Fun Watercolor Summer Fruit

1. Watercolor Summer Fruit Introduction: Just getting started on your watercolor journey and looking for a fun and non overwhelming art project that can help you start developing essential skills and knowledge on basic techniques. Or perhaps you've been on your watercolor journey for a while and you're a little bit more advanced. You're looking for projects that'll help you hone your skills, get more mastery over your medium and maybe new ideas for quicker illustrations that you can add into greeting cards or bookmarks to give away this summer season if you're in either of these categories, this course is for you. My name is Erica and I'm with traditional media artists and online art teacher. I work with a variety of different drawing and painting mediums ranging from graphite to pen and ink, to watercolor, watercolor, pencil, acrylics and more. And I loved drawing and painting a wide variety of different subjects, ranging from still-life to animals, to landscapes and more. I've always been interested in challenging myself in different ways and advancing my skills in many different areas. And do not like to be put in any box. So this is what I share online. My days revolve around creating art and selling locally, as well as constantly creating helpful content intended for beginner artists and also intermediate artists who are really looking to advance their skills on a deeper level. And I share this content over at my website, my different social media channels. Also, of course, my membership. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields. After getting my BA in graphic design, I worked at an advertising agency as a graphic designer and art director. And then I moved on to become a head art teacher in a school environment. And I worked there for seven years. In those last few years of me working at my regular full-time job, I started my own art business. On the side, I started creating content for the online space and growing my own business. And this is what I do full-time nowadays in this course, I'm gonna be taking you through my five-step process for developing vibrant, colorful, glowing illustration of fruits that have dimension to them. This course is summer inspired, so we're going to be painting a summer fruit. We're going to be painting a slice of watermelon, a green apple, a clementine, a pair of cherries, and a sliced peach. I have organized the classes in this course so that we can work on the simpler, easiest illustration first and we can make our way incrementally towards the most challenging one. I would recommend working through the classes in this order, I'm gonna be breaking down everything for you into simple steps. And what's cool about this one that makes it so awesome for beginners is that we get to practice a central techniques such as wet on wet, wet on dry layering and more. And not only this, but we're gonna be using the exact same five-step process for each one of these illustrations, which makes it so that you're able to get that practice in going through the same steps over and over, which is going to help you master this five-step process and get you to a point at which you're easily and quickly able to paint each one of these fruits in less than ten minutes. And before jumping into the actual painting process, I share how I create my preliminary outline stitches, freehand using pencil. You can look forward to getting lots of tips and important information on a drawing that is going to help you with whatever kind of future artwork you may decide to work on. And I also share with you how I set myself up for greater success and an easier flow during the painting process by choosing the specific colors that I'm going to be using for each illustration and preparing effective color mixtures before jumping in. As an art educator, I'm incredibly passionate about being thorough, being completely transparent and sharing everything that I know. And I always sprinkle in knowledge of art fundamentals, as well as information and tips that will help you advance your drawing skills. Because I really believe that drawing is the basis for all kinds of art. And if you know how to draw, you're going to be able to paint much more easily and much more successfully. What I want for each one of my students is to get them to a place at which they're able to confidently create original artwork from scratch that has themselves in it. And so this is why it is important for me to share every step of the process and really share everything that you need to know in order to get to this point. Alright, so with all this said, let's go ahead and jump straight into class number one, where I'm gonna be sharing about the supplies that I would recommend having on hand so that you can get the most out of this course. 2. Art Supplies: Hey there, friend and welcome to class number one, in which I'm gonna be explaining all about the essential watercolor painting supplies and tools that I made sure to have on hand for these summer fruit illustrations. Let's go ahead and jump straight in. For my watercolor paper. I'm going to be using a sheet from my pad from rosier. This is a £140 in thickness or in weight and it is cold press. What I did was I actually cut up this sheet into smaller sections. I needed five small sections for my five different fruits. And I decided to make each one of these smaller sheets of watercolor paper four by 4.5 inches. So that's the size that you're going to see me work in today, four by 4.5 inches. You don't have to use this exact same size that I'm gonna be using. You can definitely make your sheets a little bit larger. But I definitely wouldn't make them any smaller than this. If you make your little section smaller than this, it's very likely that you're not gonna be able to practice your different techniques very well. And maybe you're going to have trouble adding in some of these details. My paint, I'm gonna be using my palette from Daniel Smith. I'm gonna be breaking up this tutorial into five sections, one for each fruit. And I'll be letting you know which colors I use for each piece of fruit before getting started with each, I do want to remind you that there is no need for you to use the exact same colors that I'm gonna be using. You can use anything you have that is most similar and your illustrations are going to turn out great. I will be swatching out all of my different colour mixtures on my scrap piece of watercolor paper before jumping in that you see what these colors look like on paper. And you can choose the color that you have on hand that is most similar to what I am showing. I am going to be using the mixing areas in this plastic palette to create my different colour mixtures for my paintbrushes. I'm really just going to be using two for all of these illustrations. Both of these are round brushes. One of them is a size ten, and the other is a size three. Aside from these basic watercolor painting supplies, I also have my container with clean water. It's up to you if you want to use 12 or even three containers. I have my blue Scott absorbent towel, which you can use any type of absorbent towel or even regular kitchen paper towels. I always have scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand in order to test out colors and translucency is, I also have a couple of sketching supplies on hand and these are so that I can create those preliminary outline sketches before getting started with the painting process, I would recommend using something like E to H or an HB for your preliminary pencil sketches? I usually like using an HB drawing pencil for my preliminary outline sketches. But today I'm gonna be using a B grade because the graphite at its core is a tiny bit softer than the HB. And you can see what I am doing a little bit better because the lines come out a little bit darker. But I do like making sure that my preliminary sketches are nice and light and clean. So that at the end I don't see my pencil work through my translucent paint, but also so that I can erase mistakes when I am creating those preliminary sketches and refine my drawings. And also so that I don't scratch or damage my paper because I won't be able to fix that if I damaged my paper when I am drawing, and that is it for my painting supplies. And just to finish up, I do want to remind you guys as well that along with this course, you'll have access to a few downloadable files that you're gonna be able to find in the projects and resources tab, which you can find a right below this video here on Skillshare. For this one, I'll make sure to include my outline sketches for all of these different fruits. And this is in case you'd like to skip over the free hand drawing process and simply take my outline sketches to transfer them onto your sheets of watercolor paper and move straight into the painting process. My past course, watercolor 101, that I shared here on Skillshare some time ago, includes a full class in which I walked you through how to use tracing paper to transfer your outline sketches onto your sheets of watercolor paper. It also includes tons of must know information and basic exercises that I would highly recommend working on as a beginner, getting started with watercolor, the information, tips and also exercises that I share in that watercolor 101 course is going to help you make much faster progress with this painting mediums. So if you haven't checked it out, I would highly recommend it also be including photos of my finished illustrations, which you can use as references as you're working on these pieces. And finally, you'll also be able to find my supply list with links to all of these different products that you're going to see me use today, as well as the list of specific colors that I'm gonna be using for each fruit, and that is gonna do it, uh, for this class. So go ahead and collect your supplies, and I'll see you in class number two, in which I'm going to be talking all about the project that we're gonna be working on for this course. Whenever you're ready, I'll see you over there. 3. Course Project: Hey there and welcome to class number two, in which I'm going to be explaining more in depth what we're gonna be working on in this course and what you can expect to have produced by the end of it in each of the following five classes, right after this one, I'm gonna be taking you through my simple five-step process for sketching and painting these vibrant watercolor fruit illustrations. So we're gonna be tackling one fruit per class. For each fruit illustration. In each class, I'm gonna be taking you through the same five-step process. This is my own watercolor painting process that I've developed over the many years that I've been working with this medium, which leads to great results when working on this piece by going through the same five-step process, a total of five times one. With each fruit, you'll get enough practice in so that the entire process, the methodology, the techniques that we bring in really are able to sink in. And with enough practice, you're gonna be able to paint these fruits very well, pretty quickly. And you're also going to be able to take what you learned. Other watercolor paintings and illustrations that you may wish to work on in the future. Whenever I'm getting started with a new student who's looking to learn watercolor. One of the first things that I like explaining is how important it is to go in with some sort of strategy, at least a very basic one. Because especially when working with watercolor, we're not easily able to correct mistakes as we can when we're working with acrylics or oils where we can simply just cover up our mistake with a layer of paint or scrape that paint off the canvas with a knife. When we're working with watercolor, we're not only working on paper which can get very easily damaged and overwork, but watercolor is also translucent. It's transparent. So whatever mistake you make is very likely going to be visible until the end. Or if you are able to correct that somewhat, it's not going to be able to be erased completely. So even though something that draws lots of people to this medium, fact that watercolor has a mind of its own because of the water that we bring in. And how we're able to develop these beautiful organic, irregular effects that are so unique to this medium. It is important to go in with at least a basic strategy and yes, be flexible within that strategy and allow for surprises within that strategy. But it is essential that we at least somewhat visualize what we want our end product to be, the style that we're going for, the level of detail that we're going for, et cetera, so that we can set ourselves up for success and create at least the basic outline of the steps that we're gonna be working through. What areas we're going to be tackling first, how many layers we're gonna be working in, the specific techniques that we're bringing in, etc. Doing this has led to a huge positive impact with my own watercolor painting. It has helped me arrive at my own creative process, my own way of doing things, and it makes it so that I'm a lot more likely to arrive at results that I'm actually going to like, make no mistake. My friend, even five-minutes of prep work before putting paint to paper goes a very long way. So having said all that, here are the five steps that we're gonna be working through for these five summer fruit illustrations. Step number one is going to be creating our preliminary pencil sketch. So our outline sketch, essentially in step number two, we're going to be choosing the specific colors that we're gonna be using for each fruit illustration. And I'm gonna be walking you through how to prepare your different colour mixtures so that you have the colors that you need on your palette and also so that they're consistencies. Your different colour mixtures are gonna be helpful for you along the way. Moving on to step number three. And in this one we're going to be developing our lightest values. That's right. We're gonna be starting with our first layer of color, which is going to be the lightest layer. And I'm going to be explaining all about how to make sure that you arrive at a nice even wetness. And we'll be providing lots of tips on water control and how to make sure that this layer stays wet for longer so that you can then move on to working on step number four on a wet surface, moving on to step number four. And in this one, we're going to be developing darker midtones, wet on wet. Meaning we're going to be dropping in color to develop a wider range of values, which is what is ultimately going to give these illustrations dimension. And we're going to be doing this wet on wet by dropping in more color onto wet paper, by dropping in color on paper that is still wet and workable, we're gonna be able to create nice soft transitions between our different colors and values. And finally, in step number five, we're gonna be working wet on dry. So everything is going to be dry at this point. And what we're gonna be working on is pushing darkest areas, like adding in darkest shadow shapes. And we're also going to be adding a final textures and details. As I explained in the introduction for this course, I would highly recommend working on these illustrations in order. I have organized the classes in this course in order to work from the simplest, easiest illustration. And we're gonna make our way towards the most challenging one. So especially if you're just getting started with this medium, I would recommend working through the classes in that order and take as long as you need to with each illustration before moving on to the next. By the end of this course, you'll have created five vibrant summer fruit watercolor illustrations that have dimension and glow. And you're going to have the process mastered so that you can use your knowledge and your skills to take these illustrations, to greeting card designs and bookmarks and other kinds of goodies that you can give away to loved ones this summer season. Alright, that is gonna do it for the second class in this course. I am so excited to get started with our first watercolor illustration, which is going to be the watermelon slice. So go ahead and get ready and let's have some fun with this first one. See you there. 4. Watermelon Slice Illustration: Hey there, welcome to class number three in which we're going to be painting a watermelon slice. Okay, so let's go ahead and get started with the preliminary outline sketch. Using my B pencil, I am getting started with laying down the general largest shape. Once this largest general shape for the slice of watermelon has been laid down. I will then divide it into medium-sized areas, and I will continue adding in medium-sized shapes and details. I am ensuring that the size of my illustration is going to be good. And then I'm going to be utilizing my drawing space effectively, starting with the largest shapes first, you make sure that the drawing is exactly where you want it to be and that is going to have the size that you want. You want to make sure that you're using your drawing space effectively, that your illustration is not going to turn out way too small or way too large and that it's somewhat centered in destroying space. Notice how I am drawing lightly. I am not pressing down hard at all, and I am incorporating plenty of imperfection and irregularity all throughout. And this is because fruit is an organic, natural subject. There is a lot of irregularity and fruit, fruit is not perfect. So as you can see, my lines have small imperfections. The edges are not perfectly smooth and I'm incorporating a little bit of asymmetry as I am drawing the seeds. I also make sure that some of them are smaller, some of them are larger. They have slightly different orientations or are tilting off in different directions and they are clustering together in different ways. I definitely don't want to create the look of any organized pattern or anything like that when I am drawing the seeds, this is going to help make the watermelon slice look a little bit more natural. I added in a line inside of the shape where the red is going to slowly transition into the green. So usually in watermelons, you have the red turn into the pink, sometimes even into white. And then you have the green. And having that pencil line there is going to help me know or remember where I have to make sure that I have plenty of that white paper shining through. I'm also going to make sure that the majority of my red pigment is deposited below this line. This way, I can make sure that there is very little to no red pigment going up towards that white section or that very, very light pink section where I want a lot of that paper is shining through. You can see how my pencil sketches nice and light and clean. With that, my sketches all done. It is time to move on to phase number two, which is going to be pre selecting our colors and creating our color mixtures. I'm just going to be using four different colors to create my different colour mixtures for this one. These colors are pyrrole, red, Hansa Yellow, Light, undersea green, and neutral tint. I will be swatching these out in just a bit so that you can see what they look like on paper. So in these mixing areas, on my color mixing palette, I'm first going to be preparing some of my red with some water. Now, I am looking for nice juicy color mixtures. And what I mean with Juicy is I am trying to make sure that my color mixtures have around 50% water or 50% paint in them. This is what some people refer to as a coffee to milk like consistency. You want a good amount of pigment and color in there also some water movement. I am using my size ten round brush to create my different colour mixtures. Right there at the top I have some pyrrole red with some water added in. And I am getting started with creating my green color mixtures in this lower section of my mixing palette. By the way, it is very important that you completely rinse out that previous color from your paintbrush bristles before going ahead and creating your next color mixture so that you don't contaminate the next color mixture. This is especially important when you're moving on to create a very different color from the one that you were previously working on. In this case, for example, red and green are complimentary colors. They are opposites in the color wheel, which means that if you start mixing them together, you can start creating browns or grays and you can mute them down. Because we're looking for nice, vibrant colors in these illustrations. We really want to make sure that we keep everything nice and clean and separate these colors if possible on your palette. Especially as I said, the ones that are very different from each other, that can create colors that you're not really looking for when they get mixed together. I wanted to make sure to have a lighter green and a darker green ready for me. So the way that I create my lighter green is I mixed together some of my undersea green, which is a very dark, deep rich green with some of my hands a yellow light, and that gives me that lighter green. And then right below that lighter green, I prepared a darker green puddle and that is just plain undersea green with some water added in. And finally, I created a little puddle of neutral tint and water. That is the color that I'm gonna be using at the end of this painting process to add in the seeds. And with that, I'm gonna be all done with these color mixtures that I need to get started with this illustration. We really don't need anything else. I want to encourage you to just use these colors that we have pre-selected. And if you run out of any of these colors or color mixtures along the way, make sure that you take more of the color that you've already planned for. You don't want to bring in another red or another green or whatever the case may be, make sure to stick with the colors that we've already pre-selected. Alright, so our color mixtures are ready to go. Let's make sure to change our water before jumping in. After changing my water, it is going to be time to get started with phase number three of this process. And this is going to be creating our first layer of color. I'm going to be using my size ten round brush. And the objective with this first layer of color is to start creating or developing those lightest values in this illustration. So I always got started with the lightest color of the bunch, which in this case is the red. And because we want to develop a very light pale layer or wash initially, I am taking just a small amount of color from the edge of my puddle on my color mixing palette. And I am brain just a little bit of color in. And you're gonna notice how I am constantly dipping my paintbrush in my container of water and pulling and extending that small amount of color into the larger shape. I do try to keep the red in this lower section of the triangle so that, that top section, which is the outer skin of the watermelon, can have the greens. You're gonna notice that I don't place any fresh red paint close to this outer skin section. And I just make sure to pull a very minimal amount of red into this outer portion of the triangle where the green is going to be. If you accidentally start placing way too much red, too close to this outer section to stop what you're doing, remove the color from your paintbrush, bristles, go back in with a cleanest slightly damp paintbrush. Use your paintbrush bristles as a little absorbent sponge to lift the fat excess color. You can always do that as well with your absorbent towel. Remove that excess color, then go back in with just a clean, wet paint brush and soften that color out, extend that pigment that you have laid down that you weren't able to lift into a larger section and that is going to soften that color. I continue bringing out just a little bit of color at a time from my mixing palette. And I'm going to continue dipping my paintbrush in my container of water to soften that color even more and extended into this larger shape to create that initial wash. And it's gonna be very important that you move quickly and use water, clean water from your container, and go over the entire shape around three to four times because you want to make sure that this entire wash stays wet for the work that we're going to be doing next, you can probably see how I left some little teeny tiny sections of white paper shining through. Those just happened organically and naturally as I was quickly moving my paintbrush around and I just left them there because they're going to look like highlights at the end. And that is going to add dimension and a glow to my piece. Remember that when we're painting with watercolor, the whiteness and the brightness of the paper stands in place for our highlights. And if we make sure to incorporate that brightness of the paper, It's a lot more likely that we're gonna be able to arrive at nice, glowy light paintings. Really take your time with this first layer of paint and make sure that you arrive at nice even wetness all throughout this shape except for, of course, if you left those little highlight sections the way that I did. Because if your paint starts drying on you, when you move on to the next phase in the process where we're gonna be developing those different values and dropping in more red and dropping in the greens. You're not gonna be able to create those nice diffused out soft transitions between your values and your colors. Notice how there is a very, very small amount of red in the outer portion of the triangle where the green is going to be. This way, I can make sure that I have the majority of that red in the bottom of the triangle. Then it starts turning into lighter and lighter red or pink, even where I have a lot of that brightness of the paper is shining through from under that very translucent pale color. And then that very pale pink or white is going to turn into the green, going back over everything again to make sure that everything stays nice and wet. You wanna do your pre wedding gently, but you want to make sure that you go over everything enough so that the entire shape has an even wetness for the next part of the process. It is now time to move on to phase number four of this process in which we're gonna be developing values and dimension. So now that we have those highlights and those lightest very pale values created with the red. It is now time to start developing our mid tone reds and our darker sections. Still using my size ten round brush, I started dropping in more of my pyrrole red into certain sections in a very irregular way. And you can see how, because I am dropping in this more saturated red, which by saturated I simply mean that the color that I'm dropping in or the paint that I'm dropping in is thicker and less watery than the color that I used initially. But because I am dropping in this second layer of color on a layer that is still wet. This mu read that I am dropping in transitions softly and gradually it bleeds out into that wetness. Because remember that watercolor is always going to expand and dissipate out and bleed out on paper that is wet. When paper is dry, that color is not going to expand out and you're gonna be left with sharp defined edges. That is not what I want. And the reason why I wanted to make sure that that initial layer saved nice and wet so that I can move on to this part of a process. And how do you do it? You make sure that you take your time with that first layer and you make sure that you work relatively quickly. Those are the keys right here. After having created a nice variety of red, values are tones throughout this lower section of the watermelon, I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and I went back into the outer section, the top section of this triangular shape with just water in my paint brush to make sure that everything up here was still nice and wet. Before starting my work with the greens, I kept it moving. It is important that you move quickly before things start to dry on you. You definitely want to do your work with the green before that upper section starts to dry. Once you have dropped, then some amount of red and you have a nice variety of pinks and reds all throughout that lower section. Remove that read from your paintbrush bristles and you're gonna get started by dropping in the lighter green first, you're gonna notice that I paint in much more lighter green than darker green because I just want the darker green to be in the outer skin portion. And once that lighter green is n, you're going to start dropping in the darker green, the outer edge. Again because I kept it moving and I made sure to drop in my greens wall that initial lighter layer was still wet. You can see how I was left with nice diffused out of facts in my greens as well. So at this point you can see highlights with those teeny tiny shapes of white paper that I left unpainted. You can also see very light red or pink values throughout this lower portion where there is plenty of that whiteness of the paper is shining through. You can see darker red sections where I have more saturated color. And I also developed a wide range of green values, lighter greens and darker greens. This my friend is what's going to create the mention and a believable look to this illustration, this wide range of values and you're creating. And the fact that you're incorporating the whiteness of the paper in many areas where you want to develop those lighter values. Once this is done, it is going to be timed to allow everything to dry completely. And you're probably going to notice that as this paint dries, it looks lighter. This is completely normal. When watercolor dries, it looks a lot lighter than how it looks when it's wet. Later on we're going to come back in another phase of this process and we're going to darken certain sections and add a little bit more deepening and darkening of darkest value areas and greater contrast. If you want to go ahead and speed up the drying process so that you can move on to the next phase faster. You can go ahead and help yourself with a hairdryer if you want to or allow it to dry naturally and then come back once it's dry. But it is essential that everything is completely bone dry before you move on to the next part of this process. Alright, moving on to the very last phase of this process, which is going to be deepening and darkening darkest value areas, as well as adding final details. So all of this we're gonna be doing wet on dry by painting on paper that is completely dry. We're gonna be left with sharp defined edges around the shapes that we paint in. That color of that paint is not going to bleed and diffuse out because we're not dropping in that paint into wetness. When you're going for detail, when you're going for a defined edges, you want to make sure that everything is dry. I'm using my size three round brush to start painting in the seeds. And I am using my neutral tint for this. Just a moment ago you saw me test out my gray color mixture on my scrap piece of watercolor paper before going in and starting to paint my seeds. This is very important, especially when I'm using very, very dark colors like this, gray or black. I want to make sure that I go in initially with a pale, watered-down color so that I don't create negative looking holes in my painting. And also so that even the seeds can have at least somewhat of a variety of gray values are tones within them. This is going to help this look a lot more natural, a lot more subtle, a lot more realistic. So by going in initially with my gray in a pretty pale translucent state, water downstate. I can then allow this first layer in my seats to dry and then go back in to darken certain areas within that so that I can create at least two to three different gray tones are values. And these seeds can also have dimension in them. If I go in with just one single very dark saturated gray or even a very light gray. Those seeds are going to look pretty flat. And especially when using a very dark color, they can end up looking very stark, very distracting. And I definitely don't want to do that. I want to keep them subtle. And as I said, I want to make sure that I am able to develop a variety of values, basically everywhere in the piece because I know that that is the key to make this look light and glowing and it has dimension. Once I was done with painting in the seeds, I'm using my size three round brush to darken certain sections in the outer green edge. Notice though, how there is a line weight variation in that darker elongated green shape that I painted along the edge there, I made sure that it was more like a abstract, long green shape that I was painting in and not an outline because I know that if I just go in and start outlining things, it's not going to really end up looking very realistic because in realism there are no outlines. So in this last part of the process, when I'm going in and darkening certain shapes, I'm making sure to see those shapes that I am darkening as irregular, abstract shapes and not lines. There is also no need to go around the entire edge of all of these different parts making up this watermelon slice. And feel like you need to define every thing that is most likely going to lead to an outline effect. I'm really just defining or darkening certain sections of certain edges. And I'm making sure to keep everything very irregular and staying away from the look of any organized pattern or blocky heavy shape or anything like that. Right here I am using my plane, pyrrole red plus water in it, color mixture. And I am painting in once again, some elongated red shapes along some of these edges in the lower portion of the watermelon slice. To add a little bit more contrast and definition into certain sections of these edges. I made sure to remove all of that green for my paintbrush bristles before starting with my red. This is important because remember, if green starts getting mixed with your red, you can start creating a brown or a gray. And I want to make sure that the red that I paint in is nice and bright and vibrant because I am painting in all of these abstract, irregular shapes on dry paper, I am left with sharp defined edges around these shapes. When it came to adding in some darker red along the edges in this lower portion of the watermelon slice, I did go in and soften some of the inner edges of those shapes. And the way that I did this was after having painted in that shape, I remove the color from my paintbrush bristles and I went back in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush. And I ran my paintbrush bristles over that edge that I want it to soften before the paint dried. And the final thing that I did here was I darkened one of the edges. I just pick the side and darkened an edge along each seed using my red. I didn't do this for all of the seeds. And I made sure to go in with a pretty watered down, a pyrrole red. And I didn't trace over the entire edge of all of the seed because I knew that that would lead to an outline me look. So I kept it simple, I kept it loose, subtle and minimal. And with that, we're all done with our first summer fruit illustration. Congratulations for making it through this class. And remember to spend as long as you need to with this one before moving forward. I'm so excited to see you in the next class where we're going to be painting a green apple. Whenever you're ready. See you there. 5. Green Apple Illustration: Hey there, welcome back. This is class number four. And in this one we're gonna be working on our green apple using watercolor. So getting started with my preliminary outline sketch, same thing here. I am using my B pencil and I am going to be drawing lightly so that I can erase mistakes and so that I don't have that pencil work super visible at the end, showing through my paint. Once again, I get started with the largest general shape for this Apple first, and I'm going to make my way towards the smaller shapes and details, making sure that the overall shape, the proportions look good. And also that the sketch is exactly the size that I want it to be and that it is relatively centered on this paper. You're going to notice that after I finish with sketching in the outlines of this apple, I also go ahead and map out a little shape that is actually going to be a highlight section or a lighter value section. Sometimes when I'm creating my preliminary outline sketches before getting started with a watercolor painting process. I like making sure that I am visualizing where I'm gonna be developing those lightest values. And this really helps me remember when I am painting, I really want a lot of that brightness and whiteness of the paper shining through from under that paint. That's where you're going to see me do right here. I do want to mention that when I am painting, these highlight shapes are lighter. Value shapes do end up being a lot smaller than the size of the shape that I initially sketch out. And this is normal. I do this intentionally to give myself a margin there. Okay. So after my preliminary outline sketch was done, it was time to move on to choose my colors and create my color mixtures. So for the green apple, we're really just going to be using three different colors. I used undersea green, again, hansa yellow light, and burnt umber. Once again, I'm gonna be using my size ten round brush to create my color mixtures. And I am going to make sure that I'm starting with clean water and that I am completely rinsing out my paintbrush bristles in-between my colors that I am preparing, especially when I am going to be moving on to a color that is quite different from the one that I was previously working on. So I first got started with my greens. And for this one, I'm gonna be creating three different greens. A lighter green, a medium green, and a darker screen. So I'm gonna be using my Hansa Yellow Light and my undersea green. And the very first one right there at the top is a mixture of hansa yellow light and undersea green, which is very heavy on the yellow. This makes that green look very, very light, or like a yellow green. Underneath that one, I am creating my medium green, which is also a mixture of hansa yellow light and undersea green. Only that one has much more of the undersea green then of the hansa yellow light. Then right below that, I am creating my darkest green. And that darkest green is just plain undersea green with some water added n underneath my greens, I am preparing a couple of different browns. I'm going to prepare a lighter brown and a darker brown. The lighter brown is a mixture of burnt umber and hence a yellow light. And the darker brown is just plain burnt umber with some water in it. Just like before, I'm making sure that my color mixtures on my palette are nice and juicy, that they have a good amount of pigment or color in them, but also some water. So again, I am trying to go for somewhere between a coffee to milk like consistency. And right here I'm going to swatch out all of these colors on my scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can see what they look like on paper by making sure that I am preparing a lighter green, immediate green and a darker green and even a lighter brown and a darker brown. I am setting myself up for success to be able to quickly develop those different values as I am painting, which is so important because again, it's that development of lighter areas, mid tone areas and darkest areas that is going to create that believable sensation of dimension of light and shadow by making sure that you know what colors you're gonna be using to develop those different values and making sure that you have enough of your color mixtures that you need. Before getting started, you're gonna be able to paint much more quickly. Because remember that if you stop and you have to create more of your color mixtures along the way, especially in those initial phases of the painting process when we're doing a lot of wet on wet, most likely than not, your paint is going to start drawing on you. And when you go back to create those nice diffuse out effects, you're not gonna be able to because that layer is going to start drying and you're gonna be left with a splotch genus and texture that you probably don't want alongside this by making sure that your pre-selected your colors and you know exactly what color you need to reach for to create your different colour mixtures. If you do run out of paint. A lot more likely that you're gonna be able to make more of that color mixture quickly because there is no guessing, you know what you're doing. Once again, I want to remind you to use these colors that you have pre-selected, whatever the colors are that you have planned. Makes sure that you're reaching out for those colors that you already planned for as you move along, creating more of your different colors as needed throughout the painting process. Don't randomly pick colors out of whim that you haven't planned. This is going to help you stay away from undesired colours and make sure that you're arriving at a nice, vibrant, clean looking result. Alright, moving onto phase number three in which we're going to be developing our lightest values and making sure that we are creating a nice even wetness. So that we can then move on to the next phase in which we're going to be developing darker midtones. So as you can see, I made sure to change my water after creating my different colour mixtures to make sure that I'm going in nice and clean with my colors using my size ten round brush. I am once again making sure to go in with just a tiny bit of paint going in initially, of course, with my lightest color of the bunch that I have prepared for this, which is my lightest green, the yellow green, which is a mixture of hansa yellow light and undersea green. And I'm bringing out just a little bit of color at a time, extending that bit of color into that larger apple shape, bringing out some water from my container and going over everything a few times very gently over and over to make sure that everything stays nice and wet for the process that I'm gonna be doing next, I did try my best to avoid pre wedding the stem shape on top of the apple. Notice how this color is very pale, very translucent, very watered-down, all throughout. And I left a little section of white highlight where the paper is shining through completely unpainted inside of that larger, lighter value shape that I hadn't mapped out for myself during the sketching process. And with that, it's now time to move on to phase number four of this process, which is where we start developing our darker midtones and start giving this apple a sense of dimension of light and shadow. Everything is nice and wet and workable because I took my time with that first pale layer of color. First I go in with that same lightest screen. Just this time I use it in a little bit more of a saturated, less water downstate. I'm going to make my way incrementally towards the darkest green. So first the lighter green than the medium green than the darkest green. I drop in these colors in certain sections in a very irregular way, but especially in certain sections along the left and right edges of the apple, the bottom of the apple, and also in that concave section at the top where the stem is darkening certain sections along the left and right edges and also darkening some sections at the bottom and leaving more of the middle area of the apple. Lighter in value is going to help round out that structure. This said, bring to mind what I was sharing before. Makes sure that you are seeing these different value shapes as abstract, irregular shapes. And that you're not accidentally creating the look of outlines because you're going in and only darkening those edges in a very organized, precise way. This is why I do make sure to bring in some of that darker green into the Apple as well. I just bring in a small amount of it, keep it loose and keep it irregular. And of course, in that upper concave section where the stem is coming out of, by darkening that section, I make it look like it's going inwards. So bring the structure of the apple to mind and give thought to how lighter green areas and darker green areas would be created if light were hitting this structure. I'm able to continue doing all of this value development and continue placing more color as needed. And even go in to do some softening with a cleanest, lightly damped paintbrush too. Help create softer transitions between my greens and get rid of any maybe little textures that I accidentally create because everything is still wet and workable. If I accidentally placed way too much color on paper or dark in a certain area too much, or make it look a little bit too flat. I can add dimension back into that area by reviewing more of that paper underneath, by going in with either the cleanest, slightly damp bristles of my paintbrush, use them as a little absorbent sponge to lift up the excess paint. Or I can also go in with my absorbent towel to do my lifting while that paint is still wet, I can take my time doing all of these things because everything is still wet and workable. And the reason why everything is still wet and workable is because I took my time in that first phase of this process with that initial very pale translucent layer of green. If I hadn't taken my time with that part of the process, you can bet that certain sections of my apple would have start drying pretty quickly and I wouldn't be able to continue working this way when we're working with watercolor, it's very important that you notice when your paper is starting to dry it, because at that point you shouldn't be doing much at all. You should allow it to dry completely. If you keep working while your paper is already starting to dry, you're going to create splotch in us and undesired texters right here, I am starting to paint in the stem. So for this, I switched on over to my size three round brush because it's a very small shape. And I first started with a lighter brown, which is my burnt umber plus a little bit of hansa yellow light. And then I darken certain areas within that with my darker brown which is plain burnt umber, I left teeny tiny sections of whitepaper unpainted so that I could create a little bit of an illusion of highlights. Right there you can see how when I started painting in the browns, some of that brown in the lower right portion of the stem started bleeding into the green. This happened because the green right beside the shape was still wet. And remember that watercolor will always expand into paper that is wet. So if you don't want this to happen, if you don't want bleeding to happen, makes sure that you will allow that green paint to dry completely and then you can paint in the stem. Some artists like bleeding to happen and others don't. So that is totally up to you. After painting in the stem, I am doing some final pushing of darker value areas before allowing everything to dry completely. And the only reason why I am allowing myself to do this at this point is because everything is still wet and workable. Certain sections of my apple, we're already pretty dry. I would much rather just leave it to dry completely and then come back later to darken areas if needed. Remember that what we're trying to do with all these different greens is create a wide variety of different greens. You don't want to start going in with your medium green and darker screen and start covering up those lightest green values completely, because that is going to lead to flatten us. You need to develop a wide range of values, from very, very light areas to a wide range of mid tones to darker darks. This is what leads to creating a sense of dimension and more realism in a piece. So you need those highlights, you need those mid tones, you need those darkest darks. Of course, as I said before, watercolor tends to dry lighter than how it looks when it's wet. So after everything has dried, most likely than not, you're going to have to come back to push darkest value areas, especially if you're going for higher levels of realism, which is what we're gonna be doing in the next phase of the process. I'm all done with this development of lighter values and darker midtones. And it is time to allow everything to dry completely before moving on to the next phase of the process. But before moving on, I want to add any quick note here to explain why that pre wedding in the first part of this process was so important and so helpful. Especially when I'm trying to arrive at these results that I'm showing right now. So by taking that time in the beginning to arrive at that nice even wetness where not only creating these beautiful soft diffused out effects and gradients, but we're also buying ourselves more time to be able to do more work in one single layer. And this is key for freshness, because the more layers that you create in a watercolor painting or illustration, the greater the chance there is that you're going to arrive at an overworked, heavy result. So the more description that you can do for your different values and even textures with one same layer. Oftentimes the fresh or your outcome is going to be, alright. Moving on to the last phase for the screen apple, which is going to be the darkening of darkest value areas, as well as the addition of final detail. So as you can see, everything has dried completely. The color certainly looks lighter than how it looked when it was wet. So we're now going in and pushing darkest value areas. I get started with the stem. And of course, because the stem is so small, I make sure to use my size three round brush because I'm really just looking to darken little dark value shapes in the stem. I go in with my darker brown, which is a plain burnt umber with some water in it. You can see how I darken certain little sections and I left some of that previous lighter brown layer showing through so that I can develop that range of brown values even in the stem. You can also already perceive those little teeny tiny highlights where I left that paper completely unpainted. Since the very first layer in the stem. Meaning even in this very small part of the apple, the stem, I have created highlights. I have created a lighter brown areas and I have created a darker brown for darkening those dark brown values and the stem, I move on to darkening my darkest green value areas throughout the apple. For this, because the shape is much larger, I change on over to my size ten round brush because I'm really looking to push the darker midtones and darkest dark areas. I'm really only using my medium green and my dark is screen at this point. I did have to add in a little bit more paint and water into my color mixtures because I was running out of paint. So before getting started with my greens, I made sure to do that and I also made sure that the color mixtures that I am creating on my color mixing palette are nice and juicy. They have a good amount of both paint and water in them. And by making sure that they have a good amount of water in them, I can just rest assured that I'm not going in with a very dark, deep saturated color mixture that is going to be very stark looking, especially against lighter green values that might be behind them. If you paint a very dark saturated shape on top of a very light value area, that is going to be very stark because of that contrast that you create. So I am trying to keep it subtle. Remember that you're always going to be able to go in and darken, but it's a lot more difficult to go in and lighten, especially when working with watercolor. So make sure that your color mixtures have some water in them and that they're not super dry. Once again, focusing on painting in abstract irregular shapes, especially along the left and right edges and also the bottom of the apple and the top concave part where the stem is. Because I am painting in these dark green shapes on dry paper. I am not getting that soft diffused out effect. I am getting sharp defined edges around the shapes that I'm painting in. So whenever I want to soften those edges, what I do is after having painted in that dark green shape, I remove the paint from my paintbrush bristles and I go back in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and gently run my paintbrush bristles over that edge that I want to soften. So in this case, it would be that inner edge of these shapes that is closer to that central section of the apple that I am going in to soften. It is not necessary to soften everything though. If you are going in and doing softening, makes sure that you're doing it gently and very minimally. The more scrubbing and softening and going in and fiddling with your paint that you do, the more likely it is that you're going to arrive at an overworked result. So only darken areas that need to be darkened and only soften edges that absolutely need to be softened. Start practicing going into darkens sections confidently, and leave that paint be as much as possible. Okay, So I'm just finishing up here with these last little details. And with this we're going to be all done with the green apple illustration. Congratulations for making it through this class. Spend as long as you need to with this one before moving forward. Super excited to get started with our next illustration, which is going to be a clementine. Whenever you're ready, I'll see you over there. 6. Clementine Illustration: Welcome to this class in which we are going to be drawing and then painting a clementine together. Let's get started with phase number one, which is our preliminary sketching phase. I once again get out my B pencil and I'm going to be focusing on the largest shapes first, making sure that I am sketching lightly and I'm going to make my way towards the smaller shapes and details. For the Clementine, we have a little bit of a oval shape, but it's very irregular. It's very imperfect because once again, we are drawing and then painting. I'm an object that is natural, that is organic. So there is a lot of imperfection all throughout an irregularity. And because of this, there is no need to be super perfectionistic about creating a perfect circle or oval. It can even be a little bit asymmetrical and that is perfectly fine. In fact, I would recommend that you incorporate some of this imperfection and irregularity into your sketch because if it's a perfect circle or oval, it's not going to look very realistic. It's going to look more like a cartoon for this one, I added in a couple of leaves on the top right there. So I loosely and lightly sketched in two leaf shapes and I am adding in only the central vein. There. You saw me erase out that line for the edge of the clementine that we actually wouldn't be able to see because the leaf is covering it with this, my sketch is ready. Let's move on to phase number two for this one, which is going to be the phase where we choose our colors and we prepare our first color mixtures for this Clementine illustration, I'm going to be bringing in five different colors. And these colors are chiral, read, undersea green, Hansa, Yellow Deep, hence a yellow light and burnt umber. Let's go ahead and start creating our nice, juicy color mixtures on our mixing palettes. So again, I am using my size ten round brush for this, and I am bringing out a little bit of water at a time into my paint, solely my paintbrush in my paint and bringing out a little bit of paint at a time into these mixing areas on my mixing palette. I'm getting started with creating my variety of oranges and reddish oranges. Again, I am trying to create a lighter color, a medium color, and a darkest color. And this is so that I can set myself up for success so that I can quickly develop those different values throughout the Clementine. So those three color mixtures on that top section of my mixing area, on my palette. All a combination of Hansa Yellow Deep, and pyrrole red. It's just that these different colour mixtures have these two colors in them to different amounts are two different ratios. So you can see me continue working on these different colour mixtures. The one on the upper right is my lightest color. It has way more Hansa Yellow Deep in it than pyrrole red. So it looks more like a yellow, orange to the left of that. That is my medium color. It looks more like a regular secondary orange. So it has approximately 50% has a yellow deep and 50 per cent pyrrole red. I just continued mixing in more of one color or the other color until I arrived at a slightly darker color than the first that looked like more of a middle of the range, orange. And then below that I have my darkest color that I'm gonna be using in the Clementine, which is a combo of these two colors once again, but it's heavier on the pyrrole red, which makes it look darker. Alright, and in the lower portion of my mixing palette, I created once again, two different greens. I prepared a brown for myself, which are colors that you've seen me prepare before for the previous illustrations. I have my lighter green, which is a mixture of undersea green and plenty of hansa yellow light. Then I have my darker green which is plain undersea green with some water in it. And the brown that you see right there on my palette is plain burnt umber with some water in it right here. I'm going to just swatch out these colors for you on my scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can see what they look like on paper. Once again, I just want to remind you, make sure that your color mixtures are nice and juicy. They have a good amount of color in them, but also some water. And make sure that you have enough, especially of the oranges and reddish oranges. Once your color mixtures are ready, it's going to be time to move on to phase number two of this painting process, which by this point you probably already know what it is, what we're gonna be doing. We're going to be developing those very lightest pale values in this very first layer of paint, bringing in just a little bit of the lightest color of the bunch that we have prepared for this section, which is the yellow, orange. And once you place some amount of paint on your paper, you can go in with a bit of water from your container to dissipate that color outwards, distribute that pigment into a larger section. Softening that color and really arriving at a very pale, translucent yellow, orange all throughout. I am not pre wedding the stem or the leaves. I'm trying to keep those dry. I'm making sure to move quickly because initially that paper is gonna be very thirsty because it's completely dry. So you want to keep it moving when you paint in that shape, immediately, go ahead and either grab more color or more water and go into the edge of that shape and pull that color out and continue distributing and spreading that pigment in this entire area before those edges dry on you. And alongside developing these lightest values, you can also skip around, move your paintbrush in different ways so that you can leave teeny tiny sections of white paper is shining through so that you can have a few highlights here and there. These little white shapes that you leave can also really help start describing the texture in the clementine skin. But aside from this, the other objective with this first layer of paint is of course, to make sure that we're arriving at a nice even wetness all throughout the Clementine shape. And this is so that we can move on to develop our different values with those nice soft transitions in-between our oranges and reddish oranges. Again, take your time with this part of the process. I am just like with the past illustration processes, I am using my size ten round brush. And I'm going over everything several times very gently so that I don't affect the sizing of the paper of course, but I like going over everything five to six times. So make sure that no section of my Clementine starts drying on me way too quickly. Okay, So once I have developed this very lightest, palest, most translucent layer with my lightest color of the bunch, my yellow, orange. And I have left some little sections of highlights. It is going to be time to move on to phase number four, in which we're going to be continuing to develop darker midtones and darkest dark areas and starting to give this Clementine a sense of light and shadow and dimension. I am making my way incrementally towards my darker color of the bunch, which is my red, orange. So first I went in with the lightest yellow orange. Again, just used that lightest color and a little bit more of a saturated state of less water downstate and started doing my overlapping with the same color in areas that I wanted to darken a little bit more, which just like with the apple that we did before, I focused primarily on starting to develop darker midtones along the outer edges of the clementine along the bottom. And also in that upper section that is a little bit concave where the stem is coming out. I knew that by leaving, generally speaking, lighter values in the middle of the Clementine and the central section, I could create a roundness to the structure. I'm of course also developing darker values under the leaves, where the leaves are blocking that light from hitting those sections of the clementine skin beneath them. I'm using my paintbrush in a slightly different way than how I was using it for the Apple. Because when it comes to the clementine skin, it's way more textured. If you go in with your color and you dot it into that wetness by quickly going in and touching the tip of your paintbrush with that paint and then quickly lifting that paintbrush up, you're going to notice that you're able to create more texture with it, as opposed to going in and creating a smooth brushstroke and then lifting backup. I'm doing way more of that quick dotting motion for this illustration. Not all over the Clementine. You don't have to overly describe that texture a little bit goes a long way with this one. I'm not going in and smoothing that texture out like I was before. I'm leaving it as I'm developing my color, my different values. I'm also thinking of how to change the way that I'm doing my brushstrokes and using my paintbrush to also start describing a bit of that texture. At this point in the process, I have used my lighter color and my medium color. And right here you're seeing me do a little bit of clean up along the edges, just moving the edges out a tiny bit and softening transitions with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush. I wanted to do that work before getting started with my darkest color of the bunch, which is my red, orange. By this point in the process, everything is still very wet and workable. So it is time to move on to placing my darkest color of bunch. So the red, orange. And this one, I'm only going to be placing in the very darkest value areas that I'm thinking of developing. So again, I'm focusing on the edges, especially the lower edge of the clementine. Also the upper section where the stem is coming out and the shadow areas beneath the leaves. I don't want to overdo it with this reddish orange because if I do, the entire Clementine can start looking more red. Orange, and I definitely don't want to do that with all my painting processes. Generally speaking, the darker I get with my color, the less color I place, the more intentionally I place that color because I only want to darken darkest value areas and leave all of the previous values that have already developed for my lighter values and my mid tones. Free of this next color that I'm placing, I don't want to cover those lighter values up because this is going to lead to flatten us. It's all about developing that wide range of values. If you're looking for realism and dimension, I'm keeping everything very loose, very irregular, even though I, I'm being deliberate about where I am starting to develop my darker midtones and my darkest darks. I'm making sure to stay away from the look of organized shapes, of outlines and anything like that. I am seeing these different value shapes as abstract, irregular shapes and staying away from the look of outlines and shapes with a consistent thickness all throughout because that is not going to look very realistic. Okay, so it's time to move on to the last part of this phase. And this is going to be painting the leaves and also the stem. I do want to remind you that if you don't want the greens and the brown that we're gonna be using for the leaves and the stem. If you don't want that to bleed into the orange section of the clementine. Make sure that you allow the orange to dry completely before painting the leaves and the stem. If you don't mind a little bit of bleeding happening, then go ahead and get started with painting these sections. After removing all of my orange for my paintbrush bristles, I went ahead and get started with painting in the first layer, in the leaves with my invite us to green, I did leave some little shapes where my paper is shining through, completely unpainted because I wanted that paper to stand in place for my highlights. Once that lightest green layer was in, I dropped in some of my darker green on top of that lighter green layer while it was still wet. I did so in a very irregular way and making sure that I didn't drop in way too much of my darker green to the point that the darker green completely eats up and covers up all of my lighter green areas. I want to make sure that the leaves have highlights, have lighter greens and have darker greens. So only drop in a little bit of your darker green and to certain sections, this can be challenging. If you're painting in small shapes, you have to make sure they are only going in with a small amount of paint and water in your paint brush, bristles, otherwise that second darker color and start eating up all the previous color and you can start losing control. Once I finished up with my leaves, it was time to paint the stem. And for the stem, I switched on over to my size three round brush. And initially I went in with some burnt umber in a very pale, very watered down state so that I could develop lighter brown values. And once that initial very light brown layer is painted in, I go in with my same burnt umber only in a more saturated state. So I added a little bit more paint into this color mixture to thicken it up a little bit. And using the slightly more saturated, burnt umber, I went into dark in certain sections in the stem. So again, in my stem I have little teeny tiny highlights section. I have lighter brown sections and I have darker brown sections. And with this, I am all done with this initial development of values and textures all throughout the Clementine. It is going to be timed to allow everything to dry completely so that we can move on to the very last phase of this process, which is going to be where we darken those darkest areas and also add final details. I allow everything to dry completely and you can see how these colors are a lot lighter now that everything is dry. So it is time to go in with the medium color. So this is my medium orange, essentially that I prepared for myself before getting started. And then I'm going to move on to use the darkest color, which is the red orange, to only push the darkest dark areas. So paint in these shadow shapes in the larger portion of the Clementine, I'm sticking to using the size ten round brush. But when it comes to pushing the darker sections in the leaves and the stem, I'm going to be changing to my size three round brush with this part of the process for really only focusing on darkening the darkest midtones and darkest dark sections and leave all of the previous development of hue and value all throughout the Clementine or our lightest value areas untouched and uncovered. With this next layer of paint, we need those beautiful, lighter values that we've already been working so hard on. So focus on only darkening those darkest value sections. And what I was mentioning with the previous illustrations really comes into play with all of these. And this is very important as you are moving on to using these darker colors, especially when you're painting on dry paper. Things tend to look starker, especially because that paint is staying concentrated in one area. It's not dissipating out because the paper is not wet. So because of this, you want to make sure that yes, you're using your medium color and your darkest color, but makes sure that they have some amount of water in them that you're not going in super, super saturated and dry with your color mixtures because this can create way too much contrast and it can be very stark looking. I'm very distracting for the viewer. So keep it subtle. Remember that you can always go in and darken, but it's going to be very difficult to go in and lighten, especially when the paint has dried. Aside from all of this, also remember to acknowledge these darker shapes as abstract irregular shapes and stay away from the look of outlines and heavy blocky shapes and any sort of line or mark, anything that is very stark looking can likely take away from the level of realism that we're trying to develop because we're painting on dry paper and that paint is not dissipating out and softening into any wetness or anything like that, we're left with a sharp defined edges around the shapes that we're painting. If you want to soften any of those edges, remove that color from your paintbrush, bristles and run your cleanest slightly damp paintbrush over the edge that you want to soften while that paint is still wet. So So I went in and darken all of those areas that I wanted to push a little bit more, especially the shadows under the leaves, the upper section where you have the stem coming out and also along some of those edges of the clementine. They then switched on over to my size three round brush and darken certain sections using my darker green in the leaves, I did very slight irregular tracing over that central vein that I had sketched in with pencil. But notice how even though I was going in with my darker green, I use it in a very pale translucent state so that I didn't create a very visible line or that central vein, the leaves, so it's visible but it's still subtle. I also used a little bit of burnt umber to darken certain sections in the stem. If you ever have any doubt that maybe your color mixture doesn't have the right consistency or doesn't have the right level of water so that you can go in just the step darker from the color that you already have on paper, pastel, your color mixtures on your scrap piece of watercolor paper. This is why I always have scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand when I am painting. And the scrap pieces of watercolor paper, or just old paintings that didn't turn out or that I don't like very much at all and I just cut up into pieces. I use the backside. Finally, I removed all of that brown for my paintbrush bristles, and I'm still going to be using my size three round brush to do my final edition of details. And this is going to be to develop a subtle hint of that texture of the clementine skin right here I am using my medium, orange in a pretty water downstate. And you can see me start dotting in for scribbling in even little orange irregular shapes that really helped add detail and texture to this Clementine. As with everything that I've been doing, I want to keep it subtle. And I also want to make sure that I bring in tons of irregularity. I am not trying to create perfect thoughts or little circles because that wouldn't lead to realism. I'm making sure that these little shapes that I create are imperfect and that some of them are larger, others are smaller and they are clustering together or grouping together in different ways. Irregularity in terms of pretty much everything, is key when we're drawing or painting a natural organic subject like this. Another thing is you don't have to feel the need to go in and cover up the entire Clementine shape with texture. I'm only going to be adding in this texture into certain areas. And that is more than enough to subtly describe the clementine skin when I'm adding in these little texture shapes in sections of the clementine that have darker values developed in them. Like for example, in deeper shadow areas below the leaves, and maybe in other little darker, reddish orange shapes that you have created. You can certainly go in with your darkest color of the bunch instead of your medium orange and create these little text or shapes with that darkest color. Just make sure that you're always taking into account the color and the value that you have underneath when you're thinking of what color and what level of translucency you are using to paint in that shape or that little mark on top of that back color so that you can keep things subtle and not create too much contrast by painting a very dark shape or mark on top of a very light value. Remember that that is going to be very stark looking and very distracting. And you want to keep things minimal, loose and fresh and not overdo it a little bit goes a long way, especially when it comes to painting with watercolor. And you don't want to start overworking or overly describing your pieces. One tip that I can provide that will help you stay away from overdoing it with this texture is take breaks. Take breaks and see your piece from a little bit of a farther away distance. And ask yourself if you've already developed enough texture. If you don't take breaks, it's very easy to keep going and going and going and then you're going to end up with way too much texture and it's gonna be just overly described. And with that, we're all done with this watercolor Clementine illustration. If you've made it through this course to this point, congratulations, I'm so proud of you and I am excited to move on to the next summer fruit, which is going to be a pair of cherries. Take however long you need to with this one and whenever you're ready, I'll see you in the next. 7. Cherries Illustration: Welcome to this class in which you're going to be drawing and then painting a pair of cherries together. Let's go ahead and jump straight into phase number one of this process, which is going to be the preliminary outline sketch. So once again, using my B pencil, I am lightly starting with the largest shapes, focusing on arriving at good proportions, good shapes, and also a good use of my drawing area. I don't want my illustration to be way too small or way too large that it doesn't fit in this watercolor sheet. And I want it relatively centered in this drawing area. You've probably noticed now that you've seen me sketch quite a few of these that I'm not going in and trying to create a perfect circle or oval or whatever the shape may be with one single stroke. I'm actually going in with multiple lines and I am grouping these lines together, paying attention to the angles so that when I bring these lines together, they create that overall shape for that fruit. I just like approaching my sketch in this way. A lot of the times it makes things easier for me. And I am able to create a more irregular, slightly asymmetrical look to that shape instead of trying to go in and create a perfect oval or a perfect circle, after having created those two largest shapes for the cherries, I then added in the stem that connects with them. You can see how I also brought in slight curves and imperfections in that stem. Then finally, I am mapping out some highlights sections, just like with the Apple. These highlight shapes that I am mapping out for myself are actually quite larger when I am sketching them in with pencil than the size that they're actually going to end up being. They almost always become quite a bit smaller as I am painting. But these shapes helped me remember that I really want a very small amount of pigment or none at all to come into these areas, mapping out these highlights shapes in a slightly larger size of what I actually want them to be at the end. It gives me greater control. Alright, that we're moving onto phase number two for these cherries which is going to be planning, are different colors that we're gonna be using and preparing our color mixtures. For this illustration, I'm gonna be using four different colors. And these colors are pyrrole, red, neutral tint, hence a yellow light and undersea green. So I make sure to get started with a container that has clean water in it because this is going to help my colors stay nice and clean. For this pair of cherries, I'm going to be creating three different reds. A lighter red, a medium red, and a darkest red. And also to greens, a lighter green and a darker green. I'm getting started with creating my reds. The first route at the top, which is going to be my lightest red, is just plain pyrrole red with some water added in. The second row, which is the medium red. Right beneath it, is pyrrole red with a tiny bit of neutral tint. And then the third read that I'm creating right here below these is chiral Fred with more neutral tint added in. So you can see how I end up with three different reds. There is not a big enough difference between any of my reds that I am creating. I make sure to alter the ratios of my colors in my mixtures, adding more red or more neutral tint in order to make sure that I end up with the lighter red, a medium red, and a darkness red, and finally ripened knee thes, I'm creating my two different greens for the stem, for the lightest screen, I am once again mixing together hansa yellow light and undersea green. And my darkest green is just plain undersea green with some water added in. I'm gonna go ahead and switch these colors out for you on this scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can once again see what they look like on paper, so that you can choose whichever colors you have available that will help you arrive at similar results. Because the cherries are small, they are definitely smaller shapes than the past pieces of fruit that I have been painting. I don't need as much paint on my palette. However, I do want to make sure that I have enough and that I have set myself up for success. Once again by knowing how I'm going to be developing my different red values and my different green values. And with that, we're ready to get started with phase number three for this fourth illustration, which is going to be the development of our highlights, our lightest values and making sure that we are arriving at a nice even wetness so that we can start then developing our different values on top of that first wet layer using my size ten round brush. And you can definitely use a smaller brush if you're more comfortable using a smaller brush for these small shapes, I am applying a little bit of my first lightest color, which is the pyrrole red with water added in. I'm doing my best to not add any color over the stem and over the highlight shapes. Just like with the other ones, I'm making sure to place just a small amount of this color. And I am going in with water in my paint brush to soften that color and distribute that small amount of pigment in this larger shape to really make it look soft and light and pale. Right here, I'm even doing a little bit of lifting and removing excess color and water because I was starting to deposit way too much water in this very small shape. Remember that you can always use the cleanest, slightly damp bristles of your paint brush to absorb any excess water or paint that you might have accidentally added in for. You can also go in with your absorbent towel to do you're lifting? I go in with a clean and only slightly damp paintbrush to lift up that excess water or paint from this shape. Touch that tip of my paintbrush to my absorbent towel to remove it from those bristles and go back in to do anymore lifting as needed. I'm almost done with this lightest layer of red. I'm making sure that everything is nice and evenly a pre wedded. And I'm about to move on to developing darker values and developing dimension in this cherry. Now because this is a pair of cherries, meaning we have to, I am approaching these separately, so I'm gonna be going through phase number three and number four twice, once for each cherry. And this is because I want to make sure that I'm developing those darker midtones on paint that is still wet. If I had painted that first pale layer in both cherries and then went back to the first one to develop my mid tones, I could run the risk of starting to place that color on paint that is already starting to dry. And I didn't want that to happen. So that is why I decided to approach these cherries separately. So I can really take my time with the process and not feel like I'm racing against the clock. So what I am doing right here is the same thing that I've been doing for my other illustrations. First, I got started with placing that first color, which is the plane pyrrole red with some water added in in two sections that I wanted to darken a little bit more. So initially I just go in with the lightest color in a bit of a more saturated state. Then I go ahead and make my way towards my darkest red. First adding in the medium red into sections that I want to darken more. And then finally, I add in the darkest red into smaller sections that I'm really looking to push more. I again try to leave lighter values in the central section of the cherries so that I can create a rounded effect right there you saw me do a little bit of lifting of color from that central section so that I can reveal more of that whiteness of the paper under the paint and add dimension into that area. So I've added in my lighter red in a more saturated state. I then added in some of my medium red and I'm now starting to go in with my darkest red, just like with the others. The intention here is to develop a wide range of values. So at this point, you can see how I have a highlight, where I have that whiteness and the brightness of the paper shining through completely unpainted. I have very, very light translucent areas that look pink. I then have darker areas that look more like a medium red. And then I have the darkest areas, or you're really starting to have more of a whitish color. A little bit of my red gotten to the bottom of that stem there. So I'm just going in with a cleanest slightly damp paintbrush, softening that color. A little bit of the green is going to cover it up. So I'm not very worried. After finishing with the development of mid tones and darkest darks in that first Cherry, I'm gonna go ahead and do the exact same process in the second cherries. So I'm going back to phase number three for this one. And then we're gonna be moving on to Phase number four for the second Cherry. As I am developing all of these values throughout my cherries, I'm thinking of structure, of their roundness aware would make sense for darker shadows sections to be consider where the location of the light source is in relation to your subject or your objects and what effect that light would have on the objects three-dimensional structure, it is essential that if you are trying to shade something in effectively and in more of a believable way that you really bring in the objects three-dimensional structure to mind because this is going to help you stay away from flatness. I'm done creating that first palest layer of red, pink looking color, the second cherry. And I am now going back in with my more saturated version of my pyrrole red to start darkening certain sections. And I'm gonna make my way gradually towards the darker red again, doing my best to stay on top of water control, making sure that I'm leaving plenty of that previous lightest layer shining through and darkening only areas that are going to help me create a rounded effect and a little bit of a concave shape at the top where the stem is coming out. And just like with the other illustrations, I'm making sure to keep things very irregular, very abstract. And that I am staying away from the look of outlines or very deliberate shapes of any kind. Because these are smaller shapes that we're working on, you want to make sure that you're not going in with way too much paint or water in your paint brush bristles. The smaller the shape, the more difficult it is to remain in control. And it's very easy to start covering up all of the previous lighter values if you start dropping in way too much of a darker color on top, because that color very quickly expand out and cover up and demolish all of your lighter values that you've been working so hard on. So be very careful and make sure that you're not going in with way too much water or paint in your paintbrush bristles, especially when you're going in with the darkest red, you want to make sure that you're only dropping in that darkness. Read in areas that you're really looking to push contrast. And if you want to soften the edges of your highlight shapes or you want to make them smaller. You can go in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and run the bristles of your paintbrush over that edge that you want to soften or bring a little tiny bit of that pigment while it's still wet into that large highlight shape to make it smaller. So we're missing painting the stem, of course. So I am going to be using my size three round brush for this. First, of course, I'm going to be going in with my lightest green, the one that I created by mixing together, hence a yellow light and undersea green looks like a yellow green here. I'm just painting this in wet on dry, but I'm making sure to keep it moving so that I'm not left with hard to find edges around any of this green that I'm painting in. And while this lighter green is still wet, I quickly drop in my darker green. If you move quickly and you make sure to drop in your darker green wall, that initial lightest green is still wet. You're going to have soft diffused out effects. I want to make sure that as I'm dropping in this dark the screen that I leave plenty of sections with a lighter green, shiny through, covered with a darker green. Because even for the stem, we want at least a couple of different green values. Alright, And finally, we're moving on to Phase number five, the last phase for this fourth illustration, which is going to be darkening darkest value areas and adding final details just like with the others, I allow everything to dry completely before starting with this next layer of paint. That's very important. We want to be painting wet on dry. In this phase, I decided to go in with my size three round brush because these shapes are quite small. And I want to make sure that I'm really only pushing darker value shapes where I really need to darken. I don't want to cover up my lighter values if I don't need to, I initially go into those top sections where the stem is coming out to push those darker values in those areas, I am using my medium red first, the one that has a tiny bit of neutral tents at it. And later, if I want to darken certain sections even more on top of that, I go in with the darkest red. Once again, the darker I get with my color, the smaller the shape that I paint in. Because I am painting on dry paper, I have a sharp defined edges around the shapes that I'm painting in. So every time I want to soften those edges, I remove that color for my paintbrush bristles and I go back in with a cleanest slightly damp paintbrush to run the bristles of my paintbrush over the edge that I'm looking to soften while that paint is still wet after I have darken that upper section where the stem is coming out, I also add a little bit more contrast and definition. In some sections along some of the edges of the cherries, I'd make sure not to go over the entire edge because that can really lead to an outlining. Look, I only go over certain sections of those patches. I want to encourage you to be light handed. Don't darken more than you need to. Make sure that you allow plenty of those lighter values to be left alone. And if you are going into soften anything or to do gentle scrubbing and lifting, be minimal and be gentle. Okay. I'm almost done here. I'm going to go ahead and darken certain sections in the stem. So for this, because we're focusing on developing darker values, I am going in with my darker green, my undersea green, and I'm leaving plenty of those lighter green sections of the stem shining through, uncovered with this new layer of paint. And with this final step, then we're all done with this pair of cherries. I'm super excited to get started with our last and most challenging watercolor illustration, which is going to be the sliced peach. If you feel you need more practice with this pair of cherries or with any of the previous illustrations. Go ahead and make time to continue practicing them before moving onto the next one. And whenever you're ready, I'll see you in the last class. 8. Peach Illustration: Welcome to our last class in this course in which we're finally going to be tackling the most challenging watercolor illustration, which is going to be the half peach. This could also be referred to as a cross-section of a pH because the pH is cut, right? And now the reason why I would consider this one to be the most challenging watercolor illustration of all is because of the wet on wet transitions and gradients that we need to create inside of that peach. In some cases allowing for plenty of that white paper to shine through lightest sections. We also want to make sure that we incorporate some sections that look more yellowish, other sections that look a little bit more orange-ish, and then other sections that look more red. Red can be a tricky color because it can easily overpower the lighter colors. And if we're not careful, everything can start looking a little bit to read. I would highly recommend arming yourself with reference photos. I have left a reference photo of a cross-section peach in the projects and resources tab that you can download. But notice those shapes inside of the peach pit. Notice the shape, but also their size, the variation in these shapes throughout the pit. Notice if they'd become more sparse and some sections and more kind of overlapped and other sections are crap together and see all of these shapes as abstract, irregular shadow shapes that you're gonna be developing which create together that visual texture that you want, but bring in everything that you've learned so far, not only in relation to the process, but also the techniques, the little tips that I have shared in terms of keeping things subtle, seeing everything as abstract, irregular shapes, staying away from outlines and seeing it more as defining some sections of some edges, making sure that your pre wedding effectively and dropping in just the amount of paint that you actually need. All of that is going to be super, super helpful. Alright, so with all that said, let's go ahead and jump straight into the first part of this process, which is going to be, of course, the preliminary pencil sketch. Once again, using my B pencil, I am starting with the largest general shape for this peach, making sure that I'm focusing on shape, on proportion, and on location of my sketch within this watercolor paper, making sure that my sketch is not going to be too small or too large and that it is relatively centered within this paper was my largest shape had been created. I then started adding in the medium-sized shapes and the smaller details. There are definitely more shapes and details that I'm adding into this peach drawing. Especially because this one has a large protruding seed and the seed is very heavily textured. I will make sure to leave a reference photo of a sliced peach as a downloadable along with this tutorial so that you can observe that seeds texture and really bring in this visual information as you're painting, it's always super-helpful to observe what things look like in real life because this is going to inform your work and it's going to lead to higher levels of realism if we don't take time to observe what things look like in real life, It's very likely that we're going to forget details and subtleties. And we're going to draw or paint that thing the way that we think it looks like and not what it actually looks like in real life. So whenever you're going for mid to higher levels of realism, help yourself with references or seeing, observing things in real life that you have in front of you inside of that seed shape and that center of this peach, I add in many irregular abstract shapes where I'm gonna be developing darker values in that seed. And that development of values throughout the seed is going to help me create a believable visual texture, size and the shape and the amount of those little shapes that I sketched in really go hand in hand with what I was observing in reference photos. I didn't randomly start drawing shapes. I was taking into account what I was actually seeing in a reference photo. Alright, with that, our sketch is ready and it is time to move on to phase number two, which is going to be selecting our colors and creating our color mixtures. I'm gonna be using four different colors for this sliced peach illustration. And these colors are Hansa, Yellow, Deep, chiral red, burnt umber, and neutral tint. So using my size ten round brush, once again, I'm gonna get started with creating my color mixtures. You can see that I am starting with a nice container with clean water so that I can make sure that my colors stay nice and clean and vibrant. For this illustration, this top section of my mixing area, I'm going to get started with creating my yellow, my orange and my reddish orange mixtures. Again, making sure that I have my lightest color, my medium color, and my darkest color, so that I can develop a believable sensation of dimension in this peach. The very first little puddle of color that you see at the top is plain Hansa Yellow Deep with some water. In the orange looking puddle on the right of that is Hansa Yellow Deep plus a bit of pyrrole red. And then right beneath that, I also have a combination of Hansa Yellow Deep and pyrrole red. But that one is heavier on the pyrrole red, which makes it look a little bit redder. And of course, it's the darkest of the three. In this bottom section of my mixing area, I am preparing a few different browns because the seed is such an important part of this illustration, I made sure to create three different grounds for myself. The lightest brown is a mixture of burnt umber and Hansa Yellow Deep. My medium brown puddle is plain burnt umber with water added in. And this darkest brown that I'm creating right now is a mixture of burnt umber and a bit of neutral tint. Makes sure that there is enough of a difference between your yellows, oranges, and reds that you created at the top. And also that there is enough of a difference between your browns. And if there is not enough of a difference, makes sure that you modify those ratios of your colors and your mixtures so that you have a lighter, a medium, and a darkest color for both, right here, I'm going to take a quick second to swatch out all of these different colors for you so that you can see what they look like on paper. And decide which are the best colors for you to use that you have available to create color mixtures that are similar to mine. By taking time to swatch out your color mixtures on a scrap piece of watercolor paper. You're also going to be able to ensure that there is enough of a difference between your different colors. This gives you a chance to modify those ratios if needed before getting started with the painting process, which is so helpful. So now that I have nice juicy color mixtures, all my color mixing palette, I have a good amount of each color and they've all been checked on paper. I am ready to get started with phase number three of this final painting process. Let's go ahead and get started with developing that very first lightest, most translucent, palest layer of color. And making sure that we arrive at nice even wet this. So that we can then move on to phase number four, which is going to be developing our different values on top of this lightest layer using my size ten round brush, I start by placing a little bit of my lightest color that I have prepared for my peach, which is my yellow. So this is Hansa Yellow Deep with some water added in. And I just painted in a little bit of color. And I am going in with some water in my paint brush to soften that color, distribute that color amongst this largest shape to really soften it and make it look very pale and very translucent. And I'm going over everything quite a few times to make sure that everything has been nice and evenly wedded before starting to drop in more color. The amount of time that you spend doing your pre wedding is going to vary depending on the environment that you're working in. I personally live in a very warm, dry environment and I have to make sure to go over everything quite a few times. But if you work in a warm environment, a cold environment, a dry environment, a humid environment. If you have a fan on a heating system, on an air conditioning unit, on all of these things are going to have an impact on how quickly or how slowly your paper starts drying on you. So make sure that whatever environment it is that you're working in, that you have this in mind as you are painting so that you can make decisions. Spend longer on your pre wedding, work more quickly, maybe turn off the fan, whatever the case may be that is going to help you, especially for this first part of the painting process, where we're painting that larger shape and we really want to incorporate a lot of wet into wet, blurred out soft effects so that the process isn't harder than it needs to be. Alright, So getting started with phase number four here, I arrived at a nice even wetness all throughout and made sure that that initial layer was very pale, very translucent. And I am now getting started with dropping in a bit of that first color once again, but this time this color is slightly more saturated, less watered down. You can see the difference there between the color developed in that first palest layer and these new sections where I've started dropping in the same color, but now with more color overlapping and a higher level of saturation, it looks a little bit darker, even though it's the same exact color. After having place a bit more of that first lightest yellow, I then started dropping in my medium color, which is the orange. You can see how I am mostly dropping in this medium color along the outer edges of the sliced peach and also around the sea, that section around the seed is darker and it looks redder and many of the photos that I saw, but I always make my way gradually towards the darkest color, which is the red swipe. First place my medium color in those sections. And then I'm going to be placing the red on top of that medium color. It's all about taking it incrementally a step at a time. I'd also know that I want to create a little bit of a shadow effect later on around the seed. So by starting to develop darker midtones in this area, I am starting to get there, making my way towards my darkest color here, the red. And you can see how the darker that I get with my colors, the more careful I am about only placing this color in certain sections in a very irregular way and making sure that I'm staying away from the look of outlines aside from that darker section around the seed that I'm gonna be developing, I want to make sure that the inner fleshy sections for this peach are left very, very light and translucent. I don't want to start covering those up with my medium color or my darkest color because that would flatten everything out and make everything way too heavy. I don't want to get rid of those lightest values. But if you do go in with way too much color in these areas, simply go in and do your lifting with either the cleanest slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush or your absorbent towel while that paint is still wet so that you can add a dimension back into that area and reveal more of that paper underneath. The outer skin of the pH is a little bit darker. It's more of a darker orange, reddish color. So I do want to make sure that the outer sections of the peach are a little bit darker. And the third is some of the reddish color added into the outer edge. I didn't add in that red all around the peach shape and I only dropped it into certain sections around the edge. This makes things look a lot more subtle and natural. Okay, so I'm happy with the development of hues and values all throughout the peach. And before everything starts drying on me, I'm going to remove all of that orangeish color for my paintbrush bristles. And I'm going to get started with developing my wet on wet effects with my browns in the seed area. I first got started with my lightest brown eye, drop it into this area in a very irregular, loose way. I then drop in some of my medium brown and finally I go in and drop in some of my darkest brown by doing a little bit of wet on wet effects and value developments in the seed area. Meaning I already have some lighter brown sections, medium brown sections and darker brown sections. I'm going to have a great base to continue developing further texture on, later on, wet, on dry. Okay, it was time to allow all of that to dry completely. Feel free to help yourself with a hairdryer again to speed up that drying process. And after everything is completely bone dry, we're gonna get started with the final phase for this final illustration, in which we're going to be darkening darkest dark areas and adding detail. I'm first using my larger size ten round brush because I am darkening larger shapes here around the peach. And for this, I am using my medium color, which is the orange. And I'm also going in with my reddish orange after darkening those sections in the upper part of the peach and also the lower part of the peach. I changed to my smaller size three round brush because I'm gonna be darkening certain sections along the outer edges of the peach where that thin skin is. I am doing my best to stay away from an outline. You look around the peach. And to do this, I create a little bit of line weight variation in these lines that I'm painting in around the pH, meaning certain sections of my lines are thinner and other sections of my lines are a little bit thicker. And I do this by pressing down my paintbrush onto my paper to different degrees. Sometimes it's just the tip of my paintbrush that is coming into contact with my paper. And other times I'm pressing down the belly of my paintbrush or a little bit more. And this creates more of the look of a long, irregular shape than a outline that has one consistent line weight, which won't lead to a very natural look. I also made sure that I kept its subtle with that color and that I didn't go in with a very dark red all around the pH because that would be a little bit to start looking and would make things look a little bit too cartoony. Alright, so moving into the final details here, I am getting started with painting in darker value shapes in the seed through the development of these little shapes that have different values inside of them, I am going to be developing visual texture. I can still see my pencil work very, very lightly through my paint. If you cannot see those shapes that you sketched out for yourself through your paint, you can go in and sketch them in again. Before starting to paint in these shapes, I would recommend having a look at that reference photo of the sliced peach that I am making available for you guys as an attachment so that you can see these shapes again and make sure that you have them fresh in your mind before you start painting them. Notice their shape, notice their orientation, notice their size. Notice approximately how many darkest brown abstract shapes you see in the seed. Because those shapes and the way that they are clustering together in different ways is what we're trying to recreate in a loose way and without overly describing using my size three round brush, I first went in with my medium. Round and started painting in many of these shapes with some medium brown shapes painted in. I then started going in with my darkest brown and started darkening some of those sections of my medium brown shapes. And finally, I am going in with my lightest brown and adding more little shapes in some of the sections that seem a little bit too empty to me. And also around the seed where I want to create a little bit of a darker brown value so that I can really round out that seed. Remember that by keeping some lightest values in the central section of the seed and darkening around the outer edges, you're going to create a little bit of a rounded out at fact. So this is what I'm doing right here. I'm going in with my lightest brown and creating abstract, irregular brown shapes around the edges of the seed. Alright, then finally, I'm going to be darkening certain sections around the seed and that fleshy part of the peach That's actually edible. So before I was mentioning that in many of the reference photos that I was seeing for peaches, I saw a darker color and a reddish hue around the seed. So that's what I am painting in right now. I switched on back to my size ten round brush because these shapes are quite larger. I am using my reddish orange for this. I just made sure to go in with this color in a pretty watered down state so that I didn't go in and create very stark, distracting looking shapes. If you've painted in your reddish orange shape and you want to drop in a little bit more of the red color in some sections to darken them even more. You can go ahead and do that. And you can also soften that edge by going in with a cleanest, slightly damp paintbrush and running the bristles of your paintbrush over the edge. I noticed that things needed to be dark and a little bit more around the edges of the peach. I wanted to darken some sections of the very thin skin. So this time I went in with my size three round brush and my medium brown to darken certain sections of those edges. All right, my friend, and with that, we're all done with this last summer fruit illustration. I want to encourage you to give this one another go if you didn't like your initial results, What's cool is that these are small enough and quick enough that you can not only create a whole bunch in one same watercolor sheet, but you can also work on several in a relatively short period of time and see very quick improvements. Congratulations for making it through this course. I am so very proud of you. That is not easy to do. This. 100% deserves to be celebrated. I hope you enjoyed this and I would recommend now that you've worked on all five illustrations that you give thought to which one was most challenging for you and why you think that is this way you can move forward in a more strategic way. Practicing a little bit more mindfully with what you think that you need to practice more and you'll be able to make much faster progress. Alright, that is it for these classes in this course. See you in the closing video. 9. Thank You : Thank you so, so much for joining me for this course. I really hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that you learned new tips and tools and tricks that you can add into your tool bag that you can use for future artwork that you may decide to work on. If you enjoy this course, make sure to follow me here on Skillshare because I have tons of new stuff coming down the pipeline very, very soon. Don't forget to share your work in the Projects tab. It's super easy to do and I am so excited to see what you guys created. And if you're on social media, don't forget to follow me on Instagram, facebook and YouTube, where I'm constantly sharing more tips, tutorials, and also news for things that I have coming up or that I'm working on and that is gonna do it. Congratulations for completing this course. Keep on creating, I believe in you, you have everything that it takes to become a great artist. Take good care and see you soon. Bye.