Transcripts
1. Introduction: This one is all about the glow. Hi, I'm Nadine. I'm
a watercolor artist from Melbourne, Australia. And today, I want to do
a lesson with you where we are really focused
on retaining the light, retaining the transparency, and making the painting work by using a small number of darks, not getting too heavy
in the subject. Because one of the most enjoyable things
about watercolor, I think is the translucency and the real glow
that she can get. If you're careful and you
don't get too heavy handed. So we'll go through the
reference to the sketch, the materials for the class, and we'll go step by step
through this painting, and hopefully by the end of it, you haven't over painted, and you've kept a lot of
light in the subject. So let's see how we go.
2. Materials: Materials for today's class. First up the reference photo. This is my photo, so it's loaded directly onto
the skill share site. You don't have to click a link. You can download that directly. I'm painting on 300 gram
Archer's Cal press paper. I'm painting on board
and I'm painting flat, but I'm not taping
it down because I'm going to move it
around a fair bit. Now, I haven't prestretch this paper because I
don't tend to prestretch. It does have a little
bit of a wobble in it. If that bothers you, then I would wet down
the front and back, tape it down and let it
dry for a few hours. Prestretch it first if that wobble is going to be a problem. Now in terms of paints, I'm using for the
main bit of the bird, I've got some winds in newton permanent rows and some winter
in newton yellow ochre, or you could use raw sienna. Now, I've also got winds
newton burnt sienna, ceran. So Daniel Smith Indigo. I, I hesitate to say this. I've got some Daniel
Smith antsy yellow. You could use yellow. But this I use just a scaric of it for
the lime green in the eye. If you don't have this yellow, you could use make it up with the yellow
ochre and the cerulean. Don't go and buy this
especially for that. I also another one,
don't go out and buy. I've put a tiny dot of white
gas in the back of the eye. It's not essential, so don't
rush out and buy that. Now, did I say regular HB
pencil and irregular eraser. Also for the brushes. I've got four that
I'm using here. Two little synthetics. This tiny one is just for
the pupil and the nostril, so I don't use that very much. This small one is
quite handy to get around in the beak and some of the areas
in the back here. But I use that in
combination with this is a synthetic natural fiber mix, just a little bit bigger,
and the details of these are in the
material section. Now, I'm telling you not
to buy all these things. This is another
one I hesitate to say that you need because
you don't really. I'm only using this for this particular brush
stroke here for the tail, just because it forms, it's just a perfect
shape for it, but you could easily do it with a couple of strokes
with this brush. So don't go out and grab one of these just for the
single stroke. Now, other than that,
you'll need your palette, a jar of water, and some tissue or toilet paper.
I think we're good to go.
3. Sketching Up: Let's have a look at the sketch. Now, here's a reference
photo. Two things to not. Firstly, I'm scaling up. I'm going bigger than the actual reference photo
that I printed out. Also, I'm not putting all
the background in the water. If you want to do the background absolutely by all means to it, it's not really something
that I tend to do, so I'm going to leave
it out and I'm going to end my sketch just
underneath its knees. Now, this might be
a little bit hard to see on the video,
my actual sketch. The reason that
it's quite light is because we've got a lot
of light on the subject, and we're painting there's
a bit of yellow in here. It's really hard to get pencil off under particularly yellows. Keep the pencil light, but so you can see what
I'm talking about. Here's the actual template. Now, I've put this
up. If you don't want to free hand sketch it, I've put this template
up for you on the skill share site and I'm
a little bit darker here, so you might be able to see
a bit better what I'm doing. To scale up, I've given
you two A four sheets and they'll fit together
on the line there. So keep it really simple. Keep the detail really
minimal in the back here. I'm not worrying about all this patterning
because we're going to do that all wet and wet and
leave some white paper. I have given myself
a little bit of an indication of the line here, that cute little tail, which will just be a single stroke. And in the face, just the only thing
that's a bit tricky is this little part under this,
little extra bit there. It's a bit hard to reconcile what's going on in the photos. So I've simplified that
here and just given myself a line underneath and a little bit of a line
through this part, and we'll deal with that one
we're actually painting. So As always, keep
it pretty simple, and I think that's all and
we'll get to the painting.
4. Starting the Beak: Okay. See how we go filming around this very
awkward shape sheet. Hopefully we get it right
with all the filming gear. But I'm going to start
in the eye and the beak. Now, for the eye, I'm
just going to pop a really light milky wash initially of I've got some cer in here and a little
bit of huntsy yellows. I'm just making up
a little bit of a lie a lime green in my well, and just come straight
onto the dry page. I draw my tissue of brush off a little bit
there, bit much water. Just paint in a circle. That's probably a little
bit greener than it is, but it's such a small space.
It doesn't really matter. So you can put a bit more
blue in there if you want. Then I'm going to switch
that was with my tiny brush. Now I'm going to switch to
a slightly bigger brush. Try and make sure it's clean. What am I going to do?
I think I'm going to use some I'm going to start
with some milky cerlian. I'm going to paint
first with water. I'm going to paint just up to about where the black starts. I'm keeping this dry and just
bringing my brush through. I going to keep the top
and the bottom separate. No soaking. I'm just dampening it first while I'm working
out where I want to go, I'm going to try not to touch to that eye, where
I've just been. Then I pick up a
little bit of cerliu. I'm just going to
it's too much cerium. I'm going to get
some water and just flood that and dilute
that pigment out. Important not to panic
when you do things like that and try
and dab and around. You can just take a
breath and move around, think about what you
actually want to do. I want to keep light
on the top initially. I'll probably put
some yellow ker something up there a bit later, but for now, I'm just going
to get a little bit of that. I'm just working out my shape. When I look in here, there's a lot of almost looks
like burnt sienna. I think. I'm going to take
a little bit of burnt sienna and while
this page is wet, it's going to drop
a little bit in there. Nice and wet and wet. Let it bleed, push
it around a bit. It doesn't matter what
happens on this edge because I'm going to come
in and put black in there. I might put just a
touch the top as well. I'm just washing my brush. And letting the pigment and
the water do the work for me. Just I'm just making sure that I brought the pigment to my pencil edge down the bottom there and also up the top here. And then I'm going
to come out of that. And I'm going to
let that fully dry.
5. First Black Wash on the Beak: It's been about 10
minutes probably, and I'm fully drying there. I'm going to stick in the beak. And I'm going to pop
in a tiny pupil, and then we're going to do start the black on the front
of the beak here. Because I'm painting flat, if I go to paint this circle
in here for the pupil, while I'm painting
flat, I'll probably paint a skew if shape. So when I paint it, I'm going to tilt it up to make sure
the shape is right. B this is small, if
you're not going to if you're having trouble
with your paint brush, because it's such a
tiny black shape, you can use a fine liner to
put this in if you want chat. So I'm going to go straight for. I've got some indigo
in my well here. So milky to creamy
wash initially, and then just paint
that circle in. Make sure your brush
comes to a good tip. I've probably gone a bit bigger. I had the wrong glasses on, so I've probably gone
a bit bigger than I wanted to, but that's okay. It's a little bit untidy
on the side here, but I don't want to deal with if I try and deal with that now, all that's going
to happen is I'm going to push pigment around, so I need to let that dry and I'll come back and
tidy that up later. Now I'm going to go to
the front of the beak. Now, there's a nice highlight
on the top of the beak. I reckon I'm going
to lift that when I'm finished with a stiff brush, so I'm not going to stress too much about that
at the moment. I do want a little
bit of a soft edge. I don't want the black
to just finish hard. So to do that, which brush, I might go up one. I'll go back to the
slightly bigger brush. I'm going to take a little bit
of water and just paint it along that pencil edge and
into the front of the beak. This line here is very dark. We'll do that towards the end. I'm going to paint
the top of the beak as well. Coming up. It's quite messy in
there, isn't it? Really, I'm just
going to damp and down to the join, and
we'll see how we go. Damp not saturated. Picking up miky
wash initially of my indigo and just
dropping that in. Pay attention to my pencil
edge down the bottom here. But when I'm coming
to this join, I want to let the
water wicket up to that burnt s. I'm
trying to not paint. I think I've got a
little bit further here. I'm just going to soften that. I don't want to really
hard edge there. I'm going to just
tease a little bit of that paint just to help my eye see when I go to put this dark line in
where I'm going to go. Come back to the front here. Now, it's got a tiny
little point there. Make sure you've got a brush that has got a sharp enough point that
you can get that in. Everything is still, so I've
got time to play in here. I'm going to wash my
brush and then I'm just going to tease up to, I went outside my pencil edge. Don't do that. You try to
stay within your pencil edge. Now I'm washing my brush
and I'm just running my brushes dri than my
page because I don't want to introduce a whole
lot more water here. But I'm softly transition that black back into
this first wash. But to do that, I have to
keep washing my brush. Otherwise, I'll just end up pulling all that pigment,
chasing my tail. Keep washing the bruh, brush dry then the page,
until you set back. Now, this is just
the first wash. There are more ducks and I've got more mucking in there to go, but I'm just trying
to get the shape in, get my eye in and see
what's happening. I want to come out of
that and let that fully dry before I muck with
anything else in there.
6. Starting the Neck: We're going to start
the um bit now. We're going to come into
the neck and into the body. Now, if I was painting
this for myself and not trying to take
you through step by step, I would do all of
this in one hit. I don't want to do
that to you today. We're going to break
it up into two. I'm going to move to now, I've got a slightly bigger
brush. Make sure it's clean. We're going to paint down
first up with water. I'm just it's not really clean, but make sure yours is clean. I'm going to my
beak is fully dry. I'm going to try and
come to my pencil edge. Now if it takes you a
while to get this water on because you're concentrating on getting to your pencil edge, just keep dropping more
water in as you go. I'll see if I can lift it up
and show you how damp I am. I've got a slight indigo
tinge to my water, but that possibly might help
you see where I'm going. Now as I come up to back here because I'm going to
do this in two bits, I'm just going to
Patally put some water in just so that the pigments
got somewhere to go. If I try and show you,
see if I can catch. I'm not absolutely saturated. Now I'm going to start with I
just ran when I hold it up. I just watch. I've got a spot there where I've leaked out of
my pencil edge. Don't do that. I'm going to
pick up some yellow first, really milky, and
just touch that on. If it doesn't run, whack
in some more water. You want this all
really wet and wet. Coming over the top. Now I can see now because I've
got a bit of pigment, so I'll come around
that eye and join up. This is where because I'm
using this yellow ac, how was saying if
you've got too much, really heavy pencil and
my pencil is a bit heavy, it will be hard to get
off when you finish. Really splotchy yellow ac. Now I'm going to come in
with some permanent rows and just whack that on top. I'm after a really
soft feel here. Both painting with the water first and then dropping
that pigment in, that's more likely what
you're going to get. Now that's going to be a slight problem
for me where I've come out of the line. I if I was doing this
for myself and I just come out of there and gone
over my line with the water, I would have just
waited until it dried fully and then done the
whole process again. I'm just wing in a bit of paint. I am trying now to pay
attention to my pencil edge. And you can see I've been
a bit untidy here as well. Some of those will just
look like feathers. Sometimes you might have to scuffle them back
a bit at the end. I'm starting to dry. I don't have long now. Down here, there's
a bit more pigment. It's going to be a darker
down the bottom here. I'm happy I can wap a bit
more pink in down the bottom. Again, trying to make sure
I come to my pencil edge. Now, this brush is pretty tatty, so that's why I'm ending
up going out of the line because it doesn't have a very
nice point on it anymore. I am going to because I want
to do this in two parts, I'm just going to
let that pigment just bleed a little bit, but I'm not going to
be too heavy there. It doesn't matter if this
isn't pink enough yet. We can have another go, but I do want it
mixing on the page. I re I want a little
bit more pink there. It's going to add a bit more. Pink there. Sitting back. That's my first layer of pink. It is really soft.
One thing I can just see that's happening
at the top here. You see, I've been dry there
and I've got this hard line, so I need to deal with
that before that sets in, so really dry brush. You might be able to
see I've just got my pigments run up and
dried on the edge, so I get a hard transition
there, which I don't want. I'm softening that in. But I can't at this point, if I introduce more water here, it's going to cause a
cauliflower a bloom, which sometimes you
want to put in. Right now, I don't
want to do that, but I want all this
mixing on the page. I need to now be
patient and come out of that and let that completely dry before I do anything else.
7. Stay Loose in the Body: It's not quite been 10 minutes. I'm I'm dry enough. I think. Let's risk it. Now
we're going to come in to the body here. I'm going to use two brushes. The one that I just used
on the neck and I've got this really nice big one. I want to do that
because I quite like the idea of that tail
feather being in this brush. Have a play and see what
shape your brushes make. I'm stalling because
this is a tricky bit. Well, not tricky, but you
really only get one shot. What I'm going to do, I'm going
to patchly wet down here. I want a little light
on the back here. I want to keep some white paper, and I want a mix of
strokes in the back here. I'm going to start with
my smaller brush and just throw a bit of water on. Coming onto this bit where we left off last time because I want those washers to
sit into each other. I'm going to come down. I'm going to leave
some dry paper where that darker
feather is here. Come down. Not patchy wet here. Here underneath, where
I don't want light, I'm just painting it the
whole lot with water. I'll come down a little bit
into the top of that leg. Okay. And then a little
bit over the top. Can you see where I am at?
That's where I've gone. I'm going to be
really loose now. Bit of yellow acre into
where I've just wet, just throwing it on and
water move it around, bit of permanent rose, milky. All this is milky. The only difficult
part really is not painting the whole
audien because you want to just
cover the whole area. I don't want you to do
that. Then I'm going to get a few harder strokes in where there are
these feather shapes. I'm just going to
soften that one a bit. I'm going to pick
up now on my brush, little bit of permanent rose, little bit of yellow acre. I'm going to start with
my tip down and pull in to that wet
page. Soften that. I'm starting to get
the idea of feathers. I'm near a little
bit more pigment. I didn't quite come
to my edge there. Is going to chuck a
bit more in there. Just softening off there and I want all these
bleeds and messiness. Now, I might have to bring. I in my pencil age, I might have to
reconcile that one. I'm going to put one more in. Never good putting
in a stroke after. It's always nice if you
can get it first time. Now, I want a bit more
pigment under here. I wet down under
there, so I'm going to whack a bit of pigment on. Let it run. I've got darks to go
underneath there, so I don't have to
be too careful. I'm just going to I've
got dry paper here, so I'm just going to clean my
brush and soften that edge. Bit more pigment now under here. I'll get some pink as well. I left that dry paper, and I'm going to that pigment run just a bit down into
the bottom of the leg. I keep drying my tissue so I've not got too
water on my brush. Now, if up here, you covered everything in and
you haven't left any light. As this is drying, here you
can force some coli flowers. I'm not sure if I'm dry enough
yet. Might have to wait. But if you pop on some water, you keep testing it to
see when it's dry enough. If you're not quite dry, it will push the
pigment out and it will give you a few
interesting blooms. If you have covered it
all in, you can do that. Now, I think I'm
going to do this. I'm only going to use this once. Normally, I paint bigger than this and this brush
would be perfect. I'm not quite sure
how we'll go on here. Let's see, shall we? A little. I'm picking up a little bit of permanent rose
and a little bit of yellow och and I'm
going to do one stroke. I'm going to do two. There we
go. That's my tail feather. I probably could have
done it with this. But I want the
shape of the brush. That's hard to do by
just painting it in. It's more nicer if you use the shape of
the tip of the brush. Now, I might leave that bit until the
rest of this is dry. I'm going to sit back
and look and think, that there's dark under here. I'm going to pick up a bit
more of my pink while this is drying and just throw that into the wet page because I know that I'm going to want to be darker underneath there. Then I just want to again watch this transition because I'm
not ready to start there yet. Sitting back, I'm
going to put more of that pink right under here. Again, I can test
out. I'm dry again. Can I force any If
you put the water on if you try to force blooms
before it's dry enough, you just get a hole the wash
will just all become one. You've got to keep
testing it out. I don't mind that. I think
I'm going to stop fiddling. The thing that's bothering me. This, I think is
going to bother me. I've got this chink here. I'm just going to soften that back because when
I come to the end, I'm going to decide that
I don't like that shape. I'm just going to soften
that while I'm still wet. I'm at the danger
point now where things are starting to dry in places, so I probably need to get out. I am just going to
keep teasing this. Just make sure that this doesn't give me a
really hard edge. My brush is always dry than my page when
you're doing this. I've got shadows to go on there, so I don't have to be too fussy, but I just don't want to have too much of an
edge to deal with. I think I'm going
to sit back, keep drinking my coffee
and wait for that to dry before we come in and do this and
then start the legs. Then we get to start
the shading and the shadows and working
up the three dimensions. Come out and let that dry.
8. Legs!: Fully drag in now. I think I might pop
in this under here, and then we'll come
and do the legs. I'm going to wet
down. I normally, I probably rub out that pencil. I'm not going to bother
now, but I'm going to stick without wetting
down before we paint. Now, I want to
transition here from. I want some sharp edges here. I'm not going to paint
onto those feathers. I'm just chiseling
out that shape. I'll decide later
whether there's a little flash of dark
under there of black. I'll see how I feel about that. Now this is quite orange. I'm going to come on
with yellow och first, then a bit of my permanent rose. Then I might chuck
in a bit more. I'm leaning a little bit more
towards more yellow och, and slightly more pigment. I've just wiped my
brush on the tissue. Now I'm going to reconcile come a bit closer
to that feather. Chiseling out the
shape a bit more. Now this will dilute
the pigment a bit because my brush is quite dry. Once I've done that, I'll just drop a little
bit more pigment in take up a bit of both. Quite strong under there. Then I need to keep an eye
again on this transition. I wash my brush,
paint my tissue, and just soften that edge. I can blotch that edge because I want this
pigment to run, but I don't want
it to finish hard. I'm just going to
keep an eye on that, see what it does. It's quite dark at the moment, which looks a little bit out
of place because we haven't put any of the other
darts on there yet. But again, remember, it'll dry lighter and we'll
deal with that later. I I might bring that I might just make that
gap just to touch smaller. I'm just teasing the pigment that's already out
just to give myself a little bit of a final line
to deal with at the end. Then I'm going to
look at the legs. Let's look at my p. Maybe I'm going to use
a bit of indigo, maybe a bit of permanent. Move it up so you
can see the legs. What I'm going to do here,
I'm going to paint down with a bit of water using
my middle size brush. Well, preferably clean
brush doesn't really. Little bit loose in the knee. I haven't necessarily painted everything on and
then I'm going to just drop a bit of indigo. Tidy up that edge. Maybe a little bit of the pink. I might put a little bit of permanent rose in wet and wet. I want it to be a bit loose. I need it to be soft when it finishes down
the bottom here, or it will look like I
cut it off with a knife, which I don't want
just softening that. Now, when you're doing this, it's really easy to start, put the first wash and leave it. I'm just
going to bring that up. I say don't fuss and
I start fussing. Now, you can wait until
this fully dries, or you can come and
do the next one. I'm just putting a couple
of blooms. On there. That's a good example
of the bloom. I just dropped a little
bit of water in here. Must set up a bit
and you can see hopefully a little
bit more clearly what I'm talking about with
the cauliflowers. Then I'm going to do the
same thing on the other leg. The reason I'm doing
this at the same time is because I want these
to be the same color. Often what I do is I if I
paint one, then I go away. When I come back, I forget what I've used or I
don't use the same amount. I do like to do
them pretty close together so that they
look like they match. But the only trick here is
to not touch that first leg. I come down. What does
it a bit of a gap. Again, I just want
it to disappear. A bit of indigo in I think I may have
just touched to that. Yeah, I don't do that. It doesn't really
matter, but I just touch bit the leg that I
didn't really want to. It's not too bad and
a bit more down here. Then so that I match, I need a little bit of permanent
rows in here too. That's more permanent rows
than I gave the other one. I'll just in. Now, they'll be
more dark on this back leg. That's now base wash is done. Let that dry, I'm actually
going to rub off my pencil, most of it to see where I mash, and then we'll start to to
build the shape a bit more. Come out of that
and let that dry.
9. Starting the Darks: All right. I've waited
a bit longer this time, probably 20 minutes because
I want to make sure this is really dry before I start
doing these shadows. I've gone back to
my little brush, not the tiny one, but still smaller than what
I have been using. We're going to start to
add some of the darks in. I'm going to do
this wet and wet. I'm going to take
some clean water and wet down base of the neck there. And coming into the chest. Now, I want to wet a little bit further than I
want my dark to go again so that we're looking
for that transition from dark to light
and I come around. I do need to be
careful to come to the edges of the
first wash. Again, I'm damp, not soaking. Right into that tip. Now, what I'm going to do, I'm actually going to
mix a little bit of my permanent rose and a little
bit of my indigo together. I'm going to come and drop that into the area
that I've just wet. Again, if it doesn't move, whack on a bit more water. Making sure I come right to
edge of that first wash. You can see the difference. Here it's wicking up into the water into the
wet area of the page. Here, it's hit dry. You can see the difference where the pigment hits either
dry or wet paper. I'm just going to
soften that back a bit. That that into the front. You want to work
reasonably quickly and just keep
dropping in pigment. I'm cleaning my brush and
just softening that edge. Now, I need to be
darker back here, so I go to grab a little
bit stronger indigo. You just got to keep watching the edges and make
sure you haven't got flashes of light that don't make sense. Softening my edge. Now coming over into the neck. I'm wetting down now because
I quite warm in my room. That water that I put there
before is already dried. Because I want to do
the same thing now. If I look at the reference, I went outside my pencil
edge there again. If I look at my reference, there's quite a bit of dark
underneath the neck here. Now, you don't have to
get all of this in go. You can put someone,
let it dry, go again. It doesn't have to
be all at once, and you don't have to get at the right intensity first time. Washing my brush,
softening edge. Because I want to
be careful not to lose all the lovely lights that I retained in
the first place. Sometimes you have to cover them up because they just
don't make sense, but I would rather go bit by bit here than go too hard first. All right. I
stronger under here. I've got this I don't
really mind that hard line. There I might leave that one. But now because I'm picking up permanent rows and indigo and letting them mix
a bit in the page. My colors I need more
permanent rows here. Now I've got more pink
here than I do here, so I'm just going to drop
a bit more pigment in. I've just go to watch
these hard edges. Rush should have been
a bit cleaner then. Clean brush and
soften that edge. I don't want to introduce water, but I want to soften
that transition. As I'm getting up to that
bit where I'm really dry, I'm just going to
use my tissue to help soften that back and then I'm just going to
maybe mess this up. I don't want it too smooth. I'm dropping a little bit of water in here and
just messing that up. Just a touch. Sitting back and seeing whether the
darts make sense. Now, You can see
when I come on now, the amount of water I've
got on the page now. I'm getting cauliflowers,
I'm getting blooms. I don't mind them there,
but that's saying to me I'm really close to needing
to get out now. That's probably not enough yet, but I need to come out of
that because I've been in there for a while and things
are starting to move a bit. I will let that wash dry. But I'm going to do the same
thing now up in the face. Now you can let this fully dry before you do this so that you don't put
your sleeve in it. I'm going to just see how I go. We're going to do exactly
the same thing up here, and now I'm going to paint
underneath the chin here. Now, I did rub off most
of my pencil lines. I've still left the nostril and a couple of
lines in the beak, but I have gotten rid of most
of the other pencil lines. I'm going to let it come all the way to the back
of the head there. Da not soaking. Probably midway down the neck, I reckon. We'll see how we go. Now I'm doing the
same thing of the mix of permanent rose and indigo, which is probably I might put a bit more
yellow ochre in there. It's actually a bit more
orange than I'm doing. We'll see how we go.
Nice, wet and wet. I reckon I want so I'm going to put in a little bit of yew ochre as well because I want some of the yellow that
I have in here, the orange that I have in here
to be in the face as well. I'm just going to drop in a bit of yellow ochre
at the same time. Wash my brush, can see
my water is dried there, so I've got to pop a
bit more water on. Be a bit careful around the eye. I need to come all the
way out to that edge. I need a bit more
yellow och under here. I'm going to keep the
light for now on the top of the head, bring that down. Again, I want this wash to have settled into the one underneath and I don't want
to see the join. I'm going to pop a
bit stronger indigo and permanent rose
just underneath. Thinking about rounding
up that cheek there. You will find that as
you're teasing it out, it starts to dilute too much and you need to add more
pigment and that's fine. You just keep dropping it in. This isn't dark enough yet, but I've been in here a while, and I probably need
to get out and let it dry before I start
messing things up, knowing that I'm
going to have to put on at least one more
layer, possibly, sometimes even three,
but you're better off going slow at this stage. I'm just looking at
the reference and just seeing I want a little
bit more light, just before I dry. Before my page is fully dry, my brush is dryer than my page. Cleaning my brush putting my
brush on a tissue and just lifting just a touch of
light into that face. I'm just moving the pigment, lifting a tiny bit off. Just to give me the idea
that there's a cheek there. But I don't want to introduce, I can't introduce
water here now. That would be bad.
I'm just using my damp brush and pushing
the pigment around a bit. I've got a few little
hard edges in there, but I absolutely have
to get out of this now or things are
going to go badly. I'm stepping away and
letting this dry, probably another 15 minutes.
10. Shadow on the The Legs: I'm completely dry now. Before I do more work in
the body and the neck, I want to do the shadow on
the leg and finish the bag. I'm going to start
on the leg first. I'm going to paint
a little bit of water over that indigo wash. I'm going to bring it
all the way down to the join where the
legs cross over there. I'm just trying to come to
the edge of my first wash. Then I'm going to drop.
Again, I'm damp, not soaking, and I'm going to drop a bit of my indigo into the top here. I've got a bit of
permanent rose in there. That's fine as well. Now, I didn't actually there are actually some feathers
on the top of that leg. I didn't notice them, I didn't put them in, it doesn't matter. I want this pigment to
wick down. Wash my brush. I'm going to come
from I'm wet here, but I'm going to come up
and just tease that edge because I want nice transition. I'm going to tase down. Now I can already see. That's not going
to be dark enough. I'm going to pick up
some more pigment, and drop it into the top. Tease that down, all wet in wet. Sit back. Yeah, I
reckon I can probably go just a touch more
up the top there. I can have multiple
goes at this. I just want to get
that round in. Then I want to put a bit
on this side of the leg. I am going to have to tidy out. I can see I didn't quite get
to my pencil line there. Just going to drag that
out a bit further. The reason I did that is because this line has to reconcile with the shape of the
knee coming through here. It was just a little
bit too shallow there. Now, a little bit on this leg, I meant to go with clean water. I went with pigment. I'm just going to pop. Remembering again because I'm letting these legs disappear, I don't want to get
too heavy here. Don't want a huge
amount of pigment, but just to help these legs show that
they're crossing over. I just need a touch
of pigment down here. Pick up the same wash and now just carefully drop a
little bit of pigment in. Indigo doesn't matter if it's
got a permanent rose in it. We may go a little
stronger when that's dry, but I don't want to go
too strong just yet. I also want to get
a little bit of that color on this leg. What I'm also going to
do, while that's drying, let's see if I'm
still just dropping a little bit of water
in I'm too dry. I was going to see
if I could get a bit of cool flat, just
a bit of interest. We even that putting those
few different strokes. It was so flat that wash. I'm just putting in a few
little marks here to just give an indication they've got fairly n looking
skin on the legs. This side, I'm not going to come down quite as far because
this legs in the front. Maybe halfway down. P and then drop a little
bit of pigment in. Got the indigo and the
permanent rows in there. Painting my tissue to drive
off my brush and then just teasing that down. Maybe when I look
at the reference, I can see little marks and maybe I actually
I've just picked up a bit more pigment and
just that suggestion of a few brush marks. There's a little bit
of texture in the leg. Coming out of the legs, I get that 5 minutes to dry
and then I'm going to come back into the beak. A
11. Finishing the Beak: We need to build up the face
now. I'm going to start. I think I'm going to wet down the bottom half of the beak, clean water with not
my tiny synthetic. Fix up my join here. You can see that indigo is still bleeding a little
bit and that's fine. I'm just hiding up
the shape in there. I need to now strengthen
the dark underneath this. Picking up a bit of Im going
to stick with the indigo. Now into that area where
I've just wet down, I'm going to drop
that. Paint in. That whole area, I want
to back off the light. You can see my burnt sienna disappears a bit, we
might restate that. All wet and wet. Nice
and soft, wash my brush. Smooth this off
as I come around. I'm hitting dry
paper up there now. I'm going to clean
my brush and just tease that wash up to the eye and onto the
top of the beak there. But now that that's
all a bit gammy, I'm going to pick up more paint, and I'm going to
strengthen the dark. While the page is still wet, dropping into the bottom
part of that beak. And now leaving a little
bit more light here. Again, I need to strengthen
up underneath here. The idea is we're
dropping in wet and wet, so we get all these
little bleeds and interesting things happening rather than painting
directly on to dry paper. Now again, thicker pigment now. I really want to mean it, and I've got to be careful to come to the edge of that wash. So each time, just slowly
building up, washing my brush, drying it, and just
smoothing that in. That's nearly dark
enough underneath there. I don't mind. I might put
a touch more burnt sienna. Just a page is a bit wobbly. I didn't pre stretch.
That is one of the hazards of not
pre stretching. I've just dropped
that burnt sienna in, I think probably it needs a little bit of the
pink in there as well. Now that I've got
that in when I look, I reckon I can see
just a touch of that. Pink in there too, or wet
and wet starting to dry now. I reckon. I'm probably at the point now where
I can strengthen the black in here and let it bleed a little bit
into this edge without getting into strife. I don't want much water
now in my indigo, really toothpaste you paint. I'm going to come and
paint that bottom beak, really solid now.
Paint my brush. I don't have too much
paint my tissue, sorry. Then why I always
get that wrong. Paint my brush, paint
my tissue. All right. What I'm trying to
do now is come to meet that join there. That area that
when we initially, I just wanted it to
bleed out a bit. I didn't want a
really hard line. It's looking. I think
on the reference, if I look at the reference, that dark comes up
that way a little bit. I tease that up. Just a touch. I really want that solid black, dry my brush and just
working it along that edge. I'm going to just drag
that over the top. Now, I've got a little
flash of light down there that I will fill in, but I have to have less water on my brush than in
the page to do that. Now we're going to
work on the top part. Going to do the same thing. Quite like, I like some
of the light in there. I don't necessarily want at all. I meant to clean my
brush. What was the idea. I don't want to touch that
bottom part of the beak. I'm going to try and
a bit of dry paper. There. Just looking
at the reference, trying to see where that
comes over the top. I need a bit more
color on the top of that beak because because I'm not painting the background, I'll probably pop a
bit of yellow ocher in there to chisel out
that shape a bit more. I'm now teasing
onto the dry paper. Now that that's all
nice and wet, damp. It's not saturated.
I want a bit of a hard dark wet and wet. Coming up the beak. I
might do it a bit wider. This is the point
I don't actually have to get this exactly
like the reference. I can do what works for my painting because you can see all those funny little
teeth that's got in there. I'm not putting those in.
Blending it. This dark. What I'm going for is I've got a little
flash of light there. I want this dark here and I want a little bit
of light on the top, which I think initially, I said, I'd probably lift with a
stiff brush and I may, but if I get it now, I may not have to do that. We'll see what it
looks like. Not that tooth ba but thick paint. I'm still, I can still get one more line in there. Tidy up. I reckon that high light
might actually be enough. Now, while that's drying, because I want to put that really dark strike
through there. I don't want to do that yet. I'm going to come to the eye and give a bit of a dark
around the eye. I might go back to my
tiny synthetic now. With my small synthetic, I'm picking up
really dry indigo. I'm going to have to put
my page up a little bit. I just want to now, all I'm doing is putting
a bit of a circle around that colored part
of the eye, really thin. Then what I'm going to do
is I'm going to darken off the top half of that. I just clean my brush. I've just got a bit of water, and I'm just seeing
if any of that indigo will move and tidy up. I said I had a little bit of indigo sticking out that way when I first put that pupil in. I can touch to that
now and tidy that up. And make that pupil a bit tighter because it's dry enough
for me to work in there, whereas if I tried to do
that when I first put it in, I would have got myself
into a whole world of pain. I'm drying my brush. I want to transition,
so I want to smooth that blended
indigo so that I go from indigo to the lime green without there
being a really hard line. Now that that paper
is all a bit damp, I'm going to take a
little bit more indigo. And just drop it in the
top bit that's wet. Now I need a bit of something else in the
top of that beak. I'm going to go with
some yellow oa. Then I'm going to
put in the nostrils. I'm going to go straight onto dry paper with my small brush. I'm dry up here now. I'm just going to
put a little bit of yellow o on, wash my brush, and move that around
just a little bit, blending it in because I need a bit of warmth
on the top there. And I can let that drag into the bottom part of
the beak there. While this is not simple wet. It's just a little bit damp. What I'm going to do is suggest maybe we going to
take a tiny bit of indigo and a tiny bit of my
permanent rose and just drag that on that wet edge, so I get a little bit of a hint of the feathers coming over the top
of the beak there. Then I'm going to do the same
thing on this part here. I'm going to just
dampen that down, make sure because I'm
drying pretty quickly in here because I went
down and put my heat on. Again, permanent
rose and indigo. Just restating the line between the beak and
the feathers here. It's subtle but it's there. Because I've been mucking
around, this is dry, I can put that dark in I'm going to pick up straight indigo
with my small brush. Paint my tissue a
bit first, I think. Make sure I'm not too heavy. Then I'm just going
to pop my brush on, push down, lift off. Don't mind that I've got a few broken
straightes in there. Now, this bit, I'm going
to do the same thing, and probably I need to
sit over the top of the. I'm going to come
down to about there. We need to start this stripe. Now, here you need to look and decide where
you're going to go before you start
painting because once you start, you can't stop. So can't talk and do
that at the same time. Now I'm going to
wash my brush and just tease this n bit out. I quite like those
broken strokes. I'm not going to
mess with those. I'm going to leave
those in there. Possibly needs to come
a little bit further. I don't want to muck with that. I probably need some
strengthening up in the eye, mucking around maybe
some darker shadows, but because I've
been in there for so long, I need to
come out of that. When that's fully dry, I'm going to work
on the other darks, probably the last
round of darks and see if we need any more
stuff in the back. But I need to come out and let that dry and decide what
we're going to do next.
12. Strengthening the Undercarriage: We're on the home
with stretch now. What I want to do is work on
the darks at the bottom of the body here before
we make any decisions about what needs to
happen at the top here. I think this is where
you can get into strike that you want to
add more and you go all at once without sitting back and
taking it step by step and just seeing how much difference a little bit of dark can make. We're going to start
underneath here. Now, where's my synthetic? I'm going to start
with this brush. I'm going to get
a bit of tissue. There's this nice little
dark underneath here. What I'm going to do, I
want to go onto dry paper, paint a bit of a dark
up here and then going to run some water underneath
it to let it bleed, keep it hard on this edge. We'll see if that works.
Hopefully it works. My smallish, not
my tiny synthetic. I got to get some indigo up. I'm going to come and I'm
going to put my brush straight down on the page and
lift my hand up and follow that curve. I'm
going to come down. And up there. Then I'm going to get my brush, wash it, and then I'm
going to run water. I didn't mean to go
into that bit there. Don't do that. I'm
a little chink. Run water underneath here and
let that softly come out. I went the opposite way to because I wanted
this hard stroke. I want that feather to stay hard and then I want
it to blend from there. I'm not sure about I might have to close in
a few of those lights. We'll see how they
look as we go. I've got to chase this wash now. This is why normally I
would normally wet first, but here I wanted to actually
get that hard edge in. Coming to the edge of
that first wash. Now, it's drying off to light still. I'm going to bring that water all the way over here
so that I keep washing my brush and I'm ending
up painting with clean water so that that indigo doesn't
dry in a hard line. So on here. Chasing the edge. I just want to keep an eye
on where that we edge ends, that I don't get a sharp line. Now I need more pigment. I'm going to come back in here. Drop a bit more in. Wash my brush. Again, this isn't exactly
the same as a reference, but the reference
is just a guide. I want to work with
what's in front of me. No freaking out about this
doesn't match the reference. Reference is just
to get your eye in. I need more dark here
because now I want to think about rounding here
underneath es. I came out of my lines there. I'm not going to worry about it. Tie up later if I want. And that bleed that way. That there is going to annoy me, but I'll probably
get that off with a scalpel blade because if I start trying
to lift that now, I'm going to chase that wash
further and further down, so I would rather just leave it. I need more down here. I probably should that was a bit harder than I meant to
go. I'll just flood that. I probably need a bit
more of the orange and a bit more yellow ochre and permanent rose in here as well. Not that anyone's going to
have the reference next to your painting to say
that's not orange enough. But just to balance off that. Oh, I keep. I haven't changed to
my better glasses, so I'm doing a little
bit hit and miss here. I'm chasing that up
and then I'm going to get the tissue,
get a clean tissue, and just soften that so
that I don't have to spend all my time
chasing that edge. I re I'm going to put a a
bit more of the orange. I'm going to take
a bit more yellow acre and a bit more permanent rose and just
strengthen up in here. It's quite messy in here. All those feathers in there. So I can get away
with doesn't matter if I form colflowers, blooms. That's fine in here. I just need slightly more Slightly darker tone
and a bit more orange. I want it to bleed like this. That's how I want
my color to sit. I don't want it to be a
sharp edge like that. I want it to be nice and soft. Don't do that. That
was a dirty tissue. I had a big lump of
indigo on there. I'll just soften that
back stuff there. I think probably a
bit more orange. Now that that's all damp. I'm quite plain in my wash here. It did come together
a little bit. What I can do while I'm mucking in here because I
just wet all that down, just clean water, wet that. I'm going to put a little bit of a little bit yew,
a little bit of pink. Just to mess that up a bit
more interest just in there. But I don't want to
close up all that light. I've got that beautiful glow, so I don't want to
over paint here. Probably the light
there is a bit much. You better off putting a
little bit on stopping and then putting more on if you need it than going too hard. I want a little bit more
pink probably in here, but I can't do that just yet. What I am going to
do. I'm going to make a harder
shadow on this leg. Now, because this time I
want it to be pretty solid, I'm going to go straight
onto dry paper. Try not to touch. I'm
going to be a bit careful. Not sure how much
water I've got there. I don't want the indigo to shoot all the way
up into the tummy. But darker paint. Creamy consistency,
creamy more so than milk. Wash my brush and
just tease that down. I'm going to pop a bit more
pigment up the top there. Remembering that it's
going to dry lighter. Although it's a
really small thing, it's amazing what a
difference little stuff like this makes
in your painting. Then I'm going to
do similar things. When I sit back and look, I'm looking for the balance I've
got the dark on the beak. Now I've got the dark
there on the leg. I'm going to put a little
bit more dark in there. I'm looking to see where
things are balanced, and I know I need to
finish just a little bit stronger under
the chin there. But I'm also going
to put just a touch. I'm going to dry paper. I've picked up indigo. I'm going to put a line
on, clean my brush, drag that clean wet
brush behind it, so that just leads
out a little bit. I need just a fraction, I think I'm going
to put on this one, just because I didn't
come to my full washer, but this little flash of light there, which I
don't really want. I'm just going to
actually, if I use my slightly dirty brush, I can probably back
that off a bit. That's when I keep
saying that you need to come all the way to your wash, your first wash, or
your second wash, whichever you're
trying to cover up. Because that's what
happens, you end up with these little flashes
of light that don't necessarily make sense. I put that in. I'm damp there now. I've
softened that back. Now I'm just going to take
a tiny bit of indigo and just touch that
into the wet page. Just a touch and then washing my brush and softening that, chasing that wet edge down. I'm pretty happy with that.
Now, I want this dark. I want a little bit more little black possibly didn't
go far enough. Now, I don't like doing this, but I want that to
be a bit stronger. I'm going to just take this out. Depends what your
stroke was like, but mine just disappeared
a bit too much. I didn't make the right shape. I just I don't like doing this
because it's hard to get. It's much nicer if you just do it with the brush first time. Now, I want to
strengthen the dark just underneath this little bit. I want that to stay hard, I'm leaving a little gap and because I want
this to be dark, I'm going on to dry paper because I don't want to have
to do this fourth time. Now I'm going to get my brush. Clean brush, and now I'm
going to tease that edge out.
13. Finishing Off: Now, my colors are
different to the reference. I'm happy with my dark from my beak to the
leg to the back here. But what I want now is
this is very purple. I want that to balance the
shadow underneath here. I want this color up and then just about
finished, nearly done. But what I want to do, I'm
going to wash my brush. I want to strengthen the shadow
underneath the chin here. I'm going to paint just a little bit further
than I want to go. Again, because I'm worried
about those hard edges. I will depend it will depend what colors you use here
will depend on what your shadow how much what your balance has
been in your colors here. I'm going to take nice and damp. I'm going to take
a little bit of indigo and a little
bit of permanent rose, and I'm going to drop that in. That color needs to
be the same as that. Coming. I've going
to come all the way to the edge of that wash. Okay. Clean my brush, work out
where I want that to be. I'm just running
it along the edge. I quite like that, but I
need to soften this edge. Still, I need a little bit more. I'm just chasing that edge. I just touch more. It's quite strong in here. Probably as I'm coming down, I probably need a bit more
pink and yellow in here. Wash my brush. Drag that down. Fever,
when you're doing this, you're overasing the wet edge, but it's worth being patient. I am just going to
pop a little bit more dark in the join between the beak and
the feathers here. I'm still picked up
the same colors. I've got permanent and my
indigo. Touching that. In in there. I'm going to soften
this around a bit. Very nearly need to
get out of here. Just rounding that up. I think probably I'm
going to stop there. I'm just going to pop
a tiny highlight in the back of the eye
there with some. I'm take a t bit glass. I'm just going to pop
a little highlight, which you probably
won't be able to see on the video. Just in there. These two little bits
that we're bugging me. I'm just going to
take a blade and just depends what paper you're on as to how
successful this is. Actually, I'm I
probably should wait. I'm not quite dry here, it works better if you wait until your
paper is fully dry. I say that as I'm
about to do this one, just because I ready
to be finished. There you go. That tidies up. Also, this can be quite good because I've had
a lot of water there, you can see it
running to the edge. Now, the way that so we end up with a very hard line here, sometimes you can back
that off a bit just by scratching back
a tiny layer there, or you can add a little
bit more pigment when it's really dry
to blend it out. I'm going to leave that
now because I've been in there a little bit
long and I need to stop. Fiddling. So that's where
I'm going to end this one. If you're happy
with your painting, or if you want some
advice on your painting, take a photo of it
and pop it up on the project section on
the Skillshare site. Always happy to give feedback. And really for this one, what
I'm aiming for you to do, I want you to keep the glow
and see that you just need some well placed starks so
that you can retain lots of light and still get a little bit of a
punch in the subject. So thanks for joining me.