Paint a Map Keepsake with Watercolor

1. Introduction: Hey guys, my name is Peggy Dean and I am an artist and educator. In this class, we're just going to be playing with a very fun illustrative style by incorporating some quirky nature to illustrate it maps. We're going to be doing it with watercolor, which is a really fun technique to create some beautiful washes along with that illustration style. To create these maps, are going to be anywhere that means something to you. So this can be a vacation that you took and landmarks that you want to remember, it can be your hometown, it can be a state park, just something that makes you feel really happy. We're going to capture that together and I'm going to walk you through every step that you need to make that happen. This class, is for you if you just want to have a memorable keepsake and go along the process of creating something that's unique to you. I'm really excited to jump in. Let's get started. 2. Supplies Needed: To the class, the first crucial item is to go over what we will be needing in the class. So basic supplies, this isn't something that you have to go and rush out and buy anything, I'm going to give you some options that you can work with. The very first thing that you do need to have is a pencil, along with your pencil you will need an eraser. These two items will help us map out our map so to speak and get things in the right place before we dive in with paint. The next thing you'll need are water colors, and I'll be using Daniel Smith watercolors. Please feel free to use whatever you have on hand, and just because you might not have every color under the sun doesn't mean you can't mix colors to get that perfect heal or shade or tint that you want. Next thing that we will be needing is paper, and to do a big wash on paper do make sure that your paper is at least a 140 pound or a 300 gsm watercolor paper, and preferably cold press, which is that textured paper that has a little tooth to it, this is going to ensure that we are getting the right amount of support to our water media, and then your paper won't work that way. Next thing we'll be needing is a paintbrush, and you could use a flat brush or a round brush, whatever you have on hand is perfect, don't think that you have to have anything fancy. I will be using a larger round brush and a smaller round brush for those fine details, so if you can get a nice skinny one for details, that'll be perfect. Then next you will need a jar of water. If you use two jars of water, that will work in your benefit as well so that you're not mixing cool and warm tones together, which will prevent that hickey brown color, or if you're like me and lazy and really like a certain jar, you can of course rinse out and refill with new fresh water. Next thing that you'll need is a light box or a window, so don't think you have to get a light box, there are some inexpensive options on Amazon and Whatnot, but a window will suffice just fine, you just need some natural light to come through your paper to trace. The next thing that we'll need is a map. You can have a physical map that you use or guide if you will, or you will need the Internet which you are using right now, I don't know why I am calling the Internet, a Internet, whatever, the internet and a printer. I'm going to be taking you through a guide on exactly how I map things out on the Internet so that you can really get your landmarks in a very quick and easy way without having to guesstimate, even though the accuracy won't matter too much and you'll see why. But in the next segment here we're going to jump right into Google Maps, so if you have the Internet access and printer, I prefer this route, but if you have a map, that's totally fine and we'll get into that too. Let's move on in. 3. Placing Your Landmarks: The location of the map that you'll be drawing will want to use a traditional map as a reference so that we can make sure that we draw it appropriately and draw places where they're supposed to be. We have the option of printing one out or you could use a traditional paper map. The reason I like to print them out though, is because it will give me a lot more control when I print it as far as the size that I print it, so that I have more creative control over the size of my actual piece. To do this, I'm actually going to go to maps.google.com. You can also just toggle over to maps from Google. From here, you're going to want to go to this three-line bar here, and then you'll go to Your places. From here, click on Maps. Then you'll go down here to Create map. It's at the bottom. This will open up a page that allows you to create your own map and you can actually place markers exactly where you want on that map, so not only are you getting the border of the place that you are drawing, but you'll also be able to add markers for quick reference so that you can make sure that you include everything that you want to include. I'm going to double-click on where it says Untitled map, and I'm going to say Spain Portugal. Then save that. Then now I can search for it. I'm just going to say Spain takes me right there and then from here, this is where I can add my markers. This is going to be really convenient. The first place that I will be adding to my map is Barcelona. I'm going to type in Barcelona, click that. Then you will see this little marker here and you will see that I can add it to my map. I'm going to click that plus sign that says Add to map. Then I've got this marker. That's going to stay there. I can also change the color by going into the Paint bucket icon down here. It blends in with the rest of this map. I want to use a color that's going to stand out a lot more that you don't really see on the map so you can click around and see what stands out to your eye the most. You could do yellow or red or orange. Again, those are colors that are used in this map already. But whatever stands out the most to you, so that you will recognize it. I'm going to stay with purple. You can also change the icon. Let's say you might have some areas that are going to be coffee shops and you already know the illustration that you're going to be creating. You can maybe help yourself with an icon here. There's also more icons, there is a whole bunch of little options here, but I'm just going to keep this simple for now. Okay, so now that that's done, it's already added to my map, Untitled layer. I can actually say Spain, because I'll also be adding Portugal. That's also another way to organize that. My next city is going to be Valencia. Then I can Add to map again. Then I'll change that icon color. Now I've got two places here, so if I scroll out like this or if I zoom out like this, then I will be able to see now that I've got Valencia and Barcelona ready on my map. I'm going to continue doing this to all of the places that I will be adding into my map. I think that's all that I'm doing for Spain. You'll notice that for my map and this might be the case for you too depending. I'm featuring Spain, but then I realize that all of my markers in all the places that I want to feature might be in one isolated area, which is the case for me. We went on a road trip from Barcelona and went through all the way down through Spain and up to Portugal. That's where I can get creative with what I put into the main spaces in the country so it's not super blank. But we'll get into that more in just a bit. But I'm also going to feature Portugal. Now, you can totally keep all this on the same layer. You don't have to get real organizing or organizational about it. But if you are somebody who does like all of those organization methods and it helps you and your brain think, what I just did was pressed Add layer here, and then I'm going to double-click, change this to Portugal, and then I've got Portugal here. Now I can add my Portugal cities. I'm going to do Lisbon. Then you can change the color, add to map. Let's say I want to differentiate from Spain and I want to make sure I know it's Portugal. I can change the color if I wanted to. It's not necessary at all for this, but we all have brains that think a little bit differently, and a lot of us are the organization type. Sometimes that process in the way that we think about it can really change our perspective on how we enjoy the project as a whole. I say, ''Do whatever feels good to you.'' Those are the places that I'm going to feature in my nap. Again, I'm going to zoom out. Then I see all those markers. It's very clear to me exactly where I'm going to be placing things on my map. Again, doing this process before you print is going to save you a lot of time in sitting there and trying to mark everything. Especially if it's not a major city. When you make maps, the small, your place might be up in here somewhere, but it's not listed because it's one of the smaller cities. That's not a bullet point already so adding markers is really helpful. That said, you don't need them. You can just reference a map and then see a general area. As we get into the illustration, you will also again see that the placement of where we put things is going to vary extremely and it's not going to be super accurate unless you want it to. Now we're going to print this. The easiest way for me to print this without having to deal with settings on my document or anything like that, I just drag my map as close to my list as possible and I just I'm going to take a quick screenshot and everything that will be included, okay? Then I'm going to print that from my computer and then in the next video we will get into how to transfer that over to our piece. 4. Map Guidelines: So the first thing that I've done with my printed map is I have placed it onto a light pad. LightPads can range across the spectrum, they all do the same thing, they're going to provide a backlight. The reason that I love the Artograph LightPad is because it varies in brightness and also in temperature. So this is really helpful for a multitude of projects. Because I use them quite often, it made the most sense for me too. Have this guy. I'm grabbing my legion paper and I am going to tape that on top. I ended up printing my map on 8 by 10 and I'm going to use a 7 by 10 piece of paper. Then I want to tape this paper down as well so that I can keep my guidelines and I don't shift and then have to reformat that. You'll notice too, if you're up against a window, you're good to go, but this will work better in lower light situations rather than having your overhead light on. So if you can turn off a light while you do this, that'll be in your interest, especially when you're using watercolor paper. Then, I'm going to take my pencil and I am just going to start tracing my map. This can be really loose. You don't have to be specific. My one tip is to make sure that you are using very light pressure, because this is just used as an outline. If you do too hard a pressure, when you erase you're still probably going to see pencil lines or you might see some indentation which you don't want. If you've printed on black and white like I have, then these markers aren't going to show up quite as bright. So I have it up on my computer as well so that I can just do a quick reference. Then my list is cut-off by my paper, so I can also use my computer as reference or you can, of course, cut that part out and set it to the side so that you have your reference but I will be using that. So real lightly again, I am just making sure that I have these places set, so I'm just going to write abbreviations. I know that's Barcelona, then this is Peníscola, I think is how it's pronounced. Then I have Valencia somewhere. Say, I did that wrong. So Peníscola is up here, Barcelona is actually right here. So I'm just doing errors, so I know what those are because I'm going to erase those later. Then this is actually Valencia. There we go. Then Granada, then I have Cordoba, Sevilla. So I've got everything marked where I want it to be. From here, I can use this as a reference to add any main landmarks or anything that's on my actual map as reference if I want to, because Madrid is the capital, I could add Madrid. So you can do like main highways through here if you want to, or you can just make this purely illustrative just because it's so fun to do that. So I have my markers. This is really what I like to do with my tracing. This is my cat, so once that's done, then I can move on to what I'm actually going to illustrate. 5. What objects will you include?: [ MUSIC] When it comes time to sketching out or planning out what we're going to be painting for our cities.I like to grab a spare piece of paper and write down what those cities represent to me so that I can best describe how that city or place made me feel when I was there to represent it for me in an illustrative way. For example, when I was in Barcelona, what stands out the most to me is that the Cathedral in Barcelona has 13 white geese. They're in this beautiful atrium with water and greenery, and it's gorgeous and kind of anything that I saw in Barcelona. That was my favorite. I also adored that they were honking the whole time. It was really, really sweet. An additional option just because it's fun to add one more in case that's not necessarily what you want to represent that area for you. We visited the Picasso museum, I can add that as a reference to see how things are going to lay out.I might want to put something in there about that. Then I've got Peniscola and what stood out to me most about that place is that it was a white wall coastal town. I could illustrate a building, or illustrate the ocean, something like that. I'm just going to put a little wave here so I know that that's something I was thinking about drawing. When I was in Valencia, what stood out to me from my experience, we had those chocolate dipped churros and they were amazing. I remember having those there. Then they had amazing street art. I might use one of those things as references. Now, as you can see, I'm not choosing something that's iconic for that space. I am choosing something that was based off of my experience. You can really interpret what you create as far as icons are tiny little illustrations or paintings, whatever, what have you based off of your own experiences too. Or just think outside the box and think about how do you want this place to represent, what I want to come across in my finished piece. When I was in Cordoba, the patio festival was going on, which was amazing. I'm definitely going to do a bundle flowers for that. That's an easy one. When we were in Seville, we saw a flamenco show and a really awesome underground type of flit. Well, it wasn't, but it was a really small theater which was really fun and whole in the wall place. So that was really exciting to see. Then we also saw the Alcazar. I might include that. Granada. Excuse my note taking handwriting. We stayed at a place that we had a view of the Alhambra. I ended up doing an urban sketch on it. I just fell in love with it. We also visited and it was just stunning. I really loved my experience there. Then that's also where we had some tea down on the main road there, that used to be the silk trade road. That was something they might want to add in, maybe do a teacup, something like that. Then when we were in Tavira we saw really awesome tiles. So I might do a little tile. Salime was this sleepy fishermen town that had a bunch of cats. I might do a little cat or it might do a little fishing boat or I might do a little cat inside a fishing boat. Something like that. So definitely want that to be my focus in Salime logos. We hiked through the Algarve. That was really beautiful. So I might do something like those cliffs with that nice blue water. Then in Lisbon, we rode one of those trolleys. That was a fun experience. I'll probably do a trolley. That's my note taking process to plan out what I want to put in here. Now I'm going to place those items on my map.[MUSIC] 6. Sketching Objects: Okay, with my notes on this side, I am going to start placing things on my map. So the reason why I like to do notes and look at it as a whole is because I know that these items, I mean, unless I keep them super, super tiny, which doesn't make for a very interesting map, the items are going to have to shift a little bit. So for Barcelona, I'll probably do a larger goose somewhere like this instead of right on that dot. So I'm going to sketch my goose now, I want you to really pay attention to your pencil before you start, if it looks sharp on any of the edges, just go on a spare piece of paper and do a few passes because you don't want this to be sharp in any way you want it to be more of a blunt tip, that way you're not creating those hard lines. So, I mean, I just kind of really lightly sketch a goose here. I'm not going to do any details because again, this is where I'm going to be painting. So again, just real light outlines, I'm going to get rid of any extra pencil marks. Then I don't have to put the feed in there because I know that they're there, I can add them with paint, and then I also like to go over with my eraser just not with any pressure, just real lightly so that it lightens up any lines that are a little darker and that will give me more of a guide. The reason I do this is because when you start applying water color, what ends up happening is you can't get through the watercolor to erase pencil and so you want to really make sure that they are super light they are just your outline so that they don't show in the final piece. So that'll be Barcelona, I'm just going to also fix this title, okay, there. Then Peninsula, that's a coastal town that was really bright with the water, so I've got Barcelona here, I've got Valencia here, I'm probably going to need to bump Valencia down and move in Peninsula. So I will draw my buildings right about here and then have that extend into just some really simple water illustration just kind of how I would have drawn it when I was younger. I also remember a little castle, I think instead of doing the white laws, I'll do that little, just a little building with this details of a castle at the top. Here I go, okay. Then for Valencia I will just open this colors, and I can remove my marks once I have drawn or sketched in the object that will go there, because I know what that is now. I'm might actually want to even do this castle larger just for added interest in my map. Then I've got Valencia chocolate, dipped churros and chocolate dip, and then street art, I'm going to go with churros , this is a nobrainer. So I'll draw like a little child, I'll have it angle maybe right here. The nice thing about doing a churros here is that it's kind of a thing all over Spain. So it's fitting, that would be here. Then I'll have some chocolate coming off of that. We'll see how that looks, it might look really weird, but it's going to be something, I know what it is. Okay? Alright, so then I'm going to move over to Granada and I remember the Alhambra I remember the tea, okay, so Cordova is right here, I'm going to do Cordova first, and I'm going move it significantly higher. I know what it represents to me and that's where the Patio festival was. So I'm just going to do some really simple flowers, and then maybe a couple of leaves. So this will be Cordova. Now I can move into this cluster here. Granada, I'm going to skew it over just a little bit because I know that there's about to be a lot going on right here. If you end up losing your outline of your map a little bit, just go back and make sure that's in there so that you have that structure. Then I'll do a little teacup, soften the outline a little bit. Okay and now I move over I've got Servile and I've got Tavira and Salema, for Salema because it's so close to Tavira, I might move, actually, this will be perfect. So Tavira and Lisbon, there's lot of tiles to be seen there, so I think I might move that tile up about right here, and that'll represent Tavira for me, but also kind of our experience in Portugal as a whole. The reason I'm still writing their names down is because once I have everything in place, there are times that I like to add a little real light lettering in here, so that might be something I want to do so it just lets me maintain what I know is there, and I might not do that as well, then I have a reference at least. Okay, so Salema, I know I've got my fishermen boat and then I've got my cat. So I think that I am going to do a little boat out here in the water, so I'm just going to draw those water lines again. This is a nice added effect because I've already got some over here, so it really ties that in. Then I will do little boat out there, and then I'm going to get rid of this border here little because I'm going to draw into it, but then I've got this cat, so I'm going to draw a little cat in the boat. Then I will worry about details once I start painting so then I can put that outline back, and then I think I'm going to actually make this tile a little further down. Lisbon, I got my trolley, I've got Óbidos on top of that. So I'll probably move that up just slightly so that I have room for Lisbon. In my notes I have put for Óbidos. Surely I didn't write notes for that, but it was a really cute city, it's wild city. So we stayed one night in this wild city, and you could see one side, we sat on the wall and you can see across the other side of the wall, it was super close, and it was just so cute, this quite little city. So I'll probably just draw a little wall, and it was walkable only you couldn't drive through, it which was really cute. I meant to put that up higher, so this is why pencil first is your friend. Then Lisbon, I've got my trolley and I'll probably have this going a little bit often to the side here, which is perfectly fine, and I'll finish the rest of those details when I start painting. So lastly, I'm going to hit Serbia here, and obviously I think the best decision here would be to do that flamenco dance. So I'm just going to draw a silhouette. Then I can fill in the rest when I start applying paint, so this is really just a soft guide. Then from here I've got some room up here, a lot of room up here. I'm going to take Madrid out because, looks like the way that I have placed things, I don't need anything extra. Then right here is where I can put some lettering and for the country names these are, and then down here in this extra space, I have room to do some key or a quirky illustrations, something to represent what is going on over here. So let's start actually applying some paint to our map.. 7. Painting Objects: When I start to actually put color down, I've got my eraser and I've got a paintbrush. The reason I have my eraser is because there are inevitably some dark lines around here so before I put paint down, I'll look at the guide, erase it, and then go to where that was. If you know what your object is going to look like and you don't need those guides. You can erase the whole thing at first and then go back in. You have a couple of options when you get started, you can either start with a wash, and when I say a wash, I mean super light wash, lots of water to paint ratio. It's just going to be something light and that can be, you can go over your illustration and create the border of your map first and then go back in and watercolor. The reason I avoid doing this is because, again, once I laid out watercolor down, there's no going back and erasing it. I like to add the wash last while it might be a little tedious to work around these objects. It just turns out better in the long run so that I don't have any pencil marks that I have to deal with and then stare at. I can choose wherever I want to start. From personal experience over and over, I tend to start with what's closest to my hand, I'm right handed, when that happens as I move over here, I start to smear things and then it gets on your hand. Whatever hand you are, right-handed, left-handed start with the opposite side. Just a little tip. I'm going to draw my wall here and I know what that shape looks like. I'm going to completely get rid of the wall with my eraser and then go back in, and paint that in. These don't have to be perfect, there's something really special about imperfect and quirky shapes. Sometimes if I have a line that is too straight, I'll actually go back in and wobble it a little bit more because it just adds more character that way. I'm going do that right here. You can also opt to choose some more unrealistic colors, rather than doing this gray, I could do something like purple or blue something to make it stand out even more. Then since I already have my gray, I know that I shouldn't because it's up high and then I might drag but I'm going to do it anyway. I couldn't also get this area but I'm going to erase it first actually, so I don't leave any pencil lines behind. If you ever erase near a line that is currently wet, try to brush away from that instead of blowing it because you don't want to get it into the paint. I like the lighter wash a lot more, while this is still wet, I can go in with a paper towel and just dab it and then it can create this really cool wash effect, and then if you get it wet again, then you can lift even more of that. I like the way that that is turning out a lot more, and then I want to go in and just add a few little detail to show that this is a textured wall. I'm doing it while it's still wet. You can also do it when it's dry. When it's dry, it's going to be a lot more specific as far as, like these are definitely bricks, if you do it when it's wet then it will bleed a little bit and have that cool effect, I'm going to do both while it's wet and dry. Next down I've got this trolley, and I'm just erasing really lightly because I am going to use that guide a little bit. Then once that dries more, I can add the bottom part of the front door here, or I could just leave it as is. Now I'll move down to my kitten fishing boat. Get rid of any hard lines that I don't want in there or that I can't cover up well, and this is where you can start adding really cool effects to your watercolors. Any area that's like a large or larger spot, you can apply a light wash first and then go back in and add some more pigment, and it'll do a bleed that's really pretty. Just leave it there and then it'll do it on its own as it dries. Then be sure when you're doing watercolor more than one color not to touch it to the other wet spot or it will bleed into that unless that's what you're trying to do. But I am not. I am leaving it small gap and that's just me being impatient and wanting to do this now. You can see I'm doing that same effect where the watercolor will bleed and create that really pretty wash-look, and then I can go in and add detail once that's dry. Here's where I can do this really pretty tile. Portugal had the turn of blue and white tiles, I am going to do blue. Even though I started on the side, I still managed to smear that area. I was pushing away the eraser marks and then that happened because I put a dot there and of course, I smeared it, that's bound to happen, and I caught it late. I've got little marks, this one it will interfere but not terribly, this one will be covered up. That is bound to happen, don't throw away your paper. Once you've laid that down then we can start adding the additional interest in detail into your items. 8. Painting Details: Once that first layer has dried, you can see where your bleed if you didn't, you bleed on your objects where it really comes into play, it's really pretty. Then from here we can add some detail. I'm just going to use a small brush size. Actually, I am going to use my liner because it's nice and thin and I can get a really nice point with that. I'm going to add some detail, just very, very small, nothing crazy. You might have noticed also that I have left the water open, and the reason why is because I am actually going to apply a wash first and then I'm going to add just little ripples in there on top of my blue wash. That's why I left that open. Now I can go in. You can do this in any color. You can do it in colors that complement and go along with what you painted or you can go black as a solid outline. This is just a real dark brown. I like these details to be very, very small. Let's switch over to my trip girl real quick because I'm going to add a little bit of detail on her dress. I'm going do this with the same color that I used, just with less water. I have a little more pigment just to add a few areas of some mark making. I'm going to actually thicken these to give some texture to her dress. Then same with that texture, I'm going to go in and do it to my castle type walls. Just with more pigment. It's real subtle, but it just adds a little more interest. I'll switch back over to my small 20 over zero. Once my details are placed, then I can go in and we'll wait for that to dry and then go in and add my wash and start making this a map. 9. Adding Color Washes: This part is one of my I don't know. I love this whole process, but this part is definitely one of the more fun parts is applying the wash in the background. I am using colors that you see. When you do your background thing about the colors that you have on your map already and you don't want to choose something necessarily that is going to make one of these objects get lost. Unless you're going for more of a monochromatic color scheme, which is really fun. Always encourage that, but I'm using colors that both represent how I felt when I was there as far as the vibe that colors give off. If you think about colors that you want to use, different colors represent different types of things. If you want to go with green, obviously that is more of an earthy tone. This is land, so it makes sense that it would be green. Green is very soothing. If you go with blue, it's calm, it's relaxing, its tranquil. But also keep note that if you have any ocean surrounding, you might want to do blue there. You might want some different [inaudible] , is that a word? Between those two things, brown is always a great color to go with its rustic, earthy. If you were to go legacies is having a dream, she's under the desk. She is having a dream. If you go with the red, it's more of a passionate color. It's very stimulating. I have red and pink, and those warm tons. I'm going to stay away from red, orange, same thing, it's very friendly, it's social color and very active color. That's going to really project out of your math. Yellows, very welcoming and joyful if you go with purple as a very creative color. When you see purple, especially in R, it really stands out, is something that's creative and original, imaginative almost. Then pink is more of a delicate and soft sweet color. Thinking about colors as you explore the options of what you're going to put down. I've already decided I love putting green down. I'm going to do green over Spain and then I'm going to change the color for Portugal. I haven't decided yet it's going to be a part of things. Let's say C, the green down. I'm going to do that first. The green that I've chosen to use is my favorite green by Daniel Smith. It's cascade green and it's really pretty when it dries, it has this differentiation in it to granulation if you will, that separates a little bit of blue and green in it, but overall it's really beautiful, cool green color. I'm getting my paint to water ratio and getting a pretty wet pigment here. I'm not doing anything bold just yet. I'm going to lay down a little bit of my wash. I want to work with this lashes, I don't want to do the whole outline first. What I want to do is lay that down and then pull it in. Because I don't want any of those hard lines as I paint because if it dries first, then you're probably going to get some of those hard lines. We don't want that. I'm working in from the outside. It's okay if you grab a little extra pigment here in there because you can pull that in. It also creates a really beautiful wash. Notice that I'm still going back while even though I'm coming down, I'm going back to make sure that I pull that color in so that I don't get those hard lines. It does require you to work a little bit quickly, but I think that you got this. Luckily, watercolor, especially when you're using a good amount of water, it stays flat for a while. There's a lot of room for forgiveness and here. Then if you end up touching a little part that's still wet, I actually from the wash itself, I really like how that ends up looking. Actually I'm going to get rid of names now. Still haven't decided if I'm going to put them in yet. They're great for reference when you know that you're going to. But then if you're indecisive like me, to see how that's forming a hard line. I'm going to go in there with water, reactivate it a little bit since it's not all the way dry it, and then pull that down. Then you'll notice that my Goose here doesn't have any color and it's actual body because it's a white. I left that open and then I'm going to let my wash create its form. I'm just going to outline that. Then that the wide of my paper will do the work that I want for the white of my goose. But I'm skipping around making sure that I get all these edges don't make any hard lens. It's okay to loosely go around those objects. It's okay if there's white space like this is your creative project, so it can have white space, doesn't have t but as you're filling this in quickly, you can do that loosely and then add it in later. It doesn't really matter if there's hard liner on small details like that because it's not going to be nearly as obvious as if it was like some huge area. Notice that as you're moving quickly though, you may notice that I am dipping into water and not pigment every time. That's because I'm dragging that pigment with me, dragging it and it's creating that really pretty wash. It looks like I've lost my guide a little bit. Really look for that. Then I'm going to keep this area open because that's where I have that water, and then lastly, get the other side of my wash. From here, you can see that this wash is doing exactly what I want it to do, and that technique is, I guess it's considered edging. I think there's some other terms to It also, but it's like edge pulling. That's what I meant. You lay down your color and then you bring water in to pull it continuously through. But you can see this cascade green color, and how it's separating and creating this difference between blue and green into the wash. I am obsessed with how that looks, I think it is so pretty. I have that there, I'm going to let that dry before I go in and do this side. But while that's drying, I can go ahead and add my waves on this part, or my water border, and I'm going to use blue. I'm just grabbing a Prussian blue and I'm going to water it down quite a bit. I'm just doing a really soft wash. This is more for an assumption of water, so I'm not going to have any hard edges at all. I'm just going to do some of that edging technique where it just eventually goes clear, or illusion of going clear, but just along the sides, where it's emphasized a little bit and then disappears. If you want to go back in, remember that you can add some more concentrated color anywhere and then it will bleed naturally and do the blending work for you. We're going to do the other side as well, as soon as that border dries. Now I'm going to move on to Portugal and then I'm going to do the water wash on this side. For my Portugal color, I have decided to go with a grain gold, because it will have a nice contrast and pop, but still maintain that green effect that I like to add to my maps, or the green color. You can pull that down just with water. Sometimes I actually take some more pigment off because I do want to create that wash effect, and then I'll just be choosy about where I actually add the pigment. But I definitely want a hard border right here where the water meets to provide enough contrast in there. Now that that's in, I'm going to go over here, just with that really, really light water wash, get rid of all of this noise, so it doesn't get in the way. The inevitable, I don't even know where that came from, but that is what I do. I'm going to pull this out, make sure it's really light. There we go. You can see that this actually is a little bit lost in the cascade green. Because of that, I'm going to put a little extra blue along the edge that's a little bolder. It's a different tone of blue, so it's going to stand out and then let that bleed in. Don't be alarmed when you first lay a color down like this because it will bleed in and make more sense as it moves. This part is dry, I'm going to go in and add my little detail here with the same color and then I will do it right here once that dries. From here I think that also once this dries, I think I will go back and add the city names now that I can see this as a whole, and then I will also put some lettering on top, and I'm going to do that in a dark color so that it pops. You can also of course, always add that before you get to this point, but that'll be some added interest. Then once it dries too, we'll go over and erase any extra. Like this part is dry, I'm going to erase this pencil line so that it doesn't, like the pencil line here, and then pencil line up on the border here, here. Anything like that that you see you can totally erase. 10. Lettering: Once everything is dry, you can start adding the names of your locations, you can add your country names. I'm going to do this with a paintbrush. You can definitely do this with a pen if you prefer, but I think that it's going to look really fun with brush strokes. Then I want to tie this all in, so I'm going to choose red. I'm not totally sure how that's going to show up on this dark color, but hopefully, because this paint that I'm using is so pigmented, Daniel Smith, I think that I'm going to be okay. I think that it'll be fun to do this at an angle here. If you want to map that out with pencil, really lightly, you can. Especially if you're using a darker color or pigment color, it will cover that okay. I could do P-O-R-T-U-G-A-L, then Spain I can do larger. I think I'm actually going to make that even larger and then Spain. Once that's in, I'm going to go in and start painting it. I'm not doing anything special with my letters either, I'm just doing it with my regular writing because I think that the brush stroke is going to give it good enough character. I'm going to do my letters a little bit wonky on purpose because I want to add a little character in there. Some of them might be longer, some may be shorter. My weight strokes are going to be a little bit different. Then once that dries, any pencil mark I can just erase. That's showing up good, and now I'll do Spain. Then I'm going to go smaller for my city names. That was with my two and now I'm going down to my triple art, so my three over zero, triple zero. This is where I can add in all those cities. If it helps you to do use pencil first, you totally can or you can just jump right in. I'm going to do all these in lowercase, even the beginning, because I think that will add a little interest too, since my countries are in all uppercase. Once I have my lettering done, I can choose if I want to put something down here or not. I'm going to put the date that I visited because then I can remember all these special moments. Then once that dries, I'm going to erase all of that pencil line that I started with for my letters. 11. Project time!: Thank you guys so much for taking this class.I hope that you had as much fun as I did. For the class project, I would love to see your maps, your illustrated maps. I know that they're going to be awesome and I know that all of us want to see how you took that creativity and really made it your own and mostly I really want to see where you've hit to or if you made up an imaginary land because that would be fun. So be sure to add that in your project tab, though all of us can [inaudible] and I will see you next time.