Transcripts
1. Welcome: Hello, and welcome to my class. My name is Anna Stapanka
and I'm a watercolo artist. In this class, we
are going to create a beautiful landscape
step by step, from a simple pencil sketch
to a soft gradient sky, distant mountains, and a peaceful foreground
with an Asian style temple. Before we dive into
the main painting, we'll start with a
short warm up exercise to practice different
types of gradients. This will help you to get comfortable with water
control and brush work. So you feel more
confident moving forward. This course is
perfect for beginners or anyone looking to improve
their watercolor skills, especially when it
comes to creating smooth gradient washes and understanding
atmospheric perspective. So grab your brushes, and let's get started.
2. Materials: For this class, I'm going
to use watercolor paper. Here I have 100% cotton paper, and it is grain fin. It is not necessary to use the
same brand that I'm using, but I would recommend to
go with 100% cotton paper because it will allow you to work really long
on your gradient, on your washes and
pigment won't come up, like it is, for example, with the cellulose paper. Also, you will need a water cup. I'm using foldable watercolor
cup from fiber castle. Brushes, big flat brush
to bed the paper. Also this mop brush
I'm using for big washes and this brush for smaller washers, of example, to paint mountains. And these two brushes, I'm using for the details. Basically, you can go even with one brush with a sharp tip. Also, you will need an eraser. I'm using noted eraser, pencil, watercolor paints
and paper tissues to absorb excess of water
from your brush, for example. Also, for this painting, I'm going to use plastic board. It is made from acrylic glass. I'm going to wet paper
from both sides, and it would be
attached to our board, so we don't need any masking
tape or something like this.
3. Colors: So what colors we will
need for this project? First, I'm using
inten twin blue. This is dark blue color, and it has only one
pigment inside. You can replace it with
any other blue color, like ultramarine
blue, for example, but it would be lighter, but it won't be a problem. I just I like this color
because it's dark blue, intensive color, but of course, you can use any other
blue color you like. Also, lavender. This color has some
white pigment inside, and I really like
combinations with blue because they create
really soft mixes, and this soft mix we can use for creating
our soft gradient. Also, I'm using
two orange colors pearl orange and cadmium orange. But actually, you can
go just with one color. I'm using this one because
I really want to add some bright red shade
to the horizontal line. But yeah, as I already said, you can go just with one color. It would be also okay. Just be careful that your orange color doesn't have
any yellow pigment inside. Before you start, it would
be beneficial to mix your blue and orange
to see the result, to see that you don't
get any green mix. And for the darkest places, I'm going to use neutral tint. It's like a black color, but I really like also some
red violet shade it has. And I think it works
really good in the mixes. But you can go with
just black color. As you can see, our palette is really limited
for this course. You can use four or five colors.
4. Gradient: Exercise 1: Before we start
our final project, let's have a small
gradient exercise. I'm going to use the same colors I'm using in the project, and it would be really
nice warm up for you. Firstly, I want to train
one color gradient. This will be for two
color gradient and this one for three
color gradient because in our painting, we are going to have
three color gradient. Also, it is important when we work with the gradient
to create a gentle angle. So I take just masking tape, and I create some
angle for my board. Okay, so let's start
with one color gradient. At first, I want
to wet my paper. For this gradient, I'm
going to use Itantrinblue. And we are moving from
the top to bottom. Adding water. Let's add brighter color to the top. And as you can see, mostly, I have horizontal
brush movements. I think we can add even
more. Color to the top. And I will even hold
my board like this. This will help my colors
to blend together. Oh. Let's try this gradient at first and see our
result, final result. This is how my one colour
gradient looks like, and let's move to
the next exercise.
5. Gradient: Exercise 2: Second will be two
color gradient. I'm also going to wet my paper. So here I'm starting with tan tren Du and I will be
slowly adding lavender. So here I mix my
colors already on the paper. Me lavender. Okay, here should
be just lavender. Now I'm adding more dantrinblue. Here, I'm adding a mix of
dantrinblue and lavender. And here I add more lavender. And now let's let's
hold our board. And now let's tilt our board
and create our gradient. When we rotate and
tilt the board, it helps to blend
colors together. While my paper is still wet, I can I can refine, add something because we work wet on wet here and
it won't be a problem. That And now we can also dry O paper and see the final result
of two color gradient. This is how our second
gradient looks like. I really like this one. It looks very soft and has also a really soft transition
from one color to another. Now we can go to our
next and final exercise where we are going to create three color gradient that we are going to use in
our final project.
6. Gradient: Exercise 3: I wet my paper. So
for this gradient, you are going to use intertwin
blue, lavender and orange. I start with a Iduntrnblue. Slowly adding. Lavender. And now I'm adding Pearl orange. As you can see, I mix my colors together
already on the paper. So for this, I need
to come a bit up. And here will be just
our bright orange. Okay, let's come. Let's come back here. Let's add intent here. Me lavender. And now let's help our colors
to blend together. Oh In our final project, we are going to wet our
paper from both sides, so it would be easier for
you to create such graben because our paper will
stay much longer wet. This means that you can add to correct something and you will have just
more time for this. Let's dry this gradient as well. So this gradient we are going to use in our final project. Of course, for this exercise, you can use any colors you like. I just wanted to stick with the same colors I'm already
using in my project, but I would encourage you to try some other gradients because it is really very
useful exercise. I hope you liked this exercise, and we can start with
our final project. Oh.
7. Project: Pencil Sketch: So let's start with
the pencil drawing. Firstly, I start with
the horizontal line, and I want to take
it a bit lower than the center because
I want to have more space for the sky and beautiful gradient that
we are going to create. Oh Now, I'm refining my horizontal
line so it is straight. Let's show this mountain
that is the darkest. And somewhere here. Okay, let's maybe
move like this. And here we are going to have we are going to have our Asian house. This looks like a temple. And this balcony line, let's be careful to do it a
bit either lower or higher than the horizon line. Oh. Showing some details. Also, the rest of the details, I think we can show
with the brush. And let's now when
we have our temple, let's refine our mountain. Also, of course, later, you can add some details, some grass and
trees, use a brush. And also, here we
have a mountain I think our pencil
drawing is ready, and we can start
with watercolor.
8. Project: Preparing the Paper: I'm taking a big
flat brush and I start I start wetting my
paper from the backside. I use plenty of water because this will allow
me to walk longer. And also, I'm wiping off extra water along the edges
with the paper towel. I wait maybe a minute and I
want to wet it one more time. Same steps as before. I want to get rid of all these droplets because they can
spoil our gradient. Oh. Let's wipe off our paper along the
edges here a bit. And I'm turning my paper. Every time when I see
droplets along the edges, I try to wipe them off
with a paper tissue. And let's wet our paper
from this side as well. I use a lot of water. And then again, I'm
doing the same steps, and also I need to wait when the water is absorbed
into the papers layers. Hmm. And let's let's draw our horizon line. Because at first, I will
start working on the sky. We can wet it later. Yeah, let's wet our
sky one more time. Yes, you can see I wet
my paper a lot of times. But I need to do this
because in this way, water will go into the
inner layers of our paper, and I use 100% cotton
watercolor paper. So this will allow me to work
really long on my gradient, on my washes, and so on. When we wait, we can
prepare our pallet. And squeeze our watercolor. So this is indontrine blue. Lavender. Py orange. And cadmium orange.
9. Project: Painting a Gradient Sky: So we shouldn't have any
points on our paper. You should see the
texture of the paper. So now I can start
working on my gradient. I take a big brush clean water, and I start with
the Itantrinblue. Let's create some incline. So our colors are
mixed beautifully. And I start adding lavender. Closer to the horizontal line. I'll have orange. And we can also add some
cadmium orange here. Okay, closer to the
lavender color. I go with a pearl orange
because they have really nice mix and you
won't get a green colour. So be careful. So
lavender colors have blue pigment inside. So you will need to check, and some orange colors
have yellow pigment. So blue plus yellow
will be green. So you need to check
your watercolor. Which pigments they have inside. Because this will be
very important to create such beautiful gradient and
not to get any green color. So closer to the top, I add bright color and
such brush movements. I mix colors together. So while our paper is still wet, we can really we can work
really long on our gradient. And now I want to help my pins to blend together and
create a smooth gradient. So as you can see, I rotate and tilt my board, and I help I help to
create a gradient. I want to add even more. I want to add even
more watercolor here. Let's wipe off our droplets
and I repeat the same steps. Oh. My purple is wet from both sides, so it stays wet really long. And I can as I already said, I can work on my gradient
also really long time. My watercolors are
blending together, and they're creating a
really beautiful gradient. I'm not in a hurry. I have plenty of time while my paper is
still wet, of course. Okay, so I really
like my result here. And now I want to dry my paper with a hair dryer
or you can wait as you wish, and we will start
with the bottom part. Very carefully, you
can check if it's dry. But anyway, our paper is
wet from the backside, so you can feel that
it would be not wet, but it would be cold. It's okay. As you can see, ages of the paper
start coming up, but it's not a problem. I just wed them one more time.
10. Project: Painting the Mountains: Yeah, I also want to
squeeze neutral tint. And now we can start to the
bottom part of our painting. As you can see, we have different shades
of mountains here. It is called aerial perspective. This means that objects
that are located further, they will be of colder color
and they will be lighter. And everything that
is located closer to us will be warmer and brighter. For example, this mountain, we should show it of
the brightest color. And every mountain that is located further
will be lighter. It is important to show this perspective because this is how it works in the nature, and this will help you to create a really
realistic painting. I'm taking a smaller brush. I mix Lavender and Idantrinblue. It should be really light. And let's show our mountain. Okay, I want to add even more. Even more indentrinblue. You can you can paint
our temple as well, because anyway, it
would be darker color. So it's not important right now. The same situation here. The silhouette of this mountain, we will refine in
the end because it would be almost black. So here I want to add
even brighter color. This mountain is closer. Let's Let's create our angle. I want to add even
more Lavender. And here we have
also some droplets so you can just wipe your brush of paper towel and
remove this extra water. Okay, I think it should be even darker because I'm
comparing it to our sky. So let's add a bit more. Our paper is still wet, so it's not a problem. And a bit more I wonder. And let's dry. So when I see it, my paper starts coming up, I just take a brush and
wet it one more time. I have a droplet here. And yeah, it created
not nice edges. Let's Let's rise. Our angle. And let's start with the mountains that
are in the middle. So it's not a problem. I will show you how I will
I will get rid of it. And we start with the mountains. And closer to the bottom, I add a bit of lavender. E as you can see, it's not even visible. My mistake is not
even visible anymore. And let's let's add Let's add some droplets
in the Indatrin blue. And watercolor will create
some pattern on its own. And yeah, let's add
a bit more water. This is why I love watercolor. It's a bit unpredictable, but also at the same time, you cannot get identical
results even by painting the same painting
a couple of times. Always, it would be different. And this is the beauty of it. Okay, even darker here, Let's correct this place a bit. And again, I want to t my age And again, we can
run our mountains. Also in the reference, you can see that we have also some mountains here and here. I want to show them as well. Color of these mountains should
be lighter than this one, but brighter than this one. So we need to to
mix such mixture. And I already took
a synthetic rush. It would be more convenient
to work on smaller details. And with the clean water, I want to soften them.
11. Project: Painting the Foreground: And now we can start
with the final part. We will be painting our
temple and this mountain. For this, I will need to
mix really dark blue color. I take intertwined blue
and also neutral tint. You can also take some
black and mix it with blue. This place should be the darkest place
in our painting. Okay, let's take a bigger brush. We And now I come back to my medium brush. And I start I start refining the
silhouette of my mountain. But we will come back here really with the liner brush because I want to show also
the trees and some grass. Yeah, I want to have
it really dark. And now I'm taking
such a line of brush. I should have really sharp tip. And I take my my dark mixture. And let's let's show some grass here. So trees. Also, this mountain is located, is the closest to us. That is why we can show
also some details. Yeah, sometimes I do just
such random brushstrokes. Okay, I think that's it. And we can we can now
work on our temple.
12. Project: Painting the Temple: Also we have some
interesting details here. And yeah, I want to show them. So very careful. Okay, here some. Like this. Like, you decide how many details
you want to show here. You shouldn't show,
like all the details. But with the details, of course, it looks it
looks more interesting. Oh And now I start painting the roof. We also have some
light play here. So I'm starting with it
in order not to forget. Also, for example, if it's hard for you to show all these details
now with the brush, you can show them with
the pencil at first. It would be much easier. Almost done. And we have something to ask you. Let's show it as well.
Final steps. Final touches. So now I'm analyzing my work. And I'm thinking if
I want to improve, anything to add anything. Yeah, I think that's it. We can finish. Okay.
13. Final Word: That's it, friends. Our
painting is finished. Today, we learned how to paint a smooth
gradient in the sky and use aerial perspective to create soft distant mountains. I'm sure you'll get an
amazing result in the end, and of course, I would be so happy to see what
you have created.
Anna Ostapenko, Watercolor & Marker artist
