Monochromatic Watercolor Painting - One Color Is Enough!

1. Introduction: Hello everyone and welcome. My name is Yana and today I have a new radical class for you. This time you really don't need to worry about your radical or said being too small. Because what we are going to do today and what we're going to talk about is monochrome or a monochromatic style of painting. Which means that you only use one color for the whole artwork. But I believe you will not get bored using just one color. As you will explore a ton of color values, you can get experimenting with the paint to water ratio. Painting with only one color is wonderful exercise. I speak from my own experience when I say that sometimes we think we need the biggest watercolor set. Otherwise we are not able to create the best art. But the truth is that the white choice can sometimes be quite overwhelming and it can be helpful to stop trying to use many different colors in one artwork, but rather take the time to explore them one by one. And monochromatic painting is a very good and fun way to do it. To practice this, we will paint three different paintings together. A foggy forests, a bunch of flowers, and a city in morning haze, which reminds me of an old photograph. I hope I got to interested, if so, meet me in the class. 2. Materials: Let's see what do we need today? First of all, obviously some watercolor paints. I have here, my white knight set, which I'm using all the time. It looks like it, it's pretty messy. It's a huge says, but I'm only going to three colors today. Different color for every painting. For the foggy forests, I will use emerald green for the flowers. I chose indigo and for the city. Let's take sepia. You can choose different colors, of course. Or you can even paint all three painting using the same color is absolutely up to you. Regarding the paper. I have two kinds of paper here. First, this is Aqua fine watercolor paper by Dale around it is a cheap watercolor paper which I'm going to use for the testing of the colors and color value chart. For the actual paintings, the class projects, I have my Canson Heritage, 100% cotton paper. I recommend the cotton paper guys. I know it's expensive, but sometimes working with cheap art supplies can be so frustrating and actually hold you back. So I really recommend you to get at least one pad of higher-quality paper and see the difference. It really matters. Of course, my brushes, I have several brushes here. I have the mop brushes that are perfect for applying a lot of water or paint. They also have a nice tip when wet. I have regular round brushes, size six or eight. And liner brushes as well for the tiny details and lines. And for the cityscape. Some people prefer a flat brushes like this one. It can make drawing the walls and sharp angles easier. So you can give it a try if you want. But I usually go with round brushes. I have my jar of water, some paper towel to clean my brush. Now for the color value chart or a value study, I want to create several columns where I will record the color tones. For this, I will use this masking tape. This is two centimeters wide. The same masking tape I will use too fast and the paper to this hardwired, once working on the class projects, I like to do it this way as it helps to hold the paper in place and prevent the curling of the paper when it's wet. I think we have everything. Let's see how much fun you can have painting with only one color. 3. Color Value Charts: Monochromatic painting is painting with only one color. But within this one color, you can have countless different tones and values does provide you the contrast and variety you need. The best way to imagine it is to look at a black and white picture, find an old photograph, or just use your computer or phone. And this iterate any color photo to gray tones only. You can see that the black and white photo, which is actually monochromatic photo, is not something like this, but it has all these gray values in it, right, is also a part of the spectrum. You can imagine it as a very, very light gray painting with only one color is wonderful exercise, especially for beginners. I remember that when I was starting my art journey, I thought I needed the biggest color. Said there was an I needed to use many colors in the single artwork to bring the contrast and life into it. But that's not true. Working with limited color palette or with only one color can give you a new perspective on how to work with lights and darks in the painting. And the result looks much more professional and harmonious than if you just throw 15 different colors on the paper, especially if you are not sure how they would work together. Just to be clear, I'm not discouraging you to experiment with different color combinations, not at all. What I'm trying to say is that sometimes we buy these huge sets of different colors and then we're overwhelmed by the choice we have. And we think that we need to use all of them at once. But it's beneficial just to take a step back. And rather than trying to make all these colors work together, focused on just one of them sometimes and see its full potential. So I'm creating a color value chart for my three colors of choice. And I start from the darkest value and move gradually to the lightest. You can go also the other way around from light to dark. But I think it's easier this way. I have watercolors in pants. So for the first color value, I use small amount of water just enough to wake up the dry paint. And then into the first column, I paint the dark small rectangle, the darkest indigo value. You can see that it appears almost black. It's very dark. Now for the next values, I need to add more and more water. So I pick up the concentrated rich indigo and using my brush, I move it to the mixing palette, making sure I have enough of the pigment there. And from now on, for every new rectangle of color, I will dilute the paint more and more. I always leave out a tiny dry stripe between the rectangles so that they don't blend into each other. I'm moving to the next well, on my mixing palette because in the first one, I have too much of the pigment and I want to go lighter now. I pick a bit of the paint from the first well and diluted farther into much lighter values. Of course it can happen as you mix the water and paint. The two rectangles seem the same or the following one which will be lighter, I press a bit darker, but we are not a computer and it can happen that the washes are not precise. The meaning of this exercise is to learn how much the color or the value can differ. Water in my jar is pretty dirty now. So before I paint the lightest rectangles, I'm going to change it. Very well. The chart looks fabulous. We can really see now how one color can provide us deep and dark tones on one side and gentle and translucent washes on the other side. All we need to do is to control the water to paint ratio. Now I want to do the same with emerald green. This color is not the darkest indigo, but still, when taking the pigments thread out of the pen, the wash is pretty dark. Now I'm moving to the mixing palette again. And one-by-one, I draw rectangles of color, can go lighter and lighter. I jumped to a clean mixing well, again, for more diluted color. You can see that since I brought the paint out of the pen in the first step, I'm not going back to the pen. I only work with what I have in my mixing palette. And with water. Let's change the water again for the most transparent washes. Very nice with this lovely green, I plan to paint a foggy pine forest, and I think it's going to look wonderful. Now let's play a bit with sepia color. This is one of my favorite darks. You can see that just like indigo, it appears almost black when at its richest concentration. I'm adding water now and soon the nice brown tones appear. As I dilute the paint more and more. The color appears to be more grand and brown. It's very interesting color. In the class project chapter, I'm going to paint a nostalgic cityscape with this color, reminding of an old photograph or postcard. I'm looking forward to it. I have one more quick exercise for you. Let's make similar color chart, but with only one wash for one color. It's very easy. I have a piece of scrap paper here, perfect for this. And I started with indigo again, applying the richest concentration in the upper left corner. And then I pull the pigment downwards using more diluted paint. And for the lightest part, I wash my brush and I use the water only. Does the watery part of the wash meets with the darker tone. There will be a natural gradient effect. Pleasant, more pigment to the upper part. And it looks very good. Do the same with the emerald green and WhatsApp. Yeah. Very good. Even though I'm not a watercolor beginner anymore, I still enjoy exercises like this, because sometimes it's easy to forget about the potential of single color. So if you want to spend more time on playing with your chosen colors, I encourage you to do that. And once you are ready to join me for the three class projects, three monochromatic paintings. We are going to paint simple indigo flowers, emerald foggy forests, and said PSAT silhouette. 4. Indigo Flowers - Class Project #1: First monochromatic painting that we're going to do today is the easiest one. We will use indigo color to paint some gentle flowers and leaves. You will see how one color can provide enough interest and contrast, even in something like a floral motif, which is something that we expect to be colorful. I want to paint three flowers. I'm starting with painting the center of it using a very concentrated indigo color. Using tiny brush, I drove several small dots, creating a circle. It can be a bit uneven. And now all you need is a bigger brush and clean water. I picked some clean water and paint petals. I make the petal connects to the center of the flower. And the still wet, dark pigment will run into the transplant petal, provide some light color to the petals and create nice gradient effect. I am still using only the water for the petals as I draw. And I drag a bit of the pigment from the center to the petals themselves. And to increase the contrast and gradient. Now I'm adding more paint into the center and let it run freely into the rest of the flower. Note that I left some tiny spots in the center wide. It is a good way to add some contrast and highlight. And I'm going to do the same also in the next flower. So again, I apply a really rich indigo mix in a shape of circle and few spots in the middle of the circle remained white and give that nice highlight. Now I clean my brush and using just water. I paint some gentle light petals. When I'm done with them, I add a few drops of dark indigo into the center. Now let's create the third flower the same way. If you think the water in your jar is already too polluted, just change it and continue. Note that I always tried to paint the petals close to each other, but not touching. I want the tiny white stripe between them, which will become even more visible once I add the additional pigment. Very nice. Now I'm going to use my liner brush and add a few little stamps. The color I'm using is not too dark, but it's still quite contrasting and visible. This term here is a bit lighter, but it's okay. Now I'm painting the leaves using middle values of indigo. Those are the colors in the middle of the chart. So I'm using more water and drawing some simple leaves. Again, they don't need to be all of the same value. Some of them can be pretty faint. Sun can be a little bit darker, but overall, I don't want them to be too dark. That's because I want to add some texture to them and I want it to be visible. So as the leaves are dry, I take my liner brush again and using dark indigo mix, I drove several A-sharp lines representing the veins of the leaves. I'm not going to draw them on every single leaf. Just shocking. And now as a finishing touch, I'm going to splatter some color over the painting. And I'm going to use darker mix again because I want the drops to contrast nicely with the light petals of the flowers. Make sure your paint is liquid enough so that you can beat it out of the brush easily. Hi, I'm very happy with this little artwork. It looks peaceful and elegant. It has enough contrast and have different color values. You can see that for the center of the flowers, we use the darkest values. On the other hand, the petals are faint and dreaming. And the leaves provide nice middle values that connect the whole piece together. Of course, different color would give the painting different vibe. This one is calm and the wintery, but if you paint it red or orange, it can feel more energetic and lively. 5. Emerald Green Trees - Class Project #2: Second painting is a foggy forest. I love this subject. I append it very often. I even have a whole class on foggy forests. You can check it out. But this one is going to be emerald green. I have a piece of watercolor paper. This is Canson Heritage Cold Press. And I'm going to create a forest that is fading in the fog. That means that I'm going to use the lightest values for the trees that are in the distance, and you'll go darker and darker as I move forward. I use the masking tape to secure the paper to a piece of hard board. And using my mop brush, I apply a layer of clean water on the upper part of the paper. Now I paint a faint light hill that runs into the area of the white sky. And I smooth and the lower edge using clean water as well. Let's throw up some pigment here and they're still very light. Just so that the scene has more depth. And now you have to let it dry. You can use a hairdryer if you want to speed up the drying process app. Now following the line of the hill I painted before, I am drawing simple pine trees are for 3s, just easy conifers. One vertical line for the trunk and several horizontal lines for the branches. The color values are still pretty light. Remember that these trees are hidden in the fog and you don't see them clearly. Some of the theories can be a little bit darker. Maybe the focus, not the dance there. And I'm always using the water to smooth and add the wash below the trees to make it fade gradually. So the first, the most distant range of trees is done. You can see that we use the lightest values of the emerald green. But even here, not all of the trees are the same in terms of color values, and it gives the painting a realistic feel. Now let the painting dry again before you continue with the second range of trees. My paper is already dry so I can paint another hail. This one is closer to me and has a bit darker color. Again, I use the water to create the gradient effect in the lower part of the hail. The future trees. Using emerald green that is a bit darker and richer, I paint another row of trees. These trees are not only darker, but also appear a bit bigger because they are closer to me. You can add more pigment here and there, maybe belonged to Teresa, create a shade. My order is to green now, so I'm going to change it and then use it to get rid of this sharp green edges down here. After the paper dries again, I'm going to use the most concentrated emerald green for the cause of stress. They also appear tallest and biggest. See that? I don't make them all the same. One is taller than the other. The branches are bit uneven and I don't paint the trees flat. I leave out some tiny whitespaces for the highlight. And the paint does not have the same value for all the trees and all the branches. Now removing the masking tape, I'm revealing this nice, elegant white frame. And now as a finishing touch, let's add a flock of birds flying above the trees. Just simple V shapes. Draw as many of them as you like, using dark mix of emerald green and a liner brush. 6. Sepia Old Town Silhouette - Class Project #3: The last project in this class is a statistical word painting. I'm going to paint it in sepia color because I like the nostalgic feel of an old photograph. I found a photo online. It was a website called pixabay.com, where you can find many free pictures and videos. And this picture will serve me as an inspiration. It already is monochromatic, so it's easier for us to imagine the values. I'm starting with taping my paper down to a piece of cardboard and then sketching the city, all the dorms and roofs, the three lamps. I have not 100% following the composition of the original picture, like the sun or the street lamp, I move a little bit so that it looks better in my painting. Also, I will not draw all these tiny details in the bottom. Those people and stuff. I want to simplify this in a bit. Okay, Now I'm satisfied with the sketch and I want to add some color. I have a sepia mix that is really light. There is a lot of water. I use it to paint the whole paper except the sun. The sun stays white, swipe paint around it. I'm not too happy with its shape. So I'm using a piece of paper towel to adjust it a little bit, and then I continue with painting the rest of the sheet. Now the paper needs to dry before we add some more layers of color. I can continue now. My paper is dry and my sepia color is a bit darker. If you're not sure about the value, you can try it on a piece of scrap paper. I want the color to be darker on the roofs of the buildings and lighter in the bottom, just like in the photo. Because the roofs and domes are peeking out from the haze and the lower parts of the buildings are hidden in it. So for the roofs and domes, I use darker sepia and for the lower part, just water. See those tiny details in the towers and domes, those highlights and windows where this guy is showing through. Make sure to preserve them. Don't paint the whole tower and then realized there should have been some window. These tiny details give your artwork the crisp and elegance. And in watercolor, you need to think in advance because adding highlight after dark paint was applied is close to impossible. If you don't want to use any opaque media like ink or gouache. Every layer needs to dry before adding the next one. So I helped it with a hairdryer and I'm ready to continue. Now. You can see that in the reference, the roofs are darker than the walls of the buildings. So I'm going to do the same in my painting. I have sepia, again just a bit darker. We are in the middle values now. And I'm painting the rules and few details like windows. At this point, I'm pretty much imagining what is happening in the scene. I don't even try to draw every single window exactly where it is in the reference. As I move downwards, the car gets lighter again, because that's where the highest concentration. Now I have my tiny brush and I'm drawing the street lamp. I have very rich sappy at the lab is close to me and the haze does not make it fade away. Let's add one more lone pair. And now we can add the final layer of sepia color and December very dark and rich. I draw the tree. On the right side. Again. I leave out some tiny spaces for highlights. And then few of the roofs and details in the foreground. The whole painting is very loose. I don't want to worry about details to match. Few more windows. And last thing to do is to add this flying bird, maybe a C go flying about the street or square. That's it. Only one color and so many possibilities and choices. 7. Final Thoughts: Thank you guys for being here with me today. I really had fun painting this simple monochromatic pieces. The purpose of this class was to show you that you don't need to have dozens of different colors in your set to work with at the same time. You can make wonderful art with limited color palette or even with just one color. I encourage you to practice this monochromatic painting style. Then maybe add one or two different colors. And you'll realize that your ad would appear more harmonious and accomplished. Let me know how you liked this class and don't forget to upload your projects. Thank you. See you next time. Bye.