Transcripts
1. Introduction: Oh, and welcome to this class about painting their recent watercolor and big I'm Julia and illustrator and designer from Germany. Thank you so much for joining me. The less class I'm going to show you how to pay different Berries in a combination off watercolor and different things. We have to take a look at acrylic ink liquid water kinda ed, drawing also ways to combine it with your consent. Enjoy the natural world around us so much. And that's why I love exploring into painting on Also left botanical illustration. And while tables fill, study is the aim of this class. I'll show you how to get inspired by the old masters off this and how to create your read modern interpretation. So we'll be doing a warm up exercise, and then we'll take a detailed look at three types of Berries. I'm going to show you how to pay each Barry with leaves a small study. I'll demonstrate how I select my colors, how I arrange elements on the page, how you could work with water in different ways and how you can add different things to the mix to add interesting. So at the end, we'll have known have pain, different class of Berries and hopefully you'll feel inspired to delve into experimenting with different things and with technical. So I hope you'll join me in this class about painting them so watercolor and think, lets get solid.
2. Tools: I'll show you the tools that you're going to use for this class, and you're going to need some kind off water. Kind of said maybe a pen set like this one and were mainly going to use green and red colors and a little bit off blue, since this is going to be a lot off leaves and Berries, so these are the colors that you'll need. And I'm also going to show you how to work with these kind off liquid watercolors, and they come from different brands. I happened tohave thes two here, and we're going to experiment with these ones a little bit, and I'm also going to use this acrylic ink for some details, and there's a little bit different than these liquid watercolors. These tend to be very bright, and you can mix them with your your pants set. Watercolors and thes acrylic inks are more like, um, opaque, and you can also makes them but not quite as good. And they're more a little bit like wash. But since it's Krilic, it will dry to to a film. And that said, I'm also going to use a little bit off white. So if you have this in your pen set? That's fine. Otherwise, just use a little bit off wash white, so I'm pretty sure we're going to be using this. Then onto the brushes. I'm, as always, I'm going to be using two kinds of brushes and usually uses size for for the bigger shapes and then size one or size zero for the details. Now, as part paper, I like to use the these loose sheets off watercolor paper. We're not going to be adding a lot of water, so you don't need it impaired or anything like that. But I really like thes Hannah Mueller, This watercolor paper. It's a mat cold pressed so it doesn't have a lot of texture, but a little bit, and that usually works fine. You can use whatever kind of watercolor paper you have. You could also use a sketchbook if you prefer that. And since we're going to do some warm up exercises here, going to need some thinner paper as well, and a first he'll being eating a water jar and maybe a small piece of fabric to wipe your brushes on
3. Examples: so I always like to show a few examples before we start painting. And this time I'd like to show you some details from this book about natural history paintings, and you can see that there are these beautiful paintings and these these are actually scientifically correct. And don't worry, we're not going to to be painting thes very detailed and very laborious paintings off Berries. But I just wanted to show you where you can. If you don't have Berries in your garden or don't know a place where you could study them, then you can study them in these books. And I actually think that it's very important to do so, because by studying how maybe, how the the fruit hangs from the twigs and how the leaves grow its you'll be able to capture the characteristics off what you're painting. So there are these different examples in these books are in this book from different artists, and I find them just really beautiful. And so I wanted to show you, and I only ever used these four studying and for inspiration and for Skechers. And please never try to copy of another artist's work because it's it's not good style to do so. And, um, that's just a word of caution. And you can see that the artist that has the painted this has really taking us time to to look at how the different fruits hang from a grow from the stem and how the leaves fold, and we're going to be really do a more abstract approach and simplify things a little bit more. So we don't need all these botanically correct details. But I still think these are beautiful to look at. You can see some strawberries, and I also have a Pinterest thought on these kind off about how Nichols illustrations at natural history. So if you're free to look around there and find some Berries that that you like for him, here's another one off these currents. So yeah, and I'm going to show you some studies that I did from, um thes and you can see that I own I have worked very loosely compared to what was in this book, and I only took details and pieces off thes and made them into a very loose study. And you can see here this more drawings off these and what is interesting to me. Waas were things like the shape off the leave and those little veins and methods that I can use to simplify the shapes and then translate them into color. So this is what we're going to be looking at. You can see I experimented with east, different raspberry colors and shapes. And here's another blueberry. And while this is really a simplified version of a blueberry, it I still looked at how the leaves connect to the stem how the stem, you know, grows and how the Berries are connected to to the leaves. And that all went into my decisions for for painting this and the same thing here. I'm not trying to render a botanically correct strawberry, but I think it's good to keep in mind how these, um, shapes actually work. How how this fruit looks like in real nature. And if you have a strawberry in your garden for any kind of very and can study it closely from the real thing, so to say, then that's great. And you should absolutely do so because that's much, much better than any kind of book or any kind off Pinterest graphic that I can give you as a reference. So that's what I wanted to show you as examples
4. Warmup sketches: So let's start with a little warm up exercise, and you actually only need some piece of paper and a pencil for that or repent if you're comfortable with that. And I just want to study different leaf shapes and bury shapes. And for that I have brought some strawberry Leafs that I happened to have, and sadly, it's too late for the actual fruit. So I'll have to use a reference for that. And, yeah, I just want to explore and draw a few of these shapes so I can express them later. A little bit better in my painting. And yeah, let's do that. I'm just going to be placing these here. I'm not sure if you can, if you will see my reference all the time, but just, um maybe I'll just told them like this so that I can get a good good view on them. And as I said, it's not about painting or drawing anything really detailed at this stage. It's just about capturing the the shape and the character, so to speak. So this leave, and don't worry if it doesn't look so great, it's not supposed to. So this leave the strawberry leave has thes three segments, and then it has these little tooth saved things that you could see on dumb. Try to draw what you see at this stage. We can laid her get to a more abstract understanding. And don't take too long with this. It's fine if you make a very quick sketch of what you see, as I said doesn't have to be correct in every way. So as these little details that I find interesting that these leaves actually have these little stems before they connect to the bigger stem. And I forgot that in mind in my sketch. So I'm I will try to add it now and just another one with a little bit off a different bangle. So just like that. So these are beautiful leaves. Let's try and have a look at the Berries now. And as I can see on my reference photo that I've opened up here on my computer, they usually grow like this and and there are different types of strawberry. Some have thes little like hats and some off these little leaves go upwards on. Um, some are more round. Usually the smaller Berries are the ones that you can see in the forest. I'm around it. I'd like to explore a few more shapes for these strawberries so that I have a few more possibilities that I can decide later which kind I want. And I think that this shape is probably the most popular you can see that I'm the quicker that I am doing my sketch, the more formulate I'm getting so and that's not a bad thing. Just try to get a quick grasp off your subject and then draw the outlines. Supposed to be a sketch and not a detailed rendering off fruit. Okay, that's not so bad. Um, let's go to the next one. How about some blueberries? So obviously, blueberries are really just like a little round shape, and what's interesting about these ones is how they actually grow. So I'm going to include bits off greenery to it, some leaves and already thinking a little bit about how I want to show these how I want to arrange thes when ill paint them later. And what I'm referencing here are the European blueberries. They don't have quite as many Berries and more leaves, and, um, they're a little bit smaller so but they're really delicious. I have to ask, and you can see that the lease are always kind of opposed. Onda. Maybe another sketch off one of those and close up So they have this round shape and then kind of, Ah, a flat base where the flowering part used to sit, all right. And the last thing that I want to explore arrest very so raspberries can be a little bit tricky. So there's the stem and then usually these little around shapes. I don't like it if the leaves turned outward, so just make it. Make sure that they point in the other direction so that I can draw my beautiful little fruity elements here. Let's take a look at the leaves off the rest bury, and actually, it's sort of similar to this strawberry relief. And that's no confidence, because strawberries and raspberries are both from the Rose family, and if you have looked at rose leaves, they have thes these three part leaves as well. So let's see. Raspberry leaves are usually a little bit more, um, for the spiky end, and as we remember, these are connected each to their own, so it might be interesting to observe on. And let's see if we really This is a very simplified version off this, rest by relief. And you know, I didn't at that there to these little spikes. Ah, no. On the edge. These little Ray the, uh, these little tooth spikes. Not sure what the correct expression for this is. I'd have to check book and you can decide if you want to at these details or not later in your painting. It's always a decision, for if it adds clarity and if it it's recognizability, then, um and and interest to to your illustration. Then I say go for it. And if you feel that it might be too, too much detail and too much, um, fine work, then feel free to leave it out. So another fruit this time I'm going to try and the little segments that actually make up the very all right, maybe one more, because it's a lot of fun. Let's see, you can see another similarity is that the base off the fruit here has these little leaves on top, and the strawberry also has these, and the blueberry doesn't very just connect to this little stem and has thes very simple green leaves. So, yeah, I think our sketches complete. And, um, as I said, it's all about capturing the essence off the fruit and not create a very detailed and and thought out, um, sketched that you could use. So with this in mind, let's proceed to our painting stage.
5. Painting blueberries: So let's start with the blueberries. They have nice, simple shapes, both for leaves and for the actual Berries. And so it's a great a great subject to warm up with paint a little bit. And I'm actually starting with my watercolors. And I'm taking up some dark green, which is this hooker's green, and I'm adding a little bit off lighter green, which Ismay green Andi can see, not trying to mix them too much, but so they will live in the same pants base, so to speak. And I'm going to start by just making a very fine line for this twig and then filling the leaves. And I've already done my sketch off camera beforehand, but I've simply taking this this part off a blueberry, and I've made it nice and big so that we can have a little bit more detail and that it is not to to small to paint bad. On the other hand, not too much of, ah of a big, um, plan that it would take too long. For example, this was sort of my reference for doing this sketch so you can see there are a lot off leaves and a lot of Berries and it will take a little bit too long for this to do here. So I've made I've made these a little bit, um, larger and yeah, it will be a little bit easier to to paint like this. And you can actually, what I'll actually do is switch to the other brush. And I've dumb this leave because, as you'll see, we don't even need the big brush for everything. And it will be a lot easier to to add these fine lines and details with a smaller brush. So if you makes you a paint than be careful not to add too much water to the pain. So this consistency is usually what I like to work with. I'm starting at the Trump with a slightly lighter color for the leaves and then work my way down, and now I will add a little more off off the dark green that I have in my palette here. And don't worry too much about these details. What I can usually dries a little bit lighter, then what you can see here on when it's wet. So keep that in mind, too. Just like that. Me for leave on his little Sturm's for the Berries. All right, that wasn't too difficult, was it? And now we're going to let this paint dry. So now the paint has dried. I will add the blue round shapes for the blueberries, and I'll use some cobalt blue for it on and and actually at this a little bit DACA tone, which is, I think it's Indigo Blue. Yeah, it's it's a little bit darker on not too much because we don't want thes blueberries to be too dark. So just a nice blue color and, um, at thes round shapes. And remember your warm up exercise. These actually have usually this round sent up heart, which, well, add in later. Who is the ink? So right now, it's just about painting these around blue dots, and you could, if you want, you can indicate those. It'll disappear because the water will flow all over it. But right, so that's all for the Berries. There are only five Berries, so that'll be a quick job. What I'm black to do now is add some details in a Dhaka tone with this acrylic ink, and since I only have yellow and blue we're going to mix a green from this. So going to let this dry and then have a look at he's acrylic inks on dumb. That's very interesting medium I haven't done. Not off. I haven't painted a lot with this, So just going to see how this will turn out. And it's a nice, dark blue greenish tone, which I think will were great. Maybe a little bit off water. You can see these are quiet, thick. Uh, let's see. Can always test it out. Yeah, that's a nice line. And, you know, then just turn your paper anyway you need and at thes four stems. And that's maybe a little bit too much pain. Yeah, that's much better, so you don't have to do not to add a bit more interest to to your leaves. Since these blueberry leaves are usually so small, it would be a little bit off overkill to to add more to them and again study the original, study the plant itself to see what it looks like, and what kind of details actually makes sense to be at it says you can see the acrylic in kind of sits on top off the water color and not sure if you can see this on camera, but it's kind off its opaque. So it doesn't have this translucent effect that I would get with water kind off on top of this. It's sort of similar to wash. And if you've taken any of my other classes, you know that I loved wash and I love the look of it. You can easily combine all these types off pained with each other. The only thing that I think this acrylic ink does is it doesn't makes that well with watercolor, and it will dry to a permanent film. So if I wanted to reactivate this tomorrow, I don't think it would be possible. Or at least it would look a little bit flaky because acrylic binder usually drives to this plastic film. So that's also good to keep in mind, um, for your brushes if don't don't use too expensive precious with these kind off acrylic things. So now what we have is thes thes simple blue dots for the blueberries on, and I want to add some details again. With his ink, you can see it is a beautiful dark blue on. So we're just going to take some off this this ink on and let's see. Yeah, I think I like it. So, actually, with ease, detailed middle parts you can indicate where the berry is, um, looking so to speak or where it's growing. So you could. And usually this is right on the opposite off the stem. So you'd look where the stem goes and then pointed and in that direction. And I'm not sure if the North American blueberries look a lot different. So these European blueberries are, As I said, they're a little bit smaller and have more leaves and less Berries. And in the bush and one Bush bats, yeah, they're they're really delicious. If you are ever in in Germany or Europe on, definitely try these blueberries. Yeah, so you can see we don't need a lot off this. Think, too, at interesting details. So I let this dry and then we'll see each other and the next exercise
6. Painting strawberries: So, until our strawberries, I think I do want a similar kind of green for the leaves like we had for the blueberries and then for the red off the strawberries. I'm will actually try to air this liquid watercolor. So, um, this is a very intense Conner. I will quickly show you because we're going to be using it later. And I will actually mix that with a little bit off water color so we don't have this in its raw state, so to speak. So let's see where this will go again. I'll start with my leaves with my green and adding a little bit off all this and then that lovely May green that we also had for the blueberries and that gives them nice and actually have still have the Strawberry Leafs as reference here and when. Although we're not going for realistic rendering off thes, I still like to keep this nearby and have a look from time to time. So let's see. I think I want to try to at least let off spiky pots to my leave. I have to be a little bit careful not to make them to permanent, but let's try this out. Maybe it will work better with the rest Berries, so I think I'll straighten this out. So don't be afraid to experiment. Even in this stage, When you're laying down the paint, you don't experiment. You want, Know what you're missing? Sometimes that's a big, big but big, but it's still fine. You can see I'm addressing the shape off my leave a little bit. Now I'll switch to the smaller brush and don't be afraid to overlap. Your shapes can actually be very interesting to look out and add a little bit more complexity. If you don't feel comfortable with this, then you don't have to do it. But it's a very nice technique to add a little bit more deaths to your painting. Yes, you can see I didn't sketch out all the little leaves at the top off the strawberry, and that's actually nothing to worry about, since I know from my sketching scared stage how these leaves are shaped so I can at them spontaneously, feel free to sketch everything out before you paint it. All right, do this too, all the time. Just make sure that you're using a pencil. That's, um not too soft. So hot pencil. I used an h pencil here. Um, maybe you're too h pencils. Great, too, so that you won't leave deep marks and in your paper surface again. You can see that. I'm barely sending my watercolor with water. So have a very concentrated coat of paint. I adhere, and that's what I'm going for. Okay, that's the part with the leaves. I'm going to let it dry a little bit. And since we have areas where the green paint has already dried, I can try and add my, um, liquid water color right now. So let's see. Now it gets interesting. So if you can see this is really, um has a nice consistency on, I might start at your at the trump and it's really intense. I might need to tone it down a little bit, and we'll do that in a second. I just want to lay down that shape right now. It looks like it could glow in the dark. It's actually it's really lovely. So just want to keep the shape right. And no, I think we're going to have some off this ruby red here. Maybe even a the darker red. Yeah, I can barely see that, but I'm just going to to lay in some off this watercolor. Um, I'll add some Venetian red, too. So this is but darker. As you can see, you just taking up good amount on my brush and dotted in. So take out a little bit off the intensity off, the off the red off the liquid watercolor, and I'm going to do the rest to my other Berries. You can see if I use less off his ink. Then it's a little bit less, uh, vibrant and a little bit lighter. So I'm just starting in the ruby red and the meta lake red. All right, brother Ammunition red. I think it's a really cool combination. Just work really well. So on to our next to strawberries. So I'm going to let this dry and then come back and at the details. So I'm back and the paint has dried a little bit. It's still wet in some places, but I think we can work with it, and I'm going to start with by adding a few details to the Leafs here. And then we'll turn to the Berries themselves and Yeah, you can see the color is really, really intense, so I might need to turn that down the next time. I really love that area where I added the Venetian red, the dark red. And yeah, I think it already looks a little bit like a strawberry. I've gone ahead and a mixed dark green, which I want to add onto the leafs for a little bit more structure. And I've done that by mixing this wonderful dark yellow which iss liquid water color. I think you can see the color here, and I've mixed it with that same acrylic ink. And you can see here that the paint that I'm mixed earlier has already dried and it can't be reactivated. It makes thes little It's not pretty. So I've taken just a drop and we have this lovely dark green, and I will bet that now, too, for as veins for the Leafs. So that's see. And again, I don't want any fed lines, so keep that in mind when loading the brush with pains. I usually just get rid off the excess on my mixing palette, so sort of sharpness and rush. When you do that, I think that works quite well. So So the good color for this, By the way, I'm only mixing these different inks and liquid watercolors because I don't have the right colors at hand. When I bought these, I didn't know that I wanted to have the stock returns. So sometimes you have to be a little bit creative with what you have. I think that's fine. Yeah, those are leaves. Oh, for the strawberries themselves. I have experimented with different. You know, they have these little dots and what I'm going for is a mixture off dark and life dots to indicate, um, where the light is coming from. And I've experimented with this beforehand, so I already know that I want some dark color m this very light. It's actually a light yellow ish tone. So what I will need is this yellow acrylic ink just a tiny bit. As you can see, you don't need much of it. And then we'll take this white wash and quite a lot off this, and then I'll just take a very small amount off Dark Brown or CPR Drawing Inc. Which I won't add in a minute. I'm first. I'm going to mix my night Pestillo yellow and you can see that wash and Thies This acrylic makes us really well. So that's another combination to keep in mind. Thank just going to add these little dots on the left side off strawberry. Okay, And now for the dark part. Oh, this might actually be empty, but we still have a little bit, and, you know, we don't need much. So this a CPR Drawing Inc. Which is actually great for lettering for calligraphy. You can experiment with these different inks and, um, liquid colors to see what effect you can achieve on with your painting. And you don't have to by a lot of colors, as you saw, I am did a lot off mixing myself so you can always get one or two colors and then try out what happens when you mix them. Fairy. I think that's a very cute effect. So there we go. These are strawberries
7. Painting raspberries: the next berry is going to be the rest Bury and I've chosen the same almost square small format for this, and I want to have a nice green leave with. I've already taken this yellowish green and this Olive and I might even add a little bit more yellow. So going to take up the little bit of cadmium yellow and add that into the mix. And as for the rest Berries I'm going to use um, probably this dark, magenta, pink pinkish tone. So but I'm going to start with the leave. Onda. Yeah, that's beautiful color. And this time, since I always want to try something different, I want to see how what a color will look when I heard some a liquid water cannon on top, which will be a little bit more translucent. And so I'm Yeah, really, It will be really interesting to see the differences in these techniques a little bit more experimentation. So now that we've got the leaves covered, I'm thinking about what can I want my berry to be in. And as I said, I really love this magenta color, So oh, uh, Curtis, and then maybe just a little bit of this read this dark red. But we'll see about that also, that was just a little bit too much water, but not see. So if you ever had too much water to your palate, then you can do this. Trick that where you have a very dry brush, which you can wipe off with a piece of fabric and then take ob the paint and then you won't have as much water. Yeah, that's quite nice. Maybe a little bit too dark. And I'm outlining the little the small segments off the fruit here and then just filling everything in. And we were at the details with the liquid water cannon later. Just make sure that you get a nice up mine and I will switch my brush again across this very detailed work and be easier with a smaller brush. So Okay, so a nice pink color. And while this dries, we're going to add details to the leaves from Yeah, it's almost right. I'll start at the bottom. So, for this, I actually want to try out another mixture. So we'll try the liquid watercolor on, chop off the rest Bury. Since I have this beautiful bride red here Now for the leaves. I thought maybe this dark yellow this Oka would be a nice addition. And here, look at that. That's a really nice It's a great fall color tube, So I'm just adding a little bit onto my pent up. Let's see how this how this will work out. Yeah, it's actually quite nice. I like it will give the leave a little bit more warmth and it won't be too prominent. So I just realized I completely forgot that I wanted to at these little teeth these little , um, spiky parts to the leaves. Well, next time, feel free to do that with your painting. If you want to pin dress Berries, then have a look at the Leafs and maybe include this special leave shape. It was probably not a good idea to do this right after the strawberries. Maybe I'll have thes nides of a left just a little bit so we can indicate Well, actually, I'm not sure what this color is called, but it's a it's saffron yellow. Well, it's really it's a really beautiful color. I think that works so well with, um, with this green and also with the pink. So I really like that combination. So don't be afraid to experiment from time to time. Actually, like these overlapping parts they look like when you make a print and it's not properly aligned, then sometimes there's a little bit off overlap and looks like like it happened here. So quite an interesting effect. Yes. So this, um ik o line Seffrin yellows. So lovely color. So by now, almost all of strawberries, at least the the lowered who have dried and Oh, not quite so I have to be careful with this. Maybe just wait another five minutes for also. Well, I won't start on this one because I can't wait. Actually, what I want to try is I want to see how this yellow looks on on the pink on the magenta color. And so I'm just going to try out. Oh, that's not too bad. I really like that effect. So I think I might go with this instead. Off the red one, it's both liquid watercolor. So still what I had in mind anyway, I really like that. So I had a very light pencil outline. When I make this sketch and right now I'm all I'm doing is just tracing these pencil outlines. So actually a very simple technique. I think this gives it a nice warm sheen. And I really love that. I really like how this turned out. So that's Ah, rest very. And, um, let's have a look at all of the's and row next week cover. So these are the strawberries and our first motive, the blueberries. And as you can see, it would be really nice if it had another size. But I can't do anything about that now. Some happened this way. Sometimes you have just to roll with it like it is so next time. But I'd really love to see your results and what you come up with. And so, yeah, please share your work. Your Berries in the project can re, and I'd be happy to take a look at that
8. Final toughts: I don't even drive this class about painting Berries. We cover quite a bit. We've looked at different kinds of Berries and leaves, and I'll show you how to come on watercolor with different things. And we looked wonderful. Mechanical, too. I really like these historical illustrations on I found that so much information of beauty in these old books, and actually that's another that's still very much alive. I keep being inspired by this class to experiment with different inks, paints I also to look closely at the shapes in nature and how you can arrange them on paper . So I really love to see the Berries that you created. So please upload your illustration or schedule page to the project, and I'm really looking forward to seeing your results. Thank you so much for taking with us with me, and I hope I will see you in my classroom. I hope you'll have a fabulous day by
Julia Bausenhardt, Nature Sketching & Illustration
