Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi everyone, This
is maker and I'm a watercolor artist based
in Bangalore, India. And I'm also the
founder of by the odd. But in this class we
are going to paint a very beautiful and
realistic flower, which is bird of paradise. And I'll be using my
own picture reference, a photo of bird of paradise, which I took in my mom's garden. So let us go and start
with our painting and I'll be teaching you
everything step-by-step, how to draw it, how to paint it, how to do the larynx, different types of
details and all to get the beautiful and
realistic Duchy of luck. So without any further delay, let's go ahead and
start our class.
2. Materials: All right, so let's go
ahead and have a look at the materials that you will
be needing for this class. So here I have my reference
image that you will need. Then here I have a pencil and eraser because you need
to do the drawing. Here. I have my number eight
round brush from Princeton. Two jars of water here on for washing and
Len, clean water. And then my Winsor and Newton watercolor set which has almost, which has all the
colors that we will be needing for this project. Then I have my 100%
watercolor paper. You can use any brand of paper, but do make sure that
it is a 100% cotton. So that's about it
for the materials. And in the next part we'll go ahead and start with
our flower drawing.
3. Drawing: Okay, so before we
start coloring, we have to prepare our
drawing of our flowers. So this is a picture
that I kept it at my mom's place when her Bird
of Paradise was blooming. And as you can see
here, I'm using a 100% watercolor paper and this is fine-grained,
not very rough. And again, this picture
that I mentioned before, I have turned it into this
black and white image so that it's very easy to see all the lines and it is
really easy to draw it out. We will just be looking at both the references and then we will be
preparing our drawing. Makes sure that your
pencil has a nice point. If you are using a
screen like this, then it is always easy
to zoom in and zoom out. You can also print
it out if you want. You can use whichever
technique you prefer. I'm starting with the stem. Just observe how thick
and how thin, how long, how broad all the shapes
are and that is it becomes easier for you to get
the exact drawing. Or if you're not
comfortable drawing, you can always go
ahead and print it out on paper and then just
go and just trace it. You can use tracing paper or you can put it
against the light. You can use any of the tracing
techniques if you want to skip this part of
appeal of drawing, because it has so many
small, small parts. So that's why I prefer this one. Drawing first and then
going and painting it. But again, it's a
personal choice. You can follow whichever
technique you like. I'm just following the black
and white image because the lines and the shapes are
quite clear in that one. Makes sure that you are
drawing it lightly because you can see through watercolors as watercolors are transparent. So don't draw very, very hard, hard hand and with
a very dark lines, just use the pencil
very, very lightly. Even before we start painting, we just go ahead and
lighten it a little bit. We'll take our Ty Man just
to draw the image first. So if you are driving
along with me, then just follow the sample or the reference image
that you have with you. And That's about the drawing, as I said before, you can either raise it or droid
whichever way you prefer. So this takes editor time
because this flower is very educated and has lots of details and it was
important to get them. All right. I'm
just lightening it up and in the next part
we'll start painting.
4. Painting the Green: Okay, so now let's hop on to coloring and I'm
using my Winsor. And Newton said here, I have the image on my phone to which I
would be referring. And if you're painting
along for your reference, I've also attached the
reference picture here. If that is more convenient
for you because sometimes there could be a
glare of light in the phone. That's why I'll try my
best that it's not there. But if it comes, you can always refer to the picture
on the side. And we'll start with painting
the stem in this part. So we'll be mostly using the green and a little bit of red. You can see in the green
part of this flower. Here I'm using wet-on-wet, that means I'm wetting
the surface first, so I'm just following
the guidelines. Although you might
not be able to see the pencil sketch
that nicely here, but it is there and it
is very light so that the lines of pencil don't
show through the watercolor. So that's why I have done that. Before the water dries, I'm quickly grabbing my sap
green and doing a layoff. Like green. As you can see how softly the color spread
of NVivo wet on wet. The first layer is mostly done. Since we did wet on wet, you can see how smooth
and nice it looks. You can lift up the color from the top part or wherever
you want to show light. Although we are using
a reference picture, but you can still play
around a little bit. Now you can see the red
part, this flower here. As you can see in the reference picture on the green part, there's a very thin red line. So that I'm going to
add in this top bar, and here on the stem, the green part of the stem. So it's very, very, I'm just using the
tip of the brush and applying this color here. It's the crimson
hue from the set. Now wash the brush and carefully blended in because you don't want any harsh lines. Just lifting up a little
bit color from here. Just cleaning your brush, washing your brush and
then picking up the color. I'm wiping it on tissue again, washing your brush
and repeating it till the EGI which you want to clean up or blend in is nice. Again, you can use tissue. Just soak it up. In the top part also, we will be blending the
color a little bit. If it has spread a
little bit more, we have to just pick it up. And then we'll be applying more green and then blending
the two together. Watercolors, It's
always a good idea to go layer by layer. Because as you'll know that it's not very easy to
collect watercolors. You cannot paint over it. You have to be careful
and you have to go slow when you're working
with watercolors. Working in layers. So just keep on
adding the green. This part you can see is
very velvety and shiny. So what do we do is we do some ambulant green
viridian hue. And then we'll be applying that on this top portion to give that radiation the green or
give the look of that shine. The validated touch. Again, you have to
move quickly so that your blend the colors
in there, no harsh lines. And this spot near the stem, you can see I have left white because if you look at
the reference picture, you can see that that
area is almost whitish, are very, very light green. We have to make sure that we
don't put any green there. Now let's add another
layer of dark on it. Then I can let off the viridian
on the main stem as well. I'm mixing a little
black for the VDD and then we'll be doing one
more layer on the stem. This is just a one for a lot of things getting affected
like the lighting, the deed, time when
the photo was taken, the camera quality, etc. So if you want, you
can also refer to a few more images online just to see how the color is actually. Then as per that you can fill in because there's
no right or wrong in this is just how you are
looking at it and how much darker or lighter
you want it to be. Like some people
like to do very, very light washes, so
it's entirely up to you. So I'm mostly done
with this green. And in the next part we'll
start with our orange.
5. Painting the Orange: Okay, So with the stem done, we'd start the flower. Now, again, I'm referring
to my image here. You can use any of those. If you're bleed painting along, you can use your own
reference images printed out or put it on, on your device and
use it. For orange. I'm just mixing the two
oranges which are here, the cadmium red BUN,
cadmium red hue. If you are not comfortable
using the cadmium, you can use other
colors that you have available. For this petal. I'm just using wet on dry because the average
thing to work with. What I'll be doing is
applying a little bit of pigment wherever
I want and then washing my brush and then
just will be blending, blending the color nicely. Friend to the photo.
Wherever I see dark color I have
applied and the rest, I'm just using very less
pigment and move water and then just smoothing it or softening
it up, softening it up. Always big of the extra
color if you have protect. It is called lifting. In the lower part, the color is very light as you can see
in the reference image. So I'm just taking very little
orange and just blending it with some water so that there's a very
light color here. Again, using the
tip of the brush, I'm adding a little
bit more pigment to create the darker parts
of the petal here. These are the lines or the
false that you can see. Wherever there is a folder
color is slightly darker. Okay, So I will be
talking less than painting mode here
because now we have to basically follow
the same technique that we did for
the first bedroom, for all the other
petals as well. So you can just follow
along and paint with me. Okay, so in this one here, there is a bit of more
yellow or lighter sheets. So I'm just putting a little bit of yellow in here along
with the audience. Once the first layer is dry, you can add more pigment and add highlights like
this as I'm doing here. It just using the tip of
the brush and putting darker or bolder lines
on it and not blending, blending it in totally. So that way you'll
get the highlight and the fold effect which you
can see in the flower. Since these two petals
are very, very close. So the one below, this is upside down.
Remember that? So the one which is below, I'm going to put a little
bit of darker color here just to show shared. I'm not adding black
or anything for now. I'm just adding a little bit more pigment of the orange here. The red switch I have in my set. Let's do a little bit
of more Dutch appeal. I have lifted a
little color and then I'm adding more highlights. Always make sure
that even though you are adding the
highlights like this, you won't do very,
very harsh lines. It has to still blend in
with the rest of the flower. Otherwise it will look as if you have drawn lines with a pen. The next round of highlights, so more pigment and mostly detailing may
be going on here. And I think I'll also do
a very light touch up of red and some green
here on the stem. A little bit, not too much. I'm just highlighting
the red here. Using the crimson
hue from my set. I think that's about it, mostly with our
green and orange. And in the next part,
we'll go ahead and start with the blue
parts of the flower. We would also do or whatever
finishing touches are left. And then our painting
we'll be done.
6. Painting the Blue & Finishing: Let's now start
painting the blue or the purplish part of the
bird of paradise flower. I'm just referring to
the outline that we drew before and the
image that I have here. And I'm applying my blue, which is the ultramarine blue. And you can check
in your ballot, whichever is close to the
reference image you have. And you're going
to use that color. The first layer and
a little bit light. And then as we add more
pigment and make it darker, Let's start with the
second layer now. And I'm adding more of the ultramarine and adding it to the lower part
and to the sites. In this part. This one dry and we can
add a little bit of detailing here as you
can see, zoomed it in. We can see already fine, better. He also understanding a
little bit of orange here. Let's add a bit more
highlight to this. The orange petals here. I just want to highlight
the folds and the shadows had swarmed in the image a little bit as I
have it on my phone. Just darkening this a little bit teal and blend a little
bit off the job. You'll notice that your
flower just comes to life. As you add on this, dy dt is our highlights that the darker colors
and fine details. Let's lift up some
more color from here to make it even lighter. Almost white dish. I'm just scrubbing my brush gently and then dabbing it with a tissue to lift the color
up or pick the color up. Using some brown or black, we can add a little
bit of highlights, as I can see in the picture. You can also mix this
black or brown with orange and then add
this highlight. That is like a little
bit dry or dry edges. So that's why it's brownish. I am doing a little bit of more highlighting in
the end on the petals. So just lifting up some color and then adding a
little bit off, highlights a bit more pigment, just using the tip of the brush. When it comes to watercolor, it's all about satisfaction
or your perception, how much more color
you want to add. Or as I said before, you can paint it
very light or you can paint it very dark
however you want. If you want doctors
keep on adding layers. If you want light and just
stop after one or two layers. So just use your own judgment. Refer to your
reference picture or the reference picture that
you have printed out. You can stop whenever you want. I'm just adding a few more
highlights here and there. We are mostly done
with the painting. But sometimes these
finer details that we add in the end just bring
the whole painting to life. That's why it's very important
not to skip this spot. Alright, so that's about it. I think we are done with our
bird of paradise flower. And I hope you enjoyed painting this with me using this
reference picture. And in the next spot
I will just go ahead and tell you about
your class project.
7. Class Project: Alright, so I hope you enjoyed painting
this flower with me. And as your class project, I want you to submit this
exact same painting. And I'm looking forward to your submission if you
have like my class, don't forget to leave
a review for me and follow me and I will
see you in my next class. You have your reference image, you have your drawing, sketch ready with you to help you for submitting
your class project. And this is may come
from by the art board. And I will see you in
my next class. Bye.
Megha Cassandra, byTheArtBug - Artist, Crafter & Educator
