Let's Paint A Charming Night Scene With Watercolor

1. Hello Welcome..!: Dusk and eventual nightfall is such a gift we always take for granted. There is something so comforting about the night, especially those midnight drives. No matter who you are, what troubles you had in the day. Once the blanket of the darkness toxin, you can forget it all even if it is for awhile. Hello, I'm so Greta, watercolor, artist and teacher. Today, I'm going to teach you how to paint a very quiet and simple watercolor night scene. We will start by selecting the appropriate colors, and then we will move on to painting the sky foreground, cottage. And finally, finishing up with Chris and beautiful details. I will be right here guiding you step-by-step throughout the process. And this class is perfect for intermediate to advanced level artist. And if you're a beginner and are familiar with wet-on-wet and riveting techniques. You're welcome to join as well. So see you in class. 2. Art Supplies: To begin by discussing the art supplies, first, I'm going to talk about the brushes, and this is hockey brush number ten from Silver Atelier. I have used this brush for wetting the paper and riveting as well. Other two brushes are from silver black velvet. The bigger one is number 14, and the smaller one is number six. The bigger brush I have used to paint most of the landscape, and the smaller one, I have used only to paint the small details and something sharp like pine trees. If you guys have seen any of my previous classes, you would know I only use Fabriano, a 100% cotton 300 GSM paper. I usually buy the papers in roles and I've got them up into what are the sizes that I want. Today's landscape is in square format. You can see I have cut the paper, this A4 paper into two halves. One is square, the other one is a small patch of paper I used to, I used it for swatching of the colors. Drawback of this Fabriano paper is that it dries up very quickly. So I have adapted to paint faster. And if you guys have Arches paper or a Kansan, you can use those as well, but makes sure the papers are a 100% cotton and 300 GSM. About this acrylic board from Amazon, and it's not glass. And I use it to stick my paper. And the masking tape. A glass jar, and of course, a watercolor palette. Well, to mention about the tissues. Coming to the colors, I have used two brands, Sennelier and white knight. And there is a special color palette curated for this class project, which will be in the next video. See you there. 4. Class Project Part 1 - Prepping & Sketching: Wrapping the paper for this class is going to be a bit different. First, flip your paper on your board. Here. I'm going to tape the paper only on the edges. This is one of my ways of keeping the paper wet for a long time. For this class project, we're going to need for the paper to stay wet for a little while. So, you know, to work on the sky. So I'm opting for this method. And I'm going to suggest you guys to tape your paper in this way as well. Because that's going to make things easier. When we get to the next video. I don't have a double-sided tape, so I'm just using my normal tape that I have. But if you have that, you can use that as well. You're done with the tape, stick your paper to the board. That's it. A very simple way to get amazing results. Now, let's move on to sketching. Sketching is very brief and simple. I do have my trial painting here for a reference. First, we're going to draw a line here about a five centimeters from the bottom of the paper. Later we're going to draw another line on the left diagonally. Make sure to leave a little bit of gap between that main line and the one that we're going to draw now. Leaning towards the right, I'm going to now sketch a cute little cabin. Make sure the cabin is not in the middle of the paper. It should be towards the right. With the walls, the roof, and later the dose. That sketch a very small cabin besides the big one that we have just sketched. And this one should be towards the right side of the paper. Now the pine trees in the background. I'm not gonna go into detail here. We can directly paying them. The interesting. And the final part of the sketching is these poles. There are three of them, and I'm using my ruler just in case, you know, to get the straight lines. The middle one is the shortest of all three poles, and the last one is the tallest. Sketching the poles, we are done with the entire sketch as well. Just in case if you guys want to sketch at your own pace, there is of the sketch, finance sketch down below in the Resources tab. You can go ahead and check the image out of the sketches. Simple. Now let's begin with the fun part that is painting. We're gonna get started with the sky. In the next video we're going to see you guys did 5. Class Project Part 2 - Sky: Let's get started with this guy. And I'm gonna be wetting the paper with clean water. And for this I'm using my hockey brush. Make sure you do not read the cottage area, just the background. Before we get started with this guy, I would like to talk about the wetness of the paper. It should not be dripping wet and it should not be damped. Ada, when you hold your board, agonist the light, you should see the reflection. Just like my paper here. You can see the reflection on the paper of those windows. And that's the pattern parameter that we're going to go with. Taking my silver black velvet number 14 brush. And I'm gonna be taking the Naples yellow fast. Just add the color generously onto the paper. It should be Naples yellow guy is not primary yellow, or else it will give you green color. We have talked about this in a color palette section. After Naples, yellow, I'm gonna go with orange. Just add orange all over the place. We're gonna be covering it up with blue color later. So do not worry. As you can see, I haven't sketched anything here for the sky area. It's because I want to go with the flow. Literally vile painting the clouds. I want to I want the clouds to form themselves on my paper. My adding orange color, make sure you add on the right side of the cortex as well. Because we're not going to be painting any blue color there. That's where the sun is setting. So it's important that it should be in orange color. That's why you are seeing orange on only one side of the cottage and not that aside. Now, let's take blue color. And it's time to form the shape of the clouds. Since this is right off to the sunset, the orange colors should be very scarcely spread out into the sky. So my first step is to add blue color around the orange. So it's been awhile. I think the paper has starting to dry now. So I have to work faster with the blue color. That's why you are seeing my brush move a little faster than before. Just like I have painted very freely with orange color. I'm doing the same with blue color as well. I'm not following any sketch or anything. I'm just adding the blue color around the orange and to the edges of the paper. But make sure you leave just a hint of orange in-between the blue to show that the landscape is after sunset or just before the nightfall. Removing all the extra water from my brush using a tissue paper. And with that damp brush, I am softening the edges of the blue color point. We're going to just go with the flow and see wherever the adjustments that we have to make, we're going to go on make them because the paper is already very close to drying up and I'm not going to be adding any more paint, but the sky is still light in color. So what we're gonna do now is that we're going to keep this for complete drying. And we'll come back and revert the paper. Add one more layer of blue color to make the sky even more darker in color. Just removing all the extra water and paint around the edges. It helps to prevent the backflow of this water and paint into the landscape. We don't want that. Does some extra orange paint that has flown into the foreground area. I'm going to remove it using a little bit of water and the tissue paper. And I'm going to keep this for drying now. And I will see you guys after the paper has completely dried up. Use your hand and see if the paper has completely dried. And only if you sense the dryness, you can proceed with riveting. For riveting, I'm gonna be taking my hockey brush and very gently I'm adding the water. Make sure you're not pressing the brush against the paper. And we have already talked about the ideal wetness of the paper. If you see there is a lot of water, you can just enough. Flip your board and the water will just extra water will just drip into repository or table. Here can clean it up. And if your paper is damp, you may want to add a little bit more water. You can still see the reflection of my windows on the paper and that is the perfect wetness you're going to need. And now I'm gonna be taking a blue color. I'm gonna be adding the blue color generously onto the paper now, while making sure the orange part is still visible, even just a little bit of it because it's easy for the pain to just spread into that orange color because the paper is wet. So keep that in mind. Now going to be removing all the extra water from my brush using a tissue paper. And I'm gonna be making my brush very tan. There are a lot of hard edges here on the paper. I'm going to be softening them using this term, brush. The right side of the cortex should be an orange color like I've mentioned before. But the color that is, I'm seeing here is quite light in color. So I'm gonna be adding one more layer of orange. Now with my silver black velvet number six brush the smaller one, I'm gonna be adding a few lines using blue color. This, we are done with this guy. In the next video, we're going to paint the background pines. And that's the interesting part. So see you there. 6. Class Project Part 3 - Background Pines: Now let's start with the background binds. And I'm gonna be keeping my reference very nearby. And I'm taking my silver black velvet number six brush for this, the smaller one. And I'm gonna be taking indigo color. Let's get started. Can see all the pine trees in the background are completely different in size. So do not paint them in a, in a uniform structure. Make one larger and other smaller, and so on. Now the thing to remember here is to not paint the pines over the truth of the bigger cottage here. And I have talked about the sunset, the orange clouds that I want to be highlighted on the right side of the cartilage. So I'm only painting one large pine tree here. After that. The pine trees will be very small in size. Just along the horizon line. From here onwards, the pine tree should be smaller in size and orange color in the background should be visible to not paint over it. You don't have to paint the pine trees till the edge of the paper. Because we're going to have to still paint the pine trees here at the diagonal line. Remember, once you are done with the pines, you can keep the paper for drawing. And in the next video, we're going to paint the foreground, which is even more interesting than painting these spines. So I'm gonna see you there. 7. Class Project Part 4 - Foreground: Step is to make sure the pine trees have a dried-up. And the second step is to wet the foreground area using I'm using my silver black velvet number 14 brush. And later I have picked up my hacky brush. Now it's very convenient to wet the paper with a flat brush. Remove any extra water? No, by flipping your board. Let's start from light color to the dark. And the light color here is Naples yellow. And add this color very generously onto the wet paper. It's such a nice color to portray the brightness of the night scene in watercolor. So if you have Naples yellow, please use it. If you don't have, you can use Indian yellow color as well. And now I'm mixing French vermilion red color with French ultramarine That is blue color and just a little bit of indigo. And I have this dark purple color. Three places that I'm not adding this dark purple color on the foreground. There are three places where I'm not going to be painting the dark purple on the foreground. The first is along the horizon line. Do not add purple color over there. The glow or the light from the Cortes will be falling over there, so it should not look dark. And the second is beyond the diagonal line that we have sketched before. There'll be pine trees over there. So there is no point in adding dark purple. The last days. That small circle just at the bottom right of the paper. I want to portray light, light falling from one of those street light. So for you guys to better understand what I'm talking about, I have added the final picture on the top of the screen. I also want to let you guys know that this is not the final layer for the foreground. We're gonna be adding one more layer of the shadow purple in one of our later video. The foreground that we are painting now is wet-on-wet technique. So this guy was also wet-on-wet technique. The cartilage that we're going to paint in the next video, and the pine trees in the background are wet on dry technique. I just wanted to let you guys know. Tequila always dries a couple of shades lighter. That's why even though you're seeing the shadow purple in a very dark shade, it will dry up in really light color. That's why we're going to have to paint watercolor in layers. So I think I'm going to stop painting the foreground now. Just for a little more detail. I'm going to take a wet brush and I'm going to splash the water on the foreground. You're not to give that extra detail. I'm going to keep my Paypal for drying. And in the next video, we're going to paint the cartilage. 8. Class Project Part 5 - Cottage: Alright, the foreground has dried up. Now let's start with the best part of this class project, painting the cartilage. I'm starting with Naples, yellow and slowly darken the edges with burnt sienna color. Do not paint anything over the doors. They should be light in lightest color possible. The Naples yellow is still wet. You're going to have to add burnt sienna around it so that the color will spread organically. Whatever the color is around the doors. Let's just drag it very gently. Do not overdo it. The dose and a window in the middle should look lighter in color. The shadow of the roof is falling over here. So I'm just going to add a line using burnt sienna color. Small line, the horizon line as well. Using burnt sienna. Not to differentiate between the cortex and the light that is falling on the road. Let's repeat the same process of adding Naples yellow, and later adding burnt sienna to this small cabin right here. It doesn't have the roof. By the way. Let's paint the roof of this Cortez and I'm using indigo color. I hope you enjoyed painting this very glowy cartilage. So in the next video, we're going to paint the binder on the left side of the paper. You know that diagonal line we have drawn. So I'm gonna see you guys there. 9. Class Project Part 6 - Foreground Pines: Let's get started on painting the pines here. I'm using only indigo color for this. And my silver black velvet number six brush the smaller one. The spine should be larger than the ones in the background. But also make sure to paint them in different height, like we have painted the pines behind the cottage. Random sizes. Use a depth to the painting. This video is not only about painting the pines, we're going to also have to revert and repaint the foreground to make it look a little bit darker, like I have mentioned in one of our previous videos. From the edge of those pine trees, I'm going to just drag the paint down with me and I'm using my syllabus, alright, number 14, brush, as well as the hockey brush to wet the foreground. Obviously the hockey brush is wet. Let's mix the shadow color. I have used a French vermilion red color, French ultramarine blue color, and indigo. Make sure to leave that white space as it is. And paint around it using the dark shadow color. And also do not paint anything over there. The Naples yellow where we have painted just below the horizon line. With the damp brush. I'm going to adjust the paint a little bit later. With a wet brush. I'm going to splatter some water onto the foreground. This is the detail that we have already done in one of our previous video called foreground. So I'm just repeating that. Lets it, I'm gonna see you guys in the next video where we're going to paint the details. 10. Class Project Part 7 - Details: We are finally at the end of the class. Add details at the last, but it's what makes our brachial painting. So let's get started by adding these poles first and later. I will tell you what is the most important part of this video. You can see I'm using a ruler here because I don't ask my hands, they are very shaky. And I'm using indigo color. And I'm using my silver black velvet number six, press the smaller one to paint the balls. Second poll here is the smallest of all the three. Okay, to add these random details that you'll see me. No paint on this bolts. This is the biggest pole and it almost touches the edge of the paper. Or I would say this is the most difficult part for me because like I said, my hands are really shaky and it's very difficult for me to paint these wires on these balls. But I hope you guys paint these wires perfectly. Use a synthetic brush if you have one, because compared to natural brush, the synthetic brush we'll have, we'll give you more control on the paint flow and managed to paint this. Why successfully somehow. Now I'm going to move on to paint tiny little birds on these wires using the same brush and the same paint, indigo. I told you guys that. I will tell you what is the most important part of this video, or should I say, the whole landscape? It's this one. The painting of shadows of these polls. You can see how much difference of this shadow mix. You know, compare the before and after. You will know. The shadow that we are painting here is of that poll. So you guys know the shadow will always be a shade lighter than its subject. So the poll is in indigo color, so I'm using dark purple color, which is already on our palate to paint the shadows. The next thing to paint is the light bulbs on those polls. I'm gonna be painting only two of them. And for that, I'm gonna be taking white color. Now we're going to splatter some indigo paint on the foreground just to add a little bit of depth to the landscape. And with that, we are done with today's class project. I hope you guys had fun. And I'm going to see you in the next video where I'll share a little bit about what we have learned today. So see you there. 11. Final Thoughts : Let me share a few thoughts about this class project. This is a night scene. And we have learned so much. Even though we have only one class project. We have started with the sky. And there we have learned about the right mix of colors to use ultramarine blue and Naples yellow instead of primary yellow to a wide green color. And we have learned how to mix shadow color, the dark purple color. There are a few important techniques that we have practiced here. The wet-on-wet and riveting techniques. And how to get this glowy effect using the right colors and importance of the shadows. So all of these things that you can use to paint your own night scene. Hope you enjoyed painting this class project with me today, and I'm waiting to see all of your projects in the project section below. And if you're on Instagram, please tag me if you paint this so I can share your works. So yeah, see you in my next class. Thank you so much for watching.