Good to Great: Intermediate Watercolor Painting Techniques

1. Welcome to Class!: There's this weird place where many of us end up wanting to learn something new. The place where you're already pass beginner stage, but instead of feeling hopeful and inspired, your motivation drops. Sounds familiar. Learning plateaus are natural. When you first start learning something, you're excited. There are lots of inspiration and resources and it's easy to see improvement. But at some point, the rapid growth naturally slows down, which often results in a lack of motivation and desire to move forward. Or as Socrates said, the more I learn, the less I realize I know. With watercolor, there are many things to consider and you can quickly get lost, but I am here to help you. Hello, great friends. My name is Elina, and I'm a full-time watercolor artist and teacher. I created this class after getting many requests for intermediate classes, and my goal is to help you move forward on your journey. This year is my five-year anniversary since I started painting with watercolor. During that time, I never stopped improving my skills by trying many different things, taking lots of classes, pushing myself out of my comfort zone. In general, I always strive to get better at what I do. I know it sounds like topic intense and it probably is, but I'm so happy and proud of where I am right now in my creative journey. I've gathered a lot of experience, and today I want to help you overcome the challenges you are facing. In this class, I want to give you a closer look at my creative process, decision-making, and general approach, things I do to refine my artworks and take them it to another level. We'll start by practicing some intermediate technique that can help you to enrich and polish your paintings, then we'll go step-by-step to my routine of painting this kingfisher against the soft background. I haven't practiced painting it before, so you'll witness all my mistakes, the way I fix them, the way I plan and decide my next move, how I choose the colors, our bird's overall look of the painting and everything else that is part of my creative process. I believe things like this can bring a lot of clarity in your ideas, and will help you continue on with more confidence on your creative journey. This class is for those who consider themselves intermediate, and you feel comfortable with the basic watercolor techniques: wet and wet, wet and dry, dry brush and water control. If you love watercolor and you're passionate to learn more, then you're at the right place. Let's get started. In the next video, I will give you more detailed overview of the class in the final project. 2. Class + Project Overview: [MUSIC] Welcome back. In this video there will be more about how the class is structured and what your project will be. After going over the materials you'll need for the class, we'll start right right with the techniques that I consider intermediate. It's not that these techniques are complicated or beginners don't know about them or don't use them, it's more about when and how you can use them to level up your paintings. It was when I started using these techniques in a similar manner that I saw a significant improvement in my work and I was happier with the finished pieces. It's true that this may be directly related to my style, and for some of you there might be different things that will help you grow, we're all different, but still, those are essential watercolor techniques and you can only benefit by practicing them and seeing the different ways you can apply them. I'm talking about dry lifting, wet lifting and glazing. We'll have a separate video where I'll demonstrate these techniques. I'll be using them throughout the class in many different situations, so if you can follow along, you'll get to practice them a lot. Then we'll jump right in by painting the background. I will show you my favorite technique for wetting the paper that will help us keep it wet for a longer, which means more time for working wet-on-wet. I will show you how I paint some backgrounds, a very valuable skill to have under your belt. Then we'll start to slowly build a bird layer by layer, starting from the lightest parts and finishing with the brightest details. Finally, I'll show you how I transform the finished piece from dull and flat to vivid and eye-catching. Your final project in this class will be either following along with me and painting your version of the king fisher or finding an old painting of yours that you think can use a little revamping and use techniques you have learned in the class to try and give it an upgrade. Once you complete your project, don't forget to upload it in the project section of the class. Go and have a look at your classmates' projects too. Giving them a little like or leaving the a truthful comment may be the reason they smile today. Are you ready to get started? Let's have a look at the materials you'll need for this class. See you in the next video. 3. Materials: Let's go through the materials I'll be using in this class. As always, you don't need to use exactly the same materials. I'll use my favorite paper in this class, Saunders Waterford in high white. It's cold pressed 300 GSM and 100% cotton paper. The size is about A3 but I suggest you use the size you feel comfortable with. I highly recommend that you use cotton paper for this class since we're focusing on techniques and multiple layers. If you don't have cotton paper you can still try and follow along, just keep in mind that you'll get different results. I will use this plastic board. If you can find a board that is made from non-absorbent material, that will be perfect. You'll see why in the following lessons. [MUSIC] I will use my big ting palette filled with lots of colors but don't worry we won't be using that many colors in today's class. I have a separate video about the colors where I will give you some options, is the video right after this one. [MUSIC] These are the brushes that I will use in this class. All except the one on the left are synthetic brushes by Schimoni Art. First I will use this big one to water my paper. It is very soft and it can hold a lot of water, so it's quite convenient. You can use your biggest brush for that. Next for the larger areas I will use this soft quill size 5. It's synthetics quill. [MUSIC] This is the same brush but in a smaller size, it's synthetic quill size 1. I will use this flat brush for one of the techniques we'll be using in this class. If you don't have something similar you can use a brush that has stiffer bristles but still allows some amount of precision. It can also be round. These small round brush size 4, I will use for details. Finally, this rigger size 8 which you can substitute with a small round brush if you don't have a liner brush. I just love it because it has a very sharp tip and I can make some very fine lines with it. [MUSIC] Finally, these very soft brush from goat hair, I will use to blend the colors in the background. It's optional but the effect is really nice. I got this for a few dollars and it's shading as you can see, but I've had it for years and I use it a lot. You will need paper towels and a cotton or a linen towel. Two jars of water, one has to stay clean take leave for when we need clean water. A pencil and an eraser for the sketch, a pallet to mix the paints. You can use a plastic palette or dinner plate, and for the details some white gouache. In the next video we'll discuss the colors and color mixes and I will give you some options if you don't have some of the colors I'll be using. See you there. 4. Colors: [MUSIC] Hello again. In this video, I'll show you the colors I'll be using and some of the color mixes. I will also give you options for each color in case you don't have one. Let's start. For the background and for the highlights of the bird, I will use raw sienna. [MUSIC] If you don't have it, you can use yellow ocher, burnt sienna, or naples yellow. [MUSIC] Next is red ocher. If you don't have it, you can use Indian red or venetian red, or you can mix yellow ocher with a bit of red. If you don't have any of these options, you can use burnt sienna. [MUSIC] Next is sepia. [MUSIC] If you don't have it, you can use burnt umber mixed with some Payne's gray, black, or neutral tint, or you can even skip the burnt umber and use directly any of the other colors I mentioned. [MUSIC] For details, I will use Payne's gray. Mine is slightly bluish, so you may have an indigo that will give you similar results. If you don't have it, you can use black, neutral tint, or sepia. [MUSIC] Next is a very special color, may green. It's a very beautiful bright green. [MUSIC] It is made from phthalo green, yellowish, and Hansa yellow so you can try and mix it using different greens and yellows that you have available. [MUSIC] You can have a look at this lesson from my greener class if you need more help with mixing green colors. The next color is turquoise green. You can easily make this color with cobalt or ultramarine blue and phthalo green or viridian. When concentrated, it is very dark. [MUSIC] I will be mostly using it with this next color, which is royal blue. I will show you the mix in a bit. [MUSIC] You can get royal blue by adding some white gouache to your ultramarine. [MUSIC] Here I'll show you the mix. [MUSIC] You can actually have something similar ready to use and won't be bothered with mixing. In fact, if you look at my palette, you can see that I have similar colors, but they have too much white pigment, so the color is pretty opaque. It's why I decided to experiment using this mix instead, and I'm happy with the result. [MUSIC] The next color is Indian gold. It's one of my favorite colors. [MUSIC] If you don't have it, you can use quinacridone gold or azo yellow. Burnt sienna by AmiGO also has similar properties. Another option is to use a transparent orange if you have it. [MUSIC] Finally, this rose color by White Night, you can use magenta or even opera rose. You can even use orange, but it's important that it's transparent. [MUSIC] Actually, I'll use this rose color only in the mix with Indian yellow. Let me show you how it looks. Maybe you have something similar already. [MUSIC] Here it is an orange-red that is very bright but also transparent. [MUSIC] These are the colors that we'll use today. I know there are some very particular ones, but don't worry if you don't have them. Just use whatever you have available. Even if you don't get the desired result, you will learn something new. In the next video, we'll delve into the techniques that we'll be using in this class. 5. Techniques: In this video, I'll go over some of the techniques that I'll be using a lot in this class. Since this is an intermediate class, I won't be explaining the very basic techniques like wet on wet or wet on dry. But here are a few techniques that are essential and will help you bring your paintings to the next level. The first technique is dry lifting. We apply it whenever we want to erase dry paint. I'm taking my flat brush. It has a firm shape and bristles that are more stiff than soft, they quickly bounce back to the original shape of the brush. I'll use the color swatches to demonstrate. [MUSIC] I'm wetting my brush with clean water, I dab it on my paper towel and I start to move my brush across the paper surface. I blot immediately with the paper towel and here's the result. We can use this technique when we want to create a highlight or when we have painted over an area that was supposed to be light. This can look different with different colors. Some pigments are easily lifted and others are not. They're called staining because they have very fine particles and they quickly seep into the fibers of the paper, making it hard to leave the color. Although lifting is very easy on cellulose paper because there the paint sits on top but it also means it's hard to layer colors because you can disturb the previous layer with your brush. Keep in mind also that if you use the same brush for dry lifting, the constant scrubbing will damage it's shape more or less. [MUSIC] Apparently, this technique is used to retrieve backs on highlights but it can also be used to small hard edges. Let me show you. I'm rubbing my brush across this hard edge and now it is softer. Let me demonstrate again. This is a powerful technique because it allows us to create a soft edge even if we couldn't get it right while painting wet on wet, we will use it a lot in today's class so you'll get the opportunity to practice. This was dry lifting but also there is wet lifting. It is basically the same but it's performed while the paint is still wet. [MUSIC] The difference is that the edges that we get are software, this can be used to create softer highlights. It can also be used to create a softer texture, for example, when painting the king fisher, we can use a very fine brush to create very thin highlights that will help us emphasize the feathering of the bird. In this case, we'll leave a bit more water on the brush so that it pushes some of the pigment away. In this case, you don't necessarily need this default brush because the pigment hasn't settled yet and it's easier to lift it. Third technique that I will show you today is glazing. Glazing means that we add a thin layer of color on top of an already dried paint. This way we achieve that and we can slightly change the color but because the previous color is still seen through the thin paint, we create a luminous effect. I take some of that mix here and I will glaze it over this swatch over here. If I want to blaze it only over the upper part, I wash my brush and with some clean water, I soften the edge, blending it with the rest of the swatch. It's why I said that some of the colors that you'll need should be transparent. This way you'll get the most out of this technique, I'll repeat that again here. I covered the part that I have in mind. Then I wash my brush. I take out the excess water from it and I gently blend it with the rest. This is easier then with a softer brush and especially with a brush made from natural hair. [MUSIC] Now, the choice is yours. You can practice these techniques on a scrap piece of paper. Or if you have some mold masks, this is for paintings laying around. Or you can directly jump to the next video and start the final project with me. You'll get plenty of opportunities to practice all the techniques in the process. Whatever you decide, I will see you in the next video where we'll finally start painting. 6. Preparation: [MUSIC] Hello and welcome back. In this video, we'll prepare the paper. I have traced the bird because I don't want to lose time trying to get the proportions right. If you feel like drawing today, you are more than welcome to give it a try. You can find the reference in the resources section of the class. You can pause the video here and come back when you are ready with the sketch. Are you ready? Let's get started. I flip the paper and I will wet the backside of it first. If you're not familiar with this method of wetting the paper, don't worry, I'll explain it in detail. I generously wet the entire backside of my paper, I make sure it is evenly moist and there are no dry patches or corners. I leave it to dry for awhile to absorb some water and then I add some more. [MUSIC] Then I flip the paper and start wetting this side as well. Since the paper is wet, it sticks flat to the board and it will stay like this for a long time. This will allow us to work without taping it with paper tape. While the water seeps into the paper, I will prepare some of the colors. I take some main green and mix it with raw sienna. [MUSIC] Again, some main green and to this puddle I will add some red docker. Again, don't worry if you don't have some of the colors. You see that the difference is very small. I add more water to the paper. Now, I will cover it with my towel, and now we'll press it even more firmly to the board, getting rid of all remaining air rolls. Now this side of the paper is dry and we can start painting as we normally would. Quickly head over to the next video. 7. Background: Let's start painting the background. We want a smooth background. Of course we'll paint it wet and wet. [MUSIC] I wet the paper again, only this time I will leave the bird untouched. Since we wet the backside of the paper too, it has a lot of moisture inside and this will keep it with for longer so that we can work confidently on the background without rushing. If you have some water on your bird, you can blot it with a napkin. Now I will take my quill size 5, and I will go carefully around the bird, make sure that your brush has enough water on it. Otherwise, this part will dry more quickly than the rest of the background. [MUSIC] Make sure everything is evenly moist and have a nice even coat of water. [MUSIC] I soak up some of the drops that went to the bird. I wipe the water that has gathered on the bird as well. Otherwise, it will go back to the painting and may spoil your background. [MUSIC] To make sure the coat of water is even, you can tilt your board in different directions for awhile. [MUSIC] Let's start painting. I take some May green, red, ocher mix and I added here and there in a random spot. Now I repeat the same with the other mix. [MUSIC] Make sure to have more or less the same colors on both sides of the bird. Otherwise, it will look strange, especially here around the tail and here. I started to take my green directly from the pan and I add it to the background. [MUSIC] Now some pure red ocher. I start to overlap the different colors. Sorry about that. I needed to see it from up-close. This is raw sienna. [MUSIC] Now I go back and forth between different colors overlapping what I already have in trying to achieve interesting but also natural blend. [MUSIC] Now with some clean water, I will blend the colors her. Some splatters with May green. [MUSIC] I brought the droplets that got over the bird. [MUSIC] Some splatters with clean water now. Now we want to bring all these together in a solid background. So I will tilt my board. I soak [inaudible] liquid that gathers on the sides. You can see that the colors start to flow and you can help them with a clean brush. [MUSIC] Now, this looks a lot better. You can also blend the colors with a very soft brush like this one. It is dry and with very light pressure, I can move the pigment a bit. I'm going around the places where the colors aren't blended very smoothly. [MUSIC] Now I will add more splatters with clean water. If you want, you can lift some of the colors to create light round areas imitating the bokeh effect. Just drop some water, move it around with your brush, and then lift the color, wiping your brush and repeating the process as many times as needed. [MUSIC] I will make another one here. I add some water in a circling motion. I start to lift the color, wiping it on my paper towel. [MUSIC] One more here, you can add as many as you want. [MUSIC] Some more splatters with main green. [MUSIC] Some spots here. I will tilt it again. [MUSIC] A lot of liquid has gathered here, so I wipe it. Some splatters with clean water again and now I'll leave it like that. We put a lot of liquid and remember that we wet the backside too. So this will need a lot of time to dry. I suggest that you leave it to dry like that. Don't use a hairdryer. Keep an eye on it for the first 30 minutes or so in case some weird things start to happen. Remember that while it's wet, you can still fix a lot of things. It has been about two hours since I left my painting to dry. You can see that the corners started to lift. The surface feels more or less dry so now's a good time to tape it to the board. Otherwise, it buckles while it's drying. Another option is to leave it a bit more like that and then place something heavy on top of it to keep it flattened like some books, for example. [MUSIC] We'll come back to it after it's completely dry. 8. First Wash: [MUSIC] In this video, we'll paint the first wash for the bird. This means that we're going to cover only the lightest parts of the bird. Let's get started. I take my quill Size 5 and I wet almost the entire bird. I don't go near the edges. I'll do that once I have some color on my brush. [MUSIC] I switch to the smaller brush and I take some raw sienna and lots of water on it, [MUSIC] and I start to place it wherever I see a similar light beige tone in my photo reference. Even if there's white on the photo reference, we don't leave the paper completely white. If you look carefully, you'll see that it's most likely not white, but more likely a very pale beige or gray. [MUSIC] Now I take red ocher and I'll start to add it to the bird. [MUSIC] It's very hot today, so my paper started to dry very quickly. I will try to make the most of it, but I'll probably need to come back again after it's completely dry. [MUSIC] I add more color on the left side of the bird. This is where I see it is the darkest and a little bit next to the wing. [MUSIC] I paint with short and quick brushstrokes and I try to follow the direction of the feathering. [MUSIC] Now here on its chest I see small dark feathers, so I'll try to emphasize them with even shorter brushstrokes. [MUSIC] I take some raw sienna and I will place it here. [MUSIC] Back to the red ocher now. [MUSIC] I add more and more dark spots. [MUSIC] I realize now that I need darker color to show the contrast, so I take more red ocher, some rose and some sepia. [MUSIC] We'll call this the dark brown mix and with that I will emphasize this part here, the one that I think is the darkest of the bird's body. [MUSIC] Some feathers here and there and here next to the wing again. [MUSIC] Here in the upper chest where those darker spots are, don't worry if you don't get it right because we are going to have a second wash. I'm certain about it at this point. I just don't like how dull and textured this looks. [MUSIC] I add more dark tones here and I try to make it look natural, but my paper has dried and the color is not flowing the way I want it to. These leaves dark color sitting like an outline there and I will definitely need to fix it with the second wash. [MUSIC] I add some short strokes to show some feathers. This is an important steps because otherwise the bird will look cut out. [MUSIC] Now with my liner, I will add those small and very thin lines with just a little bit of clean water on the brush. It is almost dry. [MUSIC] With my napkin, I can lift some of the color [MUSIC] and with my fluffy brush, I can smooth some of the harsh lines. [MUSIC] I continue adding those final lines, though at this point it's almost pointless. I'm definitely going to have a second wash, but I can't help myself trying to salvage this one. [MUSIC] Now with the round brush, I'm trying to fix this hard line here by moving the pigment a bit. [MUSIC] I blot it with my napkin and it somewhat works, but as I said I better leave it to dry and come back after that with a fresh eye and see what I can do with the second wash. [MUSIC] 9. Second Wash: [MUSIC] My bird is now completely dry, and I'll try to fix it because I don't like how flat it looks, the texture is too harsh and that dark spot on the left seems like it's outlining the bird. Let's see what we can do. I would enter area again. This alone will reactivate the paint underneath. It will start to flow a bit and it will fix some of that harsh texture. Before I start adding new colors, I will try to leave some of the previous layer and create some highlight. I'm using my flat brush for that. I tried to bold this dark color to the right, so that it's not like an outline anymore. I'm being mindful of the edges of this wet spot because they can dry with the hard edge, so I'll keep an eye on that too. [MUSIC] Now I think I can start adding some new colors. I didn't like how flat it looked with raw sienna and red ocher, so this time I will add some Indian gold. I love how luminous this color is and I think it will make the bird look more alive. I take some with my quill size 5 and now we'll start to add it here and there. I now wash my brush and I will spread it, leaving a very thin layer on the places where the highlights are. [MUSIC] If it's too much, I can lift it. Remember that we don't want an even coat of paint, we want to show some highlights and shadows, so that the bird looks real and three-dimensional. More dark color here. I use the same mix from the first wash, and of course, here. I added from the edge towards the middle so that it shows the curve of the bird's chest. Here I add smaller spots in a kind of semicircle again to show the roundness here. I list some of the colors here. More dark color here. I follow the same principle. [MUSIC] I need more sepia. I try to create a very smooth and natural transition from the outline to the middle. Now it's time for some highlights again. I will leave some of the colors here imitating lighter feathers. Finally, the trick with the final lines again to add some extra fluffiness. Sometimes they work out well and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they're visible and sometimes they're more subtle. I think this is more than enough. Let's leave it to dry and we can come back after that for some fine lifting work. 10. Fixing the Hard Edge: In this video, we'll fix the hair digits that we got, and we will make some fine lifting to polish whatever we've done so far. I take my flat brush, and I'll start scrubbing around these hard edge here. The color is easily lifted. I wipe my brush each time I pick up some color. Here I added too much color, so I'll try to retrieve some highlights. Here I have some smudges, I will fix them. Now, here I will try to break that continuous line of the bird's tummy and chest by lifting very fine lines. This way, I'll create the illusion of separate feathers. I'll fix the hard edge here. Some highlights in darkest part. I think this is enough. In the next video, we'll add some bright blue to this pretty bird. 11. Painting the Bird's Head: [MUSIC] Let's paint the bird's head. I want this area here near the beak. I add more red ocher to it. Same with this lighter part here, it needs more color. I soften the edge with the damp brush. Same thing here. I make some shadows with light sepia and red ocher mix. Add some pure red ocher here below. I'm increasing the shadow beneath the beak. It's looking so much better now, don't you think? I want the areas that I'll be painting blue. I prepare my mix of darkest green and royal blue. It's a saturated mix. [MUSIC] I will start adding that color. Now, I wash my brush and I will dilute the color here on the top of the head. I'm going around the eye and this lighter area here. Adding some spots. In here, I will add some concentrated turquoise. If you use a red color you can drop some Payne's gray or indigo to make it darker. Some spots here. More shadow around the eye. I'm watching the photo reference and I'm trying to repeat the pattern of these spots. Now, I will add some roughness to the outline same as we did with the chest and tummy, but this time the lines are even shorter, almost like a jagged edge. I will smooth this edge here with the damp brush. This one too. Be careful not to drag too much blue into the lightest parts, a little bit is okay. It has some blue over here too, so I add that. Here there is a shadow, I just take whatever is left on my palette here for that. Here I got too much blue, so I wipe it. Some shadow below the eye. Let's paint this spot here too. I take some pure turquoise green for the spots again. Some very fine lines. Let's move this edge, [MUSIC] and this one too. I switch to my flat brush because it lifts better. We're done. In the next video, we'll paint the wings and the tail. 12. Painting the Wings and the Tail: [MUSIC] It's starting to look more like a bird lunch think. I'm thinking the same mix I used to paint the head. I added to the wing. Here, I take just pure royal blue. It's a very subtle difference. There is a dark spot, so I painted with turquoise green. Some spots here too and near the tip of the wing. I'll soften this edge. I try to make this part here look natural. Mark dark color here. Some more short strokes imitating feathers. I'll switch to my flat brush now. It will be easier to soften the edge with it. Here I want to smudge some of that paint and glaze it over the bird's neck. This edge I will soften too. Another highlight here. We're getting close to the tail. I add some of the blue mix. I will soften it with a clean brush. Some dark spots with turquoise green. Smudging them with a dambrush. Softening the outside edge too with the flat brush. Sometimes you have to go over it multiple times to get the desired result. I add some royal blue to it. Finally the tail. I take some sepia. I add red ocher to it and lots of water. I will fill in the entire shape on the left. With some concentrated sepia, I add some shadows. This way I create the impression of separate feathers. On the other side, first some diluted sepia red ocher mix. Softening the edge and some shadows. I will soften this edge too so it doesn't look like a cut out. We're done. I love how it's coming together. In the next video, we'll paint the eye and the beak. 13. Painting the Eyes and the Beak: [MUSIC] Welcome back, my friends. Our bird is almost ready. Let's give it some facial features. In this video, we'll paint the eye and the beak. I'll use my round Size 4 for that and I'll reactivate the diluted sepia that I have over here. [MUSIC] I paint a little half-moon shape here on the left side of the eye. [MUSIC] I'm taking some Payne's gray and I will fill the rest, leaving the highlight untouched. [MUSIC] l'll add some very thick Payne's gray here [MUSIC] and around the whole eye. [MUSIC] I'm washing my brush and now I will blur the edge. [MUSIC] I will clean these whiter part a bit. [MUSIC] Here it needs more darkness. [MUSIC] Here this part is not so round. It's barely visible, but I'm covering just a bit of the highlight as if the bird is frowning a bit. I'm lifting some of the Payne's gray here and I'm adding more below. [MUSIC] I go back and forth between lifting color and adding some more until I feel I got it right. [MUSIC] I think it looks good now. Let's move on to the beak. First, I will soften this edge here. [MUSIC] I will cover the bottom part of it with the same diluted sepia. [MUSIC] I'm taking some Payne's gray and now we'll add some shadows. [MUSIC] I'm washing my brush and I will blend the two colors. Here, I will try to create a highlight. [MUSIC] More shadows here. [MUSIC] Smoothing this edge over here. [MUSIC] We're almost ready. Same process for the upper part. First some light sepia, [MUSIC] and then some shadows with Payne's gray. [MUSIC] I'm washing my brush and I will blend everything. [MUSIC] Now, I will try to lift some of the color to create highlights. [MUSIC] I think it looks pretty good. In the next video, we'll paint the bird's feet and the piece of wood it is standing on. [MUSIC] 14. Painting the Feet: [MUSIC] Let's finish the bird. Actually, before painting the feet, I want to add some highlights to the blue parts of the bird. I'm taking concentrated royal blue on my round Size 4. I'm wiping the excess on my napkin, and now I'll just add some small spots for highlights. The royal blue is opaque color, so it will be visible on top of the blue layer. Make sure to paint very small spots. Don't overdo it. [MUSIC] Some here on the wings as well. Here I want to add more dark elements so I take concentrated turquoise green. [MUSIC] That's the bird's feathers. That's enough. Now I'll paint a piece of wood the kingfisher is standing on. I mix whatever I have here on my palette with some rose here. [MUSIC] I will cover the entire shape with this color. I have to remove the masking tape now. [MUSIC] Now I will add some dark brown mix for the shadows. Just some random spots. [MUSIC] Some dry brush texture, [MUSIC] and lines. [MUSIC] Some very dark spots with sepia. [MUSIC] This should be enough. I don't want to spend too much time on it. [MUSIC] Now, let's move to the hardest part for me, the bird's feet. I start with some raw sienna. [MUSIC] I'm washing my brush and I lift some of the colors. I need to lift even more so I switch to my flat brush. [MUSIC] A shadow here, here too, some lines like that. Here, I'll add some of the dark brown mix. Add as much of this here. I will leave some more paint here [MUSIC] and I'll define the gouache with some sepia. [MUSIC] Our bird is ready. Can you believe it? Let's add some highlights with gouache. 15. Details with White Gouache: It's time to add some details with whitewash. [MUSIC] I take some from my jar with my round Size 4. I'm not adding water to it and I will add some tiny dots and spots on the blue sections. [MUSIC] Here on the feet as well, very lightly. [MUSIC] We'll smudge it a bit with the damp brush. [MUSIC] Lastly, for the eye. [MUSIC] I add another bleak here. [MUSIC] Here I will smudge it a bit. If it travels too far, I can always go back with some Payne's gray and redefine it. [MUSIC] This looks nice. I will remove the paper tape and our painting is complete. I think it looks pretty good. But if you're curious about how we can make it great, head over to the next video. See you there. 16. From Good to Great!: [MUSIC] Why I'm saying that it's good and not great? Well, looking at this painting, I feel like the background is too soft and pale compared to the bird so the bird sits in a vacuum. Another thing that I would love to improve is the color of the bird's belly, which we already improved ones by adding some Indian gold, but I think I can make it even better. I suggest that you first watch this video and later decide if you want to repeat the same process for your painting. Something I like to do and I'm not sure is first taking a lot of picture of my paintings so that even if I mess it up, I still have documented how gold it was. I'll start with the bird first and then I'll move to the background. I'm taking some Indian yellow first and they're out of my palette now exactly because I use them for my flat lay photos, which I snapped in case I ruined the painting now. I'm taking Indian yellow and I'm adding some rows to it. [MUSIC] I will add this to the bird's belly and chest. I add some spots on dry. I glance at the photo reference in order to decide where to put those spots. Now, I wash my brush and I will blend those colors with the previous layer, so we're doing some glazing. You can already see how interesting and eye-catching this start to look. The combination of those two colors is really gorgeous and rich, but also transparent, which makes it perfect for glazing. As we said, transparent orange could also do the work. I just don't have it right now. [MUSIC] I left some of this color here to create a highlight. I'll add more here. With an almost dry brush I blend it with the right in the direction of the feathering. [MUSIC] Here I need to add some shadows so I'll meet the turquoise green to my luminous mix. Some shadows here. My favorite trick with the liner brush. I really like how it turned out. Now, for the background. As I said, it looks too pale and light compared to our beautiful and bright bird so I want to upgrade it. I will wait most of it, I won't touch the bird and because this brush is very soft, I can do that without disturbing the color underneath. Now, I'll add to it some saturated colors starting with the turquoise. Then some Indian yellow. I overlapped it to some this corner. Some splatters. Now, I will use the spray bottle to help me make this blend naturally with the rest. I spray the whole thing. Now, thinking it was a good idea to wait the backside of the paper too so that I can stick it to the board, but it's too late for that so I tilt the paper itself. It's amazing process, so be careful not to mess up your painting. I wipe the board and I continue. [MUSIC] I'll spray some more water. I'll add more colors. Some more clean water so the colors can flow. Here I'll suck this up with a clean napkin. Here I have a hard edge so I'll try to fix it. You can fix almost everything with the spray bottle. I'll make sure some puddles of water are taken care of because they're pretty close to my bird. Here I have a lot of liquid, I will let it flow. [MUSIC] I'm wiping my board. If you have a watermark like this one, you can fix it with soft brush. This hard edge doesn't want to go so I'll add more dark color to conceal it. This corner here I purposely left lighter so it looks less predictable, but also it would have looked like to bird's frame like closed inside, oh my gosh, look at my hands. I'll leave it like that, I'm pretty happy with it. It needs to dry now and I'll show you the result in the next video and we'll wrap up the class. 17. Wrapping Up the Class!: [MUSIC] Congratulations on completing the class. I hope you had fun painting with me and you learned new things that you'll take with you on your journey. Keep exploring what works best for you and be bold. You'll definitely see the results coming soon. Don't forget to put your project in the project section of the class. Let me know how this went for you and if you would like more intermediate classes from me. Leave me a review for the class, helps me a lot and makes the class more visible to other students. If you have a question for me, just post it in the discussion section on the class and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Give me a follow up here if you haven't already and you will be notified when I release new classes. If you post your project on Instagram, don't forget to tag me so that I won't miss your work. You can now also find me on YouTube. I started my account there recently, and I'm slowly recording more real-time tutorials and process videos from which you can learn. Thank you for joining me and for painting along with me. See you in the next class. [MUSIC]