Transcripts
1. Introduction : My favorite way to paint. It's Loose, wet in wet, but I also find that that's actually the trickiest
way to paint. Hi, my name is Nadine Dudek. I'm a watercolour artist
from Melbourne, Australia. And today I want to do a class
with you that really takes advantage of the spontaneous
fluid nature of Watercolour. Where we paint 90% of the painting wet in wet start
to finish all in one hit. Now, it can be a
terrifying way to paint, but it's also really rewarding. And because it is a
little bit scary, I had set this class
to intermediate. But by all means, if you're
a beginner, give it a go. It's a very quick paint. So if it goes badly, it won't go badly for long and hopefully,
hopefully it doesn't. Hopefully it goes really well and you're happy
with what you do. Now, I've painted this
Otter three times now, and every version is
completely different, which I quite like, but I can't actually decide
which one I like best. So if you end up with
multiple goes at this, upload them all to the
project section on the Skillshare site so I can
have a look at them all. Now I would recommend
watching this class through from start to finish before you actually tackle it. Only because that
will help you get a feel for the timing,
not to put you off, but painting wet in wet
from start to Finish, you can get hassled part way through if you've not got a clear idea where you're going. So I hope I haven't put you off trying this class. Let's get started. It actually is a lot of fun
2. Materials : Materials for today's class. So first up the reference photo, this is from Pixabay and you can download that
from the Skillshare, site. I'm painting on 300 gram
arches cold press paper. And I am painting on a board, but I'm not taping it down. I will start flat when we
paint and then I'll tilt it just a little bit as we
move through the painting. In terms of paints themselves, I've got just the three. I'm keeping it really simple. And while I love these colors, part of the reason
that I picked these is the way that they
actually move on the page. So this Quinacridone Violet from Daniel Smith and the Indigo from Daniel Smith will both spread really beautifully
in wet and wet. So I paint with these a lot. The yellow that you
can see through here, that's Winsor Newton
Yellow Ochre you could use raw sienna would
be fine. And I'm also using,
you don't need this, but I've got a tiny highlight
with some white gouache, or China white or titanium
white just in the eye. But that's don't go
out and buy that specifically. Now for the brushes. Now I've got the
details of these, the actual ones that
I'm using on the materials. But all you need is a medium-sized brush that
will go the distance. So it's not a huge painting. so this is a size eight, and I can get the distance
through here with that. And then I've got
just a couple of little synthetics for details, whiskers, that kind of thing. So just the three brushes. Other than that, you'll need a regular HB
pencil and eraser, a palette some tissue or toilet
paper and a pot of water. And we'll get straight
into painting.
3. Sketching Up the Otter: Okay, So we'll start
off with the sketch. So he's our reference photo. This is all I'm going to
do for the sketch, so I don't want you to
get too worried about all the fur and where the where there are transitions
between the light and the dark on the fur. I do want you to get the
shape of the nose, right, the position of the eye. And I also want to give myself a little indication of where the ear is. With the feet. I'm not I'm not worrying about
all these little toes. You can see here I'm just again giving myself
a little bit of an indication of
where those are, now it's a pretty easy
one to sketch up, but if you don't
fancy doing that, I've also included a template for you that you can download
from the Skillshare site. So we'll get straight
into painting
4. All in the First Wet in Wet Washes: Okay, So we'll get going
on the actual painting. Now this is a very quick paint, which might mean I have to film it a couple of times
because the thing is when painting really
loosely and trying to do it all wet in wet wet like
we're going to do today, it can go beautifully
or it could go disastrously wrong.
And that's okay. The important thing is
just to have a go. If it doesn't work. do it again. I think partly the really
unpredictable, nature of it is what I like, I am starting flat. I will once we start
painting I'll pop a tube of paint
underneath and just tilt my page slightly. The Trick here is that we want to, we're going to wet down first
with some Yellow Ochre, but we don't want to
wet the entire surface. We're going to leave some
little gaps in some of these lines so that
the paint doesn't absolutely all run together. So I'm going to take my size eight, brush some clean water. I'm going to start
wetting down with some milky Yellow Ochre. I'm going to start here on the
page, so really light. I'm not being too careful about coming to
the edges or anything yet. Just around the face of
a bit, into the feet. Hopefully what you can
see is that I'm not, I've got lots of white paper
in here at the moment. I want to make sure
I've got a gap between the chin here
and the shoulder. So I'm going to wet down here, but I've got a little touch of white paper on that pencil line. I'm going to come into the shoulder, the tummy, I
guess the back there, roughly Wet down again, not joining all the shapes
a little bit into the tail. I'm going to roughly
put a little bit of yellow ochre
just on this log. I've got a gap along
this pencil line. Now I'm going to come
back into the face. While I'm still all wet. And now I'm going to use
really light yellow ocher. I am going to push out
to my pencil edge. I'm going to come behind the, ear but here on the ear,
I'm going to leave, I've got that
little double line. I'm going to leave a
little bit of a gap there. So I've got a little
streak of white paper, coming around the eye. I'll put a little bit of Yellow on
the other side of that nose, stay out of the
actual nose itself. Now, while this is all wet, I'm going to pick
up my next color. I'm going to take my
Quinacridone, Violet. I'm going to tilt my
page just to touch. I'm going to start
by coming into these areas where I
know they're darks. So I know underneath the chest here it's going to be dark. So I'm going to whack a bit of
purple on and let it bleed. I'm milky too creamy. Now. I'm going to come on
this side of the leg into the tummy and just drag into that wet paint
little bit into the foot. Now, I've got feet here, so I don't want to get
too carried away, but I'm just going
to give myself, I've just dragged
the brush down to give an indication of some
toes. On the other side. Still I can see even
though I'm tilted, the paint is still running up. So if I was flat it
would fully run up. I don't want that, so I do want that little bit of a tilt. So coming in again, I'm leaving little bits, lots of bits of white paper. I've got some more toes here. So I'm just going to suggest
coming into there. Now. I'm going to come into the tail and pop a
little bit of paint on. Washing my brush. I didn't really need to wash
my brush just habit. Now I'm going to
think about what's happening up here, now I know under the chin there
is going to be dark. So I'm going to
start with my purple under here and see this is why I left that gap because that purple is
not going to run into that shoulder and it's going
to leave that light there. Then I can also there is going to
be a little bit of dark, a bit more color
on the back here. And underneath the ear. come around top of ear, but I'm still leaving. That flash of white, I say
as I almost cover it up. Everything's still really wet. Everything's, I've
still got movement everywhere, now I can
put a little bit more color Just in the front
of the eye there, over the top of the head. I'm just pushing it
to my pencil line. Now when I sit back, I think this little
light that I've got, there's too much, so
I'm just going to close those two lights in. Then. I'm also going to, this gaps a bit
too fat for me. So I'm just going to
close that up a bit. Now. I'm also, I want
a little bit of this purple to bleed
down into the log. So I'm going to take
clean my brush again And just touch in a
few spots so that some of that purple, so that I
get a little bit of running, Few Little bleeds coming down. Alright, now what I'm
going to do is I'm going to switch to my small
middle-size brush. This is now my size three. Now I'm going to go into my Indigo. So now I want to think
about where the darks really are. So I'm going to pick up creamy, creamy to toothpasty paint. I've still got water in my page. I'm going to whack some pigment around in these
areas where I can see, well there are actually
feet there i missed those, it
doesn't really matter. So just drag a few Little marks in
what I need, I need it all to bleed. Wash my brush again. I'm starting to dry a bit, so I'm just going to whack a
little bit more water in. How you go with this will also depend on how warm
it is in your room. My room is pretty cold because
it's Melbourne winter. And I haven't got the
hater on because it hums, so my paper will stay
wet for quite awhile. If you're in a hot room. You might have to be quicker
or use a bit more water. So I just I can see
there's a dark behind the. arm, and I'm just I'm
not being fussy. I'm really not
thinking very much. I'm going to now
come up to the face. I think. So I'm going to pop. Now I'm going to be
bit more careful about the shape underneath
the chin so I'm going to get that bottom edge. I just sort of missed. The edge of my pencil line. I'll drag that down. Wash my brush. Now I think I'm just
going to tease. I've got a hard edge there
that I'm just going to tease. I don't want too
much paint there. I don't want it to be too dark, but I've got no paint
on my shoulder there. So that was a bit dark. I'm just cleaning my
brush and just teasing that wash up to the pencil lines so that
when I rub my pencil off, I don't have too
much of a gap there. So lots of bleeding
still going on, I Need dark underneath
that ear there. So I'm still wet
dropping that in. And I'm just dragging, just flicking a few
little bits of fur with the brush. If your brush really hasn't got a nice tip, this ones's not
particularly good. It won't give you
a nice flicks. So be careful which
brush you use and don't get too
patterned, make them a little bit random. I'm going to bring a
little bit more blue. over the top, Indigo. And then I'm going to paint, so
around my eye is wet. I can pop, start a little
shape of the eye. But because the page is wet around the edges
that will bleed, that will dry a
little bit lighter. And that's just my first
wash for the eye. In the nose. I'm going to, I'm dry around
the face here now. I don't
want to get too much Indigo bleeding into that. A little bit there,
but that's okay. I'm just painting my tissue. I'm just going to
drag that down to join there, I might pop while
we've still got this, Indigo, a little touch of
Indigo on the other eye. I'm just going to pop that
in, but I have to be careful there that I don't
touch to this wash here. I don't want that eye to bleed. Now you can see already
that this is really pale, coming in and drying
off really light. So what I'm gonna do
is I'm going to give this a few minutes to dry. Then we'll come back
in and finish in there, so sitting back
and having a look. I think I probably want some of this Indigo to bleed down into the base
before I stop. So I'm going to do that same thing where I've got a bit of water, come up and touch to some of that pigment and just
let that bleed down a bit. Now if, if that's quite
dry in there now, what I can do is just
grab little bit more Indigo and just walk that around a few spots just to get a little bit more movement
happening through there. Now I think this arm before, I keep saying
I'm going to stop, this arm needs a bit more of
the blue, the Indigo on it. So I'm just going to
Wet that down a bit. It's dry in there now. And just take a bit of
Indigo and just drop a bit in and
through the toes there. Okay, Now, I'm
absolutely fiddling now. So I need to stop.
I'm going to wait for 5 min, let that dry, and then we'll come
off, come in and just finish a couple
of little details.
5. Adding a Few Little Details to Finish: Okay. I told you it
was a quick paint, so we're just going
to do a couple little things to finish off. I'm going to pop the eye in I'm moving now to my
really small brush. This is a size double zero. I'm going to come in and just
paint now, an Indigo pupil. So I'm completely dry
coming on. And just paint. So rather than
just do the round, I've painted that kind
of tear drop on the side because I know this will still dry a little bit lighter again. I'll do that. Once that's dry, I'll come and put an even
more solid dark in there. Now. I then want to move on
to the chin here. Now what I'm actually going to
do here is I'm going to lift if you look, there's
a little flash of light underneath there. So I'm going to take, now
I've gone back to my size three. I'm just going to
clean it, wet it, and I'm just going
to lift a little bit of paint, now whether you can lift will depend on what brand of paper
you're on I'm on arches. And I like it
just because it takes a lot of
punishment and you can lift paint really easily. So I'm just wetting that down. drying my brush and just
lifting a little bit a light into there and teasing, I'm just teasing that
all the way back so that its sits into the wash. So just a flash of light. Then I actually need to put there's too much light here
on the front of the face. So now with my
effectively dirty brush, so if I touch into that chin again and get a little
bit of that paint, I can just put a
really light wash in the front of the face there. So it didn't actually
pick up any new pigment. I'm just using
what's in the chin. And it's probably
more down the bottom. going to wash my brush and I'm just making sure I've got a bit of a soft
transition from the dark. on the bottom
there into the light. And here I'm leaving
on this side, I'm just leaving it messy. Okay. Then I'm going to
pop just a little bit of a. wash with Indigo just on
the front of the nose here just to show
the shape of that nose, I want really milky wash
of indigo really light. I'm just touching to my
brush so I don't have huge amounts of water and I'm just going to pop a
little bit, a little bit of paint. Just to accentuate, I want the difference between that side of the face and this
side of the face. So that's really what I'm
doing that for in it. Wash my brush and tease up into
that yellow on the forehead. there. I just want it to softly
transition up, might be hard for you to see on the actual video, but I've got a bit more
of a distinction there. And now I want to pop a
little bit more paint. Same milky wash just in the front
of the eye here. Just because he's got that
little bit of, I'm looking, I am looking at
the reference here, this little bit dark
in here is where I'm going, so I've wet that
down with some Indigo. take a little bit more
Indigo will get more than that and just drop that
into that wet paint. And now this is dry. So solid Indigo now an paint
that circle in the eye. Now you can, there's lots of interesting light in
the eye that you can if you want to be detailed
put that in, I'm not really going
to worry about it. I think I possibly want just a touch more
dark underneath here. So we took that light out there, but I think this wash
underneath the chin. Can be be a bit darker. So
I've got some water. Not soaking. I'm just going
to damp down just under the neck there, just
painting with clean water. And then I'm going to
take a little bit of milky to creamy Indigo. There is a plane going overhead. I apologize
if you hear that. Wash my brush. Soften this transition. So I want that transition
to stay soft from the chin. And then I don't want too much
of a hard edge along here. So I'm just going to clean my brush and run it over
that edge to get a soft Messy, to get a messy edge, I guess I don't
need it to be soft, soft and just need it
to be a bit messy. Okay, then all I'm gonna do, I think probably my nose, my nose is a little bit light. I'm just going to pop a bit more paint. Now, when I'm
looking at the reference the nose isn't exactly as
it is in the reference, but it really
doesn't matter. It tells me it's a nose I don't really want to get
caught up in that. I'm going to put a couple
of whiskers on. I'm just going to do
that with my fine brush. Into my Indigo, paint, my tissue because I
don't want this heavy. I'm going to turn my page a bit. I'm just going to drag a
few whiskers around. I didn't really like that one, but that's okay. I
see if I can drag it. And now I'm just gonna sit back. Yeah, I think the only one other
thing I'm going to do, I'm just going a little
highlight in the eye. So I'm just looking, I normally rub
off the pencil lines, but I actually don't
mind them in this, so I might leave the pencil. I'm just going to take a
tiny touch of white gouache. So I'm sticking my little brush into my tube is going
to put a little bit, a light, a little bit of its spot. into the eye there and I might drag
just a little flash of it. So again, paint my tissue. Just a little flash of. light under the eye there, I don't really, don't
really need it. My last version, it was quite dark under the eye, so I needed that. But see how you go. You may or may not need it. Just wash my brush and
just drag that up. Now the only thing that bothers me now, I'm just about to stop, but I think I probably need
just to touch of yellow. This is quite a different
color to this side. So I'm just going to take a little bit of my Yellow Ochre, really milky wash my
small brush and just pop a little bit of
yellow ochre on that side. As I've been sitting here deciding
whether I'm finished, I still feel that
needs to be a bit stronger. So I'm going to get my
milky Indigo again. And I just want a bit more strength. Just so I've just
gone on to on dry, put a little bit of
a milky wash on. And now I'm just softening that edge and I can make use of the water
in that page now. And just draw just a
touch more. Indigo. Just needed a little
bit of something. Alright, so now I am
actually officially feeling, so I'm going to come out of that and let that
completely dry. So actually I said
i was going to let it dry, which I did when I let
it dry and had a look. I can see that this arm
doesn't really match. so I just want to soften this
back just a little bit. What I'm going to do,
I'm fully dry. there's just too much white paper here. And the purple is too strong to match the
foot on the other side, which I didn't notice
while I was painting it. So I'm just going to take
my medium size brush. I'm just going to wet
down that leg a bit, take a little bit of indigo, and just drag that through. Just too much white paper there. so I want to leave some light. And I think I probably need
a bit of the purple in there just to back it off. Just a touch. So that's probably as
good as that's going to get. So I'm going to leave that
there and not fiddle with it. And this time I'm going
to come out and finish
6. Final Comments : Thanks for joining me
for the class today. I hope you enjoyed it and I
hope I've convinced you that it's a really fun way to paint. I love to see what the
students have done. So when you finished, please upload a photo to the project section
so I can have a look. Always happy to
answer questions, always happy to give
feedback. I would say. Do remember when
you're going through this that it's just a piece of paper. You need to let the pigment and the water do
the work for you. So don't, don't fiddle
sit on your hands. and let it do it's thing and have a play with
different paints that you have in your kitchen. As I said at the beginning, I often choose paints
based on the way that they move rather
than the actual colour. And there's no way to
say that your otter can't be blue or pink or green. It doesn't matter. So
pick the paints that you love and work with those. So thanks for joining me and I'll see you for the next class.
Nadine Dudek, Professional Watercolour Artist
