From Watercolor & Pencil Drawing to Logo Design & Abstract Painting

1. Introduction: Hello Skill Share. My name's Kerrygold Butter, I'm an artist and illustrator. You're welcome to my second class. My aim is to make art accessible and to share my creative process, which is full of interesting moments. I specialize in drawings and paintings and I have been developing my own style for the last eight years. In my first class, I was teaching how to create a pattern from any drawing or painting. In my second class, I will demonstrate three different ways of creative process. First of all, I will show you how to create a pencil drawing. Also I will show you how to create a tail watercolor painting, and then how to transform it into logo types. A lot of companies want to have a unique art work for their firm. This time I was asked to create a logo type of the drawing of feathers and watercolor painting of the crystal. I love my job because all I need to do is to develop my own style and to draw things I find inspiring. I love to draw a feather as I did it for the CD cover, for data two as a part of the clothes, and finally, I created a special card deck. It was designed for the biggest playing card company and was successfully solved and printed. Feathers are great and birds are lucky to have them. My experience shows that it is a very useful skill to draw a feather. I will also show you why it is cool to enjoy the magic of watercolor painting. How it is important to relax and work with the flow. Just enjoy the color and shape. If you become an independent painting, all can be use the material for the textile and even become a material for the business cards. Each of my business card is a neat little arthritic, it has an original watercolor painting in my contact details in it. In both of my classes, I teach a traditional approach as well as modern, that involves the post-production process, which I personally find very useful for creating an outstanding graphics. I hope you got inspired and ready to start. Thank you for attention. 2. Watercolor Painting: As usual, we start with a white paper. Then we might need an eraser, a ruler, a pencil and a knife. Make your pencil super sharp with the knife. I will show you the process of making the sketch, speed up so you won't get bored. Now, I will draw a quick sketch of the mineral combined with water. My client from Brooklyn has the idea in mind for the logo of a new fashion clothing store called Major Icon. I'm making the drop and on this step, it is important to understand one kind of color palette we'll be using and we need to draw an approximate shape of the drawing, which will be changed in the end, of course. When I showed it to my client, she asked to do a waterfall rather than a drop. I'm very happy I started with a sketch, it saved a lot of time. Sometimes, I just start with an exact drawing and I am glad this time I didn't. The brand also wanted to have the logo in the triangle shape. I start from the boundaries. I'm making a thin frame. I start with water and then the mineral will go here. I love drawing water and crystals because it's so alive and there is a lot of room for the creative expression. Water is just magnificent. You can draw it however you like. After I'm satisfied with the drawing, I erase all of it, almost all the lines leaving just the traces of the drawing. I do it like that so there will be no visible lines from the pencil after the watercolors will be applied. It is not possible to erase them afterwards, so make sure to make the lines soft. It is also better to use watercolor pencils for that reason. I start with a down layer of the waterfall. It is important to start with the lighter tones and I add the first layer with a wide brush. It is very flexible for the first layer. It is very useful to use different brushes. I'm mixing my favorite colors again. This time, I'm making everything up and I don't look for the reference since I just want to use my fantasy, the moment and make an imaginary crystal which is full of water. Sometimes, it is better to look for the reference. I like to add some stripes as a reflection. I will proceed with the darker shades in the very end because it is not possible to fix the darker shades with the watercolor. Then I add some reflections a few millimeters away from the edge of the drops and the waterfall. That way, I add volume to the surface of the water. Now, I want to work with the cut. Crystal and water have a lot of different reflections so it will look more realistic if I paint them. I'm doing the last step now with the stripes and dark shades. It is very important to add some thin lines to the crystal because it has a lot of details. Some stripes there and here. We're almost done, I colored the frame and however, I will fix the coloring in the Photoshop. To make such gradient, you have to add the color and then work with a wet brush so the water will mix the colors. You might need to practice it at first. Here, it's done. Then we scan the drawing and I will demonstrate how a made the changes. I work with the Pen tool. I select the area and to make it more red, I used the curves to add some contrast. It's always useful. Then I'm using the Stamp tool. In my first class, I have already demonstrated the magic of the Stamp tool. I'm using it all the time because it's very useful for creative and perfect illusion. To make it more red, I will add the red gradient. My client asked to change the color of the mineral for the red one. It's not a problem to make it in Photoshop. It's really fun actually to change the color. I'm making a Selective Color option and it's really useful for changing all the colors. You also can add some changes and different shades and then you always can take the brush and just paint with a brush and choose the right option and color something. Now, I'm making the reflection. I'm selecting the area and I want to make it lighter. Try to select Inverse, and then the selected area will be part that was protected before. It is fast and easy to just change this with Stamp tool and the brush. The area you wiped before is protected now but be careful not to color background. I need to work with the cut to make it more clear, the reflection and the holes. Selecting it again, choose the brush and just paint all over the reflection from the water so it looks more realistic. Then select Inverse again, and now we can work with the holes. It is not really dark yet. It has to have the filling of the depth and I'm adding some shadows in the reflection from the crystal that falls on the water as well. Now, I feel I need to work with the water. It's not really shiny. I'm adding some white reflections with the Lighting tool. It should look more crisp, add shadows as well. In the very end, I decided that the frame looks too colorful and the whole thing is way too bright for my taste. I would like to show you the difference of the edited mineral and the original one. It looks really different. You can see why it is important to work with the painting in the Photoshop. I will change the colors. The final correction I do with my favorite selective color operation, although my client has asked for the red mineral, I will propose two variations so she will choose herself. I'll do the final color palette how I like it, with some blue and magenta and yellow colors in it. Something like that. Here's how it was and now, it looks like that. Here it is, crisp and ready for the usage. Not a typical logotype, but that's what I was asked. 3. Detailed Pencil Drawing: So I would like to demonstrate the detailed pencil drawing. I use the following materials, pencil from soft to hard, soft eraser, hard eraser, sanding paper, and thin paper for the drawing. First of all, I would like to share with you one very important secret. After making the pencils sharp with knife, scratch it using the sandpaper. It will make the pencil extra sharp. I discovered this trick myself, and I find it very practical for creating details. Don't concentrate on the figure in front of the white and virgin paper. Make the first line with an [inaudible]. When the first stage is done, the most difficult part is behind, and the process is going to be easier. Remember it is just a simple pencil, you can always erase it, so, don't hesitate, and be brave. Although I prefer not to remake things several times, and draw everything from the first try. You have to discover your own way of drawing. So I'm making the contours, and then I will fill it with tons of lines. Just work with the flow, and relax. I'm making the middle part. I have to show you a speeded up process, since it takes a while to draw something detailed like this, so, I had to make it fast. Usually, I have a real object for the drawing, but this time I'm just making it up. I remember how feathers look like since I have drawn a lot of them already. So I am adding some holes in the feather, and it looks more realistic. Don't forget to scratch the pencil with the sandpaper. I'm using a pencil with a medium hardness B, or H-B, which is basically enough for creating light, and dark drawings. The harder is the pencil, the sharper, and lighter the lines are. To draw something detailed like this, you have to look very closely to the drawing. Sharpen your pencil always. It is very useful to cut the eraser for the thinner corrections, after you can always take away the dark shades with a soft eraser. This is the soft eraser, and it is very useful for making shades lighter, but not to erase things completely. It's magical. After a while, I take the darker pencil and add dark lines. It's better to start with the lighter drawing, and I add some shadows on both sides of the drawing. I want to make the different color here like the darker. Be gentle with the ending of the feather, it needs to be soft. Mostly the beginning of the feather starts with the smaller lines. Then I add the shadow on the stake a few millimeters away from the edge. It gives more volume to the round shaped stick in the middle of the feather. Closer to the end, I take away the half-tones with a soft eraser, to make the parts of the feather lighter, since I always go too much into the details, and make the drawing to dark. Just mark until you're satisfied. Then I am taking the soft pencil, make it extra sharp, and add some really dark shades, so it has more contrast. Also, I find it very useful to make a thin shape out of a soft eraser. When I'm satisfied with the drawing, it's when it's close to the perfection, I make a signature. Of course, it's very important to sign all your works, and then I scan the drawing and now we continue working in the Photoshop. After scanning the drawing, we need to select the drawing with the pen tool. It will take time, but since the feather is very detailed, it's worth it. So we're almost done. You will see a circle when it's circled, and then you click with the right bottom, and select make to selection. After that click the right button again, and cut the layer, and delete the dirty background, after making a new white background in the separated layer. Now I want to make holes, after that, select the burn tool, and make the shadows darker where needed. Then choose the mid tons on the top, and make them darker too. That way we'll make the flexion, and volume more noticeable. After that, I select the dodge tool, which will enlighten things, and continue working within the shadows. Now I'm selecting the part with the pen tool to make everything here darker, and after, I will continue with the burn tool again here, so you know there's different colors in the feather. Then I need to duplicate the whole file. I create a copy, select the white background, and press control, or command I which means invert. Now since the feather had been cut, we see it differently. Experiment with inverting the color of the feather as well, then I'm rotating it so it has a better composition for the logo, and then I'm composing the feather into the circle. That was a client's wish to have a feather on the black circle. The easiest way to save the working file is to make a screenshot, so, I do two different variations of the feather in that, he had chosen the inverted one, this one. The brand growler from Brazil asked to create an X from the feather, the same as I had in my alphabetic book. I will talk more about creative topography in the next class, so, basically, I'm repeating the drawing. There is nothing wrong in doing this, in case you like the process. So it will be a very good print for the t-shirt, and one company had stolen this X for their t-shirt. I'm doing this the second time but legally. I made a lot of feathers, and they are very good for the pattern. I made a pattern for the Sydney Cover, for the Clothes, and for the Playing Card Deck. To learn how to make a pattern, please enroll in my first class. This playing card deck was successfully sold to the bicycle, big company. As you have seen, drawing is a very useful skill to have. 4. Abstract Painting: Now we will have some time for the Rx. I would like to show you how I use this sketch I don't need anymore. If you have a high quality paper, don't throw it away if the painting appeared not very good, just make something absolute out of it. I'm applying some colors as a background. The same colors I used in the painting. Now I have an oil-based marker and then we'll work with it. It's really fun to experiment with it and try some random lines. Then you will see what will happen. I'm applying the watercolors on it. This is a trick that is possible with oily-based materials. I erase this sketch, I don't need it, I just wanted to make something alive, abstract with no particular things in it. Put some water every now and then, and after applying a lot of colors you can rotate the paper. Rotating the paper is so fun. Then apply more layers of water color. Work with the color palette and make sure you like the colors you're using and they fit well together. Now I'm making the thin lines on the dry layer. I just want to create some movement. You just work with the flow and don't think it's the most important. Some yellowish for refreshing. There are some brushes which can make thin fed lines. I find them incredibly helpful. I bought this one in Bangkok and regret that I have only one. Look at this, it's great. You can always experiment with a pencil and now I'm making the dots with oily-based marker on top of the watercolor. This tree capability know already, it's really useful if you want to make it spontaneous and it works well with the toothbrush. Some more lines, some darker lines in the end. You always have to start with the lighter shades and you work with the water color because you cannot fix it. Now after all layers are dry, I'll create the darkest line. That will make them wavy and alive so they make a movement and the beautiful texture I did in the first part.This is it. I will repeat everything once again so you can check out one more time how fast and simple the way of creating something nice can be. Now explanations these time, just the process. I just want to add that you have to enjoy the process as much as it can. Feel free to experiment. Choose the best quality watercolors and your favorite color palette. After the first layer is dry and the lines. So they are sharp. Making these art work the same way as the previous one. So they fit well together in this series would look nice and the world. Here it is.