Paint a Watercolor Sunset: Beginner's Step by Step Guide

1. Introduction: Hey, everyone. My name is Rainbow. I'm a painter illustrator based in Hong Kong and one of my specializations in water color. So I paint a lot of cityscapes, landscapes and night scenes. I love working with different colors and lighting to create a mood, a story behind my paintings. So today in our class, we're going to be learning how to paint a watercolor sunset. You're going to finish with a very beautiful painting like the slump. Now I know watercolor can be quite a daunting medium because it's very transparent. You can't really cover up your mistakes, and it's just quite difficult to control because of all the water that there is. But don't worry. We're going to start from the very beginning, so you don't need any previous experience for this class, so we'll begin by going through some different tools that we need in watercolor. We're going to familiarize ourselves with this medium through painting, radiance and different color transitions. After that will paint our sunset, and in this process, I'll explain more of the techniques of layering, choosing the right colors, mixing them and give you a better understanding off just how much water we need to use in different scenarios, hating different things. I'm so happy that you're here today and I can't wait to see you in class. 2. Tools and Supplies: So to begin the class, we're going to be talking about the basic materials that we will need. Here are all the materials that I have and we can start with the paper. So this is the paper that I'm going to be using its a watercolor paper. It's by artists, and this is 300 GSM, which means it's a thicker paper than you would normally use if you're during or sketching . And the reason that we need a thicker paper is because we're putting a lot of water on it, and it has to be thick enough to withstand that. So they're different types of watercolor paper as well. Some of them are much rougher, others are smoother. It's up to you what you want to use. But I would say that rougher surfaces are better for landscapes for scenery, whereas smoother services would be better for portrait's and things that are a bit more delicate. We are also gonna need some paintbrushes. Oh, you're gonna want some bigger eight. Russia's like these ones. These are flat brushes, great for painting, bake washes, especially when we're painting this guy. We're gonna need some smaller brushes and these air round brushes that have a pointy tip when you went them. These will be useful for when we're painting more of the clouds and some of the details that we have. So one of the biggest differences between watercolor brushes and other brushes would be the softness in the flexibility of them. So this is annoying painting brush, whereas this one is, ah, watercolor brush moving on. We will also need some watercolor paints. This is the palette that I normally use. And I have a specific set of colors that I have chosen and that I enjoy using. And I'm sure that every single artist would have their own favorite set of colors. But to make things simpler today were actually only gonna be using four colors. So that would be a red, a yellow of blue and brown. And the reason that I'm doing this is not only to simplify things, but also I want to show you that you don't need a lot too. Create a beautiful painting. You can actually do almost anything with just four colors. So the specific colors that we have here is critical. Don't Scarlett Jennifer don't gold also marine deep and burn number. Other than that, we will also need a pencil for sketching. We need, um, watercolor palette for mixing our paints. Need some water towel, some masking tape, and this is optional. But it's great for us to tape our edges and treat this really nice edge finish. And, um, that's about it. So now that we have everything we can begin painting 3. Painting Gradients in Watercolor: So now that we have all of our materials, we can begin. We're going to start with some basic radiant since a sunset is really a transition of different colors. We really want to use this time to familiarize ourselves with watercolor with how we're going to mix different colors, how much water we're using and just getting a feel of the actual medium. Okay, so first we're going to take the edges of our watercolor paper with our masking tape, and then we're going to section into Cordiant's. The reason that we're using the masking tape is not only to keep our paper in place, but also because it actually leaves a very nice edge that frames are composition. I would recommend doing this when you're painting any type of scenery or a subject with the background as well. In his first step, we're going to be using the big, flat brush since we're covering a large area, and this is better for blending, so we're going to get some paint on our palate. We're going to wet the brush a little and mix it together. Make sure that the paint spreads evenly on the brush, because if it doesn't. Then we will have streaky marks. When we paint, starting on top with big strokes, we're going to run the brush across and pain all the way down to the middle, and then we're gonna wash the brush. Now make sure to wash the brush. This is a very, very important step. This time with a clean brush. We're going to get some yellow, and then we're gonna paint upwards until the yellow meets the red as the red begin to mix with the yellow. You have a very nice orange transition, and there you go. That's your first greedy int. Now, at this point, I want to explain a bit more about the different color combinations that can be used. So in the first example, we actually use an Anna locus color palette, which means we're picking colors that are close to each other, red and yellow with the orange between, or say, yellow and blue with the green in between. Another type of color combination would be to mixed colors that are opposite of each other . For example, in this second grade Ian, I'm using red and green, which are complementary colors, meaning that their opposite of each other in the color wheel. And if we were to look at sunsets, they are actually made up of complementary colors off some sort as well. With a very blue sky mixing into some gold and some orange, we can see the same type of radiance happening. So here are some other examples of color combinations that you could use for your Grady INTs to experiment with. Now, another thing to really take notice off when you're painting thes practice. Grady INTs is the water to paint a show. For example, in this orange to blue radiant, you can see that there is a way too much water in the mix. It's leaving puddles, and it's taking a lot longer to dry. But the problem with this is that the puddles air going to dry and leave stain patterns. Another thing about using very watery pain is that it's very easy for the two colors to merge, so you won't actually see a very clear transition between one color to the next. So on the other hand, if we use much less water in mixing our pain, we would create the opposite effect. You'll notice that it'll take a lot more effort to paint because it doesn't glide very well . But using less water also makes it a lot easier to control the blend of colors. And you can see in this example that the blend turns out pretty well. And with that said, Watercolor is all about timing. So if you're painting with much less watery paint, it's going to dry a lot quicker. And when it does dry, it can't be blended anymore. So take that in mind and I encourage you to experiment and try different ratios of paint and water. Try different colors and the ones that we've talked about in this video really just get a feel of using watercolor and familiarized yourself with it. And, um, yeah, in our next lesson willing corporate. Some of these things we've learned here into our actual sons that painting 4. Painting the Sunset (From gradients to sunsets): in this part as we progress from Grady INTs to Sunset Skies, we will be talking about the planning, sketching and the painting process. For the sunset. We will only be using four watercolor paints and these more or less make up the primary colors, which is red, yellow and blue. I've added the additional brown for an extra dimension when were mixing the darker colors. So you definitely don't need a huge collection of colors to start with, and you don't need these exact colors I have here. The first thing that we want to do is to test out our pains to really understand how they interact with each other, so try mixing them with more or less water, layering them when they're still wet. Here, I mixed the brown with very little water, creating quite a thick paint. And as you can see when I paint this to a wet surface, the strokes become soft, but they maintain their structures. Now. If I use the same pain on a dry surface, you can see that it will create quite a rough texture like the one we did in our red blue Grady in with the last video Alternatively, I did this again with a very watery blue paint and applied it to the same wet surface. And as you can see this time, it doesn't maintain its structure. The paint just spreads, so it's important to notice how this water to paint ratio is going to affect you when you're painting on a second layer or over something that might still be wet. This is very useful when you're trying to create soft shadows or light details on a solid color, and we will be using this technique to create some of our clouds in the sunset later. Now that we have our colors ready, we've tested them out a little. We can prep our paper for sketching and painting. I started out the sketch by marking out the horizon, line the position of the clouds and then added some details to the mountains and silhouettes of boats towards the front. Now your composition can be different from mine. You can, at a different element, different placement of clouds. It's completely up to you. Sketching itself is a really good way for you to mentally and spatially have a feel of where things are on the page. to see which parts you want to be darker and which parts off the pace you want to be lighter. It's really about familiarizing yourself with the composition that you are going to be painting with our first layer. We will begin painting from the lightest color to the darkest color, so we will begin with the lightest, which actually in this case, is water. Now with watercolor, we seldom used white paint, so very often the white that you see in watercolor paintings is actually the white off the paper. Okay, so take a flat brush wetted with water, but make sure it's not dripping and rush it along the horizon or parts of the sky that you wish to be the brightest. This is going to help us blend with the yellow that we are going to use next and create a smooth transition with no harsh lines between them. Like what we did with the Grady in in the last video. I am not using a lot of water to mix my paint here. This is so that I can control the strokes a little better now, after the yellow pain, I am mixing it in with a little bit of red to get more oven orange transition just as we did before and adding this to various parts of the sky. And now to finish off our first layer, we will make some blue and this time working from the top downwards, filling up the page and connecting it with the orange and yellows we've painted before. And then we will repeat this process from the bottom to the middle, forming the sea. Now on to layer two. We will be adding some cloud. Since you this guy that we just created, and for the clouds, we're going to mix a dark color by using the blue and the brown together. You can also add a bit of red for a warmer tone. Keep in mind that at this point the first layer is still wet, so make sure to not be adding too much water in the mix. And the reason that we're working on a damn player rather than waiting for it to dry completely is so that the clouds will blend and not form harsh edges. Clouds come in many shapes and forms, so feel free to find your old references and change it up a little. One tip I do have for painting clouds is to make the strokes horizontal rather than vertical. This is because sunsets usually have these streaks of light and color, and it looks best when painted in this direction. Now, at this point, we can also add some of the mountains, keep them simple because they're quite far away and tried to maintain a straight and clean line for the base of the mountain. This is going to be a key component in separating our composition off the sea and the sky. Now that we've done our first layer and our second layer have added a bit of detail, we could wait for it to dry. And in the next video, I'll show you the finishing touches off how to complete this sunset painting. 5. Finishing the Sunset: In this last part, we will be finally completing our painting. We will be adding some of the little boats in front as well as the water ripples. We will use a color that is similar to what we had for the clouds, but much darker. This should be the darkest color in your composition, so mix a bit of the blue and brown at a little bit of red and, using the small brush, paint the shape of the boat. There is no need for a lot of details, but rather focus on the outline and its shape. Add some of the prominent features like the lift, the sail and lines to given more of a definition because I previously or has already dried . When we're painting this, you notice that it creates a lot of harsh edges. And this is good for closer objects and silhouettes because it creates a focal point and something for us to really fix our eyes on against the blurriness of the background. And last but not least, we will be adding some water affections and ripples for the sea. This time add a lot more water into the paint mixtures so that it's very transparent, and again, with the small round brush you're going to lightly creates the exact across the page like this, you can alternate between sinner lines and thicker lines to create a bit of variation in the waters. Now, add any of your finishing touches here and there, and we can wait for it to dry. After that, we can finally remove the tape on the sides. And there you have it. You have completed your beautiful sons, that painting. 6. Sharing Your Work: Thank you so much for joining this class. I really hope that you enjoyed it. Remember to post your own sons that painting here or attacked me on Instagram. I'd love to see what you've done. Well, that's it for today. And I'll see you in our next class. Bye.