Magical Watercolor World. Painting Watercolor Illustration from Your Imagination or Memory.

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Anya. I'm a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, and I definitely welcome to my first Skillshare class. I started my career as a graphic designer and I often use my illustrations in my project. I've designed educational books, gains catalogs. I've illustrated comics and coloring books, and also designed labels for important brands like Calvin Nina lately my watercolor administrations were published in Polish journal for parents. In this class, we will paint magical, whimsical nature escape based on your imagination or your memory. But before we do that, I will guide you step-by-step through all the process that will lead you towards the final illustration. We will paint all the elements of our final illustration separately. Then I'll show you how to create harmonious color palette and how to create inspirational mood board. Finally, we will unite all the elements and paint our final illustration. Okay, This class is basically for those who already painted with watercolors, because we will dive into some techniques and painting single objects will require some knowledge how to use watercolors. However, if you feel inspired and to want to give it a try, then go for it. The most important for me is that you will enjoy the process and play with your ARB and dive into your imagination. Let's see what you will learn in this class. So first of all, we will explore watercolor techniques to, you will learn how to paint in fairy and whimsical style. And the last but not least, you will let yourself to explore your imagination. So I hope you feel inspired. And if you wanted to join me in this creative journey, then I see in the next lesson where I will explain you better. What's this class's project? See you there. 2. Class Project: So welcome In this lesson where I will explain you the project of this class. So we will paint a watercolor illustration. It will be nature or escape based on your imagination or your memory. That's because I use this to as main sources for my inspiration. Sometimes I will paint something from scratch. I will just let my imagination flow. Or you can dive into your memory and pick some beautiful moment. For example, this was the moment that I lived Many years ago. I was at the lake and it was a moment of totally happiness and fulfillment. There was this fish that jump out of the water. And I know it was just a kind of a sign for me, kind of a message from sky. And I really like to paint this moment. I've painted it's more than once. So you can choose if he liked to inspire yourself, maybe with some head or your memory, or even a photo if you'd like to. It's up to you. And later, we will painted in the key of whimsical and magical style. If it's something that you would like to explore and use it in your art, then this is the right place for you. So this class is designed from small to big in the way that she want a feel overwhelmed. Before diving into our final project, I'll show you that art supplies that I use and that you will use for this project. And then we will paint single objects. I'll show you two ways. I paint moon and sun, also how I paint the day and night sky, clouds, different way. It was trade, trees and grass textures. Also, I'm showing you my process of defining the color palette. And I'll show you how to create a moodboard for your projects. And finally, we will dive into sketching and painting our final illustration. You don't feel like painting from your imagination or your memory. Then you can just paint the same illustration as I've painted in this class's project. You will find the sketch to copy so you can choose whatever you want. Okay, so I hope it was helpful for you. Please see the resources section of this class where I've attached some helpful materials. While you will see the single project that we will paint and our lessons. Also see that description of class to see the process. If you have any questions, please write to me, then I will answer to you. If you're ready, then I see you in the next lesson where I will show you the art supplies that we will use. 3. Art Supplies: Welcome to our first lesson where I will show you that art supplies I use and that we will use for this class. The main medium we will use watercolors. I had different kinds of watercolors, and I have lost two pallets. I've divided them into warm colors were char, yellows and reds, and greens and blues on the other side. And I use both Carlos and pan and into. I have different brands, are used really different brands and kinds. And I actually don't have my favorite one, so just pick whatever, whatever watercolor you use. I'll give the name of the brands that I use and the art supplies, resources. You'll have. All the names are enlists. I find them all in a very good quality. So if you didn't, if you don't have your watercolors yet, then you can have a look. If you have already a watercolors, just use what you have. As a Payne's medium. We will also use a white ink. Specifically, I use in our class. This one, this is Ph Martin's and white ink. It's for technical pens or airbrush and I use it to paint. It's very, it has a high coverage and it's opaque. And it's also very good because it's water-soluble. It's means that it gets erased with water if you want to cancel something. So I recommended there are also other brands that you can use. You can also use acrylic ink. It's basically the same because it has high coverage. The difference is it's not opaque. It has more shiny texture and also it doesn't go off with water. Once it's dried, it will be removable. But it's also a very good quality ink. If you don't have neither of them, you can use just acrylic paint. This is normal acrylic paints. You can just dilute it and use it as your white ink brushes. Basically, I will use a rounded brushes. Those are all watercolor, round brushes. I don't really have my favorite kind or brand, so I just test them and see which one works better. What I found is that they have to be really pointy. They have to have this pointy tip. And it will give you the possibility to do fine details, fine lines. So just test whatever you like. Those are all synthetic class, but I also use natural Brussels. This one specifically is Kolinsky from roadblock. A really very good quality, but it's the same. You can use just synthetic ones and other types of brushes that we will use. Those three. This they have all flat brushes. Flat, Brussels, sorry. So this is cat tongues. Brush. It's flat and round it. Something between square and rounded. Also this swot or dagger brush, which has cut diagonal away. It's also flat. And also this one which is more triangle then cuts down and has this pointy tip and it's also flat. I forgot to tell you that we will also use this square synthetic brush. I will use this one to water my paper before I will use a wet and wet technique. You can use also flat big brush or just any kind of big brush. And also I will use a dip pen for details. I have this one. We will use also pencils and erasers for our sketching. Other supplies that we will use, our toothbrush, just a regular toothbrush. You can switch it with a synthetic brush with a short and hard resource. Also, kitchen salt and a piece of cloth or paper towel or tissue. To mix your colors. I will use this plastic color palette for mixing is very handy and very old. It's dirty, but it won't contaminate my colors. If you don't have watercolor mixing palette, you can use this, my tip that I use container for ice cubes. I often use it as my color palette. You can use also plastic plates if you don't have anything in your home. Right now, sometimes I will use this flat palette. It's ceramic. Sometimes I use it to mix my colors. Also, if you have your watercolors set, you will probably have the sites that you can use to mix your colors. Finally, also the papers, some sketching book, paper. Whatever you find is okay, will work fine. I use this one. And watercolor paper for our final project. I will use this one, a honeymoon. I don't know how to pronounce it, and it will be cold pressed. 300 grams are the best one. Here are the basic one, let's say, but if you have a lower number that's the same, they will just bend when he will put water on it. But it's the same. Take whatever watercolor paper you have in your home. Basically, there are two kinds of water papers that you want to use. It. It's cold pressed, that it has different structure. It has more texture on it. I don't know if you can see it. And I will use it for our final project. Or I also love to work with hot pressed paper, which is a smooth one. It doesn't have texture on it. It's also very good for details on. So for work with dip pen and ink, It's also very good. So if you have hot press and you like to work on hot press, Go for it. I will. I also recommend this our teaser paper because it's economical. It's not so expensive. It has 32 sheets and they all have two sites. It means on one side you will have a cold press texture. And on the other side you will have smooth texture. And you can paint on the both sides of it. If you're a beginner and you don't want to spend a lot of money, then I would recommend this one. Okay, so you saw all the tools that we will use for this project. However, maybe it's a little bit wider range so you can limit some of the tools you can use just several brushes. Also, you will see that in the color palette lesson, you will, you can limit your colors. So I hope it was helpful for you. See you in the next lesson where we will see how to paint the moon and the sun. 4. Moon and Sun: In this lesson, we will see how to paint a moon or some. I'll show you two ways. I do it. I really loved to paint moon, but you can choose between moon and sun. So the first way I paint both, I borrowed the style from Ana Victoria Calderon. She is a really wonderful artists, so check her out. So I really love this kind of style, I think is very evocative. I will also show you the second way I paint more kind of negative painting. Here you can see the example of two styles, the first and the second one and the negative painting, moon and the sun. Let's start our exercise with layer painting. We will paint a single layers, single circles, one on the top of another. We will let them dry in between. Here, I paint my first layer, my first circle. I've used a Payne's gray color and the wash is quite translucent. It's not too opaque or to covering it because we will put another layer above it so it shouldn't be too dark at the beginning. Then I will absorb some color in the middle to leave a lighter color. Our moon is drying, we can start to paint the sun. The first circle of light wash. The procedure is quite similar. But with the sun, the painting is another way around because Manuel have the lightest middle circle. The light of the moon is wide. And in the sun, the middle circle will be the darkest one. But you will see how it works. I didn't sketch my circles before, but if you prefer, you can draw them even with your drawing compass. Just make sure to be very light, otherwise, the pencil will show through. I personally prefer more irregular shape. But if you want a perfect circles, then go for it. Let's jump into our second layer. For the moon, you want to leave the middle circle where the mootness and paint all the way around. I used the same wash of color. I don't really add any pigment to it. It's probable that he will finish the paint because it is really paint consuming. And if you will have to make your paint from scratch, then try to make the similar shade. Here's the second layer of the sun. While in the moon, you want to leave the negative space where the moon is. Here. You will just simply paint one circle over another. And each next circle will be always smaller than the previous one. I use a hair dryer to help myself. So let's jump into the third layer of moon. You want to create the first circle of light around noon and then paint all around it. And our son. You put the third circle above the second one. I've decided to use my hairdryer all the time. If you want, you can leave it to dry in the natural way. Just be sure that the painting is dry because when he will paint another layer, you will risk to make a hole if your paint is still wet. And when you will pass with another wedge layer, then you'll simply create a hole in your paint. Here we've created another layer and another circle of moonlight. You want to proceed with painting your layers until you reach the last one. And when is the last layer? It's really up to you. For negative moon and some painting we will create kind of blending color from the darkest to lightest one. You want to prepare. The dark wash. I use Payne's gray here. You can use your color that you will use for your sky. For the purpose of this class, I've painted just a small piece, but the dark color means this guy. So if I were to paint a final illustration, then I would paint all this guy around. I start to paint circle. What I did here is I washed my brush and water and then passed with a clean wet brush over the wet paint. In this way, the color wouldn't blend from the darkest to the lighter one. Here I do it again. Again, the brush is clean and wet, and I let the colors blend again. Here I pass with a clean, wet brush to create this light shapes around them on. For the sun, we will use the same procedure. I've prepared the mix of two colors, blue and gray to create my sky color. Then I've put darker wash around and with clean and wet brush. I've painted around that shape inside to create this smooth transition between the darker and the lighter color. You can help yourself also with paper towel and absorb more color in the center. Okay, so let's do a brief recap for this class, this final project, you can paint your mom or your SAN in two ways. The first one, layer mode and the second one, negative painting mode to whatever you prefer. And also see this class's resources where I've attached a final exercise illustration and graphic scheme of this painting process. So I hope you've enjoyed this exercise and in the next lesson, we will see how to play sky. So see you there. 5. Night and Day Sky: And now our new class, where I will show you how I paint night and day sky in my art. I really love to paint the night sky because I love her more like, I think it gives very mystical mode. And in our final illustration, we will paint the night sky. However, please feel free to choose if you prefer they sky, then I will show you both ways. So let's dive into our exercise. So for this exercise, I will use adhesive tape to create rectangles. And my tip for you is to reduce the strength of the tapes, others, if you can do it by applying the tape first on some flat surface or maybe even on your clothes. And on the after-death, apply it on your paper. I do it because often the tape can destroy your paper when the clue is to Strunk. So we will start to paint our night sky. Usually, I use two or three colors to have different shades of color. For this exercise. I use paints gray and also Delft blue. It was mistake because I wanted to pick indigo, which is kind of my favorite blue color. But yeah, Delft blue is also okay. So I use the wet on dry technique. The paper is dry. And I do some kind of patchwork painting. I just paint blobs of color and mix them together. So once I will pick Payne's gray and then I will paint with blue. Automate the color that you prefer. You don't have to necessarily have the same colors AS I have. While the paint is still wet. I will sprinkle a little bit of salt on it and leave it to dry. Once the paint will be dried, then we will take off the salt and underneath the beautiful sparkle texture will appear. While we are waiting for our night sky to try, we can start the day sky. Let's start with wet on dry technique. I prepared my color by mixing two colors I used for the sky. So Payne's gray and blue. And I want my wash to be a more light, more diluted model, translucent. Okay. So procedure is quite similar. You want to put washes of your color on paper. But what I actually do is that I wash my brush in the water to alternate even lighter washes. What you want to do is alternate your basic wash with more watery wash. And this way you will create this soft and blurry texture of sky. While the sky is still wet, I would pick my paper towel or a cloth and use it to absorb pieces of color to create clouds texture. Well, the second way to paint the sky is wet on wet technique. Prepare your paper and wet it with clean water. Doesn't have to be very well to. The more water you will put, the more color will spread. Take your color and put it into water. I leave some whitespace to create clouds. So it's kind of negative painting. This is very interesting technique. You cannot control it, but it's also very good to paint skies. If you see that your paper gets dry and colour want throw so smoothly, then you can apply water again on your paper. I will use paper towel again to create more clouds, but it's up to you. It depends if you're happy with your result. Now that night sky is dry, we can scratch our salt off. Be sure to be accurate because grainy salts can get into your paints later. So we will put the second layer. I do it because I think it's too light. And maybe the story effect of salt is to try. If you like it, you can leave it. I will put just a second layer of a lighter wash above my first layer. Now it's time for the most satisfying, but also the scariest moment. Taking off the tape. This time it went well. Just be extra careful because sometimes it can ruin your paper. You will have to experiment a little bit to see which type works best. I've put this one in art supply store. I know also washi tapes work good, but it also depends on the paper you use. I found that the same tape works fine with some papers and with others. It's too invasive. So it would ruin the paper. And remember about my tip. So here's a quick bonus from me. I'll show you how I paint starry night with white ink. So if you want to add an extra layer with stars than thick white ink, I use a toothbrush, but you can use also regular brush with a short hair. Pick tiny amount of paint. Not too much because you don't want your splash to be too big. Maybe once like it. And then splash into directly over the illustration. Not too strong. I had to do a few tries because sometimes some blobs can appear or you can push too much ink. But as long as you use this ink, you can also delete it with water afterwards. So here you can see this beautiful kind of galaxy texture is made. I like it very much and I use it often in my flower illustrations. And we will use it also in our final project. Small recap of our exercise. At the beginning we were painting the night sky and then we've put some salt and when it was dry them with both the second flare on it. Then we painted the day sky. First with wet on dry technique and later on with wet on wet technique. So choose the sky that you want to use for your final project. I painted night sky, but feel free to decide. I hoped you enjoyed it and that it will be helpful for you. And please upload your exercise if you want to in your projects class. I'm really interested. If you've chosen the night or day sky, please show why. And in the next lesson, we will paint clouds. So see you there. 6. Night and Day Clouds: Welcome to our new lesson where we will learn how to paint clouds. I often paint clouds in my illustrations because I think they give this mysterious touch. And especially I love white clouds on night sky where the clouds kind of reflect more light. So let's get started. Okay, so here you can see the clouds that we will paint in this lesson. First, we will paint clouds for our night sky with the white ink and also with different brushes. Then we will paint clouds. Four days guy was two different techniques. We will need to prepare some darker watercolor for the day clouds, which will be applied on the day sky. And I picked my Payne's Gray, also white ink. And this is Dr. Ph. Martin's white ink that I showed to an hour art supplies lesson. If you don't have that, you can use also acrylic ink or diluted acrylic paint. And here are the brushes that I will use. This one is cats tang shape, something between around and square shape. I use it often to paint clouds. Also round the classical round brush and the square brush. We will start from the white clouds on the night sky. I prepared a little plate where I will deposit my ink as a little pipette so I can put field drops. It has acquired liquid consistency but still dance. So I usually do is that I will water down a little bit my ink. Be sure to clean your brush. Otherwise it will contaminate white color. I will start exercise with this brush. It's gives kind of a different texture from the round brush. More interesting, maybe more natural. So if you have this kind of brush at home, give it a try. So as you can see, once I've put the ink. There without diluting with so much water, then I would clean my brush a little bit and pass once more time with more diluted color to create this texture where you can see both more covering color and then most translucent color. In this way, the Cloud, we'll have more natural look. Okay, let's try it one more time. Notice also how I move my brush. I do this kind of minimal, minimal movements like topping. I thought we could try it also, a square brush because it's quite similar to the cat's tongue brush. Let's see how it works. Under this sleigh. It has more geometrical shape. The angles are sharper, but it's still quite interesting. I think it works really fine. And I think it can be used to paint clouds as well. Let's try the last one, the round brush up this way it has a sharper shapes. But you can also achieve around those shapes. It's still very interesting. Now I tried to put a more water we think kind of no style and try to water down the column. And then I will apply more color, kind of wet on wet technique. I think it's works really fine for clouds. Let's prepare our color for the day clouds. It should be very translucent color so I could barely diluted, wash. As you can see, it is quite transparent. I use wet on dry technique. So the paper is dry it this kind of clouds. I paint also over them all and I will paint them in our final projects illustration. You can also paint clouds with wet on wet technique. So just put water on your background. Now clean water and just soft and delicate film of water. And then put your color into it. You can see how the color spreads and creates this soft texture. And clouds are soft on the edges are not so sharp. You can also use a cloth or paper towel and tap into what's color and see how interesting textures you can make. How about the fog? I didn't forget it. It's just because I use the same technique to paint clouds and hulk. Here's the example of the foggy mode illustration. So let's recap. And Britney, our exercise at the beginning blew up painting at night clouds with different kinds of brushes to have different kinds of textures. And then they clouds and with two different techniques. And we had two different textures as well. I hope this exercise was inspiring for you and it will help you to paint very it kind of clouds in your art. I'm very interested in how you paint with your Cloud. So please, if you want to upload to your clouds into our class's project. And in our next lesson, we will see how to paint trees. So see you in the next lesson. 7. Trees: Commit now a new lesson where I will show you how I paint trees. I am though it inspired by nature and works. And I think that also in fairy tales that illustrations, that is really very often that's you paying towards and nature. Also painting trees can seem to be very difficult. I'll show you that it's not. I will show you the simple way painting trees in kind of a fairy tale style. I'll show you also different ways that pain sleeps. We'll start with sketching our shapes. Usually I paint around it and oval shapes. So I will just play with those. I will play with HIV. And the size here, for example, is longer shape, more oval. Try to sketch also the trunk. And maybe some wider shape. Try to warm up your hand and see what's you can get. Let's try some other shapes. I thought we could play with leafy shapes. If you have in mind some leaves and then try to draw them, they can be curvy, are more geometrical shapes and sharp angles if you wish. I'm firstly, you can come up with new ideas. It's also a good idea to sketch your branches before you go into painting. See what shapes you can make. See how it works. If you prefer. More curved shapes or more geometrical simple shapes. With sharp angles, just warm up your hand. Do many sketches to be prepared for the painting step. Let's start painting our trees. I've prepared my colors, some earthy tones, and also white ink that I will use to paint the trunks and branches. Later on, we will paint also leaves, but it will be subject of our next lesson. Let's start to paint our first tree crown. I will paint it with one color with wet on dry technique. I will use some olive green. Just paint inside your shape. Let's try to make some color for trade. We can put more costs into our shape. Choose whatever colors you like. And we will paint with wet on dry technique here. Let's try to mix more colors, but this time with wet on wet technique. So previously, paint your tree with clean water and then put your favorite colors just like you did in wet on wet technique when you've painted to the sky and let those colors blend with each other and create beautiful texture. Once your paint is dry, prepare the color for your trunk and branches. I will start with watercolor. I've prepared burnt sienna color, which is this warm brown. Be sure to use a stronger color just to cover your background color. I use also this small brush. It's a number 0, round brush. I will first paint in a very delicate way, almost not touching the paper. And then I will push the brush more and more to have this stroke from thin to thick. Now let's try to paint with white ink. I will use Xero brush from little bluff, which is natural brush. I find it's more comfortable to do very thin lines. But if you want, you can also use a larger brush and use the very tip of it. Or you can just simply do bigger branches. It's up to you. Also here. I will paint in a very delicate way, and then I will push the brush more to have thicker lines. To paint the trunks, I will use a bigger brush and push it slightly. You can also use a bigger brush to paint over the branches and paint the thicker parts. Once again, I will use watercolor, but this time I will use two shades of the same color. This means that I will paint with the more covering a wash. And then I will use the same color but more diluted to create more translucent branches. To create this kind of three-dimensional effect. I will dry the first layer of branches, and now I will paint the more transparent color. So just pick the same color and diluted with water. That's recap briefly, our exercise so far. So at the beginning we were painting tree crowns with wet on dry technique with one color and put more colors than with wet on wet techniques and more colors. And later on we will have, we've painted branches and trunks and both with ink and water colors, and also with water colors with different shapes. Let's finish our trees in the next lesson, where I will show you how to paint different kinds of leaves. So have fun and see you there. 8. Leaves: Welcome back. In the lesson where we will, we will start with a round brush. The size really isn't important. I've picked parallel screen which is kind of darker green. Just be sure that your brush has really sharp and pointy tip. And start to paint leaves. I painted in a really delicate way. As you can see, I literally deposit drops of water recolor. So my brush isn't so dry. It has lots of color. And in this way, it's easier to leave those little drops. If you have a dryer brush, It's the same. Just try what is more comfortable. And what is the best way to have this pointy, leafy shapes? And we'll use the same technique here. I will just mix different mediums. So I will use watercolors and also white ink. Here. You don't have to use a so much diluted ink. It can be drier, but be sure to be very delicate. Here I had a little oops situation. I'm just touched the wet color with my hand. As long as it swept, then you can just remove it with a clean wet brush. Just be careful when you paint not to touch the leaves that you've painted. Let's jump into another shape. I use the same brush, but I will use another movement. As you can see, I touch with push, push it slightly, and then leave it with fast movement. Try to observe it. This kind of shape needs quite a bit of exercising. So just give it a try. Here's a little recap of this exercise. Obviously, you can use the same technique with other mediums. You can use it with watercolors, or you can add other colors to your white ink. Let's play with the different types of brushes and depends. I will start with my dip pen. There are many types of style or dip pen and commercial so you can use whatever you like and just know that the wider the tip is, all the flatter that tip is, the wider the stroke will be. So I use quite pointed tip and I will paint a little tiny strokes. I want to, I use this kind of texture for cypresses trees or pine trees. I live in Italy so often in landscapes. I paint also side process. Give it a try when the ink is not so diluted. So the paint often will be blocked, want flow easily. So sometimes you have to dilute your ink. Let's try also a small brush, my 0 Collins Key brush from little bluff. With this tiny brush, you can also paint really delicate and thin lines. Now let's jump into this triangle brush. I don't truly know the name of it. It's not written. I think it's just a triangle brush. It's little bit pointier than cat's tongue brush. You can dip a little bit of your color into the tissue if it's too much. And let's see now where magic happens. I touch with the very point of the brush and sleep. This kind of, I don't know, triangle shapes. I use it also for cypresses trees, pine trees, or just to paint. Also the grass texture. Now let's try this kind of brush. It's called swirled brush, all dagger brush. It has this diagonal Brussel. I use it very often to play in the grass. So I will paint just with one side of this brush with the one, the bristles cut into diagonal shape and create this lovely texture. I use it as well for grass, as for some plants. Then I will add white dots. I really love doing it. It's creates then kind of fruits and berries. Also if you paint when to escapes, It's really gives this really nice crispy effect to your plans. So let's jump into our last texture. We will turn back to the normal round brush. And I will just play around and see what's I can paint. I also encourage you to play and try new strokes, new shapes and textures. Warm up your hand and see or two can paint. I'm absolutely sure that your textures will be unique and everyone has a different style and you will also have a different ideas. So I can't wait to see what you will come up with AI at that also white ink. In this lesson, we faint in different kind of leaves, different shapes. First with the round brush, we saw what different shapes we could pain then with different brushes and pen, with plate and explored many textures that can be applied for your trees. I hope you've enjoyed it and that you discovered that it's not so difficult. And at it's really fun. We will also paint different kinds of trees and leaves and our final project. And in our next lesson, we will see how to paint grass. So see you there. 9. Grass: Welcome to our new lesson. I will show you how I paint grass. I will show you different textures and marks and colors that are used to paying to grasp. I think there are three benefits of painting grass and also other details as leaves or other details applied on plans. Those are one really relaxing and satisfying. It's my favorite part of illustration when I apply all those tiny details. So it's a truly create beautiful textures. And three, I think maybe it's not so important. But if you're not happy with your wash or with your watercolor, with a layer of details and grass, for example. You can really cover a lot This way. You don't have to be so worried about your basic layer. Okay, I came to wait to show you how I do it. Let's dive in into our exercise. The fall, we will start to play in the grass. We will have to prepare some background. I've painted those colorful spots, but you can cover all the paper. You can use wet on wet technique, whatever you like. I used the technique that we use to paint trees and sky. So let's start with painting with white ink. We will experiment with different kinds of brushes. I will start with a small brush. This is a natural brush. It's really consumed, so it has really few bristles left. I like to use it because it gets really small and tiny strokes. It also can be a nine because this brush contains really small, small amount of color. So I will have to dip it really often. So I will also try to cross over the strokes. I do it very often when I paint the grass. So it gives this effect of grass that is moving and it's not too static. Here I use a bigger brush. It's still small brush, but it's bigger. To create something. Some additional details to our grasp. You can play with different kind of dots, strokes. Let's try to paint with a bigger brush. This is medium, I think this is number 6 brush. And you can see that if the tip is really pointy and if you paint in a really delicate way, you can also achieve very nice and delicate lines. And it's definitely more comfortable than using this small brush because it contains more color in this way, you can use it longer and paint more strokes at a time. Let's try our pen to pick the color. I will dip the pen directly in the bottle with inquiry. When I was using brushes, I've put several drops separately. It was just more comfortable to pick color in this way. Okay, So with pan, I will paint shorter strokes. Also, the strokes are simply, they won't give you this thickness that brush can do. You know, when you paint with a brush, you can achieve from thin to thick lines. And here they will have a uniform thickness. You can play with strokes, you can do them shorter or longer. Let's switch into their squad brush. We've used it for our lives exercise. And we will paint as we did for leaves. I will paint strokes really nearby. I will also alternate directions to create movement. And I also play with transparencies. It means that sometimes I will use more diluted color and then I will put more dense ink so it will create this three-dimensional effect. Okay, so my tip for you is to create kind of come brush layer also come brushes, but I don't have it. So what I do is that I divide results while the brush is wet. Then I will pick the color and divide it one more time if needed. And in this way you can create this hairy or grassy texture. Tried to play with it. Let's start to paint with watercolor. Basically, I will play with some tools as well. I want to use a dip pen, but if you feel to try it, then do it. Here I started with a round brush, small round brush. Now I've jumped into medium brush. And also here I play with transparencies. Watercolor is really, really nice medium for this kind of exercise because you can create those three-dimensional textures when you alternate more dense color with more translucent color. And I think it gives a really, really nice textures. Now we will switch to this water brush. We will paint in the same way as we did before, but we will use watercolor. So play with directions, with transparencies. And also you can add as many colors as you like. Also in the previous brush, I alternated the different colors. So let's recap our exercise. Basically, we've played with ink, white ink, and watercolors. And we've experimented with different brushes to see what different textures we can paint. If you want to, you can also use other mediums. For examples, if you have other acrylic ink colors, use them. You can also use washes. Just feel free to experiment with all the mediums you have at home. Okay, so in this exercise you saw how I paint crass. I can't wait to see how you do it. You can develop your own mocks and signs. You don't have to necessarily repeat or copy minus signs, but please experiment. Feel free to discover your own signs. In our final project, we will also paint the grass. I will do it in very bolt way. I will use a lots of signs, lots of cross over science. You will see in our final lesson, you don't have to do it. But I wanted to show you that even if I apply really bolt and grass, It's won't be overwhelming. But it will create kind of fresh, crispy and even lighter layer. And in our next lesson, I'll share with you how I create my color palette. So see you there. 10. Color Palette: Welcome to our new lesson, where I will share with you how I choose colors for my projects. My way of chosen color palette is based on my instincts and that's what I wanted to share with you. What does it mean? It means that when I am searching for inspiration, for my illustration, I also searched for chromatic inspiration. I'll show you how to create your moodboards. Moodboards with pictures of illustrations or photos that inspires you. So you will have a set of inspirational sources ready-to-use. Also, I'll show you that probably the best way to overcome the fear of using colors is to limit your color palette. I do it very often, and I will also do it in this project. I encourage you to choose really few colors for your projects. So see you in our lesson. The first way I choose my color, how I inspire myself is looking at the charts of colors. In the past. I've prepared charts of every color I have in my palette. Then what I will do is I will look at all the colors and just pick the ones that inspires me the most in this moment. Another way I inspire myself is creating moodboards, and here is my first tip for you. It makes screenshots every time you see something that inspires you and it before you will lose it. For example, in Instagram, I will do a screenshot and then a safe in my drive, for example, here I've created an album on my Google Drive with every screenshots I've made. So in this way, I've created my inspirational motherboard. You can just go to Pinterest probably in other social media. You can find any possible image in there. So I often use Pinterest to create my moodboards. And my advice for you is to try to search color palettes based on four seasons. For example, if you love spring and you want to paint landscape with a spring time. So search for a spring color palette. I love autumn, so I use autumn color palette very often. And also you can search for your favorite places. Inspiration, for example, here is Ireland. I love to inspire myself with IR lands or my favorite place on Earth, our mountains. So I use it as an aspiration very often. I also paint mountains very often. So I will add every image that inspires me into my mood board. And here you can see the motherboard I created for our final project. I added all the images and color scheme that inspired me for our final illustration. I'll provide you all the links in this class as resources. So once I've prepared my inspiration moodboards, I defined that colors I want to use and they wants to swatch every color. And then I will mix them all together to see what color combinations combinations can I achieve? I've picked six colors to horse chi, and fall for the trees and ground. Here I swatch my two sky colors. Those are Payne's gray and moon glow. And here are my warm colors that I've chosen for trees and the ground. I like to write down the names of my colors. I will also number them. Now we want to test our colors and see what mixes they create with each other. So first, I will start with our number one color with the Payne's gray. And I will mix it with all the other colors from my palette. Here, I mix it with number two, which is moon glow. Here, my mixing palette comes handy because it as the six colors, just the right number for me. Now I want to paint number one with number 3. So what I will do this is that I will mix directly on the paper. So first, paint your basic color and then add your other colors to the mixed directly on paper. And this way, you will maintain all your colors clean. Sometimes I will paint my color first and then I will add the mixing color to it. So here I add number for color, number 5, color and the last color. And this way, I finished my mixing with my first color. I will repeat the same process with the remaining colors. So here I will mix my number to color with all the other colors from the palette. I will name the mixes. I should have done it at the beginning, but I forgot. It is a very useful to do this. So in this way, when you want to repeat some mix of colors in your final illustration, then you will already know which colors should you mix. This process is also very helpful to see if the colors combined together, if they work together and if you're happy with the result. And you can switch whatever color you like or even do you need them? For example, here I've deleted number 5 because I thought it's too similar to number 4. And at the end, it won't give me any interesting new mixes. So here is my color palette, and let's recap our exercise so you can see that my way of choosing colors is a little bit different. First we sell that your colors can be based on inspiration or just instinct. Then we've searched for an inspiration and other illustrations and photos. And then we've created our own inspirational Moodboard. Then I show to that limiting your colors could be a good idea. And finally, we've created the chart of our colors. Swatch all the colors, and then mix them all together to create the mixing that we can use in our project and also and other future illustrations. Okay, so I hope this class was helpful for you and that it will help you to choose your color palette. Please share with us my really interested how you approach that and what colors did you choose? If you want, please also share a link to your moodboard. I'm also very interested in what inspired you share it with others and see you in the next lesson where we will finally sketch our final project. 11. Final Project - Sketching: Welcome to our class where we will sketch our final project. Finally, we get into this point where we can use all the elements we've painted in our previous lessons and unite them in a bigger scheme in our illustration. So before we will paint it, you want to try maybe few times, a few compositions, and just lose our hand, lose our mind, and try to see what we would like to paint. So see you in the lesson. Let's start to think what we want to paint. Dive into your imagination. Think may be of some far memory, some beautiful moment, and maybe a place that makes you feel happy and in peace. My happy place is always nature, words, mountains. So I will do just few sketches. You can do it as well if you want a few thumbnails before, I will start my final sketching, just to see composition, maybe what works best for me. You can do it, or you can just start your final sketch if you already know what you are going to paint, Have fun. I finished sketching my thumbnails. I fixed my favorites. One ends now, I will try to. Now I will transfer it to my watercolor paper. So I'm sketching price now directly on watercolor paper. I want to paint, as I already said, night scape with two or three trees in the foreground and other smaller trees behind. And yeah, and also I want to include hills. So I'll just leave you with my spear up sketching. For the purpose of this class, I've decided to sketch the moon was all circles. Usually, I don't do it Usually I just draw the biggest circle and then maybe also the moon circle in the middle. Because the outlines of other circles will disappear with the second player. But if you want to sketch them, and it's up to you, our final sketch is finished. If you wish to use it for your project in your illustration, then I will upload it in this class as resources. Okay, so I'm very interested and what you've chosen for your topic. If you have already ideas for your final illustrations. And in our next lessons, we will paint the sketch you've created. See you there. 12. Final Project - Painting Part 1: You've made it. We finally got into our final illustration. I've divided it into two lessons. In this lesson, we will see how to play into the basic layer of our washes, of our colors. In the second player, we will put details. So in this lesson you will see how to unite all the different techniques that we've learned throughout this class and see how to combine it all together. It's really easy. Just relax and enjoy your creativity process. Let's not waste and other time and dive into our lesson. Let's start painting our first layer. I have my colors ready to use and also my color palette onside so I can see what colors I want to use. And mix. I'm starting with non. Just I wanted to clarify one thing when I'm saying the first layer, because in this lesson we will paint the first layer. It means that we will paint the basic layer of illustration. The second layer will be details created with white ink or watercolor. But the first layer, it doesn't mean when I say first layer, it doesn't mean that there will be only one and unique layer of paint. What I mean by that, that sometimes I will paint mode and layers. For example, for sky or ground. I will paint more layers because the paint will be to light. But it will still be part of this first layer meant as a, as a basic paint. This illustration. So I hope it's clear. Now I'm jumping into painting trees. There is no sequence now rule for me. The only thing is that I will try to paint elements without touching one another while they are still wet. Because when one element is wet and then you will paint something besides are on it, and obviously the paint will blend. So the only rule is to paint things quite separately. For example, now, while it's still wet, I've jumped into painting the foreground. And for the foreground, I've chosen darker color because basically I know there is a rule that says when you want to achieve deft in your painting, you would choose darker colors for foreground. Lighter colors for background. So here's my mix of colors for the foreground. Now when my first tree is dry, I paint the tree behind. So, so far so good. Now I'm jumping into trees behind. And in the meantime, other elements, we'll get to dry. Me careful not to touch the wet painting. Honestly, I though is all the time. Just be mindful that the color can smear. So I will use a dryer to have my paint dry more quickly. Now, I will jump into the second layer of demand. Usually I paint mono first and then I will paint all this guy around. So probably this guy will be the last one here. Be sure that your second layer is dry. If you want to draw the third layer of moon. Let's jump into the ground. I will use the technique that we used to paint skies so wet on dry. And then I will paint different colors that will blend with each other. I use a warmer colors. And again, the rule, while the faint of the ground is wet, I will jump into the parts of the painting that is try already. So I will do another moon layer. I want to do the second Slayer fall the foreground because I think it's too light. Then let's fly to the moon again. And now I will paint above the ground because I also think it's a little bit too light. So I like to add more saturation to the color. If you've already used a very dense color, then maybe you won't need it. It depends on you also, if you like, more saturated or more light color. And here's the last layer of demo. And while it's still wet, when you will reach your last circle, then you can start to paint the sky. I will do it with quite dense color, quite opaque color to have us dark layer as possible. And then I will decide if I want to put the second layer of the sky. Once it's dry, then I will see if I'm satisfied with the saturation. If you want to use the salt in your project, then don't forget to do it while the paint is still wet. So I will sprinkle just a tiny amount of salt and then skip to the other part of the sky. I paint around the moon. But you can also paint over the last layer if you want. I'm mixing two colors in the sky. I use Payne's gray and the moon glow of Daniel Smith. So I play with those two colors while I'm painting sky. For the tiny details, you can switch your brush into the smaller one, just to be able to paint inside those tiny holes or around the details. And now I decide that I want to have darker colors for some elements. So I will put another layer. Also, the sky. I think it's too light for me. Maybe you like your sky as it is. Depends on you. Actually, what I'm doing is I've scratched my first salt of the Nash, put the second layer. And then one more time I've put the salt again. That's because I wanted to see if I can do some stereo effect in the second layer. And now I'm putting the shadow layer because when the moon is full, it also creates shadows. I love this effect when Knight is so bright, but you can see the shadows. So this is how is the basic layer of my illustration. Before putting the details, Let's recap briefly in our sequence rules. So just paint when the other elements on dry and see if you're happy with the saturation. If yes, then just use one wash. If not, then paint multiple layers of color. Okay, So here we are. We've completed our first layer for our illustration. I really, really would like to see what you've fainted. If you like. Please share your illustration on this stage before. Applied details with your ink or watercolor, which will be the topic of our next lesson. Share how it is before you do that, That's really interesting, even for you just to see in the future the difference between the first stage of this process and the second step, which is applying details with white ink and watercolor. So let's do it and see you in the next lesson. 13. Final Project - Painting Part 2: So welcome to our second part of her final project where we will paint the details. We will apply also that the clinics that you saw when we paint it to trace and grass, we will also makes the stars with white ink. And this is my favorite part and my creative process. Painting details. If you'd like it to them, if you will, enjoy it. I think it is very relaxing and really satisfying. And as I told you in our grass lesson, it also can help you to cover some imperfections that is not fundamental because I think all illustrations are important. But you know, if there is some mistake or you want to cover, then you will make it with this layer. I think it also creates a kind of unique and magical style. I use a lot of white ink, which gives this kind of light layer. So I hope you will enjoy it too. Let's dive into our lesson and finish our illustration. See you there. Okay, so let's start painting. The only rule here is that there is no rule. Explore your ideas. Spain towards you feel to pain's. Usually I do trees first, then I will do the grass layer. And at the very end, I will do the stars of the sky book. It is no hard rule. It's just my sequence I usually follow. But it's really up to you. Where do you want to start from? Also the mediums here. I don't really plan anything. I don't plan where I want to put white ink and watercolor instead. It's just kind of a feeling. And Flowing. But the creativity, so I leave you and the speed painting process. And I'll catch you when I will start to paint grass. Hi. Okay. And adornment. Hi. Hi everyone. Let's start to paint crass. As I said before, I will paint a lot of grass, quite bolts layer, but at the end it will appear, I think, very delicate and slide. But if you prefer, you don't have to paint so much cross. If you want, just paint as as like as you prefer. Also here there was no room. I'm just improvising. Here. I started with a round brush. And I make this tiny strokes with a tip of the brush. The only thing I plan actually is, for example, when I do grasp with one brush, for example, here with one brush, I won't cover all the painting with this stroke. I will leave blank spaces between the, the places where I've painted grass with this brush. And then in the blank spaces, I will fill them with other brush or other strokes, other color, maybe other color density to create movement and dimension and diversity. Just be free with this because painting grass is really, really fun. It's not, it's unpredictable because yeah, grass just overlap creates lots of textures. I paint with swot brush but with white ink. Previously it was watercolor. Then I will play with strokes and colors. Just have fun and experiment with that. Let's see what we can paint the night sky. And I start with translucent clouds. The clouds that I use for our practice of not of the day sky. But you can also use them for night sky, especially when they overlapping the moon at is really nice. Now let's try white ink, white clouds. I love to paint them because they create the effect of reflecting the moonlight. You can play with transparencies or example here, where they are nearer the moon, they will be brighter. They will have more light, more white on the edges that are near the moon. And finally, stars. Pick your brush or toothbrush. I cover the painting with my hand where I don't want It's to be splashed with white ink. But if you have acrylic paint, then maybe it would be better to use paper because it will be harder to remove with soap. Okay, So we've finished our illustration. I hope you've enjoyed this stage of painting as much as I do. And I am really interested in what you've created. I'm really interested in the unique textures you've painted because I'm sure you've painted something different. Each one of you probably used different marks, different brushstrokes. And this is beautiful, so showers with me with others and see you in the next lesson where we will resume our project. 14. Final Thoughts : Congratulations, you've made it. We're in our final lesson. So let's see once again, the whole class, we started with art supplies. I showed to art supplies that I use and that you could use in this project. Then we've painted single elements of the final illustration separately. We've used different techniques that involve water colors and white ink. And at the end, we've gathered all those elements and techniques and use altogether in our final projects illustration. So it was quite a long process. And if there's one thing I want you to take away from this lesson, then it's probably the joy of creating the ability of exploring your imagination or your memory that then you transformed into beautiful artwork rather than technical skills or abilities. Although if you've learned something new about watercolors, or if you simply enjoy it, new fairy tale style and you want to use it in your art, then I will be more than happy. And please upload your project into this class, paid to gallery so we can all see it and we can inspire one another. I will be also very happy to read what inspires you if you use your memory or your imagination, and what color palette inspired you. Also, if you like to share your single illustrations outcomes than I also will be very happy to say it. Okay, So if you liked and enjoyed this class, please leave a review. It will be very helpful for me. Also, I will be very happy to read your opinions about it. If you've enjoyed the class, please follow my teacher profile also because I will be coming up with new lessons very soon. So thank you once again for joining me in this journey and see you next time. Bye.