in the previous video, with the tools and supplies, we'll only be using one single brush for painting the figures. Here I just wanted to show you a bit more of what you can really do with the single brush, how you can control it and see how versatile it can be. The small round brush has a pointy tip, which means it's great for a painting, thin lines like so. This can be used for when we're painting the little details, smaller bits. Another thing that you can do with this brush is to flatten the tip of it like so, almost like a small flat brush. With this you can create much thicker lines like so. Now, if we press the brush down, we can actually use the side of the brush to cover and paint a much larger area and this is great for creating a fading gradient where the paint is concentrated at the tip of the brush and it fades with water to the end. Play around with the different types of shapes that you can create with this brush, depending on the type of bristles that you have. Just try and explore and see what you can do and get to know your brush. Once you have familiarized yourself with the brush that you are using, we will be moving on to painting our first standing figure in the next video. 4. Simple standing figure: With our first standing figure, we're going to start with our sketch. Going from top, we're going to split this figure into three sections: the head, the body, and legs. I'm going to work our way down. This figure has its back towards us and here, I'm also going to add a backpack to make it a bit more interesting. When you're sketching, try to focus on the overall shape rather than the details of it. Keep in mind of the rough proportions. For example, the body is usually the length of around three heads, whereas the legs are a bit longer around the length of four heads. Since we're not doing a portrait of a figure, but rather just figures within a larger landscape of composition, it's okay for these proportions to not be perfect. Try playing around with what looks good. Try exaggerating certain features. See broad shoulders, longer legs, and just see how that would look. Once you're satisfied with your sketch, we can move on to painting. In terms of a painting, we're going to begin with the head, the hands, and the areas of skin and then we're going to move on to the clothing and the hair. As you're painting this from one section to another, gently connect the two parts, so that they blend seamlessly together. You want to try to pick colors that are different to help differentiate the parts of the figure. For example, the backpack here has a bright turquoise color in contrast to the shirt and the trousers which are much darker. Now, once you are finished with painting the figure, let that dry. We're going to paint the background, add some colors into it. There you go. That's a very simple standing figure. In the next video, we're going to talk a bit more about variations in poses, accessories, and how to make them simple, but also interesting. 5. Variations of the standing figure: Now that we've done a simple standing figure, in this video, I'm going to walk you through two more figures, and this time we're going to add a bit more variation and you can switch it up and see how we can make this figure a bit more interesting. Again, starting with a pencil, we're going to sketch out the basic shape of the figure similar to before. This time, I'm going to have this figure carry a few bags. This is going to make the shape a bit more interesting. I have a bag on the right and one on the left, a bit over a counterbalancing there. Again, we're going to start by painting the face, the hands, and the feet before moving on to the clothing and then the bags. After that, we're going to add some color to the background and also add a bit of a shadow, just like that. Now for the third figure, we're going to repeat this process and this time I'm going to make the arms gather into the middle, so it's as if the figure is holding a phone and texting. In this process makes sure that you're again focusing on the overall shape and you can play around with the different poses that still utilize the same standing structure. For example, you could add different accessories. Maybe the person is holding a cup of coffee or leaning against the wall. The variations are endless. Then we're going to repeat this process again by painting the head, the skin, and then moving on to the clothing and finally the background. In the next video, I'm going to show you a different way of painting figures. We're going to be utilizing the negative space and we're going to start by painting the background first. We'll see in the next video. 6. Negative space method: In the first half of this class, I've talked a lot about focusing on the overall shape of the figure, how to make it more interesting by adding bags or a different poses. Well, here in this second part, I am going to show you a different painting method, where we're going to reverse the process and start by painting the background, and then working inwards. So with this approach we are really solely looking at the silhouette to be in with. You'll find that once you have that shape and that structured defined, the details don't really matter. Here I have three examples, so in the first one I'm going to make use of the white jacket that the figure is wearing. In this second example, we'll look at painting a group of three people, and in the last example, we'll also experiment with a figure on a vehicle. So as we get started, like always, we're going to begin with a sketch, starting from the head and all the way down to the body and the feet, keeping in mind the shape of the jacket and how the one figure overlaps the other. The sketching process is pretty much the same as before. Now, as we get to painting, we're going to start by mixing a dark color for the background, and we're going to paint around our sketch. Now, this is going to seem a little harder than the other approach because we're utilizing the negative space. Make sure to spend a bit more time and sketching out a precise outline and accurate shape for you to simply just follow when you paint this part. Then we're going to wait for this background layer to dry and make sure that, it dries before we move on. Here we're going to start by painting the head, the skin and then the clothing. Now, with this second figure, I'm not going to add any color to the white jacket because it's already nicely defined by the background. Instead, I'm going to add a small bag in front and a color the trousers, leave the shoes white as well, and just finish off a bit with the shadows here and there. That's it, so that's basically how we do the reverse process of painting with the negative space in mind. In this next example, we're going to paint a group of figures using the same methods, I'll just say a few more variations of how to do this style. Again, we're starting with a sketch then we're going to move on to the background and even when you're doing the background, you can add some color transitions and use different colors within. Try to keep the background a little darker so that it will define the shapes more. Make sure to keep the waters to paint ratio on the thick side. Don't add too much water or it'll be quite difficult to control. As you can see, after we've painted the background, the entire shape of the figures have already been defined and we only need to add a bit of the details in the clothing to really complete this look. So similar to what we've done before, we're going to add some different and contrasting colors to define the parts of the figure. I'm going to add a backpack here, some accessories there and try to make use of the white of the paper, so leave certain areas untouched in paint around it. An easy way to do that would be to leave the sole of the shoes white, so experiment with that and play with that as well. In our final example, I'm going to be painting a figure on a motorcycle. Again, we're going to start with the background and paint inwards. Try to use different colors, try different poses, look at different references and keep practicing. In the next video, I will talk more about how to paint figures within a composition, how to place them and what they do basically. 7. Why figures?: Now that we have a basic idea of how to paint figures, I want to talk a bit more about figures within a composition. So where to place them, what they do and give you few examples of the different placements and styles that you can utilize. So first, why do we paint figures? What do they do? Well, figures add life to a composition and when painting a landscape or a cityscape, it adds life to the environment and gives it something for us to relate to. These figures could be very small, they could just be a simple silhouette, and it could still make a big difference. For example, in this painting, you can see that there are no details to the figures at all, it's just a shape, but it adds something to the story and to the painting, and you can get that feeling from the scene. Now, when we add larger figures with more detail, they can actually be used to lead the eyes towards a focal point. Because as human beings, we are naturally attracted to and drawn to life and to human figures. For example, in this one, you can see that the figure leads us to the small shop. Or in this painting, the person selling the fruits in a market. It's also good to think about the clothing and the colors of the figures and how they work together with the composition as a whole. Figures are a great way for you to create shadows, make the floor a little less empty and accentuate the lines in a composition. When you're thinking about where to place the figures, you can ask yourself, do you want these figures to stand out? Do you want them to blend in? Create a balance within the composition, or do you want them to lead your eyes to a certain focal point? All of these different choices are valid and they create a different result, they achieve something different. Sometimes a lack of figures could also be very powerful. For example, in this painting, the lack of figures actually helped build the story of how this scene is very empty, it's like a cold empty street. So now that we have a better understanding of placing figures within a composition in the different scenarios with that, in the next video, I'm going to show you one example and the entire process of painting composition with figures inside. 8. Figures in composition (full process): Great. Here I'm going to show you the entire process from start to finish of how to paint this painting. We're going to begin with the sketch and here I've just decided to make a very simple composition with a bunch of figure is waiting for the bus. You can think of other compositions that have figures in it to practice on anything that you want, or you can follow along and just paint this one with me. After we've finished the sketch am going to tape the edges of the paper and this is going to give us a nice clean edge after we finish the painting. Then I'm going to take a flat brush going to wet it and wet the background a bit. Then we're going to mix a few brighter colors, for example, a bit of orange, bit of red. I'm going to brush that along the sky and then we're going to add a bit of brown, bit of blue. Just like that. We're going to extend that to the top and also bringing these colors to the bottom. This is basically the base of our painting. After that, after it has dried completely, I'm going to start by using some of the blues and the browns to create a light shadow. With this color I'm going to paint the structure of the bus stop. You're going to use the tip of your flat brush to create straight lines. Just like that. After that, we're also going to paint the figures similar to how we've done them before. Focusing on the silhouette and the shape of it. If your figures are smaller, they can actually just be silhouettes. They don't mean a lot of details. This painting that I've created is a very simple example of how to put figures within a composition, but also a very basic example of painting a sunset. Now, if you're interested in learning more about how to paint sunset specifically, I have another class on that, and I'll show you exactly how to use watercolor and how we're going to go from learning about gradients to the water shoe paint ratio all the way to paint a specific sunset and that one is a bit more complex but more comprehensive in comparison to this one, since we're focusing on the figures for this painting. After that, we're going to add some shadows in the figures and we're going to add some finishing touches here and there. Once you are finished with the last layer and the shadows and you are satisfied with your painting, you can wait for it to dry and then remove the masking tape. And there you have it. That's your figures in composition. 9. Your turn!: Now that you've seen many different examples, it's your turn to create your own. You can practice by painting individual figures and look at different poses, and experiment with that, or you can follow along and paint the painting that I've done here. In any case, I would love for you to experiment, to try it out and just learn from it. Be sure to post it in the project section of this class, or if you posted on social media, make sure to tag me as well, I'd love to see your work. That's it for this class. I really hope that you enjoyed it. Make sure to check out some of my other classes on how to paint a sunset, how to paint a cityscape, and I hope to see you in our next class. Bye.