Learning Lively Watercolors : a Beginner’s Guide to Painting

1. Learning Lively Watercolors: Introduction: Hello, Welcome to my class. This is a class about watercolor. I am Barbara. I'm an architect in Brussels. And in this class, I want to share with you my love of watercolor. I want to share with you some playful tips that I wish someone had shared with me in the beginning of my creative journey. Doing watercolor painting can be stressful, where it should be fun and playful. If you want to have a great painting and progress in your skills. During my creative journey, I did a lot of online workshops and also life workshops with great watercolor masters. But it gave me mostly a lot of stress. In this workshop. I want to give you some playful watercolor tips to bring life and light in your watercolor. And the more you do it, better it will look and the better it will feel. If you think you can't paint and can't do watercolors, have no talent for it. Don't leave. You've come to the right place. And I will show you how to do it step-by-step. 2. Class Project: Welcome back to the class. To set yourself up for success. Before you begin the class, please give yourself time and room to draw and paint with me step-by-step from beginning to the end. So what do you need? You need a bucket of clean water. Put it next to your painting palette on the side of the hand, which, which you paint. You need brushes, of course. And I will talk about those later in the next videos, also about paint. You need paper, towel, pencil or mechanical pencil and eraser. If you want to make the lying the lines of your pencil a bit lighter before you paint. After the paint is on the pencil, you can't erase it anymore and you will need paper. I will talk about all these materials in the next video in very detail. As a class project, we will paint an object, choose for today's class, colorful objects for you to paint, and we will do it together. I will paint my cup of tea. Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee and relax. It's just paint and paper. I will also paint this dried gingko leaf. And just choose objects you love with colors, you love. Another thing about colors. If you don't use colors of your object, It's okay. If you don't find the colors you like in an object you paint, just look in your palette and just use the colors you like most. That's the freedom of the painter. You don't have to paint what exactly there, because then it gets a lot of stress. Just use two colors of your mode of today. And have fun. 3. All About Paper: Let's look at some paper. Of course you don't have to buy all the types of paper I'm going to show you. But I just wanted to show you some types of paper I use. You have different kinds of watercolor paper. It's important, of course, to take a real watercolor paper. So you can have a good results with your painting experiments. You have a 100% cotton paper or you have a mixture with cellulose paper, then you have different kinds of weight. I advise that you use at least 300 grams or £140. It's a paper that will not wrinkle too much when you use a lot of paint and water. Then you have different kinds of textures. You have hot press paper, which is quite smooth, like this one. If you see dwell, this is hot press paper. You have also other brands. And so as it's hot press, it setting. So it doesn't have any texture. It's great if you want to draw with a fine ink lines. When you have to do a lot of details, then you have textured paper. You have rough paper, cold press paper like this one. This is loose sheets or yes, you have for those sheets or you have blocks. These are blue blocks. To see the paper is glued on four sides with a small space where you can detach it when you're finished. And this block allows paper to stay really very flat while you paint. It's handy. But then I also buy loose sheets, which is cheaper and you can have bigger sizes. These different brands. I use Saunders, Waterford or anxious, or French or English, and hand them I love, which is German. They have different colors and different grains. So you can experiment with the different types of paper you can see which texture you like most, or which color you like most like. To see this one had a mirror. It's quite smooth. And whites actress is a bit less wide. And Saunders Waterford is a bit more creamy color and a bit more textured. You can experiment with all these. This is also handling Villa, also a bit wider and less texture. And then you have also most types of paper and sketch books. I like sketchbooks a lot. So you can keep all your drawings together and see the evolution of your paintings. For experiments, you can also buy a cheaper brand of paper like this one, which is a big block of studio paper. And it's a bit cheaper and also very good. But pay attention to the weight of the paper, 300 grams or £140. In the next lesson, I will talk to you about brushes. 4. Brushes: Now I'm going to talk to you about brushes. Don't be overwhelmed by the big choice of brushes. Again, as with the paper, you don't need a lot of different brushes, but try to find a good value for money brush, which, which you would like to work. If you choose your brush while you can do a lot with it, having a big variety of lines. And if you take care of it, You can keep it for a very long time. Your brush should be flexible and have a very fine point. When the brush gets worn out, the point tends to become less fine. But then don't throw it away. You can do some nice vegetation with it. If I would have to choose just one brush without having good budget, I would take these synthetic brush. It has a very good quality points and it's very flexible. You have to take care of that. Your brush is very flexible. So you can have, when you print fine point when you want like this, and when you push it down, it has to come back to the fine points. Let me show you what different types of brushes I use. You have synthetic and natural hair. For example, you have typically squirrel brush, which is used to make bigger washes because it can hold a lot of paints. You have natural squirrel and then you have synthetic squirrel. For example, this file makes goods synthetic squirrel, which has also a good capacity of holding water and paint. And you can make nice washes with it. And it's really much cheaper than the real squirrel. And then you have the Rolls-Royce of the brushes, which is the sable brush. These are sable brushes. And you'll have a synthetic sable brush. So like imitation squirrel, you have imitation sable brush. These are also very good. These brushes are from the brand a Skoda, eight, Spanish family company which makes very good quality brushes. You can buy them on their websites. So let me give you some tips for taking good care of your brushes when you finish painting. Just put them on the side, on the table or like this, never leave them like this. That's the best way to kill it fairly quickly, is to leave it down in the water while you are busy painting. Always take it immediately out of the water. Don't it tipped down and clean it very well. When you finish painting and dry it like this, when you finish, so you don't leave it full of paint and water. Always rinse them very well. And if you want, you can clean it with just natural soap. But if you would just watercolor, I never use soap. So that's it for the brushes. I think if you have any questions, don't hesitate to tell me. Thank you. 5. Paint & Palettes: Hello again. In this video, I will talk to you about paints. If you're just starting out, you don't need to buy expensive artist quality paints. I painted for a lot of years with the small student Cotman plastic palette of Winsor and Newton. It's a student grade paint, which is much cheaper than the artistic quality paints. Watercolor paint is made of pigment and binder. The amount of pigment controls the intensity of the colors. The binder in watercolor is Arabic gum with some honey. As a conservative scenario, has a lot of honey and the binder is mixed with pigment, which is a difficulty or colored powder, and hold the pigments together. So the more binder there is and they're less intense or saturated colors. So actually, the student grade paint has more binder and less pigment. And so the colors are less intense. And that's why it's cheaper. So you have different kinds of watercolor paints. You have watercolor paint in pants. So they come in these little pens which are wrapped in paper. And I glued the paper to this color chart. It's good to make a color chart for when the paints are dry. You don't see very well which color it is. They look all very dark. So you can add these little paper in your box. This is one of my first paint boxes. You can buy them ready with a selection of colors in it. And then when you want, you can take them out and change to put a new color. So I have mostly tube paints. The pens vs tubes is the difference that many say that paint from the pens or less intense than those from the tubes. I don't find that they are less intense. But the main difference is that depends on more difficult to dissolve. Since they are compressed, hardened cakes of watercolor pigment. And the dried tube paint, which I put in this palette, becomes much more smoother, faster. So I use mainly only tube paints. I love different brands of paint. So I have this center, Winsor and Newton, Sri Lanka, and Daniel Smith. And it varies. I just fill up the paints. I like the colors I like. And if I don't use a color, I take it out and put another color in it. So when I started out, I looked always what colors other artists use to inspire myself. And now I advice you, you don't really need so many colors. You can just choose the colors you like. Look in the color charts of the brands and do the colors you like. I have also these pocket palettes which I take on a trip. They come in a little pouch made by art toolkits. And I make one each season. This is the autumn one. And I have a fun spring one with just pings for the cherry blossoms. Then there is also this, this is a very old palette. I had pens that I put in it and I fill them up with paint. So just try out which thing you like most this is the lightest. When I travel, I take mainly this and this one are used for printing at home. This one I cleaned to use for this course for doing the color mixing in the next lesson in the color wheel. But mostly I never clean my palette. I like this palette gray. You can just spray water on it and it solves again. You can use it forever. So I will put the color charts of my palette and resources of the course to inspire you. But you don't really don't have to use the same colors. Just use the colors you like and put those in your palette. 6. The Color Wheel: Welcome individually about the color wheel. I want to show you the basics of mixing colors and talk a bit about the color wheel because you're certainly have already seen a lot of color wheels. So there's a lot of colors you can make with just the three primary colors like red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors. Please take transplants colors for mixing if you want to have a transparent results. So with yellow and red, you can make a range of orange. With red and blue, you can make a range of purples. And with blue and yellow, you can make a beautiful range of greens. When making the color wheel, I put in resources or drawing of the wheel. So you can use it to make your own color wheel or you can make it a different shape. Also. When you experiment with this mixing exercise, you can also experiment with values. So you can go from dark, a lot of paint to light, a lot of water. So dry when you make your pieces of color to vary the intensity. So you can have a difference in values and have very intense colors there and a lot of light in the middle. I will show you how to do it. We will make no color wheel with Earth's colors. So we will take instead of yellow for, for instance, raw sienna and another Lou, like a serine in blue, which is more earth blue. And also when you make all these primaries together, you will make a black color. That's also a nice thing to try. As a rule of thumb, avoid mixing more than two colors together, you will get so muddy gray. Also, if you want to try. Nice gray, I use all the time a nice gray. I make myself by mixing the complimentary colors of blue and orange. If you make a mixture of blue, ultramarine blue, and transparent orange, you will get a grade that you can make yourself and use it first, for instance, in shadows in your watercolors. And with that, you can make yourself a cool gray with a lot of blue or a warm gray with a lot of orange. I will show you how to do it. 7. Color Wheel With Earth Colors: So I have drawn a color wheel with the kneaded eraser. I take away a bit of pencil. Let's begin to do this exercise. I can't my palette, especially for this exercise because you don't want to have pellet grade and you're of color wheel. So I take natural sienna. We will make a color wheel with bright colors. So I will try to make a variation from intends to lighter. That will be the yellow. Here, a lot of paint. When I go to the middle, I will add some water. And here will be more intense. You can find the color wheel in the resources for you to print out. So I add a lot of water. And then you can take your tissue and clean your brush and absorb the excess paint. While it's still wet. If you leave some petals, it will dry and you will have some nice effects and textures there. So as I read, I will take burnt sienna or transparent red oxide. We will take earth, read. It's transparent red oxide. So these earthy colors are usually made with natural pigments. You have synthetic pigments, are natural pigments. And typically for Earth colors is the nice granulation. So we want to have three parts there to mix. The rest would be there. I will. Sum doesn't matter if it goes outside the drawing. I like when it looks a bit messy. Then we add water to make it go lighter. That's when you have this kind of diagonal brush. You can make nice washes with more water here. Then we will absorb the excess paint, I guess. So. We will see what it gives when it dries. Can make it more intense by putting directly from the pan here. Make it really dark. And there's a blue. We will take Sarah Palin, blue, really earthy. So the blue would be 123 here. Make it really dark. And go more light. Go a bit lighter at some more water. Nicely granulating. So now we will mix. I will make here next to the blue. I will add some just a bit of natural sienna to make it more green. Not too much, because you want to have three different ones. So this is a bit more green here. So this is blue. With a bit of green. Sorry, we can beat of yellow, natural sienna. So I hope you have fun with this color wheel and that you will post it on the platform. Here we will add even more yellow. Make sure you make enough paint. Actually, I don't have enough. I will add some more. And don't over mix. It's nice when it gets dry that it's not over mixed. You can see different like clouds of color in it. So it's not totally flat. So this is still a bit more green. It has a bit more yellow in it. And this one, when you put a lot of paint, you see it's really getting green. So we will add even more yellow. Now it's really a yellowish green. Looks a bit the same. I had even more yellow. When you touch this, when it's still wet, they grow into each other. It doesn't matter, that looks nice. These are done. Let's now make some orange. I add red to this. Take it here. Added here. Orange. So we'll add more red. No, it's cupping really orange. So here we will add blue. So that's our color wheel. Before you move on to the next lesson, make sure you make your own color wheel and share it on the platform so we can all enjoy it. And in the next lesson we will start to play with washes. 8. Value Washes: Hello again. In this lesson, we will play with values. We will exercise different types of washes together and exercise playing with values going from light to dark. If you don't want to have a flat painting, you need to vary your values to create light and depth. So we will make cream watercolor, milk, watercolor, tea watercolor, and then play with wet-in-wet. So you can start by drawing 3 series of four rectangles, one on top of the other. The "cream" water color should be very thick. I use the synthetic round brush. Take a quite thick brush and make the first rectangle with gray, for example. And use a really thick watercolor, which is like cream. Actually, that's why I call it cream. It's to indicate which kind of texture it is and your cream should be really dark so you don't see your pencil lines anymore. Now we make Tea: add more water to be really transparent, Continuing the same color. And now you will see your pencil lines very well. So now we make milk. So we add more paint to the tea. Milk is still transparent, but it's a bit darker between cream and Tea, but it's quite liquid actually. while cream is not very liquid In the last rectangle, we put clean water and we will add paint in it, filled the whole rectangle with the water. And then we take some cream like pain so very thick. And we tip some cream in the water. And so you can see the movement of the paint. So it's wet in wet and wet paint on wet paper. In the next column, we will take another color. Try burnt sienna for example. And we will do the same first, make cream, then make tea, and then make milk. And so again, when you use your first rectangle, make it really creamy like. Almost straight out of the tube. So you don't see your pencil lines anymore. This burnt sienna is also a transparent color. So for the "tea", We take it very transparent with a lot of water. So you'll see your pencil lines through the paints. So now you add more paint to the t and you will have milk. So it's less transparent, but still you see your pencil lines. So just add a tip off, extra paint to your watercolor. And again, in the last rectangle, fill it up with water, clean your brush will fill it up with water and put some cream paint in the water and see how, how the water makes the pigments move. So you can create some extra effects and just play with it to see what happens. And so you see, you can also create texture by splashing water into the paint. The next row will be with blue. So you fill with cream like blue, the first rectangle, and then do the same with the blue and see what happens. And try also other colors if you want. And you can see what happens with other colors. Because each color reacts a bit differently. So you have colors, more granulation and colors with Let's less granulation and they will act very differently, especially in the rectangle of water. When you have pigment with which is synthetic, it will really flow toward the water very fast. Where as earthy colors don't flow so fast. So splash some paint, splash some water. Just plain see what happens. Splash some blue, orange and other colors into each other. So splash some orange in the still wet glue, see what happens. And just play around at some other colors. Maybe like torque was. Just play around and have fun. You can also tilt the paper to see what happens. Just have fun and publish your painting in the course. 9. Tips And Examples Part 1: Other Artists: This video, I want to give you some tips and examples before we move on to the next lesson. So you can see with concrete examples of what I call the masters, what the washes I will show you can create as great effects in painting. This is a book that I used a lot. I bought it during my architecture students years and it's really a wonderful book. It's written in English actually normally, so you can find it in English. For example, this painting, the author gifts always. Student's question about a painting which is not so well succeeded and give some examples of great artists on how to make a better painting. This painting, for example, Is a bit flat and the students asks how to make the washes. And in this example, you will see, for example, a great use of wet in wet washes, which I will show you in the next video, and uses the different kinds of values that I showed you in the previous video. It has some tea, it has some milk and some creamy paint. And with the different types of values, there's a great depth which is created in the painting. In this example, the students asks how to create great sky with wet in wet washes. So what do we see here in this painting? There's a great depth and light which is created. And I will show you in the next video how to do it. And the sky is created with paint on a wet paper. And also the C is painted in the same movement because it reflects the sky. And to create depth, the artist has made the top part of the sky darker. I will show you as well. And so it does the same with the C. And so this is a d structure of fairy light paint, and then this is milk. So it's a bit more opaque paint. And then the rocks are made with really creamy paint and very dark values. And so are the fishermen. These rocks also lead your eye towards the focal point, which are these figures. And a good tip here also is that you can create these nice textures in the clouds to make fluffy clouds. And this really just needs a lot of exercise. So I advise you to really exercise all these washes. Another good tip is to use transparent colors for the, these washes. If you use a nontransparent colors like cadmium red and cadmium yellow, Naples yellow. You will have a quite muddy sky. There's plenty of things to experiment and to play with. But the main part is vary your values to create depth in your painting. And so not everything would be flat without a soul and without lights. Here is another great example of do's and don'ts. This, in this page the student asks how to create a coherent painting with a nice focal point and light. And so not everything would look like chess, pieces of color that don't fit together. And the author advises this painting of standard buret as an example. So here's also a composition issue. You have here, the rule of thirds. When you make a composition like this would be your painting. Your best, divide your painting surface in 33 by three squares or rectangles. And then like your horizon would be here or here. And if you divide everything like in this third, and don't make your house like just here on the bottom of your page or in the middle than it gets really boring. But if you apply this, like this is 1 third of the painting. This is another third of the painting, and the sky is another third. You have really immediately a nice layout in your painting. You would have the foreground, the middle ground, and the background. And then there was the sky. And the house is not placed in the middle, but it's on this, on the one part of the painting. And there are elements also that lead the eye to the how's, which is the focal point. Your best also choose your focal point somewhere on the side of the painting. And then to attract the eye to the focal point, you make these great values of light and dark. So you see this house stands, springs out of the painting thanks to these really dark trees which are around it and bring light and lead the eye to the house. I also love this example as great variation in foreground, middle ground, and background. Like here, the students asks why the painting is a bit messy and the main focal point is lost in the painting. Here, the author shows this great painting by Richard bolt on with the rest of the fence. And you will see very well to composition of the painting, which I will show you in the next videos. How to do it with the imaginary landscape. You have a background with a wash in on wet paper, which will give very light and not detailed masses of trees. Then you have a middle ground with light trees which are a bit more detailed, and the light reflecting on the water. So you paint the water in the same movement as the sky. And then in the foreground you have a very detailed tree which is painted on dry paper. And rusty fence is really standing out because it's painted, which really dark values with creamy paint and very detailed. So it's really good focal point. And there are also shapes of the border of the river and these wooden board that lead the eye towards the focal point. Here's the last example I want to show you because our class project is also a cup. You can take another object you like, of course, but I will show you the cup here. The student asked what is wrong with his cup and with the container. And several things are wrong with it. Also, it doesn't have really nice light, but also the perspective, the drawing is not correct. So I really advise you to draw what you see. And when you see a cup standing in front of you, there's not such round shape. And here a flat bottom. You'll see this shape, which you see from next to the cup is not round, it's an ellipse. And this should be the same curve here. So if you see my first course, it's all about drawing if you want to do it, but I explain you justice. Now, you'll make this ellipse and the bottom of the cup the same curve as here. And then everything will be okay. Trust your eyes and draw what you see. And then when you start painting, leave some white paper for the light. Otherwise, everything will look flat and the same vary your values. So you see here the light is coming from behind. So the shadow is here on the bottom of the plate and on the bottom of the cup. And here is darker and they're a small light. And so on. The inside of the cup here is darker as well, like here, like here, here. It's the same shadow and here as well. 10. Tips And Examples Part 2 : Own Paintings: Now I will finish this video by showing some examples of stuff that I painted. So this is a painting I made in Rome. And so I used also as a background, the washes of the sky. So it's a wet wash on wet paper. I wet the paper and I will show you in the next video. And I used here a bit darker to bring the eye inside the painting. And he roamed the sky is often quite pink. Anyway, you can use the colors you like. Then the foreground are these lovely pine trees. It's my favorite tree. So this is really my main subject. So it's the foreground. It's painted with creamy paint. Also pay attention when you paint a tree. Don't make this tree trunks warm brown because it really doesn't look natural and doesn't look good. I think you would like to use, for example, like this gray that I made with blue and orange. I will also explain you in the next video. Then the middle ground is a bit less detailed and lighter. It's this row in this wall, these trees which stands behind it. They are also lighter than the background is the buildings which are really in a very light natural sense, don't color. So there are the backgrounds. Here's another example of the use of, like I explained in a previous video, I T, or very light wash here on the water. And then some milk, these bottom leaves and then some cream on my focal point, which is the shadows around the coy fish. And here also dark shadows which makes the fish stand out. And also on the coefficient, I used dry brush strokes. So we'd really creamy paint to make them really pop out. And I used some gouache white because I really wanted some more light on the fish. So if you forget to leave white, it's okay. You just use this gouache white and this is white paper. And so also when you paint two subjects like these two fish or two trees, don't make them the same, make them a bit different color and a different shape. And pay attention to have lines that are make the I go round your focal points. He has a quite different example. Kyoto. It's really a lot of drawing, my drawing then. Other paintings, these are Inc, Chinese ink drawings with a tweak. And my focal point is this house really, this house is really warm and dark values and a lot of details. And really this shadow is leading the eye towards the entrance of this beautiful house. Then you have also this movement and the movement of the cobblestones which are leading towards this entrance and this house. And this is really all warm colors. And here the background is a bit middle ground is a bit lighter colors because these are vegetation also in this fleshes lead the eye towards this house. Everything is happening here. This background is anyway, very important. Also, these electric wires are leading the eye towards the focal point. And the background is important anyway with the architecture because I want to show that it's in the old part of Kyoto. But I left I left it just gray and white. Because otherwise it would be really, I'm difficult to find the focal point. This background is just left unpainted and I like it quite much like that. That's the last example. I want to show you. This temple in Kyoto. It's in my sketchbook that I take to Japan. So this is also painted in Kyoto. I made wet wash on the wet paper for the background with a cool green earth. And this is a bamboo forest, so it's warm green, light green paint. And I made the wash also around the temple with these green and also the green reflecting in the Windows is wet in wet wash. And then when it was dry, I did these details and these steps with milk like paint on dry paper. And the steps are leading the eye towards the focal point, which is of course this temple. And I added light green branches of the trees. And also they are leading the eye towards the temple and suggests that it's bamboo forest. I also splashed in the wet paint. So you have washes that blend into each other. Then finally, I added a cream like paint, really dark and dry brush strokes to make the structure of the roof of the temple and to draw the windows and the branches reflecting in the Windows. And also this, it's the higher part of the temple is leaving the eye towards this very beautiful window with the beautiful roof. And also don't forget your shadows because they really bring light into your painting. 11. Washes in a landscape wet in wet: Welcome in the video about values in washes. Prepare a sheet of paper with masking tape. We're going to paint an imaginary landscape. We will try different kinds of washes. Wet in wet, wet on dry, and dry on dry. Make the two thirds top of your paper wet and be careful not to leave any puddles of water. Just make the paper well wets. We will paint a cloudy sky with fluffy clouds. So the blue of the sky will be painted blue. I used the Cerulean blue and turquoise. And we will be careful to leave white of the paper, which will be our clouds. So make the top of the sky darker than the bottom. So we can have some depth in the painting. Be careful to take quite a big brush like a number 10. And otherwise you will have a lot of brush strokes. It will be quite difficult to paint the sky with a small brush. So you make the top of your paper darker. Don't forget to leave white for the clouds. So don't paint everything. Or else you'll have a sky without clouds. And so put some creamy color on top of the page. to make it heavy, darker. I also add some gray, Payne's gray because some clouds are a bit gray. And I also add some potters pink to have some variation. So be careful when you go to the end of your sky to leave it a bit lighter. So you'll have a horizon with some light. So I put some pink on the very light, pink on the horizon line. So now we come to the horizon a line. And so we paint wet on dry, so wet paint on dry paper. The bottom of my page will be darker because it's closer to me. So I take a dark, warm green. So what is closest to you should be warmer and darker. And what is further away will be cooler and lighter. So I used some cream texture of paint to make the bottom of the page really dark. And some dark green, dark green, like I used, undersea green. It's a very nice green from Daniel Smith. So don't be afraid to use a lot of paint. Because when your watercolor dries, it will become a bit lighter. Now when it's totally dry, I add some trees in the background. And I add water to soften the edges and add some pink like potters pink to vary the colors. And don't worry about using realistic colors to choose the colors you want and vary some colors. Don't put the same color with the same intensity everywhere. And be careful to put some darker spots here and there too, such as the trees. So it's far away. It's just a suggestion of trees. And you can remove excess paint by drying your brush in the paper towel. And that way you can absorb paint and you can soft and Hs, what you paint it. Now, let's add a tree, a tree closer by, so it will be bigger and darker, warmer, green. So we paint wet on dry paper. And then we will add some values, some shadows in the tree. A tree has a lot of shadows insight and the bottom of the tree. And we will add this darker green in the still wet green paint. So it's again within wet but wet paint, into wet paint. And so the colors will flow into each other. So pay attention that the light is always coming from above to natural light is always coming from above. So the bottom of the tree of the leaves should be darker so you can create some volume. Now I also add gray. Gray and Sepia for the shadow and for the tree trunk. And I let the tree trunk flow into the wet paint. So this will also add some some shadow. And now I will paint the shadow on the ground where you can add some splashes to suggest the leaves of the tree around tree. And we will add the shadow on the ground into the still on the tree trunk. We attach it to the tree trunk. A shadow is always attached to an object. So I make it a bit wobbly because it's grass. And I also add some grasses around the tree. And that way it will ground the tree in the grass. So something is happening around the tree to attract the eye. And also for the grass, I use smaller brush and that are dry brush strokes for the cross. So also, be careful to paint with the tip of your brush. 12. Washes in a Landscape: Wet on Dry and Dry on Dry: And now we have a tree really close by. And then I make some green paint. And I make a tree really close by. I shouldn't have taken the masking tape off yet. So I will add some more masking tape. Otherwise, I will do it in my page. And for this tree close by, if I use cream like texture paint. So very thick paint, which is very dark, you almost don't see. It's green. It looks almost black. And I make dry brush strokes. So it's quite dry on dry wash. Not really a wash actually is dry brush strokes, which give a nice texture. You can see the texture of the paper. There's no water flowing. And so with creamy, dry paint, creamy paint on dry paper. Add some branches because this tree is really close by. So it should be more detailed than the tree we just painted before. And it will attract the eye. And the eye will go from this more detailed tree to the less detailed tree, and then to the sky and the scenery further away. So you can fiddle with this forever. Just have fun and try things out. This is not supposed to be a masterpiece. It's supposed to be an imaginary landscape to help you to get to know your paint and your paper into play around with colors and try things out. So don't stress over it. Just try new ways of holding your brush. Try a new brush, and try new movements and test everything you can do with it. 13. Class Project Part 1: Turquoise Bowl: Let's start our class project now. Choose a colorful object you love. I will take this. Talk was Japanese teacup with the gingko leaf. And we will paint that. If you want your painting to have depth and three dimensions, you need to learn to paint with different values going from light to very dark within your colors, like we exercised in the washes in the previous videos. The value changes within your painting will help to give you the three-dimensional shape and will bring a lot of lights to your painting. So draw your teacup or whatever other objects and that you have chosen. And then we will do some washes on the paper in the drawing. And I will show you how. I will start with the shadows. Now. For the shadows, I choose mixture of ultra marine blue and transparent orange, which allows me to make the gray that it makes warmer or cooler. If you want to have cooler gray, you add more blue. And if you want a warmer gray, you add more orange. And then I add the color of my cup. So here it's turquoise. I add it immediately in the shadow while everything is wet. I put the torque was next to the shadow. Here. I just took off some excess paint just by trying my brush in the paper towel and setting up the paint with per-share. Don't be afraid to add really a lot of pigment, a lot of paints. Because don't forget, your paint will get lighter when the painting dry ice. I leave out white line of reflection into t. So there I add some grain for the tea, and I leave a white line to show where is the reflection in the T in the teacup. And then I go to the body of the tea cup. And the shadow of the body of the teacup is on the opposite sides of the shadow into cup. So I go really dark. Inner shadow is you see the darker you make your shadows more light you will have in your painting. And then I attach immediately the projected shadow on the table to the object to better paint it in the same movement as when you paint your cup. So now I add some water to make a transition with the color of the cup. So you see I wet the paper with the water and then I will add, now the torque was on the cup in the water. And you see it flows. Pigment flows in the water that I put on my paper. And it spreads, slowly, spreads all over the paint, and the colors flow into each other. And now I wet the paper, whereas the gingko leaf and I take a smaller brush to put the paint in the gingko because the gingko leaf is much more delicate and smaller. So I took a smaller brush and I add row number for the gingko leaf. And I add the cream paint in the water that I put on the gingko leaf. And so you see the pigment flows all over the leaf. And don't forget also to leave some white paper. Don't make the whole leaf of the same intensity. Make some cream, make some tea, makes a milk. Like I explained in the previous video, and add some different colors. Also added also a bit of burnt sienna and some burnt umber. And now I make with the tip of the brush, you have to hold the pressure straight up to go with the tip to make the small tail of the leaf. If you hold your brush, tilt it, you won't be able to make such a fine line. And don't forget to put some splashes. I mean, hey, like some splashes because it gives some Dine make to the painting. And I make some clouds of splashes that I don't like so much. And it gives some movement around the painting. And it will bring the eye towards the cup and the leaf. And now I will add some shadows also to the gingko leaf, which didn't have it shadow yet. And I attach the shadow to the leaf. And then the leaf is a bit stilted from the table. So the shadow, the tail will go towards the end of the tail. And I also let the shadows flow into the leaf. The paint of the shadow will get the gray of the shadow will get some of the yellow to leave sides because I bring them together. So the colors will also flow into each other. I will darken the shadow on the table a bit because I don't like the way he tries up a slowness efforts thing is wet. You can just continue painting. 14. Class Project part 2: Turquoise Bowl Details: As long as everything is wet, you can just continue painting. Now, I will show you this is my gray and this is made with the orange. It's a transplant orange and ultramarine blue. Ultramarine blue is also transparent. If you make your gray with non-transparent, colors to gray will not be transparent. I also put the color palette of the cup and gingko leaf next to it. So I made a mixture of Toklas and green earth for the gain, for the cup and for the leaf grow umber and some burnt sienna or anything. This is red, transparent red oxide from Daniel Smith. But burnt sienna is almost same color. So when you dry your brush with a paper towel, you can absorb excess paint petals that you have in your painting. If you leave the paint puddles, It's, we'll give a lot of texture in the painting afterwards. It can make some like cauliflower textures, which can also be nice. It's like you want, I think it's something you can experiment. Also with different kinds of paper. This is handled with the paper, which is this kind of handmade paper. It's not a 100 percent cotton and it's cold press. So you can also take some excess paint easier out. Now I have some made some splashes with water in the paint while it's still wet. And this will also create extra texture because the pigments I used, there are quite granulating. And so when you splash water in the paint which is still wet or damp, it's makes the granulation go harder. Well, yes. In this cup has some nice brown and burnt amber color on the bottom. So I add that now, while the paint is still wet, so it will flow into the turquoise. It will also accentuates shadow on the bottom of the cup, which will give it also more volume. So please, I encourage you to experiment and don't be afraid. I was four years and years. I was always afraid to make the painting, which prevented me from experimenting and enjoying myself. And so I want to encourage you not to make the same mistake and please experiment and allow yourself also to sometimes row in some papers. And when you, the more you experiment and the more you play, the faster you will grow your skills and Learn new secrets about watercolor and find your own way to make the watercolors that you like. So don't be afraid to row in the paper. Don't be afraid to experiment. Don't be afraid to go really dark in your shadows. And to give volume to your paintings. Please use enough paint and water to have nice washes. And don't forget to leave white of your paper in your painting because it's the light that is in your object. Like you see, I left some white lines into COP. And if I didn't do that, he wouldn't have the shape of my cup. And experiment with some texture and let the colors flow into each other. And don't try to control everything because you can't. I tried for years and just to control my painting and my paint. And it prevented me to make really progress in my skills. So please just play, make splashes of color and dirty your paper. And after all, it's just paper. So just enjoy it. Have fun. And don't forget to post to a painting in a comments into chorus. So curious to see it. Hi, sir. 15. Final Thoughts: You made it. Congratulations, you are at the end of this class. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have fun with the watercolor. And I promised that the more you do it, the better you will get idiots. And it's not about having talent, it's about skills that also you can learn and get better and better at your painting and enjoy it more and more. So your class project is mainly about having fun with your pain, finding your own way of painting and learning to love your mistakes. So you really hope that you will boost your class project in the, on the platform so everyone gets cleaved and everyone can enjoy it. And I will be happy to look at it and help you further. And don't hesitate to ask any questions and don't stress, it's just painting. So I'm really excited and curious to see your paintings. And I look forward also to receive your feedback and reviews so I can learn how to improve myself. Thank you again for taking this class and hope to see you next time. Hello, going to be. 16. Bonus Video : My Favorite Mixtures of Greys: Right? The entire time in this movie. All right. The alto. And tenor. Yeah.