Line and Watercolor Wash Sun Conure Parrot | Erika Lancaster | Skillshare
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Line and Watercolor Wash Sun Conure Parrot

teacher avatar Erika Lancaster, Watercolor + Sketching + Artist Mindset

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Course Introduction

      4:53

    • 2.

      Art Supplies

      8:11

    • 3.

      Course Project

      5:09

    • 4.

      Observing Our Reference Photo

      7:08

    • 5.

      Pencil Sketch

      18:00

    • 6.

      How to Draw Feathers With Pen and Ink

      9:37

    • 7.

      Pen and Ink Drawing

      12:31

    • 8.

      Planning Colors and Preparing Paint Mixtures

      9:33

    • 9.

      Watercolor Washes: Bird and Branch

      20:54

    • 10.

      Watercolor Washes: Background and Final Details

      16:27

    • 11.

      Thank You

      0:58

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About This Class

Love the look of line and watercolor wash art, and looking for a beginner-friendly course to help you start on the right foot? Do you enjoy sketching or painting birds, and are looking for a fun course to level up your skills?

This beginner-friendly course is perfect for artists who're just getting started with line and wash, as well as for intermediate artists who're looking to take their techniques with this combination of art mediums to a new level. 

In this course, I take you through my 3-Phase process for creating line and wash artwork (pencil sketch-pen and ink-watercolor washes), and include extra classes with must-know information and exercises for greater success. 

✱ What You'll Learn:

  • My entire process for creating line and watercolor wash artwork
  • How to use reference photos to inform your work while bringing yourself and your style into the piece
  • How to sketch birds freehand with accurate proportions and shapes
  • How to simplify feathers and sketch them using shapes, lines and marks
  • Tips on creating well-balanced mixed-media artwork that isn’t overdone


✱ Supplies you'll need:

  • Drawing pencil (I would recommend an HB or B)
  • Drawing pen (I use a 0.3 tip size)
  • Soft graphite eraser
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Watercolor paint set
  • Watercolor paper (I use Cold Press- 140 lbs.)
  • Watercolor paintbrushes (I use rounds in sizes 2, 10 and 14)
  • Color mixing palette
  • Water container(s)
  • Absorbent towel or regular kitchen paper towels
  • Masking tape or artist’s tape
  • Backing board
  • Scrap pieces of watercolor paper


Hope you enjoy and get a lot from this course. :)

You can also find Erika here:

Website

YouTube

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Meet Your Teacher

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Erika Lancaster

Watercolor + Sketching + Artist Mindset

Teacher

"This is probably the best class I have taken on Skillshare. Well paced, organized, practical applications, engaging, and informative. Thanks Erika, very well done."

"Erika is a very good teacher, the course is for beginners but I think it has some gems for more experienced artists. Looking forward for her other classes."

"I think Erica gave a thorough explanation that would allow anyone to begin working with watercolours. You can review any of the individual chapters again to reinforce what you heard or to do the practical work. I really enjoyed the class."

"Excellent presentation and very useful information. Would like to see more of this teacher."

"This is a great class on food illustration. It covers color mixing and pr... See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Course Introduction: Do you love the look of line and watercolor wash artwork and are perhaps looking for a beginner friendly course that can help you get started on the right foot. Or perhaps you've already started on your journey with this awesome combination of art mediums. And you're looking for a course to help you progress your techniques and your overall method so that you can arrive at better results. Do you enjoy sketching and painting birds and would like ideas on how to create awesome looking artwork of this type of animal using line and wash. How do you create unique artwork that has your style in it stemming from a reference photo and what does the mosquito information and best tips that will help you stay away from overworking or over describing your subject in a mixed media art work so that you can arrive at a well-balanced piece. My name is Erica, and I'm an artist working with a variety of traditional drawing and painting mediums, ranging from graphite to pen and ink to watercolor, acrylics and more. And I love continuing to grow my skills with all sorts of different subjects, ranging from landscapes to botanicals to still live, to animals and more. This is what I share online. My days revolve around creating original art and selling art on a local level. I'm also constantly creating new helpful content to share online that is aimed towards beginner and intermediate artists who are really looking to level up their knowledge and skills. I'm always working on mu helpful content for artists that I share it via my YouTube channel, via my different social media platforms. And also of course, I create exclusive content that I share with my membership group. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields. After obtaining my BA in graphic design, I first worked at an advertising agency as a graphic designer and later as an art director. After that, I worked for over seven years of teaching art in the school environment. During those last few years, as I continued working at that regular full-time teaching position, I started growing my art business on the side, selling artwork and also I was starting to teach people of all sorts of ages in my own home studio. Over time, as my small art business kept growing, I was able to leave that last full-time position and dedicate all of my time and effort to continuing to grow it. That's when I decided to take what I was doing locally to the online space in order to reach and help more people. So this is what I do full time today and I am the happiest I've ever been continuing to develop my own art skills as I simultaneously help others in their own journeys. In this course, I am taking you through my entire process for a pen and watercolor wash piece of a son collinear parrot. I take you through how I create my preliminary pencil sketch freehand, stemming from a reference photo to how I add texture and detail using different pen and ink techniques to finally bring the piece to live through adding bright, vibrant watercolor washes. So by the end of this course and going through this process with me, you have created your very own line and watercolor wash sunken your parent piece. There is so much must know information packed into this course that will help you advance your skills during the pencil sketching process, I am sharing must know tips that will help you arrive at better proportions and shapes when you're drawing free hand during the pen and ink process, I am sharing secrets that helped me arrive at much better line weight variation, which is key when you're drawing with pen and ink and during the watercolor painting process and also sharing must know information that is going to help you create better paint mixtures, create beautiful gradients and transitions between your colors. And that will also help you stay away from overworking your piece. I've also added an extra classes in which I explain what to look for in a reference photo in order to arrive at a believable look, essential things to pay attention to for greater success. Another one on how to simplify feathers and how to draw them with pen and ink. And another one in which I explain how I choose my colors stemming from that reference photo while bringing in my artistic license to change the mood before jumping in, I do want to remind you that I have a full watercolor 101 course here on Skillshare. I would highly recommend going through if you're just getting started with watercolor. And I also have a full and super thorough line and watercolor wash flowers course for you to enjoy. Alright, that is gonna do it, uh, for this intro video. I am so excited to get started with our first-class. So whenever you're ready, See you there. 2. Art Supplies: Hey everyone and welcome to class number one, where I'm gonna be sharing all about the supplies that are used to create this pen and watercolor wash son pioneer piece. I always wanted to encourage you to use what you have. You don't have to use the same type of pen that I'm gonna be using, or even the same colors that I'm gonna be using for the watercolor washes. But I do want to explain some important things in relation to y. I am picking this specific type of watercolor paper to work with some other helpful notes and tips when it comes to the other supplies that I always make sure to have on hand so that you can have these things in mind as you're choosing your own supplies in order to have a smoother process and a better final outcome. Alright, so to begin, I'm gonna be using one of these eight by ten inch ready cut watercolor sheets from Strathmore. This is going to be cold press paper, and this paper is 100% cotton. I really like this paper when I'm gonna be bringing in pen and ink because one of its sides has very, very little texture to it. It's almost like hot press watercolor paper. And as we know when we're bringing in drawing supplies like pen and ink or pencil, tip can certainly skip over that tooth or texture of that paper. And if you don't want that to happen, if you want to lay down relatively smooth lines using paper that is less textured is very, very helpful. So I would recommend cold pressed paper that has a very small amount of texture to it or go in with hot press paper if you're looking for paper that is completely smooth. If you've checked out my watercolor 101 course that I shared here on Skillshare a few months ago, which I would highly, highly recommend. If you're just getting started with this medium, then you're probably already well aware that cold press paper is right in-between, hot press and rough, so it usually has a midweek texture to it. However, different brands of cold press paper have different amounts of texture. So it's really going to be up to you to explore different brands of paper until you find the ones that you like for the specific tools and the methods that you like to use for my watercolor paint, I'm gonna be using this palette that I have prepared with Daniel Smith tubes. I'm gonna be using a total of eight different colors. And these colors are chiral Scarlett, new gamboge, hence a yellow light, phthalo blue, undersea green, neutral, tint, yellow, ocher, and burnt umber. I always like reminding you guys that there is no need to use the exact same colors that I'm gonna be using. I'm going to be swatching out all of my different colour mixtures before getting started with the painting process for you on a scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can see what these colors look like squashed out on paper. And you can just choose whatever you have on hand. That's most similar to these colors and you're painting is going to turn out great in terms of my paint brushes. I'm going to be using three rounds in different sizes. Largest one is a size 14, the medium one is a size ten, and the smallest is a size three. For my pen and ink process, I'm gonna be using one of these pigment liners from Sadler and this is in 0.3 tip size. I also have a B grade drawing pencil on hand. Usually I like creating my preliminary pencil sketches using an HB, which is slightly harder than the B grade. But because I want you to be able to see what I'm doing when I'm creating that very light pencil sketch. I use a, B sometimes or even a tube when I'm filming these tutorials for you, whatever pencil is going to help you create a nice, clean, light preliminary sketch that your graphite drawing doesn't dominate at the end. And you're able to easily erase mistakes and refine your drawing as we go go with that pencil grade. I also have a regular eraser on hand from favorite Castile and I have a kneaded eraser, which is that blue chewed up bubblegum looking. While I'll think on the screen there. And my other supplies that I have on hand are things I always have in my watercolor tutorials. Have my blue Scott absorbent towel on hand, which is essential in order to stay on top of water control throughout the painting process. I also have a few scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand to test out color and transparency before going into my painting with those color mixtures because it's very difficult to fix mistakes when you're painting with watercolor. So you certainly do want to have something that is going to help you test out your color mixtures. You're also going to notice that I have taped down my watercolor sheet onto my black cutting mat, which is what I'm currently using as a backing board. And I have used regular three-fourths of an inch masking tape to tape my watercolor sheet down. However, it's not necessary to take your watercolor sheet down for this piece because the background is going to be minimal, we're gonna be bringing in a vignette style background where that paint doesn't really reach the edges of the sheet. And if you do decide to taper watercolor sheet down, whatever it is that you decide to use, whether it's artist's tape or regular masking tape. Make sure that you run your pieces of tape over your clothes a couple of times before taping your watercolor sheet down so that you can soften that adhesive and make it a lot less likely that you'll damage your sheet at the end when you remove that tape. And finally, I also have one container with clean water, which I'm gonna be changing as I move along. I'll let you know when I do. It's very important to work with clean water, especially when you're going for vibrant bright colors. And you might even want to have two different containers on hand so that you can use one of them to rinse out your paintbrush bristles so that the majority of that paint stays in that first container and then use the second container whenever it is that you need to bring out clean water into your color mixtures to water them down a little bit more. Or you need to do pre wedding with clean water in certain areas of your piece, which is something that we're gonna be doing for our background today. Or you simply need to go in with just water in your paintbrush. It's completely up to you if you want to use one or two or even three containers. But whatever it is that you decide to go with, make sure that you're working with clean water and that you change it whenever it starts becoming murky because this can certainly affect the look of your vibrant colors. Alright, and just to finish up, I do want to remind you that in the projects and resources tab, I have left a few downloadable available for you that you can use as you're moving forward with your process, you're gonna be able to find the high resolution reference photo that I use to get loosely inspired by my outline sketch, which you can transfer onto your sheet of watercolor paper using your favorite transferring method. I like using tracing paper and my watercolor 101 course also includes a full class on how to use tracing paper as a transform method in case you'd like to check that one out. Even though I do share in this course how I create my preliminary pencil sketch completely free hand for the sun collinear, before moving on to the pen and ink and then the watercolor painting process, I did want to make sure to include my downloadable outline sketch for those of you who want to skip over the free hand sketching process, I want to jump straight into the pen and ink and then the watercolor. I've also included a photo of my finished piece which you are free to use as reference as you're working, and a downloadable supply checklist just so that you can make sure that you have everything you need before getting started. All right, friends, that is gonna do it, uh, for this first-class. I look forward to seeing you in the next in which I'm going to be explaining about the course project that we're gonna be working on together. So whenever you're ready, See you there. 3. Course Project: Welcome to this very brief class in which I'm going to be explaining about the course project that we're gonna be working on together. By the end of this course, you're going to have created a pen and watercolor wash mixed media piece of a sunken your parrot. I'm gonna be sharing my entire process with you won't be holding anything back. Have broken everything down into phases. And each phase, I'll be taking you through everything step-by-step, but I'll also be explaining things that I make sure to have in mind and also best tips for success in phase number one for this course project, we're gonna be working on creating a preliminary outline sketch in pencil freehand, stemming from our reference photo, focusing on re-creating believable proportions and shapes. Phase number two is all about pen and ink. So we're going to be bringing in our drawing pen. We're going to be defining edges, creating textures, and adding details into our drawing. I'm gonna be sharing all about these specific pen and ink mark making and shading techniques that I like bringing in for this piece. And finally, in phase number three, we're going to be bringing everything to life with bright, vibrant watercolor washes. I've added in three extra classes in-between these larger phases. And I would recommend not skipping over them because I will be providing lots of super-helpful information that will not only help you succeed with a drawing or painting process that is coming up next. But this is also key information that you can take with you to other similar pieces that you may decide to work on in the future. The first one of these extra classes, we're going to be taking time to observe our reference photo before putting pencil to paper. This is incredibly important for our success and something that I would highly recommend getting into the habit of doing before jumping in through observing that reference photo, we're able to take note of the things that might present a challenge for us so that we can create strategies to move forward more effectively. We can decide to bring in our artistic license and change things, which I do want to remind you that just because we're using a reference photo doesn't mean that we have to create a carbon copy of what we're looking at. We always want to bring in our artistic style, our voice, and our knowledge of composition in order to make the piece more interesting, to look at and make it more harmonious, more well-balanced, and simply bring in more of ourselves into the piece. And in this case, because we're drawing of them painting a specific type of bird. We want to make sure that we take note of the specific birds characteristics so that then via our drawing and later our painting, we're able to adequately described this bird so that at the end, this can actually look like a sun collinear and not another type of bird. Another extra class that I've added in for you is called how to draw feathers with pen and ink. I would highly, highly recommend going through that exercise before getting started with a pen and ink phase of this project, understanding the specific mark-making techniques, the specific shapes, how we are going to be creating the illusion of overlapping feathers, et cetera, is important before jumping into the final piece, because pen and ink is a permanent medium and you're not gonna be able to correct your mistakes. So in that special class, I'll walk you through how to draw all of the different types of feathers we're gonna be adding into this bird. And then finally, the other extra class is right before we jump into the watercolor washes. And in that one, I walk you through my color selection and how I prepare my color mixtures in order for me to not only know which colors I'm gonna be using throughout the bird's body as I am painting, but also to set myself up for success through preparing a good amount of my first color mixtures before jumping in and also making sure that those color mixtures have a consistency. So a paint to water ratio that is going to be helpful for me because I want to be able to load up my paintbrush bristles well and paint quickly so that I can arrive at Fresh, loose, expressive results. And in order for me to do that, I must have a good amount of paint for me ready on my palette. And those consistencies of my color mixtures have to be good for what I'm trying to do. Alright, so that is it for our course project, the major phases and also the minor exercises and prep work that we're gonna be doing in-between the larger phases. With all this said, let's go ahead and jump straight into our next class where we're going to be observing our reference photo together and take note of all of the things that we want to make sure to bring in or to change so that we can end up with great results. Whenever you're ready, I'll see you in the next one. 4. Observing Our Reference Photo: Welcome to this class, where we're gonna be taking a few minutes to observe our reference photo together. I know how exciting it can be to want to jump straight into the drawing or painting process. But I promise that taking time to observe that reference photo or whatever it is that you have in front of you in real life that you're drawing or painting before jumping in can have a huge positive impact on your process and your end results. So really start practicing this and bringing it into any kind of artwork you may choose to work on in the future. It's going to help you tremendously, alright, without much further ado, let's go ahead and jump straight in. Here is this beautiful photograph of this sun paneer parrot that was taken by photographer Kevin Mueller. And this is what I'm going to be constantly looking at throughout this drawing and also the painting process. Now, even though I'm looking at a reference photo, it doesn't mean that I can't bring in my artistic license. A drawing or a painting is an interpretation of what I am seeing, whether I am looking at a reference photo or something that I have in front of me. I am drawing or painting from direct observation. I'm going to take the visual information present in this reference photo to bring in the level of realism that I'm looking for. This way, I don't forget important details that I might want to decide to bring in. But at the same time, I am going to take artistic liberties throughout all of these different phases of this process. I definitely want the sperm to look like the sun coming year at the end, different birds have different characteristics and it's very important that we take note of the specific characteristics. Set this type of bird apart from other birds. And the type of feather, length of the feather and feather shape are just part of this mishmash of characteristics for this particular type of bird that you're drawing slash painting. There's also the size and shape of its speak. There's the combination of colors and patterns throughout its body, its proportions overall. How big is its tail compared to its body, compared to its head, compared to its legs. All of these things are important that we pay attention to and even take notes on. If we want our final piece to look like that type of word that we're trying to portray in this photo. We can't see a large portion of the bird's wings. The middle to lower part of its wings is being covered by shadows and this branch that is in front of it. And we know that a bird's wings and also the feathers in its wings are quite important to understand. Wings and feathers not only distinguish birds from other animals in the animal kingdom, but they also change from bird to bird. So something that I find incredibly helpful when something like this happens where I feel that I'm lacking a certain amount of important visual information is I look for other reference photos to complement that main one. This photo here, e.g. is excellent because I now can see what a sunken year looks like from a different perspective. I can now see it in more of a profile view. And I can see the full wing and all the feathers present in the wing. You can also get a better understanding of the animal's body proportions, et cetera. So I want to encourage you whenever you feel it might be helpful for you to look for extra reference photos or maybe even watch videos so that you can get a better understanding of that particular subtract from different perspectives. Maybe even get a better idea of what it looks like when it's movement, whatever material or resources you feel might be helpful for you so that you can inform your work better. Make time to collect those references. If I didn't have this reference photo present to see and to observe throughout this process, I might very well forget about important characteristics. I'm going to be drawing or painting things the way that I think they look like and not what they actually look like in real life. And I can run the risk of this bird not actually looking like a sun. It's also up to me to decide how much detail I want to actually render and what specific techniques I'm gonna be using with pen and ink and watercolor to bring my style to life. So it's not just about taking a reference photo or whatever it is that you have in front of you in real life and trying to replicate a carbon copy of that, it provides a base for you to jump off from, but you do have to bring in your critical thinking skills as an artist to think about what the toes you're going to be bringing in, what you're gonna be leaving out. What techniques and overall process are going to lead to the effects on the outcomes that you're after. In this course, we're working on a pen and watercolor wash mixed media piece. And there is a certain amount of simplification that has to come in in the editing process and also in the watercolor process. Because if we overly describe with both mediums, we can create a piece that is just overdone when we're combining two or more art mediums, we want to make sure that we're balancing them out and using each mediums and using each medium's strengths so that they can play off each other. If we overdo the detail with both mediums, it's very likely that at the end, our piece is going to lack that freshness, that looseness and that level of expression that we're usually going for when we're creating pen and watercolor wash pieces. So as artists, we have to bring in our critical thinking skills to simplify what we're seeing in the reference photo to a certain extent while bringing in the specific characteristics for this type of bird that we just took note of. So in other words, making sure that we're bringing in what matters but simplifying the rest and not being afraid to remove the things that aren't as important and not being afraid to change certain things or use specific types of lines or marks, or even make certain colors brighter. If we want to, in order to bring more of ourselves into the piece, different artists might choose different kinds of lines and marks to describe those feathers or different alternative shading techniques in order to develop some shadows throughout the bird's body. Or they might even decide to mute the colors and the bird because it's part of their style. But as long as those major, most important characteristics of sun can ears are brought in, then this will look like a sunken year. Alright, that is gonna do it, uh, for this class on observing our reference photo, it is now time to move into our preliminary pencil sketch. I am so excited to jump into that one with you. So whenever you're ready, I'll see you in the next one. 5. Pencil Sketch : Welcome, welcome. In this class we're gonna be working on creating our preliminary pencil sketch. It is incredibly important to take our time in this first phase of the process because this is the base and foundation for everything that is coming up next. And if our proportions and shapes are not believable in our sketch, then no amount of detail or shading or addition of color is going to make our bird look believable. We also want to make sure that we're using our drawing area effectively so that we don't end up with a sketch that is way too small, has tons of negative empty space around the bird. And we also don't want to make our bird sketch so large that part of it will be cropped off. We want it to fit in our watercolor paper. Alright, one quick tip that I want to provide is if you feel that you're going to be erasing way too much on your watercolor sheet, or you're afraid that your sketch might end up being a little bit messy. I would definitely work on my sketch in a sketchbook and then do my transferring onto my sheet of watercolor paper. You can use a tracing paper for your transferring or you're transferring method of choice. I'm going to sketch right on my watercolor sheet because I have lots of practice drawing birds. And I also have enough practice withdrawing lightly so that I can erase my mistakes very easily and I'm not scratching or damaging my watercolor paper with a pointy pencil. But whenever I'm going to be creating a preliminary sketch that I'm going to be moving on to painting with watercolor that involves a subject or an object that maybe I haven't drawn before or is quite complex and requires very specific proportions. I do sketch it somewhere else. Trace over my sketch with tracing paper and do my transferring onto my sheet of watercolor paper. A lot of people seem to forget that you can use tracing paper to trace over your sketches and not just to trace over photos. I do this all the time to make sure that I'm continuing to practice my drawing and also my painting. And this is important because we want to maintain our watercolor sheet clean and we don't want to damage it with our pencil or with too much erasing. Just as a reminder, if you do decide to go down that route creating your sketch on a sketchbook and then doing you're transferring. I do have a class on how to use tracing paper for you're transferring in my watercolor 101 course that I have here on Skillshare. Alright, so let's go ahead and jump in. There are three things that I always make sure to do when I am creating my preliminary pencil sketch doesn't matter what it is that I am drawing. One of these things is I always make sure to draw lightly so that I can easily erase mistakes, refine my drawing as I go so that I don't scratch or damaged my watercolor paper. And so that I don't see my pencil work through my paint at the end. Another thing I always made sure to do is I always simplify what I am looking at into simple shapes. The third thing that I always make sure to do is I always work from general and make my way towards specifics by doing these three things. I'm not only able to arrive at a cleaner looking scattering, also able to arrive at better proportions and a better use of my drawing area using my B grade drawing pencil. What I am starting out with right here is actually the little branch that the bird is sitting on. In this case, the branch really divides the bird into two halves, or very close to two halves. So we can use this branch even though it's at a slight angle. We can use it as a sort of visual guideline to help us get the height, the total height of that bird's body, right? Getting that height right, or the length of its Hill in relation to the upper part of its body is important in order to get the bird's body proportions right. So I find it helpful to start there. I do my best to replicate the angle of that branch that I see in the reference photo to the best of my abilities. And as you see, I already started incorporating some irregularity along the edges of this French. Once the branches in, you're going to see me use the envelope method to start drawing the body shape of this bird. The envelope process is a method or technique that I oftentimes share in my drawing or sketching tutorials that has really helped me arrive at better proportions and shapes when drawing freehand, all the envelope method is, is, I imagine a blocky envelope shape around the entire bird. You can see how I didn't try to go in and immediately start creating perfect curves or shapes. Actually laying down straighter lines and creating a blockier, more geometric E-type shape, which is referred to as an envelope. After proportions look right. Then I go ahead and refine this envelope and turn straight lines into curves and add slight nuances along those edges that I see in that reference photo that I actually simplified out in this first part of the sketching process. But first, I am focusing on the general largest shape. I'm tuning out all the details. I am simplifying everything as much as possible in order to focus first on getting proportions, right, I am just noticing major angles present in order to arrive at that big envelope shape. Once that big shape and that envelope looks good to me. And I have compared the total height of the envelope as well as the widths of the head section, the body section, and the tail section with the bird in that reference photo, it's time to start adding in the medium-sized shapes and smaller details inside of this envelope and continue doing any refinements that need to get done with this one. I started with the bird's head. I added in the beak and I also added in the eye observing that reference photo very closely. And I would recommend doing a zoom in to that reference photo, observing the birds had very closely when you're adding in. And the eye makes sure that the total width and height of the beak, the angles created by the beak, the shape of the beak are recreated as best as possible in your sketch. Because as I said before, different birds have different types of beaks. And if you want this to look like a sun collinear than it is very important that we get the characteristics for this particular bird's beak, right in our sketch. And the same thing goes with the, I. Notice the location of the eye inside of that head shape in that reference photo, notice the distance between the top edge of the bird's eye and the top edge of the bird's head, the bird's eye and the back of its head and the bird's eye and that back edge of its beak and try to get it in that location. Also notice the size of the bird's eye. This is something that I often struggle with two of the day, if the size of your eye is a little bit too large, it might end up looking like a cartoon bird, but you don't want it to be too small either because that also is not going to be right when it comes to proportions, right here you're gonna see me start adding in the tail feathers for the tail feathers because these are longer, larger feathers, I did count them in that reference photo. Made sure to add in that amount of feathers in my sketch. When it comes to the smaller feathers though, I didn't count them. Notice how I've already divided that tail shape into to have a left and a right half with a vertical line. It's not a perfect vertical line, but it helps me divide that larger tail shape into two-halves. Once that has been divided into two halves, I then divide this shape again into halves, but now into top and bottom halves by adding in those curves created by the middle feathers. So I actually observe that bird's tail in that reference photo. And I noticed that R5 long feathers in each side, five large overlapping feathers throughout the length of that tail. And what I do to simplify the process for myself is I start with the middle feather because then once I get back curve for the middle feathers in, I have divided that large tail shape into two sections. And I know that two more feathers have to fit on top of that curve and two more feathers have to fit below that curve. So dividing things in halves, whether it's a top and bottom half or left and right half, is always very helpful. I do try to incorporate some irregularity and imperfection throughout Lewis tails. If I get in all of those shapes in a super perfect, straight organized pattern and equal distance from each other. Way. It's not going to look very natural. It's going to lead to a very stiff look. And that's not something that I'm after. I finish up with the tail by adding in that last long tail feather at the bottom. That is all by itself. And I do end up doing some refinements in the tail. I decide that my shape is too straight into perfect, and I decide to make it a little bit more curved or more at an angle. And this is again, to stay away from stiffness. What I move on to next is I start dividing a beak shape into top and bottom sections. I observe that very dark shape, negative little shape in-between the beak sections and try to replicate that in my sketch as I am separating out the top and bottom sections, you can see me add a little bit more height into the bird's beak there to make it more similar to what I'm seeing in that reference photo right here. I'm going to work on some refinements in the bird's head and also in the shapes of its wings. I continue comparing my sketch to that reference photo and really noticing if any changes need to be made in my sketch before moving forward. And I'm going to start adding in the bird's eye. To add in the bird's eye really zoomed in to that reference photo. And I am observing that I very, very closely. I added in the shape of the birds pupil. So the black circle in the eye, and I also start adding in a little bit of an indication of that tear line that birds have around the eye. That is a section that at the end I want to make look like it's an off-white color. So I'm starting to incorporate that very important shape around the eye into my sketch. Another thing that you're going to see me add in just a bit our little highlight shapes inside of the pupil. You can see those bright white highlights in the eyeball in that reference photo. And those highlights are going to be very, very important that we incorporate into our artwork. Highlights are super-important to incorporate into animal drawings or paintings because they really make the animal come to life. Notice how at this point I'm also starting to add in a little bit of a feather texture like flyaway feathers coming out along the edges of the bird's body. And then I move on to adding in the only thing that I'm missing really for the bird's body, which are the little feet and claws. So even when it comes to the clause, which are very small shapes, I simplify everything as much as possible. Notice how I add in the clause as just one single line initially, and then I close that nail or claw shape by going in with a simple curve, I'm making sure that the length of the claw is what I want it to be and the curve is what I want it to be before turning that into a shape, when I draw the little birds feet and clause, I'm really focusing on making sure that these shapes are not too big and not too small when I compare them to the rest of the bird's body, if I make them too big, calling too much of the viewers attention towards them. And I definitely don't want the little feet to be the central point or to distract away from the beautiful parts of the bird's body, which are the feathers and the colors and all that. So make sure to keep proportions in mind when you're adding in the little birds feet. What I move on to next is I start adding in the feathers in the bird's wings. Inside of their wings they have different types of feathers. I just simplify the wing into three sections. In the top section you see shorter or smaller feathers. In the middle section, you have a medium feathers, and in the lower portion of the wing there are longer feathers, which we could very clearly see in that extra reference photo that I shared in the previous class, even though it's not necessary to get in every single feather present in that reference photo in your sketch. You really wanna make sure that you are observing how those feathers change in terms of shape and size throughout the bird's wings. So that in your sketch, you can represent that with different shapes to the best of your abilities. Really notice how these feathers are overlapping on top of each other as well. And make sure that the shapes and lines that you add into your sketch transmit that overlapping. Once I have added in those feathers, in one of the bird's wings. And I'm happy with how they're looking. And I think they're a good representation or interpretation of what I am seeing in that photo. I go ahead and mirror those shapes and lines that I've created in that wing. On the other wing, there can be slight imperfections and irregularities. And in fact, I would recommend that those shapes are not incredibly perfect because that would also, again lead to things looking very unnatural and stiff. But to create that mirrored or flipped object or sensation for these shapes in this other wing. After I've added in those feather shapes and the bird's wings, you can see how I am now moving on to adding a little bit more of those flyaway feathers coming out of the edges of the bird's body. And a few little indications of feathers here and there throughout its chest and head and belly. Even though later I'm going to be adding more little feather textures with my pen and ink. And I might even decide to ignore some of these lines that I am adding in with my pencil at this point by adding them in with pencil first, I am already deciding shapes, some lines I'm going to be using with my pen and ink later in order to describe those feathers throughout the bird's body, It's very important that when we go in with pen and ink that we know what we're doing. We know exactly what types of shapes or lines or marks we're gonna be using to describe the different feathers throughout the bird's body. So going in and adding those shapes and lines and marks in with pencil first helps us visualize what those blinds and shapes and marks are going to look like later on so that we can decide if that's what we want or not. Go in and add that middle line in the tail feathers as well. I'm also start adding in lines and marks throughout that little tree branch. They're going to help me start describing that wood texture. And same thing goes for the branch. I add in those lines and marks to help me start understanding what lines and marks I'm going to bring in with my pen and ink. And I'm definitely going to be adding more with my pen and ink later on than what I add with my pencil. But this helps me visualize what specific lines and marks I'm gonna be using. And if I liked them or I want to change something. After doing this, I'm gonna be adding just a, a few more lines and marks for feather textures throughout the bird's body. And just make sure that everything is exactly how I want it. And then I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to be moving forward with the pen and ink process. A lot of beginners rushed through this preliminary sketching process and I want to encourage you to spend as long as you need to on it because this is the base and the foundation for everything that is coming up next. If proportions, shapes, and everything don't look good, no amount of detail and color is going to fix this. I go ahead and lighten my sketch with my kneaded eraser by just doing some gentle tapping over that graphite. This is an order to remove any excess graphite that might be floating around on my paper that might create smudging and that might muddy up my vibrant color. Alright friends. And with that, we're all done with this class and we're ready to move into the next in which I'm going to be explaining how to draw different types of feathers using pen and ink. This is going to be great practice that I don't recommend skipping over because it's going to help us be much more successful in the next larger phase of this process, which is going to be the pen and ink phase. Whenever you're ready, see you in the next class. 6. How to Draw Feathers With Pen and Ink: Hey there and welcome to this class where we're gonna be practicing these specific shapes and mark making techniques that we're gonna be using to draw our different feathers with pen and ink. It makes a huge difference when you have a strategy, when you know exactly what techniques are gonna be using throughout the drawing or the painting process because you're able to go in more confidently. And this definitely shows in the final piece, especially when we're working with pen and ink, we want to know what we're doing because pen and ink is a permanent medium, we're not going to be able to erase our mistakes. And not to mention through getting this warm-up and this practice in, before getting started with our pen and ink worked in the final piece because we're able to go in more confidently and more swiftly, were able to arrive at a better line weight variation in our drawing, which is going to look a lot more dynamic, a lot more interesting. And we're going to be able to stay away from heaviness, flatness, and stiffness. I'll be delving deeper into line weight variation, what it is, how to arrive at a better line weight variation in the next class. But for now, let's jump into our planning and our exercises for all of these different shapes, lines, and marks that we're gonna be using to describe the different feathers throughout the bird's body. Alright, so in the next part of the process, which is going to be the pen and ink phase, we're definitely going to be using different mark making techniques and shapes to add in texture into the tree branch, into the skin, in the bird's little feet and claws into the eye, et cetera. However, when it comes to birds, knowing how to draw feathers is incredibly important. It's one of the main characteristics that set this type of animal apart from others in the animal kingdom. And in my opinion, when it comes to drawing birds or even painting birds, being able to describe feathers, they're different shapes, how they overlap, the visual textures they create, etc. is perhaps the most challenging thing behind drawing or painting a bird. So this is why I wanted to add in this extra class. And you can certainly take this information and these exercises with you to any bird drawing that you may wish to work on in the future. So what I want you to observe right now in this photo are the different types of feathers throughout this bird's body. How many different types of feathers does it have noticed and separate out the different types of feathers considering their shape, considering their size or length. And you can even consider their texture or their color for this particular bird. On screen right now I see at least five different kinds of feathers. We have shorter feathers in the bird's head and chest and belly area. We have three different types of feathers in the bird's wings, and then we have the longer tail feathers on the wings are partially covered by this branch here. But I'm able to see that the smaller or shorter feathers and the upper part of the bird's wing are different from the feathers in the middle section of the wind. And those feathers located in the middle section of the wing are different from the longer feathers which are located in the middle to lower portions of the wings, we can definitely see those longer, lower feathers in the wings better in the second photo that I shared with you before. Alright, so let's jump into our prep and practice work here. I'm going to make sure to use the exact same pen that I am planning on using for my final piece. I want to start getting used to it. I want to know how it works. And it's also a great opportunity to just check that it has enough ink. It's not going to run out throughout the next large important part of this process. So I take a scrap piece of paper and it doesn't even have to be watercolor paper. It can be any paper you want. You can see that this paper that I'm doing, these practice little drills and is way more textured than the paper that I'm using for my final piece. And this is just because it's the first scrap piece of paper that I grabbed that I had in my studio. And I am practicing all of these different types, lines and marks and shapes that I'm gonna be using to describe the feathers in the bird. So if you took time on your preliminary pencil sketch and really observe that reference photo and you're already going to have a pretty good idea of what shapes, lines, and mark making techniques could be helpful when it comes to drawing these feathers with pen and ink for my smallest, teeny tiny feathers, I'm just going to be using tapered strokes. So single tapered lines going down and slightly curving off in different directions and overlapping in different ways to create a tapered lines with your drawing pen, you wanna do a quick flicking motion with your wrist. This is going to help you make that base, that root of that feather a little bit thicker and darker and it's going to become lighter and thinner as you move away from that root and that base of that feather, it's gonna become thinner and thinner. At the end, I'm gonna be using these teeny tiny marks in the bird's head and for flyaway, little feathers along the edges of its body and other places throughout its body, where I want to add in a subtle hint. Feather texture, but maybe I don't want to go all out and draw an entire feather. The second type of mark making that I'm gonna be using for the feathers is for the short feathers that you can very easily see in the bird's chest and belly in that reference photo, they end in a type of wide curve like the smile almost, but there is a lot of irregularity throughout that curve. It's not a smooth curve. The sections of that feather kind of separate out a little bit. And this is why I added in those very irregular marks along the edge of that slight curve. And finally, there is this shape that I'm gonna be using for the bigger feathers in the wings and the tail feathers. And this I see as more of a shape even though it's not closed. Many of these feathers have that visible shaft or line down the middle. And I'll be adding this shape in different sizes depending on the feather that I'm drawing. When it comes to drawing and painting feathers, it's very important to have in mind where the root or base of that feather is, the direction that it is growing towards. You want to make sure that the lines and the marks that you are creating are communicating that direction that the feather is growing out towards you. And one other thing that I want to mention is especially when drawing these longer feathers in the wings and the tail, makes sure that you're overlapping of your shapes. Make sense. Observe that reference photo. Zoom in and really pay attention to what is happening with those feathers, which feathers are overlapping, which makes sure that the shapes that you have drawn in pencil and the previous phase makes sense before you go in and start tracing over them with ink, pay attention to which edges of your shapes are being covered by other feathers. And finally, even though I'm not going to be developing a wide range of values using alternative shading techniques because I'm gonna be bringing in watercolor and I'm gonna be developing some values with paint. And I definitely don't want to overly describe or overdo it with the detail that I add in with my pen and ink. If I'm gonna be bringing in another medium, I am going to be using a little bit of hatching to darken certain areas, but I'm going to do so very minimally. But all I'm going to be bringing in for very dark shadow areas is hatching. All hatching is is laying down parallel lines side-by-side in order to cover up some of that brightness of the paper and develop a darker value. These parallel lines can be going off in any direction, any angle, as long as the lines are parallel and they have a consistency in that group of lines. The closer your lines are drawn, the more paper you're going to be covering up, which means you're gonna be developing a darker value. The wider the spaces you leave in-between your lines, the more paper is gonna be left shining through, which leads to a lighter value. These are usually the different types of shapes and mark making techniques that I personally like bringing into pen and ink drawings of birds. Feel free to use these in your own pen and ink drawings or come up with your own shapes and mark making techniques are going to help you describe those different feathers in a way that you enjoy. Always paying attention to the information present in your reference photo or whatever it is that you have in front of you in real life. Especially whenever you're going for mid to higher levels of realism. That is gonna do it, uh, for this planning and prep class, I really hope that you found it helpful and I want to encourage you to spend as much time as you need practicing all of these different techniques before moving onto the next class. And whenever you're ready, I'll see you there. 7. Pen and Ink Drawing: Hey there and welcome to this class where we're gonna be working on the pen and ink drawing process in this final piece. So if you've been following along with this course at this point, you already have your preliminary pencil sketch ready to go showing believable proportions and shapes. And you've also planned and practiced the specific lines, shapes, and mark making techniques that you're going to be bringing in with your pen and ink, especially those that are gonna be used to draw the feathers. I'm going to walk you through my entire pen and ink process here and explain all of the key things that helped me arrive accurate results. So what I'm doing right here is I am starting to trace over my pencil work, noticing the highlights in that reference photo. I am drawing in those shapes and I am going to start filling up the pupil, which is that dark circle in the bird's eye, making sure that I am working around those highlight areas where I want to leave that paper shining through, standing in place for my highlights. After I filled in that pupil shape, I'm going to go ahead and start adding in the tear line around the eye. And notice how I didn't create a perfect outline circle around the eye or anything like that. I just hinted at that tear line by adding in a couple of lines around some sections of the eyeball. If I go in and trace a perfect ring around that eyeball, that is going to look very cartoony. So I avoided this by just tackling that tear line with a couple of imperfect lines to hint at that tear line shape. I've zoomed into that eye area in my reference photo and notice where the thickest points and that tear line were when seeing the bird from this perspective. That's where I added in those lines. And then I went ahead and added in that off white shape that I'm going to be developing around the bird's eye, which is a very important characteristic for this type of bird. Notice how I approached tracing that shape around the eye in sections. In some sections, those lines are not even connected. And I am doing this on purpose in order to stay away from that cartoon or coloring book page, thick outline kind of look. That leads to a lot of flatness. And through tackling the tracing over my graphite work in sections and keeping it moving, keeping it flowing. I'm making sure to develop more line weight variation throughout my drawing, meaning certain sections of my lines and marks look thinner and lighter. And other sections of my lines and marks look thicker and darker after the I tackled that beak. And you can see how I used hatching short little parallel lines that are very close together to develop that very dark value that I see in that reference photo inside of that beak. Then I continued doing my line work around the bird's head. Notice how I started incorporating those flicking marks in some sections of those edges around the bird's head to start describing that feather texture, irregular edges are very important when you are drawing or painting textures. And I'm making my way downwards from, they're really trying to avoid touching any of this work that I've done in order to avoid any smudging, I've started adding in some of those lines and marks that I have chosen for the shorter feathers in the bird's head and chest and belly. And I'm also starting to trace over the larger feathers and the bird's wings. You're gonna notice that I am bringing in some extra marks and shapes for my feathers that I didn't actually pencil in before. And in other cases, I am ignoring the pencil work that I've done. As I continue drawing these longer feathers in the wings, I am really being very careful and observing that reference photo, understanding which feathers on top of which feather, because I don't want to start trying any edges of feathers that really shouldn't be visible that I wouldn't be able to see because it's actually being overlapped by another Feather. Be careful with that when you are using pen and ink because you're not gonna be able to erase that. Also notice like curves that are happening in those feathers. Those slight curves are very important to integrate into our drawing so that we can stay away from stiffness. Notice how I am keeping it moving, keeping it flowing. I am embracing imperfections and I'm not trying to go in and fix everything that doesn't turn out perfectly. I know that if I try to go in and fix every little imperfection, I'm probably just going to end up making that very stiff or more noticeable. I'm continuing to jump around the entire piece and never spent too long in any single area. I'm bringing in some more extra little teeny tiny feathers with those tapered short strokes around the eye and along the head. I'm keeping the feathers that I add into the head smaller so that they don't distract away from the bird's eye and beak. I want the bird's eye and beak to be the main things in the bird's head. And if I add way too many feathers, especially near the eye and the beak, I run the risk of the eye and the beak getting lost and all that detail. So it's always very important as you're adding in these feathers it take a step back and see the entire piece as a whole and asked yourself if more detail is actually necessary. Oftentimes, less is more. And remember that we're bringing in another medium. In this case, we're bringing in watercolor when you're creating a mixed media piece like we are today, and you're combining two or more different art mediums. You don't want to do too much with any of them. You have to think of a balance that you're gonna be creating with the two mediums so that they can truly shine. And so we stay away from overly describing our subject here. As I am continuing with my pen and ink work, I am making sure to keep it moving, keep it flowing. I know that if I am overly meticulous or overly perfectionistic and start working way too slowly. My lines are probably going to end up looking very stiff and very heavy for night, can even create stop and start marks throughout those lines that I definitely don't want. So by working a little bit more quickly, I am ensuring that again, there's line weight variation in my lines and marks. And it's going to look way more dynamic, way more flowy. At the end. I'd much rather have imperfections throughout my lines and marks, but have them look lighter and more dynamic than to have very perfect lines that lead to stiffness. You develop line weight variation by making use of mainly for different variables, these four variables that you want to keep paying attention to when you're drawing with pen and ink, or the pressure that you're exerting on your pen, the angle that you're using your pen in, the speed that you're moving your hand and arm West, and of course the pen tip size as well is going to have an impact on your line weight to take note of how buy you shifting and changing these four things, you develop thicker lines are thinner lines, and it all has to do with how much ink is able to flow down that tip of that pen as you're drawing. Just like when you're drawing with pencil, you never want to use your drawing tool just in one single way with one single grip, one single angle, one single speed, you gain mastery over your drawing tool and you shift and change the way that you're using your drawing tool depending on what it is that you're doing in that given point in time in the drawing process. And depending on the effects that you're after. After I've added in those lines and marks that I have created for describing that wood texture in the branch, you're going to see me start to do some hatching, especially along the lower edge of the branch. This is going to help me round out the branch a little bit more, enhance that sensation of shadow in that lower portion of this cylindrical structure. I also added in some short tapered lines in that section in the top of the bird's tail. And you're going to see me go in with more marks, especially along the middle vein of these long tail feathers. Notice how those are not straight lines but irregular marks that I am very quickly adding on top of that weaker middle line that I had already created for that middle vein. And I'm going in here with more hatching. Some sections where those feathers are overlapping on top of other feathers and creating a shadow on the feather below it. I'm observing that reference photo and noticing deepest, darkest shadow areas that I maybe want to push a little bit more with hatching. I add in some quick hatching in some sections in the birds feet that would have shadows in them and also along the inner edges of its wings. Alright, I'm almost done with my pen and ink process here. And I'm just seeing everything as a whole at this point. Noticing where I want to add in some final details and really asking myself, what kind of line or Mark or shape should I be adding into this area? If I am looking to add in more detail, what am I trying to describe? Is it a texter? If so, do I want to add in teeny tiny feathers or is it larger feathers that I want to add in two, I want to describe a values, meaning do I want to add shadows and just certain sections? And in this case I am sticking with hatching, which is a technique that I chose for my alternative shading, e.g. right here I'm adding some hatching to develop a shadow effect along some sections of the bird's beak. So in this case, it's value that I'm trying to develop, not texture, but I continue to come back and see everything as a whole to make sure that I'm not doing too much, but I'm not overly describing or overworking my piece. Alright, I'm pretty happy with how everything is looking. And I allowed everything to dry completely, which the ink in these pigment liners from stabbed or dries pretty fast. I've never had an issue with smudging, but makes sure that everything has completely dried. You might want to wait for five, 10 min to make sure that all of that ink is completely bone dry. But what I'm doing right here is I used my soft eraser to go in and erase out all of my graphite work from under that pen and ink. And this is important to do at this point if you're gonna do it, because once you have painted over your drawing, you're not gonna be able to erase it. You've probably noticed that when I do any erasing, instead of using my hand to dust off those eraser bits, I use my absorbent towel that I'm gonna be using for my watercolor painting process, which is of course completely dry by this point. But this is helpful because if I use my hand to desktop those eraser bits, I can run the risk of leaving oils on my watercolor paper or graphite that I have under my hand or lotion or anything like that. And that can certainly affect the way that my watercolor paint settles into the paper. It gets absorbed into the paper and you can be left with splotchy ***** or moneyness. Alright, we're all done with the pen and ink part of this process. I am excited to move into our watercolor washes. But first, I'm gonna be sharing an extra class. What we're gonna be working on, planning and preparing the specific pink colors that we're going to be bringing in, as well as preparing our first color mixtures. Whenever you're ready, I'll see you in the next. 8. Planning Colors and Preparing Paint Mixtures: Hey, and welcome to this class where I'm gonna be taking you through how I plan my specific pink colors that I'm gonna be using a for the piece on hand, as well as how I prepare my first color mixtures that are going to help me get started on the right foot, color plays such an important role behind making a visual composition look harmonious and cohesive. And if we jumped in without having given thought to what colors we're going to be bringing in in order to develop not only a variety in hue throughout our piece, but also perhaps even different values throughout or peace in order to create different light and shadow effects, it's highly likely that our final result is not going to look very cohesive and well-integrated, but also along the way, we can run into trouble creating colors that we don't want or even muddy colors. So I highly, highly recommend going through this process of planning your colors, swatching out your colors, maybe even trying out what different colors will look like together when mixed. If you're planning on mixing them in your final piece and taking five to 10 min to do this prep work, especially if you're just getting started with painting, because it's going to make your painting process go a lot more smoothly and it's going to help ensure a much better final result. So here's what I personally like doing before jumping into any painting process. As you can see, I do have one of my scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand right here so that I can swatch out all of these color mixtures for myself, but also for you, so that you can see what these colors look like on paper. And you can choose whichever colors you have that are most similar to the ones that I'm gonna be using. I do want to remind you that you don't need to use these exact same pain colors. As long as you use something that is similar, you're going to arrive at great results as I move along choosing my different colors. I am constantly observing my reference photo. I am getting ideas for the hues that I am bringing in based on the colors that I see throughout this bird's body. This said, I am certainly taking artistic liberties and making some of these colors brighter and lighter. This all comes back to what I was talking about in one of our previous classes, where I was explaining how if we want this to look like a sun collinear at the end, we want it to look believable than we do have to make sure to bring in those most important characteristics into our artwork. But we shouldn't be afraid bringing in our artistic license and changing things up if we're looking to bring in more of our style or to change the mood of the piece. Because in this photo, there is a certain level of darkness and I want my final piece to be happier, to be brighter. So the main colors that I see throughout this bird are yellow, yellow, orange, orange, red, and a very dark cool blue in the tail, almost a grayish blue, of course, are also the neutral as the grays and browns present in the little birds beak I, the branch and also its feet. I'm going to be creating a vignette style background. And I'm going to change the color of the background from this very dark grayish color to blue. I'm going to be creating my warm color mixtures on this left portion of my mixing area. And for my cool color mixtures, I'm gonna be using the right side of my mixing area that I'm going to be creating, my brown color mixtures in the upper portion of this mixing palette, which is actually the back of the lid. I'm using my size ten round brush to prepare my different colour mixtures because it's a very comfortable size two, take that paint from my wells and bring that paint out into the mixing area. You can see how I'm taking a little bit of water at a time from my container. I'm bringing that water into my paint, struggling my paintbrush in my paint, and bringing a little bit of paint at a time into these mixing areas and repeating that process over and over until the color is what I need and also the consistency of my color mixture is where I need it to be. I'm going for a coffee to milk like consistency here. So around 50% water, 50% paint. And I'm making sure to clean out my paintbrush, bristles in-between my different colors so that I don't contaminate the next. It's very helpful to keep your warm colors separate from your cool colors because if they start mixing together, vacant, start getting desaturated, or you can start creating browns. And for this piece we're looking for very bright, vibrant colors. Alright, so right here in this left section, the first little puddle of color there is pyrrole red with water added in. After creating my little puddle of pyrrole red, I created a little puddle of new gamboge and water. New gamboge is a warmer yellow that goes more towards the orange or mustard each side. Orange in the corner is a mixture of pyrrole, red and new gamboge. And finally on top of the new gamboge, I prepared a cool yellow and that's Hansa Yellow Light with water added in. You can see the difference between the new gamboge, which is a warmer yellow, and the hansa yellow light, which is a cooler yellow. And I wanted to bring in both yellows because I see warmer yellow areas in the bird and cooler yellow areas in the bird on the right side of my mixing area, I am preparing my cool colors. So first I made a little puddle of phthalo blue plus water. Then I created a mixture of phthalo blue plus undersea green so that I could have a blue-green color. And finally at the bottom, I mixed together a fellow blue and neutral tint so that I could have a very dark, deep rich blue for very dark shadow areas in the bird's tail and other deeper shadow areas that I might want to develop as an painting. I'm also going to be using this dark blue color mixture to paint my sky. Only. I'm going to be using it in a very watered-down state so that it looks lighter. Hello, blue is an unnatural blue for the sky. So by adding in just a little bit of neutral tint or even a Payne's gray, you can mute that bright blue down a little bit. And especially if you use it in a more water downstate, it can look like a very nice blue for a sky case. I'm going to swatch out these colors for you before moving into the browns that I'm going to be creating for the branch on the top left, I have new gamboge below that. I have my hands a yellow light to the right of that. I have my orange, which I created by mixing together my pyro scarlet and my new gamboge. Below that, I have plain pyro scarlet with water added in. For my cool colors, I have my plane, phthalo blue with water added in. My mixture of fatal blue plus undersea green. And finally, my fellow blue with neutral tint. You can see how dark it looks. It looks beautiful, almost like an indigo, because I'm also going to be using this darker blue for my sky behind my bird. I make sure to test out what this darker blue looks like. It's more watered-down translucent state. So all I'm doing is I'm going in with some water and my paintbrush and I'm doing a little bit of pulling of that pigment out to get an idea of how this looks when it's most watered down. Over here in this other mixing area, in this palette, I'm gonna be preparing my two browns, my lighter brown and my darker brown that I'm gonna be using to paint in the little branch. So my lighter golden brown is plain yellow ocher with water added in to the right of this puddle. I'm gonna be preparing a puddle of lane burnt umber with water added in by preparing to different browns, a lighter brown and a darker brown. I know that I am setting myself up for success to be able to develop a sense of dimension in that brand because I'm gonna be able to develop different Brown values in light and shadow areas. I'm going to test these out for you right here so that you can see what they look like on paper. And with these last two colors, ready, I am ready to get started with the painting process. Now, the paint that I have in my mixing areas is by no means all of the paint that I'm gonna be using throughout this painting process, I'm gonna be making more as I go, maybe even altering the ratios of the colors in my color mixtures that have two different colors in them. Adding more water into color mixtures. If I need to use that color in a more translucent, pale state, more paint into my color mixtures if I need to make them darker and more saturated, et cetera. But I'm going to make sure to only use these colors that I have planned. Alright, so with all this done, we're now ready to get started with our bright watercolor washes before jumping in, make sure to change your water and once you're ready, go ahead and join me in the next class. See you there. 9. Watercolor Washes: Bird and Branch: Hello and welcome to this class where we're finally going to be working on bringing our piece to live through adding bright, vibrant watercolor washes. I've separated this last part of a process into two classes. In this first part, we're gonna be working on our washes inside of the bird. And we're also going to be painting in the branch and in our next class, which is the final class in this course, we're gonna be working on creating a beautiful vignette style background and also painting in final details. I want to encourage you to embrace the irregular organic effects that watercolor creates. Don't try to go in and fix every little single texture that happens that you weren't intending to create because this is going to lead to overworked results and to flatten us the less moving around of paint that you do after it's been placed on paper, the better your piece is going to be at the end and the fresher it'll look also as you're moving along in your painting process, having to create more of your different colour mixtures. Make sure that you're setting yourself up for success and creating nice, juicy puddles that have both a good amount of water in them and a good amount of paint in them so that you can load up your paintbrush well and paint quickly. And finally, always remember that when we're painting with watercolor, we are using the whiteness and the brightness of the paper, as well as the mediums translucency to create lighter value areas and highlights. When we're painting with watercolor, there is no need to bring in white paint because the whiteness of the paper stands in place for our highlights. So whenever you're trying to give something to mention, you're trying to create a sense of light and shadow. It is very important to incorporate the paper as part of the piece. Notice right here in this picture how that top of that beak has that highlight area where the paper is shining through and there is a very small amount of pigment there. And I also incorporated little teeny, tiny sections of paper that I left unpainted all throughout the bird to create little highlights, shapes, and effects. If you're looking for a more in-depth explanation about This mediums characteristics that you should definitely know about in order to advance your skills much faster. And you're looking for specific exercises on developing your water control and using different paint consistencies to develop different values, I would highly recommend checking out my watercolor 101 course here on Skillshare. So with all this said, let's go ahead and jump into our printing process. So after having prepared my initial color mixtures, I went ahead and changed my water because my water was already pretty murky and I want to make sure to start with a container that has clean water in it with my size ten and my size three brush in my hand, I'm going to get started with my painting process. Here you can see me prepare my size ten paintbrush, which is what I'm going to be going in with initially, I take a few seconds to observe my reference photo before jumping. And I noticed the different colors in the different parts of the bird's body. So I'm going to get started with the head and I'm gonna make my way down to the chest and the belly area. So focusing on the colors that I see in the head and the chest and the belly. These are the warmer colors, the yellows, the oranges, the reds. So I always got started with the lightest color of the bunch, which is in this case a yellow. And I mostly see warmer yellow hues throughout these parts of the bird's body. And the cooler yellow is mostly at the top of its wings. So I'm going in with a warmer yellow, the new gamboge. And you're going to see me make my way down working quickly because I'm working wet on dry, which means that the paper is going to start drying pretty fast. And if I work too slowly than I can be left with sharp defined edges around the shapes that I'm painting in. And I don't want that to happen, so I have to keep it moving. I also have to work pretty quickly because I want nice soft transitions, my different colors. And in order for this to happen, I need to drop in my second color on top of that initial layer of color while it's still wet, otherwise, that second color is not going to expand into that previous color. So I'm using my warm yellow as a sort of base hue that I am making my way down the bird's body width as a first layer of paint, if you will. And wherever in the bird's body I want to drop in red or orange, like a rounded speak or I, or in certain sections of its belly, I go ahead and drop in that second color on top of that. New gamboge, warm yellow while it's still wet. Once I get to the midway point in the bird's belly, I started using more of the orange that I created by mixing together the pyro scarlet and the new gamboge and continuing to quickly make my way down and wherever it is that I want to add in a second color on top so that, that second color creates a nice soft transitions into that lighter orange. I go ahead and drop it in while that light orange is still wet. When you get to that point that is super close to the birds little feet and clause. You might want to change to your smaller paintbrush in order to have a little bit more control as you're doing your painting, everything is still pretty wet and workable for me at this point. So I take advantage of the fact that I can still do a little bit more work before my paper starts to dry and I drop in a little bit more color here and there. If you have to do any lifting and any areas that maybe you dropped in way too much color or things are looking a little bit too flat and you want to remove a little bit of color to reveal more of that paper underneath to add dimension back into that area. You can also go ahead and do that with either the clean and slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush or with your absorbent towel just makes sure that your paint is still wet so that you can do you're lifting. Once I'm done with painting the bird's belly, I go ahead and paint in the top part of its tail. And for this, I use a red orange that I create by simply bringing in a little bit more of my spiral scarlet into my orange color mixture right here you're going to see me remove this red orange for my paintbrush bristles. And I'm going in with a clean and slightly down paintbrush to do a little bit of lifting along the edges of this upper portion of the bird's tail. I thought there was a little bit too much color in that area. Things were looking a little bit too flat, so I removed some of that color. I used the clean and slightly damp bristles of my paintbrush as a little absorbent sponge. I am about to start painting the bird's wings. But before that, I just want to slow the video down just so that I can point out a couple of things here. First of all, notice the range of both color and value or translucency that I was able to develop so far in this section of the bird's body, I have some areas that look like a light orange, other areas that looked like a reddish orange, other areas that look red. And I also have some areas where that color appears paler and more translucent, and other areas where that color appears darker and more saturated. And this wide range of color and value or translucency creates dimension, creates the sensation of light and shadow throughout the bird's body. And the second thing that I want to point out is just like with my sketch, I am taking ideas from that reference photo, but I'm not really fussing about getting everything exactly the same way that I see it there. I took those major clues as to what the main colors of the bird are in these parts of its body and where I should create transitions. But I balanced out using those colors with working quickly and embracing the natural organic effects that happen when I paint with watercolor. And I did my best to allow that pain to do its own thing and not go back in and try to get rid of all the little textures and effects that happened as I was doing my painting and dropping in those colors and everything. And I want to encourage you to do the same. Hold yourself back from unnecessarily going in and trying to get rid of these effects and textures that happen. Because that is going to make it a lot more likely that you're going to flatten everything out. You're going to start overworking your piece and you're not going to have fresh looking results. So if you're gonna go in and help that color move around after you've placed it on paper, make sure that you're doing it gently and minimally. Okay, it's time to get started with painting in the bird's wings. So I removed all of those previous warm colors from my paintbrush bristles and still using my size ten round brush and working from the top and making my way down, I started with the lightest color that I would be using in the wings, which is my cooler yellow. So my Hansa Yellow Light is what I am using initially. And with that, hence, a yellow light in, I started dropping in some of my blue green. This is the blue-green that I created by mixing together phthalo blue and undersea green. Again, I am taking clues from that reference photo, noticing where the color transitions happen throughout those wings and dropping in my color of approximately in those areas where I see those colors changing. You can see me here working on the opposite wing. Once I painted in that hansa yellow light at the top, I started painting in the blue-green in the lower two-thirds of the wing. And then I remove that blue-green from my paintbrush bristles and I dropped in a little bit more of my Hansa Yellow Light in that transition section by dropping in a little bit of that hansa yellow light on top, while that blue, green and the yellow we're still wet, I created a bright green in-between the two colors. Alright, so I finished painting those top portions of the wings, and I still have to paint in those triangular bottom sections. I paint in these lower parts of the wings with my blue green. Then I drop in a little bit more of that blue-green woven initial layer is still wet to darken little shadow areas and create at least a little bit of a variation in values, even within these very small shapes at the ends of these wings, these shapes are way smaller than the large body shape, but I would still recommend working relatively quickly so that that paint doesn't start drying on you. Especially if you're looking for those soft transitions between your colors and you want to stay away from lines that are created by those edges of your shapes trying on you. Because we're working on dry paper. Dry paper is very thirsty. So immediately that pain starts getting absorbed into that paper, as opposed to when you do pre wedding with clean water, which is what we're gonna be doing with our background. We have a little bit more working time when we have done pre wedding, but in this case, we want to keep it moving. And wherever you want to drop in another color or create any merging of two colors, make sure that you do it while that initial layer or that initial color is still wet. Once I'm done there, I get started with painting in the bird's tail. And the bird's tail is blue. Initially, I go in with my plane, sale of blue and water mixture and wall, that initial layer is still wet. I drop in some of my darker blue that I created by mixing together fallow blue and neutral tense. And I drop that into shadow areas right below that bird's body. And in-between these long tail feathers because I dropped in that darker blue while that initial lighter blue layer was still wet, I'm getting these nice soft transitions between my two blues. Once I added in that darker blue in those shadows sections that I wanted to darken. I immediately continued making my way down to make sure that that initial light blue layer all throughout the tail feathers before that light blue edge at the top started drawing on me. And once I made my way down with that lighter blue and I covered up all of the tail feather shapes. I then go ahead and drop in a little bit more of my darker blue and shadow areas that I want to push a little bit more. Now, if you turn this video back just a few seconds to the moment where I first started dropping in that darker blue, I immediately stopped what I was doing once I dropped in some of my darker blue and remove that darker blue for my paintbrush bristles. I noticed that that blue looked way too dark, way to start and contrasting against that lighter blue. So what I did when I noticed that I was dropping in way too too much of this darker blue color. I immediately remove that color for my paintbrush bristles and I went back in with just a damp paintbrush to absorb some of that color backup and soften that dark blue by pulling it a little bit more into the lighter blue areas and distributing that very dark blue color among a larger area to make it look softer. Right here you're going to see me go in and do a little bit of lifting with my clean and slightly damp paintbrush, once again, using the tip of my paintbrush as a little absorbent sponge. So I am going to switch to painting the bird's beak. So because the bird's beak is a pretty small shape and I have to make sure to stay in control in this very small shape. I switched on over to my size three round brush. And the bird's beak is gray. So what I do is I add more of my neutral tint into my fellow blue plus neutral tint color mixture. Get it more towards the gray side. Notice how I'm testing out this new color right here on a scrap piece of watercolor paper to make sure that it's the color that I need before going in. And initially, I go in with just a teeny tiny small amount of this gray in a very watered down state that I am taking from the edge of my puddle layer so that I can get in that initial light layer making sure that I'm keeping highlight areas protect that especially in the upper section of the beak. Taking clues from that reference photo. Once this light gray layer is in and I have a little highlight there on top of the beak. I go ahead and take a little bit more of this gray now from the center of the puddle so that I can drop it in, in a more saturated state to push darker areas, shadow areas within the beak. And this is again, in order to develop a range of values in a range of translucency all throughout this bird in order to create dimension in all these parts of its body to add light and shadow effects, I did a little bit of lifting to pull up some excess paint. And notice how I'm using my absorbent towel. I have it right there with me that I can stay on top of water control in these very small shapes. And taking advantage of the fact that I have my smallest paintbrush in my hand and I've already created this gray color mixture. I go ahead and paint in a teeny tiny bit of this color in a very watered-down pale state in the inner corner of that off white shape around the bird's eye. I made sure to test out this gray on my scrap piece of watercolor paper to make sure that it was super, super light and water down and translucent, especially for that shape around the eye that I want to make look white at the end, if I go in with a very dark gray or I paint in a lot of gray in this shape. This shape is going to end up looking gray and not white. And the third thing that I'm going to paint in with this gray are of course, the little birds feet. Even in the birds feet, I want to make sure that I have some lighter gray areas and some darker gray areas. So I do this by initially going in with my gray in a very pale water downstate. And once that initial light gray layer is in there, I then drop in a tiny bit more of the gray in sections that I want to darken in shadow sections, these are very teeny tiny shapes, so make sure that you're not going in with way too much water or paint in your paintbrush and continue helping yourself with a clean and slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush. Use them as a little absorbent sponge whenever you need to and also help yourself with your absorbent towel. I'm constantly dabbing the tip of my paintbrush on my absorbent towel. Okay. So after doing that, it is time to paint in the little tree branch. So I switched them back to my size ten round brush, made sure that it was nice and clean before going into my browser. Right here, I am reactivating and making a little bit more of my two browns because they were starting to dry on my palette. I'm simply adding a little bit more paint and water into these mixtures every time that I am reactivating my colors or making more of my color mixtures. I am making sure that the consistency of those puddles is gonna be helpful for me if you have any doubt that your colors are going to end up looking too dark or too light for what you need in that given point in time in the painting process, I would highly recommend testing out your color mixtures on your scrap piece of watercolor paper before using it in your piece. And then you can add more water if you need to lighten that color. Or you can add more paint if you need to darken it or make the color more saturated, always remember that is going to be way easier to go in and darken than it is to go in and lighten. So start nice and light. And I am going in initially with, of course, my lighter golden brown, which is my yellow ocher. Using more lateral or horizontal brushstrokes, I paint in that light layer. First, I go in with this yellow ocher in a pretty watered down state, creating irregular edges along the left and right sections of the branch. I'm not trying to fill in the branch perfectly because I'm going for a vignette style for this piece. So I want my color to get lighter and lighter as it moves away from the bird and closer towards the edges. I don't want any of my color at the end to reach the edges where my masking tape is. And then I take some of my darker brown, which is my burnt umber, and I drop it into sections of that branch that I want to make darker when it comes to creating a cylindrical book, it's very helpful to darken the upper and lower edges and leave the middle portion of that branch lighter. This is going to bring forward that middle portion of the branch and make the darker sections recede, creating that visual cylindrical look, I'm making sure to work quickly so that the browns transition softly into each other. And right here I am softening the left and right edges of these brown shapes that I have painted in. I want the color to become paler and paler. And essentially for the color to turn into the white of the paper has the color gets closer to the edges of the piece and farther away from this focal central point, which is the parents. So all I did after having painted in the tree branch was I removed that brown for my paintbrush bristles and with just water in my paint brush. I went in and did a little bit of pulling out of a little bit of that brown pigment towards the left and the right edges. And that creates a natural gradient where that brown turns into the white of the paper. And I just kept those edges very irregular. Okay, so we're now done with over half of this painting process. All that is left is creating our vignette style background and also adding in some final details. We're gonna be doing that in our next class. So whenever you're ready, I'll see you there. 10. Watercolor Washes: Background and Final Details: Hey there and welcome to the final class in this course, where I'm gonna be teaching you how to create a beautiful vignette style background. And we're gonna be adding final details into our piece to paint the background, It's going to be essential to work with a larger brush. I'm personally going to be using a size four round brush to paint in this background, you can use something slightly larger, but I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than a size. Well, this is important so that you can load up your paintbrush bristles with a good amount of paint and water and go in and paint quick without much further ado, let's go ahead and jump straight into the last leg of this process. After painting in the branch, I changed my water again because it is going to be time to paint in our background color. And for this, it's very important that we have clean water in our container. We're gonna be doing pre wedding with clean water and then dropping in our color right here, I am preparing my size four round brush. This is a relatively larger brush that I'm gonna be using for my pre wedding and my dropping in of color in my background. First, I use my size ten round brush to make sure that I have enough of this dark blue color that I'm gonna be using for this large area because I definitely don't want to run out of color along the way. So you can see me prepare this large puddle of my fellow blue and a little bit of neutral tint. And this is again to make it look a little bit more natural than neutral tint, mute this very bright blue down a little bit. And here I'm going to test it on my scrap piece of watercolor paper to make sure that it is the blue that I want. If you want to add less neutral tint or Payne's gray or whatever it is that you're using into your blue or use your blue as is. You can go ahead and do that. But make sure that you have a good amount of that blue on your mixing palette. And that the consistency is helpful, which I am going for around 50% paint, 50% water. So somewhere between a coffee to milk white consistency for that color mixture. Alright, so with my color mixture ready on my palette, I went ahead and changed to my size 14 round from what I am doing right here is I am doing pre wedding of this lower right portion of my background. I'm gonna be approaching the background in sections just so that I can give myself a little bit more time, not have to worry about racing against the clock too much. So I'm gonna be doing the lower right corner and then the lower left corner, and then the entire upper portion together. So the trick here when you're doing your pre wedding is you're taking a little bit of water at a time from your container and painting that water into this area. Making sure that you go over everything a few times until you arrive at a nice even sheen. Take your time with it, be very gentle. You have to go over everything a three to five times to make sure that nothing starts drying on you way too fast. I have my size ten round brush in my left hand, just in case I need to switch between my larger brush and this medium-sized brush in those sections nearest to the bird, where I want to paint in this water very carefully what I'm doing my wedding, I made sure to reach all the way to the masking tape because even though I don't want my color to reach the masking tape, I want to make sure that I have evenly pretty wedded this entire section so that that paint has space to expand out because I want those nice soft transitions where the blue turns into the white of the paper. I want to give those gradients enough space for them to happen. I want a deep dark blue nearest that bird to transition into a lighter blue. And then that lighter blue, I want it to turn into the whiteness of the paper. So I need that space right after I arrived at that nice even sheen all throughout this lower right portion background, I started dropping in my blue color mixture nearest the bird, where I want that color to appear darker and more saturated. That's where I start dropping in my color. And once I feel I've placed enough color in this nearest section to the bird. I remove that color for my paintbrush bristles and I go back in with just a little bit of water in my paint brush to help that color expand out a little bit more and create that soft natural gradient. The blue becomes the white of the paper. Because I've already prepared the paper with some amount of water content. That water is going to do half of the work for me. So I'm not trying to overwork the piece or do too much. I'm embracing the effects that happen naturally, but I did minor work there just to make sure that I help that paint just create that transition that I want it, the gradient that I wanted. Remember to do just minimal work here. If you need to help that paint move out. Be very minimal, be very gentle and don't do more than is truly necessary. Embrace the organic effects that happen when you're dropping in that color. Otherwise, your painting is not going to end up looking as fresh and loose. You can also use your clean and slightly damp paintbrush to help you create that irregular, organic outer edge to this blue shape. But my advice is to not overthink it and don't try to overly control anything. The great thing about taking your time to do pre wedding with clean water before starting to paint large areas like these is not only that, that water content is helping you create those nice soft transitions and gradient effects and nice soft edges. But also that you buy yourself more working time before that paper starts to dry. So if once you have created that initial layer of blue, you want to go in and drop in a little bit more blue to deepen and jargon. That blue nearest the bird. You can go ahead and do that and you're still going to have that nice soft effect or that darker blue turns into the lighter blue next to it. You have prepared that paper with water, so it's no longer as thirsty as it is when the paper is completely dry. This means that the paint is going to dry much more slowly if you do your pre wedding effectively. So right here you can see me do the exact same thing. Only now I'm working on the opposite corner here on the bottom left. I took my time with that prereading process. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for you to take your time with your pre wedding after I'm done here, I'm going to do the same thing. But now in this larger area on top, and because this top section is double the size of the work that you just did. You want to make sure that you are really taking your time with that entire area. What I'm doing here is I'm getting started with the right side and then you're going to see me make my way towards the left. I advance a little bit more towards the left, maybe an inch or two, and then I go back to where I started to continue wedding those areas and make sure that those areas don't dry on me. Then I make my way back towards the left, advance a couple of inches more, and then I go back to where I started too, moisten that area a little bit more and make sure that it's not drawing on me. I advanced a little bit more than I go back to the area where I started and so on and so forth until I wet the entire upper half portion here, making my way carefully around the bird. Remember that you can change to your other smaller paintbrush if you need to, to get those sections around the bird, if you feel you need a little bit more control. But it is very important that you use a larger brush when you're painting larger areas like this, especially if you want to facilitate the process of working quickly, because working with a smaller brush in these areas really not going to be helpful. You're going to have to reload your paintbrush over and over and you're not gonna be able to paint quickly if you are going to be using that smaller brush, makes sure that you switch between them as needed. I made my way all the way down and reached the branch in this left side. And then I'm going over everything at least three to four times. It's really going to depend on the environment that you're working in. If you're working in a warm environment, a cold environment, the humid environment, they dry environment. If you have a heating system on a fan, on an air conditioning unit, on all of those things are going to have an impact on how quickly or how slowly your paint or your water start drawing on you. And these conditions are going to change day-to-day. As someone working with watercolor, it's, it's very helpful to take note of the current conditions and make sure that you're spending longer on your pre wedding, or that you are turning off your fan or doing whatever it is that you need to do that is going to enable you to paint more easily and arrive at the effects that you're after. Personally, I live in a very warm, almost always a dry environment. And I know that I have to turn my fan off before painting large areas like this. Otherwise, I risked getting splotches, lines, textures, things like that that I'm not really looking for. I'm glad that I get to share these real-time painting processes with you guys because this way you can actually get an idea for how long the pre wedding takes for me. I'm just now done with pre wedding, this entire upper portion here. Okay. So after I took my time doing that pre wedding and I arrived at that nice even sheen all throughout this upper half, I am getting started with dropping in my blue. And you can see how I am dropping it into these areas right next to the bird. Because I am looking for the color to be more saturated and darker in this section nearest to the subject or the focal point. Once I feel I've placed enough color around the bird, I go ahead and remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and going in with just a clean, a slightly damp paintbrush. I'm doing gentle moving around of that color that I've already placed on my paper. And I am creating softer transitions where that blue turns into the white of the paper. If I feel that I am pulling way too much color out towards the edges of my piece. I again remove that color for my paintbrush bristles, and make sure that I'm going in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and continue my work with a clean brush. You want to make sure that you're not pulling too much color out towards the edges. And you can see how I am really playing with how I'm using my paintbrush, moving it around in different ways, changing the angle at which I'm using my paintbrush. Because I know that all of that is going to help me arrive at that irregular organic outer edge to this blue shape. Remember that we're not painting the wall of a house here. We're not going for a flat, even finished almost at any point when we're working with watercolor. So just like what I was doing inside of the bird itself, I am going for a wide range of blue values and translucency in the sky. And I just continue playing around here until I arrive at very organic, irregular blue shape that I like. And I make sure that the transitions are soft into the whiteness of the paper. And if I feel I need to darken certain sections around the bird, I go ahead and drop in a little bit more blue into those areas. While that initial layer is still wet, really trying to hold myself back from doing too much because I know that I'll get rid of those beautiful watercolor organic effects. I'm all done with that background. I don't wanna do anything else or I risk overworking the piece. All I am doing here is I'm cleaning up some edges where that blue maybe went into the bird shape a little bit. I did that by just going in with my size ten round brush. It was perfectly clean. I just very gently did a tiny bit of scrubbing over that blue that I wanted to lift out. And that helped me get rid of that blue inside of the bird. And right here I am moving on to the very last little thing that I'm gonna be doing in this watercolor painting process. And this is just going in wet, on dry and darkening certain shadow areas inside of the bird. For this, I am using my size ten round brush and I am looking to create very irregular, abstract shadow shapes. And these are just some areas that I feel needs to be pushed a tiny bit more because watercolor tends to dry lighter than how it looks when it's wet. And so sometimes it's very worthwhile to come back after everything has dried. And notice if you just want to very gently and in a minimal way, push some shadows sections a little bit more to add a little bit more depth and realism into the piece. So you can see how I added a little bit more of a deeper, darker red with my payroll Scarlett, in the triangular looking red shape at the top of the bird's tail. I just steepen and darken this sections right beneath the branch that would have a little bit of shadow right there created by the branch and the top of the bird's body. Then I remove that read from my paintbrush bristles and I'm going in with my orange that I created by mixing together and my new gamboge and my pyro scarlet and with a very small amount of watery orange, I'm just creating very irregular, abstract shadow shapes below some of these feathers in the bird's belly and chest. So I'm imagining a little shadow shape beneath the feather. And in a very abstract way, that's when I am painting in. I also add a couple of quick shadow shapes with this orange below the bird's beak and below it's I. Finally, I'm just going to push some shadow shapes in the tree branch. So I am going in with my burnt umber and I am mostly just adding in a little bit of shadow along the upper edge of the branch and a tiny bit in the lower edge of the branch. Just a moment ago, I reactivated that darker brown on my palette, which I had a very small amount of, and it had already started to dry. And I just activated again and made a little bit more of that brown. Once I have that little puddle of brown created, I go in and start painting in this dark brown along the upper edge of the branch. And then I also darken some portions of the lower edge of the branch, especially in the central section of the piece nearest the subject. And once I have painted in that dark brown, I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and you can see me right here, go in with a clean, a slightly damp paintbrush to soften those edges of those brown shapes that I just painted in. Because they look a little bit to find because I just painted them on dry paper. Notice how I made sure not to darken that central section of this cylindrical form. If I darken that central section, I would flatten everything out and I definitely didn't want that. And with that, we're all done with our pen and watercolor wash. Sun can year if you made it to this point, congratulations, that is so amazing. I hope that you learned something new, that you enjoyed this process and that you're taking tools and tips with you that you can take with you to future pieces that you may decide to work on. It's definitely not easy to push through and create something from scratch the way that we did in this course. So congratulations, I'm so proud of you and I hope to see you in the last closing video for this course. 11. Thank You: Thank you so much for joining me in this course. I really hope that you enjoyed working on this line and watercolor wash sun can earpiece with me. Don't forget to share any of the work that you did during these classes in the Projects tab here on Skillshare, I am so excited to see your work and to cheer you on. There is also a class discussion section. You can leave comments and questions and I look forward to helping out with. And finally, don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare because I have lots of new courses in the works that I am super excited to share. This way, you can receive a notification that will let you know when a new class has been launched or whenever I am sharing other helpful resources for extra inspirational and helpful art content. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and check me out on social media. I'm on Instagram and Facebook. I wish you tons of progress and enjoyment moving forward in your journey and see you soon. Bye.