Modern Monotype Magic: Create Unique Art in Minutes with Gouache & Procreate

1. Intro: Have you ever felt overwhelmed before starting a new project? Sometimes, we don't know what to draw or don't have time, or we have too many ideas and do nothing. It doesn't have to be so. My name is Anna, and today, I'll share with you my very special technique of monotype, a simple and fulfilling way to create unique artwork in minutes. I'm a professional illustrator and fine artist based in Berlin. I've collaborated with some high-end clients like Netflix and Maison Margiela and I also won several industry awards. It took me years to make this dream career come true. It's a lot of work. Sometimes, I do feel overwhelmed and caught in indecision. I just don't have creative juices for the next step and that's when monotype is my go-to technique. In this class, I'll show you how, without any previous experience, you'll be able to unlock your imagination. Monotype is a hybrid of drawing and printmaking. It's super easy and still provides satisfying results. Not surprisingly, it was a favorite medium of William Blake, Edgard Degas, and Salvador Dali. I will use gouache but any kind of paint will work. You don't have art supplies at hand? No worries. In the second part of the class, I'll show you how to work in this technique on iPad using Procreate app. I've prepared some custom brushes you can download but, of course, you can use any other software with a liquify filter like Photoshop. I should warn you, it's a highly addictive and pretty messy technique, but it's the best. Grab your art supplies or digital tools and let's get started. 2. Inspiration: Thanks for joining me. I'm sure you will be amazed by the things you will create. We'll explore the modern ways to make monotypes. But first, let's take a look at some inspiring examples of the great masters who used this technique. [NOISE] The first book is about Edgar Degas. This French painter is famous for his pastel drawing and paintings of ballerinas, like this one. For our class topic, it's more than curious. For this artwork called the star, Degas used monotype technique as a background and then worked with pastel on top. There are some series of such artworks. Another example is a ballet scene created in the same technique, pastel on monotype background. It provides dynamic and interest. The next one you've seen for sure. This famous artwork is created in mixed media. We see monotype background and then gouache on top along with pastel drawing. I also wanted to show you this moody landscape. It is displayed in Paris. It's a colored monotype and we will create our landscape too. The next inspiration is Salvador Dali and his fantastic floral monotypes. You can notice that the textures of the flowers are very uneven. Some textures and the washes are very unexpected, so you can't create that on purpose. Variety of bushes and effects on flowers and even on the background. This painting by Dali is also combined with monotype effects on the claws and the character is painted with brushes. It's a very interesting combination. This one is a bold and dynamic, you can recognize the specific texture similar to what we are going to make. It's created on toned paper. This is very dark. The next inspiration is William Blake. He is a famous English poet, painter, and printmaker. He widely used monotypes in his imaginative artworks. The technique allowed to add philosophical and mystical feel to his paintings. There are a lot of moody details and magical aspects in his works, so you can study them for a while and learn a lot. Another very special artist I wanted to show you is Marc Chagall. This legendary painter worked in very unique modernist style and applied it to verity of art forms including monotypes. He was a pioneer of modernism and I visited Marc Chagall National Museum in Nice, France. It's such an atmospheric place on top of the hill with a beautiful garden and I got there this book. Here, you can see some examples of printmaking, the variety of stages. This painting was turned into a tapestry. If you're a surface pattern designer, that's a good inspiration too. Let's move to the next video and learn about materials. 3. Materials: Let's talk about materials. The basic version of this technique is so easy you wouldn't believe it. You can use one color of gouache or watercolor paint and two sheets of smooth glossy paper, that's all. But of course we want to dig deeper. Let's take a look at the various materials we can use. I will work with gouache but watercolor or ink will be great too. Before choosing the tubes, I've tested some color combinations on the separate sheets of watercolor paper. This helps to find unique use and gradients. I was looking for contrast colors. This one is a pastel palette. I just added white to all the colors to have this subtle feel. I was looking for interesting combinations before choosing the paint. I will use gold metallic acrylic ink, this is a highly pigmented ink. I use it to add some magic. Well, you will see, this is my favorite one. Now brushes. I prefer using fringe or mop brush for the most of my projects. They can hold a lot of water, I have variety of sizes and the small synthetic brush for tiny details. That's right. We will also need paper. I'II be back to paper in the next small video because it's super important for this technique. I use glossy coated paper with a very smooth surface. You can even see the reflection of the light. We will back to that soon. We will also need a piece of glass. I got mine from a picture frame, it was the easiest way to find it. Not just a separate piece of glass but the one from the frame. It's available in most of the stores, so it's just a usual glass. But if you don't want to use a glass hold on, there are some alternatives. Let me show you, no worries, there are some other options, a CD, that's right. I still love to buy musical CDs and even movies on DVDs, so I get a plenty at home. This can be a nice alternative to acrylic glass or to the normal glass in other option wait, here it is. You can use simple plastic folder but of good quality, of course, it should work too. You can use a lot but the most important is still paper. We will talk about it in the next video. 4. Notes on Paper: Before we begin, there is an essential component paper. You can experiment and try a variety of papers and textures. But to create beautiful fractals, we need smooth, glossy coated paper like Bristol, new pop paper, stone paper, printers paper, or so-called brochure paper. Or simply at the backside of the paper block or any printed ad or calendar, which is also a brochure paper. This is what I'm talking about. I'll be using this brush or paper which is super glossy. It has a special coating and it feels like the paper you find on printed ads, catalogs, and calendars like these catalog of paint swatches. The feel is similar. This is the one I like most. But as an alternative, you can use Bristol paper. Paper for graphics lettering. It also has a very smooth coated surface. You can test it upfront. You will understand right away if it suits you. There are also these new synthetic papers like stone paper or [inaudible] paper. You can reuse them, lift up the paint, even clean them up. Well, I'm not a huge fan, but you can get beautiful results. I get my paper in the printer's drop. I just asked for glossy paper, and I get these large sheets like this one. Then I cut them into smaller formats to make monotypes of any size. I still cut them to this common format anyway. Now we're all set and join me in the next video, and let's finally start creating. 5. Demo Monochrome: Welcome to the studio and here's my creative arsenal. I use gouache in most of my professional work, so I have a rich color palette, but of course, you won't need that much. As we saw in the video on materials, I make some tests first to find interesting color combinations with bright essence. Like this one, I use yellow a lot as a bright ascent and this is pastel. I've added white gouache to every color to get these subtle gradients. I explored everything first but we will begin with one simple color not to get distracted. I've picked indigo and we will get something like this as a result. You will get a beautiful result anyway, maybe something like this if you use brown or combine a few colors right away to get some unexpected artwork. You can use anything that you love. I will use two sheets of paper, we don't need this anymore. I have a smaller palette so we want to get distracted, clear water, watercolor brush, and indigo color. I will put a paint stroke first and then cover it with a second sheet of paper and then lift it up like so, making tiny movements and lifting it up. Let's see how it works. I will make a brush stroke without any concerns, without any image in mind just a stroke, with enough water. With experience, you will feel how much water you need. Then the second sheet of paper, hold it like this, then twist a little bit like so, and gradually holding the corner lift it up. It will create tension on the surface and this will result in beautiful fractals. You can repeat this step right away. You can see the beautiful result and repeat the step, more fractals. You create tension and get patterns visible instantly. Lift it up a bit harder, you can go back as many times as you want, as long as the paint is wet. I can lift it up with a final twist like so, beautiful. It could be an ocean or a winter landscape. Actually, we have to monotypes with this technique, beautiful result. Let's try another one with the same color and see what we have. I will use the same color, but with more paint or less water, if you want. You will see how it results in a different pattern. I put more indigo paint right on the sheet of paper another one, and then lift it up like so. I can already anticipate the beautiful abstraction it will create. Lifting it up, gradually, twisting a little bit. Let's see what is happening, some fractals are grittier than they've lift it up, get back and lift it up again, and again to create more patterns of the waves or the trees, whatever you see them. Let's lift it up completely. Super. Now we have a beautiful abstract monotype full of fine details. This is a fantastic scenery you can turn it into anything you like. Beautiful, it's really mesmerizing. Now we will try another way to make monotype. I'll put a sheet of paper first, then glass on top. You'll be able to see what is happening better. I will use the same color so we don't get distracted. But do you remember? Yes, if you don't want to use glass, you can find alternatives such as CD case or a plastic folder. The glass can be dangerous or a specific thing I can understand. I will make the same type of brush strokes. You can see it reacts with the glass differently. You can put a little bit of soap on the surface of the glass so it won't be so smooth to hold the paint but I like it this way. Then we put a sheet of paper on top, then we twist it a bit. It's easier when you work with a glass because glass is heavier obviously and gradually lift it up, like so. You can change the angle and the direction of the way you lift up the paper. Everything will result in a different pattern. That's the beauty of the technique, you'll never know what you'll get. I hope to make a beautiful winter scene, maybe a frozen forest or something. It also looks like water in the ocean. Some fantastic scene anyway. Change the direction. You can work in both directions and then lift it up and final twist. Super. It looks like a frozen winter indeed. There are some details, the sky, the trees, maybe a frozen lake. Wonderful background for the fairy tail, or just an abstract painting for the design. Here's the rest of the paint and if you don't want to waste it, you can take a new sheet of paper and just make a second print. Just a piece of paint will still make some fractals. This is a nice way to get additional monotypes just to scan and use afterwards in some designs or patterns for the surface button design. These fractals are bold and beautiful too. Now I'm going to clean the glass. I will use a paper towel and clear water before moving into the next demo. In the next video, we will create a module landscape with two colors. 6. Demo Landscape: Now we're going to create a Japanese-inspired landscape. We'll use minimum colors. I've picked this lovely combination of cobalt and ocher. They make a beautiful gradient. I will put some cobbled in the palette. There should be enough water. I'm not sure how much yet, so I have two mixes. Then, yellow ocher. This color is very beautiful for almost any combination. Then I will use fringe brush and buy subtle mountains. Nothing too specific. Just a hint and very, very subtle shape on the mountain here and tiny one. Nothing too specific. If you add in them strokes with ocher here, very random. That's enough. While the paint is still wet, I put a sheet of paper on top. Then by holding the very corner, pick it up, lift it up. I can see that there is too much water and I need to add some paint. This way the mountains will look more graphic. This happens when the paint is too diluted with water. Yeah. This should help. Let's try again. That's right. At this stage, I push a bit harder on paper to define the hills and trees, so we'll have an illusion of a landscape. I can work from both sides. You can twist the paper and experiment to get unexpected results. Imagine a landscape, some fantastic landscape, of course. Move the paper in all the directions to create this beautiful scenery, like so. Horizonte, maybe a lake, super. You can see the gradient created between cobalt and ocher. We have an additional color in-between but that's not all. We can add tiny details. I will take a small brush, a bit of ocher. Well, it's better to use the ballet on the glass, everything is already prepared, so why waste it? I will use the mix from the glass and we'll add a few details like flying birds or maybe trees in the distance. You can use any colors from the mix and it will look organically on the paper. If you work on synthetic paper, you'll be able to still move the paint until it's completely dry. I will add a few trees here and there. This will add depth and interest, a few details. Not too much. Just some random trees with a mix of cobalt and ocher or what I have on my brush right now. It's not that important. This layer will mix with the background because it's still wet. Then maybe a few trees here. Just to show the depth and the distance. A few more branches, and here. I also think that I will add a few blue strokes just to harmonize the composition with cobalt in a second. I'll see how it works. Maybe just here and here and here to balance everything but then I will need to smoothen it up. Let's see how we can harmonize everything with water easily. Like so. One more thing, I've got some scraps of paper left. Let me show you just a few stripes and I will use them to add texture, like this. You can use any old plastic card or a credit card instead. You can literally move the paint and remove the paint from the surface creating artistic textures. You can change the direction of the paper to create various effects. This is a very interesting way to add something special to your monotype. You can move the sheet of paper horizontally or just drag it a little bit. These are very interesting effects and it is ready. Join me in the next video. 7. Demo Coral Reef: Welcome back. Now we'll create a whimsical underwater coral monotype. I will use brighter colors. The first one is going to be yellow, then magenta. The third one is going to be cobalt blue from the previous video on landscape. You can see I use separate brushes for every color, but of course, it's not necessary. I have a lot of brushes. It will be just quicker this way, but of course, it's not necessary. I decided to add violet, so I will pick additional brush. We will use yellow, magenta, violet, and cobalt. Four colors. I begin with random strokes of cobalt blue. Let's imagine the water, how it flows, then a few brighter essence. This is very warm yellow color, almost like an orange. Here's strokes, dots, here and here, then magenta. It will mix beautifully with any view of yellow, a bit more magenta, depending on the results you want to get. Of course, you can't predict the result, but still, you can give the general direction of how the colors will interact. Violet on the bottom to create a deeper effect and few more strokes of yellow. That's it. Let's take a sheet of paper, carefully put it on top and then we will lift it up and see how the paint behaves. Maybe we will add more strokes. Let's carefully lift it up. I've noticed that the first layer is beautiful mixed but, we need more patterns. We will do it by lifting up the second time, changing the angle and gradually wind the paper, like so on the right then here. Now, we see the patterns, but I think we can make it even better. Let's change the angle like this. Super. Now let's lift it up carefully. Yes, the whimsical underwater world was beautiful mesmerizing gradients and very unusual textures. You can rotate the canvas and imagine what to do with it. Sometimes the whole narration appears just from the simple image. It's always a great idea to rotate the page and look at it from different angles and different perspectives. I can imagine a few paintings made from this one already. Beautiful result. The paint on the glass still looks nice. Maybe we should make a second print. Let's see if I have [NOISE] additional sheet of paper, I can put more paint here. This way, I will have additional texture of these colors. I already have the nice monotype, so it won't be scared to try again. Just put a few strokes. Let's quickly make a second print. This won't be the original work, but it will be a second edition, if I may say so. I lifted It up, holding part on the sheet of paper with my hand and we will see what we have. Well, this is beautiful, it's completely different and I think maybe another round will work too. The paint is still wet, well, I'm not sure, we're just experimenting. Let's see, definitely more textures. Well, I think I will be able to use it somewhere for sure. Now, we created a scene, and let's move on to the next demo. 8. Demo Fantastic Fish: Welcome back. This part is more challenging. We will try to create a fish. It's more difficult than abstract monotype for sure. For the paints, I'll use indigo, turquoise, and bright rose. I plan to begin painting where it's mostly with indigo and we'll define the shape of the fish. This is the imaginary moon fish. The shape will look like this. A bit of turquoise on the body here. On top it doesn't matter that much. The paint will mix on the gloss and in general, it will mix anyway. Just leave enough of the white space. I paint the fin with bright rose, the tail, the fin here and here. Don't forget that the image will be mirrored when you print it like in linear coat technique, like most of the printing techniques. Keep that in mind. More water. Something like this. Maybe a bit more paint. It's a very loose drawing of the moon fish. Now we will put the paper on top and see how it works. I'm not sure if we'll manage to make it from the first attempt, but we have time. I plan to lift up the sheet of paper starting with a corner. I will see the head of the fish. Well, the fractals are beautiful, but I can already notice that it's not something I was looking for. I think I will try to fix it with more paint. You can put more paint right in the process of the printing or painting. Let's see if it helps. Let's try again. Well, it's nice, but I think we will need a second try for the fish. Let's add some rose just in case to see what happens. But of course I will try another print. Maybe a bit smaller. You got strokes. It's just experiment. Let's see. Well, we will get worse, happy accidents and so on. Lovely gradients. Lovely, but it's not fish at all. Maybe something underwater. But it's not a fish. But we're not afraid to make another attempt. Let's clean everything up and try again. I'll repeat all the steps again. This time the fish will be a bit smaller. I think this is the right direction. The main shape with indigo. Then a few strokes of turquoise in the body, here and here, closer to the head. It's always good to add not so much paint and to leave a lot of white space to create this beautiful movement of the print. Well, I think it's almost ready. It's a very graphical way of painting the fish. I'm sure it will work this time. But let's see the proof. I put now the sheet of paper on top carefully, very gently. Then we'll begin the process like this. Super, I can already see that this is much better than the previous version. I want to add more paint. Let's take a look. You can change the direction of the print. You remember it always works. More texture closer to the fin. That's it. It looks lovely. We can make it even better. We don't need it anymore. Now with some scraps of paper, I will work on the edges like so. This will support the general shape of the fish. At the same time, working with the scraps of paper will keep this spontaneous effect. If I use a brush, it will ruin the abstract feel of the fish. I work with the edges of the paper like this. Beautiful effect like a fire underwater. We can do one more thing. We can lift up some paint by using the wet brush and clear water like this. It's just a clear water and synthetic brush. We can lift up the paint with the very tip of the brush, creating beautiful patterns and design. You can vary the shape of the circles. Of course, you can use white gouache instead. But lifting up is a more subtle effect for this particular design. I'll put here and here, the paint is still wet, so it's a very easy process. You can use paper towels or anything to lift it up. Just don't forget to use clear water, not to mix anything else. Of course, our friend needs eyes, so very carefully I will wash up some space here, lift up parts of the paint, and then we'll draw the eye but very subtle version of the eye. I correct some little shapes just to have the better face expression of our friend. Using the mix of indigo and whatever I have on my palette, I'm making this impression of the eye. I can also add shadows underneath this patterns, under the white circles. This will add some depth. I'm working on the pattern, just a few elements according to my taste. Shadows should work very carefully. Not too much painting or drawing with a brush. Otherwise, it may ruin the whole spontaneous effect of the monotype. I will lift some paint here, but not too much. Very little changes. What else can we do? I think we can add some indigo may be under the eye and maybe closer to the edges of the circles. This will add more depth and interest to the texture like so and under the circles, maybe just dots here and here. Magical effect for sure. I think it's ready and you can join me in the next video to create a fascinating project together. 9. Demo Ballerina: Welcome to my favorite project. At the special effect, I'll be using golden acrylic inks. At the beginning of the class, we were inspired by Edgar Degas and his ballerinas. Now we will create a modern version of the character using monotype technique. I'll be using Prussian blue or any dark blue color will work of course. Indigo will work, or just any dark version of the blue or the light one. Doesn't matter, you will see the principle. This is Prussian blue. Then I will use very intense red color like this one. We will need a lot of water. The third color will be violet. Of course you can mix blue and red to get the violet. But I have the tube of the violet, so why not use it right away? That's the simple solution. I begin with the blue and I will paint ballerina skirt with very loose strokes, like so. Then I will also put a few dots right on top of the garment. I need more paint. This goes with blue a few dots to define the top of the garment. Don't forget that the image will be mirrored when you print it. Whirl it like so in a very loose manner. Dots, more strokes, then I will paint some red essence closer to the bottom here and here. Everything is in very free and loose manner. The paint mixes right on the gloss and it will look even more fascinating when the monotype is ready. Don't be afraid to mix the paint right at this moment to very loose strokes. The next step will be to add a few dots of golden ink to the gloss. I will shake the bottle a bit. It's a very good, highly pigmented acrylic ink. A few dots closer to the bottom of the skirt. Then very serious part, we will make a print carefully. Let's lift up. I should have papers starting here. Carefully, don't wait too long if you use acrylic ink too because it dries pretty fast. Beautiful combination right away. I think another round may be a good idea. Let's check. Oops. Yes, beautiful color transitions, unusual textures, and the affiliate of the garment is ready. Now we will work further on this sprint and turn it into beautiful illustration. We don't need gloss anymore. Now with the brush with very loose strokes, I will add the edges to the skirt or to the dress of our character. You can do it with the blue, with violet. The paint is still wet so it mixes on the synthetic paper. I will take some pieces of paper and will add even more texture to the garment like so. This is very interesting part of the working on monotype because you never know what happens and what interesting and fascinating effect you will suddenly create. Try various edges of the sheet of paper. You can use a plastic card or the back side of the brush, literally anything. Keeping in mind the direction of the skirt. This is the only important thing here, to keep the balance. This is it. I think it's enough. It's really hard to stop. I see tiny details here and there I want to add, but now with a smaller brush I need to clean it up. Mix of blue and violet. I will draw the head and the upper body of the ballerina. It's a simple line work, nothing too specific, very graphic style. I should prepare. I begin with the head. A few lines define the face. It's a long neck and style the facial illustration a little bit like so. Then the backside of the neck. Yes, and the shoulder like so. Very simple, nothing too specific. Some details on the face. Also in pretty minimalistic style, the eye. Not so many details. Eyebrow. Of course to balance the artwork in general, we will create an imaginative hairstyle for sure. Let me add some eyelashes. Here we have the ear and we are ready for the impressive hairstyle. Let's make something like this, a bit darker to have contrast like this. Ballerinas usually have the high hairstyle. As you can see, I don't close the lines, so everything is in a pretty much sketchy stylistic. Yes, this will be enough. Working with sheet of paper again, I will add textures right on top of the hairstyle. This will look great. Look, I put some mix paint and abruptly just touch the paper with another sheet of paper like so. I vary the angle to have this spontaneous few and compliment the skirt like so. Don't be afraid if you made some, well, mistakes. We can always balance the work to end at the same strokes on the skirt again and this will work for sure. Beautiful hairstyle. We can imagine these are flowers or just pieces of fabric. Let's add this effect on the garment too. In general, we'll have very fashion-like imaginative character and it's not obvious how it's done, which definitely adds a lot of interest. The dark color, like blue or the white color, can create additional focus. If you want to highlight some areas, just add some paint to it like so. We're almost done. In the next video we will work on final touches. Our magical art work will be ready. Join me in the next video. 10. Demo Ballerina Final Touches: Welcome back. With a very subtle mix of red and violet, I want to add a few shadows. This style looks like a contemporary fashion illustration a bit. If you feel the stroke is too sharp, you can always dilute it with water. You can smudge it with clear water like so so it will stay subtle and won't ruin everything. Lets add shadow with blue over here. I slightly touch the paper. Everything is very subtle. Here and here. The most challenging is not to overwork the face. I put some flush on the cheeks and smudge it with water. We don't want any rough edges. We want to keep the painterly feel of this mono-type in general, like this. Brighter, and then smudge it with water. Beautiful. Now, I want to add a few blue dots here. This will make the garment look more interesting; a few dots in a very random style. Try to vary the size of the circles on the hair, on the skirt. The magical effect creates interest along with anticipation of something beautiful. Few more dots here. I will make the eyes brighter, eyelashes, but very carefully not to overwork everything. Some hair, another layer on top. It's almost ready. Few more dots, and it's time to add magic. Let's find our magic bottle and I will put the random dots right here. Use an eyedropper. You can use brush, of course. I put these dots in a very chaotic manner, so there is no defined pattern. This fairy tail adds to the magical feel of the artwork in general. This tint of gold contrasts with the background, and this is what I love about this color combination. Here, and here, and here. That's it. We've created a charming lady with effects that look so radiant. I'm very happy with the result, and I'll see you in the next video 11. Digital Painting: Welcome to the second part of the class. I'm sure you've created a lot of beauty already, or maybe, you just jumped in in the second part right away, which is also great. Honestly, it's a bit less stressful. You don't have to worry about expensive art supplies. You can delete your mistakes, happy accidents, of course, you can have unlimited number of layers. Well, not at every software. I have my digital Ally iPad and we'll be using Procreate app. But you can use any software that has a liquefy filter, like Photoshop. The liquefy filter, unless you rotate, push, or pull any area of the image, so it makes it very powerful tool for artistic effects. Before we move forward, join me in the next short video, I will show a few Procreate settings. If you use other software, feel free to skip it and just move on. [NOISE] 12. Procreate Settings: Welcome back. Before we begin, I want to quickly show you a few settings that I find helpful. I go to Settings, find Procreate. Here I have a lot of apps. I make sure that simplified undoes are off. This gives me a better control of the working process. Then I search for Apple Pencil, and I turn off the double-tap here. It really annoys me when painting. If you have an older version of the pencil, you won't need it. Then we'll go to Procreate, create a new file. Size A4 is big enough for print and still has enough of layers. Then we'll go to Actions and preferences. Here we have just the controls, General. I want to disable touch actions because I don't want to be distracted by it. I always do this. Another important setting is assisted drawing. Make sure everything is off. Don't forget that the bigger canvas size you have, the less number of layers is available. Well, that's it. These are just my favorite preferences. Of course, you can use your own. Let's move to the next video and explore the magical liquefy filter. 13. Demo Liquify Tool : Welcome to the digital painting part. Let's begin. I create a new Canvas, size A4, and I'll be using these three brushes. I created it especially for digital monotype. You can download them in class resources. I pick the brush and I will choose the color, for example violet, and paint any brushstroke. Any shape, it won't matter. Then I want to add a few contrast at dots with yellow, for example. You can use any colors. That's it. Then we'll go to adjustment, click "Liquify," and here it is. You can see the whole variety of effects are available for liquify filter. I prefer working vertically. But if you prefer landscape format, you can see the whole menu expanded. I suggest you play around and try every one of them. I will show you my favorites. Well, my forever favorite is a push filter. It's the first one. Just to pick a brush, I'll turn off momentum, and then I'll play around with paint like I would on the real glass with water, like so. You can do anything, it looks like paper modeling. You can change the size of the brush and make real monotype or modeling on the digital cameras. There are no rules, you just go with the flow of the paint. Let's try another effect. Twirl right or like this. You can try to move around using any effect and see what happens. The results are very unpredictable. You can also expand some areas or pinch them. It does look like paper modeling. There are other options like crystals. It's an interesting texture, but I don't use it much and there are other options. Let's us get back to push. There's this momentum setting. We can increase the flow of the effect, like so. You can see the paint is moving beyond my actions. This is really nice effect to create a paper design. This looks like a design for a notebook, the first page or the cover. But we can make it even more interesting by using distortion like this. Wow. Try and play around with variety of effect, it's so mesmerizing. I can do that the whole day. You can print it out, use it as a pattern design, surface button design, or anything else just to print. Let's see what else we can do. I create a new layer, pick another brush, then I go to colors, go to color palettes. I've prepared a special pastel palette for you. You'll find that in class resources too. Then I'll pick colors and make random brush stroke with every color. I begin with bash or subtle pink, whatever you call it, just random strokes. Then the next color and the next one. I think five colors or so will be enough for testing an interesting effect with digital monotype. You can change the size of the brush, of course, on the left and the visibility of the brush. Small as such. I think it's enough. Let's go to liquify filter, we know where it is. Distortion is not needed. Then I will work with my favorite effect. Just playing around, making some imaginary strokes with imaginary water to mix this color palette. You can notice that the background color, which is white in our case, is already involved. If you work on the colored background, you can add white as a contrast on top if it's not enough. But it's not necessary. Then what I'm going to do is add white. Then I will go back to liquify and continue my detailed process of testing variety of effects. Twirl here and here. You can always tap with two fingers to undo the action you didn't like, for example, like this. Then let's add twirl over here. Of course, your monotype will look absolutely different, and that's the beauty of the process. What I'm going to do next, I will work on this specific area by taping the color and choosing another brush, the spray brush. I will increase the size, transparency, I will add the spray texture effect on the light part of the design. This works great with yellow, white, or almost any color. I created this brush thinking about vintage textures. It's based on the spray brush. You can use the spray brushes in your standard procreate set. The violet. You can use any color with this brush and you can also make it a bit transparent, and this will make the effect more subtle like this. You can hold your finger on the color and the brush will work with it. There are other options you can do with spray effect and spray brushes, and I will show you within a second. Let's see what we can do with this light blue and with this part. I'm just playing around with textures , nothing too specific. What else we can do? We can work on the edges. I want to show you the layer effect that can be created with the spray. With that in mind, I'm going to pick the color and then try various layer properties. This is going to look like this. I'll create a new layer, then I will pick the color, and I will work with it all over the painting just without any thoughts like I usually do in make heart. I cover the whole surface randomly with my hand, go to the layer, to the properties. Here we can see various effects that you can try when working with another layer. You can see the effect right away. Depending on the color, the difference will be huge. You can play around and pick various options to see what works with violet, for example, or with white and choose the nice option. Let's take a closer look. We have a beautiful result, and we can move to the next video and explore another monotype. 14. Demo Import Art from File: Welcome back. This time we'll try very quick an effective technique that work with any image or photo. I create new canvas, go to Actions, click "Add", and here you can see various options and I choose "Insert a photo". Portrait opens photo gallery and I want to insert a photo of monotype I've made with colored inks a while ago. Here it is. You can use a photo of your monotype from the first part of the class, for example. This is a beautiful abstract artwork and we'll go to Liquify filter. Here it is, and we'll use the same effects that we practiced in the previous video. I will work with Expand first, super. This works great for this monotype. Here and here, push it a little bit to the side. Play around. You can create these effects with photo illustration with any artwork. After these effects, I still feel that something is missing and I will show you what we can do with it. I want to try some other effects and see how it goes. It's very easy when working digitally you can always undo things you don't like, like so, and it's absolutely stress-free if compared to traditional painting when you have just one shot and you can be scared of spoiling the paper. I really don't like this dark brown part, I'm not sure how can I get rid of it, let's see. How about we push it this way or maybe even this will work super. I think I'm almost happy with this new design and what I'm going to do next is adding some texture. I create a new layer, then go to Adjustments, click Noise, and swipe the finger right to increase this effect, like so. Has some preferences, but I use standard ones. Then we'll go to layer properties and see what we can do here. The rarity of effects that can be applied, you can change the Opacity to unify the image. Let's take a closer look. Stunning, beautiful design and the texture is so rich. This combination of traditional and digital is really awesome. It's ready for print or for anything else but how do you share the file? We go to Actions, click "Share". We see all the formats here, I just back and I just want to have it in my gallery so I click "Save the Image". Success. Of course there are other formats and you can use them if needed. We are ready and now we can move to the next video and try another digital monotype. 15. Demo Monotype Effects: Welcome to the new demo. Let's combine some one of the tricks that we've learned. I create a new layer, pick a brush. If you click it again, you can change some properties or create your own brushes. Here we have color palette and I begin with a random stroke, like we did in previous videos. Pick another color. You will have this color palette in the class projects section. There are resources, so you will have all the additional information from the traditional parts of the class, as well as digital brushes and color palettes. A few strokes. I tried to make very random strokes without any idea or any defined system. This way I'll be able to keep spontaneous feel of the digital Monotype. Then we'll go to liquefy, I will use distortion and create some interesting effects with my pencil. I really love to use momentum and almost anything that can add this unexpected flow of the paint on the canvas. I'm so curious to see what you create because it's really hard to repeat anything in this technique so you will have a unique artwork anyway. I try various effects. You can do the same in Photoshop. It has a nice liquefy filter. Even if you don't have a graphic tablet, you can work with a mouse. You can use any software. It's a very common filter. It's the way how you use it makes it special so try to experiment as much as possible. You won't waste any paper. I use variety of liquefy options, expand. Why am I doing this? Because I want to add spray paint afterwards and I need some parts that are larger than others. I work on the various parts of the painting, so everything is taken care of. I like this effect and I think it's almost ready for the spray paint brush. Let's pick the color with the brush and using a bit of imagination, add the beautiful texture on some parts of the monotype, but not everywhere, just a little bit so it will look interesting. Otherwise, everything will be too cluttered. The violet and yellow are great contrast. I will use subtle textures on every part of the canvas. This will unify a monotype and will put a sense on various parts. Like so. Yeah, I really love the design and we can even try to push it a bit at this stage. It was missing for sure. Some parts can be moved even with spray brush. I work according to my feel and now I want to add noise like we did before. I swipe right right the maximum of noise. Well, almost maximum. Then here are some options you can choose how it looks like. Well, I prefer to keep it as is. Let's go to the Layer Properties and see the opacity. There's a key and let's choose the effect that will let go. This will make everything brighter. Maybe opacity is too high. How about this, subtle pastel? It's really hard to choose. But when you know what for you're making the monitor, for example, as a cover or as a design element. You already have the idea in mind so now we're just experimenting without much expectations. I think I will adjust this. Let's take a closer look. We see the texture should be more opaque I think. I like the subtle feel of it. Maybe we should save a few options. We can save several files from the one artwork of course. That's the beauty of digital painting. I will pick this one, see how it looks. This is really nice, rich color we have because of the new layer. Let's save it. Go to Actions, Share, JPEG, and I will save it to my gallery. Success. Super. I hope you'll try some of these effects and create something new. We will meet each other in the next videos. Let's move on. 16. Your Assignment: Welcome back. Now you've seen everything. If you're a bit impatient like me, you've probably tried a few monotypes already. Anyway, your assignment is to create your own unique monotype artwork and share it in the project gallery. You can follow any of my examples, but as a result, you will get your own unique piece. That's the beauty of this technique, but you have to promise me something. Make at least 10-20 prints. I know we all have limited space and time and space and everything. I can already imagine your whole room filled with monotypes. The results are so unpredictable. You can make literally 100 prints and three of them will be just incredible so make sure you'll reach to this point. Upload your process or just final results to the project gallery. You can also share it on Instagram. Just don't forget to tag me right on the image so I can find your work. I'll see you in the next video. 17. Final Thoughts: Sometimes I have difficulties making art, even if I have free time. It can be hard to start a new project or finished an existing one. That's why the monotype technique is so vital for me. It's a pure joy to share it with my fellow creatives. There are endless possibilities of how to use your monotypes. For example, is a favorite technique of children's books illustrators. They use it as a background and then draw various characters on top. If you're a surface pattern designer, you can scan the artwork in high resolution and then turn it into your new fabric collection. You can also try monotype with your whole family because no drawing experience is needed. It works great to develop imagination or just wind up after a long day. If you enjoyed this class, don't forget to check my other classes here on Skillshare. You can explore watercolor special effects, botanical painting, colorings, line cut, and even paper marbling. You can also follow me and say hi on Instagram. Well, this is it. Thanks for sharing your creative journey with me. Now it's your turn. I'll be waiting for your artworks and see you next time. 18. BONUS! Demo Sunset: All right. I just couldn't stop making one. I'm sure you know what I mean. Welcome to the bonus project. In this short project, I'll show you another way to make monotype. You will have a beautiful illustration as a result. Here we go again and we will create a moody sunset monotype. For this purpose, I will use three colors. The first one is going to be warm yellow. It looks almost like orange. Just a second, I will show you the swatches. Here's the gradient I was inspired by. This is yellow, deep red, and any kind of blue. I will use indigo. The first one is yellow, the next one is going to be bright, deep red. The yellow will work with any kind of red so no worries. You will have to be very precise with it. We'll use a paper towel here the colors won't mix at this stage, it's too early. Then goes the indigo. This will be the third color that we will use for the sunset. It's a deep blue, very moody color. That's it. I will paint three strokes on the glass, like so. The first one goes with yellow, then I will use red. They will mix beautifully together. Then indigo. This will be the water or the sky, whatever you imagine, like so. The shapes are uneven. This is ready. Now I will take the sheet of paper and you already know what I'm going to do. Carefully put it right here. I will twist it a bit. I have to hold the glass a bit like this. Wow, it looks nice and the second round will make the difference. What I'm going to do is put the paper like so and slide it. Creating the horizontal line. Beautiful result. These are the waves. Let's slide it again like this. You can change the angle and experiment. Super. This is very moody landscape or seascape. Sunset scene. Some paint is left. Maybe we can make a second paint. Or I'm not sure. There is not so much paint, but still why not? I have plenty of paper for my printer. I will try to twist it. Let's see. Oh well, let's forget about it. We don't need it anymore. Let's get back to our painting. We will try new effect. We will lift up the paint and create the sun. Using clear water and synthetic brush. I lift up the paint. You can even use paper towels or cotton swabs depending on the paper you're using. I will make a paper, towel brush to lift it up. Super. This is the brightest element on the painting. Now, I will correct the shape, so it will look better. I will lift it up again. The paint is still wet, so it's pretty easy to do. The shape is not very nice. I will need to correct it. I take the small sheet of the paper like we did before in the first part of the class. I correct the shape of the sun and also some borders like this. Maybe even like this. We don't have to be very precise, but the whole style of this monotype is pretty spontaneous. But still we want to be very clear about what it is. Since we have such a beautiful, unique artwork, we want to sign it. It's done with a pencil. First, we need to write down the title. In our case, it's sunrise. Let's start on the left, then your signature, then goes the number of print. Since you're the artist, you put here, the authors print and the date. This is it. Congratulations. I can't wait to see your projects even find.