Transcripts
1. PRIMROSES - Introduction: Hi there. My name
is Carrie McKenzie. I'm a professional
artist, author, and Art tutor living in the beautiful countryside
of Yorkshire. This class is suitable
for all levels. If you're a beginner and
have never painted before, I'll be guiding
your every step of the way throughout
the whole process. Or if you're
inexperienced artist, I'm looking for a
refresher course or even learning some new
approaches and techniques. I'll be demonstrating how to build up the layers of colour so that they stay clean and fresh and avoid
the dreaded mood. So that at the end of the class, you'll have your own
beautiful little painting to be very proud of. I provided a reference
photograph and also the drawing for
you to download. Now don't worry about
trace in the drawing because this course is about
painting, not drawing. I'm delighted to be able to
share with you my experience, tips and techniques that I've learned along the way
in my own Art journey. You can see examples of
my work on my website. My style leans towards
impressionistic and contemporary rather
than photorealistic. I like to explore
loose approaches that bring out the color, light, and essence
of my subjects. I've discovered lots of tips and techniques and shortcuts
over the years. Just as in my in-person
face-to-face classes, I'll be sharing these
so that U2 can get the same benefits enjoy from painting that have helped me. A big believer in
learning by doing so, rather than reading
lots of written theory, you'll be painting right
alongside me and my studio. Aside, demonstrate each
process step-by-step, and make your learning a happy, Smiley, and practical
experience. If you prefer, you can watch
the video the whole way through and how they got
the painting afterwards. And of course, you can pause
and rewind it at anytime. Importantly, the
most valuable asset is your own time,
patients and enthusiasm. There's no such
thing as right or wrong or failure in Art. It's all about
learning and growth. Learning what worked well, practicing what you
need to improve on moving forward
with each step. But importantly,
please don't worry if your painting doesn't
look exactly like mine. Lowry never worried
whether he's looked like Van Golf or Picasso's. We all have our
own unique style, just like our fingerprints. And with that understanding, it's time to get on
with the painting
2. Materials, simplify the composition, transfer the drawing, apply masking fluid to pres: Hello and a very warm welcome to my studio where
I'm going to share with you my tips
and techniques for an impressionistic painting in Watercolour of some
lovely primroses. You can either watch
the whole video through and have a go at
the painting afterwards, or pause the video at any time while you've paint
right alongside me. As I take you through this
step-by-step process. I've listed the materials
that I'm using, but please feel free to replace any of them with your
own if you wish. I've simplified the drawing for this little
compact primroses. You can choose to
use my competition, or if you prefer,
use one of your own as the same
techniques apply. The first thing
to do, of course, is to transfer the drawing
to your watercolor paper. You can do that free hand
if you're a competent draw. Or you can use some graphite
transfer paper or even wrote the back of
the drawing with a pencil turnover the sheets, place it on the
watercolour paper, and then go over the
drawing outlines with a ballpoint pen. I wouldn't normally use
such strong pencil lines, but I wanted you'd be
able to see it on screen. So I suggest you make your
pencil lines a little bit lighter to avoid a lot
of rubbing out later on. I'm applying some
masking fluid now, which is a useful technique
where you want to reserve the white paper either for highlights or to paint
afterwards by hand. I'm using an unwound paper clip, which is a useful on
cheap little tool for applying very fine
dots are fine lines. I'm just adding a touch to
the center of each flower. And also for a little
highlights on the bud. You've got to wait
for the fluid to dry fully before
applying paint over. It takes about ten to 15 min. But when removed it leaves
crisp defined white shapes. And if the result is too stark, can soften with a damp brush
or even paint over it. I'm now applying some
masking fluid to the veins in the
middle of each leaf, I'm using a rubber
tipped applicator. These come in all sorts
of different shapes and sizes and a very easy to clean. Afterwards. I'm using an old brush
to flick our spatter, the masking fluid
onto the foreground. Spattering producers
interesting textural effects. So this will help to
break up expansive soil. Then we come to paint it later. You can add a shape,
the brush with a flicking action or topic
with the four-fingered false, the masking fluid onto the paper
3. Paint the leaves, flowers, centres and stems: For the first layer
on the leaves, I'm using a light yellow hansa, yellow light by Daniel Smith, and amid yellow quinacridone
gold by Winsor Newton. But feel free to substitute with lightened mid yellows that
you already have if you wish. Primrose leaves are
quiet, heavily textured. The remind me a little
bit of Savoy cabbage leaves or pebble
dashing on a house. So we need to try and create that texture without
brush strokes. I'm using quite a
large brush with a good point to apply the paint. The light yellow in a double, double where that's the one word I can use to describe this. So I'm not brushing
the paints on. I'm just dip dabble in it. Some of the little doubles are joining up to make
bigger doubles. And some are leaving
white spaces in-between, which will serve as
highlights on the leaf. I'm working my way
around the plant, painting each leaf in this
dibble, dabbled style. Not worried about going over the masking fluid
that we applied for the veins because that
is resisting the paint. But I am taking care where I'm painting
around the petals, all the little stems. It may look a bit
odd to be painting the leaves all in
yellow right now because they probably resembled
bananas more than leaves. But watercolour is
built up in layers. And this first layer, this yellow under wash, will help to portray
that texture in the leaves that we were
talking about earlier. Whilst that light yellow
paint is still wet. I'm going back in with the mid yellow, the
quinacridone gold. But I'm just applying
this at the base of the leaf where it
emerges from the plant. That's where it
would be in shadow. I'm still using
that dip dabble in effect to create the texture. And being very careful around
the stems and the petals. In the center of the
primrose flower. There's another little
shape that's almost like a little flower in itself
in a darker color. So I've mixed a light yellow and a darker yellow for
an in-between color. For these. The endpoint of each little petal is central to the main
petal that it sets in. I'm using a small
brush and number two, it's got a very fine point. And I'm just painting a
small line for each petal and then fat minutes up around to create the
little flower shape. I'm adding a touch of the mid yellow, the
quinacridone, gold, just below the dotted masking
fluid in the center of each flower that will help to define the center and make
it stand out a little bit. You can softening
with a damp brush, just dab it lightly with some
paper towel to help blend it into the little flower
shapes that we've just painted. The next step is to
paint the little stems. Now these are almost
translucent in some places, I'm using a very dilute
mix of burnt sienna, which is a warm brown. I'm using a very
small pointed brush and apply in this dilute, you can see it's very
faint to the little stems coming in-between
the petal shapes. We're doing the
stems now because it will be easier when we
come to do the next layer on the leaves to see
where the little jungle of stems crosses over in
the body of the plant. And working their way around. Taking care where the
stems touch a petal, not to over paint those
and just color them. I'm also going back
in here and there, adding a little bit more
paint just to bury the tone. Even in small shapes
like these small stems. It's important to
have some variety of tune so that they don't
all look the same. The stems are
looking rather flat, so we need to add a
slightly darker color to make them look more rounded
and give them some foam. So I've mixed some indigo or ultramarine in with
the burnt sienna, but still keeping it
very dilute, very faint. And I'm just stroking
that now down the underside of each stem. Now if the light brown wash that we applied earlier is still wet, when you apply,
the darker color, it will blend in nicely. But if that light
washes dried, well, all you need to do is use a clean damp brush and
stroke over the dark color, blending and softening it away. What you do it won't is
trend lines running down the side of the stem that
look harsh, non-real. So that blending and
softening technique is something to practice if you're not already familiar with it. Because it can
make such a lot of difference to the
finished result.
4. Add texture to the leaves with a second layer of colour, paint the foreground soil: We're going to build
up the leaves now with a second layer of greens. I'm using green apatite
genuine by Daniel Smith. For my mid green. It's a wonderful
granularity in green. It's a little bit
on the dark side. So I've added some
light yellow to it. If you use in something
like a sap green, that will probably be alright, just on its own. To make the dark green, you can simply add
some indigo or some ultramarine to
get that darker shade. I'm using the mid green
color and a larger brush. And number ten,
with a good point. And painting slowly and carefully around the
petal and stems shapes. But when I move into
the body of the leaf, I'm using the point of
my brush to dance around the leaf and painting
the scribbly, we believe wobbly fashion. I want to allow some of the underlying yellow
wash to show through this green layer in
order to continue portraying that important
leaves texture. At the same time and firming up the crinkle
edge of the leaf. I'm now dropping in some of
the darker green color where the leaf emerges
from the body of the plant and will be in shadow, or where it's
underneath the petal, which will also be
casting some shadow. I'm stroking it along each
side of the masked vein. Again, just tidying up some of those crinkly edges
around the leaf. Because the mid green
paint is still wet, it will blend nicely with the dark color that
we're just applying. I want to create a highlights
on the tip of my leaf. I've cleaned my brush
in some clean water. We on some paper towel to remove some of that
water, but not all. And then just lightly
dabbing it onto the tip of the leaves to
lift off some of the paint. I'm repeating the same process
again on this second leaf. First of all, going in
with the mid green color. Being careful around
the stem on the petal. A little bit tricky
here because we got small shape of the book that we need to paint round as well. So I'm taking my time
just to make sure that I get these small shapes
clearly defined. Note that crinkly edge
like we did before. Still using the mid green color. Coming around the little board. Given that nice smooth edge. And then fill it
in again with that scribbly, Weebly wobbly line. Letting that yellow one
to wash show through. Not worried about going over the masking fluid. That's fine. That will just resist the paint. And then back in again just as before with that
dark green color. Taking care again,
round those stems, pulling it out underneath
the vein area. Thinking about where
the leaf is in shadow, where it's coming from, the body of the plants
are Andhra petal. You don't need to apply
a lot of pressure because the mid green
paint is still wet. It works by a process
of osmosis where it will just soak
up that dark color. The tip of your brush
touches it and ask before I want to apply a nice highlights on the tip of that leaf where it's emerging
into the light. So if clean my brush, dab the awesome kitchen towel, and then dabbing it on
to lift the paint off. Sometimes they watercolour is as much about lifting
the paint office. It is putting it down. Now, I'm working my way around all the leaves using exactly the same
techniques throughout If you find some of the areas where you've
lifted the pentel, I've gone a bit bland. You can just drop
in a little bit more yellow to
live in that area. Rope. The leaf at the back is a bit more
tricky to get to. So don't be afraid to turn
your paper around like I have. It makes it much
easier to paint into those tiny little shapes
without reaching across. Take your time
here because there is a little assortments
of stems and petals, some quiet small shapes I've gone back to use in
my number two brush. Let's have gotten
very good points to get into those smaller shapes. Again, make sure that when you painting around the petals, that you leave them with
a nice smooth outline. I'm working my way
around this last leaf. And I'm being very careful where these two flowers are
almost touching each other. You either want the petals
to completely overlap or to have a small
gap between them. Where you've got two shapes just kinda kissing each other. It doesn't really
look very natural. Just finishing off with that highlights on the
edge of that top leaf. Turn my paper background
and now I'm just assessing any final touches or their annual little parts
that need tidying up. Is there anywhere that needs
a little bit more paint lifting off or a little
bit more color added into. Are there any shapes that need just for a monopolist smoothing? Stand back, have a good look at your own work to determine
what mine are red, it's might be needed. But on the other hand, please don't fiddle and
try not to overwork it. I've added some water
to my mint green color to make it more
dilute and weaker. And that's to paint the little areas where
the stems join the board. We don't want the green to be as dark as the leaves because it's got to show some of
the stem underneath. So I'm keeping it very
thin, very, very pale. I'm adding a little touch
of the dark green color. Again, this is diluted
just to the undersides of the lighter green areas
that we've painted to give it some form
a bit of a 3D shape. And I'm just using a damp brush just to blend that
in where needed, particularly on that little bud. What I'm now doing is exactly what I've
told you not to do. I'm fiddle ID, so
I'm going to stop. Before we tackle the soil area. There are a few other bits and pieces that I want to attend to. First, I'm looking now at this small flower shapes that are in the middle
of the larger flowers, I'm using a very fine point on my number two brush to paint a very fine
line of burnt sienna. You want to make these as
fine as you possibly can. The little lines come out from the center to the tip
of each little petal. If you find that
your lines are too dark or they're looking
a bit matchstick thing, then just dab them with some paper towel or with a damp brush to
blend them in a bit. But you'll remember from
the reference photograph that they do stand
out quite a bit. I've added a touch of
the dark green with the burnt sienna to make
quite a dark color. And I'm just touching that dark color
underneath the sentences. Just underneath where we
put the masking fluid. When we do remove
the masking fluid, that will give us a really nice contrast for the highlight I also want to add
some shading to the stems where
they're in shadow, particularly in the
body of the plant. So I've mixed some very
dilute cobalt blue. You could use
ultramarine and just a nice pale blue, very
dilute watercolour. We don't want to obliterate
all of the burnt sienna. We want that to show through, but where are the stems are just emerging from the body of the plans that you can
see from that center. We do need to just apply
a little bit of shading. Also, if they are emerging
from behind the petal, they're going to be
in electoral bit of shared there as well. So just looking at
those areas where the stems are emerging
from behind the petal, I'm just going to add
a little touch of the cobalt blue just to
share them down a little. The last task that I want to
do before tackling the soil is to remove the masking fluid from the veins of the leaves. You need to use a clean, dry finger or you can use a potty rubber to remove the
masking fluid on the leaves, but not the flower centers. We're not going to remove
the little dots in the middle of the
flowers just yet. When you've done that, just shake your
paper into the bin to get rid of all the
little bits of loose go. What we're left with now is
some rather unsightly and very stark white veins
running down now leaves. So we need to soften them in. Just rinse your brush
in some clean water, dab it on some paper towel, and then stroke it very
gently along that white line. Your brush will pick up
some of the color from the surrounding areas and bleed
into the white line area. So it won't completely
obliterate the vein, but it will just
soft and it blend in and make it a bit
more natural looking. Just work your way
around the plant. Softening in those lines
where you need to do. Don't be afraid to leave one or two little touches
of the whitest highlights. Just lifted a bit of
paint there because that leaf was can a
bit unnaturally dark. The veins are still
looking a bit too white for your liking. You can stroke a little bit
of the yellow color across. With all the techniques
that we've used. I think our leaves are
looking a lot more natural and Primrose like now. So let's leave it to dry before
going onto the next step. To paint the soil, you need three pools
of burnt sienna in the consistency somewhere
between T and single cream. Add indigo or ultramarine to the second poll to
make a dark brown. And add some more indigo
or ultramarine to the third pole to make
an even darker brown. Make sure you've got
some clean water ready for the next step. Is quiet a large area of soil to paint with some tricky bits
in-between the leaf shapes. So I'm going to tackle
it into halves. A problem that can
occur when doing that is that you can get an unsightly line
where the two halves meet slap bang in and
middle of the paper. That can be very distracting. So we need to avoid that by
overlapping the washers. And I'm going to show
you how we do that. Now. I've loaded a
large number 12 brush with some clean water. I'm painting on the
left-hand side just with that clean water working my
way around the leaf shapes. I'm not going right up to
the edges of the leaves. You don't have to be careful. You can leave a little gap. But I am taking that water
past the halfway mark. That will give the paint
enough room to move and dispersed softly into the
right-hand side of the paper. I'm taking the wet about a
third of the way up the paper. That will be the main
area for my soil. And whilst that paper
is still very wet, I'm now loading my brush with the first pool of burnt sienna. So this is just
the burnt sienna. I'm dropping that in
to the wet paper. I'm painting right up to
the edges of the leaves now and I'm going to work my way around this little board. And you can see how the paint is dispersing softly into the wet. I do have my paper at
a slight tilt upwards, so it's about an inch two
raised at the top side. And that allows the paint to run down into that wet paper. Don't try to control
this too much. Let the watercolour do
what it wants to do. Let it just run freely. Yours won't look
the same as mine. It would be impossible to
replicate this sorted effect. So just try and go with it and try not to control it too much. I'm painting just a little
bit past the halfway mark, but not right up to the
edge of the wet paper. That like I said before, that's giving the paint room to move into the wet paper
and softly disburse. I'm now going in with my
second pool of dark brown. So that's the burnt sienna with some ultramarine
or indigo added. And I'm using this darker paint. In those areas where the plants, the leaves, and the flowers are nearest to the
body of the plants. I'm just lightly pulling
it away so I'm not doing some heavy
pressured strokes. I'm just touching in letting
those two colors blend and mingled together and letting them run freely down the paper. If they're not running freely, you can just pick
up your paper and give it a shake in a sort
of a diagonal direction. I'm to false the paint to
run further down the paper. I'm also painting in elongated strokes, in
directional strokes. Rather than working around
the edge of each shape. Whilst that paint is still wet. I'm just touching in some
of my mid green color. That's just to represent
some of the grasses, mosses that will be
occurring in that soil area. If you wish, you
could splatter in a bit of blue and a bit of red. If you wanted to add a bit
more color to the soil. I'm just putting the
fuel little touches, not too much to overdo it. Again. Just be patient to let the watercolor do
its own thing here. The more you tried to
force it to do something, the worst it will look. Now going to use that very dark brown color
that we mixed earlier, that third pool of burnt sienna plus indigo and ultramarine. And I'm going to use that to emphasize the
shadows underneath the leaves and
underneath the petals where they are emerging
from the body of the plant. As before, I'm just
touching that painting, letting it blend
into the under wash, into those other colors
that we've already put on. Letting them blend together and pulling the pin to
where downwards. I'm trying to create
texture in the soil. When you're working
around the leaves, remember to return that
crinkly edge that they have. So don't Paint Round in
one big straight line. Try to brush, push your brush in and out to
create that crinkly edge. It's all looking a little
bit solid in my painting. So I'm going to use the
lifting off technique again. I've just cleansed my brush in some clean water and dampened
it on some kitchen roll. And going in there just to
lift off a few little areas, just to lighten it a bit and
give it a bit of variety. You can also spatter on Just clean water and
that will help to disturb the paint and
create more texture. I'm now repeating
exactly the same process on the right-hand
side of the soil. And painting over with
clean water first. Then painting in with
the burnt sienna color. Carefully working around
the petals and leaf shapes. But letting that
burnt sienna paint just flow into the wet wash. Then nobody in the darker brown to the areas near is
the body of the plant. And again, letting that
mingle with the burnt sienna. I've dropped a little of the mid green colour in just for the mossy
and grass colours. Then again, I'm
adding that very dark brown near to the
body of the plant. I feel I've lost some of the
burnt sienna colors from the left-hand side of my
painting because it's still wet. I'm able to just drop
a little more in. If your painting is dry by now, you will have to wet
it again to do this. Just tidying up around some of the leaf shapes and
the little bird. The cost of the paper is
still where all those colors are continuing to mingle
and blend softly. I feel that some of us stems of gone a bit too
on the blue side. So I'm just stroking gently
with a bit of burnt sienna, just bringing them back to life. You might not need to do that. It's always a case of
assessing your own painting. Look what's happening
and what do you need to leave alone and
what do you need to change? The hardest part of costs can be resisting the urge to carry on fiddling and just leave
it alone and let it dry. I'm going to add some color
now to the background. I'm using very dilute
mixes of burnt sienna, hansa yellow light, and
quinacridone, gold. If you wish. Of course, you could add
some blue for blue sky. Because the soil area is quite dense and the leaves
are quite solid. I'm going to make the
background area quiet, light and airy, quite abstract. In fact, that's why I'm using very dilute
mixes of these colors. First of all, I've painted with clear water around
that right hand side. And now I'm just dropping in my diluted mix of burnt sienna. I'm just dribbling it in. So that's I get some
quite abstract shapes. Rather than painting a
solid block of color. Also trying to just melt it in there with the soil so that there's a bit of a difference
but not a hard line. I've dropped in a little
bit of quinacridone gold. Now, I'm letting those two colors mix and
blend on the paper. Just as we did the soil area. Taking those colors a little bit further around the paper, wetting the paper first and then dropping
in a bit of colour so that everything sort of soft and dreamy and that
background area, because the paper is very wet, there was colours
are diffusing very softly and gently
across the paper. But I want to break them
up a little bit more. So I'm screwing up a
piece of paper towel. I'm just going to
roll that very gently across the colors
that I've just put on in the background, taking care not to
roll over my petals. So when I get to a petal shape, I'm kind of just
lifting it up gently. So I'm just breaking
up even further that background color to give it
a soft, wispy appearance. I've turned my paper
around and I'm doing exactly the same process
on the right-hand side. Painting with clear water, dropping in the burnt sienna. The light yellow on
the medium yellow. Remember these are
very dilute mixes. Then just rolling over
with my screen pulled up paper towel so that we
get that nice wispy. Almost their appearance
5. Paint the flower petals, adding shadows and veins: I've mixed my hansa
yellow light in different consistencies to alter the tool in between
the petals that are in the light on the petals
that are in the shade. As I'm painting each petal, you can see that I'm following the direction of
the little veins that run down the petal. I'm thinking about where
the light is coming from. So the petals that are back-lit, I'm using a weaker wash. Where the petals are in the shade or where
they're near the center. I'm using a slightly
thicker wash so that that paint is
a little bit stronger. And I'm continuing to
pull the brush away from the center in the direction
that the veins are running. Dobbins, little bits off
here and there where I want that particular petal to
be a little bit lighter. By doing this, we start to add form to the flower to show that it's a more rounded shape and some of the petals are
folded over a little bit. If there are any areas that
have got bit too dark, I can just dab that off
with my paper towel. I'm also painting right over those little flower shapes
that we painted earlier. I'm certainly not going to
try and paint around them. That would be far too onerous because they're
already a darker color. When we put more
paint over the top, they will just go
a bit darker so they will blend in nicely. I'm working my way now around
each flower in the plant. I'm thinking about whether that particular flower is in shade or whether it
is in the light, is half of the in shade or in the light is the just one petal
that's more in the light. I'm continuing to
use my brush strokes so that they follow the lines of the petal from the
center outwards. Although I'm painting individual
flowers one at a time, I'm keeping my eye on the ones
that have already painted. And if need be, go back and add a
few more touches. Everything is relative. So sometimes something
can look the right tool, look the right
lightness or darkness. But then when you paint
another one next to it, it doesn't look quite right. So we are painting these
plants as a whole. So you can keep going back and add a little
touches here and there. When the paint is settled a bit more and get that
more harmonious look. When you've worked all
the way around the plant, you can have another look and most of the flowers
will have dry by now. So you can go back
over and strengthen any little areas that need
a stronger color in them. Remember though, that this is just the first layer
of the flowers. So don't overdo it. Don't do too much coloring and shading because we
are going to let the painting dry
now and then come back to it for a second
layer of colour. So let's leave it to dry. I've mixed my light yellow
with a little bit of the darker yellow for
that in-between shade. I want to separate out
the petals a little bit. Unsure where one is
overlapping another. But we don't want it so dark that it looks like
a different flower. I'm thinking about where
one petal is above another and the petal
underneath will be more shaded. So we need to just
put a little bit of the darker color
underneath that top petal. And using that softening
and blending technique that we've now worked on a few
times through this project. Just soften that shading in. You can also add some little veins to the
petals that might be standing out a little bit
more with your darker color. But keep it subtle. Again, we don't want
it to look like Tran lines match sticks on top. I'm, the petals are very
soft, very blended. So the shading needs to be there and obvious
but still gentle. We do often use
mixes of grays and blues and purples,
a shadow colors. But when I tried them out
beforehand on a practice piece, it did tend to make the flowers look a bit drab and dismal. And I wanted the
Primroses to have a happy, sunny appearance. I've stuck with using this
darker shade of yellow. However, if you feel there isn't enough contrast and
enough definition, you could add a little
touch of green to the mix because there will be some reflected color
from the leaves. And even a little bit
of purple or blue. If you want to really
have the contrast. I'm just working
my way now around each flower in the plant shape. Thinking about where one
petal is above another, where one needs to be in
shade and where I need to add a few little veins to define
the flower direction. Standing back and
looking at my painting, I think I've lost
some of the color in my little central floret petals. So I'm gonna give them a second layer of
the quinacridone, gold mixed with light yellow
that in-between color. And just strengthen the
color backup a bit. Have a good look at
your painting and decide whether you
need to do this too. But your painting there
be absolutely fine. It's important to keep reflecting and correct
him where necessary. But if not, sit on your
hands and don't fiddle. And now we're going to
leave the painting to dry before we go
onto the next step.
6. Add depth to the plant, apply glazes of colour where needed: One of the quirks of
watercolour is that it usually dries a lot lighter than
when we first put it on wet. I want to add some depth in and around the
body of NAPLAN. And to do that, I'm going to add some stronger shadow color. This shadow color
is not going to go onto the flowers this time. I'm going to mix a
fairly strong purple. I'm using some Alizarin crimson with indigo or ultra marine, and a touch of burnt sienna
just to tone it down. Shadows are always stronger at the source and lighter
as they move away. So I'm going in quite
strong at the center of the plant where the
leaves are clustered together and where there
will be more shadow. Because of that. I'm
working my way around the plant and looking
for areas of shadow that will are being caused by
overhanging plants are leaves. I'm not painting
a solid block of shadow because we've got a variety of shapes
in the plant. So there will be a
variety of shadow shapes. Remember to use a damp
brush just to soften those shadow shapes and blend them into the surrounding areas. Now strengthened in the shadow
that's below the plant. As you work in
around the leaves. Don't forget that the edges of the Primroses leaves
are quite crinkly. So use the point of
view brush to create a more wiggly shadow shape
where it is next to a leaf, but a smoother shadow
shape where it is next to a petal or a stem. This dark color,
we'll add a lot of contrast to the painting
and really make it pop. So do take a deep breath and be bold and working my way around the under
body of the plant. Taken special care. If I'm painting next to a
petal automate little board. Otherwise, I am hitting them
missing some of the edges. So varying the thickness of the shadow or the
length the line. Pulling it outwards and
downwards as I go along. I'm also looking for any
little shapes in-between. The leaves are the stems where the shadow
will be very dark. If you're a slow painter, you can do this in
sections instead of tackling the whole
area in one go. Then ask before I'm using a damp brush to move that
paint away from the source, pulling it down the paper
and blend in the shadow into the underlying wash
so that we don't get that hard edge where it's
moving away from the source. And that's really important. In order to obtain
a natural look. You can see that I've
changed from using the points of my brush to the side of my brush and using the dragging action just
to draw that paint away, that very dark paint away. Remember this is
soil, this is earth. So we want it to be
a bit rough looking. A nice contrast
with the flowers. Now, leave it to dry. When it is completely dry, remove the masking fluid from the areas that you
spattered in the soil and also from the flowers centres to reveal
that tiny highlight. Because my background
is quite pale, I'm going to add
a yellow glaze on my flowers to make them
stand out a bit more. Clarity, simply, another thin layer of
colour that enriches intense the underlying layer whilst also allowing
it to show through. So as an example, if you applied a thin glaze of pink to our yellow flowers, it would result in them
looking slightly orange. But I want to intensify
the yellow color. So I'm going to add a thin
glaze of hansa yellow light just to strengthen that color without obliterating
what's underneath. Now you can see what a subtle difference
that final glazes making to our lovely primroses. They're looking
brighter and Sania and standing out more
against the pale background. As a final touch, I'm just spattering
some yellow paint to break up the
expansive brown soil. Really love to see your
own finished painting, which you can upload to
the Your Project section. If you could just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. I do hope you've
enjoyed this video and it's encouraged
you to have a look at some of my other classes. Thank you for joining me. And until next time,
happy painting
7. PRIMROSES - Final Thoughts: Well done on
completing the class. And also the painting. If you've been painting
alongside of me. We've covered quite a
few different technique. We've simplified the drawing
from the reference photo. We've used different
brush strokes to create texture on the leaves. We then use the
layering technique to add a second layer of colour. After the first layer is dried, we looked at how to blend
and soft and hard edges, particularly when
adding final details. We use the wet into wet technique to create the
soil in the foreground. And we learned how
to add shadows, the flower petals, without making them
look dull and gray. We added depth to the plant and we even did a
bit of rag-rolling. I would really love to see
your own finished painting, which you can upload to
the Your Project section. If you could just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. I do hope you've
enjoyed this video. It's encouraged
you to have a look at some of my other classes. In the meantime, thank
you for joining me and I look forward to seeing you
next time. Happy painting
Carrie McKenzie, creating painted visions
