Paint a Summer Tropical Island with Watercolours

1. Hello Summer!: Summer is the season of warm, sunshine and long care free days. It's a time for beach trips, vibrant colors, and slowing down to enjoy the beauty around us. Nature feels more alive, and so do we. Hello, everyone. I'm Ahura an engineer, a watercolor enthusiast, and an art instructor. I am thrilled to welcome you to my brand new Skillshare class paint a summer tropical island using watercolors. In this class, we'll escape to a serene island scene where rugged rocks meet soft lush greenery bushes, turquoise water glisten under the sun and a quiet boat drifts by. In this class, you will discover how to master the wet on wet technique for natural flowing effects of the water, layer colors to build realistic rock textures and lush foliage, capture the motion of water and the serenity of the sailing boat and make a vibrant tropical palette that brings the scene to life. Whether you're just starting your watercolor journey or looking to sharpen your landscape painting skills, this class is designed to inspire and guide you step by step. So grab your paints, find your calm and let's create a tropical escape, one brush stroke at a time. I can't wait to see your version of this island paradise. 2. Art Supplies : All right, so let us take a look at the art supplies. First is the paper. So I'm going to be using the paper from the brand Saunders Water food, which is 100% cotton, 300 GSM, and it is cold pressed watercolor paper. So I love the texture of this paper. So you can go with any other brand, but ensure that it is 100% cotton, and the minimum thickness should be 300 GSM. Next up, let us take a look at the brushes that you will need for this particular class. So all the brushes that I am going to be using are from the brand silver black velvet, but you can go with any other natural hair brush. All right. So you will need a size number round 12 brush for the larger washes. Then you will need size number eight and size number six for adding the smaller washes and the smaller details. And then you'll also need a detailing brush, basically a size number zero, two or one, whatever you have, that's absolutely fine. Then finally, you will need a larger sized quill brush or a mob brush or even a flat brush to just wet the entire paper. So these are the basic brushes that you will need. Next up, let's take a look at the color palette that you will need. Basically, all the colors I will be using for this particular class is from the brand white knights, and I'm going to be using my palette for this purpose. So if you want to know the detailed list of colors, you can watch the colors section of this particular class. Next, you will need a board to fix the paper firmly onto the surface. Then you will also need a pencil and an eraser for adding the pencil sketch. Then you will need a masking tape to tape down your paper firmly onto the board. And then you will need a masking fluid. This is from Windsor and Newton to mask the boat, and then you will need two jars of water. One has to always stay clean to pick up fresh paint, and the other is to wash off the dirty paint from the brush. And finally, you will need a cloth or a tissue to wipe off the excess amount of paint. That's it for the art supplies. Go grab them, and I'll see you soon. 3. Let's take a look at the colors: All right, so let us take a look at the colors that you will need. So for the sky, as you always know, I go with bright blue, but you can go with any other light blue from your color palette. It's not absolutely necessary that you go with bright blue. So if you don't have bright blue, go with any other blue. All right. Just make sure the blue that you're using should be at its lowest intensity. So now you can see the bright blue that I have swatched is at its highest intensity. But as soon as I apply a little water, it reduces its tonal value and you can look at the intensity. So that is the tonal value that we will be going with. All right. So the next color that you will need is sap green. So like I said, if you do not have sap green, then go with any other green from your palette and mix a little bit of brown or a little bit of paints gray to get that earthy tone. Okay? So this is the sap green that we will be using for painting the green bushes. So the another green that you will need is the olive green. Basically, first, we are going to use the olive green to create that base shade and on top of that, we will be adding the sap green. All right, so yeah. Okay, so the next color that you will need is the turquoise blue, and this is the beautiful shade that we will be using for creating that tropical sea. So you can see how gorgeous this shade is. Now if you don't have turquoise blue, I'm sure you must be having some other blues in your palette that you can use it like Thalo green or any other blue. If you don't have any of these, mix a little bit of blue with viridiant green and you can create that shade. All right. So next shade is the paints gray. Basically, pains gray is used for adding those details and, you know, creating darker shades. The next color that you will need is yellow ochre. So we are not going to use yellow ochre too much in our painting. It is just to create those rocky structures there. So you will get to know as we proceed with our painting further. All right, so these are the list of the colors that you will need, and also you will need a little bit of white gouache or white watercolor, very minimal thing. And then finally, you will need a marker like this, which is of 0.7 thickness. This is basically to add the details onto the boat. So any black marker would do. If you don't have 0.7, you can go with 0.5 MM as well. All right. So these are the colors. Go get them ready, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 4. Pencil sketch: All right, guys. So let us start with the pencil sketch. So the pencil sketch consists of the rocky mountains, and these mountains, or these rocks are covered by the bushes. So they're not really mountains, but, you know, those rocky islands that you see in the seascapes or the waterscapes. So I'm talking about that. So we're going to add a pencil sketch for those rocky structures behind there, and the bushy patterns as well. So we're just going to make a reference for ourselves so that once we begin the painting, it becomes easier for us to define where exactly the bushes need to be added or where exactly the rocky patterns or rocky structures are present. All right. So I suggest you to wait for me to complete the pencil sketch first, and then you can go ahead, take your own sweet time and create the pencil sketch for yourself. So I'm suggesting this because, you know, you may have to erase multiple times and then, you know, paper may get ruined in the process of erasing. So I don't want all that to happen to you. So just wait for me to finish first, and then you can pause the video or take a screenshot and create a pencil sketch for yourself. Alright, so let me just finish it, and you can just watch me while I sketch the picture. All right, so this is the rocky structure, and now we are going to add a horizon line where the sea is meeting the sky. So now you can go ahead and create the pencil sketch for yourself, and I will see you soon in the next section. 5. Boat Pencil sketch: All right, so now you guys might be having a question in your head. Hey, I sure you just said that the pencil sketch is done, and what is this? So yeah, I absolutely forgot to tell you that the boat is also a part of pencil sketch, but I thought to include this as a second video because I didn't want to complicate the pencil sketch. So in the first half, we added the rocky mountains or the patterns along with the bushes. And in the second half, we will be sketching the boat. So if you ask me when I was sketching the boat, I erased it multiple times because I was just not getting the structure or the shape of the boat right. And I do want that to happen to you. So here's what I did. I simplified the boat structure into a simple manner, and I didn't follow it exactly the way it is in the pencil in the reference sketch. So I just added my own features. I just shaped the boat the way it feels right to me, and here's how I painted or, you know, sketched this boat. So yeah. So while creating the pencil sketch for the boat, I suggest you to first define the basic shape of the boat. So I know that most of us know the basic shape of the boat, and if you are, you know, like, looking for that particular shape, you can just go to Pinterest and find some reference for yourself. Basically, you can type pencil sketch for a boat, and then you'll get so many variety of images. So if you do want to do that, you can just wait for me to complete the pencil sketch, and then you can pause the video, or if you want, you can take a screenshot or if you're confident enough, you can just follow along with me and create the pencil sketch for yourself. But ideally, I want you to wait for me to complete the pencil sketch so that you avoid multiple erasing and ruin your paper. So I don't want that to happen to you, so you can just wait for me, and then you can go ahead and draw the pencil sketch for yourself. All right. So you can see first, I started defining the shape of the boat. I drew the elongated shape of the boat along with the base. And now I have defined a few sails for the boat, the end rods, the thin rods that you can see at the back. And then in the middle, we have two little windows, and at the side, we're going to have small teeny tiny windows. So there's a lot to go here. So I just suggest you to watch me, and then you can add it for yourself. All right, so this is how the boat is looking so far, and I feel that, yes, this is looking like a boat, and I'm happy with the pencil sketch. And now I can't wait to dive straight into painting. So, guys, get your pencil sketch ready, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 6. Applying Masking fluid: All right. So now that we have sketched the boat. So now we are going to mask the boat because, you know, we are going to paint the water, and then the boat is going to be completely white. That is we want to retain the paper white for the boat. And this is the reason I'm going to go ahead and apply the masking fluid all over the so, you know, applying masking fluid makes it a lot more easier when you're painting wet on wet because otherwise, you know, if you don't mask the boat, then you have to be very careful and just go carefully around the edges of the boat and then paint. But, you know, doing this may cause your other areas of the paper to start drying, and, you know, it becomes a bit complicated if you do not mask the boat. So the easiest way is to preserve the paper white by masking the boat, and then you can just completely relax and pain. All right, so I'll quickly go ahead and mask the boat. So you can use any kind of masking fluid. I'm using the one from Windsor Newton, but you can go with any other masking fluid. Like White Knights is also having a good masking fluid. So just make sure you go with that, right. So yeah. All right, so I have finished applying the masking fluid all over the boat, and there's a little area left, so I'm doing that quickly. And please wait for the masking fluid to dry completely before you start painting. I'll see you soon in the next section. 7. Let's paint the sky: Alright, guys, so let us begin with the painting. I'm really excited, and I hope you're excited too. So let us start with the sky first. So we are going to paint the sky wet on wet. And obviously, you need to wet the paper before you begin painting. So I'm using my larger size round brush from Princeton to evenly wet the sky region. And once my paper is nicely wet, I'm going to go ahead and start painting the sky. Alright, so you can go ahead and wet the paper. So make sure you nicely wet the paper so that, you know, there are no large puddles of water getting collected on the edges of the masking tape. So these are the very basic things. I know I need to repeat it because, you know, for many of us over here, they might be new. They might be beginners, and, you know, they might have just started painting now. So I keep repeating these tips and tricks so that it's easier for all of us. Alright, so now that your paper is nicely wet, let us start with the painting, and for painting the skies, I always go with my bright blue from white nights. This is my favorite color for painting the skies. I absolutely love this. And one more thing to note here is, since this is a subtle seascape, I want to keep it a little lighter. The tonal value of the sky should be subtle calming and it should be very serene. So I don't want bolder looking skies. Can see the intensity or the tonal value of the blue that I'm going ahead with. It's very light at the moment, and I want you to go ahead with the same tonal value. So if you feel like the blue is getting lighter, you can go ahead and repeat another layer of blue on top of this. But in the first place, do not go with a darker intensity. Just paint the first layer, observe how it looks on your paper, and then take the next steps accordingly. All right, so you can just watch me while I paint. And Alright, I love how the sky is looking softer, smoother and very subtle, and this is what we exactly want in this painting. So I'll see you soon in the next section. E. 8. Bushes - Part 1: All right, so now that the sky region has completely dried, let us begin painting the rocky island along with the bushes on the rocks. Alright, so we will start first by wetting the entire bushy region. And, you know, first, we will paint around the rocky structures, and then we'll go ahead and add a few patterns onto the rocks. So again, since this is going to be a wet on wet technique, and we're going to add lots of greens. We're going to layer up all the possible greens. So I want to make sure that my paper is nicely wet so that I can work for a longer period of time. So in case your paper starts drying, then you have to wait for the applied paint to dry completely, and then you need to rewet the paper again and then begin the process. So instead, at the first stage itself, you can consider rewetting the paper multiple times, and then you can begin with the final painting. So you can see I'm using my size number 12 brush. This is from the brand silver black velvet, and it holds a lot of amount of water, and I like this to, you know, use it for wetting my paper and for applying the paint so that, you know, I need not dip several number of times into the water or the paint. But you can go with any other brush, watercolor brush that you have got. All right. So yeah, looks like the paper is nicely wet, but I'm still going around and checking if there are any few edges or places where the water is not properly present on the paper. So I'm just taking care of all those points because once I start painting, I do not want to concentrate on the water quantity on my paper. I just want to focus on the colors that I am dropping. All right. So having said that, let us begin by painting the bushes. So now for painting the bushes, we don't want to go with one single green shade, but we want to play around with multiple green shades. Get all your greens out from your palette and you can use it for creating these bushes. So you can see first, I started with the olive green. This is a very nice bright green from the brand white knight, and I love to create the bushes using this particular color. So I'm adding it as the base layer. So first, I'm not going to think of where this color is going to be present or how light or how dark it's going to be. I'm just going ahead and dropping this paint towards the entire bushy region around the rocks, obviously. So we're not going to paint the rocks as of now, which is going to go around the rocks and cover it with different bushes. So I'm just making sure that, you know, it's completely filled with this olive green as the base color. And on top of this, we're going to layer it with multiple other greens. Alright, so you can just watch me, and then I'll explain you the further process. All right. So now that we have added the base olive color, now it's time to add multiple layers and make this bushes look more realistic and natural. So now I'm picking up my sap green from white knights. This is another beautiful shade that I like to use for painting trees, bushes, or any greenery part in your landscapes. So now you can see I have started from the top left corner, and I'm just you know, pointing my brush stip on the paper, and I'm just adding small dotted patterns. You can see. I'm not just painting it in the form of flat wash, but I'm trying to create some strokes, some patterns, some leafy bushes, et cetera. And, you know, I'm trying to bring out the essence of these bushes. And you can see I'm not covering the entire base region, but I'm trying to retain that olive green. So you can see, right? I'm leaving some gaps in the middle so that the base layer is retained while adding the darker tonal values on top. So you can see I'm picking up more paint, and randomly, I'm just going ahead and creating this dotted patterns to create the bushes. I know at this point of time, it's looking a lot more messier and, you know, you may not be able to make sense, but trust the process and trust me. At the end, it is going to come out so well that you will be absolutely stunned looking at your painting. So this is how we create the natural and realistic looking bushes. So if you're not confident at the moment, then you can try adding these patterns onto a scrap piece of paper, and then once you're confident, you feel like you're good at it, you can come back to your main painting and add these patterns or structures. It's basically very simple. It's just moving your hand in different directions and holding your brush at a different angle to create these patterns or structures. So you can see my paper is still wet, and I'm not working on a single area. You know, I'm moving from all the regions from top, I'm coming to the bottom, in the middle. I'm going all over to right inside. So this way, what happens is your paper will stay wet for a longer duration of time, and, you know, that way, your paper will not even dry. So now you can see I have picked up a darker tonal value of the same sap green, and I'm adding it again. I'm layering it up again. So you can just wait and watch, and then once I have finished, you can go ahead and paint it for yourself. All right, so now that we have added two layers of the color, that is the sap green. Now it's time to add even more darker color. So for that, I'm mixing a little bit of sap green, a little bit of emerald green, and to make it even more darker, I'm adding a little bit of paints gray to make this green a little bit more bold and more stunning. You can see in between, I picked up a little bit of Bendike brown, so I'm just mixing and matching the colors. I do want that flat wash to be present in my painting. I just want to add a lot of colors, bring out that natural essence, and that you can just do it by mixing variety of colors on your palette and then directly dropping it onto your paper. So now you can see, I want this middle portion to be very dark as it is in the reference. So I'm not following exactly the reference, but I'm just trying to create a similar kind of structure. So you can see I'm trying to introduce this vegetation or this bushes greenery pattern in between the rocks. So if you have ever seen those rocky islands in between the sea, you must have seen some small plants or some bushes. They grow on the rocks in between the rocks. So I'm not sure if you have seen that, but you can just Google out some images and check so instead of leaving the rocks completely flat, I thought we can introduce a little bit of bushes in between the rocks and make it more stunning and natural. So that's why I'm saying you can just wait for me to complete this entire bushy painting, and then you can pause the video and, you know, continue it along with me. All right. So you can see now there's very good separation between the top layer and the bottom layer. You can see the top left corner is very light compared to the middle region. Now I'm going to continue the same pattern of holding the brush at an angle, make sure the brush has a nice pointed tip and I'm going to keep adding this leafy bushy pattern. Until I'm satisfied with the painting, I'm just going to keep randomly adding these dotted patterns. You can keep an eye on this and then you can paint it for yourself. All right, so, guys, you can see the difference, right. When we started, all the colors were just randomly spread, but now you can see the painting is finally taking its shape and there's a lot more to go. So when we add the rocks, you'll actually start making sense that how it's going to turn out. Alright. So for now, this is it, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 9. Rocks - Part 1: All right, so let us start by painting the rocks. So on the side note, you can see that there's a little brown below the bushy region that we have added. So initially, I thought I'll add a land there and it was somehow not looking good. And hence, I have not added this as a part of the video. I'm going to explain you the process of how we can cover up that portion, but for now, we can focus on painting these rocks and adding the structures onto these rocks. So I have wetted the entire rocky surface, and now I'm going ahead with my paints gray. So you can see I'm mixing a little bit of paints gray on my palette and you can barely see the color because, yes, this is the tonal value that we are going to go ahead with. We don't want to have the rocks to be, you know, very bold. You have seen those rocks which are, you know, white or off white in color, and they have slightly cracks in between the cracks or some, you know, patterns, broken like pattern. So we are exactly going to replicate that, and we're going to bring the rocks into its realistic form. I know it's going to take time. So this part of the painting is really time consuming. You need to put in all your effort to make the rocks look more natural and more realistic because we'll be adding a lot of patterns, introducing different shapes, et cetera, to make the rocks come into its natural form. So now you can see I added a little bit of that brown onto the right hand side of the first rock, and then I'm continuing by wetting the surface of the second rock. Again, on the second rock, I am going ahead with the very light tonal value of the paints gray. So this is the base region of the rock, and on top of this, we will be introducing a lot of patterns and other structures. So you can just keep watching and then you can paint it for yourself. Alright, so now that the base region is completely wet, now we can go ahead and introduce some rocky patterns or some broken lines on the rocks to make it look more realistic. So starting with paints gray again, and I'm going with my size number six brush this time because I love this brush to make use of when we're adding details. So you can go with your smaller sized brush, anything that you're comfortable with. Alright. So now you can see, we do not want to have a lot of paint as well as a lot of water on our brush because background is already wet, so we are going to make use of the dry brush technique over here. So you're just going to pick up some paint that is your paints gray, and you're going to dab the excess amount of water and paint onto your tissue, and then you're going to introduce these patterns onto your rocks. So now you can see I have started creating broken lines these are not absolutely straight lines, and they need not have to be straight because we want to bring that natural essence. If you have seen those broken cracks on the rocks, you can imagine that, right, how they actually look. They are not defined. They are all over the place, and they are of different shapes, different sizes. They are even crooked at times. So that is what we are exactly trying to introduce her. So you can just watch me how I do that, and then you can paint it for yourself. All right, so now you can see I have introduced certain patterns onto the rocks. It is not yet there, but we will get that into place, and let's keep continuing. I'm adding few rocky patterns towards the bottom region just below that bushy pattern that we have added. So if you look closely, you can see that it's very dry. The patterns are not, you know, like completely wet on wet. I am just holding my brush at different angles, continuously dabbing the excess amount of paint. And then I'm just trying to scrub the brush against the paper and create this natural effect onto the rocks. Alright. So this is how that you should be painting this. And if you are not comfortable with the dry brush, I suggest you to try this on a scrap piece of paper, and then you can paint it for yourself. Alright, so you can just keep watching and yeah. All right. So now that we have painted the first rock, we are going to follow the exact same procedure to paint the second rock. Again, I have wetted the base surface with light amount of paints gray, and now I'm going to use my pains gray, make use of the dry brush technique, and I'm going to go ahead and add those broken cracks or patterns onto the rocks to make it look more natural and realistic. No I'm repeating the same things again because the process is more or less the same. It's just that it's on you now how you want to introduce these patterns. And one more thing, you need not follow the same process that I'm doing here. Maybe your patterns could look different from that of the other person's painting, and that's absolutely fine. That's how we are so unique and so beautiful. Each one of us so, you know, unique and, you know, everyone has different qualities. So that's the beauty. And yeah, coming back to our painting, you can see the left side of the I mean, the right hand side of the rock is slightly different because we are going to introduce a shadow onto the inner surface of the rock, and you'll make that sense when we proceed with the painting further. For now, just keep adding those rocky patterns, and I'll explain you the further process. All right. So now that we have added few patterns onto the rock, now we'll start adding the shadow that we were talking about. Onto the inner surface of the second rock, we're going to introduce a darker paint because we want to depict that shadow of the rock, the inner surface of the rock. You can see I'm not directly going with darker tonal value first, I'm going with slightly lighter shades and then I'm going to slowly start introducing the darker tonal values. You can just keep watching me and then you can paint this for yourself. All right. So now you can see we have added a lot of patterns onto the second rock as well. So if you want, you can keep continuing to add these patterns until you're completely satisfied. Now you can see, I've introduced a darker tonal value at the base of the rock. So basically, I'm using a mix of paints gray, and the green that we use for the bushes to create this shadow. This is nothing but the shadow of the bushes that is falling onto the rock and hence the base of the rock or the bottom of the rock is slightly darker compared to the main area because there's no enough light reaching the bottom of the rocks. All right. So you can see how beautiful it's looking at the moment. I know there's a lot more to go ahead and we will be introducing different patterns and textures, and we'll be correcting and adding more details as we progress further. Alright, so I'll see you soon in the next section. 10. Bushes - Part 2: All right. Now that the previous layer has dried, it's time to finally add another layer of the grassy patterns. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to quickly go ahead and wet the entire region of the grassy area. Make sure your previous layer has to be completely dried before you start re wetting the regions of the green areas again, right. So if you do this when the paper is already wet, then you may disturb the underlying layers, and that's the reason you need to wait for the first layer to completely dry before you go ahead and re wet the next layer. All right. Now I have completely re vetted the green area. Now again, I'm going to go ahead and choose all those colors that I had earlier used for painting the bushes. Again, first, I'm going with the sap green. So I'm just going ahead and, you know, adding the brush strokes or brush patterns. I'm holding my brush at an angle and I'm creating some dotted patterns on the surface. You can see it's very random. It's not in a particular direction or at a particular place. It's completely random, so I just want to have a realistic look for the bushes, and this is the reason I'm doing that. So without disturbing the underlying layers, I'm just going ahead at random places in random direction, and I'm adding these bushy patterns. So you can just watch me, and then you can paint it for yourself. All right. So now that I have added the second layer, I'm going to add more deeper colors to make it look even more natural and realistic. So we're going to add a lot of depth. So to add this dp, now I'm going to go with an intense tone of green. And for that, I'm going to take a mixture of sap green, little bit of emerald green and to make it even more darker, I may even go ahead and add my paints gray. So if your green is already dark, then you can just go ahead and straightaway add that. But if your green is lighter, then you can mix it with pains gray or any other color to make it a little bit darker. Alright, so the process is similar to what we did earlier. Again, you have to just keep adding those patterns and make sure you're not covering the underlying olive green that you have added because we want to depict different greens to be, you know, visible from the far. So make sure you're not going to add a single flat wash. Make sure to have that consistency of different kinds of green in your painting. So at some places, you can have a darker tone of green. At some places you can have another shade of green or possibly a lighter shade of green. So just go ahead and play with different tonal values and try to achieve depth and natural realistic looking for your painting. All right. So you can just watch me and then paint it for yourself. Alright. I think I'm already satisfied with how the rocks and the bushes are looking out. Now I will allow this to dry quickly, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 11. Rocks - Part 2: All right. So now we will add the second layer for the rocks. So you can see, I want to create a shadow for the inside of the second rock, and we will be doing that now. So I am just grabbing the lighter shade of yellow ochre. If you don't have yellow ochre, you can go with light brown as well, and you can try to define the shadow for the so now you can see earlier it was very light and there was no separation between the shadow and the main portion of the rock. But now, as soon as I added a darker region on the inside of the rock, it kind of created a deeper shadow for the rock. So I hope you are able to understand what I'm trying to depict here. So, nevertheless, once you finish the painting, you will have the entire picture in front of you and you can make more sense out of it and paint it for yourself. So for now, you can just watch me how I'm doing, and then you can paint it for yourself. So all I'm doing is I'm just grabbing a little bit of yellow ochre, or you can go with light brown or dike brown. Just make sure to start with lighter tonal values and apply it on the inner surface of the rock to create a shadow. So now, earlier, we have added few patterns like crack like structures on the rocks, but it has dried now, and I feel it is not so prominent. And this is the reason I'm going ahead on top of those patterns that we painted earlier, and I'm going to try to create some cracks and some strokes again. But if you're already satisfied with what you have created earlier, then you can completely skip this step. Alright, so I am not satisfied with what I had painted earlier, so I'm just going ahead and retouching and giving the final look for these rocks. Alright, so you can just watch me and then do it for yourself. Hey. Alright, I'm satisfied with how the rocks have turned out. The patterns are looking so realistic, and I'm completely happy with the way it has turned out. Alright, so let's go ahead and paint water, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 12. Let's Paint the water: All right. Now it's time to paint the water and we will be painting the water by making use of the wet on wet watercolor technique. Basically, in the wet on wet, we have to wet the entire surface of the paper where we are going to work, and we need to do this multiple number of times to ensure that the surface of the paper is nicely wet. We're ready to add in the colors. So another tip when you're wetting the paper, make sure the water is evenly spread on the surface of the paper. So it should not happen like, a lot of water is getting collected in the middle or in the edges. And when you start adding your paint, the colors they literally start flowing and you have no control over them. So that should not happen. So take your own sweet time and wet your paper nicely and ensure that there is a sheen on the paper when you just are looking at from a different angle. So ensure you wet the paper nicely. So I'm making use of my round sized brush, which is like from Princeton. This is their larger sized brush. I think it's size number 12. But you can go with flat brush also. So any brush that you're convenient with any larger size brush would be better for this. Okay. So now I can see that my paper is nicely wet and I'm all set to start painting the water. Alright. So for painting the water, we are going to create a nice turquoise blue shade, but, you know, I'm going to add a little bit of green to this so that, you know, I want my seed to look a little bit greenish blue. So if you want your seed to look completely blue, then you can go ahead directly with turquoise blue. So it's absolutely fine to go ahead with, you know, different color palettes because water is not blue always. It depends, right? It may look greenish blue or it is completely blue. If you want, you can go with Prussian blue as well. But since this is a very tropical moody painting, I thought the tropical sees usually are on the greener side. So that's the reason I added a little bit of green. Okay. Coming back to our painting, now you can see I am using that turquoise blue in its lower tonal value and I'm just going ahead and creating a flat wash. Basically, it's not completely perfectly flat wash. I'm just going ahead and creating that base layer. Once we add in the base layer, we are going to add more deeper values onto the top of this base layer and make our painting look more realistic by bringing in that depth. So like I always say, you might have seen me explaining this number of times. In all my paintings, I just begin with my lowest tonal value of the colors. And as I move ahead, I just keep on building the layers of the colors by increasing its opacity. And that's how you can, you know, bring that depth in your paintings. So now you can see, I went on with the second layer, and the second time, I took a higher intensity of the same turquoise blue, and I'm adding this on the paper again. So you can see I am using my round size number 12 brush from Princeton. Sorry, this is from silver black velvet. And I'm trying to create some strokes like structure. So this is not a complete flat wash with the flat brush, but instead, you're holding the brush at an angle, and you're trying to create some strokes, some waves in the water. So slowly, you know, we'll start defining the shape of the waves as we move ahead, and you'll get a better picture of what I'm trying to do exactly and again, since we want our paper to stay wet for a longer duration of time, we are going to work on different areas of the paper simultaneously. So you're not going to apply paint only at a single particular area, but you're going to move all over different areas of the paper and ensure that your paper stays wet. All right. So, yeah. Now we are going to go ahead and add more deeper values. So for that, I am mixing my turquoise blue with a little bit of pains gray and create a darker tonal value. So now you can see the color is completely changed, and if you would have added this color in the first place, then probably you would not be able to achieve that depth. So what I did is started with lighter values, then added a little medium toned values, and now I'm going to add the darkest tonal value. Now also, I'm not going directly with very dark shade, but it is minimal. So it's between medium to dark. It's between that. So yeah, this is how we paint, and you can just wait and watch the entire process, and then you can start painting for yourself. That way, you'll not be making any mistakes, and you can paint it very smoothly. So you can see, again, I'm mixing up turquoise blue, and, you know, if necessary, I'm adding a little bit of paints gray to create that darker version. And now I am trying to create the waves effect especially in the center portion because that's where both the rocks are lying. And wherever the two rocks are there exactly at the bottom of the rocks, I am adding this deeper tonal value of the waves. Why? Because the shadow of the rocks is falling on the water, and that portion of the water appears darker. This is the rule of perspective. So like I say, always, you need to keep in mind the light and shadows. They play very important role in your painting. If you do not take care of these light and shadows, then your painting is going to look really flat it's going to look unrealistic, and that is not what you would like to have in your paintings. All right, so now it's going to be more or less the same process. We're going to keep adding more and more layers until we are completely satisfied. Another thing if you see for the boat also, we want to add a shadow of the boat just below the boat. So make sure you are using your smaller sized brush to add this shadow. So if you're comfortable with the larger size brush, you could go with that, but I suggest you use a smaller sized brush and make sure you're having very little paint on your brush so that, you know, your paint does not flow in an uncontrollable manner. So since my background is already wet over here, I'm having very little water on my brush, and, you know, I'm just making use of that dry paint. I mean, semi dry paint to add this. So now you can see I'm continuously able to control the flow of the paint. It's not spreading fast. Okay, so yeah, so now you can watch me and then you can paint it for yourself. All right. So now I have painted the waves just below both the rocks, so you can see I'm slowly starting to define the shape of the waves. Now, you're going to go ahead and add random strokes of the waves onto the remaining portion of the water. So now you can see I am adding the darker portion or the shadow for the boat, and I am doing this very carefully because we do want the paint to spread faster. Make sure you have very little to no water on your brush and just go ahead with a semi dry paint and create the shadow for your boat. Alright, so now we're going to go ahead and create and define more strokes or wavy patterns because once your painting is going to dry, these waves are going to look really lighter. So now is the time until your paper remains wet, make use of this time and add deeper tonal values. So continue to do this and just make sure you're doing this in all the areas of the paper. Not just focusing on the center portion because again, what would happen is your other areas of the paper would start drying and then you'll not be able to add those smoother waves. So make sure you're continuously working and moving around different areas of the paper and just keep adding the waves and make sure you don't go overboard so that you cover the entire base layer. We want to retain that light blue, and we want to have larger portion of the center region to look a little bit darker. So just keep these two things in mind and then go ahead and just paint it. All right, so you can just watch me and then do it for yourself. All right. So now that we have added the waves onto the center portion of the paper, you can go ahead and add few waves onto the bottom or on either side. But if you're completely satisfied with how the waves are looking, then you can completely skip this step and let's go on to the next section. All right, so I'll see you soon in the next section. 13. Let's paint the boat: All right, so now the paper is completely dried and I have also taken off the masking tape from the I mean, the masking fluid from the boat. And now we can start, you know, defining the details for the boat. So for defining the details of the boat, I'm not going to be using any paintbrush or paint, but directly with the help of the marker, I am going to define the intricate details for the boat. Reason being using a marker becomes more simpler and it makes the job a lot more easier because the boat is small and the details inside the boat are even more smaller. So I don't want the paint to flow here and there, and, you know, it gets messier. And that's the reason I'm using a marker because it becomes a lot more convenient. So this is a basic marker, which is of 0.7 thickness, so you can go with 0.5 MM thickness as well. But if you don't have a marker, then you need not worry. You always have your paint brush. You can go ahead with that. So you can use your zero sized brush and you can go ahead and so you can see this is a very simple process. There's nothing rocket science here. I'm just tracing out the lines that we earlier made while we were doing the pencil sketch. So I'm just going ahead and lightly defining the details. So you remember we added teeny tiny windows for the boat, and I'm just filling out with black color onto those windows. It's very simple. So that's the reason I said we have to retain the paper white for the boat because the entire boat is going to remain white, and we're just going to define smaller details. So I think there's no much there's nothing much to explain here. All you have to do is just follow your pencil sketch that you have prepared earlier, and you're going to trace out the lines using the marker or your paintbrush. So I would suggest you can just wait for me to complete this. You can pause the video or you can take a screenshot, and then you can go ahead and paint the board for yourself. Alright, so yeah. Right now we have defined few details onto the boat. Now it's time to add some shadows onto the boat. You can see this is a white colored boat and it is floating on the turquoise blue sea. Obviously, the reflection of the blue sea will be falling on the boat, and that is what we want to depict here. We're not going to define it very boldly, but the subtle reflection of the blue sea is going to be shown on the boat, and that is what we are trying to paint here. You can see, I just went with a lighter tonal value of that same turquoise blue shade that we use for painting so now you can see I'm picking up a gentle tone of this blue. And with the help of a lot of water, I'm going to be smudging it onto the rest of the edges of the boat. So make sure you're not going with the darker tonal value that you used for the sea, but you're going to go with a very mild and subtle tonal value. Alright, so, you know, these are the smaller details that will add value to your painting, and it'll allow your painting to look more realistic. All right. So now, with the help of white paint, I'm just going to define the shape of the boat because while I was applying my masking fluid, I might have not applied it correctly, and because of that, the shape of the boat is kind of lost a little bit, not entirely just onto the few areas. So with the help of white paint, I'm just going to try to define the edges of the boat. But if your boat is completely perfect, then you need not do this. All right. So now, again, inside the boat, also, I'm just going to add a little bit of white paint to cover the pencil marks or the pencil sketch marks that are visible. And, you know, I'm just going to try to make small little changes and, you know, give those final touches to our boat. Alright, so now you can see, right, the painting is finally taking its shape, and I'm really loving this entire process. It's like, you know, I'm right in the middle of that sea and I'm, you know, sailing on that boat, and I'm enjoying the view. And yeah, I can just express my love towards this painting. And I hope you're enjoying the process, too. Alright, so I think we are almost towards the end. There are a few final details that we will be defining before we call it done. Alright, so yeah. So if you don't have white guash, you can go with white watercolor, and it's absolutely fine. I think I'm using white watercolor here because, you know, I don't know where is my white gouache tube. And yeah, so that's absolutely fine. So now we're going to define the sails for the boat. So not exactly the sail that you see the larger sails, but this is a tiny sail for the boat. So you can see this is a white rod. I don't know what it is actually called, but it is like a white thin rod. And then that is attached with a tiny piece of cloth or a sail, you can say. And, you know, it's just very random. So like I said, you can sketch the boat for yourself the way you want. There are a lot of images on the Internet. You can choose your boat the way it wants to be, right? So I have just gone with reference, and, you know, I tried to make some little modifications, and I came up with this pencil sketch. But you can go and follow any design that you would want for your boat to. Alright, so now you can see that piece of cloth or the sail is painted nicely. And now towards the edge, I just want to, you know, show those thin rods that are towards the end of the boat. You know, basically, the place where you can stand holding the rod of the boat so that you don't fall onto the sea. I know it's a little funny to explain this, but you may try to get it like what I'm trying to tell. So these are the thin, delicate rod like structures that you see, and I'm exactly trying to depict that onto the painting. All right, so you can just keep watching and then you can paint it for yourself or you can just go ahead and paint your boat the way you like it to appear. Alright, so yeah. All right, so the boat is looking extremely beautiful, and I'm happy with the way it has turned out. Alright, I cannot wait to show you the final painting, and I'll see you soon in the next section. 14. Thank You: All right, so this is the final painting. Now, isn't that gorgeous? I know it is. And I hope you really enjoyed painting with me. First of all, I would like to thank each one of you who made it till the end, and, you know, thank you for supporting me and showing all the love. And now I want you to post the class projects in the class project section so that I can personally review and give you the feedback. And if you want to post it on Instagram, then do tag me using my Instagram handle my paint story. And I would love to share your beautiful creations with the others on the platform out there. And one more last thing is, please leave genuine or, you know, feedback onto this class so that it will help a larger number of people to join this class. And also, I can take your feedback and suggestions and improve my classes, which I will be publishing in the near future. So I hope you really enjoyed this class and thank you once again and see you soon.