Fun & Simple Watercolor Cacti: 3 Color Themes

1. Introduction: Hi guys, my name is Emma and some of you may know me on Instagram as [inaudible] Rebel. I'm so excited to share a class with you today on how to paint some fun and simple watercolor cacti. Whether you painted these little cuties before and you are looking to up your cacti game or if you're a beginner looking for a fun, simple project, practicing watercolor skills on, and this class is for you. Cacti are such simple and beautiful forms. They are one of my favorite therapeutic things to paint. In this class, you will learn how to create some watercolor cacti in three different colors themes; classic green, psychedelic, and galactic. I will walk you through my painting process as well as the materials and techniques I use for these paintings. You will learn some basic watercolor techniques, how to draw and stylize your cacti, how to choose the colors for each theme, add details and finally, create your very own themed cacti for your class project. From there, you can also incorporate your cacti into other designs just like this. I cannot wait to see what you guys come up with. Ready to start painting? Hit the enroll button now and let's get started. 2. Class Materials: In this lesson, I will be sharing with you some of my favorite materials, and ones that I will be using for this class. Please do not feel pressured into getting the exact supplies that I use, especially if you're just starting out. Using really good quality materials can certainly make a difference in your learning experience, but they don't have to be the most expensive, nor do you need to get all of them at once. It's important that you try to master the basic painting techniques first and foremost, as you grow in your watercolor journey, so too will your collection of tools and materials, so don't stress. First off, watercolor paper. These are my favorite brands of watercolor paper to work with. For the basic techniques and color lesson, I'll be using the Canson XL watercolor paper. For the main cacti demonstration, I'll be using the Stonehenge Aqua cold-press block. When it comes to paper, I do think that using really good quality paper is important and can certainly make a difference in your learning experience. Personally, I do think it's something worth investing in. In my class demonstrations, I will be using both the pan and tube watercolors from Windsor & Newton, as well as Dr. Ph Martin's hydrus liquid watercolors. Now, you don't have to have all these different watercolors, I'll just be demonstrating what you can achieve with each one. Personally, I love both the liquid and the tube watercolors, and I use them most frequently in my work. Feel free to use whatever watercolors you have with you. I will be using some Windsor & Newton round brushes for this class in a size 6, 4, 2, and 00. Sometimes I might have an extra brush in hand just so I don't have to keep washing it in between changing colors. You also need two water jars to rinse your brushes in, one for cool colors and one for warm colors. I also use this squeeze bottle a lot to activate or dilute pigment. I sometimes use it to apply water straight onto paper for larger base washes. It's not a must, but I do find it very handy. Next is a mixing palette. Feel free to use any mixing pellet of your choice. I really like the porcelain ones as the surface feels quite nice to mix the paint on, and I find them a bit easier to clean too. For this class, I'll be using this square porcelain plate to mix my liquid watercolors on. I got this one from target for $2. I'll also be using this aluminum travel palette, which is what I use for my tube watercolors. You'll notice that I squeeze the tube watercolors at the top of the sloping well instead of at the bottom. Now, there's no right or wrong way to do this. I just prefer this method because I can utilize the palette a little more, and save a bit of mixing space. Using the squeeze bottle to activate the pigments, you'll notice the water start to pull at the bottom of the well. What this gives me is a lighter and transparent hue because there's more water than pigment in the mix. Now, if I wanted a more pigmented and darker value of color, I can just grab the paint from the top of the well with my damp brush. I also find it easier to clean, especially when you've been mixing colors around on your palate. Just loosen the surface of the dirty pigment with some water, and use your brush to gently push it to the bottom of the well, then using a tissue or paper towel, just soak up the dirty liquid. Last but not least, I'll be using a white Signo gel pen, a pencil, some outline ink pens, some salt, an eraser, and some paper towel. 3. Cacti Inspiration + Drawing: I'm going to start by doing an image search to Google together some cacti inspiration. What we are going to do, is study the basic shapes of different cacti and see how we can exaggerate or simplify certain elements to come up with different cacti designs. You can also do this through Pinterest of course, or any other online source, as well as through books and even live references from your garden. Once I have these, I'm just going to draw some basic shapes to get a feel of the different forms of cacti.[MUSIC] Then I'm going to pay attention and notice the different details of each cactus and just draw that in.[MUSIC] So for example, this cactus has very distinct white dots with a needle stick out from. The needles are fine and there are at least three to five needles in one point. With this cactus, I'm noticing the arrangement of needles across the curve shape of its body. I also note how the clusters of prickles look like tiny sea urchins Based on these observations, I can then piece together elements from different cacti and incorporate that into my design. But from here, I'm also going to look at how I can vary the lines, details, size, shape, and composition, to come up with something more of my own. So for example, I really like the shape of the prickly pear cactus. But instead of having that perfectly nice oval shape, I wanted to curve at the base a bit more. And then instead of white dots, I am going to represent the prickles as simplified, little V-shaped. Just think of different ways you can vary the details through the use of lines. Think of the amount of lines, the weight of the line, length, direction, and so-forth. Another example is this Saguaro Cactus. It usually has a long, almost straight pillar like body. I can go ahead and exaggerate the form by making it more top heavy and more curvy. So here I'm just drawing out my cactus using all the elements I mentioned earlier. I'll come up with a few variations until I have ones I really like.[MUSIC] Once you've settled on a design you're happy with, draw it out lightly with a HB pencil on your watercolor paper. You can use the same cactus drawing for all three colors themes, or you can choose to come up with two more designs. You only need to draw out the basic shape. We'll add the details in later using our watercolor and pens. Before we paint, you can lighten the pencil sketch with an eraser and leave just enough pencil lines as a guide. Now remember, just have fun and experiment. See what different designs or variations you can come up with. 4. Basic Techniques: In this lesson, I'll be covering the two main techniques we'll be using throughout the class, which is wet and wet and wet on dry. Working wet on wet is when you apply paint onto an already wet surface. What I'm doing here is wetting the paper first before dropping in some paint. While the paper is still damp, you can continue to add more of the same color to darken its value or you could add different colors to the mix. This technique is best used for when you want soft diffuse edges, smooth blades of color, or a smooth blend of two or more colors. Throughout the class, you'll notice me drop the colors in like this and leave a bit of space for a second color. Then I'll use the tip of my brush to blend the parts where the colors overlap, but I'm not blending the two colors entirely because I want the colors to maintain their original hues here and there. Dropping and dubbing the colors in like this creates an interesting texture, which is what I am going for. You can also use wet on wet to darken or deepen the value of a color, for example, when you're trying to create shadows. While the paint is still damp, you can grab a more concentrated mix of the paint on your damp brush and drop it in the area you would like to darken. Now, if you want to create a highlight, you can use your brush to soak up the paint while it is still damp. Just be sure to start with a clean damp brush and to clean the brush in between lifting so you're not just spreading paint back onto the surface. Another way you can create beautiful textures working wet on wet is by using salt. Apply a little over the damp surface and scrub it off gently once the paint has completely dried. Wet on dry is where you apply wet paint directly onto a dry surface, which could either be the paper or an already dried layer of paint. This gives you more control over the paint and brush strokes and allows you to create clean and hard edges if that is what you are going full. I painted this red circle earlier on, and now that it's dry, I'm going to add a different wash of color over it. This technique of overlaying transparent washes of color on top of another dried layer of color is also called glazing. In this class, we will be working wet and dry as we apply line details to our cacti, just like this. You can also create shadows working wet and dry by applying a darker value of the color in the area you wish to shade. Now, you can either leave this as a hard edge or soften the edges out by blending it with a clean damp brush. If you do decide to blend or free the edges out, then you'll need to work fast, otherwise the paint will settle on the paper and it will be harder to create a softer edge. Again, when I blend out the edges, I clean my brush off first in water and dub on some paper towel so that my brush is just damp enough. Then I sweep the edge of the painted area to coax the colors out and breath softly into the moisture, creating those soft diffuse edges. Have a play around practicing and experimenting with these techniques. 5. Choosing Colours: In this lesson, I will be explaining in brief some basic color theory since I might refer to some of the terms throughout the class. Then I'll share with you some of the elements that help me in selecting the colors for my cacti painting. I'll start with this color wheel, just to help me explain some of those color theories. First off, we have our primary colors that form the basis of all the colors on the color wheel. We have our blue, yellow, and red as the three primary colors. When we mix two primary colors together, we get our secondary color. When we mix yellow and red, we get orange. When we mix blue and red, we get violet. When we mix blue and yellow, we get green. When we mix a primary color with a secondary color, we get a tertiary color which seats in between the two. Then we have our color harmonies. These are color combinations from the color wheel that delivers visual interest and a sense of balance because the colors work together and are in harmony with each other. The first is an analogous color scheme. Any 3-4 colors sitting next to each other on the color wheel is called analogous. You can say between red to yellow-orange or red to blue-violet, those colors are considered analogous. The second is a complementary color scheme. Complimentary colors are colors sitting opposite each other on the color wheel. For example, the compliment of violet is yellow and vice versa. Complementary colors are very high contrast and can create a vibrant look. If not used properly, can result in something unpleasant to the eyes. The third is split complementary, any color on the color wheel with the two colors on each side of its complement. For example, orange and the two colors on each side of its complimentary color, which is blue-green and blue-violet, not including the blue itself. There are definitely more formulas for color harmony, but these are the three main ones I wanted to cover in this class. Now, we're going to be painting our cacti based on three themes, classic, psychedelic and galactic. In this lesson, we're going to learn how to create a palette for each one of those themes. Obviously for our classic cacti, it's pretty straightforward. We will be sticking to the color green, but within that, we can obviously use different traits and hues of green. We can also look at the color wheel and use an analogous color scheme. It can range between yellow-orange to green and green to blue-violet. For our classic cacti, I will be sticking within the yellow-green to blue color scheme, with green being the dominant color. For our psychedelic and galactic cacti, I will be using a different method since these are a bit more elaborate themes. I'll start by doing a little word association mind map to list out things that come to mind when I think about psychedelic. This could be a feeling, a place, even colors or words, anything you can think of, but keep it simple. This basically helps to break down to scope of ideas and narrow in on an angle. For example, I want to narrow in on this angle. When I think of psychedelic, I think of happy feelings, for example. Colors I associate with when I think of happy are these vibrant warm colors. On our color wheel, we have our warm colors which range between yellow to red-violet, so I'm looking at these sorts of colors. Then I'll start swatching the colors that come to mind on my watercolor paper. Feel free to play around with mixing the colors together using wet on wet like we did in our previous lesson. I can also look up some images online to see what colors are associated with the word psychedelic. For example, I quite like the colors in this photo. Now, I'm going to try and swatch those colors and play around with it a little. We'll do the same with the galactic theme, but I'm going to paint the colors straight onto paper. Obviously when I think of galactic, I associate it with images and colors of space. I'll start to swatching those colors that come to mind. Again, you can also look up some images online by typing in galactic or galaxy, just to give you some color inspiration. Just have fun exploring different color combos you can come up with, then pick one for each theme, and we'll get started on painting our cacti. 6. Cacti 1: Body: We're going to start painting our first set of cacti. In this lesson, I'll be using my Winsor & Newton pen and tube watercolors, and we'll be painting in the main body of the cacti first. We're going to mostly be working wet on wet, so I'll start by using water to wet the area or shape that I want to paint, making sure that I cover all the areas and edges. I've already got a couple of greens on my palette, as you can see, but I'm just going to activate some permanent Sap Green and add that to the mix. I'm dropping in the green, and gently sweeping it along the edge of the shape. At this point, I'm thinking, I want the light source to come from the right side, so I'm going to keep the darker values and use on the left corners of the shape. Now, I'm adding some green goal to get that yellowy green mix. You can also just use yellow. Then I'm going to drop and sweep the color gently to where I want it to go. In this case, I'm going to apply it mostly in the right side of the shape. But you'll see that I also do little drops of the color randomly around the shape. This is just so it mixes with the rest of the green and create some interest. I've just added some teller turquoise to the mix to get that darker green, and I'm just dropping in around the left corner where I wanted to be darker, and a little on the right edge where the arm is going to stick out from. Again, dropping it in the areas I want it to mix a little. Before I move on, I'm just dropping in a slightly darker value of the permanent sap green mix, and dabbing it gently across the area to create a smoother transition of colors. Now, as I'm painting the water onto the left arm of the cactus, I'm going to start from the top and work my way down to the base of the shape. Then, gently connect the two shapes with the tip of my brush. If the body is the wet then you will notice some of the paint flow into the new shape, which is perfectly fine. I'm going to continue adding the colors in like I did with the body, moving between a lighter green to a darker shade of green. Over here, I'm adding a touch of teller turquoise straight from the palette just to get that rich, dark, bluish, and green hue. You'll notice when I picked up the paint, I dabbed my brush in the paper towel before dropping the paint onto the wet paper. Now, this is because the paper is still quite wet, and if I come in with very watery paint, then this is just going to flood the area and push the pigment aside or cause it to float on the surface of the water, which is not what I want. If this happens though, just soak up the excess water with a paper towel or a damp brush. So just be mindful of the level of moisture on your paper, with the amount of liquid you're carrying in your brush. It definitely takes a bit of practice, but in time it does become something more intuitive. Now we're going to start working on the psychedelic cactus. As usual, we'll start by wetting the area where we want the paint to go. Now, I've decided to go for a sort of rainbow pedal pop kind of color scheme. You know those rainbow pedal pop ice-cream from your childhood. Anyway, this is what I came up with from the mind-map exercise we did earlier on. I'll be using opera rose as my first color and I'm just going to dab it in and define the top edges of the cactus. Then I'm going to drop in a darker value of the color by using more pigment on my brush and less water. Again, I'm leaving some of that paper white to add in the second color, which is cobalt turquoise light. For my third color, I'm going to go for an ultramarine violet, which bridges the two colors together. What I mean by this is that, the upper rows and cobalt turquoise light produces a similar purple hue when mixed, so it's basically like link between the two colors. Now, I'm just deepening the value of the colors while the paper is still damp, because usually the colors will dry a little lighter than when it's wet. In saying that, try not to overwork your paper. You can always go back and add in more colors if the wash is too light for your liking. In the meantime, just let it dry and start working on another part of the painting. I'm just going to continue painting the arms using the same process I did with the body. Finally, we're going to work on our galactic cactus. I'm going to use some of the costs for my pen set, which are the indigo, Payne's gray, and Winsor Violet, which are some of my favorite colors. Now, I'm going to start with the indigo and just run it along the edges of the shape, and then drop it in here and there where I wanted. As you can see, when you're working wet on wet, you get these soft diffuse edges, because the paint is just flowing and spreading to the moisture. Next, I'll add in the Winsor Violet and you'll notice how easily and fast it spreads on the wet surface. This flow in watercolors vary from pigment to pigment, depending on what it's made of, and as well as the characteristics of each pigment. So depending on whether a pigment is made from a mineral, or organic compound, or the type of chemical, and as well as the manufacturing process of the pigment, you'll notice that some colors have more flow than others. This doesn't necessarily mean that a pigment is good or bad, it's just part of the characteristic of the pigment. Now, you don't have to be too concerned about it in this class, I'm just sharing that extra info in case you were wondering. Finally, we're going to add some salt on the wet paper to create some interesting textures. I'm going to repeat the same process, and finish up this last part of the cactus before we move on to adding details. 7. Cacti 1: Pots + Details: We're going to work top to bottom so we'll add the details to the cactus body first before painting in the pot. I'm working wet on dry as I paint parallel lines running down the cactus. Be sure to follow the curve of this shape, at the top I'm painting the line a slight curve before continuing down in a straight line. I'm using different mixes of green here and just alternating the different shades of color as I go. Next I'm going to paint in some flowers at the top. Since it's fairly small, I can just go straight in wet on dry, but while it's still damp, I can add more color to darken it or add a different color altogether. For the pot, I'm going to work wet on wet, so I'll start by wetting the paper before dropping in my pigment. I'm choosing an ocher mix for this pot, nothing too crazy. Also I'm not trying to be too accurate with my shading, but I will add some darker values to the left side a little. Now using a clean damp brush, I'm just gently blending the pigment to soften out some of the edges. I decided to create a more distinct highlight by lifting the color out with a clean damp brush. I'm also doing this while the paper is still wet. For our next part, I'm going to use permanent rose as a base wash. As usual I'm going to wet the paper first with some water. Then I'll add them or pigmented hue by grabbing more paint with less water in my brush. Here I'm using permanent magenta for those deeper shades. I'm blending in a little bit of mauve as well just to vary the hues. Again, I'm applying water in the area I want to paint, I'm using teal-turquoise for this pot, keeping to an analogous color scheme. I decided to paint this part of the pot, wet on dry since it's a small area and I wanted a fairly even wash of color. I'm using a small concentrated pigment of Payne's gray to add a bit of dimension to the pot. Next, I'm going to add some prickles to our classic cactus using a double 0 brush. I'm adding some blue to dark and my mix of green and then I'm just going to use my brush to flick some short lines outwards from the cactus. I gently flick my brush towards the end to lift off the pressure and give it that thick to thin quality of line. Then using my art line pens I'm going to draw out some lines and shapes to spruce up the pot. I switch between my 0.8, 0.4 and 0.1 pens just to create some visual interests with the varying thickness of lines, feel free to get creative, adding your own designs to your pots. Next, I'll be using the signal white gel pen to add some line details to our psychedelic cactus. Again, I'm making sure to follow the curve of the shape as I draw my lines, this gives the shape a bit more dimension instead of just appearing to be flat, but in saying that you can certainly use straight lines if that's the look you're going for. For the prickles, I'm using my 0.4 pen and similar to the brush strokes we did earlier, I'm just using a flicking motion with my wrist. Here I'm varying the length and direction of the needles just to add a bit of interest and visual rhythm. I'm also going to use the white gel pen to add the details to our galactic cactus. I decided not to add any prickles on this one and just add a little white dot details that run across the lines. Finally I'm adding a little flower by painting it wet on dry, once the first layer has dried, I add an outline to the flower in a different color. 8. Cacti 2: Body: Next, I'll be painting our second set of themed cacti using my Dr. B. H. Martin's liquid watercolors. For this classic cactus, I'm going to mix a green using yellow Gamboge and cobalt blue. I use just a few drops of color and dilute it a little with water. I only mix a touch of blue on my brush with the yellow to get that nice yellowy green. Of course, if I want it to be a darker green, I just add more blue and if I wanted to lighten it again, I just use more yellow. Again, I'll be working wet on wet, so I'm wetting the area of the shape before I start applying it with paint. Like our previous classic green cactus, I'm going to apply the yellowy green mostly on the top and right side of the body. Then I'll add a mid tone green to the rest of the cactus. Here, I'm adding a darker value of the green around the bottom area curving upwards along the edge of the shape just to give it more dimension and roundness. I'm adding another layer of mid tone green here and creating a gradual blend of colors gently with my brush. Then I add a bit more of that yellowy green at the top and do a little more blending before starting on the left arm, starting with water from the top of the shape and working my way down where I'll connect the two shapes together. Here, I'm adding a touch of cobalt blue straight onto the areas I want to have a bit of shading. Then I'll use some mid tone green on my brush to help blend the dark edges a little. I'll then come in with the clean damp brush just to smoothen out the edges once more. Now, I'm going to continue painting the rest of the body using the same process. I should note that right now I'm using two of my number 4 brushes at the same time. One is loaded with the yellowy green mix and the other is with a deeper shade of green and I'll just swap between the two as I create a gradual blend of colors. That's why you might see a another brush sticking out at the corner of the screen sometimes because I'm holding it in my other hand. Again, this is optional. It's just how I like to work sometimes. Next we'll be working on our psychedelic cactus. I'll be sticking with some warm fun use for this one, similar to the palette we chose in the choosing colors lesson. I'll be using magenta, cadmium red, and yellow. I'll start with the magenta and just run it along the edges of the shape and then I'll drop it in here and there where I want it. I'm leaving some of that paper white, like we did in the previous lesson, to drop in the rest of my colors. Next, I'm dropping in some of that yellow and blending it out a little with some of that magenta. You'll see that it starts to create some orange where the colors mix. Now, I'm going to drop in bits of that cadmium red just to add that bit of intensity and tie the colors together. I'm going to go ahead and repeat the same thing for the second pillar just dropping in the colors where I want them and blending them gently with the tip of my brush. Remember, I'm not trying to mix the whole thing as I want the colors to retain their original hues in the spots that I've dropped them in. All right. Similar to our previous galactic cactus, I'll be using a lot of blues and purples for this one and some Payne's gray too. Working on wet paper, I'm going to apply some turquoise blue first and start defining that top edge. Then I'll go in with some purple and drop it in little spots around the body. Next, I'll use some cobalt blue and gradually fill up the rest of the space while gently mixing it with the other colors. Then I'll start adding some Payne's gray to darken areas of the body and I'll repeat this process as I paint the rest of the cactus arms. 9. Cacti 2: Pots + Details: Now I'm going to start by painting the pots first, left to right and working wet on wet. I'm going for a yellow just like our previous classic actors, but more of a bright mustard yellow. Here, I'm just using a clean damp brush to blend the colors towards the center. To get a darker shade of that yellow, I'm just going to add a very small hint of purple, which I'll be mixing on my palette. I'm basically mixing two complimentary colors together, which will usually produce a dark brown muddy color. But since I'm using just a touch of purple, I'm still getting that nice yellow ocher hue. Using a clean damp brush, I'm just lifting out some color for a bit of highlight. For the next pot, I'm using turquoise-blue and just sweeping it along the edges of the shape. Then using a clean damp brush, I'm just going to gently blend that color out to the center a little. I decided to add a little bit of purple in the middle as well, and again, blended out gently with the tip of my brush. For the last part, I'm going to make some purple and magenta on my pellet to get that red-violet hue. Then I'm going to use a darker value of that color and sweep it across the corners of the pot. Again, I'm lifting some paint in the center of the pot to create a bit of highlight. Lastly, I darken the corners of the shape again using a very pigmented purple hue before blending the colors out gently with the tip of my brush. Now using my outline pens, I'm going to add the prickles in using that same flicking motion we did with the first set of cacti. I'm using my 0.4 pen for this. I've decided to add little black spots on this cactus in varying sizes to create some visual interest. I also add in a flower which I paint straight onto the paper with my number 2 brush. I decide to add in a second color, by which time the first layer has started to dry a little. I get a bit of a bleed in the middle where it's still damp, but my edges are clean and hard for the rest of the shape. For the pot, I paint some lines using my number 2 brush loaded with Payne's gray. Next, I'll be adding some line details to our psychedelic cactus using the signal white gel pen. Again, I'm making sure to follow the curve of the shape as I draw my lines. Then I'm going to use my double zero brush to paint in the prickles. Again, using my wrist, I gently flip my brush towards the end to lift off the pressure and give it that thick to thin quality of line. Alternatively, you can just create the lines in steady strokes without having to flick it to get that line quality. You can opt to add variety to length, sizes, direction, and number of lines. Have fun experimenting. Finally, I'm going to add white spots on this galactic cactus using white gel pen. Then I'm just going to add some simple lines to the pot to finish up the cactus. 10. Class Project: For your class project, you can choose to paint one or more cacti in a color's theme of your choice using all the techniques we learned in this class. You could go for one color's theme or do all three like we did in the class. To take it up a notch, you can also incorporate these cacti into other designs such as lettering work, greeting cards, and so on. Feel free to upload parts of your work process which may include sketches, the basic techniques exercise, their color's swatches, or your work in progress alongside your final painting. Most importantly guys, have fun and enjoy the process. 11. Final Thoughts: We are now reaching the end of the class. I hope you guys learned a thing or two and most importantly, I hope you guys had lots of fun painting along. I'm so excited to see what you guys come up with for your class projects. Now, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to jump around in a class discussion below, or you can email me directly at this email on the screen. Also, if you're on Instagram don't forget to share your class project using the hashtag right here. Last but not least, practice makes progress. Thank you so much for joining me in this class today, until next time guys, happy painting.