Jumpstart Your Watercolor Journey: Simple Trees for Beginners

1. Welcome to this Class: What's stopping you from trying out watercolors? Is it the fear of making mistakes, the difficulty of controlling the medium, or the overwhelming options of materials, which leaves you clueless, which wants to purchase. If you've always wanted to try watercolors, but don't know where to start. Then this class is for you. This is designed for beginners to jump-start their watercolor journey. No prior knowledge and painting and drawing is required. Hello, lovely fell us. I am Bianca, a mom, cat, lover, bookworm, and uninspiring watercolor artists from Bhutan because Philippines. I started my watercolor journey in 2018. And since then, I've learned a lot from experience, exhibits, books, tutorials, workshops, and classes. And I am happy to share with you these learnings to help you start your own journey to when trying out a new medium. It is always a good idea to paint abstract or organic shapes like trees. They are easy to draw and paint and are very forgiving. That's what we'll do with this class while exploring three basic watercolor techniques. I will also recommend a starter kit, including watercolor, paint, paper, and brushes that will serve as your guide in choosing your own materials. By the end of this class, you'll be equipped with basic watercolor knowledge, which you can use in your own art projects. If you're ready, download the PDF, grab your materials, and let's get started. 2. Watercolor Paint: Watercolor paints. The first thing that we have to learn is how to activate the pigments. Watercolors come into forums in tubes and in pants. You can either use paint straight from the tube as fresh as it is or do what I did here. I squeezed out some paint on some pants and let them dry overnight. That way, it's easier to control how much pigment in my brush is speaking. Then I purchased a thin case where I can put in the range my colors. Depending on the brand and pigment properties, the paint could completely dry and crack or stay moist like this. To activate watercolor paint. Rinse your brush first. Remove excess water on a rag or a paper towel and loaded with paint. You can use a ceramic, plastic, or acrylic palette to see how transparent your paint is or recycle some household materials that could do the job. When working with fresh paint from the tube. Be mindful of how much paint you are charging your brush with. Keep adding water if you want a more transparent color. Let's try this color out. This is manganese blue by Holbein and love how it looks. Now, let's charge our brush with more water to make that same color more transparent. Basically, by controlling the water to pigment ratio, you can achieve different shades of the same color. Let me demonstrate that again. This time. I'll load my brush with pure pigment and use that to paint a small square. You'll see how thick and opaque that shade this compared to the ones at the top. To do the complete opposite and get the lightest chain. I will rinse my brush, block the excess water on my rag, and use whatever my brush absorbed to paint a swatch. For comparison. Let me use this puddle here and paint another square. That's how flexible watercolor is and how important the role of water is in this medium. Now, in mixing colors, you have two options. By a convenient mix, like this green here, Hooker's green. And use that In your projects. Or combine two colors, like yellow and blue to produce a secondary color, green. One thing that you should note, though, based on my experience, greens and violet are two of the most difficult colors to mix. Especially if you want to achieve a bright shade. You may have to test out all possible combinations. The reduced the color you want. See the difference. The one at the left is a mixture of manganese, blue and gamboge Nova. And the one at the right is a convenient mix of Hooker's green. Now let's talk about student grade and artist grade paint. Here's a quick demo to show you the difference between the student grade and artist grade watercolor pigments. I have here hookers, green by three different brands. Prevail, Holbein and Daniel Smith. Or isn't affordable student grade watercolor paint, which I used to when I was a beginner. Well, both Holbein and Daniel Smith or artist grade. Daniel Smith being the most expensive of the three. You can already see the color difference despite having the same pigment name. Overall. The main difference is how long the painting will last. Student grinned ones usually include the extenders instead of using pure pigments. So if you will be joining local or international exhibits and competitions requiring archival paint, then you should use, are these green ones? More about convenient mixes. Let's try violet. This is permanent violet by Holbein. Take note how vibrant this color is. As a kid, I've always known that combining blue and red will make violet, right? So that's what I did as a watercolor beginner. Why they want to mix my own violet, Albert beer, different blues and reds to see what kind of violet I will produce. I'll use ultramarine blue, Manganese Blue, and cobalt blue. These are all from Holbein. For my reds, which are also from the same brand. I'll have quinacridone, red, scarlet, lake, and vermilion hue. Mixed and swatch. Then mix and swatch. Here's the first violet from cobalt blue and queen read, not as vibrant as the convenient mix, isn't it? What about Scarlett? What about ultramarine blue and scarlet lake? I decided to add more blue to make it cooler, but it still looks dull and nothing compared to the permanent violet. One more for manganese blue and vermilion hue. Still not the color I want. I struggled so much to produce vibrant violet because this is what I did before, only to find that I am mixing the wrong colors. Let's try mixing violet again, but this time I will use pink instead of Fred. Here's my Quinacridone Rose, mixed with ultramarine blue. Upon mixing on my palette. You can already see the difference with the other mixture. You could already see the difference with the other mixtures. Still not as vibrant as permanent violet. But it's so much better than these three. But it's so much better than these three. Another pink and blue combination, quin rose again. But this time with royal blue. It's on the color shade, but definitely more vibrant than the neutral mixes we produced with reds and blues. Here's another convenient violet mix I love. It's called lavender. It's opaque and light and perfect for florals and landscapes. A closer look at our swatch. 3. Watercolor Paper: One of the most common questions I received when teaching watercolors to beginners is, can I use a copy paper, board paper instead of watercolor paper? The answer is yes, you can, but most likely you wouldn't want to. You will see the difference in the performance of the papers in this quick demo. I have here an Osler paper, similar to a copy paper aboard paper, and a student grade watercolor paper. Showing you a small swatch I painted on an artist grade watercolor paper. Observe carefully how different it will look. On the other papers that we will test. I'll directly paint a simple pine tree shape with lots of paint and drop some more with the wet on wet method. We'll dig deeper on this method data. I want you to observe how each paper reacts with the water and pigment. As I paint the pine trees. Watercolor paper is specifically designed for water-based media, such as gouache, ink, acrylic, and of course, water color. It reacts differently with water compared to copy paper and board beeper. Here, you can see that the water is not being absorbed well by the copy paper and the board paper. While the watercolor paper, though, a student grade one, shows you the full potential of the medium. Going over the trees again and dropping more paint that will represent the shadows on the trees. But also to add another layer of paint while the paper is wet. Let's take a closer look at each paper. The authors of the paper barcode. And the backside is no longer usable for another watercolor illustration, or even a swatch. On our board paper. It looks like it's spilling off when painted over. It also buckled and more layers of paint will surely peel off more paper fibers. Compared to the student grade watercolor paper. Though it's not made from 100% cotton. The water was absorbed well and there's no peeling. And since we only painted with one layer, there's no buckling and I can still use the other side of the paper to paint another illustration. When it comes to the vapors texture, you have three options. Hot pressed, cold pressed, and rough. But I rarely use rough. So let me just show you the difference between hot and cold pressed. I'll paint some pine trees in wet on wet style. Put simply, hot press, watercolor papers are smooth and good for a detailed work. And cold press papers have a good amount of texture ideal for beginners. But choosing your paper texture is a personal preference. Looking closely. This smooth texture is what makes hot pressed perfect for highly detailed Berg and cold pressed. If you want some texture. I use hot pressed for my floral paintings and portraits. But most of the time I prefer cold pressed for still life, landscape, semi abstract, and sometimes floral paintings. Loaded my brush with water and painted the base for the pine tree, then charge it with indigo and let the pigment bleed through the wet area. You'll learn more about this technique later. I didn't land. There's not much difference between the two papers. But once it dries, you'll see the texture on both papers. Here's a closer look at the two, which do you think will use most of the time. If you have the budget to upgrade or splurge in your materials, I would strongly recommend upgrading your watercolor paper first. Here, I have a student grade watercolor paper by Canson. It's 200 GSM and cold breast. While this one is a multimedia paper good for acrylic, gouache and watercolor. Consonant, vowel, 300 GSM, cold pressed. And this one is me Then Bao home, 300 GSM called breast on our disagreed one. This is just a quick demo to compare the three types of paper laid down here. And I am painting the pine tree demonstrated earlier. Depending on your painting style, could maximize the paper of your choice. For example, a student grade paper isn't compatible with wet on wet, especially if you're working with lots of water. But you can still use it to test your colors are being simple illustrations and practice your brush strokes. Mixed media one breaks well with direct painting, but the number of layers you can use is limited. And the artist grade one opens lots of possibilities. This is my personal big, since I loved working with a wet on wet technique. Showing you how they look up close. With enough experience. You Wilson have your own paper reference. But as I mentioned earlier, if there's a material that you want to upgrade, choose paper first. It makes a lot of difference when you work with the proper watercolor paper. 4. Watercolor Brush: From size, the shape and materials used. Watercolor brushes come in different form. But which one do you actually need as a beginner? Would you believe that I survived my first year of watercolor journey using this paintbrush only. It's generic, cheap and synthetic brush. I was able to paint these simple floral and still-life illustration. When choosing your brushes, you have to consider the shape, size, materials used. But so as not to overload you with too much information. Let me just show you the usual types. Here are examples of round brushes. I usually get a big and a small one. We also have a flat brush, which is ideal for big washes. A mop brush for the same purpose. Water brushes are popular with calligraphy enthusiasts and are ideal for your travel kit since you can load it with water inside. And I also got a generic Chinese calligraphy brush. Here's an exercise that I recommend you do every time you get your hands on a new brush. I call it the Brush Dance. Our goal is to create different strokes using one brush only to know what this brush can and cannot do, how wide or narrow the strokes it can create, and how much paint and water it can load. So vary the pressure you apply on your brush. Like what I'm doing here. And tried to create single stroke shapes. Or you can even make it dance literally on the paper by dragging it along and changing the angle and pressure every so often. For additional challenge, try painting a circle with one continuous stroke like this. Retouch if needed, and repeat as many times as you want to get to know your brush. Create tiny marks when only the tip of the brush. And try the dry brush technique do. You can block the excess water on your rag. If you're using a cold pressed paper, you'll get a somewhat similar effect to this one. Quick, short motion. Try scumbling on your paper. This is a good technique in adding texture. So let your brush dance. 5. Watercolor Starter Kit: As you try out a new medium, choosing your materials can be quite overwhelming since there are lots of options, different brands available, and difference in price range. Let me share with you my recommended watercolor paint, brushes, and paper. As you start your own journey, Let's start with paints. You have lots of options. But for those in the budget, want to avoid this struggle of mixing colors. Then purchase a whole set like this one from Winsor and Newton Cotman. Or if you want to mix your own colors, then get at least three pigments like this starter set by Winsor and Newton Cotman, which includes permanent rows, lemon yellow hue and intense blue. For those who want to splurge in their paints. Go for the big brands like Daniel Smith, Sri Lanka, and M Graham. Or go for cheaper artist green ones like home buying and shin hand. They're permanent Siri things are lower than those of the big brands, but there's so much better than the student grade ones. Personally, I started with the Bayeux, a student grade paint that is so much cheaper than Codman, but enough for me to create simple and cute watercolor illustrations. With watercolor papers, you can choose between student grade paper like this, one by sharp donkey fines, or a multimedia paper like consonant, vowel, which is good for gouache, acrylic and water color. Or if you want to experience the full glory of watercolor, then find the brand accessible to you that is made of 100 per cent garden like arch. It should clearly state on the packaging that it is made from 100% cotton. You can also opt for a sketch book like this, one, which is small and perfect for traveling and painting on the cation. Other quality brands I've tested or Fabriano, Strathmore, honeymoon, and me. Bow home. Here's a painting I did on a chip student grade paper and an artist grade paper. I have collected a lot of brushes in the span of four years. And these are just some because I want to try out which will work best for me. But as I mentioned earlier, one round brush, size six or eight is good for a start. If you want to expand your collection after trying out watercolors, then I suggest getting yourself a one inch flat brush, a quality round tip brush, and a smaller one, which is size two. Here's a simple watercolor illustration I did using my old brush. Here's a recent one where I used more than one brush. If you're not yet committed the watercolors and just wanted to test it out. Here's the budget friendly starter kit that could work for you as student grade watercolor paper. Three watercolor paints, which are also student grade, and a single round brush size six or eight. Byte. If you do have the budget and one to splurge a bit, then I recommend getting artist grade watercolor paper, which again should specifically state that it's made from 100% cotton. Artist grade paints. It could be a set or a few colors of your choice. Along with three brushes, a flat brush to round brushes, a size eight and size two, or simply a big and a small one. In the next video, we'll start with our projects. 6. Project 1 - Wet on Dry: Let's start our project using the most common watercolor technique, wet on dry. This is a pretty straightforward technique and it only means that the brush is wet and loaded with water and or paint while the paper is dry and you directly paint on it. I have prepared here a pool of my Payne's gray pigment. And I will paint simple trees using a single color only. With my round brush. I'll scribble the foliage of the trees, but an app and down motion. If you watched the materials demo earlier, you'll remember that we can create different shades of a single color by adding more water on the mix. And that's what we'll do. Load your brush with the thin down version of the pigment of your choice. This is my first tree. Then they'll go for a stronger mixture of Payne's gray and connect the second foliage with my first. Since we're on this scribbling and creating watercolor illustrations, don't worry too much about making a perfect looking foliage, but focus on varying the shades of a single color. We're controlling the water to pigment ratio will leave this to dry before painting in the trunks and branches. So it might not look like trees right now, but it will all make sense later. I also painted the ground where the trees stand. Set this aside and then we'll create another one using the same technique, but with more colors. My color choice this time includes a pink, violet, indigo. And with the same approach, I will paint the tree foliage, rinse my brush before loading it with the next color, and using the leftover pigment paint, the ground. Tried to vary the color by blending it on the paper itself. Leave this to dry before completing the training illustration. Now, we have two options in painting or drawing the trunks and branches. We can use a brush or a gel pen. With the first option, you can challenge yourself and use a small round tip brush or any brush available to you. And using light pressure, paint, thin lines to connect the foliage to the ground. If you have a scrap paper beside you, I recommend practicing your strokes first. As it's very easy to accidentally paint thick lines instead of narrow ones. And they mentioned, challenge yourself because as a beginner, I know how hard it is to use just enough pressure as you tried to paint thin lines. Have fine and this part, you can draw straight or cricket branches. We ve, or edgy ones. Play with your brush and finish this illustration to your liking. Now for a more manageable option, which is also one of my favorite techniques when I was just starting my journey with watercolors is to use a gel pen for the thin lines. This style is also called ink and wash. With your ballpoint pen, marker or a gel pen. Draw the trunks, and that's about it. This technique is very easy to use and quite addicting. Here's our first project in two versions, a monochromatic Tree illustration using a single pigment and a multi-colored tree artwork where we used the ink and wash style. Upon looking at it from afar, I realized that the multicolor version has thin chunks. So as we summarize our key points for this lesson, I'll go over the trunks and branches again where the thicker gel pen. In this lesson, we'll learn about wet on dry technique. How to change the opacity of the pigment by adjusting the amount of water and incorporating ink in our illustration, or what we call the ink and wash style. In the next video, we'll start the new project and discuss another basic watercolor techniques. See you there. 7. Project 2 - Wet on Wet: Time to paint simplified pine trees using another watercolor technique called wet on wet. Wet on wet is a technique where you wet the paper first before adding wet paint. So unlike wet on dry, brush and paper are wet this time. Using a clean brush loaded with water only. I will paint pine tree shapes on my paper. To prepare it. I will link three shapes to create another mean, the forest. A good way to check if your paper is wet enough for this technique is to tilt your paper and see if it's shiny. I recorded this class at nighttime. And with the help of ring lights, it's easier to see that the paper is wet. But during daytime, you may need to tell Care paper to see the shape that you're painting with water. One satisfied with the pine tree shape. Let's charge our brush with a single color and drop it on the wet paper. Leave some areas blank and let the paint move on the paper freely. That's one of the beauties of this technique. Depending also on the paper you're using, your color choice and the size of your brush, you will see a different effect on your project. And that's totally fine. You can also charge your brush with water only and drop it on the dark parts of your painting. This is a good way to observe how the water and pigment react with each other on the wet paper. Or load your brush with a thicker paint consistency and drop it on the pine trees. Leave this to dry, and let's work on another one using two colors. Just like the first project. We'll add the branches. Once it has dried. I will use pink and dark blue this time. Using water. Let's paint the pine tree shapes first to prepare the paper for the wet on wet technique. From time to time, you'll see me dabbing my brush on my rag to remove excess water. Now is a good time to practice doing that too. In case you get your paper too wet or accidentally dropped butter on areas you want to keep dry. Use a paper towel to absorb that excess water. It takes time to automatically know how much water your brush is loaded with. So don't worry if you don't get this right the first try. Now, I'll switch to a smaller brush so I can control the amount of paint I will drop on the shape better. I'll start with my lighter color bank and drop that wherever I like. Then switch to another brush for the darker color. You can continue using a smaller brush when adding the second color. If you're more comfortable with that, remember to leave some areas white and observe carefully how the colors bleed on the paper. This will give you more understanding how the technique works. I'm going darker by carefully dabbing on areas. I want to deepen the tone. We will leave this to dry and use a gel pen to add the trees and branches. Or you can use a brush if you want. Later, we'll try a multi-color pine tree illustration. I hope you're having fun with our projects so far. And they're helping you get familiar with this beautiful medium. The second one is dried already, so I'll go ahead and add the trunk and branches. Simple lines will do. Also. This is your painting. So if you find my color choices too dark or not to your liking, please use colors that appeal to you the most. After all, color is a very personal thing. So go ahead and own this painting by selecting your own palette. I'm excited to see what you'll come up with. So I hope you'll upload your lovely illustrations in the projects tab later. Now, I'll work on the monochromatic pine trees and use a brush. This time. I will warn you once again that if you're not used to painting lines using a brush, it is so easy to paint thick ones. Instead. You can either practice first on the scrap paper or use a small brush, like what I'm doing here. Or use a bigger brush with a nice pointed tip. But be sure to apply light pressure only. Just use a gel pen or marker to complete the watercolor illustration. For the first two versions, we used water to paint the base shape of the pine trees before jumping arc colors. But this time, we'll use a very thin wash of color and water. I'll use pink. I'll Does it out on my scrap paper first to see how transparent the puddle of paint is that it will do. Then I'll drop my blues and violets on the pale pink wash. I'm showing you my color choices. By this time, you could probably guess my favorite color combinations, pinks, blues, and violets. I'm more of a cool palette person. That started with a third version. Roughly paint a pine tree shape using the thin pink paint and link the three foliage. You can always go over the shapes to rewet them so long as you haven't dropped the other colors yet. When I first learned this technique, I didn't know that you can keep on rewetting the shapes. So I was always in a rush painting the base shape before dropping the other colors. And you could guess what the output was. O. And another thing, I love watching other artist's process videos in time-lapse or what they call speed paint. And so consciously thought that I need to work that fast, too. Funny but precious memories in my watercolor journey. Right now that I'm satisfied with the wetness of the paper and the overall shape of my linked pine trees. I'll drop the other colors as they see fit. Just have fun and do not overthink this part. For this version, I decided to drop the cool colors at the middle part only and let them spread over the pine tree. Remember to rinse your brush and tap it on your rag or paper towel to get rid of the excess water before changing colors to keep them vibrant. Let's leave this to dry, and that's finished up with a gel pen. While I'm doing that, let me summarize what we learned in this lesson. We talked about wet-on-wet and got to apply that with our second project in three versions. Monochromatic or using a single color, only, using two colors. And in this final variation, using a very pale wash of colored water as the base of the pine tree before dropping the other colors and letting them bleed with each other. In the next video, let's discuss glazing. 8. Project 3 - Glazing: Let's talk about glazing or layering. We painted the last two projects using one layer only. This time. Let's learn how to layer or glaze with watercolors. I have painted a circle and let it completely dry to properly demonstrate glazing paint and overlapping circle using wet on dry technique or direct painting. Since watercolors are transparent and the wash I'll use has enough amount of water. Part of the circle underneath should still be visible. Now let me show you what happens when the layer underneath is not left to dry completely before adding another layer of paint. This usually happens to me before when I am so impatient with the drying process. When you paint another layer on a still wet surface, instead of seeing two separate shapes, they just merged into one blob. If your goal is to show separate shapes, then be patient and let the first layer dry before painting the next. Let's do that one more time using another color. I'll use a faint pink wash. Where the circles overlap. You'll see what color they create together with this technique. Doing the same on the other circle, which hasn't dried completely. The paint bleeds to the red shape and the colors blend with each other. This can be a useful technique in other projects, but not for glazing or layering. Now that you know how to layer with watercolors, Let's start on our third and final project, where I will use violet thinks in dark blue. You'll also need a smaller brush later. Let's start with the lighter colors first. By still paying for my first tree foliage. Don't worry if it's not the perfect circle, because this is not a realistic painting, a watercolor illustration. I'll rinse my brush and load it with another pastel color, a light peach for another foliage. Try to vary the size and placement of the circle foliage. To give your illustration a variety. Let's leave this to dry completely. Before adding the darker colors. You can use a blow dryer or hit guide to speed up the drying process. Tilt and check if the shapes have dried completely. With a smaller brush. Let's paint more foliage shapes. You can stick with your bigger brush. If you think you can make smaller shapes by applying light pressure. The darker the color and the thicker the consistency of your mix is, the less of the first layer will show those smaller shapes and they're starting to look like trees. I think I'll add one more at the center and mix colors. I already used for a fifth one. I like how the color looks, and this time, I'll try to overlap the two bigger shapes at the back. What's left are the trunk branches and some details. But before doing that, leave this to dry completely. Be patient and we'll finish it up. I decided to use the ink and wash style for our final project. So I'll have to go with my gel pen and add branches to connect the foliage as they see fit. Of course, you're welcome to use a smaller brush to add teeny tiny details. If you want. A simple but colorful and satisfying painting, what do you think? A smaller brush loaded with the same color of the foliage. Quick dabbing motion, also called scumbling. Add some texture. It adds complexity on our painting and makes it look more interesting. But this part is completely optional. Okay? While I'm doing that, here's what we learned in this project. We learned about glazing or simply layering of paint. That we should wait for the layers underneath to dry completely before painting another one on top, or the white shapes will just merge together. We also tried out another technique in adding texture, which is called scumbling. Adding some colors on the ground. And I'll see you on the next video for some tips on what to do from here. 9. Before You Go: We've finished. I'm so glad to be part of your creative journey and I do hope to see your projects. So please upload them in the projects gallery. And if you have time or view is greatly appreciated, helped me improve my classes. We were able to create three simple artworks using different watercolor techniques. Wet on dry, wet on wet, and glazing. Which one's your favorite. I also shared with you my thoughts and suggestions on which materials to grab to help you get started with your watercolor journey. With every half right now, please maximize them and do your research first before buying all the materials that got your attention. Like what happened to me before. Now that you've equipped with basic watercolor knowledge, you can try using the techniques in different subjects like food and flowers. You can also check out my other classes. And together, let's make this world a little bit more colorful with our art breaks.