Magic of Watercolor Background: How to Make White Objects Pop

1. Introduction: Have you ever wondered what is the secret of an eye catching watercolor painting and how to create one? If you have stop right there, this course is just for you. Hi, my name is Alexandrina. I've been painting with watercolor for over a decade and I want to tell you that there is no secret. It's just the right technique and the color theory. In this course, I'll teach you how to create a stunning watercolor background that will make your white objects pop. We will learn about color theory and how to prepare a sketch for your painting, and to analyze objects proportions using sighting method. This course is perfect for beginners, but if you're confident with watercolor and you want to learn something more, it will be useful for you too as a class project, you will create a painting of a white goose on a dark watercolor background with wet on wet and wet on dry watercolor techniques, and using just three primary colors, red, yellow, and blue. I'm so excited about this course and I can't wait to meet you. Let's get started. 2. Art Supplies: In this lesson, we will talk about three main art supplies. Watercolor paper, watercolors and brushes. Watercolor paper comes in various weights, typically measured in pounds or grams per square meter. Lighter weights, such as 200 GSM are great for practice and sketching. But for finished works, it's best to opt for a heavier weight paper like 300 GSM or higher. This thicker paper can handle more water and are less likely to work the rough three textures of paper, rough, cold pressed and hot pressed. The texture you choose can significantly influence your paintings. Final look and feel. I normally use cold pressed and rough paper rough. This texture creates a granulated texture effect. It's excellent for landscapes and expressive loose works. Cold pressed, it has a moderate texture that strikes a balance between rough and smooth. It's versatile and suitable for various styles. Hot pressed, this texture is very smooth and works well for detailed and precise paintings. It's also great for pen and ink drawings. Watercolor paper can be made from cellulose or cotton. Cotton paper is considered the gold standard for watercolor because of its durability and ability to hold up well to wet washes. If you want to achieve the best result, investing in 100% cotton paper is worth it. However, cellulose is great for practice. The brand of watercolor paper can impact its quality and performance. Established brands like Arches, Canson, Clarefontaine, and Honey Mull are known for producing high quality watercolor papers. It's worth experimenting with different brands to find the one that suits your preferences best. Watercolors are available in two main forms, tubes and pens. Tubes are concentrated, allowing you to control intensity of your colors. Pens are convenient for undergo painting. Choose the format that best suits your workflow. Focus on building a basic color palette with warm and cool versions of each primary color. This will give you a broader spectrum of options. In the beginning, it's hard to pick essential colors from a big variety of available watercolor shades. As a beginner, consider starting with a watercolor set. These sets come in various sizes, often containing a palette of essential colors. Look for a set that includes primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. Besides the watercolor tubes, there is also one different type. It's liquid watercolor that I'm using in this class. Selecting the right brush can make a world of difference in your watercolor painting experience. There are three main shapes to choose from, Round, flat, and field bird. More often, I use round brushes. Size matters. Smaller brushes like number zero or two are perfect for details. While larger ones, 12 or 16, are ideal for ball sweeping strokes. I suggest to have at least one small brush number one or zero middle brush number four or six, and a big round brush or more, brush number 12. There are two main bristle types, synthetic and natural. Synthetic brushes are durable, easy to clean, and work well with details. Natural brushes like sable or squirrel are known for exceptional water holding capacity. I normally use natural brushes or imitation of the natural bristle. Now, armed with this knowledge, let's move to the next lesson. 3. Color Theory: In this lesson, I wanted to discuss with you color circle or color wheel, and color value. Let's start with color circle. In the color theory, there are only three primary colors, yellow, red, and blue. You can get all other shades by mixing primary colors with each other. In order to create secondary colors, green, orange, and purple, you need to mix primary colors In order to get orange color. We are mixing 50% of yellow and 50% of red, and we get our orange color. We are moving to the next color, green color. It's a mix of yellow and blue. As you can see, I got quite warm green color. This is because I used quite warm yellow for this mix. If you, for example, using lemon yellow, it will be more cold because the lemon yellow is more cold than Indian yellow. And we are doing absolutely the same to get purple color by mixing blue and red. Once we're done mixing secondary colors, we can move forward and fill our color circle with other shades. We're still using mix of two colors, but we add more of one color. For example, the closer shade to the yellow, I add more yellow than red. I get this very warm yellow color here. For example, I mix blue and red, but I add more red than blue. The shade that lies closer to the blue color, I add more blue and less red, I get different shade, and so on. Basically, this is how you can paint anything with a very small palette. For this class, I picked primary colors so you could test how they're mixing works. In the color wheel, there are also complementary and analogous colors. Complementary are the opposite colors on the color wheel. Analogous are the colors with a similar temperature. Either warm red, yellow, orange, or cold green, purple, blue. To become more confident in mixing colors, you have to practice and to mix colors from your palette with each other. Also, you may paint your own color wheel to understand how the mixing works. My question is, which colors do you need to mix to create a brown color? To explore color value, you will need just one color and water. By mixing these two ingredients in different proportions, you will get colors from nearly transparent to very saturated. The three states of watercolor called tea, coffee and butter. Let's move to the next lesson where we will learn about watercolor techniques. 4. Watercolor Techniques: In this lesson, we will discuss two main watercolor techniques. In this technique, you wet the paper with clean water before applying the paint. This allows the colors to blend and flow, creating soft and diffuse edges. The wet on wet technique is excellent for creating smooth gradients, atmospheric effects, and soft backgrounds. With wet on dry technique, you apply watercolor to dry paper. This technique offers more control and sharp edges in your painting. It's ideal for adding precise details, sharp lines and distinct shapes. It allows layering and building up colors with clear boundaries. Before moving to the next lesson, practice in both watercolor techniques to become more confident. 5. Sketch: In the lesson four, we will learn how to prepare a sketch. For preparing a sketch, you will need a pencil, just ordinary one or mechanical one. You also will need need able eraser to remove the pencil strokes from the painting before you apply water color. It's very soft and it doesn't damage the paper. The most difficult part of the sketch is to evaluate the right proportion of the object and to transfer it to the paper. That's why I'm going to show you how the sighting method works. To do sighting, we keep our arm holding a pencil stretched to its fullest. Keep your elbow locked when you sit in, the proportion would be consistent each time you look at the object. Then you need to close one eye and measure the object you see with pencil. To measure the proportion, you need to hold the pencil so the tip of it would be visible on one edge of the object, slight your thumb to the opposite edge. So you would measure the unit for widths, Keeping your thumb at the unit. You need to turn pencil and compare this unit to height. You can measure each part of the object and compare it with each other. Now it's time to transfer these measurements to the paper. Once you have your proportions on the paper, you will have to draw the shapes of the object. I suggest you to use round shapes as it helps to see object as a whole and then go into the details. Start by identifying key points on your subject. This could be the corners, edges, or any distinctive features. For example, when sketching the goose, I identified the top of the heat, the beak, and the legs. Try not to push pencil a lot as we don't want to leave a lot of pencil marks on the paper. There, there, there, there, there, there. When sketching, I'm also analyzing the darkest and lightest parts of the object, and I'm marking it on the paper. When I feel like the sketching is done, I use needable eraser and slightly press it to the paper to remove the pencil lines. Now when our sketch is done, it's time to move to the next lesson and start painting. 6. Secret of an Eye-catching Watercolor Painting: Before we start painting, let's discuss what is the secret of an eye catching watercolor painting. Over the years of painting, I was trying to understand what is the secret of an eye catching watercolor painting. Because some works you like more than the others. And I was trying to understand why, basically the most important thing for our eyes is to catch contrast on the image. That's why if you are painting white objects, it's really important to create background around it to create this contrast with darker color than the object. If you're painting dark objects like this dock on the right side, it's okay to not add background as the white piece of paper is already contrasting with the object itself. Sometimes blurry backgrounds can create particular atmosphere and mood. Again, you use contrast to make it more appealing for eyes. Dark colors next to the light colors. Dark backgrounds also can help you to emphasize the highlights. Like here on the God's face, the lightest part of the image. It's not always necessary to use dark backgrounds around white objects. You can use analogous colors, or colors, from this image that you used already, and to create surroundings for the white objects. The secret is to use this opposition not only in terms of colors, but also in technique, like detailed hand on a blurry background. When I talk about contrasting background, I also mean contrasting objects lying next to each other, like leaves surrounding flower. 7. Painting a Goose: Welcome to the lesson six where we will paint a goose. For this painting, I'm going to use two round brushes, number six and number one, Liquid water, color by Ec, line in color, Indigo. We will use it for the background and for the color mixes colors in tubes. Indian Yellow, Biv and Go and carmine Bin brand. You may also use water colors in pants. You will also need a palette for mixing colors. I have a ceramic one, but you may use plastic one as well. Also prepare some small piece of paper where you can test your color mixes before painting. Also, you will need a paper towel to remove water from the brush, to dry brush and to clean it. Also some small things like glass of water and erazor. Before we start painting, let's mix our colors on the palette, as we have only three primary colors, and we are going to mix them with each other. For the goose body, I mix carmine and indigo with each other. And I want to receive this purple shade. I add more carmine until I get this purple shade. Now I need to test my color mix on the paper to see if it works for me. I will just show you here on the paper. You can control transparency of your color mix by adding more or less water. Now I want to prepare a mix for the goose body, for the light parts. For this purpose, I'm using Indian yellow, a lot of water, and just a little bit of indigo mixed with carmine. Basically, we mix all the colors, but we use more yellow than other colors. Now we are going to prepare the color mix for the beak. So we need to get orange color. For this purpose, I use yellow and red as in the color circle. We have Indian yellow and carmine. Right now, I'm controlling the amount of yellow and red to get the precise orange color that I need. Now we can move to the painting goose. We will start by painting beak. I apply some dense color on the edges of the beak. And then I just drag the brush and create some lighter color in the middle to make it more yellow. Now I will add just some shadows on the edges of the beak. To make color for the shadows, you can just m some colors that you already have on the palette in different amounts to make the color. Like I have orange color and I just add some of the indigo, some of the carmine, and it becomes more dark. Now I'm switching to another brush and I cover the body of the goose with just clean water. We will use wet on wet technique and apply this light color that I mixed before for the light shades of the body straight to the paper while it's still wet. I take this purple color that we mix before and apply it straight to the wet surface of the paper to create shadows. I'm using some very light color or even clean water, trying to make smooth edges between two colors. We wouldn't see the borders like straight borders between light part of the body and dark part. Also, I add more shadows just color on the still wet surface. Don't forget about the shadow under the hat. We're trying to work very fast with wet on wet technique. But if you see that paper is already dry, you can add some just clean water and then apply the color for the shadow. To make a shadow, I dry my brush with a paper towel and take some color from the palette and apply it straight to the steel wet surface. And now we are moving to the light parts of the goose and edges of the body. And we use a very watery mix, like 70% of water and just 30% of the color that we had on the pallet before we cover all the surface of the head and some neck with a very light color. You can also dry your brush with a paper towel so you can control the amount of water on the paper. Now, I want to paint a small thing on the back of the goose. I don't know what it is, but we are going to paint it as we see it. So I'm trying to make a dark red, reddish orange mix. So I'm adding just more of the carmine and indigo to the existing color. Let's also paint an eye to our goose. And we're using mix of indigo and a little bit of carmine and less water. Now we are moving to the last part of the goose legs. First I cover the whole surface of the leg with a very watery mix or just clean water because we will start working like a wet on wet technique. Then we will make some details. We're using the same orange color that we had for the beak. We just cover the whole surface of legs with this color. Now, while the surface of the legs is still wet, I add some darker colors to make shadows on the edges of the leg and under the body. When the surface is already dry, you can add some darker shades to highlight the structure of the leg of the goose before that. And to understand where the darkest parts, try to analyze the image that you are painting. The object that you are painting. Our painting almost done, but I want to make our shadows more dark as you remember our eyes trying to catch contrasts. So we have to make these contrasts very sharp between white head of a goose and dark shadow of the neck. Remember to leave light spot on the left of the goose because our light on this image comes from the left side. So we have to keep the lightest parts of the goose on the left side. Look at this, our goose is done and we can move to the next lesson and to learn how to paint a background. 8. Painting a Background: Welcome to the last lesson where we will paint a background using wet on wet technique and liquid watercolor. Cover the surface around the goose with number six with clean water, try to avoid the edges of the goose levered dry. If you have a bigger brush or more brush, it's convenient to use the biggest brush that you have. This purpose while the paper is still wet, I apply liquid water color to the surface of the wet paper. Now using the brush, I'm trying to combine the water and to make it more smooth and blurry and precisely go by the edges of the goose with the dark color. If you haven't done this before, it's better to practice before painting When the surface around the goose is covered with color and is still wet. You may add some drops of the clean water to create nice blurry water color effects. Using the small brush, you can make some final details to your painting. We finished our painting and the last thing is left to put your name in the right corner. Now you know how to use different watercolor techniques. How to prepare a sketch for your painting. How to mix colors, and how to paint white animals on a watercolor background. I hope you feel more confident after this class and you got inspired to practice more in painting. I can't wait to see your class project and your amazing goose. Please don't forget to share your view about this class. This will help me a lot to understand if this class was helpful and what are the areas of improvement. I hope to see you soon in my other classes. 9. Class Project: Painting white objects with watercolor can be intimidating. With this class project, I want you to overcome this fear and to learn how to create a perfect background so your white objects would pop. I pick this reference of a white goose on a dark background. I think this is a perfect stage to try your skills in creating watercolor background with wet on wet technique. Also to practice preparing, sketch and to mix the right shade with your limited color palette. While painting white goose might seem a little bit challenging, this photo is actually quite perfect because you can easily spot darkest and lightest parts on a white bird's body. Let's move to the materials you are going to need for this painting. You will need just three watercolors, Indian yellow, or any other yellow that you have in your palette. Carmine. Or any other red that you have in your palette. As a blue, I'm using indigo liquid watercolor by Ecoline. You may use also indigo color in tube or pen watercolor paper. I used Aurora watercolor paper, 300 GSM. Cold pressed, 100% cellulose. And you may use any other watercolor paper, just make sure that it's 300 GSM because it holds water perfectly. As a brushes, I use only two brushes and you need only two brushes, number six and number one. You may use other brands, but I use silver brush and grabby for making a sketch, you will need a pencil. I'm using mechanic pencil, but you can also use just ordinary pencil. For this purpose, I use mechanic pencil by pencil, 0.3 millimeters, I find it perfect. Here is also the ceramic palette that I'm using, but you can use just ordinary plate or plastic palette. Also the paper towel and needable eraser that will help you to remove pencil lines from your sketch. Prepare the class project by the following steps. Download the photo reference attached to this class. Prepare your pencil sketch. Prepare your color mixes on your palette. Start painting goose in this sequence, Beak, body, legs, and the final step, paint a background with wet on wet technique. Once you're done with painting, please make a photo of it or scan it. Then attach the image of your work to this class project. I'll be happy to give you my feedback and help you to improve your skills, may the art be with you.