Transcripts
1. About the Class: Are you looking for a fun and
simple watercolor project to practice wet on wet technique and basic painting skills? Join me in this class
where we will paint a vibrant green pumpkin
using just four watercolors, one brush, and a
watercolor paper. I will guide you
through every step, starting with art materials and sketch and to the step by
step painting process. We will use wet
and wet technique, and I will explain every
step and color mix I use. This class is suitable
for all levels. So whether you are a beginner or feel confident with watercolor, you'll find this project
engaging and accessible. As a class project, you will paint a green
pumpkin with watercolor. To submit your class project, you will need to make a
photo of your painting and upload it to the
class project section. I'm always looking forward to the paintings of my students, and I will be happy to
share my feedback with you. And don't forget
to leave review. Your feedback is very important. This class is a great way to spend some time
with yourself, enjoying painting
in a cozy evening. I feel excited and
ready to start, grab your brushes,
prepare watercolors, and I'll see you in the class.
2. Materials: Hello, my dear friends. In this lesson, we will paint this very artistic
green pumpkin. And for this painting, I
will use four watercolors. Yellow Oca paints gray, green, and cadmium orange deep. For list of materials you can find in the description
under this lesson. I will use watercolor
paper aurora, 100% cellulose, 300 GSM,
cold press texture. The pad is glued. And I will use one
synthetic brush number eight, as coda parla. Feel free to replace it with any synthetic brush
that you normally use. And now let's move to painting.
3. Pumpkin Sketch: Hello again. In this lesson, we will paint a pumpkin. Pumpkins are so colorful
and different shapes and sizes that they are perfect
for painting with watercolor. You can find the
reference photo of our pumpkin in the
attachments to this lesson, and we will start with a sketch. To sketch accurately, I
use this citing method. I start by holding my pencil at arm's length fully extended
to measure key proportions. First, I choose a reference
like the width of the pumpkin and use my thumb
to mark it on the pencil. Then I compare this
measurement to other parts like the height
of the pumpkin and stem. I also tilt the pencil
to capture angles, which helps me transfer
them precisely onto paper. This technique keeps
everything in balance, making the sketch
more realistic. With the siting method, I placed the main shape of
the pumpkin on the paper, and now it's time to
get into the details. Now it's time to sketch
segments of the pumpkin. According to the
law of perspective, the middle segment of the pumpkin will be wider
and the bigger one. O Now, my sketch is done and I can
move to the painting part. Oh
4. First Layer: Before I start painting, I will prepare my color
mixes on the palette. First mix is yellow
Oca and paints gray. This mix needs a lot of water because it will be the
basic color of the pumpkin. If you will take a
look at the reference, you will see that
it's almost like eggshell white or
light base white. So for example, now, I mixed this color, which can be suitable, but I need to add more water. Another mix will be green
color and orange color that I will use for these dark
green spots on the pumpkin. Before I start
painting, as always, I use kneadable eraser to
remove these hard pencil lines. And I will start by covering the middle segment
with a clean water. Then I will apply this basic
color to the wet surface. I'm moving my brush from
the top to the bottom. And if you have too much water on the
surface of the paper, you can use paper towel
and just dry your brush. You need to make the paper damp, but avoid puddles on the paper. Now, when my basic
color is done, I will carefully apply some green shade on the
edges of this segment. I add just a little dots and
a little brush strokes so the color would blend with the existing base color
of the first layer. I can also add a little spots of the yellow Ocham and
our main task is to not make too many spots right now because the color easily
travels on the wet surface. So be careful because
we still need to keep this very light
color of the pumpkin. Now I can mix a little
bit of green with yellow Ocha and paints gray
that are left on the palette, and with a pretty light color, I can paint the bottom
of this segment. I add some little spots
with yellow ca on the surface that got dry and
the spots are very small. Somewhere I apply
this color next to the wet surface and connecting
it to the wet area, letting the colors blend. I can reapply the green
color on these spots. But you see that the
paper is almost dry so the color doesn't
travel so much. It stays in the same
area I placed it. It just helps me to refine
edges a little bit. Now I will properly clean
my brush and dry it on the paper towel so
the leftovers of the color p left on the paper. And I can start painting this right
segment of the pumpkin. Paint this area because
it's not connected to the middle segment
that we just painted. Because the paper is still wet, the colors can blend on the surface, and
we don't want that. I follow the same steps that I did with
the first segment. First, I cover it
with the light color. I use a bit more paints gray because this segment is more
further than the middle one. I applied some green
colour just like we did before and now I apply
very thick orange color. In order to create more
natural orange shade, I added some green to the
orange on the palette. No now I will paint the left segment. For the dark green spots, I will mix green and paint gray. I see that in most
of the places, color doesn't get blurry, so it doesn't travel
on the wet surface, which means that
paper got too dry. I can either wet the
surface or just apply the spots on the edges of this
segment, which I will do. I will use yellow ca
for some yellow spots. I don't use pure
colors from the tubes, and I'm trying to use color mixes with the colors I already have on the palette. For example, into
the orange color, I added a little bit
of green just to make the colors more muted
and look more realistic. Since the surface got dry and I apply spots with wet
on dry technique, I will have to reapply
the basic color later when the spots will get dry to make this
segment more dark.
5. Painting Pumpkin: Now, you already understand the main sequence of the steps, and we will continue following these steps to finish
painting the pumpkin. I'm trying to use more
opaque color to make it more dark than in the middle segment because basically all the
segments that are further, they will look more dark
than the middle one. It's especially important
to highlight on this edge between two segments and to show which one is dark. While the main color of this
segment is pretty light. I'm applying also some orange
color orange mixed with green to also highlight the difference between
these two segments. Once I'm done with the
biggest spots on the edge, I don't forget to place some little spots and dots on the main
surface of the segment. I'm letting colours
blend on the surface, and I'm covering all white
areas with the color. And I see that the
paper is almost dry so I can move to paint
in the next segment. When painting with watercolor, it's very important to maintain the transparency of the medium. So that's why it's very
important to clean, properly brush between different
parts of the painting, especially if you used
very opaque color, and now you need to cover area with a
very light color mix. For the last segment, I'm using colors that are left
on the palette, and I started building up the color at the bottom of the pumpkin where the shadow is. I use this muted orange color, some of the green shades, and I just apply it
to the wet surface. For this segment, I will apply some green
shade in the direction of the segment from top to the bottom with
these little spots. The paper at the top
got dry pretty fast. So I will just apply these green spots at the
edge of the segment. Now I want to darken
the green spots on the main segment of the pumpkin with wet
on dry technique. So I'm using green colour, and I apply it mainly on
the edge of the segment. So I could highlight the
edge between two segments. I can also apply some
very light mixes and also place the
dark elements next to the light spots
so the color would somewhere blend on the surface creating this watercolor effect. I want to come back to the
left segment and reapply the very light mix on
the whole surface of this segment and then apply
some dark color on the edge. Now when my pumpkin
is almost done, I can see the whole
picture and I can analyze which areas
should be darkening. And also, I want to highlight the edges
between each segment, so I will apply some
opaque green color on the edges between these segments using wet on dry technique. Once I'm done this, I can move to the last part,
painting the stem.
6. The Stem: Let's move to our final
step painting the stem. For the stem, I mixing
paints gray with some colors that are left on the palette creating
very neutral gray shade. I will start with a
pretty light mix, and then I will build
up the color as I did with the previous
parts of the pumpkin. I'm using this
neutral gray shade, but also some other hues that
are left on the palette. It helps to unite the
whole image because I'm using all the colors that I used in other parts
of the pumpkin. I use the same direction
of the stem with my brush, and I add some more
pink gray to the mix, and I apply this slightly
dark gray shade at the top of the stem and connect in
these areas with each other. When you finish
painting your pumpkin, don't forget to submit your painting to the
class project section. I can't wait to see
your paintings. And that's it. Our
painting is done. Now we have to wait
until it gets fully dry and remove pencil
lines with a eraser. Thank you for painting with me. If you share your
painting on Instagram, don't forget to tag my account Art Cardigaf and I'll see
you in my other classes. M
Aleksandryna Gromyko, Watercolor tutorials for everyone
