Modern Watercolor Techniques: A Jungle of Potted Plants

1. Modern Watercolor Introduction: Hi, my name is Molly Barker, and today we are going to be learning about modern watercolor techniques. Watercolor is one of my absolute favorite mediums. There are many different techniques that can be used to create and highlight various looks. From wet on wet blooms to using salt or using granulating pigments to emphasize the texture of the paper you're working with. In this class, we are going to be focusing on a more modern looking smooth technique, which will highlight this beauty of layering and generate a vibrant and lively colour. The final painting will have a fresh, clean, and simplistic book. We will use this idea of modern watercolor to create a painting of a group of potted plants. We will have gone from a blank page to a sketch, to a final illustration using watercolor in a fresh and trendy way. I look forward to exploring these watercolor techniques with you. I'll see you in my next lesson. 2. Class Project: During this class, you will learn several techniques about how to organize a sketch with ink to showcase depth. You'll learn about mixing watercolor paints to show vibrancy. How to quickly add dimension through layering using more saturated shades and using other medium to add finishing touches. The project will be to take these concepts and create your own illustration of potted plants. Will break it down into three main steps. Sketching out your design, painting it with the watercolor techniques seen in class, and photographing your final illustration and uploading it to the project gallery. This class is intended for the beginner with no prior knowledge of watercolor. All the way up to someone who has been using watercolor in finished illustrations. But may want a fresh perspective. You don't need any prior drawing or sketching experience. You can just pick up tips along the way. I would recommend that you also look through the project gallery and see how fellow students decided to paint their illustrations. I'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Materials: Hello again. In this lesson we're just going to briefly cover the materials that we'll need for this class. I'm going to be using this Arches hot pressed paper. It has a very fine grain to it. It's very smooth, very sudden. And it allows the watercolor to really smoothly coat the page. So this is what I'm going to use for this modern technique of watercolor. So this is the paper will be using, and then we'll also need some paints. I have the Winsor and Newton professional paints. You can use any paints. These are the ones that I have. I like them the most. We'll also be using a micron 0.005 archival ink pen. At the end, we'll be using a Jelly Roll pen for fun. And then we'll also need some brushes. I have the Kolinsky series seven brush, and we'll be using this size seven and the round brush. And then we'll also be using a size three round brush. And any brush that's that's around this size would work well. So these are the things that we're going to need for the painting. We'll also need some water, makes sure that you get a big chunk of it. And that's all that you'll need. Let's go ahead and get started. 4. Ink Sketch: Hello. In this lesson, we're going to be using our waterproof ink. This is a Pigma Micron pen in black, are very small size and we're going to be using it directly onto the watercolor paper. So this isn't a pencil, this isn't something that you can erase later. But it is really mostly a guide as to what we're going to be painting later. So you can think of this as sort of a layout of where you would like to paint. This isn't going to be the only place where paint is going to be placed upon the page. So the first thing that we're doing here is we're figuring out what plant we want closest to us. Since this is a waterproof ink, this isn't something that you can erase later. And so you want to identify what is closest and draw that first so that you don't have lines which are intersecting things behind or in front of them. So I've decided to put this nice tall leafy plant first. And what we wanna do is have the illustration be somewhat balanced, somewhat cohesive. And so what I've decided to do is have somewhat of a triangle of plants coming up to the top. So we're just going to draw in what we think plants will look like. If you'd like to go and actually research what the plants really look like, please be my guest. But for this illustration, I wanted to just sort of have a leafy jungles of plants. And so I've made up several of these. Some are actual plants and some are just for fun. So you can see I have this, this small side table with these two plants closest to the, to the foreground. And then I'm going to have a little bit taller of a stand to the right. And then behind it will be the tallest stand. And we'll draw that in a moment. But you can see as I'm drawing here, It's not it's not super detailed and it's not incredibly precise. So there's no need to be really concerned because you're going to have paint over this. Though. You will still be able to see the ink, which actually looks really nice. It's not going to be overwhelming. It's not going to be the main focus of the illustration. So definitely be aware of where you're drawing things and where you want the illustration actually sit. But don't be overly concerned. I feel like with these kinds of illustrations, what you want to do is have the feeling of, of the plants or the furniture and not necessarily have this incredibly detailed illustration. I think that modern wet watercolor paper. I think that modern watercolor painting is more about feeling and just the idea of something as opposed to this overwhelmingly detailed image. So as you can see, we're almost done here. We're just going to be illustrating the the plant that's gonna be in the back. I felt like this wasn't quite cohesive enough. Cohesive enough. So I wanted to bring it all back to the middle. And so you can see, I've got a few little pots on this stand in the back. And then I think that we should have one big plant in the background coming up to the top and making a peak. And so you can see, this is why I illustrated this last is because now I'm able to draw the legs of this little table around the leaves. And it's not super imperative. It's okay if you make a mistake. It really isn't very noticeable once you get the paint on there. The line art isn't going to be very noticeable. The paint is what's going to jump from the page. And so this, again, this is just a guide for how you want the paint to lay and what sort of leaf shapes you want for each plant. So as you can see here, I've got some much larger sort of jangly style of leaves here in the back. And I thought that was really good at sort of set off the different styles and types of plants that you can have in a pot. And if you're anything like me, this is actually what your house looks like. You have a whole jungle of plants at home. And so we have just a few of these leaves. And we're gonna go back when we do the painting and we're going to be putting in additional leaves. These won't be the only ones. This is just sort of a feeling for what the shape will be like. So at this stage, we're just going to be finishing up filling out the plants. We're going to put in the little leaves and sort of sit back and make sure that this is how the illustration should look. See if there's anything else that you'd like to add in. And then you're going to be starting our painting. I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. Base Color - Leaves: Hello again. So as you can see here, the paper is taped down. You want to do that to reduce any kind of warping when the page gets wet. And I've got my brush here. And we're going to start by just sort of getting a nice sap green, a green that you like, a nice green color. And we're going to use that to paint one of the plants. Again, for the most part, these plants are imaginary so you don't have to be really concerned. Oh, is this completely accurate to how the plant is? Don't worry about that. Just sort of pick a color and go with it. So we're going to just sort of fill these leaves and, and get a nice rich, vibrant color going. You don't want to have too, too light or too washed out looking. So make sure that it is a nice dry paint. You don't want to have a super wet wash color. So as you can see, I've filled in all the, all the leaves that I drew and it just looks a little bit imbalanced. So I'm adding a few more leaves without any of the line work. And we're gonna be doing this with most of the other plants as well. Just adding a leaf here or there just to make sure that it looks filled out sort of like a bushier, how a healthy plant would look. I went ahead and I went over and I added a few lines just to connect all of the leaves. And what we're going to do is just mix a different kind of green for each plant. So grab some yellow, grab some blue, get a different kind of green that you have this some more emerald green and I've mixed it with ocher and I think that looks really nice. So we're gonna go ahead and use that for one of the other plants. And do that with each one of these plants. Don't, don't use the same color twice. At least add one additional color to the green before, before going on to painting additional plant. Just to give it interests, you don't want to have one solid mass of the exact same green color. You want to have interesting variation within the green. As you can see, we're just adding the leaves that we think look nice. So you can see I've added a ton of leaves to this little plant, just to have more of a little bush here going on as opposed to just the few leaves that it was before. And let's go ahead and we'll mix a new color. This is a Payne's gray, love that color. And so just go ahead and get the colors that you want. You want a dark, dark green, that's great. You want to use a lighter green gets more yellow, it's fine. We're just mixing up a bunch of different kinds of colors. And we'll have these on the palette for the, basically the rest of the time that we're painting. The same thing here. It's just a slightly different color, a different shade of green. And we're going to fill in each of the leaves, try to make the paint consistent. Try not to let it pull. Don't have a huge mass of water on your brush as you're painting. Instead, try to have a thicker dryer paint as opposed to a paint that has a lot of water in it. So you want a lot of pigment and just a little bit of water, just enough to get it on the page. But you want that nice, vibrant watercolor. You don't want to have, you don't want it to be washed out. And that looks pretty good. Let's go ahead and we'll add a few more leaves in here. Yeah, I like that. Alright, so let's go ahead and mix another color. So as you can see, I grabbed that sap green again. And this time let's add some white. I feel like white really changes the way that watercolor paints on the page, the way it looks and the way it feels as well as you're putting it on. So let's go ahead and have that here. That's a really nice contrast, that sort of light green with that vibrant spring green to the left. That looks really nice. So we're just filling in. I feel like at this point it's kind of like a kid's coloring book. You've already done the line work and now you get to do is color it in and it's the funniest part, I think. So. We're adding in all of the, all of the little stems and things. And you can see I've added a few additional leaves. Then I think that looks nice. So let's go ahead and mix a new color. Let's get some red in there. Get a nice brownish color. And we'll paint this, this fiddle leaf fig plant on the right-hand side. And you'll be able to see just how the little bit of red really changes, how the green looks and how it's completely different than the other greens on the page. And I think that's wonderful. You want to have a lot of variation in these colors. You don't want it to be boring or the same. So we're gonna go ahead and fill that in. And you can see, I'm not too careful. It's not really a big deal if you go outside of the lines, actually sometimes that looks better. So we're going to go ahead and just fill this in. And then we'll mix a new color for our last plant there in the back. And as I'm looking at this, I think that the plant in the back just needs to be bigger. It needs to be bushier. It needs to be something that's in the background but a little bit more more alive. It seems like it's got just a few leaves left, like it's only hanging on by a thread. So let's add some more leaves and make it look a little bit more vibrant as well. So I've got this good sort of jungle green going on here and we're just going to fill in, just like the other plants so far, we're just going to fill the leaves in and try and have a nice consistent smooth paint on the page kind of painting. You can see I'm outlining the shape first and then filling it in as you go along. If you do have some extra wet puddles, that's fine. We're gonna be adding shade and highlights to this later. So it's not a big deal, so don't be too concerned if there are pools of paint on your page. So we're almost done here. And I really liked the shape of this leaf. So I think let's keep that shape going. And let's think where should we add some of these? Let's add some over here. I think here we'll add this one and then we'll add, let's see, one on the other side and then one up top. And that would probably be enough just to sort of round out this bush, make it look more alive, more full. I think that looks pretty good. Then you can also change the shape of the leaves that make it look like it's turned to the side or If the back of the leaf is to you as opposed to the front of the leaf. And you can see, I went ahead and added some stems, but some of the leaves, they're just floating. I think that looks really cool. So we're going to leave that and that's it. So I will see you in the next lesson. 6. Base Color - Stands: Alright, so we finished painting the plants. And now we're gonna go back and we're going to paint the stance which they're sitting on. Just like with the greens. You want to have different variations of greens. What I wanna do with this stance is have one color, one main color that I'm going to start with. And then we'll have slight variations on that same color. So we'll just add a little bit of difference for each stand. So as you can see, I got a little bit of yellow ocher and a little white. And it makes a nice pine colored wood. And so we're gonna go ahead and paint this stand with this nice creamy yellow color. And we're going to take this exact same paint and we're going to add just a little bit to it for each of the additional stands. And as you can see, I'm not being super super exacting. I'm going outside of the lines a little bit, leaving a little bit unpainted. That's totally fine. That's kind of what you want. Do you want it to have just a little bit of a wild look? I went ahead and I added just a little bit of red. I think that looks really nice. It's a nice peachy color. So let's go ahead and we use that for the back stand here. We're just gonna go ahead and paint it and avoid the leaves. You don't want to have this color on top of the leaves since the standards in the background. So go ahead and paint around that and then paint the legs of the stand. And that'll be good. And the next thing that we're going to be doing is the pots. And then after that we'll be painting shadow. So you want to keep this color as consistent as possible because we're going to be adding shadow, which is going to make it look quite different. So if you can keep this consistent, you can add a lot of depth and dimension just by adding some small shadows here and there later on. And so as you can see, I'm not, again, I'm not being super exacting with this kind of watercolor. You want to have a, just a loose feeling. You don't want to have to be super constrained about how it will actually look on the page. You just want to be able to flow with paint. So I went ahead and I added a little bit of Payne's gray and a little bit of purple. And I think that looks nice, like maybe the stand isn't worried. Maybe it's actually like a footstool that's made out of like velvet or something cool like that. So it's a nice purply color. And these are all about the same hue. So it's not, it's not too crazy of a difference. And so we're gonna go ahead and fill in all of this and just keep in mind that you're gonna be adding shadow later. So don't be too concerned about the, the angle or anything like that. So we're almost done here. And the next thing, like I said, we're going to be painting the pots. And I will see you in the next lesson. 7. Base Color - Pots: Hello again. In this lesson we're going to be painting the base color of the pots. And I really liked terracotta pots. And so I'm trying to mix here a color that's sort of like a nice terracotta color. I've added some nice vibrant red and some yellow ocher. And we're trying to get the right color going on. And some orange also, and it looks a little bit to wash out here. So one of the things that you can do if you think that it looks like not quite the color that you want, the whole area that it's going to be. And if you can get back to it while it's still wet, it'll really easily mask the color that you laid down originally. I went ahead and add a little bit more orange, little bit more red, just to make it a little bit more vibrant because terracotta is a nice rich orange color. I'm adding a little bit more, a little brown, a little bit of yellow ocher. And we're going to have this nice thick, rich color like that. And we'll go ahead and paint these other pots this color. You can change the color of the pots if you want some people like different colored ceramic pots and things. But I just loved this orange terracotta color. I'm going to use this for most of the pots and I'll add a little bit of Payne's gray to cool it off for a couple of the parts just to make them different. I added a little bit of Van **** brown. And we're going to use this new slightly darker mixture. We're going to use that for the big pot in the background. And to have slightly different variations in color, just the same with the stands and with the leaves to have this same base color and then to have slight variations upon that. Really makes it look really pretty. It has a nice color theme going on. And what I'm doing here is avoiding all of the little leaves that are here and trying to keep it as consistent as possible. You don't want to have too many brush lines, brushstrokes in there. And so I'm trying to work quickly before things start to dry. So I'm avoiding the pots and the leaves and just sort of getting all of that whitespace in there. And we're almost done there. And the next thing we're going to do is color the small pots. And I think I'll change the color quite a bit for those little pots, just that they really stand out away from that big pot in the background since it's basically touching those pots. So let's go ahead and grab a different color. We get some Payne's gray mix that in. You can see right away it just cools off a lot. So we're going to add that and I like that color. Let's make the other one a little bit cooler even than that. And when we're done with this, we're gonna go ahead and start adding shadows. So I will see you in the next lesson where we'll add our first layer of shadow. 8. First Shadow Layer: Hello again. In this lesson we're going to be adding shadow to all of these pots and stands. So I've got this nice terracotta color. I went ahead and added a little bit more of that nice Payne's gray. It looks a little bit dark to me. So we're gonna go ahead and just have straight up Payne's gray over here with some water. And we're going to use that for awhile. So as you can see, it looks really dark, but once you get it on the page, It's not as bad. I'm going to add a little bit more water just to sort of wash it out. This is going to be the first layer of shadow and we'll have another layer later on. So we've got a nice cool thin color here. And as you can see, we're going to have our light source off to the right. And we're going to be adding shadow to the left hand side of everything. So just think about how shadow works. Just add vague shadows of where you think they should be. We're just going to sort of brush along the side of the pots here and don't be too concerned, it doesn't have to look perfect. We're gonna do another layer as well. So it's going to look a bit different, is going to be very nice. So fill in the top portions of the pots to make it look like soil and we'll have a darker layer later to make it look even more so that way we're going to add these and let's go ahead and shadow all of the pots first. And then we'll add some shadow to the rest of the stand and all of that. So the different shapes of Potts just sort of put in shadow how you think it should be. And it's not too, it doesn't have to be super, super precise. Just like if everything with this painting, what you really want to do is have the feelings. A nice idea of where the shadow should be. People who will sort of assume that that's where the shadow should be as opposed to being upset that it's in the wrong spot. So what you'll find is that it looks quite nice just being this vague idea of where shadows should be, it makes it look more three-dimensional as opposed to very flat upon the page. That looks really nice with the pots. Let's go ahead and we'll add in some shadow to the stands. And as you can see, I'm not using the terracotta anymore. I'm using just Payne's gray and water and it's very thin. This is going to be the first layer of shadows, so it's going to be a larger wash. So it's gonna be much, much larger space than the next layer, which will be much darker. So let's go ahead and add in those shadows of where the pots are as well so that you can see that it's sitting there on top of the stand as opposed to floating in midair. So that one looks nice. Let's go ahead and we'll move on to the next one. Let's see. I think let's go ahead and add in the shadows first. And then this one's really easy since it's a box, we're just going to shade one side and then put a little bit of detail in. So as you can see, I'm just going around the base to the left of where the parts are. And we're going to shade this whole area over here. And it looks nice. That really gives it a little bit of a pop, a little bit of a more three-dimensional. So let's add some designs there that looks nice. And let's go to this back table. And you can see just like the pots, I'm just shading to the left. And you can see how imprecise it is in the background here. But you can tell that it also makes it look much nicer. It makes it look very three-dimensional. Alright, I'm really liking how this looks so far. So let's go ahead and move on to the next lesson. 9. Plant Shadow: Hello again. Alright, so in this lesson, we're going to be adding some dark shadow to the plants. And I really like this part because it's a lot of fun. You can either take out the same color of green and just put another layer on top. And because of the way that watercolor works, that layer, even though it's the same paint, will look darker. Or you can add a different kind of green like I'm doing here. I thought this fiddle leaf just looked a little bit too brown, like it wasn't quite alive anymore. So I'm adding more of a vibrant green to this plant and see that it makes it look much prettier, much more alive. And I'm just adding a shadow where essentially where the vein of the plant would be and also a shadow against the light source. So just on the left-hand side of the leaves. I think that looks really nice. So let's go ahead and move on. And what we're gonna do is take a little bit of Payne's gray, mix that up. And we'll use that to shade some of the other plants that we have. I like this dark green is really nice. So let's go ahead and do this big plant in the background. Again, we're just going to be painting to the left of the leaves and sometimes on the veins. And also you can see the way that the leaves are turned. If you imagine the shape of a leaf, you have this heart shape with the two sides folding out. So you can put two shadows there if you want. One on the left side, that's very dark, and then one on the right side that's much smaller because that's how the light would be. So, as you can see by adding a little bit of shadow here to this leaf that's in the background. It actually pushes it back more and pushes the leaf that's in the foreground forward. So that's also what you want. You want to have some more depth. You want it to look like an actual plant as opposed to just a flat drawing. We're gonna go ahead and do this to each one of our leaves and just sort of pick out some nice dark areas. You don't have to go crazy and you don't have to be perfectly exact thing. But just to add this little extra detail really brings the painting to life. So I think this makes it look very modern as well. Just having, instead of really meticulous detail brought out just the secondary wash of shadow. I just think it looks really nice, something that you would see in modern painting. So I went ahead and I use that same whitish green that I used for this plant before. And I just added a little bit of extra sap green and a little bit more emerald green, just to give it more of a brighter shadow color. As you can see. I'm just brushing it on just a little bit here and there. And it really, it really makes the plant pop. Alright, I think that one looks pretty good. So let's add some veins to the middle of the plant leaf and then we'll go on to the next one. Oh yeah, let's go ahead and do this vine here as well. I forgot that part. So again, going back and doing these small details, it really brings the painting to life. And so when you do this, don't be overly concerned. Again. I'm just going to say it again and again. Don't be meticulous with this kind of painting. It's really much more loose than you think it should be. We're going to go ahead and adjust this Payne's gray to this darker sap green. And we'll go ahead and use that for these pretty leaves to the left here. And again, we're just shading, shading the leaves. And the opposite side of where the light source would be. Just assume what's direction the leaf is going to be and paint it in that way. And it just looks really nice. It looks really nice when it's all done. So we're gonna go ahead and do this. And we'll also be adding some shadow to the small leaves in the background. Don't go too crazy with the leaves in the small plants because you don't want to you don't want it to be too chaotic back there since they're so small. But we're going to be doing this with the shadow. And then later on we're going to be using a white Jelly Roll pen to bring out some highlights on a shiny leaves of the plants. And wow, let me tell you that is the funnest part of watercolor is adding those fun highlights at the end. You can get the same effect by adding a masking fluid. But sometimes when you're doing a looser painting like this, just using that Jelly Roll pen to pick out highlights at the end is just so much fun. And so let's go ahead and finish these and then we'll move on to a slightly darker shadow on the pots and on the stands. I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Second Shadow Layer: Hello again. In this lesson we're going to be adding a second layer of shadow. So we're going to get rid of this green and we're going to add straight Payne's gray. And we're going to add a little bit of red just to make a nice deep purple shadow color. With watercolor, what you're going to have our large shapes initially, you're going to paint all of the stand or all of the leaves. And then in the next lesson, in the next layer, you're going to be doing a smaller section. So each layer that you do, the area that you're going to cover is smaller and smaller and smaller until you get to the very fine details. As you can see, this is a darker shadow colors, so we're not going to be covering the whole of the initial shadow. We're actually just going to be doing small areas. Just add a little bit more depth to the painting. So you can see I'm just doing a touch here and there of the shadow. It's not it's not something that we're going to cover up the initial, the initial layer of shadow. It's just a little hint of something darker. And you'll get that when you look at things in real life, they're very, very dark areas and then they're slightly darker areas. So what we're doing here is just picking out that natural shadow color, something that makes it look more three-dimensional. So right now I still think it looks a bit flat. So we're just going to add these little kind of the opposite of highlights, these little low lights here, these shade areas that are quite dark. And so as you can see, that's really bringing the, bringing the depth out. You can see the layering of it. You can see how it's more three-dimensional now. Alright, the next lesson, we're going to be adding highlights with the Gelly Roll pen. So I'll see you there. 11. White Details: Hello again. In this lesson we're going to be picking out some highlights with this wonderful Jelly Roll pen. I have a few different sizes, so let's use the 05, the smaller size for these tiny leaves. So what we're going to do is just like the shadow, we're going to be taking the opposite side, the side that would be in the light. And we're going to add just a touch here and there. A little white highlights. Just like on a leaf, it would be slightly shiny. We're going to be adding the highlights there with this pen. And well, let me tell you it is so fun to use this Jelly Roll pen. One of my favorite tools for watercolor is this pen. So we're gonna go ahead and do that for each one of these leaves. Just a little tiny highlight here and there. And it really brings out some life out of the painting. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm going to swap over to a larger pen. And we're going to be doing the other leaves and we'll also be adding some highlights to the edges of pots and the size of the stands and everything just to make it pop. And you can see how just adding this little tiny bit of highlight really adds character to the plants. So we're gonna do this with each one. What you wanna do is add sort of touches of this. You want to have maybe a dashed line or a few dots. You don't want to completely outline the leaves or anything like that. You just want to have just a few hints of this, of this highlight. So don't, don't go crazy and have full-on lines all around every single leaf as you're, as you're using this pin, you just want to have a hint here and there of a highlight. And so we're gonna go ahead and do that with most of these leaves. And as you can see, I'm just touching it to the page, dabbing it on as if it were paint. And it really, it really brings the painting to life. I feel like this is one of the, one of the best tools that you can use with watercolor. That isn't actually in watercolor. And so we're gonna go ahead and do that with each one of these leaves. And you can see how you could add depth by, by highlighting not only this, the right-hand side, but we'll also add a little bit of touch to other areas of the leaf that would, that would be highlighted because of where the light sources, it really, it really adds some texture as well. Leaves have a nice, a nice finished to them. And the waxy surface sometimes just brings up these really pretty highlights. So we're gonna go ahead and do this with the rest of the leaves. And as you can see, it's just really brought it to life. Love this pen. Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the stands and the pots. And we're gonna do again just the opposite of where the shadow is. Just where the highlights where the sun would touch it. Just sort of dots and dashes, nothing super large. And you can see here I'm just going to add just a little tiny bit of a highlight here to this pot. And then just like that, the potluck so much prettier. We're gonna do that with each one of these. Don't go too crazy. You don't want to be really coloring in large sections with this. You really want it to be used very sparingly. Just like with watercolor. You want the larger shapes be coloured first and then these small highlights are going to be added last. And they're going to be the smallest thing that you paint. Alright, that looks really good. I'm really liking this painting now. Wow, that looks great. Okay, I will see you in the next lesson where we do the best thing for the painting. We will sign it and we will remove the tape, which is just so satisfying. So I'll see you there. 12. Final Thoughts: Hello again. Alright, so this is our final painting. I hope that you love your painting as much as I love mine. I feel like it turned out really well. I think that the dark shadows look really nice and the highlights add some texture. It's missing before. So this is the final part. You get to sign your painting and remove the tape, and you have your illustration of potted plants. Let's go ahead and just sit back and enjoy this moment of peeling off the tape, which is my favorite part of any painting.