Juicy Botanical Watercolor For Beginners: Paint Lemons Step By Step

1. About The Class: Hello, and welcome to my new watercolor Botanical Illustration class. In this class, we will paint these gorgeous juicy yellow lemons and we'll learn about main techniques for painting botanical illustration. My name is Alexandrina, and I'm a watercolor artist. I love to paint everything from landscapes to animals and botanical illustrations. In the beginning of the class, I will show you main watercolor techniques for painting leaves because it's one of the most important element in any botanical painting. I will share main color mixes for natural green shade and will share art materials I will use for this class. Then we will move to drawing a sketch, and you can also find a copy of my sketches in the attachments to this class. And finally, we will move to paint lemons step by step. This class is designed both for beginners and for intermediate artists. This class includes two class projects for each level. You can paint a single lemon with the leaves at the beginner level or create a more complex composition with two lemons at intermediate level. Or, of course, you can paint both I hope to see you in the class. 2. Art Materials: Before we start painting, let me show you the art materials I will use for this class. The most important one is watercolor paper. It always should be not less than 300 SM. This time, I use Kansan Montvale paper. It's cellulose paper with a grainthin texture or cold pressed. I have ceramic palettes and I love mixing colors on them, but if you have plastic ones or other type, it's totally fine. I use mechanic pencil 0.3 millimeters by pentel. I love using green color by white knights for painting botanicals and use it in different color mixes with Hansa Yellow Deep, for example, by Daniel Smith, paints gray by van go and I will also need some cold yellow, which is orlin by Schminke, mud brown by Schminke. And as an addition, you can find some granulate in watercolor. I can use dusk violet. You can find links to the materials in the description to this class. I will use main three brushes. I will need round brush number six by silver brush, black velvet, brush number two by Davinci and brush number one by any brand will just work fine. I always have paper towels next to me to remove the excess of the water. And also, of course, a glass of water. You can have two if you don't want to change them a lot. In my next lesson, I will show you the green color mixes I mostly use for painting botanicals, and I'll see you there. 3. Green Color Mixes : In this lesson, I will show you main color mixes I use for painting leaves. First, I need green color. I will also use some yellow shades like Olin and Hans yellow deep, which is cold and warm yellow shades. Also some red shade like Muda brown, and some dark shade like Pains gray or some granulating watercolor like dusk violet, Bvangl. You can check a lot of green swatches on my YouTube channel, where I share different green lighting watercolors by Daniel Smith and other green shades, I love. But in this lesson, I will show you main color mixes we can create from these colors. I will start with a very light green color mix. It's color mix of green and orlein. I added yellow color on the palette, and little by little, I add some green color into this color mix. And let me show you the color I have when I add just little green, and now I add even more, and the color becomes darken but still quite warm. The next color mix even woma it's Hansi yellow dip and green. You can replace these yellow shades with the ones you have, for example, allene can be replaced with lemon yellow, and Hans yellow dip can be replaced with cadmium yellow dip, for example. This color mix will be much warmer and normally it's more suitable for painting some autumn leaves or, like, leaves that are closer to aging becoming yellow and dry. Since I will use both of these yellow shades for painting lemon, I will use both of these color mixes for painting leaves as well just to give diversity of the color on the leaves. Another nice way to mute a simple green, it's mixing it with red shade. You can use any red shade and just check which color mixes you get, but I like to use this moda brown, very warm, interesting red shade for creating dark color for painting shadows. Next color mix is paints gray and green. It's pretty cold dark green shade that I can always use for darkening the shadows. And now let me show you another dog green color mix. It's mix of dusk, violet, van go, and green. In this case, you can use other dog renting watercolor for mixing it with cream. Granulating watercolors create very nice interesting textures, especially when painting botanicals. But the main thing you have to remember when using granulating watercolors is to use enough water or even add droplets of water into radiant wet surface with color. I showed you many color mixes I will use in this class for painting lemons, and now let me show you how to mix green shades without green. I will use azimtin green yellow by Vang, and paints gray. This color mix creates very nice, interesting warm green shade. And in general, you can try mixing any yellow with paints gray, you will get an interesting green shade. Another color mix of green its basics from coal theory, it's blue plus yellow. I'm using Prussian blue and Allen. By just in the color ratio, you can get more warm green shade if you add more yellow, or you can have more intense green shade and cold one if you add more blue. Now in the color mix, I have approximately 50, 50% of each. Another interesting color mix is Ollen plus pins gray or basically any yellow color plus pins gray. And that's basically all the color mixes I wanted to show you. Of course, you can also add three colors like you can mix red with yellow and green and to mute down green shade, creating more interesting green colors. Just try and experiment with your color palette. You can also use color chart to explore more color mixes that you can create. I will see you in the next lesson where we will implement these green color mixes into painted leaves. 4. Drawing Leaves - Excercise For Beginners: Painting leaves is an essential skill in botanical illustration. Leaves are not just a background detail. They are a key element that defines the character of a plant. Each species has its own unique leaf shape, structure, and way of growing, which makes careful observation especially important. In this lesson, we will try to catch the shape of the leaves trying to sketch them. Let's start by sketching out the leaves that you can find in the attachments to this class. As a photo reference, I collected from some of the fruits I found on pinterest or my own photos. Before you start painting take a moment to really look at the leaf. Notice its outline is it round, elongated, jagged or smooth edged. Look at how it's attached to the stem and how it grows. Oh. Pay attention to the veins, too. They often give you a natural guide for form and movement. Some veins branch out like rivers, others run straight and parallel creating very different visual rhythms. When I'm painting the leaps, I'm trying to analyze the shape that I see on the reference and just repeat this shape. Oh drawing the veins help you to show the direction that leaf goes and to show the dimension of the leaf that is not flat. If you choose a very simple shape of the leaf, it will be a bit harder to show the dimension of the leaf that is not flat, and we will use grenlation or just using different shades of green because the shape is flat and we need to add some more diversity in terms of color values and different shades. When the leaf has twist, it's easier to show the difference between light area and dark area in the shadow. Normally, I start with the central vein, and then I build up the shape of the leaf around it. Now my sketches are done, and I want to invite you to the next lesson where we practice in painting leaves with watercolor. 5. Watercolor Techniques For Painting Leaves: In previous lessons, I showed you the main color mixes I use for painting green leaves, and now let's mix these colors on the palette. First, I'm mixing handsy yellow dip and green colour to get this very warm and light green shade. Then I'm mixing green with muddy brown. You can use any other red shade for muted down the green color. This color also pretty warm but dark. I can use it for painting shadows. The next one is green and paints gray, which is also pretty dark, but more cold shade. And now these color mixes are enough, I can later add some more colors to the palette. First, I want to remove these strong pencil lines with kneadable eras them. I start normally by covering the area I'm going to paint with clean water. Now my brush has some green pigment on the belly, and it's okay because I will use green shade as well. I start by applying water, and then I introduce some warm green shade, mix of yellow and green. To create a very sharp and smooth edge, I'm pressing down the brush and making a one confident brush stroke, it allows to create a very nice line for the edges. And now I can add some dark shade at the top of the leaf because I see on the reference that the top will be daka. We need this wet surface so the colors would nicely blend with each other. Now I'm going to paint this very simple flat leaf and I will show you two approaches in two different halves of the leaf. First of all, normally, when we have this flat leaf, I separate the leaf in two parts in the middle will be the main vein of the leaf. I also apply first the water, and then I start by applying different shades. I see that I want to create this diversity of the color. So I apply some warm color and closer to the vein to the middle of the leaf, I will apply some dark a shade. Also, I see that I can apply dark shade at the top of the leaf, closer to the stem. So I start using more color and less water. For the very top of the leaf, I'm using the very dark shade of green and paints gray. I'm moving brush carefully from the light area to the darkest because the point where your brush will end up on the painting and where you will end the brush stroke, it will be the darkest area of the color because you are lifting the color towards this dark spot. I have to be very careful if I'm moving from the dark spot to the light one because I need to connect these two areas without any visible line visible edge. You can also add some drops of the clean water to create this nice texture. Now I will show you another approach in painting leaves. Here, basically we are painting every little part of this leaf separated by the veins, and we are trying to achieve slightly different green shades. It's easier in terms that we don't need to keep the whole area wet, and we can work slowly on this little area, creating green lighting textures, adding some interesting shades. The biggest challenge here is to keep this very thin line between these parts. Normally I'm moving color towards the edge of the leaf and towards the middle vein of the leaf. I'm using pretty similar green color mixes, but you can use different shades, adding some ultramarine or some yellow to create different shades of green. This approach feels very therapeutic because there is no rush. You are just working like with the coloring book, coloring each part one by one without any rush that normally comes with painting with watercolor. While I have this dark green shade on my brush, I can add also very little dots on already dried areas. I can lift some color from the wet surface and apply in that area some of the yellow color mix to create also interesting texture and let it dry. Now I will come back to the previous leaf and cover the dark area with a mix of green and paints gray. I have to switch between the leaves to let dry the first area I've painted. If the area will be still wet, the colors will blend and there will be no sharp edge between the dark area and light area. This little even in this little area of the darkness, I'm trying to move color around creating some light and dark areas in this part. The dark area will be right below the light part of the left to highlight the contrast between them. As the surface is getting dry, I'm trying to create some brush strokes repeating the shape and direction of the leaf. Now, our second leaf got dry, so I will move to paint in the vein. I'm using a mix of yellow and green and smaller brush. I'm using brush number two, and I'm careful in moving from the stem towards the edge of the leaf. And now using slightly dark color mix, I can paint the veins that are darker than the leaf on the other part of the leaf. While the leaves are getting dry, don't forget to change your water or have a few glasses on the table with clean water. For the third leaf, I will use mix of reline and green. As you can see, this color mix is more cold than the mix with hansa yellow dip. And again, once I'm moving closer to the stem, I leave this area unpainted and apply some dark green shade connecting it with already existing light colour on the leaf. Now I can clean the brush and tap it on the paper towel and lift some color from the surface, creating veins. It's a third approach of creating veins and texture on the leaf. While this leaf is getting dry, I will move to the last one. I applied slightly darker color than before, and I can move to another part right away, keeping this thin line between these two parts. Now, I come back to the previous leaf and cover the other half with a dark green shade and also keep a very thin line between these two parts. So I think by now you already understood the main technique behind painting the leafs. I would recommend you to practice steady brush strokes because they help you to create these sharp edges of the leaves. Have to hold your brush almost horizontally and move slowly, pressing brush closer to the paper. This angle gives you more control over the edge, allowing the bristles to glide along the shape of the leaf and form a clean, crisp outline. It's a subtle movement, but it makes a big difference in achieving that delicate, natural look. Knowing all the steps, you can finish painting the leaf by yourself, creating a light vein in the middle and darker veins on both parts of the leaf. I will see you in the next lesson where we will start painting the lemon. 6. Main Steps Of Painting Lemon: Before we start painting, let me show you the main steps we will follow to paint these beautiful lemons. We will start by painting the lemon. Then we will move to painting the leaves. And then finally, we will move to painting the stem. I analyze which areas on the leaves are darker and which areas are lighter. Also, I try to find the highlight on the lemon and the darkest area on the lemon. And the same steps I will follow when painting more complex lemons, I will paint first two lemons, then I will move to painting the leaves, and then I will move to painting the stem. As a final details, I will add some veins on the leaves. I hope that now all the steps of the painting process are clear and we can start painting our lemons without any rush. 7. Lemon Beginner Sketch: In this lesson, we will build up a sketch of our lemon, and I start by drawing a simple oval shape. Almost in the middle of the paper, I'm analyzing where the leaves will be, and I see that I need to leave a bit more space above the lemon for the leaves. Lemon has its very specific bottom, so I will draw it as well. It will be the darkest area of the lemon. If you don't feel like drawing a sketch on your own, you can just download a copy of my sketch and trace it to your watercolor paper. I will also sketch this little thing in the upper part of the lemon where the stem holds the fruit. And basically, when I'm sketching botanicals, I'm just repeating all even small elements that I can see on the reference. After we sketched the mainstem, we are drawing a little stems that are connecting the leaves to the mainstem. It's very important because if you just switch to the leaf right away, it will look less natural and we are trying to create more realistic botanical illustration. Just like I showed you in the previous lesson, I'm drawing the main vein of the leaf and then I'm building up the shape of the leaf around this vein into halves. And also, I will sketch some of the side veins to show the direction of the leaf. Now I have already two leaves and the only one left, which will have a twisted shape that we explored in the previous lesson. So I hope you won't have troubles in sketching it. And also this leaf will go above the first one that we painted. So we'll have to keep in mind when we will analyze the color values of the leaves. So basically, we need to understand which leaf will be lighter and which one will be darkem. But since the biggest leaf on the left from the lemon will have the role of the background and will increase the contrast between lemon and background, we will make it dakam I'm using mechanic pencil, 0.3 millimeters, which allows me to create a very thin lines, and I never press very roughly the pencil against the paper. So you have to work on the pencil lines so they would be very light and very easy to remove from the paper. Now, my sketch is done, and I will see you in the next lesson where we will start painting with watercolor. 8. Painting Lemon Beginner: In this lesson, we will start by painting a lemon. And first, I will remove the strawn pencil lines using db erasa. I placing main colors on the palette, I will use cold yellow shade or a lein, and I will use warm yellow shade Hans a yellow dip. I'm also placing Muda brown by Smink on the palette because I will need some dark warm mixes for the shadows. And I started making this dark color mix by placing hansa yellow dip on the palette, mixing it with da brown. And I will add a little bit of paints grape to make this dark almost brown color mix. I clean my brush and I cover the area of the lemon with a clean water. I have some leftovers of the yellow color on the brush, but it's okay because I will anyway paint with yellow shades. I'm using brush number six. By silver brush, it allows me to paint little details and cover big areas with the color of water. Once I applied water all over the lemon, I will start by introducing this cold lemon shade or line, and placing it at the very top of the lemon, moving slowly to the bottom. The color is traveling on the surface but not too much. And now I will start placing more warm shade in the middle of the lemon, moving again to the bottom. For now, I'm trying to avoid painting in the middle and up a part of the lemon because there will be a highlight, so I can lift the color from this area, but not paint it with dark colors. It's very important that your color mixes have enough bottom. And now at the bottom, I will start introducing this jacket color. I can add some green shade as well. Now it's too dark, but when the watercolor will get dry, the color will a bit disappear into the paper. So I'm trying to apply quite dark color at this stage. And I will continue building up the color using Hans yellow dip and will apply it at the top or on the sides of the lemon, creating more intensity and dimension to the lemon to show that it's not flat. It's very important to work on the whole object while the surface is wet. And if you see that some areas are dry, you can carefully apply some water into the surface. I keep unpainted area at the bottom of the lemon because there will be a reflection, and I want to cover it with light yellow shade, carefully lifting the color from the surface towards the dark areas. A bit more dark color on the left side of the lemon. When I apply this dark color, I'm trying to go not very close to the edge because on the edge will be the reflection on the lemon. I see rough edges on the highlight in the middle, so I clean my brush and I apply some water to just smudge this edge and make more smooth transition. And I renew my color mix of dark yellow shade, almost brown to continue working on the shadows. Using limited palette for the painting helps you to create harmonious painting because all the colors are connected. It means that I pick up to five colors, and I use them in color mixes both for painting leaves and for painting lemon, for example. Now I want to apply some green color into the color mix to make the color more diverse. It will create very interesting colors on this object and feeling that it's not flat again. And now I talked about reflections on the sides of the lemon, so I have to clean my brush, and I lift the color from the very edge of the side. Now, I want to apply a little bit darker shade at the top. If I see that the color is too dark, I can clean my brush and leave the color from the surface screen in more light shade. And I also can lift some color from the bottom part to highlight the contrast between this bottom part of the lemon and this round shape of the lemon. To make it less rough, I can just drag some colour from the upper pot and create more light, smooth transition. I want to add a slightly more intense yellow shade on the right side because now it looks flat, but the area is already dry, so I use just very transparent color mix, and I will use clean brush and water to just make these edges less visible. While the areas are still a bit wet, I can apply some little dots using this dark shade, just to highlight this texture of the pores on the lemon. And now I want to add even more green and red shade into the dark color mix to darken this bottom part of the lemon, the blossom with this dark mix. Don't be afraid to use dark color because now you see it looks very realistic and at the same time artistic with these nice, interesting watercolor textures. Now, I want to create some splatters, so I clean my brush and using just clean water, I pull back the bristles with my finger and let go to flick paint. 9. Painting Leaves Beginner: In this lesson, we will paint the leaves, and I start by mixing green colors on the palette. Like the colors I described in the previous lesson with color mixes, I start by mixing a very light green shade. I'm placing aoline which is called yellow shade and I'm mixing it with green. Another color mix will be also light green but more warm, so I'm mixing green with hansa yellow dip. I clean my brush between each of the color mix to keep transparency of watercolor. Next mix is green and paints gray. I will use this mix for painting shadows. It's very important that you have enough of the color mix on the palette because when we will paint, we will have to apply colors fast. I want to place Muda brown on the palette so I could add this color in some places and in some color mixes. I will figure out later, but now I just have it on the palette. And I start by cleaning my brush and covering this half of the leaf with clean water. Once I'm done with this part, I will apply the light green color mixes I have on the palette into this area of the leaf, and I carefully drag the color around creating very smooth transitions on the wet surface. Now I will apply some daca shade and I will merge these color so the line between these two areas would be invisible. The upper pot closer to the stem should be dark, so I apply again mix of green and paints gray in that area. While the surface is wet, I can apply colors building up the intensity of the color on the leaf. I can also add some other colors like I decided to add here or lein just to create more interesting textures. I'm moving to another leaf, and I start also with the lightest area of the leaf, covering this area with a clean water. And then carefully applying this mix of yellow and green. Normally when I work with watercolors, I start with the light areas and then I move to the dark areas. It helps you to see the overall image and contrasts that you are creating and to understand where you need to add more intensity, more colors. It's easier to make the color darker than the lighter because with watercolor, it's very hard to create lighter color if you already applied dark one. I started introducing dark color mix of green and a little bit of mud brown. And I highlight this area closer to the stem. And now I want to connect these two areas, the light color at the bottom and dark color at the top of the leaf. While the area is still wet, I can mix green and paints gray and apply this dark color carefully in the corner next to the stem and let the color just blend with the existing color on the paper. I renew the light green color mix on the palette using aoline and green color. And using this light green color, I move into the other half of the first leaf. I keep a thin line between these two halves unpainted. And once I applied the light color, I introduce more dark color into the wet surface. Make sure there is enough water on the painted area, and now I apply some udder brown and green shade moving towards the top of the leaf. At the very top where the leaf is connected to the stem, I apply mix of green and paints gray. I can carefully apply some dark brush strokes representing the direction of the veins on the leaf. I clean the brush and apply some droplets of water to bring out the texture. Using color mix of green and paints gray, I will move to painting this very little area on the leaf with this dark color. Now, I add some of this mix of green and paints gray to the light green mix to make it a little bit darker. And I'm using this mix to paint the other half of the leaf. While the leaves are getting dry, I will move to painting the stem, and I will see you in the next lesson. 10. Painting The Stem Beginner: Now I move to painting the stem. I switch to the brush number two by Da vinci. You can find all links of the materials I use in the description to this class. I use light mix of yellow and green and paint this little thing on the top of the lemon. I add a little bit of muddy brown to the color mix to make it warmer, and I carefully move from the bottom to the top of the stem using slightly different shades of green. Yeah. Yeah. It's very important to make the stem not a straight line, but a line with different curves. It represents how it looks in the reality. One Now, I'm mixing a little bit of paint gray with muddy brown creating this dark brown shade, maybe a little bit of green as well, and I'm just outlining this little thing on top of the lemon. If I see that it looks too rough, I can just clean my brush and lift the color in some areas. Now, I load my brush with this light green color that I have on the palette, and I move to paint in the veins on the leaves. I remind you, it's a mix of yellow and green. I'm trying to keep diversity of the color even in this very thin and small area, trying to switch between different shades of green. And I'm doing the same with another leaf. If you have troubles in color mixing or understanding the color ratio, you should join my color mixing class that I have also on Skillshare. And I will paint another stem as well while I have this color on my brush. Normally, when you have some color, you try to edit in different areas of the painting to connect these areas by using same color in different places. Our painting is almost done, and the only thing left is to paint the last leaf. And I will see you in the next lesson to do that. 11. Final Details Beginner: Welcome to our last part of the painting, we are mixing again, green and paints gray because this leaf will be the leaf and darkest area in the whole painting. So I will use pretty dark color mixes. Even when I'm mixing green and yellow, I use more pigment than before to make the color more dense. First, I apply some clean water in the upper part of the leaf just to make the painting process a bit easier. And then I introduce the dark color of green and paints gray and green and hunts yellow deep. And I'm just dragging the color down carefully painting around the edge of the lemon. This leaf will become a backdrop for our light and yellow lemon and will help to make the lemon pop up even more. I use silver brush black velvet number six. It has a very pointy end, and it helps me to paint even this very thin line around the lemon and cover quite big areas like the leaf. I rotate the brush to get more comfortable in making very confident and smooth brush strokes. Make sure that your hand is pressed against the table, so it has a very steady position to make the brush stroke very steady and smooth. This part can be very stressful, but to make more confident, you just have to do it again and again. And you will be fine. And even if the color goes wrong, you can always clean your brush, lift the color with a clean brush, and use a paper towel to remove the color in unwanted places. While the leaves are getting dry, I will make some more tea, and I will get back to painting the other half. I'm placing the clean water in the middle of the area I'm going to paint somewhere going to the edges of the leaf, but I keep the areas close to the other leaf in the upper pod painted with water because I want to apply a very dark mix, very dark green color, closer to that leaf. And it will be easier to have control if the area is not super wet, and I can just control the color that I'm moving around on this area. You can also rotate the paper itself to get more comfortable angle for painting these very little areas where you need a precise movement of the brush. I apply more dark and dark color, creating a very dark area and keeping this white line in the middle. I'm switching between color mixes I have on the palette, green, mod brown and pains gray, and also green and hansa yellow. But I always use pretty dark color because this leaf is quite dark. Now, I want to come back to the upper part of the leaf and increase this dark area even more, applying just more colmi of green and pains gray. I want to keep this rough edge of this dark area because it just highlights the direction of the veins and the leaf itself. And now we're almost done. I want to add some final details. I'm using even smaller brush. Number one, you can use just as small brush as you have and create these little veins on the leaves. I'm using the colors already mixed on the palette but just make sure that these colors are not too dark because these veins should be very subtle. Check the reference to make sure that you are creating the veins in the right direction. They shouldn't be very straight lines. They should have some curves just like the leaf is twisting around and just having its own shape. Now, using the same color mix I have on the palette, I want to fill the last vein on the main bigger leaf, and I'm just carefully covering this white line in the middle with this colour. If you don't already have the colors on the palette, you can mix the ones we used throughout the painting, Md a brown, yellow, green, a little bit of paints gray, and just create this light and warm green shade. Don't forget to share your class project in the class project section, and please add some words about your painting process. What was the biggest struggle in this painting? Or if you had just relaxed painting and you enjoyed the whole process, please also share it because I really appreciate your feedback. It helps me to improve my future classes and get to know you better. And with these last veins on this light area, I'm finishing the painting of the lemon. Our lemon is done. I can't wait to see your class projects, and if you want to practice more in painting lemons, you can join my other lessons in this class, the second class project, which is a bit more complex. Please don't forget to leave a review, and I hope to see you in my other classes. 12. Sketch Lemons Intermediate: Welcome to the second part of our class and second class project, and we will paint lemons with a more complex composition. And if you are intermediate artist, it shouldn't be difficult, but if you are a beginner, you can start with a simpler project and then move to this one. In this lesson, I will build up a sketch. I won't comment a lot on this because you can just follow my steps or you can also download the copy of my sketch and just trace it through the window or with the help of lighting tablet. Before I draw in the sketch, I'm analyzing the reference photo and analyze where is the lowest point of the objects and where is the highest one. Also the right side and left side and how they are positioned in comparison to each other. Then I'm placing the main objects. In this case, it's lemons, and then I'm just adding some leaves with the shape and the direction that I see on the reference. And now just like an hour exercise where I showed you how to paint leaves, I'm repeating the twisting shape of the leaf, trying to catch the main direction of each part. While I'm drawing, I'm analyzing also the color values of the image, and I can see and think which areas will be dark, which areas will be light, and what could be a problem when I'm painting the same values, they will look the same on the image. So I'm trying to make them in rotation and in contrast, like the light area will be against the dark background, et cetera. When I'm drawing these little elements and details on the lemon, I'm trying to repeat the shape and the structure that I see on the reference because if I will not draw it during the sketch, I will not paint it and it will look just strange if I don't understand how some areas are connected to others. Now when I already sketched lemons and the leaves, I'm trying to refine the lines and try to make them more clear. Our main goal is to leave just one simple line and to follow it while we will paint. And also, when I'm drawing this leaf that in the middle and have a very twisted shape, I leave this very thin line on the edge of the leaf. And I will not paint it just like the veins on the leaf. I will just make it more light than the leaf itself. Now, my sketch is done, and I will see you in the next lesson where we will start painting. 13. Painting Lemon Intermediate: Before I start painting, I'm placing all the watercolors I need through the painting on the palette, and I need to prepare enough color mixes on the palette so I wouldn't be distracted while I will paint because we will have to work fast since it's wet on wet technique. First, I will do my ordinary step. I will remove the strong pencil lines with kneadable eraser. Ktable eraser helps to not damage the paper and just gently remove the strong pencil lines. Then I will move to place and the colors on the palette. So basically, I already have colors from my tubes, but I need to prepare a color puddles on the palette so I would have more control over the color to water ratio. Because I need to make sure that I will not use too dense color because watercolor loves water, so we need to add enough. So I have on the palette pure Ollin pure handsy yellow dip. And now I'm mixing d brown handsy yellow dip, and I will add a little bit of paints gray. Or you can also use dusk violet or black oxide to make it more granulating. We need this dark brown color. Then I clean my brush, and I start covering the whole lemon with clean water. Well, I have some leftovers of the color on the brush, but it's not a problem. I have 25% cotton paper and 75% cell loss, so it will get dry pretty fast, so I need to add enough water and work pretty fast. I keep this white unpainted, uncovered by water area in the middle of the lemon, where I think will be the highlight. So now I don't want to think about it, I will just avoid to paint this area. I start with aoline and then I introduce the hands yellow dip close to the bottom of the lemon. Now, I clean my brush, tape on the paper towel to remove some water, and I just apply this clean water to this area of the highlight, moving from the light areas towards the colored area. And this is how I created the highlight without keeping it white. And now I start applying this dark shade. Don't be afraid that it's too dark. Now I'm trying to find the right proportion, maybe mixing it with hansy yellow a bit. And for now, I'm just applying this dark color. And apparently we will have shadow under the leaf on the right from the lemon, so I have to place it there as well. I will clean my brush, dap it on the paper towel and lift some colour on the side of the lemon because on the very edge of the lemon, we will have reflection, so we will have to keep this area light with a very thin line. Now I'm renewing this brownish color on the palette, and I want to apply even more darker shade. It now I want to remove some of the color lifted from the bottom of the lemon to highlight the difference between the blossom end and the lemon itself. I'm just lifting some color, and the lemon has already three dimensional appearance. I want to add some more dark shade on the right side and under the leaf. And always when I see that the area is still wet, I can apply more and more colors and they will just blend with the existing layer. But at the top of the lemon, I see that it's already dry, so I have to work carefully. And once I applied some color, if I want to smudge this rough edge, I need to clean my brush and carefully drag the color down or apply very light shade. I'm trying to make this rough edge a bit more smooth and natural, and I apply some mid value color, and then I clean my brush and I move from the light area towards the dark one. If you will move otherwise, you will just bring this dark color to the light areas and we don't need it. And now while the area is still wet, I'm just making a little droplets of dark brown colour to highlight this texture of the pores on the lemon. I'm trying to make more horizontal brush strokes to support the appearance of a round shape of the lemon or oval shape, but to make sure that the light flows correctly according to the reality. So I have to make these horizontal brush strokes. And I don't like this rough edge at the upper part, so I'm just dragging some color from the shadow with a clean brush, and also I might add some of the aoline again with a very light mix, and I keep this highlight in the middle. And now let's repeat the same steps with the second lemon. First, I cover it with a clean water. And actually, you can just cover the whole area without leaving unpainted area for the highlight because anyway you can make the highlight by lifting the color from the wet surface. And on this lemon, I will show you how to do that. I start with oline which is bright yellow color, and I just use more color around the highlight, and I can just leave this area of the highlight, even though the area is wet. I started bringing up some hansa yellow dip. And in this lemon, I want to try a bit other color mixes, adding more green shade. But now I'm just using the same brownish shades for the dark parts as I did with the previous lemon. It's mix of hansa yellow dip, da brown, mainly, and maybe a little bit of darker shade if we need it. Like paints gray or any black color that you have. And you see that my brush strokes, they are moving in the same direction that the lemon shape. So our brush strokes help us to bring the color in the same direction as the object is. And now I want to add some green shade. I think it looks very nice on the lemons and I like when they have the green interesting colors. So I'm just mixing green with Ollin and I'm placing this color carefully on the right side. And now I'm trying to blend this color mix with the existing colors. While the area is still wet, I have to keep working on building up the colors. So I'm mixing more dark brown using muddy brown and pins gray. And I apply this color also closer to the leaf on the left from the lemon because there will be a shadow, and it will help us to differentiate the lemon from the leaf and to increase the contrast between them. For now, I see that there are a lot of rough edges on the lemon end. I will have to blend these edges carefully by applying some more color. I'm just using yellow, and I'm connecting these areas trying to keep this highlight. And I again come back with this brownish shade. I know that the lemon doesn't look yellow at all right now, but I think that it's the point of artistic view, and you don't actually have to paint yellow lemons, oranges, like you see on the image, you can bring in some of your artistic view. And I like the granulation on the lemons. I like how the colors are interacting with each other. So I think it's a pretty nice appearance of the lemons. And in my opinion, it looks very artistic. While I have this brownish shade on my brush, I apply it under this part of the stem, and I can remove some of the color if I see that I don't like how it travels on the wet surface. But in general, we need to keep in mind that there will be a shadow under this light thin in the upper part of the lemon. After the main work with lemon is done, I want to add also some dots of the dark color. Be careful and don't make them a lot. They have to be pretty random, and I have to switch between different shades, adding just diversity of the color. After that, I can clean my brush and load it with clean water and just make some splatters. I love how the water creates a very beautiful granulating effect on the surface. So definitely try it out. 14. Painting The Leaves (Part 1) Intermediate: Before I move to painting the leaves, I want to outline this right side of the lemon with a dark mix of muddy brown, a little bit of hansy yellow, and a little bit of pins cream and to add some shadow under the leaf. I want to mew down a bit this highlight at the bottom of the lemon, so I clean my brush and with just leftovers, so the color, I just carefully cover this line. And now let's move to painting the leaves and placing green on the palette and mixing with aoline and also with some colours that are left on the palette, creating more warm light green shade. I'm carefully filling out with the color this half of the leaf, introducing the colors from the palette, and moving from the top to the bottom. Be very careful with the edge of the leaf. To not drag the color from the lemon, we have to paint very carefully on this line. And we keep in mind that the leaf should be light than the area under it on the lemon. I can increase some intensity of the green color at the top where the leaf is holding to the stem, and I'm dragging the color towards the darkest spot. I can apply some of the udder brown at the very top on the wet surface just to add some diversity and also some pains gray, also to create a dark spot at the very top of the leaf. I'm mixing pains gray with the green I have on the palette, and I'm creating these dark veins to show the direction of the leaf. It will blend with the existing color, but it's okay. We will add it later with wet on dry. Now, I'm mixing green with paints gray, creating slightly darker color, and I move to painting the other half of the leaf. I keep this white thin line in the middle between these two parts. I'm moving from the top to the bottom of the leaf, and little by little, I add some different shades of green, and closer to the middle will be the darker area to highlight this contrast between the light vein in the middle and the leaf. And closer to the bottom, I can add some more mix with yellow. Now I can clean my brush and add some droplets of the pure water to create the granulating texture on the leaf. I can also add some brownish spots into the wet surface. It helps to unite all the elements that we've painted on the lemon and on the leaves. Using the same color helps to create more harmonious paintings. Now, I'm move into the upper leaf and I will paint this dark area. First, I cover it with clean water, and then I will apply a dark green color. I have to keep in mind that there is a very thin line between the leaf and the lemon. It's a reflection on the leaf, and it will help us to show the dimension of the leaf that's not flat. At the same time, this part should be pretty dark at the very top. I also use mix of green and yellow, but more green in this color mix, and the color should be a little bit more dense. The more water you use in color to water ratio, the more transparent color you will get. And if we use more intense color with less water, you will get this dark color. I can also add a little bit of paints gray to this mix and just switch between these color mixes. The daka parts on this leaf will be under this white line that I left on the right between the lemon and the leaf. It will help me to increase this contrast between the leaf and the lemon. I added some droplets of water, and now I can tap the brush on the paper and just lift some color in the direction of the veins of the leaf. I also decided to connect a little bit more this area in the top of the leaf, just to make sure that it looks very realistic and natural the shape of it. Now I will move to another half of the leaf and first cover it with clean water keep in this white line between these two parts unpainted. I will use mix of green and a little bit of pink gray, but quite a lot of water. So the color would be more transparent than on the previous leaf. This white line in the middle helps us to prevent these two parts from blending. Closer to the bottom, I will add a bit light mix of green and yellow, using still quite a lot of water. And at the very bottom of the leaf, at the very little corner, I will drag the color and add more green to make it a little bit darker. Now, I will load my brush with hansa yellow dip, just pure color and will add this color at the bottom of the leaf. I just want to see how it will look like if I like it or not and if I should change it. And now I see that I also can add a little bit of this color mixed with green at the top of the leaf. The main idea here is that I want to make this leaf different by color from the other half. So it would look diverse. 15. Painting Leaves(Part 2) Intermediate: Now, I renew the color mix of yellow and green on the palette. I add some hansa yellow dip and also the color mix with mud a brown. And green, which is quite muted and warm but dark green shade. And I will move to paint in the third leaf, and I start with an easy part, the left half of the leaf. I start with a mix of green and a little bit of muddy brown. At the very corner, I can add mix of green and paint gray to darken this area. This leaf, I will paint segment by segment, as I showed you in the exercise with painting the leafs. So I will just carefully move to second segment and will keep this white line between these two parts that will prevent it from blending. This technique helps me to work slower. I don't have to keep track of the how wet paper is, and if I should come back to some area, I can just slowly work on this little part, adding more interesting shades and do not rush. Now I want to add some dark color mix of green and paints gray, especially closer to the middle of the leaf. These dark parts will help us to highlight the contrast between light veins on the leaves and the leaf itself. Oh while the surface is wet, I will apply some droplets of clear water again. Now we will move to painting the other half of the leaf, and you can just wait until it will get fully dry. I'm just moving to the other half. I'm mixing lein and green on the palette creating this light color mix, and I start by applying it at the bottom of the leaf, carefully moving towards the top. And I start placing slightly dark color as I move towards the top of the leaf. Then I move to the next segment, and here I already keep the white line between these two segments and the line in the middle. I keep it pretty simple in terms of color mixes, but here you can add in some places, especially on the edges of the leaf, some more yellow color. Also you can add muddy brown into the mix, and it will look very nice. Closer to the stem, I will need to create more dark shade. And now I also can add some little dots with the green colour on the brush on the wet surface or already on the dry surface just to create also these interesting textures. Why add some more line on the palette, creating slightly light green shade. And I want to paint this little part of the leaf that as I can see from the reference photo is very light. And using this color, I continue working on this leaf and just dragging the color on the whole, this white line that we kept between the lemon and the leaf. Now, it looks quite flat, so I will load my brush with a brownish shade that I have made a brown, a little bit of paints gray, and will carefully add this little corner on this wet surface. I can lift some color from the surface if I see that it travels too much, and I will move to paint in the other half of this leaf. I keep it also light, but a little bit more green. As I'm moving closer to the bottom, I create more dark green shade, but still trying to keep it lighter than the main leaf under. But I have to make this part slightly darker than the line 16. Painting The Stem Intermediate: Yeah. In this lesson, we will paint the stem and the veins on the leaves. I'm using brush number two by Da vinci, and I'm mixing the colors that are left on my palette, creating very light green shade, and I start applying this color on the stem of the upper lemon. I will add a little bit more green color into the mix and will use this color at the very top of the stem. I see that the color already got dry, so I clean my brush dupe on the paper towel and just drag a little bit this color down to make the edge more smooth. And I will add this slightly darker color, creating the shadow on the stem. We have to remember that part, every single element of the painting has its own dimension, so we have to create the shadow part and the light part. I will mix a bit of the green that I left on the palette with the brown and paint this little spot on the corner of the stem. And also, I will highlight this area below the stem on the lemon. I will use this brown color mix of mud a brown, a little bit of green, a little bit of paints gray, and will paint this little part of the leaf on the left. Now I'm mixing this brownish shade with the greens I have on the palette, and I will move to painting this stem. It should be lighter than the leaf, so I might switch between different shades of green cleaning my brush in between. And using this slightly brownish shade, I will move to painting the middle stem, the main stem that connects to the branch. And I will just for now start by covering it with just one color. Now I will darken this color mix by mixing it with green and pink gray that I have on my palette, and I will use this color to paint some shadow on the right side of the stem and at the very bottom. I will add a little bit of muddy brown to this car mix, creating more intense brown shade, and I will move to the top part of the stem. This upper part of the stem is quite dark, but I'm trying to use more brownish shade than I used on the leaves to create diversity and to differentiate the stem from the leaves around it. I will use same color for the very top of the stem. Avoid painting this little stem which connects to the vein of the leaf because it will be lighter. Now using light a mix of line and green and quite a lot of water, the color mix should be pretty transparent. I covered this stem on the leaf with this almost watery color mix. And using the same color, I will paint this little part at the top of the lemon with this light green mix, but quite muted. It's mix of yellow green and a little bit of muddy brown and quite a lot of water. This part should be lighter than the stem itself. I will leave it dry and I will see you in the next lesson where we will paint the veins on the lips and add some final details. 17. Lemons Intermediate Final Details: Welcome to the last part of our class where we will paint some final details. Now I mixing Mada brown and paints grey create in this dark color. I applied this colour carefully to separate the lemon from the stem creating the shadow under the stem. For painting the veins, I will use colors that are left on my palette. If you don't have any colors left, you can mix green and yellow and a little bit of muddy brown, create in the same shades we use in this painting. And quite a lot of water. The colors should be pretty transparent and our veins should be lighter than the leaves itself. Once I covered all the veins on the leaves, I will add some dark veins with a smaller brush that will allow me to create very thin lines. I'm using brush number one, and I load it with a dark green shade. It shouldn't be too dark, but it should be darker than the leaf. And I'm just creating these very thin lines of the veins, keeping them in the direction of the leaf. Using the same dark green color, I can also outline some of the edges of the leaves to highlight the shape. Don't forget to share your paintings in the class project section and write a few words about your painting process. What was the difficult part? What did you like the most and did you like the class overall? Now, our painting is almost done and I just want to create some more interesting textures, splatters, and so on. You can leave it like this if you already like the result, but also you can add some more interesting details to the painting. First, I want to clean my final painting from the pencil lines. I'm using just ordinary eraser, and I remove the lines from the sketch. I want to add some splatters on the central lemon, so I have to cover all the other areas around with just scrap paper. I'm using main brush that I used for the painting, and I'm mixing colors on the palette, adding some handsy yellow dip, and creating this brownish shade. Uh huh. Uh huh. Be careful with applying the splatters because it can go a little bit in the wrong direction like I did. I still haven't covered it pretty good, but I always can use a wet paper towel to remove some unwanted splatters around on the background. Also, you can use some paper towel and just make some splatters less visible. Our painting is done. I can't wait to see your paintings in the class projects. Please don't forget to leave a review about the class. It will help me a lot to get a feedback from my students and join my other classes. I have also another class with botanical Illustrations for beginners, and I hope to see you there. 18. Don't Leave Yet I Have Something For You: Thank you for being part of this class. I'm super excited to see your painting. Don't forget to share it as a class project and drop a review. Your feedback is very important for me, and it helps me to improve my future classes. If you like this class, please join my other class Easy botanical watercolor. In the class, we will paint black olives, green olives, leek, and green onion. This class is very easy and a perfect fit for beginners. I hope to see you in my other classes, too. Keep practicing, keep experimenting, and most importantly, have fun.