Meditate with Watercolors 2.0

1. Introduction : Meditate with Watercolors is a casul creative way of describing the calming, mindful experience that all of us feel while painting with watercolors. As per my experience, it has helped me to slow down, letting go of all the control, relaxing my mind to a great extent, and creating without any pressure. Therefore, I have created this class to offer the same magical experience to all watercolor enthusiasts. Hi, guys. I am ith gana, an artist, instructor, mother, Sushre teacher or brand owner of vibing parcels where we not only manufacture online sketchbook, artist wrapins, brush rolls, and much more, but also have options of participating in workshops or lifetime access to various classes across on www.vibnparcels.com. We start with the basics, getting to know our materials and practicing brushstrokes, which are the foundation for every artist from beginers to advanced learners. Then we move on to the techniques we will be using for the first two projects. These watercolor techniques act as a helpful framework that guides you and helps you perform at your best once you start painting on paper. Since watercolor is such a fluid medium, beginning with a single color that is monochrome is a great way to understand values, depth, and perspective. It's the perfect starting point for anyone beginning their watercolor journey. Furthermore, the monochrome late and Evocative Landscape focuses on building the basic skills of working wet on wet and wet on oist. These techniques make it much easier to move into the next projects, which explores limited palette and then multicolor paintings. We will be completing a total of seven projects, and each one has its own unique voice and character. In the monochrome and early limited palette pieces, we rely on the white of the paper to create the atmosphere, distance and perspective. As we progress into the limited palette stage, we start using lighter values to achieve the same effect. And when we reach the multicolored projects, we bring in warm and cool colors to be depth and move in a similar way. This class is a perfect starting point for anyone who loves the flow, moodiness, and character of watercolors. Come join me and let's meditate with watercolors together. 2. All you need: Look at all the materials which we need for completing the painting. I am having the vinci size wall brush, size two brush. You can also keep size one, but practically, this is not of much use. Either you can select size one or size two, and then you should have a size six brush. The size three by zero, you have an escota, wash brush, and a liner brush. Believe me, if you have a good size two brush, always, you do not need the liner brush, but just for your reference or if you're bigner, it's good to have. I will tell you, these are the major four brushes which I'm going to use in completing all the paintings I have kept two pencils. This is basically two edge pencils and it will not leave any mark on the paper. An eraser, which is very important. Then you have tissue role. Now tissue roles are very important whenever you are picking up the colors, or if you plan to have any kind of brushes being you wash the brush and then pick up the extra paints on the tissue. For that, it's very, very handy. Arch's 300 GSM 100% cotton cold pressed paper is something that I always always love for all my paintings. The size of the paper is five inch and this is a bit bigger. You can see this is 7.9 to 7.9, but I just wanted to show you the kind of paper that I would be using. There are two palettes kept. This is a palette which I haven't used and this is a palette which I have used. The first two paintings out of the nutritent which we are going to use. Hence, you can see this palette has been used very much. I will have two jars of water. You can see this water is a bit cloudy. This is only because I have washed my brushes in it, and this water is pretty clear. So that's all from the side of what all we need in our painting for completing each of these painting. As well as just keep a masking tape pretty handy. I'm using a simple masking tape. Now, what happens in these kind of masking tape is sometimes water gets through it. If you have a better option, that is a washy tape, which is better. This is a empty washy tape, which I can say, but the other stock of minus over, so I have to get the new stock. But yes, these are very handy and they don't allow water to seep in. For all my practice exercises, I would be using the same paper. Now, it's very important to use the same paper that helps me to understand how the colors will move for my brushstrokes, for my techniques, as well as for my final painting, I would be using the same paper which I'm using in the project section. 3. Brush Strokes: Mm why are brushstrokes important? In watercolor painting, brushstrokes are more than just marks on paper. They are the language of the medium because watercolor is transparent and fluid. Every brush stroke carries emotion, texture, direction. You can't easily erase or cover mistakes, so each stroke matters. It records the artist's intent and confidence. Let's explore why brushstrokes are so important and how they shape the look and feel of your watercolor work. Let's start out by using a brush that is of size eight or size six, whichever you choose and have a nice tip. I will be using some horizontal and some vertical strokes to define how to apply the color. These are mostly thinner strokes, and it can be used for creating trees, branches, et cetera. If you lay your brush more flatter on top of the surface of the paper, you will see that you will get some thicker strokes. Now, since we have less water on our brush, hence the strokes are dry and may need some layering. I will again load my brush with some more paints and start out from the bottom to the top. Now, when you use this technique on wet paper, they will give you blurry background trees which will set the mood of the painting. But for all the blood and the atmosphere, you need to have a wet surface, not exactly wet, I would say, it should be moist. We will have a look into it further as we progress with our next exercise. We started out with the slow and controlled strokes which basically describe calmness or precision. Was the quick sweeping strokes that you see over here now will basically show the wind waves flowing clouds, et cetera. We will actually lay our brush more flat on top of the paper to create these kind of strokes as you see over here. When this stroke is applied on a moist paper, this will give you clouds or atmospheric cloud like effect. Now we are moving from quick sweeping strokes to slow controlled strokes. This is a great exercise for creating movements in water. As we are towards the bottom of the water, there would be more darker and they would be more broader in terms of the strokes that we apply. But as we go towards the horizon line, they appear far away from us, and the movements also appear more plow and thinner. Hence, this becomes a very, very important exercise and very, very important understanding of perspective as you move into any kind of watercolor painting. It's time to create some trees. What I will usually do is dry brush on rough paper. That creates the trees very easily. I will mark a line in between and then extend it more and more towards the bottom, extending it less towards the top. I will basically use some horizontal strokes to create this mine tree. We will refine it further as we progress. I am again repeating the same process. I will go broader as I go towards the bottom, and then towards the top, it would be less broad. I am making it more and more blurry or I am not giving it a lot of edges towards the bottom area. Towards the top, I will keep it pretty light, and there would be less number of leaves that I add on it. Let's go ahead with another piece of the tree where we are going ahead and defining the tree in a better way. So loose strokes as well as some detailed defined strokes. This would help us to define the top area in a better way. We are also going to work around with some water. Now, how do we do? I will apply some water with the help of my flat brush and then start applying the color on top of it. This would help the color to diffuse and blend automatically, and there would be less number of bold strokes in between, whereas towards the side, there would be more number of bold or highlighted strokes. That is because of the dry brush, which you apply compared to in between, where we have already applied the water. Now let's go ahead and paint with water first and then start out with the brushstrokes. These are different ways of creating trees. You can use any one of them for your tree creation. I love to explore each one of them in detail so that it is easier for you to go through it and understand what to use, how to use, where to use. This one can be majorly used in far away trees effect that you create in any kind of a soft background monochrome tree painting. You can always go ahead and layer over it with some more of the Daker values, dropping some dots here and there, and then you get a hold over it once you create it. The value study, of course, becomes very, very important factor in this particular painting. Some of the spaces would be more darker, some of the spaces would be more lighter. It would create highlights in your trees, and the final painting is going to be super amazing. I have been using this technique in not only this particular painting, but even in our future painting, you will see that there are many upcoming classes where we are going to work around in a similar perspective. Let's work on the foreground the grasses, and this is going to be a very, very important exercise for our first painting that we are going to do. Every painting is being kept small so that it's easy, non time consuming, and you can go ahead with it pretty quickly. It can fit into your daily routine of exercises. And if you are also doing art as a side hassle, it would be something that you can look forward to every day. These kind of finer details are also called as Caligraphic strokes, which basically defines your branches, stem, and fine details. By changing the pressure, angle, and water amount, one brush can create many textures from crisp lines to soft fading washes, as you can see over here. We are using the same brush for all the exercises. We have literally not changed the brush to any extent. Let's repeat this process again to create the finer details. The final or the most important tip that I really want to give you with every brushstrokes, it really shows how well you manage the balance between water pigment and timing. Too wet, the strokes spread uncontrollably, too dry, paint looks shocky or patchy. Just right color flows smoothly and close on the paper. That control or deliberate loss of it is what gives watercolor its magic. Let's continue to repeat this process to some more extent. I would go ahead and create some loose strokes one after another. These loose strokes will create the kind of lines that would appear as grasses for our foreground. We will be using this technique for our second painting, and you will see how often it can be helpful for any of your future paintings or any of your projects that you attempt. Let's go ahead and paint a board. Now, bird is a very, very important line item, I would say, in my paintings, for sure, because I love to add birds anywhere I feel that the painting looks empty or it is not going with the mood. I love to add these birds to fulfill it or to make it more focused in some of the areas where I want my spectator to just focus more often. I will use some brushstrokes that are more towards the top and some brushstrokes that are towards the bottom, I will make a middle dot and then move to the right, left and create these birds. But 4. Techniques Part 1: Learning watercolor techniques isn't just about mastering the medium. It's about understanding how water pigment paper, and timing interact, so you can paint with freedom and confidence because watercolor is delicate, fluid and often unpredictable. Having technical control actually gives you more creative control. Let's start out with a wash brush and wet a small area. This is a wet on wet technique which I am going to help you understand. Once the paper is fully wet and we have done a cross swatch, I'm going to go ahead with my neutral in and apply the color. On the top, as well as on the bottom part of the paper. This is usually used for creating backgrounds or even washes for any kind of moody or atmospheric effect. Mix some water with a Neutral Tint pigment and then load your brush with a Neutral Tint and start applying from the top to the bottom area. You can see this can give you cloud like or any other effect that you are looking forward to. You need to let your paper dry before applying the next layer. Let's go ahead and apply some more color towards the bottom area. This is either a size six or a size four brush that can be used for this exercise. I have deliberately kept the speed of the video at 1.5 x. You can go ahead and decrease the speed of the video or increase the speed of the video depending upon your requirement, either you want to practice or just have a look at each one of them. I start with a lighter value, and if required, I will add somewhat darker value wherever need be. Let's get back to understanding how technique builds your control. Watercolor is unforgiving. Unlike opaque paints, watercolor is transparent. You can't easily paint over mistakes, learning techniques like wet on wet, glazing, lifting. Edge control helps you predict how paint will behave, prevent muddiness or overworking, fix mistakes gracefully. When you understand how water moves, you stop fighting the medium and start painting with it. Let's go ahead and work on the reflection path. I will start out again with a small area and apply some water over it. Once I have applied the water, we will understand how exactly the pains need to be applied so that the reflection are consistent and they don't look over. Another most important aspect of technique is when you know what your brush and pigment will do, you can paint more decisively with fewer correction. Confidence leads to freshness and freshness is the soul of watercolor. You spend less time fixing and more time expressing, which helps you to build confidence and speed in watercolors. I'm going ahead with my size four or size six brush, whichever again you choose, and then start out with my reflection. I go in the middle or just a bit above the middle and apply or duck a value as you see. Then I am going ahead with my wash brush to pick up any extra pigments which is flowing towards the bottom. I have removed the tape which I did place earlier just under my watercolor pad so that the colors move and they move towards the bottom area because there is gravitational pull. I am just applying some lines, as you see, to create the background trees. Alter the values to even create depth in the background trees. I will go ahead and leave a small line at this stage and then start out with my reflection part. It's a very simple process. I have already applied some water, which is still there, and hence, going with the reflection becomes very easy. Keeping a small line really helps you to differentiate between the background trees and the reflection which falls into the water area. I will now try to add another layer of these trees towards the bottom area as you see, so that the values of the trees that has come on the top area become similar to the one that we are also creating in the area for the reflection. Again, it's important to lift out the colors. If you see that, yes, the colors are moving into each other for the reflection and the actual trees of the background. In this techniques, part one, we are only focusing on five different techniques that are important for our Project one and Project you will go ahead and understand some more new techniques as we go ahead with Project three and Project four, and multiple colors will be used in the Project five, Project six, along with a bonus lesson that comes in. As this is an extension of the earlier class Meditate with Watercolors, a 14 day watercolor challenge, you will see that many of these techniques are a bit repetitive or iterative. If you have already taken the class, then you can start out with the final projects too. If you are new to watercolors, I would request you to go ahead and understand at least the techniques before you attempt the project at any speed of your choice so that the final outcome is consistent with the one that I am also creating in this of the class. Let's go ahead with our background. I have started out with very light wash in few of the areas, and now I'm going ahead with another darker layer. This is basically to create atmospheric or cloud like effect. If you are new to watercolors, you might not be knowing how to create these clouds. These are basic lines or you can say round like structures, and it comes with the brush. We have to understand a bit about brushstrokes before you go ahead with any background bet on bet or reflection. Hence, that brings me to the section of brushstrokes, that's the explained Audio. If you see right now I'm trying to pull the paints towards the top, I start from the bottom and then again, move my brush towards the top area. I move from the top towards the bottom. This is an iterative exercise. If you want to add some more darker values for visual display of depth, then please go ahead and apply it in a way that I'm doing right since we are already building up on the techniques and we have built upon a bit, I would just go and touch upon the composition. You can see that the background is created, and now I am trying to build in some of my trees. Once technical skills are second nature, you can think about storytelling, composition, light, color, harmony, and emotion. Good techniques frees your mind to focus on creativity and not just only mechanics. For creating the foreground or you can say the trees in darker value, I had to wait now techniques teach you basically the timing, the heartbeat of watercolors. Watercolor painting is about when to act. Paint too soon, colors bloom uncontrollably. Waiting too long, you lose the softness, and it would be more about creating hard edges. Practicing techniques, sharpen your timing and observation, so you intuitively sense the right moment to add, lift, or blend your colors wherever necessary. Another thing that I must tell you, though all of us have learned the same kind of techniques, and I teach similar techniques in every class, but everyone uses them differently. Some favor loose expressive washes, others use tight control layering. Your mastery of technique becomes the foundation for discovering your own personal watercolor voice. In simple words, what is watercolor voice? It's your own unique style of expression in watercolors. Let's start creating the movements. Now, the water, I go from the bottom to the top, you will apply the darker layer towards the bottom area, and then as you move towards the top, it would become more lighter and lighter. We will create some line like effect, as you see over here. This is consistent with the first painting that we are going to do. You can have a look at it and see how I have created movements in the lk. As the colors move away from our eyesight, or you can say the ripples that move away from our eye sight, it would become lighter and thinner in layering. This part is also explained pretty well in the brushstrokes section. So go ahead and have a look at it before you try this techniques part. Et's paint some pine trees now, and this is very important for our second painting. We are going to go ahead with some dry brush technique. I would add a straight line. You can practice it in the brushstrokes section and come back to this particular painting by using the tip of your brush. Then you apply some clear water towards the bottom area. Start applying your brushstrokes again in a left right movement. These are basically tots. You can adjust the speed of the video if you want to have a closer look at it. Create depth by changing the values and you have a pine tree ready for yourself. I will also show you two or three other ways in which we are going to paint our pine trees. Usually, trees in nature appear in clusters, and hence, whenever you are trying to build upon a composition, whether it be pine trees or any of the other tree like structure, make sure that some of them are adjacent to each other. Some of them are more scantily placed, and some of them have more leaves on it. Let's start out with another method where we have applied water first, and then we are going ahead with our tree area. I have started out by marking a line from the top to the bottom, and then consistently, I will move my brush towards the right and towards the left. There are less number of branches or you can say leaves on this particular tree, which I want to show as it is nature, and you know nature is never consistent. So use your creative minds and play with the colors, your, depth, then applying the water, making it softer or darker wherever it is necessary. Let's continue to finish it. In the meantime, the most important tip for watercolor techniques is it saves you from frustration and encourages growth. Many beg ners struggle because watercolor seems unpredictable, but with proper technique, it becomes playful instead of stressful. You will start to enjoy the medium spontaneity, not fearing it. 5. Project 1 - Monochrome Lake: There are many popular pigments for monochrome studies. One of the most used out of them is neutral tint. It is balanced and subtle for realistic shadows and light. Not only that, we will be also working on this small painting of about five inch to understand how we can create different kind of value studies, as well as how it can be used to capture the mood, atmosphere, as well as the composition of the painting. Let's start out by taping down our paper. And once we have taped down our paper, I would just draw a horizon line. It's going to be a very simple painting. You don't need to think much when you go about it, add water to the paper and then use a wash brush to do a crosswatch. I will start out with a crosswatch with a washbush of size around 0.75 inch. It is a bit less than 1 ". Even if you have 1 ", it's good to go ahead with. I'm starting out with the darkest value, but since there is a lot of water on the paper, I can just add it as you see over here with bold strokes. For this bold strokes, you would, of course, need a bit of your thicker brush, like the one I'm using over here. It is a mop brush. You can go ahead with any eight or ten size brush, whatever is available with you. Though the most common subjects for our monochrome paintings can be architectural sketches or still life, but I love to go ahead with landscapes which are like foggy or you have any kind of mist that you want to show. This class is basically an extension of my earlier class, Meditate with Watercolors, a 14 day art challenge. Many of you have already taken this class and have fallen in love with it. This is a more simplified version compared to the one that we have done earlier. Here we are starting out with one single color that is one single pigment and later on going ahead to multiple pigments. The most important reason for using one single color is to avoid any kind of chaos. We all know as bigners there is a lot of chaos in terms of sketching, painting, colors, et cetera, and I really wanted to avoid all of it. Limiting the color can create a strong emotional effect, serene, dramatic, nostalgic, or moody. I always love to take out all the extra water that's there on the side so that there is no backgroun. Now, many of you have already known this concept of backrun, but background is basically when the water from the sides or from the tape moves into the painting, it will create a cauliflower effect which we do not want in this painting. You can see a darker value moving from the bottom part to the top part, which is basically the lake area. Now in and around the horizon line, I would be creating some trees to show the horizon line in a better way because of which you will see that we have added some amount of colors even in and around it. I keep wearing the intensity of the colors that we apply over here to basically capture the complete mood and atmosphere of our painting. I don't think much when I'm applying all the colors, the paper is still wet and I can work upon it. For all my exercises, I have considered the same paper which I am using for my final painting that really helps me to understand the paper well, as well as capture the smallest elements without thinking much and just going with the flow. I am using my size four brush to apply all my colors. Whatever brush is available with you, it's good to go ahead. There is always a great question, which I have been asked pretty regularly. Why do we work on small watercolor paintings? It's actually a great question. Now, watercolor is a medium that has all my heart, to be frank, and this medium is very common in artist, as it is fast, fluid, and less time consuming. Let's go ahead and understand exactly how it behaves. Now, watercolor is a very unpredictable medium. On smaller surfaces, you can work more easily before the areas dry out or bleed uncontrollably. It lets you control the timing, crucial for techniques like wet on wet, blending of soft edges, which you would be seeing very often in all the seven paintings that we are going to do now. It's easier to experiment and learn. Why I say this, the smaller paintings are perfect for practice because you can try ideas quickly without using a lot of material. Mistakes do cost very less time and paper. You can do multiple studies to explore composition, value, and color. Artists I have seen often make very small thumbnail kind of sketches and do try a lot of techniques like we are doing right now with lifting our watercolors from few of the spaces where we think there is extra, I'm using my clean wash brush for this particular exercise. I'm retouching the lake area with small lines, as you see over here. Now, this is basically to show the movement in the water. If you are someone who likes movements, I think this is one great way where you can show nice movements which appear in any kind of lake or water. Lake is usually quite stagnant. They don't have lots and lots of movement. That's one of the reasons I'm also trying to create some movement rather than creating, like, a river flow, which has lots and lots of movement as the water keeps flowing from one end to the other. Bloody watercolor trees, I would say this is one of the most beautiful choices that anyone can do. It looks gorgeous and atmospheric. They often are used to suggest mist, distance, or movement, rather than showing every leaf or branch, this soft impressionistic look relies on control of water, timing, and edges. Let's break it down further. I have applied some of the darkest value, that is the neutral tint, but I would like to use my wash brush and apply the water over the area which is above my horizon line. The softness comes from the wet on wet painting, applying pigment to a damp surface so that the paint spreads and merges naturally. I would also change the value right now somewhere I'm applying the lighter value, and in few places I will apply the darkest value. Instead of sharp outlines, you will get diffused form that suggests trees in fog, rain, or background distances. Over here, we are trying to show fog, and hence I am going ahead and applying the water initially, which will keep the paper damp for quite some time. Then you can go ahead and apply the colors on top of it. In case the paper is getting dry again, you can go ahead and apply some more water with the help of your wash brush, repeat the process, and then again, go ahead with the same amount of colors on top of the paper to create the blurry trees for the background. Let's have a deeper understanding into it. I will break it down into three particular steps. First is the light wash for the background. Wet the paper with clean water using a large brush as we are doing over here, add a soft light wash of color for the sky or misty background. You can also mix it up as we are going ahead with the background trees. Let it settle for a few seconds. The surface should be slightly damp, not glossy wet. This is a very, very important point if you are adding a lot of water. It is not moist, it becomes wet, and we are looking forward to moist areas. Create soft tree shapes, load your brush with diluted paint, and touch it to the damp paper where you want trees. The pigments will bloom, blur, form organic tree shape naturally. Suggest trunks and canopies with loose vertical strokes. Let water do the blending. The wetter the paper, the bloodier the trees. If it's too wet, the colors will spread too far. If too dry, you will get heartaches. That's what the whole point is all about, and hence we will need a damp surface, not dry, not wet. I want to keep the bottom area absolutely wet so that it looks like completely diffused with the lake area rather than showing the hard edges which comes from the trees as there is a lot of mist and hence it will move into the water area. Now it is more of an iterative process. You can always go ahead and use some kind of darker trees in few of the areas and some of the lighter trees. The paper will become drier as you continue to work upon it. The layering, of course, can create a lot of depth and distance. Soft background, crisp foreground. That's what you have to keep in mind. The foreground where we will be painting on top of the lake area will have more hard edges compared to the ones that we are creating right now in and around the horizon line. Lifting out and blurry effect is one of the most important techniques that you are going to use in any kind of fog that is being painted or any kind of mist which you want to paint. Hence, always, always try to lift out your colors in few areas. Background and the mist looks similar to each other. You will see that there is no definite line or no definite trees that you see above the horizon line. We are going to create a similar kind of effect even towards the bottom area as the reflection of these trees will fall into the water. If you are someone who is struggling with watercolors, I can give you a very, very important practice tip. One is the value studies, and this can be done with the help of three techniques. One is very wet where there will be less of forms, et cetera. It would be mostly something really blurry that you are going to create. And then the second step is moderately damp, which we are working right now with. That is having more of damp area once you apply water with the help of a flat brush. The third is mostly dry. You will have hard edges, which we are going to do next as we do it on the lake surface. This is very close to our eyes, and hence, definite shapes and sizes are very well visible. Now getting back to our painting, we will even change the values of the reflection which falls into the water area. I always love to do some pencil sketches, even if I'm working on my foregrounds, as it helps me to understand where exactly I want to place mine grasses or bushes, whatever subject I have thought for my foreground area. It acts as a framework for most of my paintings, and hence going ahead with or drawing is always a handy exercise for beginers or even for advanced starters. Now I will touch upon a very important concept, that is the foreground should be the darkest. Depth through atmospheric perspective is a very, very important concept. In nature, distance objects appear lighter and blur because of the atmospheric haze or you can say it can be also because of your mist, fog, et cetera, which you are depicting. Nearer objects have stronger contrast, richer color, and sharper edges. So in watercolor, light background, which is basically the trees in the background altogether, as well as the blurry effect of the area above my lake. The second is mid tone middle ground, which is basically the lake area that we have painted. And the third is the darkest foreground, which we are doing now that gives a sense of depth. Now this is basically known as anchoring the composition. That is, the darker values in the foreground act like a visual base. They ground the painting. They stop the view or I from sliding out of the scene and lead it inwards. Focus and contrast, higher contrast naturally attracts attention, placing your darkest dark near a focal point. That is any kind of tree or any kind of plants, et cetera that we are adding now, rock figures. It can be anything. Brings it forward. The last and the foremost most important concept for a foreground is how to strengthen your watercolors. I usually do it by picking up the darkest value, which I'm doing for this painting, but there is another method which is basically layering or glazing. Let's look at the first one that is load your brush with thick creamy mix of paint, which has very less water content in it. Like I do over here, you can also get the darkest value in a similar way. Layering or glazing is that you are building it up. You have applied one layer, you have added the lighter value, then you go over it with another layer and make it darker. Basically, your painting becomes a visual hierarchy. The eye moves naturally from light to dark, far too near. I will continue with the process of creating this grasses. You can have a closer look at it over here, how I go about it, and then continue in the similar way. I'm using my size one or size two brush, whichever is available as the size of the paper is really small. Hence we cannot go ahead with bigger brush to create these smaller or very thin lines, which is there for the foreground area. Now it's time for the final touches in your painting. Step back first. Look at your painting from a distance. Ask where exactly your eye is going and what is missing. Do you really think that there is anything that is missing? Like over here, I may go ahead with one or two more lines for my grasses or make one or two more strokes here and there. I'm not going to add a lot, as it would bring in chaos and overwork into my painting. You have to understand that at this stage, every mark should be with a purpose. Do not, do not overpaint. Use minimal water. Most final touches, use thicker pigments or dry brush for the control. Lastly, as I always say, know when to stop. Overworking can kill freshness. If you are unsure, stop, take a break, go for a water break or just have a cup of coffee, revisit it with some fresh ice that would really help you to understand whether you should continue to work upon it or leave it at that stage. Let's have a closer look at the last few final strokes, and then we have to also get the reflection of these smaller bushes or you can say plants. That are there or coming up from the water, there has to be some reflection which we need to create. There is not much movement which you see in the water, hence the reflection needs to be there. Apply some clear water with the help of a flat brush just below the area of these plants. Once done, we will start out with a thin brush and then start applying lines like the ones which I am creating right now. They are going to be really blur as we are making reflections. Hence, this is also done on a moist surface rather than it being done on a wet one. I can see more control over my brush, paints, water, et cetera. Final thing which you should go about before you finish a watercolor painting is, does your focal point stand out? That is basically focusing your plants, et cetera, over here. Are the lightest lights and darkest dark in balance? Whether you have the darks and the lights pretty much in focus, you exactly know where you have placed your darks and where you have placed your lights. Do my edges vary? That is, some of them is sharp, some of them is soft. We will try to keep the composition balanced, not too heavy on one side, not too soft on another side. Does the painting still look luminous and not over? If it is overworked, you may not like it as you progress. Knowing exactly if your painting is overworked or not is an art, and it comes with an. Practicing more with watercolors will definitely give you an edge. Now let's move on to our second project. 6. Project 2 - Evocative Landscape: Advocate of landscape or atmospheric watercolor landscape are among the most expressive and poetic forms of watercolor painting. They capture not just the look of a place, but its mood, light, and air. The feeling of miss distance or quiet stillness, watercolor transparency, and softness makes it perfect for creating atmosphere. What is atmospheric landscape? Let's understand? Mood of the painting needs to be captured. Hence, we will go ahead and just apply a clear layer of water and then start applying our colors. Soft transitions between sky, land, and distance. So usually you will not see much of a difference between the initial values of the sky, the land or even the water. Subtle values and colors, depth created by light tone, not by hard lines. Right now I'm adding some water to my color that is nutriten so that I can apply it on the paper. This is basically a pouring effect that helps me to create the land as well as the sky very easily. You have to just move around this sheet or the acrylic board and your work is done. Gravity will do a lot of work in this. You might have to again go ahead and apply some colors. It all depends what exactly and where exactly you want to place your moody effects in this painting. By the way, our first two projects are based on one single color, which is basically your neutral tint. And as we progress, you will see I will add more and more colors moving on from monochrome painting to limited palette to multiple colors. Let me tell you why I have actually included this pouring effect in watercolor. This is one of the most exciting, spontaneous and luminous techniques you can try. Watercolor pouring allows you to let pigment flow freely across the paper, creating organic transition unexpected blends, and you can also work in layers. Though we are not working in layers in this particular painting, we are just creating the first atmospheric effect. It is less of control that you have and more would be chaos that is guided by you rather than it just being organically grown on its own. Okay, let's now add some more of the colors towards the bottom area. The top part is lighter in value and the bottom part is more darker in value. You will see that I keep the acrylic board in my hand and move it accordingly from left to right, top to bottom so that the colors can move into each other pretty freely. Now it's time to layer the top area or apply some more colors for the atmospheric effect of my sky. I'm starting from the right and leaving the left, as well as you can see, there are some gaps which are mostly in white that we are going to keep in our painting. Let your colours flow. The paper is still wet. Hence working on it is pretty easy. I will give you a few tips that I use for my evocative or you can say more expressive or atmospheric landscapes. Timing is everything. Watch your pop moisture level. That's how you control your atmosphere. Less is more suggest forms rather than define them. Vary edges, soft in the distance and sharp in the foreground. Leave whites, reserve light areas for mist or reflected light. That's your air. I will just pick up my colors with the help of a clean brush, and that is it. Once this is done, I will let the paper dry off and the colors might move a bit here and there, which is absolutely fine. Let it flow and have a look at it. I will start by marking the horizon line and then move on to the painting. I will load my size six brush with the help of Nutrite and then start applying just in and around the horizon line as well as below it. This is a dry brush technique where I don't have a lot of colors on my brush. I take out all the extra colors on the tissue and then start by making these lines which are like dry patches. This is basically the ground area which we are creating for our project too. This is a repetitive and iterative process. So continue to do it. We will even just change the values of the color so that you can see the depth that comes in. While we work with the dry brush technique, let's understand a bit more about it. Unlike most watercolor methods, drybush uses very little water and a pigment rich brush to create rough textured and controlled effect. It's perfect for suggesting textures, light, and finer details for the foreground, and it gives your painting a beautiful contrast to soft and fluid washes. Just exactly the way we have created for our backgrounds, and now we are working on our foregrounds where we are including the dry brush technique. I There are many other subjects where you can use this dry brush technique. Let me give you a quick list tree bark and branches, rough textured bark with natural irregularity, grasses or reeds, like the ones we have over here, fine, lively texture in the foregrounds, rocks and cliffs, greeny and weathered textures, water reflection, broken shimmering lines on still water, animal fur, layered texture and highlights, old buildings that are aged and weathered. Et us now create some crisp grasses, with the help of a size two, size one, or even a liner brush. You can see I will start from the bottom and they get it to the top. This way, I will create one after another grass, and this is basically in the bottom area altogether, as that is closest to my eye, hence I can see it very clearly. Again, it's a very repetitive and iterative process. You just need to go ahead and follow my way of adding these grasses, I move from the left to the right with thinner lines on the top and broader lines on the bottom. That's what this painting is all about. I will just put on some music so that you can enjoy and keep painting on the grass area. I will now change the value of the dry brush technique. Now, why I do change the value over here? It gives a sense of depth. Some of the areas are darker and some of the areas are lighter. We're not going ahead with one flat color variation of your textures, then change of your values. All of the create a harmony in your painting that looks super amazing to anyone who is observing it. I would go ahead and start applying a small patch of dark value towards the top area. Once this is done, we will start out with our tree region. Now it's time to make some blurry pine trees. There are different varieties of pine trees that appear in nature, but over here, we are going to do a very, very simple kind. I would first go ahead and just apply some clear layer of water. As you see, I always have two jars of water, one for washing my brushes and another for adding the clear layer whenever it is needed. As you know that this basically captures the mood and atmosphere of the mist, distance or early morning fog, whichever you want to show over here. The key to the painting, each one of them lies in moisture control, layering, and timing, how much values you are changing while you are adding these kind of colors. I'm going from the bottom to the top just by making these kind of smaller lines. I am not going to add much some one or two lines that go to the top, and some of the areas will vary in terms of that is smaller, larger lines, that's we have done this exercise earlier for the background trees, and you are pretty much aware of it. I would give you three to four tips which are very important for the success of these background pine trees. For me, there are around four of them. The first is that timing is the key. If it is very wet, it would become very blurry. If it is damp, then it would become really soft and nice so that the colors bleed into each other. But in case the paper becomes dry, it becomes crisp. We will make it the crisp ones also for the foreground, but for the background, keep wearing the colors. Why? This is basically tone and size. Now, what is varying the tone and size? Lighter, smaller trees in some of the areas, and darker or larger trees in some of the other areas, as nature is always random and we will never get similar heighted trees in all the places. Less detail is equal to more atmosphere. Lastly, it is don't overwork, Let layers dry and build gradually. Do not try to keep working upon it. Just allow it to dry in a few areas, vary the tones in some of the areas, and not think much about how the shape and sizes look. It's absolutely fine. These are background atmospheric trees which we are painting. Even some random shapes and sizes will look like trees. Now is the time we are going to define a few of the trees. So why is this definition important? We have already done our background trees. This is more about texture and detail. So once your first wash is completely over and you do not want the paper to dry up completely, I want to keep some of the places pretty moist. Use a smaller brush with thicker pigments to add crisp edges to the branches, leave clusters, trunk and details. Maintain contrast, vary your brush pressure, use flicks for sharp leaf edges and dry brush for the bark texture. Now, over here, we are not showing the bark much. We are just going ahead and adding some details. As the paper is still wet, the colors will move, and they will create a very soft bloom. That is something which I'm always in love with and hope you two would find it very interesting when you start working with it. This is how we are going to complete this part of our tree area. And once this is done, we will move on to a parallel tree. There will be few trees which will have more of branches and less of leaves, et cetera, and some of them will be having a lot of leaves. There will be varying sizes. As I always say, nature is never constant. Some of them will be larger, some of them will be smaller. That's how we are going to add it. I'm going with the second tree now. There is less to explain at this part. I would just make some scanty looking tree over here. Some of the lines on the left and some of the lines on the right. I'm making a bit more lighter compared to the one that I've already added on the left. This is very important, as it is atmospheric watercolor landscape or evocative landscape, which means it has to capture the fog and the mist which appears in the atmosphere. Hence, varying the degree of your values is very important so that the depth can be seen by anyone. The focus, of course, will be in the middle, which is mainly the trees that you are painting. We are not trying to keep the focus in the sky. It is simple, easy. Even the grounds have just the grasses and a bit of texture, rest. Mostly, we are focusing on each and every tree that we are going to paint. As I did tell you even dio, that this would be scanty leafy kind of tree which we are going to add. At this moment, there is less to explain. So just follow the brushstrokes and hope you are enjoying the whole of this project to let me continue to work upon it and you have a look at it. I will put on some music so that you can continue to enjoy the watercolor trees. A the third tree is all about balance and atmosphere. This is basically a tree that appears in the background, and hence I have keep the foliage really light. I have added a lot of water into the paints which I'm using. And then I would go ahead with a parallel tree where we are going to add some more of our darker values. Always always try to vary the values for whatever area you are painting. This is a really small painting, and hence we are going to take less time. It's about five inch. You can also go ahead with something a bit bigger. I would leave that decision up to you. Having said that, doing on a smaller paper is always easy. There is less time that is taken, and you can have a quick final outcome. When you go ahead and paint these vertical lines, the brushstrokes where we have learned how to draw the vertical lines comes really handy. Now, this is all about practice, and you will also take some more time. Do not break the lines. That's something I always always say. Try to have a continuous line two parallel continuous line will help you to understand how exactly you can add trees as well as they look absolutely like pine trees. Now, pine trees are always erected from the ground. As you can see, they go straight up and move into the sky area. The top, of course, part is, like, smaller and the bottom part is broader. It looks more like a cone sheap and we are also going to show the same in this part. As we are painting the pine trees, let me tell you a bit more about pines. There are about 1:20 recognized species of pine trees in nature. Though the exact number can vary depending on how botanists classify certain subspecies and hybrids, here's a quick overview of how they are organized. Genus is pins, family is panacea. And the sub genre is pins, which are hard pines, usually with two to three needles per bundle and storbs which is soft pines, typically with five needles per bundle. Global distribution is all about pines that are mostly appearing in the northern hemisphere, including the North America, Europe, Asia, and parts of North Africa. You can also see pines appearing in the upper side of Himalayas, as I belong from India, and I have seen these kind of trees whenever I am traveling to the northern side, that is a Majal Pradesh, Ora khan or any of the other northeast parts. While I go towards the end, I will just blend it with the help of any blending brush and apply some colors or you can also just blend it with water. I would leave that decision up to you exactly the way I am doing right now. The bottom area is usually some thickly populated or more of bushes, et cetera. And hence, I make it darker compared to the ones that we have added for our tree region. Okay, now, what do we mean by painting continuously with watercolor? This is a very, very important concept. You have seen that I have not waited for my layer of the background trees to get dried up completely. I did start out immediately. Painting continuously is beautiful and fluid approach is all I can say. It emphasizes low rhythm and connection rather than rigid steps or waiting between layers. The result is a moist living painting with both flow and form. I will go ahead and paint with water now as my paper has completely dried off. You can see that most of our painting area is wet on wet, or you can say wet or moist, even for our foreground trees. We did see it how you paint with water during our techniques section, as well as in the brushstrokes part. Hopefully, if you are new to watercolors, then you can get back to those sections, have a look at it, and then come back to this painting and start with your painting again. I always always say practice is a great way to improve upon your skills or to brush upon your skills. It can help you to achieve the required outcome pretty quickly. I love this soft yet crisp kind of pine tree that is similar in looks, and size, et cetera, to the one that we did attempt first on the left side. For the adjacent that we're painting now, I will vary the color or you can say values of this color. Now, this is to particularly show that one of them is a bit more closer to our eye and one of them is a bit more further. Now we come to the most beautiful stage, which I really want to talk about the final details. This is where an atmospheric watercolor painting truly comes alive, but also where it's easiest to lose the softness and mystery that makes the piece sing. This is how I usually approach it, pause and observe before applying anything, step back and study your painting. Where does the eye naturally grow? We have also done this exercise in our first project, identify where it needs more clarity and more atmosphere. Not every part needs detail. Often just one focal area should be cross and the rest stays soft and suggestive, which is what we have also done in this part of our painting. At selective contrast, deepen shadows or mid tones and focal areas to anchor the composition. Use a small damp brush with thicker pigments for precise dark tree edges, or you can say leaves, et cetera. I would say what is usually the final thought that I think when I'm trying to complete any of these atmospheric landscape paintings is often stop just short of finish, which is like that it is yet not finished, but still finished. It's the hint of incompleteness status. It is really not complete, a bit of mist, vague trees for the background, some vague horizons, if you want. This keeps the painting alive and breathing. While you continue to complete this, I would let you know a bit about the next two projects. It's all about painting with limited palette. Either it be two or three or four colors at Max. We are not going to use multiple shades. So sit back relax and enjoy each of these painting. Hope you are Audrey doing in the meantime, let's finish this painting with some birds. The bird painting technique is the same as what we did discuss earlier in the section of brushstrokes. We will be adding more of the techniques part as I progress to my painting three and painting four. Before every two paintings, there is a section where you get all the help in terms of understanding brushstrokes or techniques, et cetera. So do follow it before heading to the final project. 7. Techniques Part 2: Let us talk about a few techniques, which is very important in watercolors, and this is basically techniques part two. I hope you have Ady Achen techniques part one. The first part is all about wet on wet blending and wet on dry blending. I would like to tell you the difference between the wet on wet and wet on dry blending rather than telling you, Okay, what is wet on wet and what is wet on dry, as you all know that. Now for wet on wet, it is a wet surface that you need, and on top of that, you can apply two or three colors depending on the requirement. And then it will produce some diffuse soft edges with less control over the paints. They will move on their own. You might have to move your pad or the acrylic sheet where you did stick your paper. Accordingly, depending on the fluidity of the watercolor medium, the paints will move into each other. The speed of the video is 1.4 X, and you can always go ahead adjust the speed of the video if you want to take up this techniques part, I would be more than happy if you take it up because this is a great way to have simple exercise practice in the beginning before you jump on to the final lesson. What is wet on dry blending? This technique involves applying wet paint to a surface that is completely dry. So it is a dry paper that we have. This will result in either crisp or sharp edges or controlled brushstrokes. Now, I would have more controlled brushstrokes per se because we are going to just apply colors one after another, blending into each other. Here you have more control. Of course, because you are only putting your brushstrokes, you will have more control. But having said that, there would be no diffused edges in this case. There would be more of manual blending which would be needed compared to the first case where we had more of natural blending between the fluids itself. Rather than us doing more work, water was doing more work for us. Having said that, both the methods are absolutely used by all kinds of artists. The first method where there is wet on wet blending, you have to work pretty quickly because your surface is wet. And till yourself as a wet till then only you can work, whereas the next one, which is wet on dry blending, you can work at a much slower and more deliberate pace as the paint do not spread very rapidly. You are the person who is basically controlling the whole of the paints area, and hence, you will only decide the pace of your painting. What is glazing in watercolor? Glazing is a process of applying a thin, diluted and transparent wash of color over a completely dry previous layer of paints. Having said that, the transparency in this is the key because the top layer is very transparent, the underlying color is still visible. Light passes through the new layer, hits the white paper beneath and reflects back through both the layers of the color, creating a new vibrant hue through optical mixing. Purpose to gradually build up tone, darken the values, unify color harmony, and adjust the hue. The golden rule of complete drying is very important when you are glazing. Now, why I am going through this part more in detail because it will not take us much time to glaze, but it is important to understand the glazing method. Wait until bone dry. Now, this is the most crucial step. The underlying layer which you are applying with the help of the te green, that has to be completely dry. That is 100% dry before you go over it and glaze with a new pigment. The paper should feel room temperature, not cool, not damp. If you are someone who uses hair dryer more often, go ahead to speed up the process, dry it, but I usually don't use it as I don't want the colors to somehow feel more lighter. I have seen it for a few of the shades, sometimes they become lighter in value compared to if that is dried just in open. So those are the aspects which I keep in mind when working with the glazing part. I have three important tips. One is using the transparent pigments working light to dark and use large brushes for creating these kind of washers. Now, these are really helpful throughout the complete journey of watercolor glazing. Now, glazing can be used in various ways. Over here, we would be using a glazing for our grassland. That is the next project which you are going to do. This is a third project, and it has all these techniques which we are using right now. Of course, I have given you two options for wet on wet and wet on Rye blending as I want you guys to know both of them before you jump on to any conclusions of using only one or using this is a better method, or that is a better method. Whichever you think is more suited for your kind of style, you use it in your future projects. Softening my edges, I would just apply some darker value. You can make some amount of your sub green and nutriten for creating this wash. You will see that every time I'm taking a broad brush to create or to work around with a larger surface, I would first apply the colors and then soften the edges. You can soften the edges with the help of a clear water or else you can also soften the edges with the help of any kind of lighter colors. You want to move from darker to lighter values. That is also possible. If you want to just soften the edges with the help of your like clear water, that is also absolutely possible. I would leave that decision up to you. We have done this. For both cases, you can go ahead and see it as you progress in this journey. Of course, the first two projects were monochrome, the next two are limited palette, and the last one which we are going to use is basically multiple colors. Please go ahead and try all of these. Hope you are enjoying the class till now. Go ahead and just check out the next project where you are going to use or the techniques as I did tell you even earlier. 8. Project 3 - Limited Palette Forest: This painting, we are moving on to a bit more complex, and this is limited palette forest. The colors are paints gray or neurotens sap green and palo green light. We are going to start up by marking our horizon line, and below it, there will be the areas which are for the grasslands and for the lake. Though we are going to start out with one of the darkest values, that is your paints gray or neutral tint, whichever is available, I personally love the neutral tint, and I'm going to use a neutral tint to complete this painting. But in case you don't have neutral tint, you can keep pains gray as another option. I'm going to wet my paper really well with the water first. I will do a cross punch with the help of my wash brush once my drawing is done, my darkest color here is pains gray or neutral tint. But I'm only going to use it as the first wash to build a background atmosphere. Usually, what we have seen, we will never touch these darkest colors. But when you tone it down by adding a lot of water, it can always act as a base layer or a starting point for creating the mist and the atmosphere which we really need for this painting. Before we jump on to our limited palette part and start mixing our colors, let me tell you what is the exact meaning of limited palette. Limited palette is using a small selection of colors that is two to four paints to create your entire painting. Here's the idea if you see in simple terms, you pick up only a few colors to work with. You mix everything you need from those colors. Because of all the mixes coming from the same small group, your painting looks more harmonious, balanced and cohesive. It also helps you to get better at color mixing and keeps your setup simple. For my big nerve friendly classes, I always love to keep or choose a limited palette as I don't want much of confusion. By the way, as I keep explaining you about limited palette, let's also see that there are no backgrounds or cauliflower effect into the painting, which usually happens in case there is a lot of water that is there on the sides of the tape, exactly why I was always cleaning up the sides because there has to be no cauliflower effect. I want an absolute harmonious, beautiful, cohesive kind of painting at this stage. I'm applying the colors only in a few places, and the colors will be at least one to two shade lighter than what you absorb over here. I will also pick up the colors from the areas of the green because I don't want to add a lot of undertone into it. The green needs to be bright and the Teo green light is an amazing colour which can help you get the desired color of the light green pigment which we want in this painting. If you don't have the Teo green light, you can go ahead with any light green that's available in your palette. Now it's time to lift out my watercolors in few of the areas wherever it is necessary, you will see that I will go ahead with a damp brush, pick it up on my tissue, and then again start out by lifting out the area where there is basically the grassland. It is a really hard technique to be frank. It doesn't work initially. You need to know the ability of the pigment in terms of whether it is staining or non staining. If it is non staining, then only you can remove it. If it is staining, then it's hard to remove it. Now, since we have applied a very, very light shape of this color, that is either be it pales gray or even the neutral thin, it is a bit more easier for us to work around with it rather than just thinking about not to work around. Why we lift watercolors is something that I want to tell you why we work this out to correct the mistakes. Supposedly, I don't want the colors in the grassland areas, and hence, I would like to pick it up. To create highlights. Sometimes it's important to create highlights like the sun rays or the reflection, et cetera. And for those things, we do create highlights to soften the edges. Now, this softening of edges is highly used when I'm doing any floral kind of composition. To add textures that is basically the clouds, ripples wood grain or any other texture, you will see how we will create more texture into the water area of the lake with the help of picking up the color, lifting out of the colors. To shape or to redefine, that is, lifting also helps you to actually carve the shape or the areas. Like over here, you can define the horizon line in a better way. Once this is done, we will start out by applying some clear water for the tree area. And this tree area, of course, is for the places where you will see far away trees, and mostly it is pine trees that I have kept as of now. These are small paintings, and believe me, it can easily fit into your daily schedule. Only an intent should be there to start out. I have mixed my sap green, along with this shade of neutral tint and started applying it. You will see that I will vary those shades to a great extent, which means that I'm creating depth. Some of the areas would be lighter in value, and some of the areas would be darker in value. I really don't care much when it comes to the shape and size that I'm making at this stage, it's just colors which I'm applying in the form of trees, and this is far away trees. I'm mixing now my darker and lighter values, as I always told you earlier. You can pick up the color on your brush, then go ahead with the tip of your brush for adding the tree like structure. It's a simple faraway tree, so there has to be only lines, one or two lines that are crossing. That's it. And then you are done. We will continue to iterate this process again and again, and that's one of the reasons I always say this is meditate with watercolors. Meditate with watercolors means that we continue to grow or continue to work in a similar pattern again and again and again. And really try to ace it with every painting that we are doing. Well, many of us do fear watercolors, but I have few reasons why you should not fear it at all. Watercolors are less forgiving, we know, but I would say that watercolors are not so less forgiving either, because you can lift, soften, layer, glaze to fixed many of the things that you have dita. Even mistakes often turn into beautiful textures or effect. The paint wants to help you, so it helps you to work as a partner, rather than you treating it as one of your enemies or difficulty level that you usually see in watercolors is not what it is. Watercolor naturally creates bloom, soft gradient, and organic texture that would be hard to get intentionally in other mediums. It works for you, not against you. Believe me, that's the truth. You don't need a lot of supplies, as you always see water, brushes, and some paints is good enough. Even a single monochrome paint can help you. The paper is the most important aspect in watercolors. If you can get that right, then everything is good. It teaches you to let go of. Now, let go means you have to let go of your control. Once you stop fighting the paint, you start enjoying the surprises it gives you. Layering builds beauty. Now, every light, transparent layer, you create depth and richness, so you don't have to get it right all at once. You will see this same thing as we work on the grassland. And lastly, every attempt that I make is basically teaching me something. Every wash, bloom, unexpected edges or even cauliflower effects, et cetera, is making me learn a new thing that I'm exploring in watercolors. Hence, it is more fun because of its playful nature or because of the water and the fluidity that comes with it. And that's one of the reasons I feel very, very soothing or meditative when I'm working with this medium. Now the time to add some more of the darker values for my trees, you will see that background trees which I have created are way more lighter in value and the foreground trees would be darker and value. Always, because it is closer to my eyes, anything that is further away from my eyes will become lighter because of the mist or atmospheric effect that we usually observe in nature. The next technique that I would be using is softening the edges in watercolor. We have discussed this even earlier during the techniques part two, but let's just understand in real life scenario how it works. Now, why real life scenario? Because we are working on a landscape that demands this. So this is basically a technique that is used to blur or gently fade the transition between two areas of paint. Now, it helps to create more natural, relaxed and realistic look, especially for things like skies, shadows or distant landscapes. I have been using it very often for most of these landscape area. Now, since we are dealing with landscapes over here, I'm not getting into other things like your petals or your florals, et cetera, though I have many classes even on that, but this particularly, I am now working on on the landscape areas where I use this technique. Okay, somewhat darker values I can only add when my paper is wet. Always know that till our paper is wet, we can work on any kind of distant arteries or bloody areas which we want, but I'm not going to work upon it once it is done. Now, why is it? What do I mean by it is done? It is basically once it is dried off completely. I will now use my Teil green and start out the areas of the grasslands. Now, the grassland areas are really, really amazing. I am super excited to actually teach you this part. I am very happy with how this has turned out. Believe me, with only very simple and really less number of paints, you can always create magic. So never think about the fact that you cannot create magic if you do not have so many colors or 12 shades or 15 shades or 18 shades or big, big, you can say watercolor, um, different kind of sets with you. Initially, as a bigner, I did purchase a lot of sets, but over time, I have realized they are not of much use, and whatever now I like in colors, I go ahead and purchase those as individual tubes. I will also use some of the Sab green in few of the areas as your colors will look flat if you only use one single color and just work with the tonal values of it as the color is pretty warm over here, compared to the cool shade which you can be used from the sub green area. Now, sap green really gives that kind of depth in this painting, and that's one of the reasons I love to use sap green in many of the areas. You can also mix it up with a bit of neutral tint if you want. I would leave that decision up to you. I will be also using a bit of neutral tint wherever necessary or if not necessary. Just avoid it. Go ahead and avoid it. Once I've applied the colors on the grasslands, I would go ahead and just blend my areas of the darker values into the lighter values that is there in the bottom area and then just create some of these stuff as you see over here. The darker is the sab green, and then the lighter would be the To green as you see. As you see me apply some darker values, this is also called as wet on wet blending. Why I see wet on web blending, I body apply the lighter value of the green on the paper, and now I'm applying the darker value. Why I would say that wet on wet is a very amazing technique because it creates smooth gradients, gives soft, dreamy transitions, perfect for skies, backgrounds or atmospheric effect. Let colors mingle in beautifully in a very, very unpredictable way, which we cannot really say that, Okay, this is the best way to go about it or this is not the best way to go about it. Let them do their own work. We are not here to judge it how it turns out. There are a few tips that I usually want to give you when you are working with watercolors and wet on bed blending. Keep the paper evenly wet. That is use the paints that aren't too thick. More water helps them to flow, or you have to work on areas where you have fluidity of the water being worked out along with the paints. Built your board a bit for the color movement. Now, this is very optional if you are working on moist, of course, there cannot be much movement. And hence, you have to let it as it works on its own. Let the paint do the work. The magic happens when you don't overwork. That's something which is very, very important at this stage. Do not overwork at any point in time. Let the colors play their own role and let them work out the magic on their own rather than continuously working it out. I am again adding some water for the forest areas and then again adding some more darker value towards the bottom area as it has turned more of white, which I do not want, and it should be completely softened. We might have to go ahead with another layer of glazing. I will tell you how we go about it for the grass tends, of course, with the lighter value rather than being the darker value. Some of the areas I'm again retouching, where I think it is still wet and I can go work along, as well as it will not give me really hard edges. Of course, there are few hardages which I want, and you have seen that we have done a mix of hardages and soft edges in this painting rather than only going ahead with some soft edges or some hardages. So that will always remain. If it's a good mix, you will see that the painting comes together very quickly, and the final outcome is super impressive. Now it's time to create the reflection. Of course, in a very simple and easy manner. Whatever be the colors of the forest, I would be using the same in the area of the water and just creating some blooms, not adding a lot of, I would say, movement, et cetera into it. And I would also lift out some of the colors from this particular area of the water. You will see how and exactly the movements that is created because of the lifting out of the spaces, of course, which were darker with the help of my flat brush. So that's a very, very good and important aspect which we will be showing for creating the movements in the water. After lifting out, you can see how the movements are in the water area. I have genuinely kept a bit of space between the top area of the grassland and the reflection that is there in the water. This is for the same reason that you can identify that this is the grassland and this is the water area. Let's go ahead and glaze. Now, what do you mean by glazing? Of course, it is going one layer over another layer, and that's what we are going to do as this layer has gone really light compared to what I initially thought. Hence, going with the lightest value of To blue and then adding it over the colors that we have already added will be really helpful. The next painting is going to be super interesting, so be ready, and let's jump on very soon to the next one. 11. Techniques Part 3: This is part three of the techniques section, and what we are starting out is a very interesting concept. Many of you might have already worked through it and actually know exactly how to do it. But for me, I think this is very important for each one of you to have a look at. And before we progress with our next painting, I would go ahead and just apply some sabren on the left side of the entire paper. This would be more like a flat wash. You can go ahead and apply a lot of water or have one particular pool and then only start applying. I would leave that decision up to you how you want to go about it. We are going to create some textures, and these textures become very important in our next painting where we are trying to create the foregrounds. Now, why the foregrounds and backgrounds are something that we have always focused on. Now, the backgrounds are in the cooler tones that you would find, whereas the foregrounds are mostly in the warm tones. Now, if your foregrounds are in the warm tones, it gives a and feel that it is closer to you and it is more brighter, whereas whatever is far away from your eyes, it would be way more lighter in shade or it would be more cooler and shade so that you can see the distance. This particular concept actually refers back to something called a perspective. I know that many of you are already aware of it. You can see I'm using my sap green from the senalar. Yes, I use all kinds of brands, whether it be Rem Brand, PWC, sap green, from the brand senalar, and there are many other brands which I also refer back to now and then. Pick up some clear water on your brush and start splattering it as I'm doing over here. You can also go ahead and splatter some blue that will give you more colors and more textures. Though you know that since we have already splattered the water, if you splatter blue over it, then it might get more dispersed as a pigment, whereas if you are doing it as a first, it might only be limited to a particular space. I would go ahead and again start applying these colors on the right side. Over here, I want to show you how I mix my first two colors that is sap green and French ultramarine. Once these two colors are mixed with each other, you will know that two cooler tones have come together and they can make a great mix. We will be using this mix even in our next painting. This next painting is a mix of all the techniques, colors, theory, everything that we have learned till date. So that is the one which I kept for last, and it is also broken into two different parts, just like the fourth painting, which we have done, which is Illuminated Pathway. If you haven't tried the Illuminated Pathway, I would request you guys to go ahead and check out that painting now. This particular part of techniques might look as really small, but it is very important in our overall techniques section as we are learning how to create textures, which usually we haven't done till now. This particular technique is a bit advanced compared to the ones that we have done till date. Hence, it is placed at last. I have a seventh painting, which we are also going to do. It's basically a bonus lesson, and I'm super excited to also teach you the same. It's more about the misty forest, moving leak and much more. Let's go ahead but first concentrate on this part of the techniques section. I can now again splatter some water on the left side as the paper is still before we go ahead with the final part or the final understanding of how to apply the warm colors on the cool background, it's important to create a smooth blend of shades that is your ultramarine and sabrene. In the bottom area, we are applying the tramne and in the top area, we are applying the sap green. You can go ahead and take any liner brush and start applying smaller dots on the wet surface. If it is too wet, the colors will move a lot and the pigments will get displaced to a greater extent. Hence, you need to keep in mind that there has to be a bit more reinforcement that needs to be done once it is in a semi dry kind of a condition, or you can say it's a moist condition. Moist condition is where the colors don't move a lot, and if your colors are moving, as I am showing you over here on the left side, you can go over it when the paper is moist and apply one or two dots here and there. This is a very, very important concept for the wildflowers, which you are going to add in the next painting. While you continue with the process, I would like to give a short description about the next painting that is misty grassland. It's a white stretch of open earth when soft grass ripple beneath a blanket of drifting fog. The world feels muted, colors faded, sounds softened and everything wrapped in a quite mystery. Euclings to every bleed of the grass, and the air smells fresh, cool, and earthy. Locals say the fog is alive that it remembers every traveler who passes through. Hence, the painting has so much life that I am super excited to teach you the same. Along with it, you can see that I'm trying to add some splatters of clear water so that it can create some texture. Let this dry off completely, remove the tape at an angle, and have a final look at the painting. Small exercises are great reminders for beautiful outcomes. 12. Project 5 - Misty Grasslands: Let's have a look at all the colors for our Project five, evening glow. Nine number two or peach Opera, French ultra Mary, sap green, neutro tint. If there are any further sheets that I can include, I will let you know in the process. There are a few new techniques which has been explored in this, and some of them is all about splattering, et cetera. You will get a hang of it from the techniques section part three. Go ahead and check it out before you attempt the project. I'm going ahead and applying a lot of water on the surface of the paper, and once I've applied the water, I would go ahead and just remove all the extra water by tilting my part. This is the acrylic board that I have been using for my painting, and I'm clearing out the sides of it. We will start out with the sky. Now this is basically a very warm kind of colors that I have set. It is my warm tones, you can say, that is the energy and sunset warm that I want to show through this painting is something that I really love. And without sunsets or sunrises, I don't think that any of my projects are complete. Having said that, it has got a pretty atmospheric look, which will also come together when we are applying the cooler tones. Okay, let's go ahead and add some amount of white yellow tone, which is basically my peach called John Brilliant number two. Whatever is available with you, you can also use naples yellow in case none of this is available. Go ahead with some opera and just start applying it below that. Once you have applied the opera, we will add some green and the blue, this is my French ultramarine. You know that I am someone who is in love with French ultramarine, the granulation of French ultramarine. Hence, I have been using this color in many of my paintings. And you will be really happy to see that this color can create so much magic in our painting that some of the very great artists or, like, very known artists have used it from the olden days, and that's how the French tra marinee has become a part of watercolors or many of the other beautiful oil paintings, too. Going ahead and mixing some amount of sabgreen into the blue and just creating the bottom part. You can see it is about one third. I have not defined any horizon line over here. I have gone completely like that, not thinking much about defining, et cetera. It's a very loose and nice outcome that I'm looking forward to Okay. I'm blending my colors. Once I have blended my colors, I would go ahead and apply some more amount of blue. I'm using my broad brush. This broad brush again, is like a wash brush. This is the VNC size zero brush. You can go ahead with any other wash brush that's available with you. It can be Rafael. Rafael is a very, I would say affordable brush that's available even in India. If you are someone who wants to try it, I think it's an aqua soft or aqua tone brush that I've been using for quite some years now. And it is really good. It is way more cheaper than D vinci Casaneo. And hence, I do refer it to most of my students or many of the other who have been asking me about the brushes. Devinc having said that Dawnci or you can say Escodas, these are more on the expensive side, but they last really long. And hence, even if you are adding money on these or spending money on these from your kitty, I think it is going to create a lot of happiness when you are painting. Okay, let's go ahead and just apply some more greens and blues on the left side. You can see that I would be creating a landscape. It's a very simple landscape. At this moment, there are nothing in terms of shapes, sizes, et cetera. We have just defined very blurry effect for our backgrounds, and then we will go ahead and slowly start adding our water first, I will let the paper dry off. I don't want to touch it when the paper is wet because that might create some issues or I'm not very confident about how the colors, tonal values, et cetera, will hoof. I would really need some softer tones, and I would need some blooms, et cetera, some dry brush techniques. So overall, when this is the situation, I'll let my paper dry off and then only start by wetting some portions of the paper which I need for creating my trees exactly the way you see over here. I'm mixing my tramin and some amount of my nutrten to create a tree like structure that you see. I'm using my size four or size six brush, whichever you are more comfortable with, since this paper is smaller, so I'm going ahead with my size four brush. You all know how I create my trees. So continue to build up on this process. Some of the spaces are already wet and hence those spaces, you will see lots of blooms. I will slowly add some more colors over there and then pick up some lines as you see over here. Add the right side or the left side extended making some lines that looks like pine trees. The next thing is, about multicolor watercolor landscape. What is there multicolor watercolor landscape? Though many artists do say about four to six shades are also you can say limited palett. But for me, when I'm using four to six shades or maybe five shades, I usually call it multicolor landscapes or multicolor paintings. Now, there are very meaningful reasons for which artists always do these kind of things to capture the beauty of nature. Nature is never just one color. We all know yes, we define it with one color so that it's easier for our prey to process, to understand the tonal values, to understand the depth. Having said that, when you add more colors, the sky shift from yellow to pink to blue as you see over here, forest mix greens and then your blues, et cetera, the water reflects many shades of the sky or of the forest of the trees. All of this put together makes a multicolor landscape look more poetic in nature and natural variations look much more realistic. That's how I look at it. Second is to add depth and dimension. Atmospheric perspective, distance object, whatever is at a distance, you will find it more cooler, which means that right now what we are adding in blue is a cooler look. Whereas whatever is closer to our eyes that you will see later as we work on our foregrounds for our grass part, you will see that there are more warmer shades, like I would be using the peach color, which we have used earlier, or maybe you can also use the yellow Naples yellow or any of the John Brilliant num two from the brand, I think PWC or no, that's from the rand hole beam. So these are the shades that I have been using quite often in my paintings for giving the warm. Layered spaces that guides the viewer's eye and contrast that makes the painting feel alike. So this really brings a lot of contrast. Having said that, yes, you can get contrast in many ways, even with one single color, you can create contrast. But with time, when we start adding more and more colors, I think the overall painting looks much more realistic and it's closer to what we usually observe in a photograph, or if we go live at a particular painting, we will see all those shades appearing in nature. To bring the mood and emotion. Now, this is something that I always always say. Warm tones bring in so much energy. So this particular painting, I would say, is so much balanced. The warm tones of the skies look so amazing, along with the cool tones of the trees that we are creating for our background. Overall, the whole painting comes together with only the warm and cooler tones over here. Another thing that I have learned with time is color harmony. Now, color harmony is using the colors that are adjacent to each other. Or you can say analogous color rather than going with complimentary colors. Though it's not that we haven't gone with complimentary colors. I'm someone who loves to use complimentary colors in many of my paintings. But with that, I do also love to explore different set of my watercolor analogous parts so that it looks very, very harmonious when you actually seeing any kind of transition like from here, when you use a Jon Mellin number two and an opera makes it gives you a nice peachh pinkish kind of look for the sky, which is warm, as well as that looks so pretty overall. Now I'm lifting or blending my colors, as you can see over here with the help of my wash brush, yes, this is my wash brush. You can keep even a round brush for your wash brush. I always love to keep a regular flat brush for all my washes. The next would be to enhance the visual interest. The human eye loves a lot of variety. A landscape with multiple hue spill feels at least very rich, dynamic, and engaging. If you are someone who is looking like who is looking forward to having colors, I think this is the best way to go ahead and express yourself. The expressive scenes that we get from using the multiple colors is, of course, beyond imagination, and it's all how you go and see a particular painting or it's how you go and just show the whole painting with your own eyes or with the artistic eyes that you have. So more darker lines that I want to add into my painting because this looks really blended in terms of the trees that I see for my background. While I come down to the ground level, I'll just blend my colors with the help of a blending brush and take it to the bottom part. Now it's time to work on our foregrounds. Now foregrounds is basically the ground area. You can see already the granulation of the sabrene and the ultramarine looks pretty amazing. I'm super excited to show you how the colors blend into each other. I would be adding some more darker values in some of the areas, and some of the areas I would leave just like that. I would be touching, dropping one or two drops here and there, and that's all. You don't need to actually go ahead and make lines or cover the entire area. We are not looking forward to flat washes. Flat washes is something that would make the painting look one dimensional and we are looking forward to multi dimensional. I will take a thin brush and start loading my brush with some ultramarine and neutral tint and then add it in terms of some lines and dots here and there. Once we have added these dots and some lines, they would look like grasses for the foreground. Along with it, I want to add some beautiful flowers. Believe me, this is something that I always, always love to add to my paintings. It's not that I always experiment a lot, but yeah, whenever I experiment, at least adding the flowers or the birds make a painting looks very interesting. Okay, let's just platter some water onto the area of the grassland, as you see over here, that is the bottom area. Though I don't see much of an effect that has come as of now, But yeah, having said that, just continue to work because grassland is something that we are yet to detail. And you can already see that there are some patches which are darker. There are some patches which are lighter, which gives the texture that we need for the foreground. My paper is still wet wherever I have painted my trees and they are becoming more blood. So it's important to just define it a bit more. I'm going ahead with my thinner brush just to add some more dots and lines wherever it is necessary and give the structure of pine trees. This is a pretty iterative process, and there is less to explain at this stage. Once you are done with this part, then we will go ahead and add some beautiful florals to our foregrounds. Now, that part is very, very interesting, and you would also fall in love with it. Once you know the process, you can create it for any of your future paintings, too. Lets us understand a bit more about foreground, why we do so much of detailing in our foreground in watercolor landscape. It creates depth and perspective. You all know. It makes it more three dimensional, puts the middle and the background further away and enhances the atmospheric perspective. Then next, that is a very, very important point is enhances realism, and therefore, it will also help you to believe the reality, which means that there are rock structures or grass structures, maybe some trees. Like we are adding right now. Though these are background trees, but they are a bit more in the foreground compared to the ones that we have added further away. And the most important point which I feel is very strong or balances, the whole of the painting is having a loose, soft background and controlled or detailed foreground, which makes any of your watercolor painting looks so interesting. And it tells a story of its own rather than focusing everywhere, it helps or you can say it guides a viewer's eye to one of the particular areas in a painting. Et us just check our foregrounds before I go ahead and start applying my peachy color. Yes, this looks very interesting. The color altogether looks so nice. I will start with some smaller dots here and there, as you see over here, from the right to the left. Some of the places are still wet where these dots are becoming blue. I'm so happy it is naturally happening. Otherwise, I would have wanted to add some water or maybe just a layer of light wash and then go ahead with it. You know, what happens when some of the parts bloom on its own and then you add a soft dot on top of it, it looks it adds more dimension rather than having a single dimension into the flower. Okay, continue to add on the left and on the right, some of the spaces will have more of the flowers together, and some of the spaces will have one or two. You do not want to make it equidistant or you do not want to place one after another in a mechanical way. Nature is random and randomness really needs to prevail. We will continue to add some more of these. You can use your size two, size one brush. Whatever is available with you, I would leave that decision up to you. Some of the spaces where I want to blur, I'm going ahead and touching it with the help of my fingers and then allowing it to dry a bit. Once it is dry, I would go ahead and apply some more of my peach shade on top of it and make it glow. Super happy with how this whole painting has turned out. The next painting is going to be a bit more detail, and it would be broken again into two different parts, part one and part two. Of course, the idea is not to confuse you or to not get over in the process. We will have some part where we are working on the backgrounds, foregrounds, et cetera, and some of the parts where we are working in the drawing and the backgrounds. So yes, overall, it's going to be very interesting. See you in the next lesson. And do try to attempt the techniques section one for all the paintings before you go ahead with the final project. 13. Project 6 (Part 1) - Winter Cabin: Sixth and the last project is Winter Cabin. Let's go ahead and see what are the colors which we need for completing this painting. Sap green ramarin yellow burn Sienna sepia, John Brilliant number two, and Neutral Tint. I would be suggesting alternative colors in this multiclored project as we progress in it. Hi, guys. I'm back with these six from the series. Meditate with Watercolors 2.2. We are going to first start out with the drawing plot. This is going to be a bit longer than what we have done earlier. I'm going to draw a house at this moment, or you can say at least a cabin in the woods, and we are going to add a cross line and then going to slowly develop into a small cabin. I first added a small square structure, and above that, I would be drawing a triangle. On the right, I would be extending it and then again moving on to the left where I will create some lines, follow it, and I'm pretty sure you're going to nail drawing. As you follow me through the drawing before doing watercolors, let's go ahead and understand a bit into the technique and the creative part of it. Establish structure and proportion. Watercolors are transparent and difficult to correct once applied. A pencil drawing acts as a roadmap, helping you to place the subject accurately, get proportions and perspective right. Avoid guessing while painting. Reduces mistake during the painting because watercolor is unforgiving. Color stains, edges, dry quickly and lifting paint is limited. A solid drawing prevents misaligned shapes, awkward composition, changes made painting, overworking the paper, trying to fix errors, support confident brush strokes. Me fluid brush strokes, better control of water and pigment, less hesitation, which helps keep the painting fresh and vibrant. The fourth one, which is very, very important, this helps plant light and shadows. Though this particular painting doesn't have a lot of light and shadow area, but still we have some light in the cabin, which we really wanted to show the areas that need to remain white, which means that we might go ahead and mask very small areas, shadows and value placement becomes very important in cases where you have light and shadow effect coming up to a great extent. That is you're painting any kind of object, maybe just a mushroom where one side is light and another side is dark. So these kinds really help you to prevent any kind of losing highlights or accidentally darkening important areas. Those things can really be prevented. And finally, it simplifies composition decision like layout, balance, negative spaces, visual flow. So all these things can also be expressed pretty well. A preliminary drawing forces you to observe its shapes, textures, and details. So when you paint, you already understand the subject structure. This leads to more expressive and confident watercolors. Finally, if I need to sum up while you are drawing the windows and some of the doors, I would like to say that drawing before Watercolors provides clarity, reduces errors, and enhances artistic control, allowing the watercolor medium, natural beauty, soft transitions, luminosity blending to shine. So these are the important aspects which I feel is very, very important even before you start out with watercolors. Though the whole stress of this particular class has not been on drawing, it has mostly been focused on your painting aspect. But still, the last portion, I would request you to focus a bit more on the drawing compared to what we have done eard. Once we are done with a rough outline, it's important to just finalize the drawing and focus on some of the important darker areas, which is going to really help us focus on simple, simple aspects of a watercolor rather than focusing on a lot more difficult aspects. And this is purely to highlight a region where there is a door or a window or maybe the roof of this whole of the wood cabin that I'm adding right now. There are a few trees that would be there in the background, and in the foreground, there is a small, I would say rocky area. The whole painting is not big enough and we are trying to move from top to bottom. You will see that we are starting out with the top area, and then we will work through the middle grounds and then the foreground or how we go about it. There might be a bit of change or a bit of shift in the whole painting, and that is absolutely okay. All paintings do not in a similar way, which means that you will not have a movement from top to bottom or the way you have always worked earlier. Hence, every painting has a different kind of demand. Some of the paintings we do as negative painting, some of the paintings we are doing as very different from negative painting. So overall, the paintings are different from each other, and hence we have to treat it differently. This painting is going to be a bit longer as I did tell you, so it is divided into two parts. This is the first part that you are following, and you have to also move on to the second part, which is way more smaller than the first part. But still, there is something to follow up on the next part too. I will go ahead and mask out these smaller areas of the windows and the doors because that is exactly my light source. You will see how it turns yellow, and the nearby area will also turn kind of yellow and burn Sienna in nature. You need to allow your paper to completely dry off before you touch any of the areas in watercolors because if you touch the area of the masking fluid with watercolor brush, sometimes this masking fluid can also touch your brush, and all the expensive brushes may go for tos. That's one of the reasons I always always say that let your paper dry off completely before you go ahead with the painting part. Okay, I'm applying some water on the top part of the sky or the forest area, you can say. So this is not exactly sky. Some of the forest area is visible from the mist. These will be basically the trees that are appearing on the mountains, and that's how I go about it. I will use the top area above the cabin only. And around the cabin, I'm not going to use any of the other areas. Mm. Once the area is completely wet, you can go ahead with some sap green, along with even some ultramarine, if you are a fan of ultramarine the way I am and start applying the colors. I would also go ahead with some of my neutrtin that I have used eardo. I'm going to mostly use all the colors that has been used in the process and place my acrylic board in an elevated manner. I'm going ahead and slowly applying some of my ultramarine mixed with sap green onto the paper as you see over here. This particular area is wet enough, and hence you can always go ahead and start applying more colors wherever it is needed, as well as you move the colors from the spaces where you think that it is overpowering. My layer one of watercolors is usually very light as you always observe, because if I apply any darker values, what usually happens is coming back to the lighter values becomes very tough. Hence, it is important to go ahead with real lighter values in your first wash. You can always go ahead and make it more and more darker as you progress with watercolors. Now time to apply some colors on the rocky area. This can be the same color that you have used earlier, which is major Le Beach or John Brilliant number two. Whichever color is available with you, these are the two sheads from the brands, white knights and another one from the brand Holbein watercolors. They all serve almost in a similar way. They may serve a bit differently, but their pigment composition might be similar in nature. So always check your pigments and then go ahead and buy your colors. I'm now mixing some amount of bird sienna into the sheet that I have already added. On the bottom part and then adding some amount of my most beautiful shade. That is ultramarine. Though ultramarine cannot be seen very well at this moment, and that's absolutely okay. You do not need to worry much. I'm using the same colors that I've used in previous all my paintings till now. Hence you might feel that, okay, the shades are not appearing so well or we cannot see it. The whole of the palette is not as clean as it was earlier. That's absolutely fine. Do not try to waste your colors. Try to use it as much as possible. All the pigments are very expensive that's available in the market. Hence, using it to the full capacity becomes a very important component in watercolor or in any of the other mediums which you are using. Let's start drawing our trees for the background mountains. Some of them will be lighter in value, and some of them will be darker with value depending on which exactly and how exactly I want to paint. Yes, I usually try to keep the mist vary as you see the fog and mist varies in different areas. And hence, when you even paint it, you have to work in a way that there is a varying nature, which can be seen in your mist. I will go ahead and use the similar process in the other areas too. Continue to build on your background till you are satisfied. You see how we are blending the colors and moving it into each other. The whole of the process is done with a thin brush so that you can have a control over your strokes as these are supposed to be lines which will represent the background trees, which may be your pine trees, mostly as it is a wooden cabin in the extreme woods, or you can say into the hills or mountains. This particular process is really iterative and watercolur often feel like meditation at this moment, because the way watercolor behaves naturally encourages a calm, attentive and present state of mind. There are a few key reasons that I would like to list down. The first is watercolor forces you to slow down. Watercolor dries and stages, as you all know. You wait, observe, and respond. This pace prevents rushing and naturally shifts you into a slower rhythm, similar to breathing exercise in meditation. You relinquish control. Watercolor blooms, bleeds, mixes, and sometimes surprises you. Accepting these uncontrolled elements mirrors the meditative practice of letting go of expectation and embracing the moment as it is. Repetition becomes ritual. Laying washes, building gradients, or practicing strokes involves repetitive, gentle motion. Repetition without pressure can induce a flow state. Your mind, quiet, your body repeats familiar gestures. Focus on subtle details. Watching pigment move through water, noticing shifts in value or responding to soft edge requires mindful attention. This deep sensory focuses in a very similar way to focusing on the breath or mantra that you are usually chanting during any session of meditation. It engages the body in a soothing rhythm. Your hand moves lightly, your breathing steadies, your posture relaxes, the entire body falls into a soft rhythmic pattern, much like meditative movement practice, such as walking meditation. The process is more important than the result. That's actually the final catch. Watercolor rewards exploration, not perfection. When you treat each day as an experience rather than a step towards a flawless outcome, you naturally slip into a meditative mindset. Present engaged, but not grasping. These are some of the important aspects when we continue to work with watercolors, and we have been following the same practices in all our paintings till now. I hope that you have been nailing all your paintings to upload your paintings in the project section. I would be more than excited to have a look at it and understand where you have gone wrong or I can even provide my valuable feedback in case it's of some help to you. After adding all the lighter values as my paper is still wet and it is in a position that I can work upon, I continue to work with some more of my darker values. I have mixed some of my sabgreen into the ultramarine and you can see how I am building up my painting now, along with the trees that appears in the background. I would add some music at this moment so that you can go ahead and continue to work upon the background trees. And then we will work on the foreground parts, which is majorly the rocky area that you observed on the lower right hand corner. For distant pine trees or fir trees mean to stay soft and blurt in the background. Here's a simple, reliable watercolor approach that I did tell you even earlier. So paint tall, narrow triangles or uneven spikes as you see me doing over here. Avoid any branches. Just suggest the silhuts. Vary height slightly so that they don't line up. Why I say this Because nature is about spontaneity. It is uneven and hence we should also represent in a similar way. Some of the spaces should be left moist, as I say that all and everything that you paint should not be even. The colors that usually go well, which I have seen for my surface are tromarin gray, plus sav green, paints gray, and a touch of green, cobal blue, plus Bnciena. These are some of the great colors that are amazing for your trees in the background. The farther the trees, the lighter cooler and grayer they should be. A small tip for edge controllers. If the edge spreads too much, the paper is too wet. If the edges are sharp, wait for a few seconds next time and till the paper slightly so trees blend downwards. So this is all about what I have learned from my own tip centric. You will see that sometimes I also apply some clear water before making the trees that way they get blurred towards the bottom area. I would keep adding the trees more and more. It's a very meditative process. I have been enjoying the process for many years now and hope you two fall in love with it. While you continue to paint, I must say that whatever we are painting right now is soft watercolor. Soft watercolor is often felt as the ultimate beauty because it speaks to how we naturally see, feel and remember the word, not in lines, but in atmosphere and suggestion. It mirrors human perception. Our eyes don't see sharp edges everywhere. Distance, fog, light, memory, all softened forms. Soft watercolor captures the truth effortlessly, especially in backgrounds and distant landscapes. It invites the viewer in soft edge leaves space for imagination. When details are suggested rather than stated, the viewer completes the image emotionally. This quite participation is deeply satisfying for anyone who is observing it. Light feels alive. Watercolor transparency allows light to pass through layers, not sit on top of it. Soft washes flow rather than shut, creating a sense of air, mist, and breathe. Emotion over control. Hard edges feel assertive, soft watercolor feels gentle, vulnerable, and honest. It embraces chances, looms, bleeds, and subtle transition, which often leads to poetic result. No other medium can achieve. Time and memory. Soft watercolor resembles memory itself. Edges blur, colors played, moments blend. This is why soft landscapes often fm nostalgic or peaceful, even when the subject is simple. Nature favors softness, fog, clouds, distant trees, reflection, shadows. Nature rarely draws outlines. Soft watercolor aligns perfectly with these natural phenomena. Mastery through restraint. True softness isn't weak. It's control without force. Knowing when not to touch the paper is a high level of skill, and viewers instinctively sense that quiet mastery. Soft watercolor doesn't demand attention, it earns it on its own. If you are someone who is in love with soft watercolors, I would say all these paintings is going to win your heart altogether. I know many of you might get bored at this moment because we are working with a thin watercolor brush. So I would like to tell you a bit more about why I'm using this thin watercolur brush. Now thin watercolor brush does take a lot more time and gives back a lot in quality and control. Precision without heaviness. A thin brush lets you please paint exactly where it's needed, small branches, distant trees, grasses or subtle axins without overpowering the softness of watercolor. Naturally restraint because it holds less water and pigment a thin brush prevents overworking and muddy colors. Each stroke becomes intentional, better layering. Tin brushes are ideal for building depth slowly. Light glazes, delicate shadows and atmospheric details stay transparent and luminous as you see me using over here. Small brushes respond instantly to pressure changes, giving you lively calligraphic lines, perfect for twigs, mine, silhts and distant details as we are doing over here. So expressive line quality is what we are taking away from this particular point. Stronger composition, working slowly encourages you to think about spacing, rhythm, and balance, which leads to cleaner and more thoughtful paintings. Perfect for background control. In backgrounds, thin brush help keep form light soft and understated, so they don't compete with the focal point. Quite confidence. Using a thin brush builds patience and observation over time, your hand becomes steadier and your decision more confident. If you are using a thin brush, you will understand how easy it is to paint with it, though it is usually a time taking exercise, but the final result is something that is really expressive and atmospheric to your eyes. I have gone ahead and added some small, small details on the rocks with the help of my brushes. This is basically going ahead and adding these dots in a very random manner with the help of my brush. Either you tap the brush on top of it or just try to use your fingers to get these smaller dots. This is absolutely up to you how you want to get it. You may have different methods. People have followed various methods for this part of the painting or to get the textures of the rocks. Now I'm adding some darker values to my rocks, as you can see. Again, I'm using a very thin brush for creating. The whole of the composition is done on a very small paper because of which we have to continue working with smaller brush strokes. I might blend a few areas, as you see, and make it more darker to show that those areas have some crater like structures or those are the darker areas where the rock is a bit broken and it is uneven. None of the rocks and none of the nature things can be even hence showing it uneven is very important. The textures also gets more highlighted in this way. Mm I'm using the sabgreen from the brand sennelier and going ahead and adding some of the colors towards the top area. As you see over here, slowly I will blend it as I go towards the bottom area. I'm not thinking much at this moment. Believe me or not, I'm using almost the similar colors that I have used even for my rocks and then some blue details towards the bottom alum. There is not much that I need to explain. You just need to follow as I'm painting over here and see the final outcome of the painting, believe me, most of the work is quad done. We are just blending some colors, adding some darker, lighter values to make the grassland look nicer, prettier and cooler. I will continue to add some more colors in the grassland. A few of the areas have more transparency because the colors are lighter, and some of the areas I'm adding some blue to make it more darker. None of the spaces are even, as I always say, and hence keeping it as is very, very important. There is less time now, which is left. I would say we have to just work on the house after this and that we are doing in part two of this painting. Part one was all about creating the backgrounds and the foreground rocks along with the grassland part that is a very, very important aspect of watercolors, at least for this particular painting. All the paintings do not demand the same kind of an outlook, watercolor brush strokes that are smaller in size and shape. Overall, yes, I know the painting has become a bit longer, but the final outcome would be very satisfying to your eyes. So let's just continue to work on a few more strokes of the pine trees, and then let's have a final look at the painting. I'm pretty sure about it. You are already in love with it and you are going to nail this painting completely. You just need patience. Watercolor is all about having patience, letting your layers dry off, and then again, work back on top of it if you are working in layers. In case you are not working in layers, then also a particular part gets dried, then you work on the next part. So that's how we go about we try to create the blurs, softness, et cetera, for the atmospheric landscapes or at least for the meditative landscapes like these evocative atmospheric. So all of these are more blur, soft, nicer, cooler, and hence they just touch me more compared to all the other landscapes that I paint. Et's move on to the next part where we complete this painting. 14. Project 6 (Part 2) - Winter Cabin: We will now work on our winter cable. Many of you might be wondering why have we taken this subject at last? It is a natural consequences of how the medium behaves. What a color moves from light to dark. Water color can't. Easily be corrected or lightened once it's dark. By painting backgrounds first, you protect the lighter areas and keep the subject fresh and limos. The subject must stay clean. Early layers are loose and watery. If the subject is painted too soon, it often gets blooms, backgrounds or muddiness from the later washes. Waiting keeps edges crisp, color pure where it matters the most. Gepth is created by sequence, painting background, midground, a subject mirrors how space works. The subject painted last naturally comes forward through contrast, clarity and stronger color. Decisions become clearer. As the painting develops, you understand where contrast is needed, how strong the subject should be, which details actually matter. This prevents over detailing too early. Edges need control. Subjects usually require selective hard edges. Those are easiest to achieve when surrounding washes are already dry. Focus stays intentional. When the subject is safe for last, it becomes a conscious deliberate act, not something buried under correction. Watercolor rewards patients unlike opaque media, watercolor values timing. Waiting teaches you to work with the medium, not fight it. In watercolor, the subject isn't built first. It's revealed at the end. If you like, I can walk you more through all these points. But right now, it's important to just go ahead and add some colors for the grasslands, as you can see, the grassland was still wet, and hence I could work on it, I did go ahead and apply some darker values of blue, mix it with paint gray or Bersiena whatever is available with you, and then add the darker values towards the bottom area. The top area, I have kept it more on the greener side. We are starting out with the lightest value for the subject, and it is mainly the yellow shade. I am going ahead and applying the yellow shade in and around the areas where I did mask it already. I have masked just the windows and the doors. If you are someone who doesn't have a masking fluid, please go ahead, use your masking tape and cut it into smaller pieces, apply it on this area. It is great. You do not need to always go ahead and mask out any particular area if you don't have the masking fluid altogether. Though I would say that masking fluid has a lot of hues and watercolors. And if you are someone who wants to go ahead and continue watercolors as a hobby or maybe as a side hustle, it's important to purchase one of the masking fluids. I have purchased a lot of masking fluid, but recently, I have gone ahead with Ebo drawing gum, and it is amazing. It is cheaper than all the other drawing gums, and it stays great for longer periods of time. I have gone ahead with Windsor and Newton and Senier, but for some reason, after a while, they become more thicker and it's difficult to apply it on the people. I'm going ahead and blending the colors with my burn Siena, you can use a small size two brush or size four for working through it. I'm always very excited when I blend my colors, and then once this part is done, we will start adding the darker values. Adding the darker values is also something that needs a lot more precision, and hence I will only apply it once I am confident about it. Confidence usually comes with a lot of practice. And that's why I always say to everyone that you need to practice. You need to practice. One painting a day is very important. I also try to follow the similar approach in my own cycle of painting. Even as an artist, I love to paint every day. Though there are times where we have our own challenges and we may not be in a position to paint, but usually at least four to five days a week, I always follow for painting. I'm going ahead and using either CPR or else you can go ahead with burn humber or any of the darkest values of brown for creating this shade that you see over here. The paper is in a semi wet kind of condition or moist condition and hence the colors are not moving a lot. I'm using a thin brush to apply the darker values. That's how I go about it. And I continue to paint this small house. As you see over here, it's littered and it looks beautiful. Once you remove even the masking fluid after it is completely dried off, you will see the magic happening on its own. Let's go ahead and apply some colors. Even on the white part of the roof. You can make it lighter compared to what you have applied on the left side. You do not need to always have the same colors, the blends, et cetera. You can go ahead, blend your color, add some more water, though the space is really small and it might not be a great idea to go ahead with various various colors, but, yes, light and dark variation can always be there, water it down, water it more have more of colors, less of water. So all of these are the things that you can play with even on smaller areas. Now we are left out with only the darker values that is going to be added in the house area. You can see that the paints have not dried out. Basically the yellow and the burn sienna. It's giving me the soft edges, and I really, really love this part. I'm going ahead and again, adding some of my lines, using a very thin brush to make it look even and so that the colors don't move around a lot. That is very important. You can mix some amount of neutral tint into the Bern sienna color and get a shade that looks similar to the one which I am using right over here. I will just add a fence in front of the gate area and making a few lines and then joining it from left to right with the help of a horizontal line. You don't need to actually be very specific when you are doing this. It's a very, very simple way of adding softer blurr kind of image over here. Some more textures that I'm going to add for the rooftop area. Again, this is with the help of a thinner brush only that you can add it. I'm exceptionally happy with my Vinci brushes. If you are someone who is looking for good brushes, please do consider this as one of your options. Oh Now it's time to step back and understand where you want to add some more lines or find your details. This is the time where you get to realize that this is where I want to achieve, or this is what I want to achieve. I do not want to overwork on my paper or painting, and the final outcome has to be expressive exactly the way you might have thought it would turn out. This is the last painting from our series, Meditate With Watercolors, 2.2. Though I know that there is one more lesson which I would be uploading, and that is the bonus lesson. It's going to be super good. And we will again use only a few colors in it. I'm not going to use majority of colors and it's going to be a simple lake with a bird and mountains, along with some misty pines. I think most of us love mist, and the great way to express it is with the limited palette I have always realized that limited palette work great when you are working on any kind of an atmospheric or evocative landscape. I hope you guys have liked the class. If you all have liked the class, please do leave a feedback as it is very encouraging for any teacher to know what you like, and if there is something that I can improve upon, I would be more than happy to have a look at it. Do upload your projects in the project section. I'm eagerly waiting to see each one of them, though there are times where I might not be in a position to give a feedback or something, but I do try to get along or if you are also tagging me on Instagram, usually, I try to put it on my stories or have a direct interaction with you. Wherever you are more comfortable, do let me know, and I would be more than happy to guide you through the processes in case there is something that you want to know. You can also write on the discussion section. I would get back to you along with any solution which I feel can help you to ace through these paintings, but now let the paper dry and have a fine look at this painting. 15. Bonus Lesson: Is the last bonus lesson from the series, Meditate with Watercolors 2.2. You can see all the colors that we will need for completing the painting. I will also keep some ultramarine for my background wash. Go ahead and just add a simple line as I am adding over here. This is basically to define our horizon. Above this will be the forest, or you can say the area where we will have the trees, miss, et cetera, and the bottom part would be basically the lake. It's kind of similar to the one that we have already done in monochrome and with two colors, but this is basically with multiple colors that we are going to do. I am pouring some water on top of my paper and then applying my washbush to just evenly add it on top of the surface of the paper. Always do a crosswatch and in case you have any puddles, please go ahead with a clean tissue and just remove the excess water from the sides. I'm now mixing my ultramarine and some amount of neutral tint along with the sap green that I already have on my palette, adding it to the top part of the paper. This is basically my aquatone brush from file. It holds a lot of water, and it's easier for me to actually move the colors in all the direction. You go ahead and make some more colors and add it towards the bottom part above the horizon line. You can see I went ahead with a lighter value initially, and now I'm going ahead with some of my darker values, too. Everywhere the mist is never seen, hence having some white and dark spaces is very important. Watercolor is a very transparent medium, and hence leaving out a few spaces to just show the white of the paper is always a good idea. I have already added this point that why painting watercolor mist is always a good or great practice for being no watercolor artist. But let's go ahead and understand the core watercolor skills that usually is generated when you are doing any kind of exercises that involves your watercolor miss practice. I'm going ahead first with the koba tren to the bottom area and then adding the other colors, mixing with some turquoise, as well as some of my sabtre towards the bottom area. Let's continue to paint this. In the meantime. I will tell you what is the most important outcome that I had while I started out with watercolors and painting miss was a very, very important subject initially. Mist effects really on very graduated pains. Big nurs learn how much water versus big win do you use. What happens when paper is too wet or too dry? How water spreads naturally on the paper? The second is encourages soft edges. Miss doesn't have sharp outlines. Painting it helps big nurse practice. Wet on wet techniques, blending colors smoothly, letting edge fade naturally, reduces fear of mistake. Mist is very forgiving. Uneven washes can look intentional, looms and backgrounds often enhances the effect. There is no need for precise detail. Builds understanding of layers, light washes first, gradually darker washes on top, learning to wait for layers to dry. Develop value awareness because Mr. Sutter Wigners must focus on light versus darker tones, creating depth using value instead of detail, improves observation skills, painting mist trains artists to notice how distant objects fade, how contrast decreases with distance, and how atmosphere affects color. These skills apply to landscape, skies and nature painting later. Builds confidence with minimal tools. Miss can be painted with one or two colors and a single brush. This keeps practice simple and accessible, helping any beginner to focus on techniques rather than the materials. I'm now going ahead and applying my turquoise color, as you can see towards the bottom part of my painting, and this is basically the area underneath my horizon line. I will go ahead and blend my colors with the help of my flat brush as well as remove the extra pigments from anywhere I feel it is necessary at this moment. The paper is semi moist and hence, you can see that there will be some blooms that would appear if I go ahead and start applying water on top of my paper. As you see over here. Again, I'm using my flat brush to blend my colors. I'm not sure right now how much more colors I would be ding on top of the layer that is there towards the forest part and how much more color I would be arning towards the bottom part. You will always see the colors that I add will become at least one or two shade lighter. If you are using a student red paint, of course, it would become way more lighter. Always go ahead with paints that are artist weight so that you can get the vibrant outcome that you see over here. There is a bloom like effect even in the bottom part, which is majorly the lake area. And hence, I have to go ahead and again blend my colors with the help of either a flat brush or a round brush depending on whatever you are using for completing the painting. So more of the sabrene to show the depth that is basically lighter and darker value. Some of the areas are in the Neutral Tint and the blue, which is basically the ultramarne over here, and then the few of the areas will be in the darker or I would say more water down value of the darker pigment. I'm again painting my colors, and the blend has to be absolutely natural, as you have seen even Audio. Using the same brush, that is my round brush, or you can use flat brush, whichever you are more comfortable with. In this whole painting, I would say blending has a real huge part to play. If we do not blend well, the colors don't merge into each other. You will have spaces which will not be even. And that's one of the most basic reason for going ahead and applying the colors way more evenly and working on layers even for blending rather than going ahead with only one single layer. I have allowed my paper to dry off completely, and now we will start by adding some water on the top part of the paper, which has majorly the horizon line. This is clean water. As you can see on the right top side, I have two kinds of water. One for washing my brushes and another for just applying the clear water on top of the paper whenever it is needed. I'm just adding some of my sap green into the neutrtin and pen using my size four brush to start out with the pine trees. Now pine trees are very simple and easy to make, as you have also seen in my instruction video earlier or the techniques section earlier. If you have gone ahead with any technique section, I would request you to go ahead and have a look at this section before jumping onto any fine glassons. The bottom part is way more watery and hence the colors will bloom and merge into each other. That's the major idea. As you can see, I'm extending my tree on both sides, some of the places on the left, and some of the places on the right. This is simple, easy, and I'm going really slow at this moment. I do not want to fast forward the process. As the process is simple, we are not going to add lots and lots of trees. Some will be darker, some would be lighter to add the depth into the forest, and that's all. You don't need to focus much about what trees, how the trees has to be placed. They will be uneven, spontaneous and let your creative juices flow. Now you can see over here as the pins are touching the surface of the paper towards the bottom part above the horizon line, the colors are automatically moving in a bloom shape. I don't need to do much for getting any kind of tree shape or size. Oh. Let's make another tree with the tree that is there on the side, and I will make it smaller than the size which I have already added earlier. As I've told, randomness is the key, and hence making random trees is very important at this stage, ordering the heights according to your needs. I'm adding some more darker colors that is my nutriten towards the bottom part. I always create these soft edges, and that really helps me to make paintings look more natural. In real life, very few edges are razor sharp. Soft edges mimic how light air and moisture blur forms in nature, giving watercolor, its signature fluid, organic field. Guides the viewer's eye. When everything has a hard edge, the eye doesn't know where to look. Soft aches act like visual quiet zones allowing you to emphasize the focal point with sharper edges, let less important ideas fade gently into the background. Suggest rather than describe watercolor excels as suggestion. Soft edges allow the viewer's brain to fill in details, making the painting feel more expressive and alive rather than stiff or overwork. Lastly, it improves the color harmony when edges soften, colors naturally blend into each other. This reduces harsh separations and creates smoother transitions, making the painting feel unified. Hence, I would say that whenever you are working with watercolors, try to create some soft edges in few of the spaces so that it looks airy and atmospheric. In the meantime, I have started creating some of my watercolor pine trees in the background, and they are with much more toner down values compared to what I have achieved right now for my forest in the foregrounds. So foregrounds and background, of course, will have this thing. They would be more bloody for the background, and it would be less blurry and more focused for the foregrounds. I always keep a blending brush by my side to blend the edges in the bottom area. This is a very, very important aspect in watercolors. I don't want the trees to be very detailed every time it has to be less detailed as we have always considered in our foreground, as well as for our backgrounds. Fluidity of watercolors is the key. Let it flow, let it enjoy, and you work less, whereas water will work more for you. Once I'm done with my background trees, I will start focusing on my fgrounds. But then now I have used almost a similar kind of color for creating all my background trees. Yes, there might be a bit of change here and there but mostly a similar kind of shape that has been used. In and around the horizon, I will create some more darker values with the help of the Neutral Tint and sabrene as you see over here. The paper is wet. I have applied some clear water again. You can see that I have a clear jar of water always readily available for myself. I have started creating some of my darker value trees which are really soft. It's not that you have to always continue to create softer trees. But yes, having said that, if you can create a few, it has a different kind of an effect on your whole painting. Let's go ahead and soften the edges. That is towards the bottom area of my horizon line with the help of my flat brush, as you see over here. I will pick up the colors and just tap it off on the tissue, which I have on the right. I will do a similar process two to three times before I'm convinced that, yes, my horizon line has now become really soft and easy. Let's start focusing on our bottom area, which is basically the area of the bottom. I'm starting out with my cobarren just underneath the horizon line using my round brush. This is a round mob brush from the brand that is Raphael. It is aquaton and one of the best brushes that I've come across in India, it is pretty decently priced. And hence, I would say, if you ever get a hand on this brush, do buy it and use it. I think you will fall in love with. Going ahead with somewhat darker values, as you see, there are more trees on the right side, which are darker in color, and hence, I'm going ahead with my turquoise to just show the reflection of the same into the water area. Though my water is moving and I have not gone ahead with calm waters, hence, an exact reflection of the trees will not be visible. Still, there will be to an extent, I would say the reflection, which is darker and lighter compared to what you usually observe as hard edges when the water is completely calm. I'm cleaning some of my edges in and around my horizon line so that it looks more organic, as well as there's a difference between the forest which is there above the horizon line and the water that is there below the horizon line. Et's continue to create a watercolor pine tree jungle, which really looks very convincing for any new artist as we are always working in layers, soft pitches. There is a lot to do with value control to suggest depth and density without painting every tree. Hence, I start out with my foreground and background trees. As you see, keep the shapes very simple with some tall, triangular or vertical. Kind of trees in the foregrounds. And for my background, I go ahead with really light values, which focuses more on the lighter or bloody effect rather than working through the entire smaller smaller edges and making the painting look more hard or it is not so organic or not so fluid or not so atmospheric. I love to keep it fluid and atmospheric, bloody, soft and natural. H for any kind of jungle, you can actually have three kinds of trees that you can make. One is the background trees, one is the midground trees, and one is the foreground trees. Now, what do we mean by background trees? Background trees will always be soft in edges, whereas the midground trees will be broken edge, and the foreground trees will be hard in edge. Though we have combined the midground and the foreground trees to make it look more organic, as this painting is really small and hence, I did not want to go ahead with all these kind of um uh, additions in terms of different detailing that has to be done for the foreground background and middle ground trees. I have added some sabran towards the bottom area so that it looks very organic in terms of the greens that are getting reflected from the top part of the jungle into the water area. The painting is still wet. Hence go ahead and just add a few lines with the darker value of green and make it look like rippled effect. You already know about the ripple effect. You have already studied it. If you are someone who is in love with water, I have a lot of classes specifically dedicated to water, whether it be watercolor ocean waves, 1.2, watercolor ocean waves, 2.2. You have other kind of paintings too where we have gone through 15 days of working through only water. And different kind of paintings that are in and around water. I have classes on boats. So whatever you want to go ahead and approach, you can just have a look at it and enjoy the paintings. At least you can enjoy the paintings. Even if you are a beginner, you do not need to always continue to create. You can just go with the flow, enjoy how it's been painted, and have a look at it, gain some knowledge, and move on. As I always say, you do not need to do every painting, whereas there is some amount of practice that is very important for any artist or anyone who wants to actually pursue watercolors. Watercolors, if you do not practice will not give you the effect or will not give you the kind of paintings that you want to create. Practice is the key, as I always say, heads, continue to create. You can watch all of these lessons at a two speed and then come back and paint at one g speed. Stop wherever you want to, drop your brushes, take a quick break and then come back to the painting. Do not lose your patience that is very, very important in watercolors. Patience is especially important in watercolor because the medium works with time, water, and gravity, not against them. Hence why patience truly becomes the key to successful watercolor painting is water needs time to do the work. Watercolor isn't just paint, it's paint moving in water. If you rush, colors turn muddy, edges bloom uncontrollably. Layers lift unintentionally. Patients allow the water to settle and pigments to flow. Watercolor has clear stages, wet, damp, and dry. Or you can say wet, moist, and dry. Paint too early, creates chaos, paint too late, hard, unwanted edges. Layers must dry completely. Watercolor is transparent. If you don't let layers dry colors mix when they shouldn't values lose clarity paintless and damages the paper. Patience preserves freshness and luminosity in watercolors. Fewer corrections and better results. Unlike other mediums, watercolor doesn't give constant fixing. Overworking weakens the paper, colors dull quickly. Values develop gradually. Great watercolor depth comes from building values slowly. Rushing darks too soon flattens the painting, patient laying, creates richness and atmosphere. What does exactly patience gives us or teaches us? It helps us to study light and shadows, judge colour temperature, decide what not to paint. Observation improves painting more than speed. Matches the nature of the medium. Watercolor rewards calm control. When you slow down, you stop fighting the paints, you allow happy accidents, and the painting feels alive and not forced. Let's go ahead and continue to lift out the colors. In the meantime, this is the last bonus lesson in our whole series. Hope you have enjoyed the series till now. The six major paintings have different kind of palette approach that we have taken and learned a lot in the process not to create muddy mixes or go ahead with only one single color for the calmness, richness, and understanding of how to work with monochrome. There is so much that you can work and absorb in any kind of a watercolor monochrome, limited palette painting that you really learn more in those kind of paintings rather than only focusing on multicolored paintings. I would always ask you to focus on simplicity of watercolors rather than making it complex. Finally, I would request you to upload all your projects in the project gallery and go ahead and leave me a feedback. If you have really liked the class, then let me know what call where the higher points that you like in the class. And in case there is some improvement point to leave a constructive feedback so that I can work upon them in my future classes. Finally, yes, again removing some more paints. I'm really not happy. Anytime I continue to work upon this. I will just add few more trees for my foregrounds, if need be, and the small bid. This is a bird that you see in the foreground. And this is one single bird that I want to paint. I don't want to add a real layer of flocking birds. It's simple, easy, keeping the whole painting, I would say to the point and making it really precise. I will leave you with some final thoughts on soft watercolor atmospheric painting. Soft watercolor painting is less about control, more about trust, timing, and restraint. The beauty of softness comes from allowing water and pigment to work together rather than forcing detail too early. A successful soft watercolor relies on simplicity, such as shapes instead of defining them, let edges dissolve when forms meet light. And remember that what you leave unpainted is just as important as what you add. Soft tesses create atmosphere, depth, and mood, qualities that give watercolor, its unique voice. Patience is essential. Waiting for the right moisture level, letting layers dry, and resisting the urge to fix everything keeps your painting fresh and luminous. Overworking is the fastest way to leave the softness or to lose the softness. More importantly, soft watercolor painting is about feeling, not perfection, embrace gentle transitions, unexpected blends, and quite areas. These moments invite the viewers in and allow the painting to breathe. Finally, as I always say, less is more do follow in watercolors. I would say you are going to near every kind of watercolor painting that you want to paint in your future projects. Cheers and see you very soon in the next class in 2026.