Learn to paint a Watercolor Animal: Octopus

1. Learn to paint a watercolor animal: Octopus introduction: In this class, I will demonstrate painting a watercolor animal. I will explain the various techniques, brushes, and colors I use step-by-step. This will be a fun class. If you already know a little bit about watercolor. It'll be really easy. If not, watch the video a number of times and practice taking little steps. And you'll be good at watercolor painting in no time. Watercolor painting is fun. The creative process is the fun part. I'll be getting shadows here and there. So paint along with me. 2. Transfer Sketch Onto Watercolor Paper: So I've drawn a sketch and I'm going to go ahead and transfer the sketch with the graphite paper here, onto the watercolor paper. 3. Start Painting Base Colors: So I've transferred my sketch onto my watercolor paper. And I'm going to put a little base coat of some light blue onto the animal. Brushing around here and there. A little bit of water on the paint, a little bit of pigment. Now I'm getting right at the top. Start on the edge. Sliding the little brush around the light will be coming in this direction. And I'll be putting some paint on this arm over here. I'm adding some bits of green. I'm painting on dry paper. The paint is rather wet. I'm going to put some yellow on this arm over here. Some little dots, little bits of pigment in the paint, a lot of water. Adding some orange and paint, some more dots. Getting a little more on the brush. I like to slowly push the paint around and I'm keeping the white spots for where their tentacles are. And this is a good start. Washing the paint around them. Lightly scrubbing the brush with the paint, coming off the brush. A little dabs here and there. I'm using my size eight da Vinci because it fills in these arms pretty quickly. The octopus is happy. He's sitting above the reef, below the waves. I want octopus to have a little bit of a rainbow series of colors. Speeding up a little bit here. Add a little more yellow with this orange. And I'll put some in with this blue on the side of the animal to add a little more color. More yellow. This arm is going to have little more of a light. Violet, purple. Help see the separation from the other arm. Bringing it up around. Saving whites for the tentacles. These octopus have a lot of detail. All the fish do. Bring in some more color. And I'm going to see how this looks next to that arm. It's a pretty violet color. And it's fun running with the brush, starting the painting. Adding some blue on this arm down here, spreading some of the paint I just put on now with a little bit more water on the brush. Another arm here. So I want to make it's more on top of this one. This one is not really showing as much except for over here. I'm using a light blue turquoise for this bottom arm. So now I'm gonna go a little warmer color, testing out the color here. And I've got a lot of pigment on the brush. So I'll start out a little bit darker here and let it run off. Then I'll come back with more water on the brush and spread it around. And I don't want it too dark, so I'll probably come back with Mr. Clean, the little eraser with water in it and just kinda soften it up and make it light. I want the balance to be nice, with the whole animal, but a lot of water on the brush now. It's kind of a rose, a little bit of violet in it. Spreading the paint around. Lots of water on the brush. Clean brush with a lot of water. And of course, I'm painting on dry paper with a generous amount of water. Still saving for the whites here and there. And these octopus are so amazing, they can change the colors instantly and they mesmerize the other animals. Getting some more paint now different color and go more on this part of the body. There may be a few more arms in front of his body there. So I'm indicating we'll let that dry. Now I'm back and I've got the MR. Clean eraser. And I'm softening these colors. 4. Painting the Eyes and Rendering: Go with little sharper brush this time. Coming up with these eyes with red, indigo, bringing a little shadow. The rendering process is the hardest part. We've got the base colors of the lines. Ever so gently. Lifting and pulling on the brush and letting the paint off of it. Maybe just spread a little bit of color across here like that, same color mixed. And over here, we get some color across there. Here. Size six. It take some of these same colors that I had been using before. Ever. So slightly darken some of these areas to keep this one a little warm. Turquoise. Meet with some of these colors. Back in again around the technical. Pull some of that color back away. Utilizing what's left on the brush. Clean the brush. Just a little water on it. Bring some of this color back down onto the arm. Keep it neat. Is building it up. Bring some of these around. Course, it's darker here because the light's coming through and over here too. Okay, to ask some of this blue over here. 5. Painting the Waves: Big belly brush and start in on the ocean, the waves. So I'm going to mix up a little bit of turquoise. And I think I'm gonna go ahead and wet the paper first. Gently. I can see the waves. A little bit. Wet paint now. Very wet. Not a lot of pigment on the brush. Wholesome down. Wanting to drip down. That's fun. I'm going to come back now. The same brush with no paint on it with a lot of water and just tidy up some of these drops coming down. Pull some of that across. I want the light to be more on the right hand side. So I'm going to bring some more of the pigment to the left-hand side and let the light would be more on the right side. So clean brush just a little bit of water and simply bring some of that across like that. Very light over there. I can add a line, break it up a bit here and there. And maybe a little bit on the outside. Just a subtle hint. I'm going to bring a little bit at the top here, some of these left-hand side. Once again, clean the brush off and pull some of this color back over here. Here's get them. They're blended a little bit. Soft. Ring that pick up a little bit there. And next, I'm going to give a little hint of definition. Six Da Vin Ci. And bring out some French ultramarine. Yes, a little a little color. The waves on the sea residue can play on there like that. Real soft little waves. Then I'll come back with the, with the waves of light. Little later. I think I can pull some of these dots away. Now. I put all these little dots in the texture on the octopus. And I'm going to see now as I pull some away, it's going to leave some detail. 6. Add Salt For Reef Texture: Now because the octopus likes to mimic the surrounding one-inch brush and just kinda water some of the background. So the paint will just read on a real nice. I don't wanna get too close. I wanted that to be brought out better by itself. Water here and there on the brush, on the paper. And just gently come around. Yellows with the green. Here. Come back with some warmer yellows. Just a few dots here and there. A few things here and there. And then the tissue, some of these extra spots that are a little drippy want to bigger drifts. We have a little background like a reef out there. The octopus is sitting on the reef. Happy and using this little garden. Salt, put little more coloring here. There we go. Wherever salt is water goes. This way, making more texture. I'll let that dry. Sweep it off. And then I'll come in with. Highlights. And waves of light. Shadows. 7. Wipe Off Salt, Paint Waves of Light: Going to take my one inch wide brush now. Some of the same color. I can see little turquoise green. Bring some of that cross. Angular about right here. Taken another one-inch brush and it's dry. Just spreading a little bit. Extra mixing. Let's get little rays of light. Coming across. A hint. What I like to do is take some ultramarine mixture because it's light here, dark there. At the darker side. Bring it in towards the bottom part. Darker color. So subtle. Just kind of add some shadow that took some of that paint off. I didn't want to do that. So what I'll do is take this Mr. Clean eraser a little wet first and pull some of that, next tissue before it gets running. So that's corrected. Here. Take another dry brush. This is my original little fat brush I used to use it before the Da Vin Ci. Now we have some shadow. Rays of light. Soften this edge a little bit, right? Okay. A couple of spots I could probably just put a few shadows. Bring them in little shadows here and there. Dots here and there. Happy octopus is swimming, floating along above his garden beneath the waves. Playing here and there. Like that. Yes. Dot on the tip there. Okay. Okay. 8. Final Thoughts Happy Painting: Final thoughts. I often paint on a flat surface or with a tilt a couple of inches high. However, with this painting, I was at a maximum tilt approximately 30 degrees. I used basic watercolor paper and brushes and colors, various tools while demonstrating how I like to use them. If I was to use only one brush, it would be the da Vinci size six cosmo top. The little fat belly brush, can do it all. I truly hope you will try and paint a watercolor animal, possibly like the one I made. And get creative and have fun. And please post it to the class projects. Thanks for taking this class. Happy painting. 9. Bonus: Optionally, it's fun to add more layers. I added more turquoise, and then I turned the watercolor into digital. The octopus is a fascinating animals to watch. Did you know that they can change their colors and become 3D? They do this to look like the rocks that they hide. Bye.