Illustration Masterclass: Exploring Technique and Style

1. Introduction: Welcome to my very first masterclass where I'll take you through a variety of media techniques and illustration styles. You may be drawn to a particular illustration you want to focus on one particular style, or you may decide that you want to experiment and explore all the different styles that are on offer. Either way, this class is really going to work for you. The idea of this class is to explore, experiment, have fun and enjoy the process of coloring in. From spontaneous and bold all the way through to delicate and soft, we experiment with watercolor, colored pencil, lead pencil, ink, pen and brush. Once you've completed your illustrations, you can then use one and create a beautiful personalized gift card for Valentine's day. Now you have a choice. You can either bring color into a character that you've been working on and developing or you can use the illustration that I've supplied. If you like the class or find any of the techniques interesting, please leave a review as this gives the class more visibility on Skillshare so that more people can find it and take part. By sharing a variety of ideas, technique and style, I hope to inspire you to bring some of this into your own work. Explore, play and most of all have fun and I look forward to seeing you in class. 2. The Basics for Watercolour: The first thing I'd like to tell you about other basics, kitchen roll. Always have some kitchen roll on hand. You use this to absorb a loaded brush, whether that's with paint or just with water. But it's also for mopping up. It's always handy to have the kitchen roll on hand at any time that you're doing watercolor. Also, I use a small jar of water and I clean it regularly. If you've got dirty water, you're going to have a dirty result with your painting. So make sure your water is clean all the time. I make sure that when I do a wash and it's slightly green or blue, whatever color you are using, I make sure to clear it out. I don't like to use a deep thing of water because the brushes have a metal base. I don't want the water to be going any higher than this point here, so you can see that only the tip of my brush is in the water. If you were to do any watercolor and to invest in a beautiful, pure sable round brush, now this is a size 10. I use this for all of my backgrounds, large washes, and it is an absolute dream. So I'd get one of those if you are going to do any type of regular watercolor painting. I like to look for a very beautiful sharp tip, and you can actually work with a decent sized brush. As long as you've got that tip there, you can come in and do quite a bit of detail. This area of the brush holds all the color. You can use the tip as well. It's just about becoming more nimble, I guess, with the brush. If he would just start off and you have no watercolor brushes, I would invest in a number 6, a sable if you can. I think the quality of the brush really affects the quality of your end results with your illustration, so a number 6. I'll be painting with a number 3 because I'm doing quite a small painting with these demonstrations. But a number 3, again with a tip would be a really good investment. Although I haven't used this brush in a demonstration, I would highly recommend investing in one of these. It's a liner brush. I use it a lot for my fine outlines. It holds a lot of paints. Rather than getting a short tip for your fine work, I would recommend. You can see how much length there is in the bristles and yet it's still really fine, it has a beautiful fine line. So I'd invest in one of those, absolutely. Most of the time I use these aquarelle paints. I use the artist's quality ones, but you can start off with [inaudible] watercolor in tubes. Now, they seem expensive at the time, but they last forever. So if I buy a tube like this, it may last me 3-4 years, you have to put the lids back on properly and look after them, but they last forever. If I was to use this type of paint, you would only really have to use a small little squeeze at a time and the paint it goes a long way. I'll show you just that small amount of paint, how strong that pigment is. I'll just wash out my brush now. If you are to do watercolor a lot, I would start investing and building up your paints using the tubes. If you just want to test it out, I was given this a lot of my tubes have actually run out. So I was given this as a gift and it's a travel set. It's a Winsor & Newton travel set, and I just use it for the demonstration to show the watercolor and it works beautifully. I've got basic colors in here. You don't have to buy the whole set. You can just use what you have. I would recommend a Winsor & Newton. They're beautiful paints and a small amount go a long way. You don't have to buy anything fancy or new straight away, you can just use what you have. But when you do start buying into the watercolor, I would first of all, invest in the brushes and then slowly build up your watercolor set, but possibly even just try out with a small pallet first to see if you like the colors and the quality of the paints before you start making a full investment. 3. Setting up the illustration: I'll be using a watercolor paper and I'll be using an arch as hot press, which basically means it's going to be a smooth surface to work on. You can see, possibly you can see the watermark there. I've used a large sheet that I've cut down to size and my paper is quite thick. I don't like to stretch my paper even when I'm doing picture books. I'd just like to use a thick paper, a thick watercolor paper, which basically stops it from buckling and curling up when it's wet and then when it dries. Now, if you have got your work in an art form and you want to keep everything tidy, I would still suggest using the water color, and then when you have your little squares, you can then grab a new page and stick them in and possibly even write what methods you used to create those demonstrations. So when it comes to tracing your artwork, you can print out the illustration that I've supplied and you can work out how large you need your squares of paper. So my squares of paper are about 10 centimeters, 100 millimeters wide. Once you've done that, you can cut out your pieces. You can even do it by eye. This doesn't have to be perfect. I like to fold my arches. So I fold it on the line. I use my ruler and I may even fold it the other way as well and just really score the edge well. Once you've scored the edge, you should be able to just tear. Once you have your square, you'll want to trace your illustration onto the thicker paper. Now, it's too thick to see through. So I use a window, so light coming in from a window and I just place my water color paper over the top of my outline and then you'll see the illustration come through. You can use any kind of brown or sepia colored pencil and beforehand I just traced it quickly. So you can say how light have done my tracing. Now the reason for that is that you don't get any hard pencil line coming through the water color. So it's a really good way to just keep all that line work at bay. 4. ILLUSTRATION ONE: Welcome to the Illustration Masterclass, where we explore media technique and style. In this class, I'll be showing you how to use colored pencils to recreate this expressive, energetic illustration style. Once I've traced my illustration onto the watercolor paper, I'm now ready to start my coloring in. The first color that I'm using is the pink madder lake. I'm using a bold line in this illustration, cross hatching in multiple directions, and you can see that I'll be laying over the top multiple colors. Here I'm using a deep cadmium yellow for the hair, and I'm overlaying that with a middle chrome, more of an orange color, and then coming back through with a burnt sienna. So you can see I'm layering in depth of color and building up the shadows and the dark areas. Here I'm using a light skin tone and I'm layering in over the top in this cross hatching style, and it does take a bit of getting used to having quite a strong line for a face or the tone of the face, but it will come together at the end. Over the top of this, I'm using the pink madder lake, emphasizing more of the cheek and the blush area. Now I'm layering in the mid tones, and you can see I'm putting in where the shadows are and the blush of the cheeks. Then layering over the top, I'm using a geranium lake color, which is quite a strong pinky red color, and I'm using a very strong cross hatching, and you can see I'm just layering in the lips. Now with the burnt sienna, I'm coming in and doing the boy characters here, and again, I'm going to be using this technique of cross hatching and multi-layering with the different tones of brown. Using the burnt sienna to outline the head of the hair and the eyes. Rather than going down the route of the blacks and the browns for your deeper tones, I'm going to go for a completely different color. I'm using a king fisher blue for some of my outlining and some of my shadow work as well. I'm trying to see where the shadows might fall underneath the hair line, underneath the eyelids, I might just put a little bit around the side of the face as well. I'm now coming in with a bold scribble line to do the stripes on the boy's t-shirt. I'm now using a selection of reds, the geranium lake and a scholar lake, and coming over the top of the boy's t-shirt and then cross hatching with the deep cadmium color back to the pink madder lake color, the pink, and I'm using that with the geranium lake to fill in the heart shape through the center. Now I'm using a couple of blues to fill in the girls t-shirt. You can see how my cross hatching is following the form of the girls torso and how I'm just bringing it around and across. Here I've got the turquoise green and I'm just following through again. It's all about the layering and adding the depth of color with the different types of blues or read or whatever hue you're doing. You're just adding layer upon layer with this cross hatching technique. So using the deep cadmium yellow, you can see that I'm cross hatching the background, and I'm now coming with an orange, and you can see I'm filling in the girl's hair. I want a deeper color than the background, and I'm coming in again with the scarlet lake red color and just bringing in more depth and shadow around the fringe area. Again, I'm building the shadows and deepening the shadows, bringing in a brown into the boy's hair, and I'm going to work the darker blue. The cobalt blue I've used as an outline for the male figure, and I'm now just following the outline of the girl's hair. I'm using different pressures, here I'm pressing quite hard, but then I lift up my pencil a little bit as well so that the line isn't solid all the way through. It has different variations in strength. You can see how much softer is as you get towards the middle. So that's worth thinking about as well. I've got these blues and I've got pinks, and I've got browns, and yellows, and the pallet's quite unusual, but I think it really works and it's different to what I would normally do. But you just have to be bold with it, and I really quite like the contrast of the colors. Here I have the pink madder lake again and I'm darkening the blush in the cheeks and under the eyebrow area on the boy's face. I want him to be slightly darker in tone than the girl so that it doesn't look like one big clump. They're actually like two individual faces. Here I'm just adding blush to the girl's cheeks as well. I'll bring the pink into her blue top just as another layer, I think it adds interest and those multiple colors are really exciting when it comes to using colored pencil. So finishing off the heart with the derwent scarlet lake, and I'm going to bring that red into the blush of the cheeks and around the outline and the shadow areas of the faces as well. I like to use a particular color, if I've got one in a particular area of a painting. I like to bring it into other areas of the painting as well, so it adds balance. Here I'm backing with a cobalt blue outlining the heart and the t-shirt of the boy, and just working my way through the illustration and bringing in again that cross hatching and that layering and adding that depth to the girl. I'm just going to bring it in line there and a little bit more shadow with the red as well. Just finishing off with the geranium lake red color, I'm now bringing in a deep vermilion. So just using different shades of red and overlaying that cross hatching and building up the layering effect and that depth to the illustration. Once again, I'm bringing in that cobalt blue and I'm outlining the figures and bringing in the blue and the brown for the boys hair, and just giving a little bit of a shadow area around the outlines. So the blue and the brown, I think work really quite well together. Working in the cobalt blue, putting the final cross hatchings in the shadow area of the boy's t-shirt, making the arm more distinct from the torso and working around the heart shape as well, just giving the illustration more depth. Back in with that middle chrome, I want to put in another layer over the yellow background. I'm cross hatching but in all different directions. You can see how I'm just coming in to the outline of the circle, but it really is quite bold and strong in form. Putting in the final touches with that deep vermilion red, and I'm just putting in depth of color to these cheeks, and I'm coming in with that pink madder lake. I think I'm almost there. 5. ILLUSTRATION TWO: Welcome back. In this class, I'll be showing you how to use some colored pencils to recreate this soft, traditional startup illustration. Here I'm picking up the Prismacolor Light Peach, basically a light skin tone. This illustration technique is much more delicate than the previous style. So all the way through you have to think a light and soft because your delicately brushing the pencil back and forth across the paper, you're not putting any weight behind that pencil whatsoever. It's all about patiently building up those layers one after the other. Here I want to add some textural elements using a blunt metal tip of a compass. Now, if you have a ballpoint tipped tool, you can use that. Also ink dried ballpoint pen if that also works well. Basically I'm adding pattern and texture to my illustration. You don't want to tear it up or scratch with a razor. It really doesn't need to be a blunt end. I'm now doing the skin tone of the girl and I'm using the pink metadick and also the Prisma Light Peach Color. I am using the cross hatching technique that we used earlier, but I'm using it in a much more micro way so everything is smaller and more delicate. I'm not pressing harder at all I'm just letting the pencil run across the page and I'm just moving it backward and forward, changing the direction of the line 45 degrees each way. So you can see I'm moving my paper around in order to do this. Now over the top I'm coming in with a slightly deeper color, the raw sienna. I'm doing small lines, again not pressing too hard and just letting the tooth of the paper catch the pigment of the pencil underneath. I'm not putting any pressure on this line at all. Coming in with her geranium lake, which is more of a pinky tone. I'm going to blush up those cheeks of the girl and the boy character. Again using that crosshatching and multi layering, but with a much softer type of line as well. With the same color, I'm going to come across and start building up the color of that heart in the middle. Here I'm just adding in another layer of depth using the deep vermilion red over the top of the previous red. Here I come in with the Derwent Orange Chrome. You can see very clearly the hair of the girl, the markings that I made earlier with that tool. You can see that I have the pattern coming through when I cross hatch over the top. I'm going to build this up so you can see a lot of whitespace, but I'm going to add in a lot of colors and a lot of layers to this. Eventually, it will be smooth and you'll just see the white pressed lines of the hair. Using the cross hatching technique, I am just working my way across all of the girl's hair. Using the Derwent Olive Green, I'm now going to be starting to color in the background. You can see the leaves and the vine shapes that I've developed using the compass tool, the metal tip. You can see how they come through. Once again, there's a lot of white gaps with my crosshatching at the moment. I'm going in very random directions, just layering in. I'll come over this with different colors and multiple layers and eventually it'll be a smooth, rich color. You'll see much more clearly the patenting work at the end. So using the Derwent Bronze, I'm coming across over the top of that previous color and I'm also filling in the boy character's hair. Also going across the girls here with the two figures overlap. I want to see that overlap feel as well. I'm going to use this darker bronze color to outline the eyes and the eyebrows and just start finalizing the edges of the character's faces. Using a soft sky blue, I'm going to start putting my first layer of the girl's outfit together, which is coming in and crosshatching very softly. I'm also going to place that same color on the the boy's outfit. With light violet color, I'm going to start layering a midtone. I have a zigzag pattern that I created when I press my metal tool. I can see that pattern emerging as I'm adding in these layers. So I'm actually going to define that pattern by more of a heavier color on every other zigzag stripe. So you can see that pattern starting to form. Using the Kingfisher Blue, I'm going to draw in the area between the leaves. You can see how that patterns really coming into its own now. The pencils much more solid and you can still see the layers of those olive colors coming through. So it's really got this really nice depth of color and layers bringing in this new layer over the top. I'm just working my way around every single leaf. You can see how this does take time, but I really think that It's worth it. You do have this lovely richness to this style of illustration when you do add in the layers and layers of color. Using that same Kingfisher Blue, I'm going to start working on the boy's t-shirt or top. I think I've put lots of dots. I've pressed lots of dot pattern underneath and I can start seeing that forming. I'm just finishing off the background and adding a little bit of shadow under around the edges of the t-shirt and also under the chin area. Now crosshatching and adding more depth. Back in with that olive green that I used in the background. I'm going to bring some of that into the boy's t-shirt as well. Just adding another layer of depth and color. Using the orange chrome, I'm going to build the color in the girl's hair. I'm just working my way through with just using the same shape around the edges of the hair. So forming a bit of a contour and I'm doing the same with a burnt sienna in the boys here. You can see how the scratching that I did earlier, you can see that it's coming through really quite nicely now. Just like I did with her top, I'm going to do the same technique and every other line of hair I'm going to dark and so that we have a bit of contrast and a bit more interest. Here I'm using that deep vermilion red. I'm just coming in and placing in another layer on the heart shape. Just working my way around the edges of the heart more than the center. It may seem like a strange color choice, but I think it will work quite well. This Kingfisher Blue that we've used in the background, I'm going to bring in as part of the line work over the top of the brown sienna. I'm going to bring in a deep vermilion as well and do a little bit more shadowing around the eyes, underneath the eyebrow and the ellipse as well and just adding a bit more of a pink and a blush to the faces of both characters. I'm crosshatching and blending the edges of the girl's face and bringing much more of a contour and working my way around. You can see that the part where they both overlap, I'm darkening that all over. I really want that to stand out and look like an overlap. You can see I'm using the red in the top as well as a bit of the outline of her face as well. You can see how the purples and reds and blues, they worked so beautifully with the colored pencil. I'm just putting in an outline around the edges of her face and defining, tidying up the edges of the illustration. The Derwent Bronze is a really nice color because it's not a black or a really strong brown. It's a really lovely soft tone and I think it really the style of illustrations, quite soft and delicate. I think a strong black or contrasting color would be too much. I think the softer tones in this, all of the grain Bronze II color works really well. I'm just putting in a bit of contouring on the boy's head and working the line work around the girl's hair as well. Using the same color, that bronze I'm working another layer in that background. We've probably got about four different colors and that background pattern, and just coming in with another layer with the Kingfisher Blue. You can see the original colors in the leaves and how the leave have really come to life knocking back that background with a deeper tone with those blues and Brahms and browns and olives colors. They also work really well together. I'd like that depth of the color on the other side of the illustration. So I'm just bringing that in to this side as well and just outlining and contouring the boy and his top, giving him a bit more of a three-dimensional look. With both the blue and the bronze color. You can see the nice dotted patterning underneath his t-shirt as well. I'm just controlling the girl and now. You can see the edges. I'm just darkening the edges of her torso and the edges of her arm. I'm just finishing off with the eyes and working my way around the nose and cheeks. Just bringing in that extra depth of color. You can hardly see much difference between what's underneath. It really is very subtle. This whole idea is to not press hard and not force anything. It's just layering in tone after tone. You can see it ever so slightly and it really does look very soft and feathery at the end. It's really worth putting in all those layers and all that effort with layering and the different colors. Using the golden brown, I'm putting in final layer on the boy's face and just finishing up some details. Here we have it. 6. ILLUSTRATION THREE: Welcome back. In this class I'll be showing you how to use colored pencils to create this playful, expressive style of illustration. The whole approach to this illustration is to be playful. To be playful like a child, and to show no fear. It's about being bold, not being perfect, and just being silly on the page. It's silly with a bit of precision as well. You can't go outside the lines. You can be playful, you can play around with textures and colors and scribble to a point where you are trying to bring this illustration together in an adult way, but you want to have this feeling of childlike fun. Here I'm using the deep vermilion red color and I'm just bringing more texture in line to the hair of the girl and I'm going to extend it across to the boy's hair as well. Now I'm going to be using the Venetian red and I'm going to color in the rest of the boys hair. Any which way goes, there's no rules really with this style of illustration. It's just bringing in and using the different tones of the pencil. Not just using one color, but using a layering of color just adds more depth to the illustration. Using the burnt yellow ocher to outline the eyes and the nose, basically the outline of the features on the face. The eyebrows, the bridge of the nose and just working my way around. The pencil is quite sharp, the line is confident and here I've just got deep vermilion where I'm just finishing the lips. While I've got the red, I'm going to do lines for the boy's t-shirt. I'm now picking up the pink matter color and I'm going to do almost like a scribble for the girl's t-shirt. Being so scribbly, I'm just going to come in under the chin and tidy up the outline around her face. I might as well extend this and use the pink to outline all of her face and just tidy up the edges and do a little bit of shading. It's nothing like the other pencil styles we are using, it's much more free forming and playful. Just think of that childlike feeling of coloring in and scribbling and enjoy this whole process. Just finishing the blush on the cheeks before I move to a deep cadmium yellow. I'm going to add this to the background. Once again, I'm using that confident line, just scribbling any which way, overlapping ever so slightly and being careful around the edges, I do want my characters to have a distinctive, so smooth edge. But I'm in between those edges. I'm having fun and I'm being expressive with my line and just basically being a child again with this playful style. I'm going to bring that yellow on top of that pink for the girl and just tidy up around that heart area as well. This cadmium yellow is such a sunshine color. It's really bright and it really offsets the pinks and the reds beautifully. Now I'm going to bring in the scarlet lake, the red and I'm going to just finish off the heart with a couple of strong scribbles. A little bit of cross hatching, a little bit of shading and darkening around the edges and I have a lovely heart sing in the center of those characters. I'm going to bring that stronger red to some of the illustration, the outline of the girl's hair, scribbling a little bit of shadow in her hair as well. I will also outline part of the boy's face around his face in the red. You can take this any which way you want, I'm just using what is coming intuitively, what feels right. Just do what feels right and what you think would look good. The balance of color, I think if you've got red in one part of the illustration. It's sometimes nice to bring in that red into another area as well. Here we are. 7. ILLUSTRATION FOUR: Welcome back. In this class, I'll be showing you how to use watercolor and pen to recreate this sweet whimsical style of illustration. The first thing I do with this illustration is I'm using a number 3 watercolor brush and I'm wetting the area that I want to work with. I'm wetting where the skin tone is going to be. You can see, I'm now mixing the yellow ocher. There will be little bits of the scarlet, the red in there as well. This will be the color mixes that I use throughout for the skin tone of my characters. You can add deeper colors and try different browns and adding brady yellows and possibly even purples and other different colors. But just for simplicity, and just because it's the first class that I am working with skin tones, I'm going to stick with these as my basics. You can see I've just edited tiny little dots of the scarlet in the cheek area. I want the watercolor to do its own thing. I want it to work hard for me. I am tidying up a little bit around the area I don't want it bleeding all over the place and making everything red. I just want it in that pink area. Now you can see how the girl face is totally dry. It has to be bone-dry before I attempt to do the overlay color for the boy's face. This might take a five-minute break. That you can have lots of tea breaks while you doing watercolor, which is a good thing. I'm doing that same process again. I'm just wetting with clean water using my number 3 brush and I'm wetting the area over the boy's face and only the area that I want to have filled with paint. Now, I'm coming in with yellow ocher and you can see I'm overlaying the girl's skin tone as well, and you can see that is a deeper color in that area there, and the girl's skin tone because it's dry, it's staying exactly where I put it. If it was wet or even damp, it would bleed in and it wouldn't have the same effect. This is almost like wet on dry if you'd be so technical about it. Now, I'm bringing in that scarlet lake red tone, and I'm just dropping in that color in the cheek area where I want to have a little bit of blushing the cheeks. Again, the watercolor is a wonderful thing, it works hard for you. It'll blend and do its own things. Now, once I've got my cheeks formed, I'm just tidying up the areas while it's still wet, but then I let it dry. I let the paint not dry, it doesn't have to be bone-dry at this point, just a little bit dry before I bring in the burnt sienna. I'm just dipping the tip of my brush and the burnt sienna and I'm dragging it around the edges of the boy's face. This is just forming a little bit of a shadow that will blend in with the rest of the skin tone. Here I'm using the transparent yellow and using the number 3 brush I'm just pulling thin lines to create the start of a pattern on the girl's dress. You can see that I'm just being not perfect with it, just enjoying the process of the lines. You can see my water is clean, and I'm just placing water in the area of the boy's hair, where I'm now adding in a burnt sienna. Basically just coloring in just a bit thin coat of the burnt sienna. I want to have another color work through that. It's not just a flat burnt sienna, I'm bringing in the ultramarine and I'm just dabbing ever so slightly, a small amount of ultramarine around the edges, which will add a shadow effect and a little bit more interest than just a flat color. Here, I'm now mixing an ultramarine and there is a little bit of the sap green in that palette as well, so that might come through, but it's ultimately a blue color. I'm just dragging, you can see I'm dragging the number 3 brush with a full loaded brush across the stripes of the boy's t-shirt. I'm dragging it in one particular direction and the reason for doing that is that I've got a lot more color on the right-hand side of this t-shirt, and you can see how this is forming a three-dimensional effect. I'm just propping up my illustration so that the color falls and dries into that right-hand side, which will create a really lovely shadow. Now, I'm mixing a little bit of the winsor yellow and the scarlet lake and making us an orangeish color. I'm just mixing a little bit of yellow ocher in there as well, and I'm dragging the number 3 brush and I'm dragging it across the girl's outfit. You can see I'm holding my illustration up so it's on an angle and all that watercolor and that pigment falls to the right-hand side the same way as the boy's t-shirt as well. You can see that shadow forming on that right-hand side on both the boy and the girl's outfit. Now I'm using the yellow ocher and I'm washing it down quite a bit in the palette, adding extra water, and I'm going to work on the area of the forehead and the bridge of the nose. You can see I'm just using mainly water at this point, adding a little bit of yellow ocher now, and I'm just blending this in. You can see I'm putting more of the color, the yellow ocher and scarlet through that center part where the two faces overlap. I'm just filling in the outline of the eyes, the center of the ears, the mouth, and working my way around with the tip of my brush around the edges of the nose and adding a little bit more shadow as well around the girl's face. Now, I'm taking some water, clean water, you might need to change your water at this point, and I'm just dragging the water around the background area where I want to lay in some color. I'll be doing a wet-on-wet technique using the sap green and ultramarine mix. You can see I'm not making it too strong. Really think about the opacity of the color, and you can always have a separate piece of watercolor on the side and test it out if you need to. I'm just dragging that color over the top of the wet paint, and I'm just been quite careful trying to stay between the lines and just filling up that background with a solid a man of color. It's not too thick either. It's got a nice translucency to it. While I still have the color on the tip of my brush, I'm just dragging it around the edges of the girl's outfit. It's just adding a tiny bit of shadow and also some reflection from the actual background color. Now I'm adding a bit more of the water on the boy's forehead and I'm going to wash in a little bit of yellow ocher. There are proper hints at the scarlet color in there as well. I'm just dragging across the top of the forehead under the hairline, adding a bit shadow and I want the nose bridge to be lighter, so I'm just using more water and less paint as I work my way down to the tip of the nose. While I still have this color on the tip of my brush, I'm going to work my way around the edges of the boy's face. This is almost like a second layer over the top of that first wash that we did. It's just defining the edges of the face, adding a bit of three-dimensional as well. I'm now using that same color and I'm just blending it in with the rest of the face and just adding a few highlights, I guess, in the middle of the ear, around the eyes. I'm just outlining the edges of the nose and just defining parts of the illustration. Here I'm working my way around the nose where the girl is. I'm just making sure that I again, defining her face as well. I'm just making sure that we have a nice neat looking illustration. Now I'm using the scarlet color and I've added water, and I'm just dragging this through the heart shape in the center of the characters. Now I'm back using that Winsor yellow, that lovely golden yellow. I'm adding water and making it in between cream and milk consistency and I'm dragging this color onto the dry paper, I'm not wetting the paper upfront. I'm putting it straight onto the dry paper and you can see the direction that I'm pulling the brush. It's the same direction that I did when I did the boy's t-shirt and the girl's top. I'm pulling towards the right-hand side and this will help with that shadow and here I'm adding a bit of a scarlet red and I'm dragging it over the top of that yellow color. You can see that I'm tilting my paper up so that when the color falls, it will fall to that right-hand side. You can see while the paint is wet, I can still move it around in that area that is wet. Now I want to have a bit more darkness towards that right hand side, which will create a bit more of a shadow. I'm just mopping up the extra paint because if it dries, it can sometimes bleed back into the illustration. I'm going to make sure that with a clean dry brush that you mop up all those paddles. Here I'm now taking a mix of the sap green and the translucent yellow and I'm forming a leaf pattern for the background of this illustration. It's a wait on dry technique and there's quite a lot of fine work in here, but it's also quite a bit of fun to add a bit of interest and depth to the illustration. I think this detail and pattern really adds to this style of illustration and you can see the girl has a checkered pattern on her top. The boy has a stripy pattern and this is just another layer of pattern for the illustration. I'm now using a yellow ocher mix and I'm coming in and outlining onto the eyes, the mouth, and the facial features of both characters. Now here I'm taking a little bit of the Windsor blue and the sap green and forming a bit of a mix. I don't want it too dark, I want to keep it quite light and I'm just going over the boy's stripes. I want them to be a bit darker than what they were previously, so I'm just adding in another layer over the top of what is dry underneath and I think that works much better than the lighter blue that was under there. Here I'm mixing the scarlet red and the Windsor yellow and I want to create a color for the girl's dress. I wanted to define the dress and make it a bit stronger than what her face and that color is. I don't like the color so you can see the paint is still wet and I'm just pulling that wash down while the paint is wet and dragging it across. I want to form that, so shadow will effect again, so I'm putting most of the paint on that right-hand side and I'm going to tilt my illustration and leave it to dry with that right-hand side facing down. For the line, I'm going to use my aerocolor brown Brazil Ink and a white gel pen. I bought an aerocolor color box set, and in the box set came these refillable pens. You can buy them separately as well, and I think they're really worth investment. Basically, you can fill these pens up and refill them with any color ink that you want. I really think with some illustrations, it's so much nicer to have a colored line as opposed to a black line. I think with this style of illustration which is quite soft and delicate, the watercolors are very subdued. I thought a brown line would work much better than a really harsh black line. The line is also a solid line and it isn't variable like if you used a dip pen, so I think the softer color really works with this illustration and it ties in really well with the colors that I've chosen in the watercolor itself. Here I am just working my way around all the leaves and all the background textures. I'm just rotating my illustration rather than dragging my hand across the page, I want to keep my hands free from touching the paper and this goes with any illustration that I do. I'm moving my illustration around rather than moving my hand across the page. You can see I'm adding in stripy details to the boy's hair, I'm just working my way outlining the nose, the facial features, and anything that had a pencil line, I'm filling in with this brown color. I've decided to put a bit of texture in those leaves as well and so echoes the stripy texture that I have in the boy's hair. You can choose to do the same thing or just leave it plain like I had it before. I'm just bringing the stripes in with the boy and now I'm using the white gel pen to add a little bit more interest on a girl's hair. Same stripy texture but in white and I'm also finishing off the pattern in her dress. Here we have it, the completed illustration using the pen and the watercolor. 8. ILLUSTRATION FIVE: Welcome back. In this class, I'll be showing you how to use watercolor and colored pencil to create the simple textural style of illustration. To begin this illustration, I'm starting with the yellow ocher and scarlet. I'm making a mix with water, and I'm going to place the watercolor directly onto the dry watercolor paper. So this is wet and dry technique. I'm just washing in the area of the girl's face. I'm now dropping in little dabs of scarlet lake into the cheek area. You can say I'm dabbling a little bit of the wet of the brush, and I'm just tidying up around the edges so that it doesn't bleed out too much. Then I'm going to drag in a little bit more of that mix of the yellow ocher and scarlet lake, and I'm just going to come in while the paint is still wet, I'm coming in, and just deepening the color around the edges where I want the shadow areas. Once the female character is completely dry, I can then go over the top with the boy character. They slightly overlap, and you can see I'm putting the wet watercolor paint across the dry paper. A wet and dry technique, and I'm just dragging the paint across using the number 6 brush in the area that I want the paint to be. Using the paper towel to dry my brush and help lift up the puddles of extra paint that form. Using the scarlet lake red, I'm dabbing an area for the blush of the cheek. Now, I'm using the yellow ocher and the scarlet lake color, adding a bit of water, and I'm going to continue with this skin tone. Now that the previous two blocks of color are completely dry, I'm going to do the forehead, and then the bridge of the nose of both characters. I don't want this as dark as the previous color, I'm just slowly adding in and dabbing in a lighter tone of that yellow ocher, and the scarlet lake red. Once dry, I'm now mixing transparent yellow, and I'm going to start blocking in the female character's top. Using my paper towel to mop up any extra paint. Next, I'm going to mix winsor blue, and there's a little bit of a set green in there as well. I'm going to drag the brush across with quite a decent amount of the blue on the brush, and I'm going to drag it across and make fixed stripes for the boy's t-shirt. You can see that I'm tilting my illustration ever so slightly, so that the watercolor pulls down on the right-hand side forming a shadow. Using raw umber, I'm filling in the area of the boys hair. Now, you can see this whole process is putting the wet watercolor until the dry paper. I'm working my way around, I'm just doing the other side of the boys hair and just dragging that paint across with a number 6 brush. Just tidying up the edge there. Once the boy's hair is completely dry, like bone dry, I can then load up my brush with the winsor yellow, and I'm adding a little bit of the scarlet lake as well, and I'm going to start working and mixing the paint of the girls hair directly onto the paper. So you can see I've got a nice orange color, and I'm working fast enough that the paint doesn't dry underneath me. I'm just going to work my way around and fill that whole area with a solid block of color, the mix of the yellow and the red. Using a number 3 brush, I'm going to grab a mix of the yellow ocher and the raw umber, and I'm going to mix that with a bit of burnt sienna as well. I'm just forming a different shade of brown. I'm going to use this brown to outline the areas on the face and the eyes, the mouth, and in the dark of the ears, using the same color to fill in the area of the boy's hair, overlaying the burnt umber across the orange color of the female character. The scarlet lake and the winsor yellow, I'm going to fill in the area of the heart. I'm just using the wet paint on the dry paper and setting a bit of water and mopping up the extra paint that I don't need. Using a mix of ultramarine and sap green, I've made a nice blend, a nice amount of paint that I've mixed in my palette. I'm just working my way around the outside area of the painting, and you can see I've tilted my illustration upon my palate. So you can see that I'm forming a bit of a pool of paint down the bottom, and I'm using this pool and dragging from that pool, and that's how I form more of a flat background color. Finishing off the background with the area between the characters in the heart. Once the watercolors completely bone dry, I can then come in with my colored pencil. Here I'm using the orange chrome and I'm using short scribble marks, just working my way from one to the other, almost like a weaving, like a tapestry type of feel. Just working my way around the orange hair of the girl. Using a derwent gold color, I'm now going to work on the female characters outfit. I'm going to use that similar scribble effect. The short scribble, all the scribble marks are heading in the similar direction so that it forms a tapestry woven effect. I'm just going to outline the edges of her outfit as well just to give them more definition. I'm now doing a similar thing to the boy's outfit using for derwent cobalt blue color. I'm outlining his top and I'm just coming in where he has the blue stripe and going across with a similar pattern, that short scribble in that blue area. Using the deep familiar red for the heart. The green in this background is quite dark. What I'm going to do is lighten it ups. I'm choosing the may green, and it's a lighter tone of what's already on the page. Again, I'm using that short scribbled technique just to add a textural effect, working my way around the entire background. Now that I've got the lighter green, I'm coming with a slightly darker green, a sap green, and I'm going to do the same effect in reverse using that same short scribble effect, I'm going to work my way around the background, creating and building on this textural, a tapestry effect with the darker green on top of the lighter green pencil, adding a lot more interest to the background. I'm going to do the same with the derwent raw sienna. I'm going to use this scribble effect, and it doesn't seem quite right to have such a textural effect on the skin, but when it all comes together, it really does work. I'm going to start off with a girl, and you can see I'm slightly contouring the scribble marks, and they're slightly smaller and shorter and finer than what I did on the hair on the background. I'm coming in with a little bit of a cross hatching thing as well. So just building up the layers and working my way around the edges of the face as well, just blushing up the cheeks with the pink madder lake color. I'm going to do a similar thing on the male character using the light peach color just to have a different skin tone to what the girl's skin tone is. Now, I'm going to bring in that pink madder lake color, and I'm going to blush out the cheeks of the boy. I'm going to use the same pink and outline the boy's face and also his features. Just working my way around. The outline of his nose, the bridge of the nose, the arch of the eyebrows, and the mouth. I'm now using the conner beech brown color, and I'm going to outline his hair, putting in a bit of texture, and overlaying his hair with her hair with the color and texture, and also working in that same color in for the female, for the girl outline of her eyes, and her face, and her hairline just joining that hair line up with the boy's hair line. I'm also going to use it for the mouth and her nose. The bridge of her nose and his ear, and her ear. Putting the final touches using the sap green, and just defining the edge of the girl character, her hair and her outfit, and working that edge around the heart as well, and just defining those edges and finishing up the illustration with the sap green and the deep vermilion red. 9. ILLUSTRATION SIX: Welcome back. In this class I'll be showing you how to use watercolor and colored pencil to recreate this soft, classic style of illustration. So for this illustration, I'll be using a slightly different watercolor technique, where I'll be loading a lot of the color on, and then I'll be wishing washing my brush and pulling that color off before the paint dries. It's a really lovely technique, and that you may or may not want to cover with the colored pencil. So the first thing I'm doing is mixing that yellow ocher and scholar at Lake to form a skin tone. I'm washing the entire area of both faces and just keeping it quite wet, loading the paint right on, and then you can see I'm using nice clean water and cleaning my brush and dragging a lot of that paint off. So you can see how much lighter the paint is through the center and how it's getting darker towards the edges of the face. I'm now going to do the same with a translucent yellow. I'm loading quite a lot of the paint and water in the area that I want the color to be, and adding Scarlet Lake. I want that color to be quite rich and bold, and just filling up that whole block area where the girls t-shirt will rest. Once I have the color, dark enough and strong enough in the area that I want, and then washing my brush clean, dabbing it dry with a paper towel and pulling a lot of that color back off. You can see how it forms in almost three-dimensional look. I'm now going to use the Windsor blue and do a similar thing with the boy's t-shirt. I'm putting quite a lot of the paint on the area that I want to be blue, and just filling up the area. So I'm working with wet paint on a dry background. I'm adding a little bit of the yellow ocher in with the blue. I want it a little bit more of a green tone in that paint, just mixing it all up on the paper, and then I'm washing my brush and pulling the center of that paint while it's still wet, I'm pulling a lot of that paint back off. So I'm doing a very similar thing with the girl's hair. I'm grabbing the yellow ocher color and I'm going to use this and mix and burnt sienna in with the yellow ocher actually on the illustration. I'm working quite quickly, moving the color around before it dries. Here, I'm also adding a bit of the Scarlet Lake and just basically mixing the right color for the hair directly onto the illustration. I'm moving around all the areas that I need that color to be, and once I have the color that I want, I'm cleaning my brush and wetting it, drying it, then pulling the color away from the illustration. Once dry, I'm going to mix a bit of the burnt sienna and do the same kind of thing with the boys hair. Now, it's a small area. So if I think I've drop down in size with the brush and now on a number 3 brush, and I'm putting quite a lot of paint and pigment onto the area, and then cleaning my brush, dabbing it dry, and then pulling the paint off from the center of that area. I'll do the same on the other side. So I'm filling in the area with the color, quite high pigment of the color, and once they fill that area and the paint's still wet, I depth might brush dry. It's clean and pull the paint off. So here I am with the Alizarin crimson and Scarlet Lake mix, and I'm doing the same for the heart. I am filling in the area of the heart shape with quite a lot of pigment and washing my brush and brushing it dry, and then I'm pulling that paint back off from the center of that heart. It will start forming more of a three-dimensional kind of feel. I'm now using ultra marine and windsor blue as mix, and I've mixed quite a large amount of paint. I don't want to run out of that particular color while I'm using it. I'm using the small number three brush, working my way around quite quickly. So the watercolor doesn't actually dry. I'm using a dry paper, going straight onto the paper with my watercolor. So wet and dry, just working my way around and just slowly pulling the paint towards me and turning the illustration so that I have this nice rhythm going. I'm just adding more paint and moving my way around at the outside of the illustration. You can see I'm tilting my paper up, so that the water color doesn't bleed back on itself. It's always pulling at the bottom where I'm pulling the paint towards. So it's a really good technique just to try and practice and get more out of. As I come to the end, I'm not adding any more watercolor, I'm just finishing off, and I may need to depths if it's pulling down the bottom, you may need to depth some of that away. So just filling in the background area. Here I'm using the skin tone that I've been using all along, which is the yellow ocher and the Scarlet Lake mix. I'm mixed quite a bit on the side, but it's quite diluted. It's not strong. As the other times that I've had a color in this illustration. I've got most of the color on the tip of the brush. Now, this helps with creating a sort of graduation from dark to light. So I'm just working my way around the edges of the features and the face. I'm just working my way around the nose and the eyebrows of the boy face. Just adding in water as I need it, and just highlighting the mouth, that dark part of the ear and underneath the eyes using the same color, that skin tone color. So I have been sienna as I want the eyes to be a little bit darker, and the mouth areas as well. So I'm just using those to go over the features of the face that I want highlighted. Now I'm using yellow ocher and Scarlet Lake, and I'm working my way around the edge of the girl's face. You can see I'm putting a little bit more of a shadow on her skin, and working my way up and graduating that color from dark to light. So they forms a bit more of a the three-dimensional look, and I'm doing that all around the side of her face, and also the edges of her nose. Working around all the edges and just blending the graduation with the skin tone for the girl. Using the Derwent bottle green color, I'm going to work my way around the edges of the boy's t-shirt, and I am using a very sharp pencil, I'm not pressing hard at all. I'm doing a slight cross-hatching technique, and I'm basically just going to work my way around the edges. I really want to bring it, so the graduation from light to dark and creating it, so the contour for the edges of all the areas in this illustration. So It's just working lightly and building up the layer with this cross-hatching effect. Here I've got the Derwent water green, which has a much lighter green, and I'm filling in. Because it is the lighter color, I'm coming through the center a little bit and also overlaying on the bottle green that I previously laid down. Using light peach color for the skin tone, I'm going to do that same effect. I've got a very sharp pencil and I'm firmer near the edges and lightening my touch as I move the scribble towards the inside of the face. So I'm pressing firmer, and then lighter, the further that I go. So here I'm using burnt sienna and I'm outlining and defining the edges of the boy character. I'm just going to work my way around the side of his face and hair, and I'm just pressing ever so slightly with quite a sharp pencil. I'm doing the same with the raw umber, just coming over the top. I want a slightly different color in here. I'm pulling that same color around the edges of the girl's face, adding more definition. So slowly and carefully, I'm going to work my way around all the edges of the characters. You can see how sharp my pencil is, and I'm working around the eyes, the nose, the bridge of the nose, the eyebrows, and working around all the areas of both characters and defining the edges of the entire illustration. Using the burnt sienna, I'm working my way around the boy character's hair, under the eyes, the mouth, just adding where I feel it needs to be a little bit darker, the edges of the girl's hair and her outfit, and just darkening around the facial features as well. So now, I'm moving back to the skin tone and I'm using the light peach Prismacolor. I'm working my way around using the idea of pressing harder, and then softer, trying to build in a graduation from the outer edge to the center of the character's face. Using a raw sienna, I'm working on the girl's top, so I'm coming in. I'm dark around the edges and I'm lightning the pressure as I work my way towards the center of her top and I'm going to do the same on both sides. So darker on the edges and putting less pressure in, so that the colored pencil is lighter as it meets the center of the illustration. So now, I'm going to bring a bit of that pink meta like color into the girl's face. You can see how sharp my pencil is and how light I'm pressing. It's just about brushing the tint and the color over the top with a cross-hatching effect. I just want to add a bit more depth to her face, and just add to the watercolor pigment, which is underneath, with adding a layer of the pink over the top. Using raw sienna color, I'm once again, just adding another layer to the top of the pink. I think all of these different colors and tones that you add and layer in, really do add depth to the illustration. Once again, I'm bringing that pink in around the edges and just adding. It's subtle, but I think it does really make a difference. Now I'm onto the boy character and I'm using brown ocher color. My pencil is sharp, I'm not pressing very hard, I'm just doing really delicate cross-hatching and I'm focusing on the edges. So the edges of the face, the edges around the nose and under the eyebrow, and I'm just creating this three-dimensional feel by contouring around the edges of the character's face. I'm using a raw sienna and coming over the same edges again. You can see I've got two very different skin tones for the boy and the girl. I'm using the pink madder lake now, and he was looking a little bit [inaudible] green, so I'm just pinking him up a bit, freshening him up with a pink madder lake color. Still, I'm just building the tone, that color, and the layers with a very soft layer of pigment each time. While I have the pink, I'm going to bring another layer of color into the girl's top. Again, I'm doing a very delicate cross-hatching, mainly concentrating around the edges of the form. Using a Venetian red, I'm doing the same effect with the boy's hair, pressing harder around the edges of the shape and softer as I move towards the center of that shape. I'm layering this with a golden brown and I'm just doing another layer, moving the pencil lightly across the area. My pencil is quite sharp and I'm just bringing the color backward and fourth, and just building up the color and the layer of the boy's hair. I'm doing the same with the golden brown color, I'm moving across the top of the water color of the girl's hair. So you can see how the watercolor lays really nice base color, then the pencil over the top just adds a little bit more depth, interest, and texture. So I am just working my way across, not pressing harder at all, just brushing my pencil back and forward across the top of that watercolor. So now, I'm using middle chrome, which is a light orange, and once again, I'm moving across the form of the girl's top and just adding another dimension by adding another layer of color over the top of what's already there. Using the pink matter, I'm bringing in a crimson lake, and I'm doing the same effect for the heart to finish off this illustration. So really lovely emphasis on those tones from light to dark. 10. ILLUSTRATION SEVEN: Welcome back. In this class I'll be showing you how to use watercolor and ink brush outline to create this playful, spontaneous style of illustration. Using the wet on dry technique. I haven't wet the paper or prep the paper at all, I am using a thick brush, a number six brush, Seibel and I'm using that ultramarine and sap green mix which I've previously mixed in the color. Now, I've made sure I've got enough colored to last me my entire background and I'm not going to overwork this at all. I'm just laying in the color and then I'm just going to leave it. I'm now, mixing a sap green and I'm going to fill the area of the boy's t-shirt. Now make sure that the background is completely dry before you attempt this next section. Otherwise, the two colors are going to blend together. Now for a mix of yellow, ocher and scarlet lake, I'm going to be moving this color across the girl's outfit. I am going to use the same color, and fill in the area for her hair and you can see just how fast I'm working. I'm not really coming in and tiding up or cleaning up anything, I'm just moving this pen across quite quickly. I decided to darken the t-shirt a little bit with with that scarlet lake color and I'm just going to leave that to dry. All of that scarlet color, I'm filling in the area of the heart shape in the center. I'm now grabbing a bit of a burnt sienna, and I'm going to fill in the areas of the boys here. Using my number 6 brush, I'm just filling in the areas of both sides of the head. I'm overlapping on that girl's hair color as well, just mopping up any extra paint that's dropped off. To finish off the color, I'm using a mix of yellow ocher and the scarlet lake, and dropping in some blush for the cheeks. Now, for the line, I'm using the acro black ink inside a fillable paint brush. Because I've only just started using it, I'm actually just doing a few strokes just to get it started, and to frame me up a little bit. You can see how I want my line work to be quite spontaneous. I don't want to overwork it. I start with a fine tip, and then I press down and then I lift up at the end, and it gives it a really nice so contour. From light, pressing down, and then lifting up at the end, you can see I'm doing this all the way through. I'm coming in a little bit just heading up around the girl's nose. Then I'm going to do the same with the eyes. Again, it's like I want sharp edges, and then maybe a heavier line towards the center. Now, for the boy's eye, and the mouth, you can keep quite a fine tip with this brush and it doesn't run out of ink, so you don't have to keep dipping back in. It's got a really consistent flow. I'm working my way around the head of the girl. I just want that to be slightly thicker on that side. Then back around the nose, and you can see that I can come in at work with the tip, but I don't want to do that too much. Here I am working on her mouth, and then I'm going to work in nice sweep with the hairline. Round, from a thin to thick to thin on each stroke. I'm doing the same with the boy's hair. Thicker and then come up again, start thin, thick and then thin, and I'll do the same on the ear. Now you can see how I'm turning my illustration, my little piece of paper around rather than moving my arm across, I'm trying to avoid touching my hand or any part of my fingers or hand with the paint. I'm trying to keep that as clean and smudge phrase possible. That's why I use the sheet of paper and swivel that around. Here. I am just putting the touches on the outfits of the two characters. I'm just going to come in and tidy up around this the hair of the girl, I'm just cutting up around the heart shape as well and my illustrations, I pretty much done. 11. ILLUSTRATION EIGHT: Welcome back. In this class, I'll be showing you how to use watercolor and a lead pencil to recreate this delicate whimsical style of illustration. I'm going to use a Scarlet Lake in Yellow Ochre to create a mix for the skin tone and I'm placing the watercolor unto a dry watercolor paper, so it's the wet and dry technique. I'm not laying in a heavy pigments of watercolor, this is going to be very soft illustration. So I just want to keep it quite light and soft all the way through. Now using a deeper tone of the Scarlet Lake and Winsor Yellow, I'm filling in, oh, I've got a little bit of that yellow as well and I'm filling in the red for the heart and adding in some Yellow Ochre, I'm also filling in the hair color on the female character and I'm just moving the paint across the paper and quickly moving the pigment around and all the areas that are needed to be and now, pulling away some of the watercolor, creating a highlight on the left side of that character, and moving the rest of the pigment down to the right-hand side. So I'm now bringing in a mix of the Winsor Blue and I'm dragging a very light amount of the pigment across to create the stripes for the boy's t-shirt. Using a watered down version of the Sap Green, I'm creating stripes with the number 6 brush going vertically for the girl's top. I'm now mixing in the Winsor Blue, a light version of the Winsor Blue and I'm going to work my way across the background of this entire illustration. So just moving that light tint of the Winsor Blue across the entire background and just keeping it very spontaneous, I'm not overworking this at all. Once I've got the color down, I'm just going to leave it. Now going to add in some Yellow Ochre and I'm going to create horizontal stripes on the girl's top, so overlapping with the previous color that I had on her top. Now with a mix of the Yellow Ochre and the Scarlet Lake, I'm creating a skin tone for the male character and I'm just pulling their skin tone all the way across, overlapping on the girl's skin tone as well. He's slightly pinker than she is, and I want the two different tones to show. Now I'm bringing in a Winsor Yellow and Yellow Ochre, but adding more of the Yellow Ochre and mixing atoned for boys hair which I'm going to overlap onto the girl character's hair as well, which is completely bone dry at this point. With the Scarlet Lake and Yellow Ochre mix, I am going to just start putting the final details, which is finishing off the watercolor with some blush on the cheek area. For the line, I'm going to be using HB lead pencil. Now this is quite a light line, but I think it would work really quite well with this illustration because all the watercolor underneath is quite delicate and light and I'm just working my way through outlining the characters. I don't have any line work showing through, and if you do, you may want to rub this out and start afresh, and I'm just working my way through and moving my pencil across in quite a methodical a way, I'm just lifting the pencil up. I changed the pressure, I press hard and enlightened then hard and enlight depending on what area I'm covering. I don't want the line to be a constant high pressed line, I want the spontaneity and the energy to change in that line to add a little bit of rhythm and depth to it. So I'm working my way around the edges of the boy's face and you can see how I'm just brushing that line in. I think ovals and circles are actually quite difficult to accomplish without messing it up too much. So I'm working my way around the boy's hair and just following all the outlines and areas of this illustration, so now I'm putting in the girl's hair and I'm putting a bit of texture in and just building up so you don't have to come in quite heavy here, I think it's this style of line work is a gradual buildup and you layer in darker lines on the outside of the illustration. So this is at the edge of the illustration, the edge of her hair, and I'm going to just put in a few little scribbles in actually where the hair is. Now may bring more of those in later as well. I'm now doing line on the outside of her face and her ear, and I'm just doing it tiny little bit shading but very little, it's more like spontaneous line movement and the energy in that scribble I think is quite a lovely technique, especially when you're drawing characters and characters that have a lot of movement, I think this works really well, it does bring a bit of spontaneity energy to the character. So I'm just doing the mouth so you can see how the line is quite thick and then thin and I'm not in your eyebrows and working my way around. So now I'm working on the the girl's top and adding a bit more color and shading around their hair, and here I'm just bringing small line work and now I'm working my way around the heart shape. So there's no hard and fast rules about this particular technique, it's all very field and whatever feels right and what is working for you and of course, when you make a mistake with this, it's very easy to just rub it out and start over again. So it's quite a nice technique to play around with and it works so well over the top of a watercolor. I'm using an HB pencil, but you can obviously use a darker pencil for a darker, stronger line and affect. So you'll get different results and you may like and prefer to use a darker pencil. I've just chosen a light version because I'm reflecting on what I did in the watercolor, which is all very light and delicate. I'm just adding more detail around the eyes and around the eyelids. I think with this style in particular, it's very good to know when to stop and I don't want to overwork it, so I'm going to leave it there. 12. Make a gift Card : In this lesson, we're going to transform my illustrations into beautiful gift cards. Before you start, you might like to download and print out the gift card instruction sheet that I supplied. The first thing you need to do is measure your envelope. The last thing you want to do is make a card and then not have it fit inside the envelope. So measuring the envelope, and then you want to make your card five millimeters shorter in length and width so that it fits and slides in nicely. The first set of measurements will be for the fold in the center of the card, and the second set of measurements will be where you cut along with a scalpel blade and a metal ruler. If you've never used a scalpel blade before, make sure your blade is new and sharp. Be mindful and keep your fingers clear of the blade at all times. Make sure to use a cutting mat, and use a consistent even amount of pressure throughout the cut. Cut towards you from top to bottom, and before you let go, make sure that the cut has gone all the way through, and now you make to a second slice, and you can actually feel the pressure slightly different when you've cut through the card into the mat. If you're uncertain about using the scalpel blade, you always have the option of using a guillotine or a roller blade. To create the perfect folder for your card, we're going to score the paper using the back of the blade. Measure, place your ruler, and just like you're going to slice the page, actually you're going to flip your blade over so you have the blunt end of your blade, and then you're going to make a 90-degree fault with the ruler still in place, and you're just going to ease that thicker card over that fold. Here, I'm placing a clean sheet of paper over the top of the card, and I'm actually using my ruler and brushing it forward and back to help secure that fold. Once you have your nice clean fold, now you may want to trim off any untidy edges. So you can just check that everything lines up beautifully, and if you want to, you can then use the blade and the ruler, and just slice off any unwanted or untidy edges. So now it's time to decide where you'd like to place your illustration to the front of the card. You can either use a double-sided sticky paper, which is what I'm using, or you can choose to use double-sided tape. So once you've sliced it to the size you need, you can peel the backing, and attach it to the back of your illustration. I've used a compass to redraw a slightly larger circle outside my illustration. I'm using a pair of small nail scissors to cut around that outer circle. I'm cutting through, not only the watercolor paper, but also that backing tape that I've placed on the reverse side of my illustration. Now it's time to check the position of your illustration, and once you're happy with it, I'm just using my scalpel blade to help release the backing paper. Make sure that your cut is open the right way before you stick the illustration down permanently. Make sure it's centered exactly where you want it, and then place your illustration onto the card. Now I've used a piece of clean paper to help press that illustration secure. You can decide to leave your card blank, or you can write a simple Valentine's Day message under your illustration. You can use a black ink pen, or you can use the same, here I'm using the same colored pencil that I used to actually create the illustration. Your personalized Valentine's Day card is now ready to send. I've used the arches hot press watercolor paper to create this card. However, I encourage you to experiment with different papers, colors, envelopes, and mix up your combinations, and just have fun with it. Now, don't forget to post a photo of your illustrations and gift cards in the project section of this class. I can't wait to see what you come up with.