Paint a Retro Gumball Machine in Watercolor: Realism Meets Painterly Style

1. Introduction + Welcome: Whether you're an intermediate watercolor artist, looking for a fun project to work on where we're incorporating different techniques, or perhaps you're looking to understand more about how to use a reference photo to achieve higher levels of realism. While not being a slave to your reference and trying to copy everything exactly as is, this course is for you. Hey, everyone. My name is Erika, and I'm a traditional media artist working with a range of drawing and painting mediums. My day to day life revolves around creating and selling as well as creating helpful resources for beginner and intermediate artists, which I share via my website, my YouTube channel, and, of course, my membership site. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields, first as a graphic designer, and then I moved on to work as head art teacher in a school environment for many years. During this time, I started my own art business on the side, selling art and also teaching artists of all levels and ages out of my own home studio. After some time, I decided to take what I was doing locally to the online space in order to help even during this time, it's been such a joy to connect with growing artists from all over the world and being able to help others in their journeys as I continue growing as an artist myself. In this course, I am taking you through my entire painting process for this colorful retro gumbo machine piece. Everything from initial washes to layering watercolor for depth and detail. I share my thought process and my favorite techniques. That help me arrive at a level of realism that I enjoy while still keeping things fresh and painterly. In this one, we're not only bringing in foundational watercolor techniques such as wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry and layering, we're also bringing in techniques that require a certain amount of water and brush control, such as painting large washes, protecting highlights with masking fluid, and also splattering, scrubbing and blooms. This project is also a fantastic opportunity to practice painting glass and metal. As well as making artistic choices to bring in more interest and color harmony into the piece while removing or simplifying other areas that are not contributing to the composition. If you're just getting started with watercolor, I would highly recommend checking out my watercolor one oh one course here on Skillshare because in that one, I share essential information that you should be aware of when it comes to watercolor and I provide helpful exercises that will help you develop your skills faster. All right, so if you're ready, let's jump in. 2. Course Project: By the end of this course, you'll have completed a colorful and realistic watercolor still life painting, featuring a retro gumball machine. As you move through these classes, you'll be gaining powerful insights and tools that you'll be able to take with you to tackle future watercolor paintings with greater ease and success. I broke up my process into phases, each of which has its own class. And before jumping in, I swatch out my paint colours for you on a scrap piece of watercolor paper so that you can see what they look like and replace whichever you don't have with something similar. Before putting paintbrush to paper, I would recommend watching the next phase through or at least skimming through that video so that you can understand the objectives for the phase on hand, the process, and also the main techniques that are being used. This will help you then follow along more smoothly and with greater success. And I would recommend taking your time with each phase. Don't rush through the process and make sure that you're allowing each layer to dry before working over it. I've prepared a set of downloadable files which you're going to be able to find in the projects and resources tab right below any of the class videos. Simply click on this tab, scroll down a little bit, and you'll find a section that is titled Download Resources. On any file that you wish to download and it will be saved onto your computer or device. For this one, you'll find the outline sketch that I have prepared for you, which is what I would recommend tracing over as you're doing your transferring onto your watercolor paper. You'll also find a high resolution reference photo, which is what I would recommend observing as you're moving forward with the painting process so that you can see tonal changes and shadows, details, textures, and so on. You'll also find a photo that I took after having placed my masking fluid in case you'd like to use it as you're placing your own, a photo of my finished painting in case you'd like to use it as reference as you're working and your supply check. To post a photo of your work here on Skillshare, all you have to do is click on the Projects and Resources tab. Once you're in, you'll see this purple button on the right that says submit project. When you click on this button, you'll be taken to a new page where you'll easily be able to both upload a photo of your piece, as well as share any thoughts, experiences, struggles or questions that you might have for me. Here you can create a title for your project and click on that larger content section underneath. And if you want to add in that photo at the beginning, you can go ahead and click on that image icon on the bottom. Simply find the photo that you're wanting to share on your computer or device, select that file, click open, and it will be immediately added into this content section. Then under your image, share anything you'd like, whether it's struggles, questions, wins, aha moments that you might have experience throughout this course, anything you'd like to share. I always love hearing from you. At the bottom of this content section, you'll see different icons. One is for formatting your text, you can use the other one to add emojis, the Add Image icon, which we just talked about, and you can even embed links. You're free to add even more pictures if you'd like. They can be process or supply pictures. And over here to the right, we see this preview area where we can see a thumbnail or cover image for your project. You can go ahead and change it to a title image that you have created in a more horizontal format. You can just go ahead and leave it as is. Once you're ready, go ahead and scroll back up. Click on the Green Publish button, and you'll be all done. If you'd like to share your work over on Instagram, please do make sure to tag me at Erika Underscore Lancaster Underscore Art. I love seeing student work over there and giving you shoutouts in my stories. And, of course, go ahead and tag the Skillshare account, as well. It goes a very long way and inspires other students to share their work too. Skillshare is a safe learning space for all of us to continue growing together. So make sure that you're using this gallery, and let's all connect and help each other out. I can't wait to see your work and to help out with whatever you might need. Let's move on to our next class. 3. Supplies: I'm going to be working on a sheet of watercolor paper from arches, which is cold pressed. It's 140 pounds in thickness or in weight, and it is 100% cotton. For this one, I would definitely recommend using paper that is 100% cotton and that tolerates layering as well as the scrubbing technique. This arches pad that I have offers paper that is nine by 12 " in size. But I did cut off an inch so that that rectangular format wasn't as long. So the sheet of paper that you're going to see me work in is actually 9 " in width by 11 " in length. Is totally up to you if you want to cut off a section of your watercolor sheet and work in exactly the same size as I am or if you want to work in a larger size. I'm going to be using a combo of watercolor paint from Daniel Smith and Windsor Newton's professional line. Seven paint colors were used to create this piece, and these colors were Windsor lemon, new gamboge, a zarin crimson, pyrrol scarlet, sap green, ultramarine blue and pains gray. I will be swatching out all of these colors for you before jumping into the process so that you can see what they look like on paper and you can replace whichever you don't have with something that is similar to what I'll be using. The brushes that I had on hand, as I was creating this piece were four round brushes in sizes 14, eight, four and zero, a size six mop brush, and I will be bringing in an extra size ten multimedia cheaper round brush. And this I'm not sharing on screen, I just brought that in to do my splattering, which is completely optional. And the only reason why I brought in that extra brush is because it has stiffer bristles and I think it lends itself better for the splattering technique than these brushes that I'm using for the actual watercolor painting process, which have softer bristles. I will be bringing in a couple of extra cheaper brushes to place my masking fluid. These are also a couple of rounds in sizes six and zero. Aside from these basic supplies, I'm also making sure to have a few scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand to test out colors as I'm moving through this process. I have my container with clean water, which I change a few times. As soon as I see that my water starts turning murky, I go ahead and change that. You're free to bring in a couple of different containers or even three containers so that you don't have to change it as often if you don't want to. I have my blue Scot absorbent towels in order to stay on top of water control and do any lifting that I might need to do throughout this process. I'm going to be taping down my watercolor sheet with regular 1 " masking all I make sure to do is run my pieces of masking tape over my clothes a couple of times before using them to tape down my watercolor sheet. This helps soften that adhesive and make it less likely that I'll damage my paper at the end when I remove it. I have my bottle of color less masking fluid from Windsor and Newton, and you can also see a few sketching supplies as well as a sheet of tracing paper right here on screen, which were used to prepare my preliminary outline sketch on my watercolor sheet. Before getting started with the painting process. I do have a full class on how I use tracing paper to trace over my reference photo and do my transferring and then how I do my final refinements and my final preparation of my preliminary sketch. I'll make sure to link to that class down below in the recommended resources in case you'd like to learn how to use tracing paper for your transferring. But of course, you're always free to use whatever transferring method you prefer to create your preliminary outlay sketch on your watercolor. Would recommend tracing over the outline sketch that I have created for you and not over the reference photo. And this is because I have changed the composition a little bit. However, I always like including the reference photo as well so that you can observe that as you're moving forward with the painting process so that you can see shadows, value changes, texture changes, and so on. Of your downloadables are in the Projects and Resources tab, which you'll see right below any of the class videos. There you'll find your outline sketch, the reference photo, a photo that I took after having placed my masking fluid in case you'd like to use it as reference as you're placing your own, a photo of my finished piece, which you're also free to use as reference as you're working and your supply checklist. Go ahead and collect your supplies and your downloadables, and I'll see you in the next class. 4. Applying Masking Fluid: I I decided to bring in masking fluid to block out highlights for this one because of the metallic and glass materials present in this gumball machine. It is super important to make those highlights happen when it comes to this reflective and smooth material. By using the masking fluid, we're going to be able to speed up other parts of the painting process because we're not going to have to very carefully make our way around these highlights and stuff. We're going to be able to paint quickly and in an expressive way and the masking fluid is going to keep those highlight shapes protected. I have on hand are a couple of different round brushes, and these are cheap multimedia brushes. This is a size six round brush, and this is a zero right here. And I've already coated these bristles with liquid hand soap, which is going to help protect those bristles from the masking fluid because masking fluid is liquid latex and it dries fast and it dries hard, and it's going to completely ruin your paintbrush bristles if you don't keep them protected with some kind of soap. And even if you do take those measures to protect those bristles, I still wouldn't use your favorite expensive watercolor brushes for the purpose of placing that masking. Just going to be changing between these two brushes as needed, depending on the size and the complexity of that highlight shape that I am going to be blocking out. Now, this is a masking fluid from Windsor and Newton. It's color less masking fluid. All I do is pour some of this masking fluid into this little cap. I wouldn't necessarily recommend you use the cap of the bottle to pour that masking fluid into because as I said, the masking fluid dries very fast, and if it dries on those edges of your cap, it can make your bottle harder to open. If you have anything similar to that that you can pour your masking fluid into, that's going to do just fine. I'm doing here is I'm observing that reference photo and I'm going to make my way from top to bottom, starting with my size six round brush. I'm just observing those brightest almost white looking highlight shapes that I see present throughout this gumball machine. That is essentially what you're going to be blocking out. I would recommend making sure that your masking fluid is placed in a thin application because this is going to help that masking fluid dry faster. If you place it in a very thick blob, that is going to take a lot longer to dry. Other thing that I want to make sure that I mentioned is just because we're using a reference photo, it doesn't mean that we have to create a carbon copy or make everything exactly the same as it is present in that reference photo in order to arrive at believable results. It is very important that yes, we're observing that reference photo in order to see the different value shapes or tone shapes present throughout these different parts of the gumball machine and how those different value shapes relate with each other. What I mean by this is constantly observing and asking yourself, is this section here light darker than this other section over here. What you're painting is a three dimensional structure sitting in space that is being affected by light. You're painting something that is three D that has plane changes, and in this case, I can tell that the light is hitting this object from the right. If you notice the brightest highlight shape in this glass section is right here. It's a big abstract, white highlight shape right here. There is also a very bright highlight shape down here in this metal section. I also see the cast shadow on the surface of the red table right here on the lower. Opposite to the light source. I used my artistic license quite a bit, especially for the table, and I also removed this bottle right here on the I think it's a mirror over here. I removed all of that, and I also changed the table line, so it's just straight horizontal instead of a slight diagonal, taking a little bit of masking fluid from my little cap here. And I'm noticing where those brightest highlight shapes are that I want to mask out. I'm just going over those shapes, making sure that these shapes that I'm masking out are relatively small and also very abstract and irregular. I don't want to create very large, blocky, very geometric shapes when I'm placing my masking fluid. You don't have to worry about getting in every single little highlight shape that you see in the reference photo and your highlight shapes don't have to be exactly the same as you see them in that reference photo. There is room for looseness and a certain level of interpretation, and as long as you have the three dimensional structure and the light source in mind as you're creating these different highlight shapes and tone shapes in general, as we move forward in this painting process, you will arrive at believable results. You just have to make sure that the different tonal or value shapes that you create are similar to what you're observing there in that reference photo, getting those tonal relationships right. It's a small narrow highlight down here. I don't want you to get super perfectionistic and obsessive about getting everything exactly as it is in that reference photo because it's not necessary. In fact, oftentimes, especially when we're working with watercolor, trying to get things exactly the same as you see them in whatever reference photo it is that you're using or even if you're observing something in real life that you have in front of you that you're painting. Sometimes that is going to be a disadvantage because when you're painting with watercolor, you can start over describing or overworking the piece with too much detail. Quite easily, way more easily than with other painting mediums. This medium lends itself for creative expression when it comes to choosing your colors and honestly making decisions as to the level of detail that you're going to be adding to the piece. I'm going to be, of course, taking a photo of my piece after having placed my masking fluid so that you can have it as reference as you're placing yours and you're going to be able to find it as a downloadable, that's going to be available for you. And I'm going to switch to my smaller brush. I just add a few little highlights to some of these gumballs. These over here nearest the light. I can see many of these have little highlight. If you notice those little highlights in those gumballs, they are all on the upper right, which is nearest the light source or the part that is closest to the light source. Not all of the gumballs have to have a little highlight, by the way. But as long as a lot of them do, we're going to be good. Make sure to keep your application of masking fluid nice and light and a thin application. I'm going to create a highlight here, long highlight on the glass, little highlights on the glass. And this is colorless masking fluid. So when I first apply it on my paper, it goes down, white and opaque and milky. And as it dries, it becomes more like a thin translucent yellowish film. And that's when you know that it's dry when it looks like a transparent yellowish film. You have to make sure that before you start to paint, your masking fluid is completely dry. It should feel tacky but no longer sticky to the touch. Okay. I'm almost done here. Going to do a little kind of an outline to the sticker. Not a completely totally all around outline, just in a few edges here and there. And finally, going into this bottom metallic portion here. Try to think of where edges that are coming out from the structure could be catching light, and you can place some masking fluid there. I'm also going to be blocking out the letters in this little flap that opens. Even though the entire letter is not going to be a highlight, I mask out the entirety of these letters because I want to paint them after I've painted the overall general majority portion of the little flap, and I want to give myself more control so that I can paint those letters very carefully and make them legible. But as I said, not the entire letter is going to be white or the whiteness of the paper. I'm just going to be leaving little sections of those letters as highlights. But I'm going to be developing a little bit of a range of gray values throughout each letter so that I can give them a sense of three d form, a voluminous structure popping out from that flap. Bit of this edge over here nearest the light. All right. Awesome. I'm all done with my masking fluid placement. I'm going to go ahead and wash out these paintbrush bristles before the masking fluid damages them anymore than it already has. I'm going to pour my masking fluid back into the bottle and I'm going to close it tight. A 5. Swatching Paint Colors: Through repeating colors, we're going to be able to harmonize the painting more and we're going to be able to create much more integrated end results. The first color that I'm going to be using is Pyl scarlet, which is a warm red, and this is a red from Daniel Smith. I'll show you what this looks like so that you can replace this color with whatever you have that is similar to this, a warm red. The next color that I'm going to be using is a zarine crimson, which is a cool red. This is a zarine crimson from Windsor Newton and it looks like this. The next color that I'm going to be bringing in is new gamboge, which is a warm yellow, and this is from Windsor and Newton as well. The next color that I'm going to be using is Windsor Lemon from Windsor and Newton, which is a cool yellow and Windsor Lemon looks like this. The next color that I'm going to be using is sap green from Windsor and Newton and sap green is a warmer green. Let's watch it out for you. Sap green looks like this. I'm going to be bringing in ultramarine blue, which is a warm blue, and ultramarine blue looks like this. Finally, I'm also going to be bringing in Panes Gray, which is a cool blue biased gray. Pains Gray looks like this. This is it in terms of the different colors that I'm going to be using for this painting. 6. Top, Sticker + Gumballs Layer One: I'm going to get started with this top metallic section right here. This is gray, this is red. I'm going to be kneading my pains gray and I'm going to be kneading my piral scarlet, which is a warm red. This is a size eight round brush. I also changed my water. By the way, I have clean water and I'm going to take a small amount of this pains gray. You can see how I'm taking it from the edge of this pains gray puddle here and it's pretty water down. I'm going to start painting this section in using just the tip of my paintbrush here. It's a very small shape, so you'll want to stay on top of water control. And keeping things light and watered down initially pretty pale so that I can build toward those darkest values. You can even do some lifting if you feel you've darkened things too much, especially on the right because the light is hitting the gumball machine from this side. I remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles and now I'm going into the pyroal scarlet. Same thing here. I'm making sure to take my color from the edge of the puddle and I'm making sure that my color is relatively water down. Starting on the darker side, which is over here, going to start painting this in. I always start in the darkest side that I see in that reference photo or darkest area that I see, and I make my way towards the lightest area because this helps me not apply too much pigment too quickly into those lightest value areas. Running my paintbrush bristles over everything a couple of times so that it can stay wet for a little bit longer. Taking a little bit more of this pyal scarlet, but now from the center of the puddle here. I'm going to start developing those darker values in this area by dropping in more of a saturated pyal scarlet on the darker side, leaving lighter areas or paler areas in the lighter side. As I mentioned before, I'm going to be creating a darker version of my piral scarlet by adding a little bit of pains gray into it and I don't want to go too dark too fast. We're building incrementally towards those darkest values. So don't add too much gray into your red, but do get it darker than the plain red that you were just using before. And this is still wet, by the way, because I took my time with that first layer and I ran my paint brush bristles over that shape a couple of times, which keeps it wet for a little bit longer. As you can see, I darken those areas, especially the left half, which is the side opposite to the light source and it's the darker area that I see in that reference photo. You can always go in and do some lifting if you feel that that darker red has expanded too much or you've darkened things too much in general. Go in while the paint is still wet and use the clean and only slightly down bristles of your paint brush as a little absorbent sponge. Right? Moving down from there, I'm going to paint in the first layer in the sticker, which is the yellow. When it comes to the yellow sticker, I don't have to make my way around the one and the scent symbol because that's going to be painted black. The paints gray, which is what I'm using for my grays and blacks. That is going to completely cover up the yellow underneath. So it's absolutely no issue if I just paint in everything with yellow first. I'm going to be using the new gamboge for the sticker, which is a warm yellow, and I'm going to make sure that my yellow is nice and watered down. Think of a tea a coffee consistency for that first layer. You don't want to go in super saturated right off the bat, or too dark right off the bat. Even if the yellow is a light color, I still want to make sure that I'm going in nice and watered down initially, and I'm just going to paint the entire thing. Why not? I'm going to take a little bit of my cool yellow. I'm going to pop it in there for just a little bit of a cool yellow glow in certain sections. Okay, so I'm going to start with my first layer in all these gumballs. For this, I'm going to switch on over to my size for round brush. It's just a bit smaller, so I think it'll be helpful for those smaller shapes. For this first layer in the gumballs, I'm going to make sure to go in with all of these colors that I'm going to be using in a pretty water down pale state. These are just the first lightest values that we're creating with this first layer all throughout. You don't want to go too dark too fast because that is going to lead to a flat heavy look. We need those lighter values to create a little bit more of a spherical, believable, three d to these gumballs. That's number one. You want to go in nice and light and pale with all of these colors. The second thing that I want to make sure to do, if you zoom into the reference photo, you're going to notice that some gumballs are reflecting off others or you're seeing a little bit of the color of the gumball next to it or above it on the gumball underneath or next to it. And what I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be creating little blooms here and there, just as an example. If this is a blue gumball and this is a yellow gumball sometimes you're going to see a little bit of blue on the yellow one or a little bit of yellow on the blue one. This is something that I see here and there happening throughout that photo. But I'm going to be using my artistic license and I'm probably going to be doing this more than I actually see it happening in that reference photo because again, I know that this is going to help me create more of an integrated, interesting look. Another thing is if I want to change colors of specific gumballs, I'm going to go ahead and do that. I am not going exactly by what I see in that reference photo and also I am sure that I have extra gumballs added into my pencil sketch and maybe I've even left some out. That is perfectly fine. Let's jump right in. I'm going to be using my size for round brush and I'm taking a little bit of this lazarin crimson. From the edge of this puddle here, it's pretty watered down, as you can see, I'm noticing where some of these pink gumballs are. I'm just going to start painting in that first pale layer. Water down a zarin crimson is going to look pink. Skip one. Feel free to leave extra little teeny tiny highlights where the paper is left alone and unpainted if you want to add extra highlights. There's a pink one here. Um. If you make sure to run your paint brush bristles over these shapes and this initial layer of paint, it's going to stay wet for a little bit longer so that you can create those blooms that I was talking about before. This is new gamboge, my warm yellow. This is going to be an orange gumball here in between these two pinks. I can place a little bit of that orange in the gumballs next to that one for a little bit of a reflection there. I can go in and paint that orange gumball right here. If you're trying to stay away from bleeding where you have colors starting to merge into each other, then I would recommend jumping around. But for me, I'm pretty happy with bleeding, especially in this first layer. I think it'll look very nice. I remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles completely, and I'm going into the blue now. Uh, When I was choosing my colors for this piece, I did notice that there are lighter blue gumballs and darker blue gumblls. But I made a choice since the beginning to just use one single blue and keep all of these blue gumballs in the same blue. Before this blue dries, I'm going to pop some Windsor lemon into this one. Because this is going to be a yellow gumball over here. Doing a little bit of lifting here. I don't want to go too dark too fast. So whenever I accidentally go in with too much paint or color that is too dark, I immediately remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles and go in to soften with a clean and slightly damp brush. H. I'm going to switch colors and I'm going to do some pyral scarlet gumbels warmer red gumbels. That's too much paint. That very small shape. This is a very repetitive process, but try to enjoy what you're doing here and create those little blooms whenever you want to. Not every single gumball has to have a colorful bloom in it of a different color, but maybe 20, 30% of your gumballs can have them so that you can have an interesting look and more of a cohesive feel in this group that's made up of all sorts of different colored objects. Y. Too much paint, helping myself with my absorbent towel. I'm going to take some sap green, add it onto my palette and make sure to go in nice and pale initially, taking some green from the edge of my puddle and getting started here. Okay. Another green one down here. You can see how I'm constantly helping myself with my absorbent towel, dabbing the tip of my brush onto that towel to remove excess water and paint. As you're painting in all of these gumballs, noticing those edges is very important. Took some of my zarine crimson and dropped it right there onto that edge of this green gumball so that I can create that illusion of reflection. This gumball that I painted with a zarine crimson is reflecting off the green. I'm going to paint some cool yellow ones. For that, I am using my Windsor lemon. Taking a tiny bit of this Windsor lemon and dropping it into this gumball right here underneath, which is still wet because I just painted it in before for a little bit of that reflection. Continuing with the yellow gumballs. H. It's super important when you're painting something like this to understand or at least plan which gumball is in front of which or behind others so that those edges of those shapes can make sense. Going to go back to my new gamboge, which is the orangish looking yellow, the warm yellow, and I'm going to paint some of the orange ones. Very small shape here. I'm going to drop in a little bit of my new gamboge into that sap green. The green is still wet so I can take advantage of that and continue painting my orange gumballs. You can create as many little blooms as you wish and continue jumping around if you're not looking for any bleeding. Okay. I'm going to do a few white ones now. For this, I'm going to take some of my pans gray. It's very water down. Going to take just a bit from the edge of my puddle here and I'm going to notice where some of these white gum balls are. I'm going to start developing a little bit of a gray value on the edge of the gum ball that is opposite to the light source. If you want something to look white, you do have to make sure to incorporate plenty of that white paper, don't cover up all of that paper. The paper is going to help that gumball look white. If you just go in and cover it all with gray, it's going to look like a gray gumball. Wherever a gumball is creating a shadow on a gumball under it or behind it or next to it, you can also paint a little bit of a shadow there. Right here, we have another white one and another white one down here. This is definitely a lot of shadow under some other ones. I I'm just going to do a little bit of softening of this edge here for this gray shape. It's looking a little bit too sharp for this first layer. You can always go in and soften edges with a clean and slightly damp brush and even soften that color if you need to. I'm going to paint one more gray one before switching colors. G to make this one a white gumball right here. Okay. I'm going to switch on back to the blue and paint a few blue ones. Back to the ultramarine blue. I changed these gumballs on the right half or right third quite a bit from what I saw in that reference photo. I'm just going to choose what colors I want for these gumballs and paint them to my liking blue one down here. This first layer, when it comes to painting the gumballs, is the most time consuming one because we're painting the entire shape for all of these gumballs. But when it comes to the second and third layers, those are going to be faster because we're just going to be painting the shadow shapes. I I'm going to add a little pink bloom on this one because I have an lazarin crimson gumball here, so I can take some lazarin crimson, pop it into the blue there. Just touch the tip of the paintbrush to the previous color that is still wet and that is going to create a bloom. Okay. Nice little pink reflection there. Softening the transition a little bit with a clean and slightly damp brush. All right. Moving on from there, more blue gumblls This gumball right there next to the one that I just painted was painted with a warmer piral scarlet red. I'm going to do a little bloom on that blue gumball using that warmer red. I'm going to do some warm red gumballs over here. This one is right beneath an orangish gumball. I'm going to do a little bloom with the new gamboge, added more new gamboge into that palette. I'm just going to pop it in there. Can barely see it because this red is so intense. All right. Removed all of that color from my paintbrush bristles and going back into the pains gray, very water down pains gray, and I'm going to do a few more white ones. Painting in the shadow shape right beneath this orange one. Leaving plenty of that white paper shining through in this one so that it can look white. I'm just softening the edges of those gray shapes that I just painted in with a clean and slightly damp brush. Back to the gray, and I'm going to paint in some shadow shapes. This white gumball is beneath the yellow one. Same thing there. I painted in those gray shadow shapes. I remove that gray from my paintbrush bristles and I'm going into soften edges of those shapes. Painting in a tiny section of this one here, the bottom, which is in shadow, so I can go in with more gray or cover up more of that white paper. Go to paint a few more green ones. I feel I'm missing some green gumballs. Going back to my sap green, adding more sap green into this puddle, but I'm going to make sure to take the sap green from the edge and make sure that it's pretty water down. Going to add a little bit of a zar and crimson into this one a bit because it's next to a pink gumble. I can add some blue into this one because it's next to a blue gumble. I painted that color in, remove that color from my paintbrush bristles and those green gumballs are still wet. While they're still wet, I'm going to make some little ultramarine blue blooms in these gumballs. And here, I'm going to paint a few more green ones. I remove that ultramarine from my paintbrush bristles and I'm going to make this one green. I feel like I'm missing some green ones over here on the right. I'm going to add some lazarin crimson into these in just a bit. A little section of a green one peeping out from behind those blue ones. Green one down here. Maybe I can add some red into this one. Before that layer in those green gum balls dries, I'm going to take some lazar crimson. Pop some in here and here. Softening that little transition just a bit with my brush before allowing this to dry. But I'm really doing my best to allow that paint to do its thing and I'm not overblending. If I start over blending, I can start muting down colors, especially when it comes to complimentary colors, red and green are complimentary colors in the color wheel. If you continue over blending, you can create a gray or even a brownish color. Try your best to allow that paint to do its own thing. If you need to go in and soften any transitions, do it minimally and super gently. Going back to my orangish color, the warm yellow. And I'm going to continue painting a few more. Maybe I can do a green bloom on that one in just a bit. Um gonna make this one warm yellow. But as you continue painting in all these shapes, really understand what's covering up taking some sap green, adding it into my palette so that I can thicken up that mixture a little bit more. I'm going to pop it in here in this bottom one. By doing these blooms, I'm integrating things more so that the gumballs look like they are part of the same group, part of the same composition. A I'm going to take more of my zarin crimson. Play some zarine crimson. This one to darken some areas because it's in shadow. Go to paint this one in with a azarin as well. I'm missing some red in this area, I'm going in with some lazarinPainting in a section of a pink one that perhaps is behind all of these. Really paying attention to the curves and the ones around it. Another are a azarin Crimson one over here and we're almost done with this first layer and the gumballs. Going to do another piral scarlet one with my warm red. Paint in the space in between these four. My pyral scarlet. Maybe in here as well in between these four. I think I'm missing some green ones down here. I'm going to take some more my sap green, add it into my mixer, water it down a bit, paint some other ones down here. Make this one green as well. M paint in this section green in between these other gumbals. And a little section here. And a little green section right here. I'm going to do a final bit of a yellow one with my cool yellow Windsor lemon. This is a white one in the reference photo, but I'm going to make it yellow. I think I have enough white ones. I'm going to use the same yellow to paint this one. I'm going to take some of my blue and paint in some of these sections at the bottom. I'm going to take some of my new gamboge, the warmer yellow, and just paint in a little bit of this color in these other little sections. With that, we're going to be all done with this first layer in the gumballs. 7. Metal Base + Glass Layer One: I so now we can get to work on the bottom portion of the gumball machine. For this, we're going to be using the same colors or color mixers that we were using for the top portion, which is the piral scarlet with a little bit of pains gray and the pains gray on its own. This bottom portion though is, of course, a lot larger, so you do want to make sure that you're using an appropriate paint brush for this area. I'm going to be switching between my size 14 round brush and my size eight round brush for this. I'm going to add more pains gray into this portion of my palette. Remove that pains gray from my paintbrush bristles and I want to make sure that I have enough pyal scarlet over here and I'm going to be creating the darker version of my pyal scarlet with some pains gray right here in this little corner of my palette. I'm just going to go right in to start painting those metallic sections, the ones that are gray or silver. Those shapes are much smaller than the red part. For that, I'm going to be using my size eight round brush. Going in with a T consistency of pains gray. I'm just going to go right in. You can paint over any black looking sections because those are just going to be painted over the gray. I'm going to lighten a good amount of this. Just going in with lifting. My color was a little bit too dark for that first layer. Going into this part right here, once again, starting on the dark side opposite to the light source to give myself a little bit more control space and making my way toward the light side. I can just paint this section in along with the larger portion of it. With that second layer that we're going to be working on, we can define and darken, separate out sections. Here, I can do some lifting in those lighter sections that I see in the reference photo using the bristles of a clean brush as a little absorbent sponge. Moving on from there, this section right here is very dark, so I can go right in and paint it with my gray. And this entire section here can also be painted in. I can just paint in that whole. Right above this little flap that opens and just painted in along with this flap at once, combine these two shapes and then we're going to be separating out the shapes with the second and the third layers. Once we're darkening the darkest darks and defining edges, that will visually separate out the two sections. For now, we can just paint it all in at once. If you feel you've darkened things too much or you need to go in and lighten, use a clean and slightly damp bristles of your paintbrush as a little absorbent sponge. I also have to paint in the little plastic sections right here in the bottom which help keep the candy machine in place. Those are very, very dark black looking plastic sections. I'm not too worried about keeping very light value areas visible or little highlight shapes in these little feet, if you will. These keep the candy machine from slipping around and sliding on the surface of the table or wherever it's placed. I also want to paint that bottom metallic part of the upper lid of the candy machine and this host or pole there in the middle. For that, I'm also going to be using the plain Pains gray. I'm going to leave some little extra highlight sections. I take a little bit more of this Paine's gray and darken this section opposite to the light source. The left half. Start creating a little bit of a variety of gray values here. Taking more of my pains gray, and I'm just going to be darkening some little sections over here in a very loose expressive way to help me convey a little bit of that metallic thing right here under the lid. Taking a little bit more of my pains gray. It's a very dark section there under the lid. I added more pains gray into the mixture and I'm just dropping it in Dropping in more paints gray there. Little bit of lifting here on the light side, and I'm all done there. Let's move on to painting the reds in this metallic vase here. I'm going to switch on over to using my size 14 round brush. It's much larger. It's going to help me paint this section nice and quick. Make sure that this is plain piral scarlet that I'm going in with initially. Colors can definitely start intermixing on your palette if you're not careful, starting on the dark side opposite to the light source again. Dipping my paintbrush in my water and softening this color. This is a pretty large area and I want to make sure that I create some nice effects with my gray and so I want to make sure that I am taking my time as I am painting in this initial layer of red. Make sure that you go over everything a few times so that the red layer can stay wet for a little bit longer. You want it workable for a little bit longer. And so what you're going to see me do is I'm going to dip my paintbrush in my water a couple of times as I move through this process. I'm also going to continue coming back to this section where I started. And then I go back to where I left off and I make my way a little bit further down, and then I go back to where I started, I re wet this area, and I then go back to continue covering up a little bit more. Because if you just make your way once from left to right, by the time that you reach this edge over here, this edge is going to be dry already. As I said, my objective is to keep things wet for a little bit longer so that I can have more time to darken areas and develop that range of values that I need. I'm going to go in with a little bit more paint and drop it in here. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you take your time with this initial layer, remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water. I quickly pick up that edge with a damp brush and make my way toward the light side on the right, pulling a small amount of paint toward the right edge. Because I've been working pretty quickly, my paint is still damp. I'm easily able to pull some of this paint toward this lighter edge. Using a larger brush is definitely helpful when you're painting larger areas as well. This would be super aggravating and frustrating to paint with a smaller brush. You wouldn't be able to move as quickly. Or load up enough paint to paint quickly in your paint brush bristles. The larger the brush, the more paint and water it's able to hold in its bristles. It's going to help you paint those large sections much faster. You need to make sure that you have the right tool in your hand that is going to help you with that area that you're painting or that part of the painting process that you're working through. Everything is still wet and workable because I have continued going in with water in my paintbrush and I've continued coming back to this area that I first started to re wet as I went. What I'm going to do is first, I'm going to go in with a more thicker version of my piral scarlet and I'm going to drop it into darker areas that I see there. We are darker areas that I see there? Look at those darker midtones and the darkest darks. Going to remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, and now I'm going in with my pyal scarlet plus a bit of my pains gray. I'm going to drop in this darker color only in the darkest dark areas that I see. Keep it loose, keep it painterly. Observe those major tonal or value changes and make those happen. It doesn't matter if things are looking a little bit different in your painting. We're not trying to create a carbon copy of the photo. Plus, this is just the first layer where we're trying to achieve somewhat of a range of values that we're going to be building on. Switching on back to my size eight round brush. I'm just going to use this brush to clean up edges. Since I've been using a larger brush and I've been painting quickly, I see some slivers of white paper left unpainted, and so I'm just cleaning up those rough edges and maybe pushing a little bit of the wet paint into those sections so that I'm not left with white outlines around these elements. Once I feel I'm done with that range of values for this first layer or once I'm almost done, I can go ahead and change to a smaller brush to clean up edges. Have a little bit too much water here, so I'm just going to do a little bit of lifting, absorbing up some of that excess water and paint with my larger brush. Now I'm going to be creating some colorful blooms in this red section that is still wet and workable. This is to give it a more expressive, colorful look and also to create a sense of integration and color harmony throughout the piece by repeating colors. I'm going to continue using my size 14 round brush, and to create blooms, all you have to do is take a little bit of the color that you want to create your bloom with. Would recommend the consistency being more of a coffee or even milk consistency so that you can actually see that bloom. Make sure that that paint underneath that you're going to be creating your bloom on is still wet. Otherwise, the technique will not work. What you do is gently touch the tip of your brush onto that wet paint and that new color is going to travel down the bristles and it's going to push that wet paint out, creating this beautiful b going to add in some of these yellow new gamboge blooms on the light side and then I'm going to rinse out my brush and I'm going to create some blue blooms on the shadow side using my ultramarine blue. There is no specific pattern or shape that I'm trying to create with these blooms. I'm just dropping them in where I think it will look best. Make sure that you don't overblend after you've dropped in your color because this will flatten everything out and disappear that beautiful bloom. That's my first layer in that red section. Going to do a tiny bit of cleanup work once again with my smaller brush. I had a little bit of red go into this gray flap. I'm just going to quickly absorb some of that up. Go to use my absorbent towel here. It's very carefully. Absorb some of that up. And with that, I'm all done with this initial layer. I will come back and do a little bit of splattering later after the paint has had time to settle on that paper a little bit longer. If I do it right now, while the paint is still very wet, I'll likely see it in the beginning, but then it'll disappear. The splattering in this bottom red base section is optional. You can decide not to do any splattering at all. Or you can wait a little bit longer like I'm going to be doing and in the meantime, we'll work on the first layer in the glass. Then we can come back and do our splattering in this bottom section. The paint still needs to be damp for that splattering technique to happen, so we do need to work swiftly. If you will be doing it at this point, all you have to do is take a clean brush, dip it in your container of water, then use the index finger of your non dominant hand to flick those bristles and you'll see teeny tiny drops of water get splattered on that drying paint and that will create this beautiful texture. You'll see me do this in just a bit. Let's work on the glass. For this, we're going to be using our pains gray again, but we're going to make sure that it is being used in a very watered down state, more of a T consistency. Before doing that, I'm going to change my water. It's very murky and I don't want this murky water to affect my light grays that I need for the glass. All right, so let's get started with the very light graze in the glass. What we're going to be doing is we're going to be using a large brush. I'm going to go back to my size 14 round, make sure that you have clean water in your container, and we're going to be doing very gentle pre wetting, especially along the left and the right edges of this section here. You want to do it very gently because you don't want to disturb or reactivate those sections that you've already painted. If you go in and you start scrubbing, you're going to very likely reactivate that paint. Be very careful. Very gentle here. You can see how I'm reactivating some of this color already. I'm going to take a small amount of Pain's gray from my palette. Make sure you're not going in and taking too much. I'm going to start applying it in sections that I want to darken throughout the glass. I'm observing that reference photo and noticing where midtones and darkest darks are throughout the glass portion here. Because I am taking out the mirror over here, I am not going to be darkening that shape that is part of the mirror frame. Okay. There's a little bit of a gray there down here along this edge, I don't want to darken everything. Going to remove that gray from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, and soften any edges that I need to soften. Give me a tiny bit more gray over here. Okay, great. Everything is very irregular, very loose, very abstract. That's exactly what I wanted. I want to add just a little bit of color in some areas. Going to take a little bit of my new gamboge, maybe add a little bit of my Winsor lemon into that things are still wet and workable all throughout the glass section, by the way. I'm just dropping in some color here and there, making things a little bit more colorful, adding a tiny bit of sap green, dropping in a tiny bit of sap green down here. Going to remove all that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water, soften some hard edges that I see. I'm going to just clean up this edge a little. Alright, all done with that initial layer in the glass, I'm going to leave that alone. And now I'm going to jump back to the red metallic base section. For me, this area is still damp, so I should be able to do my splattering with no issue. So this is where I bring in that cheaper, synthetic size ten round brush. Those bristles have a pretty good snap to them, so I know that this brush is going to work well for the splattering. Dip this brush in my container of water so that those bristles absorb just a bit, and then I use my index finger of my left hand to do some flicking. You can see these little tiny blooms created by drops of water which are getting splattering on my paper and pushing out that paint that is still wet. These are also blooms only. Instead of using paint, we're doing it with water. And with that, I'm finally done with these initial layers in the glass and the metal. 8. Background Wall: While that dries, we're going to go ahead and paint the background wall, which is going to be a light gray. I switch on over to my mop brush and I'm going to start pre wedding the entire background wall with water. Now, if the inside of your glass portion is still wet, be very careful as you work around the glass portion of the candy machine because if it's still wet, you can start creating back runs. I'm trying to leave a little sliver of paper, especially along this edge and this edge just free of water so that I don't have any back runs. Over everything multiple times, don't rush this process. Same thing applies that I was mentioning when we were painting this red portion here. You want to make your way forward and then go back to where you started and then continue filling in a little bit more and then go back to where you started. Because otherwise, if you just make your way from side to side once, that section where you started is going to be dry by the point that you reach the opposite edge. Everything has a nice even sheen, which means that I'm ready to start dropping in my gray and this wall is going to be a light gray. I don't want to go too dark. Start here along the bottom, drop in a little bit of gray at the top, remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water and just soften that gray, leave plenty of that white paper shining through for the background wall. We just want to develop some light gray values. Taking some more pain scray and just dropping it in here and there. Softening with a clean and slightly down brush. Cleaning up edges here. Adding a little bit more paint here and there for a little bit more of an irregular look in the wall. Yes. Okay. Awesome. I'm going to leave it as is. Cleaning up some edges here. You can see how the splattering that I did, especially in this left half of this portion here, it almost completely disappeared, whereas this splattering is still very visible. The reason this is is because this he was still very wet when I did my splattering, and this part was already starting to dry. When paint is very wet, it's still moving around on the paper quite a bit. So if you do your splattering, first you see those little blooms created by the drops of water but then since the paint is still moving around so much, they disappear. I'm going to just go ahead and switch to my round brush here, the synthetic that I was using before. I'm just going to do a little bit more of that splattering so that it now stays visible. Now that it has dried a little bit more, it should be a little bit more visible. So we've done quite a bit and I can't really do much comfortably right now because I have very large wet areas. If I started painting in the table right now, for example, the red that I paint in for the table is going to start seeping into my background wall and I definitely don't want that. 9. Metals, Sticker, Gumballs Layer Two: Everything is completely dry and before moving on to the next part of this process, I'm just going to very quickly clean up some things here. Sing my size a round brush and a clean absorbent towel. You can see how I have some shapes here with visible edges where this gray didn't reach the candy machine. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and I'm going to do some scrubbing so that I disappear that visible edge. Okay. Or at least make it look softer reactivating that gray a little bit. I'm just softening that edge with some scrubbing. Going in with my absorbent towel and I'm going to do the same thing here for these edges of gray shapes inside of the candy machine. To make those edges at least somewhat less visible. Softening those edges. I'm going to start with my next layer in these parts over here at the top of the candy machine. What I'm going to do in this second layer is I'm just going to be darkening those darker midtones and darkest dark sections in these metal parts. I'm going to be using exactly the same colors that I was using before, pains gray and pyl scarlet with a little bit of pains gray. I'm going to be using my size eight round brush for this. Because this is the second layer where we're developing those darker mid tones and darkest darks, I can go in with my pains gray and my pyral scarlet plus pains gray color mixture in a thicker state than what I was using before. When I'm working on my second and third layers, I like zooming into these different sections in the reference photo so that I can have a better understanding of these different shapes created by these different values. This way I can really see those darker midtones and darkest dark shapes and try to make them happen to the best of my abilities. It's not necessary to get everything exactly the same way that it appears in the reference photo. As long as your value shapes are similar to what you're observing in terms of shape, size, and location, you're going to do just fine. Taking a little bit more of my pains gray, making it a little bit thicker. And dropping it into the darker shadow area there. Can remove the paint from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water and you can soften edges if you need to, but make sure that you don't overly darken the right side over here, which has lighter values in that reference photo. I removed all of that gray from my paintbrush bristles and I'm going in with my piral scarlet plus pains gray color mixture. I'm going to be developing those shadow shapes in this area down here. Painting in those abstract, irregular shadow shapes, where are those darker areas in that reference photo? Removing that paint from my paintbrush bristles, removing the excess water, and softening edges. You can see how I'm getting a little bit of bleeding there along the edge and that's because since I just did scrubbing along the edge, that section of my paper was still a little bit damp. I'll fix it later. I'll go in with my absorbent towel in just a bit to lift that up. I add more pyal scarlet into my mixer to lighten it because this is pretty dark over here and I'm getting into the lighter section. I don't want to continue using that very dark red in the lighter section over here, but I do want to darken little bits in this area. I want to make sure that I'm going in with the plain pyral scarlet without any pains gray in it. If I want to create darker values over here, but I don't want these shapes to be as dark as the super dark red shapes that I created over here opposite to the light. So it's all about modifying the ratios of your colors and your color mixture according to what value you're trying to develop. We're doing a little bit of lifting here and softening of edges. Lifting. Going to take my clean dry towel and do a little bit of lifting here where that red started seeping into my background wall and I'm going to allow that to dry. Moving down from there, I can now paint in the one scent lettering there. I'm going to switch on back to my size four round brush and I'm going to use my pains gray to paint in the one and the scent symbol very, very carefully. This sticker also has a black outline. I'll paint that in just a bit. And just the tip of my paintbrush is coming into contact with my paper as I do this lettering work. Then the black outline, have some masking fluid right there and some outline sections. Not all of this is going to be a consistent thickness for my black outline. But once we remove the masking fluid, we can come back and do any refinements that might be needed. Making my way down from there, I'm going to switch on back to my size eight round brush and I'm going to continue using my pains gray to paint some shadow shapes down here. This is a dark shadow shape right here and You see a very dark shadow shape here, very dark shadow shape over here along the edge of this metal. A hole here I want to darken, push back. I also have dark grays right here where we have the section coming out. I'm going to paint those in take more paints gray and add it into my mixture to darken it for those darker values. With a clean and slightly damp brush, I'm just softening some edges of the shapes that require softening. I have a bit of a gray mid tone right around here, I'm going to take some of this and I'm just going to paint in a shape that's similar to what I'm observing there around this area. Notice how I'm not going in and painting a rectangle with perfect edges. I'm more so thinking of abstract irregular edges as I'm painting these. Not so much the holes where I do see defined edges on those shapes in the reference photo. Those I can leave with clean edges. But when it comes to these softer transitions, that's where I do go in and soften edges. It's important to pay attention to that reference photo and notice where you have soft transitions between your values and where you have hard defined edges. So that you can make those happen in your painting. Going to soften edges right here. Since I applied more paint, the paint expanded out. Then I got sharp edges again. I'm going to allow that to dry and later I'll come back and do a little bit more definition and also development of darker value shapes wherever I need to. But for now, I want to do some work over here in the little flap, adding more paints gray into my palette here, still using my sizate round brush. I do have a very, very dark a hole. Right here. I'm going in and darkening that first with a pretty thick pains gray because it is almost black there in the reference photo. I can go in with a thicker pains gray. I'm going to water down my paints gray a bit because the gray values that I'm going to be creating on the flap are not as dark as the ones that I was just creating in that little hole. Starting here in the center, you can see how light this gray looks. I'm just going to go in and start developing some gray values in this middle portion of the flap with plenty of the first layer shining through because it has lighter values making my gray color mixture a little bit thicker on my palette by adding more pains gray and dropping in the pains gray along this edge. While that layer is still wet, removing that paint from my paintbrush bristles, removing that excess water and softening this edge so that I can get a transition where the darker gray turns gradually into the lighter gray values right here along this edge. I'm going to allow this to dry before going in and developing some gray values in the outer shape. I'm going to darken the little plastic holders. I don't know if that's the right word, but I need to darken these more and we can barely see these in the reference photo. We just see very dark shapes, but I am going to leave at least a couple of different values in these sections, even if I just see a very dark value in that reference photo, because I know it's going to help me provide more dimension to these little elements in my painting. I can have at least a couple of gray values in these sections, especially in this one where the light is able to reach that section. It is now time to work on our second layer in the gumballs. Going back to my size four round brush, going to be using exactly the same colors that we were using before in each. But this time, we're just going to be doing more layering of paint in those shadow shapes that we're looking to darken. I definitely should be quicker than what we did with the first layer. Not only this, but we're not going to be doing any more work in these gumballs over here and over here. We're just going to be developing greater detail and contrast and definition in these gumballs in the middle, which are closest to us as the viewer of the scene. This is going to help us create more depth in this painting. Let's get started with the cool red, which for me is zarin crimson. This time, because it is the second layer and we're working on developing mid tones and darkest darks, you can go in with your colors in a slightly more saturated or thicker state. For example, I'm going to go into this lazarin crimson one. I'm going to darken the shadow areas. I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water and paint, and soften. You can see how I didn't paint the entire thing again. I just developed those shadow areas, pushing those darker areas a little bit more. Back to the Alizarin crimson and this one here was also painted with a zarine crimson, so I'm going in. I'm noticing what's what when it comes to overlapping taking place. I create a little bit of a shadow shape there. And there you go. More zar and crimson. I have another one here. And a little bit here under the green one, remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles, remove that excess water. Soften edge and leave plenty of the first layer shining through. I think this one expanded a little bit too much. I'm pushing that pigment back, making sure that I have the first layer shining through in those lighter value sections, more lazarin crimson. Creating those shadow shapes in this one. Softening the edge. Moving on to blue gumbals, adding more ultramarine blue into my mixer onto my palette, for example, this one here. I'm going to allow that bleeding to happen if it happens. I'm just going to develop those shadow shapes. Softening that edge. Taking a little bit more ultramarine, if I want to darken things a little bit more, but placing it along the shadow edge. Into the ultramarine blue. Going in, thinking of where the light source is located and thinking of how overlapping is taking place in this particular one. Painting that shadow shape in, removing that color from my paintbrush bristles and softening that edge. Softening here, sticking with the blues, going in and darkening. And lifting and softening. Going in with my pyrrol scarlet, adding more pyal scarlet into my palette and this one here opposite to the light, removing that excess paint and water from my paintbrush bristles and softening that shape, trying to leave some of that first layer shining through, especially on the light side. I can darken little sections of these teeny tiny shapes, the piral scarlet shapes that I had painted in between some of the gum balls there. This one here looks pretty flat, so I definitely need to go in and develop some values there. As I said, I'm going to leave the ones along the left and right edges free of any extra detail and value development. I'm going to go in and do some work in the white ones, for those I'm going to need some panes gray. Going in with the panes gray, this one here, Where would the shadow shapes be? Where is the overlapping taking place? This one here needs some darker gray values right here opposite to the light source, and behind this blue one here. More whites. A few more white ones. This one here, is very, very small shape, so I need to be careful. Going into the green ones. Adding more sap green onto my palette, plain sap green, but slightly thicker than the green that I was using before and working on the green ones now. Some of these along the bottom are very much in shadow. If it makes sense to darken the entire thing, you can darken the entire thing. Some of these in the bottom are very much in shadow, it makes sense to go in and darken the entire thing, especially when you have very small shapes, you can go in and darken the entire thing. I will say though that whenever you can develop at least a couple of different values in any area, you're going to end up with a more believable look, even if that area is very small, going in and softening edges. If some of your gumballs ended up having wonky edges or you need to perfect those circles or curves, this is also a great opportunity to do that with that second layer or even a third layer. Going in with my ultramarine blue again, gumballs that I wasn't able to paint in before because I didn't want to create back runs and blooms. Adding more ultramarine blue into the mix, dropping it into that darker portion. I'm going to continue moving forward, doing the same thing all throughout the ones where I want to develop a little bit more detail, more roundness. Just using the same colors that I was using before. Going to do a tiny bit of scrubbing and lifting here. I got some gray in this yellow one. Here we go. Soften that little gray shape. When it comes to the yellow and the orange gumballs, it's going to be hard to develop the midtones and the darkest starks because those colors are so light. If I go into the yellow and the orange gumballs with just new gamboge and plain Windsor lemon, I'm not going to be able to develop those darker values because those colors are so light. What I'm going to do in those yellow and orange gumballs is I'm going to be adding a tiny bit of pains gray to darken that. For example, this is my new gamboge on its own. I'm going to add a tiny bit of pains gray into it to create a slightly darker version of this new gamboge, which is the warm yellow. Then using this slightly darker version of my new gamboge, I can go into the orange ones and I can develop little shadow shapes with this color. Another one. Another one. And here, I'm going to soften that edge. This one here. I'm going to do the same thing with the Windsor lemon. I'm going to add more Windsor lemon onto that mixing area of my palate and I'm going to add a tiny bit of panes gray. Because the pains gray has a little bit of blue in it, it's going to start turning a little bit green. I don't want to add too much gray into the yellow just a bit to create a slightly darker version. And round out these yellow gumballs a little bit. A little bit of a shadow shape here under the blue one. I'm almost done with the second layer in the gumballs. That's a little bit too much water and paint for that small shape. Using my absorbent towel to stay on top of water control as best as I can. I'm missing this one here, which is new gamboge, I need to go back to the slightly darker version of my new gamboge that has the pains gray in it, and I'm going to darken those shadow areas in this one. If you want to darken some little ones over here at the bottom, you can do that with whatever color mixture makes sense. You can see how by developing a greater range of values in these right here in the center and not in the ones on either side, I've created more depth in the piece. I'm going to just add a little bit of a edge to this blue one here, I should develop a little tiny bit more detail in this one. A and we're just going to be going in with one last layer, especially in the ones in the middle, a little bit later after this dries, sap green, working on this one here. A little bit of detail in this one right here. After this layer, we're going to have one more layer to do in the gum balls and it's going to be very quick because we're just going to be developing those darkest darks by adding pains gray into these different colors and just painting in those darkest darks in the gum balls, especially the ones in the middle here, but we're no longer going to be working on the ones on either edge. That these gray or silver metallic parts in this bottom portion of the gumball machine have dried, I can now go ahead and start working on midtones and darkest darks in the red part. For this, I'm going to be using my pyral scarlet plus Panes gray. I have my size 14 round and my size eight round on hand again. I'm only going to be working on darkening those darkest areas. Add some pains gray into this corner of my mixing area. I'm going to start with Pyl scarlet plus a little bit of pains gray, and then I'm going to move on to this color mixture that is heavier on the pains gray. Always good to make your way incrementally towards those darker colors. Here I'm noticing those dark shadow shapes or areas that need to be pushed more. I'm just painting those in with my pyrrol scarlet plus pains gray mixture. Here I have a bit of a shape like that. It is not my intention to cover up the previous layer, but just to darken areas that need darkening. Consider all of these shapes that you're painting in right now as abstract, irregular shadow shapes because I'm painting on dry paper, I'm being left with sharp defined edges. I need to darken a little section here down here. I will be removing the masking fluid in just a bit. Notice those darker shadow shapes that you see throughout the machine. There should be at least a little bit of shadow over here opposite to the light source. Things are pretty dark in that reference photo and it's not necessary to go as dark. But you do want those value relationships to be similar to what you're observing. What I mean is if this section here is darker than this section here, I want to make that relationship happen in my painting. Darken this portion a little bit more. Continue observing that reference photo. And depending on the value that you're trying to create, whether it's a lighter midtone or a darker midtone or a darkest dark, alter the ratio of your colors in your paint mixture, and you can also play around with a consistency. So you can add in more pains gray if you're looking for a darker value, more piral scarlet, if you're looking for a lighter value, but you can also water the color mixture down if you're looking for a lighter mid tone. Just make sure that you're not going in and covering up all of the first layer of paint that you've already created. It is not my intention to go in and cover up all of that work, and I also want to make sure that I don't cover up that texture that I created via my splattering technique or the colorful blue and yellow blooms. I am just looking to push those darker shadow areas, expanding that range of values toward the darkest darks and creating more of a sense of structure and three D form. Going back to my piral scarlet with a little bit of pains gray and I want to create a little bit of an illusion of those little sections that are kind of popping out on either side here, so one, two, three, loosely making those shadow shapes happen for these little bumps. Because I am now painting these darker shapes on dry paper, sometimes they look a little bit too stark to me or I want to go in and soften edges. To do that, I paint in that shape. I remove that color from my paintbrush bristles, and I go back in with a clean and slightly damp brush to soften that color or soften whatever edge I'm looking to soften. However, I try to do this minimally and very gently because if I do this too much, if I continue fiddling with my paint after it's been placed on paper, I'm going to start overworking everything and covering up all of that previous layer that I created or darkening things way too much. Okay. I don't want to overly cover up my first layer and get rid of my splattering and get rid of my blooms that I created. I don't want to start overworking things. I'm just trying to capture some of that detail. In a loose way. You can continue modifying that ratio in your red plus gray color mixture as needed depending on the value that you're trying to develop. But do remember that in the light side over here, where the light is reaching, you want less pains gray than what you use over here on the shadow side. I'm going to allow this to dry and later I'm going to come back with a very quick third layer to just push those darkest darks a little bit more and create a little bit more definition in some areas. I'm going to soften this edge right here and I'll be all done with this layer. Oops. Pretty much removing all of this. I am going to allow all of this to dry and later I'll come back to see if there's anything that I need to define or darken. For now, I want to go ahead and start working on the table. 10. Red Table: I'm going to go back to my mop brush and the table is going to be red, so I need my pyral scarlet, which is my warm red, and I will be using the Pyl scarlet plus Pains gray for the cast shadow shape over here opposite to the light source. But first, we want to go in with the lighter color. Go in with pyal scarlet. I'm just going to go right in. This is a much smaller shape than the background wool, which is why I'm not doing pre wedding. I'm just going right in with my color right away. I'm going to be creating those shadow shapes under the gumball machine and on the bottom left opposite to the light source. Trying to keep this side of the table lighter in general than this one over here. Adding a little bit more pyral scarlet into the mixer to thicken it up before going in with my Pyl scarlet plus pains gray, just creating a little bit of a bridge color, a bridge transition. Now I can go in with my pyrrol scarlet plus pains gray with my pyrrol scarlet plus pains gray, I'm developing some darker values. Where I see some cast shadow shapes in that reference photo. I'm going to switch on over to my smaller brush and work on some edges here. Okay. Absorbing this excess water and paint from my edges of my painting, taking a little bit more of my piral scarlet to darken this section a little bit more making it brighter. And taking more of my piral scarlet plus pains gray. Tiny bit of lifting here. I'm working on these shadow shapes until I arrive at something that I like tiny bit of lifting here, the light side. With that, I'm all done with the table. I'm going to allow this to dry and then it's finally going to be time to remove our masking fluid. 11. Removing Masking Fluid + Pushing Contrast: Time to remove our masking fluid. I'm going to be using my hands to do this. If you have sensitive skin, I would recommend using a rubber cement pickup to remove your masking fluid. You shouldn't have to press down super hard to rub it off. It should come off relatively easily. And if it doesn't would recommend investing in a better masking fluid. As I remove the masking fluid, I'm being left with these white highlight shapes that the masking fluid has kept protected from me as I have been painting this piece. So as you can see, the masking fluid has left all of these bright white highlights protected for me as I have been moving along painting this piece. Usually, I remove my masking fluid when I am 80% of the way through the painting process. There is still some work to do afterward. Masking fluid has been completely removed. I'm going to do some work in the little flap section. For this, I'm going to be using my size for round brush, clean water, and I'm zooming into this section in the reference photo, starting with a pretty watered down version of my pains gray. So first, I have some gray values to develop here in this outer portion of this flap. I have some work to do in the middle section too before starting with my letters. But I don't want to wet around the letters because if I do, I'm not going to be able to work on them. I'm just very carefully darkening some sections. All right. Using a very watered down version of my Paine's gray, I'm just going to go in and darken some little sections inside the letters, especially opposite to the light source. I'm going to leave little sections of those letters alone with no paint in them on the light side. Little highlight sections. Going to allow that to dry before I do any more work in the letters. In the meantime, I'm going to continue working on some values around the flap, the opening. Darkening sections here, creating a little bit more of a symmetrical look than what I had before. You can fix your shapes as well. If things are looking a little bit wonky, a little bit lopsided or asymmetrical, you can fix things. I want to encourage you to continue thinking of the structure and the light source, more so than trying to copy everything as is in that reference photo. Sure, you can look at that reference for ideas and clues and little reminders of what's what. There's nothing wrong with making artistic choices and deciding to push things more or leave things lighter as long as generally speaking, the value relationships make sense. Go to darken this more, the whole behind this little flap. I'm also going to darken the little plastic feet, the little plastic supporting sections here. Any other little holes or indentations that you feel you need to darken more can also be darkened with your thicker pans gray. I'm going to add some pains gray into the pyral scarlet I'm going to darken. I'm going to create a little bit of a shadow shape right here under the flat and also over here opposite to the light source. Tiny bit over here as well. The light side. Creating those final darkest red shapes in the red section. Taking a little bit of my water down pains gray wherever you feel that those highlight shapes are a little bit too large, you can go in and add some water down pains gray into that area to make them smaller. Another thing that I like doing to soften the look of large stark highlights left behind by the masking fluid or to make them look smaller is to use the gentle scrubbing technique, go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and scrub along those edges and do some gentle blotting with your absorbent towel. That is going to activate that color at least to a certain degree, and you're going to at least make those defined edges less visible. And through pulling in a little bit of that color into the white highlight, you're going to make it smaller. Of course, how much you're able to activate that color after it has dried and how much you're able to scrub off is going to depend on the staining qualities of the specific pigment or color on hand and also the specific type of paper that you're using. But be very gentle when you're using this kind of technique. All right, so the entire little opening flap down here with the letters is completely dry. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take my size zero round brush and using my pains gray, I'm going to start adding little narrow shadow shapes along the edges of these letters. And these shadow shapes are going to help raise those letters and give them more of a raised look. Notice how I'm not going in and creating a dark gray outline around all of these letters. Just darkening along some sections of these edges, focusing especially on shadows that would be created opposite to the light source. If I go in and create outlines around the entirety of these letter shapes, that's going to lead to flatness. Remember that what you're painting are shadow shapes, and there are no outlines in realism. I'm also making sure that the gray that I am painting in doesn't look super stark on the background grays that I've already developed. If you have a very light gray value developed all throughout this little opening flap section and you paint in very dark thick gray shapes over that, that is going to look super stark and contrasting. I always making my way incrementally towards those darkest darks. If I have to create a bridge tone or value before adding in and making those darkest shadow shapes happen, I'm going to go ahead and create that bridge tone shape. Any other final darkening that you might need to do around the flap with your thick pans gray, you can do. I'm all done there. Using my size eight round brush, I'm going in doing some softening of these highlight shapes. Anywhere where you feel the highlights are too stark looking, too large, too bright, you can go in and do gentle scrubbing. This will activate the paint around those highlights and will pull or push a little bit of that pigment into the highlight, making it smaller and making it more of a light value shape instead of a lightest highlight shape. It's going to make it less stark looking. You can do this anywhere in your painting where this is happening. Just make sure that you're completely rinsing out those paintbrush bristles before moving onto an area that's a very different color. This way, you can avoid muddying things up accidentally. I'm going to leave the highlights in the glass section alone. I'm going to fix the black outline around the sticker because I did have some masking fluid in that area. I'm going to take some of my paints gray. This is my size four round brush and I'm just going to fix this very carefully using just the tip of my brush. I want to soften this black later. Plain black is a little bit too stark looking, especially in a watercolor painting. I want some sections to appear gray instead of plain black. Plain flat black. Developing some quick darkest values right here in this top little section. Is very quick, loose darkest values there. Same thing here. Abstract irregular darkest shadow shapes. And a little bit of a darker gray. That middle post. Using my pyro scarlet plus pains gray mixture, going to be adding a little bit of a detail, a little line, if you will, right here. Using my size for round brush, I'm just going to develop some final darkest values in the gumballs. I'm just going to be adding a little bit of pains gray into the same colors that I was using in the gumballs for those darkest values. I'm just going to be adding these darkest darks to the gumballs in the center of the piece. This is a blue gumball that I was painting with ultramarine blue. Those dark values that I just created, the darkest shadow shapes that I just created were painted with ultramarine blue plus a tiny bit of pains gray. I'm going to do the same thing in the gumballs in the center of the piece. A Using sap green plus Pains gray for the green ones. You can soften edges by going in with a clean and slightly damp brush if you need to. A green plus a tiny bit of Paine's gray here. Working on the red ones now. So back to my piral scarlet plus Pains gray mixture. I just want to make sure that my gumballs aren't flat. So coming back and see everything as a whole and try to notice if you have any flat looking gumballs, especially in the center here. If you do, try to go in and develop at least a couple of more values, whether it's through removing color, going in and using a little bit of scrubbing and lifting to remove some of that color and create lighter values, or whether it's through adding color and developing darker values. Going into the white ones now, the ones here in the center with the pains gray, just creating those darker shadow shapes, pushing those darkest areas. Finally, adding some pains gray into the lazarin crimson for those darkest values and the pink ones, and just working on a few. Softening edges. Now that the gum balls are finished, I can finally create those final gray shapes in the glass. Going in with my pins gray in a coffee consistency using my size eight round brush. I'm just going in and creating those final shapes in the glass. I'm seeing some dark shapes along the edges there in the reference. Noticing where those are I'm leaving white sections of my paper alone unpainted because those highlights, as I said in the beginning, it's important to have some of those bright highlights in glass and metal. Wherever you want to soften the edge, remove that color from your paint brush bristles and go in and soften. Going to darken right here at the bottom, very water down gray. I want to darken that very dark cast shadow shape right under the machine. I'm going in with my piral scarlet and pains gray This is my size eight round brush. This time, I'm going in and painting this shadow shape on dry paper so that I'm left with sharp defined edges and I have a little bit more control. Then I have a larger casado shape over here. I need more. A removing that paint from my paintbrush bristles, removing that excess water, and softening this edge. Again, removing that paint from my paintbrush bristles and softening the edge. Working on my cast shadow shape. This is wet still. I can apply more color I softening the edge here, and that is it for the cast shadow on the table. Little tiny thing that I'm going to do here is a little bit of lifting in the sticker to reveal a little bit of that paper and so that the black sections aren't super stark looking. It's very, very carefully doing a little bit of lifting. This helps that sticker look less flat and less dark. This will make the sticker look more natural, like it's older material. And with that, we're all done. Let's go ahead and change our water again so that we can move on to the next part of the process. 12. Final Red Glaze: All right. And finally, we're going to be working on a last unifying and brightening red glaze that we're going to be painting over the red metallic sections in the machine and also on the table. So the difference between normal layering and a glaze is that when we're glazing, we use our paint in a water down consistency. So more of a T consistency so that we can still see all of that value work and the textures that we have created underneath. It can be considered a type of layering, but not all layering is glazing. It's very, very important that everything is completely dry when you go in with this glaze and make sure that you go in very gently with your paintbrush. You don't want to start scrubbing and reactivating that paint that has already dried. Also, make sure that you're jumping over highlight sections that you want to keep as brightest highlights. I'm going to clean out a section of my mixing palette so that I just have the colors that I want in this final glaze. I definitely don't want any gray in there. I'm going to use my large size six mop brush. Make sure it's nice and clean. I'm going to go in with pyrrol scarlet and some of my new gamboche and a little bit of Windsor lemon. You want to make sure that you're going in with a tea consistency of this new mixer that we just created and you don't want to go in and do any scrubbing. This is going to be applied super lightly. Make sure this is a tea consistency. It's very watered down. All I'm going to do is go in and very gently add in this final brightening glaze. The objective here is not to cover everything up. It's just to brighten some areas. Final brightening glaze. I don't want to go in with too much pressure. And start messing up the values that I've created. This is just a very light glaze. Here, I decide to go in with this red orange color that I've created for my final glaze and add a few brush jokes into the glass section. This is just for a little bit of an extra pop of color and more integration with that repetition of color. Then I rinse out my brush and just go in to soften some edges to make that red a little bit more subtle, a little bit softer on the glass. And I'm going to do the same thing for the table. Go over those little plastic parts. Tiny bit of lifting here. And with that, we're all done with this watercolor gumball machine. It's always super satisfying to remove the tape off those edges and reveal those clean white borders that really help frame the piece, isn't it? 13. Thank you: You so very much for joining me in this course. I really hope that you enjoyed it and that you learned many new tips and techniques that you can take with you to future watercolor paintings. Don't forget to share your work in the projects and resources tab. I so look forward to seeing it and helping out with whatever you might need. Don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare because I have many new courses coming down the pipeline for you and make sure to check out my YouTube channel for free, helpful videos every single week, as well as my Instagram for shorter, helpful videos and inspirational post that will help you stay consistent with your practice. Thanks again for spending this creative time with me. Have a wonderful rest of your day, enjoy your art practice and see you very, very soon.