Ink and Watercolor Wash Flowers

1. Introduction: Do you absolutely love the look of loose pen and watercolor wash florals, but are perhaps wondering as a beginner, what the best place to start is? Maybe you're wondering, what are the must know pieces of information on pen and ink, on watercolor and on combining these two mediums? So you can build up a solid foundation to jump off from. Also how do you get to a point at which you're easily and quickly able to create this kind of artwork completely on your own, completely from scratch whenever you'd like to, whenever you have some greeting cards to make, some bookmarks that you want to give away , personal pieces, etc. If you're a beginner artist, just getting started with developing your drawing skills and are just starting to jump into the pen and watercolor wash world or you're an intermediate artist, who is just getting started with combining these two mediums in your work. This course is for you. My name is Erica and I'm a traditional media artist and online educator. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields. First, I was a graphic designer that worked at advertising agencies. Then I spent many years working as head art teacher in a school environment. For the last four years, I've been working full-time on my own art business as a professional artist. My days revolve around creating art, selling art locally, and helping aspiring artists all over the world develop their art skills and their creative voice via my website, my YouTube channel, my social media in general, and also my membership site. Jumping into what you're gonna be learning in this course. I am going to be teaching you how to draw three different flowers, a cone flower, a wild rose, and a daffodil from two different perspectives. From a top view and also a sideways or profile view so that you can really understand the structure of these flowers and their particularities. So that you're then better able to draw these from imagination and any perspective you want. As we're drawing, we're going to be focusing on simplifying these flowers into basic shapes. Which is a skill that is going to help you in the future, no matter what it is that you're trying to draw. This course is intended for total beginners. I'm going to be taking you through my method in which I first create my drawing with graphite pencil so that I can erase any mistakes that I need to erase. We then trace over our pencil work defining edges and adding more detail using pen and ink. Then finally, we bring in our vibrant colorful washes using watercolor. I've included classes in this course in which I share the must know key pieces of information that you should be aware of as a beginner, getting started with pen and ink, getting started with watercolor, and getting started with combining these two mediums so that you can reach success way sooner. Before getting started with the three final pieces that we're going to be working on together, I also share a full class in which I walk you through my color selection process and how I swatch out my different colors so that I know exactly what colors I'm going to be using for my final pieces. Finally, we work on our three final pieces together, one for each flower. A cone flower piece, a wild rose piece, and a daffodil piece. Throughout this process, I also sprinkle in some must know information on composition that is going to help you create harmonious, well-balanced, interesting compositions to look at. As an art educator, I am a huge fan of not only sharing my entire process with you and my techniques, but also sprinkling in knowledge of art fundamentals and just things that I always have in mind that I continue asking myself throughout the creative process so that you can get to a point at which you're creating original artwork from scratch. That is what I want for you. With all these said, I do hope that you'll join me for this course. I am so excited to work on these exercises and projects together. 2. Art Supplies: Let's go ahead and get started with Class Number 1 in this course in which I'm going to be explaining must-know information on supplies that is really important that you understand for a smoother process and better results when it comes to this kind of piece in which we're combining pen and ink with watercolor washes. I do want to remind you that every single class in this course has a downloadable that you're going to be able to find in the Projects and Resources tab. For this first class, I've included a supply checklist so that you can be sure that you have everything on hand that you need for best results. For other classes, you're going to be able to find downloadable templates, reference photos that I used, and of course, you're also going to be able to find my downloadable outline sketches for all of these different flower studies and pieces that I'm going to be creating for this class. This way you can download them and print them out and have them on hand as reference as you're creating your freehand sketches. If you want to skip over the free hand sketching phase and jump straight into the pen and ink and then the watercolor washes and not focus on your free hand drawing as much, you can always transfer my outline sketches onto your sheet of watercolor paper using tracing paper or whatever transferring method you you and skip straight to the classes on pen and ink and watercolor. With all that said, let's go ahead and jump straight into the supplies that you're going to see me use in these classes. To begin, these are the drawing supplies that you're going to see me use in the class in which I'm going to be sharing with you how to draw a coneflower, a wild rose, and a daffodil. Even though this course is on pen and ink and watercolor washes and our final pieces are going to be mixed media pieces that use pen and ink and watercolor, I can not emphasize the importance of practicing your drawing with regular graphite pencils first or alongside your development of pen and ink and watercolor skills enough. For me, it's always very important to understand the structure of what it is that I'm going to be drawing and be able to simplify what I'm looking at into simple shapes or forms. It is a lot easier and less intimidating to study the object or the subject first via simple graphite sketching because we're easily able to draw lightly to erase mistakes and all of these things. If we were to jump straight into drawing with pen and ink without having done any previous practice or studying with graphite pencils, well, that can be very intimidating because pen and ink is a permanent medium, and you're not going to be able to erase your mistakes. Not to mention, if you don't use some sort of reference photo or something that you have in front of you in real life and you never make time to do any studying or observation of your object or subject to understand it at least a little bit more deeply before jumping into your drawing, then it's going to be very hard to arrive at mid to higher levels of realism because you need to understand, again, the structure of what it is that you're trying to draw and the characteristics that set, in this case, that particular flower apart from other types of flowers. A regular drawing sketchbook and basic drawing tools are going to enable us to do this practice and prep work before getting started with our final pieces so that the final process can be a lot smoother and the end results are going to be a lot more successful. After some time practicing with drawing and practicing specifically with pen and ink after you've developed your skills a little bit more and you feel a lot more confident, then by all means you can jump straight into drawing with pen and ink without practicing with graphite first or doing any preliminary sketch using graphite pencils. But I wanted to make this course for the total beginner just getting started, and this is why I'm going to share with you how to first draw with pencil and then trace over that with pen. Honestly, to the day, even after all of these years at drawing and creating art, I still for the most part create preliminary sketches with graphite before going in with pen. I'm going to be working in this sketchbook from Strathmore, which has paper that has a fine tooth surface, which means that it is pretty smooth, and this paper is 60 pounds or 89 GSM in thickness or in weight. This particular sketchbook is nine by 12 inches in size, but you can use any size of sketchbook that you'd like. I'm going to be using a B-grade pencil from Faber-Castell. Usually, when I create a preliminary sketch that I'm going to be moving onto pen and ink with or watercolor with, I like using an HB drawing pencil because an HB drawing pencil is right smack in the middle between softer pencil grades and harder pencil grades. The graphite that they contain in their core is not too hard and not too soft, which allows me to create a very light graphite sketch or outline sketch that I'm going to be able to easily erase and also that you're not going to be able to see through that a translucent watercolor. However, because I want you guys to be able to see what I'm doing, I'm going to go slightly softer than the HB, and I'm going to be using a B pencil. Because the graphite at the core of the B pencil is slightly softer than the graphite in the HB pencil, it's going to look a little bit darker and you're going to be able to see my work a lot more clearly. However, I would recommend using an HB or at least make sure that you are drawing as lightly as possible so that you can easily erase mistakes as you go so that you don't scratch or damage your paper, and also so that your pencil work is not visible through your paint at the end. Personally, I'm not a big fan of harder pencil grades. Anything harder than a 2H is a little bit too scratchy for me. Even though harder pencil grades will help you create very light clean sketches, that graphite is a little bit too hard and I don't like to scratch or damaged my watercolor paper because those little dents and scratches that you create, they're not going to be able to be erased or removed or fixed. Aside from those supplies, I also have two different types of erasers on hand. I have a regular soft graphite eraser. This is a dust-free eraser also from Faber-Castell, and I have a kneaded eraser, which is that chewed-up blue bubble gum-looking thing that you can see right now on screen. Having a kneaded eraser on hand is quite helpful because as you're drawing, you can change its shape and erase out small areas that you wouldn't be able to go into with a regular eraser. But oftentimes, the way that I like using them is after having finished my preliminary sketch, I use my kneaded eraser to do gentle tapping motions over my sketch to get it even lighter and get rid of any excess graphite that might be floating around on the surface of my paper, which can certainly muddy up or dirty up my vibrant colors and I'm going to be using later. This drawing that I'm sharing right now on screen is not an outline sketch that I was then going to move on to painting. This is a graphite alternative shading study, but I did want to show you how much graphite a kneaded eraser is able to collect if you do the tapping over your drawing, which can be incredibly helpful when you're creating your outline sketch to paint with watercolor. This way, not only will we not be able to see our pencil work or our line work through the paint at the end, but we're also going to avoid smudging any graphite that we've left behind on our paper, which can certainly affect the vibrancy of our watercolor. Finally, in terms of my sharpener, I use a basic little metallic sharpener. Let's move onto the pen and ink and watercolor painting supplies that I would recommend having on hand for this process. I am going to be using cold press paper from Primrosia. This paper is a 140 pounds or 300 GSM in thickness or in weight. Because it is cold-pressed, it is textured. Right right, I'm going to do a zoom in so that you can get a better idea of the level of texture that I'm going to be working on. In my previous Skillshare course, there is a class in which I share all about the different types of watercolor paper that you're going to be able to find out there; the hot press, the cold press, and the rough. If you want more of a smoother finish and you're worried about having to fight against the tooth or grain of your paper with the tip of your pencil and the nib of your drawing pen, then I would highly recommend getting yourself hot press watercolor paper. Whenever I am working on a piece that is only going to be pen and ink, so I'm not going to be bringing in paint, I use some sort of smooth drawing paper or I go with hot press watercolor paper. But because I'm going to be bringing in watercolor washes today, I really like the way that watercolor looks on cold press watercolor paper. However, if you're worried about the tip of your pencil or the nib of your pen skipping over that rough tooth or grain of your paper a little bit too much, or if you're worried about you not being able to create smooth lines when you're working with pen and ink, or if you're worried about damaging the nib of your pen because of that texture on the paper, then I would recommend going with hot press watercolor paper for the projects in this course. I don't really mind having some amount of texture on my watercolor paper because number one, is going to help me develop line weight variation in my pen and ink work, which is something that I'm going to be talking about later in the class on pen and ink drawing tips. I don't mind that skipping happening over that tooth of my paper and my lines breaking here and there because this helps me create line weight variation and helps me stay away from the thick, bold, consistent, heavy outliney look that is oftentimes present in coloring book pages and cartoons. I'll talk more about that later. Aside from this, I have enough skill developed already with pen and ink that I don't feel the need to press down very hard at all with my pen, which is oftentimes the way that the nibs of your pens get damaged because you're pressing down too hard on that texture. Again, if you're worried about any of these things, go with hot press, which is the least textured watercolor paper that you're going to be able to find. This is going to be especially helpful for you if you're looking for smoother consistent lines, and also if you are worried that you're going to damage the nib of your pen. In terms of my drawing pen, I'm going to be using a pigment liner from Staedtler, and this pen that I'm going to be using is 0.1 tip size. These pigment liners from Staedtler are super good to use in combination with watercolor because they are permanent and waterproof and they don't smudge or bleed. Whenever you're going to be combining pen and ink with watercolor, it is very, very important that you use a pen that contains ink that is waterproof and smudge-proof. I also really like Micron pens. They also work very well in combination with watercolor. In terms of my watercolors that I'm going to be using, I'm going to be using my set from Daniel Smith. I'll let you know exactly which colors I'll be using in the class in which I'm going to walk you through how to choose the colors for your different flowers and how to create your color mixtures. Moving on to the other watercolor painting supplies, I would recommend having a container or two with clean water on hand for this last phase of this process in which we're going to be using watercolor, some sort of absorbent towel. I really like these blue Scott shop towels that are meant for use on cars because I can reuse them again and again before having to throw them away, But even regular kitchen paper towels will do. Having an absorbent towel or two on hand is very important because these will help you stay on top of water control and do any lifting that you might need to do throughout the painting process. In terms of my paintbrush, I'm just going to be using one for all of these flower pieces, and this is a size 10 round brush from Princeton's Aqua Elite line. I would recommend keeping it simple and keeping it limited when it comes to choosing your paint brushes for these pieces because we're going to be going in nice and quick and minimal. A size 10 is what I would consider a medium-sized brush, as I explained in that Watercolor 101 course. I highly recommend checking it out. Anything from an 8, a 10, or a 12, I think will do just fine as long as the tip is nice and pointy, especially for the stems and the leaves in smaller areas. That is it for this first class in this course. Go ahead and make sure that you have all of your supplies ready to go. I am so excited to share Class Number 2 with you in which I'm going to be explaining all of the projects that we're going to be working on together in this course, which I know that we're going to have so much fun with and you're going to do great on. See you there. 3. Course Exercises and Final Projects: Hey there, and welcome to Class 2. This is going to be an orientation video in which I'm going to be explaining about the different exercises that I'm going to be taking you through, as well as the final projects that we're going to be working on together, in which we're going to be bringing in all of the knowledge and the skills that we've gained, and we've practiced in the classes in this course. The exercises that I share in all the classes included in this course are meant to be worked on in sequential order. I would not recommend skipping over any one of them, and also if you want to spend more time on any of the exercises before moving forward, I would highly recommend that. You can move on to the next class as soon as you feel ready, and spending time doing all of these exercises is really going to help you move through the process for your final project much more smoothly and arrive at better results. Let's go ahead and jump right in. The first few classes in this course, Classes 3,4 and 5, are chock-full of essential information about drawing with pen and ink, about painting with watercolor, and about combining pen and ink with watercolor washes. In these classes, I'm going to be sharing lots of examples of my own work, and I'm going to be sharing my must-know tips and essential information that I wish I had known when I was getting started with these mediums and with combining these mediums, that would have helped me improve much faster. Even though these first few classes don't include hands-on exercises, I have included downloadable worksheets, which you can download, print out, and fill in as we're moving through the class, so that this information has a better chance of actually sticking. Moving on from their Classes 6 and 7 are hands-on practical exercises that are going to serve as practice and prep work before getting started with our final projects. In Class 6, I'm going to show you how to draw a cone flower, a wild rose, and a daffodil. I'm going to explain exactly how to simplify these flowers into basic shapes using key pieces of information we can take from reference photos and how to start developing your visualization skills as an artist so that you can start drawing these flowers from different angles and perspectives from imagination. Because I want to keep this course a 100 percent beginner friendly we are first going to be drawing these flowers using regular graphite pencils, and we're then going to be bringing in pen and ink to trace over our graphite work, define edges and add other details. Once we're done with our drawing practice, I'm going to take you through my color selection process, so that we can know exactly which colors we're going to be reaching for, and how we're going to be creating our different color mixtures for our final pieces. We're going to plan and prepare the different colors that we're going to be bringing in for our cone flower piece, our Wild Rose piece, and our daffodil piece, and you by no means have to use the exact same colors that I'm going to be using. You can use whatever you have on hand that is similar to these colors that I'll be swatching out, or even change the colors of your flowers entirely to something that you like more. But it is very important that you plan and prepare your colors that you're going to be using so that you don't have any surprises along the way, and you can stay away from creating moodiness and undesired colors. Finally, in Classes 8,9, and 10, we're going to be working on our final pieces together. Class 8 is the cone flower piece in which we're going to be drawing three cone flowers from slightly different angles and perspectives. This is going to be done using regular graphite pencil first, that we're going to be moving on to defining edges and adding details using pen and ink, and then we're going to be doing our watercolor washes. In Class 9, we're going to be creating our wild rose piece, and we're going to be doing the exact same thing. First we're going to be drawing three wild roses using regular graphite pencils. We're then going to be doing our pen and ink work, and then we're going to be doing our watercolor washes. Then finally, Class 10 is going to be the daffodil piece. Because daffodils are larger, we're just going to be drawing two daffodils and slightly different angles and perspectives. First using graphite pencils, then pen and ink, and then finally, we're going to be adding our bright color using watercolor. Along the way, I'm going to be providing tons of tips so that you can keep these loose, fun, expressive, and fresh. I'm also going to be providing some key tips on composition, and how to arrive at a visual harmony and a balanced looking piece. In the Projects and Resources tab, you're going to be able to find your fillable worksheets, downloadable templates, my outline sketches in case you'd like to use them as reference, or to transfer onto your sheets of watercolor paper using tracing paper, or you're transferring method of choice. The reference photos that I used and photos of my finished pieces. That is going to do it for this short introduction slash orientation class. I look forward to jumping into the next class with you in which I'm going to be sharing all about my must-know tips and information to know about when it comes to drawing with pen and ink. See you there. 4. Pen and Ink Drawing Tips: Hey there and welcome to this class in which I'm going to be sharing the main information that I wish I knew when I was first getting started with pen and ink drawing, that would have helped me reach better results that I loved a lot faster. Even though this isn't a full course on pen and ink drawing. I wanted to share the key tips with you so that you can have these in mind, moving forward in your journey with this medium, continue building on these foundational blocks and even though this information and these tips are going to be incredibly helpful, doesn't matter what pen and ink drawing or artwork you choose to work on. I will be emphasizing on the key points that will help you arrive at awesome artwork when you combine pen and ink with watercolor washes, which is what we're working on in this course. I'll be connecting all of the key points that I share to this type of mixed media artwork. With that said, let's go ahead and jump straight into key point Number 1. The very first thing that I want to share with you is don't be afraid to get started with graphite pencils first, I would actually encourage you to do so. This applies in two different ways. The first being that in general, when you're getting started on your journey with drawing, I would recommend you get started with regular graphite drawing pencils, and start building up these essential skills like your observational skills, your hand-eye coordination, your control over your drawing tools, your visual measuring skills, maybe you and your ability to recreate shapes effectively and get started with building up your knowledge and skills with drawing perspective using regular drawing pencils first before jumping into pen and ink. The reason this is, is because drawing with regular graphite pencils is much less intimidating because you can erase mistakes. When you're drawing with pen and ink ink is permanent and you're not going to be able to erase it. When I first got started with pen and ink drawing, I was able to build up my skills relatively quickly because I already knew how to draw with regular pencil. My basic drawing skills were already there. I understood these essential art fundamentals like 3D form and perspective and overall, I had pretty decent line quality already developed. Line quality is huge and super essential when it comes to drawing and sketching with pen and ink because this is line work. We're laying down lines and marks. Make sure that when you're first getting started with drawing, that you start with regular graphite pencils or that you work on building up your skills with regular graphite pencils alongside your drawing with pen and ink. Now, the second way that getting started with pencil applies is, as you can see right now on screen, I am tracing over a preliminary graphite sketch that I created before switching to my pen and ink, you should never, ever feel ashamed before creating a preliminary sketch in graphite first and then switching to your pen and ink. Once you've got more practice in and get more and more comfortable with a drawing pen, you can add less detail using regular drawing pencil in that preliminary sketch and create more of that drawing using pen and ink right off the bat without having laid down any graphite underneath. Eventually, you're going to be just laying down simple general shapes with pencil and you're going to change right away to your drawing pen and you're going to create all of those medium-sized shapes and details right away using your drawing pen. You're going to have created just your bare bones, your skeleton with graphite, and you're going to do everything else with pen and ink. Then eventually you're going to be able to build up to doing everything right off the bat straight away with pen and ink. But pen and ink can certainly be tricky and frustrating for beginners and most of the time it is because they haven't built up those basic drawing skills and their control over their drawing medium via pencil first. This is why in this course, which is meant for beginners, I'm going to be taking you through drawing the flowers with pencil first and then we're going to be defining edges and adding more details with pen and ink, and then we're going to be erasing our pencil work. This is the strategy that I use to the day for my pen and wash pieces, especially when I am drawing a subject that is a little bit more complex or something that I haven't drawn too much in the past. Moving on to key tip for success Number 2, and this is all related to line weight variation. Line weight variation is essential to understand when you're trying to develop your skills with pen and ink and it is directly related to line quality. What language variation refers to is essentially the varying of weights or thicknesses in the lines and marks that you create. When we're drawing with pen and ink, if the look that we're going for is dynamic and flowy, we want our drawings to be interesting and to have dimension to them, we have to make use of line weight variation, meaning we want certain lines or certain marks to be lighter and visual weight and other lines remarks to be heavier in visual weight. Or even within one same line or one same mark we want certain sections of that liner mark to be lighter and other sections of that liner mark to be heavier. When we're able to control our drawing tool and shift and change the different things that I'm going to be talking about next, mindfully, intentionally in order to arrive at the results and the look and the effect that we're after, it can be said that we have a certain level of mastery over our drawing tool. Via this mastery over our drawing tool, we're able to create line weight variation through which we're able to achieve great line quality in our work. The reason why it's so important to have a variety of line weights in a drawing or a sketch is because if you've ever seen a cartoon or even a coloring book page in which all of the different sections, elements, parts of the image are outlined by a heavy, bold, thick black line that has one same consistent thickness or weight all throughout all of the outlines involved, that leads to a lot of flatness. One of the main things that I see a lot of beginners struggling with is that their drawings appear too heavy-handed, too stiff, too rigid, too stark looking even, and most of the times it is because they are trying to have way too much control over their drawing pen, they are gripping too tightly, maybe even pressing down too much, they're hesitating as they're laying down those lines and marks and they are working way too slowly. This is what the intention of making everything very perfect but at the end, things look a little bit too stiff and too heavy, too rigid, too stark. When working with pen and ink, it is often better to have slight wobble, slight irregularities and imperfections in your lines, but have them look dynamic and flowing. And something that can be incredibly helpful is making time to fill up entire sketch book pages with different types of lines and marks and simple doodles so that you can get more comfortable with your drawing pen in a less overwhelming way. There are four key things to look for and start analyzing firsthand as you're drawing with pen and ink. That alone or in combination lead to line weight variation in your pen and ink work. If you strategically alter and make use of these four key things in your pen and ink work to develop lesser or heavier visual weight in your lines and marks, at the end your drawing is going to be a lot more dynamic and interesting to look at and it's probably going to communicate a greater sense of dimension. And in the beginning, when you're getting started, you want to really have these four things in mind. But the more you intentionally practice having these four things in mind, the more quickly you are going to get to a point at which your intuitively shifting and changing these things to arrive at better looking pieces. These four things that greatly affect your line weight variation and your line quality are your pen tip size, the angle at which you use your pen, the speed at which you move your hand or arm as you're using your pen, and the pressure that you're exerting on your pen. The larger the pen tip size that you're using, obviously, the heavier and the thicker the lines and marks you're going to be creating. The smaller the pen tip size you use, the thinner and lighter your lines are going to be. Once you have great control over your drawing tool, you really could use just one same pen tip size and control the other three variables and still arrive at a great line weight variation throughout your drawing. The second variable that you can use to your advantage to create a line weight variation throughout your drawing, is the angle at which you're using your pen. If you use your pen at more of a 90 degree angle from your flat table or the surface that you're drawing on, more of that ink is going to flow down that nib, making your lines and marks heavier and visual weight. Whereas if you try to use your pen at more of a 45-degree angle from your flat horizontal surface that you're working on, or even less than that, a 30 degree angle or at 25 degree angle, less ink is going to flow down that nib as you're drawing and your lines are going to appear lighter and thinner. The third thing that you can use to your advantage to arrive at a drawing that has a nice line weight variation all throughout is shifting and changing the speed at which you're using your drawing pen. If you move your pen more slowly over that page, once again, more ink is going to have that opportunity to flow down and create bolder thicker, heavier lines. Whereas if you move your hand and arm faster, less ink is going to have an opportunity to flow down to meet that paper and you're going to arrive at thinner, lighter looking lines. The last variable that you can use to your advantage and start controlling so that you can arrive at better line weight variation is the pressure that you're exerting on your paper. I don't ever really exert too much pressure on my pen because I don't want to ever damage the paper that I'm working on. But alongside moving your pen faster and varying the angle, you can also apply a little bit more pressure on your pen to allow more of that ink to flow down that nib and create heavier bolder looking lines wherever you want a thicker line. So as you're working on your practice exercises in this course and working on your final projects, when we're working on our pen and ink phases, ask yourself, where do I want bolder, heavier looking lines and marks? And where do I want thinner, lighter looking lines and marks? What do I have to do or shift or change to arrive at those results? The very last thing that I want to share as a key tip in this class is that when we're working with pen and ink, we are developing value or tone and texture simultaneously. This is because we're using lines and marks as opposed to when we're sketching with graphite pencil through which we're able to evenly and smoothly cover up a large amount of paper with our tip of our pencil and we're able to easily develop smooth transitions and gradients. When we're drawing with pen and ink, we're developing different tones or values, meaning light areas, mid tone areas and darkest dark areas and textures simultaneously via repetition of lines and marks. If you want to develop your skills with pen and ink further, it is really worth looking into alternative shading and mark making techniques such as hatching, crosshatching, scribbling, stippling, contour lines, etc. For the projects in this course we are primarily using pen and ink to define outer contours, define edges, and add a small amount of detail. We're not really looking to do much shading or developing values with our pen at all, maybe very minimally. But because we're going to be bringing in watercolor and we're going to be combining two different mediums, we're not really looking to overly describe with either of them. Because if we do, our piece is going to look overly described and overdone. I'm going to talk more about this in class number five. But it is important that you know that whenever you repeat a line or mark over and over and over again, you're going to be creating a visual texture. It is important that you know this because oftentimes when working with pen and ink, because we're laying down lines and marks, we can accidentally create a visual texture that we weren't intending to create. Or on the other hand, you can simply start making things look a little bit too messy because you're starting to lay down way too many lines and marks and there is no consistency throughout your groups. Keep an eye out for that because you don't want to start making one of your flowers look hairy because you're repeating a line over and over again. Just give thought to the specific types of lines and marks that you are creating with your pen before laying them down and to the amount that you're laying down so that they can communicate the texture and the detail that you're actually looking to describe. You can stay away from adding more than is truly necessary. That is it for this class. If you've made it through, congratulations. I am looking forward to seeing you in the next class, which is all going to be about essential watercolor painting tips to know that are not only going to help you succeed with the pieces that we worked on together in this course, but are going to help you create great results with other watercolor pieces that you may choose to work on in the future. See you there. 5. Watercolor Painting Tips: Hey there and welcome to this class in which I'm going to be sharing a few must know tips on painting with watercolor. They are going to help you succeed with your final pieces that we're going to be working on together in this course, but really will also be helpful for you if you're getting started with this medium as they really apply for any kind of watercolor piece that you may decide to work on in the future and they'll help you start building a solid foundation of knowledge to jump off from and start building on. Let's go ahead and jump straight in. The very first thing to understand is that watercolor is a translucent or transparent medium, as opposed to opaque painting mediums such as acrylics or oils. We're really not looking to cover up our substrate, which in this case, our substrate is paper that we're painting on with thick layers of paint. When working with watercolor, we're looking to incorporate that brightness of that paper under the paint as part of the painting. Throughout the painting process, we keep altering the paints consistency by adding more or less water depending on whether we want to use that paint in a more saturated darker way, covering up more paper or whether we want to use the paint in a lighter, more translucent way, which covers up a less amount of paper. If we want to use our colors in a darker way and cover up more paper, we simply add more paint and less water into our color mixtures. If we want to create paler colors or more translucent colors, we add more water into our color mixtures. We can also deepen and darken certain areas by working in layers and layering more color in those areas that we want to darken or by dropping in more color before that previous layer starts to dry. To sum this point up, throughout the watercolor painting process, we are constantly shifting and changing the ratios of paint to water in our color mixtures depending on the effects that we're after in that point in time. Key point number two that I want to share with you in regards to working with watercolor, and this is, it's usually better to work from lights to darks. As I said before, when working with watercolor, we are incorporating that brightness of the paper as part of our piece. When working with watercolor, the whiteness of that paper is going to help us create our highlights. It stands in place for our lightest value areas, our brightest highlights. This is why it's super important to plan for a highlight shapes, and to keep those areas protected and uncovered with paint throughout the painting process. Lots of watercolor artists, find masking fluid a very helpful tool because it allows them to keep their highlights protected while they're able to work a little bit more freely, and they don't have to worry about covering up those highlights. When I work in layers, which is usually when I'm going for higher levels of realism with watercolor pieces, initially, I go in with very light, pale, translucent and watered-down color, and I make my way incrementally towards darker, more saturated colors or color mixtures that have less water in them and more paint in them. This gives me more control because remember that it's always going to be easier to go in and darken than it is to go in and lighten. When working with watercolor, mistakes are very difficult to correct because once that pigment gets absorbed by that paper, there is no going back to the whiteness that the paper once had. For the pieces that we're going to be working on together in this course, we're really only going to be going in with one layer of watercolor. This is because we're keeping things loose and expressive with these floral pieces, and we're also going to be combining watercolor with pen and ink. We don't want to overdo it with either medium. We want to create a nice fresh balance with the two mediums, and I'm going to be providing tips on how to do this in the next class. However, all of this still applies, and I'm going to show you how to do this even in quicker, more expressive pieces by preparing two different color mixtures for each section of our flower, a lighter color mixture and a darker color mixture, and dropping in that second darker color while that initial lighter layer is still wet. Key watercolor tip number three is going to be, to be careful to not overwork your piece. When painting with this medium, it is incredibly easy to start overworking your painting. This word, overworking means different things to different artists. For some artists, especially those who work with more expressive, looser styles, overworking can mean simply over describing a subject. For an artist that works with one single layer, who is always keeping things minimal and very expressive and loose, working in five or six different layers and attempting to describe every single little detail to arrive at the highest levels of realism can be referred to as overworking. In this case it's simply over describing, but overworking can also refer to starting to damage your paper. When we're just getting started with this medium and we're just starting to develop our water control, and we haven't understood how to work properly in layers if we wish to do so, it can be very, very easy to start damaging our paper and even start making holes in it, especially if we're working on thinner watercolor paper. The way that you stay away from damaging your watercolor paper is simply by practicing your water control, which I'm going to be talking more about next, and also by applying paint confidently, which really only comes with time and practice, and embracing the organic irregular effects that watercolor paint creates. One of the beauties of this medium is that there's only a certain amount that you can control. Watercolor has a mind of its own, and there're always going to be certain things that you didn't anticipate or that surprise you. Many times it's best to embrace what happens on paper, allowing that paint to do its own thing, and leaving it be as much as you can. The more you try to go in and fight with the paint or "correct or perfect" every single thing that happens, the more likely it is that you're going to arrive at overworked results. Also always remember that if you are working in layers, it is very important that you allow that previous layer to dry completely before getting started with the next. Key tip for success when working with watercolor number four, and this is, start developing your water control. Throughout the watercolor painting process, we have to constantly stay mindful and keep checking on the amount of water that we have in our color mixtures on our palette in order to apply our paint in a more translucent or more saturated state, depending on the tone and the value that we're going for. However, we also have to pay attention to how much water we have in our paintbrush bristles because every single time we go into our container of water, we are absorbing water content that we're bringing out onto our paper or into our color mixtures, watering them down even more. If we don't pay attention to this, we can easily create backgrounds in our paintings and splotchiness because too much water drips down from our paintbrush bristles, disturbing that paint that is settling on that paper, and that could already be in the middle of the drying process. We can also very quickly and without knowing, start making our color mixtures on our palette extremely watery, making us use more paint than necessary because we're constantly going to find the need to bring out more paint from our palette into the color mixture. Finally, aside from noticing how much water we have in our color mixtures on our palette and in our paintbrush bristles, it is also essential that we start paying attention to how wet our paper is. Watercolor is always going to expand on paper that is wet, and the more movement that we want, the wetter that paper has to be. We have to start developing that skill for noticing the different degrees of wetness that a paper can have in order to arrive at the effects that we want when we start placing that paint on paper. We also have to notice when the paper has arrived at that awkward semi dry state, because when it has, we really shouldn't be doing any more work at all. That is a sure-fire way of again, arriving at overworked splotchy results. Remember to continue checking on and paying attention to how much water you have in three different areas or things throughout your painting process. One of those is your color mixtures themselves, another is your paintbrush bristles, and another is your paper. Make sure that the water content that you have in these three areas is what you need for that given point in time in the painting process to arrive at the results that you're looking for. In my Watercolor 101 course that I shared previously here on Skillshare, I go much more in depth into this topic and provide lots of must-do exercises. They're going to help you start developing your water control. I would highly recommend checking it out. The final key tip that is really going to help you move forward with watercolor is keep things clean and organized. You want to make sure that you're keeping things organized on your mixing palette, so for example, something that could help could be keeping warm color mixtures separate from cool color mixtures or keeping neutrals away from vibrant colors and simply making sure that your color mixtures are not intermixing because this can lead to desaturated muted out colors, and if you're looking for the saturated colors, and that is absolutely no issue. But for example, for our floral pieces for this course, we really want to use vibrant saturated colors. But another thing is you want to make sure that you're completely rinsing out your paintbrush bristles between your colors, especially when you just finish working with one color and you're about to start working with a very different color. You can very easily start creating mud or an undesired color if you have a previous color still in your paintbrush bristles and you go into a color, that is, it's complimentary, meaning its opposite in the color wheel or if you have a brown in your color mixtures and you go into a vibrant color, you can mute it out accidentally as well. Just be very careful and make sure that you completely rinse out those bristles before getting started with a new color. Finally, the last thing that you want to make sure that you keep clean is your water in your container. You want to make sure that you're keeping an eye on it so that when it starts becoming murky, you change it right away because that paint and that murkiness in your water can also affect your color. Some artists like using two containers and even three containers so that you can use one of them to rinse out your paintbrush bristles between colors so that the majority of that murkiness stays in that water, and you can use your other container of water to bring out clean water into your color mixtures, and for any other techniques that might require you use clean water. But whatever the case may be, whether you decide to work with one container, two containers, three containers, or more, make sure that your water is kept clean. Keeping things clean and organized is going to help you arrive at more vibrant colors in your final pieces. All right my friend, congratulations if you made it through this class, I am excited to see you in the next one in which I'm going to be explaining some key tips and pieces of information that are going to help you combine pen and ink and watercolor washes more successfully and arrive at well-balanced results that are not overworked. See you in the next one. 6. Pen and Watercolor Tips: Hey there, friend. Welcome to this class in which I'm going to be sharing for must know tips that are going to help you create awesome looking, well-balanced pen and ink and watercolor wash pieces. These are four key things that I always have in my mind when I'm working on this type of artwork that helped my art making process go a lot more smoothly and really helped me arrive at best results. Before jumping into the tips, I want to share why pen and ink and watercolor are such a great combination of artistic mediums. Throughout my art journey, I have explored lots of different drawing and painting mediums, and I've also combined lots of different mediums to create mixed media pieces. I can honestly say that out of all of the combinations of mediums that I've tried, my absolute favorite is pen and ink and watercolor. The main reason why this is, is because these two mediums compliment each other incredibly well. We can use the strengths of both mediums in combination to create well-balanced pieces that are interesting and that have tons of ourselves in them because there are so many different choices and ways of working, but there is just a lot of opportunity to bring in more of ourselves and our way of doing things into our work. When we apply ink on paper via a drawing pen, we're using a drawing medium. A drawing pen allows for a greater precision, greater control, the ability to define edges and add details and use lines and mark making in a variety of different ways. Even though we can really use any color of ink, oftentimes, we use black ink in combination with watercolor, in this way, allowing the vibrancy of watercolor to shine. Watercolor, on the other hand, is a painting medium, and one of the beauties of watercolor is that it has a mind of its own because we're using plenty of water. We're able to create these beautiful, organic, less controlled effects via quick washes of color. In other words, we use our drawing medium, in this case, it's our drawing pens using lines and mark making, and we use watercolor to paint in larger areas and shapes via washes. With all that said, I'm going to go ahead and share my main four tips with you on combining pen and ink with watercolor. Tip number 1 is make sure that you're choosing the right tools. I talked a little bit about this in the first class in which I'm sharing my supplies with you that I'm going to be using throughout this course. But it is incredibly important that if you're going to be combining pen and ink and watercolor, that you are using a pen that contains waterproof ink that is not going to smudge when you add paint and water on top of it. When working on any kind of mixed media art work, you want to make sure that as you're working, your materials and supplies will react well with each other throughout the process. At the same time, you want to make sure that your artwork, especially if you spend a long time on it, is able to endure the test of time. If you don't give thought to how these different mediums are going to react with each other as you're drawing or painting, you're likely going to feel like you're having to fight against the substrate that you're drawing your painting on or against one of the materials, and the entire process can turn out to be a lot more frustrating. At the same time, if we don't give thought to how these materials are going to have an impact on each other over time, after we're done, they can certainly have an unfavorable reaction with each other over time and make the piece deteriorate a lot faster. Moving on to my second tip, which is going to help you create beautiful looking pen and ink and watercolor wash pieces, and this one is to give thought to how you're going to be balancing out the two mediums before getting started. As I mentioned in a previous class, when we're going to be creating a mixed media piece in which we're going to be bringing in two or more different types of drawing or painting mediums to create one same piece, we really don't want to overly describe with any single one of them. We want to give thought to what we're going to be doing and how much detail we're going to be adding with each because if we don't give thought to this, it is extremely easy to continue adding and adding and adding with all of your different mediums, and at the end, you can arrive at a peace that is overly described and overdone and maybe even overwhelming to look at. What I would recommend for beginners getting started on their journeys with mixed media artwork is always take five minutes before getting started and ask yourself how much work and even what techniques are you planning to use with all of your different mediums that you're thinking of bringing in. In this case, for example, if we're using pen and ink and watercolor, and these are the two mediums that we're creating our mixed media piece with, what percentage of work am I going to be doing with my pen and ink and what percentage of work am I going to be doing with watercolor? Is it going to be 50-50? 30-70? 60-40? Answering this question and deciding at least in a general way, how much you're going to be doing with each medium and making sure that you're keeping this in mind throughout the drawing and/or painting process, there's a much better chance that you're going to arrive at a well-balanced result that is fresh, that is expressive, and that the viewer will want to keep looking at. Taking a moment before getting started with any artwork to ask yourself this type of question and really paying attention to what is going on in the creative process and whether this is helping you or not helping you arrive at the results that you want is really going to help you start discovering yourself as an artist, and it's really going to help you start developing your very own creative process, which is extremely exciting. Moving on to key tip number 3 to have in mind when you're combining pen and ink and watercolor, and this one is to give thought to whether you're going to be doing your pen and ink work first or your watercolor work first. Both methods are great options, and it's ultimately going to depend on what you enjoy most and what leads to the effects that you like most. For me personally, I like starting with a drawing that has some amount of detail already rendered in, depending on the amount of work that I'm going to be doing with watercolor, I decide whether I'm going to be adding more or less detail with my pen and ink. But for me, it just makes sense to create that initial structure first using my pen and ink, and then go in with my watercolor. This helps me bring a certain level of realism into my work that I like because I'm able to spend a longer time first creating my preliminary pencil sketch, then doing my pen and ink work over that preliminary pencil sketch, and I'm able to draw my shapes, get my proportions in right perspective and all that, which is super important in order to create mid to higher levels of realism. Once I have that in, I can be looser and more expressive when it comes to using my paint. But other artists really enjoy doing their watercolor washes and shapes first, and then they bring in their pen and ink. This is also awesome. Usually, these are the artists who are going for a more abstract look, a highly expressive look, and they're looking for less control initially, and they're looking for the paint to do the majority of the talking. It can really be an exciting process to first play with the paint, see what happens on paper, and then based on what happened, you can make decisions on what you're going to be doing in terms of your line work and your mark making with pen and ink. I would say it's more of an intuitive process overall. That can be a very, very exciting process to explore for sure. You could ask yourself if you enjoy drawing more, or if you enjoy painting more, or if you enjoy more of a controlled look or a less controlled look. Then create a strategy for yourself based on that. This is very, very important. Doesn't matter what medium it is that you go in with first, whether it's pen and ink or watercolor. Make sure that you allow it to dry completely before getting started with the following medium. If you use a waterproof smudge proof pen and you will allow it to dry completely before going in with your watercolor, you should not have any smearing or smudging. Work in layers and allow them to dry in between. Moving on to the very last tip that I want to share with you in this class, and this is to go in with at least a basic strategy. This one really goes in hand with the last two tips. After you have decided how much work you're going to be doing with each medium, and also which medium is going to be first and which medium is going to be second, just go a little bit deeper and ask yourself, what specific techniques are you going to be using with each medium, and in what order are you thinking of tackling each area in? Are you going to be adding in a background? Are you going to be doing any layering? Are you going to be using any pen and ink alternative shading or mark-making techniques such as hatching, crosshatching, scribbling, stippling, etc? Are you going to be using wet on wet techniques or wet on dry techniques when painting with watercolor? Also, think of the specific colors that you're going to be needing a for your piece. Taking time to select and swatch out your colors and even the color mixers that you're going to be using is super important because color, as I'll be explaining in class number 7, is going to help us create a well integrated, harmonious looking piece. But what I like doing before getting started with a new piece that I'm going to be spending a little bit of time on is I asked myself these questions that I just shared with you and I take some notes, and I even write down steps for myself, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 5. What I'm going to be starting with, and how I'm thinking of moving through my process, and all of this helps me immensely. It helps my process go a lot more smoothly, and it makes it a lot more likely that I'm going to arrive at results that I love. Taking even 5-10 minutes to do some planning and prep work makes all the difference in the world. All right, my friend. If you made it through this class, congratulations. I am so excited to move on to the next class in which we're going to be drawing flowers together. I'm going to be explaining how to simplify three different flowers, a cone flower, a wild rose, and a daffodil into simple shapes, and how you can start working on your visualization skills that you can later draw these from imagination, from different angles and perspectives. Can't wait to work on our drawing together. See you in the next one. 7. Simplifying Flowers Into Basic Shapes: Hey there and welcome to Class Number 6 in which I'm going to be sharing how to simplify flowers into basic shapes. We're going to be focusing on studying and practicing the three specific flowers that we're going to be bringing in in our final project. We're going to be drawing these flowers with graphite first and then we're going to move on to trace them with pen and ink so that we can get our practice in with our drawing pens. I've collected a few different reference photos for each of the flowers that we need to practice so that we can really study and observe their structure and major characteristics. I've made sure to compile different photos for each flower so that we can see them from different angles and perspectives. This is important because we're going to be able to get a much better understanding of each flower's three-dimensional structure and their specific characteristics. You're going to be able to find all of these different reference photos that I've compiled for you in the projects and resources tab for this course. These exercises that we're going to be working on together in this class are amazing as they help you develop your ability to simplify what it is that you're trying to draw and you're going to be able to more easily visualize these flowers that you're going to be sketching from imagination when you're creating your final pieces. Let's go ahead and jump straight in. As you can see, I have divided one of the pages in my sketchbook into three sections. I'm going to be using one of these thirds for my coneflower, another third for the wild rose, and another third for the daffodil. I'm going to practice sketching each flower in two views. The first view is going to be a view from the top as if we were looking downwards at the flower and the second view is going to be the profile view as if we were looking at this flower from the side exactly at eye level. Remember for this exercise it really is all about simplifying and visualizing as simple shapes. These two abilities are going to help you tremendously as you move on in your drawing and even painting journeys. Let's go ahead and get started with the coneflower. First, I want to share a few photos with you and I want to point out some major characteristics and how I would visualize this particular flower. At a macro level, when I see different pictures of this flower, I get the sense that if I were to see this flower from a top view looking down at the flower, the petals would create a circle shape. Then the central part of the flower is another smaller circle inside of that larger circle. Something I notice, is that that central part of the flower has a lot of volume to it. You can see how it really pops out. It has a height that goes upwards, way past the petals. To keep proportions believable in my sketch, I also want to take notice of how much of a difference there is in size between the smaller circle created by the central part of the flower versus the larger circle created by the petals. There are certain flowers like for example, the sunflower, it has a huge central section. There are other types of flowers in which that central section is relatively small. For coneflowers, I am noticing that that central circle is pretty big when compared to the petals. You want to notice how the circumference of the larger circle created by the petals compares with the smaller circle created by the central section of the flower. This will help you get proportions right in your sketches. But there is a range in the photos that I am seeing, in certain coneflowers those petals are longer which creates a larger outer circle. In other coneflowers, the petals are shorter which creates a smaller outer circle. Something else that I notice about this particular flower is how the petals are drooping downwards creating this umbrella effect. Another couple of things that I really like noticing because these are essential characteristics that vary from flower to flower or plant to plant are the flowers' petals and the flowers' leaves. I like noticing the shape, the size, and the approximate number of the petals in this flower and also the shape and the size of its leaves. I would say that coneflower petals have a medium size to them. They are not too short and not too long, and they have pretty rounded tips. As for the number of the petals, sometimes I just go ahead and count the petals in the reference photo, in other times I take time to do a little bit of research. In this case, I looked it up and coneflowers have anywhere between 15-20 petals. What I noticed about coneflower leaves is that they have a pointy end and they are not too short and not too long. They are medium-sized, I would say, and they also tend to fall within a range. Meaning that in some photos that I saw, the leaves looked a little bit shorter and in other photos that I saw, they look a little bit longer. Now that we have taken time to observe some reference photos of coneflowers from different angles and perspectives, let's go ahead and get started with our sketches. Remember, this is all about simplifying so tune out all of the medium-size and smallest details and focus on the general largest shapes. The first sketch is going to be the top view for the coneflower. From what we saw in those photos, we can get a pretty good idea that the petals would visually create a circle, and inside of that larger circle, we would have a smaller circle created by the middle section of that flower. Notice how I am doing my best to keep my sketches light. This is because I am going to be erasing these initial shapes later on. Now, if you're having trouble drawing circles, don't worry, it's a matter of practice. My circles still are not perfect and I have been practicing for many years, so don't get discouraged. Just keep practicing and it'll come to you. The purpose of these shapes is simply to get proportions right for these different parts of this flower. It also helps us visualize the areas that we're going to be drawing in. They don't have to be perfect and we're going to erase them later. After having finished with that basic sketch for that top view of the coneflower, I am now working on the profile view of the coneflower. Do some visualizing. Close your eyes if you have to and imagine what this flower would look like if you were to hold one up in front of your face and we're looking at one from a sideways or profile view. As we saw in those reference photos, the petals drooped down in this type of flower creating an umbrella shape or a half circle. We also observed that that central section in the middle of the petals has quite a bit of height to it. We can also visualize that central section of the flower as a second smaller half circle or semicircle shape. You can see how I stacked it right on top of that larger semi-circle right in the middle. Now that I have these basic shapes laid down for myself which are really going to help me with proportions and visualizing where everything is going to be in this flower, I am now going to get started with drawing the petals and other details. In this part of the process, I am bringing to mind what I observed in those reference photos in terms of the shape of these pedals, the approximate amount of petals in this type of flower, and also the petals' length. There is not much thought involved in the petals' length though because if we already created that central circle and the outer circle, that space is going to tell me how long to make the petals. As I am drawing these petals, I am bringing to mind the petal shapes that I saw in those reference photos. Something that I love doing as well is jumping around this entire petal section and creating overlapping petals. Instead of working in a counter or counterclockwise direction and filling my petals in that way, I am jumping around the entire circle. This helps me create more irregularity throughout the petals, which is so important because I don't want those shapes to look too organized or patterny. By jumping around the entire circle, this also helps me create a more believable look of overlapping and clustering petals. These are organic natural objects that we are drawing and there should always be irregularity and imperfection involved. I added in minor detailing in that central part of the flower and that is enough for my pencil sketch. It is now time to move on to the profile view. As you can see, I am drawing the petals inside of this larger semi-circle. For this one, I'm going to be adding a couple of extra petals on either side outside of the semicircle. When you're working on the side views, remember how all of the petals are growing out of that central section. As you're drawing them, remember that they should look like they are all attached to that central area. These petals are drooping down when it comes to the coneflower. As I make my way towards the left and the right, the exterior edges of the petals get more and more curved as I make my way towards either side. You can see how I added in a couple of extra petals outside of that semicircle. I made sure those two petals were different, and that overall there is not too much symmetry present throughout this sketch. If you make something look very perfect, or very symmetrical when it comes to natural organic objects, it could end up looking more like a cartoon and this is not the style that I'm going for with these pieces. After finishing with the petals in the sideways view coneflower, I then added in the stem. When we're drawing flowers from different perspectives, it is important to remember that the stem should be aligned with that central part of the flower. Once I was done with my pencil sketches, it was time to do some practice work with my pen. It is super smart to practice and do some warm-up work with the tools that you're going to be using for the final pieces. So what I am doing here is I am a lightly tracing over my pencil work. I like thinking of this process more as a defining the edges, rather than outlining. Generally speaking, we want to stay away from thick, bold, heavy looking outlines. The reason this is, is because these kinds of outlines lead to heaviness and flatness. Again to more of a cartoony look. In order to stay away from that heaviness and flatness, I am keeping it moving. I am jumping around from petal to petal. If I do a zoom in, you're probably going to notice that in some sections my lines are not even connecting. You're going to notice that once I finish with the petals, when I am drawing that inner circle for the central part of the flower, I actually go in and create a very irregular edge to that circle. This is going to help me communicate that texture in the central part of the flower. Finally, I go in and add some mark-making to further describe the texture in the central part. As I am doing all of my pen and ink work, I am not pressing down too hard and I am not hesitating. The slower you move your hand and the more you hesitate, the more of that ink is going to flow down the nib of your pen and this is going to lead to heavier, stiffer looking lines. If I have any slight imperfections, and even wobbles happening, that is perfectly okay. I just leave them be, I don't worry too much about that. It is preferable honestly to have a little imperfection and wobbles going on, but to have thinner, more flowy, more dynamic looking lines that have a line weight variation to them than to have line work that is very heavy and very stark looking and very perfect. Remember these are organic natural objects after all. We need that irregularity and that imperfection. After I was done with my pen and ink, I allowed everything to dry completely for around 10-15 minutes and I then went ahead and erased all my pencil work out using my soft graphite eraser. As you can see, I was able to erase out all of my pencil work very well. This is because I made sure to draw very lightly. All right friends, it is time to move on to our wild rose studies. Once again, just like what we did with that first flower, let's look over a few different reference photos that I've collected, which the wild rose or the wild roses are shown from different angles and perspectives, so that we can have a better understanding of the three-dimensional structure and the major characteristics for this type of flower, so that we can better inform our work and be able to draw these from imagination. So I'm going to go over all the points that I went through before with the coneflower. The first thing is if I were looking downwards at this flower, directly from above the flower, I get the sense that the petals would create once again, a circular shape. Then we have that inner section of the flower, right in the center of those petals. Even though this flower doesn't have a very voluminous structure in that central section, it does have a long pistol and long stamen growing out of a smaller point that is right in the center of the flower. So I would once again visualize this flower initially as two circles, one smaller circle inside of a larger circle, created by the petals. What I'm noticing about wild flowers is that some of them have more than one color in their petals. Like for example, this one that I'm sharing right now on screen, that central section is surrounded by a yellowish hue. While the majority of the petals are pink. This doesn't mean that that entire area surrounded by that ring that has a yellow hue to it is the central section of the flower. Because that yellow is simply the inner portion of the petals themselves. If we see other wild flowers like this one right here, which only have one main pinkish hue throughout their petals. You can see how that central section and the structure is actually pretty small when compared to the size of the petals themselves. The petals for the wild rose, I can see are different, they have very irregular edges, especially along the outer sections of those petals. Aside from that irregularity along the outer edges of the wild rose petals, another thing that makes them very different from coneflower petals is that these petals are a lot larger and they are only five when compared to the 15-20 petals present in coneflowers. Something that also makes these petals different from coneflower petals is that these are actually curving up. When coneflower petals where curving down. They were drooping down creating that umbrella effect. In this case, these petals are creating more of an inverted umbrella shape. Finally, looking at the wild roses leaves, we notice that the edges of these leaves are what would be referred to as a toothed. You can see how their edges are spiky and not smooth. They have an almond shape to them. They are pointy at the tip. They are medium-sized, not too short, not too long. What I'm also noticing is that there are various leaves coming out of one single stem. With this information in mind, let's go ahead and work on our sketches. Let's get started with the pencil work first. So right now I'm laying down that first larger circle, then I'm going to move on to adding in the smaller circle for that central part of the flower. Right here you can see how I made that smaller circle smaller than the smaller circle in the coneflower because I'm trying to get those proportions right for wild flowers. That's the very basic simplified top view. Now let's work on the side view or the profile view. What we learned from having viewed those photos, is that the petals create this inverted umbrella shape. Depending on how open the flower is, it can be more like a complete semicircle or more like a bowl shape. Like what I am showing here. That little circle that I added in the middle of that bowl shape is just an indication of that central part of the flower where the pistol and the stamen are going to be growing out of. It is now time to break down these larger shapes into medium-sized shapes. So starting with the top view here, we notice that wild flowers have five petals. What I am doing is I am adding in five ovals or circles inside of this larger circle so that I can break up this larger circle into sections and visualize where I'm going to be drawing my different petals. By adding in these ovals or these circles, I can be sure that later on when it comes time to draw my actual petals, they're going to have the size that I need them to have, they're going to be located where I need them to be located, and they're going to have just the right level of overlap between them. Then I did the exact same thing for the side view. Of course, for the side view we only see certain petals and certain portions of other petals. But just like what we did with the coneflowers side view, it is very important to have in mind that all petals are growing out of that central section. So make sure that as you're drawing these shapes, they all look like they're growing out of that central section and look like they are connecting in that central section. Notice how the outer petals on the left edge and right edge are longer or flatter ellipses, and the outermost edge is more of a curve, whereas the central petal is more of a squished regular oval shape. Then I just added in a couple of small petal shapes peeping out from behind these front petals that we're able to see more of. Finally, with those medium shapes added in, it was time to switch on over to my pen. I'm going to do the exact same thing that I did with the previous flower study. I am defining edges, but as you're going to notice, I am adding more detail, making things look a little bit more irregular, especially along the outer edges of those petals, and also along the outer edges of that smaller central circle. For this flower, you can see how I've added some mark-making techniques there to describe the tall stamen that are growing out of that central section. But I am trying my best to keep these relatively simple. Notice how in the profile view I made sure that the stem is aligned with that central section of the flower. This is very important. Finally, just like with the first one, I allowed everything to dry for around 10-15 minutes, I went in with my soft graphite eraser to erase out all of my pencil work. Because I made sure to draw lightly, I was able to erase everything very well. Finally, moving on to the daffodil. I'm going to share four pictures of daffodils with you so that we can observe them and study their structure before jumping into our sketching practice. As you can see, this flower has a very different structure from the previous two. This flower has what is referred to as a trumpet or cone shape to it right in the middle, or what I like referring to as a megaphone shape. This conical or megaphone-like structure is protecting the pistil and the stamen in the central section of the flower. It also has quite a bit of height to it, even more than the height of that central structure in the coneflower. It's almost as if it's two flowers in one, two separate structures that are attached. What I notice about daffodils as well, which makes them very different from other types of flowers is that they are not facing upwards, like most flowers, or slightly tilting to one side or the other. The top section of the stem bends over so that the petal portion of the flower is completely facing towards one side or towards another side. The flower is not facing upwards like with the other two. However, if this flower were facing upwards and we were looking down at this structure, we would still see a larger circle created by the larger petals and a smaller circle created by this trumpet or megaphone shape. The petals of this flower are quite different from the other two though we see six petals in this one. They are definitely larger petals but not as round as the petals of the Wild Rose. They don't have very much irregularity to them along the outer edges, like the wild rose does. However, the edges of the trumpet or megaphone shape are very, very irregular. You can see how the outer edges of that trumpet shape are curving outwards. Finally, in terms of the leaves, they are also quite different from the previous flowers' leaves. These leaves are very long and narrow. So with all of this information in mind, let's go ahead and get started with our sketching practice for the daffodil. Getting started with the top view, I create my two circles. The larger circle created by the petals, and the smaller circle created by the circumference of the trumpet or megaphone shape in the middle. As I drew those two circles, I tried to have the proportions that I was observing in mind. So how does the circumference of the smaller circle compare to the circumference of the outer circle? It was then time to move on to the simplified version of the side view for the daffodil. The first thing that I did was I visualize what the flatter petals would look like from a sideways or profile view. So I drew that flattened oval first. Once I had created that base flattened oval, I then added in that conical or megaphone shape right in the center. I made sure that that cone or a megaphone shape had a good height to it, and that when I compare the sizes of these two parts of the flower with each other, the proportions make sense. It is now time to divide this general larger shape into medium-sized shapes. As we saw, daffodils have six petals, which are quite large but not as round or wide as the petals of the Wild Rose. Right here you're going to see me add in six oval shapes inside of this circle. I want to make sure that my petals or slightly overlapping, so I make sure that these ovals are slightly touching. You're also going to see me add in an extra irregular line inside of that smaller circle and this is so that I can start visualizing where the top edge or the top lip of that trumpet shape that is curving out is moving on to the side view or the profile view. Once again, this is a visualization exercise. Taking into account everything that I've learned about daffodils, I am visualizing what this flower would look like when seen from the side. Just like with the other flowers, there are certain petals and certain parts of the structure that we're not able to see from this profile view. What are you able to see from this sideways view? How do the shapes for these different petals and the central structure change when seen from this perspective? With this one, I'm able to see at least three petals and I added in an extra little section of the two petals in the back peeping out from behind these petals in the front. With my pencil sketches ready, it is time to move on to my pen and ink work. I'm getting started with the top view and all of the same things come into play that I've been sharing so far with the other two flowers, I make sure to keep it flowing, keep it moving, you can see how I'm really thinking of creating that line weight variation, there are certain sections in which my lines are not even connecting. I am embracing those slight imperfections and wobbles that happen and I also start adding in a little extra detail, especially in that central section of the flower. Starting to think of the little lines and marks that I'm going to be using in my final pieces to describe the pistil, the stamen, and the texture and the characteristics in that central section. With the side view, I made sure to add in the stem in alignment with that central part of the flower. I then allowed everything to dry and I went ahead and erased everything with my soft graphite eraser. Just to finish up these studies, I am going to very quickly add in some leaves for each flower because I definitely want to add in some leaves in my final pieces. So I want to get that practice in as well. You're going to see me first sketch in these leaves with pencil and once I have sketched them in with pencil, I go ahead and define my edges with my pen and ink. I bring to mind what I remembered to be true about coneflower leaves. I remember they have a medium length to them, I remember that the tips are relatively pointy and that the edges are smooth. You're going to see me add in that central largest vein in these leaves. In this leaf that you're seeing me sketch right now, I added in an extra line and this is just so that I can create that illusion of this part of this leaf curving in, or this leaf being in a slightly different perspective than the other leaf. So we're able to see a little bit of the underside of that leaf. This is something that you can do when you want to create this type of illusion with any of the other leaves as well. Moving on to the leaves in the wildflower. As I mentioned before, the wildflower has smaller leaves that are all attached to one same stem. We also notice that the outer edges of the leaves of the wildflower have a tooth to them. This is something that I'm really going to have to remember when I am inking this in. This pointy toothy edge of these leaves is very particular to this flower and this is also present in regular roses. I like thinking of this tooth edge like a modified zigzag. It's very helpful before getting started to notice where the point of that tooth is going towards so that you can keep that direction consistent in all of your leaves. These "teeth" or little pointy ends are not going towards the flower or towards the main stem, but they are pointing outwards away from the flower. Right here I'm going to add in another one of those extra sections in this lowest leaf so that I can have a little variety in perspective here. By adding some of these leaves in different perspectives, we can, once again, stay away from a flat look. Finally, I am drawing the leaves for the daffodil, which are long and narrow. These, I imagine more like snakes with pointy ends. As I am drawing these long shapes, I'm making sure that there is a lot of variety present in terms of their length, in terms of how they are curving, and I also added in this shorter leaf that is bending in a different way. This variety is going to help this sketch look more natural and more interesting. My friend, if you made it through this class, congratulations. If you worked on these exercises, you're now going to be much better equipped and ready to work on your final pieces. I am so excited to move on to the next class with you at which we're going to be talking about, choosing the different colors that we're going to be using for our different flower pieces, and I'm also going to be talking about how we're going to be mixing colors in our final pieces so that the final process can be more smooth and we can arrive at better results. Great work and can't wait to see you in the next one. 8. Planning and Swatching Colors: Hey there and welcome to this class in which we're going to be working on choosing the colors that we're going to be using in our final pieces. I'm also going to be providing some key pieces of information that are very important in terms of the consistency and the amount of color mixtures. Now you want to make sure that you prepare for yourself so that the process for your final pieces can go a lot more smoothly and you can arrive at better results. I am a huge fan of planning the colors that I'm going to be using for a new piece, and also keeping my color scheme limited. There are a couple of different reasons for this. The first one is that color is an element of art that is incredibly important and it plays a huge role behind making a visual composition or an artwork look harmonious and cohesive. If we randomly pick colors throughout the painting process, especially as beginners, when we're just getting started with learning about the color wheel and color theory, there's a high probability that our artwork is going to lack integration. The second reason why I think it's incredibly important, especially for beginners to plan their colors if they're going to be using for a new piece, is that by planning and swatching out different colors and color mixtures that we're going to be using, it's just a lot more likely that we're going to be able to stay away from muddiness and undesired colors. For this final pieces in particular that we're working on in this course, we want to make sure that we are picking colors that go hand in hand with what these flowers actually look like, and we also want to make sure that our colors are bright and lively and vibrant. For these pieces in this course, I'm going to be using my Daniel Smith watercolor set. I'm going to get started with the planning and prep work for my colors that I'm going to be using in my coneflower piece. I decided to go with yellow petals for this one. I'm using my size 10 round brush, which is just what is comfortable for me when I am creating these color mixtures, and I'm taking a bit of water at a time from my container, swiveling my damp paintbrush in my paint and bringing out a little bit of paint at a time into this mixing area on my palette. What I want to do is I want to prepare two different colors for the petals of each flower so that I can have a nice color variation and also a variation in tone throughout those petals. And with tone, really, all I mean is that I want certain sections of my petals to be lighter and other sections to be darker, and this goes for all of the different parts of the flower as well. If the flower has a central area that has a different color from the petals, like the coneflower and the wild rose, I'll also be preparing two different colors for that central area so that I can have this variation in color and tone in that area too. Finally, when it comes to the stem and the leaves, I also want to prepare two different green color mixtures for myself. I want to have a darker green and a lighter green. By preparing to different colors for each area, this is going to make it so that I am able to give all of these different parts for these three flowers dimension or a sensation of light and shadow. Even though I'm going for a loose, expressive look, that doesn't have very high levels of realism by simply preparing a couple of different colors or variations of the same color for each area, this is going to help me create that sense of dimension in the flower. I'm also going to be able to play with color a little bit more and bring in these interesting effects that watercolor allows, these bleeds, these blooms, these transitions between different colors. I'm now going to let you know exactly which colors it is that I chose for my color mixtures for this first flower. As I said before, there is no need to use these exact same colors that I'm using. You can use whichever colors you have that are most similar to these, or if you want to make your coneflower's petals entirely a different color from mine, you can totally do that as well. That first orange looking color mixture on my palette at the top is a mixture of new gamboge plus deep scarlet. Yellow plus a little bit of red because I wanted to create an orange color. The color beneath that is just plain new gamboge, which is my yellow that I used for my previous color mixture, plus a little bit of water. Right below that, I have my dark green mixture, which is plain undersea green from Daniel Smith, which is a very dark, deep, rich olive green. Right right that, I created my light green color mixture, which is a mixture of undersea green plus hansa yellow light. By adding in that yellow into that dark green, I was able to create a lighter green. Finally, for that central section of my coneflowers, I prepared a couple of different browns, and I created these little puddles of brown in a separate section of my color mixing palette because I didn't want these browns to start mixing with my other colors because that would desaturate my other colors, or mute them down, and as I said, I want my color to stay nice and bright and vibrant for these flowers. My first lighter brown, which is a reddish brown, is just plain burnt sienna with some water added in, and the darker brown is burnt sienna plus a teeny tiny bit of neutral tint added in, which looks like a darker, chocolatey brown. Neutral tint is a dark gray that can be added to colors to darken them. If you don't have this color, a great option to replace it with would be a Payne's gray. You can even go with a black like ivory black or lamp black if you only have one of those. Right here, I'm just labeling the different colors that I have chosen so that I can make sure that I am using the right colors when it finally comes time to create those final pieces. It's time to move on to choosing the colors that we're going to be using for our wild roses piece. The same exact thing that I mentioned for the coneflower color mixtures, go for these as well. We want to make sure that we create two different colors or two different versions of our color for each part of the flower. Notice how juicy the color mixtures that I'm preparing for myself on my palette are. There's a good amount of pigment and color saturation in them, but there's also a good amount of water in them too. You can see the movement and the flow created by that water content in these puddles on my palette. This is the consistency that you're looking for. In my first Skillshare course titled Watercolor 101, I talk all about the different consistencies that you can use watercolor paint in that you should definitely know about. You can check out that course if you'd like to learn more about watercolor paint consistencies. But there's the tea consistency, there's the coffee consistency, there's the milk consistency, and there's the butter consistency. That's essentially their order from most liquidy or most watery, to most thick and most saturated. Why we're going with this color mixtures is something like a 50 percent water 50 percent color, so somewhere between the coffee to milk like consistency is what you're looking for. There's no need to be super precise about it, but you do want to make sure that the color mixtures on your palate, a little puddles that you create for yourself, contain a good amount of color in them, so that you really only need to go in with one layer of color and one quick wash. Remember that if there is too much water in your color mixtures, then most likely than not, your color is going to appear quite pale on paper. You're going to feel the need to go in with a second or a third layer to make that color more saturated and more vibrant in your painting, and we're really trying to go in with just one quick wash of color after we do our pen and ink work. Very important that it has a good amount of colors saturation in it, but at the same time, we want some water in your color mixture too. Why? Because if you don't have a good amount of water in it, you're not going to be able to effectively load up your paintbrush bristles and be able to paint quick. The final thing that I want to provide as a tip that is going to help you more effectively work on your final piece is you want to make sure that you have enough of your different colors on your color mixing palette before getting started with a new piece, or at least before getting started with a new area of your piece. The reason this is is because our paint is going to dry quickly, and if you don't have enough color mixture ready for you on your color mixing palette, and you have to create more of that color mixture when you're in the middle of painting a specific area in your flower, most likely than not, you're going to be left with a sharp defined edge around the previous shape that you painted in, and that's not necessarily what we want. We want to be able to load up a paintbrush and work quick and take more paint from our palette and pick up exactly where we left off so that we're not left with those strange marks, lines, and textures. The specific colors that I chose for the wild roses piece are for the petals, I'm going to be using quinacridone rose and French ultramarine. That first little puddle on my mixing palette is plain quinacridone rose with some water in it. The purple color mixture is quinacridone rose plus a bit of French ultramarine and some water in it. The browns that I prepared for myself for the central area of the flower, I have on the other section of my color mixing palette for the same reason that I mentioned before, I don't want these browns to come into contact with my other colors because that is going to mute them down. But I'm going to be using plain yellow ocher as my lighter golden brown and my darker brown is going to be plain burnt sienna. Finally, my greens are going to be exactly the same for all three flower pieces. I'm going to be using undersea green plus hansa yellow light for my lighter green and plain undersea green as my darker green. Right here I am once again taking a quick second to label all of these colors so that I can know exactly what to reach for when it comes time to work on my final pieces. Moving on to the color selection for our final piece, which is going to be the daffodil piece. As you can see, I took a quick second to change my water before getting started with the switching process because yellow can get very easily dirtied up with murky water because it's a very light and bright color, and I want to make sure that the colors that I'm swatching out are actually what they're going to be looking like in the final piece. Everything that I've shared with you on color mixing so far in the past too, goes for this one as well. I'm making sure that I prepare two different colors for each area of the flower. A lot of the daffodil flowers that I saw have two different yellows or two different colors in their petals. The conical structure in the center is sometimes a darker yellow or even an orange or an orangey red in some pictures that I saw. I wanted to prepare a yellow and a yellow orange. However, with daffodils, they don't have a brownish or even black looking central section like other flowers do. For this one, I'm not really going to be preparing any browns. Finally, the two greens that I create are going to be exactly the same as the other two flowers. For the colors in my petals, I went with plain hansa yellow light for my lighter yellow, my darker yellowish orange is going to be hansa yellow light plus a little bit of new gamboge, and for the greens in my leaves, I'm going to be using undersea green plus hansa yellow light as my lighter green and plain undersea green for my darker green. With this, we're all done with selecting the colors that we're going to be using for our three final pieces. Remember all of the tips that I provided in this class when you are mixing your colors and as you're moving along in your painting process for your final three pieces. I am so excited to finally get started with the first of our final three pieces, which is going to be our coneflower piece. If you're ready to get started with your first final piece and you're ready to put to use all of the information that you've gained and the skills that you've practiced so far, join me in the next class. See See there. 9. Coneflowers in Pen and Wash: Hey everyone, welcome to class number 8. We are finally getting started with the very first of our three final pen and watercolor wash floral pieces. This first one is going to be the cone flower piece. All of the information that I've shared with you in the past classes in this course, and the skills that we've practiced in the hands-on classes is going to be put to use in these three pieces. Aside from that, I'm going to be sharing some tips on composition. I'll be explaining about some things that I always have in mind whenever I'm creating my preliminary pencil sketch so that my pieces are asymmetrically balanced and interesting to look at. Without much further ado, let's go ahead and jump straight in. Let's get started with phase number 1, and we're going to be going through the same three phases for all our final pieces. For phase number 1, we're focusing on creating an effective preliminary pencil sketch that's essentially the bones and the foundation for the next two phases. Not only do we want to draw the cone flower as well, using the simplification and visualization techniques that I was sharing with you before, but we also want to make sure that we're using our drawing space effectively and that both the size of the elements that we're drawing, as well as their arrangement in space, is going to lead to a well-balanced, interesting looking composition. I want to remind you to draw as lightly as possible in this initial phase so that you can erase mistakes along the way so that your pencil is not visible through your pen and ink and your watercolor washes at the end and also so that you don't scratch or damage your paper. So since before getting started with my preliminary pencil sketch, I visualize what I want in my final piece to look like. So I already knew that I would be adding three-cone flowers in this piece. I also knew that I wanted all of my cone flowers to have a slightly different angle or orientation in space. I wanted my three-cone flowers to have slightly different angles or perspectives. This would not only look more realistic at the end, but also more interesting. Bringing to mind the visual information that I gathered from those reference photos that I shared with you in the previous class on drawing these three flowers and also bringing to mind the simple shapes that helped me visualize this particular flower in that class and the overall method that I share with you, I get started with this process. Now, as you probably remember in class number 6, we practice drawing these three flowers from two different views; looking down at the flower from above it, and also from a sideways or profile view, none of these three cone flowers is going to be seen directly perfectly from above. However, by understanding what that flower looks like from that perspective, I'm now able to distort that initial circle. I'm able to smash it and turn it more into an oval or ellipse-like shape and tilt that shape depending on the perspective and the orientation that I want to make happen. Those simple top view and profile view drawings that we created in the beginning, enabled us to understand the structure of the flower from these two perspectives. Now that we've understood that structure and the flower's major characteristics, we can take it a step further and visualize what those same shapes would look like if the flower had a slightly different orientation in space, or was facing off more to one side than towards the other side, or was looking down or up a little bit more. Usually, what we see flowers in real life, whether it's a bouquet or floral arrangement, or we're seeing flowers out in nature, they're going to have a variety of orientations. Not all of them are going to be looking towards the same direction. They're going to have different tilts, etc. I want to really play with those orientations because this is going to help my piece look a little bit more natural and realistic. I also want to stay away from stiffness and flatness. Depending on the orientation of the flower that I wanted to make happen, I went with either the circle, which I learned from that first practice in which we were looking down at the flower. If I wanted to create more of a sideways view, I went with the umbrella or the semicircle shape. The flower at the bottom, as you can see, is a combination of the two, I added in the central sections of the flowers, the way that we practiced where it made sense with that orientation. With that, I was done with laying down my basic shapes. Aside from laying down these basic shapes that are going to allow me to more successfully move on to the next part of this preliminary process, which is going to be to start drawing my petals and my stems and my leaves. I also made sure that these basic shapes had an interesting arrangement and that the sizes weren't too big or too small for the size of watercolor paper that I'm working on. As you can see, I placed them in a bit of a triangular arrangement. This is going to help me create asymmetrical balance in my piece and it's going to make it more interesting to look at. I didn't want to place my flowers in a straight line or have any single one of them right in the center. I know that that would lead to a lot of symmetry and asymmetry is often boring in an artwork. It's always helpful to look for ways that we can create asymmetrical balance so that the piece can be interesting to look at. Also, this is going to help the viewers' eyes keep moving and flowing through the piece. Now that our compositional arrangement has been sorted and those initial shapes have been laid down. I'm starting to draw the petals. I'm continuing to draw as lightly as possible, allowing that oval shape to guide me in terms of how long to make those petals. I'm bringing to mind everything that I shared in that past class, remembering the particularities about cone flower petals, their shape, their approximate number, how they are overlapping, and also making sure that I'm bringing in a lot of irregularity because this is an organic and natural object after all. Just like what I did with my practice sketch, I am jumping around the oval here and I'm not really adding my petals in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction, but jumping around the oval. Again, this is going to help me create more of a natural overlap in petals and stay away from that pattern you look, I want to cluster petals together in different ways and maybe even make certain sections look a little bit more sparse than others. This sideways view, I started with the petal right in the center. Once that central petal is in, that is drooping downwards in more of a vertical position, it's easier to add in the petals on either side that get more and more curved as they make their way towards the left and right edges. With this flower at the bottom, I really visualize what this flower and its petals would look like from this particular perspective. What would these petals that are drooping down, that are all connected to the central section look like from this angle? We see a lot less of the petals in the back than we do the petals in the front. Because of this, the shapes that I create for those petals in the back are very different from the shapes that I create for the petals in the front. You can also see how I added in that central section of the flower closer to the top edge of that initial ellipse than to the bottom edge because that just makes more sense for this perspective. Then finally, it was time to add in the stems and the leaves. Remember that when you're adding in your stems, they have to look like they are attached to that central section of the flower. Imagine them being in alignment. However, as you can see, I made sure to add subtle curves to those stems instead of just creating perfect vertical lines which would lead to a lot of stiffness. Again, it just wouldn't look natural. When it came time to drawing the leaves, I also brought to mind all of the particular characteristics for the leaves of this flower. I remembered that cone flower leaves are not too long and not too short. They're pointy at the end and they have smooth edges. This is a full composition that we're creating with these three flowers. You can see the petal areas as being the primary elements or focal points of this piece and then the leaves can be regarded as secondary elements. The leaves are secondary supportive elements, so even though I wanted to make sure to add some in, I didn't want to go overboard with the amount or place them in a way that would be too distracting. I also made sure to play with the orientation of the leaves. I wanted a certain variety in the angles that they created and their shape. All right, moving on to phase number two, which is going to be the pen and ink phase. The objective with this phase is going to be to define outer edges and also to add in a little bit more detail. You're going to see me add in a little bit more detail than I did for my first practice sketches, but I still want to keep it minimal. I don't want to go overboard with the amount of work that I do with my pen and ink because I am going to be bringing in watercolor and we want a loose, expressive look for these pieces. Remember to do your best to keep it moving, keep it flowing, try to not get stuck in one single place, and remember that line weight variation is key. Bring to mind those four things that I was talking about before that contribute to you being able to develop this line weight variation. The first one is pen tip size. You could bring in a second pen tip size and that in itself will help you develop thicker lines and thinner lines. The second is the angle at which you're using your pen. You can use it in more of a 90-degree or upright position to get thicker, bolder lines and more of a 45-35 degree angle for thinner, lighter lines. The third variable is the speed at which you move your hand and arm. The quicker you move it, the thinner and lighter the lines, and the more slowly you move, the thicker and bolder your lines are going to turn out to be because more ink is going to make its way down that nib of the pen. Finally, there's also the pressure that you're exerting on the paper. The more pressure, the bolder the line, the less pressure, the thinner and lighter the line is going to be. Try combining these variables in different ways or explore them individually. Right here, I am adding some mark-making in the central section of the flower. I remembered the texture that I saw in those reference photos for cone flowers and just picked a type of mark that I thought would help me describe that. I went for inverted drop shapes and I just made sure to add in those marks again in a very irregular way, really trying my best to stay away from any patterny look or organized look, making some larger, some smaller, and angling them in different ways. I also very swiftly added in some details in the petals themselves. These are just longer, curved lines that I created very swiftly and very quickly inside of these shapes. You can probably see how those lines are very thin when compared to the contour lines for those petals. I didn't want those two lines to compete so I made sure to create a lesser visual weight in those inner lines and marks that I added in for the textures inside of the petals. I'm making sure to move my arm and wrist a lot more quickly and I'm also barely touching the tip of my pen to my paper when I'm adding in those lines that I want to make lighter in visual weight. Whereas the contour lines outside along the edges of the petals, I'm approaching a tiny bit more slowly and exerting just a tiny bit more pressure. By controlling those two variables, meaning the speed and the pressure, you can see how these lines that I'm creating inside of the petals look lighter and thinner and the lines that I create in the exterior, outer contour for those petals look thicker and darker. This is an example of how I'm making mindful use of line weight variation. I continue carefully but swiftly tracing over my pencil work and I'm really embracing any imperfections, wobbles, irregularities that might happen along the way. I am being careful about not tracing over certain stem sections, especially in other little parts of leaves or petals that would actually be covered up by another element that's in front of them. For example, this flower at the bottom here is in front of the stem of that flower behind it so I have to be careful not to trace over that section of the stem of the flower behind it if I want to create that illusion of this flower at the bottom being in front of the flower behind it. It's partially covering that stem. We have to be careful with that kind of thing because ink is permanent and we're not going to be able to erase it. I'm just finishing up with this flower at the bottom and I made sure to keep my line work and my types of marks that I am using consistent throughout all of these cone flowers. I'm all done with the pen and ink. I allowed everything to dry for around 15-20 minutes and I am now taking my soft graphite eraser and I'm erasing out all of the pencil work. You're also going to notice that I dust off these eraser bits with my absorbent towel that is completely dry at this point because I don't want to use my hands to dust this off. We can have oils in our hands that if they get on our watercolor paper, they can create splotchiness when we're painting. Right here, I noticed that I missed a little section of the stem for the central flower so I make sure to add it in before moving forward. Finally, we're moving on to Phase Number 3, which is going to be the watercolor washes phase. We've already selected the specific colors that we're going to be using for each piece. Now it's a matter of making sure that we have a good amount of these nice juicy color mixtures prepared for us on our palette before getting started. Remember that it is very important that the consistency of your different color mixtures is going to be helpful for what we're trying to do today, which is to load up our paintbrush bristles well, and we want to be able to work nice and quick, and also that you want to make sure that you have enough of your different color mixtures ready for you on your palate. Both the consistency of your paint and the amount of paint have to make sense for what you're trying to do. I'm working on preparing nice juicy color mixtures for myself on my mixing area. The first step, the top, is the orange that I created by mixing together new gamboge and deep scarlet. Right below that, I have plain new gamboge with some water in it. Then I have my two greens, my darker green and lighter green. The darker green is plain undersea green, and the lighter green is a mixture of undersea green plus hansa yellow light. Then on the other side of my mixing area, I have my two browns. The lighter brown is burnt sienna with some water in it, and the darker brown is burnt sienna plus a little bit of neutral tint. I'm going to be using my size 10 round brush for everything. The very first thing that I am painting is the central section of the flowers. As you know, we've prepared two different colors for these central areas, the lighter brown and the darker brown. For all of these different parts of the flower I'm first working in the lightest color that I've prepared, and I'm then dropping in the darker color while that initial lighter layer is still wet. This is going to create nice soft transitions between my lighter and darker colors. Because I'm dropping in that darker color while that initial lighter color is still wet, that darker color expands and bleeds into that lighter layer creating nice diffused out soft effects. In order for this to happen, you have to work relatively quickly because that paint is going to start drying immediately when you place it on paper. If the paint and that first layer dries before you drop in the darker color, that second color is not going to expand into that wetness. These are pretty small shapes that we're painting in so we have to stay on top of water control. If you go in with way too much water in your paint brush bristles or you drop in way too much of whichever one of your colors that you're dropping in, you can start losing control. Every time that you go into your container of water, makes sure that you gently scrape the bristles of your paint brush along the top of your container so that that excess water can drip down. Makes sure that the size of paint brush that you're using is appropriate for these sizes of these shapes that we're painting. Also continue helping yourself with your absorbent towel. Along the way, you're going to notice that I'm constantly touching the tip of my paintbrush onto my absorbent towel to make sure that I'm not going in with too much water. Right here you're seeing me do some lifting. Lifting is a very helpful technique. Whenever you feel you've dropped in way too much saturated color into any area, or that darker color that you're dropping into your lighter color is expanding way too quickly and completely covering up that previous lighter color, you can immediately remove that pain from your paintbrush bristles, remove the excess water by touching the tip of your bristles onto your absorbent towel and go in to do some lifting of that excess color using your paintbrush bristles as a little absorbent sponge. You can also go in with their absorbent towel. As long as you do this quickly and while that paint is still wet, you're going to be able to lift up some of that excess color, revealing a little bit more of that lighter color underneath and lightening up certain sections that you perhaps accidentally darkened way too much. Lifting can really help you add dimension back into areas that perhaps look a little bit too heavy or too flat. At the end of the day, the main thing is going to be to create a variety of color and value in all of these different parts of the flower. After finishing up with the central section of those flowers, I am getting started with painting in the petals. By the time I started painting the petals, those central sections were already dry. If your browns are not completely dry and you start painting in the petals, those browns can start bleeding into your yellow and your orange petals. If you don't want this to happen, just wait a little bit longer for those central brands sections to dry some artists like the look of that bleeding. It's totally up to you and your tastes. I made sure to remove all of the brown for my paintbrush bristles before using my yellow and my orange. Because again, if you have brown in your paintbrush bristles that you didn't remove, that brown is going to start seeping are mixing with these brighter colors and it's going to mute them or desaturate them. We're looking for bright vibrant colors, especially for the petals. But the method that I'm using to paint in the petals and all of these different areas of the flower is exactly the same. I'm first going in with a lighter color of the two. In this case it's the yellow. While that initial lighter color layer is still wet, I'm dropping in a little bit of the darker color, which is in this case the orange. I'm being very irregular about where I drop in my orange, but it is helpful to at least acknowledge what sections of those petals would be darkest. You can drop in the second color in these areas. Perhaps where you have petals overlapping on top of each other, creating shadows on each other, or just taking into account the curve and the structure of the petals, you can decide where to drop in your darker color. Now, if you find that your paint is drying way too quickly before you drop in your second color, something that could help you could be to run your paintbrush bristles over that entire area 2-3 times with that first color before dropping in the next color. This will help that initial layer stay wetter for a little bit longer and we'll make it a lot more likely that you're going to arrive at those nice, soft diffused out gradients. In other words, take a little bit longer painting in that first lightest color. Run your paintbrush bristles over that shape 2-3 times, and then go ahead and drop in your second color. As you move on through your painting process, make sure that you're continuing to notice the consistency of your color mixtures on your palate. Remember that you want a good amount of color in them, but also a good amount of water in them. You really want to play with the medium's translucency. If any of these sections of your flowers that you've painted so far look very heavy, very flat, or perhaps even very dark. It probably means that you need to use a little bit more water. I'm almost done with painting in the petals here. After I'm done with the petals, I'm going to move on to painting in the stems and the leaves. The same thing goes for the stems and the leaves. I'm going to be removing all of this yellow and orange for my paintbrush bristles, and then I'm going to get started with the lightest green first. While that initial lightest green is still wet, I'm going to go ahead and drop in my darkest green. Because the stems are so narrow, I want to make sure that I paint them in using just the tip of my paintbrush. When it comes to the leaves themselves, because these are larger shapes, I can press down the belly of my paint brush a little bit more. Something you're going to notice is how I leave a little teeny tiny highlight shapes unpainted in my leaves. These highlights shapes I didn't really plan for they just happen organically as I'm moving my paintbrush quickly and in different ways. It all comes back to that idea that I was sharing with you in another class in which one we're working with watercolor, it is very important to see how we can incorporate that brightness of the paper under the paint as part of the piece. I'm using that paper to stand in place for my highlights. This is going to help me not only expand that range of values that I'm trying to develop via the use of different colors and different translucency is because remember that it's that range of values incorporating lightest light areas, mid tone areas and darkest areas that is going to help us develop dimension and a certain level of realism in this loose piece. But by incorporating that brightness of the paper, I'm also going to be able to arrive at that nice light glowy look that is particular to this medium. Just finishing up with the final touches with my darkest green here. With this, I'm going to be all done with this loose ink and watercolor floral piece. I am super excited to get started with our second final mixed media floral piece, which is going to be the wild roses piece. The techniques and the overall process for these three final pieces is going to be exactly the same, which is awesome because it really gives us the opportunity to hone the process, to really practice and ironing out any little things that you may be struggling with and even to make this process your own. My friend so once you're ready, see you in the next class. 10. Wild Roses in Pen and Wash: Hey friend, welcome back. This is class number 9 in this course. We're going to be working on the wild roses pen and watercolor wash piece. As I mentioned in our last class, the techniques and the overall process is going to be exactly the same as with the cone flower piece. Of course, the drying of the flowers, the colors that we're going to be using, and the composition itself is going to be different. Without much further ado, let's go ahead and jump straight into phase number 1, which is going to be the preliminary pencil sketching phase. You want to draw lightly, so that you can erase your mistakes along the way, so that you don't see your pencil work through your pen and ink and your paint at the end of this process. Also that you don't scratch or damage your paper. Remember the objective for this initial phase. We're laying down the bones and the foundation for everything that is coming up next. We're focusing on utilizing our drawing space effectively. We want to make sure that the shapes that we're laying down are not too big, that they look cramped in this space and not too small that we have a bunch of empty negative space around them. It's also important that in this part of the process we are thinking of getting the flowers proportions right. In other words, the sizes of these different parts of these flowers have to make sense in relation with each other. Taking into account, of course, everything that we learned about for wild roses. We also want to make sure that we're bringing to mind the basic shapes that we practiced in class number 6 for this particular flower. That they show slightly different perspectives or variations of the flowers, so that our piece looks interesting and has a natural look to it. We also want to think about compositional arrangement. That's why I don't want to draw these flowers in a straight line. I don't want to place any particular flower right in the center. I'm going to try to use another triangular arrangement here, so that I can create asymmetrical balance and keep the viewer's eyes flowing through the piece. I once again brought to mind the basic shapes that I used in order to simplify and visualize this particular flower when we were practicing drawing these flowers initially in class number 6. Once again, for the wild rose, we have a circle inside of another circle and we have an umbrella or semicircle shape. Just like with the cone flower piece that we just worked on before, I slightly distorted or tilted these basic shapes. For the top flower, I squished that circle and turn it into more of an oval or ellipse shape. But when it comes to the flower in the middle, I tilted that umbrella shape a little bit. This is so that these flowers can look a little bit more natural and I can stay away from stiffness or shapes that are a little bit too organized to look realistic. I added in a new variation of these flowers at the bottom. You can see how I've added in a smaller oval shape. That's the basic shape that I'm going to be turning into a little wild rose bulb. I thought this would be a great addition to the piece that would add variety and interest into this composition. I just brought to mind what rose bulbs look like and then chose a basic shape to lay down that I can move on to the next part of this process. Once those basic shapes were placed in my drawing area, it was time to break them up into medium-sized shapes. I'm going in and breaking up this larger oval into five smaller ovals that are going to stand in place for the petals that I'm going to be trying next. I am remembering all of the characteristics for wild roses that I learned about when I was observing those reference photos. I am remembering the shape of those petals, the size of those petals, and their approximate number. Wild roses have five larger, very rounded petals that have irregular edges along the top. Right now I'm keeping things super simple. I'm not going to be creating those irregular edges until later. Right here, I'm starting to add a little bit more detail into the Rose Bowl. I added in a curved line that those can look like separate petals there and also a few leaves. It was then time to start adding in the stems and the leaves. Remember that the stems have to seem like they are attached to that central part of the flower. But at the same time you want to add a slight curves that you can stay away from stiffness. When it came time to add in the leaves I brought to mind what I learned to be true about wild rose leaves. I remember that they are slightly shorter, they are pointy at the end, they have tooth edges and there are several leaves coming out of one same stem. I'm going to be creating those tooth irregular edges later on with my pen and ink. I'm keeping things simple here. Again, you can regard these leaves as being secondary supportive elements. The petal areas themselves are the primary focal points for this piece. Even though we definitely do want to add in some leaves, we don't want to go overboard with the amount. As you add in the stems and the leaves, notice which elements are going to be overlapping or covering other elements behind them. This way, when you're inking things in, there's less of a chance that you're going to be tracing over certain sections that shouldn't be visible at the end. My friends. Let's get into phase number 2, which is the pen and ink phase. Remember the objectives for this phase. We are tracing over our pencil work, defining edges and adding in detail that we haven't added in. You're gonna notice, for example, that I add in the irregular edges in the exterior sections of these petals. I also add in more detail in the central section of the flower where I want to describe that texture. I remember how wild roses have the pistol and the stamen in that central section. I think about what specific types of marks can help me quickly, easily and in a minimal way, describe those elements. I went with short lines with a loop at the top. I just made sure that these little marks that I added in had a lot of variation in sizes in orientations. Sometimes the loop was towards the right, other times the loop was towards the left. Some of them were pointing to the side, some of them were pointing downwards, etc. Once I added in that detail, I made my way down the piece. Just like with the previous cone flower piece, I made sure to have line weight variation in mind. I want to stay away from the look of heavy, thick, bold outlines and that coloring book page cartoony type of look. I'm keeping it moving and I'm keeping it flowing. Any imperfections, wobbles, irregularities that happen along the way, I just embrace and I keep going. You can see how some sections of my lines are not even connecting. I am bringing to mind those four variables that are going to help me achieve a line weight variation throughout my work. I'm using just one same pen for all of these pieces, but I am shifting and changing the pressure that I'm exerting on my pen, the angle at which I'm using my pen and the speed at which I'm moving my hand and my arm. Right here you can see me adding the tooth edge in those leaves. I am being very careful and making sure that those little pointy ends are all consistent and pointing towards the same direction they should be pointing towards which is away from the flower. This is a challenging detail to add in for me personally. When it comes to this kind of detail, I always find myself looking back at my reference photos just to make sure that I'm adding the detail in correctly. So if at any point in time you find it helpful to look at those reference photos again, or even extra photos that you find for yourself, do make time for that before drawing those details in. So finally I'm adding in that central vein in the leaves. I tried to make that central vein a little lighter in visual weight than the outer contours of those leaves. So after I was done, I allowed everything to dry completely. I would recommend allowing 10-15 minutes to pass before erasing out your graphite because he may go in with my soft graphite eraser to erase out all of my pencil work very carefully, and then instead of using my hand to dust off those eraser bits, I went ahead and used my dry absorbent towel that I'm going to be using for my watercolor process. This way I don't get any hand oils on my paper and right here before moving forward, I decided to add in a few extra lines and marks in those petals to communicate a little bit of dimension and texture in those petals. You can see how I did the same thing that I did with the cone flower piece for those lines. I made sure to move quick and exert a very small amount of pressure on my paper with my pen so that those lines and mark look a lot lighter than the lines creating the outer contours of those petal shapes. With that I was all done with my pen and ink phase. It is now time to move on to phase number three, which is the watercolor washes phase. We've already selected the specific colors that we're going to be using for this piece, and we want to make sure that we prepare enough of our different color mixtures on our palate and that the consistencies that we create them with are going to be adequate for the type of work that we're doing today. So we want a good amount of nice, juicy color mixtures for all of these different colors that we need. We're looking for around 50 percent water, 50 percent pigment in these mixtures so that we're able to load up or paintbrush well and do our color work in just one layer. At the top of my mixing area, I am preparing my two different greens, my lighter green and my darker green. The lighter green is again a mixture of undersea green and hands a yellow light. The darker green is plain undersea green with some water in it. In the lower section, I prepared my purple and my pink. My purple is quinacridone rose with some French ultramarine in it and the pink mixture is plain quinacridone rose with a bit of water. For my browns, which I prepared on the other side of my mixing area. I am using plain yellow ocher with some water in it and plain burnt sienna with some water in it. Finishing up working on these color mixtures here and once I'm ready with all the colors that I need, it is time to get started with the painting process. I'm going to be using my size 10 round brush for everything. I'm going to get started again with the central section of this flower that we see at the top, always working from lights to darks. So as you can see, I first got started with my yellow ocher, which is my lighter, golden brown. I painted that central section in and then while that initial lighter brown was in there still wet, I dropped in a bit of my darker brown. So this is the only flower showing that central area. So I went ahead and removed all of that brown from my paintbrush bristles and I started painting this wild rose beneath it. The reason why I jumped to working on this wild rose as opposed to painting in the petals in the top one right away, is because if I had started painting in the pink petals in the top one, those browns in that's central section that I just painted in are still wet. I could risk those browns bleeding into my pinks and my purples. So if you don't want that bleeding to happen, make sure to allow that central section to dry completely before painting in the petals. So what I'm doing here is I first went in with my plane quinacridone rose, my pink color, which is the lighter of the two that I would be using for the petals and while that initial lighter layer is still wet, I went into drop in some purple here and there to darken certain sections within that. Because I'm dropping in the purple while that initial pink is still wet, I'm getting these nice soft, blurred out transitions between my colors. Again, if you're finding that your initial layer is drying a little bit too quickly and you're not getting those nice transitions between your colors when you drop in your darker color, just spend a little bit longer in that initial layer. Run your paintbrush bristles over that entire shape using your lighter color two to three times and this will make it so that that initial layer takes a little bit longer to dry. So that central section in the top flower was already pretty dry and I could go ahead and paint in the petals in the top one. So same process here. I am first painting in the pink and then I'm dropping in the purple to create a nice variation in color and in value. I am continuing to paint nice and quick and using just one single layer. I'm allowing that paint to do its thing and embracing the organic irregular effects that happen when painting with this medium. I'm not going back into any area and trying to perfect anything because that is likely going to flatten everything out and it's a lot more likely that I'll arrive at overworked results. I'm dropping in my darker color, which is my purple in a very irregular way, making sure that I'm not creating any patterns or stark looking shapes with my purple. Of course, it's helpful to visualize where the petals are overlapping on top of each other and creating slight shadows on each other and bringing to mind the curves and the structure of the petals themselves so that you can drop in that darker color in the sections where it would make sense that you have some shadow. This said, you don't only have to apply the purple in these shadow areas because when it comes to flowers, there is a lot of natural variation in color and value throughout their petals. So as long as you keep things irregular, you're going to have great results, especially for the style of artwork that were going for. Because the consistencies of my color mixtures on my palette have a good amount of pigment in them, I'm able to apply enough vibrant color on my paper that I don't feel the need to go in with a second layer. However, there's a good amount of water in those mixtures as well so that my paint is not applied super thickly, which can lead to a lot of heaviness and flatness in a painting. We always want to make sure that we're bringing in watercolors translucency to create light, glowing paintings. So make sure that you're using enough water. If you apply your paint too saturated and too thick, that oftentimes is going to lead to heaviness and flatness. Always remember to incorporate that brightness of the paper as part of the piece and the way that we do this is by using the mediums translucency and shifting the paint to water ratios in our color mixtures. Another way to do this is to incorporate highlights where that paper is left shining through that paint uncovered or unpainted. So I finished painting the petals sections for all of these flowers and you can probably tell how I left little teeny-tiny sections of paper shining through and little shapes here and there. Those little highlight shapes happen naturally as I was painting in those petals and shifting and changing the way that I was using my paintbrush along the way. I just let them happen and I left them there because I knew that they would look like little highlights. You're going to see that happening in the leaves as well. After finishing with the petals, it was time to rinse out all of those colors for my paintbrush bristles, and get started with my greens. As you can see, I am using the same process that I use for the cone flower piece first painting in the lighter green and then dropping in my darker green into certain sections that I wanted to darken within that larger light, green shape. So I'm just finishing up with the leaves here. You're going to notice that in this lower section, where I have lots of overlapping stems and leaves, I'm careful about the order in which I approach these shapes in because I know that the wet paint can start bleeding into new shapes that I paint in beside them or alongside them. So you can always jump around in order to allow that previous shape to dry and then go back to that area that you need to paint that's right beside it. These shapes are also relatively small, so I'm always helping myself with my absorbent towel, dabbing the bristles of my paintbrush on it, and making sure that I'm not bringing out way too much water from my container. Remember that you can also use the clean bristles of your paintbrush as a little absorbent sponge whenever you bring out way too much water onto your paper. With that, I'm all done with this wild roses piece. I really hope that you enjoyed working on this one and I am excited to move on to the last piece that we're going to be working on together, which is going to be the daffodil piece. Take your time finishing this one up and practicing whatever it is that you need to practice and I'll see you in the next one. 11. Daffodils in Pen and Wash: Hi friend. Welcome back to this very last class which we're going to be working on our very last piece together, which is going to be the pen and wash daffodil piece. Hopefully by this point you're already well familiarized with the process and the techniques that we're going to be using. The entire strategy and the phases are going to be the same as with the last couple of pieces only, of course, this time we're drawing daffodils. Which is as we saw in that class in which I showed you how to draw the three different types of flowers, a very different structure. This flower has very particular characteristics that make it different from the other flowers that we've drawn so far. The drawing is going to be different, the colors are going to be different, and overall the composition is also going to be different. Bring to mind the particularities, the characteristics, everything that we learned about for this type of flower in class Number 6 when I shared those reference photos with you. Because even though we're going for a loose relatively simple type of piece, we still want to make these look like daffodils. Remember their overall structure, remember their shape and sizes, and approximate number of their petals, remember that very particular trumpet cone or megaphone structure that they have at their centers, and remember the type of leaf that they have. Let's jump straight into phase Number 1, which is our preliminary pencil sketch. In this phase, we're focusing on a few different things. We are focusing on laying down these basic shapes that are going to allow us to simplify and visualize the flowers that we're going to be drawing. We're also focusing on creating great proportion in these flowers so making sure that the sizes and the locations of its different parts make sense in relation with each other. An objective for this phase is also to utilize our drawing space effectively. We want to make sure that these preliminary shapes that we create for ourselves are a great size. That they are not too small and not too large so that they don't appear too cramped in this drawing area or floating in a lot of negative empty space around them. We also want to think at this point of our compositional arrangement. We want to ensure that the location of these different elements in space is going to be interesting to look at and somehow balanced. I want to make sure that I'm drawing lightly so that I can erase the mistakes so that my graphite work is not going to be visible through my pen and ink in my watercolor at the end, and so that I don't damage or scratch my paper. Now, for this daffodil piece, because these flowers definitely have a larger, more complex structure to them, I decided to just bring in two instead of three. Because I just brought in two, I couldn't really create another triangular arrangement. I decided to go with a curve. Just like with the other two flowers in that simplified version in which we were seeing this flower directly from above it, we also simplified it into two basic circles, a smaller circle inside of a larger circle. When seen from a sideways perspective or in profile, we saw that conical or megaphone-like structure, and we had a very flat oval shape beneath it. By understanding what that structure looks like when seen directly from above and from a sideways or profile perspective, I can more easily visualize what this particular flower would look like when seen from other perspectives. As you can see, these two overly simplified daffodils that I've created are somewhere between the two perspectives that we practiced in that first drawing class. They are somewhere between the top view and the profile view. I distorted those circles, I slightly smushed them and turn them both into more of an oval or ellipse like shape, and I also tilted them so that I can create that curved arrangement. Because in this case these daffodils are slightly tilting towards us, I had to open up the top oval of that conical structure a little bit more. In other words, we're able to see into that cone a little bit more from this perspective. I also made sure that the daffodil at the top was slightly larger than the daffodil beneath it. This would help me make the composition more interesting and more asymmetrical. Once they had my basic shapes in, it was time to start dividing these ovals into medium-sized shapes. We started drawing the petals. I remembered that daffodils have six petals, and I also remembered their size and their shape. I remembered they were round and a little bit pointier at the end. They have relatively smooth edges, so no jagged irregularity anywhere. You can see me working on dividing out this larger oval or ellipse shape into six smaller shapes. As I am drawing these simplified petals, I'm really visualizing which petals I would be able to see if I were seeing this daffodil from this perspective and what those shapes for those petals would look like, and asking myself if I were seeing this flower from this perspective, how would that conical structure right in the center of the flower cover up those petals that are farther away from me behind that little structure. What shape would I see for those petals that are farther away and that are being covered up by other petals or by that central structure? Remember how those petals curve and how they're all connected to that central part of the flower. I'm pretty happy with the shapes that I created for those petals. I added in a little bit more detail at the top of those cones in both flowers. This is so that I can tell where the top lip of that conical structure is. That's something that I definitely want to detail when I'm doing my pen and ink work. Adding it in with pencil first is going to facilitate that process for me. If you want to add in any more detail with your pencil before getting started with a pen and ink phase, by all means you can go ahead and do that, just make sure that you keep drawing lightly so that you can then erase out your graphite work. After adding that in, it was time to draw the stems for my flowers. For the stems, I once again made sure that they looked like they were attached to the base of that petal section. I want to make sure that I start that stem right beneath that central section of the flower. But you can see how I incorporated, once again, a lot of curves to those stems so that they can look a lot more natural. I didn't want to create any perfectly vertical lines or anything like that that would lead to a lot of stiffness. Finally, it was time to add in those long, narrow leaves for these daffodils. I just added in three leaves and I made sure that some of them were taller and some of them were shorter and that they were curving slightly in different ways. Variety and irregularity is key. It's time to get started with phase Number 2, which is the pen and ink phase. Remember the objective for this phase. It was to define edges and to add detail. Just like with the last two pieces, you want to really create line weight variation in your work and make sure that you're keeping it moving, keeping it flowing. Embrace any wobbles, any imperfections, any irregularities that happen along the way as you're tracing your pencil work. You can go ahead and add in more irregularity and detail work. For example right here, you can see me adding more irregular edges along the top of that conical or megaphone-like structure. I'm also adding in the pistil and the stamen, the types of lines or marks that I add in for the pistil and the stamen are very similar to the ones that I used for the wild rose. These are lines with a little loop at the top. Right here I decide to also add in a little bit more detail inside of the petals by adding some very irregular lines. Just like what I did with the last two flowers. Those lines that I add in for texture and dimension inside of the petals are a lot lighter in visual weight than the lines that I created for the outer contours of those petals. I made them look a lot lighter and thinner by simply moving my hand and arm a lot faster and exerting less pressure on my pen as I was drawing those lines and marks. Right here, you're going to see me rotate my watercolor paper so that I can better do my ink work in this bottom daffodil. Notice how I am keeping my linework and my mark-making consistent throughout this entire piece. Meaning if I committed to specific types of lines or marks, I make sure to use those specific lines and marks for both flowers. This is important so that all of these different sections of this piece look well integrated. Just doing my tracing over these long, narrow leaves. With this I'm going to be all done with my pen and ink work. Finally, it was time to allow everything to dry completely so that I could then erase out all of my pencil work. I would recommend allowing your ink to dry for around 15-20 minutes before doing any erasing. Also try not to dust off those eraser bits with your hand. I'd suggest using a regular kitchen paper towel or if your absorbent towel that you use for your watercolor painting is dry, you can use that as well. If you use your hand, oils that you have on your skin can get on your watercolor paper and this can create splotchiness later on when you're painting. So just be careful with that. It is finally time to do our watercolor painting for this final daffodil piece. We've already selected the colors that we're going to be using for this one. As with the past two pieces, it is very important that we create a good amount of nice juicy color mixtures for ourselves before getting started with the painting process. Remember that the consistency and the amount of your color mixtures on your palate have to be right before you start to paint so that you can load up your paintbrush well and work quickly. Still using my size 10 round brush, I am preparing these color mixtures for myself. I'm just going to be needing a four different color mixtures for this daffodils piece. Right here starting at the bottom, this orange looking color is Hansa yellow light and a bit of new gamboge. Right above it I have plain Hansa yellow light with some water in it. The two greens at the top are the two greens that I've been using all along. My darker green is plain undersea green with some water in it. The lighter green is undersea green plus a bit of Hansa yellow light added in. These daffodils don't have a brownish color for that central area. That central conical structure, I am going to be painting in with a yellow, orange color. The petals around it are going to be painted in first with the yellow and then I'm going to be dropping in a little bit of the yellow orange. After painting that central section in right here, I am doing a little bit of lifting. I removed all that orange for my paintbrush bristles. I removed the excess water by dabbing the bristles with my paintbrush on my absorbent towel. I went in and used my bristles as a little absorbent sponge to pick up some excess pigment. I am doing that right here as well. Lifting is a great technique whenever you feel you have darkened a section way too much or want to develop lighter, more translucent values in an area. You can always go in and do your lifting with a clean and slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush or even go in with your absorbent towel and lift up some of that excess paint to reveal a little bit more of that paper underneath. This will add dimension back into that area. After having painted in those more orange-ish central sections for these daffodils, I am now painting in the petals around them. Just like with the last flowers, I am going in with my lighter color first, creating that initial lighter layer. While that initial lighter layer is still wet, I drop in my second darker color to darken smaller sections within that larger, lighter shape. I am once again visualizing where these petals would be creating a little bit of a shadow on each other and dropping that darker color in those areas. Make sure that you drop in your second color in a very irregular way. If that initial lighter layer starts drying on you way too fast, remember to spend a little bit longer painting in that first lighter layer. Run your paintbrush bristles over that entire shape two to three times. This will make that initial layer of dry a little bit more slowly so that by the time you drop in your second color, that second color softly dissipates into the yellow underneath it, creating nice, soft, blurred out transitions. If that initial color dries on you, those effects are not going to happen. Try your best to drop in that second color confidently and don't go in and start moving the paint around after it's been placed on paper. Try to embrace the irregular organic effects that watercolor creates and don't go into move your paint around unless you really have to. Whenever I do go in to do a little bit of moving and softening of color that I've placed on paper, I do it very gently and very minimally. I'm just finishing up with painting the petals here. Finally, I am painting in the leaves with my greens. I first went in with a lighter green and while that initial lighter green was still wet, I dropped in a little bit of darker green where I wanted to create a little bit of a shadow effect. For example, right underneath that large petal structure, I add in a little bit of darker green and also where the stems and the leaves are overlapping on top of each other. I'm very careful to just go in with the tip of my paintbrush in those very narrow areas. Even when I am painting the leaves, I'm making sure to run the bristles of my paintbrush over these shapes two to three times before dropping in my darker green so that I can make sure that the darker green will dissipate and blur out and create gradients into that lighter green. But working quickly is also very important. This is something that I promise you will come to you with practice over time. With that, I'm all done with this daffodil pen and watercolor wash piece. I really hope that you've enjoyed working on these three pieces with me and also doing the studies that we did before. I hope that you learn something new and that you use this knowledge and these skills that you've gained to create great artwork of your own. If you did work on these studies and these pieces alongside me, make sure to share your work here in the community. I would love to see it. Congratulations for making it through this class and see you in the last video. 12. Thank You and Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in this course. I really hope that you enjoyed working on these exercises and projects with me and I hope that you learned special tidbits that you can keep in your tool bag and apply and think about in the future with any kind of artwork that you may choose to work on. Don't forget to share any of the work that you did for this course in the projects tab here on Skillshare. I cannot wait to see your work. Listening to myself and continuing to make time for my passions and interests is something that is incredibly important to me. I want to encourage you to continue on your artistic path, to continue developing your artistic skills and your artistic voice. I truly do believe that if you're called towards art, it's for a reason. Don't ever set that huge part of yourself aside and ignore that. Continue pursuing those interests in any way that you can, I promise you that you won't regret it. If you enjoyed this course, don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare because I have many new courses coming up that I'm super excited to share. If you're on social media, you can follow me on Instagram where I share inspirational and helpful messages, as well as behind the scenes photos and news, and of course, follow me on YouTube. You're going to be able to find tons of helpful videos over at my channel, including tutorials, including tips videos, and lots of other stuff. Thank you so much once again for joining me in this course. I wish you tons of progress and also enjoyment moving forward in your artistic journey and see you soon. Bye.