Transcripts
1. Introduction : Hello everyone. I am, I'm a watercolor artist
from south Italy and welcome to my first
Skillshare course. In this course, we
are going to learn how to paint this
painting right here. And how to convert
what we are looking at into basic geometrical shapes. Also, we are going to
focus a little bit on the perspective and
more on the shadows. Shadows are, I believe, the most important thing in my techniques
in my paintings. Because that's what
makes the difference between flat painting and something with that and
something interesting. What you will learn here. You will be able to use
it for whatever you want. I'm more focused on buildings, but I really believe
that you can paint mostly whatever you see. You can find. As you can see, I
have some examples on my back and I also have
something here with me. As you can see, I always use the same techniques is just
water color, waterproof fan. And that's it. Thanks. And if you
enjoy what I do, please follow my profile
here on Skillshare. It is the first time and I want to do more
of these videos, so if you enjoy
them, I will do it. Okay. Thank you. And happy painting
2. Materials: Let's take a quick overlook of the material we're
going to use today. And I'm going to use
this small brush. She's a director,
is a synthetic one. And its side six. The smaller one. This one is also a
synthetic I think. But I use this so much that I don't remember
the size of this one. And probably we're going to
use also some other one. Let's see. The first pen. I have
different sizes. This is the smaller one is 0.05. Then I have this one which
is in the middle is 0.1. And this one is the biggest
one I have on this 04. And I use them for different
stages of the painting. This one, I will
use it basically when when the light is so
strong and is hitting the side. So we're going to
have a thinner line, thinner outline of the building. And the biggest one, of course, is for
the shadowed area. The one in the middle
around Vernon. Use it just for little details. And it's the one that
I don't use so much. Then of course, we're
going to use a pencil. I use this one basically
because I'm a lazy person. I don't like to sharpen the point every time and this
one is always ready to go. Bucket of water. And painting. The painting I use is
Castile art supply. That's the brand. It's very, very cheap compared
to the Daniel Smith one. But it does the job. I like it so much. And then of course, paper, this block of paper is
not made with cotton. Fact is 100% cellulose and I like it to use
whatever you want, as long as the result
is whatever you want. Okay, so let's start
3. Drawing basic shapes: Okay, Let's start with this
painting. At the beginning. As always, I draw the
basic pencil sketch. Later on. I will cover it using the felt pen and
then I will erase it. This part is the foundation
of the painting. And take your time and just raise it once
you're happy with that. Here you can have fun. You can draw whatever you want and experiment
a little bit. In fact, as you can see, I'm modifying the
original image. And now I'm trying to
cover the entire page. Now using basic
geometrical shape, I will convert the original
image into a drawer. We have plenty of time. You can make mistakes. That's why they invented
the eraser, I guess. I will also make a lot of mistake on this stage
of the painting. You will see later on. Here, for example. This is completely wrong. Yeah, much better this time. Okay. Time to draw the
other building on the right side. That's the roof. That's the bottom
of the building. To give a correct perspective, you want to image that
there is a point outside of the paper and the lines
are converging to it. That's the other building.
That's a chimney. Okay. Once we have the
outline of everything, we can start adding details. Always remember
that you can erase everything and you
can't be perfect. On the first try. You will find here a lot
of mistakes that I'm doing and that was not pleased
with what was the outcome. Here. There is my little secret. To draw good windows which
are completely aligned. You have to do is to draw these parallel lines and then draw the rest
is really easy. Here I'm adding now, so some plants on the Windows. Please note that line are all converging to
an imaginary point. There is outside of the page. So the window on the, on the right are smaller. I don't use a ruler. I don't like to draw
with the perfect lines. And here the result
is more spontaneous, as you can see, is not perfect at
item one, perfection. Now I'm adding a little
door with curtains. And then we can skip to the part where I draw a little figure. I'm going to have to
draw to figure here, one on the right and
one on the left. When I started painting, I was not able to draw a
convincing person or an animal, and I had to find
a different way. So that's my way
to draw a figure. You can, you can find your or you can simply do the way I do. It doesn't matter. They're really, really basic. Now it's time to finish and to give some correction
where it's needed. The right part on the bottom
is a little bit empty. So I decided to draw
a line even if it was not in the original picture. This time is not correct. It was one through
three outside of the perspective and I
had to redo it again. Not happy also this time. And now the drawing
phase is completed
4. Outlines, size matters!: Now we'd add 0.05 felt pen. We're just going to draw on
top of the pencil sketch. Do not forget to just
leave some empty spaces, especially where the light
is hitting the building. Now we want that the
light hitting from the top right of this page. So just imagine this side is he's been hit
by a strong light. Light is so strong that we
have a lot of lost edges. While on this side, the left side, there is shadow. So we can clearly
see everything. Also decide this is
in the shadow error. So let's make up
continuous line. And this side is
eaten by the sun. So these windows Okay, Now we finished
everything and it's time to erase all the pencil marks. And then we can move
to the next stage, which is of course, painting
5. Mixing paint on paper, interesting walls : Okay, now I'm preparing some of the colors I use
in this painting. I want to use a lot of colors. In fact, here you can see I only have six or seven colors, but I will use them
with different values. So what I like to do is always damp your brush
before you use it. Otherwise, you can maybe bring some dirty water in
the color you are mixing. Then before each brushstroke, I like to remove all
the excess water. And then we can start. A lot of water is
used in this part. So the color is
really, really light. Just be careful not to paint in some areas which are meant
to be of a different color, even though some time mistake is good and will provide
a different result. Now time, He's everything
with watercolor has you already know probably. So that's why I'm really,
really fast here. I want to avoid that
the paint is dry because I like to mingle
different colors inside that. Just to add some
interesting changes in otherwise flat
and boring wall. Okay, I wash the brush, then I remove the water and
I add some burnt sienna. Just here and there. You're going to
have to be precise. I repeat this just to add
more interests in this wall. A really important thing here
is that all these colors, they should have the
same amount of water. Otherwise, if it is too watery, you're going to
have cauliflower. And on the other hand, if the color is too thick, they want mix, so the
result won't be the same. Let's proceed with
the other building. Keep changing your color. Probably you'll notice that I also removed the original
picture, the reference picture. Because here I don't
need it anymore. I don't like to paint
with the real colors. But is because I
think it's pointless. It is much fun to just go
with. What do you feel? This color scheme is always, always a good choice because we have all the three colors, the three elementary colors. We have hue of red,
yellow, and blue. And they are a good together. And unimportant nodes. Please do all the color
you think you will need for the
painting in advance. Otherwise you won't have
time to do it again. Everything would be dry and please do
everything in advance. For this painting, I
only use this brush. Even though I said in
the materials video that another brush was
needed, the smaller one. But this one is just perfect
for this size of paper. Now, for the tower, I like to paint it
all in one color. And just to mix it. For the very bottom part
6. Embrace the ugly stage: Now for the plants, I'm just using this mix of
cobalt blue, cobalt yellow. Now it's time to paint the roof. I do not remember the
name of this red, but it really doesn't matter. It was the first red color that I found in the
mine, my palette. And I'm using it mixed with the, with the other color. Just paint all the roof. Now I'm painting on the doors. The windows are also set. And that's the
what is called the ugly stage of a painting. Everything looks flat and boring and also a little
bit childish probability. But once you will
paint the shadows, the result will be
really different.
7. Shadows (and mistakes!) are important!: Now it's time to
paint the shadows. And here, for some
reason, I don't know. I was choosing the wrong mix
of colors for the shadow. And you can see here the result
is not so, so convincing. But later, as soon as I
discovered the mass I was doing, I corrected the mixer. The shadow effect is not bad. I mean, you can see
this area is in shadow, but it's not so realistic. I'm probably it was here
that I began to realize that something was wrong because this shadow was not
meant to be green. I kept going hoping
for a miracle. Know, the shadow
was still green. When you paint another layer. Please be careful not to
move the under paint. With your brush. Try to be gentle and to paint
only with one stroke. Okay, here, I realized that
it was not the right color. So I changed it with
the correct one. And with the ultramarine blue, I was able to change it. And now you can really
see the difference. Now is really popping
out from the page. The result will be much, much better later on
when I also paint the shadow on the on the roof. The damage was already done. I tried to cover it. I mean, that's that's painting. You need to do mistakes. Then the next time, you'll remember for sure. Now you can see that these
windows and the plants, they look like stickers. They are really jumping
out from this page Sometimes it's easier just
to rotate the canvas. Just to avoid touching the paper and the
paint with your hand. To give a better shadow to
this little figure here. I also painted the
head on the building. And this really
gives the 3D effect. So far so good. I'm using this kind
of violet color for the for the shadow of the roof
8. Final steps, refining and signature : Now it's time to
use the bigger felt pen to add some contrast. Because the paintings
still looks flat. We're going to use it just
for the shadowed area. I was trying to find
a better angle. Happens quite often
that in this stage, I touched the paint
with my hand and I realized it 3 min later, once it's too late and everything is dried
and everywhere. Remember, use this pen for the area when you
think there is shadow I think I finished it. It's time to add my signature. I like to sign in
some weird spots. The side of the tower
is the perfect spot for my signature. And that's it. You can use these techniques
for your urban sketching. For example, if you are
into your urban sketching, these techniques are just perfect. Very easy. Okay, thank you. All my next tutorial?
Gaetano Pirulli
