Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Sharon and I'm a self-taught
watercolor artist. Garden G, focusing on
realistic botanical art. I worked with multiple mediums
and various art styles. But in this class, we'll be
focusing on watercolors. I will be guiding you through the basics of
watercolors, materials, techniques, and how to start your very own botanical
illustration. I've been painting for
the past ten years. And everything I've
learned is through practice and self teaching. Now, I teach at
aspirin and slake. You want to improve that art? Can learn new techniques, join me and improve your
watercolor skills and learn how to achieve realism in
your watercolor techniques. For more art related stuff, please follow me on Instagram.
2. Understanding the structure of Rose and how to sketch: So starting of this rules, I know this can be very complicated because they
have a very dense structure. Formation of petals. So an easy way to start a
rose is by starting marking your same door and starting with the innermost over
that you can meet up. So find the center
of your rows and then find the center
of your sheet bucket. And then start with the innermost oval that
you can see and follow the path by creating
which ever round. And so BUC, which
is connected to it, just simply start using a ballpark measurements
to start drawing it. So here I started
drawing with my, I think third or
fourth most petty, through which I connected
the animals circle, which you can see, which
is right in the center. And then I'm just making petals which are connected
to it one after the other. This connecting
method of drawing a flower makes it very easy for you to draw
complicated structures, especially of a rose
or a Dahlia Moon. It's okay if your placements, your position of petals is not exactly as per
the reference image. The first step is
just to ballpark, mark everything and create a basic structure of the rules. Once that is ready, then we move on to defining
each petal and each shape. Right now you can see I'm
just using a very rough and a very light stroke
and even going over my strokes to
correct what I'm making. So it's just a very basic and a beginning sketch
that I'm doing right now. If you'd like to
sketch along with me, you can follow this or you can skip to the
end of this video. If you'd like to
give, give it a shot. This method is a good alternative
from the grid method. Because great method
takes a lot of time because you have to
first make the grid, then make the grid
on your image, and then follow goodbye
grid on your sheet. It does give you much
more accurate results, but it's just a time
taking process. This is something which
you can practice. And once you practice the art of drawing by connecting
bots in your sketch, you will realize that
this is also a good way to achieve what does
England reference image? You can see how the
roses taking shape. And even though my
lines and my lines, the weight of the petals, It's not perfect, but it's still coming close to the
reference image. And once my basic
structure is ready, I will start refining the
petals as per my defensive, which quickly speed up the
process of finding the petals. So here what I'm doing is simply erasing of the extra
lines have created, following my reference
image closely and refining each shape and each one of the defining each day and each cut on the
budget that is there. Now for this piece, I will be using mainly
these three colors. The first one is vermilion, the second is crimson, and the third one is orange. Orange is for the highlights, which the highlights you can see other areas of the
brightest colors. Then for our mid-tones
we have vermilion. And for a darker tones
will be having crimson. These areas that you see on my highlights for which
I'll be using my visa, the mid tones, and shadows. Overall, the entire OS is going to be a combination
of these three colors.
3. Building up first layers - Part 1: Now beginning my
process for the rows. So we'll be starting off with drawing our
highlights first. So in order to do this, I am first covering my entire rows with a
very light coat of water. Use a mop brush or the
biggest flushed and you have tried following the
edges as close to possible. But if you don't, it's fine
because right now we're just highlighting the major
parts of the rulers. And this process is going
to happen as the head, I'm using my orange hue, the orange color, and adding it on the areas where I
need to show highlights. The reason we added water was
because we wanted to have a very smooth dilution of the color on your paper.
The water and chose. It happens. Wherever you feel. You need highlights,
you can add the orange. Keep a close look at
your reference image. Before doing this. Anytime you feel yolk, water has dried up, you
can add more water, but make sure that the
orange that you're applying, it has a very smooth
dilution across the, across variable you're applying. Let your highlight
dry out before we move on to making
one petal at a time. So now I'll be starting off
with the bottom-most pedal, and I'll be starting off
light coat of water. As usual. This coat of water is important because the color that you
need to apply needs to blend smoothly with the
highlights that we have created. This I'm going to apply
shade of vermilion, which is a very
bright shade of red. You have to overlap
on the highlights, just leave out certain
areas and along the edges. And then the secondary
you can see I've left out some white areas because
that is the place where the light is falling directly and it is
mostly in white color. So maybe avoiding to add
any color over there. Blend out your color. Use a moist or damp brush. Go over the color one more time. Go with the red.
Spend more time. Just make sure
you're leaving out the main highlighted portion
of this spiky untouched. There should be no
gathered on it. Of course, while blending, you need to put some color. Otherwise you're blending
is going to be smooth. But it shouldn't be as concept, it shouldn't be as
saturated as the rest of the highlighted area needs. As if you've added color, just make sure you
pick it up with a damp brush and then keep
adding water to blend it out. Remember this water,
whatever you are adding, make sure it's not a lot. Otherwise your color
will start running. Now, check your reference
image and we need to add some shadow areas to this petty. And for this, I'll be mixing some crimson with a little bit of purple to create this shape. And I'll be adding this
along the inner part of the petal and on
the outer edges. If you look at the
reference image, this petal, slightly dark
towards the outer edges. Over there, I'd say
AdWords the inside. And we have a big triangle. We have a big dark
crimson triangle happening on the right side, which will be creating
two different layers. But we'd be creating first code. Right now. I'm adding
water and I'm blending it out throughout because
it's summer and we have the fan running so your
piece dries out really soon. So if you're in India using
watercolors in India, this is going to be a problem. So make sure you are
continuously writing your paper and making sure that every color that
you're applying, it's smooth. But don't go overboard with water at the base
you people will start to wilt and
it will start do. The paper will
start to come off. The first one and I'll
move on to the next one. If you feel for specialists. Is not dry, then you can wait on it or you can work
on some other ones. But mine is already dry because it's because it's pretty
dry and hot here. So my watercolors are
drying out really soon. So I'm working on The
Bachelor on the right, and we follow the same process, the bet, bet, this section first and apply a shade
of vermilion on it. So this petal is fairly
darker shade and it has less highlights as
compared to the first one. So you'll see that I'm
applying color throughout the petiole and not leaving
any highlights as such. The orange that we had added
before, gifts, very nice, vibrant shade, the
highlighted areas. And that's the reason we
did a first code of orange. Keep adding color
layer by layer, making sure that
you're not adding the darkest color right
in the beginning. If you need to add
any darker color, you need to add it to less like right now I'm
adding trypsin, which is always the
third or fourth layer in this specific Becky. Letting is extremely
important in watercolors. And without letting you
cannot achieve realism. In Iraq. Make sure you are blending everything out with
smooth wet brush. Don't rub on your paper a lot at the way the baby is
going to start coming off. Wonderful million
over the edges. Now moving on to the inner one, if you see all the petals will follow the same process that we have done
in the first two. The only difference that we'd
be seeing is the amount of color and color we're
applying to the parties. So for this one, I am starting off with
the vermilion and IV, applying a little darker shade
towards the outer edges. This petal also doesn't
have much highlights, but try leaving out some
areas in between the center, like I've just picked up some color to reveal
some highlights. Anytime. This video is getting
too fast for you, you can pause it and continue working on your
petal and then play it. Once you are on track with any color, any layer of color you
add on your patchy, make sure you're adding value
or section is still wet. Otherwise it's going to create a very sharp batch and it's going to be
difficult to get rid of it. If your base has dried out, try adding a little bit
more of water to it, a very thin layer, or Apply Color and immediately blend it
out with a wet brush. Use either the wet
on wet technique, the wet on dry technique
for this process. If you are looking
for a tutorial on the basic two techniques
that I use for my florals. Do check out my first
Skillshare session, which is on a fancy. In that class, I talk about the two basic techniques
I use in watercolors. That's the wet on wet and
wet on dry technique. So you can check that class out. You can check out the lessons
over there if that helps, and then come back
to this session. You and also keep a tissue
handy and use that to reveal some highlights on your bed in case you're unable to
do it with your brush. Make sure you have
defined your sections of Erdos properly
through your sketch. Because section vase
painting is going, is the secret behind
making a realistic goals.
4. Building up first layers - Part 2: Now essentially there is no definite sequence of
working on your petals. Just make sure that
you are not working on it just in battle. Because the color might run over and you might
not have a very teenage take a call on the basis of how your
petals have dried out. So now I'm working on one of the back petals and
you can see that a slightly darker shade as compared to the
rest of the rows. For this one, I'm going
to be using more of crimson mixed with
a little bit of purple to create that dark hue. And even in my base color, I will be using that darker
shade because I need to show it pretty dark as compared to the
rest of the petals. So this is a mix of crimson and a little bit of purple
to create the shade. Throughout the, throughout
the making of this rows, you will realize
that I am following the same procedure for
each of the second each individual section
to create my base coat which is applying a
ten liter of water. And then looking at my
reference image and deciding what colors I need
to put on which section. This section is highlighted. I'm going to add more of
vermilion and brighter shades. If it's a darker section, I'm going to add more of
purples and promotions. And for areas that are bending and going
inside the flower, I will be again, adding the darker hues for
this specific fun. I think there's a
little bit of a shade, darker shade happening
on top of the petal. So I will be showing
a mix of crimson and bubble on top of it. And spread this across using
our vermilion and crimson cheap to have your
reference image open while you're working. Because by doing botanical art, there is not a
specific pattern that repeats throughout your subject. If one of your petals is
going to have more red, It's not necessarily that the other one is going
to have the same thing. So best to have your reference image
open right next to you. Some following the
usual process and blending my colors out and
using a damp brush to do that. Some darker shades to the edges and some
on the top of it. Now you can turn your paper according to the
ADA are working on. So I usually prefer joining my page around if I'm
working on the top sections because it helps me
have appeared on edge and more control over
this section I'm working on. So here you can see I've just flipped my paper
when 80 degrees. And this actually helps me to
create those darker edges, finite edges more
clearly and precisely. This is something that
you can practice. This be flexible
with your paper, with your technique to create a more realistic and
a more smooth look. A very thin, just add a
little touch of crimson and purple over the edges to
create that burned edge. Look, which you can see
in roses sometimes. And also the dark
highlights that you can see on this
specific rows, which is quite evident. Now, working on the
leftmost petiole, which is the largest
petal in this source. I'll start with the
same process of wetting my paper first and
then applying my color. So this section is fairly darker than the
rest of the ones. You can see. My base
color that I've started with is Crutzen and not
formulated for the bottom part. And for the top part, I've used vermilion because it's under the highlight,
highlighted areas. Again, I've turned my
paper around for this. So it's easier for
me to work on. If incase it's getting
confusing for you. Just a disclaimer I did. My roles is currently
done upside down. Finally, for the last petal, which is left IB repeating the same process
using vermilion. And since then,
because this is one of the backpack incidents going to be darker than the
rest of the ones.
5. How to layer and achieve textures: Now, once your
base coat is done, we can start with the second code or the
detailing code on the roses. You'll see that my
center part and the middle part of the
rows is he still not done? And that is something I
will leave for the end. So right now I'll
finish off the, all the petals that
we have done by doing the second and the
be dealing layers on it. If you've been following me, I follow three basic
steps on doing my totals. For the first one is
doing the base code, which we have done it. The second is the one which
I'm working on right now, which is about highlights
and the BDS and fleshing out the shadows and the important
areas of your pedal. So here you can see I've added another layer of crimson and purple to create
that darker hue, which is the shadow of the top petal falling
on this bottom, which I've shown to
this darker shade. Adding a few more layers of strokes using a
very fine brush in the direction of the petal and some more vermilion
to create that. For your rules. I'm adding some burned edges, just like we did in
one of the top petals. The idea here is to get closer
to your reference image. So keep looking at
your reference image and keep adding more color. Whenever you feel
you need to add more red or more of crimson. Red of a, you need to
show more highlights. Depending on whether
you want to have a tiered edge of your color or you want it to blend
smoothly Video Background. Choose whether or
not you need to add water to the section
you're working on. So right now I'm
adding a bare minimum, but the RAM directly
applying color, my color is very dilute, which makes it flowy. And after applying, I
add water to it or I use a damp brush to
blend it out and create. Sure. So make sure
that the color you're applying is in a very
good consistency. It's dilute and it's not a very concentrated
automated driving. Until base rise. Using a fine liner, create these veins which
you see in a row specking. Make sure you're checking your reference image to check
the direction of strokes. It's always radial and
it's always outside. It's never going to
be perpendicular, perpendicular to your Padlet is always going to be
in the direction in which your petiole grows. So make sure that the direction
of his trucks is correct. Otherwise, it's not
going to look realistic. And it's only do blend
well with your background. Use a mix of vermilion crimson and a much darker
crimson for this section. Keep adding more color to get closer to your
reference image. If you're working
on a darker pencil, you need to add
more and more mix of crimson and bulb is to
create an even darker hue. I ultimately you will be adding a little bit of black
towards the edges, but that needs to be your
very last resort because I never recommend adding black
right in the beginning, it's always your last step
that you need to add. So in watercolors,
you always build up dark colors and you don't apply the darkest color
right in the beginning. So keep these few steps
in mind and continue the same process across all the petals and create the
same texture that you see. The innermost series of photos are going to be
in the darkest shade. So directly you can see I'm
applying a very dilute mix of crimson and purple to
create that dark dawn. Ben, I'm shading it out
so it blends smoothly with the rest of the
petal and it sounds like a very sharp edge. Then I'm making and then I'm repeating
the same process of making the veins in the same direction as the desk as in the same direction
of mine, Peggy
6. Layering to achieve realism - Part 1: So I'm continuing
the second coat on my bedroom at
bringing them closer to the reference image by
adding more layers of OVN, trypsin and more darker shades. Asked for your reference image. As you move on to
this bottom left, but realize that there are very sharp shadows
and very sharp folds. And had our shadows
are not going to be very smooth and odd blend
with the background, but they will have
sharper edges to show the creases and
folds in the bedroom. Continuing the same processor followed for all the
remaining petals. Hey, you can go as I'm going, or if you'd like
to give it a shot, you'll feel free to skip through this video and try
this out on your own. But if you'd like,
you can continue and go as I go with the slot, I'm adding another coat of water along with some vermilion
over the edges. Some darker shades
of red towards the same dough and
bringing it towards that. So anytime you, anytime
you're layering colors and you want it to seamlessly
blend with the background. Make sure you are applying
a little bit of water, either on the surface
or on your brush, and then smoothly
blending it out. Make sure that there
are no patches forming on your flooded. In case they are, then use that damp brush and smoothly and slowly
drop those patches out in strokes similar to the direction of the
petal so that there are no unwanted strokes
forming as your color dries. Now I'm using my fine
liner and feeding ten lines as veins as I've
done in the previous petals. The direction being the
direction of the petal. Continue adding veins
till the time you feel the entire texture is as close to the
reference image. You can add bigger veins, you can add smaller veins. It's totally up to you. Study your reference
image in depth and then take a call what kind
of veins you need to draw. So this is what our
semi-finished rose looks like. We have a long way to go, but you can already see
how the realism is coming across and the same techniques we are going to follow for
the rest of the petal, for the rest of the rows. So see you in the next lesson.
7. Layering to achieve realism - Part 2: I started working
on the top petal and we'll start with blending out the base layer because I feel it's
slightly patchy forest. I'm blending it out with a
very lightly damped brush. So you can see the darker
hue that I added of crimson. It was initially very patchy, but now I've blended
it out so it looks smoother and gives a more
natural look to the bedroom. I'm adding a little bit more of burned edges on this path, specific petals and
very tiny folds that you can see on
the reference image. So we tried to
replicate that over here using a darker mix
of crimson and purple. Use thin strokes and dab
the color on the base. So it becomes
smoother and creates a nice rough texture on the bed. Next, I'm adding a darker
shade of vermilion on the right side of my bed because they need to
enhance it slightly, enhance the darker areas
and enhance the highlights. And then I'm going
to smoothly blend this out using a damp brush. Do reveal my highlighted edges. Now I'm adding the veins
using my fine liner. Same rule as always, follow the direction of your
petty for your strokes. Now I'm going to quickly work on the remaining petals and I follow the same
process I've done so far by bending my surface and then applying
the base colors. Now there's a reason I left the center portion for the last, because the center part is fairly complicated
and requires a different approach as compared to the
rest of the rules. There we worked in
different sections, but for the center one, we will be working it, working on it as a whole, and then fleshing out the individual parts
by adding shadows. So you just see how
I go about with it. This specific petal,
I'm following the same process I've done in the past by adding 1 million
on the inner edges and outer edges and leaving a specific highlight,
the same dough. I'm adding a very dark shade of crimson towards the edges. A little bit of a shadow effect of the remaining petals over it. And I'm adding some crimson
and Bob will mix to reveal some burnt edges and
the shadowing areas. Now I use a very
fine brush to work on my inner most sections. So this is what I'm saying. I'm petals which I can make out. And I'm using a tin zero number one
number brush and using a Veii dark shade of crimson for the base code because
this specialist any darker than the
rest of the petals. So you'll see I'm not
using much vermilion or much of highlights in
this specific Becky. So it's mostly going
to be crimson and having some darker highlights
of Thompson and bump it. And extreme dark
highlights using black, which we'll be doing
in the very end.
8. Painting the inner parts of the rose: Coming onto the center
of the rose head. I'm not applying water
initially on this section. I'm directly applying my color, which is a little
bit of vermilion. And then mostly it's going
to be crimson for the spot. And I'm directly applying it on the budget without any water
because I need the color to be extremely rich and vibrant as there are very
less highlights. Because this part of the
flower is precisely in the center of the
rose and there isn't much sunlight falling on it, so it's the darkest
part of the flag. We will not be doing
any highlights for the bottom bit of this, I am using a little
bit of water and various shades of vermilion and crimson vomited
towards the bottom, crimson towards the edges. And now I've added
another layer of crimson towards that I'd say, because that's where the
main shadow is falling. You can see I've left a little patch of
highlight untouched because that's the backside of the petals and that
needs to be highlighted. This part of the rows, you'll see that it's fairly
darker than the rest rows. There isn't much of highlights
to be revealed in this. So I've done multiple layers of vermilion and crimson for this. And there you see, I'm doing a very fine
line of dark crimson, which I've created using, which I've created by
mixing crimson and black. Generally I don't recommend
using Blackboard shadows. I usually go with
blues or browns. But for this specific section I am using black because this is the central part of
the rows and it has extreme shadows that we need
to recreate using black. Now, via my paper is still wet. I am using tissues to
dab out some areas which are folded out portion of the petals to reveal
those highlights. You can see I'm using a
tissue again to reveal those sections in case your
color has already dried out. A good way to do
this is by applying water on the section
where you want to highlight a very thin film of water and then
using a tissue, just press on it or dab on it. And the tissue is going
to soak up the color and you can reveal the
highlights over there. But remember, this is a
very limited process. You can't repeat
it multiple times. It can only be done
once or maximum twice. Otherwise, if paper's going
to start ripping off. So I'd recommend to be very precise and careful with this and not damage your paper. Now remember in the
previous lesson where we were discussing
about this central part, I discussed that
how our approach is going to be
different for this one. Here you can see I am using
a darker shade of crimson, crimson and using shadows to reveal the
individual sections. So I'm using a very thin
brush to reveal the shadows, which in turn reveal all the various spirals and rounds of petals
happening in the center. So this portion is fairly dark, the shadows are very dark. It's very sharp. So you don't have to worry about blending and the
smoothness of the shadows. It has to be sharp, it has to be going all. As you are revealing that as
you're making the shadows, you can follow a
certain spiral shape. The one that we chased
out without benzyl, leaving a very thin layer of highlights because of course that our
petals over there. And we have to show those
petals by showing the shadows. And there's a concentric. Now overall I'm
adding a very light, very diluted, dark shade because the inner portion of
the slide is not very late. It's in the shadows, it's towards the
inside of the flower. So I'm adding a very dilute mix of crimson over on
the entire thing. So it does down slightly
and it's not as vibrant as the rest
of the flower. Now coming to this
bottom section, I'm adding another layer of crimson and vermilion
because it needs to be richer in color and the
shadows need to be darker. So I'm building upon building
the color again using the layering technique
that we have done for the entirety of this rose. Building a few
more shadows using a darker crimson shade
around this central area. So it pops out even
more than the 3D look. Comes out even better. All the different folds
of my off the rows, all the different areas when there is a shadow falling
off day just in BEDtools. I'm just fleshing it out. Before we move on to
the final touches. Wherever you feel
like the shadow is not in sync with the
rest of the class. Feel free to add another
layer of crimson and bubble opens in and
black very dilute mix. And use a flat, flat stroke technique for this. It's a smoother edge and
not a very sharp edge. Unless a sharp edges,
what you're going for.
9. Final touches: Now moving on to
the final touches, our roses fairly done. What we need to do
right now is flesh out some more textures, especially in the intersection. And those textures and mostly the veins that
we need to flesh out. Some more shadows. If you feel like we
need to add those, like I'm adding a
little bit more of a shadow on the top petal. Of course I've done
my page around. That's why you can see
my hand is upside down. So feel free to do this
because it gives you more control over the section you're working on and
gives you a cleaner edge. For all of this, I'm using my trypsin or very dilute mix of
microbes in shade. And I'm using the tip of
my brush to create these, you know, this shadow effect. So mainly on the schools, we have used total of three steps which are repeated throughout the different petals. First one is making a
base code that is using a very thin film of water and then applying your color as
per your reference image. The second processes building the color as close to
the reference image. And that process is perhaps the lending process because you go through multiple
layers of adding colors, multiple layers of adding different shades and
tonal values to it. And the third one is about adding details,
which is the veins. Here you can see right now, I am adding very, very fine details using my fine liner, using
the concentrate. These details are
very minor ones, but overall, as they
all come together, it gives a very
realistic approach in a very realistic texture
to your botanicals. Each botanical has its own
different sort of fur texture. Roses for that matter,
they are very, very Veni off more
often than not, you don't see those veins. But on a good day and if
it's a great picture, detail, rows, you can actually
see all of these veins that are highlighted
in this sketch. Once you step back from this, you will realize the
difference these veins meet on the overall
appearance of your roles. So head is up, aerial view of the entire thing. And you can see how rich and vibrant the color is turned out, how realistic the
shadows are coming off, and how the tiny little
details that we have added, how it's all coming
together and giving that journalism on this
realism to the sketch. And that is what I wanted to help you guys
achieving the session. Wanted you to help you guys
are achieving this session. A few more details
here and there. I'm just checking it out. Wherever I feel. I need to add more,
some more texture. If you know some places
missing something, just, just keep checking
the reference image. If you do add more wound edges, you need to add more shadows
or highlights or beams. See how POs, you can get
to your reference image. See how many details you
would like to flesh out. That's totally up to you. My job is to teach
you how you can get as close to realism as
possible risks to the alcohol. So I do hope you enjoyed
the session and if you did, please do leave me a review and let me
know how this goes. I would love to see your work.
Shivam Srivastava, Art teacher | Botanical | Watercolours
