Transcripts
1. Intro to Class: - and they will learn about control a much color, and I'll show you how to implement that. In the final illustration, we will start with three simple exercises in there will move on to the final illustration. Let's gather your materials and let's get sorry.
2. Materials: to get our class will start with three simple basic exercises that will allow you to just experiment and try out what control we will start with wet on wet and dry to wet and then dry to dry. The three basic elements on watch control. And to do these exercises, you'll need the following materials. Two cups of other one for cleaning your brushes in one for doing clean mixes. This is very important, so you don't taint your new mixes with the pigment in the water that you use to clean your brushes. Watercolor. This is my set that I usually use, but you can use whatever you want. This is Sin Elliott pains, but of course, whatever water quality haven't had will do next. Material is brushes, and you can tell that all of these are around brush, and they're all synthetic. If you prefer to work with flat brushes like such a these off course, you can. You are more than welcome to, but I do prefer working with Round Murphy's. So this is what we're going to use today. I finally, but not least paper. Today we're going to be using the Exhale watercolor paper This is a pretty inexpensive paper. The only thing that would recommend for the paper that you have using today it's free to be at least 300. Yes. Um, we need to be able to layer a lot of water. Caller. So this is a great paper footage. Now we have everything gathered. Let's get started with the exercises.
3. Exercises - Wet to Wet: starting with the first exercise, you are more than welcome to use a template that I place on the class project tap. This is just a simple template that you can use if you desire, so let's get started on the exercise. What it here we have and you'll need to start exercises will be very simple exercises. But first we'll start with wet to wet. So we have Our Here are two jugs, and now it's time to decide which one will be your clean water. This jury is new, so it's cleaner, so I'm just going to keep it my clean mix first to start the mix, we just put water and just put it all over where you want your pigment to be. This you can actually even create shapes with us so it can be pretty useful. You can tell it's pretty wet, and now we go and pick up any color that you want. So let's just do a little Grady int from red to yellow. Why not? So this at this point you just left the water color leave. At this point, your brush is very wet. You have a good amount of pigment and you can tell that the point in the brush is not us straight. So this is how you can tell that your brush is quite full. I also have a paper towel near. Meet just about the access of the water in my brush. This will help me later on. In another exercise, I clean my brush. So I'm just gonna grab my clean water again and down here and again it's pretty full, my brush. And I'm just going to like that. And with this method, you can create radiance. You can create pretty cool, pretty cool patterns. The thing that you do have to have an account is do not over water your paper. Otherwise, you can create a lot of working. That's something you do have to having might. If there you want to cover is bigger, you can just apply more water because the moment you stop having water, it might create a line. So, for example, if you want to create a full background, feel free to just add water all around it. But again, not is not not that much water as it might be. Start pulling. So have that in mind when you start doing this, so at this point, you can just leave it. Or if you want a bit more texture or some something, you can just drop another color and just leave it here, and this will create some pretty cool effects. Okay, so we can just leave, can leave this one for now. And we're going to add to the other side so we can just do something a little bit more different. So again, my clean water and just enough so it's not pulling. So if you drop your if you put your brush like this, it shouldn't drip. It's just loaded with water, but it's not too much, and you just know up the shape. When that is done, we're just going to grab another color. Let's say that's why not. And here we're just gonna use one color for now. And I just want to show you how you can create some nice effect as well. Just with one color, they can just smooth it out a little bit. And if you want to have some of the blossoming, do you just drop a drop of water? So if you want, you just dropped a little drop of water, and this will create about something effect, even with just one color can create some pretty cool effects. And this is just with a little bit more water, not too much, so it doesn't pull as well. So this is pretty much wet to wets. Technique, it's recapping, is just The paper is pretty much covered with water again, not pulling with water, and the brush is pretty loaded as well, with water and pigment that is quite important. So it all flows nicely. So both mediums that you use our wets. This is what it means went to, and in this case, we just did a little Brady in. So you can see the colors mix very well in this part because they pigment is free to move. And in this part we did just with one color, and you can tell with just more water, we can create some very nice effects. So now these needs to dry, and of course, you can leave it drying in just normal conditions just there. But if you are impatient like me, you can always just have a heat gun in hand or just a hair dryer that will also do just something that allows you to drive if you want. For example, if you created this park and you want the pigment to stay still, I would recommend either a very low heat or strength because it will move the pigment. If you wanted to stay where it is and dry naturally, I would recommend just air drying. But in this case, since I am quite impatient, I am just going to quickly dry it and a low speed. So this mandates So that is it. As you saw, my heat gun is never too close to the paper because you might actually burn the paper. I have done that and I didn't have to recommend. So you can tell it's all drive here without us really planning. It did also the blasting because there was a little bit of pulling here, So wherever water pools, it will almost repel the pigment and create this very beautiful Boston effect. But as you can tell, you have some very nice Grady ins, and this is a very loose way to create nice backgrounds. So after this, let's move on to our next exercise
4. Exercises - Dry to Wet: Okay, Now we're going to move on to our next exercise, which is dry to wet in this exercise. What this means is that one of the elements is dry. In this case, there will be the paper The paper will not be pulling with water on Lee are brush will be lonely with water and pigment. I'm just gonna grab this color because I really like this color And I'm just going to feel as you can tell The brush is very loaded with pigment and water and the pigment only goes where I put the brush. Oh, it's not moving crazily around. This allows you to control the shape that you're feeling and just have a crisper etch Because you see, this just went where the water waas And since I couldn't see the water, of course it's the less control edge. This is a pretty much straight for edge, and it shoud dry pretty flatly, just cleaning my brush. Now here, I'm just going to do some shapes just so we can tell we can have something a little bit different. So I'm grabbing this color again and like that, I'm just going to quickly though this And as you can tell, I have very nice control on the brush and on the paint. Since the paper is dry, it on Lee go where I wanted to go. And even though this pain parishes not the finest point, it still allows me to. I feel like I want. So here it's like this and now I'm just going to fill up the other half and they are not going to touch because I am able to control where the pigment is. If this was dry, the paper was right. I would be able to just have them touch him, not mixed. But since it's still wet, I would not be able to. So I'm just going to quickly dry all of this. So I show you something called glazing. So after this is all dry, you can tell you can see the application is quite different. This creates a more just linear spread of paint. This is a little bit more texture, but it's just because the pigment itself granulated a bit more. It depends on the pigment, not in case of the application. So right now I want to show you something that's called glazing so grazing is a form of late and color, but it's a way to keep the pigments as clear and its purest possible. So each pigment, the more you layer them, the more you mix them, the muddier it will become because each watercolor has so in so pigments. Unless you have only single pigment colors, the more you mix them in the pan, the more heavy or muddy or even more opaque they will become. Glazing is away for the watercolor to become very clear and just layer without mixing the penguins on the pen. So let's, for example, just add, Let's say again, these green. I really like this grin, and I'm just putting here on the pants, so I just make it a bit more sheer, so it's not as heavy. If you like to have a paper next to you. It's a good way to just see how much water we actually have. A new brush. I always have a paper next to me. In this case, we're just going to paint half, and this is a way of layering, watercolor and mixing the but without making it super money, for example, I could make this mixture and my pan, but I would be mixing the pigments, and that might create a muddy that here here actually had a bit less water than I wanted, so it created a little shape. But like this, this is what we are calling glazing, and you can tell it didn't bite. Filled up the watercolor on top. That also depends of the watercolor. Some watercolors will just be reactivated whenever you work on them again, but it also depends on the water colors that you have. So this is glazing that you strive with another color so you can see example of this green goal. It's a very pretty color, and here we can that's just see on the paper. I think I need a bit more water on. Yeah, this is it. And let's just do a little stripe here. So since watercolors are a transparent medium, they will layer like this, and you will be able to still see the mix. So this thing is green goal. In this green don't look like this, but they look. They allow the purple beneath to shine through. And that's how you guys, if you want to achieve very clear mixes, this is a way to go. This is dry to wet. Let's move on to dry to dry
5. 5 dry to dry: start dry to dry. It's the same principle of all of this. So in what two words, both the elements of paper and the brush are wet. In this case of what to dry, the paper is dry and the paintbrush is wet. In this case, both are dry, not completely dry, so the water will color allows you to run, but still considerably dry on a little bit wet. So to do this, I am going to do one without any pigment on top, and the other one will have a little bit of pigment. So I'm just going to grab this brush because I really like it. And even though it's a number relatively large, it has a very nice point and allows me to create a very nice lights and just going to pick up a color that I have. You don't my palate and the way that to see if it is wet or dry, it's just again see how much you have. If you need to dab up a little bit of excess, you can, and you'll be able to just tell that the point is much finer. You can just tell it's not that much lonely with pigments. So with this, you have incredible control on what you're going to do. So I could just do lines all over, and I have very much control of what I'm doing. This part is used for just details. Sometimes even Leinart I would not use this method to, for example, Philip a shape like we did to try to it just because it will create streaking since, for example, here you can already tell This is where I drop my brush for longest. So the pigment is mostly deposited here. If I philippa ble area with this much little water on the brush, it will create lots of streaking and lots of texture that you might want but you might not , so not want. So this is mostly used for details and for in my case, I use it for Leinart in the end, so you can tell it's pretty controlling, and they just depends on the pressure in use on the brush, and you can just do lots of shapes. I can fail out an area if I want you with this, I can, but I would not recommend to fill up the whole area if it's too big, small areas like this, it's totally fine. I do end up doing some details with this, but I would always recommend to be smaller areas. So here, we're just going to use. Now we're going back to dry to wet and we're just going to get this color. And as you can tell, my brush is very full. It has almost no point, and like I said, just fill this area up and this is much easier to fill when the brushes like this so that area is filled. I'm just going to quickly dry it. Okay, so this is dry. If you want to add some more details on top of another layer, like with the glazing, it's very, very important that it's dry underneath. Otherwise you'll just it will just mix. So again, I'm going to pick up my same brush picking up another pigment. I might just do the other one again if you want to check it on your paper. Yeah, that's too much. Okay, it's not too wet, and we can just do lines again. And as you can tell, the watercolor is a different color because this is technically glazing so it's picking up the green underneath, but it still allows me that same precision that we were having before. So if I want to just do some shapes on top, I can do on just I can also still fill the area. No problem. But like I said, it's very important that it's dry underneath and I if you see me, I'm picking up pigment but not picking up water. So I am mostly have pigment on my brush. I can just have very fun lines. It all depends on paintbrush pressure in this case, so this is dry to dry. I'll just quickly show you what happens when your mixture is not dry so quickly grabbing the same green. Why not here, underneath and just putting here. If you want your wash to be very flat, you can just move the pigment around and you will flatten it out. I'm going to barely dry it. Okay, so it's not quite dry. You can tell they're still some pulling, and I'm going to clean up my brush. It has no water picking up this pool of pigment, and I'm just going to and it's immediately becomes fuzzy. It just spreads off to where there was water. So here it's fine. And here, when it's not fully dry, it just fudges out. So that's why it's very important to have the paper completely dry and to make sure they're not any spots where the paint can still be moist. So that's a very important thing when doing dry to dry. So now we have done all our three exercises and again recapping this is brush wet and paper wet paintbrush is wet with paper is dry, and these are both dry. Even if you have pigment underneath, it has to be all dry. Otherwise, you'll just have this feathering and not have the clean lines that drive to dry allows you . No, we did all over basic exercises. It's time to move on to the illustration, but do remember that it's fine if you want to do the exercises more times, since it helps you to have a better remember that if you do want to step of the process between exercises, you can always use a hair dryer. This allows you to drive the watercolor and just move quicker
6. Illustration - Wet to Wet: Now that we did, all the exercises were ready to move on to the final illustration. Of course, one of the first steps that we need to do is to get an illustration to paint. If you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed with that idea of coming up with the concept, the worry I have included a line out in the class project out that you can use. It's like just focus on painting and not worry about creating something. But of course, if you do feel like you want to do you a demonstration, you're more than welcome to, and I actually really love to see what you come up with. After. Have the liner decided it's time to start moving on to the actual painting. So get everything set up and let's go. This is a final illustration that I have prepared for us. Now, a quick note. Graphite can actually smudge with watercolors, so I usually actually use a caller pencil to do my liner. But this was just quicker and easier, but I always recommend to just get a new the eraser such as this and quickly pass it over the graphite so it does not pick up and muddy any of the watercolor. So that's what I'm gonna do quickly. So that did it. So what did that do is that it made the drawing almost invisible because removed all the most of the graphite. But it still left me with the ghost of the drawing. Now we're going to use the first element that we used, which was wet to it. With this, what I'm going to do is quickly grab my brush the same one that I was using. And I'm just going to fill in the hole figure because I know this part will be just one color, so I don't really have to worry. I know I want the plans to be a different color, so I'm not going to touch it, and right now, But I know the hand will be mostly one color. This is the state that summerfest actually do was sort of other paint. If you know that you have a common white source or something, so you can always do in under pain just one color that you think will fit with the whole painting. In this case, I'm just going to mix the skin tone and just later it on. So I got my water. You can tell it's very wet. I'm just going to quickly mix up a skin tone here again. I have my paper here. I have left some room here in the paper so I can just swatch it out to see if the color is what I want. That's two reds to That's okay for now. So I'm just going to put us all over the West area. I know I want to make the bottom of this. It's dark, so I'm going to take this collar, mix it up with this Kim town. Just check the color. It's fine, and I'm just going, Thio added on This step is very useful to create the Grady INTs that you want and the shadow that you know will persevere and that you want them to be softer. So if you want, you can just grab water and just drag the pigment a bit more above, so it makes it a bit better. Create those shapes. It's fine if it's a bit Messi. I guess so. I know as well this part will be in shadow, but I wanted to be sharper So I'm going to leave it now for the dry to wet, so I don't want it to go and spreading to the other parts. I'm going to live this, but this part is okay if it spreads a bit more so I'm just going to keep adding this and that's it. If you want to create any gravy in SA's well in the leaves, it's fine as well. So I am going to just leave it as well. Now you If you wanted to believe out a little bit, it can give a nice effect. But right now, I don't think this will work. And I just will also want to show you what what you can do afterwards. So this is it for the first step.
7. Illustration - Wet to Dry : we are here after this layer has drive. I have gone with my heat gun. Just so we have a little bit more efficiency. As you can tell, this part is blossoming here, but I really don't mind. I like this texture in my work, so I'm really and just going to play with it now. It's time to head at any dark shadows we, you know we wanted and to just paint any other elements that we did not want to leave all over. So I'm going to start with the same green I was using before and just quickly just put it all over and the paper is dry, so I'm just filling out the shapes again. If you want to do any Grady ins in the Leafs after the paint is applied, of course you can. As long as the pain is still fresh, you will be able to get some ice. Grady INTs. At this stage, you can always do some changes. For example, I had a little different here, but I felt like it was not needed, and you can also even draw just if you feel comfortable enough, you can also just add some more elements I tend to. I just bet some just because at this stage, if you want to darken any leaves, you can go with the color. Just mix it there and, for example, this one would be darker. And I can just make the ends the bottom of the leaves a little bit darker. So now I'm using wet to wet again, kind of, because I am allowing for this to happen. It's not super controlled. It's not going as crazy as my wet to wet because the paint it's only pain. It's not fully water, but you can create some nice shading here already. If you wants himself through lengths. So that's it for this bit. Now I'm just gonna let it dry. In the meantime, we can move on to this part because I know it will be in shadow. So again, testing the paint. And I know that this bit here is in shadow, so I'm just going to block it out. It has been a swell just because it's also pushed back this finger. It can be a little bit lighter because it's still in shadow, but not as much. So what you can do is. Just use more water in your paint brush and the pigment will be lighter, so more water in less pigment makes a lighter color. In case you don't want a mix another shade, you can just use more water. If this makes its fine, it's not that much of a problem because they are very similar color. But if they were a different color, I would advise to be careful. So in this, but we have are harsh shaving. If you see that you want to make this darker, which I actually think I want to, we can just go again. And there's going with this brush now because it's fluff here and holds more water, so it's less trouble for me. I'm just going to grab this color here. I like to work with what's on my palette, so this is a cooler tone, so it's fine. No problem. And they're just going to put a bit of water here, so it's thinner, like that's thinner. I was going to die about my paintbrush a little bit, so it's not too too wet, and we're just going to go yet. So here what we're doing is glazing again or in this case, we're just doing a thinner shadow on top of what we have. But we're still be able to maintain the texture we have underneath, and we could have this shape here. But if you want to have a softer mix, we can just add water, and it will create a grading off, no pigment to pigments so that you can just use your advantage. If you have a harsh hedge that you don't like, you can just quickly get rid of it with water. And I'm just going to do a little bit of shadow here. Just so it's nice and you can see I dropped only a little bit, and I'm just going to blend it out with water. So water is pretty much your best friend in watercolor. At this point, I think that all of my softer shadows are pretty much done, so we are just going to move on to our next element, which is dry to dry
8. Illustration - Dry to Dry: Okay, so I went again with my heat gun because it's just more efficient and so just exemplify something. For example, I have I was left here with a little bit of a hard hedge, so I'm just going to take my brush with a little bit of water, and I can soft in it because watercolor can lift, and I just soft it out because I was not enjoying the look of it, So that was pretty much just a little trick. If you find yourself with the harsh hedge that you don't like, you can always take it out. At this point, all that's pretty much left is Leinart and some more harsh shadows. So for this stage, I will use two brushes. I have a very thin one and this one because it has a nice point. So this I've used for mostly Leinart because it does not have is much range of pressure. So it's easier for me to control. And this I like to use for harsh shadows and end things. So we're going to do some shadows on the plant and let's just mix, see you in a little bit of pink with green and, well, give me a sort of brownish color, which I like to use, and we're going to just do some shallows here. Evening. Do them in the back if you want. Okay, again. If you don't like the harsh shadows, you can just do this, pick up and you are actually just picking up this and just carving out the ships that you want. So that is done for now. I will add Leinart afterwards and now getting this color again. And I'm just going to add somewhere darkness to it. Just mix up some nice purple here. So at this point, you can see all the colors that are used so far, some of them are test. So this in these are duplicates. So at this point, I know that this is the darkest and I really want to just darken that out. Since I'm already here, I'm just going to create a line here where I know I have another piece and I'm going to also feel it out, but a little bit lighter because, like I said, it's not as much in the background. So this is our shadow here at this stage. I would also feel in the tattoos. So with this, I still use this brush for now on time to fill up the tattoos, make sure the point is fine and we're just going to filled in love again. I'm just using the same color because it's my darkest color I used, and I tend to use that as my landlord's. So that's one touch you have done. You can see this, but was a still a bit wet because I didn't mistake there. What you can do if you ever been mistake. What are called is actually quite forgiving, I find. So if you just take a little piece of paper, a toll, you just that bit out and everything will be OK, so you don't need to fret too much. If you find yourself making a mistake, you can just step it out. Now the paper is dry, so you can just do it again. If you prefer. You can just leave it a little bit of time again, but I tend to find that it's fine. It's OK, so I'm just going to redo the shop here, and that's OK. See? No problem there, So since I'm already here, I'm going to work on the line out here on this part. I do enjoy doing Leinart with a bigger brush just because it's fun to try and work on my on my grip on my skill again, just trying to redo that mix. It's fine. Just have it off a little bit here. Since this is line on, I do want it to be with a very fine point so I don't get any. It stinks. If you don't feel is comfortable with the bigger brush, you can always use a smaller one, and that will give you more control. But I just got used to using this because I can create some difference in the line. Wait while using it without having to change my brush. So this is all in terms of. This is just practice with holding your brush and just using the pressure at your advantage . I will work on the fingernails in a little bit, so I don't smudge anything of what I've done so far. So here we're just just going to go lower now and now I will not pick up water again while I'm doing this on Lee Pigment. So we do not have any danger of Just if you are mixing color while you're doing this, sure, you can pick up a little bit pigment, so it's not as difficult. So it does not drag as much. But there should be a very small amount of water. So you have multitudes. Let's just quickly fill it out and I can still see the graphite underneath, but just barely so enough that while I'm doing the line work the graph, I would not be visible again. I'm just going to connect, and here it's quite all right. If you have some water color outside of the lines, I find that it looks quite nice, like that flow we look. So I'm not very strict with my line or the less it's on the face. I am very strict with lines there, but here it's fine. It's almost done just grabbing a little bit of water because what I want to do now is feeling the shapes of the Leafs that I had here, so just going to use brush here and since I do remember what they looked like, it was quite easy. But I'm going to change the color a little bit. Just make it a little bit more red, and I'm going to add a little bit water, Not much just going to do a second swipe because it was being a little too sit. So at this point, I don't really see the the leaves, but I do remember what it did. If by any chance you end up not having the line are visible, it's always a good idea to take a photograph of the Leinart with your phone and just have it next to you. That way you are able to check to see if you are missing anything. But I'm quite comfortable with doing these, so it's fine. Even if I'm doing different from what they waas, it's find me doing doing it freehand. I feel quite comfortable at this stage. Here we are. I'm just going to use this color for the nails, because why don't and the males are you? We tend to do the little circle thing that they have. Just leave the highlight. That's one new. If you are just a little bit unsure, you can just do the outline first did circle and you can see where the shine is just fill out around it and you have no problem. I'm just going to go over where I went afterwards. Here, though, it's in change, but And this one, I would also still have a little bit of nail here, so I'm just going to quickly do here, and that's the hand done. So now we're just going to the book, and by this in this stage, I will use this brush just because it's easier to control and we are going to first check if this is dry, it might not still be so. I'm just going to quickly, Okay, this is just make sure because we don't want to repeat what we happen here. And we're just going to go when? Sometimes I don't outline everything. For example, I am not sure if I'm going to outline the outside of belief. I'm going to create a little shadow here within the the Leinart just to give it a living. What? I mentioned same thing here. This is just little trick that you end up getting in the way. This one. I'm just going to do that again. I'm not going to carry on the line just because it gives it, the more softer look and this brush, even though it's very fine, it's long, so it allows a little bit of wait variation, which is always nice. Really like this. Thank you. Newest show years. So there's some separation of the stem and just do something Here is a little it doesn't feel as empty. Okay, so this is one of the main, So just doing something simple and this can actually be a bud. So let's just covered like this. So don't be afraid of changing things in the process. So this is now a little flower, but that we have here. So don't be worried that you change things in the middle. Your painting does not have to be the same when you doesn't have to be the same. When you started, you can always change it up a little bit, and that's totally fine. Okay, if you want to have a little bit of fun as well, you can just have a big weather is, huh, Jack, to see if it's thin, you can just fill it out a little bit. Just makes him shapes here. I can't make some shadows. Just have some fun with it okay, At this stage, we're pretty much finished with the watercolor. I would just do a little with. I would just do a little bit of a touch up here because this is feeling very, um, shape was even though it is in the background. So it's fine to not have as much of shape because the farther we are the last details office. But it's not that far away that it would not have form. So I'm just going to quickly give it a little bit of form here and just doing a little touch up here then at this stage is just looking at the piece and seeing what feels or empty or just not quite is done. But to me, this is pretty much done. What I would do eventually is just with a little quick acrylic pan or something. Just add a few more details, but since his this is a watercolor class, I will not use that. So this is our peace complete. Just a small recap you can just use went to wet to just lay out the color that you want and create any soft Grady and such as this we created this in the wet, wet stage in the wet to dry stage. If you want to just at some more color, you can just use this little bit here and this here. And we also painted the leaves in this stage. So it's whatever you want any shadow to be clean or have any edges that can be seen, and then our final stage to try to dry. We added any details that we wanted that I choose the leaves, the stands, the nails, anything that you want to be very sharp and clear. Remember that it's very important for the layer underneath to be completely dry before you apply any color. Otherwise, you'll have some feathering, such as what happened here because I completely forgot we had fixed a little hedge here, so it was still a little bit with. So this is our final recap
9. Final Thoughts: So we have reached the end of our class and I very proud of you to make it this far. And I hope you enjoyed it and that you left here with a little bit of more breast with watch patrol. Of course, remember that it takes practice. Watercolor can be a tricky medium to pester, mostly because of watch control. Remember to think with you the steps when you are working on your own illustrations and that what the control is actually a very vital part of watercolor, and it does take practice. I also can't wait to see your creation, So please share your projects in the project. That's so I can always see. And if you do have any questions or any doubts, you're more than welcome to contact me. And I'll be more than happy to help. Thank you so much for thinking part of this class and hopefully seeing one Excellent by
Biahibiscuart, Illustrator /Content Creator
