Transcripts
1. Trailer: Birds are so much
fun to draw and paint and I'm here to show
you that you can do it too. Hello fellow artists. My name is Yasmina and I am a self taught watercolor and
other mixed media artist. My passion is to share the joy of painting
and drawing with you. And this is actually
my 30th class. I've been creating full
time art for a decade now. And I even have a published book on how to draw cute animals. In this class, we're
going to paint one of my most favorite things
to paint, loose birds. And I want to show you
that you shouldn't be intimidated by birds. They're actually one of the
easiest subjects to paint and draw because they're so
universally recognizable, you can go far
away from reality. Recognize it as a bird. You really have a lot of
creative freedom with birds, and you shouldn't be
afraid of making mistakes, especially when
painting loosely. Let me show you
how in this class, we're going to start the
class off with supplies. And you don't need
anything fancy, but you can play with
mixed media in this class. So get out any fun things
you have on your desk and any sort of wet media paints
like watercolor or gush. And then we're going to dive
into how to draw birds. We'll even touch on realism, but mostly focus on simplifying and even doodling
from imagination, which is actually not that hard. And then we'll quickly
cover the basics and the magic of wet
on wet painting, which is the main technique
we will use in this class. And if you have trouble
picking colors, I'll show you an easy way
to pick color palettes. And then we'll paint
some super loose wet on wood birds in two ways. The super duper, easy way that can be done
with imagination. And there's really no wrong way to do it, think you swear. And the more
observational method, which is also super fun
and to me it's easy. You just have to practice. And don't psych yourself
out and just try both ways are so fun
and so free to paint. And they're a great way to let loose play with
color composition and just have fun
and learn how to paint works while it
mixes and mingles. We'll finish off a class
with two finished art works. One is starting with a super
loose wet and wet technique. And then we're going
to add detail, which is how I usually
paint my birds. And the is even more
playful in cartooning, it's more of a mixed
media play kind of bird. And we're going to do a whole composition
that'll even show you how to plend it out with thumbnail
sketching beforehand. And this project is a little
bit out of my comfort zone, but I want to show you how
to be more experimental. How to problem solve, and you'll learn a lot
by watching it. In this class, we're
going to practice, grow, play, and experiment. It is going to be such a blast, I can't wait to share the joy
of painting birds with you. And the best part is you can take the things you learn from this class and use them for any subject matter
you draw or paint. In the future, you
will learn how to simplify subjects and make
them in any way you like, and how to paint loosely. So are you ready for some
loose bird play? Let's go.
2. Recommended Supplies: Hi, I'm so happy you could
join me for this class. So the supplies for this
class are super flexible. The first thing you need
is a sketching pencil. You might want to have
two different kinds, one for sketching out to just practice and one for sketching
out before painting, which might be a light color. There's tons of different
brands for that, but you can use anything
you have on hand. It doesn't matter. The
main thing you need for the painting
portion is watercolor. And don't worry,
even super cheap, budget friendly paints are
perfectly okay to use. Like here, I painted with the cheapest paints I could
find, which are creola. And as you can see, it's all
about skill, not supplies. Professional artists can make any kind of supply, make
beautiful paintings. I think a lot of beginners get
stuck on this part because they can't afford the nicer
stuff 'cause it's expensive. So don't worry about it and
just use what you have. You can also use guash paint
if you have it instead, because it acts a lot like watercolor,
especially diluted. You'll also need some brushes. Any kind is fine,
but I recommend a size six to eight round brush. It may be a small
detail brush if it's hard for you to add detail
with a larger brush. But you can do it if
you just practice. So watercolor paper
is also a necessity. It has to be watercolor
paper because other papers aren't thick enough
and they will warp when you use
a lot of water. So make sure that the paper you choose is at least 140 pounds. You can get away with a lighter
weight, but not by much. And if you want to help
with warping even more, you can use artist
tape, masking tape, or washi tape to
hold down your page. You will also need something
to mix your colors on. It can be a simple ceramic
plate or a mixing palette. Or your palette might already
have one attached to it. You'll also need some water, which you can use any
container for, even a glass. Or you can use two
water glasses if you want to make sure that
your brush is super clean. So one initially cleans it and
one makes sure it's clean. Another thing you might
want is a paper towel, reusable rag or sponge, which is handy to soak up excess water on your brush
and help keep it clean. I find it invaluable, especially if I pick up too much water. So this next part
is pretty optional. This will be a
mixed media class, but the supplies you use on top of your water colors
are up to you. The three main supplies I
recommend are colored pencils, micron pens, and a white gel pen for adding opaque highlights. You can also use a white
posca marker instead, or white acrylic or guash
paint with a small brush, anything that's an opaque
white but you don't need this, it just helps to add highlights. You'll also see me use different colored Posca
paint markers and water soluble neo
colored two pastels. But you really don't need these. It's just something I
like to use right now. There's a world of fun supplies
you can experiment with. You can even use
something as simple as a ballpoint pen or graphite pencil for just playful
outlines and details. Anything you have is just fine, and any cheap supplies that you pick up is
just fine as well. Just use what you have
and play with it. But if you want to see a list of my current favorite
supply brands, I have a detailed page on
my website featuring them, which I will update as
I have new favorites. But this is just my
personal preference. There really is no
one right supply. You can really use
anything you like, even like cheap
children's crayons. Okay, now that we
know what we need, let's start the class.
3. Drawing Birds: Drawing birds can
be extremely easy. Let me show you how.
If you've taken my, you can draw anything class. You'll know that anything
can be drawn by just using simple shapes to get the right proportions and then just adding in the details. If you want to draw birds, that's exactly what I would do. I would do many studies
by first sketching out the basic shapes
and lines you see. And then I would add in details. This is observational drawing
and you don't have to be perfectly realistic to get
valuable practice time in. At first, your drawings
will be more wonky, but as you practice,
you'll get better. But there is an even
easier way to draw or paint birds and this is done
by simplifying what you see. You are capturing just the
essence of your subject. And this is similar
to Sumi painting, the artist captures
a subject with just a few inclines.
I love the style. The beauty of drawing
birds is they are actually very easily
recognizable, so you can be super playful. Our brains know what
they look like, it knows how to recognize them. Even if your birds are
super far from reality, they will be recognizable. Look how easily I capture the poses in basic
shapes of these birds. But I'm not being realistic. I'm still studying what I see, but I'm portraying it
in a few simple lines. And the beauty of this
is that you can do it in so many different ways
and they are all correct. There are no wrong answers. This is just a skill
that takes practice and I suggest to give
it a go right now. This is your first assignment. Go Google or Pintres
look up bird photography and try to draw each one
very simply, like I do. You don't have to
sketch out your bird first, but if you
want to, you can, you can use basic shapes or
just focus on the silhouette. Whatever you feel
comfortable with. It doesn't even matter what your birds look like in the end. Just that you're
practicing observing a realistic subject and then
stylizing it by simplifying. Fill out at least one
page of these studies. I'm telling you there's
no wrong way to do this. And the more you do it,
the easier it will become. Just look at your bird and
then draw it very simply. You're taking out all the detail and you're just
doing the outline. You're just doing
the feeling of it. You're just practicing observing and then putting it
down on the page. You can be more
detailed if you like. You can be more realistic if you like. But you
don't have to be. If you know what
gesture drawing is, think of it this way. Just put it down
quickly on paper. It can be super
sketchy and messy too. Like there's no right
way to do this. So to get the most
practice time in, just fill out at
least one page of these studies and look
how small my birds are. They're tiny in this way. I can do a lot of
them really quickly. Now when you're done
with your page, we can move on to the next part. We are going to stylize
what we see this time. So in the last one we just
try to kind of be more accurate and in this one we're just going to
be more playful. Here's where you use
your imagination. Let's look at an example. There's a semi realistic
sketch of this bird, and I can take this information and play with it even more. Here I used a basic oval
shape for the body, and all I did was copy the
pose of the bird by putting the wing and tail plus eyes
and beak in the same places. Even the feet face
the same direction, but they are simplified. You can still read
this as a bird, but now it's done in my style. Here's another sketch that's
inspired by the original. And one more, look how totally
different they all are. And you can do this infinitely.
I really mean this. Everyone has a unique way
of seeing and stylizing. And now let's take a
more complex pose here. I also simplified what
I saw and already even just by doing a quick
study, it has style in it, but then it can simplify
even more and tweak little things like the
fun pattern for the wing, the open mouth,
and the butterfly. To add story, I just took a complex pose and
made it easy to draw. By just simplifying and playing with the
shapes and lines. You can also evolve ideas like I really
like the body shape, and here I used two
overlapping ovals to make it more rounded
to help with the sketch. But I wanted its feet
to be on the ground, so I just drew that
in even though they're very long and not
realistic. It looks cool. And this time I added a
lady bug. It's so cute. Now it's a different story, but it's still inspired by reality. All of these go back
to the original bird. You can get as cartoony as
you want when you do this. Or you can be more
realistic style that you like to
draw is up to you. But I think being more cartoony will help you to
just be more free. This kind of skill set takes time and practice,
so give it a go. So here's your assignment. Take your page of
simplified studies that you just did and put
it where you can see it. Then take out another piece of paper or the next page
in your sketchbook, like here, and doodle birds
from your imagination. Based on the simplified
studies you just did, try to stylize more
like I showed you, you can play with the
shapes of the body, the wings, the tail,
the eyes, and so forth. If you're stuck on what to draw, just pick a bird from your
studies page and copy it. Just tweaking here and
there what you want to. In the last exercise,
you learned the basic anatomy of the birds. And now we're going to take
that information and draw it in infinite ways in
whatever way we want to. You can be super playful with style and it will
still be recognizable. It's okay if some of
them look silly or ugly. The important thing is
experimentation, variety and play. The more you experiment,
the more you know what looks good or bad, and that's how you
discover things you really like for your style. You can even pick
your favorite doodles and use those in the
later lessons when you make finished
paintings or continue refining them until you
like them even more. The more you draw
these, the better you'll get a drawing them truly. You can draw birds
in any way you want, and the goal here
is to be able to doodle them from
your imagination. Because they are so simple, you just need a body, a
beak, eyes, and feet. Honestly, the wings
and tail are even optional sometimes,
just be playful. You really can make
it super simple. Like here, I just started
with circles for each bird. And notice I just
moved where the beak and eyes are to show
where they're facing. And add it simple tails, wings and feet and
boom, they are birds. It doesn't get
simpler than this. I can even make up very
wonky shapes and then add those same features and they
are recognizable as birds. Again, look how crazy
these shapes are. I mean, you wouldn't think
they look like birds, but they do because your
brain's wired to see birds. They are such a unique animal that no other thing
looks like them. So it doesn't
matter what you do, just be playful. Try this out. You can do it too. The further
away from reality you go, the more they'll have
a unique personality. Take your time, doodling,
and try different ideas. And remember that there
are no Ran answers. Doing realistic studies
is equally important, but a lot of beginners
are scared of doing them. But I encourage you to just try, just observe, see
the basic shapes, put them down, look
at the proportions, make sure they're correct, and then just add in the details. It's not complicated, but
it does take practice, especially to get the
proportions right, you have to train your
eyes to see better. I have tons of drawing classes that can help you to see better. But really, it just takes time
and practice. So just try. Okay, now that we
know how to sketch our playful birds,
or realistic birds, whatever style you
like the most, let's learn some basic but important
watercolor techniques for the painting sessions.
4. Wet on Wet Basics: Wet on wet. Birds are so cute and so fun
and easy to make. But before we dive
into that lesson, let's quickly go over
what wet on wet is. But if you already
know how to use watercolors and you know
what wet on what is, you can skip this lesson
and go the next one. So in watercolor, if
you would an area with water or paint
mixed with the water, add a different color to it. The paint will spread and bloom, making gorgeous textures
in the area that is wet. You can even add
more colors to it, and they will mix and mingle. This is the magic
of water color. Depending on how much water or paint is on the page
and on your brush, you will get different results. Like here, I waited
a little bit longer and it dried more and
then added paint. As you can see, the
lines are blurry, but they don't spread as much because the page is more dry. More water equals
more craziness. Less water equals
less spreading. Also, more paint equals
more concentrated colors, and less paint equals
less concentrated colors. This is wet on wet, we are
using wet paint on wet paper. And you can control this
effect by controlling the initial shape
water and how wet your brush or paper is and
how much paint you put down. It's mostly about letting go and letting the paint
do its own thing. By relinquishing control,
we get beautiful results. You have to try this out to see what I'm talking
about that rhymed. Now let's learn
about wet on dry. If you paint with a wet
brush on dry paper, this is called wet on dry. This is actually what we
do with our initial layer. Your paint will stay
exactly where you put it, but if you add detail inside that layer
while it's still wet, you're working with
wet on wet again. So pretty much water plus water equals fun results that
do their own thing. But dry paper plus water equal, it stays exactly
where you put it. If you want to add crisp
details with paint at any time, wait for any paint already on the page to fully dry first, and then you can add
your perfect details. But if you want to be
merloose and flowy, then just add a well set. You can tell if
your paper is dry by seeing how glossy it is. Dry paper is completely
matt while wet is shiny. So these are the
two basic concepts we will play with in this class. Don't overthink it,
just paint and you will learn how it
works With experience. It's really not
that complicated. Just don't try to control it
too much and just have fun. Okay, we're almost ready
to paint some birds. But first, let me give you
a quick word on color.
5. Picking Colors: Color is something that a lot
of artists struggle with. I get so many questions about how to pick
cohesive colors, and I honestly don't
really think about it. I just pick my
colors intuitively. And 90% of the time it
works out just fine. But if you struggle with color, I do have a short
watercolor class that dives deeper into it. But I will also give you
a fun idea that you can add to your artistic
tool box in this lesson. First, take out your
watercolor paints. If you have multiple sets, just pick your favorite palette and then take a piece of paper. It can even be the back a failed paintings and cut it up into small
pieces like so. And then paint colors you're interested in using
on the pieces. Or you can use your
favorite colors only. Or if you want to
be more playful and outside your comfort zone, throw in the ones that you
never use but want to. Or if you want to take
this even further and just keep these
for future references, you can do your whole palette. If you do your whole palette, be sure to label the
colors in case you forget which ones which you can put
it on the back or the front. You can number them from
one to whatever you have starting from the top
left to the bottom right. And just count them
if you need to, or if you know the color
names, just write them down. Or if you already
swatch to your colors, you can just simply match them
to see which color it is. Now you have a little
cheat set of your colors. You can physically
move them around until you get a color
combo that you like. This is a fun way to pick color combos that you can come back to whenever
you feel stuck. And hopefully with practice, you'll get better at picking
winning color combinations. Even mix, watch collections in a notebook with the
ones you like the most, you can remember them
for future pieces. And if you choose to mix colors, you can write down which
colors you mix to make what. One more thing to keep
in mind is less is more. For example, you can
make pretty much any two colors work together
and the same goes for three. But if you keep adding colors
to the mix, it gets harder. So if you struggle, try to limit your color palette to
four or less colors. But I personally don't
follow this rule. I like to work with many, many colors, and I like
to be super playful. So this really depends
on your style. If you're more like
me, then be like me. If you want to have a
more cohesive palette, just pick a few colors. Don't let anything limit
your creative play. Just do your own thing. This is just a tool you can use to make color picking easier. But if you practice intuitive
color picking like I do, you will get better
at it with time. And you can even test out your color choices on a scrap
piece of paper as you go, if you're not sure
and you don't want to mess up your colors
on a bigger piece. This is also especially
helpful so you can see what new colors they
will make when they mix, because those will be added
to your palette as you go. But for this class, just have fun and don't worry
about it too much. Also, don't worry too much
about copying my colors. You can just do your own thing. I really encourage that
because that's how you will learn how to paint
intuitively like I do. Okay, now let's paint
some wet on wet birds. This is such a fun lesson
guys. Yeah, let's go.
6. Easy Wet on Wet Birds: So this first lesson,
anybody can do, even your kids can do this
with you. So just have fun. And don't worry
about it too much. And there's an infinite
number of ways to do this and no raw answers. So give it a go. You can
do it, I believe in you. You can use the pages
of sketches you did earlier for
inspiration, for poses, or actual references
of real birds, or you can just wing it
from your imagination. Uh huh, Get it? You
can even copy me. What you do is up to you, but like I showed earlier, the brain will recognize a bird with super
simple features. So don't overthink it and just play and be joyful
in your creativity. I'll be using a cheap
size six round brush to show you that you don't need
fancy supplies to do these. Also, disregard the stuff I said about color in
the last lesson. You don't need to pick a
fancy color palette for this. Just intuitively
pick your colors. This is the perfect
exercise to practice that. So you start grab
a good amount of water and then pick one
of your favorite colors. And just pick up a lot of paint and then just put it
down on the page. How you do these is up to you, but let me show
you many examples. And I want you to also
paint many birds. You can copy me or you can make up your own, just have fun. So I painted some belly
and tail shapes to start, and then I picked up
another fun color. And even though my first
layer is still wet, I'm adding more paint and then painting out
the whole shape. It just has to be bird like. I added the wing and the tail. For the second one, I use a darker color and
did the same thing. But notice how much
more the paint stands out because of the contrast
of light versus dark. Playing with value like this
can really jazz up your art. And just by adding
a little beak, tail and feet, it
looks like a bird. Next, I threw in some yellow for more pizzas and added
little details with pink. I love to use many colors, but how much you want
to use is up to you, and it's good to experiment. And then you'll see which color combos you like and
which you don't. Now we're going to let those dry and make more while
they do this time I started with the
face and wing shape and added the belly with a loose outline of it and a little pattern inside of
it to make it more fun. I added some texture
to the wing. Cute hair, a beak, and feet with a darker color. I love the shape of this one. And next I started
with the loose circle and added two colors to it. And then I added pink
to the belly area. And while I have it on my brush, I decided to add cheeks to my previous birds
for more acuteness. I love to add cheeks as part of my trademark style,
but it's optional. So just do it if you
want to notice how on the top love bird
the paint didn't spread because the
previous layer is dry. But on the other
birds, it's still wet. So it makes a lovely
texture and spreads. You can always just
put some water down if your layer is dry and you want the
cheeks to spread more and then put the
paint in the middle of it. I added more detail to my new bird with wings,
a tail, and feet. So I made a little mistake here. The face was too
runny for my taste, and that is okay. If you make mistakes,
we can fix them easily. Let me show you how I
just clean my brush and water and use a paper
towel to dry it off. This is called a thirsty brush. It's thirsty because it's empty. I just pick up excess
paint and water off the page by gently painting over the area with my dry brush. And it erases because
the brush picks up the excess paint and water.
That looks much better. Now, for this next one, I thought it would be
fun to start with a very light color and get variations of it going
darker as I go down. I paint the silo wed doing
so on this time I positioned the little feet as
if it's sitting on a branch and
gently painted it. And then I added in the
super fun turquoise color, the love to spread. And notice how I painted the little flowers with
just the tip of my brush. You don't have to
paint backgrounds, but they can add more story. Of course, I also add in pink
cheeks with this next bird, I wanted to be more graphic
with the fun patterns. I started out with a belly
shape and then added the bottom of the wing with a simple lines and
then the head. I left empty space here to add
a little pattern and added a tail with many lines and with a beak and feet.
The sky is done. This next one just had an oval body shape
with details added in. I love the colors I chose,
but as you will see, he'll be my least favorite
with how I finish him. But that's gonna be
okay. It's okay. You're not gonna like
them all, especially if you're loose and playful
like you should be. We're going outside the box, outside of our comfort zones, so it's normal to not
like everything you make. Once you're done filling
your page with birds, you can go back to the
ones that are fully dry and add details
with your paint. Here I added a light shadow by just reactivating the
paint at the feet. And here I added lots of little details and
more defined face, but I love to use other
media on top of water color. You can use all sorts of stuff. But here I'll show you
my three main ones. No matter what you use on top, just always be sure that your
paint is fully dry first, unless you want to use like watercolor pencils or something that looks cool with
the paint still wet. And do experiment with
whatever you have on hand. You can always test it out
on a scrap piece of paper first if you're not sure how it will look on top of
your water colors. But usually anything dry will look pretty much the
same for this one. I use prisma color colored
pencils to add the details. This is one of my go to ways to finish any art that I make. It's so easy to add fine
details with colored pencil. And it blends into the
water color very well. Since this other one is darker, I have to use a lighter medium, like a white jelpen on top. That's why I think
it's so important to have some sort of opaque white. So the little foot got
a little too lost here, so I added more paint
to make it darker. And this next one was
defined with a pen, but if you don't have one, you can even use
a ballpoint pen, just something that's
a darker color to make thin, uniform lines. Even a graphite pencil is fine. So even with just simple lines, we added a ton of character. And the crown just tops it off. With this one, I used
a white gel pen to outline the eye and a
micron pen to fill it in. Also little sparkles
on the cheeks is my favorite way to
add shiny cheeks. This next one I tried to make it more textured and outline, but I did not like
how it turned out. He's a little angry bird. That's okay. You learn
a lot with every piece. You also learned what
not to do in the future. So this one I thought it needed more detail
with water color. So I darkened the face and
added stripes on its belly. I let it dry
completely and added a white dot for an
eye with a gel pen. This one needed more
defined edges in contrast, so I added more details with
a darker colored pencil and then more sparkles
with the white gel pen and even bits of grass
in the background. This one also isn't my favorite,
but he's kind of cute. Here I showed you guys how
to use colored pencils, a white gel pen and a micron pen on top of your water color. You can see how versatile and easy to use these
three mediums are, but you have many,
many, many options. For example, for these birds, I use a normal
graphite pencil to add detail and made them feel
fuzzy with quick lines. You can also use postcomarkers,
crayons, pastels, acrylic paints, color gel pens, sharpies, really whatever
is on your desk. But I think if I had
to choose just three, it would be the micron
pen colored pencils and white gel pen
like I just showed. Which is exactly what I made
these little guys with. Another thing I want you
to know is that you can do this exercise with
any subject you like. For example, here I did it with simple cat silhouettes
and it was so much fun. This is one of my
older Youtube videos, and lots of people have
tried this technique and it's just it works
so well for anything. You don't even have to
paint animals like here. I painted cactuses. You can do this technique
with any object. So now that you're done,
look over your birds. Some came out really
well, in my opinion, and others weren't my favorite. This is a good time
to think about what you like or don't
like about each bird. So you can put away
the information into your subconscious mind
for future pieces. And if you really like
one of your birds, you can blow it up
and paint it bigger. Do this exercise as often as
you like to get better at using watercolor doodling and playing with shapes
and composition. Now let's challenge
ourselves with more complex wet on wet
birds in the next lesson. It doesn't matter
what skill level you are, I believe in you. You can do this. Just try.
7. Observational Wet on Wet Birds: This next painting style
exercise takes some practice. But trust me, it
is so rewarding. I don't care how hard it seems. Don't set yourself
out, just do it. You will get better
at observing shapes, playing with color, being
loose, and guess what. You will improve with
every try and it will transfer to being a
better painter overall. And this will really help
your observation skills, which are critical
for any art you make. This is also a quick exercise, taking me around 15
minutes to paint all six birds because we
will be using wet on wet. I recommend you tape down
your page with masking tape, but you don't have to
for this exercise. I recommend a
larger round brush. I'll be using a size eight. You can paint details
with a tip and make bigger strokes with
the body of the brush. If you don't know what
your brush is capable of, I recommend first taking out
a scrap piece of paper and practice making
different strokes like these with whatever
brushes you have. But especially mastering
the round brush is so important in water color, just be loose and
see what it can do. Just take it out
for a stroll and just try different angles, different pressure, and
just see, see how it works. You learn a lot by
doing so. Do it. And when you're ready to paint, grab your phone or tablet or computer and look up
references of birds. I do so by just googling bird photography like last
time. Don't be picky. Just choose the first one that catches your eye and
paint it quickly. Like so, you can choose to
paint with the same colors as the reference photos or
make up your own palettes. Both are good skill
sets to practice. Just paint the silhouette
of the main shapes. And if you're not
sure what those are, squint your eyes and it'll help you to separate the shapes. Here are some examples of the different shapes that
you can see in birds, usually separated by color
or anatomy features. And there isn't just one way to see this, there's lots of ways. So don't overthink
it. Instead of thinking of it as a bird, just notice the shapes and
lines and try to convey those. The goal is to not see with our mind with how your
remember birds looking. That's the biggest
mistake beginners makes to see with our eyes. It's to really observe. Instead of thinking
of these as birds, just notice the shapes and
lines and try to convey those. Don't see with your mind.
See with your eyes. Don't worry about shading or detail and don't
overthink it. Just trust your
hand and your eyes. Just put it down on the page. Your eyes know what
they're looking at and your hand knows
how to put it down. Capture the essence
of your bird. Work quickly and embrace
wet on wet techniques. Don't get bogged
down by perfection. Instead, be confident and
playful with colors and forms, even if your birds all
look messy and deformed. That's okay, just keep
going. Just work quickly. The faster you work, the more you practice
and then you'll get better at
painting and drawing your birds in a shorter
period of time. Let your paint do its
own magical thing too. Let the wet and wet play. Let there be magic, especially
if you're a beginner, your proportions and shapes will probably turn
out pretty quirky. Just keep painting birds,
They'll still be recognizable. You'll still have fun, and
you'll still get better at it. The more you do this,
the more you free hand, the more confident you
become, The more you let go. The more you play with colors, you'll master wet on
wet and so forth. There's just so many
benefits to this exercise. If you take your time to
sketch every bird first, you'll waste your time
and probably just get one done instead of a whole page of practice in the
same time period. Or it might even take you
longer just to do one bird. So no sketching, just paint. And you'll also get better at using and
mastering your brush. If it's hard for you
to do these quickly. You can use a three minute timer per bird or more or less, depending on your
preferred painting speed and how much time you have. But I would do 3
minutes or less. When we have a time constraint, it stops overthinking
and forces us to act. It also makes beautiful, loose
strokes move paint faster. Try to pick different
birds and different poses, you can add patterns in, you can add detail and texture
whatever you want to do. And the more you
challenge yourself, the more you will grow. So if a pose feels especially
difficult, like here, one of these is flying, with the wings being kind of
hard to paint. That's good. Even if it turns out bad, you're challenging
yourself to see. Because at the end of
the day, everything is just shapes and lines. It's really not that much more complicated, It just
seems that way. And if it's hard, that means your brain is working extra hard to learn this skill and you'll be better at it the
next time you do it. It's like picking up
heavier weights at the gym. Yeah, Maybe it's
really hard to do, but you'll get more
muscle out of it. And if you get stuck on the
bird and you do a really, really bad job, just
do it a couple times. Keep doing it until you
get better at seeing it. Painting the same subject
over and over again is a great way to learn how to paint it from
imagination as well. So I keep repeating this, but it's all about practice. The more studies you do, the easier it we'll
get to do them. And this is true for
any subject or medium. The key to getting
good at any skill, especially in art,
is just to practice. But I hope you realize it's
not that hard to paint playfully and loosely with
lots of color and wet on wet. Or to even observe
complex subjects by simplifying them into shapes. It's just something you do and the more you do it,
the better you do it. Just do it if you want to, you can add a second layer of detail to any of these or go back in with a
different medium like colored pencil and
finish them off. Anything you want to do to
practice more and to play, who knows, you could
make a finished piece here and frame it. I mean, this is a
really fun technique. In the next lesson, we'll use a similar technique and
we'll finish it off. It'll be loose and semi
realistic at the same time. It'll be fun. So just be
playful and do what you like. Remember, it's okay if your results aren't as good as mine. The difference
between you and me if your results aren't
as good as mine, is, I've practiced drawing
and painting birds a lot. So all you have to do is catch up by practicing more than me. The same is true for any artist out there that you think
is better than you. They just put more time in, so go ahead and put the time
in even 10 minutes a day. We'll get your results
in the long run. And it's okay if
you do 20 minutes every other day,
Whatever you can do. Not all of these
turned out great, but I had fun doing them and got valuable practice time in, and the results really
don't matter at the end of the day,
it's just having fun. Now that you played
with our paints, let's paint just one in
a semi realistic style, similar to the birds
we just painted, but it's a finished artwork. And then I'll show you
a more cartoony bird for my imagination that's
more planned and fun. Even if you feel like
you can't paint like I do challenge yourself and try. You'll be surprised
at the results.
8. Loose Bird Illustration: So for this first final project, we're going to use
the techniques we learned the last few lessons. But before we start painting,
I want to show you this. I was recording for a reel and this painting just
looked really not good. I chose the wrong color for the body and the outlines just, they're money and I just
I did a bad job here. So what do you do
when you mess up? Do you just like go
in a turtle shell and hide and pretend that, you know, just you don't
like art and give up. No, that sounds
wrong, doesn't it? Surprisingly, a lot
of beginners do this and then they just
don't do art again. But here's what
professionals do. They analyze what they did
wrong and they try again. And that's how they
become professionals. Even if it takes some ten tries to get the results
that they want, they'll just keep trying, which is exactly what I did. I chose a new bird pose because I realized I didn't really
like the other one. And this next one
turned out so cute and is one of my favorite
loose bird paintings. I wouldn't have painted
it if I would have just given up and not
wanted to try again. The moral of the
story is to try, try again. Try again. Try again as many
times as needed. And do, keep in mind,
if you're a beginner, it will probably
take you more tries before you really
love what you make. But that's just normal. Everyone has to practice. And everyone started
as a beginner. If you said unrealistic
expectations, you're probably setting
yourself up for failure because the real
failure is giving up. So just have fun,
enjoy the process and just enjoy the ride 'cause
the journey is just more fun. I mean, paintings, the best,
you know, get in the zone, get in the flow state, you
know, just just do it. Okay, pep talk
over, let's paint. So I pick a photo of
a bird I really like. And you can use this too
or pick your own photo. It doesn't matter if you are
a beginner, you can copy me. I think that'll help you
learn even faster this time. Since we are doing a
more finished piece, we are going to
start with a sketch. So the secret to drawing
anything is to observe with our eyes instead of filling in the blanks
with our mind. Which just means take
your time to really look and then break it
down into simple shapes. Simplify and just get the proportions right and
then you can add the details. So basically, again, simplify what you see into simple shapes. Focus on proportions in the sketching phase and just mark where you want
the details to be. And then when we finish it off, we'll add those in.
Take your time. Erase as many times
as you need to until you feel like you've got
the proportions right. The proportions are key here. And then we can paint. Also, take a moment to notice my sketch isn't a perfect
copy of the reference. And I rotated my bird
a little bit as well. But it still looks accurate and recognizable and that's key. So take your time as
long as you need to in the sketching phase until
it looks about right. And don't be scared of
imperfections or small mistakes. They aren't noticeable if your overall proportions
are correct. Now let's go in and
paint our bird loosely using the techniques we learned
in the previous lessons. Use wet, wet, or
you can control it more and wait for layers
to dry in between. It's up to you how
loose you want to be. I just love wet on wet. You can do realistic colors. But I decided to change
the colors up and I use a lot of pink when
it mixes with the blue. We get a third color, purple. Notice how loose I am. This is just the first layer. So just be playful and
don't worry about it. I'm just getting the base
colors down now to define the darker areas and give my bird more dimension
and realism. I'm going to go in with
the darker color here. And as I do this, it also
makes more contrast. It just makes it look better. If you're not sure where you should darken, just
squint your eyes. And this will help you
to see value changes. I always squint my eyes
when I need to see values. I do it all the time, every time I draw, every time I paint. So I'm serious, just
squint your eyes. This is like the best trick. It's gonna group together
lights and darks and make a complicated
subject look simple. And that's what our
goal is to simplify. Notice how I played with
the branch it's on. And I painted over the legs because they were a
little too light. I also decided to add the beak and the
eye while the paint was partly wet and it
bled out just a touch. And I really like this fuzzy
look when it's very subtle, just make sure your
previous layer is only a little bit wet, not super wet. I'll
just go everywhere. Next, I add a simple pattern to the wing, tail
and background. Just adding basic shapes
and lines like this can add a lot of possessed hear work and
texture and pattern. Once I felt like the
painting portion is done, I dried it with a heat gun. Or you can use a hair dryer set on low or allow it to air dry. And now we can add
detail if you want to. You can continue using
paint and do a third layer. I decided to use a darker
colored pencil instead. Like I said earlier, you can use whatever medium you want
just by defining the eye. It gives it more life. And I continued adding detail around the whole illustration. Notice how the outline doesn't
touch all the way around, and I leave some
areas without it, and I make a fuzzy feeling
with little lines. I also add patterns and
light playful shading. Everything is super playful and I love to use
scribbly lines. I finished off the background
with simple leaves and I decided to add a pink
cheek like I always do, but I want it to be more blurry, so I just wet the
area first and then I add in the color and
it makes blurry edges. For the finishing touches, I added a splatter by tapping a brush filled with paint
and water on my finger. Just be sure to use
colors you already used in the piece to
make it cohesive. And if you want bigger
splatter, use a bigger brush. If you want smaller splatter,
use a smaller brush. And I added white
highlights in the cheeks. So this little guy was
so quick to paint, it only took me 15 minutes. One thing you'll
notice is I kept it pretty simple with the
background, the details, because I tend to overdo it in my previous
paintings and in fact, you'll see it in the
future painting. But nothing is stopping
you from being super experimental and adding
more details if you like. It's just something I've learned for myself to do less of. But don't be scared,
just do your own thing. Mistakes are just happy accidents
or lessons in disguise. And I hope you enjoyed painting your bird, and I
hope you made one. And if you haven't, go
ahead and do it, it's fun. And now let's do one
more complex piece.
9. Thumbnail Sketching: Let's say you want to
make a complex piece or bigger art,
where do you start? How do you not waste supplies or just stare
at a blank page? My advice is to do
thumbnail sketching. Thumbnail sketching is
so easy, so simple, you are just making a tiny, tiny sketch of your
final composition, okay? So it's a neat way to try
out many ideas so quickly. And by not painting the first
thing that comes to mind, you can let your ideas
naturally evolve and pick the best composition instead of just going with your
first gut instinct. But to be honest, I do that too. So don't feel limited by this. This is just the tool you
can use by seeing it small. You can make changes
quickly with your sketch and see if it works. If it doesn't look good small, it almost certainly
won't look good big. The good news is, your
sketches don't have to be super accurate
or beautiful. These are quick and easy. If you want to, you can
even test out colors on your tiny sketch to see what color palettes
you'll want to use. You can even test out values. If I do thumbnail sketches, I usually keep it
simple like these, but it's up to you if you
want to make it more complex. It depends on what kind
of artist you are. Notice with each one, I
change the pose and look of the bird and also the background and shapes of the branch. Until I land on
one I really like, I can take my favorite
elements from previous sketches and
continue to play with them. I'm essentially
evolving my idea and making sure the
composition looks good. You can fill a whole page
of these and pick your favorite and continue to refine
it even more if you like. I am using this
skill of stylizing that I showed you guys
earlier to make these. They are very
simple and cartoony and you can make
a cute bird too. Just simplify and play. Don't overthink it.
Don't overdo it. Just do your own thing, sketch a bunch of ideas, pick
one you really like. And it's okay if
you copy me too. The important thing is
you're learning and the only way to do
so is to do it. So do the thing, just have fun. And that's really been
the thing in this class, is just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Nike
should pay me for this. Seriously, you don't
have to stick with your sketch perfectly when you do your final piece, either. It's just to give
you a general idea. So don't overthink it and
just do it. Just sketch. Okay, now that I picked
a favorite piece, let's do it, let's
paint it. Let's go.
10. Mixed Media Cartoony Bird: Now we're going to do a
more complicated piece, but it's cartoony, it's fun, it's simple, it's just
playful. Don't overthink it. Just try, Just try,
I believe in you, so do keep in mind this one is less for you to
follow along with me. It's just for you
to see my process for a more complex piece. Because I do like 1
million things here. You know, I just, I did a lot and I problem solved
a lot along the way. And I'll show you how to problem solve and that's important. I want you to just
do your own thing for your final illustration. Do whatever floats your boat. You can make it more
realistic, more cartoony. Whatever you want
to do, just try the techniques we learned
and give it a go. Here we go. Let's
watch my process. I know I'm going to be
using a lot of water, so I tape down my page
with masking tape. And next I'm going to sketch
out my main illustration. You can use a regular pencil, which you probably should since you'll have the option to erase. But I use a watercolor pencil because I usually
don't erase that much. And when I add water, the
lines will mostly disappear. But if you think you'll need multiple attempts to
create the perfect sketch, it's best to stick with a
standard pencil and eraser. Whatever you use, make
sure it's light by just drawing lightly or picking
a light colored lead. Notice how loose my sketches. We don't have to be
perfect at this stage. And I usually use a sketch
as a rough guideline, Mostly paying attention to the proportions and marking
where I want things to be. And as you can see, I didn't copy my thumbnail
sketch exactly. Just mostly kind of go with
the flow in the moment. But if you like it more neat and perfect, that's fine too. You can copy your
thumbnail sketch. Exactly. You can take your time and
make a perfect sketch, whatever floats your boat. Now I start filling
in my painting. I'm starting with a lighter
color, because in watercolor, we work from light to dark since the medium is transparent. And we can't go back to
being lighter unless we add opaque medium like
guash acrylic. Here's the base
color for the body and then the tree branch. Notice how I'm using the
wet and wet technique we did earlier in
the tree branch, butterfly wings and cheeks. But I'm also adding details
when the page is dry too. So next I went in with some neocolor two pastels
which are water soluble, and I added outlines of
the flowers with them. I also added details
into the bird and then painted it
out to make it blurry. You don't have to go out
and buy this supply, Just use what you have on hand. But if you want to get
it, that's cool too. Whatever you want to do. But you can just use paint
for your whole illustration. Honestly, watercolor paint is so versatile you can
add detail with it. So just do what you like. I've just been enjoying using these because of how
loose and scribbling that can be and I can activate them with water. I
mean, it's just fun. Next, I added in a light
background loosely. Notice how loose I really am. I just, you know, leave a
lot of white dots and stuff. And I think when it's
imperfect like this, it's more fun. But
that's my style. I also went in with some
pink using wet on wet for a nice detail that
looks like smaller flowers. And then I decided to add more by doing a simple splatter, just like I showed
in the last lesson. Just have lots of
paint and water on your brush and tap
it on your finger. If you get somewhere
you don't want it, just use a thirsty or
empty brush to pick it up, to erase it, or cover
the areas you don't want splatter on with a paper towel before you do the splatter. So here's an example
of me problem solving, which you will see a
lot in this piece. U. A lot of things went wrong, especially since I went outside my comfort zone with the style, and I'm new to
incorporating neal colors. I didn't like the texture I made earlier with
the Neal color, so I just painted over it with the same color until
I couldn't see it. And then I thought it would look cooler with the texture
being in the background. So I scribbled with similar
color that already used, and it added a lot of damp
thin texture, which I liked. I also took a darker color
and outlined the bird in it. I usually do this because
it adds a cartoony style, especially for cute things. I loosely painted in the flowers with the color already used. I decided to throw
in the pink into the body of the bird and
darken the shadows with it. And thought the bird blended in the background
a little too much. So I just outlined
him again with an even darker color
to add more contrast. But as you can see, I added way too much detail to his tail. And I will fix this later. I decided to add
highlights using a post cut paint marker which is filled with acrylic
paints, so it's opaque. You can use a white gel pen or a white guash or white
acrylic instead. And my style is to add lines and little dots that make it look like sparkles and
like it's shiny. I also use a yellow color to add a fun pattern around the eyes
and centers of the flowers. I was not happy with
my bird at this stage, But this is a good
lesson in perseverance. I just continued. I outlined it in the yellow and it
just didn't look right. So I thought maybe I
should make it darker. Went back in with the darker blue pine and added some pink. And it looked even more
busy and more muddy. And I was just like no.
But I thought to myself, okay, let me just let
me just try again. So I focus on the background
and then I came back to him. I just gave myself a
breather from him, but I wasn't about to give up. I added leaves with
the darker color on the branches and
around the flowers. And I think that made it nicer because now this color was used elsewhere in the
piece and the bird wasn't too dark compared
to the background. I also darkened the tree branch with a simple shadow beneath, and then I added light
yellow around the piece and little circles in the
background and more highlights. At this stage, I was pretty frustrated because I did,
it just didn't look right. I should have stopped earlier. I think I kept going too far. So here is one of my
best tips for this. If you come across this before you give up,
before you stop, walk away and come back
to it in a few hours, or even better the next
day like I did here. And then I had a
better idea of why it looked off and what
I can do to fix it. You see, if you stare
at something too long, it becomes hard to drudge. So always take this advice if
you're not sure what to do, and especially if you
make something for social media and you know you've been
staring it for a while, Just take off the
day and come back to the next day to see if you need to add anything
to finish it. First off, I realized the belly
pattern was just so busy. I painted over it with the yellow color to
make a new base layer. And that's the fun
of opaque paints. And I used the
yellow to simplify the pattern around the eye
on the right side as well. And then I took a lighter
neo color to lighten the dark areas because
it was too dark here. And these pastels are opaque. And by using it, it also
made a cool texture where it shows a little bit
of the darkness underneath. And I just really liked
this texture and it really brightened up the face and
body and added more depth. And then I also
added some leaves with this color to
make it more cohesive. Usually, I like to
use any color I add in in more than one area,
so it blends better. This is great advice if you
want to add a new color in, because if you just put
in one little area, sometimes it just looks off, but sometimes it
doesn't. It's up to you. Next, I took some pink and added a fun pattern to the
belly wings and tail. I even outlined some
flowers with it. I added more details
with turquoise and then finished it off
with more highlights. The final result is busy, Yes, but I learned a lot
and it was fun to layer. I also like how it turned out, but next time I will try to hold myself back from adding
too many details. This is a lesson I learned
over and over again in my art, and it's honestly my
biggest weakness. I tend to overdo things, but I also enjoy doing that and being loose in the
moment and having fun. So it's a balancing game, but this is definitely a
little bit different from my style and I just had
so much fun making him. I hope watching me
make this taught you how to be playful and
problem solve on the go. Be courageous and make your
own cutie bird. Have fun. And don't worry too
much about results. You will learn a lot
no matter the outcome. Now let's finish off the class.
11. You Finished! :): Yeah, you made it to the end. I'm so excited for you. I hope you had fun
playing with birds. They are such a fun
subject to explore. We all have such a
unique artistic voice when we put our own
twists on them. So keep painting
and keep playing. Keep experimenting with
whatever media you have. You will naturally
find and develop your favorite style of
illustrating with time. If you haven't painted
or drawn any birds yet, shame on you just kidding. But this is a great
time to do it. Be sure to practice the skills that you learned by watching me, because without practicing, you won't remember
anything I taught you. After all, the only
way to learn is to do. Also be sure to
share anything you make by uploading it to
the project gallery. I can't wait to see what kind of cut loose and fun
birdies you make. Remember, there is no wrong way, no wrong way at all
to paint birds. They are such a fun subject that is so easily recognizable. So the sky really is the limit. I hope you found this
class inspiring. And if you're interested in continuing learning
from my other classes, I have 30 of them. That's right, 30 so far my biggest recommendations
are you can draw anything. Anyone can water color the
watercolor mixing class, draw cute animals class, and my other drawing classes. And I also have
class where you can paint a lawn and do
projects with me. And if you want to learn
how to do lighting and stuff like I kind of made the last project,
a little three D, you can take my
gouache painting class for fruits and that
one I actually show the basics of
how to do light and shadows and kind of
how I understand it. I also have a published book on learning how to
draw cute animals. If you're interested in
learning how to draw cute animals in my style,
Okay, so that's it. Take care, and I'll
see in the next class, keep learning and growing. Oh, and have a fabulous day, week and year and forever. Bye.
Yasmina Creates, Artist & Creativity Cheerleader
