Folk art Illustration: Paint symmetrical florals in three ways with Gouache

1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to this class about painting geometric folk out florals and Julia and illustrator and designer from Germany. Thank you so much for joining me in this class. We're going to dive into folk up folk. Out is present in many different cultures, and it's usually applied toe everyday items such as pottery or textiles toe add a decorative effect, the colors and folk at a bright and joyful and the motives are usually stylized florals, and quite often they do have symmetry. We'll explore what makes folk art florals unique and how you can explore the painting technique for yourself. With a few simple steps, we'll take a look at different floral shapes, working with flash pain and how to create focus design. And I'll show you typical color palettes and floor worlds used and folk out. And in the end you will create your own talk at design. So I hope you'll join me in this class about painting geometric folk out florals. Let's get started 2. Tools: Let's take a quick look at the tools you're going to need. And as with my other classes, you don't really need a lot. I'm going to paint with wash in this class, feel free to use water canner or any combination off washing water color. As I often mentioned, you can perfectly combine these two techniques, and I'm going to show you how to work with a fairly limited palette. So you don't see too many paints here. And essentially you could take away a few more off these if you wanted. So, um, usually, folk art designs have very break bright colors and are very joyful. And they use this kind of, ah, traditional and, um, yeah, very bright palette and decorative. And so what you want to have is some kind of green because we're working with floral elements and some yellow, red or blue for the floor shapes themselves so special you laid her how I make a pellet out of thes um, wash pains. If you don't have washed, then you can make a fake wash out of your pants at your watercolor, Pan said. And what you'll need for this is some wash white so you could, and I've mentioned this before, and I believe I have shown this in another class off mine. I'm not sure which one, but you can add some goulash wide to your water callup in said on a different mixing palette, and so that where you can achieve thes passel turns that you off, um, have with the's focus these lines. So that's it about paint. Then obviously, you need some kind of mixing palette. I have this big pallor. Don't be intimidated by by this, but really big pallet. You could essentially use some kind of played other mixing palette that you have at your disposal. Then you'll need a few brushes. I usually work with two sizes. Um, I like to have a bigger brush, like a size three or four and round brush and then a smaller brush, like a size one or size zero for smaller work. And what high often used to is this kind off Alanna Brush, which has very long bristles with very fine tips. So if I know that I want to pain, very small details are very fine lines than I really like to use this brush for sketching you'll need a pencil and some kind of erasure and an eraser. And a ruler can come in handy, too. And, of course, you'll need paper. I used the's loose sheets. They're square sheets of watercolor paper, and I just make sure that it's a little bit sturdier so that it won't buckle or bend when I use it. So, um, just make sure that when you use a watercolor paired, it says at least 300 reace m or maybe 200 trees. M would be the absolute minimum that I would use with water colors. 3. Examples: so I'd like to show you a few examples off my own work that are folk designs and then also talk a little bit about references and where you can find inspiration for your own work and your own paintings. So let's have a look at these. I'm not sure if they will all fit into the frame, but let's see, Maybe like this. So as you can see, we have these very bright colors and very solid shapes for the florals and also for the leaves. And there's a lot of symmetry involved. So when we're looking at folks up and you can see that really many, probably all cultures had folks at and usually thes designs would be used for decoration and for everyday objects. So someone would paint something like this on a wooden panel on the border, or maybe on a plate. So, um, a lot of folks at is also found on fabric or on clothing, so sometimes on traditional clothing. And this explains why the motives are often very traditional, very stylized, almost have almost symbolic, so you wouldn't really recognise any particular flowers from looking at this, But you I just can see that this is a very bright and a very joyful, kind off decorative art. Um, yeah, And we will explore the the aspect of symmetry in this class and yeah, I find it to be a very fun in a very relaxing kind of painting. So that's why I made this class. You can see another take on symmetry here with a little bit more modern aspect. And here we have some off the floral shapes that I explored recently that can be used to put together more focused designs. And, um, you can obviously find a lot of references on the Internet. What I like to do is, um, leave through books and you can see here, this is I think this is a book by Dover Publications, and they have a lot of thes books that assemble that that collect historic designs and sort of put them all together in these books. And they're really in its inexpensive, so might be worth a look. If you're, um, interested in these kinds off, I think they also have a list here. Their Victorian imagery are plants, fantastic ottomans, decorative flower and leaf designs, and these our copyright free. I beliefs. So this is why they can sell them for a really low price. And you can see this ISS I think this IHS sorted by country. So a lot off cultures and a lot of countries had folk out and you can really see a lot of symmetry here. And they even say what? Where these were where these these designs were found. So so you can see a lot of florals and a lot of symmetry and a lot of vines and little details and small shapes that make up bigger shapes. And this really what I like to explore this class to so books like these can be a great reference. Obviously. Here you can see some mittens which are really fun, I think. And these would obviously be more like from embroidery textile items. So and here we have another. Um I think this is from a ceramic design. So there there are many sources you can go to to find these kind of designs. And I've also got a Pinterest bought that you can browse through, has also a few more contemporary designs. So feel free to use thes sources to find elements that you like, and floral shapes that you would like to explore 4. Color palette: So one thing I like to do at the beginning off a project is to define my color palette a little bit more in detail. And I usually use a piece of scrap paper. And what I would do is just make these little color swatches. So that helps me to narrow down the colors that I want to use for that particular project. And here we ended for this work. We don't have to use too many kind of, um, I'd advise that you take at least one green and maybe, um, Geno, blue and red and then some white and everything else is optional. I, um, will show you how to make two different kinds off, Um, two different shades from the same color. So I have I think I have covered this in another class. I think it waas the everyday object painting class. So I talk about past sell tones and how to achieve a real really a beautiful color palette there. But I'm going to show it again here. But if you interested, then take a look at that class. So, um, let's start with a dark green. I will. Sometimes thes tubes are a little bit hard to open, so Hammel just squeeze out a little bit of pain. We don't really need too much. And if you've never worked with wash, then you'll have to add a little bit off water to the paint to get it to the right consistency. And at this point, we're only concerned with color swatches, and I've already gone ahead and squeezed a little bit off that same dog. I think third green it is into my mixing palette, and I've added just a tiny bit off white and you can see at least I hope you can see that That's this, adds It takes a little bit away from the brightness, and I know I have talked about bright colors and really joyful designs when I showed you, um, the reference images. But I really do like pastoral terms, and sometimes I prefer that when the colors are little bit more muted. So what I've done in the as a second step is at a little bit more white to my green so that we'll get this lovely light pestle room and in the same way we have this dark blue here, which is I think It's a Prussian blue, and when we add bit off wide, I'll just squeeze out a little bit off white here, and then I'll take up just a tiny bit off that blue and mix it so that it makes a nice baby blue pastel blue tone and you can even take it a little bit further and mixed in more white . Yes, you can see you can have a nice, nice variations off essentially the same color. And this will help to keep your palate a little bit more consistent and a little bit more concentrated. So you really don't have to work with too many colors here. Um, we could do the same thing with the red, although I prefer there are rats that have, um, more blues in them. So what I like to do is work with this flesh toned wash tone by Wintemute. So just out of the huge, we have very nice pink tone, and obviously you can mix this with a bit off red to get, um, a little bit, doc huh thing and again, this will help you to keep the palate a little bit more concentrated. So then I also have this kept me, um, yellow, which I've add it a bit off white to on this gives a very nice pastoral yellow. So I'll just show you the original, you know, which is a little bit darker and feel absolutely free to use the colors that you like and that you want. So as you can see, this would be a, you know, without anything added to it. So with quash pain usually have to, um, get accustomed to a little bit more off mixing activity, which can be quite fun. Yeah, and I think these are probably all the colors that we need. I do have an alternate green here, which I'll just air. It's very nice, Olive green. And maybe I'll use it. Maybe not. I'm not sure, but now we have a really nice palate that we can work with. And, um, yeah, let's get started on some floor shapes 5. Warm up: Floral Shapes: no. So let's explore some floral shapes. And I just wanted to let you take a look again at some of these designs that I did for some portfolio work of mine. Andi, we're going to explore thes florals a little bit more now, so I don't have my palette here. My swatch in my mixing palette and everything is ready to go. So let's get started with maybe with some blue florals and you don't have to think about composition. This is strictly, um, for practice, So if you want to make a nice composition out off it, then feel absolutely free to do so. But I'm just going to start with some really easy floor. Oh, details on the nice thing about this ISS that washed rise very flat so you can always come back and fix mistakes that you've may be made later. So it's a little bit more uncomplicated, then wet and wet process off water kind of so injustice easiest that we have offers floral shape on. Let's see if we can make a five petal flower, maybe a star shaped one, and my technique here ISS outline first, and then I usually fill it up with solid color. Leave a little bit of on a round shape in the middle, where I will probably put a yellow center later. And with washy cone work and layers, you can work from light to dark or from Dr Light. Usually when the paint has dried, then that shouldn't lift up too much. Sometimes it gets activated. When you use a lot of water in your second player than it will, it will mix with the layer below, so it's best to keep those separate or to keep them to be very careful when you're painting second layers. So maybe used this nice flesh tone Onda. Make another five petal flower. As you can see, I'm working fairly quickly here and again. Leave the middle empty for now, and maybe I'll fill it in. And maybe I'm just even like it is because it really looks nice like this. Goulash is really nice to paint with. It has this really smooth consistency. It's almost like painting with, I don't know with butter with silk really like it. It's very versatile, too. If you have taken a look at my other classes, then you can see that it really lends itself to a lot of subjects, and you can also combine it as I really said, with watercolor and a very nice way. So maybe leads add of hue stems. So it's been difficult to pained good stem in this from this kind of edge. But you can see what happens when, um, the colors mix the paint mixes before the layers dry. And don't worry about things like that. We can fix it later. We could even try to lift off a little bit off the color now, so it's not as obvious, and you can see it's almost gone already. So this really nothing to be afraid off. It's not as, um, it's not a big deal, So I really don't like this Bob Ley line here. But since we're practicing, that's not a problem. Okay, maybe a berry. I think that could be nice. So leads, um, let's pain the little stem first, and I'm going to turn this around a bit, so all right. And I think Barry's need to be read, so you have. Obviously you don't have to conform to these kind off rules where stems need to be green and flowers need to be in cut and other colors. You could obviously change up your colors and make this stem. I don't know, pink and the berry green and whatever you like. You know, this isn't, um this is in the painting from nature, so you can switch it up a little bit and do whatever you think is the most decorative or the most fitting for you design. So that's a freedom that you have worth this kind of technique. All right. I'm beautiful, Barry Siem and again, you can see how the red mixes a little bit with a green because it hasn't dried properly. And that's because I want to demonstrate us many shapes as possible here. So just going back over red with more red. Okay, I'm going to try another shape where we have center like this, and I'm going to let this dry for a moment. Andi, I'm going to leave a little bit off space here on day. Just maybe you're more small bells. So on these kind of look this can take take a different shape. Could also do something like this. Whatever comes to your mind, it's really I don't have a class on, um, how to find these kind of abstract shapes from observation on, um, on nature. So this really great if you have a real reference or plants or flowers or both technical illustration and you want to, um, practice a little bit how you can make more abstract and stylized florals? It's also great thing to to have when you have a kind off, um, reference. And I call this a painted herbarium. So it's a little bit like, um, when as a kid you have these pressed flowers and you could look at them later and really look at the different shapes and the different colors. So I'm going to let this dry, too, and just going back to this one. And I I want to add of hue petals here in this dark blue, this Prussian blue. And obviously, if you don't feel confident about the shape that you're going for them, absolutely feel free to use a pencil to just lying our to your general shape. - Okay , I think two more, maybe a little bit smaller. And now let's add a few details. And with all these pest telly towns, it's still important to have a little bit of contrast in your paintings, so otherwise your composition will look a little bit flat on. Think I'm going to add a yellow base to these or yellow center, These florals, maybe even a red one? Yes, you can see the dark pop. The contrast. It doesn't have to be a big space, but it's still a bond and gives a little bit more off a visual balance. So and that's used this red for another shape can be really fun to imagine these different shapes. Oh, and as you can see, I thought if I switched my red here, So I have added another red shade, which I don't find. I think I almost like it even better than than the other one smaller for warm red. So it has a little bit of yellow in it. Um, sometimes it pays off to make these mistakes. Uh, I was going to have these little dots, maybe. Yes, flower that looks like this. It's no you can see these are really simple and easy shapes, and I'm just making these up as I go and there's not much. There's not a lot of thinking behind this at this stage of the process. So maybe a few more Berries. I'm already thinking a little bit about symmetry, so this might have an excess in the middle. Uh, a little bit too much green and this so I might actually take it to my plate sometimes. Thes. So that seems when you're working on a composition later than absolutely, Don't be afraid to connect thes different for all shapes with each other, which might seem a bit strange because they don't roll like this. But you can see this in these two, for example, where I have just they seem to grow out off this middle stem. And obviously, thes leaves are very different from each other. And these different florals what? Never that they're not one rial flower there just they have to look nice and thes. Fines are overlapping and intertwining. And so this is just, um, a very stylized approach. So it's supposed to be more decorative than realistic, is what I want to say. All right, now let's give this one year a nice, detailed bell you can see with wash. It's important to use enough pain to use enough pigment. This what I'm doing right now is a little bit too. It has a little bit too much water, so it won't be as opaque when it has dried. So I probably have to go back and add a little bit of paint here again. Okay, Um, I'm just going to add a few leave shapes randomly so that you can see kinds off Leafs are possible. - And another thing that's great toe. Add ISS taking a bit of white and adding details later so you can see that they're different kinds off white. And this is actually the, um, the regular white. And what I like to do for these details on top off dark paint is I like to use this bleep proof wide by page Martins, and it's really concentrated. It was really hard to get open. Okay, so this is really concentrated wide pigment, and I like to use it with this really find rush that will come into play and you will see the difference immediately. And I apply this. So for anything that has white deters on top, I really like to work with this Ph Martin split proof white. You can see the difference. You would have to go over this one for a least a second time, maybe 1/3 time with a regular whitewash. So all I wanted to say there are different kinds of white out there. There's, um I think the White Cube by Winsor Newton is pretty good and, well, I really like this, this one for my detail work. It's just something I wanted to mention in case you were wondering. So now, ah, yellow dot fis fried. And I'm going to, uh, maybe add this no flower here. - And obviously you can control the A pass ity of thes pains by adding more or less water. And another thing about layers is, um the more layers you add, the more difficult it will be to actually change the color. Because with wash, it's the layer below will always get reactivated. So, um, it's a bit hard to change the the layer above to an entirely new layer color. Okay, this looking very sweet. I think I will add a few more details to to this one again, this is just a way to at undressed to add details, and obviously this is just a very small sampling off. What is possible with these different floor shapes. And if you if you take another look at your reference, I'm sure you will come up with many creative floor shapes. You can see I have a lot more here, but, um, yeah, just fill a few pages with your with your warm up florals, and then we will continue to the first design. 6. Design 1: Simple symmetrical floral: So since we want to make a symmetrical painting, we thought of only have to think about 1/2 off off our paper. And this is essentially what I have done with these designs, as you can see, and I made these into Prince later. And as you can see, I only painted half off the florals and I assembled them later in photo shop, which is obviously what we won't be doing here in this class. Because I want you to paint and I have myself want to paint. But, um, you can see this. It's possible to only come up with 1/2 off what you want to do and then simply mirror it. And that's really the whole secret to these kind off designs. So, um, for this design, I have a square piece of paper and I'm I think I am. Do want a stem in the middle, which is always it's, um yeah, it's a good thing to have something to grow out of the middle and then to have com pany ing vines and flowers around it. So I think, and I already measured it out a little bit. So, like I said, a ruler is sometimes really good. If you having hard time finding the middle off your paper and things like that. So there will be a stem here. And I think I will start with the big so to speak that the big floral that I want to have in the middle. And at this point, I'm just trying to make sure that it sits in the middle and you don't have to worry about symmetry that much because you're painting everything, but so this will be my stem, and I think I might want to indicate where these go. So now comes the hard part. You have to find approximately the same angle so that it will look nice later. And what comes now is open to your imagination. Simply try to find a floral shape that works nicely with in the space that you have on what's nice about this style ISS that you can essentially fill up any corners and any open spaces with more shapes and more decoration. So it's really not that hard to find, um, to fill a page with these florals. Now what I will also do as have thes all shapes, come out Or maybe I'll change that and have more like around bigger floral. I usually think about filling the biggest wide space first and then work my way around that . So I do want something round here. I hope that you can even see it. So maybe something like this would be nice here. I try to draw a little bit with more pressure than I would usually do, because I still want to be able to erase these lines. I want to paint over them, but I also want you to see what I'm doing. So this may shine through the painting at the end a little bit. Okay, Now we have this large fine here. I will simply fill up with leaf shapes. And we have an empty space year that I want to fill and are probably fill it with the same floral that I had used earlier and in the top corner. Another great reference for how um vines can intertwine and how entangled designs can works . Obviously, William Morris's work. So if you're interested in a little bit off art history and if you're looking for interesting patterns, them, this another great source because he was really a master in these kind off floral and heavily symbolized designs. So another thing that's always good to edge are these little Okay, I need a bit off a filler here. So simply before, Unless you can see, I'm as I'm sketching, I'm immediately filling the other side off the page to so that I don't forget any details which wouldn't be that bad because, you know, you don't have to to mirror everything that you're doing. It's perfectly fine to leave out or to change the details a little bit when you run out of space on one side. But, um, I still try to keep it as close as possible. Okay? I think for now that's fine. I may add some little details later, but let's get to the painting part. And this should be the fun part. I hope so. Actually, I think I start with a bigger brush so that I can get down this big floral first and going to make this a light blue because it's such a big flower. I don't want it to be too dark. Also, it's at the top, so you don't want it to look too heavy going to do these smaller ones in a dark blue. - Obviously , it's a good idea to use a brush that has a very fine and nice tip for wash. I usually like to use synthetic brushes because of the chalk that is added into the pain to make them opaque. And if you if you use sable hair brushes, then these can wear down a little bit more quickly. And I also I wouldn't use, um, brushes for wash off krill IGs for watercolor work. So it's a good idea to keep these separate. Okay, I'm going to erase here a small portion, and I think I'm going for some red flowers here. And these might be yellow upping, I don't know yet, but think I'm going for the red here. Um, so this is what happens when you have a little bit too much white and you are and your little pellet. So I think I will squeeze out of fresh amount off red paint. So we have this really bright red Just tone it down a little bit that we go okay. Had a little bit more water while I painted, I decided that I want peace for to be pink, and then these may be in a dark blue are in a yellow, so I will know at the pink to these outer flowers on and maybe add some leaves to get a clearer picture where everything will go. You can see that on this bigger scale. I'm able to work fairly quickly, so it's always a good idea to make your painting large enough. - That's one thing about wash that's a little bit Ah, getting used to. And that IHS it's it will dry a little bit lighter or darker than what you can see when it's wet. And in that it is similar to watercolor. What kind of always drives a bit lighter? God, sometimes when you have, especially when you have added wide, you can ask the very a bit, and you can already see that this light green dries up a little bit darker than what I thought it would. So that's why it's always a good idea to have thes these pallets before you start painting , so that you know what your pain will look like. One technique to achieve thes long vines, which are curved, is, too, and I tell this I think in every class that I teach is to lock your wrist and to drag your arm across the page instead off just doing it with your fingers or your wrist movement. In that way, with a little bit of practice, your curves can look really nice and smooth, so that's definitely a good technique to practice. I'm doing these smaller curves with a combination off finger and our movement. Okay, so I keep thinking about these leaves. We have quite a few leaves here, and I don't want them to have the same color as the stem. But I don't want them to be in that doctor either. So I think I'll use this olive green and we'll just see how it goes. - And as you can maybe see for some colors, especially the brighter ones, it's a little bit difficult to cover up all off you pencil lines, so it may be a good idea to either to erase them before you paint over them or to use very soft pencil lines in the beginning, by which I mean not a soft pensar, but rather heart pencil, which will leave a very faint line. And another method is of course, paint a second layer when the 1st 1 has dried. So with two or three layers, you should be covered. All right, now we have these ones, and I think they could be this nice dark blue to have a counterpart to once on the bottom. - Okay , so I think this looks really sweet, but it lacks a little bit off detail, and we're just going to add this right now. That's most of the time. It's a good idea to either use the darker or the lighter color or tone from the same color range. So I would use the ping or light red for these red flowers, and I would use the dark blue father's light blue flower. But as always, that's just my take off things. And if you want to go crazy with different colors, you know, feel free to do that. That's also cool. And it couldn't kind look beautiful, too. - Okay , a few of these night blue dots can add a lot of sharm, I think doing, and I think I will have to do something about these pencil marks so you can't obviously erase pencil that's already been covered with paint God, you can add a second layer to it, and that's what I'm going to do right now so that this won't look too harsh. Yeah, I think at that point this piece is more or less finished, so let's take a look at some different shapes to fill with your folk art designs. 7. Design 2: Symmetrical heart: I recently explored different shapes for my focus designs. And I thought it would be fun to introduce some of this in this class and to show how to make, for example, such a heart shaped design. And I've already gone ahead and sketched it out lightly so that I know where all the shapes will go. And obviously you can see that this is a very light design. And this this was done in ink and some goal. And I really like the gold aspect. So I think I'm going to introduce some gold paint in my new design. And yeah, let's just see where it goes. I'm really excited about this one, and I think it it could be very interesting. So again, I will start with this floral here in the middle, and I think this time I will painted in a dark blue or maybe a middle blue. And this I will do this by mixing my dark blue with just ah, a little bit off white so that it will be not a stark. It's the original one, but a little bit lighter. Yeah, that's sort off what I'm going for. Almost and the trick with these designs that follow a certain shape is to make new vines and your florals fit into that shape. So you'll have to think about adding a little vines and stems, too. Sort off lead the I to make that association that this is a hot Okay, all right. Now we need a nice Can she count apart to this? And I think this mind you down here, this red one on. We'll just lay in the shapes with the brush on . Oftentimes, you can see these really primary bright colors for forgot designs because that's what the people who made these and they were often no, not painters, but just ordinary people who wanted to decorate their home. This was often what they had a bad disposal. So and then there are other techniques, like embroidery, where you can't even mix your own color, so to speak. You have to take what's already there. When I totally forgot to show you, I do have a really cool book on embroidery that takes up a lot off thes visual cues, and I really like that book to to look for for ideas to, because it's a really unusual source and I really like to come by in these these different visual aspects with each other. So keep your eyes open for for inspiration. Sources like this too. You can see when you add a lot of water to the squash pains than they almost have watercolor like effects. So then you can get these very washy looking the shapes. Okay, I do have two big shapes here, too. Big florals here that I think will do better if they were in a lighter than I do have thes smaller blue ones here and these ones. And I think these might be nice in a pink tone and these will probably be dark blue. And then we already have all the flowers covered and we can look at the divine's you can Obviously you can work the other way around by first doing all the stems. It's really up to you what you like best. So just try and re race this one a little bit so that my flu will be able to cover the lines. And this this flower here that I'm painting right now is another one off thes fantasy stylized shapes that you can often see and especially in churches, you when you're looking at Gothic or romantic churches, then they often have thes thes floor flowers shaped like these. They also frequently use a capital sleeves. And I think this this might be an interesting thing to to look at as a reference. So if you have Gothic or romantic judges nearby, then take a look. At and B are there because it's always really similar. It's really entangled and intertwined, and there's a lot of ornamentation on the columns, so that can be interesting, too. Also, um, medieval books often have thes very intra Kurtz decorations around the text, so these are a great source to if you enter that stuff. I really like looking at historical sources. So all right, and you can already see the two sides are a little bit different, this a little bit bigger and a little bit more down. But not to worry. That's actually the charm off a hand painted design. If you wanted to be really symmetrical than you, you can take it into the computer and change it there. Okay, lets see five mixed here on my own plate pellets. A really lie pink. Even even lighter than this Winston Newton flesh tone that I showed you earlier, which is this one, and I thought it might be really just this pair of pink. What role? Dry? Approximately two. This shade. I would be really nice for these round flowers here, and I will add a slightly darker tone in the middle. Later, probably some little dots toe. Add a little bit of contrasts, and I've maybe used a bit too much water. So what to do when you've got such a block here, you simply take a dry brush that is, brush that has been put into water and patter dry on a piece off clothes, and then you have a thirsty brushes what they call it in watercolor techniques, and then you can simply pick up the excess pain. So it's a good technique to know when you happen to have too much water on the paper. Now I think, to add a little bit more interest in contrast to the painting, I will do these small bell flowers and yellow. It's and as I said earlier, to achieve the look that over a look of a heart shape, you'll have to guide the viewer's eye. So what we'll do here is just at thes curved vines at the top to simulate thes two curves. And then we'll add these leaves at the bottom to have this thing tip and that will help to to let you see outline where that actually isn't one at least not a solid outline again. This leave doesn't follow the outline, but it indicates a certain direction. So it helps to to bring across this this outline off the heart shape and obviously to the leaves down here will form the tip off the heart and any white space that you don't like. Oh, you think should be filled. You can obviously, Phil later with some little dots or lines. Ornaments. - So what I'm trying to do right now is filling up any white spaces that I see with colors that are already in the design. But they need to be a little bit more evenly distributed. So, for example, I'm taking thes. These yellow flowers are top and in the middle, and maybe they could have another element in yellow right down here, um, at the bottom. So I'm just adding these little elements on each side and you. You see, they are not always really symmetrical because I painted leaves a little bit differently. But that's really not that big of a deal thing. There might be a little bit off blue Bad would look nice here. I just have to find a place for it. - So I actually think I will do the rest off the decoration and gold, and this is where it gets really fun. So I think as a whole, this design already works pretty well. So that's just heard a few yellow dots here, or rather, gold notes. So of this is a bit to think, I think so might need to add a little bit of what, - And I think this will really make it pop. And there are different kinds off gold pained and Golding and, um, actually made a few tests, watches here with different Goldings, and what I'm using now is actually this watercolor paint by Echo line. It's by Todd Ins. It's, um, Dutch brand and um, yes, so this is water color paint. That means it is not a water resistant when it dries you a little bit. Careful with that. There are other Golden Gold pains or Golding's, which are acrylic based so thes. Well, hold up a little bit better when you add water on top off them at another pain. So if I were to, um at a layout on top of this than the gold would smudge Yeah, I really like this. That's really a fun part off off doing a painting. So I think it looks quite nice to, and you can choose to keep the's in a symmetric arrangement to or just to add them wherever you like. I think both this can be very beautiful. Okay, I think this is it for now. At some point, you just have to stop. And even I just want to have these little dots here and then maybe even some decoration in the flowers, so Oh, yes, it's really nice. We live like this. All right? Can you see it shimmer? I think this is really beautiful. It's really turned out great. 8. Design 3: Round Floral: so far, this last design. I want to try something a little bit differently that I haven't done before, and I think it might be interesting to have a design in only one color. And I've chosen for this beautiful, dark Prussian blue for this exercise, and I'm not sure if you can see that, But I've chosen a round shape for my design, and we'll have a big flat in the middle and then several stems coming out of that and filling up this round shape and a hopefully appealing Wait. So I've sketched out my design and pencil, and I've put a little bit off their Prussian blue wash in my palette and just adding a little bit off water to make it more agreeable. And then I get started with painting and this time you up. This obviously don't have to think about any color combinations, but I still want to think a little bit about lines and line quality and contrast and these things so I might pause a little bit to from time to time to think about shapes and whether I want those shapes to be filled or just outlines. And, yeah, just sort off. Take it from here spontaneously so you can see I start heard with the centerpiece of the centre floral, and I'm trying to be a little bit more loose and my brush strokes on your obviously you can pent. Listen anyway you like. All right, I think I will add some dots here and this. Actually, this technique allows me to come closer a little bit to the techniques that someone would have used. Who makes the folk out design for, Let's say, maybe a vase or a plate. So really lose brushstrokes. And one or maybe two colors are at least a very limited color palette, and the technique of layering different colors with wash that I showed you earlier is obviously more indicated when you paint an actual painting on, on paper or on canvas. So far, I like the effects that this has on my painting technique and also what I'm seeing. I really like it. So if you're one of these people who are not into these very detailed, very priest highs paintings than this, might be a fun exercise for you because it's a lot quicker and also a bit more lose. So I think I'll leave it a bed. This was a fun little exercise. I hope you can see that you can make a really strong design by using only one color and playing with the contrast a little bit and with the line work and yeah, I hope you'll have fun exploring your own designs. And I'd love to see your results in the classroom. 9. Final Thoughts: So I hope you've enjoyed this class about painting geometric folk out as much as I have. We've explored this beautiful style by looking at floral shapes, color palettes and different ways of painting. And I've shown you how to use wash pain and also how to create symmetry in your focus pieces. I hope you've been inspired by this class to come up with your own folk out designs. And I'd really love to see your geometric Fokker out paintings or sketchbook exploration. So please upload your illustration or sketchbook pages to the Project gallery, and I'm really looking forward to seeing your results and giving you some feedback. Thank you so much for taking this class for me. I hope you've enjoyed a painting time together and make sure toe follow me here on skill share to get notified about new classes. I also left to hear what you think, so I'd be happy if you left a review for this class. I hope I'll see you in the classroom, and I hope you'll have a fabulous day by