Loose Watercolor Landscape Painting - Learn How To Paint What You See

1. Introduction: Hey everyone, my name is Alicia and I'm an artist here in San Jose, California. In today's class, I will show you how to paint this loose watercolor landscape using a reference photo. We will go over the materials, basic watercolor techniques, naming and washes, as well as some standard brushwork. You will then paint this watercolor painting step-by-step. So let's begin. 2. Materials: All right. So these are all the materials that I have used, both for water, napkin. I use a washi tape to tape down the edges. Will need a pencil and eraser for sketching. And these are the four brushes that I've used. So they're mostly all round brushes ranging in different sizes. And then from a company called Zen art, they don't sell this exact same paint brushes anymore, but I will try and link some other favorite brushes. And this is our teaser paper I love using. Along with our teaser watercolor palette. It comes in 36 colors. And all the names have been listed down below as well. And then I also like using a colleague white paint for highlights. 3. Exercise 1 - Techniques: So before we start, I just wanted to go over some basics with you. I'm not going to overwhelm you with a lot of techniques and brushwork, but I'm just going to cover the techniques that we will use in today's class so that you can get a more practical approach for this. So the two most common watercolor techniques, or wet on wet and wet on dry. For the wet on wet paint is applied to wet paper. You can layer different colors on top of existing wet paint, which will create this blurred out expansion effect, where you will notice the colors bleeding into one another. The second technique is wet on dry paint is applied onto dry paper. It is as simple as that. So let's look at the effects that these gave us, right? So now the wet on wet gives us soft edges. It's more blurred out. This is great if you want more delicate, softer paintings, great use for backgrounds or far-away objects. You can also blend easily while getting an effective gradient and also creates a misty effect. It is also unpredictable and hence, not so much in your control. The very opposite of the wet on wet is the wet on dry, which gives us sharper edges. So you can definitely have more control where you can get well-defined shapes. The wet on dry also allows you to lay your paint as much as you want. We will go through layering in the next step. 4. Exercise 2 - Layering: So here I'm going to show you how you can layer your paint in watercolors. I'm going to show you three different kind of washes here, each one with a little more pigment to show you the effects of layering. If you want well defined shapes and it comes to layering, you will have to work on this wet on dry. So I'm drying out my paper with a blow dryer to speed up the process before I begin to layer my shapes. Okay, once you're painting has dried, layer your shapes little by little getting darker each time. But also wait for your painting to dry in-between each layer that you add. So as you can see, the lighter your initial wash is, the easier it is to build up on layering. So keep that in mind when you are painting with watercolors, you always have to work light to dark. Unlike acrylics, where you can get away with working from dark to light, I think watercolors as a medium does require you to be more patient. 5. Exercise 3 - Wash: Let's go over some basic washes here. So for the first one we have a flat wash where your pigment is even all around. And then to get a gradient, I'm starting from a light wash with less pigment and will slowly increase my pigment intake as I move downwards. You can also, you can also start dark and then gradually lighten up. Your wash as well. Too toned is where you combine two colors and merge them together by blending. And to blend them, you will lightly brush your colors in between. 6. Exercise 4 - Brushwork: In this lesson, I wanted to go over some basic brushwork that can be applied to any watercolor painting. So I'm going to start with a nice big round brush. Again. All of these brushes are linked below. If you are interested in them. I literally love this brush. You will see me using this brush for Mozi, the entire painting almost 95% of the time I'm gonna be using this one brush. It is super versatile because you can get extremely tiny lines with this as well as big ones. Holding your brush is straight up. Using its tip can give you thin strokes. You can also use the side of the brush. And then obviously using its belly can give you larger strokes. This next brush is a long, thin brush, which can give you extremely fine details. I usually pull this brush out at the very end when I'm wrapping up just to add last-minute final details to make an impression and to add a few, just a few marks here and there. Okay, So this last brush that I'm gonna be using is the old brush. I like to use this to get some really cool dry brush effect. You can also make this brush yourself by taking any old around small round brush that you have that you do not really care much of the state on any surface to make the bristles span out. But like I said, I use this brush to get some dry brush effect mainly on my trees. What this means is that you want less water and more pigment for this brush technique. Using this can give you very natural brushstrokes and somewhat, it's somewhat unpredictable and adds to that loose painting style effect. You can also get a dry brush effect with your regular round brush. So usually in a good watercolor painting, you should have all these techniques we went over to add interest and make it impactful. So as you move on to today's lesson, you will see me using all these techniques we went over and I will show you how you can turn a simple landscape and make it interesting by adding a variation of brush marks and details. 7. Painting - Sketching: To begin, I'm just going to tape down the edges with a washi tape so that the paper stays in place and also it has a clean border once peeled off. I'm sketching the landscape briefly, forest before painting for placement purposes. And to make the painting process easier. Just a reminder, you can find the reference pic. I've taken myself in the project and resources tab below. Simply right-click and save it. So starting out with a pathway for us, I'm only drawing the outline of the tree again for placement purposes only. I decided to add a electric wire pole in the foreground here to break up some of the shapes and to add more interests. When looking at a reference, don't feel obliged to copy it exactly, but use it solely as a reference and inspiration. Feel free to change up things here and there. And if you please, I'm drying out the fence and making sure that I am staying true to the perspective. So the fence that's closest to us will be bigger as you move along backwards, it will get smaller in size. So keep that in mind. Alright, so this is all a sketching that I'm going to do for now. So let's begin painting. 8. Painting - Base Colors: Alright, so beginning with the sky, I'm taking in civilian blue and adding a flat wash to that at the very top. So don't be afraid of going over the tree section of it because it will be covered up of a queen anyway. I'm just using a simple round brush. I will link whatever I can link in the description below. Moving on, I wanted to get the bigger portions of this painting done with first just adding a base color. So here I'm trying to figure out colors for the pathway that we see in the reference. I'm taking a bit of indigo, black, Naples yellow, which gives me this muted olive green, muddy color. But I wanted more of a cooler tone colors. So you'll see me experimenting with different blues and purples to give me this quiz, color tone. So in a nutshell, I'm adding slightly cooler gray blue tones in the center pathway with warmer yellow tones on the sides. Again, this is just an initial wash, so we will come back to it at stage. Here, I'm just plotting some of the paint with my napkin to give the road some texture. I'm now painting the sides of the grass with Naples yellow and sunburst yellow, which is basically a combination of a masterly color with some orange. Leaving some of the gaps open. Here for some green, I'm using a combination of foreign green along with spring rain again, which is basically a dark and light green mix it together. I like saying this because just in case you don't have the RTs I palette, you can just use the colors based off of the palettes that you have. So just use a combination of dark and light mixed in. It's very important as you paint along to be mindful of spontaneously leaving some white gaps open and don't paint over them throughout the painting. These little gaps, breakup shapes adds natural highlights. It gives off impressions of objects and also adds interest. Alright, so I'm using the same colors on the left side of the lawn. I'm adding a bit of Oxford blue with the muddy colors I already have on the palette. And I'm giving a very light wash of the trees far back. Using the tip of my brush, I'm dabbing slightly to give this faraway tree like impressions. Using that same blue again, I'm gonna give this pathway a lot more texture and grit. And you can do that by adding in what is called a dry brush technique, where you're using less water and using the side of your brush to drag the color down like you see me doing. So using some warmer towards on my palette to decide if the payment. Here, I'm just building on the colors a bit by bit to give it more dimension. I'm adding in some more green to the left side, but not covering it up fully. Just little dabs and places to give impressions of mass. Rinsing off my brush and using Naples yellow to the side as well. 9. Painting - Trees: I'm taking in those dark and light means again, so f1 green and spring green to add to the portion around the right tree. Using that same green color to set a base layer for the trees on the left. So I'm simply dabbing the tip of my brush and the belly of it to give an impression trees while leaving a few white gaps open, adding a bit more darker green. Now, I am working on this wet on wet and just dabbing very gently to a few potions. Using foreign green again, let's paint the right tree now and add a base layer to it. Same method by using the tip of my brush and the belly of the brush in three places. I'm lifting off some of this color as I go along. Here, I'm adding some dark gray with one green now to deepen the color for the shadow areas, build on this tree little by little and be patient with it. Instead of going extremely dark from the get-go, which is hard to lift off after her. With this medium, you will learn that you have to paint light to dark and bold on the layers slowly. I switched my brush to a smaller brush now to give me some more control and final details to the leaves on this tree. Using a darker green with black, I'm dabbing that color gently. At this point, my paints are still halfway wet. So you can see I'm still getting some of that wet on wet effect. Now, I know if you look at the reference, you will. The tree that I'm painting right now is pretty far back. But I wanted the tree on my painting to be a little bit more closer. So this is the reason I'm actually painting some of the outskirts of the leaves in more detail. So taking in some burnt sienna, I'm painting the trunk of the tree here using some of that brown. I'm also adding just like some grass like effect by flicking off my brush vertically like this. So just move your brush swiftly upwards. Why am I paint is still wet. I wanted to get more darker tones to this tree here. So almost using black now with the tiny bit of the green and dabbing that color in few places. Using that same color and adding in little final details to the left side tree as far back. So being very minimal here, just a few marks. 10. Painting - Road & Fence: It's time to get back onto the road and add more color and texture to it and give it the right perspective and direction because as of now, it does not look too grounded. So here I'm just dragging out the dark gray color I added to the edges and pulling it out horizontally on the sidewalk. Taking in some of that mustard yellow color as well to add more warmth and a bit of sunshine to the sidewalk. I also like adding some cooler tones to my pathways as well. So I'm going in with a blue and dropping and hence of that color as well. Let's jump right in and paint the fence. I'm using a mixture of burnt sienna and chrome orange, which is similar to a brown. So just one Sienna brown if you would like. And I'm trying to make one side of the fence darker than the other side to give it some roundness and a three-dimensional look. This will ensure them to not look that. Going back to the sidewalk a last time and adding in a hint of Oxford blue, which is similar to a purple color. So I'm just adding the brush marks horizontally again and a bit to the edges of the pathway. 11. Painting - Fine Details: All right. Let's go ahead and take off this tape since we don't need it anymore for the edges. And this way It's also easier to see what we've got working for us so far. I'm adding in some details with acrylic white and a fine thin brush. In the middle ground here, I'm just adding some really thin trees. So a simple horizontal align with ten branches and twigs coming off of it. Really thin, fine brush will be useful for these little bits because that'll be you have more control. Using a bit of that acrylic white to add some highlight details to this tree. Using white, I'm going to add some few details to the bigger tree in the front, just a few branches and twigs coming off. I think in a few highlights here to the fence, you can go ahead and add your highlights wherever you feel like it. But remember a little goes a long way, so do not overdo it. You will see me adding some of the whites on the pathway and sidewalk as well. I wanted to change the scenery and the composition a bit and add an electric wire pool in the middle ground here. So I'm drawing it out with pencil first to make it easier to paint over the lines. Using a fine thin brush. I'm simply going over the lines with black. Once again, I'm adding a bit of highlight with whites. As we all know, watercolors do have a tendency to dry lighter than we first paint. So once the painting dries, I like to go back in with last-minute final touches to bring out some of the color and detail. So here I'm using dark green to bring out the details of the leaves. Just add the outline of the tree here. I'm simply using a fine brush here and just gently dabbing in a few details to create some leaves. In the next few steps, you will see me adding in some more dark tones and midtones to finish soft. 12. Painting - Last Layer & Class Project: Bringing in a lot more of that warmth that I wanted my painting to have, just adds a really nice pop. Adding that same sunburst yellow to the sidewalk to make it stand out more. I'm just cleaning off this edge by adding an additional green and little specks of grass. So I'm just pulling off. I'm playing the green upwards to create some grass like effect. Finally, I'm adding in some yellow to that big tree and only a few places just to make it look a bit more airy. And that will complete our painting. This completes our loose watercolor landscape for today. Hope you enjoyed, and I cannot wait to see what you'll come up with. Share your projects. I would love to see them and do not forget to leave this class. It will ask me any questions in the discussions tab below. Lastly, if you enjoyed this class, do consider following me so that you do not miss out on any future painting classes from me. Follow this class out with more loose watercolor painting classes from me. I do appreciate all the love and support from each and every one of you from my orders, likely so. Thank you. And to shop my art to do visit my website. Thank you once again and happy painting.