Intro to Watercolor: Paint a Cottage With Me

1. Welcome to Class!: Hello. My name is Molly Barker, and today we are going to be learning about watercolor. I've been painting with watercolor my whole life, and I think that one of the reasons that I like this medium so much is that it can be something that you can use to quickly add depth and dimension, pops of color and highlights into a sketchbook page. It can also be something vague like a quick floral, but it can be something that is incredibly detailed, which you take a long time to work through. In this class, we're going to be creating a detailed painting of a stone cottage in the midst of a wild English garden. I'm going to break down the different steps and stages of this illustration and the techniques that we'll be using. By the end of this class, you will have a beautiful illustration of a cottage. I'm going to be using the pencil illustration from my previous class as the base for my final painting. I've included a copy of that illustration in the class resource section, if you would like to download it and print it for this class. Or if you're interested in learning more about sketching and illustrating in perspective, please feel free to go back and take my previous class. In the next lesson, we'll be going over the main steps of your class project. I'll see you there. 2. Class Project: Your final project for this class will be to use the watercolor techniques that we learn in class to complete an illustration of a cabin or cottage. We will be breaking this down into a few main steps. First, you'll need to decide what you would like for your subject. I'm going to be using the sketch from my previous class about two point perspective. You can either take that class and come up with a sketch of your own or you could download the provided sketch and use that, or you could choose a different subject entirely, but we will need a basic sketch to start from. Next, we'll be doing the painting itself. We are going to be laying down several layers from large washes that cover the page all the way down to the tiniest details with dry paint, you'll see the steps to follow during the different lessons. Finally, I'd like for you to upload pictures of your final illustration to the project gallery. Although the main project is the final watercolor illustration, I would love for you to take a few pictures throughout your process and upload them as well so that I can see your progress throughout the creation of your watercolor piece. I would recommend that you also look through the project gallery and see how fellow students decided to paint their illustrations. In our next lesson, I'll be going over a few different materials that we're going to need to complete this class project. I'll see you there. 3. Materials: Hello again. In this lesson we're gonna be covering the materials that you need for this class. So the paper that I'm going to be using is this large, most skyline watercolor pad. And the tooth of this paper is just slightly rigid. The pages aren't super thick like some watercolor books. But I really like this paper, so this is what we're going to be using. You can also use hot press, watercolor paper. The texture is more satin, more smooth grained. And so it has a slightly different look to it. Arches is a really nice brand. They also make cold pressed paper. And the texture of this is going to be slightly more, more bumpy. You'll be able to feel a grain to it. And this is a nice paper to use. And you can also get watercolor sheets, just big giant sheets of watercolor paper, and tear it down to the size that you want. I actually really like to do this because you get these really beautiful edges to the paper. And it just looks really nice when it's all finished. But for this class, we're going to be using the Moleskine notebook. And then after the notebook we're going to need watercolor paints. I have the Winsor and Newton professional paints. These are very nice. They have really nice vibrant color. I really like these paints. I also have the Winsor and Newton Cotman series paints, which are Student brand. And they are substantially less expensive. And I would highly recommend these if you don't have any watercolor paints right now, they're really nice quality. And I would say, though the professional paints are better, they're really only slightly better. And I like these cut the Cotman paints. We're going to be using the professional watercolor paints and then we're going to need brushes. I have the Kolinsky series seven brush. I'm going to be using the size three and the size seven round brushes. I really like these. You can get any other kind of brush just about this size would be nice. Then we'll also need something to wet our paints width. So I have this little eyedropper and I just fill it with clean water at the beginning. And then you have clean water, although the entire painting, then we're gonna be using a kneaded eraser at the very end. We'll also be using these clips. I find that when you do painting in a sketchbook, it's best to have it open very firmly so that the page, it doesn't warp very much. We'll need water. So get a big jug of water, Don't have a small cup. Then we're going to be using this masking tape. I've found that this Scotch general use just regular masking tape works better than even the artist's tape. So it's up to you which one you want to use. I haven't had any serious issues with this, but the masking tape just seems to come off the page better. Then we're also going to be using this paper towel just to try our brushes at the end. And that's all we need. So let's get painting. 4. Laying Down a Wash: Hello. This is the illustration that we are going to be painting today. This is a sketch from a previous class about 2.5 perspective. If you want to use this sketch exactly, you can go back and take that class and illustrate this exact cottage. Or you can use a sketch that you have made yourself. And the first thing that we're going to be doing with this is to lay down a wash over the entire surface of the paper. And we're going to be separating these out into different regions. We're going to be painting the sky, the gardens, the cottage, and the footpath. And they're all going to be different colors. And you can see here, what I'm doing is wetting the paper prior to laying down the pigment of the watercolor. This allows for the pigment to spread and bloom throughout the water that's on the paper. It allows it to be more of a consistent color as opposed to actual brushstrokes, which we'll be getting into later. So since this is a wet on wet technique, what we're going to be using is a paint that has a lot of water in it as well. So we've wetted the page and we're going to be using pigment with a lot of water in it to allow it to spread and bloom on the page. So as you can see, I'm brushing only the surface of the paper where I want the paint to spread. So you can see I'm avoiding the cottage itself, the chimney, the bushes, all of this area. The only place that I want to paint is where the sky is going to be. I'm almost done painting this water on. And then next what we're going to do is get our pigment ready. And this is something called Payne's gray. It's one of my favorite colors. So I went and I got a lot of water and a lot of pigment. And you can see, I'm just dabbing it on. And you can see right as soon as I touch it to the paper, it sort of spreads and bleeds throughout the page. So what we're going to do is cover the entire wet area with this with this Payne's gray. And when we're done with that, we're going to add just a little bit, a hint of some other colors. I'm going to add a bit of a red just to have some more interest on the, in the sky region. And then after this, we're going to do the other sections of the painting. But what we're gonna do is make sure that we get the entire surface of the page covered in a wash. So this is going to be the initial layer. This is what's going to be beneath everything. Almost everything that I'm laying down now won't be visible at the end. There'll be just hints of it peeking through. So when you lay down these washes, try to cover all of the areas and don't leave little sections of white because that'll very, very clearly pop out later on. You want to have a consistent color throughout the entire page just to have something to go off of. And as you can see right now, I'm picking up a little bit of this pooled pigment. It will bloom because of how the paper has worked. And I like the blooms, but in order to allow it to dry a little bit faster, I'm just removing a little bit of that paint. And so the next thing that we're going to be doing is we're going to mix up two different kinds of green for the gardens and the gardens in this picture, they're going to be one of those really wild English gardens where there's a ton of different types of plants, not just a law and a small garden, like the whole thing is going to be wild. So I have a light green, I used a sap green and another vibrant yellow. Here. I'm going to mix more of an emerald and an ocher with a little bit of this Payne's gray. And that's going to be more of a shadowed green, something that you want to have to complement the light green. So what we're going to do is we're going to late. We're going to first, we're going to wet the page where we want the pigment to be. Then we're going to allow it to be painted the lighter green and then the darker green. And you'll see how it's sort of blends together, having to really wet paints right next to each other. They bleed together in very interesting ways. And it's a really good way. You can see on the page where my sketches, There's not a lot to go off of. So it's kind of This is where I want the gardens to be, but there's not a lot of detail sketched in. So I get to do this detail with the painting. By allowing these two colors to bleed together. It sort of gives you something to go off of. There will be different blooms and pretty areas where the colors interact, where we can use that later on when we want to have different areas of bushes and things. And so it'll be a natural way to add different plants sections that I've put the sap green in. And now I'm going to just dab in this, this darker green. And I'm not going to completely cover everything, but I will add quite a lot of it. In this painting. The light source is going to be off to the right. So it's sort of a shadowed time of day. You can think of it kind of like golden hour. If you've ever done photography with the light just about to go on sunset. You can see I've dabbed in that paint and you can see how it's bleeding. And so right now, I have this is the smaller paintbrush that I have, the series seven size three. And we're going to add flowers to this little dark patch. I want to have a little rosebush out here. So we're gonna get some red. And we're also going to be using white. And what we're doing is we're getting quite a lot of pigment and not very much water. So you can see it looks thicker. It looks more like a paste than just a fluid. So what we're going to be doing is we're going to take this and since there's not a lot of water, it won't bloom a lot, it won't bleed substantially. We're just going to drop it in here where it's still wet. It will bleed only a little bit. So it'll look like flower blossoms. And what happens is since the paint, the green paint is underneath, since it's still wet, this thicker paint will actually push the dark renal way so the white of the paper will be underneath where this paint is. So this is sort of the foundation of the flowers that we're going to be painting in later. We'll add more details and more highlights later. But think of this as sort of the backdrop for where the blossoms are going to be. And you can see I'm just dabbing it in here, in there. It doesn't have to be exact. There's going to be a lot of other things around these bushes later. So it doesn't have to be perfect, but put as many flower blossoms as you'd like it. And so I think that looks pretty good. So let's go ahead and move on. And you can see, maybe a couple more. You can see where there are really interesting blooms happening on this green area as well. Where the dark green and the light green are sort of coming together and leaving dark patches. I really love that. And so in order to prevent these, these pink blossoms from spreading too much, we're gonna go ahead and dab in a thicker dark green paint, less water, more pigment. And we're just going to drip it in there. And by doing that, it'll make a barrier so they won't bleed farther away. They won't just become a homogenous blob on the page. It will be more distinct blossoms and you can see they're starting to constrict a little bit with the green going around them. And that is exactly what we want. So keep in mind where the light sources and then while this page is still wet, so this initial wash, you can lay down more color. You can lay down different kinds of color. You can see this, this more emerald green that I have here is very pretty when you mix it in with this, the sap green and the darker green that we had from before. So I'm just going to pull up, pull off a little bit of these little pools of pigment here just to allow it to try and to keep it from spreading too far. And you can do this again to make it dry faster. Or if you accidentally put down too much pigment. Either way, it's easy to just use a dry, clean brush and it'll soak up all of the extra moisture. So from here, we're gonna go on to this other side of the house of the footpath. So again, this is gonna be kinda like a wild English garden. So think of like larger shapes, bushes, Plants, and we'll have some more flowers of different colors on this side as well. And again, as you look, the light source is going to be there to the right. And so the house is actually going to cast a shadow onto the bushes on the left. So what we're going to be doing here is we're going to do, just like before. We're gonna be adding the sap green first. And then we're going to, let's mix a little bit more. I almost ran out after we lay down the sap green. We're going to put in a few shadows where the house shadow will be. So we use the darker green to lay down shadows, not complete shadows, just the hint of an area which is darker. We're going to be going over this and adding layers of detail later on. So there'll be a lot more detail and interest and intrigue as you go on. But right now, what we're going to be doing is just laying down the idea of where shadows will be and where the color is going to be. Over here, you'll notice that I didn't wet the page first. This is just such a small area that it's pretty easy to work with the paint before it dries. I went ahead and just use the light sap green over here. It's kind of a vine that's climbing up the down spout there. So you can see it's it looks very similar to the wet on wet technique, but since it's small, there is no need to wet the page first. So let's make up, mix up this darker paint. And this is going to be the shadows on these, these little bushes and things around the house. And what you can do if you find that it's too dark, just sort of dip your paintbrush a little bit in water and you can really allow it to wash itself out. So long as the page is still wet, it's really easy to change where the pigment lays and how much is on the page. So we're, we're adding in the shadows of some bushes here. And there's a big bush in the background. And the shadow of the house is going to be cast to the left as well. So you'll see, I'm putting on the darker green here where the shadow is going to be. So right now we're just putting in ideas of where other plants will be. And we're going to add, while this page is still wet, the other blossoms. So we're gonna do some yellow flowers and some orange flowers. And you can see the two dark shapes near the footpath are going to be the where the flowers are going to be. And you can see I didn't have enough water, so I'm going to add a little bit more of this darker yellow and a lot more white and a little bit more water and that'll allow it to bleed on the page. It'll spread more the more water that you have. If you wanted to spread a lot, you want to have a lot of water. But if you want just these little blooms, you just need a little bit of water. You don't want to lay down too much. Otherwise, it'll, it'll overpower the green of the bush. Let's go ahead and add some of this good deep orange color. And let's add that to this bush over here. Yeah, that looks really nice. I love English gardens because they're so wild with all of these different types of plants. While you're in this stage. You look at this and you think that is very messy. There's not a lot of detail there. That's not not super precise. What you're doing with this stage, what we're doing is just laying down the foundation. So this is just making sure that there is something underneath what we're going to be painting later. So this is a foundation for the details we will be painting. So I went ahead and remove that white paint from my palette. And the next thing that we're gonna do is we're just going to mix up a sort of a sandy, darks like stone color that we're going to use for the cottage. It's going to be sort of a warmer yellow, kinda like sandstone. And this is going to be the wash for the cottage. And again, since there's a lot of details that I want to avoid, like the windows, I'm going to be doing the wet on dry technique, so it's very wet paint, but the paper itself is dry. When you do this kind of a technique, what you need to make sure that you're able to do is push the pigment around the page before it allows, before there's any chance of it drying. So if you leave one paint stroke there and it starts to dry, you'll actually get something like a line or a seam of where the paint was dry underneath. And you don't necessarily want that with the foundation here. So what we're going to be doing is working quite quickly just to cover this whole thing except for the Windows. And you can see you have a little bead of watercolor pigment that you push around on the page to prevent from drying. So just make sure that you cover all of the areas that are that don't need to be a different color, which will be the windows and don't paint over the bushes and things like that. And you can see it's not super exacting and it's, it's not perfect. That's fine. We're gonna be doing a lot more details later. So from here, let's go on and we're actually going to be painting the footpath. And we'll be painting the windows the same color as the footpath. And again, it's a small area, so we're going to do a wet on dry technique. So we're not going to wet the page first. We're just going to allow this very wet pigment to spread across the page as we paint. I liked this, Payne's gray and I added just a bit of the green. You can just kind of think like maybe it was kinda mossy there because it's wet all the time. So sort of just kind of cover all of the extra white areas, anything that you didn't cover with a green or with the color of the houses, just cover that up. And if you overlap, It's not a big deal because there's gonna be overlapped later on with more details as well. Moving on to these windows, you can see I'm going to work pretty quickly as we go across. We're just going to paint in the interior of these windows. And this will be, again, the first layer. There'll be another couple of layers over the top of these. And you can see as I pull down, there's that little pool of pigment that's leftover. And we don't necessarily want the bloom to happen in these windows. So I'm just going to dab it away with this paintbrush. And you can see it makes it a lot more consistent. There's not a darker shade underneath and a lighter shade at top. Just makes it look more smooth, more uniform. So that looks nice. Now all we got to do is drink coffee and we're going to sit back and wait for the page to dry completely. You want to make sure that that's everything that's left. You can see they're still wet paint here. And you can see also where all of these wonderful blooms are happening. There's some in the skies. And then you can see there are some in the greenery. And man, those blossoms just turned out really well. But I really like this one right here. That one is going to be a bush later on. Okay? Alright, I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. Adding Shade - Cottage: Hello again. Alright, so as you can see, we went away and the whole page is completely dry. Make sure that there aren't any wet spots when you go forward from this point on. In this lesson, we're going to be adding the second layer on the cottage. And this is going to be the areas of the cottage that are going to be in shadow. So what I'm doing here is I'm mixing up again this kind of sandstone color. I'm adding a little bit of red and quite a bit of this Payne's gray, which is a wonderful shadow color. So you can see that's quite a bit darker than the sandstone color that we use to cover the entire cottage. And what you're going to do is take it and lay it down wherever there will be cast shadow. So again, the light source is going to be from the right hand side. And just like before, we're going to work fairly quickly so that there's no dried paint lines underneath where we're painting. So you can see I'm covering this whole side of the cottage here. And we're going to be doing the shadows of the cottage. And we're also going to be painting the roof. And later on, the roof will be slightly different color than the shadow color. So as you can see, I'm just sort of going around and covering where all of this lighter sandstone was. And then after this part, we're going to go ahead and add some more of this shadow color to the eaves here. We're going to do the site of the chimney. Anything that you can think that would cast a shadow. With this part. What you need to think about is, so the first lesson that we did, we cover the whole page, right? So that was a large area that we covered. In this section. We're covering also quite a large area. We're covering half of the cottage and in shadow. And then in the next lesson we'll be covering even a smaller area and a smaller area until you get to very fine details. And so every layer that you do is going to be darker than the first layer. The first layer is what you're going to have peak through as highlights. And as you move on, All you're doing is adding shadows. Keep that in mind as you lay down this, this pigment on top of the previous layer, you want to have it to be darker than the previous layer. And also that it's going to be a smaller area than the layer before. So we went ahead and added the shadow to the eaves and to all of the areas of the house that are going to be covered in shade where there wouldn't be direct sunlight on it. And so you can see, now I'm going and I'm adding the smaller shadows, right? So here are the shadows that are going to be cast by the window frames. And they're much smaller than, let's say the whole half the house over there. So that looks pretty good. So let's go ahead and mix up the colors for the roof. The roof is going to be more of a blue gray color. So it's going to be also natural like the house itself. But I want it to be slightly different and I wanted to be a bit cooler. So again, work quickly so that you don't have these seams or lines that dry underneath. And you can see I'm just kind of picking up this paint and moving it around to prevent it from drying on the page. And try to stay relatively within the lines, but don't be too concerned. Again, this is one of the initial layers that we're, that we're working on right now. So it's not too concerning. So you can see I've avoided that side of the chimney that's going to be in the sunlight and you can see it has already kind of popped out of the page. And you can see as you move on, how, how things start to look multi-dimensional as opposed to flat. You get these, these items which sort of pop out at you like this chimney. And in the next lesson we're going to be working on the gardens and you'll see how the plants start to pop out at you. So that looks pretty good. I think I'm gonna go ahead and leave that there will have other layers for the house. And we'll go ahead and let this dry as we move on to the gardens. I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. Adding Shade - Gardens: Hello and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to be working on the gardens. And as you can see, I'm mixing up several different kinds of green. I want to have several different shades available to work with so that you can sort of paint what looks to be different kinds of bushes. So imagine a garden with different kinds of plants in it. They all have their own kind of shade of green. So that's what you want. You want to have depth and dimension and different colors in this garden. So as you can see, I've already started dabbing this paint on the page. And what you can do is sort of pick out where those blooms were from, the initial wash and kind of go from there. Use that as where the bushes are going to be, where the different plants will be, what kind of layers they will be. And use different kinds of greens as you go along. And as you can see, some are a lot darker and some are a lot lighter. There's going to be several different layers in this garden. So this is going to be just the second one. You can see I've added quite a bit of Payne's gray to this, this blue-green color. And this is going to be the initial shadow of these rosebushes. So like I said before, when you're painting, each successive layer is going to be smaller than the previous one. So right now we're laying down large shadows, big shapes that are going to be the gardens. These, these bushes will have darker shadows later on that are smaller. But right now, this is the overall shape of the bush. So you can see I'm adding in this whole side of the vine that's going up at the house is going to have this dark shadow on it. And you can see I'm just dabbing the paint brush on. I have the tip sort of flat instead of pointed, and it creates this sort of small crescent brush shape. And this is the size seven round brush. I use this for almost everything. I'm gonna go ahead and do the same thing with the plants over here on the left-hand side. Remember that we're also going to be having this cast shadow from the house. So we need to have this whole area darkened over here. So you can see I'm mixing different kinds of greens together as I go just to add depth and interest and the idea of different plants. So sort of add the shapes of shadows in. These aren't going to be the smallest shadows yet. They are going to be a layer that will, that will go over again later on. But you can see just by adding this, this idea of where the light isn't hitting because of the height of the bush. It really gives it this sort of three-dimensional look, which is exactly what we want. We want the bushes and the plants to just sort of pop out at you. You don't want to have a flat garden known ones that you want to have big, bushy, wonderful plants. And so you can see I'm adding, I'm just adding dark green where it seems like it needs it. So just add a little bit of interest here and there. And if anything is too dark, you can really easily just add a little bit of water to your paint brush and then go back over it. You can see here, there's still a little bit of green pigment on my brush, but I added water and I'm gonna go ahead and touch the edges of this. And I'm going to pull that darker green shadow away into the other section of the vine. And so you can see it softens the look of it. It looks more. Instead of these really sharp lines, it looks, it looks more like a bush where the leaves would be sort of sun would be highlighted in some would be in the shadow. So you want to have this textured look. I loved this balloon right here. I thought that was so perfect for these bushes. So we're going to add where the shadow is going to be for these bushes, but we're going to leave the top just as it is. So that it'll have these wonderful highlights, something that you'll see in the sun. So again, we're just going to sort of go around and think about where we want the shadows to be. Where are there going to be plants laying down? Where will there not be sun touching it? And again, get different kinds of green as you do this, you don't want it to be just one color. Mix, a bunch of different paints together. I have four or five different paint, different paints of green on my palette right now. And again, this area over here is going to be where the shadow is from the house. So we want that to be darker. And we're going to flatten out our brush one more time and we're going to sort of brush in these little, they look sort of like tufts of grass or at least that's how I think. And you can see it's adding this. This isn't a flat lawn kinda feel. This looks more like little plants that are sort of bumping around over here. And we're gonna go ahead and cover this straight line of the path here. I didn't like that so much. I want it to look more overgrown, more wild. And we're going to add a little bit of depth to the bushes in the back as well. So you can see if there's anything that's too sharp for you. Just add a little bit of water to it and it'll help it to bleed out. It'll look more smooth as instead of a really sharp line. And over here, we're going to add this. And we're going to overlap a little bit into the sky. This line that was very sharp, that delineated Bush's from the sky was just a little too sharp for me. So we're going to add the shadow in there and you can see it already looks like it has branches with tufts of grass or toughs of leaves coming out. So that looks pretty good. So we're going to let that dry and we'll move on to the next lesson. And I will see you there. 7. Adding First Details - Cottage: Hello and welcome back. In this lesson, we're going to be doing some details on the cottage. And firstly, we're going to add a little bit of a cooler blue color to the roof. I think it's a bit too warm still. So we're going to add this nice, cool kind of aquamarine color and we'll add a little bit of Payne's gray to mute that out. So that looks good. And maybe a little yellow to make it a bit brighter. That looks really nice. Alright, so we're going to lay this down over there. 8. Finer Details - Cottage: Hello again. In this lesson, we're gonna be doing a bit more detail to the cottage. So we're going to be working on the color of the trim. Some more shadows will be doing more details with a windows. And we'll be adding another layer of color to the roof. So as you can see, I've mixed this sort of turquoise, purple, blue color and this is what we're going to be using for the trim. And all the colors that we've used so far are very natural, very earthy colored. And so I wanted to have a color that sort of pops color that you don't often see in nature. So I've mixed up this good, bright, vibrant turquoise and we're gonna be using this for the trim. And so as you can see, I'm just running it along. I have my size three round brush and that's what I'm using to put the color in for this trim. We're gonna do all of the trim along the top of the roof. And then also on that little extinction of a roof into the sitting room area that's on the left-hand side. We're going to add all of this and it's looking good. It's actually drying very quickly, which is really nice. So I'm gonna go ahead and go over that one more time. And you can see the second time that I go over, it really adds up very bright pop of color, which is exactly what we want. So let's do that down spout one more time and almost done. I think let's definitely add color here. That looks really nice. I think we'll end up having to do another layer of that color later on. That looks good for now. So the next thing that we're gonna do is we're going to be mixing a color for the more and more shadowy color for this foot path that goes around the house. So we're going to make, Let's look at some of this gray and the Payne's gray as well. And we're going to use this as a shadow just for some of the some of the details of the house and also some shadow for the path, as I said. And so you can see I'm laying it on there just where it looks like it needs a little bit more, a little bit more dimension of color. And then overhear, like I said before, we're going to be adding this, this layer of shadow because of the direction of the light source. So this is going to be where the shadow of the house is, where the cottage shadow is. We're going to add in that shadow some details you can see I'm adding in the lines on the footpath and then some shadows where the the bushes would cast shadow. And anytime you see something that's just looks a bit too bright, if the initial washes like showing through still, then you should add some color there. So I went ahead and added a little bit more Payne's gray and we're going to use this to add some detail to the windows. So we're going to actually darken each individual pane of glass. And later on what we're actually going to do is use a Jelly Roll pen, which is a sort of a white paint pen. And that's how we're going to add in the window frames. And so some people like to use masking fluid, which actually just prevents you from painting onto a portion of the page. And so the white later on can show through. But I really like the Jelly Roll pen. It's just so much fun to use. And so I use that on a lot of my watercolor paintings just, just for the fun of it. So that's what we'll be using to pull out the frames of the Windows. You'll see there's a lot more detail. It makes it really pop when you can put white on top of a watercolor painting. So we're just going to add these in. These are going to be where the white window frames are not basically. So there'll be the white window frames and then a light gray which is the initial wash around those window frames. And then the darker squares that we're painting in right now. And that will add just, just an extra hint of interest. And it'll look, it'll look really nice. That looks good. Let's go ahead and leave that and let it dry. And the next thing we're going to do is we're going to add an additional layer to the roof. So you can see it has it's sort of too light, I think, in my opinion. So we're gonna we're gonna add some, some different kind of texture to it. So I've got some white here and a little bit of Payne's gray. And I'm also mixing it with the green that's already on the page or on the palette there. So you can see as I'm pulling my paintbrush across, it's leaving a little bit of a hint of texture. So what you want it to look like is you want to have, if you were to stand back the feeling of shingles. So that's what we're adding on right now. Just a hint of there being something they're not, not a flat surface but something that has texture. We're going to add that in and make sure that you cover up all of it so that there aren't big gaps of space or different colors. And then we're going to mix a little bit of a shadow color here for the chimney. And we're gonna put that on. I think it might be a little bit too dark. I think I'll wash that out just a little tiny bit. Yeah, that looks better. All right. That looks really nice. Okay. So we're going to let that dry and we'll be moving on to the next lesson. I'll see you there. 9. Adding Details in Shade - Cottage: Hello and welcome back. Alright, so as you can see now, I'm mixing up this color on my palette. I have some blue, I have some Payne's gray, red and a bit of yellow. I have this really deep dark purply color. And I'm gonna be using this to add shade to this, this painting. So right now we're gonna be working on adding several layers of this dark color to the shadow areas of the cottage. And you can see as you as, as this portion of the painting progresses, how adding this darker color really makes the rest of the cottage pop, makes it look much more three-dimensional as opposed to how flat it currently looks. So as you can see, I'm just picking out the areas which would be dark, again, under the eaves on one side of the house. This is quite a bit darker than the other paint that I've been using. So we're going to be focusing on mainly the areas that are going to be the most dark. So you can think of total shadow here. So we're gonna be using this for underneath the eaves and to bring out the depth of the different areas of the cottage. And you can see I'm adding a little bit more Payne's gray just to darken it up even more. So we've got some really nice deep shadow colors here. Now. We're going under the eaves again, and we're just going to be we're going to be laying down this darkness so that we can pop out the highlights later. So you can see I'm adding it to all of the places that we added shadow before, except the shadow areas that I'm adding are more detailed. So these are very small areas of shadow. So as before I was laying down large washes of shadow area. This is going to be just the details of it. So you don't want to have really, really dark areas where you take away all of the detail that you've been working on. These are going to be very small areas. Like I said, we're going to start large. And then as you progress, you're going to be painting smaller and smaller areas until you get to very minute details towards the end. So you can see I'm going to use this to sort of bring out this little roof here, the roof that goes over this little seating area that extends beyond the side of the house. And what you can do is use this almost like a liner and sort of pull out just like this. These sections of house that should be delineated from the other portions of the house. So you can see that this is now a separate section. It's not just flat there. We're also going to be using this to add these little tiny details. You can see here's the trim that goes around the house. And we'll be adding it here to the section of the house that pops out and will also be will be using it. On all of these like little line areas that you think need to be standing out a little bit more than they currently are. So we're gonna go ahead and we'll lay down little lines and then add a little bit of a more larger section of shadows. You can see as I'm doing right here, you can see I'm pressing down a little bit harder and my brush is fanning out slightly more. I'm also going to lay down a shadow here where the IV would, would cause it there to be a shadow. We're gonna be adding some details to the window frames. You can see how it kind of just makes it pop out, even though this whole side of the house is in shadow. It really, it really makes the details pop when you have darkness right next to it. So we're going to add a little bit more paint and we'll go up here and do some details on the chimney. You can see I'm gonna go all the way along this whole side and I want it to blend in so there's a lighter part to it. So let's add a little bit of water and you can see it will bleed together. And so you'll have shadow, but also you'll be able to see the details of the stone work that we put in before. So we're gonna get some more. And then let's touch up all these little details, these where the window frames are, the down spout, all of these little tiny things. So we have this little size three brush. It'll be easy to do these kinds of details. So you can see that I'm just going over it again, going smaller. This is a slightly cooler shadow color than what we were using before. So it adds a lot of dimension. So you can really see how different that looks. It looks, it looks much deeper, much darker. And That's exactly what you want. You want the finished watercolor to be very rich and vibrant looking. You don't want to have just a washed out painting. So this is exactly what we're trying to go for. We want to have nice vibrant darkness in also really bright highlights. So you can see there's just a few more things to do. We're going to add in these really fine lines with very dark, very dry paint, lots of pigment, very little water. And you can see how it just pops out when you do that. Let's get a little bit more. And we'll go again over all of these really small, fine details. Alright, that is looking really nice. Yeah, Let's take a little bit here and we'll add that to the roof. It's not quite cool enough. Alright, that looks good. 10. Wild Garden in the Making: Hello again. Alright, so in this lesson we're going to be adding more shadow and depth to the garden. So we're going to mix up a good green here. I got some sap green and a little bit of Payne's gray. And let's mix up a dark, shadowy color. So we're going to use this with our little size three brush. And we're just going to pick out the darkest areas of the plants. And as you can see, I'm not painting the whole thing. Just little toughs here and there where the plants are in a lot of shadow. So you want to have a lot of dimension here. So let's add a little bit more, a little bit more color. Let's get a bit of a dryer paint. Oh yeah, that looks really good. Alright, so we're going to roll or paint or pen or brush and get a nice fine tip. And what we're gonna be doing here is just sort of pulling upward and we're going to make little toughs of grasses. So just little fine details, little things they'll stick out. And you can see it adds the idea of different kinds of plants and also it gives it a more wild feeling. If it was perfectly manicured, these little tufts of grass would have been trimmed long ago. But you can see it. It just adds a little bit more detail and interests to the whole thing. So we're gonna go ahead and add, I thought that this area here was a bit too light, sort of merged with the house. So we're gonna be adding a bit more darkness here. So we've got this dark green and we're just going to put it in this bush where the shadow would be. We want to leave these highlights down below that we got from the original wash bloom. So let's leave that nice and bright. But you can see I'm just sort of grabbing slightly different colors, slightly different thicknesses of paint. I'm going to be adding these in where it seems like it will fit nicely. So again, here we're working on the rose bush. And you can see I'm just dabbing it in where there would be shadow. You don't want to have too much brightness where there would be a cast shadow from the plants either. So we're gonna go ahead and just add a little bit of darkness around here, around these bushes where the shadow would be. And we're just going to really focus on these little tiny details. We're just going to pick out some places that need a little bit more. And we're going to add these details in. You can see it's not, it doesn't take a lot of time, but the interest just really multiplies when you do this. It's just really something that, you know, that is that final attention to detail kind of thing. Something that really finishes a garden are these little tufts and these different kinds of leaves. So we're gonna be working on this. And what you wanna do is get different colors of green. So you don't want to have the exact same color the whole time that you're doing this layer, you want to have different, different kinds, different colors so that you can feel like I said before, different styles of plant, because they all have their own unique color of green. So that looks pretty nice so far. Let's add a little bit more over here to this, fine. And you can see not a lot of extra color, just adding in a little bit more for texture. And just so that you can see how the plants are and you can see how it looks. It just looks so much better. Alright, So what we're gonna do now is we're going to, let's clear off a place in the palette. So we're going to wash this away and I'll just wipe all this back. And we're going to use some more white and some more red. We're going to be adding a little bit more detail to these flowers here. So you can see that's not quite enough white. Let's add a bit more. Yeah, that's nice and thick. So we're gonna get some good red here and you can see how it's a lighter pink, so it's more white than pink here. We're just going to dab these on kind of where you would think the sun would be touching the blossoms. So just sort of touch it on where the pink was from before the original wash. And you can see that it's not a lot, It's not substantially different, but it adds just a little bit more interests, a little bit more something. We're gonna do the same thing with the yellow. And again, you can just dab it on, touch it where you think it needs it. I think we need a little bit more white. Oh yeah, that looks way better. So again, when these dry, they're going to be a little bit more transparent. So it's not going to be so vibrantly yellow. It will be just a little bit lighter than the original shade. And we'll be doing this also to the orange one. So let's get some red and we'll just mix it in there with that yellow. That looks really nice. All right, just touch it on. You can touch to make it look like it's different kinds of flowers, maybe like cone shapes or different types of blossoms. But you just touch it on so that you can have different depths of color. Alright, that looks really good. Okay, Let's add some more detail in the next lesson. 11. Adding Fine Details - Cottage: Hello again. Okay, so in this lesson we're going to be adding some highlights and some low lights and some details to the cottage. So we're going to add a lot of depth in this lesson. So right now I have just straight white on my paintbrush. It's quite thick. And we're going to be highlighting some areas just to have a layer of sort of a transparent light color. And this is where we will eventually be adding our Jelly Roll pen. But with watercolor, with white as it dries, it becomes a lot more transparent. So when you lay it on, it's going to look quite white. But as it dries, you'll see that it sort of fades to the background. It has just a hint of a lighter color on the surface. So we're gonna go ahead and add these little touches of highlight to wear. Really where something would catch your eye, some shiny metal or something that sticks out that the sun would catch. And as you can see, especially on the roof that line that I made, you could see how wide it was before and look, it's almost completely transparent now that I laid it down. This is good just to lay down a hint of some kind of texture. But it's not something that you can use to really add highlights with. So we're going to go ahead and add a little bit more detail with this. We're going to add it to the trim here. Now that I'm adding this highlight to the tram, I'm thinking the trim is just a bit too washed out. I think after we're done with the highlights, we're going to add some good that turquoise color. I'm going to add another layer of that will allow the second layer to make the colors pop and make it more vibrant. Another thing that white is good for is for straightening out lines. And you can see that chimney was a little bit wobbly with the original wash for the sky. I went ahead and straightened that out just a little bit just to give it a hint of straightness. And then we're going to add some highlights here. And I think that's good. So let's go ahead and let's get this turquoise back on our brush. So it's been drying, so it is a lot thicker. It's a lot more of a dry paint, less water, more pigment. And so we're going to go ahead and just touch up all of the trim. Oh, wow, that looks much better. You can tell already how much more vibrant that color is. It really makes the cottage pop. That looks very nice. Sometimes it's nice to sit back and just admire the color that's being laid down. I like that color. All right. Yeah. So we're gonna go over all of the trim and we'll also be going over the trim of this little side roof that comes out. And the little lean too on the back of the house. That looks really nice. Alright, so next, let's go ahead and let's use this nice dark purply color. And let's add another layer of shadow. And as I mentioned before, we're going to start out large and very light. And as you go on, the areas of the paper that you're going to paint are going to be smaller and darker. So let's get this good purple and we're gonna go to smaller areas. You can see that I'm painting only the darkest portions of the house. And you can see how much darker it is. You can see how much it really makes the rest of the house pop. So let's also use this to make some lines and you can see it. It's sort of just brings out these little highlighted areas. This, this portion underneath here really pops when you put this line down. You can see that it's extended from the house. Now. You can also use these really thin small brushes to sort of sort of like a liner brush almost. So you're gonna be laying down really thin areas, really small shadows, but still areas that are going to be very dark. So let's go ahead and straighten this out. That looks good. Let's add a little bit right here. That looks much better. Alright, and so I think that we can add some here. What you're going to do is don't, don't make solid lines, sort of make dashed lines so that you can have just faint ideas of shadow. You don't want to have everything perfectly lined out. So let's add some shadow here. You can add a little bit of detail on this trim just to make it pop. All that looks really nice. I like that for the window frame. Yeah, that looks really nice. It really adds dimension there with the stonework. Alright, so the next thing that we're going to do is this right-hand portion of the roof is sort of at the right angle to be to have the sun sort of glancing off of it. So I want it to be just a little bit darker, but not fully dark like underneath the eaves. So you can see just with that little extra layer of color, how much more dimension it has. So let's add a little bit more shadow here. I noticed this trim is actually in the shadow areas, so let's go ahead and lay it, lay a dark layer over the top of that, just so that you can see that it's also in shade. That looks really nice. And then on top of the roof, there's actually a little terracotta tile decorations and you can see they look like little villages. And so what I'm going to do is take some of this good red color and a little bit of this yellow, and we're going to mix it together and make sort of a terracotta red. And we're going to just highlight that. And just like with the trim of the house, I want it to just be this vibrant, highlight, something that really draws your eye. That looks really nice. I like that, that's a good color. You can see how it really pops. Okay, so the next thing that we're going to do is we're going to add a little bit of water to this purple. And we're going to use this more washed out paint as a shadow to darken this area. It seemed a bit too light to me. So we're going to have these, again, these little lines and just make sure that they really pop. That's looking really nice. Alright, and you can see how, how much dimension that has. Alright, let's move on to the next lesson. 12. Moody Skies: Hello again. In this lesson, we are going to darken up that sky. I think that right now it looks a bit too bright, and so it's making everything else seem rather washed out. What I wanted to darken it up, make it seem more moody, more of a storm. We're going to have this Payne's gray and we're gonna go over the whole of the sky again. And we're just going to add this nice deep dark color. And by doing this, it will really allow the brightness of the cottage to come through. So you can see already how it makes the house sort of pop. And that's exactly what we want. We want to have the dark background and this really vibrant, brightly colored but not washed out Cottage to stand out. So we're going to go ahead and use a wet on wet technique again, but this time the paint is going to be a little less what we're going to more pigments, so it's much more dark. So let's go ahead and just dab this around and make sure that the whole sky gets this nice, dark, moody color. We're going to go ahead and pick up a few of these little pockets that, that have sort of settled in these low valleys of the paper. That looks much nicer. And while I've got this nice deep Payne's gray, I'm gonna go ahead and add another layer to my shadows of the house. And you can see just another layer of darkness just makes it look really nice. So I think that looks really good with this paint. We're also going to add a little bit of texture to the right-hand side of the roof. And you can see by doing these thin lines, it gives you the feeling of shingles again, which is what we want. So that looks really nice. We're going to wash out just a little bit so it's not so distinct. Alright, I'm liking that. Okay, I'll see you in the next lesson. 13. Darkest Shadow Details: Hello again. Alright, so in this lesson, we're going to be taking this good dark Payne's gray. And we're going to use it to sort of fill in where the shadows should be. This is going to be the last lesson where we'll be putting in any color or shadow with the brush. So this is where we're going to just darken everything up. This is going to be the final the final overlay with the dark colors. So as you can see, I'm just touching up where the highlight of the wash from the original, the original layer is showing through. And you want to have, if you think of your being underneath like an ash tree and they're being wind. And the light is coming through the leaves onto the ground and you could see the dabbled shadows. You want to have small areas where there are highlights, where you would see the sun coming through the leaves. But you don't want to have too much and you don't want it to be somewhere where that wouldn't happen, like on the left side of the house, there wouldn't be any of that because the house isn't Apple. We're going to just sort of touch up all of these areas, add just a little bit more depth with these shadows. And you can see the blue. Since there's no green, this is just Payne's gray. The blue is really nice. It's adding just a little bit more depth, a little bit more darkness and interests to these plants. And that's just what we want. We want it to be just a little bit darker, make it look just a little bit more wild. And you can see how, how it's really adding this, this sort of textured look to them. It looks much, much more rounded, much less flat. That's looking really good. We're also going to be adding some more shadow to the house. So let's go ahead and we'll add a little bit more details to the plants, and then we'll move on to the house. But you can see that I'm just just going over everything. Where is a place that needs just a little bit more darkness? Where can I add some more depth? So let's add a little bit more Payne's gray make it nice and dark. And you can see these are the final shadows. So this is, this is where it's going to be the darkest, the very darkest part of these plants and shadow. Let's just add a little bit more darkness here and there. I want you to sort of go around your painting and just see where are a little bit more, where should I add a little bit more darkness? And so you can see that the shadows really made the garden look wild. You can see how it looks like. It has a lot of depth, a lot of different kinds of plants, and that's just what we want. So let's take this Payne's gray and we'll add just a little bit more texture here. And to the back part of these trees here that looks really nice. That looks nice. Okay. So we're also just, we're just going to add another layer to the house. So as you can see, we're just going to go back over these shadow areas that we've been layering the past few lessons. So just touch up anything that you think needs it. I think the shadow should be darker, so let's add a shadow there. And this is really just the final go over. So look over the painting and see where you think it needs a little bit extra. And so as you can see, it's, it's almost done. This is very close to the final painting. We're just going to darken up a few extra places. This trim needs to be a bit darker. And yeah, we're sort of just sitting back and looking at it, looking at it with a critical eye. Where do we need more depth? Where does it need a little bit more shadow? This chimney is kind of sticking out. So let's add a little bit more shadow here. And you can see it's ferry. These are the very final things, just things that are just really small, almost if you overlook them, it wouldn't be a big deal. But these are the small things that make the painting look wonderful at the very end. So let's go ahead. We're just going to spend a little bit more time here. Let's add some shadow here. Just really tiny details. Let's see. I think there's a little bit more here. We should probably make that more distinct. That looks nice. Yeah, Just final lines, little tiny things that is looking really nice. Yeah. Alright, I think this is good for me. So let's, let's leave it alone. And in the next lesson we'll be pulling out the Jelly Roll white pen. So much fun. I'll see you there. 14. Picking Out Highlights: Hello again. Okay, So this is the final lesson where we'll be adding details. So here I have my Gelly Roll pen and we're just going to use this as a little tiny bit of highlight in all of the painting. So what I want you to do is sort of look at it with a critical eye. I think, where the sun would be touching. All of the things that you think need just a little bit of extra interest. So as you can see, I'm laying down a lot on these flowers because I think these would be in the sun. And just to have a little bit of highlight really brings attention to them. So we'll be highlighting these flowers. We're going to add a bit of highlights to the plants as well. You can see we'll add highlights to few blades of grass, just things that would catch the light. And so you can see how much, how much interest is being added just by these little touches of white, just little tiny dots really. I love the Jelly Roll pen. So much fun to play with at the end. Alright, that's looking good. So let's add some more highlights to these bushes. Just little tiny things. You don't want to like outline everything but just a dot here and they're really add something. It just adds just enough for it to be. To draw the eye. There we go. Let's highlight some of these, these over here as well. That looks nice. And you don't want to be overwhelmed with white at the end. Just a few touches really is all you need. So we're going to add a little bit here to this bush. That looks nice. Let's add it here. You can see just the tops of things where the sun would be touching it. That looks nice. Yeah, that really changes how the path looks. I like that. Alright, so let's move on to the cottage. So we're going to add this liner pen just to sort of highlight where the sun would be touching, just like the plants. And so just this hint of brightness really adds a sort of a finishing touch to the painting. So we're gonna go ahead and add it to the trim. You wanna make sure that you only add it where the sun will be touching and don't accidentally put it in the shadow areas. So we're going to add it some to the chimney. And you can see it just brings it to life. Just like how the shadows, the deep shadows give it depth. The highlighter pen I think just brings it to life at the end. Just these little tiny hints of sunlight touching your page just looks so nice. We're also going to be using this pen to create the window frames. So let's go ahead and add those in. And we're just going to do them as straight as possible. And just just the hint of a pretty sort of look on the inside of a window frame. And we'll do that to each one. And you can see already it just adds a little bit of extra dimension, an extra, something that really makes it look beautiful at the end. So we'll be doing the frames and then we'll also be doing, when we're done with this, we'll add little touches of highlights to some of the stone work. Just little things that need to be neat. It pop out with the eye. That looks really nice. I think. Let's see a few of these needs, some more highlights here. And you can see just like on the down spout here, just something that would glint off of a metal down spout. That looks really nice. And you can see how I'm not doing a lot of completely straight lines, just little highlights of things. That's nice. And do the same thing as the final shadow. We're going to overlook the whole thing. And we're just going to think, where does it need just a little bit of extra, a little extra highlight. And so you can see a lot of time I'm sitting back and just looking at the painting. Where should I put this be very sparing of where you put your, your white bear. You can see how it just makes the whole thing pop. That looks really nice so far. Let's see. I think some of these window frames might need to be a little bit wider to. We might go back there and touch that up. Let's highlight this bush. That looks nice. Yeah, just looked, sit back and look. Let's add, let's add a little bit of width here to this one. That looks much nicer. I like this so far. Alright, let's add just a few more touches. I think that's it. I think that's just about it. Try not to go overboard with the white pen. It's very hard to not go overboard. Alright, I'll see you in the next lesson. 15. Best Part of Any Painting: Hello again. Alright, are you ready for the most satisfying thing ever, signing your painting? It's the best part. So find a place that you think that your name will look nice. And I always do it on the right hand bottom corner. And it happens to be dark there, so I'll use this white highlighter pen. So that's it. Our painting is finished. We're also going to do another satisfying thing in this video and that's removed the tape from your painting. So what I have is just regular old painters masking tape. I find that it actually works better and doesn't tear your page as much as artist's tape. I'm not sure why, but it seems to work better for me. And so getting that nice, crisp straight line on your painting is just so satisfying. So we should just sit back and enjoy this moment. Wow, that looks really nice. Alright, so what I'm gonna do now is there are a few sketch lines that seemed to have gone beyond where the painting is. So let's go ahead and take our kneaded eraser and we'll just make a sharp point and erase those extra lines so that we can have a nice crisp white frame. That is looking really good. What a fun painting this was. It's so nice to be able to finish your painting and sit back and admire it just to look at it. Think how wonderful all of the paint was. Look at the blooms of the sky and look at the shadows on the garden. It's so nice to sit back and look at. That is a final painting right there. That looks so nice. 16. Wrapping It All Up: Here we are. We now have our final watercolor painting of our Cottage. To recap, we learned a bit about different watercolor techniques and we're able to apply them effectively to our cottage illustration. We learned about wet on wet washes to lay down a base layer. We learned about wet on dry techniques, which we use to add shade, larger shadows, and depth. And we learned about dry on dry techniques, which we use to add both large and small details and shadows, which brought our painting to life. We also used a white ink pen to pick out tiny highlights to add even more depth to our painting. I am really pleased with my painting and I hope that you love yours as well. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. And I really hope that you've found a new love of watercolor. Learn something new, and now feel more confident while painting. I would really love to see your paintings. So pleased, don't forget to upload them to the project gallery. Leave a review and subscribe so that you can be notified of my future classes. Thank you again for joining me and I hope to see you in my next class.