Transcripts
1. Welcome: I'm someone who allowed to work with bold and vibrant colors. But very recently I shifted my focus to black and white paintings, and instantly, I fell in love with them. It is wonderful to see how just two colors can create a striking statement to your painting. Hello everyone. My name is Zanina Napil (phonetic), I'm a mom, an artist and an art educator. I'm absolutely in love with the essence and simplicity of black and white paintings, and your painting will have an extra dimension when you combine those with the properties of gouache. If you're new to the medium gouache, it is a water-based medium, just like watercolor, but it is more opaque and when it dries, it has a matte finish. In this class, I'm going to teach you how to create a magical collection of black and white gouache paintings. We'll be doing five paintings, which is absolutely unique from each other. If you are a beginner and if you are just starting out with gouache, don't worry, I will be explaining about each and every material you will need in detail. We'll also have a look at some tips and techniques which will help you in this class and also in your future projects, and from there we will progress to our beautiful black and white gouache paintings. Painting with black and white is really a different experience. We'll tend to focus more on the composition, the light and shadow with a textual, the subject, and the terminal values. It really make us thing and imagine beyond the colors. I'm really excited to take you through this magical and meditative experience. Without wasting any more time, let's quickly get onto this experience.
2. Quick Overview of Gouache: Gouache is an opaque medium which is water-based and can be used just like water colors. Just like watercolor, you can rebuild gouache with water to make it thin and you can make it more transparent. If you use the thick creamy paint and its own consistency without adding water, which is squizzed directly out of the tube, you will get an opaque finish. If you water it down to a low consistency, your paint will be more thin and it will be transparent. So it will look more like watercolors. Depending on the amount of water you add to your paint, your painting can have an opaque look or a transparent look. Now, Gouache is opaque and when it dries it has a matte finish. There's few more properties that makes Gouache more interesting. Gouache colors can be blended just like acrylics. Because of its thick and opaque consistency, you can add light colors on top of dark colors, which cannot be done using watercolor. Now, this one here is my White Nights Gouache set. Which comes as jar. There are different varieties of Gouache paint available in the market. This one comes in jar. Now, this one is my Arteza Gouache set, which has 24 colors in it. This comes in tube. Comparing to watercolor, Gouache is cheaper. Unlike watercolor, even using your student grade Gouache set, you will be able to achieve wonderful results. So if you're just starting out with Gouache, you don't need to buy an expensive artist grade Gouache set. You can get your hands on a student grades set first. Explore and understand the medium, and gradually invest in a good-quality Gouache set. The next kind of Gouache that I have here is my Himi Gouache set. This one has a jelly Gouache. It comes as jelly cups. I'm yet to try this. In this set the paint comes in small plastic cups, just like a jelly cup. This one when you remove that plastic cap on the top, you will have to leave it open. Whenever you are using it, you will have to spray water on it to activate the paint. There are different varieties of Gouache paint available in the market. You don't really need to invest on an expensive set. Now, another interesting fact is that Gouache can be used on any kind of surface. It can be used on paper, wood, or ceramic. Unlike watercolor, you don't really need an extensive artist grade paper for Gouache. Any paper would really work for your Gouache paintings. As you'll be going with multiple layers, the thicker the paper the better. Gouache works better on a paper which doesn't have much texture so that it is easy to blend the colors and get a smooth and clean finish. This means you can literally use any kind of paper for your Gouache projects. Even a cardboard piece would work for your Gouache painting. It is the same thing with brushes. You don't need artist grade brushes for your Gouache project. Any cheaper brush would work. With all these, we can easily say Gouache is such a forgiving medium. It is the same reason why Gouache is not one of the most favorite medium of artists.
3. The Collection: I cannot tell you how excited I am about this black and white gouache cities. These are like my babies. It's really hard to pick one favorite from these. All these five different paintings has got a different character. They're absolutely unique from each other. That is a beauty of this collection. This is the first one we'll be doing in today's class. We will start with a gradient gouache and we'll add the moon and those plants on either side. Here's the second one. Again, will go with the gradient gouache of black and white. We'll add those strings of light and the moon. This one looks really magical. This is the next one. This has got a totally different character from the other two. Then on to my signature beat cities. This is the first beach painting we'll be doing. We have got one more. This is the last one. That's the collection. Now we need quite a lot of black and white for this painting. So if you are running out of black, you can choose any other color of your choice. I wouldn't recommend to go with a very elaborate color palette. Maybe for one painting, you can go with indigo and white. For the other one, you can use purple and white or Persian blue or any other darker color which goes well with white. All of these paintings are very easy to do. You just need to carefully follow the steps. So without anymore due, let's have a look at the materials. Let's quickly start with our first painting.
4. Tips & Tricks: Before we begin with our class projects, let's have a quick look at some tips and techniques which is going to help you as you progress. Try and use gouache paint which is freshly squeezed out of the tube. Gouache is water-based and it reactivates when you add water to it, but the consistency of a freshly squeezed paint and a paint which is reactivate by adding water is very much different. You can never bring back that creamy consistency in a reactivated paint. Make it a habit not to squeeze a lot of paint onto your palette. You can always squeeze out more if you are in need. Now, if again there are some leftover paint on your palette before you start painting, spray some water on it and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes. Let the paint absorb the water. You won't get that creamy consistency back, but then this will help in reactivating the paint. Whenever you feel like your paint is too dry and if you are not able to blend the colors properly, never be afraid to add a drop of water to it. You shouldn't be dipping your entire brush in water. Just a gentle touch of water is all you need. That tiny drop of water is going to make your blending process a lot easier. Here for the first patch, I went in with the paint directly squeezed out of the tube, and for the second one, I added a drop of water. You can clearly see the difference here. One of the main reason why artists love gouache is that you can apply multiple layers on top of the base layer. This is one of the most interesting property of gouache, but when you're applying multiple layers, you will have to wait for the background layer to dry completely before you go into the next layer. I have added a black line here. Now, if I want to add some details on to this, if I went in as soon as I laid the paint, I won't be able to get crisp lines. I added some white lines onto that black background and you can clearly see the lines are looking very faded and blurry. This is because our base layer is still wet and when we are adding the second layer, we are disturbing the base layer. The lines we added now, they are not at all looking opaque and crisp. Now, we wait for this to dry and we repeat the same exercise, and we'll see the difference. Now, that black line has dried, now I'm applying some lines just like I did before. You can see the lines are looking a lot crisp and opaque now. This is just because the background has completely dried and you're applying paint onto that dry background. No matter how gently I apply those details, if the background layer is wet, you won't get that crisp and clear lines. You will have to wait for your background layer to dry completely before you add your details. To get those opaque details, there is one more thing you need to be careful about. You shouldn't be adding a lot of water into your paint. You should be going with a thick paint in order to get those opaque looking details. Depending on the kind of detail you are looking for, be careful about the amount of water you're adding into your paint. Gouache is an opaque medium and to get a lighter tone instead of water, we'll be using white. More than any color, you will need quite a lot of white and the first color you will be finishing in your gouache set will be white. Most of the gouache set has two white tubes, but that will be never enough. Get a big tube of white gouache as big as possible. This is my White Nights Gouache set and it has two white jars. This is my 60ml tube of white gouache which I got separately. If you're someone who's looking forward to use Gouache consistently, you will have to get a big tube of white. There's an interesting thing about gouache. The darker color, they tend to fade a bit. This is mainly because of the matt look of gouache paints. Here, I have applied black and white onto my paper. I went into the creating [inaudible] and you can see over the top and bottom, the black is looking so dark and opaque. Now, let's have a look at the same background when everything has dried. You can see it clearly here. Everything's looking a little faded. It is not as dark as earlier. Here's a comparison of the background when it was wet and when it has dried. Always, try out your colors on a scrap piece of paper before you go with your main painting. Especially when you're doing a commission or a huge painting, it will be a great idea to check your colors and understand the properties of it. The main technique we'll be using in all the five paintings we'll be doing in today's class is the blending technique. We'll be using black and white. Let's try out a gradient gouache and let's see how we can make a smooth gradient. I'm starting with black, adding a horizontal line. I'm adding two, three lines of black on the top then I will switch to white. When you're doing a gradient gouache, you can either start from top to bottom or you can go the other way. You can go from bottom to top, but you shouldn't be starting from somewhere in the middle. You should either follow from top to bottom or bottom to top. I have added black. Now, I'm switching to white. My paint is dry, I haven't added any water. I'm going with the freshly squeezed paint. I'm adding the white next to black and I'm trying to blend them. I will let some more white over the bottom. All the paintings we'll be doing in today's class start with the gradient gouache of black and white. The base layer is a gradient gouache. The blending technique is quite important for this class. This is the only technique you will need to know. It is great to have a smooth and clean gradient gouache in the background. This will automatically elevate your painting. I have added black and white. You can clearly see everything is looking so dry. I'm going to wash all the paints from my brush. Clean your brush properly. Now, dab your brush on a paper towel. Make it clean. Once you have cleaned your brush, gently deep your brush in water. Go with clean water. As this is just an exercise, I haven't changed my water. I dipped my brush in water. Just the tip of the brush has touched water. I haven't dipped my entire brush. Now, I'm just running that damp brush on top of this layer. You can see I'm taking my brush from left to right, in a horizontal manner. This is the only way I'm taking my brush. I'm not taking my brush in a crisscross manner or I'm not adding any vertical lines. I'm just taking my brush in horizontal ways. With that first round itself, our gradient gouache is looking so much clean. I'm adding a little more white over the bottom. Again, I'm taking my brush from left to right in a horizontal manner and making the gradient more and more clean. If you're starting from the top, make sure you run your brush till you reach the bottom and if you're starting from the bottom, you should be taking your brush under the top line. If you stopped this in between, there will be a strong separation of colors. Your gradient wouldn't look smooth and clean. Now, I'm running my brush one more time. You can see my gradient is looking so much smooth and better now. This is the technique. Once you have applied your paint, run a slightly wet brush on top of the layer. You should be taking your brush only in a horizontal way. You shouldn't be adding any other kind of lines between. The major thing you need to keep in mind is that you shouldn't be dipping your entire brush in water. You don't need a lot of water. The tip of the brush should just touch the water. If your brush is too watery, the paint will lose its opacity and it will start to look more like watercolor. Be sure not to add a lot of water on your brush. The stroke is going to help you a lot as to progress into our class projects. I think we discussed all basic things and we're good to go. In the next section, I will introduce you to the materials you will need to follow this class. From there, we will quickly progress to our class critics.
5. Materials you'll need: Let's have a quick look at the materials you'll need and start with the paper. Unlike watercolor for gouache, you don't really require an expensive or discreet paper. You can even use your student grade paper. For today's class, I'm using my Canson paper, which is 25 percent cotton, this one is 140lb. This one is actually a watercolor paper, but I don't really like you to use for my watercolor paintings as it is not 100 percent cotton. But for gouache, you don't need 100 percent cotton watercolor paper. Any paper would actually work for gouache. When you're choosing people for your gouache paintings, there are two things you need to keep in mind. The first one is that your paper should be little thick, it should be minimum 140lb so that it can take multiple layers of paint. We'll be going over and over with multiple layers. It is great to go with a thicker paper, so that it can withstand all the different layers we'll be applying. Now, coming on to the second thing, choose a paper which has minimum texture on it. If you're going with a heavily textured paper, it will be very difficult to blend the colors. A hot press paper, which is a 140lb minimum, would be ideal for your gouache paintings. Grab any paper. We just take, unless textured. Talking with size of the painting, my paper pad is 18 centimeter by 25 centimeter. I have just cut those into two, and that's the size I will be using for my paintings. You can see it is exactly half of this sheet. You can go with any size you prefer, it can be bigger or smaller than this. Choose a size which you prefer, minus 12.5 centimeter by 18 centimeter. They'll be doing five paintings in the same size. That's all about the paper you will need for this class. You can see this paper is not that textured, and that is why I have got a clean gradient washer. Just keep in mind about the texture and the thickness. Now coming on to the paint, it is very obvious that you will only need two colors, which is black and white. I always does black and white paintings and that's the reason why I have two huge tubes of black and white here. These are 16 more tubes and they're from the brand Royal Talens. As we'll only need black and white, it doesn't really matter which brand you're going with. Even if you're having a student grade gouache paint, that also works perfect for this class. Now, if you don't have gouache, you can also use poster colors instead of gouache for this class, or you can use your acrylic paints. You can follow the techniques I will be teaching in the upcoming sections, and use either poster color or acrylic paint if you don't have gouache. Now there are chances that you don't have such a big tube of black with you. In that case, you can switch to any other color. Maybe for this painting here the snowy mountain one, you can use blue instead of black and you can turn that into a blue and white painting instead of black and white. Feel free to tweak the colors according to the colors which are available with you. Now to mix the colors, you will need a mixing palette. I will be using the ceramic palette, which is actually a serving dish. If you have watched my other classes, you might be familiar with this palette. As you're working with just two colors, any palette would really work. I also love to use a white ceramic plate as my palette. There's quite a lot of space to mix your colors on a plate and it is very easy to clean as well. If it's a wide dinner plate, brilliant, because you can see the color that you are mixing and creating. Now don't put pressure on you if you don't have a ceramic palette, you can also use your plastic palette. That's absolutely fine. Now let's have a look at the brushes you will need. These are the four brushes I will be using in today's class, that are two flat brushes and two round brushes. The first one is a three by four inch wash brush, I will be using this brush to apply that gradient washes, especially for the sky. The second one is a size 8 flat shader brush, and then I have a size number 4 round brush, then a detailing brush. These are the four brushes I will be using. You can use any of your bigger sized flat brush, and a medium to smaller size torn brush. Those are the main art applies. Then finally, you will need a jar of water. Then you will need a masking tape to tape down your paper onto your board, and a piece of paper towel or a cotton flat. Those are the materials you will need to follow this class. Grab whatever you have got which is kind of similar and join me in the next section.
6. Project 1: Let's start with the first one. I have my paper ready here, it's fixed on to my table. I have my palette and a jar of water. Now I'm going to squeeze out some more black onto my palette. It was some leftover from my previous painting. I need to get some white, so that some white and the colors are ready. Now let's start painting. For this painting, we'll be adding a moon in the middle, so that area need to be a little lighter. On the top and the bottom will go with black. It's a gradient wash of black and white, which is dark at the top and bottom and light over the middle. Now as I mentioned in the art supplies section, if you want to go with a different color for your sky, you can do that. Maybe you can use a blue or violet or purple, it's totally your choice. As we're doing five different paintings using black and white in today's class you will need quite a lot of black, so if you don't have that much of black with you feel free to go with any other color. Now, I'm going to take a little black on my brush. This is my three by four inch flat brush, and I'm going to apply that on the top. You can see my paint is a little dry, so I'm going to dip my brush in a little of water, so that my paint will be little loose and it would be easy for me to blend the colors. I just dipped my brush in water, now adding black again. You can see the color I'm going with except very bold and opaque black. Now as I come down when I'm over to the middle, I will be adding white, adding that, blending those colors together. Now I will add more white and make it even more lighter when I'm over to the middle, there, I will be adding the moon. To create the perfect gradient all you need to do was take your brush in a back and forth movement in a horizontal manner. You need to keep repeating this until you finish that whole area. If you stop this somewhere in between you will see a line, the gradient won't be perfect. If you are starting from the top, you need to keep on repeating this back and forth movement until you reach the bottom. Onto the area left over the bottom, we'll be adding black. Now you can see a strong separation line or wall here. I'm going to blend that well to get a clean gradient, now over to the bottom, adding black, again, blending that gray and black together. The first step is to create a gradient wash where you have black on the top and bottom and over to the middle, you have a lighter gray. If you keep turning your brush in the same direction, it is very easy to create a gradient wash. You shouldn't be changing the direction, you can see here I'm simply taking my brush in a back and forth movement in a horizontal manner. Keep running your brush in a horizontal way and create a gradient wash of black and white. We'll be doing five different class projects and for all of them will be starting with a gradient wash of black and white as the base layer. I think by the time we finished the class I predicts, you guys will be through in creating perfect gradient washes. Now onto the middle I wanted to do more lighter tone as we'll be adding a moon over here. I'm adding some more white over here and then I'm going to blend that into the background. The rest of the area can remain as it is, we just need a lighter tone over here. I just grabbed a paper towel and I'm dabbing off that darker tone from my brush. Again, I'm taking my brush onto either side gently and blending that color. For this painting instead of black, you could also use blue or purple for your sky. Then for the moon and the rest of the details, we can follow the same techniques. Just for the sky, you can try out a different color. I'm just giving you some ideas if incase you don't have enough of black. Now to make my gradient smooth, I'm dipping my brush in a little of water and I'm running my brush in horizontal lines from top to bottom to even out that gradient wash, make sure you're not entirely dipping your brush in water. Just that tip of the brush need to touch the water. It should be like a gentle feather touch, your dip should be that light. Don't add a lot of water onto your sky. Now let's wait for the background to dry and the background has dried completely, you can see over the top and the bottom we have a darker tone, and over to the middle we have a lighter tone, this is where we will be adding the moon. You can see here the colors have faded a bit. It is not as bright as when it was wet, so this is what I mentioned in the dip centric section. When the darker shades dries, it will look a little lighter than the initial color when it was wet. I took white wash on my palate now I'm going to add a moon, and for that I'm switching to a round brush, loaded brush with whitewash. It should be an opaque washing. Don't add a lot of water to your paint. Now, add a clean white circle onto your sky. If you're not so confident in adding a circle with your brush, you can add a guideline, maybe you can use a stencil and draw a circle first and fill up that circle in white color. Let me quickly add this white circle. I have added a nice clean circle there. I will wait for this layer to dry and once it dries I will add another coat of white on the top to make it even more brighter. Okay, so the moon looks a lot bold and opaque than before. Now, let's add the rest of the details onto the moon and make it look more realistic. For that, I'm going with gray. I'm mixing a little of white and black to get a gray and using that gray tone, I'm going to simply add some patches onto the white circle we have added here. This is a very light tone of gray, it's not a dark one. You can see the kind of color I'm going with. You simply need to add some rough shapes onto your moon without filling up the entire background white color. You don't need to follow any specific shape, just some rough shapes and patches, and we'll be smudging that into the background. You can see the shapes here. You can clearly see I'm adding some random shapes using a very light tone of gray. The white color in the background is still wet, it hasn't dried completely, that is why I am able to smudge the color into the background. Okay, so that is a first layer of details. Now, I'm going with a taco tone of gray and I'm again going to add some random shapes. If the background white has dried, you can apply another coat on the top and then add your details because we will need to smudge the colors into the background, we don't want any strong and prominent patches, they should look a little blurry and faded. If they are too bold and prominent, you won't get that realistic filter on your moon. So before your background dries, apply those gray patches and smudge that into the background. It is quite easy to smudge the color if your background is wet, you simply need to run your brush on top of those patches you have added, this will automatically make it look blurry. Again, this doesn't need to be perfectly blended into the background. You can see my patterns are still looking little drab, but then because it is a light color, it is okay, it is not looking too prominent. Okay? So adding your pattern using a light tone of gray. Then on top of that in between, you can go with some taco tones as well to give it more depth and detail, and that's our moon. My circle looks a little off, my moon doesn't have a perfect circle shape, so I'm going to switch back to white and I'm going to clean the shape over the right side. I took clean whitewash on my brush and I'm cleaning the shape over here. Maybe you might have used a different color for your sky, maybe you have cobalt blue or purple, but the technique you should be using for your moon should be the same, you can start with a white circle, then cover the gray, then adding these patches and smudge that into the background [NOISE]. We have our sky and the moon ready. Now, I'm switching to black and I'm going to add some plants using black. If you prefer adding pine [NOISE] trees or some other details onto your background, you can do that. You don't really need to be following the same detail as I'm doing here. I'm starting with few branches. The brush I'm using a size number 4 round brush, go with any brush which is medium to smaller size. That's my first branch, now I'm going to press my brush and create some leaves. Simply pressing my brush on paper and creating these kind of shapes, which looks like leaf once we've finished that entire area. Now, at this point, it may not be looking like leaves or plants. To make it look like plants and leaves, you need to add quite a lot of these kind of patterns, you need to fill up that entire area in a similar way. This is how it is going to look once you finish adding those patterns. So go ahead and add in plenty of leaves. Don't be scared, however you add them, it is going to look okay because we're not following any particular shape, we're not going with the perfectly detailed leaf. We're simply pressing our brush onto paper and creating these kind of leafy shapes. This is how it is going to look when you add a lot of such leafy pattern too close to each other or to the right side, I'm going to apply a solid black color and from there I'm going to add some branches which are shooting into the sky. So I'm filling the bottom part and a solid black color, then I will add more branches and leaves. Once I finished this bottom area, I will be adding a little onto the top as well, maybe one or two branches, right about the ones we added earlier and maybe I will add some onto the left side as well. If you want to go with a different composition for your painting, maybe if you want to add some leaves just on the bottom, you can do that or maybe you can can add some branches which are hanging down from the top area, and some of the branches can come all the way down. So try and go with any composition that you prefer. You don't really need to stick to what I'm doing here. [MUSIC]. Now, I'm going to add another branch on the top. Adding those leafy patterns by pressing my brush onto the paper. You can see it's a very rough and random shape. I'm adding them close to each other and I'm creating a cluster of them which will gradually look like leaves and plant. So keep on pressing your brush against the paper and create these patterns. Once you add them close to each other, it will automatically look like plants, don't worry a lot about creating a perfect shape. You need to keep on adding patterns close to each other. That's all you need to do. We are done with our right side. Now in a similar way, I'm going to add some plant onto the left side as well. I'm starting with the branch. I'm not going to add this much on the left side, maybe add a little over the middle. I'm not taking it way too up and wait too down. Just few over the middle. So that the composition will look more interesting. I'm not going with the symmetrical arrangement. I will just add some over the middle. Maybe you can totally skip adding them on to the left side and just keep them on the right side or maybe you can add some hanging branches from the top. It's totally your choice what kind of composition you want to. Add them however you want to. If you want to go with some pine trees or if you want to go with some palm trees, that's all to your choice. You don't really need to follow what I'm doing here. You can also add a tree with no leaves just the silhouette of a tree. Or maybe you can just add some birds flying in the sky. You can choose any subject that you feel will look beautiful on your black and white background. I'm done adding the plants and all those leaves. Now I'm going to switch to my detailing brush and I'm going to add some teeny tiny branches onto these. We want the branches to be really thin and delicate. Go with any brush which has a pointed tip. This is the brush I'm going to use. I'm going to take black gouache on my brush. I'm going to add some teeny tiny branches and a very random manner. This step is optional, if you're not able to get those tiny branches you can skip this step. If your lines are too bold and thick it will go out of proportion and it won't look that beautiful. If you're not able to get these tiny branches, don't worry at all. You can skip this step. Once we are done with this, the only task remaining is to add some stars onto the sky. Let me quickly take my brush around and add in some teeny tiny branches. The right side is done. Now, I'm going to add some branches onto the left side as well. We're nearly done with this painting and I'm really happy with the way it has turned out. This painting was quite simple, there isn't much complicated details in it. Just by playing with black and white, we managed to capture a lot of depth and beauty in it. Now the last step is to add some styles. I'm using the same brush, the detailing brush which I used to add those branches. I'm going with white. I'm simply adding some teeny tiny dots onto the sky. I'm not going to splatter stars. I will simply add some tiny dots onto the sky. We don't want big stars, so go with some teeny tiny dots. Make them as tiny as possible and randomly add five or 10 or 15 of them. This is the last step and with this we'll be done with our first black and white gouache painting. I'm totally in love with this painting. I really love the mysterious feel we have got here. Because of a background as dark and bold, the styles we're adding now they are really standing out. This is adding a lot of beauty to our painting. I'm carefully adding them one by one because I want those stars to be as tiny as possible. I don't want big stars. In order to get such tiny stars, you should be using a detailing brush size number 0 or anything lower to that. A double zero brush or a triple zero brush. You can also use your white gel pen if that has a pointed tip. That's done. Now, I'm going to switch back to black and I'm going to add some black over here. I feel like there is a lot of gap in between. It's not fully packed. There is quite a lot of gap in between all those patterns I applied. I'm just filling those gaps, okay that's it. Now, it's time to remove the masking tape and enjoy our painting. Make sure your painting has completely dried before you remove your masking tape and remove it at an angle to get a clean border. If your painting hasn't dried completely, the paint can come off with your masking tape. Here is the final painting, I'm really happy with the way this has turned out. I hope you guys enjoyed it too. If you haven't tried it yet, do give it a try. It's a very simple painting with just two colors, but has a lot of character.
7. Project 2 : Let's go with the next one. I have my paper ready here. First, I'm going to tape down my paper onto my table using a masking tape. Once you have taped down your paper, just run your fingers across all the four sides to make sure your paper is strongly fixed onto your board. I have fixed the paper. Now, I'm going to squeeze out black and white on to my palette. That's black, now I need a little of white. The colors are ready. Now, our first step is to apply a gradient wash of black and white, darker on the top, and as you come towards the bottom it should be lighter. Just a simple gradient wash. Now I'm switching to white, applying that next to black, blending those colors together. Now, as I come down, I will be taking more white because I need the bottom media to be a little more lighter, a lighter gray. I think I will need a little more white, add more white, maybe I will bring my water closer so that you can see whenever I'm dipping my brush in water. Adding more white over the bottom because I want this area to be lighter compared to the top. If you're using a flat brush, it is much easier to create a gradient wash than a round brush. If you have a flat brush, just like I mentioned earlier, go with the flat brush. This one is three by four inch depending on the size of your paper. You can decide on the size of the brush that you're using. If you're going with a bigger scale, it is always better to go with a bigger brush. But the smaller size, you can go with half-inch or any other brush which is smaller than that. If you're using a smaller brush and if you're painting on a bigger sized paper, it will be little difficult for you to get a clean blend. I just dipped my brush in a little of water. Whenever you feel like your paint is too tight and it is difficult to blend, you can dip your brush in water. It shouldn't be a deep dip, you shouldn't be dipping your entire brush in water. We just need that top area of your brush to touch water. It should be a very light touch, otherwise your paint will lose its opacity. It shouldn't be opaque. Just make sure you're not adding too much of water into your paint. My gradient wash is ready, you just need to take your brush back and forth in a horizontal manner, and create a gradient wash of black and white. We already discussed how to create that perfect gradient. Follow the same techniques and create a gradient wash of black and white, which should be darker on the top and lighter over the bottom. Now let's start with the house. I will first add a sketch using my round brush. Just a very rough sketch so that it is easy to paint. Maybe you can wait till I finish the sketch and add a similar sketch. It's a very simple sketch. We need to add the roofline first. We'll need to add a similar line onto other side. Make sure the lines are symmetrical. That's the roofline. Now I'm adding another line here on the right side. It is half-hidden. On the right side, I'm not showing the entire roofline, I'm taking it to the masking tape. If you would like to show the entire roofline on either side, maybe you will have to place your house a little onto the left side, so that all the lines are clearly visible. It wouldn't cut off at your masking tape. Place it accordingly. That's a sketch. As we paint, we'll be adding a window over the middle of that wall. First, let's fill up the entire shape on a grayish tone, a slightly darker than the background color you have over there. I'm switching to my flat brush, and I'm filling that entire shape in a gray color. You can see the color I'm going with, it's slightly dark. It's not as light as the background color. Now, fill up that entire shape in a grayish tone. For now, I'm going with a very dark gray. We'll need to add a little of white over the middle where we'll have that window. As we introduce white into this background, it will automatically turn to a little lighter, because we'll be blending that white into the background. As we blend that color into the background, the area around it will automatically turn lighter. Fill up that entire shape in a darker tone of gray. You see my three by four inch flat brush here, you can use any brush that you're comfortable with. We just need to fill up that entire shape in darker tone of gray no matter which brush you're using. I have filled up that entire shape in a darker tone of gray. Now, I'm switching to my round brush and I'm going to clean that shape, and that's done. I hope you guys were able to follow so far. It was quite easy. We just added a gradient wash of black and white over the background, and we added a house and filled up that shape in gray. Now, I'm switching to my flat brush and I'm adding a little of white over the middle where I will be adding the window. We just need a lighter tone over the middle, right over here. This is where we will be adding a big window. It doesn't need to be very whitish, you can go with a lighter gray over here. Now, gently dip your brush in water, damp it on a paper towel and that's slightly damp brush. Blend the colors well. Now, you can see that darker gray we have applied earlier has come to a much more lighter shade. This is what I said earlier. If you had used a lighter tone for that wall earlier, it would have gone even more lighter, but that's okay. No matter which tone of gray you have for your wall, we need a little of lighter tone over the middle where we will be adding the window. That is the only thing you need to keep in mind. This is just to give it a look that the lights are on and the light is hitting the walls. Now, I'm switching to my round brush. We'll need to add the rest of the details onto the wall, we'll need to add a window, then we'll have to add some lines on the wall, and also we need to make the roofline more prominent and visible. Let's start with the roofline. I'm going with black. If your paint is too thick, dip your brush in water. Once you have got the right consistency add a line which is parallel to the top line on either side. Sometimes I may miss saying dip your brush in water, but you have to have that idea whenever your paint is too tight or whenever it is too thick. Without any fear, just dip your brush in water, but make sure you're not going for a deep dip. It should be a very gentle dip. Your paint will turn transparent if you add a lot of water. Just a light touch of water is all you need. Both the rooflines are added. Now, I'm going to add a line over here, a thin line. You can see my line is not too bold. Over the roof, I've ended with the slightly bolder line, but then over here, I've ended with a thin line. Our next step is to add some horizontal lines onto the wall, triangle with a similar spacing between each of these lines. Now, when I'm adding these lines, I'm going with a little watery black. It's not too dark and opaque. You can see it is little watery. If your paint is little loose, it is easier to add a straight line. There wouldn't be any break. You can add that line in one go without breaking it in between. There is one more reason why I used a watery black. Once this lines dries, it will look little faded because I don't want these lines to be way dark and bold. I want this lines to look little light and faded. We're painting a night scene, so the details won't be that clear and crisp. If you're using gray, go with a lighter tone, else you can go with a little watery black, and do the same way I'm doing here. That's done. Now, I'm going to wash out the paint from my brush, and I'm switching to white. I'm going to add the base layer of the window. Our background is still slightly wet, it doesn't dry completely. First I will add the outline, a big rectangular window. You can go with one or two windows, it's totally your choice. I'm going to add a big, huge window over the middle. It's really huge. Now, I'm going to fill up that shape in white. As your background is slightly wet, the white you're applying now will turn into a lighter gray, which is absolutely fine. Once the base layer dries, we can come back with a bolder white. That's the base layer, we have got a lighter gray over there. Now, let's wait for everything to dry. Once your background layer has dried, you can go with a bolder and brighter white. Add that on top of the base layer and make your window more whiter and brighter. Now we can add the rest of the details of the house later. Now, I'm switching to my detailing brush and I'm going to add the string lights. We'll start by adding that curvy lines. Go with any of your detailing branch which has a pointed tip. I'm going to add three lines. You can go with two or three or four. It's totally your choice how many string lights you want. We will add the strings first. This should be free-flowing nice curvy line. If you can add a free flowing curvy line in one go, perfect, it is better not to break your line in between, but then it is a little tricky. I know that. If you want to use a black marker or a black pen which has a pointed tip, you can do that as well. It is not at all necessary that you should be using your brush to add these lines. We just need some free flowing curvy lines, three or four up to your choice. You can use your brush or a marker or a pen or anything which is more comfortable for you. Using a marker, I am adding some reference line first. On top of this, I will be adding a gouache line. Because my marker has a copper finish, it is not really a matte black. It has a different kind of finish. This is the one I'm using. I'm just adding a reference line. If you have a good marker, you can add them directly. You don't need to run your brush on top of this. I'm using my brush just because the finish of this marker line is not that great. It has a tinted finish. Acopotent, I don't know if I'm sounding right. The finish is slightly different. It's not a matte black, and that is the reason why I'm taking my brush on top of this line. So according to the finish of your marker, if it's nice and opaque, you can leave it as it is. You don't need to take your brush on top of those lines because that would be more convenient for you. Adding double line will be a little tricky, just like I'm doing here, because you need to exactly follow the baseline you have applied there. That is really tricky. According to your convenience, either use your brush or a pen and add some curvy lines. The strings are done. Now we need to add light onto these. These lights are the most interesting part of this painting and it is very easy to do. Let me show you how to do that. The first step is to add a tiny line hanging from the string. This is where our lights will be attached onto. It is a simple teeny tiny line. You need to follow that streamline you have added earlier and add a simple tiny line like this at equal spacing. Start from either left or right, and continue adding these teeny tiny lines till you reach the other end. We need to add similar teeny-tiny lines on all the three lines we have added here. Try and follow a similar spacing between each of these lines. It doesn't need to be exactly the similar. You just need to get an impression that all of them are equally spaced when you look at the painting. So don't put pressure on you and take out your ruler and measure the spacing. The first string is done. Now onto the bottom part of all these little lines, I'm going to add an inverted arc. So we have our main string lines. Onto the bottom, we have added some tiny hanging lines and now we're adding an inverted arc onto that teeny-tiny lines. This is how it should be looking. So go ahead and fill up all your string lines with the similar detail. Now we just need to add the light onto these. Let's wait for that to dry first. Meanwhile, I'm going to add a clean line over here. We need to make the roof lines more prominent. First, I'm going to add a black line over here. Now on the top where you have that other line, I will be going that the right. When I was doing this painting, I was not really convinced with the way it was progressing, especially at this point. Everything was looking little pale and dull. But when I added those string lights and when I added the moon, everything turned out so magical and I instantly fell in love with this painting. Now with the same brush, I'm going to add a window frame. The outer frame is going to be a little thick. So you can add a bold and thick line along the shape of your window. I'm actually planning to do a colorful version of the same painting. If you're following me on Instagram, you will get to see that shortly. That's the outer frame. Now I'm going to add a line along the middle. We added the main window frames. Now I'm switching to my smaller brush, the detailing brush which I used earlier and I'm going to add another line right over the middle of these two window frames. Go with the brush which has a pointed tip. This line shouldn't be as thick as the outer frame. That should be a little thin. Now a similar line right over the middle. Adding another line onto this frame tone. Now using the same brush, I'm going to add some horizontal lines onto that bottom partition just to make it look like there are some low walls over there. So add some thin and delicate lines with equal spacing and fill up that bottom part. I'm not going to add that on the top, just over the bottom. Now I'm switching back to my pico round brush, the size number 4 round brush and I'm switching to white gouache. To finish the house, we need to add a white line along the roof, a thick white line. Just for your roof-line, add a thick white line. That's done. Now it's time to add the lines. To the same white gouache, I'm going to add few drops of water. I want a little watery white. Just add few drops of water and create a paint which is of a looser consistency. Now, using that paint, add a white circle onto all these little lines we have added here. Keep in mind, I'm not going with the thick, brightened, opaque version of white here, I'm going with a little watery paint. Now, when this dries, it will have a faded look, and that is what exactly we need. We don't need a bright white spot here. To create that illuminating effect, we need a blurry and faded white spot in the background. Onto these, we will be adding an opaque white dot so we have a blurry and faded white circle in the background. Once this dries, we will be adding a bright white dot onto the center of these white spots, and that will make it look like a shining light. I'm done with the first string. Now, in a similar way, I'm going to add a circle onto the rest of those strings. It's all done. Now, let's wait for that to dry. Meanwhile, we wait for that to dry and we can add some plants over the bottom, closer to the house. I'm switching to black gouache and I'm adding some rough shapes over here just to make it look like there are some plants over here. The same way we did in the first painting, over the bottom, you can add a solid black color, and onto the top, you simply need to keep pressing your brush to create some leafy patterns. You just need to add some dots and some random patterns. It doesn't need to be a perfectly shaped leaf. It is the same way how we added these leaves here. You simply need to keep pressing your brush on the paper and create those little patterns. I'm going to add a little on the other side as well. By the time we finish this, the base layer of our lights might have dried dried and we can go to the final details. That's done. Now, I'm switching to white, I'm using the same brush. Now, I'm going to add an opaque white dot onto all these circles we have added here. I haven't added any water, I'm going with an opaque and bright white. We have some more left on the top screen, we need to add a white dots onto these ones. Let me quickly finish that. The lights are done. Now, I'm going to add a crescent moon. We want a crisp shapes so go with any brush which has a pointed tip. If you're more comfortable with your white gel pen, you can use that as well. Add in a moon, I'm going to add that here, you can go with your right side or your left side. Now, I'm switching to my detailing brush and I'm going to add some teeny tiny stars onto the sky, just like how we did in our first painting. I want a neat and clean looking sky so I'm not going to splash those stars, but if you prefer splatting stars more than adding few random ones, you can splatter those stars. But make sure you cover the bottom area when you are splattering the stars. This painting is my most favorite one from the five paintings we've been doing in today's class because it is quite easy to do. Even though there are so many details, it is very easy to do and it has got a lot of character. It has a magical feel to it, and also, I'm happy with the composition we have used in this painting. All together, this one is my favorite one from the file. The stars are in. With that, we are done with our second painting. I'm going to quickly peel off the masking tape. I can't wait to show you the final painting. Just like I mentioned early, before you peel off your masking tape, make sure your painting has dried completely, otherwise the paper can rip off with the masking tape. Here is the final painting. There's a little patch over here, it's fine. I can't do anything about it now so that's not a good thing about it. I hope you all enjoyed painting this quick and beautiful black and white painting. I cannot wait to show you the third painting. If you haven't tried this yet, give it a try and join me in the next section. Let's start with our third painting.
8. Project 3: We finished our paintings, now it's time to go with the third one. First, let me tape down the paper using a masking tape. Fix your paper properly onto your board or table, and make sure there is no gaps in-between. I have a jar of water ready, and I have my colors, I have my brushes, and my paper is also ready. Let me squeeze out black and white onto my palette. That's black. Now, I need white. The colors are ready on my palette. This painting as well, the first step is to apply a gradient wash of black and white. Onto the top, we will be going with black, and as we reach almost the middle, we will add in white, and we'll make it a darker gray. Once we reach almost 3/4 of the paper, we will add in more white, and we will make it that a lighter gray. That's how the sky is going to be, black on the top and a lighter gray over the bottom. I added black, then I added some white. Now, I'm blending them well. As I come down, I will be adding more white to get a lighter gray. Keep on adding your paint and take your brush in a back-and-forth movement in a horizontal manner, and try to get a clean, clear enough black and light gray. If you feel like your paint is too tight, you can dip your brush in water, but as I mentioned earlier, don't dip your entire brush in water and make your paint too watery. Go with a gentle dip, just the tip of the brush should touch the water. It shouldn't be too wet. Now, keep on running your brush onto either side and blend the colors well. I'm adding some more white over the bottom so that this area looks a little lighter than the top. We just need a gradient wash of black on the top and a lighter gray over the bottom. This is the first step so get your background ready. I'm dipping my brush in a little water, just a gentle dip. I'm running my brush for the one last round. This will make the colors look more smooth and even, but make sure you're not adding a lot of water onto your paint. Just a gentle touch of water is all you need. Now I'm switching to black and making the top area a bit more darker, blending that into the gray I have over here. My background is ready. Now, let's wait for this to dry. Our next step is to add in different layers of mountain. For the background, we'll be going with the snowy mountain. I'm switching to my round brush. I'm going to take out some clean white onto my palette. I finished the white I had there. I need to take out some clean white gouache to paint the mountain. First, I'm going to give an outline, then I'm going to fill that area in white. I'm going to add the mountain at almost the middle of the paper, starting from here, then I'm going to give an outline to my mountain, then I will fill that up in white. Don't go the simple inverted way, add in some ups and downs in between to make your mountain look more realistic. Maybe you can follow the same shape I'm adding here, or if you want to add two or three set of mountains, that's also your choice, but our focus is over the middle. Over to the foreground, we will be adding different layers of mountain. Only the middle area will be visible. Concentrate more on this area. You can simply add a shape over the middle just like I'm doing here. You don't need to make it touch the masking tape on either side. You can just leave it as it is. Onto the foreground, just right in front of this mountain, we will be adding another layer of mountains. We'll go with three different layers. You really don't need to worry about the left side and the right side, just focus on the center and add in a similar shape. Now, you can see here the white I applied here that is not staying as white. It is looking like little grayish but that's okay. With gouache, you will never get that opaque white in the first layer. If you need to get that, you will have to go with the second layer. But onto the bottom, this grayish dawn is fine. Just onto the top, you can add a little more white to make it look super snowy. Just onto the tip of these mountains, I'm going with a little more of white and I'm making them look more opaque. For now, this is all you need to do. We'll be coming back to this later, and we will add the final details to our mountain once we add in the remaining layers. That's our snowy mountain. Now in front of this, we will be adding more mountains and different tones of gray. We'll start with the lighter tone of gray. As we come closer to the bottom line, we will make our gray more darker. I'll be going with three more layers. For the first one, I'm going with a lighter tone of gray. To create that, I'm mixing white and black. Adding a little of black into my white, adding up into water to make the paint a little loose so that it is easy for me to apply the paint. That looks fine. Now, I'm going to add my first layer of mountain using this gray. Maybe you can have a look at the shape that I'm adding first, then add your mountain. You can decide on the height of your mountain depending on the snowy mountain. I'm going to start it from here. This is almost similar to the top point of my snowy mountain. Now, I'm bringing it down. Now to the other side, I will take it in a similar manner. I will make it reach almost till the same height of my snowy mountain. I'm not going to take it beyond that point. Depending on the size and shape of your mountain, you can add a similar line. Once you have added the basic shape of the mountain, you can fill that up in gray, the same gray you have created there. You don't need to take it till the bottom line, you can stop at somewhere in the middle. Cleanup that shape, then fill up that entire shape in the gray you have added there. We'll be going with two more layers so go with the medium tone of gray for your first layer. We'll have to make the next layer a little more darker. I'm switching to my three by four-inch flat brush. I'm going to quickly fill that area. But that smaller sized arm brush, it will take a while. But with this one, it is easy and quick. I'm going to leave it here, I'm not taking it till down. Next, we'll be going with a much more darker tone of gray, and we'll add the second layer of mountain. In fact, the third layer, we have one in the background, so that's going to be the third layer of mountain. Before we go with the next layer, let's add some details onto this. Right now, it is looking really flat. I'm going with a bit more darker tone of gray than the background color. I'm simply adding some messy lines onto this in a sloping manner on either side. I just add in some random lines, this is to give it more texture. We'll be coming back to this, and we'll add our final details later. For now, this is all you need. You can see the kind of lines I added here. They are really looking messy. They are not at all neat, but this is what we need. We want to introduce some texture on the mountain. Onto that layer you have added, add in some lines, then smudge that into the background using a dry brush. It doesn't need to be perfectly blended into the background. You can clearly see those dry lines I have added here. Now, let's go with the next layer of mountain. For that, I'm going with a bit more darker tone of gray than the background layer, adding more black and making a darker tone of gray. Now, let's go with the next layer of mountain. As I mentioned in the tips and tricks section, the darker tones when they dries, it will look a little faded. Right now, the color that I'm applying, it is not black actually, this a darker gray. It is looking like black because it's a wet paint. When it dries, you will clearly see the color. If you're doubtful about the color, maybe you can try it on a scrap piece of paper and wait for it to dry to clearly understand the kind of tone you are using. Now, let me quickly add in the shape of this mountain, and fill up that in this darker tone of gray. That's the second tone of gray. Now, we have one more to go. For that, I will be readily using black. I'm switching back to my own brush and I'm going with black. First, let me add the shape of the mountain. This one is much more closer to you than the other mountains, so we'll have to add some more details onto this. After I add the shape of the mountain onto the top of this, I will be adding some teeny-tiny lines close to each other just to make it look like there are some trees on the top. You don't need to change your brush, you can use the same brush. I'm hoping you guys are using a medium to small size brush, four or six. With that brush, keep on adding some tiny lines close to each other, it doesn't need to be too thin. You can see the lines I'm adding here, their are slightly thick. Now, add similar lines on top of this mountain, just doing the top line. Once you have added that, you can fill up the entire mountain black. We are almost done with the final layer. You can also see the one we have in the background, the previous layer that is starting to dry. It is looking much lighter than earlier. Now, it is not looking like black. This is why I told you to check the colors before you add them in. All the darker dots will tend to fade when it tries. This is one thing with squash. The lighter colors will tend to look darker. Keep that in mind when you are working with squash. For this one, it doesn't really affect a lot as we're only using two colors, but then when you're painting a landscape where you have so many different colors and tonal values, it is best to try the color on a scrap piece of paper before you add them in so that you will be quite sure how dark and how light your painting is going to be once everything dries. We have all the layers in, now, it's time to add the final details. We'll start with the snowy mountain. You can see just from the top I have a solid white and over to the bottom of that snowy mountain, it is looking a little grayish, It is not really white. I left it as it is identical with the second layer because I was happy with the way it was looking when it was looking little grayish over the bottom. Also you can clearly see it is not like green blend. The gray over the bottom was looking a little rough and patchy, but that's absolutely okay. Now, to add details onto the snowy mountain, I'm going with a grayish tone. This grayish shouldn't be too dark. It can be slightly darker than that. Lighter gray you have over the bottom of that snowy mountain, that is a tone you should be calling with. Now, I'm going to simply add some teeny-tiny lines under this mountain. Maybe I will zoom into this a bit more so that you can clearly see all those little details. Write now when I'm adding these teeny-tiny lines maybe it might be looking a little messy, but you will be surprised to see the final result. You just need to keep on adding these teeny-tiny lines. There are two things you need to keep in mind, the first thing is you should be going with a lighter toner gray and the second thing is that you shouldn't be adding thick long lines, it should be some scratchy dry broken lines. I don't know if I could call these lines, it is some small random patterns. Maybe I shouldn't be calling it lines. Also you don't need to add them a lot over the top where you have a solid white, you can add them a lot on the bottom rather than on the top. You can leave the tip of the mountain as solid white. Leave the top areas where you have added white onto the rest of the area adding some teeny-tiny lines using a lighter tone of gray. Let me show you the final result so that you will be assured that it's going to look fine. Here is a [inaudible] , this is how your mountain is going to look once you have added those teeny-tiny lines. Don't worry at all, leaving those vital area as it is, add in some teeny-tiny lines. Make sure you're going with a lighter tone of gray and also make sure you're not adding such thick and long lines. Take your brush in a broken manner and add in some very small patterns and lines. Now, over the top, this area, I'm going to leave it as it is. Along here, I'm going to add some tiny patterns. This white tip on the the top will make your mountains look more beautiful, so don't add any gray tone over there. Keep those things in mind and adding those patterns. That's the first round of details on our snowy mountain. Now, I'm going to switch to a darker tone of gray and I'm again going with some teeny-tiny patterns but not like earlier. I wouldn't be adding a lot. Just few patterns aligned here and there with a darker tone of gray. You can clearly see I'm not adding a lot, and just like how I did earlier, I'm leaving those whiter areas as it is. I won't be adding anything over there. Take a brush in a very random manner and adding some teeny-tiny lines and patterns. This final touch of darker tones will make your mountain look more pretty. With that, we're done with the whole snowy mountain. I'm switching back to white. On either side, the shape of the mountain is looking little off so I'm just clearing that and that's done, now, going with our next layer of mountain, the first tone of gray. To add the details, I'm going with a slightly darker color than this. Just like the snowy mountain, we'll be going with the darker tone of gray and we'll be adding some lines onto this mountain, so that is how we are going to add the details. There is one trick I always do when I'm using quash, I don't use too opaque and thick paint when I'm adding the details, I always go with a little watery wash on the paint, I'm good to take my brush in a sloppy manner, just like out of the first round of details and I'm adding some broken lines along these lines. Now, coming back to the paint, the paint that I'm using here is a darker gray but then I have watered it down, it does not a thick consistency, it is something like a loose paint. The reason why I go with the little watery paint is that, it doesn't look too opaque when it dries, it has a faded look and this will make all those details more realistic and natural. I do this especially for the things which are in the background which doesn't need that crisp and clear detailing. In this case, this mountain here it is in the background, it needs detailing, but then those details doesn't need to be too prominent and visible. In those cases, I always go with a little watery washes of paint so that when it dries, it will look faded and it wouldn't stay that prominent and this will make the mountain look more realistic. Give it a try and you will have a better understanding of what I'm trying to explain here. I don't know if I'm sounding right and if you're able to get it, but do it a try go with a little watery washing of the paint, don't go with a thick creamy washing. Maybe you can take out a scrap piece of paper and add a layer of mountain, actually two layers of mountain, and on one you can go with a thick and creamy washing when you're adding the details and on the other one, go with the looser washing and see the difference by yourself. Now I'm going to add the same details onto the side, going with a little watery washing of a darker tone of gray and I'm adding some lines onto this mountain. The good thing about this trick is that you don't need to worry a lot about those details, once you lay them, then the background dries, everything will look perfect. You will not need to worry about blending them into the background or getting those perfect details. Everything will look fine when you're [inaudible] on dries. Try this technique, I'm very sure it is going to be really helpful. Now let me quickly finish this mountain, adding some broken and dotted lines. I'm adding these lines at an angle to make it look like there is a valley, so I'm starting the line from the top and taking them down in a sloping manner. That is the first gray layer, now going with the second one. Now as this mountain is still dark, I'm going with black, again, a little watery version of black and I'm going to add some random patterns onto this using a loose version of black. Adding any kind of random patterns onto your mountain, it can be some broken lines, it can be some little shapes. Add in anything you want to but make sure you're going with a little watery paint so that those patterns won't be too prominent, once your background dries, they will look little faded and it will automatically look more realistic. You don't need to put a lot of effort in making your mountains look more realistic. This trick will do the job. I will add some more here and that will be done with our mountains. The one over the bottom, you can leave it as it is. We're not going to add any more details onto that. I'm really happy with the way this painting is progressing, especially that snowy mountains in the background and also the different tonal values of gray has come out really nice. This one is really different from the other two we did earlier. This has got more details in it. If you analyze this painting carefully, the only detail here is this broken, teeny tiny lines and those small patterns. The rest is just applying a simple, solid color. We started with the gradient sky, then be added white, then we went in with the lighter tone of gray, then a medium tone then black and after that, we are adding these teeny tiny lines to make the mountains look more realistic. This is the only technique and detail involved in this painting, the rest is quite easy. Now, I'm going to add a crescent moon for this painting. I'm not going to add stars, I would simply add a moon. I'm switching to white and I'm going to add a moon over here. To add the moon, switch to any brush which has a pointed tip. This is the last tip and with this we'll be done with our painting. If you're yet to try this painting and if you're running in short of black, you can try the same painting with indigo or prussian blue or any other blue that [inaudible]. You can also use brown. They go to white and choose any color instead of black and give it a try. All right guys, and with that, we're done with our third black and white painting. The next two paintings in this black and white [inaudible] is my signature, beach paintings and I'm really excited to show you how to paint them. Let me quickly peel up the masking tape and show you the final painting so that we can quickly jump on to our next painting. Here is the final painting, I hope you all are enjoying those black and white [inaudible].
9. Project 4: So far, we've finished three beautiful black and white paintings. Now it's time to go with the fourth one. I have my jar of water ready here. I have taped down my paper and I have my colors also already. Just like the other paintings we did, the first step is to add a gradient gouache of black and white. On the top and the bottom, we'll go with black and over to the middle, we will introduce white and we'll make that area lighter. What I'm painting right now is the sky and over to the bottom we have water. Once I'm done with the gradient wash, I will be adding horizon line to differentiate between the sky and the water. This is one of my signature beach paintings and I have done this in quite a lot of color combination. My paint is little dry and it is not easy to blend, so I'm going to add in a drop of water. I'm gently touching my brush in water. You can clearly see the difference over the bottom and the top. I'm able to blend the colors much easily now. This is the magic of a drop of water. Never be afraid to add a drop of water when your paint is too thick or dry. This will make the blending process much easier. Once you have added black and white onto your background, keep on taking your brush onto either side in a horizontal manner and blend the colors well. Make the clearing as soft and smooth as possible. If you have a clean and smooth gradient, it will automatically add a lot of beauty to your painting. Because for all the five paintings we are doing in to this class, they don't have a lot of details. The main part of all these five paintings is the background layer, which is a gradient wash of black and white. Try to be a little careful when you are adding your gradient wash. Make it as smooth and clean as possible. I'm going to take my brush in a little water and I'm going to run my brush from top to bottom to make the colors more even. The top layer is looking smooth. The bottom are still a little rough and patching. Again, dipping my brush in water and tapping my brush on a paper towel to remove the excess amount of water. Now, I'm again, turning my brush on top of the paint to make it look smoother. Keep repeating this until you're happy with your background, but make sure you're not adding a lot of water into your background. If you add a lot of water, your background will lose its capacity and it will start to look more like water colors. For this painting, I'm using two colors, which is black and white. You can use the same technique and go with multiple colors. You can use purple and blue or crimson and orange, or any other color that you prefer. Instead of black, you will have those two colors for your background, and you will be using white the same way I'm using it here. For the mountains, you will be again using black. It is just for the background you'll be introducing those new colors. Our background is ready. Now let's wait for the background to dry. When it dries, as I mentioned in the tips and techniques section, it will be looking a little lighter. You can clearly see that here, my background has dried, and it is looking a lot lighter than earlier when the background was wet. Now I'm going to add a horizon line, a little about the center of the paper. I'm going with a gray tone and I'm going to add the horizon line first right over here. I'm focusing more on the water and that is why I'm adding the horizon line a little above the center of the paper so that I have a lot of water to play with. I will be adding so much of rocks and mountains and reflection. This is how I have composed my painting. If you want to add your horizon line over the middle, it is totally your choice. Now, along that horizon line, I'm adding some mountains. These needs to be very small as it is quite far from you. I'm going with a medium tone of gray. It's not too dark and it's not too light, it's a medium tone, adding those mountains. At some places you can make it a bit more taller so that it will look more natural. That is the horizon line and the mountains in the background. Now let's add those mountains and rocks in the foreground. For that, I'm going with black. I'm going to start it from here. You can either follow the same profile that I'm adding here, or you can simply add some rock over the bottom and you can leave the top area as it is. Feel free to go with any kind of composition you prefer will look beautiful. But this class, I want to teach you how you can use black and white in various way and how you can bring in a lot of depth in your painting just by using two colors. That is my main focus. All the paintings we'll be doing in today's class, you can reinterpret them in any way you want to. You can go with different composition and different subjects. It is actually the same with any other class you attend, you don't need to replicate the same exact thing the instructor is teaching you. Be creative and try out your own compositions and subjects. Because I used to see so many brilliant class critics from different students. They used to come up with so many colors using compositions and color combination. Let your creativity flow and try out different color combinations and composition. This will really help you in framing topics for your own paintings in the future. That was just a suggestion. If you want, you can follow the same, there is no problem at all. Now let me quickly go around and finish this mountain surrounded with rocks. I'm nearly done with the foreground layer. I have added those huge mountains in the background and these cute rocks in the foreground, then some rocks floating in the water. We need to add more details onto this. We'll need to add the reflection [inaudible]. For now, I'm going to switch to white gouache and I'm going to add a moon. Once we add the moon and the reflection, we can come back to this mountain and finish it off. We just need a simple white little circle. I'm switching to white gouache. I'm going to add a teeny tiny moon over here. It is just a dot. I'm not going to add any great details onto this. I'm going to leave it as just white because it has too far from you and those details won't be visible. We'll just add in a simple white circle. Now let's add the reflection. I'm starting from here. All you need to do is simply add some lines, white lines. Start from the horizon line and add them right underneath the moon. These lines can be sharp, bold and cross blinds, that doesn't need to get blended into the background, so go with a thick opaque white and add in these lines. Imagine drawing a vertical line starting from the moon downwards. Your reflection should be concentrating on that area. Keep in mind that straight imaginary line. From that imaginary line, keep on adding white lines on to either side. This will gradually dawn into your reflection. Some of the lines you're adding can be little dry. Those dry lines will make it look like your water is shining. We'll go to combination of solid, crisp and clear lines and some dry and rough lines. Now adding those lines, we will be adding them to the bottom. When I'm reaching almost to the middle of the water, I will be stopping it in between. Then I will continue after adding some more rocks. That's done. I'm going to make my moon a little more whiter by adding another layer on top. Now, it's time to add the reflection for these rocks and mountains. I'm going with a little watery version of a dark gray. Using that color, I'm going to add in some lines. Just like the reflection line to be added for the moon, I'm going to add some similar lines along the bottom line of these mountains. You don't need to follow the shape of the mountain. Simply, dig your brush along that bottom most line and add some lines like this. Use a little watery version of dark gray, just like I mentioned in the previous painting. When you go with a little watery paint, you don't need to put extra effort in blending them into the background. When it dries, it will have a faded look and it will automatically look more realistic. Go with a little loose washing of dark gray. Don't go with a thick and creamy washing. Add in some lines along the bottom of this mountains and rocks. At some places you can make your lines a little more wider, especially the area where you have those floating rocks. You can spread out those lines into the water, make them little more longer. That is the first step. Now, I'm going with a darker tone of gray. A very dark tone, which is more or less close to black. Using that dark tone, I'm again, adding some lines right along the bottom line of the mountains and rocks. Just few lines right underneath those rocks and mountains. You don't need to add a lot. You can see I'm adding very few lines using a darker tone. This is all you need. We'll be doing one more beach painting with black and white and that is going to be much more quick. This one here is easy, but then because of these tiny details, it is taking a little time. I hope you guys are enjoying the process. I really hope you're not bored with black and white. If you're feeling bored, I think you need to stop it here and come back with fresh eyes, maybe after few days. You will feel a lot refreshed when you do it after a break. Now, when I added those reflection, some of the gray got into these mountains. I'm just cleaning the shape with black. They all look clean. Now, I'm going to add some more rocks. The last task will be adding the reflection for these ones. It'll also take those reflection of moon little more down. I will be adding some huge rocks and some small rocks as well. I'm just going by my intuition. You can either follow the same locations or you can add them anywhere you want to. Just go in a very random manner and make sure none of the rocks looks same. Some of them can be a little bigger and some of them can be a little smaller. Also, you can play with different shapes. I have added the small ones. Now, let's add some huge rocks over the bottom. I'm going to squeeze out a little of black. I need some white as well because once we are done with this, they'll be be going directly with the reflections. The colors are ready. Now, onto the area over the bottom, I'm going to add some huge rocks. You can go with any location that you prefer. I'm going to add one over here, a little bigger rock. I added two rocks. I will be adding few more. When I'm done with this, I will be taking this reflection down, the reflection of the moon and they will be hitting all these rocks which are right underneath the moon. We'll have to take those white lines and tally down. To show those reflection on the rock, we'll have to add a white gouache on top of this, only those ones which are falling under this line. Let me quickly add some more rocks and we'll come back to those reflection. I have added some huge rocks as well. As I mentioned earlier, go with different shapes for all of them. Never add them in the same shape and same size. You can see here, I've painted with different size and proportion for all of them. Some of them are small and some of them are long. I try to go with different kind of shapes to make them as natural as possible. Now, the last step is to add the remaining reflections. We'll have to add them on the rocks and also on the water, which is over the bottom. We are yet to add reflection over there, so those are the things left. I'm switching to white gouache. Now I'm going to add a little of white gouache on top of these rocks which are falling under that moonlight. Just add a little of paint on the top, and using a damp brush, we'll smudge that into the background. Pick all those rocks where there will be moonlight and add a white patch like this. Once you have added that, clean your brush and smudge that into the background. I'm someone who loves to paint with vibrant and bold colors. But recently, I tried a black and white painting and that has got a wonderful response from my Instagram family. Everyone loved it and I kept getting messages every other day asking if I could teach them. That is how I landed on this class. I, myself, was pleased with the one of the painting I did and I did a bigger version of the same painting in acrylic. In fact, you could also do the same. If you liked any of the paintings we are doing in today's class, you can do a bigger version of the same painting, either with black and white or any other color combination you prefer. All of these five paintings as got magical feel to it and I think it goes rarely well on a wall. If you liked any of them, do give it a try and share with me. I would love to see them. I added some white onto these rocks, but it is looking a little dull. So I'm going to add some more white. I'll go with the same process, adding some white on the top line. Then I'm smudging that into the background. I think this is looking better. The white I added earlier was looking so dull when it dried. I'm happy with the rocks from the top. Just over here, I'm going to add some more white. Now, once we are done with this, the only step remaining is to add reflection on the water. We haven't added any reflection over the bottom. So first, we'll have to add the reflection of those rocks. Then we'll have to add the moonlight. Let me quickly finish this off and proceed with the reflection. Everything else is done. Now, the only thing left is the reflection. I'm going with a slightly darker tone of gray, a color which is slightly darker than the color we have in the background. If you go with a lighter tone, it won't be visible. So go with one tone darker than the color you have over here and using that, I add in some lines right underneath the rocks. Just some random lines. Some of the lines can be a little wider to give it a more realistic feel. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I am going with a little watery paint. I'm not going with that thick, creamy version of gouache. Some of the lines I added here, they are already drying and you can clearly see how well they are going with the background. You don't need to put any extra effort in blending them into the background. Just go with a watery version of the color, which will be the color you have over there. Go with a slightly darker color than that. Now, when I say watery version, it is not like watercolor, it is not that watery. You just need to add a pinch of water. Don't make it too watery. Your paint shouldn't be runny. You can see here, my paint is just like sketch pen. It is not too watery, it is not too thick. I hope that made sense. Now, I'm going around with a darker tone and I'm adding a line right underneath the mountains and rocks, just to give it an extra depth. I think I have covered all the places and I have reflections everywhere. Now, the only task remaining is to add that moonlight on the water. I'm switching back to white to add in the final details. Now, just like we did earlier, I'm going to add some lines using white gouache. Your focus should be on the area which is falling under the moon. Starting from here, you will have to add lines till you reach the bottom. Don't add too thick and too opaque lines. Go with some thin and delicate lines. Some of the lines can be a little longer. You can see that here, I am taking some of the lines a little outward and making them little wider than the others. Now, pick that area between those rocks and add in these lines. Go with any brush which has a pointed tip. You need to get those thin and delicate lines. That's done. We've added some thin and delicate lines. Now, I'm going with a little more opaque white and adding in few lines in-between. This will make it look like our water is shining. You don't need to add a lot. You just pick some random area and add in an opaque broken line. It doesn't need to be a thick, solid, long line. Just few tiny lines is all you need. When you have that delicate and thin lines in the background, and when you add some opaque white lines on top of that, it will really make it look like your water is shining. Finally, I'm going to add some more white lines over here. I just felt like this area is looking a little dull, so I thought of adding some more white over here. If you're happy with your moonlight, you can leave it as it is. You don't need to add them again. This is the best part of gouache, which I love. It is not like watercolor. Even if you feel like you missed something, you can come back again. But with watercolor, you can never do that. Once your layer is done, it's locked. You can never go back to the same thing. But whereas in gouache, if you missed to add some reflection or some detail, or if you made any mistake, you can cover up that and add in the same thing all over again, which is a great thing, especially for people like me who likes to add new things and change something, which I did, and that is the reason why I love gouache. It is such a forgiving medium. With that, we're done with our fourth painting. I'm really happy with the way this has turned out. Even though we just used black and white, this painting has got a lot of depth in it. Let's remove the masking tape and have a look at the final painting. We have one more to go, which is another beach painting. I hope you guys enjoyed it so far and you are happy with your four paintings. We have one more to go and I'm really excited to finish this collection. We got a nice, clean border. Look at that. I'm really loving the way this has turned out, especially that moonlight on the water. If you haven't tried it yet, do give it a try and join me in the next section. Let's quickly jump onto our last painting.
10. Project 5: Finally, we are on the last painting of this black and white series. Let me quickly tape down my paper. Without wasting any more time, let's quickly start our fifth and final painting. I'm going to squeeze all black and white onto my palette. That's black. I need some white as well. This one is another black and white beach painting. As I said earlier when we were working on the previous painting, this doesn't have much of details, and this one is quick. My colors are ready. I have a jar of clean water. My paper is fixed onto the board. We're all set to go. Now I'm going to add a line right over the middle. For all the other paintings, we applied a gradient wash of black and white onto the entire paper. For this one, we'll start with the upper half, which is our sky. For this one as well, we're going with a gradient wash of black and white. But unlike the other paintings, this time we're only doing it on the top half. I'm starting with black. Now, as I come down, I will switch to a white. I want my sky to be dark on the top and light when I'm reaching the horizon line. When I'm closer to the horizon line, I will switch to a white, and I will make that area more lighter. I'm adding black to almost three-fourth of that upper half, and only along that horizon line I will be adding white. Most of the area will be dark. I think I will need a little more black. Let me add in some more black. Now, comparing to the other paintings, this one is having a more dark and intense look. I added a black, now I'm switching to white, and also I dipped my brush in a little water. That is why I'm able to get a smoother blend here. My paint was very dry. I hope you guys are quite confident with your gradient washes. We just need a darker tone over the top. Three-fourth of your sky should be black, and just along the horizon line we will need a lighter tone of gray. So when you are closer to the horizon line, add in quite a lot of white and make that area lighter. I will need some more white. I'm going to add that along the horizon line. I want this area to be more lighter. Now, I'm going to blend those colors well. I simply applied right over the horizon line. I will add some water to make the process easier. That's our sky. Never be afraid to dip your brush in water when your paint is too dry. Never dip your entire brush in water. Your paint shouldn't be too watery. Just a gentle dip is all you need. Now let's paint the water. I'm going with black. I will be adding black along the horizon line, and as I come down, I will be adding a little white. Over to the bottom, I want more of a grayish tone rather than black. Go with the dark and solid black. Don't add a lot of water. Go with that thick and creamy paint. Almost till half of that bottom area, I will be adding black. Over here, I will be adding a moon. So right underneath that, we'll need to add the reflections. For now, just fill up that area in black. Add a clean line along the horizon, now add in black. I have added black almost till half of that bottom area. Now I'm switching to white. I'm using my round brush and I'm going to add a moon. My sky is still wet, this is just to indicate the location. Once this dries, I will be coming back with a solid white to make our moon look more brighter. Right underneath the moon where I have my water, I'm going to add some more light. So for that, I need to get the location of my moon, and that is why I'm adding the moon right now. For now, simply add the circle shape. Now, using the same brush, I'm going to add some white over here. The area which is falling right underneath the moon, we'll need to make this area a little lighter. This is where we will be adding white. I need to add more white over there. Switching to my flood brush, and I'm going to add more white over here to make this area more lighter so that it will look like there is moonlight on the water. The black you have applied over there would be still wet, so just match that color into the background. So you will be getting something like this. It won't stay as white, you would be getting a gray tone over there, which is what we need for now. We'll come back to this later and we'll add more crisp and clear white lines on top of this. I simply added some lines, I didn't blend them into the background. You can leave them as it is. On the top, I'm going to add some more white to make it look a little more lighter. This is the first round of details. We'll be coming back to this later. As I said earlier, once we finish the bottom, we'll come back with white, a solid and opaque white, and we will make the moonlight look more clear and detailed. Now I'm going to switch back to black, and I'm going to add some more black over the bottom. Now, as I come down, I will be adding white because I want the bottom area to be grayish. So adding white and blend that with the black you have over there, and try to get a dark gray over the bottom. It shouldn't be too light. You can go with a medium to darker tone of gray. That's done. Now, I'm switching back to my round brush, and I'm going with black. Our next task is to add some mountains over the horizon line. I'm going with an opaque dark black, I'm not adding any water to it. Now let's add some small mountains along the horizon line. It shouldn't be too big because this isn't the background. It's actually big, but then it will appear smaller as it is quite far from you. Go with a similar size. As I always say, go with different shape and sizes. At some places you can make your mountain look taller, and at some places you can go with a flat mountain. Try and go with a variety of shapes, this will make your painting look more natural. You don't need to add it throughout the horizon line, you can skip some areas in-between. Now, right where I have the moon, right underneath that, I'm going to leave a little gap and I'm going to start my next set of mountain from here. I'm not really happy with the shape of this mountain so I'm going to tweak it a bit, maybe I'll make it a little more taller. It's so easy to change things with gouache, and I think that is the main reason why I love this method. You can always come back and add in whatever you want. There is no way you can miss something. If you feel like you miss something, there is always a way back, but sometimes it can be a drawback as well, because you will keep on adding details on top of the base layer and you will work on the same painting for ages. Now I'm going to squeeze out some more white onto my palate, some fresh, clean white. First, I will make mine more colored, more brighter. I will go with a clean white and I will add another layer on top of the base layer. This will make mine look more brighter. Now I'm going to add the moonlight on the water. We just added some gray lines, we'll need to add some white solid lines, as well. My moon is looking so much better now, it is looking so bright and beautiful. Now with the same opaque white, I'm going to add the moonlight. I'm using my round brush here and my water has completely dried. I'm going to add in some white lines starting from here, which is right underneath the moon. This is the area you should be focusing on. We have lessened the gap in-between these mountains. First, I'm adding my white over there. Now I'm taking those lines down. My major focus is the space right underneath the moon. From there, you can add lines onto the right side and left side. Some of the lines can be a little wider and some of them can be a little shorter. Now, some of your lines can be dry lines, as well. If you're not adding any water to your paint, you will automatically have that dry paint on your brush. Now using that, you can add some dry lines onto your background, which will make it look like your water is shining with those moonlight. In order to get those dried lines, there are two things you need to keep in mind. The first thing is that your background should be completely dried, it shouldn't be wet. If your background is wet, the lines you are adding they wouldn't stay as dry lines, they will automatically get smudged into the background. That is the first thing. Now, the second thing is you shouldn't be adding water to your paint. You should be going with freshly squeezed paint. Also, you shouldn't be taking a lot of paint on your brush. You should be working with bare minimum paint on your brush. Don't load your brush with so much of white gouache. If your brush has a lot of paint you won't get these dry lines. Gently touch the tip of the brush in white gouache, take out very little paint, and add in these lines. If you're still not sure how to get those dry lines, what you can do is take out a paper, dip your brush in white paint, and keep on adding some lines on that scrap piece of paper. It should be a colored paper, or maybe you can use any of your older [inaudible] or any of your older paintings. Now add in those lines on that paper. When you keep on adding two or three lines, the paint on your brush will automatically lose its moisture, and you will get those dry lines. Once you have started getting those dry lines, go ahead and add them on your background. Now I'm going to add the waves. I will go with the bottom most one first. Leading that wavy line, I'm going to start from here. Try to do this in one go. That's the first one. It is already looking like a wave. Maybe I can choose to leave it like this. Let's see. Now I'm going to add the next one. At some places I'm going with a thicker shape, and at some places I'm making my line a little thin and delicate. That's the second one. Now, in a similar manner, I'm going to add one more. I'm going with a thick opaque white paint. You can see when I've added the third wave, which is away from me, I went in with a much thinner and delicate line. For the first one, which is much more closer to me, I went in with a thicker line. Those are the base lines. Now I'm going to make that first wave more thicker to bring in more depth in our painting. Go with a thick white paint and turn your brush following that line you have added there. To be honest, I'm happy with the way it is looking right now. I'm still confused whether I should stop it here or add in more details. If you're happy and you don't want to add more details onto this, you can leave it there and you can call it done. Anyway, let me show you how you can add more details onto this wave. The first step is to make it look more thicker. Go with an opaque white paint and make it thicker. Follow that line you have added already. Now I'm going to dab my brush on a paper towel. This is to get rid of that moisture content from my paint. I want a very dry version of white paint. From the shape of that wave, I'm adding some dry lines inward. You can see the lines I'm adding here, they are super dry. This is the reason why I dabbed my brush on a paper towel. Now, keep on repeating this. Start from the left end and follow the shape of your wave, and keep on adding these dry lines. Add these dry lines only on the top area. Don't take them down over the bottom, you need that clean and clear line off your wave. You can already see the impact of those dried lines. Our water is looking like it is shining. You can see that shining moonlight there, as well. This is the reason why I told you to add dry lines. You won't get this impact if you go with that solid, crisp, clear lines. We already discussed how you can get those dry lines. Your background should have completely dried. Then you should be going the bare minimum paint on your brush which is not at all watery. You shouldn't be adding any water into your paint. Those are the two things you need to keep in mind. Where the first wave is done, now in a similar manner, I am going to do the other two waves. Let's start with the second one, which is in the middle. I'm going to take that dry paint on my brush and I'm going to repeat the same process. We are done with the second one, as well. Now we have one more wave here. First, I'm going to clear the shape. Now add in those dry lines. I'm so happy with the way this one is progressing. It is one of the easiest painting I have ever done in my life, and I think it is one of the prettiest, too. This one is the last painting of our black and white series, and I'm really impressed with the collection. I hope you guys are happy with your collection, too. I have done a bigger version of the same painting in acrylic. I have done that in a huge circular canvas. Actually, you can also do something similar. I think I said this in the previous session also. You can try one of the painting in a bigger size. With that, we're done with the waves. Now there is one last step left. I'm going to switch to black gouache, I'm going to wash of the paint from my brush, and I'm loading my brush with black gouache. When we were doing the background, I told you to go with a grayish tone for your bottom part. The main reason was I wanted to add a shadow for the wave. If I hadn't gone with black, this won't be visible, and that is a reason why I told you to go with gray. Now load your brush with black gouache, add a thin black line following the shape of the wave. It doesn't need to be a continuous black line, you can break it in between. Even though it is a very simple step, this black shadow will add a lot of depth to your painting. We're nearly done with our fifth and final painting, this is the last tip. I just noticed my sky is looking a little rough, especially on two places on the left and right. Never mind, if I had seen this before I could have cleaned it. Maybe once I'm done with the painting, I may go with another layer on top of it and I will make my sky look most smoother, but for now I will leave it as it is. With that we are done with our final painting. This is how it is looking. I'm really happy with those waves and the moonlight. Let's quickly peel up the masking tape. Here is our final black and white gouache painting.
Zaneena Nabeel, Top Teacher | Artist
