Learn the Art of Loose Watercolor: Painting All Things Autumn + 2 Compositions

1. Hello I'm Clarice: Art is therapy and there's nothing like taking time for yourself to sit down, let loose and go with the flow in watercolor. Join me in this lesson as we take time to get better acquainted with the therapeutic nature of watercolor while we learn how to paint all things autumn. Hi, my name is Claris and I am a watercolor artist and designer from Toronto, Canada. Color started for me as a side project of just painting for fun. And that slowly grew into little mini tutorials on YouTube showing other people how to paint for fun as well. That slowly grew from teaching online to in person paint and sip type experiences in vineyards and also travel retreats. As a Princeton ambassador, you'll find me using a lot of these brushes in my videos. My two favorites are the Princeton velvet touch number four and the Princeton Neptune number six. This jam pack lesson is about all things autumn, get ready to let loose and go with the flow as we explore watercolor painting autumn things. 2. Class Overview: In this class, we will get to know watercolor better over small mini watercolor tutorials of all the little autumn inspired items that I have planned for you. We're going to be starting off with swatching colors. I'll also be showing you guys how to mix colors to get different variants in terms of hues, and then we will proceed on to compositions. Now, because this is a jam packed class, you can break this huge class down over several days of painting. I recommend about 15 minutes a day at least. This will also help you create that habit of spending time for you, painting, and doing what brings you joy. 3. Project: Now, as I've mentioned several times already, this is a jam packed class full of autumn inspired items, and so I don't expect you to post every little thing that you paint in here. But for the class project, I would love if you take one piece that you are exceptionally proud of and you're really pleased with how it turned out and post it in the gallery section over here on Skillshare and also list what about it that you really like, or maybe you even want to enhance and share what is it that you have learned something that is new that you didn't know before, maybe. 4. Supplies: So here's all the supplies we're going to be using. I have my bow Hong watercolor paper. This is the paper we're gonna be using for our basic learning of the elements for our final composition. We're gonna be using a sheet of Stratme hundred percent cotton watercolor paper. Brushes, I'm going to be using the following. I have all of these handy here. You might have some of them in a different brand, and that's totally fine. I've got a Princeton heritage, number three, Princeton velvet touch number four, Princeton Neptune number eight. And then just in case I need an extra brush, we've got the Princeton velvet touch number eight. I've got paper towel handy on the side. I have a palette, and then I've got my Daleron set of watercolors. We've got a bowl of water or a cup of water, in my case. 5. Swatching: And we're going to start swatching the colors so you know exactly which colors we're going to be using for this exercise. So to swatch the colors, I'm going to use my Princeton Neptune number eight. And as I am swatching these colors, I'll let you know exactly what we're using. So the first color right here, let's start with the yellows. Let's start with the lightest, actually. We've got Cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow. And this is what that looks like. A nice bright yellow. Swatching is helpful so that you are able to see exactly what colors you have on hand and how they can go together in your composition. And this is why I like to start most of my lessons this way. The next one we're using is Cadmm yellow deep hue. And so it's just a really nice mangoy kind of hue. It's one of my favorite yellows. The next one is also a favorite of mine, but then using it more for muted looks is yellow ochre. It's a fabulous fall autumn color. Next thing we're going to use is light red. Now, this is more of an orange, reddish kind of color. Like a brick color. Fabulous for moody flowers. Such a great color. Next color I will use or swatch is burnt sienna. This is also a great color. It's got that fiery orange look to it. I think it's quite a popular one with a lot of people. The next one we're using is CadmumOange. We need those nice bright oranges. This is autumn. I'm going to have to get creative with my space here. The next color is cadmm red hue. So we're going right into bright red, reddish orangish kind of hue. Look at that. Rich red. So I'll do the swatch of green at the very bottom, the only green that I have here. And then the last three are more darker hues to mix with any of these to get a darker rendition of them. So here we go. This is Hooker's green deep. Dark. Sorry. There we go. And then the last three, I'm just going to swatch the side. So then this way, we also know that these are the colors we can mix with any of these to get a darker hue. So the first variation I have is everyone's favorite Payne's Gray. Pains gray is stunning on its own. Also the results you get when you're mixing it with any of the other colors. So if I wanted a darker version of the red, for instance, I would mix a little bit of Pains gray in it and get a shadowy darker red, richer red. Next one is indigo. Panes gray is similar to indigo, or they are similar in color. But obviously indigo has more of that not green, blue versus Pain's gray, which is more gray. And then last but not least is our darkest brown. And that is Vandyke brown hue. And I love this color for branches and anything that's dark but more of an earthy warm tone. Also a great color to mix and get a darker version of these. Okay. And on that note, these are all the colors. I'm gonna quickly write the names beside them, and then we are off to the races. 6. Colour Ratio Mixes: Let's get to swatching some colors in terms of the color water ratio. So when I talk about ratios, and when I say something like 30, 70%, I mean 30% color, 70% water. There's no real way to gauge this exactly. So having an exercise like this will give you a better idea of how to sort of eyeball things. So I'm going to start off with a 10% color, 90% water. So this is where your brush is clean, you get a little bit of color, you mix it on, and this should be about 10%. And Okay. Now I'm going to add a little bit more color to it. And this will be a bit darker, which is more of a 20%. I'm going to add more color a little bit of water because we're running out of water. And this is the most common ratio that I use. 30%. Okay. Now we're going 50 50. And as you can see, it's progressively darker. Okay. Now we're going for 80%. Now, 80% is like where you're getting that nice thick opaque look. So getting you can still sort of make 80% see through, but as you can see the progression from ten all the way to 80 is there's clearly a very big difference. I like the median. The median for me is 30% and then just building up from this side or this level. This will come in handy, especially if you're a beginner to watercolor and you don't quite understand the different variations you can get without having to mix in some white because you get the white on the paper. So kind of overlying. And these are all the different hues that are possible from using one color. 7. Autumn Squash #1 - Part 1: We are going to paint some squash and pumpkins. So once again, I'll be using a combination of the Princeton Neptune number eight and Princeton velvet touch number four with a whole plethora of colors by Dalarone over here. And the paper as per usual is Bo Hong. I had to pause there for a minute. Okay, so let's start off with doing the Princeton Neptune brush for our base or using the Princeton Neptune brush for our base. Because we are not using any drawing or base sketch, we're just going to use this to mix some loose color. I'm going to use some of the yellow, which is the Cadmm yellow, and I'm mixing a very loose version of it. I had some of the cad medium Cadmm yellow deep on here. So mixing it in with that. And the idea is just to get a very loose watered down version of a yellow, and we're going to paint in a shape of representing a squash. So the first one is going to be a long a longer body. It's going to have a longer body. So like this. And let's just say, like, the top of it is kind of flopping sideways, and then the bottom is nice and round. Now, because these have ridges in between, what I'm going to do is have a second ridge, almost like you're painting a frill at the bottom, so one, two, and then a third one here. So this is our very loose shape of a squash. Okay. So using that yellow. Now comes the fun part of blending in color. So now we're going to take in the number four, and I'm going to get let's see. I'm going to get the Red Light red. That's what this is called. Light red. And I'm getting the color directly from my color cake here. And we're going to drop some of this in first at the top and watch how it immediately blooms in. Getting more color. Now I'm going to add some to the sides. Again, watch how it blooms in. It is so satisfying to watch and see. We're going to add some just at the dip here, pulling it all the way down. And I'm going to add some more on the side here. Now, because we have a lot of water, there's a couple of things to notice. You'll see how it kind of just goes in and sits. If you want it to be more seamless, I suggest you wash off your brush, dab it on your paper towel and help the color move along. I'm going to move some of this color on the top, moving some of that. But for majority of it, I'm leaving it as is. I'm getting more of the color from the color cake, and I'm going to add some of that to the top here because I want this area to be darker. So, the more you drop color in a certain area, the darker it'll get. Okay. Now for the ridges, I'm going to lightly using the tip of my brush, start from the top. And go down. I'm going to do the same thing here on this side. And in addition to this, I'm also going to flip my brush over. Start from the center at the top here, press down, and kind of just trace the ridge that we have done. Doing the same thing over here. And this essentially just gives us some beautiful detail without having to go out of our way to do any. I'm adding another one to the side here on either side, actually. And now we're going to leave this as is. Last but not least, I will be adding last but not least in terms of mixing the color here. I'm going to add a little bit of this orange cadmm orange hue before this dries up. So all I'm doing is I got color from the color cake, and I'm going to start from here and kind of pull it downward. So we're adding beautiful hints of orange within our squash. Watch how it blends in with the yellow, with the brown or the red light to be specific and pay attention to how it dries up because watercolor, like I mentioned, dries up lighter, it is important to notice how this plays a huge effect or factor when we're painting because sometimes we think, Oh, that's too dark. Let's not add any more color. Well, it's going to dry up lighter, add more color if you need to. Okay, so we're going to allow this to dry for a little bit, and when we come back, we're doing the little stump. 8. Autumn Squash #1 - Part 2: Now we're ready to paint the stump. I am using the Vandyke brown hue and the number four brush. I'm getting the color directly from here. We want it to be dark and potent so that when we go over here, it sticks out and stands out a lot more than the rest. So to start off because the stumps or the stems, whatever you want to call it, are a lot thicker, and there's ridges here. We want to show a little bit of the ridging. So what I'm going to do is start off by adding little lines like this, kind of like going along with the ridge, and I'm covering that portion at the top. Then we're getting more of the color, and we're extending pulling from here, going upward. And however you want to have the stump at the very top, sideways, flat, entirely up to you. And then just covering it with paint, I'm choosing to leave a little bit of white space in between, you may, too, or you may not. I'll leave that up to you. That rhymes. Okay, so you'll also notice that there's a little bit of that blending or bleeding into the fruit or the vegetable. So the way to avoid that, if you don't like that effect, I like it, or the way to control it is just wash off your brush, clean brush, dab it on the paper towel, and you can lightly kind of pull the color back up. You don't want to really scrub at it because then it's going to take off the base color as well. But you want to just lightly pull it up and that'll push all the color back up. And that's pretty much it. 9. Autumn Squash #2: Next item, we're going to paint more of a buttercup kind of squash element. And for that, we're going to dominantly use the Hooker's green, and I will use the round Princeton number four to get more of a smaller circle. Also, I have issues using the number eight and controlling size. So I'm going to do this instead. So this one also has ridges, so to speak, but not as prominent as the one at the top. So here's how we're tackling it. We're just going to do a very rough looking oval shape to begin with. I'm going to start off with the top like this, dipping the tip of my brush in water to get more of a diluted version of the color. I'm just going to create another little swirl like that. And we're just going to paint this in. Getting a little bit more color, dropping that in. We're first roughly painting in the shape of our squash. Now, the beauty about learning or practicing watercolor with elements like this is that the shapes are so organic and so beautiful that you don't have to kind of make it look in a specific way, this can be higher than this side. It doesn't have to be symmetrical, and that I think is a huge relief for a lot of people. So I'm taking some color directly from my color cake now, and I'm just going to drop this in on the edges, exactly like how we did for the first one, mainly doing a ton of that at the top here because this is where our stump is going to be and pushing some to the side as well, because it's nice to have variations of color. Okay, I'm going to get more color. And this time, I'm just going to drop it in in ridges like this. Some can be darker than the rest. You don't have to stress too much about that. I'm really just making the bottom more of a flat shape than anything else. So now we're going to mix a little bit of the Vandyke brown because we need to get a darker rendition of the color to add in the ridges and such, especially at the bottom. So once you have your color mixed and ready, where you're still using the number four, you may allow this to dry for just a little bit. I'm going to start off by first adding my first stroke here, outlining it. And then we're starting over the edges that we have already painted, so to speak. I'm going to add another one here. And this is a very This is not a vary. It is wet on wet. And we are looking for those nice seamless blends and bleeds, and that's why we are adding this in before the area dries. So I've created my shape. We've got some nice white happening in there, too. I'm washing off most of the brush. I'm going to dab it onto my paper towel. And then I'm getting more of the color. And I'm just going to drop in little lines in between here. Because as I mentioned earlier, watercolor, I mean, yes, it dries up a lot lighter. So I'm adding more detail. So I don't want those areas to be super white. And I'm also dropping it in the white area, not covering up the white area, so it can do a natural bleed into it and still give me some areas of white. Last but not least, I'm going to get some more of that vandyke brown, and I'm just going to drop more of that in at the base. I just want the base to be dark, dark, dark. I'll drop a little bit more at the top area there, too. And then we just wait for things to dry before we can go in and add the stump. While we're waiting for it to dry, we do what we did here using the back of the brush. You can just redefine or bring more definition to your squash by adding these lines. And this needs to be done while at a stamp. So using the number four, I'm getting the Vandyke brown directly from here. And I'm going to start by painting this stump a little bit above like that. And there we go. We have the stump painted within this area here. And our squash is done. 10. Autumn Squash #3: We're now ready to paint our third pumpkin or squash, and it's actually going to be a white pumpkin, and I'm using the number eight for this one. Feel free to use whichever brush number that suits your comfort level, and we'll be using. So I have Indigo out here. I also have Panes Gray. I believe you can use either or I am going to opt for Paynes gray for this squash or pumpkin. So I'm mixing it down a very diluted version of this, almost like a 10% color 90% water situation. And then we're going to roughly paint in starting with the ridges. So brush always needs to be full of water and color, so this way, you don't get any white marks in between. And I'm going to start off with doing a rounded one. So like this. Dipping my brush in water. It's fine if the edges are darker. I'm going to create this next ridge, but leaving a little bit of white space in between the two ridges and always push the color down to the bottom. Dipping to get more water, I'm going to create another ridge this way here. Dipping to get more water, you get the idea. And getting some remaining color, I'm going to create one more here. Feel free to give it like some really out there shape instead of making it just look perfect because again, pumpkins to have some really whimsical looking shapes out there. So now at the top, I'm just going to create these two little ridges or shapes to indicate the ridges. And then the center area is pretty much kind of left open. Okay, very loose rendition off a pumpkin. So pull down all the color to the bottom, as I mentioned previously. This is how you kind of maintain the whole white look for your pumpkin. The ones at the top can remain darker because they're kind of in the background. Now we're going to take the number four, and we're going to get a slightly darker version of this Paine's gray. So I'm going to get some color from here, mix it on here. Again, I like to mix the colors so I can see on the palette here for something delicate like this, how dark it looks. And just like we did with the ridges for our squash up here, we're going to start from the center and then lightly trace all the way down, bringing it all the way to the bottom. It's imperative to do it at this point in time because now is when the area is damp and we want to get that nice smooth transition happening. The blending of color, so to speak. Now, for this one, we're going to do it on this side. And then last but not least, this one here on that side. Feel free to go over any of the edges because remember what I said, it dries up lighter, so I'm just going to drop in a little bit more of these strokes in between so that it is darker in comparison to the others. And any areas you feel like it's just blooming out like that, and you don't like how it's kind of what it's doing, just go back in with a clean brush and help it blend in better. So taking my number eight, making sure it's clean with just water on it, I'm just going to lightly graze and blend. And then having your paper towel handy so that you can just dab. Same thing here. I'm just going to lightly push the color along and dab on my paper towel. You're lifting color, you're blending color. You're doing a whole bunch of things with this one simple move. Okay. Perfect. So now we have this beautiful, loose looking pumpkin. We're gonna let this dry for a little bit more. But while this is drying up, we're going to get a little bit more of this color, which is pain's gray, and I want to add some of this down at the bottom here. I want the ridges at the bottom to be the most prominent, creating more depth and shadow effects at the bottom, loosely. And then last but not least, I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing at the top. Perfect. So now that we have that, we can now wait for this to dry a little bit more before we go in and add any more details, like adding the cute little curly stump at the top. So pretty much everything has dried up, and now we're just going to go in and paint in the stump. So I'm going to start off with using some of the van **** brown that I have here because this area is a lot darker. So we're just going to start off similar to how we started that one at the top. We're going to kind of go around the ridges and then do our little stump. So I'm drawing this in, giving it a little bit of a twirl. And I'm going to just paint this. I'm going to draw it in first. So kind of like this. And because we've got that dark background, I'm kind of lightly adding lines, but leaving white space in between as best as I can. So trying to give it a little bit of texture without kind of getting too detailed. Then getting more of the darker hue, I'm just going to drop it in more to the left hand side of what we have painted, leaving the right hand side pretty much the same color that it started out in. So this way, creating a little bit of depth by adding some shadow. A is pretty much it. So if you have little bits where they are just kind of sitting this way in your painting, I suggest this taking a clean brush and with water, just going in and spreading it out. And this should give you a more seamless kind of look. And that's it for our squash and pumpkins. 11. Add a Splatter: To enhance and give it a more looser effect, this is optional. You don't have to do it if you like it clean and neat like this. But a splatter is something I always like to do. So I'm going to get the number eight to get a larger splatter. And then I will also cover up the area where I don't want the splatter. So, for instance, over here and I'm going to cover it up here as well. And then using the second brush. Any brush, we're just going to Drop that in. So that's one splatter. And then we can do the same thing for this side, covering the bottom portion of this and using some of the brighter orange with less water on my brush for a fineer splatter on the orange squash. Concentrating mainly on that area. Now I'm getting a little bit of water on it, and I'm lightly adding more on this side. Same thing for our white pumpkin. I'm being a little bit braver and I'm just adding it diagonally. And that's it. So wait for this to dry, and I will definitely show you what it looks like once it's dried up completely. But this is how it looks like right now. Imagine adding a couple of leaves and flowers and just really intensifying and adding to the detail in it. It would look so pretty. 12. Flowers #1: So now we're getting ready to explore a couple of flowers that we can team along with our berries, leaves, and also some of the squash that we've done so far. So here's a couple of flowers that I would suggest, super easy, simple, and also helping us along in our loose journey. So the first idea is very similar to the watercolor and lemon doodles that I have done here on skill share. And for this style of flowers, I'm going to be using the light red. So let's get some color, and I'm using the number four to add the color first. And then I'm going to keep my number eight handy on here to spread it out. So here we go. So I've got color directly from my color cake, and I'm going to add a dot here, another one here, one here and one here. Now, there's a twist to this idea because I'm going to get some of the cadmm red. And I'm dropping that in just on the outskirts. Placing my brush aside, I'm going to get this brush right here. Getting it nice and damp, I'm going to pull. So clearly, it needs more water. I'm going to pull out like this. So make sure your brush has enough water to be able to pull the leaves or the dots of color out. And you need to do this before the dots of color dry up. So feel free to shape your petals, any which way you like. I like the rounded edges, so that's why I'm doing more of a rounded look, and I've done four petals. I love this kind of look. Now, at this point, I'm just going to take the leftover color that I have, and I'm dropping it in right in the center. I keep dabbing. And again, this has to be done when it is damp because that's what gives us a nice slow bloom. And at the same time, if you would like to add any more detail on the outskirts, you can drop in a little bit of color to the sides to kind of get that nice, slow bloom into your flower. So it's picking up hints from the center. And yeah, can drop in a little bit of a stroke in between the petal, just like that. Okay, so that's an idea. Now, what I also like to do to give my flowers more detail is using the back of my brush. While it is damp, which is key, just start from the center and pull outward. You're drawing in lines with the back of your brush, which gives you beautiful texture. So either use your brush to create the lines or use the back of your brush. They give you two different results. So try both and see which one you like and go with that. Or you might prefer not to add any detail at all, which is completely fine. And that's the first flower. Now, like I mentioned several times in this lesson, watercolor dries up lighter. So if you don't like how the center is not as stark or contrasting in the center, get some of the brown and drop it back in there. It helps if it is still damp, the area. If the area isn't damp, that's okay. You're just adding little dots in a wet on dry effect. 13. Flowers #2: Second flour is going to be similar to what we did here, but with a few tiny differences, and here's how that's going to go. I'm just going to be using more of a brownish earthy tone. So I'm using this leftover mixture of brown and yellow ochre. And we're going to start by creating similar to this. We're going to do about five dots. And it's imperative that we leave the center open like that, and here's why. So now I'm going to be using the number four. I'm dipping my brush in water, and I'm going to be pulling. So make sure it's not dripping with water like that. So just lightly dab on your paper towel. And now I'm pulling from this dot to create a petal. But I'm extending the pole so that this area from where it starts is a little bit longer. Watch me again. I'm turning my sheet, so it's easier pulling for a longer extension before it flares out into the big petal. Dipping in water, I'm going to turn this again, pulling for a longer extension and then fanning out into the petal. Pulling out. Then fanning out into the petal. Last one. We just need enough space in between to kind of give us that room, and you'll see why. So now I'm going to take the darkest brown that we have, which is the Vandyke brown. And I'm going to be dotting the center. And I'm pulling from each petal into the so called center. So now we have connected all our petals to the center, and that's what's giving us a very light bloom. Just like that. Now, at this point, you can just dampen your brush really roughly like that and pull it outward to, like, perfect any of your petals. So by doing this, you're extending the color from the center, which is different from what we are using for our petals, and you're kind of having it flow into the actual flower itself. And as per usual, like I mentioned, watercolor dries up lighter, so you can just go back in and dab more of the brown for a deeper, darker center. Okay. Now, last but not least, and again, this is optional. You can use the back of your brush to create some lines. So you start from the center and then kind of curve along with the petal. And that's what gives it that beautiful whimsical feel. Because now all of a sudden it's like your petals have movement. You're redefining it in a very loose manner by adding these little grooves within it. It is absolutely key that this part is done while the area is damp. If it isn't damp, you're not going to get this deep groove as you see right here. There we go. And we are done. So similar but slightly different just with those little nuances about the center, the color, and the number of pits. 14. Flowers #3: Our next flower is going to be almost like a daisy. And so for the center, we're going to go dark again because we're doing very autumn style florals. So I'm going to start off with the burnt sienna. And I'm going to do using the number four, I'm going to dot like a crescent or half moon half a moon, not crescent, half a moon shape happening like this. So I'm just dabbing, leaving white space in between. Just like that. Now I'm going to lightly wash off my brush. I'm going to get some of the Vandyk brown, and I'm just outlining the bottom with tiny dots. And then also to the side just a little bit. Now, washing off my brush, we're going to continue using the number four, a damp version of it, and making sure that there's enough water so that when we're pulling out for our petals, we're getting a nice full stroke. So here we go, and I'm pulling downward. So when this happens, just help the color along in the petal. Continue creating more, helping the color along within the petal. Now, just like the other ones that we have done, you have the option of going in and adding a line. So I'm going to do that right here right now. And this kind of creates a very stark impression of exactly where the petals are. Now, at this point, you can see that most of the color has seeped into the petals. So what we're going to do is get a little bit more of this brown. And I'm going to add some of that on some of the petals here just to kind of give it a little bit more definition. And it's key to kind of do this when the area is damp, and this is how you will get that nice blooming effect happening. Now, last but not least, we want to redefine that center, like I mentioned. So I'm getting some of the van **** brown. And I'm getting it directly from my color cake, so it's more color, less water. And this way, when I add it to my center, I'm getting a more darker result as opposed to it blooming into the rest of the flower. So I'm starting more on this side where the color seems to have just blended in with the petals and then slightly going off to the other side as well, but leaving majority of the top open. And there we go. We are done that. Now, you can finish this off with a stem. So I'm just going to use a green So you can just start the stem from wherever, really, like that. And then for the leaves, we can just keep it simple because we're not going to be going into super crazy detail, but for the leaves, kind of like what we did with in the leave section, just press down, trail into the stem or start from the stem, press down, trail outward, pull the color down. And that's it. And this is, once again, if you end up doing leaves in your composition for this. 15. Flowers #4: Our fourth and last flower, I want to do something a little bit different. We've got three options that we can use along with the leaves, along with the squash. Now, here's a fourth option that's going to be a little bit smaller, almost like a like a filler flower kind of thing. So it's going to be something that looks like blackberries or blueberries. So we're going to be using some of the indigo right here. And all I'm doing is taking my number four, mixing up some indigo, can have some on the side here. And then we're kind of dotting what would look like or what could look like a blackberry. So kind of like this and forming that shape, that oval shape to it. So we'll do a couple and these would make a great standalone, I was going to say stand alone. This would be a great addition to the florals because they are starkly contrasting against the earthy tones and the more muted tones. So good contrast with the oranges that we have, the reds, also the browns and just works really well. And all we're doing is doing little dotting very much so like how we did the leaves on the trees. So making sure that white space is there because that's very, very important to make sure we're getting we're getting it doesn't look like a blob, and it clearly looks like the berries. Okay. Now, once that is done, just wash off your brush, and I would suggest getting more of a greenish color. But again, this is up for interpretation, so feel free to use what you think goes well. Mixing some of my green here. And then we're lightly grazing to create our stem. Okay, so just like that. And then for the leaves, you can just do something a little bit thicker than all the other leaves we've been doing so far. So like say, I do a leaf here, I'm going to do a thick side here and then pull it outward this way. So it's a wider leaf. Dipping the tip of my brush in water because I want the leaves to be more muted in color. So the opacity should be a lot lighter, or that's what I'm aiming for. And continue creating your leaves. Again, variation in sizing is helpful for this. So big, some small. And there we go. So keeping it very simple, something that can be added to our flowers and our compositions. 16. Fruit #1: Hi, guys. In this segment, we are going to be painting some fruit. So the first fruit we're going to be tackling is the pear. The pear is a lovely, lovely addition to any of the floral arrangements, especially for fall, but doesn't necessarily have to be only fall. So for this, I'm going to be using my Princeton Neptune number eight, and we're going to be using a combination of two colors, the hookers green dark. And I'm going to be putting in a little bit of the cadmm medium lemon, which is, Cam sorry, Cadm yellow deep. But I believe it's as good as the medium lemon. So we're getting like a nice young green, sort of green. And I'm mixing it down to about 20% color, 80% water. And then we're going to be painting in very roughly the pear shape. So starting off with a small top, so you can just sort of draw that in and then draw the base, and then dipping with water, go in and spread the color around. Okay. Now, at this point, we want to add. Notice there's a little bit of white space in between, that's totally fine. You can kind of perfect your edges if you want. But the beautiful thing about drawing fruit and botanicals and flowers is that they're not specifically exactly that one shape, so you get a little bit of roundedness here and there and organic differences. Before this dries up, I'm just going to quickly add some vandyke brown to the bottom to the top. Okay, so we've got that figured out. And I don't mind the bloom that's happening. I actually think it's very cute and whimsical and sticks with our whole goes with our whole loose look. Now I'm getting some of this yellow ochre mixed in with some of the green, and we're going to drop some of that happening right here. And you want to do this right when the area is damp. So then this way you're getting a nice blend. Okay. Now, some of the pears also have a little bit of, like, a reddish, orangish hue. So I'm getting a very slight muted tone of that. I'm going to drop that in here. So we're just keeping it loose, keeping hints of the color in. Then again, we're switching back to the number four, and I'm going to drop in a darker hue of the green that we mixed. So I'm going to mix a little bit more. I had that green. I put a little bit of vandyke in there, adding some of that hooker's green back in here to get a slightly darker tone. I'm going to drop this in around the base and to the side, and allowing it to mix into the shape. I'm even dabbing some at the very top. And you can help the color sort of move around by just kind of dabbing things around like this. Now, if you want a more stark in your face kind of impression with the green, it is important to kind of mix more of the color, less of the water. So let's just say I got this color mixed in here and I'm going to drop it in there. And you can see how it immediately darkens everything. You can even drop some of the color in between. But if you want it to be whimsical, loose and soft, you can also just leave it as we had it previously. Now, clearly, this is a lot darker in comparison to the rest. So take your clean brush or your damp brush and kind of help the color move along so you have a little bit of control in terms of how this transitions, but not entirely. And this is what makes watercolor so relaxing. The fact that you have to let go of things that you can't control and kind of go with the flow and make it work. That might sound crazy to some, but trust me, it does work at some point. The more you do, the more you get used to this idea of rolling with the punches, going with the flow, kind of just working to make it something you want and like. And also finding ways to make it something you like and want. Okay, so that's great. I'm gonna get a little bit more off that Vandyke Brown, drop more of that at the base, and the top. And we are done. 17. Fruit #2: The next fruit we're going to paint is going to be the apple. So much like we did the pear, the apple is also going to be fairly loose and fun, and it will also be green, and it will also have hints of pink in it. But feel free to use that concept of a green apple and add make it a red one instead. So here we go. I'm going to continue using my number four, it just helps me get more controlled results, and we've got a small space that we're working with. So I have that premixed color that we used for the pear here. I'm going to mix a little bit more of the cat Mm in this to the side, getting more of that color, mix it in. And I want it watered down a lot. We want that nice young green look again. So that's good enough. And so for now, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to create the basic shape, much like we created that there. So I'm going to do more of a heart. So a little curve like this first. Let's break it down that way. Dipping to get water, creating that outer curve, dipping to get more water, the next curve, a little bend at the bottom, and then we're painting in the apple. Again, feel free to leave a little bit of white space in between. And then what I'm doing is getting more of that color and we're curving at the top. Perfect. So this is our little apple shape. Make sure you are happy with it. I am not, so I'm just going to be working on it a little bit more. So let's do this. I'm going to get some more of that green. And just like we did with the pear, we're going to drop in more green in the apple. So you want to highlight certain areas. So, for instance, the forefront, that's more of a background, so you want to add more of the green in the forefront here. And then we're going to get a little bit of that pink or red. And we're gonna drop that in. And then at this point, if you feel like you've got too much color in certain areas, you can lift color off. So making sure your brush is clean doesn't have a lot of water. You can sort of lift and dab on a paper towel. And you can also guide the color just like we did in the pair. So take your time with that. Now, we're going to get some of the darker green, and we're dropping that in the edges just like we did in the last one. You've been dropping some in between. Now, of course, this is way too dark, so we're going to have to do a little bit of blending. So washing off the brush, dabbing it onto your paper towel on the side, we're blending this color in. Once you have blended to your heart's content, we can then do the little stem in our leaf. So waiting for it to dry just a bit, you can wait for it to be damp and then go in with the stem so you get that nice little flow like we had with the pear. You can even give it a little bit more texture by kind of adding those going over the areas to blend in the color. Okay. Now I'm going to get some of my van **** brown. No, burnt sienna mixed with a little bit of vandyke brown. And we are painting in our stem. So I'm getting the color directly from there. And let's paint the stem this way. That's how we're doing it. Okay, so now last but not least is going to be our leaf. So I'm going to start off with doing a very muted leaf. I want to get a little bit of brown in the leaf, as well, most likely. So I'm starting here. And I'm doing that. I'm going to take some of that reddish brown that we mix that we threw into the apple. I'm gonna drop that into the leaf as well. And then I'll take more of a darker green, mix it with my leftover green, a little bit of my burnt sienna, get that nice rich, woodsy sort of green, and I'm dropping it into the leaf. So the leaf kind of has some contrast and stands out from the apple itself. S 18. Fruit #3: We've already done quite a few of the berry elements. We've done some over with the leaves. We also have we also have some of them with the flowers right here, but you can't have enough berries. So I'm going to show you another version that can be bigger, as opposed to smaller and more in the background. So a little bit more prominent like our bigger fruit. So here's what we're doing, and these are easy, guys. They're so fun to do. Using my number four, I'm going to get some of the red. And specifically, that's the Cadmum red hue. Going to mix some of that over here. It's a nice bright color. It goes really well with this green. I'm mixing it down to say about a 30% color, 70% water. And then we are painting like an oval shape like this. Dipping for water, creating my shape. And then we're gonna get a little bit of that darker tone. So I mix some of this with the Vandyk brown, if you remember, and I'm adding that at the top. And at the bottom. Now, dipping to get more water on my brush, I'm gonna create another one. Washing off most of the color. I'm touching it deliberately onto the side here so that it kind of seeps in the color. Gonna get some of that darker tone of brown because this is a darker version. Even dropping some of that into the first one. Look that beautiful blend. Even going to get some of the red and drop it in here like that. And now we're getting a little bit more to do a third one. This one turned up to be a lot bigger, getting some of that dark color to create the little bit of texture lines, crown, whatever you want to call it. At the top. And then last but not least, I'm just taking this dark green that we had mixed up for our apple, and we are connecting this in a stem like that. And you can give it leaves. The leaves can be something a little bit more looser if you want. Darker as well. So I'm just mixing from the colors I have, dropping that in, dropping the darker tone right in between, right there as well. Giving it a smaller leaf, too, just to give you an idea of how you can place this when we're using it in the composition. Now, I like to add a little bit darker tones in the actual painting as well. Sorry in the fruit. So I'm mixing more of that dark tone. And I'm going to drop that in in these areas. And then if it's not blending, because obviously it's drying up and it's just in the process of drying up or damp, just wash off your brush. We've done this many times and help the color along. Because sometimes the color kind of just sits there. And then this is how you take control of the situation by helping it move along. And there you go. We have our beautiful berries. 19. Leaves #1: In this video, I'm going to show you a couple of different botanical options you have that are more of the autumn kind that you can use to create your compositions or even reads. So the first one we're going to try is going to be just regular leaves, and I'm going to use the Vandyke brown for our stems, and then we're going to use the yellow ochre for the leaves combined with a little bit of be a light red. Okay, so here's what I'm doing. For this one, you can even include the round number three. If you want thinner strokes, I'm going to use this, actually, and getting some of my vandyke I'm going to create the branches first. So get that nice fine pointed tip. I'm going to do it at the top over here. So we've got room for the other items. So I'm just kind of lightly grazing. Make sure you get the color directly from here to get a nice dark hue. And you're using the tip to kind of just graze and draw it in. So I'm kind of pulling that downward, and now I'm just going to extend and create other branches from this. Notice how I'm kind of just slowly lifting my hand off the paper. So then it's giving me more of a loose look here. Tiny little branches at the end. Really and truly, there's so much you can get lost in when you're doing something like this. You can use my video as a reference, but I really do want to see you do your own get your own little shapes like this. It is a lot of fun once you just kind of sit down and clear your mind from what you have seen me do and kind of try and do your own. Okay, so let's just keep it at this for now, and then let's do some of the leaves on it. So because of the size of this, ideally, I would have used the number four, but I want to keep the sizing fairly small, so I'll use the number three, and I'm getting some of the yellow ochre. You can mix it onto your palate because I want a slightly lighter version of this. And then I'm just going to go ahead and using the fine pointed tip of my brush, start at the top, press down, and then trail off into the stem or the branch. I'm going to do a couple more and feel free. Like, you can do the straight ones. I'm gonna do one that's kind of falling off to the side. So notice how my brush kind of goes sideways, pressing down, and then trailing off. You can even do a little bit of a zigzag and then trail back off onto the stem. I'm going to do a couple more here. Try and get varying sizes for your leaves. So this one's longer in comparison to the other two. Variety of size helps with the looseness of giving that loose feel to your painting. And you can give movement to your leaves by just kind of swishing the brush around and trailing back off onto the stem. Oh sorry, the tip. Smaller leaves here. These can be a little bit darker in terms of coloring. No and so now we've got our leaves set in, and this is where we're adding a little bit of extra detail. So it's key that this area these leaves need to be damp a little bit. And if they're not damp, that's okay. So I'm using the light red. And we're trying to get more of a wet on wet feel here in our leaves. So I'm dropping this in to give us more of that autumn leaf look. You know, when the leaves are just like there's all of a sudden two different colors in the leaves and you can tell that they're just turning at this point. That's what we're doing here. Now, some areas are going to be dry, so like this area is dry. So this is where you will realize time is of the essence if you're really looking for those beautiful bleeds in your leaves. There's nothing wrong with going in and doing more of a wet on dry. All you need to do is just kind of press it along and give it more of a Well, I ended up painting this whole thing here, but what I'm going to do is get more of the color and drop it in at the base here. So now what happened is I've painted the whole leaf brown, but it's gotten a slightly darker version of the brown in comparison to the others. So I'm kind of pinpointing, adding little dots of color in other areas, too. Different leaves, adding some over here. This one I'm just going to do in the middle and leave it that way, adding more at the bottom for this one, just at the top. And this is it. That's all I'm going to do for these leaves. We're just adding beautiful loose color to kind of really show the autumn effect that happens to the leaves during this time of the year. 20. Leaves #2: In this video, I'm going to show you a couple of different botanical options you have that are more of the autumn kind that you can use to create your compositions or even reads. So the first one we're going to try is going to be just regular leaves, and I'm going to use the Vandyke brown for our stems, and then we're going to use the yellow ochre for the leaves combined with a little bit of be a light red. Okay, so here's what I'm doing. For this one, you can even include the round number three. If you want thinner strokes, I'm going to use this, actually, and getting some of my vandyke I'm going to create the branches first. So get that nice fine pointed tip. I'm going to do it at the top over here. So we've got room for the other items. So I'm just kind of lightly grazing. Make sure you get the color directly from here to get a nice dark hue. And you're using the tip to kind of just graze and draw it in. So I'm kind of pulling that downward, and now I'm just going to extend and create other branches from this. Notice how I'm kind of just slowly lifting my hand off the paper. So then it's giving me more of a loose look here. Tiny little branches at the end. Really and truly, there's so much you can get lost in when you're doing something like this. You can use my video as a reference, but I really do want to see you do your own get your own little shapes like this. It is a lot of fun once you just kind of sit down and clear your mind from what you have seen me do and kind of try and do your own. Okay, so let's just keep it at this for now, and then let's do some of the leaves on it. So because of the size of this, ideally, I would have used the number four, but I want to keep the sizing fairly small, so I'll use the number three, and I'm getting some of the yellow ochre. You can mix it onto your palate because I want a slightly lighter version of this. And then I'm just going to go ahead and using the fine pointed tip of my brush, start at the top, press down, and then trail off into the stem or the branch. I'm going to do a couple more and feel free. Like, you can do the straight ones. I'm gonna do one that's kind of falling off to the side. So notice how my brush kind of goes sideways, pressing down, and then trailing off. You can even do a little bit of a zigzag and then trail back off onto the stem. I'm going to do a couple more here. Try and get varying sizes for your leaves. So this one's longer in comparison to the other two. Variety of size helps with the looseness of giving that loose feel to your painting. And you can give movement to your leaves by just kind of swishing the brush around and trailing back off onto the stem. Oh sorry, the tip. Smaller leaves here. These can be a little bit darker in terms of coloring. No and so now we've got our leaves set in, and this is where we're adding a little bit of extra detail. So it's key that this area these leaves need to be damp a little bit. And if they're not damp, that's okay. So I'm using the light red. And we're trying to get more of a wet on wet feel here in our leaves. So I'm dropping this in to give us more of that autumn leaf look. You know, when the leaves are just like there's all of a sudden two different colors in the leaves and you can tell that they're just turning at this point. That's what we're doing here. Now, some areas are going to be dry, so like this area is dry. So this is where you will realize time is of the essence if you're really looking for those beautiful bleeds in your leaves. There's nothing wrong with going in and doing more of a wet on dry. All you need to do is just kind of press it along and give it more of a Well, I ended up painting this whole thing here, but what I'm going to do is get more of the color and drop it in at the base here. So now what happened is I've painted the whole leaf brown, but it's gotten a slightly darker version of the brown in comparison to the others. So I'm kind of pinpointing, adding little dots of color in other areas, too. Different leaves, adding some over here. This one I'm just going to do in the middle and leave it that way, adding more at the bottom for this one, just at the top. And this is it. That's all I'm going to do for these leaves. We're just adding beautiful loose color to kind of really show the autumn effect that happens to the leaves during this time of the year. 21. Leaves #2: For our second set of foliage, we're going to do something that is berries. So we're going to start off by painting the stems and the branches first. And this is mainly because it's at least for me, this is my issue. When I'm doing my berries, I like it to be whimsical. And I find if I just create the berries, and I find it hard to connect with the stems. So this is my foolproof idea or technique in first laying down the stems and then going in and adding the berries. So for the branches slash stems, I'm using my burnt sienna. Feel free to try a slightly different shade of brown, if you wish. This is what I'm going to be starting with. So I'm getting color directly from there, making sure we have a nice, fine pointed tip. And we're going to start off by creating our first main stem. So lightly grazing with the tip of the brush, I'm just going to pull all the way down. And then this is going to be the main stem or branch. So I'm going to make that slightly thicker at the bottom. And then this top one over here is now going to split into three, and then we've got more happening within this first one or within each of the three, rather. So you can just multiply the amount of stems in each You can even make some slightly taller and extend to create more within just like that. And now from here, we're just going to extend and create another one. So really have fun with this process of figuring out where you would like to place your stems for these berries. And berries make such a lovely addition to any sort of composition, wreath, anything really. Because they're circular and tiny, it kind of gives you that impression of polka dots almost, and who doesn't love polka dots along with stripes? So, like, the stems are almost like playing the role of stripes, and then you've got the berries that look very much like polka dots. So that's how I like to look at it as someone who also loves fashion. Okay, so let's just keep for the sake of this video, let's just keep this as is over here. And now washing off my brush, we're gonna get a nice orange or red for the berries. You can also use a darker tone if you want to use something like a dark brown to sort of show that dark detail. But I'm going to use the CadmmRd light, I believe, or Cadm orange, sorry. Now, I might use No, in fact, I will use a combination of the cadmm orange and also the cadmmbd hue. So for our berries, we're just doing little round strokes like this. I'm making it slightly oval in shape, so it's not exactly round. And what I'm going to do is start off by creating a couple of these within these stems that we have drawn out. And then I'm going to switch out and get some of the red and add that in. Now, make sure you get varying sizes happening in there, too, because this also makes for a lovely composition or helps with the look in the end. So now let's move on to the red. And you can drop some of the red in there if your area is not completely dried up, gives you a nice blend. So two things to keep in mind, keep in mind the variation in sizing and variation in color. You could also go the route of yellow, if you wish, between, like, the yellow and the orange. I think that would also make a lovely combination for these berries. And these are more of the oval shaped berries, as well, so keep that in mind as well. We're probably the next one we'll do is probably going to be more of a circular one, and just giving you a different variety or a couple of options of varieties that you can add to your wreaths or floral compositions. Okay, we're almost done. And there we go. So this is essentially what it looks like. You can add some additional little highlights in between the branches. So for that, all I'm going to do is get some of the van **** brown. So it's a darker brown. And where I will be touching these is going to be around where the branches connect. To give some nice shadowy effects. And a little goes a long way. So you don't need to add it all over the place, just maybe in, like, the connecting areas, and it just kind of makes everything pop so much more. Feel free to give it a little bit of tiny little details like this, like, you know, broken branches kind of protruding. I love adding details like this. It just makes your loose style of painting so much more nicer. 22. Leaves #3: For the third foliage, we're going to create something that is more of like a sprig that has leaves on both sides. So to start off with the main stem, I'm going to be using the let's use the medium brown. Actually, no, let's use Vandyk brown. So again, I'm kind of picking colors as I go along based on this palette that I've picked. Feel free to kind of mix and match as you go along because that really helps you develop into your own style, your own preferences of painting as well. So because this is going to be, like, a nice little vine like element, so we're just going to start off from the top here, and I'm just going to do a little bit of a curve. Something like that is good enough. And then you can go ahead and add little tiny stems to it. And they don't have to be lining up. They can be sort of one slightly lower than the other. And again, you're kind of giving yourself benchmarks and where to add your leaves. Which is very helpful when you're kind of just going with the flow and painting along. Okay, so that's that, and now we can paint the leaves on. Again, with the leaves as well, feel free to use a mixture of colors. I'm going to be using some of the hooker's green dark. And I'm mixing it with some yellow ochre for a slightly lighter shade. But I'll also be dipping in to get some brown to add in just like we did with that first set of leaves over there. So I've got the color mixed up. I've got my brush full of color, and we're just going to go in and start adding. So using the tip of the brush, starting with the tip, pressing down and trailing off back onto this tip, so we know exactly where it ends. Gonna dip the tip of my brush in water. And I'm going to continue creating these leaves. But what I want to do is also start from the side, press down, and then turn sideways to meet that stem. So you can also start from the stem going out. So here we go, starting from the stem, pressing down, trailing off. I invite you to get wonderful organic shapes like this, depending on how you twist and turn your page or sorry, your brush. So continue doing that all the way down can even do a little bit of a wave to get, I don't know, a very organic shape like that. Let's do another wave here. So it doesn't look like we've got these wavy leaves only happening on this side. It just adds something so pretty and loose to your painting when you've got different shapes of leaves in these colors. Now I'm going to move a little bit quicker because I did say we were going to add some of the brown in, and I would like for this to happen before these areas dry up. Okay. So here we go. So let's add a little bit of actually, let's add some of the yellow ochre. And I had some of this brown mixed in there, so I'm going to mix that up. And then I'm dropping this color in now, it's not giving me much of a difference. So we're just going to scrap that idea and get more of the brown in. So I've got burnt sienna. And sometimes this will happen. You'll have a plan, and it's not going as you planned. You just got to switch so I'm adding the brown much more of a difference when you add it in, so you can totally see that. It definitely looks very fall like and blends in quite nicely with the green. So trial and error will happen as you start painting by yourself once you learn the basics. So embrace it. It's part of the journey, and this is how you learn, and this is how you grow. And here we go. I've left a couple of them playing with just the plain green, and the others have added the brown. And that's what this looks. 23. Leaves #4: So for our fourth leafy foliage, we're going to be using dominantly one color. I may or may not add in a second color. Let's just see how this goes. I'm starting off with the Vandyke brown hue, which is my darkest brown for my selection of colors. And I'm continuing to use the number four. And I'm using the number four because it helps me get more control with these tiny bits. Feel free to use a larger brush, feel free to use a smaller brush. It's really up to your comfort level. So I'm going to mix a little bit over here just so I get more variations of this hue within my painting. So this is going to be simplistic since we've been going through so many leaves already. So simpler and easier. So let's just start off in on this side over here. So I'm going to start off like this. So we're just doing, like, a stem and then creating another stem. And I'll just do one more protruding this way. Perfect. And now we're going to be creating our leaves. So for the leaves, simple, almost kind of like these ones, but notice how these have more of that pointed edge. These leaves will have more of a rounded edge. So you're pressing down, full span of the brush. Notice how it's spanned out. And I'm kind of doing a little bit of a curve, and then you can close it up this way if you wish, dipping the tip of my brush in water because we know we need water on the brush to be able to finish our strokes. And you can continue creating these rounded sort of leaves. So I am doing them in two strokes, and they are kind of little curved strokes to help me get that nice rounded shape. Now, just like with these and those at the top, if you want to do a little bit of a smush or, like, zig zag, but very minuscule to get more organic looking curves within your leaf, you can absolutely do that. This is how we get those nice shapes by just kind of allowing the brush to do it. I'm adding a couple of dabs of color at the top in these areas because it's a little bit lighter here. And we're continuing on to create more leaves. So this set of leaves would be fabulous in an area that has a lot of bright colors because look how dark it is. It gives us that beautiful contrast. Amidst all the yellows and the oranges and the reds, so you can see. You can also figure out or control the sizing of the leaves. So if these are too big, you can go smaller. Really and truly, it's your call. So I'm mentioning these things so you can be a little bit more aware when you use them in your compositions. Now, these two are side by side, so notice how they are connecting that way. And that can happen, and that's totally okay. I'm gonna do another one off to the side over here. So it can be like a very shadowy effect. Over the leaves. So you're kind of losing that definition on where is this one stemming from. And again, this is quite suited, especially if you've got details on that level happening. So it's a good contrast in terms of detail and color. So I'm just going to overlap this one over here on top because I can. Everything doesn't need to be connecting And we can leave this as is. Y'all get the idea. 24. Leaves #5: We have one final one to do, and this is going to be a berry, like I mentioned previously. And we're going to be painting that right here in the center, and it's similar to what we have painted with the orange ones at the top. And again, I'll be using my number for brush, and for colors, I'll be using the Cadmum red hue, so we want something red, and I'll be mixing it in with a little bit of the Vandyke brown. One of the things I like to say is try and mix your own colors, especially if you're using colors that you can sort of get by mixing what you have on hand from your composition already. And this way, you're kind of tying everything in making it look like one big happy family. So I'm just mixing these two colors in so you'll have to kind of figure out the variations in ratios, but for the most part, as long as you get something dark or a darker version of what you've been using, you're good to go. Okay, so this is good enough for me. It's like a dark orangy brown, and I'll be teaming it in with some of the actual red itself. So I'll start off with a very muted version of the red. And this time, I'm going to start with the berries first, and we're doing solid round berries. So here we go. I'm going to make this slightly bigger so it can be viewed easier. So the first one at the top here, try and leave a little bit of white space in between, if you can. I'm dipping the tip of my brush in water to get a more muted version of this color. Creating another one off to the side because now we can have those three little sprigs happening right here for our berries. You know what? Take away all the white space. That's fine. We're going to add little dots at the top of this. Now I'm going to get the darker hue and just tap that at the bottom of these berries. Let's create a couple more here. This is where paper towel comes in handy. If you've got too much happening on your sheet, just make sure you have your paper towel. So you can just dab any excess. So same thing on this side. Getting some of the darker hue and I'm creating one more here. Okay, so I think these are good enough for the example. Now I'm going to take a brown. I'm going to take the dark brown because we've used the light brown for this one up here. So I'm just going to try and give you a different variety. Mix it in with whatever green I have lying here. Get a slightly different variation of brown to make things interesting. And we're going to start off by connecting these three. Simple enough? Let's connect the next three. And then let's just connect it all. And you have your first break. So at this point, if you wanted to create another one off to the side here, which kind of makes sense, you can. You don't have to keep making or painting three together. We can have four. So over here, I've just created one more. And then taking off excess color from the brush, I'm going to take the darker hue and do my first little berries, second, third. And having variation of color, like I mentioned previously, not only makes for a more interesting result and result, but it also kind of gives your painting some dimension and depth and, yeah. So that is that. And now for our final touch, which I mentioned, adding little dots at the top, I'm going to use the darkest brown I have, which is the Vandyk brown. And I'm taking the color directly from my color cake so that it's nice and dark. And then I'm just adding a little dot at the top. So obviously, this one's facing down, so I'm adding it right there. You can have it touch the berry if you want. You will get because it's still wet and damp, you will get a little bit of seepage. If you don't like how it's going all the way in, just wash off your brush. So with a clean brush and no water on it, slightly lift. And then dab and you're good. And those are the second set of berries. 25. Birch Trees Part 1: The first color we're going to start mixing is going to be the Vandyke brown hue, and I'm just using my number eight Princeton neptune to mix some of that on here. I want a very muted version of this color because we're going to lay down the base in a light color, which is the Vandyk brown, and then build up on that with a more stronger opacity of the same color. So the first thing we're going to do is paint in very loosely. The tree trunk. So I'm lightly grazing, give it the shape that you like. I'm just going to go for just straight. In hindsight, I think most of the birch trees are pretty straight to begin with. So let's just keep that simple, especially if you are new and you're just kind of trying to figure out your way around. So get the technique first, and then let's get fancy, okay? So I'm doing one here. I'm going to do one more mixing that same amount of color. And let's just do that here, and I'll make this one thinner. Okay. So now that we have our tree trunks, we're now going to go in before this area dries up because that is important. And we are mixing the same color with just more color, less water for a darker intensity. For that, I'll be switching to my number four Princeton velvet touch. And I'm getting the color directly from here. And what we're going to first start off doing is we'll let this dry for just a little bit more. I'm going to start up by doing a little bit of a branch coming up. Then we're going to do another branch over here and kind of just drop in more of that color at the top. How many other branches you want, really? Leave that up to you. Getting more of that color, now we're going to add more of that color at the base so we get this nice blend. Same thing here. Notice how when you get the color directly from your color cake, without mixing on your palette, you're getting a more rich feel and look. Then we're going to do the little lines. Now, noticing how much of a blend this is giving you right away, perhaps it's in our best interest to do the lines once it's dried up completely. But before we do that, I'm just going to lightly try just so that you guys can see what that looks like. So see how it kind of immediately blends. We don't want that. We want there to be a little bit more, what's the word I'm looking for. We want it to be a little bit more obvious that those are lines happening there. So we'll just wait for it to dry a bit more before we go back to doing that. So in the meantime, we can paint in some of the foliage happening at the top. I don't have too much room happening there, but we can still get away with some stuff. So I'm going to start off with using the Princeton number eight, and we're getting some yellow ochre and I want the yellow ochre to be very, very muted. So I'm mixing it on my palate and mixing tons of water with it. And then we are going to use big press down strokes, brush full of water to get nice big organic shapes happening in here. So I'm going to start off at the top like that and press down to kind of create fuller looking cloudy strokes. The edges I want more like tiny little organic dots, but the center can be a little bit more intense in terms of having a fuller looking cloud, I guess, for lack of a better word. So mixing more of that on here, I'm going to now move on to this side, and I'm really pressing down to, like, get those nice areas covered. They can kind of intersect because the trees are so close together, and that is okay. I'm going to have a little bit more happening to the side just because our trees are super tall and we don't have too much area for our leaves, and I don't want to go off. So we're going at the flow here, guys. This is what I mean by going with the flow. Notice the amount of white space I have left in between. I'm only getting water and adding more strokes at this point because I want there to be, like, a gradual fade off. At this point, without really washing off our brush, let's get some of the burnt sienna. So I'm getting a little bit of water to make sure I have enough. And then I'm going to drop some of this in here. I want little details happening. 26. Birch Trees Part 2: Continue adding a little bit more of this color in. I'm concentrating in the areas at the bottom here where the tree trunk kind of ends so that it covers up the area because the yellow is a little bit too light. So now we're going to move on to our third color, and for the third color, I'm going to be using the orange, which is CadmumOange hue specifically. Again, getting it directly from here, we want to use the sparingly. So just use it in where the other two colors are there. So try to use it sparingly in just the yellow bits. So dominantly here, sparingly outside you want that nice hint of orange, which really gives you that nice autumn feel. And then also at this point because now is when things are sort of blending in. So we've got a nice bright color, we've got a light color, and then we've got a base coat. Just to kind of offset all of that, I am getting some Vandyke brown, and I'll just have a little bit of this in these areas. This is a magnificent exercise if you are completely new to watercolor and not quite sure how the blending works and the mixing works. This is a fabulous exercise to kind of help you get loose while also giving you an idea of how the medium works in terms of getting, you know, things like covering up the dark branches, layering, adding color over color. Fascinating results. Okay. And if I've not mentioned it before, I'm gonna mention it again. Watercolor dries up very, very light, based on how it looks when it is damp. So keep that in mind. That's why I'm adding additional colors in there. Okay, so now that we're done that, we're going to go back and do the last bit, which is going to tie this in and make it look like a birch tree. And that is pretty much taking our number four for a nice, fine pointed tip and using the Vandyk brown hue to paint in our lines. So feel free. I prefer drawing lines like this, so I'm going to turn my page sideways, and I'm just using the full span of this brush instead of just using the tip. This way I get more coverage, so I'm using this So clearly, I need more color on my brush. So I'm going to get more. What you can also do is alternate between using the full well, not the full, but the quarter top of your brush pushing outward and then also doing a couple of lines in there because that can also give you the result you're looking for. So making it uneven You can even paint in the sides this way, if you want to even out the sides. Just giving you guys a couple of tips that you can do as you are painting these. Can even dab in more of this color off to the side. This area is still a little bit damp, and so I'm getting a nice sort of soft bloom happening within the trees, which is nice, great texture. We've got lines happening. So we've got patterns as well. So for this one, I'm going to extend from the top and loosely kind of just paint in the top area because I know it's damp, so it's going to bleed into or blend into the trees the leaves that we have. And then I'm going to lightly start from the bottom and do the same thing that we did here. So here, I'm going to actually, for this one, paint in the side of this tree just so we can experiment, and you can see both techniques and figure out which one you like best and stick with that. I'm getting more color, and I'm just going to drop more of that onto the side so it blooms and bleeds into it, giving us a darker version just for the side of the tree, creating a little bit of a shadow depth effect. And then we are done. So we've got our trees. You can feel free to go in and intensify some of the detailing within the trees but just adding a couple of dots. So, for instance, I'm just going to take some of this lightish brown. And if you just want to do something like that, and just kind of add it over in certain areas here and there, just to kind of give it that nice soft look. And then another suggestion would be getting some of the darker brown that we've used for our detailing here and just adding it in between to show branches. Again, it's just an option. It kind of makes it look really nice and holistic. But if you want to keep it super loose and eliminate all these details, you can totally do that, too. Just a suggestion. And then, instead of having the trees just kind of standing that way. How about giving it a little bit of a soft finish? And so, for that, I'm going to take some of my hookers green and mix that in here with my leftover brown. 27. Birch Trees Part 3: And I'm getting like, more of this, like, olive green kind of mix, and I'm just going to add this in like this. And I'm kind of mixing it in with the base of the tree. So getting some of that color. So it's more color, less water, and I'm lightly adding these little lines, like so, tapering off to the side. Now, you can choose to leave it like this or roughly wash off your brush or use the number eight. And with just water on it, you can just kind of lightly mix this in. Adding a couple of strokes. Make sure you leave some of that white space in there. That's always always nice. But now you've got a soft blend happening. So again, preference. What is your preference? I'm showing you I've showed you how it looked before. Without blending it. Now this is what it looks like after blending it. So really and truly, it's a matter of preference and what you're trying to achieve. Now, one more thing I would add, and I promise this is the last thing, dropping in some more of that brown from the top of the trees. And this is what's going to really smoothen things out because now we've got the brown seeping into the green, which gives us a most seamless gradient like effect. And that is it? We are done. 28. Composition Time: This video, we are going to take elements from these three over here and we're going to put them together and paint them together to create a pretty composition. So I have got flowers with some berry style elements here. Then we've got a little bit more berries along with some fruit, and we've got leaves and more berries. So very fun elements that we can sort of put together and create our own something or the other. 29. Pumpkin Composition Part 1: I'm using my Princeton Neptune number eight. And the first color we're going to get is the Cadm medium lemon right here. And I'm going to mix it onto this palette on the side. I got some color right there. Let's just take that off real quick. So I'm just taking my paper towel and pulling it off that way. Perfect. So mixing some cadm medium lemon in a 20% ratio, 20% ratio, yeah. And then we're going to paint in a really nice, whimsical, loose, organic, fun shape for our melon or squash. So let's just create a nice tall looking one right here. I'm using the tip to kind of give me a round circle at the top. That's where the That's where I was going to say twig. Not the twig. The stem is gonna go. So I'm giving this this nice, robust looking shape, little frilly bits at the bottom, for lack of a better way to explain it. Keeping it loose and fun. So that's our shape. Now, using either the number four or the number three, I'm going to use the number four. We're going to get some of that I got to look at the names, guys. Sorry, light red. And I'm getting the color directly from my color cake. And we're going to start off by adding some color onto the sides and watch that perfect bloom. How pretty is that? I'm going to get a little bit of that happening right at this bend here, right at the top, as well. And I'm just going to watch it bloom in. Perfect. Now, washing this off, you're going to see areas if there's too much water. It's kind of just sitting there. So wash off your brush, wipe it off on your sheet of paper towel and help the color along because this will really help give you more natural looking results. And this is also what I mean by getting control, going with the flow because sometimes the flow doesn't really go in the direction we want it to. So this is how we kind of help it along. Okay, once you're happy with that, we're going in for the next color. So the next color I'm doing is CadmumOange hue. And I'm going to start from the top and draw in the shape almost. So majority of the color is at the bottom. I'm going to get more of this color. I'm going to drop more of it onto the sides here. Allowing it to blend in nicely. Now, one thing to keep in mind is the more potent the color, meaning more color less water, when you do this move, the starker the result. So if you're getting a very diluted version of this color, you're not going to get these results. So make sure you're getting a more really depends on your preference, like what you're looking for. So if you're looking for a darker rendition of this color, I suggest you get the color directly from the color cake and then come back on here and add it in. Okay. Now, one last thing I want to do before we kind of move on is get a little bit more of that color, the light red, and I want to drop that in at the bottom, just to kind of give it more of that shadowy effects at the bottom here and to the sides a little bit. Now, once this is done, before we do anything else, I'm going to flip over my brush and using the back of it, I'm going to draw in these ridges. And it's key that you kind of mimic the shape of this. This is what really makes it stand out and makes it look more like a melon. I kind of messed up with my line there, but it still works. Okay, now, on that note, we are then using our darkest brown. That's indigo, darkest brown, which is Vandyke brown. And again, I'm using my number four, getting the color directly from here and I'm going to paint in a very loose looking stem. And I'm kind of leaving lots of white space in between. I'm not really painting the whole thing in. And I am giving a little bit of a dab happening right there, so it seeps into the rest of the orange. And so we have our first squash, melon, fruit, whatever you want to call it. And from here, we're going to build on and add more elements. 30. Pumpkin Composition Part 2: So I'm going to start this over here on the side. So I'm going to do a little bit of a dip because this is where the stem portion of it is going to go. And then we're going to lightly paint the edges in. I'm getting color directly from the color cake and creating these little ridges. Then washing off most of the color from the brush, dabbing onto paper towel. We're painting this in So this is another way to paint them as opposed to how we first did this one. So you can inter switch or switch about and see which one you like better. But essentially, this is how you build up on the shape when you don't have a base drawing. So now we have underlines or little lines guiding us as to where the ridges are. So at this point, you can either get some well, I'm going to do this. I'm gonna get some vandyke brown, mix it in with the green to get a darker green. And then we're doing what we did there. I'm dropping this at the base right here. I know the stems gonna go up there. I'm dropping it at the bottom. And then I'm even swiping it like so. And then last but not least, we want to give it a little bit of shading to the sides, right, just like we did in the first one, so I'm adding it to the sides. And we have our base. So this is the part where you can go back in and draw in your ridges. This is so fun to do. Perfect. And now you can just continue building on the darkness. So, for instance, that to me, feels like it could use a little bit more, so I'm just going to dab some more giving me more depth in that part. And then also dab some in between. The area is damp and wet, so it's going to give us a nice bloom once it dries. Then we're going to paint in the stem. For that, I'm going to use some of the burnt sienna. We can also continue using the dark Vandyke brown if you just want to simplify things. I'm just going to just to give it. Okay, no, burned sienna doesn't work. So we're definitely using the Vandyke brown. So Van **** Bernsiena looked way too bright. So you can wait for this to dry up before going in and adding this in, or you can just do what I'm doing right now. And Charlie up to you. So there we go. We have that. It is done. And then we're now going to move on to doing some other elements. So let's let's now paint some of the leaves, kind of, like, extending into, like, a wreath almost. So for that, let's start off by doing some of the really nice flowing leaves and then kind of going to some of the berries, as well. We're going to mix some of the green with the lemon to get a lighter green. And I like my green to be more of a woodsy kind of green. So adding some brown to it or even some yellow ochre is helpful. So yellow ochre gives me more of a lighter cromish kind of green, so I'm going to add a little bit of brown to that. There we go. That's much nicer, roughly washing it off, getting some green back in there. Perfect. So this is the kind of green we're looking for. I'm going to start painting the stem and then build up on the leaves, and then we're going to go in and dab some of the color to give it more of a two tone look. So starting off with the stem, but I'm going to switch my brush to the number three because it'll give me a finer line and results. So here we go. Let's start off doing one this way. And we're starting off with a nice loose leaf at the top. And proceeding to paint these very simply. Give it movement, give it white space, make it loose. Make it yours. So I'm kind of twirling the leaves in all directions. I'm dropping in more of the green in the actual stem. Notice how my leaves are loose. I've got thin leaves. I've got thick leaves. We're really enhancing on the looseness of it all. Okay, so something like that. Let's add another one of these on this side here. Now, feel free to turn your sheet around if that is easier. So I'm gonna turn my sheet like this. And I'll have this one coming up like that. Okay. So the more watery it is the looser the look and style. And then the more ability for us to go in and drop in that additional hue, because if it's opaque, then it's already dark enough. We're not able to get another color. Like, I like how this is green in comparison to the others that we have. Sorry, brown, not green. O and continue building. For these leaves, I love, you can just sort of get lost in painting these leaves, starting with the tip, pressing down, trailing off on the tip. And you don't even have to worry about the color difference. As long as we're using the same set of colors, we've got that whole fall vibe to it. Okay, there we go. So we've got that. We've got this 31. Pumpkin Composition Part 3: Now we're going to use the Vandyke brown and the number three and create more branches, and this will be more of a circular kind of feel to it. So I know I'm a little bit off on here, but we can start a branch. We can start a branch actually this way. I'm going to start it from the bottom. Taking it up. And we can even start one from here. And I like giving little twirls and such, and because we have all that space, why not? So I'm going to lightly kind of create some additional stems here, and then this one's gonna go up. This is what I mean by go with the flow guys. Sometimes you kind of have something in mind and it just takes shape. You have to learn to make it your own and just have it work for you. So here's our branches. Notice how they're not completely connecting, and that is on purpose. And they're not flowy per se, but they're more like little lines extending. So let's do this one first because I don't want it to dry up. And now we're going to go in and get some of that yellow ochre. And I'm mixing some of that yellow ochre next to the green here. This way, I'm getting, like, maybe both colors in there. And we want it to be a little bit longer. So the drag in comparison to these leaves is going to be a little bit longer. So let's start here. So you notice how it's longer of a drag can drop in some of that darker green or color in go to add some of that over here, too. And then we kind of build on the shape over here. So we're essentially using our leaves to create movement. And yeah, this is what I mean by giving movement, making your art dance almost. Get some of that green, drop it in, can even swap it out for the brown because that's what we had done previously as well. When you're going with the flow, it's harder to stop and get exact results because there's a lot of elements. You got to make it on time before things dry out and such. So just allow yourself to just go with it and things will fall into place. Happy accidents will happen, things will start clicking. You learn about what you like, what you don't like. So just keep an open mind. Going to add a couple more leaves here and there. Then you can even add lighter looking leaves in the side on the side of darker leaves this way the color kind of seeps in. Can overlap some in between these, as well. So you're getting a nice mix happening. So I'm just adding some over here. And you can get some darker brown in there just because it's closer to an element, so you want to make it look fuller maybe and because it's darker there, then maybe there's more happening here. Okay, so now we're ready to move on to this side, and this is the reason why I wanted to hold off from creating any more branches is so that we still have some dampness so we get some nice bleeds going on. So I'll turn it over. Turning it over. We're now going to get some of the Vandyke brown and allow some of this to overlap some of these leaves since we left these in the forefront. And give it flow, like I mentioned previously. So kind of having it fanning out a little bit. Creating small branches, connecting this part over here. Okay. And now we can build up on some leaves. So this I'm leaving a little bit more open ended because we've got a couple of other elements we can add, as well. But essentially the same mix of color that we used in the last one here for our leaves. So starting off long dragging into the brown. Getting more water, adding a smaller leaf. Adding a twirling looking leaf over here. So now I'm really kind of loosening up here with my strokes. And like I said, use your judgment, add a little bit of green or a little bit brown or the red to give it a nice variety of different colors. Darker looking leaves. This is the beauty of having or painting fall looking items. You're just able to get away with so much building up on depth and stuff with the simplest of strokes. Adding a little bit of green to this mix just to get some hints of green. And now let me turn it over so I can see what it looks like. Okay. That's great. So adding a little bit of what I like to call fluffing at the end over here. So fuller, looser making it look fuller with looser strokes of green. Adding some of that same green on here sparingly, of course. 32. Pumpkin Composition Part 4: Mixing some burnt sienna with some of that leftover green. We're going to get into painting some of the berry style elements. So it's like a mediumish brown, not as dark as the vandyke brown. And we're going to create some flopping this way first. So I'm just making sure that my hand is not touching anything. It shouldn't be touching. And there we've got our nice little sprig or stem or whatever you want to call it. Let's create another one. I'm going to have this one happening right here. So, take your time, paint this however you envision your berries to be. I'm going to make this one a little bit taller. There we go. And then let's do one more, and I'll have that happening right here. There we go. And now for the actual painting of the berries, we're going to get some of the Cadmum orange hue. And I am going to mix this with the red. So this is Cadmum red. I just wanted to be a bit darker and not quite matching the pumpkin or the squash. So muting it down as much as I can, we're going to start off with painting little circles or oval shapes, whatever your preferences. I'll leave that up to you. We've done quite a few of these in the past, as well. So there are some over here at the top. We're not looking for perfection. We want some nice loose strokes. I can leave some white space in between. It adds a nice shadowy light and shadow kind of effect. It's adds some over here. Now, at this point, you can add a little bit of that darker color to your mix. Remember, I mentioned having sepia or Pains gray added to your color for a darker hue does wonders, 'cause then you're not off making a completely brand new color. You're just getting a darker version of the very same color. I'm gonna drop little hints of this color in the background possibly in here too. Perfect. 33. Pumpkin Composition Part 5: We're going to continue using the number three, and now we're using Vandyk Brown to create some nice eucalyptus style leaves. So let's create some of them happening off to the side here. So I'm getting color directly from the color cake. And I'm going to have some of it kind of edging this way. Then dipping the tip of my brush in water, we're going to create those nice rounded shapes for these leaves. So you can have some of them starting from the edge, some of them overlapping over the other leaves, if you wish, just to kind of give it more full detail there, make it look more full. Some kind of airing off to the side. Look at that cute detail that you get by just adding this additional shape that's different from the rest of the leaves. Adding some of that over here. So this is a lot easier because we're just using the one color for the stems and the leaves. So you can kind of get carried away painting this. I'll add some fanning out on that side as well. This kind of creates some nice dark areas around our squash and pumpkin, and then this way or just squash, actually, squash and buttercup. So So take your time painting these in, however you want them, or you can sort of eyeball what I am doing and mimic the direction that I am taking. In fact, I would say, if you want to mimic the direction I'm taking, that's fine. But try it again for the second time and this time, kind of use your own creative flow and go with that. Okay. Now we can even add some of these kind of maybe starting in between, as well. So I don't know, don't show the end of it. Just kind of maybe do something like that. Add something like that. And then this way you're kind of covering up where it starts, but you've got that very loose detail happening. So something like this. 34. Pumpkin Composition Part 6: So here's another learning curve for y'all because I started this off intending for this to be a wreath. But now we've got this movement happening here, and then we've got this curving in. So how do we tackle this? So here's what my intuition is telling me we should do. I'm going to flip this over. And I'm going to create some more elements kind of just protruding off this way as well, but still keeping the full length of this one. So then we can keep this area open for other items or things if we wish to do. So continue creating more leafy elements. So I'm going to create more like these leaves, the loose leaves because we don't want it to overpower all the dark we have. So this is where we're going to create some balance. And I'm continuing to use the number four, sorry, number three. I'm just lightly creating some stems here so I have an idea of what is going to be where. And then using the leftover green. I'm adding leaves in between. But by leaves, I simply mean I'm adding in loose strokes that are indicating leaves like this. Delicate, lighter, not trying to overpower a lot of what's already happening in here, but just building up on the fullness of it all, maybe even getting some brown, dropping that in kind of lightly adding these elements in. So it's a repetition of using everything that we have done so far and just trying to fill up the space and giving our composition more of a whole look. I'm going to switch it back just so I can see what it looks like facing forward and then add any last minute touches that I want to add to it. So I'm adding more of this darker green that we have just to kind of give it a little bit more omph in comparison to some of the other greens that we have going on. Oh And then we're going to add some of that over here as well. Because like I always say, when you're adding a new color, it's always good to have hints of that new color happening in other areas, too, so then it ties up the whole painting and doesn't look random. And I'm just going to do a little bit of a stem here and have loose leaves like that there. And then, these are the areas where you want to go very light. So I'm just lightly touching and adding these greens in there. 35. Pumpkin Composition Part 7: Add a little bit of shadow down here in between these guys. So I'm using my number four. I have a nice variation of green mixed. I've combined it with the hookers dark green, the burnt sienna, and also the Vandyke brown. And we're going to have leaves coming out from here just to create more of a shadowy effect. We want the base to be a bit darker curving around these pumpkins to give us more off. To make it pop a little bit more. Go to add a little bit of these in between here as well. We've got quite a bit of white space happening, and so just to kind of offset the white space and have more have these guys kind of stand out some more. This is what we're doing. So the solution is to add a darker version of the green at the bottom. And then washing off your brush roughly, you can kind of take off some color if you want some areas to be a little bit darker sorry lighter. And then I'm just going to add a couple of, like, lousy strokes for leaves here and there. So this is more of a feathering fluffing, whatever you want to call it. I call it fluffing where you're kind of just going in with a lighter shade of color and you're kind of enhancing to make things look fuller and stand out some more. So you can see immediately by adding this, it just pops. So instead of mixing any more dark tones to add here, instead, what I'm going to do is get some Vandyke brown. And I'm dropping that right around the edges here. And I'm doing this right now because these leaves are damp. So what's going to happen is it's going to give me a nice bloom from dark to light, and you can see that already. Light, meaning the original green that we used. So yeah, we're just highlighting these areas for more shadowy effects. And this will in turn make everything pop so much nicer. Okay, so now because we have a little bit of this green over here at the bottom, love how that pop is happening. Let's add a little bit of that around these areas here, too. So I'm just kind of daving in some of that color. And then I'm going to add a little bit of that in between here. I and huge difference, massive difference. We can add some off this screen. I just wanted to add some happening around here as well. And I'm toning it down by adding more water, toning down the opacity. And we are almost done. 36. Pumpkin Composition Part 8: If you like metallics like me, you can always add a little bit of embellishments within your artwork by using something like a bronze or gold, mainly the warm tones. So I'm going to use a little bit of what I have. It's called champagne, and this is by KMS watercolors. And this is one of my favorite metallics to use in paintings. So you could use this to do a splatter or maybe even something like berries would be nice, or even if you wanted to do long leaves. But because we've got quite a bit of leafy action happening, so maybe that's not the best idea for now. Another suggestion would be if you wanted to add ridges within the pumpkins, as well. I feel like that would also be nice or just adding little detail within the pumpkins. So just a couple of ideas for you guys to think about as you might choose to embellish your your wreath or composition at the end. So I'm using the number three, and I'm using the champagne, and I'm going to add a couple of berry style elements. So we're gonna have some happening overlapping these pumpkins just to get some nice overlap and shine on them. So I'm going to start off by doing little dots or circles. And then I'm going to draw or yeah, draw in the stems right away. And this way, I can kind of, like, connect them and give them the look and feel that I want to. So there's one. As you can see, it's kind of hard to see this angle. I'm going to do a couple more over here. And feel like I'm trying to get in the darkest areas here just to get some nice overlap and some glisten and shine within here. So think about doing that. Think about the placement. Adding some right here as well, because I think, again, it's got some great dark areas, so the shine will be really nice. I'm going to get some over here. And this way, we've got more elements, but now we've got a little bit of shine. So take your time. 37. Pumpkin Composition Conclusion: Okay, so on that note, we are done. I just did a couple over on the melons or the squash, pumpkin, what have you. I did a little bit kind of coming out here, some over here, little embellishments here and there, nothing too crazy. And that's it. 38. Pear Composition Part 1: So I'm going to start off with doing the pears, and we're going to do maybe two pairs. So instead of the apple, I'm going to pick the pear. So maybe two pairs, and then we'll get into some flowers around it, and then we'll finish off with some leaves. So starting off with the pear, we're going to mix a little bit of the hooker's dark green, and I'm also going to be mixing it in with some Let me just take off this little dab. I'm also going to be mixing it in with some of the yellow ochre. And then last but not least, I'm going to be mixing some of the Actually, no, I think yellow ochre, and this is good enough. This is what that color looks like. So we want a very, very muted version of this, and I'm using my number eight brush Princeton. So I'm going to start off by doing the pear shape around here. So pressing down to create that top area for it, and I'm going to do a little bit of a curve. Leaving a little bit of white space there. This is how I am getting my white space to ensure that we get our stem. And then this is the bottom part of our pair. If it's more comfortable for you to do a base drawing before you begin, go ahead and do that. I am I like painting like this. So it's more freeing for me, and it's also a great way to sort of get used to painting without adding a base drawing for yourself. Alright, so this is my pear shape, and I'm pushing most of the color over here. Now we're going to get we're going to swipe or lift off a little bit of color before we add some of the pink. So I'm just swiping it off right here and dabbing onto paper towel. And then for the so called pink, you can use a little bit of the cadm red. And where is that for me? That is actually, I'm going to use a CadmOange instead. Mixing some of that in, and I'm going to drop that in over here. I'm going to get a little bit more. I'm dropping some of that onto the side over here. Okay. Maybe a little bit at the top, so we get different variations of color. And then the next thing we're going to do is get our number four, and I'm going to get a little bit more of the green. What I'm going to do this time is mix a little bit of the burnt sienna in with my leftover green. And something I just need a slightly darker version of the green, so we can sort of drop it in onto the sides at the top here where the stem is going to attach. We want certain areas to have a nice variation of a slightly darker green so we can get a whole bunch of different interesting greens in our pair. And the more you dab, like I mentioned previously, the darker the color. Okay. So now that that's done, I'm going to get washing off the brush roughly. I'm going to get some of the van **** brown, and we are adding some of that to the bottom. And then you can choose to wait for this to dry completely or do it right away. I'm going to do it right away. I'm just adding a stem. I like getting a little bit of colors bleeding into one another, and so that's why I'm choosing to go in right now and do this. You can absolutely do this after it's dried up if you're more comfortable that way. Now, washing off the brush with a clean brush, I'm just going to sort of blend this color in so that it doesn't kind of swoosh all the way out, giving us a weird brown color in our pair. This is how you're controlling the watercolor and where it spreads. And then, obviously, I'm just going to add a little bit more of this color in so that it's darker and we are done our first pair. Actually, before we say we're fully done, I'm just going to get a leaf in. So mixing some of the green to get a slightly darker green. I want a variation happening. I'm going to start from here and then press down and kind of go outward like this. And I'm doing a second. And that's that. That's our pair. 39. Pear Composition Part 2: Now moving on to our flowers. I'm going to I've decided we'll do one pair for now. We'll see if I want to add another one. We're going to start off with a little bit of van **** brown, and I'm using my number four for this. And we're starting off by doing the dots exactly like we did in the video showcasing how to do the flowers properly. I'm going to start off with doing a flower right here. And then we're taking the number eight with just water on it, and we're pulling from the center to create our petals. Because this one's so close to the pair, I've kind of left the petals here a little bit more open ended. And what I'm going to do is get a little bit of this color that we have on the number four, and we're dropping it back into the center. And then I'm also going to trail a little bit off onto the side, one of the petals, pull it down the center, add a little bit off to the side here. We're kind of essentially spreading color in this flower to kind of give it more definition. Uh, where's the Vandyke brown right here. Add some at the top here, add some right at the base. So it looks like there's more shadow effects or shadows happening on that petal. And then this one right there, just like we did with the pair, you can help the color move along. And then getting more color, dropping it right into the center. I just want the center to be the darkest color we see, so it creates some beautiful depth. And now final touch. Before this dries up, we're turning the brush over. You know what? I like the results I get from using the thinner brush. Sorry. Not that. This brush right here. This seems to be a nice, fine pointed tip in comparison to the other one. So before it dries up, I'm just creating my line, starting from the center, going out into my petals. Take your time doing this, but not too much time where it ends up drying up completely. Perfect. Love how these two go together side by side. So now we're going to continue creating maybe two or three more. I like the simplistic palette that's happening so far, where the pair stands out. 40. Pear Composition Part 3: I'm going to do another flower in the same color. Notice how I'm dropping more color in the center again just to make it pop even more. This is how much you can go back in and drop it in. This is also how light. A great example of how light watercolor dries up. It looks a lot darker when it's damp and then all of a sudden it dries up and it looks a lot lighter. I'm going to do a flower happening over here. And then taking my number eight, pulling from the center, I'm pulling it outward, pulling the color outward, that is. And take your time forming the petals. Don't take too much time because we don't want the color dot to dry up. So be mindful of that. So now we're going with this brush and dropping in the color. I added a little bit more color in there just to kind of give us a more starker contrast to this one. And you'll see exactly where I'm going with this in a bit. Let's dot some color right in here before. Add some around the edges. Okay, so now we're taking the number six, or sorry, the number eight and just making sure it doesn't have too much water, so dab it onto your paper towel. And we're going to help this color along I want you to get used to the idea of mixing the watercolor or helping the watercolor, sorry, the color in the water mix according to your taste a little bit. And so this is why I deliberately added all that color in to show you there is a possibility of getting some control in this loose style of watercolor painting. And I'm also pushing all the color down to the center. And I'm going to add one more little detail, and that is adding a little bit of either the orange or the red within these areas here. We're going to dab in more of the dark brown in the center. And then I'm using the back of my brush to draw in the lines for my texture. This is a wonderful, wonderful exercise. You can choose to sort of use this and create a whole bunch of flowers all over the place and just kind of go with the flow. When you're drawing in the lines, a quick note and reminder, make sure you're drawing in the lines to mimic the shape of the flower. There we go. Let's do one more flour. This time, I'm going to make this flower. I'm almost contemplating doing it in that orangy hue. So this way it ties in with everything. Then we've got one of each almost, like, a light version, a semi dark version, and then an orange. But let's see. Let me start off with adding the centers first. Here's a great lesson in going with the flow. Okay, we'll do this flower off to the side here. Slightly slightly outward here. Okay. And then taking the number eight pulling. Now, this flower can be bigger because we've got all this space around, so work with it and look at what I'm doing. I'm rotating my page so I have better access to creating these. This one's going to be this fifth one's just like a It's a big open ended petal. Now, turning it back, we're going back in to dab more of that color in the center. Oh, this is one of my favorite parts where it just kind of blooms in. Also make sure to leave that white space in there. I'm just going to add a couple of touches of color in and around the flower. Now, washing off the brush, we're gonna get some of the orange bits or whichever color you have, and I'm dropping it in within the flour here. Now we're turning our brush over. Actually, before we do that, help this color along in areas where it looks extra dark. Then we're turning things over. Let me just fix that first. Then we're turning the brush over, and we're doing our lines. We are almost done. 41. Pear Composition Part 4: So now I'm going to add some berry style elements. Let's do the Blackberry version of berries that I had. So I'm using some indigo and using the number four. We're going to add a couple of those right here at the top, so it could kind of be sprigging upward. So I'm just going to start off at the top, and we're leaving white space, and I'm slowly kind of dabbing to create this Blackberry shape. So lots of white space in there. Dipping the tip of my brush in water because I would like to get different variations of this color happening in here, not just all dark. Going to do one flopping this way. In fact, I would almost suggest start off super light and then go in and dab the darker tones in there. And this will give you a nice variation of hues happening. Let's do one more. Or you could even do a couple in that and then go in with a second brush and dab in the color. Now, this kind of made me lose a lot of my white space. But try all these different techniques and see which works for you the most. Because it's such a loose rendition of this berry, it's not necessary that it needs to be super if you don't have any white space, oh, that's it. You've lost it. As long as there's a little bit of white space, I think you should be fine. And then I'm just doing a little bit of background kind of loose details like that. Alright, so now that that's done, I'm just going to mix whatever's left over from this brush with the green that I have on here and get a slightly darker green. Let me pull this in screen here. And then using the fine pointed tip, actually, I'm going to use the number three because it gives me a finer tip. And lightly grazing, we're going to attach these to stems. Just like that. Okay. And now we're going to add some leaves. So for the leaves, dipping the tip of my brush in water, we're going to create a couple of lines like this going upward first. And then I'm just adding looser dabs of green there. So something like that for leaves is good enough. Make sure that you've got some looser looking, lighter green action happening off to the side, so it looks like it's nice and full. All I'm doing is dipping the tip of my brush in water to get a slightly darker variation of green, and I'm dropping that in to different areas here. Even adding it by the berries just to get a little bit of bleed, and then that makes it a lot looser. 42. Pear Composition Part 5: So now we're going to add some leaves to our main flowers, and then we'll we'll possibly do more of these berries just in one more spot, but let's add a couple of leaves. So I'm going to use the number eight, and let's use actually, before we use the number eight, let's continue using the number three, and we are going to get some of the Vandyke brown because we're going to create those leaves that are more yellowish with orange and more like on a branch than anything else. So it's these ones right there. So let's just create a branch that's happening over this way. And I'm getting the color directly from my color cake, okay? So we're starting and then we're extending And so if you've got different variations of thickness happening in your branches, that's okay because that's normal. Branches are not consistent in thickness. And also, if you've got a little bit of white space in between, that's also fine. I think it adds such great movement and detail. Okay, so it doesn't have to be anything over the top. So that's good enough. And now I'm washing it off. Getting my number four, we're going to start off with the yellow ochre. Or actually, let's do Cadmum yellow. And I'll mix that with a little bit of yellow ochre. And then we're going to keep the number three handy with some of the Light red. Because just like we did with the flowers and the pear, once we add our leaf in, we're going to add a little bit of the brown in as well. So these leaves are nice and long, so make them whimsical, make them fun. I'm dipping the tip of my brush in water. We're gonna get some more happening here. Some can be extending from the branch itself. It doesn't need to have another stem to it. M. I'm dropping in some of that color now before things dry off. Just in different areas of the leaf. It doesn't have to be consistently starting from the bottom. I'm starting some from the top, some from the middle. You can even leave some all yellow, too. That's fine. Let's add one more dropping in some of the orange. Okay. And I think this is good. Let's add one leaf here at the top. And And that's good enough. Um, you can add a couple of yellowy dots as well within just to kind of give it some fluffing. I like to call it fluffing, but it's essentially pretty much adding another variation of the color to emphasize background details. 43. Pear Composition Part 6: So while we still have this color happening and still on our brushes, I'm going to add a little bit of the stems coming out from here just on a smaller scale, not as big and prominent as this one. Maybe something like that. And then using the number four, getting some of that yellow, painting some leaves in, tying the whole composition together, Okay. Now, going back in with this, we're adding some of the brown. There we go. So now we've got a little bit of flow happening. This one's going here. This one's sort of going up. This one's going this way. So it gives us a better idea of how we want to shape things some more. I was almost thinking of adding another pear, but I think we're going to hold off and do some more leaves before anything. For these leaves that will be on a very lighter scale after, like, along with these flowers to go with the flowers, that is, we're going to use the leftover paint that we have or the green that we have from the pear, and I'm just going to mix in some of the a little bit of give me 1 second. The burnt sienna. We want another variation of color happening, but we don't want it to be too brown. We still wanted to have a greenish sort of look. So I'm going to get something that looks like that, and we're watering it down because it needs to be light light light. Maybe percentage wise, we're looking 2080, so 20% color, 80% water. I'm going to use the number eight, and we're just going to create leaves that give a little bit more flow to this composition. So I'm using the tip of my brush going to create a stem this way. Starting from the stem pressing down, I'm just trailing off twice. Doing another leaf there. So something like that, just loose and fun. Then I'm taking the number four, and I'm going to take more of the burnt sienna. And I'm going to start off, actually, before we add it on there. Let's mix it onto the palette. And then I want to add some to the stems here and have it kind of almost going into the leaves. We still very much so want to keep that whole autumn look. And so this is why we're mixing different colors within our leaves. Continuing on with this. I'm going to create a couple more. So notice how I'm, like, giving it movement, having little lighter colors happening here and kind of filling up the space almost. So added some at the top, and we're going to add some of this color there, too. I'm going to add a little bit of that van **** brown in here to get a slightly darker version of this color. So just like that. And then let's add a couple of leaves happening here. And just like we did in the previous ones, I'm adding some of the brown. And then what I'm also going to do is roughly wash off this brush, and I'm going to help this color along. And as I'm kind of helping the color along, I'm swiping or lifting and then dabbing onto my paper towel. Oh, I mixed. I mixed more of that color and ended up getting more of a brown, so I'm taking some of the leftover green that we have, mixing that in. So as long as we're using all the same colors to mix and get these shades, we're good. I'm going to get some of that happening here. Because this is in between flowers and the actual pear, it's fine if it's a little bit darker. Something like that. Dipping to get some water on my brush, I'm going to add very faint looking strokes of green here on this side to kind of indicate there's some leaves happening over here, too. We'll get some in between these branches flowing out a little bit. This is where you're kind of using these light shades of green to give your to give your painting more shape. So now you're kind of giving it a very faint sort of outline, and you're kind of tightening up some areas that would otherwise be loose because of all the white space. 44. Pear Composition Part 7: So we're going to go back in, get some of that cadmum orange, mixing that in with some of the brown. And if you have areas that are still damp, you can drop some of that in to the leaves. It's going to give us a very nice, faint, orangy feel to it. And this, in fact, would be the perfect mixture for an autumn leaf. Okay, so now we're going to go ahead and create a little bit more of those berries. And this time, I'm going to intentionally start off with using the number eight brush first. So roughly washing it off. I want to create these berries kind of happening over here most likely. So I'm turning my page over for my convenience, and we're going to start off with adding some kind of protruding from here, actually, a little bit here. So let's do light dab with water, and then I'm going in with the color. Creating my little berry shape, going back in with water, swiping some of that color off. I'm going to create a couple more. And this time, I'm kind of using just the leftover color from the first one to create the shape. Now, as it's drying up, if I feel like I want it to be darker, then I'm going to use this brush. And yes, I do want it to be darker. So I'm going to use this brush and drop some in I love the dark to light effects, and so this is one way to achieve it. This isn't the only way because there's so many different ways to approach a certain look. Create some more of these lighter looking berries, have some faintly kind of hinting in that area. So faintly hinting, like, behind the flowers. You want the colors that you're using all around to kind of pick up in certain areas in your composition. So that's another great composition tip. So we've got quite a bit happening here, which is nice. So now I'm roughly washing off my brush. I'm going to take some of this leftover color, and using the number four, I'm going to extend and create little stems. Sorry, that sentence took a while to finish. So there we go. So we've got it kind of coming outward like this. Now, taking some of the leftover color, we're going to build up on some of the leaves that were like that. So, for instance, how would you like your leaves to be? Would you want them to kind of protrude? I'm gonna have mine kind of one come out this way, then like another one like this because we've got all the space. And then I'm just swiping to get like little leaves. I'm adding some right here in that corner, and I deliberately touched the berry element so I can get more of a bleed happening with it. I'm extending to kind of create more texture and more loose detail. So my strokes are extremely loose, and I'm just kind of almost dabbing. Okay, so that's that. We're then getting a little bit more of, let's see, maybe like a indigo mix in with some of this green that we have here to mimic. And then we're dropping that in mainly in the areas coming out from under the flower, which gives us more depth. 45. Pear Composition Part 8: So the next thing we're going to add is a little pop of color by adding some of the orange berries. So right here, I have started mixing my hookers green, along with some of the burnt sienna to get, like, this nice dark brown. So instead of using brown itself, I just wanted, like, a dark green. Sorry, dark green, not dark brown. And then I'm using my number four, and we're going to get some of the Cadmm red, which is a nice bright color, and will stand out quite nicely. In fact, maybe mix it in with some of the orange as well just to get more of a Cadmum orange hue, that is. So I'm going to get some of this, and we're going to create these loose sort of smaller berries because the color is extremely bright. So we want to go smaller in size. And what I'm going to do is they're going to be slightly longer berries. So we're going to create there's two ways like I mentioned or have been mentioning when it comes to creating something like this, you can either start off with creating the stem first and then doing the berries or start the berries first and then add the stems. For me, I think I would like to do the stem first personally. So I'm going to start off with the stem here. And then add mini stems along. So I know exactly where they're going. Add another small one here. So I'm lightly grazing to create this. Okay. And now using some of this, I'm just going to create little tiny almond shaped style Shapes. Did I say shapes too many times? There we go. So, something like that. And again, we're not looking for perfection, so I like that some of the brown is mixing in with it because it then gives us more depth or an illusion of depth without us really striving for it. So adding elements, we're going to add more of this. So let's add some just adding a hint of that over there because I'm gonna make it look like it's behind the leaf. So we've got some there. It makes sense to have some down over here. Before I do that, I will just fill up this area here to darken it. And then I'm going to add a couple of lines in between here. So this is what I would call, like, your tightening up the elements to kind of make it look like there's more background items happening. So I'll have some them protruding this way. So just a little bit over on this overlapping. So feel free to give this a little bit of brown mixed in with it. And the reason brown mixed in with it because it's the lower area, you can make it look like it's slightly darker for shadow effects. And again, we can just use the colors we have on hand to mix in just a tad bit. So monitor how much you're using. And that'll give you a slightly darker variation of the bright orange or red that you're using. Then dipping my brush in water, I'm just going to kind of, like, add little dots around here and there to kind of really loosen it up. Okay, so that's nice. Like, immediately, there's, like, a really nice pop happening. So we're going to get a little bit more of this. And let's add it in one more area. And I believe I am thinking more along. I mean, either thinking here or at the top. So let's just add it over on this end. Just because we've got all this space hanging out here. And what I will do is I'll make this a little bit more aired out as opposed to how the others are a little more tight and close together. So, something like that. And then getting the color dropping in very loosely. And we are almost finished. 46. Pear Composition Part 9: One final inspection before we decide if we are done or not. And on a quick look at this, I am noticing that the leaves that we have that we're supposed to be lighter are very much so on par with the pear. So it almost kind of blends in with the pear. And so this is where I'm going to make a decision and decide to paint some of the darker looking leaves over on here. And so those are going to be these ones that are on this sheet. So using the Vandyke brown, so it's just one color that we're using and just sort of one shape that we're going to be using we'll create a little bit of contrast between the background and the foreground using this brown. I'm going to have some of these kind of protruding from this side. Almost using the leaf as a background, I'm painting it over. And these are like, rounded shaped leaves. And I'm going to try and be as loose as I can in how they are done. They almost sort of look like polka dots at this point. So they're also very much so like branches or they kind of look like mini branches. So that's why I'm giving them a little bit of a wiggle. And overlapping some over the others as well. So make sure that the leaves are small, big, different varying sizes, adds. This helps add some really nice contrasting visual effects. So we've got some here. I'll do a little bit happening over here. Maybe it's coming from the right hand side going into this area from under these flowers. So something small like that, but it kind of looks weird, so I'm just going to extend it a bit more and have more of it coming out. So this can almost be like under under all these big flowers is more of these guys hanging out, hanging out. So almost done. And I think once this is done, are we can officially say that it is complete. So we've got two here a little bit at the top. And then we can conclude officially. So I'm going to turn this upside down so I don't interfere with what's happening there. Give this a little bit of a swirl and a twirl, creating some nice movement. Now, these are almost like the eucalyptus leaves. So feel free to have varying organic looking shapes for this. They don't have to just be circular and they can certainly be overlapping because of how dark they are. So if I wanted to have some overlapping on this side here, Okay. Let's see how that looks. And that looks great. So now we have a little bit more pops of color dispersed all over the place. You can use some of the leftover colors just to kind of fluff the areas up or even add, like, filler lines and such in between, just to kind of darken certain areas, make areas pop, make things pop a little bit more. So, for instance, I'm just roughly going over the shape of the pair with some of this green that I have here. So kind of filling it up immediately, it pops up a lot more. I'm going to add a little bit of I'm not going to fill up this area here, but I'm just going to add a couple of strokes. So it looks like there's stuff happening underneath. And it makes everything else just stand out a lot more. Same thing here. So it could look like a couple of lines or stripes or whatever. Leaves, background leaves maybe. I'm going to add some in between these guys. And we are done. Okay, and that is that guy. So this is how it ended up looking. 47. Pear Composition Part 10: Going to be doing a splatter for this. I'm just going to leave this the way it is. I think it looks great. I may or may not add a little bit of metallic detail to the pair after, but that's an idea if you wanted to. As I'm chatting with you, I'm just going to do one thing. You'll find little areas within your painting that might need extra highlights. Go ahead and do that. I'm just adding this darker tone to the pear stem. And yeah, otherwise, look how easy it is or not so easy it is, depending on how your experience was. Once you learn basic elements and then put them together and create a composition without really having too much going on in your head, kind of just start off with something and then, like, build on it and slowly build on it. And this is how you get to it. 48. Conclusion: Congrats on finishing the class. You have officially completed all things autumn inspired in loose watercolor fashion. My hope is that you have one piece or composition that you absolutely love. Please don't forget to post it in the gallery section off Skill Share on here and list what is it that you really like about this piece of work that you have created? My hope is that after going through all these mini tutorials, getting to know watercolor more, maybe even spending a little bit of time painting watercolor for so many days in a row, or I don't know, maybe you did it in one day, that you have grown to learn the medium more, and you are more confident now in how to put together simplistic items to create your own composition, thus coming into your own style of painting. I hope this class with me has left you with many a ha moments of getting to know watercolor better. But at the same time, I also want you to acknowledge all the failed moments that you may have had because there's always a lesson to be learned in an area where you feel like maybe you didn't go as you planned. This is what it means to paint loosely and going with the flow. This is also how you learn and get to know the wonderful medium of watercolor better. So even though this is the end of the class for now, I hope this is the beginning of a fun watercolor journey for you. Feel free to check out my YouTube channel for other fun watercolor tutorials. And thanks so much for watching. I will catch you in the next class.