Oil Painting Exercises: Improve Your Skills with Simple Practice Projects

1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to this course. I'm truly happy to have you here. If you have already learned the fundamentals of oil painting, it is now time to strengthen your skills through a series of focused exercises. Each project in this class has been designed to help you improve a specific aspect of your painting from understanding values and color relationships to creating convincing volume and learning to paint what you actually see rather than what you think you see. We will practice with exercises such as painting with only two colors, painting a fragmented object to improve observation, creating the illusion or volume on a simple sphere, and even painting a white ball while keeping it full of depth and dimension. For these exercises, I will be painting on oil painting paper, although you can use a canvas if you prefer. I will also be using my usual five color palette and the selection of synthetic brushes. If you'd like a complete overview of the materials and how I use them, you will find everything explained in my fundamentals of oil painting class here on Skillshare. Let's get started right now. 2. Paint with only 2 colors: In this video, we will be painting a deliberately simple subject using only two colors, titanium white, and ultramarine Blue. And for this painting, I will be using some oil painting paper, and the size of it is 20 by 30 centimeters. And for the drawing, I will be using the grid technique once again. By working with only two colors, that means that we focus only on one thing that is to say the value. This exercise that we are doing here is really a great exercise to work and to make some improvement with the work on the values because the values is something that is really important if you want to create some value. And so with this exercise, the questions that we'll be asking yourself is, is this area dark? Is this area light or is it in between? Is this area lighter than this other one or is it on the contrary darker? And this way, we will be able to create some volume only with two colors. And the aim and the goal with this exercise is not to create something very realistic or very detail. We don't care about this. What we want to do is to create some volume only using these two different colors and then improving our skills on the value work. So this is quite simple exercise, but also very instructive and very helpful to make some progress. So grab your brush and let's get started. So let's go and let's start by mixing our colors. So this ultramarine blue and this white titanium light, the goal is really to create a value scale, meaning to have a wide range of blues that will get lighter and lighter as we get closer to white. This way, we will have a broad selection to paint the areas with elements that are more or less dark. So at first, I started with colors that had a large proportion of ultramarine blue. And as we go along, my proportion of ultramarine blue will gradually fade away, and I will end up with more and more white to get elements that are extremely light. So this is really going to be a very interesting exercise to help see the different subtila solo ties in terms of value because values are truly what allows us to create volume, applying the right colors and the right values to create volume. So here we have a wide range of blues, and we can now start painting this megaphone in rather unusual subject, but which, in my opinion, is an excellent and very interesting exercise for practicing this. Okay. So let's get started, and we'll begin with painting the megaphone. What I notice is that the upper part is extremely dark. So here we can definitely go with pure ultramarine blue. I think that's the right value. Then as we move down, it gets a little lighter, so I adjust and pick a slightly lighter value of ultramarine blue like I am doing here. This seems to be the right shade of blue to paint this larger area below where our megaphone starts to curve down. We will be able to use some very dark ultramarine blue on the side as well. Right here, you can see that it is really dark. So I have chosen to do this exercise with ultramarine blue and white for this exercise. We could have done it with other colors like burnt amber and white, for example, or permanent red and white or yellow and white. The problem is, if I had used something other than ultramarine blue or burnt timber, for example, lemon yellow, which is one of the other five colors in my palette, the lemon yellow would have been my darkest value. And in the lemon yellow is not that dark, so we wouldn't have been able to get strong contrast or create a white value range. Whereas with this ultramarin blue, we have a color the ultramarin blue that is extremely dark and white, which is extremely light, the lightest color we can have. And this way, we can create a broad value scale with many different values. That's why this seems like a good choice to me. Now moving along this area, I found that the transition between colors right here, I had applied this color, but I feel like the shift between these two colors is too abrupt. The difference in value is too noticeable, so I am adjusting it to get a more intermediate color between the two, and I can apply my color here. Then once again, we have a lighter area. So this time, this color, this blue here seems right to me, and it looks like we've got the right value. So I can apply it in this whole area. I continue with this lower part where there is a lighter area, so I adjust my color to get something lighter, and then we move back to something a little darker. So here, the goal with this exercise is not to create the most realistic object possible. I am not aiming to create details or to blend between my different areas. It's really about focusing on the value of the objects and asking myself each time, whether this part is darker or lighter than the one next to it. Not focusing on the color, but only on the darkness or brightness of an element. So here we go, and I move over to this right side of the megaphone, and to create the volume, we can see that the area is lighter, so I adjust my color to go to get something lighter in turn. Each time I try to compare the element to set them in perspective with one another, to ask myself if I need something lighter or darker in this area. And this is how I manage to determine whether it is the right value or not for my area. Here, too, I have something fairly light so that it contrasts quite strongly with this dark band I had apply, and that helps to create volume. On the other side as well, to give that curved effect on either side of the megaphone, we again have something slightly lighter areas. We have some lighter areas that I can add here. So there we go. For this area, it is fully painted. I sped things up a bit because it is essentially the same process. And we can move on to the one below. Here we are moving to another part of the megathon and to create a bit of volume in this area, we can notice that there is a significant shift in value, which contrasts strongly with the dark blue we had applied bow. And this is how we will create that sense of volume in this spot. And over this lighter area that I had painted, I can add some even lighter touches. This highlights these very bright areas, which will also help me to create even more volume. So here I am adding these very bright touches, and we can also notice that there are some slightly darker touches than the base that I had applied. So I can go ahead and add those as well. So I am continuing with the lower area of the megaphone. And as you can see, I started with the bottom of the handle, which is extremely dark. So I was able to go in with pure ultramarine blue. And actually, what is nice about starting with this dark element, the darkest is that it will then serve as a reference point to compare the other values. That is to say, now I know this is my darkest element, and then when I paint the other blue areas like this one, I can ask myself, compared to the darkest element, is it much lighter or just a bit lighter? By asking myself this question, it makes things easier for me and helps me figure out whether I've got the right value or not. And this comparing the values of elements with each other is something we do a lot when painting because in the end, painting is a set of colors placed in relation to each other, dark elements next to lighter one, and asking ourselves whether the elements are light enough compared to the others help us apply the right value. What I can also do is look at the value of the other areas of my megaphone. For example, when I started with my darkest element, after that, I applied a rather dark blue next to it, and I asked myself, this blue compared to the other blues I applied in the upper part of the megaphone, how is it? Is it darker, lighter or about the same? I found that this blue around the handle this dark blue was quite close to the dark blue I had applied on the upper part of the megaphone. So comparing the elements with one another is going to be very important. And here we are making progress in this area. It is a zone with a lot of different value since we have many little ridges and texture in the endo, so we need to pay close attention to these small value changes, these little highlights which help us successfully create a sense of volume in this zone. I have to admit I am struggling a little because my drawing wasn't precise enough, which shows how important it is to have a good drawing when you want to create a good painting. I have to admit I didn't take the necessary time to do it properly, since this exercise wasn't really focused on creating the most realistic object possible. So I am having a bit of trouble, I have to admit, but I am doing my best to try to create volume in this area. So this really highlights the importance of having a quality drawing before creating a realistic artwork. In this case, it's not a disaster, but it's a good reminder that's very useful. So now I'm going back to something nice and light since we are moving into another area, and to create a certain sense in volume in relation to the surrounding elements, there needs to be the difference in value. Here we have this whole part that is fairly light, and I think it looks like kind of a nose. We are trying to create that, too. It's true that I have an imagination that can seem a bit overactive, but tell me if you think that this looks like a nose a little bit as well. So we are painting this area I didn't draw the screw either, since it is a bit of a superfluous detail, not very important for this exercise. The goal isn't to create something ultra realistic, as I said. So let's continue with this area, and we will need to pay close attention to the small dark element in this area because it creates a sort of a hollow. So once again, we'll try to apply the right values to create that effect ourselves. For this area, we can see that there is this little dark line, and it's really a series of small touches, some lighter, some darker place right next to each other, which helps to create texture and depth. So this should be pretty good. Then for the adjacent area, I'm going to skip this part of the video since it looks very similar to what we did earlier. So we'll meet again for the rest and the upper part, the inside of the megaphone, as well as the flowers. Et's start this new area with the inside of the megaphone. On the right side, just next to our leaves, we can see that there are some areas that are a little bit darker in comparison with the rest. There is some visible shadow, so I'm starting with that color. And we can also see that I added some slightly darker touches because the shadowed area isn't completely uniform. Then our elements become much lighter as we move towards the left and the far right edge of the megaphone. So here I overloaded my palette with white, and I am applying this very light color to the side. I try to tap very lightly so that it barely touches the neighboring color to create a very slight blend, even though blending isn't the focus of this lesson. Here we are focusing on getting the right values. Then on the other side, the inside of the megathon is really in the light. So once again, I am applying this color. I also try to spread it out well to keep the elements rather smooth. So even though the goal isn't to focus on blending or other effects, we still try to apply the techniques we have seen since the beginning of the course. What we also notice is that on the far left edge, there is a slightly darker element, which will also really help to give volume to the hollow space to the inside of the megaphone. And now I'm going to have some even darker element. These darker elements can be added to the edges, and I can go ahead and add them here. And there will also be some on the overside. And these darker elements creates a kind of little relief, and this relief is really very important to show that there is a hollow space and that it is deep inside the megaphone. And now I am going to paint this circular band that adds even more volume all around my megaphone. So I will start with something very light. And as I go along, I will slightly adjust the value of what I am applying since it won't necessarily be the same all the way around. So make sure to pay a close attention to that as well when you paint it. Now we are going to move on to the painting of the different leaves. And on the ones at the bottom left, the leaves are quite light. And when I look at them, I ask myself, are they much darker than some parts of the megaphone? Inside of the megaphone. And actually, not really. The color is obviously different, of course, in my photo, but when I look at the overall values of these light leaves, I realize it is about as dark as those shadow inside the megaphone. On the other hand, for this one, it's a completely different story. We can see that it is quite dark. So I am applying a rather dark blue at first that stands out well. But for this leaf, the values won't be the same all over. And to create the fold, I paint this element that just next to it, and I use it a lighter blue value that contrasts with this dark blue I have added. And so there we go. And I will continue like this with each of the leaves, asking myself each time, does this element seem darker than the first leaf I painted? Or I can also compare it to the megaphone itself. And here, for example, with this new leaf I am painting, in its darkest areas, I notice that it is almost as dark as the very dark purples we had in some parts of the megaphone. So I can go with that as well. So each time I compare the value of this element and ask myself, when I look at this one, is it much darker than the other elements I painted so far? And that's what helps me move forward and paint these leaves with the right values. For the painting of the stems, we can see that they are fairly dark, but I don't want them too dark because I want the roses, I will paint afterward to really stand out. And if I make the stems too dark, on the one hand, I won't have the right value, and on the other hand, the contrast with the flowers won't be strong enough. So for the flowers on this front facing side, we can see that it is extremely dark, but the value isn't going to be the same everywhere. We can notice that around the edges, there are very dark areas that I can mark with ultramarine blue that is pure. But between these areas that I mark in pure ultramarine blue, I will go with slightly lighter values. And that's also the goal of this exercise to capture all these little value shifts that can be quite subtle because even though we are in a dark area here, it won't have the same darkness all the way through. So we have to pay attention to these small changes because they are what create the death. And even within this very dark area, I have a few small highlights that really pop, some little touches that are just a bit lighter and that I can mark as well. On the upper part, though, while there will be a few lines like this one that are fairly dark, afterward, I am mostly going to apply lighter elements, as you can see right now. And Just a few more brush strokes that we had together to finish the flower, and then I will skip the rest of this section on the leaves and the stem, as well as the other flowers that I hadn't drawn because overall, it's the same as what we have done here. So we'll now meet up for the painting of the background, which we'll do together. However, I encourage you to go ahead and complete the painting of those other flowers, stems, and leaves to get a result that looks clean. And, of course, and especially to practice this whole part about working with bichrom and this value exercise. Let's now move on to painting the background. And before anything else, we can start with the shadow cast by the megaphone on the ground. We can see that it is a dark area, but be careful because you will notice that as we get closer to the far left, it becomes just a little lighter as it does as it does on the far right as well. Once again, a subtle change in value to watch out for. Now we are going to paint the entire background. I'm going to do this with a flat brush to get a fairly smooth background where the brush strokes won't be too visible and to cover larger areas. Here, too, in the background, it's important to pay attention because we won't have the same values everywhere. We can see that there are purples of varying brightness depending on the areas, and the background is an element that shouldn't be overlooked because if I make a completely uniform background without changing my values and without paying attention to I will end up with an object that might look flat, flattened out, and I won't manage to give it the proper sense of volume that I want. So be sure to pay attention to that, especially on this left hand side next to the megaphone, we can see there is an area that is extremely light and that I have just painted. Also, there is a light area along the bottom, just under the megaphone, where we have a whole slightly light band, a bit less bright than what we just applied, though, but still fairly light. So I continue, and I notice that on the right side, we also have a slightly dark shadow from the megaphone, so I add that in, and I adjust my color each time by remixing my white and ultramarine blue to get the right value in my blue. What we also notice on this right side is that we'll have all along the megaphone, a slightly lighter band, and then the shadow. So there's a very slight difference in value, but it's important to remember to apply that as well. And there we go. That's roughly how to go about the background. So make sure to apply the right values in the right place to complete this work in the best way possible. So here is the final result with the background completed. It's true that I probably could have emphasized some of the shadow areas on a bit more, a bit more. I realized that while editing this video, they don't stand out enough. I probably didn't put as much care into it as I would have for a finish piece, but, well, that's how it is. It was still an enjoyable exercise to work on values. I hope you enjoy it, too. So, feel free to share your thoughts with me after doing this exercise and your final result, as well. I always love seeing what you create. So thank you very much for watching and I'll see you for our new tutorial. 3. Understand the difference between sharp and soft edges: Now we are going to speak about sharp edges and soft edges. And that is something that we can apply to both painting and drawing. And that is something very important and sometimes overlooked by many beginner artists that don't see the difference between these two elements. And so the aim of this part is to show the difference and show you why it is important to tell the difference between a sharp edge and a soft edge. And so we are going to see that with the first example that many people consider to be a sharp edge, while, actually, most of the time, it is a soft edge. And I am talking about the mouth of a person. We tend to outline the lips with a very crisp and strong line, whereas in reality, the mouth gently blends into the surrounding skin. In this example, you can clearly see how the lips seem to merge with the face. There is a natural transition, not a hard and abrupt edge. On the other hand, if we look at this over mouth, we still have that soft transition between the lips and the skin. But between the lips and the teeth, there is a clearly hard edge, a sharp separation that defines the two zones. In that case, there's no real connection between the elements, and that is exactly what we want visually. Another common example in portrator is hair. I often see a very sharp line between the forehead and the hair as if they were two completely separate things. But in reality, the hair grows from the forehead. They are connected. So we need to create a soft edge between these two, these two areas, a smooth transition. In this photo, for instance, you can see that the hair and the forehead form a hole. They are distinct, but the connection is visible. The hair starts from the skin. I have highlighted that with arrows, and you can see throughout the entire hair line that there is a soft blending between the two. In this second example, we can also clearly see how the hair is connected to the forehead. And what reinforces this connection are the darker zones, the shadows created by the hair itself. And here, the arrow points out that underneath the hair, we can still see skin, which confirms this link between the two elements. So far, we have mainly looked at the face, but the principle of soft and hard edges applies to absolutely any subject, animals, landscapes, still lives, and so on. For example, in this photo of steel life, we can observe some soft edges marked by yellow arrows. Look at the endle for example, the dark shadow areas blends into the lighter zone. This is a soft. The same with the rounded top of the vase, the highlight gradually transitions into shadow. But with the blue arrows, we can clearly see some hard edges between the vase and the background, or between the vase and the stems of the plants. These areas have crisp and defined separations that help shape the object visually. So as you have seen, the difference between a sharp edge and a soft completely change the way our drawing or our painting look. And a good balance between soft edge and sharp edge can really make a difference with your drawing or with your painting. I don't want you to soften every edge and to create soft edge everywhere. That's not the point. The point of this video is that now you are aware of that difference between these two things. And when you are drawing or painting, you ask yourself, Okay, here, I see some different grays, for example, if I am drawing or I see some different colors. It's not the same value, for example. And so I'm wondering, is this a sharp edge or a dark edge? Should I try to blend these two elements together or to create a clear separation between the two. And being aware of this and asking you this question is the first step towards creating the right edge and therefore making your drawing or your painting even more realistic. 4. Paint a fragmented amphora: In this video, we will be painting a vase that seems pretty unique, a vase that has been completely broken, fragmented. And for that purpose, I have applied a filter with Photoshop, and this way, this vase doesn't look like a vase anymore. The aim of this video is to completely forget what is the object and to focus only on what we see. What we see is no longer a vase, vase or vase. I'm not sure of the spelling. I'm sorry. And we completely forget what the object is, and we only paint what we see. And what we see thanks to this filter are only some small squares, some small rectangles or other geometric shape. And that's what we will be focusing on only. We forget the whole vase, and we are painting some small objects. And this way, we will be able to paint what we see and not what we think the object is. And for the real for the painting of this object, well, I will be using some oil painting paper, and the size of this oil painting paper will be 20 by 30 centimeters. And these objects, the fragmented, the broken vase, well, it's also part of my drawing course where I show where I go even deeper with the teaching of the grid technique. And because I think that's also a great exercise for improving the skills of drawing with the grid technique so I picked this video from my drawing course to add it to this painting go so that you can also reinforce your drawing skills using the grid because the grid technique is very useful when painting. I use it all the time, and I recommend you to do this exercise also to improve your grid drawing techniques. Before starting the exercise, let's see how to create the different colors that will make up the enfora as well as the background. So what we notice is that the enfora will have reds that are quite dark and intense. So I darken my red with some burn timber, and I also add just a tiny bit of blue to give it a slightly purplish tone. And as always, I'm going to create several blues, several values, sorry, because in the darker areas, we are not going to limit ourselves to just one dark red. There will be several shades, and that's what we want to create. Next, I will also create some lighter red, since there are areas where we'll have highlights. So I can start with something close to my permanent red, adding just a small touch of white, which is enough to get something a bit more intense and slightly lighter. And again, I would create several shades here as well. So right now, I have created one that was lighter, but in this case, the difference between these two reds was too strong, so I created an overtone that's a bit more intermediate. Then we also notice that there are grays in the background, so I will create them by mixing white with blue and burn timber because I get black like missing these two colors, and by adding white, I get some gray. Here, what I'm going to observe is that my color will be too blue. This gray has too strong a blue tone, so I will also add a small touch of orange, since orange is the complimentary color of blue. And this way, I get closer to the gray that I am aiming for. And now I can also create a slightly lighter gray like the one here, just by adding some white. We will also create the color of the wood on which the sempora is resting. It's ravt wood close to beige. Usually, I get beige by mixing orange with a small touch of blue to tone it down a bit. And so that's what I'm doing here, mixing these colors together. Here, I noticed that my proportion of yellow compared to red is too high, so I had a bit more red. But this time, the red dominates. So I had just a small touch of yellow and very slightly just a little bit of blue. And really, I only add a tiny amount of blue because otherwise, my color will shift too much toward green when mixed with yellow. Then I will be able to create some more shades but darker this time. So accordingly, I'm going to increase the proportion of my red and yellow and also a little bit of blue. I think I will also use some birtm bird to darken the texture, the mixture and get something deeper. This way, I create right now my intermediate value, and then I will make another one that's even darker than this. And this way, I will have a wide range of colors to create this subject. So I would say this is looking pretty good. We have a wide range of colors for a small subject, a little practice piece, so we can go ahead and get started in a few seconds. So let's get started, and I'm going to paint this trapezoid right here and start from the right to the left. And what we can see is that on the right, it is very dark. So I start by applying this red that you can see right here, and I think that on the right, I can be even darker. So I'm going to add some burnt timber to my color for this edge right here that is very dark. So I try to be precise and don't overlap the edges because it's also one of the aim of this exercise to work on precision with your brushes. Then I removed a little bit of the painting that was on my paper with a tissue, and I can progress on the left. And as I progress, you can see that it gets a little bit lighter, sorry. So I'm taking this red, and then I switch to a new one to get something a little bit lighter again. In this way, I can progress from right to the left and get a nice transition between my different elements. Right now I'm taking a bit more of my permanent red to mix it with this color so that I have an intermediate color. I think the gap between my light and dark colors was a little bit too wide. So that's why creating a new color, a new intermediate value failed right. Next, I can move to this lighter color and to this new one. And this way, I can create transition between the different elements that really seem natural and that is almost seamless. So that's pretty great. And this is almost done, and we can get to the end of this element, and we'll be able to move on to a new one. Et's move on now and work on another strip, the one at the top. The principle will be quite similar except that on this strip, we notice that there is a small highlight that is a bit more pronounced on the left side, so we need to make sure to add it with something even lighter. So this is really an exercise that allows us to focus solely on what we see. Here, if we compare the two photos, the object is clearly different. We no longer recognize the infora at all. So we are forced to concentrate on one strip at a time and tell ourselves, for this strip, it is like this. And I can see that I need to go with something fairly dark from right to left. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm focusing only on the colors and values of the red I see and not anymore on the object itself. This way, you completely forget the object. Sometimes we can feel a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and all the different areas. And this approach allows us to work on small areas one at a time and progress slowly without rushing and painting two large areas all at once. That is also something I often notice with many beginner artists. They find themselves faced with a subject like this one, which in itself isn't necessarily the most complex subject to paint this infora, but it still has a great variety of little touches of color, small dark areas, lighter ones too. And sometimes when they try to paint the entire infora in one go, they get lost in all the different areas. In the end, they produce an object that doesn't quite match what they originally wanted to create, and that doesn't really look like the reference because the shadow areas are misplaced, the highlights too, and the result ends up being off. Whereas here, this method forces us to progress one small area at a time. And this way, we really focus on the different colors we need to apply. And this exercise is also going to be an excellent way to work on transition, since you can clearly see that we have to go from something very dark on the right side to something lighter on the left, and the transition need to be smooth. They need to feel natural. So we achieve this through good blending and thanks to this wide range of values. Really, in my opinion, this is a very good exercise that combines many qualities. So truly paint what you see, focus on small areas and on your transition. And it also shows that when you are painting a larger subject like this one, you can adopt the same strategy. That is to say, mentally break down the object in your mind and say to yourself, Okay, for the lower part of the Amphora, this large rounded area, I will start by painting a small strip like this one, and then another one of that size. And by progressing in this way, it immediately becomes a bit easier, I would say. So it can be a good strategy to work like this when you later create a full piece, like painting the entire Amphora, for example. So now I am moving on to this element at the top. You can see that the principle is the same. Here, you still need to be quite careful about the rounded shape of this upper part, and then we'll be able to work on the inside of the amphora, which will help give it volume. And for that, you will notice that it is the opposite effects in terms of value. It is the left side that will be darker, more in shadow. And as you move toward the right, you will need to adjust to bring out the lighter areas on that side. What will also really help to create volume are actually the little highlights that we are going to add. These tiny white touches that are clearly visible. We need to remember to add them to make sure they stand out well. And I'm really trying to apply just a tiny bit with the tip of the brush to make sure it doesn't blend too much with the red that is underneath. Next, we can do the same work with the background strips. You can see that our background is also divided into bands, and it is an excellent way to make sure you stay precise with these broad areas. You will notice that the way it is divided creates really light bands above slightly darker elements. So I think it is particularly interesting to work on as well. It also allows you to create transition and see how to apply them with a different color. So again, it is an excellent way to progress and improve. Now, for this exercise, I'm not going to paint every little square, every little small element. There will be much point in filming that for several hours since it's going to take a bit of time. So what I recommend is that you complete the entire exercise yourself because it is an excellent way to make progress by doing everything. Then once you have finished this and at the end of the course, meaning, once you have completed all the exercises, repaint this Amphora, but this time without the divisions and try to work on it small area, on small area at a time, one small area at a time, to continue progressing. To complete this entire in fora, you will have other exercise throughout the course that will help you make progress. There will also be the painting of a final subject that includes an in fora, a different one, of course, but that will also be painted in full. So take your time with all these exercises. It might take a few weeks or even a few months and then come back to this subject and paint it in its entirety without the divisions. I think it will be really interesting to see how you will manage it once you have done all these exercises. 5. Paint a sphere and create volume: On this part of the course, we will focus on an object that seems very simple at first glance a sphere. And visually speaking, a sphere is nothing more than a circle if we just draw its outline. And it's with the work that we will be doing on the different values that we will be able to create some volume on our paper. And in this black and white exercise, it's really this work on the gray scale, on the different values of gray that we will apply that will help us to create the illusion of three dimensionality. On our paper. Is smooth gradation is what transform a flat object, a flat outline to something more voluminous and more three dimensional. And for this video, again, just watching isn't enough. You have to practice also to make some progress. So practice along with me, watch the video and practice. At the same time, I will guide you through it. And to create this sphere, I will work on paper, old painting paper that is 20 centimeters by 20 centimeter. To make the drawing part much more easier, I will use the grip technique on my drawing so that I will have something very accurate. So grab your brushes and let's get started. Let's get started with working on this sphere where we will see how to create volume and work precisely on values. So here, my reference image is displayed in color for analysis, but we'll be working on a sphere in black and white because the exercise is really about focusing on values and understanding how to create volume. So of course, in the image, I have this whole area that you see hatched, which will be my darkest zone. And then gradually from this area moving towards the left, I will have parts that get lighter and lighter until they reach this highlight, this very bright spot. Then there will be other parts that are slightly lighter too. For example, in this darker area at the bottom, there's a slightly lighter spot, which is the reflected light in the area, the bounce light. We will also have another small highlight on the right side that I have circled right here. But these highlights will be less bright than the other one we see on the left over here. So that's pretty it for the analysis. And now let's move on to mixing the different grays we will need. So let's start mixing our colors, and the goal here is to create a whole range of gray values that will allow us to give volume to our color, to our sphere. I'm going to start with my darkest gray because I won't be using pure black on my sphere. The green sphere that we saw isn't dark enough to be represented with pure black. But the areas are still fairly dark, so my gray need to be dark, as well. So that was my first dark gray. Now I'm going to create a second one, and as I go along, my proportion of black will decrease while the proportion of white will increase. Here, I felt that the jump from the first gray to the second was too sudden. There was too big of a difference in value between the two. So I am creating something a bit darker. This way, I will have smoother transitions between my different grays, and the shift from 1 gray to another won't be too abrupt. And now gradually we are moving toward lighter and lighter tones. The difference between each gray isn't huge, but it is still noticeable enough to create that distinction. And so little by little, I'm using less and less black in my mix to get something progressively lighter. For the final colors, the final gray, I want something really bright. So my proportion of black will be very minimal because black is a very strong color. And what I mean by that is, if I mix the same amount of black and white, the color will tend to lean much more toward black than toward white. That's why if I want something extremely light, like the last gray, I'm going to mix in a few seconds. I need to use just a tiny bit of black compared to the amount of white. And so at this point, I would say we already have a very good range of gray. And what we can also do during their exercise to create even more gray is to mix these colors together. This will allow us to create intermediate shades, and by blending them together, mixing them together on my palette, I will have even greater varieties of gray. So, let's get started with this part of the rock. I am going to begin with my darkest areas in the center, and to work on this, I'm going to use my flat brush. The flat brush will allow me to create nice transition and smooth blending between my colors. Here, I felt that my gray wasn't dark enough compared to what I see in my reference photo and in the dark area. So I added a bit more black to make it slightly deeper. Then I apply my color in this larger area, which is the section of dark elements. Every time I apply my color, I make sure to spread it out well, to try to stretch it as much as possible so I don't end up with big heavy patches of paint that would make it difficult to blend the colors together afterward. I can continue applying this dark color all around my sphere. You can see that the entire outline is going to be fairly dark. And here, to be more precise with my brush strokes and this outline, I'm going to use the edge of my brush. It's true that I could use a finer brush, but with a flat brush, you can also get a good amount of precision when you work with its edge. For that, you can also try flattening your brush on your palette or on the tissue. It works quite well. Now we can keep going. And first of all, what I do is try to spread my paint a little, making small brush strokes wherever I notice there is too much build up. Then I can wipe off the excess paint that has built up on my brush and simply blot it onto a tissue. Now we'll move on to the area above, which is going to be a bit lighter. So I'm first going to try using this color here, this gray from my palette but I would say it is a little too light, and the difference between this gray and the first one I applied feels too abrupt, so I need to add a bit more black to it. For now, I am just placing my color. I'm not especially trying to blend it yet. The goal is to apply it well, so that it blends properly later. And for it to blend well, the paint needs to be nicely spread out. So my brush shouldn't be overloaded with paint. Otherwise, it becomes a little bit tricky. You might have noticed on the palette that I also mixed a little bit of these two colors to get something more in between and slightly darker because the gap between these two brays felt too big to me. And when I paint, I like to be efficient. So I try to look for all the areas where I can use this and I would say that in large parts of my sphere, right next to the very dark area we painted first, we will find these slightly lighter areas. At this point, I would say we have apply of colors quite well. We have a good base of color down. What I'm doing now is taking the tissue and wiping off any excess paint. Basically, I want my brush to have no paint left at all. And this way, I will be able to blend my colors fairly easily. To do this, I make brush strokes here and there, trying to follow the movement I observe. And from time to time, when I see that too much paint has built up on my brush, I wipe it off again using the tissue, and then I continue, and I keep doing this in the area until I am satisfied, see that the colors blend nicely together, and we have a natural look. And if I have to wipe off the paint from my brush ten times, that's fine. Otherwise, the result wouldn't be as good, and I wouldn't manage to get the result that satisfies me. So I do this across the whole area, but at this point, I would say that we are in a pretty good place. So we can move on, and I'm thinking we can go ahead and paint this little part that's still white. Here, we notice there's a difference with a slightly lighter gray. There is a difference, but it's not huge either. So I think we can give it a try with this gray here, which is just a bit lighter than the one we have been using so far. And you will notice that I am using a smaller brush since I still need a bit of precision to paint this area. And, of course, I haven't loaded my brush too much because otherwise, it becomes difficult to blend the color afterward. And then still using this brush, I'm going to add small and irregular strokes here and there to create an edge that isn't too sharp. We don't want to have clean straight lines along this edge. You can see that the elements are all more or less connected to each other. So by adding these small brush strokes like I am doing here, I make sure to have a fairly natural transition between these two areas, even though there is still a noticeable difference in value. Here I'm taking a slightly lighter gray because in the center of this area, the gray looks like looks a little bit lighter to me, and I want to make it stand out just a bit more. And with these small brush strokes here and there, once again, I make sure to get a nice transition and a look that feels fairly natural for this highlight. Now we are going to work on this large central area. I'm going to take a slightly lighter gray and apply it all around the edge of the central area since we can see that there is this line that is a little bit darker here. And with the same gray, I can start to create the transition with the grays we use earlier on the right. Then inside this area, we'll have some parts that are a little lighter but not everywhere. There will also be a few touches that are slightly darker here and there, like the one I am just applying right now. And then for the rest, I would say that a lighter gray like this one should work pretty well. So here, I am applying a lot of color like this on purple. You will be able to see how to handle the situation when you have accidentally used too much paint, like I did here. My area is way too thick with paint. So what I did is really try to remove as much paint as possible from my brush, and I'm using lots of small strokes like this to be very delicate when blending my color. And as a result, I will have to wipe off the accumulated paint from my brush more frequently to be able to create a good blend between these different grays. Now for my area on the side to ensure the transition, I need to be a little more precise. So I have switched to a smaller brush to work on my transition more carefully. But the method is going to be exactly the same for this area. It's true that these blends take a bit of time, but it's time that is really necessary to achieve a result that looks realistic and natural. So this step we are working on is really very important. And it is also the whole purpose of this tutorial to really work on blending and improve in this thing in blending. What I can also do to improve the transition and to enhance the areas themselves is to take small touches of slightly darker gray and apply them here and there, letting them overlap these two areas. This way, the transition, the shift from this darker area to this medium gray area is further improved and look a bit more natural. We can move on to the central area where the highlight is. So what I start by doing is working with the gray that we had in the center, this medium gray, and you can see that the transition toward the highlight is going to happen gradually. We are not going to have anything to abrupt. So I will go little by little with grays that get progressively lighter. So here I use the gray we had in the center and I blend it with the darker grays we applied initially when we started shading with those really dark gray area. So I'm going to keep adding small brush strokes in this area until I am satisfied until my blending looks pretty fine. Now, this is looking pretty good to me. So now for highlighted area, before reaching the brightest spot, which is going to be almost pure white, I will use a gray that's even lighter. What I am doing is using this lighter gray to go around because you can see that this lighter gray on our sphere follows this kind of shape, and I can do the same with the ones that is above it. And as you can imagine, to get a natural result, I will also blend these areas together. So once again, I make sure to wipe the paint off my brush, and I use small brush strokes to very delicately blend this lighter gray with the darker gray around it. This way, I get a very natural transition between my dark area and my very light area. And we can see that in the end, we go from something extremely dark in the areas we started with to areas that get lighter and lighter. And this transition can't be done all at once. You have to go step by step. Take your time, and it's thanks to all these intermediate grays we created that we are able to achieve a smooth and natural gradient. Now, I'll do the same for this one, and I'll see you again once it is done. Now we can work on the highlight itself. So I have picked up some white to get something very bright, close to pure white, and I'm going to start applying it. But for now, I am applying it just in the central area, and I'm trying not to touch the edges. The reason I am doing this is that I want to keep my highlight pure for now, meaning that in the whole area where it is supposed to be bright, it stays perfectly bright. Only after I have applied this, do I start blending it with the surrounding areas? And to get a result that looks as realistic as possible, I'm going to do the same thing I did earlier in the smaller area. I'm going to had small brush strokes here and there with the tip of my fin brush. There's quite a big difference in value here, and to create a result that feels as natural as possible, adding these little brush strokes like I am doing helps to create a transition that looks more natural, at least to my eye. So that's what I am going to do, and I will do this across the whole area to make sure I have a good transition between these different grays. And if I end up with little touches of slightly darker gray that spill over into my light area, it's not a problem at all, because if you look closely at the photo, you will notice that in the light area, there are tiny touches that are a bit darker and vice versa. In the darker areas, there are little touches that are slightly lighter. So this is how I am working. I am trying to create this irregularity by adding these tiny brush strokes, and I don't really overthink it. It is almost as if my end is shaking as I had these little touches, and that's what gives me this irregular result, and it's exactly the kind of irregularity that I am aiming for. This last area, I am spinning up the video a bit because it's basically the same process as what we have done so far. Just be careful not to make the area too bright, as there's a tendency to think that all highlights need to be extremely bright. Here, you can see that while it does stand out, it's not overly bright. You will also notice that what I am doing is working with several gray areas at the same time. With experience, you will see that you will end up applying several colors in one spot, and then you will be able to plant them together in one go, even if there are several of them, several values or several colors. And it happens quite naturally. You just need to make sure to clean your brush each time or at least wipe the paint off your brush whenever you switch from one color or value to another. And just like before, I don't hesitate to add smaller and slightly darker touches in the light area and vis versa as well. To apart, as I was saying, there is an area that is slightly lighter. This is due to the reflection of the light, the bound light. So I am applying something a bit lighter here, but the difference isn't very big either. And finally, to finish up, I'm going to work on the small cast shadow that we see on the ground. It's not very big, but what we can notice is that there is a gradient with grays that gradually get lighter until they blend into the white of our background. So that's what I'm going to try to do as well. Once again, it is important to create a good blend between these different grays to make sure all these shades transition naturally into one another. As I am blending, I notice that the slightly darker areas at the beginning of this cast shadow tend to fade away. So I don't hesitate to go back in with some black paint to really emphasize the start of this shadow, which is fairly dark. And then what I will also do is paint the entire background with white as well to make sure it is painted white and not just the white of the paper. When I paint, I don't really like to leave the canvas or the paper blank because you can still tell the difference between titanium white I use the paint and the natural white of the paper. So I never leave my surface completely unpainted. And once that is done, once the whole background is painted, I'll meet you again to reveal the final result. And this concludes our work on this sphere. A very important exercise to work on values and see how to create depth. So I hope you enjoy this tutorial and that you find it helpful, and I'll see you very soon for another one. Thank you for watching. 6. Paint an egg in black and white, then in color: In this video, we are going to see how to paint an egg, and we'll be painting two eggs, one in black and white and one in color. Well, these will be the same ones. And for this work, I will be using two squares, 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters of oil painting paper. And to draw them, I will use, of course, the grid technique. And this would be very interesting because at first, when we paint in black and white, we only focus on the values to be able to create some volume, which is also very interesting with the painting of an egg, this work on the creation of the volume. And then in colors, well, we also have to focus on the different values of the different colors, but also on the hue of the color and how to mix properly the right color. So this will be very interesting and grab your brush and practice with me. So let's get started with this black and white A. So I'm going to create four different shades of gray, four different values. So we'll have something we'll have the different grays to create some volume in this area. Sped up the video a little bit because it's not too complex. We have already dealt with mixing different gray in black and white. And so I'm starting with this gray that is a little bit dark, and then progressively, we will get some different shades of gray that will become lighter and lighter before starting the painting of this egg. So let's get started with the painting. And the first thing I'm going to do with this black and white egg is to paint this area, the center, the core shadow that is actually pretty dark. So I am using the darkest of my gray. You will notice that I am using a pretty thin brush, always synthetic, of course, to apply my colors in these different areas because this fin brush allow me to be pretty accurate while applying my colors. Right next to it, right next to these very dark elements that I have painted, you can see that it becomes a little bit lighter. So I have adjusted the gray that I was using to something a little bit lighter. Right now, I am removing the painting of my brush to make sure that it's not overloaded, and that I can injure a nice blending between these two different grays. And I apply some small brush strokes here and there. And this way, the transition between these two different grays seems is seamless. You don't see it. And so I can keep going. And on the side of this egg, you can notice that there is some kind of curve line that is a little bit darker. So that's what I am applying. Then I can keep applying this color in this area. And as I apply it, you can see that my brush isn't overloaded, and I can gently blend these two colors together at the same time that I am applying my color. Right now, on the side, I have switched to something a little bit lighter because you can see the difference in value. Even though it's not a huge difference, it's not a highlight, you can still see the difference. So that's why I change to lighter gray. But as I am applying a little bit of darker gray above it, this element is not as light as it was before and it shouldn't be too light. And at the same time, now I am applying some small brush strokes here and there almost randomly to create a bit of a texture, and this helped to make my egg look more realistic with just a few brush strokes applied here and there, some kind of dots that help to create a nice texture and some nice details. Now I can move forward on the left side. Where you can notice it is getting lighter and lighter. So gradually, I adjust my color to move towards something that is really very light in the center area. And you can also see that on my palette, I don't hesitate to mix different colors, different grays together to create intermediate tones. So here on my egg, I have a good base on this left side. But you can notice that in this ltoson there will also be a few slightly darker touches scattered here and there. And, of course, some lighter one as well with this highlight. So that's also what I'm going to try to add. And so on top of that, I also had some highlights, some elements that are even brighter than what I had on my palette. So you may have noticed that I added more white to my color to get something really extremely light. And on the side, to really make my egg stand out, I'm also going to add a few little touches like this to make it pop, to make some volume with this cup. So now we can continue and move on to the area of the small cup. And in this area, you can see that in the center is where our shadow lies just like with the egg. That said, the elements will appear a bit lighter because the object itself, the cup is something we could describe as white, whereas the egg with its color is darker. So logically, our light areas will be even lighter and our dark areas or shadow will be less dark. So there you go. I start by applying this and I try to find the right shades of gray in the right place. And then with small brush strokes here and there, I will try to blend the elements because once again, all the parts of this little cup are connected to each other. There aren't really any sharp edges between the different parts. And so we achieve these connections by blending with little touches here and there, being very gentle. And on the upper part of my cup, I notice that there is a slightly lighter band. So I try to add it as well. And what I also do is that I had a slightly darker element just below it, which really really helps to make it stand out. Next, I can continue with the lower part of this little cup, and it's an area that can be a bit trickier than the rest of the cup. So what I like to do when I'm facing areas that are a bit more complex like this one is to start by marking the slightly darker elements, since they tend to stand out better overall. So that's what I'm doing here. I'm adding my little darker touches, and then I will paint in between these elements. It is important to note that to create this slightly rounded effect, slightly spherical effect, we are going to have a highlight, a very bright light area on the left side and on the right side as well, next to the central shadow area. There will also be a small lighter spot that should be emphasized on the right, clearly. Now, I am going to tackle the shadow of our cup on the ground, the cast shadow above the cup and the egg. I will start by tinting the small line, which is quite thin just beneath the egg. What we can notice about this line is that as we move towards the left, it becomes slightly lighter. So I have adjusted my color accordingly in that area as well. It is really important to really pay attention to those little details and soil changes in value, as is the case here. Then we also have the cache shadow on the ground. And again, in this case shadow, we won't have the same gray tone everywhere. There will be areas that are sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. So we really need to make sure to take these variations into account as well when we paint the shadow. H. Now I'm going to start painting the background. And what I am going to do is start by painting around the edge of my object. That is generally how I like to work. And here, what we notice about the edge of this little cup is that along the entire border, we have something slightly darker. So that's what I am adding, as well. Of course, I will blend it with the background later. But to start with, when I paint the edge of this element, I add that. Then I will paint the background in the same way that we have already seen several times throughout the course. So I'm going to speed up the video a bit for the rest, since painting the background here doesn't present any major difficulties. So this is how everything looks with the full background now. And now that I have all the elements in the full context, I realized that my egg still needs a few adjustment because the shadow area doesn't seem dark enough to me. I already had some doubts when I was working on it, but I thought I would wait until I had all the surrounding elements in place so I could compare properly. And indeed, I can see that the central area, the shadow area isn't dark enough. So I'm going back to work on it. You should always keep a critical eye on your work. And in this case, my shadow area wasn't quite right. So here we go, just a few more little touches here and there. And then it will be good for this egg in black and white, and we'll be able to move on to the working in color. Now we are going to work on the colors of our egg in color and no longer in black and white. This egg would have shades that are close to an orange tone with a slight hint of red. So I start with a fairly light base because it remains a rather bright color. So I use a good amount of white, mixed with orange, and I also had a small touch of buntebr to neutralize the color a little and give it to slightly browner tone, a bit darker than if I were using pure orange mixed with white. And throughout the mixing process, I make adjustments like I always do, sometimes by adding a little red, sometimes yellow, depending on what I observe. And depending on what the answers are to my famous questions about mixing color, is it too red or not red enough, too yellow, not yellow enough, et cetera. And once I get a satisfactory color, I take a small amount of it, and I'm going to mix it with some white. But I will also have a little bit of red and yellow. This way, I reduce the proportion of burtimber in the mix and lighten the shade compared to the base color. And from this lighter color, what I will also do is create even lighter variations because as we saw when working in black and white, we need several values to give the egg some volume. Now I'm going to create the darkest value that we will be able to observe on this A. It will be a kind of slightly brownish orange, and I have to admit this one gave me a bit of a hard time. It is a color that took me a while to mix because I couldn't quite get exactly the shade I wanted. At every step at every step, sorry, I kept asking myself the same question, I my color too orange or not orange enough? Is it too red or not red enough, and so on. And in this case, I realized, for instance, right now, that my color was too intensely orange, so I tone it down with some blue. Then I found it was leaning a bit too much towards green due to this blue. So I balance it by adding red, which is the complimentary color to green. Every time by asking myself these kind of question, I was able to make progress. I don't consciously ask myself anymore, though. By now, I don't speak out lod. That's what I mean. By now we've experience, it's become automatic in my mind. I look at my color and think, This isn't right. It's too yellow. So I had the complimentary color to yellow. Or if it lacks red, I had more red and so on. And all the time, by systematically asking myself these questions, it really became second nature, and now it happens automatically. And finally, to wrap up, I'm finishing with the graces of the vase or the pot. And we could have said, Let's bend the rules a bit and just use black and white. But we might as well go all the way with our approach. Since we are working with a color image, we use our five color palette to create the grays, and as you can see, it works very well. Now I already have 2 grays, and I'm going to create one last one a bit darker, and then we will be ready to start. So let's get started with this work on the egg and color. But before I begin, I'm going to adjust a bit to color on my palette since I found it wasn't red enough and not brownish enough. So I tweaked it a little with some red, some burn timber, and just a tiny bit of ultramarine blue to tone down the slightly orange aspect of my color. And actually, the way I'm going to approach this egg will be exactly the same as what I did earlier, except this time instead of using different shades of gray I will be working with color. So that's what I'm doing right now. I am starting by working on the shadow of my egg. And here, what I notice is that I'm not going to make the same mistake as before. I'm starting by painting the edge of my egg, the area that touches the little cup with a tone that's a bit darker than the rest of my shadow. And then I can also work all around this first area with something lighter, just like we did before. And little by little, we will end up with an element that becomes lighter and lighter as we move towards the area on the left. Next, with small touches, I'm going to continue dabbing to blend the browns together nicely and create a transition that feels completely natural between my element. And in this way, just like I did a bit earlier, I'm also creating a bit of texture on my egg. Then, of course, I will come back to add a few touches here and there. But by working like this with these little brush strokes as I'm doing, it helps to ensure a smooth transition and also improves the texture. Now I am going to pick up my slightly lighter color to paint this area on the side, which is a bit lighter. Then I will proceed in the same way. I will try to connect it with the nearby areas, even though there is a noticeable difference in value here. So maybe I will need to add a few touches after the blending. We will see. And just like this, we are making progress on our egg, and you can see that it's starting to take on a slightly spherical, movi voluminous appearance due to all these values. So that's great. We are on the right track, and we can move on to the very bright area. And so in the end, you can see that whether we are working in color or in black and white, the approach is basically the same. I would just say that when working in color, it's even more important to create a whole range of different colors and different values to really build a scale more so than when working in black and white, because in black and white, we basically only have two colors, black and white. And when they mix on the paper, they will create the same gray as the one we would mix on our palette. Whereas with color, we might use five colors at times to mix our colors and not in the same proportion for the different mixes we want to create. So to achieve a smooth and harmonious transition from one color to another on our paper, it is important to have intermediate color because if we mix them directly on the paper, the result won't be as good as it would in black and white. It's a bit tricky to explain this clearly. I'm sorry, but it's just to remind you how important it is to create plenty of intermediate colors, especially when working in color. Otherwise, your blending and your transition from one color to another won't be that great. So now I adjust have to this little element to add, and then this will be good for the egg. Next will be the painting of the little cup. And since it is exactly the same process, whether in black and white or in color, as it appears gray, I'm going to speed up the video for this part and wrap up this work on the egg. And there we go. Our exercise is complete. I hope this step by step helps you better understand how to approach painting the same subject first in black and white, to focus on values, then in color to apply the same principles with a richer palette. It was really interesting exercise, too, because it pushes us to closely observe light and shadow before moving on to color where we need to mix carefully to create nice and smooth transition that are seamless. And so I really encourage you to try this exercise again because it's through practice that we improve. So thank you very much for following this tutorial, and I'll see you very soon for the next video. Mm. 7. Paint a white object: In this video, we are going to learn how to paint a white object. And for that, we will be using a casual daily object with a white bowl. And what is particularly interesting with this exercise is that to paint something white, you don't need only some white. If we look closely to this bowl, we can see that it's actually made of several different values, subtle nuances and some small shadows, and all of this is necessary to create some volume with our object. And so we will see that more in detail with the color analysis and with the painting of this bowl. And so for the creation of this artwork, I will be using some le painting paper. And the format for painting this object is 20 by 30 centimeters or 20 by 28 centimeters. I'm not exactly sure, but for 2 centimeters of difference, it's no big deal, and one or the other will be just fine for the creation of this artwork. And also, to draw this ball on your paper beforehand, you can definitely use a grid or project or use a projector to have a great drawing with the right proportion. So that's it for the presentation of this subject. Now, grab your brush, and let's practice together with this white ball. So let's briefly take a look at the colors of our subject. This shouldn't take very long. But already for this subject, we might describe that we might describe as white. We realized that in the end, there's almost no pure white except for the highlights and it's light reflections. But in everyday life, if we were to pick up this ball and I will be the first to say it, I would say, Hey, can you pass me the white ball bowl that's on the table? And here we realize that, in fact, this white ball isn't really white at all, and we actually have different shades of gray. And gray, but not necessarily the kind of gray we might usually think of. And that's why that's when we see that gray can come in many different varieties. So knowing how to mix it in ways other than just blending, mixing black and white has the advantage of allowing us to create different kinds of gray, like in this case. In some areas we'll tend towards a slightly brownish gray or slightly greenish. And so that's what we are going to have to try to mix and manage to create a whole range of different grays to paint this bowl. So let's go and let's see how to mix these colors now. And here we go. Let's start mixing our colors. So the first thing I'm going to do is set a little bit of pure white aside, which I will use for certain areas where I'll need it. At least this way, the rest can be dedicated solely to my mixes. Next, I am going to create this first color that will serve for this white ball. It is a gray, and it is a bit tricky to figure out in which direction this light gray that I want to create is leaning. So when I am not really sure which direction to take with my paint, what I do is I take a little bit of all my other colors and I mix them together. Once I have all these colors combined, it becomes much easier for me to adjust. So that's what I'm going to do, and I'll see how it turns out. Now with this first color I have obtained, I feel like my color isn't blue enough nor green enough. So I steer it a bit more towards blue green by adding some blue and yellow. And still, I feel like it's not quite blue enough, so I'm going to adjust again. And every time I keep making constant adjustments to make sure I get a color that matches exactly what I am aiming for. Here, I feel my color is a little too light, so I will reduce the proportion of white by adding a bit more of my three primary colors. And I continue this mixing and adjusting phases, always asking myself the key question I mentioned during the color lesson. Is my color too light or too dark, too yellow or not enough, too red or not enough, too green or not enough, and so on. And each time I adjust my mixture accordingly. Right now, I feel like it's still missing a fair amount of blue. So I had some more blue to bring it closer to something that feels a bit more blue gray, but it is a blue gray that is softened by all the mixing we have done so far. So at this point, I'd say, we are very close to something great for the painting of this ball. But this color I am having right now on my palette won't be my lightest color for this painting in the end. So what I will do is take a bit of this mix and add a little white to it. Now I am going to create some grays that are a bit darker, so I will increase the proportion of my other colors while logically decreasing the amount of white. So I will take a bit of my three primary colors mixed with my white and see how it turns out and make adjustment afterwards if needed. So this is looking pretty good right now when I mix my color together, but I would say that my color is a little bit too blue. Therefore, I'm going to reduce the intensity of the blue by adding some orange. Then I continue mixing and once my mix is done, I'll keep asking myself the same question. And right now, I feel like my color is a little too greenish, so I will add its opposite color, which is the red. And then when I mix again, I still think it is a little bit too green. So I'm going to add some red again, but also some blue because I want my color to go more towards the blue. And so that's what I do. And each time I keep adjusting like this until I am fully satisfied. Now it is a bit too dark, so I take a bit of white and adjust it. At this point, I would say we have something that's really quite good. And now there are some areas on this bow that are even darker, so I can darken them by using both blue and burn timber. Using a little bit of burn timber will help me avoid ending up with a gray that is too blue. So that's pretty it for this final adjustment, just a little bit more to do a little bit more color to create in the same way. And then we'll see how it looks once it is on paper. And if necessary, we can always tweak these colors to get them just right. So let's get started and begin painting this ball. I'm going to take a bit of my pure white to work on top to top area, this area that is extremely bright. I'm choosing to start with these light areas, but the truth is, I will have to come back and work on these pure white parts later because they will probably get to be absorbed by all the surrounding elements, but that is okay. It is part of the process. So I still try to apply the right values in the right place. I could have just as well have started with the elements on the right, meaning the darkest areas, but I felt like working in progression from light to dark this time. Honestly, either way works just fine. So I begin by working on this upper part of my ball where the elements are really bright. And as I move towards the right, it gradually gets a little bit darker. So I adjust my grays accordingly and move along the area. Now for the moment, it's perfectly normal if you don't see much. We are painting a white object or rather a very light gray object on white paper. So it's normal that for now, it doesn't stand out very much. But later, when we work on the other areas that are darker, everything will stand out nicely, especially once we paint the background. For now, I have chosen to work with this round brush because it gives me a certain level of precision in this area. The light gray areas at the top I am working on aren't very large, so using this round brush helps me maintain good precision. So I am moving into the slightly more central area now, and you can see that the elements are becoming just a little bit darker, even though I had picked something that was a bit too dark at first, so I adjusted it. And actually, the goal here is really to manage the transition from this very light area on the left to something gradually darker because even though the differences are quite subtle, you can clearly see that in the central part, the gray becomes deeper. So the key here is to create a transition that isn't harsh at all, but instead happens very naturally from something very light to something darker. And to achieve that, you need to create a whole range of grays, just like we did earlier. And it's this work with all these different grays that will allow us to create a smooth transition. This exercise is also very great for that, not only to practice painting white object, but also to work on soft transition like this and on blending our colors smoothly and harmoniously. So to get this smooth blending, I'm going to apply multiple brush strokes in all sorts of direction, as you can see, and as I keep doing repeatedly. Also, when I notice that my brush is too loaded with paint and I have worked the blending enough and remove a lot of paint from the paper, I don't hesitate to take a tissue and remove the excess paint to get a better result because if I don't do that, my blending won't look as good, and to get a nice blending, it is important to have brush that isn't overloaded with paint. So I had sped up the video a bit for this part, since it was pretty much the same as at what I had done earlier, I was simply applying color to the area. Now with this slightly medium gray that I have, I noticed that it is a bit too intense. And if a gray is too intense, that means it is too blue. It is a gray that feels a bit too standard and not quite close enough to the colors we see on this bow. So now I've got a gray that I like a bit more to paint this area that is getting progressively darker. So I can start applying this color here. It looks pretty good to me to start defining the core shadow of my object. At first, I applied this color, but it wasn't a dark color in this area. You can see there are marks that are even darker, so I go over them with an even darker color. And this dark color, these dark gray, we can also find it in the corner of the ball at the bottom. So I figure since I already have this color on my brush, I might as well use it to paint that nearby area, too. There we go. I like to work efficiently like this sometimes. And then between these two areas, we can see that it gets a little lighter again. So I go in with this gray light that looks pretty good for this next part. And thanks to that, we now have a nice transition between this area on the right side of the ball to the central area. And then when we move back up to the upper part of the bowl, you can notice that it becomes just a little bit darker again. So I adjusted that as well. What I can also do afterward, once I will have finished this base in this area is to add an even darker layer on top of this on top of this base that I am currently applying. Because if you look closely at this upper part right here, you can see that it's not dark enough yet. So I take some of my darker color as you can see and apply it over here. If you look at my palette, you can see that it is a real mess. But let's call it an organized mess because I actually want all these colors blend to mix together. All these colors that I initially created are meant and intended to mix with one another because it allows me to create intermediate tones, which mean I end up with even more colors and can improve the transitions I want to make. Now I can blend all these gray tones together. And every time I want to work on my blending, remember, I need to remove the excess paint from my brush and I do that with a tissue, or you can do it with a piece of cloth as well. This way, I can achieve a smooth blend. If I don't remove the paint from my brush, it is a lost cause, and I won't be able to get a good result between these different colors. So at this point, I have done a good blend between all my colors, but what happened is something that happens very often when you are blending. My darker colors got a bit too soften, and I will need to go back and rework them. So here I am adding some of my darker color back over everything I had done, and this darker color will need to be blended again, remixed with the ones already in place. So this happens very frequently. It's just part of the process. As I often say, and you will hear me say it many times during this course. It's like taking a step back to jump fervor. In other words, we have to go through this stage. We have to reapply our colors and reblend them again. But it's for the better. It's to get an even better result afterward, and it's a necessary step. So that's what I am doing here. And also, what I do is a a few slightly darker touches here and there in the lighter areas to help them stand out a bit more. So I keep doing this, applying a few brush strokes here and there to create a little bit more texture in this area just like I have done so far. And so that's why I'm spinning up the video. It's very similar to what we've done before. Now, I am going to paint the inside of the bowl. And here you can see that the situation is reversed. Our darker values are going to be on the left, and this is how we will create a sense of depth and give the impression that there is actually a hollow inside this bowl. So I start by working along my line with this darker tone, and you will notice that I have switched to a finer brush. As I move toward the right, I'm going to lighten my color gradually working my way toward pure white in the highlight area all the way to the right. So I will try to apply it at that point, this highlight, but if I don't quite manage to place the eyelight properly right away, that will be perfectly normal. It's because all my gray will blend together, so I can always come back and apply it later. M Now I am going to work on the highlights of my object, those areas of light that are extremely bright. It is true that they won't stand out very much because the object itself is already very light, but so they won't pop that much. Although in this shadow area on the right, there is a chance they'll stand out a bit more. So there we go. I am adding these elements and then we'll be able to move on to the rest of our work. That is the background and the shadow on the ground. F the shadow on the ground, I need to create different colors because the shadow is quite pronounced and much darker than anything we have painted so far. So I start by making a base by mixing some burnt and bur with ultramarine blue to get those dark tones. Then I also created a slightly lighter mix by combining it with some of the grays that were already on my palette. And here I have made a really dark mix for the shadow area right beneath the object on the ground. So I go in with this fairly fine brush that allows me to have a good precision for this area, which requires a lot of accuracy. And gradually, I will move towards the right into the cast shadow we have on the ground. What we notice with this cast shadow is that the farther away it gets from our object, the more it tends to fade away and become lighter. So it is really important to pay close attention to all these value shifts to capture them properly. So here, right away, I move on to something noticeably lighter. So I lighten my color a bit to get something closer to a whitish gray. I still have some room to adjust, of course, but I make sure to shift the value properly to match what we see on the ground. What we also notice is that even within these darker areas, there are a few lighter touches that I can come back and add later when refining the details on my shadow. What we can also notice is that right next to the bowl, the shadow becomes a little bit lighter with this small lighter strip that I am adding just right now. And having defined the shadow on the ground makes me realize that the edge of my bowl doesn't stand out enough. It's not dark enough, so I go back and rework that so it is more visible. And I can do the same thing inside the bowl, which I also find isn't quite dark enough. This is why each time, even when a section feels finished, we can still take a closer and more analytical surry look at what we have done to add improvements if needed. Now I am going to paint the background of this ball, which will really help it stand out, especially on the left side where the area is quite light. Nothing too complicated for the background. It is exactly like what we saw earlier when we covered the basics of painting background. However, to really make each element pop, there are a few things to keep in mind. Along the top of the bowl, I will need to add a very thin, slightly darker line to help separate the ball from the background. So I will make sure to do that. On the right side, you can notice that the background is a little lighter along the edge with a lighter strip, a bit like what we did for the balls cat shadow on the ground. So I will be sure to include that as well. And that's it for this exercise. I hope you find it helpful especially, I hope that you practice along because it's really through doing and repeating these exercises that you will see real progress. In addition to practicing, I highly recommend that you do another exercise. That is that you take the time to observe the, the world around you. Take everyday objects like this white ball, for example, and ask yourself, what is its true color? What shades make it up? For instance, a red sofa, if you look closely, it's not just red. You will see deeper reds in the shadows or even some kind of gray black color and maybe even touches of pink in the highlight. It's the same with things like rows or clouds. Clouds are a great example. We often think of them as white, but in reality, they contain many shades of gray and blue, and it's all these variations that give them their volume, just like we did here with a white ball by using different grays. So I really encourage you to look at the world with fresh eyes, with the eyes of an artist. By building this abbot, you will train your eye to spot all these subtleties, and it will make your future painting feel much more natural and lifelike. And also, it will be much more easier for you to paint afterwards because you will be able identify more easily the different colors of an object.