Let's Paint Seasons In Watercolor : Create Four Beautiful Seasonal Landscapes

1. INTRODUCTION - CLASS OVERVIEW: Sometimes I feel that seasons are like nature storytellers. Each one arrives with its own colors, light, and emotion, changing not only the landscape around us, but also how we feel. For a watercolor artist, these changing seasons can be an endless source of inspiration, offering a fresh palette and perspective throughout the year. Being a nature enthusiast, I find endless inspiration in these shifts. Hi. My name is Ditty Mitel, a watercolor artist, and an artist doctor. Welcome to the class. I take my inspiration from nature, whether it's flowers, animals, seasonal landscapes, or theme sketchbooks. I've been painting with watercolors for more than six years and nature, especially changing seasons, has always been a constant source of my inspiration. You can see more of my works on social media, where I go by the name Ti Art World on both Instagram and YouTube. This is not just a class. It's a complete course where you will learn all the basics and techniques used for watercolors. In this class, we will paint four beautiful landscapes, each one representing one season. Here, you will learn from the basic outline sketch to how to choose colors for each season. We will study different modes of colors and how they complement each other. How light and shadow work and methods to add layers and depth to our landscapes. I will guide you with all the basic and advanced techniques to be used for painting our landscapes, and we will discover the beauty of granulating colors and how to use them to add beautiful textures. By the end of this class, you will be able to create four colorful landscapes, each one representing different season. This class is designed for all levels, whether you are an advanced learner, who knows all the basics or a beginner, who is just starting with watercolors. So let's dive into the beautiful world of watercolors, not to forget. The main idea is to have fun and love watercolors. See you in the class. 2. Materials Required: Welcome to the class. Let's have a look at the materials we will need for this project. For this class, of course, the most important thing is paper. Today, I'm using Ba hung Cold press 100% cotton watercolor paper, as it has a very beautiful texture which is perfect to paint landscapes. Basically, you can use any 100% cotton paper, but it should be 300 GSM and coal press are rough in texture. Next, I'll be using various shades of watercolors from different brands, which we will discuss before each lesson. You can use any brand of watercolors until they are artist gray. A palette for color mixing. I'll be using my usual plastic palette. Or any ceramic palette like this, which has ample room for color mixing will also work. For painting our landscapes, we will use various brushes, including some flat brush to wet paper and paint skies, one small round sized brush to paint most of our elements. You can use any sizate brush which has good water holding capacity. I'll also use this soft pure hairbrush, one small fine tip brush, and some synthetic brushes for color mixing and dry brushing techniques. For brushes, please use whichever you feel comfortable with as far as they hold good amount of water. A pencil for sketching. Elastic eraser. Some paper towels to wipe our brushes, two jars of water. I'll suggest keeping one small sketchbook like this to document colors and mixes and to practice some techniques, which we will be using a lot for our future lessons, some scrap papers to test our colors. In case you are using loose sheet of watercolor paper instead of a block like this, you will need to tape down your paper to some board. This way, paper will not buckle as we will be using lots of water, grab your materials and when you are ready, I'll see you in the class. M. 3. Techniques : The basics: So before we start painting our main projects, let's take a moment to explore and brush up some basic techniques which will work as a foundation for our class. These techniques are absolutely helpful for the beginners and beginner intermediates. And if you are an advanced learner, you will definitely gain some experience. So let's begin. First and the most important one is wet in wet. As the name suggests for this technique, we will first wet our paper with water, and then we add fully saturated color to it. So what happens when we add color on a previously wet paper? It flows naturally, blends smoothly, and gives soft edges. Here, we can't exactly control how the color flows, but we can adjust the amount of water and dilution of the color according to our specific needs. Also, we can soften the edges by using a clean brush. This is the most basic and useful part of our future projects, as we will be using this technique for placing our initial washes, the base layer to paint the sky and whenever we need smooth, soft transitions. Next, wet on dry. Here we use wet, fully saturated paint on the dry paper, and we can see it doesn't go places and stays where we put it. We get fine defined lines. This technique works mostly for fine details and the darkest layers. Going back to our first one, when our layers are still wet, we can remove and control the color to some extent using a clean damp brush. This is called lifting. Next is gradient wash. It is a little variation of wet in wet technique where we will start painting from the top and slowly come down without lifting our brush. Here, please notice I'm using a soft mop brush for all these big washes, as it absorbs a lot of water and color, so I don't have to lift my brush too often, and it will not look streaky. Please notice the movement of my strokes. This will gradually decrease the intensity of the color as we work our way down, like in the skies, where we start from the top and we soften our color as we come down near the horizon. In a similar way, we can paint a gradient using two or more colors also. Let's try. So one thing we should always keep in our mind while painting wet in wet that our paper should be nicely and evenly wet and there should not be any pooling of water. Can you see the shine? Nice and shiny. So for creating a gradient, let's start with our blue. Here we will start from the top and come down halfway, slowly decreasing the intensity of our color. Now for the second color, this time we will start from the bottom and slowly go up in the same way, decreasing the intensity of the color. One thing to keep in mind here is the dilution of both the colors should be the same or blooms will form. In this way, we create a smooth and soft plan using two or more colors. Next, we will see how we create darker and lighter colors in watercolor. For this, we will not mix white or black to lighten or darken our color. However, we will use different dilutions. Let's take, for example, our blue color. Here, I will mix water and color in different ratios to create different values of the color. As I take more water and very little pigment, let's say 80 20 ratio, the color remains very transparent and light. As gradually I increase the amount of color and change the ratio, to say 60 40, the intensity of the pigment will increase and it becomes darker. As we keep on adding more and more color, we will get variations in the saturation of the pigment. And finally the darkest tom. In this way, we can use different dilutions to create our light and dark values. Different colors can have different grades of values. Here, practicing this method will help you to understand how the values work. So we know how to mix colours on a palette. Next, we will see how to blend colours on the paper. Let's take some yellow, and I will paint loosely on the dry paper. For this technique, we have to work a little faster before our colour dries out. Now I will start adding more colors to the previously painted one. When our first layer is still wet and we add more colors to it, the colors blend smoothly and create soft transitions. You can add as many pigments as you want until they are still wet. Every time using a darker pigment, this type of blending will be helpful in creating effects like trees or distant objects. And a little more da. So this type of blending will be helpful in creating effects like trees or distant objects. Next is dry brushing. Here, my brush is almost dry, and I will use almost pure pigment with very little water in it. So when I rub the belly of my brush against paper, it makes these type of broken lines with the texture of the paper. Et's try with some different color. Please notice I will pat dry my brush. Every time I load it with fresh colour so as to create this dry broken lines effect. If the brush is not fully dry, then this effect cannot be achieved. For this, I will suggest giving a paper towel in your hand. Also, any round synthetic brush will work great for this technique as they absorb less water. Notice how I'm using the side of my brush and not the tip. We will be using this technique to create foregroms for our landscapes. Mostly the snow effect. Now, one more variation of mixing colors on paper is charging. Let's try that. As we paint our initial layers, whether it is wet and wet or wet on dry, and it is still wet, we will add darker tones to it. Here, when I add indigo to my previously painted blue, it darkens the color and creates an illusion of depth and distance, mostly like in the oceans or any water body. 4. Techniques : Spatter technique: The next technique which I'm going to show you is spattering. This is a very important technique for creating beautiful textures, especially in landscapes. Spatters can be created with both colors and water itself, and on both wet and dry surfaces. We will learn how different type of colours behave differently and how to use these properties of watercolor to our advantage. We will see the effects of both granulating and non granulating colors. So let's begin. Spatters can be created in various ways. The easiest and the simplest way is with water. For this, first, I will paint my base with a darker color in an even smooth layer. Next, we will take a smaller clean brush and load it with plain water. Then while our paint is still wet, by making these tapping movements, we will create spatters. Here, please notice how the wet paint interacts with the water and create these cauliflower effects. These are called plumes. The second one, similarly, we can also create spatters by using some different color instead of water. For this, let's first paint the pasteler nice and wet. Now I will use a small synthetic brush and I will load it with some color this time. Let's say yellow and then tap the brush in a similar way to create these effects. However, not every color behave in the same way. Let's try with some different color. For example, I'm taking sap green, Wah. Did you see how it reacted? So some colors are pushy in nature and they make space for themselves. In this way, using different colors create different results. Now let's see what happens when we have a lighter color as our base, and we use a darker color to spatter on. Let's take some red. And see how on our light pase layer it shines beautifully. Let's try a little variation with granulating colors. The granulating colors are the colors where pigment particles are heavy and when mixed with poter, they separate and settle in the alleys of paper to create beautiful textures. Here I'm using moon glow, a very beautiful granulating pigment by Daniel Smith. And see how it splits and spreads and creates such beautiful, interesting textures. This way granulating color splits into beautiful colors and can be used to our advantage, especially for landscapes. So spattering can be done on a dry colour surface, too. For example, I will paint here with yellow color and we'll let it dry completely. We will come back to this later. Now, can we control the size and direction of spetters? The answer is yes. Let's see how to create spetters in various sizes. For example, when we tap our brush like this, we get bigger drops of color, and they kind of go everywhere. There are some factors to keep in mind, like, first of all, the thickness of your brush and second, and the most important is the direction of the movement. For example, if we use these type of movements, the spray stays more local and the drops are also fine. You can see the difference. It's still wet. Okay, let's go back to this area. As my color is still wet here, a little wet, let me show you one more example. How simply by wearing the wetness of paper, we can create multiple effects using same or different colours. When I spatter more color here on slightly less wet paper, see how we get soft textures, but the spatters don't spread too much. Instead, they create darker blinds. Now, here's an example how using different colors and trying different combinations can help creating different patterns. Let's come to our yellow pine, which is dry by now. Here, I put some color on this, and as you can see, the color doesn't spread and stays where it is. So on dry paint, the spatters behave the same as they do on dry plain paper. I will suggest you practice these exercises, especially spatters before going to the main project, as we will be using them a lot. Try different colours, different combinations, and just play with some pigments to understand their nature. And when you are ready, let's move to our first project. But 5. Project 1 : Spring : The color palette: Oh let's discuss the color palette for our first project, which is spring. Spring season is like a quite awakening from a long cold winter. So everything appears softer and calm, considering that the colors we are going to use are cerulean blue, which is a cool sky blue, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange, sap green. This is a bright, fresh looking green. Next will be moon glow. Burnt umber. Raw umber. Raw umber is a very beautiful granulating color. So granulating colors, some pigment because of their heavier particle size, the separates and settles in the texture of the paper. Next is perlin green indigo, and a very little quinacrodon magenta. 6. Spring : Base layer: I'm so glad you have decided to join the class. Hope you have practiced the techniques, and you are ready for the lesson. Let's jump straight to our first project, which is spring, as this one is a very simple composition, so not going into sketching details as of now, we will start with our base layer. To paint any landscape, the first thing we have to keep in our mind is the placement of our elements. And the first layer is always helpful to create an atmosphere and a rough sketch for what we want to create. So here, we'll start with wetting our paper nice and shiny. For this, I'm using a soft flat brush. You can use any round brush too, whichever you prefer, and I'm doing it very gently. As pressing hard can damage the surface of our paper. When we start putting color on the paper, the very first thing we will keep in our mind is our horizon line, which is in the middle of paper in our case. Here, I'm taking a very soft mix of cadmium yellow and cadmium orange to paint the glow in the sky. Similarly, we will also create the reflection in the water with the same mix. As water is always a reflection of its surroundings. Notice, I'm keeping a little distance in the middle and not blending them both. This is to mark our horizon line. Next, I'm taking a very light mix of cerulean blue for the sky, and we will gently place it above the yellow mix. Here, I'll be careful not to touch the yellow with my blue, as we don't want it to turn into any ugly green in the sky. And some blue in the water, too, and a little bit of green in the shadow area. The green I'm using here is sap green. While painting wet and wet, one thing we have to keep in our mind is to work as quickly as possible before our paper dries out. So this way, we will create a gradient for our first wash or the base layer. The light will be coming from this direction, so this area will be lighter. And here we will place our future trees on the horizon. Be careful with the water pooling on the edges. While our paper is still wet, let's start painting the tree line in the background using wet and wet technique. For this, I'll use a soft hair round brush like this, and I'll grab a mix of munglo and raw umber. Munglo being a super granulating color spreads beautifully and gives that softer texture of distant trees. And that's why I love this color to create the smoky tree line effects. And keeping our horizon line. I'll be working with background trees and their reflection together. This way it becomes easier to paint them similar. Next, I'm going a little darker, taking a little more concentrated mix with less water and more pigments this time. Here, notice the movements of my hand and the brush. I'm creating these small longitudinal shapes in one direction. This way, they give an illusion of distant woods. Please don't make horizontal movements here as it will look streaky and will not create similar effects. Notice this glow in the background. Let's add some fresh greenery with saprin here to the tree line. And some reflections, too. I'm trying to keep them similar in shape, both the background and the reflection. That looks good. And some more green for the distant trees. I have to stop working very soon as my paper is drying fast. By this moment, your paper may not be wet enough. If this happens, then I'll suggest you stop working and let the paper dry completely. Please take care of our horizon line. If the colour flows too much, then we can lift some colors with a semi dry synthetic brush. Notice that I'm wiping my brush every time I'm picking up the colour from the paper. And some from the reflections, too. This is perfect time to create some water movements in the reflection area. This technique is called lift in. Okay, that's it. I have to stop working now and let the paper dry completely. 7. Spring : Second layer - The background: As our base layer is done and it's completely dry by now, let's start adding details in the foreground, some reflections and some greens, starting with the water surface here in the front. For this, I'll take a softer brush and using a creamy mix of sacre Oops. I'm sorry for that. As the paper is dry, so we have to rewet the surface lightly. Using our green color, we will create an effect of some water grass on the surface of water to show some lotus fields. Please notice my brush strokes here, controlled horizontal lines. Almost like dry brushing, but this time, our paper is a little wet. So when the paper is wet and we try our brush on a paper towel, we get some control over how the paint spreads, and we can get soft edges too. Here, notice I'm gently gliding my brush over the paper. Very soft touch. And we can soften a little bit by clean damp brush. Notice how my brush is almost dry as I pat dry it with paper towel after every time I dip it in clean water. As my paper is fully dry now, but I'm not happy with this area, how it turned out, maybe we can use some more colour to show some greenery. Let me take out some fresh sap cream in my palette. I'll use a synthetic round brush for this, and I'm preparing a creamy mix of green using sap cream. As we will add more color with wet on wet technique, so as to blend it smoothly in the previous layer. So with a soft brush, we will gently wet the paper. Be careful not to disturb the base color that is already there, so we have to do it very gently. This time, I'm keeping them shorter to create an effect of, let's say, some bushes in the front. And it creates a depth in our background, too. This looks better. Adding a little more. And softening the edges. Let's try this completely, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 8. Spring : Adding details - Foreground: Let's begin with the details. In the foreground, we will paint some lotus bags in the pond, and there will be our tree. Let's mark our details a bit. For this, I'll be using a mechanical pencil, and I'm just positioning some lily pads here and there. I'm not trying to copy the reference picture exactly, keeping it simple and loose. That looks good to me. I'm using a number eight round tip brush for this. First, I'll start with a very light wash of sapren for these lily pads, and slowly, we'll bring shadows in. I'm using a very watery mix to just mark the places of these leaves. Carefully giving them shape. Let's start adding some definitions. For this, I'm mixing a little perylene green and indigo for darker shadows. If you don't have Perlin green, you can mix indigo directly to our sapren. It will create a similar color. Be careful and gently keep on defining the shapes. I'm using a fine tip brush for this, and whenever needed, I'm carefully softening the edges, again, using a clean damp brush. I'm using two brushes here, one for color, and one for water. This way, I don't have to wash my color off every time I have to soften. Adding shadows and softening the edges. Try to keep a variety of shapes and sizes. Always keep the rule of perspective in mind. The thing that are far from us are always less defined and feel smaller in shape than the objects nearby. And some light ones at the distance. A little softening. And some shadows. Creating a few patterns here and there, with some dry brushing to create some effects. That looks good. Let's add some light ones here. And don't forget the shadows. Now, let's add some spatters. For this, again, I'm using sap cream and Perlin green, and I'm using my finger to guide the spatters, so they don't fly everywhere, especially in our scar. A little more. Okay, let's cover the sky with a paper towel. And now you can play as much as you want. Isn't this beautiful and fun? In the next lesson, let's paint the tree. See you there. 9. Spring : Adding details - The tree: Now, as our background and foreground are done, let's work on our main element. That is the tree. Let's quickly sketch a very rough outline so as to understand the guidelines for this. We don't have to draw everything, just a few branches, so we will understand where to put the color. And using a synthetic round brush, I will start with a very light mix of sap cream. I'm not taking too much paint and water. Just with a moist brush, I'm trying to add a few definitions that look like leaves. Wiping my brush with a paper towel every time I load it. Here we will be adding a variety of tones. In the top, where the tree is exposed to sunlight, the leaves will appear brighter and lighter. Whereas in the shadow areas, the leaves will appear darker, always keeping in mind. Adding a touch of cadmium yellow to our green to lighten the shade and using perlin green and indigo alternatively to darken the tone. Please notice how I'm using a tip of the brush to paint the leaves and not the whole head. And my motion is small broken strokes of various shapes and sizes. I'm making very small markings and lifting my brush every time. Alternatively, using different mixes. A little bit of cadmium yellow. And some darker tones. Here, I'm keeping a paper towel in my hand. And every time I'm petting my brush for excess water or colour. Let's set the branches. Oops. Okay. No worries. Accidents happen. So what will we do now? Let me try if I can soften it in the background with a soft brush and clean water. Dab a little on a paper towel, and I'm trying to blend this in the background. Okay, that works. Let's move on to the tree. Let's add some more darker tones. So there should be a mix of both light and dark greens as there is light, and there are shadows too. Using a variety of mix creates depth. So darker tones in the bottom. Okay, at this stage, I think our tree looks good. As our little lily pads are dry by now, let's add flowers to them. For this, I'm taking a little una croton magenta in my palette. If you don't have una croton magenta, it's okay. A variety of colors can be used instead like carmine or maybe opera, anything pink, or maybe permanent rose, so no rule. Here I'm using my thinnest brush to make some clear, clean masks and giving them shape of flowers. Oh keeping in mind the rule of perspective. Adding a touch of blue for variation of the tone. Okay. That looks good. H. Alternating between pink and blue. And some speters. Let's add some more details. I'm darkening the shadows a little bit. That's better. Okay, let's add some grass blades. For this, I'm mixing a little brown in our green burn tumbo. Notice my brush movements. Okay, that looks good. Maybe some more in the middle. Notice how painting in multiple layers gives depth to our scene and the reflections Now let's move to our final details. Let's add some branches to the tree using the same color mix. Adding small branches in the gaps and keeping a variation. There should be a variation in shapes and length. Don't make them similar. Now the picture looks more alive. Let's add some more. Okay, this looks good to me. Let's not overdo it. 10. Spring : Final touch - Birds: And now we are at our last element. Let's add some tiny birds. I'm using indigo for this. Again, a variety of shape and sizes. And a tiny one here. Congratulations. We just finished our first project. I think it looks beautiful. Hope you enjoy it, too. I'm so eager to see your versions and to hear from you. Let's move to our next project, which will be summer. See you there. 11. Project 2 : Summer : The color palette: Welcome to our second project, which is summer. Let's discuss the palette. To bring out the vibrancy of this season, we will use two yellows. One is aolin which will be our cool yellow. And the second one will be cadmium yellow deep. It is a very deep orange yellow. For red, Alizarin crimson lake, which is a pure pigment, PR 83, and it leans towards pink. It is a non granulating pigment and it makes pure mixes. Ultramarine blue. These four will be our sky colors. Then sap green, perylin green. These will be our main color spot trees and for some darker tones, indigo, and burn timber. How do I choose these specific colors for summer? Mainly the sky colors. Let's analyze this biclor mixing and some play with the pigments. Let's take our crimson lake, which is pigment PR 83 and I mix it with aolin which is our primary cool yellow and platin blend. Similarly, for the second mix, let's try our red with cadmium yellow deep, which is our warm yellow. When mixed together, they both create a gradient of pure pigments and give a very beautiful glue, as they all are non granulating pigments, so they blend smoothly as compared to laserin which is granulating or cadmium red, which is an opaque pigment. Similarly, when we mix crimson with our blue, which is ultramarine blue, it creates beautiful purple, which is perfect summer color. Let's try a little bit darker. As we can see, a transparent, beautiful purple. Now let's see what happens when we mix them with a little warm yellow. When mixed in with warm yellow, they make a very beautiful gray which will work as a perfect shadow color for our sky. This gray is transparent and is not overpowering, so it blends smoothly. Why can't we use opaque colors? Here, I tried a few options using cadmium yellow and cadmium red, which are opaque colors. As we can see. Together, they create very dark and bold gray, which will stand out and we don't want that in our sky. Hope that makes sense. Now let's move to our project. See you there. 12. Summer : Base layer - The Sky: Welcome to our second project. We will begin with a very simple sketch. Here, I'm roughly creating our horizon. So trees. Here will be our sun and the reflection and a little bit of foreground. Just a bit of guidelines. And some background treeline. Okay, that's it. Let's move to the painting part. Again, the first thing is to prepare our paper for the base layer. So this time, we will wet half of the paper only above the horizon, as we will be painting our base layer in two parts. First, we'll work on our sky and later on the reflection part. This way, we will get plenty of time without worrying about paper drying. I have already prepared my shadow colors for the sky using yellow, red and blue, as we have practiced in the previous lesson. I suggest preparing your colors beforehand and always test color mixes on a scrap paper. As discussed, we will mix them in two different ratios. First mix leaning towards blue, so we will add more blue to it. And for the second mix, which will lean towards purple, we will mix more red into our color mix. Now let's start putting some colors. We'll begin with our yellow leaving some space in the middle, this will be our sun. A little cadmium yellow for the glow. This way, we will create a gradient from warm to cool colors around our sun. Try to work as quickly as possible. Adding a little bit of red. So here I'm trying to plant the colours on paper as to create a smooth transition around the sun. Okay, distant sky, I will directly go with my shadow mix as the base color. As we know, the closer we are to the sun, everything appears warmer. So we use more of yellow and red here. And as we move further, the things become colder and darker. So the further we move from sun, we will blend in more blue, cooler at the distance and warm colors near the sun. Try to create a gradient by blending the colors. Okay. That looks good. Now I'm going a bit darker. Summer is a very vibrant and bright time of the year, and it creates some of the most beautiful sunsets. We will also try to create some vibrant hues here. I'm using the same color mixes, just a bit of variations. And remember, I'm always keeping a paper towel in my other hand. As every time we load fresh color on our brush, we will dab a little for excess color so as not to create any patterns or plumes. Let's add some clouds. Here, please notice I'm not using blue or red directly. Instead, to tone them down, I'm mixing them in my shadow color. Sometimes a little bit more blue and sometimes a little more red. Okay, right now, I'm not worried about this part, as here will be our trees. Adding a little more red near the sun. Slowly and gradually, we will intensify our shadows. Okay, that looks good. And it's perfect time to lift some light areas here. Remember, a clean damp brush and wiping it every time with a paper towel. So as my paper is still wet here, I will quickly add the distant horizon colors. It can be some small trees or a far away field or maybe a small hill, some blurry shadows, no details. M So more blue for the smoky effect. Okay, that's it. 13. Summer : Base layer - The Lake: Without any further delay, let's begin with our foreground. As we will be painting this wet and wet. So first, we have to wet our paper. While painting reflections, one thing we have to keep in our mind is here we will be painting our future pushes and their reflections. So we will keep this area lighter accordingly. Wet the paper nice and shiny. Be careful not to disturb the sky layer. And let's start with yellow. Warm and shiny right under the sun and some for our future tree line. Et's start adding shadows right away. As we know, water is always a reflection of its surroundings. So I'm using the same shadow make we used for the sky. Again, with some variations, sometimes adding a touch of blue, and sometimes with a little red. And blending them a bit of orange. As here is our sun, so we will keep this area brighter and lighter. Mm. Adding some movements in the water. So today, the sun is playing hide and seek here at my place. Notice how the background at my table is changing from the golden glow to shadows in real. Did someone notice? Okay, let's move here. As there will be our future trees, so the reflections here will be darker. I'm adding a little bit of burnt tumber to our shadow color for this. Let's add the reflections of our trees. I'm using the same shadow makes here with a few variations, sometimes adding a little brown, sometimes a little more red to it. Just play with colors and create a variety. Don't forget we have to keep our reflections warmer near the sunlight and a little colder as we move further. Same rule applies here too. Adding some yellow. And some more warmth with a touch of red. Try to give them some shape as they are trees after all. Adding more warmer shadows. The paper is still wet here, so we can work here too. Notice my brush movements here, small broken strokes. So here I'm just making our reflections darker, always remembering watercolor dries much lighter than how they look when they are wet. Keeping in mind to create a variation of color by alternating between red, blue, and brown. And, of course, a little spattering. Be careful. This looks okay to me for a base layer. Now let's try this completely. 14. Summer : Adding details - Trees and the background: Welcome back. Now it's time to add the details to our landscape. Let's start with the trees. To paint trees, we will need any synthetic fine tip brush, and we will mix various color mixes, keeping sap green as our paste color. I'm going to follow the same principle to paint the trees as for the background. The parts surrounding the sun will be more yellow and farmer. And as we move further away, they become darker and colder. So we will begin with a warmer yellow mix of cadmium yellow, along with little lemon yellow, and carefully start working with the area around the sun. Notice how I'm working with a tip of the brush, and my strokes are small and little scattered, leaving some areas in between. I'm not covering everything with color. The idea is to give a shape or feel like leaves as we have done in our spring project also. To create glow around the sun, I'm also adding some warm yellow to our lemon yellow. Carefully working around the sun. As we move further, I'm starting to add some green. Here, notice how I'm working quickly and moving all around so my yellow doesn't get dry and green blends in smoothly. Constantly keeping a variation of the pigment, mixing more yellow near the glow and more green as we move away. And dropping more green in my wet color, the idea is to create a smoother transition from the warmth of sunlight to the colder areas. Okay. Next, I can even scratch my wet paint to add some branches. Adding some more color here and there, just keeping a variety. Similarly, I will work on this side before the colour dries. Okay, that looks good. Now I'm going a little bit darker as this area is quite far from the sun, so I'm adding more colder green to our mix, perylene green in our case. Please notice how I'm constantly keeping a variation of colors, sometimes adding more yellow and sometimes more green to the mix. And also slightly changing the direction of my brush. So there will be more variety. Similarly, in the top area. Be careful with the wet color. And a few more branches as the paint is still wet. And and a little more yellow mix. Some more branches. Adding a touch of orange for more warm. Okay. That looks good. Here will be our future bushes or small trees. We have to make sure our trees are in alignment with our shadows. Dropping in some more dark green this time a little more pigment and less water. So a very creamy mix. This is a very big advantage of painting shadows or reflections first, as when we paint all wet and wet, sometimes we can't control how the pigment moves. So while painting trees on dry paper, we can make some adjustments. Isn't it nice? And some more warm greens. And shadows. Okay. Let's add some bushes. Oh. Some yellow for the base layer. And then a bit of sapren. This way, we will mix colors on the paper. And some more dark pigment. I'm trying to create an illusion of distance and depth here, bringing these small bushes forward. And some more scratches to create a bushy texture while the colour is still wet. And I will continue with the same process for our distant trees. So green and darker shadows. And some dry brushing. Let's add some shadows here. Mixing a little bit of burn tumber with sap cream. This will create an illusion of the ground above the water, and it will look more cohesive. And softening in some more dark greens. This way, working in multiple layers create depth in our landscape. And slowly moving towards our distant tree line. Some random strokes. That looks better. Darkening the shadows. And with a soft te brush, let's soften these reflections. Very, very gently, I'm pulling the pigment to blend it with the rest of the reflections. Similarly, here. Please keep in mind not to put pressure on the paper. Okay, that looks good. Let's create some more texture in the foreground, some more reflections. Okay, that's it. Now let's add some more spatters. I want to add a little more warm reflections here. For this, I'm taking a very watery mix of sap green and yellow, and carefully, we will add some very transparent reflections. 15. Summer : Adding details - Reflections and foreground: Okay, so I want to add one more layer of definitions to these banks of the lake. The process is same. We will work with a dry brush using a creamy mix of sacren and burn dumber. Slowly creating the texture. And then blending a little bit. Now let's add some spatters. For this, I will cover our sky first. I'm not worried about the spatters going into our water as we still have to add details there. Okay, let's add some with a little red too. That's good. Now it's time to work on the foreground. For this, let's start with a very light ph of our green colour. Just blocking some areas. And I'm switching to a thinner brush now to add some grass plates. Notice my brush movements, some upward random thin strokes to give a feel of grass in the foreground. Some darker tones. And some texture. A little bit for tumbo. Now, this is fun and you can play as much as you want. Just two things we should always keep in mind, as I have mentioned earlier also, variation in color and the direction of the brush. And some spatters. So plant or water grass in the water. And their reflections. Don't forget the rule of perspective. Things that are far away, they look smaller, and things that are near, they look bigger. Et's add a few floating ones. There can be some leaves or some lily pads. Now for distant plants, as they will appear very light, so as to lighten them, I'm wiping extra color with a soft tissue every time. Pressing very gently. In a few here and there. And some more grassblades. I'll love to add all these details to my art. However, it is completely optional. Let's add maybe some leaves to them. Okay, that looks better. Now they really look like some grass plates or small plants. So more texture near the edges. And some in this little corner. And some more spatters. Okay, I think I'm done with this area. Let's add some more definitions in the shadow area. Okay, this looks good. Let's not overdo this. We are almost at the final set of the details. Let's add a few branches to our tree. For this, I'm mixing a darker shade using sap green, per timber and a little bit of indigo until it's very dark, almost like black. And using a thin tip brush, we will start adding branches to the little gaps in between the leaves. Slowly and carefully. Be careful, as the paper is still wet in some areas. Similarly to the second tree. Okay. Now to add some fine branches and details, I'm switching to my liner brush, and for this, I will now turn my paper upside down. This way, it feels easier to add those details. And I'll start adding some branches. So fine branches to increase the volume and to create some texture. This weight looks more natural. And some fine plates here, too. Mm. Here, notice how I'm holding my brush from a distance. This way, it stays flexible and we get more natural looking strokes. Okay, that's it. Isn't this beautiful? Now it's time to add our final element, a few birds. And for this, I'm using indigo. And it's done. I'm so glad we painted this together. Isn't this like a vibrant summer evening? Adding those tiny details really creates magic, and our picture becomes alive. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do. I will eagerly wait to see your versions. See you in the next class. 16. Project 3 : Autumn : The color palette: We are halfway through our seasons, and now it's time to paint autumn. So before we start our project, let's quickly have a look at the color palette. As autumn is the most vibrant of all the seasons, so we will be using lots of colors like lemon yellow, cadmium yellow. Indian yellow, lots of yellows. Cadmium orange. Next is cadmium red. Being opaque, this will help us create the top most beautiful vibrant layer of the trees Alizarin crimson. Moon glow. By now, you must have known that this is my absolute favorite color for painting background washes. Some saprene burn tamber paints gray for the darker tones. And for painting autumn sky, I will be using Winsor blue or also known as thalo blue, a very beautiful bright blue color. So grab your colors, and I'll see you in the first lesson. 17. Autumn : Sketch , Sky and The base layer: Welcome to our third project. Let's start with a little sketching. I always love to have a loose sketch where I place my elements just as a guideline to understand where to start. If you wish to start with a detailed sketch, then it's completely okay. Work as you feel comfortable with. So here will be our foreground, the trees. Trees will be our main element for the autumn landscape. You will be the sky. And our little background. And a lek. Let's draw a little tree in the background. More or less, I want to keep the visual simple and similar to our other projects, just increasing the level of difficulty. This way, it will be easier to practice the techniques and learn how to use them. Okay, straightaway, let's begin to put some colors. This time we will try to paint our first layer in one go, so we will wet the paper completely. Unlike the summer landscape, we will keep our autumn sky simple, so it will be easier and quicker to paint, and we will get ample time to put some colors in other areas too before the paper dries out, as our main focus will be on the trees. Wet the paper gently and let the water soak in. A quick check with the shine. It looks good. And a final touch. Okay, straightaway, I'm starting with Windsor blue. If you don't have Windsor blue, it's okay. It is the same pigment PB 15, which is commonly known as hello blue. It's just the difference of the brand name. Let's put some colors in the sky. Notice, this time, I didn't mix any other color to my blue, and I'm using it in pure form, as autumn sky is quite bright and is cooler than the summer sky, and Hello blue is the most vibrant and cool blue in its pure form. Here will be our future trees, so I will keep blue colour away from this. Going a little darker. As the watercolors dry lighter than how they look, so I'm keeping our sky a little brighter. Okay, that's good. Let's put some reflection of our sky into the water with a very light touch of the same blue. And softening a bit. Okay, that's okay for now. Very quickly, let's move to our main element. I'm taking a very soft round brush for painting the trees, and we will start with some lemon yellow. Let's put the base layer. I'm keeping the color watery as our paper is wet, so the color will soften in the background nicely. So Indian yellow and mixing the colour on the paper. Indian yellow is a very warm and bright color. Here, please notice my strokes. They are small and little scattered. I'm almost gently touching the paper and not covering the layer of lemon yellow completely. Adding some more warm colors, cadmium yellow, cadmium orange. So here I'm trying to keep a variation in the shades. Also, being careful about the shape of the trees. Okay. And some soft terias melting into the background. Looks good for now. 18. Autumn : Base layer - The background: Let's move to this part. A quick rub with water. And right away, let's start to create a smoky background using moon glow. Very gently, I'm touching the paper with a tip of my brush and trying to create some tree shapes, not much details, and I'm using a very light mix. A let's add a little warmth with burned tumber. A very watery mix with sap cream, alternating between the colors. So here I'm keeping a little space for our tree. For these background trees, we have to keep our pigment very light. Make sure there should not be too much water in the brush, or the paint will run very far. Creating a background around the tree and using the same colours for the background woods all along. Okay, let's add some yellow here. So one thing to keep in mind, as my paper is still wet, I'm able to work here right now. Your paper may not be as wet by this time. If the paper doesn't feel wet anymore, we should stop right away. Wait until the paper is completely dry and then re wet the paper with a very soft brush and continue working on the background layer. To keep our background smooth and softer, we need to work on a wet paper, or the color will appear harsh with hard edges. A little more yellow along the edges of the lake. Okay, let me switch to a smaller brush now. Let's bring this tree a little bit in front. For this, we need to paint shadow colors around it. Darkening the shadow colors. Okay. That looks good. As this yellow is still wet, let me add some red to create more depth into our background. Here I'm using both cadmium orange and red for this alternatively. And now let's work on the reflections. A quick rub with water. And again, using the same mix of burnt timber and sap cream with moon glow, this time keeping them more warm. Et the reflections melt in the water. And here's some yellow. Okay, that looks good. A little warm yellow. And I will let them blend on the paper. Let's work on the edges of the background. Now I'm going a little bit darker using the same mix of burnt tumber and moon glow all along with some red. And some softer washes for the distance, a little warm. A very watery mix, and then softening the edges. Okay, let's add some more depth to the background boards. Here, I'm working with a size eight round brush all along. If you don't feel comfortable, you can switch to any smaller brush, whichever you are comfortable using. It should be fine tip. Now my paper is drying very fast. Okay, that's it. As of now, my paper is almost dry and I should stop working on. Let's wait until it dries completely. 19. Autumn : Base layer - The foreground : Welcome back. Let's begin working on our foreground. As our paper is completely dry now, so we will wet it gently with a soft flat brush without disturbing the previous layer. And using a soft round brush, I will start putting colours right away, starting with a watery mix of lemon yellow, just a quick wash to cover the foreground. And I will directly move to the warmer tones, mixing a little bit of Indian yellow. And a bit of cadmium yellow. Blending all wet in wet. A little bit of cadmium orange. This way, I'm alternating with light and dark tones and trying to create a ground covered with grass like effect. Softening the edges. Going a little darker now and adding crimson with a touch of burn dumber. Please notice the motion of my brush. And using a pointed edge tool, I will do a little bit of scratching while my color is still wet. So they will look like grass blades. Okay. Back to our foreground. So now I will strengthen the colors by repeating the same process and working all wet on wet, charging my lighter colors with darker tones. A little softening around the edges. And some more scratching. This way, puking in layers helps building that grass effect, and everything looks more natural. Okay, that's good. 20. Autumn : Adding details - The background: Welcome back. So I'm not very happy with how this area looks right now. Let's strengthen the colors in the background woods a little bit. For this, I'm using a little watery mix of ungl and burn timber and using a fine tip brush, I will start adding one more layer to darken the shadows in the woods, creating a mix of soft and hard edges for the distant trees, working on a dry paper this time. Carefully creating the textures and blending everything into the background. Okay, let me zoom a little bit. That's better. I'm now following the same process for the entire background as we did before, using a watery mix of colour to add one more layer to our background. The only difference is that this time I'm working on a dry paper, so I will keep softening my color at some places and we'll be charging more pigment while the color is still wet using different concentrations of our color mix. Adding some more green. And charging some orange. And softening. Similarly, some oa tries on the left side too. And blending everything into the background. Okay, let's add some more shadows to our ground. And blending it. Okay, that's better. Similarly, let's add some more depth in the ground here in front too. Let's wet the paper with a little yellow. And I will add some orange and some red while my yellow is still wet. The idea is to create an edge of the lake like effect. Going a little darker. I'm using the same mix of moon glow and burn tamber along with a little crimson. This color mix creates some very vibrantt subtle textures. Little darker near the edges. And blend. That's good. Okay, let's start on our reflections too. A quick wash with a damp brush. Be careful not to move the previous layer. And gently adding some warm tones on the left, too. And softening everything. Similarly, I will be building shadows in our little background tree, alternating lights and dark colors a little bit of cadmium yellow. So Indian yellow. And cadmium orange making small brush strokes, this way, enhancing colors on the paper and keeping everything softer. Okay, that looks better. And let's add some spatters. Be careful with the sky. And some more red for the reflections. Okay. In the same way, we will work with the foreground and because I'm repeating the same process as it should not get boring, so I will fasten up the video for this. 21. Autumn : Adding details - The trees: O Let's start working on the second layer of our main element. As we are going to do a lot of spattering here for the trees, so to protect our sky, I have prepared a little cutout of the paper like this. Let's fix it nicely with some masking tape. A little more just to make sure it doesn't move. So to paint our trees, we will prepare some watery mix of lemon yellow, and some with sapren. As we are going to work all wet and wet to begin with, I will quickly wet the top half of the paper with a very light wash of lemon yellow this time instead of plain water. I'm using a soft round brush for this. And dropping some sapren instantly, letting them mix and blend on the paper and creating contras. Here, notice my brush movements. I'm trying to create some textures like nice green leaves. Switching to a mix of cadmium orange and red here notice how I'm gently touching the paper with a tip of my brush and dropping some pigments here and there, so as to give an effect of foliage. As our first layer is totally dry, putting more color on the top is not disturbing the color underneath, and we are able to create these layered effects. The red on the top of yellow is staying red and not becoming orange, so the color stays more intense. That's why this time we did work in layers so as to achieve vibrancy of the pigments. He Remember, I'm constantly switching between yellows, red, and greens, slowly giving them a shape of the tree. Going a little darker with pure red at some places. Keeping variety in color and strokes, too. Going darker on the top and softer transitions on the bottom. And just blending everything into the background. Okay. As we will begin to add spatters now, lots and lots of spatters. So I have switched to a smaller brush, and let's begin with the orange making these tapping movements on our brush. Let's add some fresh sap green. Oh, I love these effects. Queen tartar on the top. And some dark reds. I'm using a azarin crimson for this, pure and dark. Dropping some more. Here are two things we have to be really careful about. One, the consistency of the colour and the size of the spatters. I will suggest first try on a scrap paper as if the color is too watery, it can spread a lot and can create blooms, too. And if bigger spatters, then they will look like blob of color, and we will not achieve the desired results. Mixing a little moon glow to darken our red. And a little orange on the top. And then cadmium yellow. Did you see? So now this is the reason I chose to go with cadmium colours on the top. Cadmium yellow and cadmium red are vibrant, opaque, and strong colours which create bright highlights and give rich contrast. They are full of warmth and are very intense, so they brighten up our landscapes, especially when used on the top layer. Be careful while working on the branches. I really hope our cover protects the sky. Okay, and very carefully, some more near the edges. The moment of truth. Let's see. Wow, that looks good. Let's work on the branches a little bit more and make them more natural looking. Here, please keep in mind, I'm constantly alternating between the yellow, red and green to create a variety of shades for the foliage. Okay, let's cover one more time and add some more spatters. So this time I'm keeping it a little further from the edge of the tree, and we will add some rich and juicy colors. So red, and some yellow. Okay, that's it. 22. Autumn : Adding details - The foreground: Welcome back. As we are with our second layer, now it's time to add the final details to our landscape. Let's begin with the foreground. To add definitions to our reflections, let's first wet the water area with a soft tem brush. And using our dark shadow mix, we will add the darker tones to the edge of the lake in a similar way as we did for the background part. Be careful. Some reflections on the surface of the water. Let's add some richard tone. And softening the edges. I some texture on the water surface, there can be some fallen leaves. Let's add some more details on the ground too. This way, working in players, it helps us create beautiful textures. And using our tool, let's pull the color to create some grass plades while our color is still wet. Adding some more details. Okay. That looks good. Now it's start to add more setters here in the foreground. Let's cover our landscape for this with a paper. And, uh, So why are we adding spatters when we can paint instead? There is one very beautiful thing about watercolors. The less you disturb them, the more beautiful they will look. And when we add spatters, we are not touching the paper and hence not disturbing the wet layer underneath. As the spatters fall on the wet paper, they do their own thing and blend and create beautiful effects on their own. That's how they create variety of effects and they look more natural. So more with red. Rich reds in the foreground. Okay. Uh, Now, using a fine tip brush. Let's at more details in the foreground. So more grass on the edge of the water. And you can play as much as you want. 23. Autumn : Enhancing details: We are done with our foreground and reflections, and now it's time to add the final details here in the background. For this, I will be using our previous shadow mix. And let's tarpen the tree trunks a little more and blend them with the shadows and boods I'm using a very transparent mix of colors along with some crimson for this so that our initial paste layer is visible from underneath, and the layers will enhance the effects. Okay, let's cover sky again and add some spatters for the texture. That looks good. Yeah Okay, that's good. Darkening the woods. Let's add some paints gray. Now they look like tense woods. Okay. Let's add some stems and branches to our little tree in the background. I'm using a mix of pains gray with a little burn timber for this. Pain gray is a black tone gray which sometimes appears too strong. As we don't want our little branches to stand out from the background, so to tone it down a little bit, we will add burn timber to it. Very carefully. Looking for the gaps. Okay, that's it. 24. Autumn : Tree trunks and branches: Now it's time to work on the final details of our third project that are the tree trunks and branches. To paint these details, I'm going to use this pointed taped round synthetic brush. For colors, I'm preparing a mix of paints gray and burn timber in two ratios, one milky ratio with more concentrated color and one with more water using the same mix. That we will use for distant tree trunks. So as to make them appear lighter, we will use a water down mix of our color. Something like this, Okay, let's begin with the lighter parts. Carefully using the tip of the brush. Please notice how my brush strokes are in one direction, and I'm using a very watery mix and softly blending it in the background. One here in the front. And some branches. Okay, one here in the front. Be careful with the dilution of the color. And softening into the background. Okay, some more light ones, the distant trees. Okay. That looks good. Next to our main trees, now I have switched to a little darker mix and will paint in a similar way, first creating a lighter wash and then adding the shadows, softening the top and the bottom to blend it with the surroundings. Adjusting the color accordingly. Enhancing some shadows. I Okay, that looks good. Let's make some branches. Oh Okay, for branches, try to fill in the lighter areas with small fine lines. Notice how I'm keeping my strokes clean and small. For more natural look, there should be a variation in both shapes and sizes and the direction of the branches. Trying to find the gaps and don't forget the continuity. Okay. Okay. That looks good. In a few spatters with cadmium red on the top. Darkening the trunk a bit more. One thing to always keep in mind while painting shadows as the light is coming from the right side, so keeping the left side darker. Okay, that's good. Similarly, let's work on the second tree also. Melting the bottom in the surroundings. And the branches. Keeping a variety and sink. Let's make one here. Finding the gaps and keeping the sink. So fine ones. Okay. That looks good. Let's start in the shadows. And some texture on the trunk. Okay. What else? Let's add a little more spatters in the foreground. Cadmium red is a good choice for these final details as it's opaque and it pops out nicely. Okay. That looks good. Okay, I will add a few more details near the trees. So it will look more organ? Okay. Et's add a few thin branches in the trees, some dry ones as it's fall time. I'm using my liner brush for this. I know you coming out of the tree. Okay, that's it. Let's not overdo it. Okay. And some final details with our opaque rate. That's it. So this is our autumn. Wow, I really enjoyed painting this one. All that spattering and working in layers was fun, too. How about you? I will eagerly wait for your feedback. See you soon in the next lesson. 25. Project 4 : Winter : The color palette: As we have reached our final season, that is winter. So let's discuss the color palette for our final project. Winter scene is full of whites and grays and blues. So the colors we are going to use are cobalt blue, which will be our main sky color. Ultramarine blue, we will use it mainly for mixing grays. So both of these blues have different undertones and ultramarine is perfect for mixing gray colors. Next will be burn tumber raw umber, or maybe yellow ochre. I haven't decided yet. Dass in purple, which is a very strong colour for painting winter shadows. Next, indigo. And a little pains gray. Apart from that, maybe I will be using a little Tlloblue for the lake. Let's see. Also, we will need some white colour for little details. You can either use white watercolor or white gog. It's up to you. That's it. So grab your colors and let's move to our final project. 26. Winter : The sketch: Welcome back. I'm so happy we have so far. Are you ready to paint our final season? Let's begin with sketching a few outlines. Our scene will be divided into three parts, sky, the background, and the foreground. So remembering rule of thirds, here should be our horizon line. Hand our background tree line. And the lake emerging out of the woods. Okay, let's place our foreground tree somewhere here. And a few dried trees here and there. Okay, that's it. Without any delay, let's dive into the painting process. Oh. 27. Winter : Sky and the background: By now, you must have understood the whole process. To paint our base layer, we have to wet our paper first. So let's begin with wetting the top half of the paper this time, nice and generously. Wetting the paper is the most important part when we have to paint where on where. The paper takes time to soak water in, so we will not hurry. And let's start with the sky. To paint our sky, I have prepared cobalt blue in two concentrations. At first, I will start with a watery mix and create a gradient while slowly coming down as the sky appears darker when closer and becomes lighter near the horizon, and now going a little richer in the concentration. Using more color and less water. Adding a touch of hello blue and let them blend on the paper. Okay. That looks good. A little darker on the top. Okay. Let's move to our background tree line. Now, winter trees, as they barely have leaves, they appear cold and barren. To paint this effect of the background trees, I'm preparing a creamy mix of cobalt with a touch of purple and with a small round brush, we will create our tree line using the same longitudinal strokes as we have used in our previous projects. A little dab on the paper towel. This way, when the color spreads, it gives really beautiful smoky colors and creates an illusion of distance. As distant tree appear lighter. Also, not to forget that watercolor dries a little lighter as they appear when they are wet. A little tilt. Now for small trees in the front, I'm creating a creamy brownish gray mix using my ultramarine and born jumber. When mixed, they both create amazing grays. As our paper is still quite wet, these colors will spread out beautifully and create lovely textures. Wearing the tone of color by sometimes mixing a little more blue and sometimes a little more brown. Please remember the concentration of this color is creamy. If the color is too wet, it will run too far, and it can create blooms. If the color spreads too much, we can lift some colors and bring back the light. Please remember, I'm wiping my brush with a paper towel after every time I'm picking up the colour. And I'm using a clean damp brush for this. And some dry brushing for the snow on the ground, if fair. Okay, that's better. A little more brown in the middle. Okay, now it's time to start some scratching. I'm using my tool for this. You can also use the edge of your brush. That's completely okay. While our paint is still wet, we will make some thin longitudinal lines and pull the colour. This may not be visible right away, but once the paint dries, the color will settle in those markings, and it will create beautiful textures of the distant barren trees. Okay, that's it. Now let's try it completely before we move to our foreground. 28. Winter : Enhancing treeline: As our initial layer is dry by now, and we can see all those tiny branches popping up in our background. Now I'm using a round synthetic brush, and we will add one more layer of some small bushes in our tree line, using a thicker mix of blue and burn tamber, which leans towards a little warmer shade, so I'm mixing a little more burn tamber than blue. If we consider the rule of perspective, things away from us feel colder and dull, and things which are near to us feel farmer. Notice how adding these small trees push our background trees further and bring our horizon line much closer to us. Remember, now we are working on a dry paper. And again, a little scratching for the bushy texture. Okay, that's good. Let's move to our foreground. 29. Winter : Initial layer - The foreground: Now it's time to work on our foreground. For this, I'm preparing a watery mix of cobalt with a little purple and using dry brush technique, we will add some snow effects. So how dry brush will work with such a watery mix. Remember, the golden rule, every time we load our brush with fresh colour, we will pat it nicely on our paper towel until it feels dry. Here, please notice I'm using a round synthetic brush for this, and we will use the side of the brush and not the tip and softly rub it against our paper. Paper being heavy in texture will do the rest of the work. Please notice my brush movements and how I'm holding the brush from a distance. Doing so, the brush will move lightly and it will not put too much pressure on the surface. Similarly on this side. As we don't mix white to lighten our color, to use a lighter value of the color, we tone down it with water. White pink an opaque color appears chalky and we lose transparency. I hope you remember this from our technique lesson. Okay, now I will use a clean tam brush and let's soften a few shapes to create shadows. This way, creating some soft and some hard edges helps create a visual interest in our texture. Okay. That looks good. Let's move to our lake. Now for reflections in the lake, we will paint all wet and wet. For this, I'm gently giving a quick wash to my paper, and I'm preparing a cool mix of cobalt and hello blue for this. The consistency of the mixture will be watery. Here, please keep in mind the color of the lake should appear very light as this lake is nearly freezing. And very gently, we will start working on the lake. Keeping a variation in the color. The further we move, the lighter the color will become. A little more darker in the front. Okay, that's good. For shadows on the edges, we will work with the same mix we previously used for our background trees. That is a mix of ultramarine and bon tamber. By using similar colors, it creates a harmony in our landscape. I'm using a softer round brush for this. Notice how I'm using just the tip of the brush and touching a paper very lightly. Et's go a little darker on the edges. Notice how while working all wet in red, the things move smoothly. Creating some texture in the background. Notice how I'm working with a tip of the brush, and my brush is almost dry. Okay, it looks good. As now, the paper is drying, so that's it with the layers. Let's try it completely. Next, we will start with the details for our final project. H 30. Winter : Details - Shadows and reflections: Okay, for working on the edges of our lake, we will use a round synthetic brush as they absorb less water. So if we observe closely during the winters, there are some rocks, some snow and some land visible on the banks of any water body, and we will create those textures using multiple colors. For painting rocks, finally, I have decided to use some yellow ocher instead of raw umber, as yellow ocher will add a little bit of warmth to our cold winter. I have mixed with a touch of burnt amber, and we will start putting some rocks around the edges. Here I'm working with a creamy mix, and without touching white areas, I'm painting in the shadow areas around the edges. As we already have some white areas which is snow on the edges, so we will preserve those whites. If you're not sure about that, then you can also mask those areas using masking fluid. It is completely optional. Finding the shadow areas and trying to create the contrast slowly creating the texture a little more brown in the front. Keeping a paper towel in my hand. Make sure your brush is not too wet. Alternating between the colors. Sometimes I'm using Okermw and sometimes I'm using burn tamber. As we move further away, the masks become lighter and smaller. Almost working with a dry brush, creating small broken lines. Okay, let's enhance some reflections. For reflections, we will use our same shadow mix which we used for the shadows in the lake. But this time, it will be thicker and of darker consistency. And some spatters. Let's add some shadows in the snow area also carefully creating texture with dry brush and then softening a little bit. Finding the gaps and keeping in mind, we have to preserve our whites. And softening. Okay, that looks good. Similarly, I'll be painting the right side too because it's the same process, so I will fast forward the video a little bit. A carefully working around the edges. Adding some details in the foreground, using a watery mix of burn timber and a little bit of purple. So snow, some reflections. Let's add a few shadows in the background. Be careful not to lose white areas. And some spatters in the foreground. Okay, that looks good. Okay. That's it. 31. Winter : Details - The trees: Welcome to the final details of our final project. Let's paint winter trees. To paint trees, I'm preparing some blackish color mix using ultramarine blue and burn tumber. I will be using two mixes of the same colors, one with more burn tumber, so it will lean towards brown, something like this. And another one with more blue, so it will lean towards gray. To achieve similar shades, you need not to mix too much of the color at once. Just keep on adding both colors one by one until you have reached your desired shade. And to paint trees, just keep on alternating between both shades. Like this. Okay, let's begin with our background trees. The consistency of our color looks good. Let's turn our paper upside down to work faster, and this way it feels easier too. You can work either way as you are comfortable with. I'll be using a thin tip brush or a liner brush for this. These cold trees shed their leaves and appear almost lifeless during winters. Painting these thin branches become easier with practice. So I will suggest you should practice first before painting them here directly if you don't feel comfortable with, and slowly, it becomes so much fun. Try to give them a shape so they look like trees. Let's add some here. Be mindful about the perspective. Okay, and one here. Some small ones. Let's see how it looks. Okay, it looks good. Let's add some in our background, too. I'm turning the paper upside down again as it feel more controlled like this. Please notice the consistency of the color. It's like thick milk. It shouldn't be watery or runny. Otherwise, the branches will not appear darker. And some here. Okay, let's make this one a little taller as to bring forward from the background. That looks good. And a few small bunches. And some small ones in the background. Just to give a suggestion of the words. Okay. That looks good. Let's move to our main tree. For this, I'm turning my paper back upright and preparing some creamy consistency of the color. We will work in a similar way, creating some thicker bottom trunks and then thinner branches. The creamy consistency of our color gives us more control and appears darker and so the nearest trying to make some long trunks. Okay. And a few small ones. Okay, the ship looks good. Let's make punches. Please keep a variety of shape and thickness. Some tall ones. Now for very thin branches, I'm shifting to my super thin tip brush, and we will create some thin intricate branches on the edges. These super thin intricate branches will create a beautiful bushy appearance. Be careful about the wet color. Okay, that's good. Now, I have decided to add a few more to the tree on the right. You can work as much as you can or stop right away. It's up to you. Oh and a few here and there. Some final tats. Let's add one or two here on the bank. Okay. That's it. Now to the final step. Let's add some fresh snow effect. I'm using white watercolor for this, you can use squash too, and we will prepare a thick milk like ratio like this. Using a small synthetic brush, we will add spatters. I will suggest trying these patters on some scrap paper first as if they are very big or flowy, white being an opaque color can't be blended in the background and it can ruin our landscape. So be careful. In a few around the lake. And that's it. Congratulations. We have completed all four projects, and I'm so glad. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I love to show you. See you next in the bonus lesson. 32. BONUS LESSON: Oh So why I chose four different blues for our landscapes? To understand this, let's paint a simple landscape using all four different blues which we use for our seasons that are ultramarine, hello blue, cobalt, and Cerulean blue. Here I have divided the paper into four parts, and I will be painting each block with one landscape using the same palette for each one, except the blue color of the sky, which will be different in all four landscapes. The technique will be the same. First, we will wet the paper nice and shiny. And let's begin with our spring sky color, which is cerulean blue. So very loosely shaped clouds just to give a feel of the sky. A little darker. And a very bright foreground, some lemon yellow, cadmium yellow. And some sap green. I'm not going into any details here, putting some colors on the paper to understand how the undertone of colour changes the mood of our landscapes. A and a little more dark green. Okay. Similarly, I will paint the rest of three also, starting from summer, then autumn and lastly winter, and I will speed up the process to make it easier. So what we observe, let's see spring and autumn first. Cerulan blue and thalo blue both are the same pigment PB 15, and they both have a cool yellow undertone. So why two different colors? Cerulan blue being a soft pigment and here in spring, the whole landscape looks kind of subtle, cool and softer shades of sky that blend smoothly with our foregrounds, which is perfect to paint our spring sky. Spring is like a quiet awakening from cold, harsh winter representing the beginning. Hence everything feels softer, fresh and calm. However, for autumn, I choose Tlloblue over cerulean, as it is more intense blue and gives a bright yet cooler looking sky, which goes perfectly with the vibrancy of autumn colors. The colors pops next to bright oranges and yellows and create vibrant atmosphere. However, ultramarine blue, being a warm color with purple undertones stand out against our foreground and brings everything closer. Everything looks bright and warm like a shiny summer day. For our winter sky, I wanted to use a blue which has neutral undertone, which feels cold and can create a perfect snow day. Kobalt blue is a cooler color with pure undertone. It reflects crisp dry air of the season, and that's why it's the idle color to paint a winter sky. As the cold air of winter holds less water and the sun being low at angle during the winters, it intensifies the blue light that our eyes perceive. And to suggest snow conditions, we mixed it with a touch of doxsin violet as snow acts like tiny mirrors for the light and reflect purple light. That's why to paint shadows of snow Dixsin violet is always a great option. And hence, four blues. Hope that makes sense. 33. CONCLUSION: Here comes an end to our beautiful journey of painting seasons. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I do. I'm so glad to see you all making it here until the end. Now it's your turn to create something beautiful. Hope you have practiced the techniques, and as by now you are very well familiar with the process, I will suggest don't be scared to experiment. I'll be eagerly waiting to see your beautiful works and versions. Share your creations in the project section, so I'll be able to give feedback. If you have any doubts, please feel free to reach out and ask your questions in the discussion section below. If you're sharing your art on Instagram, don't forget to tag me. I'll be happy to share them in my stories. Lastly, don't forget to give feedback about the class. I'll be happy to hear from you, and it will also help us in our future projects. Hope to see you next time until then, take care and keep painting.