Make Your Drawings Realistic: Master 3D Techniques in Mixed Media & Procreate

1. Intro: Have you ever looked at a realistic painting and thought, oh, it looks so real? I can almost touch it? How did the artists do that? I wish I could do it too. The good news is you can. Today I'll show you my way of creating an artwork that looks almost real. My name is a and I'm internationally acclaimed artist living in Berlin. I've been working with mixed media for a long time. It resulted in fantastic collaborations with some famous brands. I'm also an author of a book on colored inks called Brilliant Inks. In most of my work, I use principles that will cover. In this class, I'll walk you through my entire process of creating a three dimensional looking illustration. We'll explore the basic rules of creating an illusion on paper and cover the brief history of the genre. This one is ancient. Then we'll work step by step on several demos and practically apply everything we've learned. We'll start with simple objects like paper. From there I letter to more advanced tips and we'll paint a symbolic pongrenate. Following my steps. You'll be able to create your own realistic illustration. You will need some pencil swataclors and white quash if you work traditionally. If you prefer digital workflow. In the second part of the class, we'll work on ipad in procreate app. Of course, you can use any other software. Now, grab your art supplies and prepare to learn something new. Let's get started. 2. Inspiration: Welcome to the nerdy part of the class. That's my favorite one. When you think of seemingly three dimensional artwork, you may think it's something trendy and new. But the truth is, the genre dated back to the murals in Greek and Roman times. The art technique is called tram play, which is French for deceived the eye. Let's take a closer look at some classic and modern examples. Here is our first treasure. This book is dedicated to the artworks of Hans Halbein the younger. He was a German Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in the Northern Renaissance style. He's considered one of the greatest portrait artists of the 16th century. I wanted to show you this particular painting. It's called The Ambassadors, as well as being a double portrait. The painting contains a still life of a skull. Let's take a close look. The skull is rendered in anamorphic perspective. The viewer must approach the painting from particular site to see the real skull. It's very interesting effect. I was super surprised when I saw this for the first time. There are also other great portraits with objects. For example, this one is in the local gallery in Berlin, and it looks great in real life. I've seen it a few times. This lady has a hand that is so close to us. The cast shadow is one of the methods to achieve this effect. We will use it too. The next inspiration is George Fletgels, one of my favorite artists, also German as the previous one. He was a painter best known for his still live works. It's a genre that allows the artists to engage with illusion. They objects, flowers, fruit in very realistic manner. We will use some of the techniques in this class too. Look at the render of the base. I love this effects variety of shapes and highlights carnation. I have a class on painting a carnation. Please check it out. We're painting in procreate, but the principles are always the same. The next inspiration is John Haberl. Right away you can see the illusion on this frame. He was an American painter in the trompe style. He painted a lot of objects. Please note the pipe, we will see it again. This one, He painted ordinary objects in such a way that the painting can be mistaken for the objects themselves. There are stamps, post cards, everything you can imagine this one is interesting. The shadow cast by the sheet of paper is the technique that will also use in the next demos you will see here comes Rene Magritte, the absolute master of surreal illusion. Do you remember the pipe? I'm sure you've seen it before. He was a Belgian painter known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts like this pipe. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art, and conceptual art. He used realistic techniques and absolutely changed the meaning of what he painted. Here you can see the realistic style, but it means very different thing. I want to show you another special example. One more Belgian painter, Leon Spill. I was very impressed by his art when I saw it in real life. His paintings convey a sense of melancholy and silence. He used a lot of cast shadow. His paintings frequently depict a lone figure in a dream like space like we see over here, It's very atmospheric. One more quick example is our famous Salvador Dali. He also used a lot of illusions in his work, Objects that appear three dimensional. He makes us ask a lot of questions, I hope you feel expired and ready to move on. 3. Materials Overview: Welcome back. I wish I could tell you that the art supplies one matter and all you need is just a pencil. Well, it's not so if you work traditionally for this technique, you will need particular pencils, watercolors and white quash. We'll talk about it in a second. If you work digitally, you can use any software I work in Procreate app on ipad. And of course, I prepared some custom brushes for you. Let's check the materials. Here are all the treasures. Of course, you don't need to have everything. I'll just show you what I love to use and maybe you'll find it interesting. Let's start with pencils. It's an HB mechanical pencil with automatically extended lead, which is super nice. It's a graphied six B pencil and a needed eraser. Well tested in the next video. Colored pencils of different colors. It's great to have some neutral colors for outlines like CPA. These are very artistic Conta pencils. They're great for sketching, but a bit smudge, you will see. I use CPA sanguine and a black chalk for smudging. I use tort schema and facial tissue. This one is called, this is tissue. Well, this one, you know, I'll use paper tape and a special eraser. You will see it in the next video. Of course, I will use watercolors and the variety of brushes I use watercolors in pens. These are synthetic round brushes, and these are mop brushes. I prefer using small sizes like 62.3 And the same goes for mop brushes. It's just my preference. I always use this brushes for most of my projects. But it doesn't matter much which brushes you prefer to use. These brushes hold a lot of water. Now, what comes next? White. It's an acrylic white marker with the finest tip. You can also use a white gel pen as alternative, something like this, and a white gas. What's left A paper. I work on 100% cotton watercolor paper called press. For one of the demos, I'll be working on toned paper, pale pink color. It's for pastel, but works for other mediums. I got myself a tester so I can test the colors of the paper first. Well, now you know everything. In the next video, we'll look closely at some pencils and erasors. See you there. 4. Types of Pencils and Erasers: Welcome back and let's test. Some of the material here is the most common HB pencil. It's great for subtle outlines, and I use it all the time for most of my sketches. I begin with this HB pencil. The next one is graphite six B, which is much more textured. You can see it right away. It works great for larger areas. Some artists prefer to use graphite sticks. We'll test Cata pencils next. Do you remember the inspiration part where we saw the artworks of Leon Spill art? He used the black chalk a lot in his work. Like here, he used in over the chalk. Let's see how it works. The lines are super intense. The black chalk is effective for dramatic sketches. Now sanguine, it's also very intense and colorful. Old masters used to draw with it a lot. Now let's try. I love this color, very neutral and at the same time very rich. Okay, now let's see how we can smartch these sketching pencils. Let's start with Tartiio. These are drawing sticks of various sizes and shapes. They are often used by artists to smush and blend sketches over usual pencil. It works great. Let's check the graphite. It's very different, but I love the effect. Let's see how it blends the smaller lines. Great for tiny details. Now let's check the black chark. I can see the dramatic effect right away. If you add ink on top, it will seal the chalk. Now let's try. Am I prefer using the usual paper towel or a facial tissue? But this one is very interesting. You fold it like so and it creates a very smooth effect. Let's take a look. Sure, backgrounds the second layer super well, these are all great options, but my favorite is still a facial tissue. Let's test it on the last super. The effect is great and it's easy to use. These are great options and you can try them out and see what suits you best. Now let's try some colored pencils. I prefer to have at least two pencils of natural colors like CPM, another color that is close to CPA. These are great for outlines and of course some super pigmented colored pencils. Here I have orange and permanent red. I use highly pigmented colored pencils. None of them are the same colored pencils are usually blended by layering. You draw with one pencil over another. But there is also a special tool for that that is called blender. Very unexpected. I rarely use it, but still it exists. Let's see how it works. We have two colors near each other, and then we blend them with this special thing called blender. You can see the pigment is smushed, although these pencils are very, very rough in just another option. Next we're going to test some erasers. We'll need to cover a large area for that. It makes sense to use six pencil you fight like. For another example, let's use pencil. It's great for covering large areas. Here are some erasers that I love to use. Of course there are so many. The first one is the usual erasor you find on the back of the pencil. It works great with graphite. I usually use it for sharp edges to correct the outlines and erase some small details. There's a variety of sizes. This one is called a needed eraser. An absolute favorite. It's great for picking out soft whites and it's pliable. I use it to lighten the sketches and soften the edges. Very beautiful effect. The next erasor is super unusual. Just look at this one. It's a hard white eraser used for inks and pens. It has a brush to clean up the waste and it's pretty precise. I've noticed that it can erase sketching pencils. These are some of my favorite tools. In the next part, we'll try some of them to create shadows and shapes. Join me in the next video. 5. The Illusion of Depth: Leaf Study: Welcome back. I want to show you a trick. I draw a simple line, the flat one. Then I draw another horizontal line. It looks different. Now a cast shadow. Right away you get the filing of space and perspective. Our goal is to create an illusion of depth. Something on two dimensional surface that looks three dimensional. There are many ways to do it. Let me show you a study for my recent painting. Here, I use light and shadow to create form in the drawing. It's important to understand the basic properties of light and shadow. To define the form, we will focus on value, every object has highlighted and shadow areas. My favorite way to show depth is to use a cast shadow. It can be done in any medium. For example, here's the watercolor painting I did after Serge Core Pot of workshop. Here you can see the cast shadow, maybe like this will look better. The cast shadow plays a huge part over here. The light on the surface is blocked by another object. Overlapping is another way to create depth. For example, here on top, we see that one object is partly concealed by the other. And again, there is a cast shadow over here. White or light objects work best because you're not destructed by the color. It's a wonderful way to paint for the first time, but there's a great way to study complicated object. I've prepared for some models for the short demo. These are the leaves. I've covered the leaves with white paint. They are real. You can see I've left some proof. Simple forms can be seen better in black and white. I want to show you a quick al of study with pencils. I will. I think the left one, it looks really great like a sculpture. I'll pick this one and let's move on. I'll use just the usual sketchbook with no particular paper. Here we go. I just put the leaf right on my sketchbook, and using the black chalk will work on the outline. There are already a few pencil lines to save some time. This is basically the second layer. I used the black chalk to draw the outline, because afterwards I'm going to smash everything with tissue or maybe with Tion. This will be faster. I draw the outline if you want. You can measure the leaf with a ruler or you can make a photo. Whatever works for you. It's a great. Then I'll use darker Conte Encil and draw the shadow here. We have shadow here, it's a study. It's not a final artwork. We're just exploring the leaf. Try to feel no pressure. It's easy to say. I know. How about we add a few triangles of the shadow over here? Now, San Green. I just imagine the colors because our leaf is black and white. Then I'm going to smudge everything to add depth and value very quickly. Like so I want to have a pretty intense study. So I will repeat the same step a few times. I will make the shadow darker again and then I will smash everything again. I need a sheet of paper underneath my hand. These pencils are very smudgy. I love to use it because it's easier. It looks like a pencil a bit. When you smug with this paper stick, it's almost like drawing. You can control the direction of the smudging much better. Now on top, there is a small part with a shadow here. Also, I draw some wines. Here's the part that we want to miss here. Things will change when we will add a dramatic shadow. We're slowly working our way to build value. The three dimensional feeling. There is no rush, it's just a practice. We're exploring the materials, we're feeling the pencils. We don't need to feel any pressure. Our model is not in a hurry. Also, I smudge everything. I keep in mind the direction of the wines. At this point, we need a special muging. I can see the feeling of space already. Now, let's darken this edge using a cast shadow. In just a few seconds, the sketch will look like a leaf pops up the page here, there's a distance between the leaf and the shadow. It's very important to create the sense of three dimension under these fold and here the shadow is darker near the leaf and it's getting lighter. In our case, I will just use another color as it recedes. We will use the same technique in other demos in the class. That's why it's really great idea to test some techniques. First, I don't speed up the process so you can see the whole work that goes into building up the artwork. It looks to crispy aisles. Manjit a bit, I was matched with a broader strokes. This way we create even more space around the leaf. Next I'm going to add a bit of sanding. It feels like sculpting. A bit, A very rough skitch. I don't worry about being too precise. Now we add more details and even more darks after smudging. I always try to add more darks, again, that we've lost in the process of smudging. Obviously, the right side of the leaf is much darker. I mean, the shadow on the left, we have this part that should be almost as dark as the right. Now I add win a bit for the interest. Of course, I don't see any red color on our model. Basically, these three colors are more than enough to add interest to our skit. I continue adding some strokes while smudging even more smudging. The paper is thick enough to hold all these experiments, but it's not something special. It's not a watercolor paper, just a usual drawing pad. Again after smudging some corrections. Next, I'm going to lift off some pencil and increase the light on the lightest parts. I will do that with our friend. Needed a razor, I lift of the pigment. It also looks like sculpting a bit. The leaf looks closer to the model right away. These are bright white. I carefully work around the lightest areas. I will also work on the background to make beautiful transition tiny element here, I want to have less of a texture, the lights here. I think we should increase the shadow. After all our experiments, I continue forming the shadows. It's really difficult to stop. It feels like with every new pencil stroke, I need to adjust the whole sketch. Again, it's like with any painting, or if you work with watercolors, you know the feeling. I want to add details and smash them a bit. I'm looking at our model, this erasor. You also know it's more sharp, so I want to lighten the middle. And maybe this left part, I think we're done for the light sketch, but it's really hard to stop. Our goal here is just to explore the materials and see how to combine them. Try a variety of ways of smudging and forming the shadow. Also, while I've been drawing shadow, my sanguine pencil broke. I had to find another one, and so on and so on. It's like eternal process without any final destination, which is also great for an artist. Our sketch is ready and I'll be waiting for you. In the next video, we will work on the piece of very inspiring, vintage postcard. It's one of my favorite parts. Let's move on. 6. Demo Postcard: Here we go. I'm very inspired about our first model, a thorn piece of vintage postcard. There's a nice edge to it with white and beautiful leaves on top. There are also two nice folds we're going to paint. To save some time, I've prepared a pencil sketch, you can find it in class materials. I'm going to lighten it up using a needed eraser. It's the stuff that you will see in most of the demos. I begin with a colored pencil by drawing outline with this neutral brown color. I love to begin with leaves, outlines, it's just more interesting. The vintage looking leaves and the postcard. It makes me want to read poetry. I work on the outlines. This is a neutral color. It's called Bistter, but probably some other brands have other names for this neutral cream brown base color. I draw the outlines keeping the lines light. We will increase the intensity step by step. This is a half leaf near the edge. Now I'll take a CPA colored pencil. This color is great for almost any outline. I draw the border here and here. You can use the ruler. I love to use ruler, so I don't think that there should be any rules about it. I use it for the straight lines, the left order here. I also don't use the straight line. I tweak the ruler a bit so the line looks more natural. And I skip the parts where the folds are now there inside line and a new one. In vintage postcards, they have this lovely borders of double lines. I want to draw them too. I will color this border with a pencil right away. I'm using just the usual colored pencil. It's not water soluble with some oil or other elements, is very important because I will work over it in watercolor. This should be just the usual colored pencil. The border is ready and I'll take the first pencil. I will work on the edge of our postcards. I think it's very important to have the contrast between white and the background of the postcard. I want to define it at this stage. It will be much easier to work on it later, then I will work on those tiny fractures in the folds areas. We have them here. Basically, the whole postcard consists of three large folds and small fractures. I'm going to divide it a bit. I'm already thinking about how to paint with watercolors and show all these nuances of the leaves. Right on top here we have the large fold and I will show it with watercolors later. Now it's just a sketch of the outline and the thorn edge. You can check the reference fo if you're painting with me or your original object, I draw the general direction of the edge and here we will have our favorite cast shadow. The more careful and attentive you'll be at this stage, the easier will be the next steps. I'm already thinking about the beautiful vintage color of the postcard. Let's test the paint. We are going to test the colors. I think that we beautiful. I use the same piece of paper, The first one is burn sienna. Then I'll take yellow och burn sienna is very intense and deep color. You can see right away the effect is stunning. Then I will use yellow ocher to add more subtleties. I add CP Brown. These colors will create a beautiful vintage and subtle mix and we will use it for the paper in the next video. Here comes CPR Brown and our lovely mix will work. Great. Let's move on to the next video and try it. 7. Postcard: Paper and Shadow: Welcome back. In the previous video, we've tested the color mix for the main color of the postcard. Burnt sienna yellow ochre, and CPA brown. We will use this beautiful mix and create a lovely gradient right on paper, I begin painting on top left corner or the postcard right here. With broad brush strokes, I use a mop brush. If you're left handed, you might want to begin on top right. But I'm sure you know it yourself. I color the top left part of the postcard. I keep in mind the fold now. I'm going to make a mix a bit darker just by adding CPA brown right on paper, near the fold right here. We will color the leaves in the last part. So now I don't think about it, I'm thinking about the general impression of the vintage looking background. I add the paint right on paper and blend it with water or a beautiful gradient rendering. This change is crucial to convey realism. This change in darkness is super important. The bottom of the postcard is dark and near the fault, the paint should be also darker. Next, I'm going to add another layer with a bit of change in our mix. The colors will be the same, but they are more intense, like, so I also just add darker parts or lighter if I feel like it. Here we have a fold. Now, this part should be darker. In comparison, the first layer is not completely dry. The gradient looks very natural. We won't have any rough borders. I work extra carefully near the folds, for example, here on top. And it's a great idea to look closer at our model. Let's take a look. Here it is. Here we can see the fold the shadows creates. Now I have a better plan of what to do next. The folds divide the postcard. We should keep that in mind. Here we have one blended with water bit. I'm working around leaves now, but if you're painting something that is brighter, you can change the order of the things, Whatever that means. I add a bit of color here here. Yellow oak is also very intense. Now the small triangle of the thorn edge and blended with water. We don't have any sharp lines over here. We can add color near the white of the Rn paper. I'm thinking about what to do next and add intensity as the rest of the painting is drying. Next, I'm going to work on the thorn edge, but I need to test the color first. For now, I want to blend everything a bit before that. Maybe increase the dark. I'm thinking about the general balance. Once you add a darker touch, you want to add another one. And it's just the feeling of your aesthetic taste, how things should look like. I think it's enough. Now, I want to work on the torn page. Let's test the color first. I think CPA brown with a bit of ivory black will work good. Ivory Black is one of my favorite colors. I will make a tiny, tiny strokes just to show the variety of the texture. So just a few marks, They will be lighter when the paint dries. Also, we have the bottom edge which is curled up a bit, and we will show it by using cast shadow in the next step. Of course, for now, I'm working on this curled part very carefully. We don't want it to be too dark. I prefer to make a few layers. Instead of one dark, I paint a tiny triangle just to show the texture of the paper. Like so. And so I increase the color if I need to, but still it will be very, very light. I already prepare myself for the big next step, and it's going to be a cast shadow. It's almost ready for the next step, but we should be patient at this stage. These tiny details make a huge difference in the final artwork. Take some time and add this texture. You will be really happy with the result. Now, the big step in our postcard. One tip of the paper is curled up. That creates a large dark area of the shadow. We already sketched it in pencil, and now I'm going to paint it with a very subtle mix. I will gradually build the dark radiant in the next step. For now, I just paint the outline of the shadow. Then of course, I will blend the edges with the white of the paper so it will be smooth and will look like a real shadow. The shadow is darker and narrower in some places and lighter in others. I always keep that in mind because in the next step, I will add a very intense color to the mix. You will see the dramatic difference. Not to spoil everything we need to think upfront at this stage. Now what we're going to do is to take very intense color and create a shadow. Dramatic moment, super dark like, so ivory, black, per brown. Everything will work. And the edge later, I will add a bit of ocher. Oops, it's too sharp. You can blend it with water a bit if you feel that it's too sharp. And then I will blend the edge with water. I've formed the shadow. It's very narrow here and it's lighter in some parts later going to add yellow ocher or maybe pa to the mix, we'll have this rich color of the shadow. You can try some other colors. I use some harmony here. Most of them have this brown, orange, muted color. Now let's form the edge of the shadow and another layer of darks. Let's add a bit of color to the body of the shadow. Like both ocher and CP are very intense, so you want to blend them a bit in water colors. It's always a beautiful effect when you add the color of the background of your object or some color of the bright elements to the shadow, it's like a reflected light. Now, a few strokes near the curled edge here, The tiny, tiny details, it's all super important. I quickly add a few dark dots with paint and the paint is still wet. I blend it easily with water and add some more and blend it again. You can rotate the canvas and blend the shadow into the white of the paper. We are ready to move to the next video. We'll finally work on the details. Let's move on. 8. Postcard: Final Touches: Welcome back. Let's check our model once again. We've created a beautiful base and finally can work on the details. Let's prepare the mix for the leaves. I will use olive green and a bit of burnt sienna. Olive green is really nice, intense color. You can use some other greens. They all behave differently. It's great idea to test it first with burnt sienna. We have a vintage looking mix. We're going to paint the leaves. Our place looks great. It looks very realistic already. And now we're going to work on leaves. Keeping in mind the folds, the curled edge, and everything we've done in previous parts. I begin with the top left leave. Let's check the reference. Our mix changes a bit right on paper. That's the magic of watercolors. I also change the color near the folds. It's darker on one side and lighter on the other. You can change the mix as you work. For example, I begin with olive green and then I add burn sienna. They mix right on paper. But still they have this variety of gradient like on the leave. And then I will draw over the leaves with pencils, but it will be later. For now, I'm just going to paint the body of the leaf here. And the rest of the leaves that we can see, I changed the variage of the color for each leaf. I already love how it looks like. At some point, you just want to stop and call the painting finished, but I know that we should move forward. Every leaf is unique. And I work over the fold, you can see the color is different, it's brighter. Next, I'll paint the bottom of the leaf separately here, the line shouldn't be very precise. It's a vintage looking postcard. We don't see too many details, but still we'll need a few layers for the leaves, two or more. Also we have this half leaf here, if I may say so. It's great to give us the sense of realism because I'll quickly add a few strokes here, the white border and the part of the leaf makes the three dimensional effect even more obvious. Now the stem, the small details, I keep the contrast of the border very sharp at this point and add precise lines. This is the biggest part of the artwork on this postcard. It's to us and I want to make it brighter. A new layer for the leaf and brighter layer here. The new layer always mixes with the previous one. We have a beautiful gradient and a few folds with a darker color. Of course, I always try to add some strokes near the folds. When you add green, you want to increase the shadows. You just look at the painting in general and follow your artistic intuition. It's time to add color for the border. I use CPA. And paint the line. I think I need a smaller brush for that. I carefully paint the line. Even smaller? Yeah, the smallest brush. The line should be very subtle and I skip the part where a fold is here, we have very intense part. After the fold, it should be meeting the edge. Like here, we want very precise stroke. Also, the thorn edge makes the geometry a bit different. So I changed the angle of the border a bit. As I paint, the effect is immediate. You can see that the postcard looks like a three D object. Let's, let's blend a border a bit. We don't want any super sharp edges. Now I'm going to intensify the shadow and correct some mistakes using the colored pencil. The shadow is darker in some places and is lighter in other. From the very sharp edge to the soft one, I used the same color for the border. And then I will work on the outlines of the leaves with the same same color here, closer to the line blended with finger a bit. Razor is a great helper. Now the outlines for the leaves should be darker. I think it should be darker. At first, I thought that I will use another pencil, but now I see that the darker color suits best. The biggest leave should be most detailed and the rest is not so important. But I'm just enjoying the process. We're almost done and at this point, I'm just enjoying the final strokes. Maybe another pencil can be a good idea. We're almost almost done, but we're not lazy. And we will add another layer of our color mix on top. This will bring the illusion of depth to our final artwork. I used the same mix and intensify the color, like the shadow area should be a bit darker. Also, it has another purpose. When you work with water colors over pencil, it seals the pencil and the artwork lasts a bit longer. We should add more darks in this area. I think after that, we will intensify the leaves with even more green. Now, dark, Don't forget to blend them with water and a few darks here. Everything should be super smooth. Quick strokes, sculpting, he folds here. Then we're going to add green to the leaves. It's super important like, well, it's as important as a leaf can be. We make the right part of the leaf darker, especially the leaf that is near the white of the paper, the one near the cast shadow, this one together, they will create this beautiful three dimensional feeling. When we see the contrast of the leaf, the white and the cast shadow as we see in our original model, a intense green strokes that will make the difference in general impression. It's all about small details for this style. When you have the base with beautiful shadows like we do in, here we are. Let's look at our model once again. I think we've captured the vintage beauty. I'm very happy with the result. In the next videos, we'll experiment even more and create more beautiful artworks. Let's move on. 9. Demo Apple on Toned Paper: Welcome to the very experimental Dema, we will paint this decor apple. On the pastel paper, I've picked the subtle pink paper color to suit the shiny model. This way, the papal color will work as a basic color for our drawing and will save some time. Let's test some pencils. This is super important for the contrast. The cobalt blue works, the yellow works grade two, but I probably won't use it for the whites. I have to use acrylic markers. Whoops, this happens. Let me try again. Now it works. It's the brightest white and I'll use it over the white pencil. What's next? The white pencil. Of course, I use different pencils, you can try and see what works best for you. This one is highly pigmented. The first one is just the usual white pencil. Now, the red violet. This color will work great for the main color of the apple. I also test some neutrals, like subtle violet gray and very subtle sienna. And I also have this bright pink. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it. You'll find the list of pencils I'm using in class resources. Now, let's get started. We have the white outline sketch. I've made it with white pencil that we've just tested and you can find it in class resources. Also, I will take a red violet pencil and work over the white outline. I will define the edges, keeping in mind the allocation of the light source. We're drawing the usual apple, not the red apple or something like this. We are creating the artwork based on the decoration items. We can imagine the texture or make it shiny or whatever we want. It's a very experimental way of drawing on the pastel paper. I work keeping the shape of the apple in mind. Here we have highlights. I want to reserve them for the white. It's easier to work with your favorite pencil brands. Each pencil is very different, The texture and the softness. It's a great idea to test everything before you choose your object or your subject to draw. I layer the shadows. We already have the basic color. We can work much faster than if we would work on the white paper. Now the broad strokes, I want to keep the sketchy feel for this apple like so now the interesting part with this super intense pink I've been showing you, I want to add bright color areas and then I will smug everything with tissue again, get off, shadow them everything like I think it's too intense to keep it untouched. Then I will repeat the same step once again. You can repeat it many times and you'll get a glowing artwork or a dreamy illustration. I really love the effect, but it takes some time. Now we just want to explore this type of realistic drawing. Realistic sketch, if you will. Shadows on the sides. The apple is emerging from our pink pastel paper. Quick strokes near the highlights. I leave the areas untouched. At the final stages, I will add white on top. Probably the a critic marker or maybe the highly pigmented white pencil. We will see what looks better. Now, edges are pretty sharp. I think I will smash them a bit afterwards. But for now, I just mindlessly add color. Now, I want to add a few neutral tints over here. It's a violet gray. It looks a bit like a natural gray, I would say. I will smug everything again. I use highly pigmented pencils when smudging, they create a lovely feel of fog or even paint. Now, the shadow I use the same color we used before, but now it's more intense. As you've noticed, the shadow is much darker near the edge and much lighter as it recedes. Keep that in mind even for a quick sketch on the toned paper. It's super important to follow this rule. I lightly sketch it near the apple and then increase the intensity. Again, we want to intensify the shadows on the apple. We will unify the whole artwork here. It should be darker, darker to complement the shadow and to create this three dimensional feel. A bit more of the shadow here, much everything. Again, this will add the feeling of realistic drawing. Also, I want to lift up some pigments a bit. I'm needed eraser and lift up the areas with highlights over here and even on the shadow, now it's time to add white. I'm using the pencil a bit on the apple and even on the shadow, it's not a real apple. We're using super bright highlights. I plan to make them even brighter. Here is the part with the pencil, and now our hero. Here comes the acrylic marker. It works on many surfaces, including these colored pencils. But if you use oil based pencils, test the color first. The properties are very different. I try different brands, and this one works over almost everything. The magic is happening right away when you draw this, do a few lines and the apple begins to shine. Even with the sketchy feel of the artwork, it looks finished right away here. And on the other side, I really love how it looks like and add a bit of blue background like we tested with the materials. The contrast of the blue and yellow, the final touches with white over here. Let's try the background. I use a paper tape. I use it to define the background area. I just love the effect. Something like this. Let's make a corner. So it's a common technique for pastel artwork and we have a mixed media here. Now let's choose the background. I think blue works great, Super. The contrast is so pleasing to the eye. Yellow would work too, but this one is just great. Again, it's a highly pigmented pencil. Not every blue will work like this. I will work intensely in this left corner and just leave the rest. You can try to smash everything if you want, but I will leave the rough effect cage in the corner a few layers. I don't think about the direction of the strokes at this moment. The pencil is very intense. It feels more like a pastel pencil and you can see even the small particles of the pigment. I make broad strokes near the apple and here and here, a few strokes on the left, near the high lights were almost done. Smudge it with fingers a bit, change the direction of the strokes and smudge it with paper like so. Now the most satisfying part, if you know what I mean, I carefully fell off the paper tape super slowly, revealing the perfect age. Super now the left one, super slow, like great, it's finished. Let's take a look at our shiny model. Once again, super shiny, super pink. I think we've created a lovely interpretation I see in the next video, and we'll try some other styles. 10. Demo Ladybug: Welcome back. We'll paint a lady bug. Here is a pencil sketch if you're inspired by nature. This ma is for you. A while ago I made a pencil study of a lady bug in natural history illustration style. Of course, you don't have to do anything like this, but it's interesting to explore. Here, you can see all the tiny details, the white highlights, black spots, the middle. We'll paint everything in watercolor. I spent a few hours on this lady bug. It was very nice experience for the white. You can use a gel pen or acrylic marker. I prefer acrylic marker, but you will see yourself. Let's test some colors. First, I used the same sheet of watercolor paper that I'm using for the painting. The first color is cadmium red. I love to use the combo of three colors. Then goes cadmium orange and pearline maroon. You can try some other combination, but this one works great for the brand that I'm using. This beautiful mix will work great for the colorful shell of our lady bug. I prepare the colors that we've picked on my color palette. I use porcelain palette. It's easy to clean it up, and I just love the view of the surface. I mix the colors, and using a very subtle mix, I begin to color the shell. The first layer is super subtle. I'm using the mop brush so that I don't have to take a lot of water on every new step. This one holds a lot right from the start. Adapt the brush in all the three colors. This way we have this wonderful variety. You can see it right away. Even at this stage, you can see the gradient of the colors. I'm going to paint the whole shell that covers the wings of our beautiful lady back. I'm avoiding the dark spots. I already know where they are. We have a very detailed sketch on top of that. I have this natural history illustration style study with highlights, with darks, with shadows. Everything is prepared. All I have to do is painted with color. I will leave the black spots untouched. I don't worry about the direction of the strokes much because this is just the first layer. I will cover the whole shell now. And then while the first layer is still wet, I will add the new one with the same color mix to intensify the general impression. The right part of the lady, I mix the color right on paper, the right edge. The second layer goes straight on the first one. You can wait till it's dry, but I prefer just work over the wet paint. For the second layer, I'm going to add a bit more of red. I make the mix again. I want to add more pigment to the mix. We will have brighter color. I use cadmium orange closer to the edge, of course, with a bit of red. And I use cadmium red on top of the shell. The variety of color, it's very important to, if you want to have this three dimensional look. In real life, the lady bug is a very shiny and such an interesting character. Now red on top of course. I'm going to blend it quickly while it's still wet right on paper. So we will have a smooth transition like self. A bit more water here and here. I don't worry about highlights and dark spots for now. I'm just going to build this wonderful shell full of colors. Here, I'll have a highlights. So now I'm going to intensify the area when the paint is dry, it gets lighter even if you use too much pigment. Don't worry for the lady bug, it's absolutely fine. Next I'm going to add some vibrancy. I will use Berlin maroon and cadmium orange over here. This is the darkest part. I already know it because of the sketch, and the pigment is super intense. Later I'm going to blend it a bit with clear water on this left side, like so you can blend all the steps. It's a great technique to create realistic artwork. The left part is painted with perlin maroon and a bit of cadmium orange just to unify the painting. The other side, I'll paint a bit with cadmium red and cadmium orange. We'll have this beautiful vibrancy and color nuances there. Nuances we have there will be rewarded with a beautiful artwork. At the end, I experiment a bit and add some bright strokes without any fear on both sides. I actually love how it looks like, even without the black spots. I wonder if there is a lady back with white spots. Now here I want to smoothen the border a bit. We don't want to have any sharp edges. There are no sharp edges in nature. So we're going to blend them. I add a bit of orange and red where I feel like it. Of course I keep in mind the shape of the lady pack in general and the shell in particular. Now edge and here a bit more dark. And also here I think it looks good. Next I'm going to paint the head and the legs. I love to use Naples yellow. We'll take a bit of red from our paper with the subtle mix. I paint a few strokes here and here. Of course, we'll color it with black afterwards. But the first layer is a foundation and it will shine through anyway, color the head and the antenna here. Next, I'm going to add the same color, maybe even lighter on the highlights. This will make the painting even more realistic if you use few layers, Not just black and white and red and orange. They should be mixed together. I blend it with water. You can see a dots of red here and a few strokes on the legs. I also think that I should draw the line in the middle of the shell to show the darkest shadow. I will do it in this part and then we will move on. Now we have the base. I'll make this darker line just for the impression of the value. And we have the white hair left just to make the contrast of the edge more clear. Now I'll use a hair dryer to save some time and we'll continue in the next part. 11. Ladybug: Highlights and Details: Welcome back. We'll continue working on the head of our lady. Back right away I will use a mix of ivory, black, and CPA. This will allow to have reach darks for all our purposes, for the head, and also for the black spots. I begin to work on the head. I'm using the small brush, I think even smaller, like this one number two or even smaller. I carefully work on antenna on the elements. At this point I try to be very careful and if the line is too sharp, I blend it with water. We want to create a realistic drawing. And not a drawing, but a painting edge should be subtle and smooth. I'm using the combination of mop brush for blending and synthetic small round brush for the main part. I try to leave the highlights untouched. Sometimes I forget about it and it's not scary. Later I can use a critic marker or something on top. I blend the edges with a mix from the previous part. Basically, I use the same colors. It helps to avoid too much brightness. The artwork should be unified when you work. Traditionally, it's easier to achieve because you have a limited color palette of physical colors. When you work digitally, for example, on ipad or in Photoshop, then you can pick any colors. And it's challenging now, the large dark area that has a very bright highlight. But for now I'm going to color it with the dark wash like. So here will be the highlight. Now I need to intensify the color. While it's still wet. The head of the lady bug has a special texture. When working wet on wet, we achieve this lovely feel of the natural world. The highlight is darker and darker. I think I will have to lift up some paint later. Now, the legs very lightly over here, they are darker near the shell. Of course, we have the first layer with naples yellow, which makes everything look lovely on the left here. Now with a small round brush, I carefully paint the middle line of the shell here, the gap much darker. And it also gives us the realistic feel. I correct some mistakes. Yeah, here should be a highlight. Now I see that there is none. I need to correct it. I take a clear water and lift off the paint. Like I lift it up, I use clear water, and even with highly pigmented paint, it's possible to have this highlight. Now, finally, we can work on the black spots. I use the same dark mix, more intense. Of course, I keep in mind the three dimensional shape of the lady pack. We paint the variety of shapes. The black spots shouldn't be the same. It's not just a circle or some mark. We are very intentional about the shape of spot. They look bigger on top and they are quite flat near the edges. Then we will work on the highlights and it will be much easier to see the value, but for now we keep in mind the space and the realistic look of our hero. Maybe this should be bigger. I know that part of the top spot is covered by the highlight. I carefully add just a tiny triangle here, and that's enough. I don't color the whole part. I continue modeling our ladybug. I'll use a smaller brush to correct the shape of the biggest spot over here. And I will add a new layer of dark on the edge of the spot here. And here I paint different shape. Every time we will get this natural texture that a real back would have. I love to paint with small brushes. It's a quick way to add texture when you need it on the small parts. Now, what else? The legs here. I don't paint the whole leg, just the beginning. The end, if you dot. And maybe this part should be also intensified with dark. And also here, I will look at it in the next video and add highlights and correct some mistakes if needed. The darks look great. Let's compare it with our model. We want to add more highlights and texture over here. We will do that in the next video. And also, we will add the lovely shadow, the cast shadow. Let's move on. 12. Ladybug: Final Touches: Let's continue right away, I use white gosh to add a lot of highlights. I paint a highlight with a round synthetic brush. Then I'm going to smoothen the edges with a mop brush like so. In the same style, I will work on all the highlights on our beautiful lady back. You can also use the tip of the brush to add texture, but it comes later. Now the biggest highlight I use a lot of quash. It's almost without water and blended using a mop brush. The mop brush is loaded with clear water. Of course, like so. Now let's add a highlight over here, more pigment. Make sure to use the good quality garage. It's very important because sometimes it gets yellow over time or it doesn't work. I add white on the shell. I continue in the same way, I change the brush from time to time. If I feel that I want more control with a smaller brush, it's easier to correct the tiny shapes. This highlight should be super bright and we have dark underneath it, so I add another layer when the white is dry. It also gets lighter like watercolor. Even if you use squash or sometimes even acrylics, it's a great idea to use second layer or maybe even white marker on top. I blend it with water. We don't want any sharp edges. The shell is super shiny, but still it's not made of glass or anything plastic. It's supernatural and we want to keep this feeling realistic. Drawing is famous for textures and shadows. I intensify the middle of the shell now even more white on this specific shadow and blended. And even more, maybe you'll make it faster from the first attempt. Now on the edges, note that there is a space between the high light and the white of the paper. Now here, it creates a three D effect. When you put a white line near the edge, but not on the very edge. There should be some space between white over here and blended up it realistic. Intensify the highlights. Soon we're going to work on our favorite part, the cast shadow. This one is going to be pretty subtle but still super important. Let's prepare the colors to have a harmony in painting. We will use the same colors. I love to use CPA and anything from our red mix, it looks beautiful. Already lovely color for the shadow. I slightly define the area of the shadow, so near the edge, near the legs. You can use just a plain water first, but I use mix so we can see it better on the video. Sometimes I start with the plain water. This is the shadow, of course. I will smoothen it up with water afterwards. Now, near the legs, I will increase the color in several steps. Here goes the shadow from the left part. Let's blend it with clear water and blend it to the white of the paper. It's super subtle and I'm going to intensify the color. Of course, near the edge of the Ladybug while the first layer is still wet, we add another one, it's darker, closer to the ladybug. Then I smoothen it up with a round brush, dark darks. You can blend it with mop brush or round brush at first, it depends on the colors you're using. Mine are pretty intense. I blend a lot. The shadows should be super subtle. We have a bright bright lady bug and we don't want the art to be too busy or too jarring. The subtlety of the shadow is a must. It's easier to achieve this effect in a few layers. Tend to just use one and blend it. I take some time and carefully fill it with water. I fill the brush with water and fill the shadow with water. And blend it all over the place. To save some time, I'm going to use a hair dryer now. Then we will move to the next step and use pencils for the texture. Now, careful the hair dryer, and here we are adding texture. With pencils, I use the closest one to the water colors we have, so it's red and orange. I add the texture on top, on some parts, near the edges on the same color, and rabit a bit with my fingers. I correct mistakes at depth and texture. With this kind of pencils, you can add even patterns if you will, some red strokes. This time, I keep in mind the direction of the brush stroke. With a pencil, I follow the same direction, I carefully work around the high lights. In the next step, I'm going to increase the highlights using acrylic marker and maybe a gel pen. Now I correct some mistakes, improve the shape of the lady park, and just make it more interesting, I use highly figmented pencils. Next, I'm going to add a high light using a gel pen. I put some dots near the existing highlight over here and here. And then I will work over it in acrylic marker because it's much brighter. Gel pen is very thin and it creates more opportunities for patterns. But still I prefer acrylic marker on top, tiny dots. I blend them with finger a bit and tiny dots near the edges of the shadow. And the same effect goes on the shell. Like it creates so much interest to have this tiny dots near the black spots. It makes our lady bug look real. It takes a lot of time to add highlights. It's absolutely fine to spend additional moments trying variety of our supplies like gel pen, acrylic marker guash to add small details and play around with the surface and the pattern. We're almost done and we'll add a final details with CPA pencil. A few strokes on the legs, on the shadow maybe correct a few mistakes. Our wonderful lady bug is ready for her flight. I think we've created a beautiful artwork. And I'll meet you in the next video and we'll talk about our next demos together. I'll see you there. 13. Painting a Pomegranate: I'm happy to see you're still with me. I hope you enjoyed working on previous demos tool. Now we're going to create a super challenging project. We will paint a poem grenade. It sounds a bit like a poem just looking at it. You can think how it's possible to draw that many seats we inside. Of course. It's much easier than you think. The secret lies in colors and a combination of shapes. Join me in the next video and you will see yourself. 14. Demo Pomegranate: Here we go. I've prepared a pencil sketch, You can find it in class resources as well as other files. And I lighten it up using a needed eraser. Like so, it's my normal process. I create a sketch and then I erase part of it with this needed eraser. But still, I see a lot of information left. Now let's test the colors for the Rd. I will use Mader Lake as a red color. You can try some other reds. I find this the most suitable for the pomegranate skin. I will also use cadmium orange. Together, they create a lovely mix. I love this color, which is orange, a bit of red, even subtle pink. You can try mixing some Venetian red to darken the mix. It looks heavy and we can use it on the right to try mixing some reds and oranges that you already have. This is pthalo green. I use it for the shadows, you can use Any green pomegranate has an uneven color. Using variety of hues adds brilliance to your artwork. I prepare the mix on my color palette. The metal lake looks a bit darker on the porcelain palette. And the cadmium orange also has a lot of water colors. They will look more transparent on paper. I take a lot of water and I begin painting the rind using our mix. As you can see, I mix the both colors right on paper, I'm working with the mop brush because it holds a lot of water. Like we discussed in materials section of the class, it's just perfect for the large part of our hero. I use a lot of water and I change the colors as I go. I will repeat the same step again, but for now I need to paint the first layer. The color will look darker, closer to the tip. I keep that in mind. It's my plan to make the tip of the pongrinate darker afterwards. Now I just lock in some parts. I also think about how the final artwork will look like. My next step will be to make a new layer with the same mix that we've prepared. I'm working on the chip, it's not so easy to find a beautiful pomegranate model with this chip that looks nice. I've made my own, now I use a smaller brush and add a new layer of the paint on top. The effect looks better if you add the same mix on top once again, and not just use the super bold mix right from the start. I add Venetian red to intensify some parts closer to the tip. Then I will add sallow green, our secret ingredient. To add the darks, I will add a few brush strokes here and there, right on the rind. The color of the pon grand is uneven. Irregular strokes will look good. Now the tip is more detailed. I can add a few shadows over here to support this darker part. Of course, we need to add a few dark on the rind or on the skin. The smaller brush gives better control over darks. That's why I love to use it. Now, next step, we're going to paint the large area of the pulp. I will need a bigger brush. I think I will use this brush or better to use synthetic. Maybe it has another hair it allows to work sharper. Right. What I'm doing is I'm rubbing the red edge of the palm grand and use the subtle pink to color the pulp. Take a lot of water and rub the edge to color the whole area of the pulp. Basically, we use the colors that we already put on our palm grenade. I will paint around the group of seeds and leave the white of the paper. You can add a few drops of red if you feel that this water is too light. I use highly pigmented water colors. I don't need anything additional at this stage. I painted around the groups of seats also. Here we have a very detailed sketch. I see every element. I can plan my work even with watercolors. I quickly add a few strokes and we've prepared a beautiful base for the next steps. In the next video, we will work on the seeds in this area and I'll show you the quick and fun way to paint them. Let's move on. 15. Pomegranate: Skin and Seeds: We continue. I will paint the oval sets using very subtle red wash. The mop brush, used perfectly for this purpose, holds a lot of water. When painting the seeds, imagine that you're painting a large geometric shapes. Think about the group of seeds, not just some time separate elements. Palm grand has a lot of seeds. We want to create some expressive artwork, not just for the copy, it's our impression and your artwork will look unique. Anyway, I paint around the highlights, we leave them untouched. Make sure to leave a lot of white. These highlights look a bit like triangles. In the last step, we will highlight them using acrylic marker or a gel pen. So, no worries if you painted over some of them. At this stage I think about the light source, the highlights should be brighter from one side, but it's also not so important. For the first layer of paint, we use a subtle wash. Now while the first layer is still wet, I use the undiluted red paint and debt right on the set like so, especially around white. If the paint is not so wet anymore, the second layer will not bleed and the effect will be different. You can add a bit of clear water just to move the paint again. The second layer adds interest right away. The next step will be super important, as you can guess, we should add some darks. I will use a bit of alo green and add the deep, deep darks right to the highlights. The smaller brush works better like we've already discussed in the previous part. I use a lot of shadow from this side because I imagine the highlights are from the left. So the right side of the Pomgranate will look darker. You can always smoothen the paint a bit with clear water if you feel that the shadows are too dark or if you don't like the shape of the group of the seeds. At this stage, you can always change something. And it's a great way to improve the artwork while it's still in the process. I smoothen the bit off the edges like so the mop brush allows you to work for a long time without additional water or paint, which streamlines the process. I quickly add a few groups of the feet on the left. I'm thinking about geometric shapes and the general impression of the Palm grande. You can make it as expressive as you want. Sometimes artists paint just a few splashes of red and then some highlights on top and the right. That's the style of the Pogrenade that looks great on some hotton design, for example. This one is more realistic, but still with our personal artistic impression, I add darks near the highlights. I work with synthetic brush and use a clear water to smoothen the edges. Now I'm going to work on the right part here, let's put. Okay. More groups, seeds, this part is much darker. I'm going to use a lot of red paint, undiluted paint, as a second layer. The first layer is always very subtle. I prefer to do it like so because you have a lot of ways to change it. It's really hard to go from dark to lights with water colors. Now I'm going to add matter lake like this here. And then right away the darks. I'm using another brush to speed things up. Calpting the shapes and darks near the right edge of the group of the seeds, even more dark. Of course, we need to make them look like the rest, all the elements. Next I'm going to add interest with a few scattered seeds. We have them on our Skage. Now it's time to paint them with the first layer of red. It's a subtle mix. I paint the shape of the small seed, this time it's very, very precise. The next one, they all look different. Of course, I leave the white of the paper for the highlight. I will add some shadows afterwards. Now, the first layer with a lot of water, it's still wet. Now I will add more paint. The highly pigmented red works great for this style. Let's put a few drops here and here, and also here. Now the darks here and here. So I still have some paint left, so I will add a few strokes here and maybe here. That's right. In the next video, we will add some lustrous colors to our pogrinate. We will add color sense here and the shadow. Let's move on. 16. Pomegranate: Pulp: We continue working on the pulp, we want to add brilliant. I will use yellow and yellow ochre. This will give us a mat texture to it, and for the contrast, I will use cobalt blue. I love the combination of the two yellows. This nice texture, the blue gives us a hint of green over here and the neutral gray. If you mix it even further, it's really hard to get the mix you like. I would test it a bit on the separate sheet of paper. It's the same watercolor paper I'm using for the artwork. I love to have a close example of what will be in the final painting. I begin with a few brush strokes with a careful brush strokes. Over here, you can see the contrast right away. I begin applying the brush strokes in a very chaotic and irregular manner. A bit of yellow here, you can even add orange if you want. It will give a great contrast with the red. We have a natural texture and still there is a beautiful contrast between reds, yellows, and the blue in our mix. Sometimes the blue will shine, sometimes the green will appear. This way will have a lustrous painting. Please, into the eyes, I add yellow over here. Then I will add the bright blue spots with cobbled blue and it will make our pomegranate shine. Now let's see how it works. I take a lot of paint, at a bit of yellow och, we have this green that turns to bloom. And again, it's always great idea to test the colors first because there's a variety of brands, they all have different pigments in the mixes. They behave differently is the whole science but very exciting one. I think I'm happy with the mix. I will add a few strokes right on the palp of the pungrnater special Sound Here, maybe it's difficult to erase watercolors. You can lift them up using clear water, but still, it's not like guage or oil. We have to be mindful at this stage already. Now I think this is subtle enough. I will add a few strokes here and here, near the darks, even brighter, blue looks great. Have this painterly feel, a subtle pink, the mix of yellows and this green blue. I will continue working on the palp membranes in the same manner. I use tiny strokes, never the large one near the tip, even on the rind. You can add a bit of our new mix, but mostly you can see it's on the right part of the pon grand. Just to have this contrast with dark reds, we want to add more details. I use pyl green and red to have the darker mix that we use for the shadow. I will use a small brush, I think really small synthetic brush. And add a few darker cracks and very thin shadows here and there. You know the scrags and pomegranate when you see almost line work near the seats. So I'm using the mix carefully, applying the wines working near the edges, never on the palp or on the super light areas, because we don't want to make this painting look like an ink drawing at this stage, of course, you can do it too, but it's not the thing I'm planning for now. Let's add details on the tip. I think I need to smoothen it up a bit. I blend the lines with water. If I feel that they are too sharp, I use clear water and blend the borders, or the edges better say Now the shadows over here and here under the seeds, mop, Brush with clear water to blend everything. Adding a bit of darks even on the left side of the Palm grande. Next we want to unify the artwork and also add some shining go, I'll use some orange. And we'll add a few nuances all over the Pm grande, very, very subtle here and here. The orange is super bright. We should be very careful not to overwork it. A few nuances here and here on the scattered seeds, we can even add a bit of red. I think it's also a good idea. Also very subtle mix. We're almost done. In the last part of this Pongrnde demo, we will add a dramatic shadow and the background. This will create a wonderful sense of space even for this single small painting. Let's move on and add the shadow in the next video, see there. 17. Pomegranate: Shadow and Background: Now let's work on the shadow. We'll use the same color mixes. I'll use our red, we just matter, Lake in my case. And paint an oval, cast shadow under the palm grand. Then I will add a bit of teal green and repeat this step. You can start with clear water. I'm just using the subtle mix of the red and tal green so you can see it better on the video of course, under the scattered seeds. Then once again, I will repeat this step a few times, intensifying the shadow many, many times actually. But I think you're not surprised if the shadow is too sharp. I blend it with water. I prefer using mop brush for this type of work because it's very smooth and I can easily blend it with water so you can use a hair dryer to sped things up a bit. Or if you have some time, you can just enjoy the process. If you use a cotton paper, it dries pretty quickly. I repeat the same step a few times. You can use pencils if you feel better. Control this way. I prefer to use only water colors, what the shadow of the Po grand not like an other demos. You can mix the paint right on paper, like you add teal green and it mixes instantly with red paper. Towels are essential for getting rid of the water on the brush, blending it with the background. The background is just the paper, of course. I will use the hair dryer to speed things up. The Sound Now what I'm going to do is add a new layer. Yes, again, when everything is dry, I add the thick layer of green and red under the pogranaten. We need to land it and be this way will get a realistic feeling and the illusion of depth at the same time. Like so of course, don't forget about these small seeds. They look so nice, like small circles. Now we're going to paint a background with a large brush strokes. I use the same subtle mix, with more of a red, just a little bit of green maybe on the brush, but it's mostly red. With a large strokes, I just create this sense of space around the Pom Grande. You can use any type of brush, but mop brush or maybe flat brush will look better. When the paint is dry, the color will be lighter. So you can keep that in mind even if your background is too dark, doesn't matter that much. So I carefully paint around the seeds and then I'm going to try it with hair dryer again. But before that I have some other plans. I think you know what I mean? But for now, let's finish with background. I think it's almost enough. Maybe here and here. Yeah, it's much easier in Photoshop or procreate when you just use the brush. I'm going to add a bit of green again. Here, here, and here. And of course, here, here, and here. Super. Now, I think we need to darken it with red. When you mix on paper, you get very special effect. It's very brave to do so, but we're brave. So that's a great way to experiment. I blend the shadow and now I'm going to use a hair dryer after another stroke to beat things up. Yeah, I think that's enough. Let's try the palm grand before the next step. It is dry. Here comes the white marker to brighten the highlights. Of course, you can use the white gel pen or gag or a pencil, but I prefer to use the acrylic marker. I draw a few white triangles on the seeds or just some white dots. It makes them shine. I love this part so much. There is no pressure and it can just last forever. You add the highlights, you add magic to your pomgreinate. I think we've created a beautiful painting, and I can't wait to see your artworks. Maybe a few dots over here. Here and here. We're almost done. You can take a hot beverage to celebrate. I'll meet you in the next video where we'll talk about our next adventures. I can't wait to see you there. I hope you'll create a lot of beauty and of course we'll share it in the project gallery. I'll see you in the next video. 18. Digital Realism: Thanks for joining me in the second part of the class, we will work digitally. I started working as a digital artist long before the ipads and most of my commercial work is painted in Photoshop. But the good news is the principles of good drawing always stay the same. The technology only helps us as a tool but will never be the substitute. Today, I'll be painting in procreate, but you can use any software if you use procreate to don't forget to download the brushes In the class project section, I forget the custom brushes. In the next video, you'll see some helpful settings. Let's move on. 19. Procreate Settings and Symmetry Tool: Welcome back. Before we begin, I want to share with you some settings that will help us. Along the way, I go to Settings Procreate and make sure simplified undo is off. This way we have a better control over our process. Then I go to Apple Pencil and turn off the double tap for my style of drawing, it's only confusing. Then I'll go to procreate and we'll work on square canvas. You can make your own, let's say 3,000 by 3,000 Typically use pixels. Here's the number of layers you can use in this size. If you plan to print your artwork, make sure that the DPI is 300 or higher. Then we go to the French icon references Chester Controls and make sure assisted drawing is off. We will use it later. We're going to create symmetrical artwork and use symmetry tool. We go to Ranch Icon Canvas drawing guide. On added drawing guide and the grid appears tap symmetry. That's it. You can change the capacity, the thickness of the line, even the color on top Right here, I usually don't change much. When we see the layer, there is a small sign that says Assisted. By the way, here are the brushes that I'm going to use. You can download them in class resources. Let me pick some brush to show you like. So everything I draw will be mirrored on the other side. We are drawing a symmetrical mode. This makes perfect sense for us. Just the usual sketch. It looks wonderful immediately, But what if I want to add a new layer? Let's try it out. Tap layer, nothing happens. Tap layer and choose drawing ***. Make sure this works for all the layers that you want to be similar on both sides. Once again, if you want to add a new layer, make sure to tap Drawing Assist. We will use it in various ways. You will see it in the next demos. I just wanted to give you a quick start to have the idea of what we're going to do. I begin with a sketch using my pencil brush. It's just the usual pencil that I've created. And you can change the size and opacity of the brush. I just like to test things a bit. First, the head of the moth, I like to create a pretty detailed sketch. You will see it in the next video. I'm just testing the brush and the size of the moth. You can actually change the size, like I imagine. We will have wings. We need enough space. Turn me in the next video and we'll start creating our beautiful artwork. 20. Demo Moth: Here we go. I've created a layer with drawing assist. Then I will use my brushes and the color palette. You can find it here. And also in class resources, I begin with a very loose sketch of the mouth using the dark red color. At this stage, I think about the proportions patterns. I begin with the head. Since we use symmetry, I save a lot of time for this sketch. So the body, something like this. I think about the shape of the wings, the elements that I want to highlight. Even at this stage, I already think about value and shadows and elements that I want to stand out. The square canvas is a bit tricky. We want to keep the proportion, the wings have beautiful shape that is perfect for our canvas. Then I will create a new layer and we'll make a clean, refined sketch on top. I like to add a lot of details and experiment a bit with wings especially. It's a great part that can be decorated in so many ways. This time I'd like to have to large ovals with highlights inside circles. And some patterns over here that I'm going to color with some orange, bright accents. Now I'm going to just mark it with darker color to make sure I don't forget about it. I use hatching and shadow on some areas with the pencil. Typically, the things that I would do traditionally without much pressure. Now, the refined sketch, I create a new layer, tap, drawing assist. I change the opacity of the initial sketch and lock it well. It's not necessary, but it's just a habit to do so I draw with pencil, brush on top. This time I carefully draw every element. Since some of these lines will remain in the final artwork in my style, I use initial refined sketch as part of the final illustration. I think I should change the capacity even more. Now we work on this top player. I've also uploaded the sketch in the class resources, so you can use mine or you can create your own. Every line has a specific purpose. Now, it's much easier when you work digitally because you can always to undo and there's not so much pressure. It's just a different way to create something more fun without much pressure. This part of the wing, probably it has a special name that we don't know. I'm very fascinated about natural history illustration. I think I should make a course about it one day. Here I'd like to draw decorative elements to it. Dynamic, the body goes here. It still looks very much like a sketch. The pencil already has a texture to it. So I'll just add a few strokes. Here we have the edge of the wing beautiful line. You can always hide the initial layer to see the refined version better. To save some time, we will start the next video with the finished sketch. You can always find it in class resources in case you want to use it. Let's move on. And I can't wait to continue drawing with you. 21. Moth: Colors: Here is our refined sketch. You can insert the file or a photo by tapping actions. Insert a file or a photo. You can use any image or my sketch. I want to make a tone background so I create a new layer, put it underneath the sketch, it will be a background. Obviously, I pick a color from the color palette and just dragon drop it like so the new layer has a drawing as sign. Make sure it's on. I will use a white color to draw a large shape of the wing. We'll change the opacity a bit on the new layer underneath the skitch. I'll be using just a usual pencil brush and I'm going to draw a closed shape of the wing. Then we'll drag the white color this way, we'll have a beautiful white shape of the wing like. So from this point I'm going to build up the layers. You can notice that the second wing is colored already. Now I want to add a bit of nuanced color, maybe green on top or light creamy green, something from the color we have. I want to add interest near the moth body, maybe a bit of yellow like. So to add glowing to the wing, I think I want to add pink area. You can try various brushes. You can just use standard brushes. I prefer to create some tweaks for every artwork. For example, here we have charcoal and some texture for the wings. I like to use variety of combinations. In one artwork, I color the wing with the subtle pink. Afterwards, I will smug everything for a smooth, even brighter pink here. We'll have shadows on every line. This will support our illusional depth here, here, and here. Inside our circle. I plan to have a few highlights. I'm adding dark at this stage. Next I'm going to add a charcoal brush on top. Now I'm smudging and a bit just using smudge tool and maybe this will the dark and the lighter pink a bit we have the realistic texture already just by smudging two contrast colors. Now let's add. Yeah, the texture is very important for the vintage. Look something like this. The brighter charcoal texture on the wing. You can easily create your own brushes. If you're drawing, for example, some type of butterfly with silk wings or shiny wings, you can just tap and pick the color, change it a bit, and add intensity. So you can always change it if you find it to contrasting, or if it's too bright for the background. So the same is happening on the other side of the wing. Now I smudge it once again. Next, I'm going to add a bit of gray here near the body of the moth. Usually it's darker than the wings. And brighter yellow or white contrast. I think white or maybe even something like this over here, the middle of the mouth. As a unified look. With this dull green and subtle pink, it's time to work on the wings pattern, I pick orange. And using a pencil brush color the elements. Maybe you can choose another brush. I'm not sure if it will look too large. Maybe this one, the orange will work great together. You can just test some brushes. Yeah, it works still. I know that we use symmetry tool, but I check if it works from time to time. I color these elements with orange and then I'm going to pick a darker brown color parts like so then I will smush them together. You probably already guessed this way. You will have a beautiful vintage looking gradient smooth. At the same time, it will be uneven like a painterly artwork, not just some digitally created gradient here. I will add a bit of orange also. Then I will blend it. I think the white will look better. Let's check the other side, orange. On top, I'd like to add a few colors on the head of the moth. We'll have a interesting illustration, not just the gray head of some suspicious insect or so. A bit of darker brown near the edges, near the lines, and then smudge everything smoothly together. So beautiful gradient. We'll have a darker contrast here and we'll have some very subtle color on top with the darker shadows near the lines where antennas are. In the next part, we will add some details and we will erase some mistakes. Next, I'm going to add highlights with white on some of the elements. Then maybe a little of yellow glow. We can see already that the biggest part of the work is done thanks to the symmetry tool, our moss looks wonderful. In the next video, we will add details. A bit of texture on top and of course the shadow, a bit of glow over here. Let's move on to the next part. 22. Moth: Wings and Edges: We continue. Let's see what do we have here. Now we add a few highlights. We are ready to move on. Here we have our colored moths. Our sketch, I love to switch off to see how the color looks like and we're going to use a clipping mask tool. It's really great. All we have to do is to create a new layer, tap, clipping mask. This way everything you draw on top of this layer get locked in the layer underneath. In our case, it's the sketch. Just in case I use alpha log for the sketch layer. It's a good habit not to cross any lines, but it's not necessary. Clipping mask is a great tool for this type of style I'm using. Now let's pick a color that is close to the color of the wing basically we're don't forget that the drawing assist is on basically we're going to color the lines. You can see that I've picked the yellow and I color the lines, but our sketch is locked. Just in case we want to step back a bit, it's not a problem. I pick a color that is close to the part where the outline is pink or darker pink. Or if I want to have a contrast, I use white or yellow or green. And I color the parts of the lines. For example, here I want to have a gray. We can still see the texture of the pencil. This edge should be very, very light because the wing is dark. The contrast is already there and we don't need it to be too busy. Now, the orange, the bottom of the wing, as you've probably guessed, this way I work on the entire body of the moth. Next step will be to merge everything together and blend a bit. I will merge the layers and smrtch the colors with outlines. But for now, I'm working carefully on every stroke that I have here, creating an interesting effect. Some of the edges stay sharp and some parts are move, even dreamy a bit. Green makes a great contrast to the pink, that's why I use it near the part of the wing with circle element, the body of the moth. This is a central element. That's why it's important not to overwork it because the wings are very effective. But head and the body, it's very important to have unified with the rest of the artwork. We'll have the darker contrast on the pattern. Let's see how it looks. Maybe add a bit of texture like a or light elements on the wings. It looks much better. Now I want to make it more realistic by smudging some edges. I merge all the layers except for the background, make sure it's Alfolog. We won't accidentally smug the outlines to the background. I'm going to pick a nice brush, let's see smudge the edges. Like. So here we can see all the brushes and the best ways to test. I test them every time because you never know you have a plan in your head. And when it comes to drawing, the results are very different. I use the small size of the brush and very gently blend the edges together. The edges become soft and more dreamy and realistic. At the same time, it still looks like a sketchy bit and I like this experimental feel of our moss. I work on the edges, we blend green with pink. Together, they create gray. The artwork becomes more pain. The colors with oranges and dark browns. Here we have very uneven. We, that's the idea here. It's white here, it's cream. Don't worry about the mistakes or lines that are off the edges. We can raise them afterwards. Now, you can't do that, Cato. I will do that later. Smudging things a bit, unifying the artwork. The same is happening on the left side. Now here, the contrast between green and orange. And also here, a few strokes. Now the head, we don't want very stiff lines, so I want to smudge a bit of the edges like. So the brown works great. Both as a shadow and as an outline this way. Work faster. And don't forget that now we have alphlog and drawing assist on. Now I'm going to add some texture on top with the charcoal. These are small steps that are not necessary, but I like to add a lot of details on my artwork just to clean things up a bit. Like so now I want to raise some mistakes on the outline. I need to turn off the alpha lock. This way I can do the work so I clean up the outline. Isn't the usual rush here. Also, this element is too intense. I want to raise it a bit, so it will be something like most found line a bit like this. We're almost done. In the next short video, we will add some final touches and our favorite dramatic shadow. See you there. We will continue. 23. Moth: Shadow and Texture: Here we go. We don't need drawing assist anymore. Let's turn it off. We also don't need drawing guide anymore. Right. We're going to draw a amatic shadow. I create a new layer underneath our mouth. And using a charcoal brush and some dark color from the color palette, I'm going to draw the shadow. I will roughly sketch the shadow over here, like there's a distance between the shadow and the body of the mouth. This way we create this realistic effect and convincing sense of three dimensional look. It also looks different on the left. That's why we're not using drawing a cyst and symmetry tool anymore. I'm using this dark color and I want to add a bit of green for contrast. Then I will add a bit of pink to complement the wings. I roughly sketch the shadow. We don't need any sharp edges, just a bit of texture and glory. Feel some pink over here, like the light on the shadow and on the wings a bit of transparent. Now I want to erase part of the wing over here. I correct the shape of the bottom wing, make it more intricate. Now that we have a shadow, the contrast between them is very obvious. A few mistakes is a normal thing. You know? Happy accidents and so on. Now we want to add texture. Let's add a new layer. Tap adjustments. Noise Here we have all the settings. You can change the intensity, we can do something like this. Here we have various options and effects that we can use. I prefer to pick overlay and then change the capacity of the layer a bit. We're done. We have beautiful, realistic looking illustration. I want to rotate it a bit. Merge the layers, the mouth and the shadow. Tap the arrow and rotate it a bit like so. This will add more dynamic and interest to our artwork. Maybe I need a final touch in this new angle. You can see some details you want to add, but I'm very happy with the result. Bit of white over here and here. And that's it. Now we can expert our artwork. Just press actions, share and pick the format and save it. That's it. You can expert your artwork and use it for so many beautiful things. Now meet me in the next video and we'll talk about your assignment for this class and wonderful things that you can create. See you there. 24. Your Assignment: Congratulations. You watched the entire class and now you're ready to work on your own realistic project. Your assignment for this class is to paint an object in a realistic manner and applaud it to the project gallery. You can follow any of my examples or choose your own something that is very special. A toy, a coin, a piece of stamp, a button, or a postcard, Something with a unique characteristic. Take a closer look at the object, better at the real one. Try to feel the texture, get the artistic impression. I know we're all very busy. It can be something tiny. You can also share just a sketch. It's a great way to support our creative community. You can also share it on Instagram. Don't forget to take me right on the image so I can find it. There's one more video to go. 25. Final Thougths : Well, this is it. I hope you enjoyed exploring this truly fascinated technique as much as I did when working on this class. I got so many creative ideas and I hope you did too. That's the most precious takeaway from this class. Don't forget that the most important key to any technique is your artistic vision and how you look at things. Today, we learned the supreme principle of three dimensional look. Adding texture and contrast to your artwork will also add depth, realism, and interest. If you enjoy this class, you're very welcome to check my other classes on skill share. There are a variety of topics I'm passionate about. You can add a lot to your creative arsenal. Don't forget to press the Follow button above to get notified about inspiring new giveaways, new classes and projects. I'm working on the button somewhere above. You can also follow me on Instagram. Thanks again for creating with me. For now, I'll put away this poisoned apple from the fairy tale. I'll be waiting for your artworks in the project gallery. See next time.