Transcripts
1. HOPPITY HARE INTRODUCTION: Hi there, and a
very warm welcome to my online watercolor class. Today, we're going to be painting this rather
fabulous hoppety hair. I'm going to be sharing lots of my favorite tips and
techniques with you, such as how to create
the appearance of fur, how to paint those
lovely long whiskers, and the glassy stare in his eye. Hopefully, we'll try and also capture some of his
quirky character. It's a wonderful subject, just perfect for radiant,
luminous watercolors. It might seem a bit
daunting at first, but you're going to
be able to watch over my shoulder as I guide you through it every
step of the way. It's beginner friendly, even if you've never
touched watercolors before, or if you're an
experienced artist, looking for some
different ideas. There's a magical feeling you get when painting
with watercolors. And once you know the basics, it is easy. Anyone can do it. Like any other skill, it just takes a bit of
practice and enthusiasm. I've included a copy
of the drawing in the project resources section so that you can download
it and trace it, and then not worry
about the drawing because this is a
painting class. I am a professional artist, author, and tutor,
and over the years, I've sold a lot of work
across the world and helped hundreds of people to
learn more about watercolor. Art is my absolute passion, and I truly believe that painting is hugely
beneficial for everyone. You can see examples of
my work on my website. My style leans towards
impressionistic and contemporary rather
than photorealistic. I like to explore loose approaches that
bring out the color, light, and essence
of my subjects. I've tried to
replicate this across all the many other videos
that I have on Skillshare. Please don't worry if your painting doesn't
look exactly like mine. Lowry never worried
whether he looked like Van goths or Picasso's. We all have our own unique style just like our fingerprint. And with that understanding, it's time to get on
with the painting.
2. Materials. Drawing. Paint iris and head - first layer. Wet-on-Dry and Wet-on-Wet. Tonal values for 3: Hi there. And a
very warm welcome to my online watercolor class. I'm going to be sharing lots of my favorite tips and
techniques with you, such as how to create
the appearance of fur, how to paint that very glassy
stare of the hair's eye, and an easy way to paint those
long twitching whiskers. I know you're going
to love creating hobbity hair with
his big floppy ears and his big bright eyes. You can either watch
the whole video through and have a good at
the painting afterwards, or you can paint right alongside me as I guide you through it. Now, regarding my materials, these are the ones
that I'm using. But if you have
different colours, then don't be afraid to use the ones that
you've already got. Most of my paints are either transparent or semi transparent, which will allow the white of
the paper to shine through. And this is what gives watercolor
its wonderful radiance. Tend to keep our pat
paints for when I want to cover up the underlying
paper or layer of paint. I've slightly altered
the original photograph, which had his ears at
the top of his head, and I've moved them
a little bit more to the side because I wanted to
create a landscape image, and that's the beauty
of artistic license. And I've included a
copy of the drawing in the project resources section so that you can download
it and trace it, and then not worry
about the drawing because this is a
painting class. I'm making a start by
painting the iris of the eye, and that's because I
want this color to be completely dry before I
paint the black pupil. I'm using quinacadon gold. It's quite a watery mix, about the mixture of tea. I've also got some burnt sienna ready mixed in my palette. Again, that's quite a
watery consistency, although it might not
look here on camera. I'm using the Bertsiena
just to touch in a little bit at this
bottom left hand side, and that will just give
us a little bit of variation and depth in the iris. When I applied the quin
gold, the paper was dry, so I was painting the
wet on dry technique, wet paint on dry paper. When I've added the Bertsiena
into that quin gold, that's been wet paint onto wet paper or the wet
color underneath, which is the wet
on wet technique. I'm continuing to use the
wet on wet technique now by brushing over the head with some clean water
and a larger brush. You haven't used these
techniques before. Here's a little bit
more explanation. The wet on dry
technique is simply painting wet paint
onto dry paper. It allows for more control, stronger color, and crisp hard edges
where the paint ends. The paint will only go
where the brush takes it. Wet on wet technique
gives you less control. First of all, you
wet the paper with clean water and then
apply wet paint on top of the wet
paper and let it spread into the wet wash. Now, this results in a lovely
diffused effect with soft edges. And because the paint mixes into the wetness of the paper, the color is diluted
and the tone is paler. If several different colors
are used in this way, they will intermix and
blend with each other. So when you drop some
blue into a wet, yellow underwash, that will
result in a blended green. Anyway, back to hopety. Now that I've got his
head nice and wet, I'm dropping in some of
that quinacarne gold. And I'm just stroking
the color down using brush strokes that are in the direction that the
fur would normally grow. And I'm leaving little
spaces in between those brush strokes so that I
get some variation of tone. I've got some light colors and some darker color using
the same paint mix. I'm also very aware
of the areas on his face and head that are
much lighter in color. So although the head is very wet and the color is spreading, I'm making sure that I don't go tonier those light
areas with my brush. And if you're wondering
why I'm not going straight in with
some brown paint, like the reference photograph, it's because I like to
build up the color in lace. It gives more depth
to the overall image. And also, my personal style is more impressionistic and
colorist than hyper realistic. And although I may use a photograph as a reference
base to start with, I'm not a slave to it. Do feel it's important
for an artist to develop their own interpretation
of any subject matter. Having said that,
I am now adding a little bit of burnt
sienna into the mix. Now, the quin gold is still wet, so I'm getting
that nice wetting, wet, soft blended look. And that's key to achieving
a fur like appearance. Although I'm adding
the burnt sienna to where the medium tones are, they're not obscuring
that lovely light, queen gold color underneath. And it's by using
these different tones, light, medium, and dark, that we achieve a three
D rounded appearance, which is absolutely
necessary for constructing the head on
a flat piece of paper. So I'm glancing now and then
at the reference photograph, just to check where the
contours of his head are, where the cheek falls over, where the muzzle
starts and ends, and making sure that
I retain some of the light tones in and amongst these dark ones that
I'm adding now. And if this darker color, the Bert Sienna does travel
too much into the light area, you can always lift it off with a damp brush and pat it
with some paper towel. I'm now going to go a bit
off past with my colors. I've got some cerulean blue
and some cobalt blue mixed, and I'm going to intensify the areas where I put
the burnt sienna, where I've got the
darker mid tones. I think when we get to the end of this
painting of hopety, you'll see that his
overall appearance is on the brown side. But adding in these
different colors now just adds that extra bit of
vitality and interest, a little bit of vibrancy. I'm now going to
mix up a little bit of purple, my manganese violet. A point to be aware of is that some of the paint
is starting to dry now. The head that I wet
earlier is not as wet as it was when I first put
that quin gold wash on. So when I'm putting the
purple color on now, adding some more intense
color to these darker areas, the paint is not spreading quite as much as when I
put the first layer on. But I am getting some nice blend into that burnt sienna color, which was the second
color that I put on. I think what I'm trying
to explain here is that even within the
wet on wet technique, there are various
levels of control. If the paper is very, very sopping wet, then the paint will just
flood everywhere. Which might be what you want for something like
a background wash. But as the paint starts to dry, as the paper starts to dry, then you will have more control over how much that
paint spreads. And making the judgments about
when to apply the paint, how thick to apply it, how much water to apply, all of that comes really with time and experience and,
of course, practice. I'm adding a little
bit of very pale, watery cerulean blue
around the eye socket, because it will be in shadow there where it curves
around the brow bone. I'm going to leave his head to dry now and move on
to paint his ears.
3. Paint ears and body. Use directional brush strokes to depict fur; salt to create texture: I'm using the same colors that I used for his
head for the ears, and it's important to have
that continuity of color. I'm using the wet on
wet technique again, so I have pre wet the
shape of the far ear with clean water and then dropped
some quincadon gold into it. Now, you can see
from the reference photograph that this ear at the back is much
darker than the one at the front and has
less detail in it. But at this stage, I want to achieve the
same overall tonal value as the head, albeit
slightly darker. Which means that at this stage, I'm not going to go as dark as it looks
in the photograph. I'm fairly happy
now with the tones and the colors that I've got
on this ear at the back. And I'm going to leave that to dry before I paint the
ear that's at the front. So I'm now going to move
on to paint his body. And once again, I'm
using that wet on wet technique in order to create this fur like appearance. So using my big brush, I've pre wet the paper, and now I'm adding dropping in some of that
quincrodon gold again. Again, using brush strokes in the direction of the fur
the way that it's growing. But I want the color at
the bottom of this shape to gradually fade away
almost into nothingness. I will help to keep the
viewer's eye on the head, which is the main focus of
this particular painting. I'm sort of drizzling in. I can't think of a better
term for it than that, really, but just with
the tip of my brush, I'm kind of drizzling in some burnt sienna over the
top of some of the quin gold. Again, using little
flicking actions to make little fur marks flicking out on the left hand
side of his little body. The area beneath his
chin is in shadow, so I'm adding a little bit
more dark color in that place. And elsewhere, I'm trying
to convey the effect of some light patches of fur in between the
dark patches of fur. To intensify the shadow
beneath his chin, I'm touching in a little bit of that cerulean blue as I
did before on his head. So I've just dropped
a little bit of the blue colour
beneath the chin, and I'm also adding a few
little flecks here and there, where the darker
tufts of fur occur. And then just as I
did with the head, to intensify those darker
tones a little bit more, I'm using little
touches of my purple, the manganese violet that I use. You can use any purple. Doesn't have to be that one. And once again, I'm using
a flicking action to paint those directional
brushstrokes in the direction that
the fur is growing. I'm sorry to keep repeating that and maybe overstating it, but it is a really
important factor. And then coming along his back, I've got a mixture of quin gold and burtsienna on my brush, and once again, using
that flicking action to depict the fur hairs that are just standing
up a little bit. What you don't want is a completely straight
line going down his back. And then before
all that paint on his body completely dries, I'm just going to sprinkle in a little bit of
household salt. You need to use the salt when the shin is just
going off the paper. If it's too dry, it won't
have any effect at all. If it's too wet,
it will just clag. So it is a tricky
little technique, but as the salt dries, it leaves behind little
sparkles of light, and that'll help to
get a little bit of texture and light
into this fur area. Whilst I've been
painting his body, the paint on the ear at the
back is now properly dried, so I can turn my attention
to the ear at the front. Now, this ear at the front has kind of
got three sections. There's a top section
and a bottom section, which are pretty much the same in terms of tone and color. But then you've got
a little strip in the middle where you've got
this white whiskery fur. I'm going to paint the top
and bottom sections of this front ee very much as I've painted the
one at the back. Using the same colors, same tones and same techniques. For the strip in the middle, I will be using
some color on it. It's not absolutely pure white, so it does require some tone, particularly where it
leaves the top of the ear. I'll let you watch
the video along now, and I'll jump in and add some little annotations
where needed. And
4. Lift off or add paint where needed. Magic sponge to lighten/whiten areas; paint black markings: Before we go any further, I'm having a look
at my painting to see if there are any areas where the paint is too dense and it needs to be
lightened or even whitened. And you need to stand back from your painting and make this
assessment of your own work. Although you can use a brush and some water to lift off paint, I want to introduce you to
magic sponge eraser because this little tool works miraculously to remove
unwanted paint. You can use it to
lighten an area that is too dark or even
strip the color right back to white paper depending
on which color you've used because some colors do stain the paper
more than others. Just tear a small
piece of the sponge, dip it in some clean water, then squeeze it to
just damp and rub over the unwanted paint until
the colour is removed. Use a paper towel in between to blot and get the last
bit of paint off, and keep rinsing your sponge
out during to keep it clean or even throw it away
and use a fresh piece. If you accidentally get a
blob of unwanted paint in the middle of your painting or you just want to lighten
the tone of an area, give it some highlights,
this little piece of sponge will become
your best friend. Because it's normally sold as an abrasive
household cleaner, it does tend to rough up
the paper a little bit. So take extra care
if you're painting over the area that you've
sponged with another color. So as you can see, in my case, I've lifted some of the paint
from the top of his head, particularly because the tops of the hairs head are very bony, so I wanted to make that bone a little
bit more prominent. It's also a good time
to see if there are any areas where you need to add some paint and
strengthen the tone, which is what I'm doing now
here on the tip of his nose. I also need to add
a little bit of color to his muzzle
at the far left. And I also need to darken the tone of the underside
of his muscle on the right. Now, yours might be perfectly
fine just as it is. So don't follow what I'm doing now just for
the sake of it. Have a look again at
your own painting. Just stand back and
assess where paint needs to be lifted or where
it needs to be added. But whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of over fiddling. But one little area that we do need to add a touch of cobalt blue to is this small
highlight in the eye. Then you can either leave
it to dry naturally or dry it with a hair dryer before moving on
to the next bit. You can use black
straight out of the tube, but it does tend to look a bit dull and lifeless when it dries. So I like to mix my black using my darkest
blue and my darkest brown. And for that, I've used
ultramarine and burnt umber, and I have added a little bit of Mars black in just to darken
it a little bit more. As you can see, I'm using
the very small pointed brush to use my black mix to paint
the pupil in the hair's eye. I've painted around the
little blue highlight that we put in earlier, and also around the other
little highlight shape, which I'm leaving white. And I'm now painting the
area around the iris. I'm taking my time because this area will be the focal
point of the painting. Because we've got a strong
black and a strong white, that will naturally
draw the viewer's eye in because it's the
strongest area of contrast. I'm just drawing some of that black color out
into the tear duct. And then going round
the rest of the iris, tidying up my lines that
I've put in before, making sure that they're
nice and smooth. But do be careful here that you don't overpaint on
top of the iris. We want that nice big yellow
stair to be very apparent. I always get a bit of a
buzz when I put the eye in because the painting really does start
to spring to life. I'm now using my
strong black color to add the markings
beneath his nose. And those markings go
down between his muzzle, down towards his mouth. I'm going to wet the tip of my brush so that I just soften this black color into a dark medium gray as I
complete the mouth area. And the other little
black area, of course, is this eye that's
furthest away. We can only just see it peeping out there from behind
the brow bone.
5. Paint head, ears and body - second layer - depth and tone. Paint whiskers. Add spatter.: I mentioned at the beginning
how we use layers in watercolor to build richness
of color and depth and tone. And that's what we're
going to do now. I'm not pre wetting
the whole of his head. I'm just pre wetting a slightly bigger area than where I'm going
to add paint to, and that will give the
paint somewhere to travel. And because the area
is slightly wet, it will allow this
second layer of color to blend nicely and
gently into that underlying one and
prevent me from getting too many hard edges
because I'm still trying to achieve that soft,
fur like appearance. I've mixed a dark
black brown using my burnt umber and a little
bit of the Mars black, and I'm using that
to just touch in underneath his eye socket
to darken that tone there. The same process to just darken the area around the
back of his eye socket, so just pre wetting it slightly and then dropping
in my darker color. You can see here on my palette, I've got my dark brown Umber mix and also a black brown mix
just to the side of it. And I'm going to be using these two colors to
continue adding shading, depth of tone where
needed across his head and his ears
and also his body. And it's the same process that I've just showed you
around the eye socket. So just to run
through that again, we basically pre wet an area slightly larger than where
we want to drop paint into. And then we'll just drizzle tiny touches of that darker
color into the wet area. Not too much paint, or it'll cover up all
our lovely light tons that we've just put on. If it does spread into
those lighter areas, you can lift it off
with a damp brush or by patting it
with a paper towel, so you're always in control. So I'm just going to let you
watch the video along now as I continue to add the
second layer of color, building up the tonal values, building up the
richness of color, and adding the
shading where needed. But I'll jump right
back in again when I'm ready to
add final touches, including adding the shading to his eye and those
lovely long whiskers. And d And although the hair's eye is quite starry, this is a little bit too much. And the bony brow bone above the eye will naturally
cast a shadow. So I'm adding a little
bit of shading using some burtsiena just to
the top of the iris. And you can see how
effectively that's just very slightly reduced
the siry appearance. And I'm just very slightly
glazing over the top of that brow bone just to intensify the tonal value there. Some of the whiskers appear
dark and some appear light, depending on what's behind them. So I'm just using a
pencil to first of all, put the darker whiskers on. I've got some on already
from when I did the drawing, but I need a few
more, particularly over this right hand side. And they also have
a few whiskers coming from the brow
bones on the head. For the white
whiskers, I'm using doctor PH Martin's
bleed proof white. It is one of the whitest
whites I have come across, but you can just as easily use some acrylic white
paint or white ink. You could even use some gouache, but it does tend to dull a
little bit when it dries, so you would need to
go over them again. A rigger brush is a good
option for painting whiskers because although a
rigger has very fine point, it does also have
quite long hair, so the brush can
hold quite a lot of paint without
having to reload it. Try to use long
sweeping strokes around the muzzle area rather
than lots of little ones. And then, of course, we've got the little smaller hairs coming out of the top
of his brow bone. And now I'm adding little
touches of white to emphasize the white hairs that are growing
in the frontier. And you can also use this white paint or
ink to lighten or whiten any little areas on the head or body
that's needed. If you didn't manage to paint around the highlight
in the pupil, then this is an ideal way
of popping it back in. I'm adding a few
little whiskery hairs just at the base of the ear
where it joins the head. And a few more just
above that brow bone. And then just to bed the
whiskers into the muzzle, I've got some very,
very pale gray, and I'm just dotting that on
the base of the whiskers, particularly on this
right hand side. There's always a danger of
overdoing this kind of thing, and that's what I
think I've done with the white hairs
in the front ear. So you can just glaze
over with a little bit of watery colour to soften that white in to the
rest of the ear, especially where it's
in the shadow from the way that the ear
falls over on the top. But I'm careful to
leave the tips of these hairs white because as the hairs grow
into the light, there will, of course,
remain that light whiteness. For the background, there are several choices
that can be made. If you leave it
completely unpainted, it can work, but it can also tend to look a little
bit more like a study. If you fill the whole background
in with a lot of color, there's a danger that
that might overshadow the main focus on the hair
and it loses its prominence. So I'm going for a third option, which is just to add a little bit of spatter
around the hair, give him a sort of
sense of movement, and I'm using all the same
colors that I've used in my painting so that the
spatter harmonizes with it. After I've spattered
the paint on, I am dabbing some of the color off with some paper
towel because I don't want the tone of the spatter to be stronger or as
strong as the hair. I want it to be a
little bit weaker so that that spatter looks as though it's in
the background. Another way to
achieve that would be to add more water
to the paint mix. Or you could even spatter some clean water over the
top of the painted ones. Then there comes a time when
you need to stop fiddling, sit on your hands and
call the painting done. I do hope you've enjoyed this painting and that
you've learned some tips and techniques along the
way that you can incorporate into
your own paintings. And why not pop it into
a mount and a frame, and you'll be amazed how good
it looks when you do that? I do hope you've
enjoyed this video, and it's encouraged you to have a look at some of
my other classes. I've got lots of lovely
subjects loaded with more tips and techniques to help you with your own
exciting art journey. I'd really love to see your
own finished painting, which you can upload to
the your project section. And if you could
just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. In the meantime, thank
you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Happy painting. B.
6. HOPPITY HARE FINAL THOUGHTS: Well done on completing our fabulous painting
of hoppety hair. We've covered quite a
few different techniques as you've been following
alongside of me. And importantly, we've developed our own interpretation of
this quirky little animal. Instead of just copying
the reference photos, we've used them in a more
loose and imaginative way. We use the wet on dry technique, putting wet paint on dry paper, use the wet on wet technique, putting wet paint on wet paper. And we added layers
of color to increase depth of tone,
contrast, and richness. We looked at how to
recover the white of the paper using magic sponge and how to add white
to the paper using white acrylic paint,
ink or goahe. I would really love to see
your own finished painting, which you can upload to
the your project section. And if you could
just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. And if you've
enjoyed this video, do have a look at my other
classes on Skillshare, which are packed
with more tips and techniques to help you
on your own art journey. In the meantime, thank
you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you next time Happy painting.
Carrie McKenzie, creating painted visions
