Mastering Dimension: Painting A 3D Ribbon in Watercolor

1. Introduction: If you want to improve your watercolor paintings, there are some techniques that you need to learn. And one of these very important technique is how to render 3D form over to the drawing using lights and shadow. Now, I could tell you to feel dozens of little squares with graded washes. But no, that's not what we're going to do in this class. Instead, we're going to learn how to render 3D form by painting an object. And the best objects to paint. To do this exercise is a ribbon. Ribbons can have various folds and turns. And you can see the light shining on them. So it's perfect for this type of exercise festival. I will explain to you briefly the structure of a refund. Then I will show you not only how to draw a ribbon. And yes, I will say the template for you, but also to trace your drawing. I'll give you a great tip here so you don't want to skip this lesson. I will show you step by step my process for painting the ribbon from the first wash, the base wash to the different layers, all the way to adding the shadows. And I'll touch up on dry brushing too. I'll show you how I mix the colors and there is another gem of a tip here. In this lesson too. I'll explain what a glaze layer is. And at the end, I will give you examples of the versatility of the skills you've learned in painting ribbons, demonstrating how they can be applied. Other subjects too. The way if you can't draw a ribbon straightaway, I have provided you with a picture and tracing. So you can just use that and start here, Watercolor Painting. By the end of the class, you will have an understanding of form, shadow, light, movement, and then you will be able to infuse this in your next paintings. Whether you're painting a ribbon or a leaf, or even the delicate folds of fabric. So if you ready, Let's get started. 2. Class Project: The class project will be, of course, to paint your very own ribbon. You can use the templates and pictures that I gave you. Or you can use your own ribbon. Just make sure that if this is the first time you're doing this exercise, to keep a simple, use just one color ribbon and maybe use a short ribbons so you don't have too many folds. And to deal with, be sure to posterior project in the project section. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask because I'm here for you. And I have a special treat for you. If you post your project in the project section, you will be entered in a job. And then one lucky students will win a signed print of death choice from a selection of my watercolors. So join me and let your watercolors shine. 3. Materials: In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the materials you will need. You might not need everything, but let's just go through it. So if you want to make the template like this one, you will need some paper, the ruler, and different colored pens. You can have one of these, which brings me back to my school days. It's got different colors or you can have just three different colored pens, whatever, whatever color you like. And then you can just make this 0. You can download the template. I've put in downloads for you. So you don't have to do it yourself. And you will need some thin wire. If you want to do this template, you can always skip that if you like. And then you will need some paper or a notebook to do your sketches of the ribbon. And if you like me like to do the sketch and then trace it and transfer it on watercolor paper, then you will need some tracing paper. That's what I use very often, but not only this, so you can just use any tracing paper that you like. And then once it's transferred, well, of course you will need watercolor paper. So I'm going to use my old sketchbook, which I love. It's with Saunders Waterford paper and this Andrew percent cotton watercolor paper, 300 g. And it's hot pressed, although it has a little bit of a tooth, this paper, but you can use any watercolor paper that you like to work with. So it doesn't have to be he doesn't have to be hot press either. But I like hot press because that's how I work for my botanical painting. And the smooth surface means that you get cleaner lines, but just use the paper that you, the yellow window you work with. Then you will need everything for the Color Palette. So you need a Palette. This is a ceramic palette. You can use a plastic one. I prefer these ones because they don't stain. And you can use a flat palette like this, which I'm currently using as well. Or one where the whales. And then you will need of course the paint. So you don't need these many pains. This is just me being enthusiastic about watercolor. So you can just a couple of paint or just even one, doesn't matter. But I would suggest maybe just a few so you can mix and make the color darker. But you could even just use one color and start with a light wash and make it more and more pigment. So you don't need a lot of paint for this project. And then you will need some paper towel or even a cotton cloth. As you can see, I've been using this quite a lot. Stained just to draw your brushes. And you will need, of course, a jar for water. I used to use one for clean water and one to wash the brush. And then of course, brushes. Brushes are a very personal choice. So I like to use the C37 winter Newton. These are the miniature one. So these are like various specialists, stick specialized brushes. They're quite expensive so you don't have to use these ones. You can use a cheaper version, which is the Princeton brushes. I mean, this is a bit big. Probably for the template I will give you. But if you have smaller ones, just use the brush that you feel comfortable with. I really love the series 7 min your brushes for the way I work in way. But I understand that they are a little bit expensive. And of course, you will need pencil and eraser if you decide to do your sketches, which I've asked. And I will give you a tracing of the ribbon I'm going to paint. So you don't have to draw it. If you don't want to. If you just want to practice your watercolor skills. And a radio address, which means right side. So I will understand which side needs to go when I'm tracing it, but I can show you that later on. Okay. So I think we're ready to start. So we see you in the next lesson. 4. Anatomy of a Ribbon: Hi there. In this lesson we're going to have a look at the structure of a Ribbon and where the light and shadow fall. So if you've seen any of my other classes, you will know how I like to make templates for just for ease of understanding. And of course, this is a bit stiffer than a ribbon would be. But basically you just make a template to like this. So just three lines, red, green, and blue, but they can be any color as long as they are different. Then you cut it. And when you cut it, make sure that you leave a couple of millimeters so you can still see the line. Then you just stick some thin wire at the back with tape and then you give it the shape. So just turn it. And what it will do is it will give you the opportunity to see, am I will look at how the light falls on the folds of the Ribbon. So if you see this one here, so in here you can see it's not strong, but you can see there is a shadow on this side because the light is coming from the left. So there's a shadow on this side. There's a shadow inside here, and there's a shadow here and here. And then as this one turns, the light hits it in here. And then of course, this sides this and this are exposed to light, the light and this one as well. So if you turn it, you will see how it changes. So if we put it this way, then we will see that there's a shadow in here, and then the light hits this side. And then again shadows on this side, of course, the light hits here and here where it starts to turn this way. So this one catches the light. So if you want to make a ribbon like this template and then you can give it different shapes. And he's just the, for you to understand the, this particular structure. Then in the next lesson, I will show you How to actually draw a ribbon like this. So I will see you in the next lesson. 5. Let's Draw The Ribbon: In this lesson, I'm going to show you how to draw the Ribbon. And it will probably look a little bit different. You view from my view, but I just going to explain the technique I use. It doesn't really matter if it's exactly the same. My drawing to this, what you see. The first thing I like to do when during the ribbon is to draw the, let's call it the mid vein because acted as if it was a leaf. Because this method is also very good. If you want to Draw Leaves, very long leaves like a memoryless leaves over daffodil leaves, which are long and sometimes they they bend. So I follow them mid, mid trip and just go something like that. Good. First fold. Turns again, finishing below that. So that's our midrib. And I'm going to make it green. Because we were going to do different lines. Of course we would need to erase these are some, a certain point, but it will be easy for you to follow if it's a different color. So steady hand this morning. Okay. And then let's start with the right side, which is the red side. So it starts on the right. So let's start like this. If you want, you can do some lines here to show where the ribbon is intersecting with the midrib. And somewhere here, there. So in here, this line crosses the midrib. Somewhere there. Follows the midrib. And then here it crosses again and is at the back. So let's close this again. There is at the back. Then in here process again. And is actually crossing probably around here. Then here it crosses again. So somewhere there. And then we can draw the blue line. So somewhere around here. And the blue line crosses the midrib and it comes out the other side. So somewhere like that. And then again, process the midrib there like this. And then it causes the midrib again. And there was follow the midrib, the sides. And then it causes again there. Okay. And now we just have to link the sides there, which are these ones. And, or you have to do now is get rid of the lines you don't need. So for example, for this one here, and of course, this midrib here, you shouldn't be able to see it. But I made the green so I can erase it. But it will give you the idea anyway. And then here, you don't need this line, which was the red one. And then here, this line, and here, see this line. Alright. What I'll do is I take some tracing paper and let's trace this without all the extra lines. Alright, so now you can see better the shape of the ribbon. So of course you can take a little bit more time and refine the drawing a little bit better, but it gives you the idea of the Ribbon already. And then where you need to do is to just to add the shadow areas. So somewhere around here. Then here. And as you can see, gives you already daily over ribbon. So that's how to draw it. But I will add a downloadable tracing of the ribbon. If you don't want to draw it, The worry about it, you can just move on to the exercise with watercolor. It's nice. I would advise you to try and list and practice because we drawing, you just need to practice. There's nothing else does not secret, secret sauce or something, magic pill or anything like that to just practice. And you will get there. As CEO in the next lesson. 6. Tracing the Ribbon: Before we go ahead with the painting of the rubber, I just wanted to show you this little trick. I've already traced the Ribbon in my sketchbook. Now, normally if you want to trace something on a loose piece of paper, then you can just put this on a light box with the paper on top. And that's it. Bob is your ankle as the English people say. But if you want to do this on a sketchbook, a bound sketchbook, then you can't put this on a light box. So what I do in this case is, is this little trickier. So you have your ribbon. And that's why I wrote right side. So this is decide you want you want it to be on your sketchbook. You turn it the other way round. I already trace it, so it's quite dark, but I'll do it again. So what you do is you go over the lines and trace it. I wouldn't need to do the whole thing, but that's why you do trace every single line. So this is quite simple, the more complicated, but you want to get every single line and then get rid of you. You need some paper underneath, otherwise you will have the faint, maybe you can see it probably. But you will have the faint outline of your previous pencil drawing. I'll give you that. Put it on your sketch book where you want it to, to be. Maybe do it on this side. Then I'm going to use this. I didn't put it in your materials list because it's a little bit expensive and it's a specialized to I don't remember this actor name at the moment, but it's something that they use in bookmaking. I will look it up and write it for you if you want to. Check. If you want to get one. But you can use a spoon. So just the back of a spoon. Sometimes if it's only a small thing, you can use your finger as well. But it's really good. And what you do is you want to guess some low tack tape, some artist's tape. Again, if it's small, you might just want to hold holds your tracing paper, but it might move. So I'm going to fix it like this. And then with your spoon or this tool, which I don't remember what is called, you just press on top of your lines. It might take a few times going over it. And you can check to see where the lines are transferred. So it's a bit faint, but you don't want it to dark either when you're painting Watercolor. Alright. Well, I'll stop here just, this is just to show you anyway. And when you remove it, you see here I needed to go over it again. And then the as well, but just keep checking it this way. I the tape one on one side so I can lift it. But just be careful not to move the the tracing. Otherwise you will have a double line. So if it's a more complicated during then you might want to fix it even more. Like for example, I could have put some more on this side. And that's it. That's your you tracing. So I wouldn't bring it closer. Then you can use your kneading eraser, for example, to lighten the lines even more. If it's going to be something very light. If you're painting a white flower, you want even lighter lines than these. But this is a handy tip that another incredibly skilled Watercolor Artist, which is my uncle, taught me. So you can use it now. So now we can move to the next lesson where we can apply the first wash 7. Color Mixing: Before we start painting, we need of course, to mix the colors. Now. If you want to mix a color and if you don't want to use green, you can use any color you want, just follow the light and shade. But if you want to mix a green, you can do that. And it doesn't have to be an exact, exact green. It can be something similar because we're not painting botanical painting. In this case. It's just an exercise. And what I do is I have this little booklet which I show you how I did it. Did the template here in another class. Which is, if I remember well, How to Mix Luminous colors. If you want to have a look at that class to see this. But basically it's something that I like to do in my spare time because it comes in very handy when you want to find a color and you want a starting point. In this case, for example, this is a very brilliant green, something that you don't really find in nature, I suppose. But if you want to do a still-life or a bunch of flowers with a green bow. Then you can find these Kara. And it's something similar probably to one of these colors on this I can really brilliant greens. And again, I explain how to get 2 billion colors and more opaque, more muted colors in the other class. But if you want a brilliant green, you need a yellow and blue, which have both a tendency to green, Winsor lemon as a tendency to green, and Winsor blue, green shade. So we can start mixing these two. We are Winsor Lemon. And when to blue-green shade. This if you don't need a lot, is quite a strong color. So always add the colors a little at the time. And always have a little bit of scrap paper to test your color. This is not bad, but it's very brilliant. So what we need to do is we need to mute it a little bit. And to do that, we use a little bit of quinacridone, magenta, just a tiny, tiny bit. Just add the magenta or the red. When you're doing this very slowly. So in fact, maybe it was a little too much already. Because this is not a lot of color. I will need to make a more, but I think this is close enough. So I'm going to make more color because it's good to have enough color to finish the entire project. But this is a K. I mean, it's not exactly the same and it looks even more different on camera, unfortunately. But it doesn't have to be an exact match. Then once you have this color, which I call the local color, you will need to make another couple of colors. But the first one is just the local color when more water. And that's gonna be the base wash. So it's gonna be a very light wash. Just to start with. Then you need the darker color. And to do that, you can use, I mean, some people say to use a complimentary color to the green, which will be red. But if you put more red in this mix, you will have a brown. So that's not advisable. What I normally do is I use a darkening Mix. So it's this mix here, the dark one. And it's basically a black. You take a little bit of this and you add it to your base color until it becomes darker. And I'm using that for another project at the moment. So add some mixed already. And as you can see, is become dark, but it's still green brown. And to make the darkening Mix. So this type of sketch book is really good. It's, I call a recipe book where you want to do. So. This is the doctrine mix. It mix Winsor blue, green shade, quinacridone, magenta, and Winsor yellow or lemon yellow. So it's basically the same colors that are used here, but in different proportions. And you will get darkening Mix. So I'm just going to do it for you quickly. So we have the magenta, the Winsor blue, green shade. And you would get a, a purple color, quite a strong purple. And then to this you start adding the yellow. This is Winsor lemon. And then it's a matter of balancing. So at the moment is a kind of brown. So you need to add then small amounts of blue and red to get it to the right. Dark, light, dark shade. So it's going to look like a black. So it's already getting there. Just studying a little bit more red and is getting to the right black shade. And then you can dilute it down. I'm just dipping my brush in water without drying it. And the brushing water in touch it to the side like that and it will dilute it down. It's not exactly a problem gray yet, but that's why you need to do you just adjust. These are tiny amounts of red and blue and yellow until you get the perfect shade. So it needs to be quite dark like this and then you can dilute it down. And this is a good mix to paint white flowers. So I'm gonna make more paint and then we can start painting the ribbon. I'll see you in the next lesson. 8. First Layer Base Wash: We're ready now to apply the first wash. And I have printed a picture of the Ribbon and they have a color version in black and white version. And then going to put these in your downloads. And the black and white is to help you visualize the dark and light areas without being distracted by the color. So I always have something like this to help me just visualize where the dark should be in the very light color should be. And I have my three colors. So I have the local color, the main color of the ribbon. And then I made a lighter version just by adding water and then a darker version by adding the darker green mix. I'm going to apply some water. I'm gonna to this a little bit. And it's good to applies just a water wash. This, especially in dry climates, because this will prepare your, your paper for the application of the color. In this case, even if it dries, is not a huge problem. But it's good to prime the paper a little bit. Don't normally stretch the paper because I work quite dry. I mean, I usually work like wet on dry paper so I don't use too much too much water. Okay. And now I'm going to apply the paint. I'm just going to do a simple flat wash. And if you need to brush up on your techniques, you Basic Techniques ever a class that you can watch? Where I explain all the basics like the flat portion, wait on dry and so on. And just adding some water because it looks like it's still a bit too dark. In this case, you can just apply the color to the whole surface without worrying about sections. If you feel the color is a bit too much on your brush, just dab it on the paper and it would take some of the color away. And then when you brush it back, when you when you're wash here, it will absorb some of the color. Okay. Just make sure that the entire surface is covered. And although this may look like like everything is color, then you have highlights here. When you start applying the darker color than disliked color will look really liked. So that's fine. The important thing is that you always start with very, very light washes. You can always darken watercolors, but it's much more difficult, if not impossible to lighten watercolor. So you will never go wrong if you do. I liked wash and then just add more. And if there are some hard edges forming, you can just dumping your brush, touch it on your paper towel and just rub it lightly on the on the side where the edges are formed. Because sometimes when there is a wash like this quite wet, it might form some hard edges, but you can smooth them out in this way. Okay, so we need to let this dry. And then we can come back to carry on with a with a darker color. See you in the next lesson. 9. Second Layer: The first layer is now dry, the base wash layer. So we can proceed with the next layer and the paint has dried a little bit. So you just need to basically reactivated. And I use a little bit of water and it just reactivate it. And now we need a little bit of a thicker paint, still not too thick because otherwise it won't. I mean, it will make some unsightly effects if you use very thick paint straight away. So let's make it a little bit thicker. So add a little bit more pigment to my first wash. And now what we can do for the second Layer, we can either work wet on dry. So I can show you this technique then is the one that I prefer. So start from here, moving up a little bit and they want to do is I pick up some some paint. Then this closer, hopefully I will make a mess because I need to show you what I do with the water as well. I play some color like this in the darker area. And then what to do is say, a dip my brush in water and tap it on the side, debit on the paper towel, and then adjust the color to feed it likely, and then do it again. So it's important that you know your brush because you don't want too much water left on your brush. When you do this. Because if there's too much water, it would click create the bloom effect. So these brushes hold quite a lot of water, although it's very short, but it still holds a lot of water, so I need to tap it on the paper towel. Another brush might not need that. Then as I'm smoothing slightly the edge. So it doesn't form a hard edge. And then a different method is to wet the paper first. So this side just put clear water. And I liked this method when is a large village area where it's a bit more difficult to do a weight on dry technique. But other ways I use the wet on dry and then pick up the color. And I start again from the darker area. And they just dropped the color. This. Again, I will rinse my brush as I did before and ties the color pigment like that. And then there is another darker area on this side. So I'm going to apply some color. And in this case your paint could be a little bit thicker because it's going to be diluted by the water that is already in the paper. But I've used the same. And if you find that the paint is spreading too much, you can always dry your brush and just soak up some of the paint to live. The white area. Don't really like this method that much. It's not the one I use normally, and it's really a personal preference. So I'm going to do the same thing with the other sections. And why you need to do this. You need to look where the darker areas areas are. And then just start from there. Then sometimes there's third. And I don't set like from the paint but next to the paint. It's very hot in here. In the paint is drying very fast. But if you've tried to work a bit quickly, you should be okay with this is Technique And then while it's still wet, you can always add a little bit more in mix the two techniques, really. There's a little bit of a dark area on this side. But here's the darkest. This is dark but not as dark as this. And this is the latest. We need to reproduce that. But it's starting to dry, so I'll leave it for now. And we can always add more pigment. And then in here, the darkest area is on this side. I'm just rinsing my brush and tap it on the paper towel and then fade the color. And you just keep doing it until it's light enough. Sometimes you just left with water basically on the brush. And I'm going to add a little bit of pigment here. Because this area is also a bit darker, is where the ribbon folds. And in here as well. Since today is a particularly hot today, I'm going to wet the paper first, then let it down a little bit. And this will help the paint to stay a little bit wet, a little bit longer. So again, here we have a darker area. On this edge. Watercolor painting. It's a very unique to so many things like the climate and the paper you're using. This paper is nice, but it's got a bit of a tooth, so it tends to give you a rough edges. And here as you can see, the Paint tried really, really fast. Again, the paper is basically absorbing quite a lot when I use arches. It doesn't do this type of thing so fast. But that doesn't matter because we painting in light layers and we painting lots of layers on top of one another. So when we would paint the other layers, this effect won't be noticeable anymore. So we're gonna let this dry. And then we can carry on with the next Layer. 10. Third Layer: I had to change paper. So I changed to Arches hot press paper 300 g because the sketchbook paper wasn't that good for this type of climate. We have close to 40 degrees Celsius today here. So it dries too quickly. Even this paper, they add this one. It's becoming a bit difficult to work with it, but it's still better. But I did the same thing. So the base wash and the second Layer. And you've seen that the other paper, so it's the same technique and we can carry on from here. So basically, I will just add another layer with a slightly thicker color. So the, the local color that we mix the at the beginning and is still the same sort of technique. So you can do a wet on wet on wet to dry like I'm doing. And I'm basically just applying the color. I start applying the color where I see the darkest areas. So in this case on the top here. And then once they get to where it starts becoming lighter than I did my brushing, what a reentered, um, then, uh, up at once on the kitchen towel, and then just the color forward. And there's a little bit of a darker area on this side, so while it's still wet and just to play this color here. And then do the same thing with a dump brush. Just ties to Color. Forward. Then I just carry on with the same technique for the other areas. If you see here, this area is lighter than this, but it's still darker than the highlight. I'm going to play bit more color in here. Like another wash on top. Would darken this area and live this dark still. But not on this area. So I'm going to rinse my brush and just to play, basically just water this side. So you don't have marks. Vo2max in here? One important thing to do when you are working with highlights such as these lighter areas. You shouldn't leave the light area too small. So when you're making your darker areas, when you're working with your dark areas, always leave it bigger than it is. Because you can always make the area smaller. But it's very difficult to light in an area where you already added color. Alright, so we have our third Layer here. And notice there is a little bit of a shadow there, little tiny one. I'm going to add a little bit of color here. And then faded away. We might dump brush. This is our third Layer. And at this point, you can decide if you want to add one more layer to smooth out the color a bit more. And I'm noticing there is a little bit of a dark area there as well. I'm just going to do the same here and a little bit of color and smooth it out. And so you can either, as I was saying, I don't know the Layer or you can do some dry brushing. The dry brushing. It's a technique where you need a lot of passions and end time, and you have to be prepared not to rush because it takes a very long time. But if you want, you can just add another layer which is going, I'm going to do in the next lesson. And then you can just leave it as it is. You don't have to to do anything else. Other ways you can take it to the next level and start the dry brushing. So I will see you in the next lesson. 11. Glazing: Now that the latest layer has dried, we can proceed and apply the next layer. So I'm, I've decided to apply one more layer before I go applied the darker paint. So just to basically unify everything, one way to do this is actually to do a very light wash like we did at the very beginning. So what I do is I get some of the first, so the lighter color. And I make a little bit of a light wash here. So just prepare some some color. And whether do is I would just applied this light wash over the entire shape again. And this USE will unify your your color basically. And it's still leaves the lighter area as long as it's very, very light. So just to show you how light this is, you can almost can see it on camera. But it's very good for unifying your previous layers. And just do this very lightly. Try not to disturb the layers underneath, because if you rub your brush, it will start to disturb the layers underneath. And this is a good way also to change the color a little bit when you want to. If you have a color, for example, that is not exactly as you wanted it, you can correct it to a certain extent with this technique. If it's too much of a difference, then you won't be able to do that. But if it's only slightly, you just need a small adjustment and then you can use this. Like a glazing is called on top. And as you can see, it looks already more uniform. So looking at it, we will need to darken quite a bit some of these areas. But to do that, I'm not going to apply another layer of the same color, but I'm going to use our darker color because you can darken a color up to a certain point, but then it won't make any difference no matter how many layers you could have put on top of it. It just makes it thicker but not to darker. So I'm going to wait for this to dry and then I'm going to Apply the darker color. And I would do that in the next lesson. 12. Applying The Darks: So the wash layer has dried and now we're ready to play the darker color. So it will start from the bottom here. And do exactly as I've done so far, but puts less, a smaller amount. And then rinse the brush and then sort of ties the color towards the lighter area. This point they're almost a clean brush. And then it's just water just to avoid leaving marks. And you just proceeds like this. Everywhere you see a darker color. So as you can see, it's just a matter of applying many layers and always working from from light to dark. And this will be the best way really to avoid unsightly marks made by the color being too thick and trying to be to go too dark too soon. If you see it making a little bit of a sort of small stains, don't worry about it because you can always smooth them out with dry brushing. So in, in here is the most difficult part because it's kind of in the middle there. The darkest, darkest area. Slant, slanting a little bit like this. And then you have to be fast to soften the edges on both sides. And with the dry weather we're having, It's not very easy. Because everything drains in a matter of seconds. There are things you can use to make the paint dry a bit slower. So Winsor Newton has this media, I think the cold, and I actually never use them, but they're supposed to make the paint stay wet a bit longer. I'm gonna leave it and then come back to this because I want to darken these areas as well. Because this one is okay, but this area is a bit darker, so I will come back once this is dry. And then in here, the same thing. And we can always darken this green a little bit more with the darkening mix by adding a little bit more delicately Mix. Don't make it too dark. Of course. Just slowly step-by-step. I'm just rinsing the brush until I have basically a clean brush and just apply water. Maybe we can apply a little bit of this here on this side. Then. I think decide this quite a lot darker. So what I'd do is say, I add, I will put some of these here. When I add the decorative mix, it's making it a bit darker. You can see this area here is much darker than this area, although here we have shadow. Always look properly or your subject or your, your reference image. Then you just cannot. Some of this darker Mixing here as well. Alright. This is dried. So what I do is say, I take the darker mix but watered down a little bit. And then applied here from where the darkest area is, basically until the fold. And that would darken this area. You might have to repeat quite a few layers with this method. But then you won't risk having something too dark and not be able to go back. So for example here, I want to make it darker. This J. What I do is I just apply again a layer of a darker pigment than just smooth out the edges. This ADA is probably a little bit darker than this, but don't want to make it too dark like on this side. So I'm going to use the the mid color again and maybe make it less watery. Layer here. Just move it down to Mix, decide also a little bit darker. So now it's just a matter of checking that you go all day, dark areas where they should be. So there's a little bit of a darker area here. Just drinks. And then once you can again do a very, very, very light wash like we did before, just to unify the colors again. And then at this point you can just leave it as it is. Make sure you have all your Darks where there should be. I realized that on camera, this these dark areas look a little bit later than they actually are in reality. But don't be afraid of making, making these as dark as you need them to be. And then if you want, you can add the day Brush layer or you can leave it like this. It could be finished already. Just make sure, for example, here I can add a little bit more of the darker green and probe is slightly darker here as well. But that's it. That's more or less so we finished 13. Dry Brush: Alright, so we have our final ribbon here. I've strengthened the darkest area a little bit more. So there you can see them on video as well. And then it's a matter of checking that you're happy with your Darks and your lights. And this is basically how you convey a 3D effect to a Painting. And the next thing I would do if this was a botanical painting, for example, I will take care one of these small brushes. This is a double zero and basically with a paint. So didn't follow my own advice and didn't mix enough because now there's very little left. But I would do use the darker paint and just pick up a little bit of paint. And sometimes I use like a like a spear scrap paper and do a little like a few lines. And then with the brush, just go over your, um, your painted areas just to smooth out any sort of stains, any lighter areas where there shouldn't be any bits where the color didn't go down the page very smoothly. And just use it as you would a like a pencil or most. And it looks like you're not doing much. So i'm I'm sure you're thinking she's not really doing anything at the moment. But if you do this on your, uh, when you're painting, you will see that it will start smoothing these areas. Somebody in here. Let me see if I can put the camera closer just a second. Okay. So it's a little bit closer. Maybe still not close enough. So here you can see there was a little bit of a area where the color didn't didn't go smoothly. So with this technique of the dry brushing, you can just smooth out any of these areas and also add a little bit of shadow where they were. There should be so darken the color a little bit. Then sometimes they just don't rinse it a little bit and just apply just to the same thing with the water and smooth out the color. So you don't have to do this because it's a very long process. And it's basically if you want to make this really, really professional reader is mood. For a botanical painting. I would do this process. But I wanted to show you just in case you want to do it. You can add a bit more. And it will take a very long time to do this. Because as you can see, it's almost like, I don't know if you've ever colored we color pencils, but it's almost like using a pencil to smooth out all these areas and using sort of little hatching and crosshatching lines as well. So when you finish, you will have a very, very smooth painting using this process. But it would take quite awhile. But this is the technique really you need to use. Just do this little tiny lines like this. And maybe crosshatching. And just tickling the paper. With your brush. With a weight is more Brush. And as you can see, it looks like when you do it here that you didn't do anything but he actually applying color. So it will smooth the areas that need this sort of work. And I will put this in your downloads as well so you can have a look at it. And that's it. I hope you enjoyed making the Ribbon with me and I can't wait to see your ribbons. 14. How to Apply Your New Skills: In this lesson, I wanted to show you how you can apply the skills that you've learned in this class to other objects other than ribbons. Because let's face it, how many ribbons are you going to paint? But I just wanted to know that the skills are applicable to other things as well. So for example, if you want to paint leads, I wanted to get some long leaves, the normally naturally bent, but in some, I couldn't find anything like that. I got some oleander leaves. I'm not sure how this is so big. Never seen these oleander leaves this big, but it will serve the purpose, the normalised straight, but I will bend them for you. If you will find the plant with leaves that grow like this that are naturally bent, then you can apply what you learned by painting the ribbon. Because as you can see, the shadow underneath here, you have a little bit of a shadow is turning the light here with the latest hitting, and then you have the light here. So it's a bit like this situation where you have the shadow and light in the leaves might be sort of twisting and turning. This is one thing. One instance where you can apply, where you have learned. Then I have made some quick sketches of some leaves that I just came up with. But just to show you. So basically you, you're painting the leaf that is turning so you will have light with the light is hitting it and then the dark here and then light again here and the same here. So this can be examples of leaves. And here this is a painting I did. So you have this rebound effect here. So you have the dark side here, a little bit of a darker area here, and then light. And light. So you can see is the same thing so that there. But also you can apply this knowledge to curling petals. If you have roses, for example, this happens a lot. So you can see this dark here and then the light where the petal is curving towards the light, needs the same thing with the other petals. So basically, you can apply these to painting flowers as well. But it's not just for botanical painting that this scale is very useful. You can apply it. For example, if you want to paint flowing hair, curling waves, even or even. For example, some fabric. If you want to do as still-life and you want to add the fabric to it, then you can see the folds work a bit like the ribbon effect. So I can turn a little bit. And so you have the dark here. And then as it goes towards the light and becomes lighter and then the lightest part. If you want to do this sort of work. You can see is the same principle. These are just examples that highlight the versatility of the skills learned in painting ribbons, demonstrating how they can be applied to a variety of subjects. Even for simple curling stems and wines, can be something that you can paint, applying this the skills that you learned here. So by understanding the form, light and shadow and movement, you can infuse your artwork with depth, realism, and a sense of life. Whether you're painting leaves, petals or the delicate folds of fabric. I hope you've found this useful, and I hope you enjoyed it. 16. Final Thoughts: Congratulations on completing the class. The next step is of course, to keep practicing, keep painting more ribbons. And then you can apply this skill to other objects to, for example, to Leaves. If you'd like, any health will add. You can check my other class on during leaves, and then you can combine these two skills together. So keep practicing, keep painting, and you will see your paintings improve greatly. Don't forget to post pictures or your paintings in the project section. And also don't forget to hit the follow button somewhere up there so that you can be notified as soon as I post a new class. If you'd like to keep in touch my social links somewhere here. You can also check out my Skillshare profile for more classes. Also, if you liked this class, if you found that useful, I will be grateful if you can leave a good review, because that will be really helpful. And also it would have to keep the class live here on Skillshare. So thanks again for taking the glass, and I see you in the next class. Bye