Meerkats: A Free-Flow Watercolour Masterclass with Jane Davies

1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to this intermediate watercolor class. Today, we're going to be painting these adorable mere cats together. This class contains many of my most useful free flow watercolor techniques. And these mere cats make just the loveliest of subjects in which to demonstrate them. You're going to love painting them. I'm Jan Davis. I live, paint, teach, and walk my lovely spaniels in the beautiful South Downs National Park in England. Over the last 20 years, I've taught myself the free flow technique that you see today. Not having been to art school, finding my own way has been fun and sometimes daunting, but has allowed me to develop my own style. This has led me to teach others either on a one to one basis or as part of a group in a wonderful studio in the heart of the South Downs. I also run a successful art business where two days are never the same from the thrill of exhibiting to painting pet and wildlife commissions in my own home studio. In all my classes, you will follow along in real time, where I can guide you to keeping your work loose and fresh without overfussing. If you're just starting out, my three beginner classes will guide you with your first masterpiece painted in only 15 minutes. Then you'll find dozens of my master classes available, covering a wide range of beautiful subjects. In each one, I share the techniques I use in my own professional work. We'll have a lot of fun together, and you'll gain the understanding and confidence to incorporate everything you learn into your own work. You'll be amazed at how easy watercolor can be. As ever, I provided you with a wonderful reference photo, along with that downloadable template for you to print out. The template will give you a stress free drawing so you can just enjoy the painting. I'll be showing you the beauty of sectioning small areas off, giving you manageable sized areas in which to work, how to apply soft wet on wet layers to give depth of color, interest, and gentle form. I'll also be showing you how to paint those all important eyes that give these mere cats such character and life. There's a wealth of other tips and tricks I'll be sharing as we work our way through the class together. If you'd like to learn more about me or my work, then please pop over to my website at Jan Davis watercolors.co.uk. This can be found on my profile page, along with the links to my Instagram and Facebook pages. I'm very active on my social media, where I love to share my art, especially on stories with many ideas, works in progress, and tales of studio life. I really hope you will share all your paintings on the projects and resources pages. I love seeing your masterpieces. And don't forget I'm here to help if you get stuck or have any questions. I want you to experience that buzz of painting in this liberating wet on wet loose style. So, come and join me. 2. Materials: So let me go through all the materials you're going to need to paint these cutie pair. Look at them. I think you're going to find this class a really enjoyable one, and with lots to learn, too. Okay, right. I have a lovely collection of Daniel Smith paints, and I shall start from the very top. I've got sucalitGenuine. One I've often used, but I quite like the color. It just seemed to suit these mere cats. Transparent brown oxide. Um, it's just a really nice almost a bird sienna kind of color. I like it. So it's a nice one. It does some unusual patterning. Not particularly in this class, I don't a huge amount, but an interesting one to get sepia and my trusted gothit. And also got Sol genuine my usual roundup of Daniel Smith favorite colors and Lavender. All of these can be found on the projects and resources pages. They're all there listed for you. The paper I'm using is arches, and it's 90 pound, and it's been stretched on a perfect paper stretcher. And again, I'll pop a little link in there for you to have a look at that board, a really useful stretching board. I've explained it in several classes, so I won't go into it again, but there'll be a link there for you to have a little look at. Obviously I got a little pot of water. I have a rubber. I have my little heart, which is about an inch high, just for me to be able to raise my board a little bit to give me some tilt. Kitchen roll or paper towel, depending where you are in the world. I have just two brushes. I've got a number ten and a number two. But honestly, a large one and a small one will be perfectly adequate. A pencil of any kind, and I've also got a little fine liner pen here, just to do the whiskers. Not necessarily, not necessary, but they just give you another sort of whisker. Option. You can use a pencil or you can be really brave and use your paint. They're very fine. Yes, with a very fine stroke. What else is there? Obviously, there's the reference photo and the downloadable template, which is on the projects and resources page. It's all for you there. Um, I do have a hair dryer off camera, which I do use just to dry the layers in between, but it's not necessary if you haven't got one. Um, I think that's it. So let's go and sketch them out. 3. Sketching Out: Okay, before we can start painting these cuties, we have to sketch them out. It's never my most favorite part if I'm totally honest, but I do know how important it is. And if the sketch isn't right, then I won't find the painting bit to it fun because something will be out, something won't be quite right. So it's really worth taking the time to get your sketch right. Brace yourself, go, okay? I'm going to take quarter of an hour just to make sure everything is lovely. And when I look at my drawing or sketch, it looks right. So some little tips. Keep your pencil marks really lovely and light is probably my first one. Obviously, mine are heavier than I would I would probably do if I was doing this as a commission or a non teaching piece. It's just so you can see my work. Um, especially anywhere where there's light. You can see obviously the side, little cheeks here and down the side. It's a light colored coat, so you don't really want to be able to see your pencil marks in the finished piece or be able to rub them out nice and easily. So that's worth bearing in mind. And the other thing, just make sure everything is lined up nicely. So in Well, not in theory, I suppose. In practice, the nose tops of eyes or bottom of the eyes and tops of head. Tops of ears, that sort of thing, should all line up. So if you've got your eye somewhere like this and your nose somewhere like that and your head somewhere in the middle, then it's going to look out. It was a thing I did so much when I first started. And that's why I've had to be good and make sure my sketch is right before I start. And then the rest of it is a lot more enjoyable. So, yes, that's a good little rule of thumb. It's to make sure things are lined up. Obviously, you've got that template that's in the projects and resources pages. So use that as a guide. There's lots of other ways you can get a correct sketch down onto your piece of paper. There's gridding light boxes. So there's even some clever apps, which I noticed the other day. I haven't looked into them at all, but they almost so superimpose your image onto the paper so you can just draw around it. So that might be worth having a look at. I should have I I find the time to do that, before this class gets released, I'll pop a little link on the bottom. If not, have a little look. Uh, right. Is there anything else? I just take your time, I would say, when I sketch these out for say, for a commission piece, I will always sketch them out and head out for sort of 10 minutes, quarter of an hour, come back, and then I can reassess and see how it looks. And hopefully you've got it right, so you can just then go. That's it. De the paint done with the drawing. I can get on to the fun bit. But just that stepping away gives you a little bit of time away from the painting, um drawing. So when you come back, you'll be able to hopefully see if there's anything that needs. Correcting. Right, I'm starting to ramble. I need to stop, and we need to get and do some painting. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 4. Eyes Nose and Ears Part One: Right. I'm just going to get these out of the way 'cause I don't need them for the time being, particularly the rubber. Nice and easy start for you. We're actually going to do the eyes first. If you follow me regularly, you know, quite often, I'll do the Is a little bit later. But today, we're going to do eyes first and the ears and nose. So it is quite a nice, gentle, easy start, very simple. So let's I'll start with the top top one. Sorry, that was my dog giving a big sigh, have you heard that? Sure she knows she's in for the long haul. Right. No, I don't want that color, I'm gonna pick up the transparent brown and the gothite. And I'm just gonna wet down. The eyes, so nice, nice and wet. Don't want it puddling. You just want it nice and wet. And then we're simply going to add these two colors together. This is going to be underlayer. So there's gonna be two layers over these eyes, but this will hopefully give a little bit of depth to them. So don't get too worried. You just want the nice amount of color. It's nice starting, isn't it? We got a lot of working up to this stage, and getting that sketch right, it's nice to start your painting. Really take your time. There's no hurry, really, with this. As long as that paper's damp, make sure you keep that nice that eye nice, a good shape, shall I say. And worst comes the worst. Meb cats are quite unforgiving. Or forgiving. Forgiving, not unforgiving. In the fact that they have some really dark markings and dark eyes. It's a little like I don't know if you've done the panda, beginning one of the beginner classes in the panda. Similar. So you can do the eye, and if something goes a little misshapen, you can always sort of correct it. But it's always worth getting right at the beginning. All right, I'm going to while I've got those colors in my hand, I'm gonna come down and do the second one. I'm not sure if they're male or female or both. I'm not sure on the sex of these two, so I wouldn't like to say what they're up to. I'm just going to keep them to one and two. Okay, literally, same again, just tapping that color in. No brushstroke, just tapping. Very just gently try not to put too much pressure on that paper, all a case of just allowing a little bit darker at the top in theory, so I'm starting at the top and allowing it to blend down and just gently teasing it down. I say, there'll be another layer over this, so don't too much. Perfect. It doesn't have to be exact or correct. It's nice to get the eye ball a good shape. But like I say, they're quite forgiving, so Fabulous. Right. And then pop those down for a minute. And I'm going to wet the noses. So they've got it's quite cute little aspect. They've obviously had their noses into sand or something, haven't they? You can see the yellow on top, I should I say, I think it's probably sand or something like that. So we're going to try and incorporate that. So we're going to wet the nose down. Sort of up to that line where you can see the yellow, and then there's another little brown part isn't there, which obviously then goes into the body. So that will be another layer. So we're just going up to the edge and including that yellow. So let's do the first one. If you've got a yellow to hand, you can obviously use a yellow. I'm just going to use the gothte. I didn't want to have too many paints here on my desk, and it's only tiny, tiny little bit, but it's just a little touch. And you can go into the rest of the nose. That doesn't matter. Obviously, it'll be painted over a little like the eye, but we just want to make sure you've got color over that yellow part. And literally the same again on number two. In theory, you could have painted this. It's just how I paint. I suppose, I always like to put the paint on wet paper rather than on dry paper. I, rarely use watercolor or dry draw it on dry paper. I just like I like that it moves around. You want more there just to make sure that is going to be colored. Keep within your lines. Perfect. Don't overfiddle. He doesn't have to be anything. It's just cutting a little bit of color down. Gonna scrap brushes, and we're going to do the ear. Again, this is going to have another layer over it. So it's just to get a little bit of strength and depth. So wet down the ears. Careful of your number two down here you don't But your fist in it. It's always a good trick of mine that one. So we're gonna pick up the sod genuine and sepia. I'm gonna try and keep a little bit sod like genuine at the bottom so it's cooler and bluer. Again, just tapping. We can add the sepia. Again, if you just keep tapping, it should go up. And you can just tease it up. So it's more so light sorry more sepia at the top, so light at the bottom. But just like that. Try not to overthink it. It doesn't matter. If it ended up there and the other way, it really wouldn't matter too much. So like, genuine, again, just tapping. We're not doing any some fabulous little flicks and, um little flicks, really. Of the ears, but we won't do that on this layer. We'll do that on the next. And then again, just tap in your Spa. Come around a little bit, and if you leave a little bit of light, that's absolutely fine. Don't have to cover it all in, especially as we're doing another layer. Foremost a little bit too covered. Just gently teas some of that down, so I've got a little bit of light to it. Don't want it too heavy. That's just taking the excess moisture off my brush. So I clean my brush, excess moisture off my brush, and then just very gently just slowing some of that paint to suck up my brush. Just to remove a little bit of that colour and strength. Okay, exactly the same with the number two. Wet it down. Obviously, if you're working somewhere really hot, just do them individually. You don't want it won't want the paper drying on you. It's quite cool here today, so I know this paper won't dry that quickly, but say, if you're working somewhere hot, then just wet down the ears individually. Okay, just tap a little bit of sepew on top. Encourage it. It's always a minute if you've got something you like the shape of or just how that paint's running the leave it. If I'm still fiddling. But you've got a good result, then, just leave it and move on to the next one. Exactly the same again. You could Let's be wild. It's had two the colors on my brush at the same time. In theory, I think I probably default to this the lights normally on the left hand side and the right hand size cooler. It doesn't indicate that at all on the reference photo, but I think I obviously have a default to that. So I will have, in theory, a little bit cooler on the left hand side. So warmer goodness I'm mugging my words today a little bit warmer on the left hand side. It's always a bit nerve wracking when you start this teaching. And I haven't actually done a class for probably about a month or so. And when I first start, it's always a little nerve wracking, if I'm honest. Cam's over there. You're starting. There's a whole fresh new painting to teach. And it's, uh, it can be a little daunting. So once I get into the painting, I usually relax a bit more. Hopefully won't be muddling my words so much. Lovely. Right. We just need to allow that to completely dry, and then we're going to do some layers over the faces and the bodies at the end. So just allow ideally, it's nice to allow it just to dry on its own. If you're a little hurried for time, you can always whiz a hair dryer over, which I quite often do. But if it's sitting in puddles, just hang a fire 'cause you don't want to put a hair dryer over it, and then obviously blow your paint around. And it will mix the paint up as well if you put a hair dryer over it. So ideally, it's nice to allow it to dry thoroughly on its own. 5. Eyes Nose and Ears Part Two: I oh, no, this feels different finishing the ice before we even do anything else. But let's get these eyes filled in. So very gently and make sure they are properly dry as well, and your ears because again, it's easy to knock that with your side of your hand, but go very gently. So my brush is just falling on this eye. I don't really want to rustle around too much. Again, if you're working somewhere warm, just do one eye at a time, but as I say, quite cool here. But equally, if you put a hair dry over it, you can warm up the paper, but don't worry too much. Right, Sepia and so light genuine. Did same combinations we did the ears. And like you said, like I said, if you look at the reference photo, their eyes are terribly dark, so nice and easy in some ways, but I'm going to try and keep the so light genuine at the top. And the seep at the bottom, again, don't overthink it or worry too much if you want it all to merge. So pots so like genuine in there, and then pot seep at the bottom. And what we will do when we clear the sort of catch lights and the tiny little finishing off bits, we can take a little bit of color here and hopefully you'll get that underlayer coming through of the lighter brown. So goes the theory. Okay, exactly the same. It would be the same on all these four eyes. Just tap, keep it ever so light. Try not to do any but strokes or moving around you're just popping that color down and allowing it to move. It will look like it's just filled in, really, if I'm honest, but it's subtle, and when it dries, just like here, you can see how that's dried differently, obviously, till when it was wet. And it just adds to the overall finished painting, and the eyes are ever so important that they're worth getting right and taking a time over. Lovely. Same again. Nice and wet. You don't want it puddling? Drip running down my brush. Again, you say, you don't want it puddling, and they can puddle on small areas. So if it does, just clean your brush, take the excess moisture off, and then just very gently pop your brush down. That should soak up any bubbles. And you'll be able to see if it's sitting in a little hump of water, as it were. But if you duck down, you'll see it in the light. Again. So like, genuine at the top, just tapping and allowing it to run. If it was sitting, it'd be bobble of water. The paint sort of sits on top and then doesn't move. So it's just getting that right at that right stage is a lovely um, it's a lovely time when the paper's just right. It's not too wet, a bit of a goldilocks thing. It's not too wet and it's not too dry. It's just the perfect sort of time to add paint, and the paint will just flow beautifully. It won't stick, yet it won't sit on a big puddle not move. Sometimes that's why the paint isn't moving. You've always got too much water. So it's just that goldilocks kind of perfect stage. And it's worth practicing you're struggling with that ratio, it's worth just practicing on little scraps of paper as boring as it is just doing little squares and letting it dry and just seeing as it dries, how the paint reacts. I always push people to or suggest, should I say, simple trees. It was the very first class I ever did on Skillshare, and it's the first one in the beginning of the series. But it's a great little class for just practicing exactly that. Yeah, it's a good little class. Okay, we just need to allow those to dry. So be careful, and we're just going to do the noises now. So we're going to go. Completely cover them, a little bit of nice and wet. Right up to the edge. Let's do one at a time. Photo, right. Okay, let's have a little bit of gothte, a little bit of sepia. I'm going to pop the sepia. You can see there's a little nostril, so we're just going to very gently. Again, it's getting that sweet spot, really. If it's a little bit too wet, it will sit. It's a little bit too dry, it won't move. So it's not moving, just add a little bit more water. And there's a little line. It comes up the top here, isn't it? A dirt line? Just very gently use it will be also incorporated into the body, as well. But and you'll lose it, and then you just sort of suck it. You'll lose some of the nostril, very gently sort of suck it up, move it around. Just maneuver and watch it. Might put a little bit of sort of genuine at the bottom, as well. Again, it's just a cooler color. And if you lose those nostrils completely, it doesn't matter because again, we can just very gently once it's dry, just gently take that out and sculpt back in those nostrils. Or you can do it. Well, it's a little bit damp. Either way, have a little play. Squint your eyes, squint your eyes always seem such a comical, arty thing to do, but it does. It does help. It helps you see where those darker areas are. That's right, 'cause I know I can take that. Once that dries, I can take that nostril out a little bit more. But I don't want to keep fiddling, 'cause I'm gonna lose that freshness if I do. Alright, that's down to this little one. Same again, nice and wet. Let's put a little bit of soup on the No, so so like genuine. Help if I have it around the right way, I guess I'll my paint. A little bit of sepia. Again just tapping and allowing. Get a nice. You need if you're working with pans, there's no reason why you can't know I work out tubes, but I know a lot of you also use pans. There's no reason why you can't give them a good rustle. You want a nice amount of paint on your brush. I think that's what gives this technique that lovely sort of freedom. It's partly I can just get a really nice bound of paint on my brush, pop it down, and then it flows. If you're struggling, you haven't got enough paint on your brush, and obviously, there's not much hitting the paper, so it's not really moving very much because there's not enough paint to move around. Getting squinty eye, having a look at that. You want to keep that little area of yellow. It's not yellow, but yellow on the reference photo and go tht online. I don't actually used any G fit. H. I'm clinging onto it. Pop a little bit on this one. Lovely. Take your brush away, always worth doing and having a little look. See what you think. I think that looking right. Saving it looks if I can take some of these nostril color out now while it's sometimes actually while it's just before it completely dries, if you take color out, it can be quite nice and soft, whereas once it dries, it can be a little harder, a lot harder in difficulty in getting the color out, but actually harder in its lines. Okay, take your brush away. It's just an impression. It doesn't have to be exact. You just need to be able to step away, almost squint and just see that there's nostrils there. We don't want to get too precise with everything. It just needs to give the impression there's nostrils there. And they say the minute you have something, you're like, Oh, yes, that's it. Put your paints down and leave it. Um, right. I will do the catch lights, I think, right at the very end. I'm not entirely sure. If I change my mind halfway through, and we put them in a little bit sooner than we will, but I love putting those little white dots in, and it's just that cherry on the cake, and I like doing it at the end. I think that's why I like doing eyes at the end, as well. So I think I'm going to leave them at this stage. I would, again, just allow them to dry, if you can, on their own. If not, once it's almost gone off, you can whizz your hair dry over it, and that will obviously speed things along a bit. 6. Heads First Layer: Right, let's get a little bit of color over this little top one, and then we'll go straight on to the second one. Oh, bottom one. Just going back to the catch lights on the eyes, if I were to do that now, to me, it feels a little obviously it's incomplete, but I just need to have the painting finished or nearly finished to get those lights in. It doesn't I feel if I do them now, there's no other context to gauge them against. Just a thought. Right. Let's wet down. Well, she'll do the top one first. And big brush. We're going to go right up against this up against the ears. If you get a little blend, a little bit of bleeding, that's absolutely perfect. We will do a second layer over the ear on the next layer over the face. If you're wondering why we didn't do that on the previous lesson. Now, be careful, try. It doesn't matter. If you do lose that little white line underneath the eye, don't panic because we can always put it in with a bit of white paint. But if you can reserve it, that's fabulous. So go careful underneath the eye. Hasn't really got one on the right hand side so much, so don't worry as much on there. Go carefully around the eyes, but touch the color. Does that make sense? You want to wet and go right up against it, and some of it will bleed, which is absolutely fine. Don't leave a little white line around the top. You just want it around the bottom to reserve that little white line. Alright, up against that. Yeah. And again, same with the nose, go around the nose, but touch the color. A little fiddly, but worth taking your time down to the chin. I should have put a little what I would do, 'cause this has been helpful. This is just for you to see where I'm putting color. Don't add any color at this stage, so you can see where I'm putting the water. That probably helps a bit, doesn't it? So, this is just for me to show you, so keep it nice and clean. Above the forehead and just making sure you stay within those lines. And it can get a little bit confusing where you've wet stuff down. So if you duck your head, I'll say bobble your head up and down. Like I've said in some of the older classes, it just makes me chuckle. You'll be able to see any dry patches. You don't want any dry dry areas cause the paint will just whiz around that dry area and you'll be left with a little funny mark. So it's good to get it all wet to start with. Again, if you put a hair dry over this or you're working somewhere warm, then make sure it is nice and wet still because sometimes you can start, and the time you've actually filled it all in, some of it's dry or starting to dry. So I quite often do that and then I'll add a little bit more water. Same things apply. You don't want it sitting in puddles, but you want it almost. Little the lighting here is quite hard for me to see if I've left any bits. Right. So this first layer, there's going to be two layers over here. The first layer is we won't be putting those eye markings on. It's just to get a little bit of color in I'll probably start to add the lovely top color on top of their heads and some of these markings here, just some very subtle little bits of lavender. It's just to get a little bit of color down and get us going, as well. So let me start where it is. Let's genuine, and let's have let's have a little bit of gothit. Let's go easier. We can always strengthen on the next layer. So let's tap that in. It's just tapping. Try not to do any brushstrokes. Just tapping and allowing. If you've got your paper wet enough, it should move. And if you're not using these Daniel Smith paints, exactly the same as me, paints all have their own little characters. If you're using non Daniel Smith paints, honestly, I haven't not used them for a very long time, so it's hard to give you a sort of substitute color, one that would behave in the same way because I'm just so used to these colors now. But yes, they will all have their own their own little quirks. Even within the brand, each paint has its own littlest characters, little quirks of how it behaves and how it runs. So you just build up that knowledge. So if you squinty eyes, it's try and get a little bit of that, um, redier colour. Actually, I will pick up the transparent brown, which if I don't won't be using. That's just a little bit warmer. It's a little bit of that supere color in there. So, um, Warmer colour. A little brighter color, isn't it? Tapping. I say, we're not adding those dark markings, but obviously, you can go into that dark markings, that doesn't matter at all. Let's lavender, as well. I love adding a little bit of lavender. Being randomly working my way all around the place. But just squint your eyes. Just you're just finding little bits of color. Let's pop a little bit of colour on my brush would be helpful. So I've got a little bit of lavender, a little bit of that stuck at genuine and just tapping. I want the chin to have a little bit of color or a little bit of sort of shadow. Just when you come to do it come to the mouth line, I find it was helpful to already have a little bit of shadow there. I say, Oh, God in mind, this is a little bit of a darker area. It doesn't I said, it doesn't show it on the reference photo, so Lavender, tinually tapping, squinting your eyes, trying to find where those darker areas are. A little bit of goth, have that over the nose. You can see this nice color around there as well. They've always been snuffling around, haven't they feeding? They are ever so cute. I think I've seen them at the There's a town in England called Cotswold. They's I think they call themselves a safari park these days. But yes, they have a mere cla enclosure, and they are fascinating to watch. Okay. That's a little bit of color there, isn't it? I mean, too much. When you ever get too much, don't ever panic. Just clean your brush. Just gently. These always colors ever so soft and they almost lift out. You can panic and then try and get them out, and sometimes you can lift them out completely. So they are very unforgiving. Now, as we work our way round, it will be starting to dry, so I don't want to go up into that head area because that would be drying and that's formed something really pretty there. You can see granulating there. If I was now go in there and fiddle art, I'm going to lose some of that nice sort of freedom it's got up there. So the beauty of doing layers if you think that isn't strong enough, then we've got the opportunity to strengthen it on the second layer. So it's always better to leave things if you think, Oh, it needed a bit more or a little bit more something there is to leave it for the next layer. Fabulous. I think that's enough. They're quite pale, so it's very easy. I know on some of my practice pieces, it's easy to overwork this lay and put too much down. Because obviously, once we do another one, we can add more strength. So go easy. You want this quite pale and washed out really at this stage. So we're just gonna head down to the low one. Exactly the same. No, no different. Treating them pretty much the same. Again, right up against those that here. Just so you get a very gentle blend and bleed. If it doesn't bleed, don't worry, either. I'll try and reserve that little white line underneath the eye, and then over the top and touch the eye then at that stage. Try not to go into it too much, but 'cause you'll find it all If I was to wet the eye at this stage, I would find that it would bleed and blend a lot, and I'd lose that nice strength of color there, so you don't want to go in there. You just want to touch it, touch the edge. Same with the ear. I quite often go round first, around the edge, and then I back fill, but no right or wrong, really. It's just you need to make sure you've got everything covered. Duck your head up and down if you're unsure, you'll be able to see where that color is. It's interesting. There's always an ugly stage. And I said that is definitely an ugly stage. There's there's no detail there. The eyes haven't been finished. So it's worth. If you're feeling a bit like, Oh, no, this looks awful. I've got nothing nothing looks right. It's all look messy. It will look messy and a bit, obviously, very unfinished. So stick with it. Don't let your head go down. It was, again, something I would do when I was sort of learning, I suppose, or finding my way with this style is I'd get very despondent at this stage, and then I would almost I wouldn't say I'd mock it up on purpose, but you sort of get, oh, goodness, this isn't working, and then you lose that nice gentleness. So to stick with it, this is an ugly stage. Most of how I paint, there will always be this sort of middle ugly stage where we've done bits and then some things aren't really joined up, and some things can be hard. Like, the ears are very hard, eyes. So yeah, all I'm saying is don't panic at this stage. You should expect it to look ugly. But we will beautify them, for sure. Okay, I'm going to pick up the same colors. What do I have the gophte suck ite genuine, lavender and the transparent brown. Same thing. If you're working with pans, give them a good old Rs, we'll get a nice amount of paint. So I can beauty I like with working straight at the tubes, I can get a nice amount, and I'm straight there. I can just tap straight away. A few people said, Well, why did you start using paint from the tubes? Honestly, I can't really remember, but I think it was a case of not wanting to waste the paint. Because if you pop it onto tubes, it's running quite a lot, so I'm not gonna panic just very gently. Talking, not paying attention. Oh. Sorry, that's my naughty dog hearing the neighbor coming in. I've got both of them sitting here in the studio, which a little risky when I'm filming. What was I saying? Yes. Don't ever panic. Um, clean your brush, take the excess moisture off. You can just gently blend. But you can see, I love what that's created. So sometimes you just got to go with the flow of it. Right. Where was I? That was the postwoman. Right. Hopefully this hasn't dried on me. No, I'm still good to go. Um, yes, as I say, I love how that's created for me. So I'm just gonna go with it. Another layer, I can sort of soften any of those funny it remarks, but it's a spontaneity that we love about loose watercolor. So, the more you fiddle, the more you'll lose that. A little easier that transparent brown. I'm gonna pop that down for a second. I think that's the one that's say they all have their own character, as I was saying, and it's quite a bold, punchy color that transparent brown. Okay, just squinting my eyes and trying to get that a little bit of colouring. A little bit of lavender down here, I'll say, same Just try and get a little bit of colour underneath the underneath the chin, it just helps with the mouth when we come to put that in right at the very end. Little squint and it. So a little bit of lavender, similar to the other one. Looking let's strengthen that. I'm almost there, is what I'm pondering W I need to actually do much more 'cause my little interruption with the docs this is starting to dry a little bit, so I don't want to add too much more. I think that's gonna gonna end end up with a little bit of trouble there. Let's just pop a little bit more colour lower down here just to give that sense of sort of shadowing. It's still on the reference photo. It's a little bit darker there. The risk is I'm trying to keep this dark and that light and it doesn't really show it on the reference photo, but there will be at shadowing underneath. Um, generally. Right, I'm going to leave her there, actually. I think that looks alright. It's given where that's run, I love how that's sort of formed. So I'm going to down my brushes and leave that to dry completely. 7. Top Head Second Layer: Okay, so once these layers are nice and dry, I would say, make sure both are nice and dry, we can start on another layer, and this should should bring them to life. Pop those lovely strong eye markings in and just give them a little bit more depth so we'll start to see the painting emerge. Now, when you're doing another layer, go as gently as you can. So get your brush nice and wet so you're literally loading up, it's almost dripping and we're just placing. For the time being, we're going to go very carefully around the ear, and we'll wet that down in a minute. We're just going to tackle some of this other area like the eye markings before we do the ears. But I want to try and get them done before it dries completely just so we can get a nice little blend when we add a little bit more colour. All makes sense in a minute, I'm sure. Again, try to keep that little white line underneath the eyes reserved if you can. So don't panic if you've gone over it because it can always be added keeping my brush nice and light. And we're going over exactly what we did in the first layer. Just keeping it nice, letting your brush be nice and gentle. Ground the nose. My nose needs a little bit of help, so, you know, if you're at the same stage, don't worry. I could have done with a little bit more detailing. So we can do all those in the finishing off bits. Duck your head up and down, you don't want any dry patches. Come about there. Is a little bit hard to see where this I've got a big disc light that shines. I find it a little bit hard to see where the dry patches are. I usually come up with some excuse during the class of why my painting might not be as good. Okay, right, we just need to add sort of strength now. If for some reason, the top of your markings are strong enough already, you don't have to add more. So as we work our way through classes, we all start to differ, so you have to sort of be a judge of how yours looks. So I'm just gonna pick up the browns. I'm gonna I won't use a Sepia for the minute. I will once I start getting those eye markings, but I'm just going to sort of start strengthening some of these other areas up. So when it's wet, the places I want the paint to spread the most, I will start there. I'm going to wait a little minute, because I don't want the paint to move as much when I do the eye marking, so I need to allow the paint so I need to allow the paper to dry a little bit. But I will take the advantage of it being nice and wet. We doing some you know, areas I want a lot of sort of spread and softness. So I want my head here a little bit stronger, so I'll just tap a little bit more color in, keep an eye on that reference photo, making sure I get the shape right. I've got a little bit of a dome head here at the moment. A bit better. Yeah, that looks better. Coming down here, there's a she pick up the lavender as well. Let's have four tubes. A little tapping. Sometimes you have to trust your gut instincts. I know I may have said this on previous classes, but if you have a feeling like, you know what? I really want to add that color in, do I sometimes you just have to trust your sort of gut instincts, and as you become more familiar, yeah, more confident with your own style and how so that's a little bit of transparent brown. You can probably see that that will punch your color. You're just gain more confidence and more understanding of how you want a certain thing to look and how your paints work. At the beginning, everything's new, isn't it? And as you get more confident, you're like, Oh, no, I know, if I put that down at this stage and use that paint, that will react that way. And it all becomes subconscious in the end. Just keep your eye flicking guess that reference photo, looking for the darker areas. Often, if you've got a light subject like this, they are quite light in color. It's quite easy to add too much color I often find But the beauty is is that lovely kind of lost and found. Now, before I tratle away here, we need to do those lovely flicks. So they need to be done ideally when the paper is nice and wet, and I won't be adding much more color up here, so I can start to do a few of those little brush, starting a little way in and just very gently tease some of that paint out. Don't go too crazy with them. They're only tiny little bits, but they're quite the same with this side. They're only a little. They just a little bit of something there, aren't they? Again, it's the same with the face, but I want to sort the cheek area. I put a little bit of color there first, and let's pull some of those out. Always try to work a little way in. It's just if you work out here, it's so easy just to sort of go too far. And then you end up with a I seriously floffy beer cat. They won't show awfully because we haven't got a lot of paint there, but it's just enough. You'll be surprised when it dries. It's just enough to be able to see you see sting to appear, can't you? I love that when you there. As you progress through, they start little character starts to shine through. Don't go too crazy. It's so easy to get carried away with those little flicks. But don't try. You've obviously got your pencil marks in so don't go too far beyond those. I was gonna look a bit of a fat chap or hapess. Let's right wear my t out. Let's pop these lavender down. Gonna pick up the sepia, and they're so light genuine, so the two dark colors that we did for the ears. And we're going to start to try and tap that eye marking in now. The little mouth we do later, so don't worry too much about that. Well, I want to try and, you have to judge your own paper. Obviously, if you're working somewhere warm, you need to sort of start with this eye marking a little bit sooner. If you're cool and it's still puddling, and you've still got a little wet there. Just hold on a minute. You just need to find that sweet spot where it's just going to blend, but not too much. So I'm gonna start. See how it feels. If it feels like it's whizzing too much, just hold on a minute. It will probably be just sort of a minute, if that. Don't have your brush too wet, have your paint nice and sticky. SEP is lovely. I like using SP because it doesn't move as much. It's not so spready, so I'll try and go a little heavier on the CEPI and a little less on so genuine. And it moves you're finding it's moving too much, that's got a little bit too far there. I can just gently pull it down. It's best if you can try and allow it to find its way. And don't get too wide if it goes a little bit further than maybe it shows on the reference photo. Obviously, you don't want to go too wild, but if it's giving you a nice pattern, sometimes that's better than trying to be very accurate on where those markings are going. I'm going to go a little lighter on the top, so a little more sleepy on the top, little more so light genuine on the bottom. But honestly, that again, doesn't matter too much. I'm going to just put change what I'm saying. Is a tiny little bit of sllite genuine just at the bottom there as well, 'cause that's a nice soft color. See how that's blending quite nicely. Then you can be very accurate with this line, I? It's excuse number two if you're counting. I'm a little way away from this painting. But you ought not to be nice and thin, so mine might get a little chunky, but try and keep yours as thin as you can. Now, we want to head over to number two I fairly quickly. And sometimes you'll find even one side of the paper drying a little bit quicker than the other. So, you know, find the place that's drying at the right speed for you. I thought a little bit more. I say, try not to add too much water. So when you clean your brush, make sure you take up off the excess moisture. If you add too much, it's all going to start running a little bit too wildly. Does that a little bit of sepia? So just keep flicking your eye back to that reference photo. The color goes right. It touches the eye above, so don't forget. Don't leave any white line at the top. Comes out a little way here, doesn't it keep out, making sure you add enough paint on your brush. That's why the tubes are nice 'cause you can get a good amount. Let's see if I can correct this from where I am and narrow this down a bit. About there, I think. I can pick up that SucalteGenuine, and just just nice. It's a little bit softer. It just blend a little bit more. I can work that way out. Always hand, take your brush away. Have a little look. See what you think. I think that's doing alright. I want to let's have that transparent brown again. I'm gonna transparent brown, actually. Get myself muddle here. Transparent brown and the sucalite Let's have those two. I just want to join up this earmarking. See you see how fill up the little white patch here. That's where the little bit of dry paper. You see how it makes a mark. I'll just fill that in. Let's have a little look. I need to beware that I need to pop wet those ears. I actually might do that now before that dries completely. So I'm just going to go into the ear and wet that down. Same with the other ear. Just hang a minute 'cause that's gonna be quite wet now. We're just going to let that blend a little. I mean, other things to be mindful of which I haven't really mentioned. I've been working my way round and it has actually left the eyebrow above the eye. There's that lovely sort of lightness, isn't it? So, in theory, if you keep looking for the dark areas, you should reserve the white. But yeah, very mind there's that nice white area at the top there. Can you see this is spreading quite a lot here me just. Just very gently, really gently. Just kind of push it in a little bit. So of blend nice, and it's just finding that sweet spot, really, and getting to know your paper and how your paper works. I'm using arches, which I love, but I'm not as familiar as my bokingf which I feel like I've grown up with. But I'm enjoying using the arches. Right, let's do those ears before I'm in a rattly mood today. Right. Clean the brush. Take the excess moisture off. And again, we're doing exactly the same with the ears like we did for the first time round, so so light at the bottom. Go careful. If it looks like it's something whizzing out too much, then hold fights. Just a little bit too wet still. Just go to whiz straight over to this other side while I've got the so light on my brush. What I'm after is just just a little bit of a blend, really, and a bleed. So those ears don't look like they're stuck on and like they're wearing a pair of earmuffs. I would have probably, if I was doing this trying not to teach this, I probably would have done the ears on the very first layer and just allowed them to completely blend, but it all gets a little bit tricky to try to teach and get everybody doing this at the same time and getting a good result. So this is a little bit kind of way of doing it. It does risk a little bit, they can end up looking there being stuck on. There's a nice little bit of colour that just goes from the ear over the top, so just get that in. You can see there. Keep your eye on that reference photo. I'm gonna put a little bit more colour strength there. It's just about wet enough still there. Losing. This is obviously, it was a little bit wetter here when I started this eye makeup. It's blend. It's it's bled quite a lot. I just added a little bit more strength, though. S, if yours is just right, don't me blindly, as they say. If yours looks good, then don't follow me. I think that's looking right. And the minute, you need to keep Kyla looking up from it somehow you can get so especially if you're sitting 'cause I always stand. I think that helps a little bit. I can sort of keep myself away from it. But if you're sitting, it's very easy to get so focused on little areas that you don't see, as they say, the bigger picture. That's where the sings come from. So, yes, take your butt away, even to stand up for a minute. Try not to lift your paper because that will if it's quite wet, you'll encouraged to paint to move where you probably don't want it. So try not to move your board or paper at this stage, while it's still wet. But just try and get away from it a little bit. Actually, I will while that's still damp. Ti I've got a little bit of sod light genuine and a tiny little bit of lavender very only small amounts, probably a little bit more than that. I just want to make sure 'cause I know some of the practice pieces, I didn't get this strong enough down the lower down on the chin. It looked a little odd. So make sure you've got a little bit of color. Only tiny, and say, keep, take your brush away, how would it look. Now, I'm starting to get to the dangerous stage where things are starting to dry. Some of this is probably already dry. This is quite wet. I've probably got a slight tilt, I think on my disk, so this is still wet down the bottom here, but that's probably quite dry. So I don't want to keep fiddling too much at this stage. Right. Leave that one, 'cause I think we've probably done as much as we can. And we'll move on to number the lower one. I can't be that's number one or number two, if I'm honest now. So lower one. 8. Bottom Head Second Layer: We're going to do exactly the same as we did for the top one. So we're going to do very carefully. Wet down. Going around the ears to start with. We're not wetting the ears down at the moment. We're just keeping those free. Clear. Okay, carefully around the eyes. Try to keep those little white lines if you can. A little bit nearer. This one, I can see this one a bit clearer. Okay, very gently. When you're adding adding that second layer of water, go ever so careful because I like what I've got there. If you really sort of scrub and add a little bit heavy handed, you'll move that and you'll lose that sort of freshness. I think freshness is hot, very hot. You won't ever get it back once you've lost it. And it's ever so subtle, you don't always know that just by doing that, you are just gently and very subtly over sort of the period of the painting, sort of losing that magic. I say, duck your head up and down, make sure you've got it all all wet. No eye patches. And we're going to do say I'm going to pretty much start on the top of the head. Same thing. I'm looking for where I need the most blend first. And we need to leave a little bit later. Sorry, we need to allow the paper to dry a little bit to add that eye marking on cause like I probably was a little bit too soon there, and it's bled a little bit too much. So I need it to sort of be a little bit drier so the color holds a bit better. Doesn't move so much. Too much water down there. I can see it puddling. Right. I got the suck like genuine. Let's have sepia and the got this time. I want to make that. I'd have like ideally that a little bit stronger. So I might try and make this low one a little bit have a little bit more strength. But, you may find your top one has been got enough there. I want to try and make is, say, a little bit more strength. Just tapping. Let's have a tight tight a little bit genuine in there as well. Give it a little bit more. Um as they say, it's a little line that runs down, isn't it? It's quite cute. Let's try and get that in there. It's always sort of bearing minded that those nice patches above the eyes, the clear patch looking my way down here. This is where the dogs interrupted me, wasn't it? I went I think didn't quite work out there. So let's tap that in. I was only saying, wasn't being a bit risky having two dogs in the studio while filming and now peacefully asleep. They picular lower Postwoman because she feeds them biscuits. So they can hear that van turning up down the down our drive. Okay, again, I'm just looking for strength. As I'm looking for the stronger areas. Squeting and painting and prattling. So I picked up a little bit of lavender. They're very subtle. If you gain, squint your eyes, you'll see there's a very subtle, like, little muzzle line there, isn't there, which is quite important to get in cause it gives them a little bit of form. But it's only very soft. You don't need a lot. Again, take your brush away. You'll see if you've got that. It's very soft. Let's have a little bit round the nose. She's got a little bit. I've just called her she. I have no idea why. Um, there's a little bit of go fighty color there, isn't it? Yeah, that's sweet. Where is that? I have a little bit of transparent brown. Actually, no, I won't. I'm gonna leave that top one as a transparent brown. I'm not gonna pop it on this one. Does it give them a a little bit of difference. Okay, I need to be mindful of how this paper is drying with. I'm ready to go. Let's go for it. See how I go. You can always start adding color, and it looks like it if it's running too much, you can always sort of, like I say, just hold on a few minutes. I but the trick is to keep your brush clean, and without too much water when you're doing this, adding water on your brush will encourage that paint to move. So I'm going to start with the sepia and see how that goes cause the Sepia isn't a great mover. Yeah, I think we're ready to go on this one. I keep that little line. Say go gentle 'cause it all carries on moving, so bear that in mind as well. I'm just looking for that gentle bit of softness. Obviously, the minute you have something, I'm still painting and you've got the perfect eye marking, then stop and just sort of either hold on or move on to the next one. But, sorry, I got a little bit of suck like genuine. I just popped a little bit of that on the lower part. Why to strengthen that area there. Again, trying to keep my eyes squinting. Do I worry about any flicks at the moment, Because how can I explain this? There aren't really, I suppose, right on the end here, we could do a tiny little flick, but the rest of it is covered over with the back of this mere cat behind. So if we do flicks now, they're just gonna be covered when we do the bodies. So we could. She's just chopping and changing a little bit. Just add a tiny little while. This is still just about damp. If it's dried a little bit, you can always add a tiny little bit of paint on your brush. Gain same applies, work a little way in. Let's just do a couple of little flicks just off the end of the ears. Or the joint between the ears. Yeah, that I do. Don't do too many. Right, where was I? The next eye makeup. Gain, probably a little bit too soon. I could have a little bit too much water on my brush, as well. I think it was probably the case more than the paint, more than the paper being. Too wet. I think I had a little bit too much water on my brush. To try to reserve that ice white line best I can. Okay, just keep squinting back at that reference photo. If you've got it open and, you know, it's quite close to your painting, if you keep flicking your eye back and forth, they can almost superimpose themselves so you can kind of flick, flick back and forth, back and forth. And you'll see where you need to add the color and strength. Just keep tapping. A bit less. Suck under there. It's actually a little bit paler. This one, actually a little more in focus, isn't it? The back one has lost some of the focus in the camera. Yeah, they're looking cute. Gain, take your brush away. I have a little look. I've got a bit of angle there, so I'm just going to soften that very gently. Let's say, stay within that rough guidelines of your pencil marks, but don't be a slave. If you've got something that's really pretty and just blended and it's not gone too far or too wacky out. Then leave it. Sometimes that's the better choice rather than keep maneuvering it around and losing some of that lovely freshness, 'cause that's that's always what we try to achieve, isn't it? Again, I'm gonna take my brush away. Yeah, I think she's looking right. I am convinced that's a she. I'm going to pop up a little bit of that lavender and so like genuine, there. Keep lost a little bit of that. Are you, muzzle line there. Again, I want to make sure I got enough color on that chin, as well. I bench is a little bit on a tilt. Seem to be collecting water at the bottom, eh. Just a hint. It does show it fence on the reference photo, particularly this front mere cat. There's quite a lot of light, but it looked a little odd if I didn't have these chins a little bit darker. Right, I am Oh, I know what you haven't done, the ears. Let's whip those ears down. Again, just gently. Gonna sa, I'm almost there. If I'm not. Same thing applies. Just hold on a little minute. A, right. Let's pick up. Same thing again. So I'd like in on the bottom. 'cause they are really dark on this refit photo, aren't they? So it's really nice to get in that they've got a lot of bitter strength to them. Again, I like Jenny in the bottom and a little bit of sleeping on the top. But if, for instance, the very first lay you did was dark enough, then you don't necessarily need to do that. You can always leave a little bit of light at the top. You don't need to be necessarily filled in. But what I am after it is that is that softness between the two joins, so it doesn't look like they've been stuck on there wearing, say, ear muffs. There's always the risk when you section areas off is you get left with. Um, hard lines. Okay, that's looking lovely. And as I was about to say, I think I'm almost there. Lift my brush away. Yep, I think I'm there. So I'm just gonna allow that to dry. I'm gonna just watch. You can just monitor this. These these little as it is blend. If I might just watch that Somer that's moving a little bit too much. I might have put that paint down a little bit too soon there. You can see that's blending a bit too much. But you should get that nice sort of blurry look. A little bit more sepier there, 'cause I shouldn't move so much. Okay, I'm gonna watch Oh, I tell what we haven't done as well. Just that tiny, tiny, little bit of line over the top of the ear, a little bit of dark paint while the paper's still wet there. Doesn't show it so much on that side on this left hand side, but Yep. That's lovely. Right. I'm going to down my brush and I'm gonna allow that to dry. I say, I probably got to this sort of slightly awkward stage. That's almost probably dry up there. This is still wet. And you can overfddle very quickly at this stage, so it will be better. We aren't doing a third layer, but I w say it's better to put your brushes down at this stage, rather than trying to keep tinkering, is to then brush down. You could then add another layer if you wanted to. I say, we aren't that's always a better scenario than continuing continually continuing to fiddle. I get my words out. 9. First Body: Right, then. Once they are both dry, we are going to do the body on the bottom mere cat, and I bought back my trusty heart. If you're new to this, this is a little heart my husband, um, carved me. And then the puppy ate when she was young. So it's good now I've got teeth marks in. But it's about an inch high, and it's great for tilting my paper just a little bit. So, yes, it's become quite a celebrity, my little woodeart. I had a one to one that came and joined me in the studio, and she was quite excited to see the wooden heart when I bought it. Right. We are going to wet the front mere cat. So the reason for doing the front first is when we do the back, if this is painted, we can then flick in giving the appearance of the front mere cat having hairs. I hopefully will make sense when I do it, but it's just getting the order right, particularly with these mere cats and the layering. So we're going to go. Sort of halfway down. Oh, let's put a little bit of color. I haven't done much of that. Have I sub the goth. So we're going somewhere there. That color is just for you. So as far as I've wet down, it's all wet. White up against the face. I'm going to put a nice little bit of bit of strength. Um, underneath the chin, so bit the so light genuine. Let's have a little suckle lite and start with the so light genuine and the stickt right on the brush at the same time. I'm just going to place and allow that to run. We're gonna wet further down, so a lot of that colors going to be drawn down. So make sure you've got enough. And we do need to make sure we flick up into the face in a minute. So we mustn't forget to do that note to self. Just tapping, having squinting where that color is. Let's have a little bit of lilac. Lilac, Lavender. A little bit. Just to of pull that colour down. Obviously, you've got a tiny little touch of it up there, so just keep the continuity going. A little bit of gothte as well. It's just trusting your instinct, Eddie and where I think the color should be. Not so light. Right. Before it, brides, we need to wet this further down. Got a little bit of line there, wife. Showed you where to wet up to, but hopefully you shouldn't have that. Now, because it's on a tilt, it should run. If it doesn't, it's not particularly shifting, probably I just haven't got quite enough colour up there. So the color will only run so far. It needs a certain amount of paint for it to run. So it's got a little bit more strength there. Again, just give it a little minute it will Oh, Can your brush. If you keep wetting this down, it should pull down. If it's not moving very much, I can always down. I've got another little pot here. Just give me a bit more of a tilt. Just allow it to run a bit more, and I can add if it's gay, not moving a bit more risky, but I can add a little bit more water. It's all trying to encourage it to do its own thing, rather than me manipulating it too much, and trying to get the try not to interfere too much, just allowing things to be, that give you that fabulous sort of freshness. Let's put a tiny little bit to go for it. Just running down that left hand side. Just gonna let this itchy blend out. I don't want to put too much. I got a little bit of go through. Very gently. I mean, it's not so like genuine. I think that actually almost might be enough. But there is quite a little line down there. Tiny, little bit more. You just to be careful because it does start to dry. And you can risk sort of muddling it. Right. Before I get carried over that, we need to sort of flick up into the chin. This will give the appearance of little white hairs. So you're almost sort of reversing in your mind, if that makes sense. So you're trying to create white hairs coming down by pushing up. I always sort of throws my mind a bit this. Keep an eye comes up a little bit more here, doesn't it? Don't be uniforms. You don't have to go all the way along and do very uniform little flicks. Just do a few, take your brush away, have a little look. They can get a little bit too much if you're not careful. Coming into the face. So we're trying to create, say, the flicks coming out of the cheek by putting colour in. Okay, just have a little look. That's a little bit sticky cause a bit too much. I pop a little bit water on that and get that to move. And I like the rest of that. I don't want to do too much more up there. If I add color now, that it's beginning to dry. It would again, same thing as applied with layers. It would be better to go over and reapply. But I don't want it to be too dark. She's quite light. She Um, So I think that's enough, if I'm honest. So again, I just need to allow that to dry. Ideally, if you've painted something on a tilt, it's best to leave it to dry on a tilt, as well, 'cause if I lay that flat, it will encourage that paint to move back up and you'll lose that sense of movement. 10. Second Body: Right. Once that's lovely and dry, I must admit, I did pop a hair dry over that, so it's dried a bit quicker. I'm just going to pop that back down to its original height with that heart height. That's about an inch high, and we're going to do the back mere cat. Same things, really. We're going to wet this down, and we have to remember to do the flicks quite quickly and the flicks into the front me cat. So let's I'm going to start. I'm just gonna put I'm going to wet to there. So sort of opposite her nose. I wasn't going to get too gingerish with these mere cats, but I have obviously defaulted to being a here in the front. Okay, be careful not to go into the head of the little front mere cat. Take your time. Avoid when you're wetting stuff down. There's no hurry. It's better to get everything nice and wet. And then if need be, you can add a little bit more water. But just make sure it's nice and neat. And no try patches. All right up against the ear. It doesn't matter. It'd be better to have a little bit of bleed from the ear than it will be to leave a little dry line because it will you'll get a little a little white line up against the ear and it look a little look a little could look a little odd. So I'm going to pick up the so light genuine and the sucalite and I'm going to it's very similar. I'm gonna pop a lot of strength underneath the chin and allow it to bleed down. This is when you're sort of shaping the mouth. So just be mindful of that. So by putting this color down, I'm creating really the shape of the face and how that's running. Obviously, we'll do a couple of those flicks in as well, so probably a little bit more strength there. I'm not going to put quite so much on the opposite side. I'm probably gonna use the brown, like genuine, a little bit of lavender. Just go to touch that in there. It's going to be a little difficult 'cause it won't run very much because obviously, she's sort of stopping any paint flowing. So I just need to make sure there's enough. I'll do those little flicks now, actually, I think. Well, that's drying before it dries, so just gonna flick In too much lavender. Tight. Oh, that's too much, too. Now, I've got a bit of fluff. Very gently. Okay, look at that reference photo. You're trying to create the white hairs coming down. So by putting colour in, it's always a say a bit of a mind bend, but it comes up a little bit, doesn't it? Don't do too many, I say, just keep it light, keep it sort of fresh. I'm do a couple here. I have to work quite quickly here, so and if it's starting to dry, like mine's a little bit sticky. Just add a little bit of paint on my brush. Got a little liny there. A bit more water. Stop it looking too sticky. You go to wet this down again, to a bush, just to keep it moving. Keep it wet. Or as long as the area you're kind of working on is still wet, you can add more water. So don't be afraid to add more water as you go. Just be careful. If areas start to dry, adding more water will make it look very messy, but as long as the area you're kind of working on at the time is still damp, you can add more water to give you a little bit more time to continue playing. There you go. Probably a little flicker out of this side as well. They'll be very pale once that pencil marks gone, so let's clutching paint here desperately. That's a little bit of gothte. It's tiny bit, very subtle, but not that subtle. Too too strong now. Lovely, that'll do. I say, take your brush away. That's enough. I'll do the side as well before we allow this to run all the way down. A little bit of gothte on my brush, as well. Take your brush away. That's looking alright. Let's move this all the way down. So we're gonna wet further down, allow that colour to move. You go to say, I'm going to add a little more. This is all still wet here, so I can just add a bit more water and encourage that to run. You see, hopefully you can see that running. And we're gonna come all the way down now. Don't make. There is a sort of sweep around. Probably this pencil marks probably come out a little bit too far. I'm just gonna sweep in a little bit more, and I can always come out if I need to. But it's very hard to move in the other direction. Okay. Nice bit of strength this side, isn't there? Let's have that. So light genuine. And let's have a little bit of suck a light. Okay, tap that colour in. I do love that so light genuine. Just my favorite colour. Beautiful. Just picked up the transparent brown as well. Give me a really nice amount of paint there. I think I'm going to add a little bit of the gothite down this side as well. Lots of water. Water is where the magic is. It's probing that right down. It's coming right off my board, so it's allowing that right off the edge. That gives you a really lovely scent to flow. Fairly quick because we need to do these flicks here as well. So I mean, ideally, these are always best done when the paper paper is nice and wet and you've got a nice bit of wet paint to pull out, as well. And then equally, we need to go in a little bit here. Don't do too many of these. They're very like the guard hairs, aren't they? So we're just going to do a few make sure they come in their direction. Obviously, the hairs are heading the white hairs are coming out in this direction, so we need to make sure we kind of create that effect of the white hairs are coming up to that right hand corner. So be careful not to do too many. I think it can be a bit distracting. We can always add a little bit of white gouache and come out. It's not as obvious, but they're still subtle. That's probably enough. If I squint my eyes, I'll say though. They're like little guard hairs more than very obvious hairs. I need to make sure I'm not making this front me cat too fat. That line of water, it's running, it's beautiful, but it's going to make it look a bit fat, I think, so I put a little bit more color there. Just a hint. In theory, it would be mounted somewhere here. So, you know, you'd lose a lot of that messy bit at the bottom, so it's quite nice to allow it to run off. Once you're happy with this, then we need to do the other side. I'm just sort of pausing. I think there's enough color in here. It would be a little bit difficult out. I think it's probably began to dry. Again, I I really felt I needed more color there and more strength, I would wait for that to now dry it and then add another layer. But I'm, I like that. I think that's enough there. So, let's let's let me put these down. All right. We're going to just wet. We'll be halfway down. I go to pick up. Sort of like genuine go tht and go quite nice and strong, right up the I'm just gonna tap, allow that to run down. Okay, what you wipe that down. Encourage that to run, she says, pop a little bit more water, and this is a little bit of how the Archer's paper he's behaving. My normal Bockingford, that would have reacted a little different. So you just get to know your own papers that you use or like using. Yeah, I think that's enough. I don't want to add too much. You can kind of start filling everything in, and I can feel he's beginning to look a bit wide if I'm not careful. A little bit of lavender just to keep all those colours sort of pulled together. And we needed to do some little flicks. It's quite tricky. You can see there's some darker hairs coming off this front mecat. But we're just going to push a few in just to give that impression there's a little some of the hairs are coming off off the front mica. Just do a few say don't too carried away going all the way down and methodically doing them. Yeah, and pop your brush down. Have a little look. I am actually going to put a little bit more water here and try and run some of that off. Almost too much color for me, especially if I say keeping bearing in mind, I'd like to keep that as the light coming on the left hand side. I don't want to actually have too much color there. It doesn't go spotty. Sometimes, I say, getting to know your character, your paint. So paints when you pup them down. That's going to be a very bad example so light genuine doesn't do that at all. I don't think any of these do particularly. But when you do the little tapping, it will leave a little quite an obvious mark. So it's always worth just checking when you've put those colors down that have that character or trait to do that, you've softened it, but Right. I think I'm there for that layer. There's enough depth. When I step away, I can see. Obviously, the reference photo, they're white. They white chests, and we really were just creating a lot of it is shadowing. Obviously, they have got some sort of go fky colors to them. So we've added those in as well. But we just want to try and keep things very loose and light, and it doesn't have to be exactly as the reference photo. It's better to get a nice loose impression than to exactly copy the reference photo in front of you. So I am going to leave it there and allow that to dry, then we can do those lovely finishing off bits. You know what, while I'm standing here, actually, and looking and looking at some of my other Oh, that's a nasty nois. Little practice pieces. I'd like to put a little bit more color down there. So while that is actually still, um, wet said about those guard hairs. I'm just a tiny lit. I've got a little bit of suck like genuine. Let's have a tiny bit of sepia, there's a sepia. Just want to give a little bit of strength there. We'll just give that nice clear definition between the two mere cats, as well, and a little bit of flicking. Okay, that's all I wanted to say, really. 11. Finishing Off: Right, we are nearly there, aren't we? You can see. They're almost almost finished. We just need to put those catch lights in and really tidy and kind of sharpen up that detail. So let me drop my painting down 'cause we don't need it on a rise at all. Now, make sure it's nice and straight. Give the homes up. Give me a piece of kitchen roll. It's always worth sort of swapping your water, as well. So you're working with cleaner water. Mine's a little murky now, but it's not too bad. So what was I going to say first? So it's always quite nice to rub any pencil lines out at this stage, but make sure your painting is really dry. I have just pop a hair dry over this. I know it's dry, but it's nice to get rid of those lines. So let's let's just very gently rub them out. Again, just try to be gentle. I don't want to do too much rubbing up so I can jig ball around and make the camel wobble. I think you get the general gist. So just go round carefully. And if you've left any left in it, have you got any spots here, I don't know if you've come across a magic sponge. It's quite magic. It's actually This is only a part of it, actually. They're actually a cleaning product. So you can kind of tear little bits off, and I will hopefully get rid of that really useful for taking sort of spots off. Um, on things such as this. That's quite I've really done a good old spot there. They're really quite strong blobs, but they do a really fantastic job of getting little marks out. You can see they were really thick, actually. They must have been Pop a glob paint. And voila. So I will pop a link to these on the projects and resources pages, but you can buy them atadas, Mr. Amazon. Um, or any probably Cleaning place will probably stock them, but a really useful thing for getting little marks off your white paper. I have seen some artists use it for taking color out, actually on your paper or painting. I find it a little hard. It can leave quite hard marks, and it's not specific enough. I can't be detailed enough, so I don't use it on my painting, but great for any little mishaps we have on the white paper. Write it home. Let's get this their little little smiles in the little muzle line. We're just going to be quite subtle, but that's gonna give them a lot of character at the moment, we haven't got their smiley faces in, have we at the moment, or smiley mouth in. That's going to hopefully bring them to life, as they say. So what I'm going to do, you can see droplet of water. See this line here, and that's the line of the mouth, and we're just going to run up where we put that very subtle line of the muzzle, we're just going to wet that sort of lea. We can gently I don't do a lot of this because it can leave hard lines between where the water the sort of water line between the two, but we can just gently soften it seemed to be the best way to achieve these mouth lines easily. So I've got a little bit of cycle N. It's quite a soft, easy colour to remove if I need to. Now, the trick is, I had some funny goofy looking mere cats when I was practicing these, used to go really gentle and see what they look like. And just gently place the paint down, take your brush away, have a little look. The slightest deviation down, up will change the character. Obviously, a smiley face will go up, a sad face will go down. So if you want to keep them quite cheery, the line needs to be subtly going upwards, I would say. Just gently pull that little line out. Again, you can soften if it gets a little hard. I quite like a finger because it just squidges the paint. It gives you enough detail or strength, but gently take any color and sort of move color around. So I say go gentle. To keep taking your brush away a look. Do I put a little bit of So genuine, a little bit more strength there. I think he's looking right. Gently bring that line up there. It's very soft, very subtle. Tiny little bit of paint. These lines will be one of those things you'll be able to alter maybe the next day or when you sort of step away, you might you can almost we've been painting we've been painting already for quite a long time. And you almost don't see what you're looking at, and particularly sort of characters like this. I quite like that. But I say, it may be the case when I step away from it, come back, and I'll be like, Oh, no, it doesn't look quite the character's not quite there, so I will just very gently adjust. And again, you can do exactly as wet that little area down and just tinker. It will be the tiniest little tiniest amount of paint you have or haven't put on or just need to move somewhere else just very gently. Bring that up there. Again, soften very very It's very subtle. Okay, let's let's do the lower one as well. So exactly the same thing again. We're wetting the top line. So let me put a little color there. It's there. That's almost done. I'm done. And I just kind of pull it up a little bit, as well, around the nose. Again, it has the effect of softening the nose a little bit more. We can add that very soft subtle line muzzle line. I think this one looks a little naturally. Cross almost, doesn't it? Than the top one, so be careful. You may need to you may feel if you want a little cheery me cat, just to go a little higher than maybe the reference photo shows. That's too cheesy now. You can see how it alters so quickly to the tiniest bit of paint. It's definitely got a cheesy grin now. It's a little squidg. Yeah, that's better. You know what? I think I'm there. I don't think I really want to do too much else. No, I think dar iny bit Take your brush away. Yeah. We can have another little tink if we need be. But let's get those catch lights in. I think that's going to make a difference. But what I want to do first before we start doing those catch lights, I'm just to wiz hair driver and make sure those little areas are nice and dry because we're sort of concentrating on little eye details, it's, again, too easy to smudge. Right, then, I have got a little bit of white garsh. Now, if you haven't just like mine, mine haven't been kept through clear enough. These little tiny, little white lines underneath, we can put them in. So if you found like me, they've a little disappeared, we're going to pop them in. So tiny little brush. And this is where you can really want to if you've got your little reference photo in front of me, really scroll into those individual eyes where you can see that little white line really clearly. Trying my best to not to get my head in the camera, but to be close enough, so we're just going to start up the top there. And if the line ends up being a bit chunky, don't worry, because we can gently back fill that to make that look smaller and fineer. It's probably enough. And then we're going to do. This one doesn't show too much. Almost that's almost too much, so I might actually fill that in in a minute. This little one here in front, again, I've lost I've just lost the edge here. B just a way I when I wet that down, sometimes it's your wrist action and how you sort of sweep around with you. And Again, there's not a very obvious one that size, so that's probably enough. So what you can do if your line then becomes quite chunky, which is really hard not to, or you can I got a little bit of sepia. Very gently. Adjust where you think needs to be. So maybe the e needs to come a little out. So you go this side of the white line or maybe vice versa, the eye needs to come in a little bit, or that white line needs to come in a little bit, then you'll go to the outside. I hope that makes sense and just make it really slithery fine. It's only a very fine line, isn't it? So you don't want it very thick and chunky. I'm gonna close this one down, actually, and get almost rid of it. I don't need it that thick. It's just Yes, that's better. Game, same with this one. I probably need you to make the eye a bit wider, so I'll make sure I work in the eye ball. This is the joy of having a subject with very dark eyes and very dark eye makeup round the eyes. Yeah, you can see now that's ever so fine now. Let's put those catch lights on they will make a difference. So that your white paint. Make sure you brush nicely clean, excess moisture off. And you want it really nice and thick and creamy. Now, just keep an eye on that reference photo. One in there. Usually they're sort of top and to one side. Usually a little in to the center. Dame with this one? Don't they make a difference. That's just why I like doing it at the end. Suddenly, you have two little mere cats looking back at you, and it really does bring that painting to light, doesn't it? Make it zing. We have nine. Stop fiddling, Jane. I think you can always adjust these little things afterwards. Right. My nose is a little working on, so let me do that. This may be may not apply to you at all. You may have just like this one, that one's absolutely fine. This one I probably started adding the water so the paint when there was too much water sitting on there. So I'm just going to wet that nose down. I'm going to leave out the little nostril marks so the paint won't go into the nostrile area 'cause there's already enough paint there to make it nice and soft. Okay, take my brush away. I only want a little bit. I just needs a little bit more umph. I'll say, yours might be absolutely fine, so don't necessarily follow me on this part. But hopefully, it might be useful for you to see how I can sort of correct things. And if the nostriuls look a little too much too obvious, where I have that they're dry. The little nostrils. As it dries, I can always just wet that down. So then the nostrils become quite soft. You don't get that hard line. You can almost sculpt it this time. It's quite nice. You can just take little bits of color out. Again, keep taking that brush away, having a little look. That little corner popping taking off, but I can't do that at the moment, if I start altering that and wetting this area down, this paint will keep moving out and keep moving outwards. Right. So Again, this is something I probably need to dig at all. I think when I did this, I should have gone a little higher up, but I will tinker with that in due course. That's probably something. I don't know. Anyway, we can go round and sort of take any color out that we need to. So if your eyebrows, for instance, have gone a little bit, you've got lost a little bit of that white paper, then you can very gently, have a nice soft brush. Clean piece of kitchen roll, so make sure it's not dirty. You can very gently take those out. And actually, although the color runs all the way along, it's quite nice. It's almost like releasing the energy out. I don't know what it is, but I like it's at lost and found edge, really. So I'm actually going to take some of that color out, although it shows it on the reference photo. Just to release it a little bit and give it a little bit of air to breathe somehow. So it can be tricky. If an animal's got a pticular marking that doesn't allow that to happen, sometimes you just have to go. Never mind. I'm still taking it out. As you see that's hopefully lightened everything up. I just allowed some of that lightness in. Okay, I want to do a little bit of that side as well. Now, I've done the thing I tell everybody not to do or advise people not to do. This is really where I should have just flicked out to, and I've gone a little bit too wide, this looks a little bit too too chubby in the cheeks to me. So I'm actually going to get rid of some of this here, so I'm gonna scrub it out. You can see that is automatically lost some of that sort of chunkiness, and it's also bought a little bit of lighting. I might do a few more flicks once that's dried, so it just gives you can see where the edges, but that for me has just lightened things a little bit. A little bit the same here, but not as bad. And I can come down here, do something similar to this little mere cap. I mean, not so much. Again, you can very gently take out any eye markings. So sorry, not my marking. Eye patch markings above, but go very gentle, D. I even squeege of your finger. It depends how your paper reacts. All paper differs slightly on how it copes with these things. Let's have a little look. I know what we didn't do somewhere along the line. We didn't flick into the cheek area there, did we? That's got a bit soggy. That's about there for that. I'll still be alright. Let's see, a this'll be an interesting little thing to do. If we can recreate them using a dry brush rather than how it should have been done. So a tiny, little bit of so light genuine and lavender. We're gonna go in, see if we can create those white hairs coming out. You can see how it can look a little bit stuck, but what we can do. It's very gently with a bigger brush, and then just very gently Just soften the edges of those hairs on the body, the back body. Just with a finger, and that just takes away any potential sort of water line that might appear. I think they've come along pretty well, actually. Is there any other areas I want to take out? Light? A little bit out of here, maybe. Just a touch. Lost a little bit of light there. Again, I can squeege from my finger. I think they're looking pretty cute. I think what will also help is to put some of those whiskers on cause that really also helps bring the painting to life 'cause they're quite an intrinsic part of these me cats. So let me close down. I have got that little fine liner. I showed you at the beginning. Dine on these paints a little bit. Now, you can do this. If you don't want to do a fine liner, you can do it with a pencil or if you're feeling brave, you can do it with your paint brush. The paintbrush is a little risky 'cause you can do some quite chunky lines, and once you've done that, it's very hard to get rid of. But a little fine line is a little safer to do, and a pencil is also fairly safe. So let me do a pencil one so you can see. Again, it's getting that lovely sort of sweeping action, so it's just that, isn't it? So we'll do a few some with a pencil, some with a fine liner. Some coup off with cheek here. Good ones down here as well, isn't it? It's just that sweep. If you're not sure, pract it on a piece of paper. It's just the wrist action. Okay, let's swap to the fine liner so we can get a difference in strength and sort of type, really. Good ones that come right out there, isn't it? Fantastic, aren't they? This is an expressive bit, isn't it? We're gonna do some little flicks on those ears, as well. Down here. Up here. Can't quite see him coming off the eyes, but a couple there as well. Yeah, doesn't that make the difference? It's a bit like catch lights, isn't it? So we can also do some little flicks off these ears, as well. Just keep it 'cause they're ever so fine those lines, so we can again do that. Try to keep them random. You need them in the right direction, but do some thin, some thick. You can walk back to the pencil. No, that's not quite right. A bit too bit thinner. I think you get the gist, so you can kind of work your way around. But don't do too many. Flicks can get very addictive, and you can make it look a little bit sort of static somehow and stuck on. But summer ice, these whiskers are lovely to do. Fabulous. I think we're almost there. These little flicks, let me do that 'cause I'm hoping these little things will help you, even though you probably haven't had the same issue. So I'm just gonna put those little flicks back in and try and sort of squish those cheeks up a bit because they'd gone too wide. So make sure we don't do the same thing again, put them in the same place. But we just need a few. Just enough for the eye to see where that body sort of where the cheeks are finishing. So, honestly, that's almost enough, actually. Boy it's really so easy to put too much in. It's just to put a little bit in, step away. If your brush away and see what you see what you think. I think that's enough. Just see the eyes just starting to go, Oh, yes, that's where the end of the cheeks are. As well, could dump a little bit higher up. Honestly, it's at that stage where I can now fiddle and I'll fiddle and I won't necessarily help the painting because I've been looking at this for an hour and a half, at least here, haven't we? So, honestly, it's better to step away, look at this, sometimes it's only half an hour. You can come back and go, Oh, I need to fiddle with this. I just need a little bit of tinkering here. If I come back, I'm going to go to have some lunch. I I come back and I see some bits that I think that need improving and would help you to achieve yours as well, I will do another diddle chapter. So for the time being, I would like me, I would resist fiddling, and I would step away, put your paintbrushes down, and come back and reassess your piece. Yours, when you come back, you might go, Perfect. I've done enough. That was, you know, I've done a really good job there. And if I don't come back and do anymore, I really hope you've enjoyed this class. And like I always say, please, please, please do share these on the projects and resource these pages because it is, honestly, such a lovely thing to see your work pop up. And equally, if you have any questions, I haven't said something quite right. I've missed something out, or you haven't quite, it doesn't quite make sense. Please pop that on the discussions. Um area of each class rather than doing a general discussion. So yes, pop on the little discussion area on the mere cat class, and I will endeavor to get back to you as soon as I can. And, yes, I hope you enjoyed it. And thank you very much as ever for joining me. 12. Bonus Tweaks: Okay, so I think this little lesson is probably something you'll probably just watch. Um, so I'm hoping yours is just a little mini masterpiece. But when I've come back into the studio for a little bit of lunch, I've looked at this piece. He's got a little strange expression. I'm not quite sure what's going on, but there's a few things I'd like to adjust. I think this ear should have been a little bit more I think I've just missed a little patch of darkness when I wet that down. And I'm going to see if I can change the expression. And I think I mentioned somewhere along the class that if you wanted to adjust things, it's better to wet a whole area down and jingle, jiggle with it then. So I'm going to do just that, so it might be used for, I might not be. So we'll see how we go. Right. So what I would do, I would just wet the whole thing down again. In some forms, it's not ideal because I've already done these little flicks, so it has the potential for those flicks to look like they've been stuck on. But it's I think it's useful to see another layer going down because we don't often do three layers in a Skillshare class. And it always runs the risk of it becoming muddy extra layers. But as long as you go gentle, Also, I think I added this little eye patch a little too soon, and the paint spread instead of giving me a really nice concentrated eye patch it spread a little bit too much and a little bit weak, so we'll see if we can alter this. Soften this nose a little bit, as well, and take that little corn off. Okay. That looks a little odd there. Just make sure it's all nice and wet. You can see how it's bleeding, can't you? That ear, Colors bleeding. And sometimes, if you've got colors and areas that have got a little harsh and they've got a bit stuck and it all looks a bit segmented, I suppose, sometimes just wetting it down, softened, all those areas. And quite often you go, that's it. I'm done. It's just softened. And I can see I've got a different almost a different painting just by the fact of wetting it down again. And allowing everything to bleed and blend again. You still see a big chunk of dry paper there. All right. Let's see if we can do some little alterations on this little one. Trying to be ever so gentle because there is that risk, as I say it getting quite muddy once you start adding layers. Try and keep that white reserved right. Also, I think I'm in a little light on top. So let's see if I can just give that a little bit more a little bit more strength as well, so I think that would be nice. A little bit too much like genuine. Go for a little bit of um silt. Keeping my eye on that reference photo again. I can't really touch this eye makeup that I want to sort of make a bit stronger 'cause it's too wet. I think this is what I did last time. I just a little bit too wet. Dry patch there. Let's see if I can get that ear moved up a bit. I think I've just missed my line. Seen my line there. Yeah, that looks at better already. Give a little bit more strength forward here. A little bit of shadow just here. See how soft these colors are. I've lost that mouth line now, haven't I? But probably not a bad thing 'cause he was looking a little looked at miffed somehow in his expression, but it would have been the tiniest little bit of paint I put that wasn't quite in the right place, giving him a little bit of a funny old expression. Yeah, that's looking right. It's amazing by softening areas down and doing a tiny little bit how it can the whole painting. Right. I just want to do a bit more strength here. Just give it a little bit more punch. Back to my name same colors. Just the so like genuine and the sepia. And with each layer, you find the paint doesn't move as much as it would have done on the first. So if I was to put this on the first layer, it would have moved a lot more than it's doing now. So it's how you end up gaining the control, but what you can lose is the freshness. So it's that balance, really. And as I say, some papers take this better than others. So I tend to probably do less layers than I used to. I always think sort of if you can do two, that seems to be ideal. Some subjects just just demand more depth, something like a black subject or I would need to do more layers. So I will probably do something like a black labrador, for instance, that may have up to five layers. But once I start hitting that sort of five number, it can get muddy if I'm not careful. So it's being really careful. You have to be ever so sort of conscious that your paint sort of placement is very light. When you wet down a another lay, it's done very carefully, just so you can keep it keep it as fresh as you can, keeping your water clean. Just putting that little muzzle line that little bit such a soft line, that one, but I think it's quite important. IT be careful not to give him by chubby cheeks again here, weren't I? Okay. I need a little bit of Sepia. Let's see how that mouth line will take now. Sepia, 'cause I know that won't move quite so much, it will be a little bit softer. See if we can get a better expression, too. That's even better now, isn't it? Just that tiny little bit comical grin now, hasn't he? You know, that might be it. It's not as pronounced as it is on the reference photo, but you really have to look at your own piece because nobody's going to look at your painting, then the reference photo and judge you as to whether you've copied that well. It's just whether that painting looks appealing We it's caught something. You're just after catching some character or some inspiration, something that just you just feel like you've got a con a little bit of magic? I'll say generally not necessarily following the reference photo slavishly. And if I don't stop now, I'm going to run the risk of over fiddling. Well, very tempted. We'll do this. Now is to wet this body down. So I can because I've already, I've got a existing sort of water lines and sectioned areas off that they will remain underneath, but I will get myself something a little bit softer. Run that down there. Just squinch my finger. I don't want to get water line down here. I can make sure I keep it light. The light areas light. W a nice light patch here. So again, this is the thing with layers. Obviously, it gets this will get muddy and I will lose the light, so I can take that out. A little bit more sepier down here so we can bring back a little bit of strength underneath. The chin. How is it looking? So this is starting to get a bit little washed out, isn't it? This mouth line again? It's pot that back in again. I've gone quiet. I'm concentrating. I like that. I think if I fiddle much more, I'm going to ruin what I've got. It's the biggest it's one of the biggest things to know when to step away and when to leave it. I just want to get rid of that little line there a little bit. Quick look back to make sure I've got those angles right. Yes, I think I stop, again, I will always run into the risk of over fiddling when the areas start to dry, this will start to be this will start drying here. I can see it's going off. For some reason, it's a little damper down here. But yes, I really need to leave that there, because the more layers you've got, obviously, the more you risk overmuddling and muddling going through one, two, three layers, and pulling them up. So you have to be ever so careful when you add layers to be gentle and not over fuss them. So I'll leave it there and see what that looks like. It would be nice to compare the two, actually, wouldn't it? So now that he's thoroughly dried, I think it's interesting. What he's slightly lost in freshness, he's gained in a little more sort of clarity, I suppose, and a little more realism. So with each layer, although you run the risk of losing the lightness and spontaneity of it, you then gain a little bit more control on the detailing. So it almost swings how you want to see your pieces. And sometimes some things just work out really well. You'll do one piece, and it's beautifully light and spontaneous. You'll do the whole painting again. I'll just come out differently. My practice pieces have altered slightly on different almost depending on what paper I've used as well, and the mood you're in if you're feeling a little bit glum, it will reflect in your work. So that's kind of worth bearing in mind, too. And the other little I just made a tiny little adjustment above the eye, which I think is quite nice. I hadn't actually done in any of my practice pieces, but I was looking sort of closely at the reference photo, taking a little bit of light out at the top of these, so it was just with a damp brush. I just took that up very carefully and then squeezed it with my finger, and it's just given a little bit of relief over the eyes, as well. Lifted them up a little bit and given them a little bit more of an expression, hasn't it? They've raising their eyes, I suppose, so it makes them look cuter. So I hope this little extra I don't sure it's a bonus, but this little extra lesson of me tweaking my mere cat has been useful. Yes, and worth experimenting with. If you've done one and you're really, really pleased with it, do it again and maybe pick one of the mere cats and put three layers over, and see how that feels to you. See how you cope with that. It's all interesting. It's all worth playing with. Nobody has to see these pieces of work. I think we all get a little bit like, Oh, my goodness, I can't make I can't alter that or experiment with that cause I don't know. We have this imaginary thing that we're going to ruin it, and people are going to see it and criticize us on it. But nobody has to see these pieces. They're there for you to kind of gain the control and understand this technique. So yes, use them as experimental pieces as well. So before I chatter on too much, which I'm Always always I'm able to. I will leave it to that and say thank you again. 13. Final Thoughts: Did you enjoy piecing these two together? Didn't they make just the loveliest of subjects? Did you enjoy painting the eyes and nose first? It's not my usual way around, is it? What about setching those areas off? A great way to build up your painting that doesn't feel too overwhelming. Did you add a third layer over one of those mere cats. And how did that feel? As I always say, it's worth stepping away and coming back and looking at your painting with a fresh pair of eyes. And tweak is necessary. So we look forward to seeing you in the next class?