Modern Watercolor Still Life: Paint Converse Sneakers

1. Introduction + Welcome: Whether you're looking to hone essential watercolor skills such as layering for depth and detail or bringing in masking fluid to help you protect little complex areas, or perhaps you want some practice painting black and white objects, which is always tricky with this medium, or maybe you simply love the look of modern expressive still life pieces. This course is for you. My name is Erika, and I'm a traditional media artist working with a range of drawing and painting mediums, and my day to day life revolves around creating and selling art, as well as creating helpful resources for beginner and intermediate artists that I share via my website, my YouTube channel, and, of course, my membership site. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields, first as a graphic designer, and then I worked as head art teacher in a school environment for many years. Was during that time that I started my own art business on the side, selling original pieces, and I also started teaching artists of all levels and ages out of my own home studio. After some time, I decided to take what I was doing on a local level to the online space in order to reach even more people. I am extremely passionate about getting the message out there that anyone can develop their art skills with the right guidance and as long as they are committed to their practice. In this course, I am taking you through my entire painting process for this modern still life that features a pair of converse sneakers. Everything from my initial watercolor washes to layering paint for depth and detail, all the way to adding in handwritten lettering in those labels. Before jumping into the painting process, I also share essential tips for success. And I also swatch out my paint colors for you on a scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can see what these colors look like, and you can replace whatever colors you don't have with something similar. This way, we can set ourselves up for success. With this one, we're practicing not only foundational watercolor techniques such as wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry and layering, but we're also bringing in more advanced tools and techniques such as masking fluid and painting a vignette style background, which involves having knowledge on washes. And we're also bringing in the bloom technique to create colorful points of interest and expressive results. And I'm even bringing in the topic of color temperature and how to shift your color mixtures to make them either warmer or cooler depending on what you want. I'll also share tips and insights into how I use reference photos, but avoid copying everything exactly as is and what I pay attention to in order to arrive at a result that is both realistic but still painterly. This course is appropriate for artists who have been painting with watercolor consistently at least for a few months who've developed a good amount of water and brush control. If you're just getting started with watercolor, I would highly recommend checking out my watercolor one oh one course here on Skillshare, because in that course, I cover essential information that you should know about this painting medium, and I provide helpful exercises that will help you advance your skills way faster. With all this said, let's go ahead and jump into the next video, where I'll explain all about the course project that we're going to be working on together. 2. Course Project: By the end of this course, you'll have completed a realistic but painterly modern still life piece that features a pair of converse sneakers. As you work through these classes, you'll be gaining so many tools and insights that will help you succeed with future watercolor pieces that you may decide to work on. Before working on any new phase, I would recommend observing how I move through it and understanding what the objective of the phase is, and then you can go ahead and rewind and follow along. Don't rush the process and make sure that you are allowing each layer to dry before working over it. Prepared a set of downloadable files, which you're going to be able to find in the Projects and Resources tab right below any of the class videos. Simply click on this tab, scroll down a little bit, and you're going to find a section that is titled Download Resources. Click on any file that you wish to download, and it will be saved onto your computer or device. For this one, you'll find the outline sketch that I have created for you, which is what I would recommend tracing over as you're doing your transferring onto watercolor paper. You'll also find the high resolution reference photo of this pair of sneakers, which is what I would recommend observing as you're moving forward with the painting process so that you can observe tonal changes, shadows, details, textures, and so on. Find a photo that I took after having placed my masking fluid in case you'd like to use it as reference as you're placing your own, a photo of my finished painting, which you're also free to use as reference as you're working and your supply checklist. To post a photo of your work here on Skillshare, all you have to do is click on the Projects and Resources tab. Once you're in, you'll see this purple button on the right that says submit project. When you click on this button, you'll be taken to a new page where you'll easily be able to both upload a photo of your piece, as well as share any thoughts, experiences, struggles or questions that you might have for me. Here, you can create a title for your project and click on that larger content section underneath. And if you want to add in that photo at the beginning, you can go ahead and click on that image icon on the bottom. Find the photo that you're wanting to share on your computer or device, select that file, click open, and it will be immediately added into this content section. Then under your image, share anything that you'd like, whether it's struggles, questions, wins, aha moments that you might have had throughout this course. Anything that you'd like to share, I always love hearing from you. At the bottom of this content section, you'll see different icons. One is for formatting your text. The other is to add emojis, the Adimage icon, which we just talked about, and you can also embed link. Free to add in even more pictures if you'd like. They can be process pictures, supply pictures over here to the right, we have this preview area where we essentially see a thumbnail or cover image for your project. You can go ahead and change it to a title image that you have created in a more horizontal format. Or you can just go ahead and leave it as is and have it just be a cropped section of one of the images that you have uploaded into your content area. It's up to you. Once you're ready, go ahead and scroll back up. Click on the Green Publish button, and you'll be all done. If you'd like to share your work over on Instagram, please do just make sure to tag me at Erika Underscore Lancaster Underscore Art. I love seeing your work over there and giving students shoutouts in my stories. And of course, go ahead and tag the Skillshare account, too. It goes a very long way and inspires other students to share their work as well. Skillshare is a safe learning space for all of us to continue growing together. So make sure that you're using this gallery, and let's all connect and help each other out. I can't wait to see your work and to help out with whatever you might need. Let's move on to our next class. 3. Supplies: For this painting, I would recommend using cold pressed watercolor paper that is at least 140 pounds or 300 GSM in thickness or in weight, that is 100% cotton. You always want to make sure that you're using paper that is appropriate for the techniques that you're going to be bringing in. For this one, we're going to be using masking fluid. We're going to be doing layering, and we're also going to be using wet into wet. So we're going to be bringing in quite a bit of water for some of these techniques. And not all watercolor paper is created equal. Even some papers that are 100% cotton don't tolerate layering very well. I'm going to be using watercolor paper from arches, and the sheet that you're going to see me work in is exactly 11 by 8 ". When it comes to my watercolor paint, I am going to be using four different colors from St. Petersburg white nights, and these are pains gray Matter Lake red light, cadmium yellow medium, and denthron blue. I will be swatching out these four colors for you on paper, and we'll be preparing our first color mixtures together before jumping into the painting process, so no worries at all. And if you don't have one of these paint colors, you can simply replace it with something similar. I am using a mixing palette that has sloped wells. And this is a great tool for beginners, especially if you're just getting into developing your water and brush control because whenever you need to go in with less paint in your brush or say, just a very, very small amount of paint for those very light areas, you can take your paint from that upper more shallow part of that slope, and then when you need to go in with more paint in your brush or darker color, you can take your paint from that deeper area where you have more of that puddle. Moving on to my brushes, as long as you have something similar to this, you'll do fine. I brought in five different brushes for the watercolor painting phases, which were a 1 " flat brush, a size six mop brush, and three rounds in sizes three, six and ten. I also brought in a couple of cheaper multimedia brushes for my masking fluid placement. I avoid using my watercolor brushes or any brush that I really like for placing masking fluid because masking fluid will destroy your brushes, even if you do coat those bristles with soap plaque, I'm going to be sharing with you in just a bit. In time, those bristles will become more and more damaged. I always have cheaper brushes in my studio for rougher techniques. And for this one, I just brought in a size zero detailing round brush and a size four flat brush. Anything similar will do. Used colorless masking fluid from Windsor and Newton, and I also sometimes like having alternative tools to place my masking fluid with on hand whenever I am bringing in masking fluid. For example, here, I have a few toothpicks on hand. Sometimes I also use wooden skewers. I like how these types of tools allow me to create imperfect broken lines that are very thin. This said, you can definitely use a very thin detailing brush instead of toothpicks. Or if you have a masking fluid pen, you could also use that. This one, I did trace over my reference photo using a sheet of tracing paper from Strathmore, and that is what I used to transfer my outline sketch onto my sheet of watercolor paper. If you'd like to learn how to use tracing paper to do your transferring, I do have a class on this where I share everything step by step in my watercolor one oh one course that you have available here on Skillshare, so you can go and check it out if you'd like. But you're always free to use whichever tracing and transferring method you prefer, whether it's tracing paper or a light box or carbon paper or whatever you'd like. Would recommend tracing over the outline sketch that I'm going to be preparing for you and doing your transferring with that and then use the actual reference photo as you're moving along in the painting process. It is very important to continue observing the reference photo as you're moving forward and continue paying attention to overlapping lass, value changes, little shadow shapes, and so on and so forth. Both my outline sketch, the reference photo and your other downloadables, are going to be available for you in the Projects and Resources tab. I always have a few scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand, which I would recommend also having on hand in order to test out colors and also consistencies. We will be painting white sections, and that involves going in with very, very watery pale color and having scrap paper on hand is very handy to test that out before going in. I have a few of my blue Scot absorbent towels on hand, which is what I enjoy using to say on top of water control. Throughout this process, I'm constantly dabbing the tip of my brush on my absorbent towel, and I enjoy these because they are thin and untextured as opposed to thicker, very textured towels, which can certainly leave texture on your paper if you go in and do some lifting. I have my container with clean water, which I make sure to change along the way. You're always free to bring in two or even three containers so that you don't have to change it as often. Can use one container to rinse your brush in between your colors, and then the other to bring cleaner water into your mixtures whenever you need to water them down or for gentle scrubbing or techniques where you do need clean water in your brush. I use regular 1 " masking tape to tape my watercolor sheet down onto my black cutting mat. All I do is make sure to run my pieces of masking tape over my clothes a couple of times to weaken that adhesive and make it less likely that I'll damage my paper at the end when I remove it. Wouldn't necessarily recommend using a flexible cutting mat as a backing board when you're painting with watercolor because it is best to use a sturdier, thicker board because this way you can rotate your board clockwise or counter clockwise as you go to make your process more comfortable. And you can also use gravity to your advantage, especially when you're painting larger washes by tilting your board up and down. Because I am filming my process and how I have my camera mounted, I kind of have to work on a flat horizontal surface. So I have gotten used to it. But when I am painting for myself, I do work on a tilted board. Finally, I am using a white jelly roll pen. This is from sakura, and its size is 08. I am using this for some of the handwritten lettering that I'm going to be adding in the later stages of this painting process in the labels of these sneakers. It is very important to use a paint pen that is thin and also has opaque white paint that you'll actually be able to see over your black watercolor. Some white paint pens are simply not that opaque, so you won't be able to see the white letters at the end after it has dried. And that is going to be it for the supplies that you're going to be needing. Go ahead and collect those and download the files that I'm making available for you in the projects and resources tab, and I'll see you in the next class. 4. Tips for Success: Before jumping into this painting process, I want to say a few very important things that will help ensure greater success for you. To begin, please, please make sure that you spend enough time creating a good outline sketch before moving forward. And what I mean with quality outline sketch is make sure that your sketch is clean, it's light. Make sure that you have taken time after doing your transfer using whatever transferring method, you so choose whether it's tracing paper, like what I used, or a light box or carbon paper, whatever it is that you used to get that outline sketch onto your sheet of watercolor paper, spend time cleaning that up, refining your shapes. They're always going to be things that need to be refined more. Maybe you need to do a little bit of cleanup using your needed eraser, pick up excess graphite. For this piece, after doing my transferring of my outline sketch just so that you can get an idea, spent an extra 30 minutes refining my sketch once I had transferred that drawing on my watercolor paper. It doesn't matter what transferring method you use, it's never going to transfer 100% super clean, super write and you have to spend that time refining, doing whatever you have to do to get that outline sketch ready for the painting process. Another very important thing that I want to make sure to say is don't start painting until after you've taken the time to observe the reference photo fully maybe take three to 5 minutes, take some notes, really observe what is going on. Because if you jump straight into the painting process, and I see this time and time again with beginners because they're super excited to start painting, and you didn't take time to observe that reference photo, especially when you have something as intricate and detailed as this, most likely than not, the outcome is not going to be very successful. So take notes on what are the main characteristics of this type of shoe that you want to make sure to bring into your painting or maybe even enhance in some way. And aside from this, it's also very important that you understand how the laces, for example, are twisting and turning. I made sure as I was refining my sketch that I observe the reference photo and compared my sketch with the reference photo to understand what was going on with every single lace, to understand where the twists and turns are, where the plane changes are happening in those laces, making sure that they are crossing in a believable and it's very important because when you have something like this, you could end up adding a shape for a lace that doesn't really connect anywhere. So you just want to make sure that you're properly visualizing everything. Also, understand these little holes that the laces are going through. They're not perfect circles, and how much that ellipse or oval is smushed or more open really depends on the perspective or angle of the shoe and the vantage point of the photographer that took that photo in relation to the shoe. So don't try to force perfect circles in these little holes. Try to observe the reference photo and make that little hole happen in your drawing, similar to what you're observing just as best as you can. So take your time with your preliminary sketch. It's incredibly important and observe that reference photo before moving forward. It will make all the difference in the world. Let's go ahead and get started with the masking process. 5. Masking Fluid Application: I will be coating the bristles of these paintbrushes as I use them with some dishwashing liquid. You can also do this with regular hand soap, place that soap in the palm of your hand and run your paintbrush bristles over that soap to coat them completely. And then you can go ahead and dip those paintbrushes in your masking fluid and mask out whatever area needs to be masked out. And I also have toothpicks, which I'm going to be using to mask out some of the white threads in the seams and other little lines or marks that might need masking out, which are super thin and super tiny. Of course, if you have a masking fluid pen, then there is no need for toothpicks. I will be bringing in a white paint pen to write the word converse over the black value that I'm going to be creating right there. I'm not going to be masking out the white converse letters right here. Those are actually going to be added until the end of the painting process with a white jelly roll pen. Alright, so I'm starting out by masking out the entire rectangular label in these shoes. For this, I am using my small flat brush and you can see how I'm going over the entire label. I'm going to do this in both of these shoes, and I'm trying to apply my masking fluid in a thin uniform layer. If you apply your masking fluid in a very thick layer, it will take longer to dry. The labels have been masked out and now I'm going to change to my smaller round brush and I'm going to use this to mask out the metallic rings in the holes for these laces, and then I'll be moving on to masking out some edges. We're not going to be masking out too much with this one because we're going to be painting these sneakers and sections, which is going to help simplify the painting process for us. I am doing my masking, I am continuing to observe that reference photo just to make sure that I'm not losing track of anything or getting confused with what's what. Because I'm applying my masking fluid in a thin coat or with a thin coat, it'll dry pretty quickly and we'll be able to get started with the painting process pretty soon. If you accidentally place too much masking fluid or your masking fluid shape ends up being way too large, just allow it to dry and remove it and place that masking fluid again. Happens to me all the time. All right, all of the little metal rings as well as these labels are masked out. The last thing that I'm going to be masking is a few of these little threads, the white seams that I see. I'm just using a toothpick in a sideways position so that the entire side of the tip of the toothpick is coming into contact with my paper and I can lay down those little marks, and I can create those little horizontal marks more easily with the masking fluid. It's a double seam, if you will, in the shoe and your little lines that you place don't have to be perfect. You're going to manage to communicate the white seams, even if your little masking fluid shapes are not super perfect, but you do want to make them short. You want to make them thin. There's no need to be super perfect and there's no need to try to get in every single little line created by those seams. Just getting the main idea. I'm making sure not to scratch or damage my watercolor paper as I am lightly pressing down my toothpick onto the paper. Definitely don't want to scratch or damage it because I won't be able to correct that. I will be making a photo that I took after having placed my masking fluid available for you as a downloadable in case you would just like to check to see that you didn't miss anything. Colorless masking fluid, like the one I'm using right now, becomes like a yellowish film after it has dried. It goes on more like an opaque white fluid, and then as it dries, it becomes more and more yellow. You'll know that it's dry once it is tacky but no longer sticky to the touch. In that masking fluid photo that I am making available for you, I make sure to increase the yellow saturation so that you can see my masking fluid more clearly. I'm going to switch to the opposite side of my toothpick because this southern one is getting to covered with masking fluid and I'm not able to lay down those little thin lines the way that I like. Masking fluid dries fast and because it's liquid latex, it dries in little blobs that can make it quite difficult to continue laying down those little thin lines. All right, observing my sketch, comparing that with the reference photo, and just making sure that I have masked out everything that I wanted to mask out, I'm going to be adding a little bit of that indication of the inner white section right under the black canvas, if you will. The inner part is white. So in that photo, I can see that the very edge under the laces, you can see a little bit of white under the black canvas or fabric. So I'm just going to get in a tiny hint of that. G to grab a new toothpick, little sections of that white peeping through from under the black. What I'm masking out. I don't have to do this everywhere along a few of those edges here and there. That's all I'm going to mask out. That's it. I'm going to make sure that everything is completely dry before getting started with the painting process. I'm going to go ahead and wash these paint brushes because if I don't wash them soon, they're going to get completely destroyed. 6. Preparing First Color Mixtures: For this painting process, we're really only going to be using four different colors. In my case, I'm going to be using Pains gray. You can use something like neutral tint. I wouldn't recommend using ivory black or Mars black just because they tend to be very flat and dull. I'm going to be bringing in denthron blue. I'm going to use Matter Lake red light, which is a cool red, and finally cadmium yellow, which you can replace with something like Hansa yellow medium or Hansa Yellow Deep or new gamboge anything like that. I'm going to swatch out these colors individually for you so that you can see what they look like on paper and then I'll also swatch out the mixers that I'm going to be using. This is what Pains Gray looks like. This is what Matter Lake Red Light looks like, Indenthroblue looks like this, and cadmium yellow medium looks like this. You can use whichever colors you have available that are most similar to these and your outcome is going to be great. To begin, I'm going to create the black color mixture that I'm going to be using for the black canvas in these shoes. Mostly it's going to be Pains gray and Pains gray in and of itself straight out of the pan already has some amount of blue in it. So it's not a flat, dull black like other ready made blacks. It has a color temperature to it because it's a mixture of black and blue. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to add even more blue into just a tiny bit of that indent thrown blue. Hopefully, you can see on screen the difference between this gray and this gray, which has a little bit more of that indenthron blue in it. The reason why I wanted to do that is so that I can play with color temperature a little bit more and make that color look a little bit more interesting. That's the color mixture that I'm going to be using for the black areas throughout the shoes. Whenever I run out, I'm going to make more of that. For the white plastic parts of the shoes here in the front I'm going to be using a very water down version of that same color mixer. Same thing for the shoe laces. I'm going to be using that same color just in a very water down state. And for my vignette background, I'm going to be mixing together my Indent throne blue and my Matter Lake red light to create a purple. And as you're creating your purple, you can feel free to make it more of a red purple by adding more of your red into the mixture. Or add more blue to make it more of a blue purple or mix these two colors together to get more of a middle of the range, secondary purple. That's up to you and your tastes. That's a nice deep purple there. I think I'm going to add in a little bit more blue. I personally like more of a blue purple. That's a little bit too much blue. Adding in more red. Okay. And finally, I'm going to prepare a little puddle of yellow because I'm going to be using this color to create little colorful blooms as extra points of interest throughout the piece, just to make the piece a little bit more colorful. Those are my first color mixtures. As they run out, I'll just be making more. I'm going to go ahead and change my water because as you can see, it's pretty murky and then I'll get started with the painting process. 7. Black Fabric First Layer: I'm going to be bringing in the size six round brush. It's completely dry, so I'm just going to cream moisten these bristles by swiveling my paintbrush in my container of water, and I'm going to get started with painting in the black sections. We're going to be painting on dry paper, and we're going to make sure that initially we're going in with a very pale watered down version. Of our gray. That we created by mixing together our gray with our blue. You can see how this is very much a T like consistency so that I can go in very, very pale with that initial layer. I'm going to start with this section over here, observing that reference photo so that I can make sure that I don't accidentally go over my laces. Dipping my paintbrush in my container of water and sometimes I'm just going in with water and my paint brush to soften that color that I've already placed on paper and to keep the entire shape that I'm working on wetter for longer for the step that is coming up next. I'm going over everything. This is this first layer of paint. Everything is nice and wet and workable still because I went in with just water in my paintbrush a couple of times to run my paintbrush bristles over everything, both to soften that color and to keep that shape wet for longer. With this initial layer of light gray in, I'm going to go ahead and take some of this gray right here, which has a thicker consistency than this gray that I was using before, more like a coffee to milk like consistency. I start dropping in this same gray in a more saturated or thicker consistency in those darker areas that I'm able to see in the reference photo throughout this shape. You want to darken areas a little bit more, take a little bit more color and make sure that you're only dropping in this more saturated color in smaller areas that you're looking to darken. You're not really looking to get the entire shape with a super dark value because if you darken everything too much and you have no lighter value areas, then everything is going to look very heavy and very flat. You're looking to create a wide variety of gray values throughout every single area that we're going to be painting in. That is what's going to make it look realistic. I'm going to do the exact same thing for all of the different black areas here. Working a section at a time. Going to go in with my very water down consistency gray, and I'm going to start painting in these shapes here, which are smaller shapes, If you go in with too much pigment or color that is too dark, too saturated, too quickly, remove that color from your paint brush bristles and go back in with just a tiny bit of water in your paintbrush or with a damp paintbrush and run those paint brush bristles over the shape to soften that color. This is this first layer of light gray, and then I'm going to take a little bit more of this darker color mixture and I'm going to observe that reference photo and drop in this more saturated gray into those areas of darker values that I see there in that reference. Going to clean up this edge a little bit quickly. Drop in a little bit more of a darker color there because it makes sense that this shoe would be creating a shadow on this one. I'm going to move on to the next area. Starting with my lighter gray first. There is another triangle shape here in between these two laces. Taking a little bit more of the darker gray, dropping it into there. Sometimes even if the entire shape looks very dark in that reference photo, I like creating some lighter areas in my painting so that I can make sure that I'm staying away from flatness and heaviness, especially when painting with watercolor. I feel that's important. Moving on to the next area, the next little shape, getting that little triangle in. Left a teeny tiny section there in my drawing. Next shape is this one right here. I'm observing that reference photo before painting in my shapes so that I can make sure that I don't paint over a shoe lace. Making my way up from here. Let's see. What's going on here. Little gray shape here. I painted a little bit over the edge of the shoe layer. That's okay because I'm going to use the exact same color in that area. That'll be fine. I'll just separate that out with the next layer. I have a couple of more shapes to paint and watery consistency first, pale water down color first, then darker, more saturated color to darken shadow areas. I think that's it. Comparing my piece with the reference photo. Let's see. Am I missing anything, cleaning up this edge a little. I'm going to work on this black section over here. I'm going to make a little bit more of this pale water down gray, adding a little bit of water into there. This is a much larger shape. I want to make sure that I'm going in quickly and that I am running my paint brush bristles over everything a few times as I'm creating this very light layer so that things can stay wetter for longer and I can have those nice diffused out soft effects that I'm looking for with this initial layer. This is my first layer of gray. You can see how it's very light and translucent going in with my darker more saturated gray and dropping it into shadow areas that I see in that reference photo and where it would make sense, for example, that the laces are creating a shadow on that fabric. Starting to develop that range of values, they're going to help me create realism. Lighter areas and darker areas and a wide range of midtons are needed for something to look realistic. Going to paint in that tiny bit of black canvas over here over these shoe laces, there is a little section of black fabric. It's quite small, and we need to stay on top of water control, especially in small shape. Help yourself with your absorbent towel as you're moving along. I'm constantly dabbing the tips of my paintbrush on my absorbent towel to make sure that not too much water is flowing down from my paintbrush as I am painting in, especially those very small shapes. All right. I'm going to start with the black section over here first with my light water down gray. I'm going to paint in this entire black section quickly, making sure that I'm continuing to observe my reference photos so that I don't accidentally paint over shoe laces and that I'm simultaneously working quickly because this is again a pretty large shape and I'm painting on dry paper when we're painting on dry paper, things are going to dry pretty fast because that paper is very thirsty. I running my paint brush bristles over everything a couple of times so that I can expand that working time for myself. Once I have that nice light layer of gray in, I'm going to take some of my darker gray. I'm going to start dropping it into shadow sections that I see in that reference photo and areas that it would make sense would be darker. For example, right here where this other shoe is covering up the section of that bottom one, little sections under laces. I find that when I am painting a black object such as this one, oftentimes, especially when it comes to painting with watercolor, it's a lot about making artistic choices and taking some liberties because even though we're painting something that is black, we are using watercolor, and black is the darkest color of all. And if we just go in and start painting very thick saturated black all over because we think that that's what we're supposed to do. Most likely than not, because we're not bringing in the whiteness of the paper and we're not allowing that paper to shine through. Our painting is going to end up looking very heavy and very flat, and that's not really what we're trying to do when we're painting with watercolor. Make artistic choices so that you are taking what you need from the reference photo in terms of understanding the structure of what it is that you're painting and getting ideas from those overlapping elements to create shadow effects, but don't feel that you have to go in and paint everything super black. Also, water cutter is always going to dry lighter than how it looks when it's wet. It's perfectly normal if things are looking lighter after they start to dry, but do know that we're going to go in with two layers. After this layer dries, we're going to go back in to darken certain little shadow areas with a second layer. I'm going to go in and paint in this black edge with a very water down gray. I went in with a very light gray and I can go in now and drop in a little bit of a more saturated gray here and there so that I can have a variety of values even in that very thin, narrow shape. The last thing I'm going to be painting in before moving on to the next shrew is the black section of this plastic right here. I'm going to do the same thing and go in initially with my water down gray and there's this black strip right here. Light gray initially, ran my paintbrush bristles over that section a couple of times, taking some of my darker, more saturated gray and dropping it into certain sections. I'm going to get started with the black canvas in this shoe. I'm going to start with this upper section again. Starting with my light water down gray, going to go in quickly and I'm going to start painting in this entire shape. Observing that reference photo, noticing what's what? Going to go in with just water in my paintbrush now, run my paintbrush bristles over the entire shape. I can even paint over the masking fluid and it's totally fine because that masking fluid is going to protect those areas for me. That's that first light gray layer, taking some of my darker, more saturated gray and dropping it into sections that I want to darken. Taking a little bit more and developing a wide range of values even in this first layer. That's enough there. Moving on to another section of this shoe. I'm going to do this one right here and I'm going to make my way up dropping in a little bit of my more heavily saturated gray. If you find that you drop in the darker gray and it overtakes the entire shape or covers the entire shape, and you just want to go in and do some lifting to add dimension back into the area, remove that color from your paint brush bristles and go in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and use your paintbrush like a little absorbent sponge to pick up that excess pigment. Got it. Making my way up from there. Don't ever stop looking at your reference photo. F layers in. Ving that paint from my paint brush bristles. I think I dropped in way too much water in here, just doing some quick cleanup here, dropping in a little bit more my darker gray, lighten that a little bit too much when I went in to fix my little mistake. This is the shape that I want to paint in right now, teeny tiny shape, and feel free to switch to an even smaller brush. If you're more comfortable using a smaller brush for some of these very small shapes. Okay, continuing to make my way up, observing that reference photo first. This section right here. If you go into your laces or some of the other parts of your shoe as you're painting in these sections with this gray, that's fine, especially if it's just a light gray because those other sections are also going to be painted with the same color. You will be using the gray in the laces and you will be using the same gray over here. It's really no big deal, especially if you go in with a very light gray. Make sure that you notice it though, because later on, you can fix that mistake as long as you notice it, make it less noticeable with subsequent layers that we're going to be developing. But don't think that everything is ruined or lost because you go over a little section that you weren't supposed to, especially because again, it's the same color that we're using in the laces and outside. I'm going to do my work right here in this area, starting with the lighter gray again. When we're painting on dry paper, we have to keep it moving and keep it flowing. Whenever you need to reload, jump right back in, pick up that bead, and continue. Otherwise, you can be left with sharp defined edges and texture where you didn't want it. I quickly paint in that first layer of lighter color and then while that first layer is still wet, I go ahead and drop in a little bit more of the same color in a thicker consistency to darken certain areas. Running my paintbrush pitles over everything a couple of times Now I can go in with my slightly more saturated gray. I'm going to be working in this section first, right here, and then I'll be doing the section over here. Starting with my lighter gray first, water down light gray, observing the reference photo before moving in and painting quick but carefully. Careful but quick. That's that first layer there, going in with a slightly more saturated gray, dropping it into sections that I want to darken. Going to have to make more of my gray in just a bit. Lifting up some of that color. I'm going to make some more of my gray, Haines gray, bit of indent thrown blue. Water down a bit. I'm going to take my paint from the edge here or that first layer, and then from the puddle down here for the second layer. Dipping my paintbrush in my container of water and just extending this color, softening and going over the entire thing. It's just water in my paintbrush. This is a pretty large shape that we're painting in right now, probably the largest of all in terms of the black sections that we've been painting. So as you make your way back towards the back part of the shoe, don't forget to keep coming back to the bottom section where you first started. Because if you just make your way towards the back and you don't keep coming back, by the time you reach the back part of the shoe, the back edge, that front section is already probably going to be dry and then you're not going to be able to get those soft diffused out effects when you drop in your darker gray. Okay, so everything is nice and wet and workable. Going to go in with my more saturated gray starting here at the back. Adding a little bit of shadow under the laces. A I'm going to add in a very thin line there, starting with a pale translucent gray. Then taking a little bit of my more saturated gray and dropping it into certain sections. I'm now going to paint in that black strip in the plastic section the same way I did over here. As always, I start with my lighter water down gray and make sure that I notice what I am painting before going in. Come back to where I started, keep that wetter for longer. This is a very narrow shape. Make sure that that first layer is quite light, T like consistency, taking a little bit more of my more saturated, heavily pigmented gray and placing it in shadow sections that I see in the reference photo so that there can be a variety of values even within this shape. All right this black plastic strip continues over here. But if I paint it right now, I can run the risk of creating back runs into this section right here that I just painted because this is still wet. I'm going to be skipping that for now. I'm going to allow this to dry before painting in that black strip right here. 8. White Plastic + Laces First Layer: In this phase, we're going to start by quickly painting the inner parts of these shrews, and then we'll move on to working on the first layer in the laces and the white plastic sections. It makes sense to tackle all of this at once because we're using very similar colors, and we're also working within that same mindset where we have to make sure that these areas appear white or like an off white. For the visible inner parts of the shoes, I do want to go in with a warmer gray than the gray that I am using for the outer parts of the shoes. So all I do is mix together some of my pains gray and a little bit of my cadmium yellow, which warms up the gray. I want to play with the temperature of my grays and just have a little bit of a difference there. So as you can see, this gray definitely looks a little bit warmer and the more yellow you add in, the warmer it's going to get. I'm going to go in with my size six round brush and a very water down version of this warmer gray. I'm not going to paint the entire shape, just sections of it because this is a white part of the shoe. I just want to create a little bit of a shadow effect here. I'm going to leave plenty of that white paper shining through right there. Run my paintbrush bristles over everything with just water darkening certain little points with a little bit more of this warm gray. And while that's still wet, I'm going to rinse out my brush, take a little bit of my coffee consistency yellow, and I'm going to pop it right over the gray while it's still wet touching the tip of my brush on that wet paint, the yellow travels down the bristles of my brush and pushes out the gray, creating this beautiful, bright, colorful bloom. You can add them wherever you want, but don't go in and try to blend. I'm going to do the same thing for the other one. This is a much larger shape over here. I'll start with just a bit of this warmer gray and start in this area where I see most of the shadow in here. I'm going to remove this color from my paintbrush crystals and I'm going to go in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and just soften these edges, and I'm going to drop in a little bit more of my cadmium yellow into certain little sections in a very irregular way to add a little hint of color there, an extra little pop of color. That's all I'm going to do for those areas. I'm going to fix a little section here, which should be gray. Soften the edge. Everything is dry here so I can go ahead and paint in this black plastic strip that is right below the fabric. Same thing that I did with this one over here and this section of this one over here. Go to make sure to start with my light grayish color mixture in a very water down consistency.'s a bit of color in my paintbrush bristles and observing that reference photo before going in, so important. I'm going to paint in that strip that I was missing. Yeah dropping in a little bit more saturated pigment here and that's enough. I'm going to switch to my size ten round brush because I'm going to be developing some very light gray values in the white plastic sections of the sneakers. Then to dip my paintbrush in my container of water. Again, this is my size ten brush, it's larger than the brush that I was using before. I'm going to start with a very, very watery te like consistency for these white plastic sections because these are white parts. Whenever it is that you're painting white with watercolor, it is so important that you A, make sure that you go in with a very, very water down translucent color initially and that you're only darkening certain sections gradually if needed, and B, that you leave plenty of that white paper shining through because when we're painting with this medium, it's the whiteness and brightness of the paper that is going to stand in place for our highlights and it's watercolors translucency or transparency in combination with the white paper underneath that helps us develop our lightest values. I'm going to start here with the shadow section that this shoe is creating on this one, and that's the safest place to start for me because if there's going to be any shadow in this area, it's going to be here and perhaps a little bit over here. And everything else is going to be very, very minimal. G to remove this color from my paintbrush bristles, remove this excess water, and I'm just going to go ahead and soften any edges, maybe even soften the color a little bit more. And now I can consider going in with a little bit more color, especially here, or that she is creating a shadow on this one, and that's about it. That's all I want to do. So you can see how I left plenty of that white paper shining through. And once that dries, it's probably going to look even lighter. I'm going to do the same thing with this plastic section right here. And when you observe that reference photo, it looks almost like a flat white value. And it's important that we use our artistic license a bit when it comes to something like this because we can't leave this entire shape completely flat white. I'm doing the same thing that I was doing with the previous one. Started with a very light translucent color, then removed that color from my paintbrush bristles and went back in with just water on my paintbrush to soften that gradient and then dropped in a little bit more of my deeper, more satrooted gray only in darkest areas that I'm looking to push a little bit more. You can see how I left plenty of that whiteness shining through, but now it looks a lot more realistic because at least I've developed some amount of light gray values in this area. I do want to mention that it's important to bring in your artistic license whenever you feel that you could do something that is going to improve the composition as a whole or the level of three DNss that you're going for. If you're going for three DNS, that is. Even if you can't see somewhat of a range of values in the reference photo, because maybe the reference photo is overexposed or underexposed, or maybe the whiteness of the object or even the darkness of the object is just causing or creating some flat looking area, whether it's completely white or completely black or whatever the case may be. When working with watercolor and really any painting medium, it's really going to be up to you to not make that section look flat to bring some dimension into that area. Sometimes we need to bring in artistic license and our understanding of the structure, the three D structure and the light situation that is going on to create at least somewhat of a range of values in those very light areas or those very dark areas. Because when it comes to creating a drawing or a painting, if we leave any area with a flat value, whether it's a completely flat white or a completely flat black, or any mid tone, really, in between white or black. If the shape is quite large, which this is a relatively medium size shape. If I had left that white, that would create flatness and it's going to distract and take away from the level of realism that I'm trying to develop everywhere else. Don't be afraid to bring in your artistic license, and whenever you see a flat area where there's only one value all throughout, I would highly recommend bringing in your artistic license and at least developing somewhat of a range of values in those areas. Especially if you're going for you know, mid to higher levels of realism. Just doing some gentle scrubbing right here with a clean and slightly damp brush to soften edges there, and I am done with those sections. I'm going to go ahead and start with the white plastic down here. Same thing goes for this. I do have a little section of blast stripe here that I'm going to be painting later. But first, I'm going to paint the entire white area, it's my intention with this initial layer to just start developing somewhat of a range of gray values, light gray values, maybe down here where this shoe is creating a shadow on this I deepen and darken a little bit more. But again, these are white sections. We have to be very careful to go in very pale initially, make our way towards darker values incrementally and really only where needed, and of course, that we're leaving plenty of that white paper shining through. If we don't do that, we run the risk of these sections looking gray and not white. Still going in with my size ten round brush and a very watery gray I'm going to start with this one right here. Starting in the shadow section, there's no way of going wrong if you start there. And then just pulling a little bit of this color out into the lighter sections. I really just loaded up my paint brush bristles once running my clean bristles over what I just painted in. You can see how I left plenty of that white paper shining through, especially in this side. Near the light, I'm going to go in and pop in a little bit more of this gray, especially in shadow sections and darker areas that I'm able to see in that reference photo. After I painted in my gray, I rinse out my brush and I go in with a clean and only slightly damp brush to soften edges and transitions, focusing on developing those general shadow shapes to create a sense of form in this front part of the shoe and really ignoring smaller details and textures. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm going to allow it to dry. So all of those little textures that we see there in the photo for that section of plastic, I'm going to be adding a hint of that, but later after this first layer has dried, that I see as texture and texture follows form. If you get the form in write a sense of three Dness via the development of values, then you're already over halfway done, especially when painting with watercolor. The little diamond shapes that I see there, little lines, all of those are textures and I'm going to be developing with a second layer. That's going to be done very loosely. Just as a hint, just to describe the texture to a certain extent. I'm going to do the same thing with this one over here and be careful if you're going to paint this because this might still be wet. If you go and paint down here, you can get some backgrounds happening here where this new paint that you deposit in this area bleeds into this which you just painted. Of course, you can always allow that to dry if you're scared of that happening. I'm going to start with this back section over here. There's no way that I can go wrong starting back here because this is the section of the show that is furthest away from the light. I know that I can start developing some gray values here and I'm going to be good. Go to make my way towards the light sections and really think of these shadow shapes that I'm creating as abstract, irregular shadow shapes. Running my paintbrush bristles over everything a couple of times very lightly, especially those sections where I want to drop in a little bit more color so that I can get those nice diffused out, soft, wet-on-wet effects. That's it. If I add any more gray or cover up more of that paper, I can run the risk of these parts of the shoe just not looking white and I definitely don't want that. Doing a little bit of lifting with just to clean a slightly damp brush, which you can always do whenever you feel you have gone in with way too much color or way too much water, do some lifting that's going to lighten up things for you, soften that color and add dimension back into that area. I'm going to leave that to dry and I'm going to start my work in the laces. I'm going to create a little bit more of my bluish gray and the laces are white. So everything that I was just explaining with the white plastic parts still go for the shoe laces. For the laces, I'm going to switch on back to my size six round brush as these are more narrow kind of complex shapes. But the same technique that I've been doing all along still applies. Bring a little bit out from here and take a little bit of color from this section of my palette so that I can go in eye and light. I'm going to start with this one over here. I'm going to make my way towards the right. So when I have a shoe lace that is twisting and there's a plane change, I see those as separate shape. I see this as a shape separate from this and this as a shape separate from this. That is always helpful for me. I see that shadow there. Once I've applied enough color, I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and I soften that transition there, just watering my paintbrush. Instead of taking more color, sometimes I just use that same color that I have over here, which helps me soften this. I bring some pigment out into this other shadowy section over here, if I want to darken a little bit more of that shadow shape, I go into my darker gray and I just add in a tiny bit more I'm going to switch on over to painting another shoe lace because if I paint this section here or this section over here, I can get some bleeding happening right now I'm not looking for bleeding, so I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and I am using my watery color mixture again, I'm going to try to make as much as possible my way down from the top. Of course, I'm going to have to skip around because I don't want to get any bleeding. But as much as I can, I'm going to try to make my way downward. And for many of these shoe lace sections, especially the ones that are closest to the light, not the ones that are under other shoe laces or kind of under the canvas section of the shoe. I may not have to paint at all. I want to make sure that I'm leaving some sections of shoe lace unpainted and that I'm really just focusing on darkening shadow sections where those laces are covering each other up or where it would make sense for me to add a shadow in there because maybe it's going into the little hole or maybe it's being covered by other sections of the shoe. Those are the sections that I am adding a light gray value into. So again, it's all about bringing to mind the structure of the shoe, the three Dness of what it is that you are painting or shading in. You don't ever want to stop thinking about the three Dness. You don't ever want to stop thinking of the three Dinss of whatever it is that you're painting and how things are overlapping and things like that. I'm going to go right in and paint this one over here. This shoe lace is being blocked by this shoe this shoe is blocking the light from hitting this section of this shoe lace. So I can be a little bit more free with the level of saturation there and go in with a little bit more pigment as opposed to the other areas. I'm going to paint in these little sections that I was missing before. This section that I started with is already almost dry because I painted on dry paper and just be very light handed, especially in those sections where the light is able to reach the shoe lace. I'm going to paint in a tiny bit of gray there, which I haven't painted in and that's it for that first layer of gray in the shoe laces for this sneaker on the left. It took me around five, 6 minutes maybe to paint in that initial layer, and I was observing the reference photo, getting clues from the reference photo, but also really had in mind the three dimensional structure of what it is that I am painting, how things are overlapping, keeping that light from hitting that section of the shoe lace or whatever it is underneath. And all of that is super important to have in mind if you're looking for believable shading. I have plenty of that white paper shining through so that I can really communicate that these are white shoe laces. I'm going to do the same thing for this one over here. I need to make Marv this water down gray. Just added a tiny bit more water into that I'm going to start with this section here. This plane for this shoe lace at the top is facing away from the light. Then the darkest section of this shoe lace here is down here, which makes sense because it's curving over and down and this section of the shoe lace is away from the light, whereas this is facing towards the light. I remove that color from my paintbrush pitles and that's all the pigment I'm going to be adding here. I'm just going to be softening that transition. And if I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles after painting a gray section in and I go back in and I notice that I still have gray in my paintbrush, I dip my paintbrush in my container again to remove more of that color. You can also go in with your absorbent towel while that paint is still wet and lift whatever excess color you have placed on paper while that paint is still wet and you're going to be able to lighten it back up or at least do some amount of lifting of that color. Apply a little bit more gray right here. Going in this one here, noticing what is the darkest section and starting there. Before starting to paint any section of shoe lace, observe that reference photo and notice if that section of shoe lace is facing towards the light or away from the light. Moving on to this one here. This section right here is the one that is being covered up by this shoe lace and this part of the shoe. I'm going to start there, to remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove the excess water. And go back in and soften that transition. I'm going to go back to this one here, which I couldn't paint before because I had just painted in this section. I'm observing what's going on with that section of shoe lace. See a shadow section there and I'm understanding where there's that twist happening. I think I made the twist slightly different in my sketch to the photo. That's okay. Softening the edge. These are very small shapes, continue helping yourself with your absorbent towel. Notice how frequently I am touching the tip of my paintbrush to my absorbent towel whenever I feel there's too much water in my bristles and I'm starting to lose control or I may start to lose control. I use my absorbent towel. Going to darken this section of shadow. We will go into the shoe laces with a second layer to darken some shadow section, so don't feel that all of your values have to be developed with this one layer of paint. Be patient and just know that we're working in layers here. If for some reason your shoe lace shapes that you created in your outline sketch are a little bit different from the photo, that is okay, but make sure that you have in mind what would happen there in terms of shadows and lights. The light and shadow areas that you develop throughout that shoe lace, they have to be consistent with the rest of the painting. Softening the edges here. Taking a little bit more of my gray. And all I'm missing is this part over here. I'm going to take a little bit more of my gray, water it down a little. Then there is a twist here and there is shadow down here. I remove the color from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, dab on my absorbent towel and soften, soften here, pull a little bit of that pigment down so that all of this is not flat white, especially because this is away from the light and then add in a little bit more pigment and if you see any darker value areas that you want to quickly darken, before allowing this first layer to dry, you can do that. Soften this a little because this section was almost dry when I dropped in this color, so just softening a bit there. Do a little bit of lifting here, got a little too dark, that color expanded out way too much. All right, so this is the first layer done in my white plastic sections and the white shoe laces. I'm going to go ahead and do a little bit of cleanup work right here, take advantage of the fact that everything is pretty dry, just fix the edges of this black narrow shape before moving on to the next part of the process, which is going to be the second layer in the black sections. So I'm going to switch on over to my size three round brush, dip my paintbrush in my container of water, and you can do this too if you have any sections like this, but make sure that Everything is dry if we're going to do any lifting and scrubbing for correcting purposes. So all I do is I go in with a clean and slightly damp brush, and I gently scrub over that section that I want to correct. And I dab with my absorbent towel. I would only recommend doing this gently maybe two or three times max. If you continue doing this more than that, you can run the risk of damaging your paper. That is enough for me right there. It's enough correction. I dip my paintbrush in my container of water again and I'm just going to do the same thing for this part in the bottom. Where I went out of the shape that I wanted to paint. Tiny bit more, just twice. I went into both sections twice to do gentle scrubbing and that's it. That's all I'm going to do. You can see how I managed to correct that area. Now things are looking much better with just a couple of gentle scrubs and lifts. 9. Black Fabric Second Layer: Now it is time to push those darkest areas in the black fabric. This would be layer number two. With this layer, you're really only going to be adding those abstract irregular shadow shapes in sections of darkest shadows that need to be pushed more. The intention here is not to cover all of the beautiful value development with your grays that you've already done in the black areas. It's just to deepen and darken the darkest sections. For this, I'm going to be using both my size six round and my size ten round. And for this part of the process, I'm going to use this gray color mixture right here that is slightly more saturated and thicker, if you will. I'm going to start with this shoe over here. I would recommend just using the paintbrush that you're most comfortable with depending on the size of the shape, size and complexity of the shape, I should say. I'm just observing that reference photo. Noticing where the darkest shapes are. Sometimes I am especially in this area here filling in more of that shape and other times, especially with the outer sections of the shoe, I'm going to be just darkening certain sections of those shapes. Go to make more of this color mixture real fast. Blue and pains gray, more pains gray than blue, especially at this point where I'm really looking to push those darkest areas. Dropping this in a little. This is too black. G to add more blue. Popping it into certain sections of shadow, darkening a section right here. Because we're painting on dry paper, we're getting those defined edges around these shapes that we're painting in. Whenever I want to soften, I remove that color from my paintbrush pitles, remove that excess water, and soften that edge. Softening this edge here, darkening certain sections over here. Opposite to the light, this upper section down here. Removing that color from my paintbrush bristles, removing the excess water, and softening the edge. Darkening this section where this part of the shoe is creating a shadow on this one. That's about all I'm going to be darkening for this upper section of the shoe. Darkening certain sections over here, start with the bottom. Where's the other shoe creating a shadow on this one? Again, I know that we see almost a black solid valley or tone of throughout this area in the reference photo, but I don't want to create a solid black shape. That's going to lead to heaviness and flatness. What I am doing is thinking of where sections would be creating shadows on other sections, darkening there. And then leaving the previous layer shining through in other sections where the light might be hitting more. Here a little bit of a shadow. That's enough there. Less is more. This part of the shoe is actually facing towards the light. I'm going to leave way more of this previous layer that I've already created shining through when compared to this one that is opposite to the light. I'm just going to be adding a little bit of shadow under the shoe laces. Remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and just softening those edges. That's it. Can I do a little bit of lifting here. I'm going to do my second layer in this shoe and I'm going to start in this section here. Some of this section is able to catch the light because of how this shoe is on this one. This part over here, it just would make sense that it is receiving some light. So I'm not going to darken everything there. Then this section here is in shadow. I can even go over that shoe lace because I'll be darkening that section a little bit more later. Softening any edges before the paint dries? As I am doing my softening, if I notice that too much of that paint is starting to collect in my paintbrush bristles, I immediately remove that paint from my paintbrush, and I continue doing what I'm doing with a clean and only slightly damp paintbrush. It's important to see what's going on on paper and to just acknowledge how much paint is getting collected in your paintbrush bristles when you're doing any moving around or any softening of your color that has been placed on paper. Is especially important when you're painting white objects because you might end up pulling or pushing too much of that gray and all of a sudden you've covered up your entire shape with gray. I'm going to continue darkening those shadow shapes, making sure that I'm continuing to observe that reference photo as I go, sometimes painting in two shadow shapes at a time, other times only one. And then softening those edges wherever I need to. It's not necessary to always go in and soften your edges by the way. Softening Little shadow shapes. Essentially, the more layers you create with each subsequent layer, your shapes that you're painting in gets smaller and smaller. So in that first layer of paint, you're painting the general, and then you allow that to dry and then with the next layer of paint, you're only darkening certain areas. And if you need a third layer of paint, you allow the second layer to dry and you only darken little teeny tiny shapes inside of those mid tone shapes that you developed with your second layer. The more layers you create, the more you have to be mindful to leave those previous lighter value layers shining through, and you have to be more deliberate and only darken the sections that need to be darkened because if you go overboard and cover up your previous layer completely and you don't think about value, that's probably going to lead to a flat heavy looking painting. That's really what we're trying to avoid, especially when we're painting with this medium. I'm going into this section here, which is away from the light. Removing that color from my paintbrush bristles, removing that excess water, and softening. Again, softening. Adding more gray into my mixture to thicken it up and to use it in a thicker consistency to darken certain spots. Darkening here, a little teeny tiny bit. Darkening a little shadow shape that I hadn't painted before in between a couple of shoe laces it is time to work on this opposite side of the shoe. Removing that paint from my paint brush bristles, softening the edge. Remove paint, remove that water, and quickly softening edges. Hopefully, you can see how even in this part of this shoe, which is opposite to the light, I still am leaving. That previous layer shining through in some sections. I didn't go in and just darken everything. More paints gray, more ind thrown blue. This color mixture is a little tiny bit too thick. Water it down a little bit more. Always bring to mind the values that you're trying to develop, whether they are mid tones or darkest dark values, and make sure that the consistency of your color mixture is appropriate for what you're trying to do. If I continue painting, I run the risk of covering up all of that previous layer and I don't want to do that. If I cover up that previous layer, things are not going to look glowy anymore. My painting is going to look flat and heavy and it's not going to have that glow that is so particular to this medium. We really need to bring in the paper if we want to have that glow effect that's so particular to watercolor. I'm going to go in and just add a little tiny bit of darkness in some sections here and here. These very narrow bits at the back. And that's enough for that. Did I darken everything that needed to be darkened here? Let me see. I'm comparing my painting with my reference photo. I think I'm pretty happy with how things are looking so far, so I'm going to allow that to dry. Alright, so I want to go ahead and darken certain little sections within the black stripe in this plastic area. So what I do there is I use the same gray in a thicker consistency, and I just drop it into certain sections, allowing other sections to remain lighter with just that first layer of paint. That's enough. Just going to soften here a little, soften the edges. I'm going to darken a tiny bit over here. Okay, so it's finally going to be time to remove that masking fluid. Before I remove my masking fluid, I have to make sure that everything is completely dry. I'm going to leave this sitting for around ten to 15 minutes. Things should dry pretty fast because we've been painting wet on dry and so I'll be right back when everything is dry. 10. Removing Masking Fluid + Painting Labels: Everything is completely dry and I'm going to go ahead and use my fingers to remove the masking fluid. If you don't want to use your fingers, you can use something like a rubber cement pickup or a clean rubber eraser, or even a little dry towel, something like that. I just like using my fingers. My hands are always super dry and I made sure that they were nice and clean before doing this. You can see how as I am removing the masking fluid, all these clean white shapes are revealed. Your hand should not hurt when you're removing your masking fluid, by the way. Don't press down too hard. I know that some masking fluids adhere or have a stronger adherence than others. I've never had any issues with this one from Windsor and Newton. So if you're having any issues with removing your masking fluid or ripping your paper when you're removing your masking fluid or things like that, I would highly recommend maybe investing in a better one. I'm going to take my HB pencil again and I'm going to trace over the pencil work or add it in again so that I can see all of the letters and the design going on. I would highly recommend doing the same if for some reason you can't see what you had drawn before, just add it in again. You want to have those shapes that you're going to be painting inside clearly defined, and the star is also going to be important to have sketched in correctly. I also very lightly add in the letters, though, this top smaller rectangle that has the word converse on it is going to be completely filled in with gray, so I'm going to cover them up. Alright, using my size three round brush, and my gray, and I'm going to start filling in this smaller rectangle at the top. Even in these rectangles, I want to make sure that there is a value development in them. Meaning I'm not going in with a very flat black looking color. I want some lighter sections and some darker sections. Do a tiny bit of lifting with my towel. At least I have some lighter areas and some darker areas. Gonna do the same thing with the other one. Painted in. Remember that we're going to be adding in those white letters on top with a white paint pen. Trying to incorporate some slight curves into this rectangular shape because obviously, from this point of view, and because the label is attached to the tongue of these sneakers, we don't really see a perfect rectangle. And so I want to avoid going in and creating a perfect looking shape, which would lead to flatness. Adding a little bit of a gray. Making sure that I have lighter areas and darker areas in this dark rectangle. I'm going to paint in the little teeny tiny stars. And if you want to switch to an even smaller brush than the one that I am using, which is a size three, by all means, go ahead and switch to a smaller detailing brush. Kind of have to hold my breath there. You can even do some tests on a scrap piece of watercolor paper. Before adding your stars into your painting, just to check if the paintbrush that you're going to be using for this is good because sometimes we don't notice that our paintbrush has a little splayed bristles or something like that, which makes these little details impossible to paint. Doing a little bit of scrubbing and lifting here. I just felt that area was a little bit flat. I'm going to allow them to dry and if later they look a little bit too dark or too stark looking, I can just go in with a clean and slightly damp paintbrush and do a tiny bit of scrubbing to soften little teeny tiny parts and make sure that they don't look like a completely flat black star. Using my size three round brush, I'm going to add in the outline here in the label. Trying as much as possible to go in with one single stroke. Because if I go in with multiple strokes, it'll look feathery. 11. Holes, Metal Rings, Shadows + Details: Okay, we're going to be doing a few different things in this phase, but for the most part, we're going to be using our gray again, in different consistencies. I get started by filling in the holes in the metal rings, using my size three round brush and my gray in more of a coffee consistency. These holes are quite dark in the reference photo, so I can go in with a thicker consistency right off the bat. It's the negative shapes that I am painting in, right? The whole section that we're able to see in between the metallic ring and the shoe lace. So visualize where the shoe lace shape ends and where the whole begins, and what negative shape you would be able to see in between that. Times you're not going to be able to see any of that hole. It depends on how the lace is positioned over it. For this kind of thing, I find that it is very important to continue observing that reference photo because when we stop observing the reference and we just go by what our brain will tell us to do, oftentimes our shapes end up looking way too perfect or way too patterny because that is what's easiest for us to draw or paint. Our brain and our hand will continue reverting back to doing things in the easiest way if we're not careful, by continuing to observe that reference photo, we are reminded of those little nuances, those imperfections, those irregularities that are actually present. Once you have filled in those very small negative shapes, we're going to go in with our gray color mixture in a very water down state, and we're going to add a little bit of a very light gray inside of the metallic ring shapes. We don't want to leave the metallic rings completely white. So all I am doing is going into those ring shapes which the masking fluid had been keeping protected for us and just filling in a portion of that white with a very light gray. Think of it as a crescent moon shape, making sure to leave little teeny, tiny sections of paper unpainted so that these can look like metallic rings at the end. Metal is smooth and highly reflective. So leaving little teeny, tiny, bright white shapes is going to be important. Also remember that these little rings have a slight curve structure to them, and consider darkening any shadow areas at least lightly. I'm doing this very loosely, and I am simply trying to have at least a couple of values, even in these very small shapes. Then with the very same ideas in mind, I simply go in to develop very, very light gray shapes in the seams and white threads. At the moment, these small shapes that the masking fluid had been keeping protected for me look completely flat white, and I know that that is going to take away from the realism. I'm very loosely just adding a little bit of gray here and there so that some sections can look white and other sections can look like a lighter gray. And then it is time to do a little bit more work in the white plastic sections in these sneakers. So I'm continuing to use my size three round brush, and I am painting in this black stripe that we can see in this lower right edge for the sneaker on the right. I wanted to make sure before I painted this black stripe that that white section that I had already developed some light gray values in was completely dry so that this black shape looked sharp and defined. Once I was done there, it was time to darken some dark areas and add a little bit of detail in the plastic section in the sneaker on the left. I still have some shadow areas to push. And as I mentioned before, I want the detail in these areas to be very soft and minimal. And so the first thing that I do is I use my size ten round brush to re wet this area with clean water. Do it gently because you don't want to start scrubbing or reactivating that paint that you have already placed here. Then I switch to my size three round brush and I start by applying my gray in a coffee consistency in the darkest shadow area that I want to push more. Then I do a little bit more layering with this gray in smaller shadow shapes that I also want to add greater contrast in. I want to develop that sense of form in the general before I move on to the smaller details and plane changes. I continue to sculpt this part of the shoe by continuing to develop that value range. Going darker and darker as I go and making sure to keep lighter value areas free of any more layering. Once I'm done, everything is still wet and workable because I did that pre wedding. So this is when I start thinking about texture techniques, and I just want to subtly hint at those little diamond shapes in this part of the shoe. So what I do is I approach this with very soft blooms. Remember the bloom technique that we were using with the yellow in the inner parts of the shoe. That's essentially the same thing that I'm doing here, but with my gray. I'm taking a little bit of gray in coffee consistency from my palette and just touching the tip of my brush to that wet paper, and the paint comes down, creating this teeny, tiny bloom. I'm continuing to visualize that curve for the front of the shoe, and I'm creating my blooms, having this curve in mind or following this curve. But still within that, I have a lot of variety and softness in mind. I'm not trying to create any specific pattern. I just want to subtly describe this texture. And I also don't want to do too much because if I just continue adding more and more blooms, I can risk making this area too dark or just making it look gray as opposed to the white that I want. Once I feel I've done enough, I allow that paint and that water to settle on the paper for a little bit longer. Because I want to create the next series of blooms and marks on paper that is damp and no longer as wet. This way, my paint won't disperse and move around as much. There are different degrees of wetness that we can work with when painting in watercolor, and it all comes down to how much movement you want or how blurred or how defined you want those edges. In the meantime, I do a little bit more work in the shoe laces. In this phase, you're going to see me continue to jump around the piece and developing darker shadow shapes wherever I feel I need them. Because we're in the last phases of this painting process, it's good to come back and see everything as a whole and notice if you have enough contrast developed for the sense of depth and realism that we're going for here. Watercolor does tend to dry lighter than how it looks when it's wet. So it's always good to come back and see everything as a whole and notice if we need to push some darkest areas. And then I go back to the front plastic part of the shoe that I was working in before. This area is still wet and workable since I did my pre wedding and was just working on it a little bit ago. And now that the paint has settled a little bit, I go in and add a few more blooms with a thicker gray here and there, especially in the darker shadow area I know that this will lighten even more as the paint dries. And I want some of that texture to remain visible. Okay, so I'm all done there. I'm going to allow that to dry. And in the meantime, I go ahead and do a little bit more work in the laces, really pushing those darks this time, going in with my gray in more of a milk consistency almost and softening edges whenever I feel the edge is too stark looking. I simply remove that paint from my bristles and go in with a clean and only slightly damp brush and run those bristles along the edge that I'm looking to soften. This said, not all shadow shapes have to be softened. It's good to have a combination of soft edges and sharper edges. You can see me do some lifting to pull up some lighter values in this front part of the shoe that I feel have darkened a little bit too much or look a little bit too flat to me. And right here, I pop in a little bit of my thicker gray on the light side of the shoe because I don't want that entire section to be super, super light. And then it's time to move on to the next shoe. I am doing the same work throughout the laces, darkening some planes opposite to the light source, and wherever I feel I need a bit of a darker shadow shape. It is important that both shoes look like they have the same finish, the same range of values developed at the same level of contrast. You don't want one of these shoes to look like it is unfinished, right? In the very last phase of this process, we're going to be coming back to seeing everything as a whole and noticing if there are any darkest dark shapes that we need to push a little bit more. When we're striving for higher levels of realism, especially when working with watercolor, it is helpful to allow everything to dry completely and then come back and see how things are looking and notice if we have developed that range of values that we need for higher levels of realism. Many artists allow their paintings to dry completely and come back to notice if there's anything that they want to push the following day. I avoid working on the front part of this shoe until the front part of the other shoe that we were working in before is completely dry because I want to avoid creating backruns and having uncontrolled bleeds right now. Once I think that other section has dried enough, I go ahead and change to my size ten round brush to do my pre wedding in this area once again. I'm going to be using the same techniques here, making sure that I'm focusing first on larger, more general shadow shapes that I think I need, and then moving on to describe some of this texture subtly, wet into wet so that I can get some soft effects before adding sharper details on top. Watercolor is all about timing. So if you feel like this area is too wet, then I would allow that water to settle on your paper for just a little bit longer before starting to develop your shadow shapes and your little blooms. Because if you go in when your paper is too wet, the paint is going to move and expand and cover up a lot of that paper, probably more than you were initially anticipating. So we want that paper to be wet and workable, but not sopping wet. Paint in a little bit of color just to see how much movement there is. And if it moves way too much, just allow it to settle for a minute. Then try again. Using my size three round brush, I start painting in some gray first in those larger plane changes that I want to make sure to develop darker values in. And then once I'm happy with how that's looking, I start using more texture techniques, more of those little teeny, tiny blooms that are going to help me convey a little bit of that texture in the front of the shoe. Notice how I am leaving plenty of that first layer shining through plenty of that paper left alone unpainted. And I am focusing more so on the shadow side opposite to the light source so that I can have plenty of lighter areas in the side that is facing toward the light. Once I have expanded that range of values and develop some of that subtle texture, wet into wet, I'm going to allow that to settle for a little bit longer, and in the meantime, I'm going to do a little bit more value work throughout the shoe, noticing if I need to darken some sections in those holes around the rings, in the shoe laces and so on. Alright, a couple of minutes have passed, and the paint and water have settled a little bit more on this front part of this shoe on the right. So I go in with more of a milk consistency and start creating more blooms on the shadow side with this thicker paint, really paying attention to how much that paint is expanding and trying not to overly darken sections that I don't want to darken. You can always go in to do some lifting with the clean and only slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush. At any time, you can go in and use your paintbrush as a little absorbent sponge. Alright, it is finally time to work on that handwritten lettering in those labels. I get started by painting in the all star words in the lower section of the label. I am using my size three round brush, making sure that just the tip of my brush is coming into contact with my paper as I am tracing over my pencil work. Of course, if you for some reason can no longer see your pencil work, I would recommend going in and drawing those letters again before painting them in. I'm making sure to only take a small amount of paint from my palette as I continue tracing over these letters with the tip of my brush. I don't want to accidentally start bringing out too much water and paint and start losing control. I do want these letters to be sharp and defined. I would recommend allowing that to dry before adding in the word on top so that you can avoid smudging those letters that you just painted. Once everything is dry, you can go ahead and switch on over to your white paint pen and start drawing those letters. I go over a few of these letters more than once so that they're a little bit more visible. And I do come back at the very end to go over everything one last time just to make sure that the word converse is visible enough. Whenever I don't have any clear pencil work to work over or trace over, I make sure to start with the letters that are right in the middle, which in this case, are the V and the I place those first right in the middle so that I can make sure that I have enough space for the letters on the left and right, and then I go ahead and add in the other letters. This helps ensure that I'll have enough space for all my letters, but also that everything will be centered the way that I want it. Once I'm done with the labels, it is finally time to add in some detail wet on dry in the front plastic parts of these shoes. Now that we have developed some values underneath, some sense of structure, and we have also created some subtle, soft texture wet into wet, we're going to go ahead and add some sharper detail. I am using my gray color mixer and my size three round brush again. Paying attention to those patterns present in the photo in these areas, and I'm going to describe them loosely. I do want to make sure that all of the little lines, marks shapes that I paint in wet on dry are not super stark looking. When we're adding little lines and marks like this in watercolor, especially with a darker color like this, things can very easily start becoming very dark, very distracting and very overdone. I want this detail to be visible but subtle and I don't want to overdo it. I keep things subtle doing a few different things. Firstly, I make sure to go in with a water down consistency. Tea or coffee consistency, it depends on how dark the initial layers in this area are for you. But try to think of that next darker step and what consistency you need to create those lines and marks in such a way that you don't have a high level of contrast between your background that you've already created with those initial layers and these new little lines and shapes that you're adding in. There is a lot of contrast, then those lines and marks are going to be incredibly distracting. Think of that next step in value. Another thing that I'm making sure to do is to avoid covering up this entire section with lines and marks. As you can see, I'm mostly adding these final details in the shadow sides of these front portions of both shoes. It's very easy to go overboard when we are developing texture and going in with little lines and marks. Less is more when we're working with watercolor. So I am choosing to only add this texture in the shadow side opposite to the light source or in shadow areas. And the last thing that I do is I soften my lines and marks by rinsing my paintbrush after I have painted them in and going over them with a clean and only slightly damp brush. Just very gently using just the tip of my brush, sometimes using the same motion, the same kind of brush stroke that I use to paint that liner mark or using a gentle scribbling motion. And that helps soften that effect. So you can see how I'm getting ideas from the actual design in the reference photo. I see those short diagonals and then those little diamonds, and then very short vertical lines underneath that. I'm describing those patterns subtly and in an imperfect way, as well. Avoiding overly controlling these lines and marks and making things too drawn out and too perfect. I'm looking for things to be imperfect and loose. Right there, I finished painting in those initial brush strokes, and right now I'm going in to soften them with a clean and slightly damp brush. After softening those short verticals at the bottom, I'm going to go ahead and add in some other types of marks in the middle section, and then I'll go ahead and soften those, as well. Alright, that's it. That's all I'm going to do. I don't want to overly describe things or overly darken this front part of these shoes, which I want to make look white. The final thing that I do to close this phase is I go over the word converse with my white paint pen just to make those letters a little bit more clear and defined. It really helped to allow this word to dry completely and then coming back over it. You might not have to do this at all. It all depends on how your labels are looking so far and whether you're also using a white paint pen or perhaps decided to paint in these letters with a very thin brush and white wash or whatever you have on hand. 12. Vignette Style Background: So it's finally time to paint in that colorful vignette style background. For this, I'm going to prepare a nice juicy puddle of purple by mixing together my blue and my red. As I said in the beginning, you can use a reddish purple, a bluish purple, or a secondary kind of middle of the range purple, whatever you prefer. I also prepare a little puddle of yellow so that I can pop in some colorful blooms here and there as I'm moving forward. Make sure that your puddles have more of a coffee or a milk consistency, even because we're going to be using the pre wedding technique. So there's already going to be some amount of water on your paper that is going to be added to the water in your mixers. And if you go in with paint that is too watery, your color is going to appear too pale. We're going to be pre-wet a section at a time and then painting in our color in that area, and then we move on to the next section. In a vignette style background, what happens is that the more concentrated, darker color closer to the subject, closer to the middle of the piece, and then that color dissipates or creates this gradient as it moves away from the central subject. Very little to no color should reach the edges of your masking tape. Along the edges of the piece, the paper is shining through and becoming part of the painting. Alright, I'm going to change my water so that I have clean water in my container for my pre wedding. For this part of the process, I have both my 1 " flat brush and my size six mop brush on hand. I'm going to be doing my pre wedding with my flap brush, and then I change to my mop brush, and it is my mop brush that I am using to actually paint in my color. Alright, so I'm getting started with this background section in the upper left, and I'm just taking a little bit of water at a time from my container and gently smoothing it on all throughout this upper left section. Carefully making my way around the shoe laces and these upper portions of the shoe so that none of this background color that I'm going to be applying next gets into those areas, making sure that I'm pre-wet all the way to the edges of my masking tape, even though I'm not intending for my paint to reach all the way to the masking tape, I'm still pre-wet everything so that my paint has enough space to expand and create that gradient. I don't want to pre-wet just a very small section because if I do that, when I paint in my color, it's going to expand, reach that edge, and then I'm going to be left with a sharp defined edge when I want a soft gradient, a soft transition where the color turns into the whiteness of the paper. So make sure that you always pre-wet more than you think you need. Provide that paint space to expand and create those beautiful organic effects. Also, make sure that you take your time with your pre wedding. Go over your background section that you're working in multiple times gently, of course, because if you just go over it once, things are going to start drying way too quickly, and you're going to be left with splotchiness and undesired texture. You want to make sure that that section that you're going to be working in has that nice even sheen throughout it before starting to paint in your color. Once I saw that even sheen all throughout this area in the upper left, I changed to my size six mop brush, loaded up that brush with a good amount of my purple mix. And as you can see, I'm starting by applying this color nearest the sneaker here on the left. I'm very carefully painting around the laces and the other parts of the shoe. And I'm avoiding placing any paint past this area at least directly. I don't have a specific shape in mind as I am applying this color. I'm allowing that background organic shape to take form on its own. Once I feel I've placed enough color, I remove that paint from my paint brush bristles, remove that excess water, and I'm going in with just a clean and slightly damp brush and manually softening that gradient, that transition. Pulling a little bit of paint out and toward the upper left in order to create that soft gradient, that soft transition that I want. I'm trying to continue to visualize this space that I have pre wedded so that I can continue working within this wet area. I don't want to start pulling out color into areas that I haven't pre wedded. If you want to intensify and darken the color around your sneakers, you can definitely do that by applying more paint right around them along those edges. Just make sure that you don't apply paint farther away from the sneakers. Because if you do, if you continue adding more and more paint, you can get rid of that gradient effect or accidentally have color reach the edges of your masking tape, and that wouldn't be a vignette. Alright, I'm pretty happy with how things are looking there. I'm going to leave things alone. Once I have that purple in, I rinse out my brush. I take some of my milk consistency yellow, and I pop in some yellow blooms over that purple here and there. It is very important that you don't start blending the yellow with the purple because yellow and purple are complimentary colors in the color wheel. And if you start blending, you can start creating mud or desaturated colors when we're going for bright vivid colors in the background. And that's the same process that I'm going to be following as I make my way around the background section. I switch on back to my 1 " flat brush for the next section, and I start pre-wet that area very carefully, making sure that I'm not wetting the laces because I don't want any purple or yellow to get into the white laces. As you're doing your pre wedding for the next section, you want to be very careful that you don't touch the edge of the previous section, especially if it is still wet because if you do that, you can start creating back runs and splotchiness. You can always allow the previous section to dry completely and then work on the next if you want a little bit more control. By the way, I'm leaving those smaller negative spaces in between the shoe laces dry, and I'm going to be painting those later. I finished with the pre wedding, I switched on over to my mop brush, and I'm getting started with my purple here. And placing the majority of that pigment right here nearest the objects. That's more than enough. Going to remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, use my absorbent towel and do any lifting that I might need to do if I notice that that paint is expanding out way too much, helping that paint expand out, maybe pulling a little bit out so that I can create those nice soft transitions. Going to remove that purple from my bristles. I'm going to take some of my yellow and I'm going to pop some yellow in there. Switch on back to my flat brush again. Going to work down here now. Same exact thing here. Make sure that you go over everything multiple times gently. And this is the largest area that I'm going to be tackling at once. I am pre-wet all the way down to the edge of this shoe lace on the farthest right. And I'm going all the way down to the masking tape in the central section. Really take your time with the pre wedding process. I cannot stress that enough. It is especially important in this section because it is larger. If you just go over things once, certain sections will start drying on you pretty quickly. And you'll have trouble creating those soft effects that we're after. Switching on over to my mop brush, taking a good amount of this purple and dropping it into these innermost sections here. Okay going to remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove the excess water, use my absorbent towel and same thing that I've been doing with the other sections. I can lift up some excess color. If too much is expanding out, I can help that color move out and create a softer gradient into the whiteness of the paper. Right here, I think I have too much water ipigment. I can clean up edges a little bit more taking my time with this process and I can take my time because I did the pre wedding. When we're painting large areas like this, it's important to use larger brushes, but if you want to have a smaller brush on hand in order to clean up edges more carefully or any sections where you need a little bit more control, feel free to have a smaller paintbrush on hand. But switch on back to the larger one as soon as possible. It's important to always choose paint brush sizes that are appropriate for the size of the area that we're painting. I just added some more of my purple nearest the objects to intensify the color in that area, and I'm going in with a clean and slightly damp brush to soften edges, trying to create a softer looking gradient and also doing any lifting that I might need to do so that not too much color actually reaches the masking tape. I'm going to drop in some of my yellow all that purple is still wet, be careful when you're dropping in your yellow or any complimentary color to the one that you've already placed underneath. You definitely don't want to start blending the two colors together because that's going to lead to muddiness. Complimentary colors mute each other out. If you continue moving around that color too much or trying to blend things when you have two complimentary colors, you might end up creating undesired muddiness. For these areas, I'm going to make sure to switch to a smaller brush. I'm going to be using my size ten round brush here. I think it's a good size for this area. And the process is the same, but obviously this shape is much smaller. A depending on what happened for you over here, you might want to paint lower or higher. For me, I want to make sure to bring my color down until here, because if I just leave it over here, it's going to look weird because on this side, the color comes down to over here. I'm going to make sure to pre-wet into this area here so that that color that I'm going to be placing has space to expand. Into more or less this area here. All done there and start dropping in my purple. That's enough. Remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, and lift and soften the edge as needed. Just add in a little bit more blue and here, tiny bit more red. Make sure that whenever you're creating more of your purple, it's a similar purple to what you were using before because if you are using a very reddish purple and then you go in with a bluish purple, that's going to look quite different. Which is why having a scrap piece of watercolor paper on hand can be very, very helpful so that you can test out those colors before going in. Gonna be adding a tiny bit of color over here. I think I want this right edge of this shoe left alone, just with that white background there against it. So using my mop brush, I go in a little bit of purple nearest the shoe. I think that's all the color I'm going to be adding there. I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove the excess water. Went in with too much water softening there. Popping in a little bit of color here. All right. I'm going to pop in a tiny bit of yellow. I want to make sure that all of my little yellow blooms are very irregularly placed throughout the background. I'm all done with the large background sections. I'm going to switch on over to my smallest brush, my size three round. All I'm going to do for that little area there and that little area there is I'm just going to go right in with a little bit of color. Purple color. I'm just going to go in with a little bit of my purple, going to carefully paint it in. And then after I've painted in that first layer, I want to go in and darken a little bit more with more color, I can do that. 13. Final Details + Refinements: All we're missing are little details in the shoes, and you might not even have to do these things. It all depends on how your painting process has gone so far and how your painting is looking. I'm going to go in to add in some final details and definition in the front plastic portion of the shoe. This is my size three round brush and my gray color mixture. Create a subtle hint of a line there. Making sure that the lines that I create have a line weight variation to them. Notice how I'm not reaching, you know, from one edge of this shape to the other edge of this shape. I'm painting in the line in sections. Certain sections of those lines are thinner and other sections are thicker, and they don't reach all the way to the left edge. This is important in order to stay away from an outlining look. In realism, we have no outlines. So make sure that you're not creating outlines anywhere or very stark looking, distracting lines. These are actually shadow shapes, not lines. All I'm trying to do here is add a little bit more definition, and I'm going to be doing final pushing of darkest dark areas. A softening of stark looking shapes, anything like that can be done at this point in the process. Finally adding more paints gray into my gray color mixer and doing final pushing of darkest dark areas. We're going to be all done. Going in and creating those abstract irregular shadow shapes, removing that color from my paintbrush bristles and softening the edge. Notice how loosely I'm going in at this point. If you see any smaller white shapes created by the masking fluid that still feel a little bit too stark looking to you and you want to soften it, you can go in and do some gentle scrubbing with a clean and slightly damp brush. Do a little bit of blotting with your absorbent towel, and that should soften that effect, as well. In this phase, you really want to come back and see everything as a whole and ask yourself if you have the detail that you want, if you have the level of contrast that you want, and also make sure that both sneakers look like they have that same level of finish. Doing a little bit of scrubbing. My purple got into the shoe there a little. Continuing to jump around the entire piece and pushing some final small shadow shapes. By this point, we have developed a wide range of values from very lightest areas to mid tones to darkest areas. And this is incredibly important for realism and depth. Darkening sections of this Black strip here. Because we're painting on dry paper right now, you're gonna be left with sharp defined edges around these shapes that you're painting in. So if at any time you want to go in and soften, you can do that with a clean and slightly damp brush. However, I would avoid softening every single shape. Not all shapes need to be softened. Okay, I do not want to overwork the piece, so I'm going to go ahead and leave it as is. If you have any little shapes created with your masking fluid that might look a little bit too stark, remember that you can go in and soften them with a clean and slightly damp brush, or you can go in with a tiny bit of very translucent gray and very loosely just create a bit of a light gray value inside of those shapes. Adding one final shadow shape underneath this shoe lace right here. And with that, we're all done with this modern watercolor still life. 14. Thank you!: You made it to this point, congratulations. I really hope that you enjoy this course and that you learned many new things that you can take with you to future watercolor pieces. Don't forget to share your work in the Projects and Resources tab. I can't wait to see your work and to help out with whatever you might need. Whether you have any questions, you had any specific struggles along the way, or you would like my input on anything. I'm always happy to help. Make sure to follow me here on Skillshare because I have many new courses coming down the pipeline for and also make sure to check out all of the free resources that I'm making available over on my YouTube channel, my Instagram, and, of course, my website. I share you posts and videos every single week and you won't want to miss them. Thank you so very much for joining me in this course. I wish you a wonderful rest of your day. Enjoy your art practice and see you very, very soon.