Let’s Find Your Art Style (with Gouache): A Clear Step-by-Step Guide

1. Introduction: E. I spent hours learning to draw and paint. But now you're wondering. What's next? Every great artist has a style that makes their work unmistakably theirs. Think, M G. And if you're like me, you probably felt that having a unique style is the key to success. But what if your art style feels all over the place? What if you love so many different styles that you can't seem to settle on one? Or maybe you feel like every artist online has it all figured out, except you? I don't really get it. And you're not alone, and you're definitely not behind. So let's figure it out together. Hi friends. My name is Bina, and I'm an artist with a background in fine arts. I created a scores to be the resource. I wish I had during my art school days. For years, I could replicate any style perfectly, earning praise from teachers, making the best copies of other artists. But all that time I didn't have style that felt like me. That frustration led me to develop a process to find my true RStyle. And now I want to share it with you. In this class, I'll guide you through an exercise designed to uncover your unique R style step by step, using simple tools like paper and gouache paints. But feel free to use any materials that you prefer. In this class, we're going to cover what an RStyle really is and the common misconceptions, how to set a goal that acts as your Northstar, practical exercises to unlock your creativity, how to find inspiration from your favorite artist and artworks, sketching and creating final drawings in your unique style. How world famous artists develop their art style over time and what we can learn from their journeys. Whether you can draw realistically, but struggle to make your work feel personal or you're jumping between different styles and feeling lost, this class is for you. Finding your art style isn't about endless practice. It's about intentional experimentation and reflection. I'll help you take actionable steps to discover a style that feels authentic to you. I hope you're excited to start this journey. So let's dive into the first lesson. See you there. 2. Materials and class project: About class and project. To help you uncover your unique style, we'll work on a project that's broken into several manageable steps. Each next video will guide you through the process step by step. By the end of this class, you'll have one sheet of paper filled with sketches, a personalized salmon color palette, and one finished drawing created based on one of your sketches. And the first step in that process will be choosing your materials. Step one, choosing art materials. You can use whatever medium excites you. Acrylics, oil pastels, digital tools, like procreate, anything you like. I don't want it to limit you here. Brought up, if you're feeling unsure about your materials, don't worry. Remember that many famous artists like Sala Dar Di worked in multiple mediums. Yet their style remained recognizable. The material is just a tool. The essence from your style comes from you. But if you're interested in my brooch, here's what I like to use for this exercise. For paper, I recommend using thin of white sketch paper like this one. Why off white? Because it reduces the pressure to create something perfect. The neutral tone feels more forgiving and encourages experimentation. You can find affordable options online at art supply stores or even second hand. For drawing tools, I prefer to use pencil for sketching or just a pen and gouache for a painting. But choose medium you are comfortable with or you're excited to try like watercol pencils, markers, or even charcoal. Don't worry too much about making the right choice because it doesn't really matter that much. And the exportation is a part of the journey. Start with whatever materials you feel drawn to today. And if they don't feel quite right, switch things up on your next page of sketches. Is the part of the process. It's okay to explore, change your mind and refine as you go. And when you're done, don't forget to share your project in the project and resources tab. I'd love to see your work and give you feedback. As well, before the next video, don't forget to download the workbook template from the project tab. We'll use it to set your goal and keep track of your ideas. We'll use in the lessons finding your goal and creating a list. But I'll see you in the next video. 3. Debunking Art Style Misconceptions: The bunking art style misconceptions. You'll figure it out, or it will come naturally, paint 100 times, experiment until something clicks. When you're searching for advice on ArtStyle, you'll often encounter phrases like these. While these statements sound encouraging, they rarely provide actionable steps. Let's break why this advice often doesn't lead to the results you're hoping for. First, painting by prompt, for example, Ink Dauber. Participating in art challenges like Ink Tauber can be fun and inspiring you're given daily prompts, which help build your imagination and improve your technical skills. But here's the catch. The prompts dictate subject matter, which means you are not necessarily exploring what truly interests you. These challenges often encourage you to try different styles or mediums, but they rarely help you or find consistent style. Practice doesn't equal style. It's a fantastic way to build discipline and skills, but it doesn't inherently lead to finding your unique visual identity. I participated in prompt based challenges myself and enjoy the creative workflow. However, I found myself jumping from one style to another trying different techniques without a clear sense of who I was as an artist. These exercises taught me to experiment, but they didn't help me to discover what was uniquely mine. The hundred drawings advice. This advice suggests that you'll find your style after completing 100 sketches or paintings. While there is value in repetition, here's why this approach doesn't work. When I tried this approach, I became skilled at creating quick sketches, but felt no closer to discovering a cohesive style. It was only after reflecting on what I truly wanted to express that I began to see patterns in my work. Experiment, and it will come to you. Experimentation is essential to growth, but on its own, it's not enough to uncover your style. Without clear goals or reflection, experimentation can feel aimless. You're trying lots of things, but you are not learning from them. With so many techniques, mediums and styles to explore, might feel more confused than focused. And the next video we'll dive into practical exercises that peer experimentation with analysis, helping you to refine your style. Let's leave this fake advice in the past, and we'll try some more actionable steps. See you in the next video. 4. Finding Your Goal: Finding your goal. While goal setting matters and finding your art style, after graduating from two art schools, one thing became very clear to me. Art education often feels disconnected from reality. In the school, the focus is often on developing technical skills and meeting teachers' expectations. While these skills are important, they're rarely aligned with the deeply personal reasons. Most of us start drawing in the first place. And this lesson will focus on something that art school often overlooks, setting a personal meaningful goal for finding your art style. Everyone draws for different reasons, and understanding your unique motivation is key to shaping your journey. Before we dive into exercises and techniques, ask yourself, what is your end goal for developing an arts style? For some, it might be creating recognizable portfolio for commercial purposes like selling illustrations, licensing patterns, or building a brand. For others, it might be more personal expressing yourself, finding joy in your art, or building a cohesive body of work you can be proud of. Here's why this distinction matters. If your goal is commercial, you'll need to study trends, understand market demands, and find a style that appeals to a specific audience or industry. If your goal is personal, the focus shifts inward. It's about discovering what resonates with your favorite colors, themes, and techniques, and creating work that feels deeply authentic. It's important to note that these goals aren't mutually exclusive. You can absolutely develop a personal style and monetize your work later. However, being clear about your primary goal will definitely help you approach this journey with purpose and focus. Defining your specific goal. A good goal is more than a vague wish. It's specific, measurable, attainable, time based, and meaningful. Let's break this down. And here's an example of a clear goal. My goal is to find a drawing style that feels personal and authentic. I want to create work that I'd be proud to display in my home using soft, muted colors and nature inspired themes. My aim is to develop a consistent style that can be recognized across at least 50 pieces of work. I'll dedicate the next 12 months to refining my style through focus practice and reflection. My priority is to create for myself, but I'm open to selling prints in the future. And here are steps to define your goal. Start with your motivation. Why do you want to develop an art style? Is it to express your identity or emotions? Build a portfolio for a specific industry, create a cohesive collection of work, or explore your creativity and have fun. Make it measurable. How will you know when you achieved your goal? Will it be when you've created a cohesive collection of ten, 50 or 100 works when you feel confident enough to share your work publicly or sell prints? Set a timeline. Well you don't need to rush, setting a timeline can help you stay focused. For example, I'll dedicate the next six months to exploring different styles and techniques, or by the end of the year, I want to have at least 20 pieces that reflect my style. Make it meaningful. Why is this goal important to you? Why setting a goal matters? By defining your goal, you are giving yourself a roadmap. Instead of feeling overwhelmed or aimless, you'll know exactly what you're working toward and why. This clarity will make the process of finding your art style more intentional, enjoyable, and rewarding. Now you can take five to 10 minutes to write down your goal using this framework, and you can use the template for this, which you can find in the resources of this class. And then I'll meet you in the next video, where we'll take the first steps towards achieving your goal by analyzing the art you admire and understanding what inspires you. Let's dive in. 5. Gathering Visual Data (a.k.a. Finding Pictures): Gathering data. Now that we figured out our goals and gathered our materials, let's start collecting data. This sounds serious and complicated, but it's actually quite simple. Think of this as creating a gallery of inspiration taller just for you. Like behind me. Chances are, you already have a enterrs account or Instagram or Tumbler filled with R that inspires you. Why are we doing this? Without visual examples, it's hard to articulate what you love. What resonates with you and what you'd like to incorporate into your own artwork. By gathering references, you'll begin to notice patterns, preferences, and themes in your taste. This is the foundation of your unique style. To begin, you'll need a platform where you can save and organize visual materials. A Pinterest account is a fantastic choice, but you can also use alternatives like Instagram or your saved images on the phone. Make sure your chosen platform allows you to organize these visuals into different collections or folders. You create two boards or collections. First board will be artwork inspiration. This board is for collecting examples of artists work. Focus on pieces that immediately grab your attention. These might include specific styles, color palettes, techniques or teams that resonate with you. Don't overthink your selections, save anything you feel drawn to even if you're not sure why. The second board will be photo references. Board is for gathering real world images or photographs that inspire you. These could include landscapes, objects, people, animals, or textures. Your goal is to collect visual material that excites you or could serve as a reference for your own creations. So here is my completely new Pinterest account that I just created. And let's create two new boards. One will be called Artwork Inspiration, and the second will be photo references. Here we go. Now we can start by saving some pictures that you like. I think if you're starting completely from scratch, it will definitely take some time, and it definitely feels a little bit overwhelming. But if you already know some things, for example, I enjoy looking at paintings that have flowers that have plants. So let's search plants. And look at this. I really like these photos, so let's save them. And spend about 15 to 30 minutes gathering visuals for each board. Right now, I will skip to my two curated boards that I previously made, and I will show you what we'll be working with. So here are my reference pictures. And here are the artworks that I really enjoy and really like, and I'll take inspiration from these artworks. But now we will jump into the next video where we'll write down some notes based on these saved images, and I'll meet you there. 6. Analyzing Your Boards and Drawing Insights: Analyzing your boards and drawing insights. Once you created your boards, our next task is to look at all the examples we have saved and make notes and insights. Because just saving pictures doesn't give us much. It doesn't enough to feel your growth as an artist to truly learn from your inspirations, you need to actively analyze your saved pictures, your saved boards. And this process will help you uncolored patterns, preferences, and your visual taste guiding you towards elements that you'd like to incorporate more into your own artwork. Use the questions I'll give you to guide your analysis. Write down your observations in an e book or on a piece of paper because you'll need to keep this paper in front of your eyes in the next video and the next task. And I printed out a document with a template, as you can see that I made to make it easier to understand what needs to be written down. And you can find this document under the tab projects and resources and print it out yourself. So let's look at our boards of saved artworks and write down your answers on these questions. That will be the second page of this document. And the first question is, what are the predominant colors in the saved artworks. And based on the artworks that I saved, I definitely see lots of green. So let's write that down. I see beige backgrounds. I see some blue backgrounds or blue dries, blue water sometimes. So let's write that down as well. And we can see a little bit of yellow and sometimes a little bit of purple as well. So let's write that down as well. And the next question, are the colors muted pastel or neon? Maybe they're bold. And from the pictures that I saved, sometimes it's a little bit difficult to tell, but I think most of the pictures are mostly muted. Do these pieces share a common mood, for example, bright and joyful, dark and moody, serene and calm. And I think the pictures that I saved are mostly I would say they are dreaming and some of them are call, and they give me a feeling like a vintage maybe style. So let's write that out as well. What mediums do you think the artists used, for example, watercolor ink, digital painting or mixed medium? And I think this question could be a little bit tricky for some to answer because from the first glance, you can't always tell what exactly artists use in their artworks. But you could write down your assumptions or skip this question if it's too difficult to answer. But from the paintings that I saved, I can assume that some of these paintings are made with gouache or at least I could recreate these paintings using gouache paints. So let's write them down. And I think most of these paintings are painted using wall paints because this is the most popular material that artists use. So let's write that down. And the next question is, do you notice any textures, brush strokes or fine lines? I think from the paintings that I saved that sometimes we can see loose brush strokes, not always, but I want to write them down anyways. Because I like when paintings look flowy and there gives a sense of freedom. And I think sometimes artists use this dry brush technique, for example, and this painting. Again, it could be a wrong assumption, but I could try to recreate it by using dry brush technique and see if it works or not. Gary subjects and themes. What subjects appear most often? And I think we see lots of trees. So lots of plants and flowers, and just different kinds of laurels. We can see some butterflies. So birds. And I can see that I like some cute animal shapes. But I'll just write down cute animals. The next question is, Are you drawn to people, animals, landscapes, abstark shapes or something else? And I definitely say that I mostly like some kind of landscapes or a single object. But a simple background. Do the subjects have a story or a theme connecting them and looking at these pictures, I think could be like, some kind of magic. So write down magical. And maybe mystical nature. These paintings evoke like a sense of of wonder and other wilderness. So I'll write that down. Okay. And the last category is what other details can you notice? And I think I like some spirals, some flowing shapes. I'd say. Let's write that down. Let's see what else. I like when the objects have some kind of glow to them, so they look a little bit more moody and interesting. You know, like glowing flowers or something similar to that. And I know that I really like prints with the intricately painted borders. Like a part of the painting itself. Let's see if I can find good examples for that. Like in this example right here. And the last question, what would you like to try replicating or incorporating into your own artwork? And I think I like textured but simple backgrounds. Like in this example, Mm I like soft gradients, like in these paintings. The last task is to write down a list of things that we like. You could go through your photo references, your second board that you created and write down ten to 15 items or things you find interesting. And I think looking at my photo references board, I can definitely see that I say lots of plants, but I'll write down one specific one. Let's choose Blackberry bush. And you can write down these descriptions quite simple, but detailed enough to visualize. And you don't have to look only at your photo references board. You can write out the list of things you'd like to draw from the board of your favorite artworks as well. But from this board, I would say I would really enjoy drawing Spider wp with the spider or butterfly and I'll write down butterfly and the Spider rep Now let's look at our board with saved artworks. And from this board, I can definitely see that I like spiral shaped plants, flying birds. I'll like hands. I'll write down open hands. I like these glowing flowers and the darkness. I definitely save a lot of paintings with Moody Force, so let's write that down. Let's see what else? I like castles. With tourns. Why not? Let's write that down as well. I like glowing dandelions. I cute. Animals and plants. I can see some bond. What's write down. I like I like when there are some animals in the pond and like fishes or frogs. And I would prefer frogs in the bond. And a boat boat on the lake. And I think that will be enough for the next task that we'll do. But you've made a lot of progress so far. Keep up the good work, and I'll see you in the next video. 7. Choosing Color Palette: Choosing colour palette. Now let's move on to painting. Let's start by choosing limited colour palette that you like, and these will be the basic colors of your art style. Of course, in your works, you can use more colors, but this palette will be more convenient to navigate and see what is the most important. Like you see right here, choosing a limited color palette helps you unify your work, and it gives your art recognizable identity, while you can always expand and adjust to your palette. Having a core set of colors definitely simplifies your creative process and keeps your style consistent. And in this lesson will create a seven color palette. You can see here more, but we will choose only seven, and I think that will be enough. And you'll choose the seven colors inspired by the images and artworks you analyzed earlier. And these colors will serve as the foundation of your artyle as the building blocks. And I'm going to paint these colors on paper about 30 by 40 centimeters or 12 by 16 ", but you can choose a different paper if you like, and it's like of white colored paper. But I got it secondhand, and it definitely helps eliminate unnecessary stress regarding the use of the expensive materials, especially if you are trying something new and you want to experiment, then it's much better to choose something that you are not afraid to use. And maybe you can find something second hand as well. So it'll be cheaper and you'll not have to invest a lot of money into trying out something new. And we'll position the calpel right here on the edge of the paper because in the center and the middle, we will draw these sketches. And next, I'll draw seven circles using a bottle cap like this one, because it'll make them a little bit more perfect and unified, but it's not a necessary step. You can skip this and just paint them with paintbrush. Now return to your artwork and inspiration photo references board and look closely at the colors in your saved images and use the following tips to identify your palette. First, identify your dominant colors. Which colors appear most frequently across all of your saved works and maybe even references. Are there specific shades, for example, warm yellows or deep blues, light blues, maybe soft pinks that consistently catch your eye. Then consider supporting colors. What secondary colors complement the dominant ones? Maybe some yellows here and there, maybe some pink or purple colors. These might be background colors or highlights or even subtable accents. Now using your observations, select seven colors to form your core palette, and here's how to structure your palette. First, choose three dominant colors. Those will be your main colors you'll use most often, then you choose two supporting colors. Those will be complimentary shades that balance the dominant colors, then choose one highlight color, a color to draw attention or add vibrancy, for example, bright yellow or white and choose one dark color, such as black or purple for shading purposes. And let's take another look at the colors I wrote down in the template, and you can see what you've chosen as your response to a question at the first question that we studied before. So I wrote down here green, beige, blue, a bit of yellow, and a bit of purple. That's five colors. So I'll have to think about two more colors to add to my color palette. Now, let's mix those colors. I'll use gouache, but you can use any other medium you like. I have this really popular HimiGuach set, and I have my little palette that I'll use to mix the colors. And I'm going to start mixing these five colors, and then I'll see what colors I'm missing and decide on the last two colors that I don't know yet. And we'll use the soft brush and a little bit of water. To mix those colors up. They don't have to be perfect. You can change those colors later if you think they don't represent the RSL that you would like to see. But I'll start with the green color. And I never like to use the colors straight from the palette because they definitely don't represent the color palette and the RL that I like. I like muted colors. And to make muted colors, I'll have to mix all the seven colors. I'm not going to take any of the colors straight from the gouache set. And I'll mix a little bit of light the green. Those colors don't have to be perfect. They can just represent the mood. But when you're going to paint your paintings, you can change a little bit those colors according to the subject that you're painting. That's totally fine. And I made this green color a little bit more muted. Let's see my codon references and decide if it's a good fit or not. If it's good enough, then we will just add it to the first circle. And I definitely like this color. Next, I'll have to mix beige color. I'm going to make it a little bit lighter. I don't really like this color. So I will change my beige color a little bit. Let's see. It's a little bit better, but it's missing some of the pink tones. I think. And yes, I like it more, but I want to add more white, that'll be good enough. Amazing. Now let's mix some blue. I will just use some of the beige color that I already mixed on my palette and use it kind of as a base color too. Actually, it really helps to unify these colors if you're integrating some parts of the colors that you already mixed to the new ones that you want to mix, and look at this. It's a little bit more tone down. It's not too bright. So it just gives the same mood as the two previous colors. Okay, three colors done. And now, in my response, I'll roll down to mix a little bit of yellow, and I think it'll be my highlight color. So I'll have to clean my paintbrush, have this little spray with water, and I'll spray a little bit of war on my white paint. Now, let's let's make some of the yellow. And again, to unify this color, I don't want to make it as bright as you can see here. It's a little bit it feels a little bit too much, so I'm adding just a little bit of beige color to this yellow, and it'll be a little bit down down as well, as you can see right here. And this can be my highlight color. For supporting color, probably, I'll choose some of the purple. And again, I'll use some of the blue color to tone down my bifr let's see. And I think it's quite good. As I'm looking at these colors, I don't particularly like the green color right now. I wanted to make it a little bit more tone down as well because it was the first color. It was I think it's a little bit too bright. But don't forget that you're mixing your own colors, so don't repeat after me, but mix your own colors based on the artwork that you saved. And to make these colors tone down, I um I think some brown and some beige colors. I think I have to choose a little bit of a darker color, and it either will be dark blue because we don't have that much blue color right here dark green, or maybe I'll make it something in between in between dark blue and dark green. So that could be that. And let's see what additional color I could add to my palette. And I think it could be gray color or maybe brighter blue color because my purple color looks a little bit similar to gray, and I think we could add bright blue color. So let's mix first of all, bright blue, and then I'll mix a little bit of dark color. And I think it's a good enough color. Now let's mix dark dark green, dark blue color. Add a little bit of black and a little bit of brown. And let's see. And I definitely like this color, it's something in the middle between green and blue colors. And as for my accent color, I would prefer to make the beige color, maybe a little bit more pinkish or this one. But for now, I think it's good enough. This is how my color palette looks like. And if you're working with traditional media like paints, it's a good idea to premix small watches of your chosen colors because it will be easier to work with those colors later. That saves time during the painting process and ensures consistency across all your works. And as well, it's totally okay if your initial choices don't feel perfect because this is a part of the process. If something doesn't look right, you can swap out the color for a different shade later on in the process. Now that you created the palette, let's move on to testing these colors and a piece of paper right here. We will draw some sketches in the next video using these colors right here to practice how you can apply your color palette to your sketches and I'll meet you in the next video. 8. Drawing Sketches: Drawing sketches. And now let's get to the most anticipated part. Let's develop your art style through painting. Open your boards and saved pictures and put the list you made in front of your eyes. Let's find our list. Now take a look at all the pictures you save and just look through all these pictures and read through your list. And you can take a few minutes to look through all these pictures and images. But then I'm afraid you won't like the next step, but you have to close all the pictures and put your phone away because you can't look at the pictures anymore. Let's put our own way. Why are we doing this? Because finding your art cell is about tapping into your own unique perspective and not copying someone else's work, not copying other artists as well. And drawing for memory allows you to internalize the elements that resonate most with you, like colors, shape, subjects, and reinterpret them through your own lens. I hated this kind of assignment in art school. I'll be honest. But since I experienced this, I definitely think this exercise is really effective. And I know that it can be scary to start drawing something from memory, especially who have never done similar tasks. But you just have to start. Just put you in this situation and start by drawing your first line. As well, you already know the colors and the list with themes with what you like is in front of your eyes as well. So it should be a little bit easier to start. Your goal is to create some quick sketches based on notes and themes that you identified earlier. And as well you can sketch more or you can sketch a little less. It's definitely fine. And don't aim for perfection. These are meant to be loose and experimental and fast. So I'll begin by drawing free hand seven rectangles that we will fill in later. And here are my sound blocks 12, three, four, five, six, seven. And now we'll start by drawing some sketches. Let's look at our list. And I'll be drawing with a pencil. But I used to paint with, uh, just bow pen because you can't erase the lines then. And it definitely encourages you to just do it and don't overthink. So if you're willing to try, I can draw your sketches with a Bandoner marker. But right now I will use bentl. And then I'll just I'll just start. I think I want to draw some butterflies. I see that I mentioned them in my list. So I'll just sketch some butterflies here, and I mentioned some thorns. So maybe I will sketch some thorns like this. And I wrote the Spider wp. So I could I don't really know how to draw a spider wrap because I'm not looking at any references, but just just paint something similar. And to be enough for these sketches, you don't have to be perfect. So here you can see, I looked at my list. I saw Bird butterfly, Spider Rap, and somewhere here, I saw thorns and this is our first sketch. Let's paint the next sketch. I think that this could be a good landscape. So for example, flowers and vase would not be a good fit for this horizontal rectangle. But let's see what could be a good fit for this rectangle. And I think either a boat in the lake or I could do some going dandelons and frog in the pond or Blackberry branch. Let's see. I could do and I don't know. Right now, it feels like a boat, so it could be boat. It could be pond. And I wrote down that I like spiral shaped things. So let's think of a way maybe to add some spirals here and there. I wrote down that I like cute animal shapes. So I'm thinking maybe I could add here some kind of animal, and I think that could be a horse or someone similar. As you can see, I'm not able to draw horse from my memory, it looks like a cow, so but be a cow, as well. But some kind of animal, and it's not for a sketch. But actually, I'm not sure what's the position of this animal. Maybe it's like that, and we can just erase that part. And I'm starting to overthink it right now so you can see it, and it's not good. It's not good to overthink stuff. But it has some kind of animal here, and spirals, water could be some flowers. I'll roll downing glowing flowers, glowing, glowing dandelions, but it could be any other flower as well. And could grow. So here's my second sketch. Now, I was considering painting this rectangle here, and let's see what's left. It'll be a branch with blackberries or glowing dandelions. I'm thinking about blackberry branch with berries. And to make it interesting, I could either make some kind of interesting intricate board right here. But I'm not sure about the composition. I'm not sure about the composition right here. Could be nice. Okay, we have blackberry branch as well. Let's see what else we can do. H boton age. Now we have these glowing flowers and moody forest. So as well spiral shaped plants as well. Moody forest could be like this. Maybe some rivers right here. Maybe it's enough that there will be no flowers. Moody dark forest like this. So I think this vertical rectangle would be good for flowers in a vase. So let's make some kind of interesting vase. Why make it simple. And it could be actually spiral shaped plants. Maybe this thing could be like decorated in tiles, but I'm not sure. It doesn't matter that much, so I dart like it has some tiles. And the background could be really simple and textured. So that would be flowers and vase. Now I roll down dandelions, as well, and I'll roll down open hands, maybe open hands with dandelion. As you can see, I'm not sketching those hands perfectly. Just something at least a little bit recognizable those h hands, it could be those glowing dandelions. Maybe it's not that a good idea, I'm not sure yet. Maybe maybe I like the idea of flying birds and maybe these hands. They could be flying birds. Right? Like, small small flying birds. A collection of lying birds and the open hands. I think it looks interesting. Yeah, I really like the sketch right now. And here we can add like some stars as well and the Spider b to make it more interesting because I mentioned adding stars right here. And I'm starting to overthink it again, so we need to move on to the last sketch and what's left? Would be dandelions and castle. But I'm not sure. What if it would be dandelions in the circle, like, right here. And there could be, like, a little small mouse castle. I'm not sure of the shape of the castle, as I'm not looking at any references whatsoever. But, um, from my memory, could be something like this. I don't know. I really like some of the ideas I came up with. For example, I like these hands, but birds, combining all of your ideas for things to draw is such a good idea. It'll make your sketches so much more interesting. But now we can move on onto the next video where we will color these sketches. 9. Coloring Sketches: Coloring sketches. So here are all my finished sketches. You don't have to color them with paints. It's my preferred method because I think it's just faster to do it that way. And as well, avoid spending too much time on a single sketch, aim for 7 minutes per piece. And if I isn't working, move on to the next one without judgment. And how I like to start is to start with the things that I know that should be the certain colors. For example, I know that this is probably grass and grass is probably green. So let's paint it green. And here's my little palette so you can see how I work. I have that color right now on my paintbrush, so maybe we can start with the darkest color. And I know that I've written down Moody forest, so I think the forest should be dark. And I know that I like gradient, so I think I could make some gradient right here with this dark color. Then I will move on to the next color. As well, what else could be dark? I think this pond right here could be dark green, but mostly dark color because I want to paint glowing flowers as I written down here. And to make things glow, they need lots of contrast. So the pond should be kind of a darker color. And yeah, don't make these sketches perfect. Make them fast. So you can see lots of ideas come to life faster. And I use these gouache paints when I'm sketching, like watercolur paints, as you can see, I water them down quite a lot, so they definitely have this feel of watercolor paints. So here we go. And this background will be probably dark as well. And the butterflies will be like and the spider wrap will be light. So I'll add some of the darker spots, for example, right here, and the smells probably will be darker color. I want to make a gradient right here. The darker color. There's some blue color in my paintbrush. You know, we will incorporate that as well. Here we go. I want to make this background dark, as well. So let's make it dark. Let's leave butterfly slight and some star slight and thorn light. And I'm not going to make the sketch too dark because the main point of these sketches is to just get the point cross. And those sketches are only for you. So if you get your idea that the background should be dark, then you don't have to make it black. It can stay like lighter color and just represent the dark background right here. So I definitely know that I would like to make this background blue because the hands will be warm color, so the background could be a contrast, and the background could be, like, a beautiful blue color. So let's make it blue. There's just a tiny bit of paint left on my palette, and I think it's perfect. Here we go. I think the birds could be darker color. And let's paint them. This dark blue, green color. Like, so yeah, it's good. Now, I know that this background should be green, so let's paint it green. And as you can see, I'm not spending too much time to make these sketches perfect. Because remember, these sketches are not final pieces. They're just stepping stones to help you uncover patterns and your preferences and develop natural flow in your style. I think the beige color could be good for the frame. I actually think the mouse could be like purplish, pinkish color. A little bit different color. Or not the mouse, or the castle could be like purplish color. Spine. And the frame could be, like, um bluish color. And what I like about gouache or sketches is that I can start to thin it out and paint it like watercolor paints. But then if I don't like certain areas, I can make it thick and cover it up with a different color. And it would be difficult to do that with watercolor paints. So I want to dot a bit of yellow right here, and I think the background could be pinkish purplish color because I think it looks really interesting. Like this yellow color right here and pink purple sky and probably blue, blue river and then some kind of neutral color. Actually, now that I'm looking at this, this water down dark color looks really similar to this dominant color. And here we go when sketch is done. So I think that these leaves could be green right here. As for the background, maybe purplish color as well. And as for the berries, let's make them really dark. They don't look dark, but that's okay. Let's add a little bit of purple. Those will be the blackberries. And as for the sketches, I don't know how to draw this branch or blackberry bush, but I could just sketch out the composition, you know, I know that there are berries that I want to draw and leaves and just see how the composition could look like. And as for the frame, I could make it blue or yellowish or I can mix all these colors together and see how they look like. I think it looks pretty fine. Let's finish painting cans. As I mentioned earlier, they could be light pink, light light beige color. I'm still using this palette that I used for mixing up all of these colors right here. So this is the other reason why I like gouache waketching because if the paint dries down, it's totally fine to add a little bit of water to it and then use it once again. And the sketch is done. So what's left? It's this background br here, and I think I want to make it beige color. So let's paint it beige. And the vase, again, could either be purplish color. And I think I'll make it a little bit blue. I actually really like this technique of making gradient as well, right here, like, making the edge just blue, and the flour itself could be, like, just green. And maybe, flour could be actually purple and the boat could be, for example, beige color. And now it's our last sketch right here. I think I want to make some butterfly kind of white color, but with the blue bright blue outline. The other butterfly could be, the stars could be, like, yellowish color. Thornes could be greenish color, and the butterfly, the other butterfly could be purplish color, actually. And this butterfly could have some kind of a pattern on it swings, yeah. I don't know, maybe later when I'm going to make it as a big sketch, I could add a spider right here in the center. Or maybe not. But overall, I think we have finished our page with sketches. So I think it looks really good. And this exercise pushes you to trust your instincts and focus on what feels meaningful to you by drawing from memory, because you're distilling your inspirations into something truly uniquely yours. And in the next video, we'll take your favorite sketches and begin refining them into more detailed studies. So I'll meet you there. 10. Choosing a Sketch: Choosing a sketch. You learned a lot about the goals, color palette, and sketches used in art style, and now it's time to explore one of the first steps to build a successful artistic voice and paint your first painting. I know that this process can feel daunting, especially if you're unsure about certain details or you worry about making mistakes, but starting is the most important step. And in this lesson, we'll walk through the process of choosing a sketch, scaling it up, and refining it into a detailed artwork. In step one, choosing a sketch. To keep the selection process fun and intuitive, try this simple technique. Close your eyes and move your hand randomly over the sketches, then stop. On one of the sketches, open your eyes and just commit to it. I know it sounds a little bit challenging. So instead of that, what you can do is to choose your favorite sketch of all these sketches that we've painted and just try and scale up your favorite sketch. Right now, I'll do different approach. I'll take the round object, and here you can see an acorn, and I'll just draw it and here's the chosen sketch. So we'll paint the ways and the outcome to this exact painting. This approach helps you bypass our thinking. We hesitate because we fear making the wrong wrong choice or doubt or abilities and by randomly selecting a sketch. You give yourself permission to simply start without a judgment, and I think it's more fun, as well. But I know it could be too difficult for some of you. So if you're not ready, choose the sketch that's your favorite and commit to painting this sketch. And that will be totally fine, as well. Then step two is scaling up the sketch, and we'll be painting this sketch right here. And you can use a piece of paper or canvas that's proportional to your sketch, but larger in size. It not necessarily needs to be larger. You can paint on smeller skew, and I can show you some of the examples that I previously made. So, for example, I have this previous exercise that I made. Here are all of the sketches that I made, color palette. And here you can see, I painted this sketch right here, and I scaled it up, and I'll show you the example right here. The same sketch right here, just bigger. And I made it kind of like a poster that you can hang on your wall. And we'll do the same in the next video. You don't necessarily have to do this kind of big painting right here, you can do a smaller one, and I'll show you the example. For example, right here, I have a few other examples. You can do much, much smaller works like right here. And I have these sketches right here. I painted this sketch right here on a larger scale, and that will be this painting right here. It's still small, but it's a little bit bigger and a little bit more detail. And I painted this sketch right here of the fish, and it looks like this. It's really small and cute. And then I painted this sketch. This sketch right here on a bigger scale. Then I painted this bigger sketch right here, and it looks like this. And some of these paintings I made with oil paints like these two, and some of them are made with gouache paints. And as you can see, the results are quite similar, even if you are using different kind of medium. So it doesn't really matter that much which medium you'll use. You can experiment and see which mediums you like. And as well as you can see from my sketches right here, I painted much more sketches than just seven. I don't know the exact count, but it's definitely much more, and you can do the same if you want to. But we'll come back to the sketch right here because I'll be using the same paper. As I use for the sketches, I'll use the same paper, and then I'll just slightly redraw the sketch using pencil. And step three will be filling in missing details as you enlarge the sketch. You might notice gaps in your knowledge about how to draw specific details. For example, the proportions of a figure might fell off where you may realize that the perspective isn't working as intended. And during this stage, it's completely normal to encounter areas where your skills aren't yet where you'd like them to be. And instead of feeling discouraged, treat these as opportunities to learn and to explore. And you can write down what's challenging you. For example, I need to practice drawing hands in different poses or I need to study perspective, and then you can just add details and refine your work using references as needed. And in the next video, I'll show you a demonstration of the process of creating the next painting and my thought process. So you can see how I make these paintings detailed and how I use references. And I'll meet you there. 11. The First Drawing: The first drawing. You've come a long way already. Keep up the great work. Now we're going to start creating the first painting, based on the sketch. We chosen the last video, and I'm going to paint it using gouache on the same paper that I used for the sketches. But you can choose any size of paper, any size of canvas that you like. I'm going to use this sheet of paper. I marked out the line where I'm going to cut the sheet of paper later, and I'm also likely to use such coarse brushes in order to make the work more textured and achieve the dry brush technique, as I mentioned in the exercise we filled in earlier. So I'm going to start by drawing the vase and the flower as I did earlier in the sketch. Now let's move our sketches to the side right here and I'm going to start painting the vase. So let's begin by sketching the same sketch but on a bigger scale. It doesn't have to be perfect, you can change it however you'd like it to look. And you can look at the sketch from afar to see how well have you painted the sketch. So now as you can see, it's approximately the same sketch as I drew right here. And our next step would be painting, right? But to understand what exactly we need to paint, we need to make this sketch a little bit more detail. For example, I haven't decided how my flower should look like. I just approximately found a position where I want to paint this flower, but I haven't decided on what exact flower I'm going to paint. So now our next step is to find these details, find these missing puzzles. And to do that, you can look at the specific references for these exact details. For example, I need to figure out what flower I want to paint and I need to figure out how I want to paint this as, for example. And I'm going to start by searching for the purple flower because painted purple. So that's the first clue. That purpose, we're going to use Prints account again. And in my example, that will be purple, wildflower or just purple flower. I prefer to paint wildflower. So here are my options, and I actually really, really like this flower right here. This is the first bottle piece. I just need now to make it a bit more detail right here. Oh this is the second spot that I did not know how to paint. I decided that I want to make leaves like these spirals right here, but I drew some of the leaves right here, and I did not know how exactly I want to paint them. So I'll take the reference from this picture right here and I'll try to replicate these leaves right here. And again, I'm not making a copy of this reference picture. I'm just taking the details that I think would look nice. And trying to draw something similar to this flower right here without necessarily copying it or you don't even have to make it look similar. You can take inspiration of some kind of details or some kind of textures. For example, I think adding these spikes right here would be cool. So this is going to be my flower right here. These spiky leaves right here. So the next question I need to answer is how I want to draw this vase because it takes the majority of my sketch. You don't necessarily have to make it detailed. For example, you can just make it an interesting texture, but you can search up the textures that you like and see how you could replicate. Texture that you're interested in. I want to make near a little opening like this. I and then if something's missing, for example, I'm still not sure about the space right here. I can change it along the way where I can add additional details if I feel like something is missing. And I'm going to use gouache paints and my little palette right here. And actually, another thing that you need to keep in mind that we're going to use the same swatches right here. So I think I'm going to make some kind of combination between these two colors as our base layer, and then maybe I'll try to do the dry brush technique. And for the background, I'm going to use this big brush just to make the process a little bit faster. And I know that you usually don't use coarse brushes to paint with gouache, but I already experimented a lot with different kinds of brushes, and I definitely know that this is my preference, and this is just a part of the process. I can try out different materials as you explore different sketches, as you look at the reference pictures and try to guess what kind of medium your inspiration artists use. And I know that I'm gonna build this painting layer by layer. So I'm not that afraid to make it from the first go. And as you can see, I'm not worried to make it 100% perfect. I'm just trying my best and experimenting as I go for example, I haven't decided on a background if I'm going to include a table or not. And that's something I can decide later on in the process. But right now, I'm just gonna do it in one solid color. And then I'll see if I like it or not. So my background right here is done for now. It's the first layer. Now I want to paint this flower right here, and I want to see how I could paint the space right here, and then I'm going to come back to the background. Probably a few more times to make it more interesting, to make it maybe more textured. And it's just the way how I like to work. And your way of painting could be completely opposite of that, and it will be totally fine. You don't have to copy me. I'm just showing you how I make my paintings more detail. But this is definitely kind of trial and arrow process because making will complete pieces of art. It's a long and complicated process. But right now, I am going to paint this flower right here, and how I like to paint is if I know certain things, for example, I know that I need to make this background beige color, then I just do it because it's easier for me to start and then see if I like something or not and make these small decisions as I go because sometimes painting process could be extremely overwhelming because we have to do 1,000 decisions at once, which color you want to use, which material, and etcetera, et cetera. So if I know certain things, for example, that these leaves right here should be green, then I can just jump in right in this process and paint these leaves green and then see if I like it or not. If I don't, I can cover it up with a different color, and it's going to be totally fine if I try and fail because it's really easy to fix this mistake. And I'm not, you know, spending 20, 30 minutes figuring out how to make it perfect because it doesn't matter that much in the end, especially if it doesn't allow you to paint or experiment or try out different things. If it's stagnating your progress, then there's no use in overthinking, trying to make something look perfect. So I try to mix this green paint once again, and it's not perfect in terms of the color and the way I'd like it to look. But, again, it's totally fine. I can change that up later on in the process. But as you can see, slowly step by step, something is emerging from the sketch, and we're making quite fast progress because we're not overthinking. So I would say, I'm fine with this stage right here, with these leaves, and I want to move on to the next step. And that would be painting this flower right here. So I know that it should be some kind of purple color. And let's try and mix that up. And I think it lacks something, and I want to add bright colors to it. I know that we don't have this color in our color swatches, but it's okay to add some additional colors to individual paintings if you see that something is missing because it definitely looks a little bit better. This pop of color right here. So my next step is to paint this vase right here, and then we'll get to see what the midpoint of the picture looks like. So I have to mix probably this blue color right here. So I'll apply this brighter blue here on the edges of the space. And then you might think, Oh, it looks like the kindergartener painted this flower and this painting right here, and to not make it look like the work of the kindergartener, we just have to continue and continue experimenting with adding different details. And it depends on how much time you can give this painting. But since this is the demonstration of the process, I'm not going to spend hours and hours on this painting, I'll spend around an hour, and then I'll have to finish this painting. So right now I'm adding some darker colors. So right now, I would say that this is the midpoint of the painting. So let's see what next steps we could apply to make this painting better. For example, this part right here is definitely too dark. I need to make it later. Then I would like to add more colors to these leaves right here. And I definitely think that the vase is missing some kind of pattern. So that's something I could work on next, and then I would like to make this flower right here more detail. I want to cover up these lines right here that the pencil left. Oh, these lines right here. And adding more details as well. So I see the problem, for example, with my sketch right here. It's a little bit too boring out of all the sketches that I think that this is one of the most boring ones, and it's totally fine, but then my one to make this painting better would be thinking on how I could make this painting more interesting. So let's look at the reference pictures, and let's see what else could I add to the background. Let's look at all of the paintings that I saved right here. And to be honest, that looks kind of similar to this painting right here. That I saved. And yeah, I'm thinking just making this background more texture. And to make it more textured, I'm thinking of adding maybe some color using dry brush technique because looking at the examples, I definitely see some kind of use of dry brush. So let's start by trying something interesting. We could add some kind of table right here, and I could do that just by adding more texture and color. So here's one of the ways how you can make the background more interesting. So let's look at the references to see how I could make this flower right here detailed. First, what I could do is to add more contrast to this flower right here. And let's start by doing this exact step. And to add more contrast, I need to add the darkest color from our color palette. And that would look like this. And I like this effect of the dry brush technique. So that's what I'm doing right here. Then we could make this flower more interesting by adding some spikes. Like so by adding some additional pops of color. So my next step would be making this flower more interesting. And I think adding a little bit more color to it to make it look alive. So I don't have this color in my color palette, but I think to make the painting better, I could add some pops of color here and there, just to make the flower more interesting because without it, it looks a little dead and not interesting to look at. And let's add some highlights. The next step could be making these leaves more detailed by adding some dimension to them and some additional colors to make these leaves more light and more interesting. For example, a little bit of brown color here and there, as well, adding some pink make them look more interesting. Now, I'm adding some blue color. As well to make these leaves more life, more interesting. And it's okay if the color doesn't exist in reality. But my main goal is to make this flower look the way I'd like to see on my wall. So it doesn't have to be realistic because I don't really care about that. I just want to make it. Interesting to look at. Next, I'm finishing up with some final details like adding a trim to the vase and an extra leaf on the stem. Then I came across a reference photo of an ancient vase that I really loved. So I decided to transform my vase into something similar, so it would be full of color and be visually pleasing. As you can see, I painted the decorative motif directly with paint without sketching it first. I also added more colors like a touch of pink to make it more vibrant. And now the vase has own little outfit that makes it fun and fashionable. And this is what my final result looks like. I spent about an hour on this painting, so I don't plan on detailing it further, but if I wanted to, I could work some more with lighting and shadows and make the lighting more dramatic and interesting. But I'm completely happy with the results, and I'll see you in the next video where I'll talk more about how the art styles of famous artist evolved. See you there. 12. Looking at Examples from Famous Artists: Looking at the examples from famous artists. When we're searching for a style, it's incredibly helpful to see how others have approached this process throughout history. Every artist's journey is unique, and by examining their stories, we can uncover patterns, lessons, and even inspiration for our own pet. Today, let's look at two iconic artists Hokusai and Wan gong. Their journeys offer valuable insights into how style is developed. Not overnight, but through years of dedication, experimentation, and adaptation. When you hear the name Hokusai, you probably think of this iconic work, the Great Wave of Kanagawa. What we might not know is how long it took him to develop this style and the incredible number of works he created during his lifetime. Hokusai began to truly focus on his art around the age of 30. Does seem late, but it's a reminder that art has no deadline. Over his lifetime, Hokusai created 30,000 works, an astonishing number that reflects his relentless pursuit of improvement. Hokusai was also inspired by European paintings which were becoming more accessible during his lifetime. He integrated elements like perspective and shading into his work, blending them seamlessly with traditional Japanese art. Now, let's talk about Mangog. Bangkok didn't begin painting until he was 27. At first, his work reflected his environment, dark, somber, and inspired by Dutch realism of his time. He painted what he knew, but his work wasn't selling, actually. Realizing he needed to grow, Mangog moved to Paris where he studied impressionism. And work with other artists. He absorbed their techniques, experimenting with brighter colors and looser brushstrokes. This period of study transformed his work completely. Bango's exposure to Japanese art also had a profound impact on his style. He admired its simplicity, both outlines and emphasis on natural beauty. And you can see this influence in his later works, where he combined his unique vision with elements from different artistic traditions. What's fascinating is that the Won gog, we know and celebrate today, the artist of vibrant Sunflowers, didn't emerge until the last two years of his life. It took him about eight years of relentless work and exploration to reach the style that defined him. Lessons from these masters. Both Hakusai and Wan gag show us that finding in our cell is rarely straightforward process. It's a combination of experimentation, continuous learning, drawing inspiration from other artists and artworks, honing your skills through dedicated practice, and allowing your personal experiences and emotions to shape your work. Most importantly, they teach us to be patient with ourselves. Both artists started relatively late in life and faced challenges, but their persistence led them to create works that are celebrated centuries later. And now it's your turn to walk a similar path like Hokusai and Mango. You'll go through phases of experimentation, frustration, and growth. And this process might take years, but each step will bring you closer to discovering your unique voice in the art world. And what's interesting that Mongog's brother was an art dealer. And then he suggested Mongog to work with him. And they both saw an opportunity to sell his works because he he liked to draw when he was a kid or in early years of his life. So they both decided to find a way to sell his works, and it didn't work out as easily as they wished it would. So that's why he never stopped trying to paint something that will bring him profit. So I think that's a really interesting story about Bango. 13. Conclusion and Next Steps: Conclusion and next steps. Before anything else, pause and acknowledge how far you've come. Take a moment to be proud of yourself. Stay curious, not judgmental, and let your heart lead the way. Even in my personal experience, my art style didn't truly stabilize until I had grown and matured as an individual. As a teenager, I experimented constantly shifting between influences like even anime or in bright colors. But as I got older and my taste evolved, now I gravitate towards muted colors, earthy tones, something I could have never imagine loving back then. This is a reminder that your style will reflect who you are at a different stages of your life. When your world is changing rapidly, it can feel impossible to pin down a consistent style. And that's okay. Don't rush the process. It's totally fine. Revisit the task periodically. The exercises and lessons in this class aren't meant to be one time activities. Think of them as tools you can return to over and over again. Every few months or years, revisit this process, sketch new ideas, reflect on how your tastes and preferences have evolved, try new techniques and materials. Don't forget to upload your drawings to the project gallery. I'd love to see your work and feel free to ask me any questions you might have. If you enjoy the course, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Your feedback helps me improve future classes and create content that's even more helpful for aspiring artists like you. Congratulations on completing this class. And thank you, Paul, letting me be part of your artistic journey, and I hope to see you amazing work. 14. Need More Help? Let’s Work 1-on-1: Need more help. Let's work for one on one. But one more thing. Sometimes having a personal guide can make all the difference. If you feel like you need more support or tailored advice, I'd love to offer you one on one session. Cars what a session can include. Personalized feedback. I'll analyze your drawings and help you understand what's working and what areas you could improve. Customized tasks. I can suggest specific exercises designed to help you strengthen your skills and explore your style further. Collaborative drawing. We can work together on a piece where we'll guide you through the process step by step. And we could do this exact exercise together. If you're interested, reach out to me for more details. It's a great way to deepen your practice and continue building confidence in your art. And thank you so much for being with me. Have a great day.