Transcripts
1. Paint beautiful dragonflies introduction : Hi everybody, welcome to class. My name is Michelle and
I'm a professional artist. I live in the north of England, near the North pen lines. In this class we're going to
paint some really beautiful, loose free, spontaneous
dragonflies. The first thing we were doing this class is looking
at some inspiration. And I have a lovely Pinterest
board for you to look at. Next, I will talk you through
all the supplies we need. And then after that, I'll
teach you some techniques for some lovely textures you
can create with watercolor. I will then show
you how to paint some beautiful
loose dragonflies. I'm going to paint
these innovate impressionistic style very much in the style of traditional
Chinese watercolors. Then once we've learned how
to paint and dragonflies, I will add some background
elements to it, like boo rashes and
lilies and ponds. And we will create
a nice painting. In the class resources
you will find a PDF to download with a outline of the class and also a line
drawing of dragonflies for you. And then I will leave
you with your project, which will be to create
some lovely dragonflies.
2. Supplies: These are the tube
watercolor paintings have dragonflies that I've done. And I'm going to
walk you through step-by-step and show
you first off how to paint these ones and then these ones before we
before we get to that, I'm going to talk you through the supplies that I've used. The first most important
thing I think is paper. For this, I'm using an acid
free watercolor paper. It's 350 grams. I would suggest to you to
get a £140 or above paper. This is a bit
thicker than a £140. But I also go for
cold press paper, has a slight grain
texture on it. If you can see that.
This is A4 letter size. Next up, you'll need a
watercolor palette or pellet, and the pellet would
do plastic ones that I use a ceramic plate. For this lesson. The paints I'm going to use. You don't have to have
exactly the same paints, but I'm only going
to use three colors. And the colors, I'm going to use our three of my
favorite colors. So you should also pick some
favorite colors of yours. The reason why I'm
using these colors, which I will explain the first color that
I'm going to show you is just get my example. Beck is Lunar black
by Daniel Smith. And if you look closely at this, you can see lots of
texture and granulation. And this gives you a
lovely granulation. And I really love it, but any
black watercolor will do. I'm also going to use a
cobalt turquoise by mission. This is a very vibrant, lovely color and I just, I just liked the color,
so I'm using that, but you can use any
color you like. I'm mainly going to use this for the wings on the main watercolor
painting we're doing. And also to make it green, which I will mix
with the turquoise. I'm using quinacridone, gold. This is just a Jackson. Jackson's art
supplies watercolor, but you can use any
yellow watercolor that you may already have. You can also use the
solid pans as well. It doesn't really
matter, but you're gonna have to get them really juicy and wet because that's
how I like to paint. The brushes I'm using
would be round brushes. I've got two sizes here, but I'm not going to really take a number ten
and number eight, but the sizes of brushes
do vary between makes. So if I say number ten, and if you go and buy a
different size brush in the same different
size or different make of brush in the same size. 1010 in this make would be different to
attend and another make. So I just go by like guessed
the patients really, this is a ten and I like a nice synthetic round
brush with a good spring, like the way it springs back and a really nice point on it and a big full body so it
can hold lots of water. So as long as you've
got that in a brush, I think you'll be okay. Some extra bits will
be using is a skier, I just have bamboo scale. You can use a toothpick or any sharp implement will
be using some salt. This is just plain old
kitchen table salt. Just define the fine one. I've also got,
you've seen me use this if you're used to
watching my YouTube classes. You'll see I use this a lot, which is a mixture. I haven't actually put
the bleach in there. Yeah, I must do it. I feel like three-quarters of the three two-thirds of the way. Then I'm going to
fill it up with this which is thick bleach. Don't worry about it. Messing up your
brushes or the paper. It doesn't affect it. I've had paintings
for over 30 years. It's a bit stinky and
you have to be a bit careful and it's not very good. But I loved the effects. It gives your paint and the textures
you can clean it and I just mix it up in there. I'd say about a third third of the bleach and then
fill the rest up with water or in whatever jobs you just mix it to a third,
I will ask what we need. We will need a big jug of water. I use a lot of watering
my watercolor paintings. So that's a good idea to have a biggest jug and then you don't
have to change it. So often with the colors, you'll need some paper
towel, something to block. I've also got some
blotting paper, which is the paper you use for calligraphy is calligraphy
years, is that a word? I don't usually use ink pens. And then they're blocked the writing after they've done it. So this is the picture
I get this from Amazon. I'm sure they have they
have it or find it on the calligraphy supplies. And also, you might
want might want a pencil because I've just
paint these straight up. But I'm going to provide
you in the PDF with a line drawing of a dragonfly. So you can trace it
if you're not very confident with drawing or
painting without drawing. I'd suggest also having a few water-soluble pencils
in any colors, really. I think I think that's
all I'm going to use. If there's anything else,
I will add it to the list. Yeah, Let's go and start experimenting with our paints and seeing what the
bleach doesn't, the salt doesn't
the blotting paper. And we're going
to have fun play. See you in the next lesson.
3. Loosen up and play with paints: Hello. If you have Squeak
is my chair. Right? Are you ready to start painting and have fun
with your colors? Then? I'm going to
start off by just putting the colors on the
plate now with watercolor. You can Rican. What is the word
I'm looking for? Weekend, whatever. You can reconstruct it. We construct I didn't know. Reconstitute the word
proper weirdos in there. If it dries out, you can add water to it and it
will come back. But with them, some acrylic
gouache and acrylics. It dries out and then you
can't ever use it again. So that's what I like
about watercolor. Terribly afraid
to put a big glob on more pigment. You have. The more vibrant
your painting and you won't get that
wishy washy look. Even though I use
a lot of water, I also use a lot of
pigment in my paintings. You don't get a washed outlook. But now the paper, I've got the paper
here, this is the A4. If you're wondering about
what side the paper, if you feel that your
paper and you're like, I can't remember what side is the front and the back because they have
different textures. If you run your hand, fingers lightly across it, you will see where it's cut. It folds over very slightly. If you feel a ridge, that's the bottom of the paper, That's a little
tip for you today. I'm not going to
take my paper down. You might like to, but I like to move
my paper around to pick up and do things like that. If you've got
really thick paper, it shouldn't buck or too much, we're going to use
a lot of water. So try and get the thick
is to pick a you can. So the heavier, more
than number like £140, I wouldn't go below a £140, anything less than a 140, I wouldn't recommend it. Don't get the £90
paper because you'll have problems and it makes
it difficult for yourself. So to start off with, you might need a
spray bottle and I'll put that in the thing because I like to activate
the paint them a lot. I Sprague, I'm not trying to compete a lot that I've melted it
with the heat gun. Just we're just playing with the paints and I'm going
to show you how to create some textures
and things and use the brush stroke is really
good way to loosen up. And I'm just going to
select some water on here. Water, you want to
create pools of water. Then I'm going to grab
bits of the color, just mix and drop it in
and see what it does. You can see how it flows it
and it gives a really nice, some paints flow
more than others. Some paints would just
sit where you plunk them even if you put
them in the water. This travels quite
a lot as well. I'd probably pick colors
that travel a lot and do weird things
because that's what I like about
watercolor painting. You can see the granulation and the paint already with
the Daniel Smith color. And then I'm going to
use the turquoise. Don't worry about mixing
the colors together. You can see that this
color sits more, it doesn't spread out, it hasn't got that slow. So you have more
control over that. Now let's see what
colors we can mix up. I'm gonna be using a green, so let's see what
Green's we can get black and then try with
your brush strokes. Using the very tip of the brush, see how fine a line you can get. Because we will need
very fine lines to do the little
dragonflies, feet, legs. Have a play with fine lines
and then thick lines using the whole of the brush and
see what shapes you can get. Have a good plan. I've got lots of
paint on my brush. You can see how
thick the paint is that there's a big
global love it. They'll also practice
like dropping in some water and you'll get some nice little splashy
blooms and things. Something we're going to
add a bit more of this lovely Lena blacks,
favorite color. I like how it does everything. You might want. A
piece of paper towel. You can dip your brush off. This is where if you
draw your brush off, you make a thirsty
brush and if you make a mistake or
something or you think you've got too
much paint there. You can use a thirsty brush and lift lift it off like this. Sometimes you see me like putting the paintbrush
in my mouth. It's just a really
bad habit of mine. I need to stop doing that. I wouldn't suggest it. You can see that she is just starting to go off
here and I'm going to show you the table so you have to catch it at
the right moment. Don't put it on
when it's too wet, otherwise it won't
have a lovely effect. I spoke bit more everywhere in case I haven't gotten it's
very warm here today, so things are drawing
a bit faster. I'm going to put a bit
more black down in this corner so I can show
you what the bleach does. Now the beach does something similar to putting
the water down, but it makes the pink travel a bit more and it
bleaches it out as well. So if I put blobs down here, I haven't mixed it everywhere. You can see how
it doesn't really nice bleach out of the color. And also traveled to
make those extra blooms, which I use a lot of mixed
it a bit thick actually, unless it's just
not mixed together. And you can just
have fun with this. It's really lovely. Then I'm going to add
a bit more color. I've just made it.
Don't worry about it. We'll love being together. It makes like weird
colors and things. If you see my watercolor
palettes, normally, one big mess of color because that's how I
like to paint your wall. So find your way of painting. Now, I'm going to let
that to dry naturally, I'm not going to use a heat
gun on it or anything. Otherwise, you won't
get the effects and you won't get
the, I'm doing. I'm just gonna put a
bit more blue here, see if I can show you
the texture a bit, a bit better because it's too
dry. Wrap it around a bit. You can see how wet it is. It's going to be
dripping everywhere. You can add drips as well. But doing this, which
is also a nice effect, you get that we didn't ask, like run and running
through the colors. I'm just gonna put
some salt here. Then I'm not gonna
use a hairdryer because the paint needs to do its thing and absorb the
bleach and absorb the salt. Just let it do what
it wants to do, let it dry naturally. I'm impatient. I
often get my heat gun out or hairdryer out to dry it, but I'm going to let it dry
naturally so that I can show you all the beautiful
effects we're going to get from this one little effect. But I didn't see he was
using the brush on paper. After I offer, I
like to explain it. Let me just put a
bit more color here. Now you can create
lines I use for stems a lot in my paintings. You blot out the color, so if you fold it in half, you can plot out the color. Leaves the White Paper. And obviously you can press down and lock up a lot of the color. Sometimes it doesn't
always work, sometimes it will be because
you've left it a bit late and the papers pens on
the absorbency of your paper, the paper might absorb
the color a bit more. And also some colors are
more staining than others. Some colors will. I'm just staying the paper and you'll you'll
never get them off. But I think the colors
I've used here, they're quite translucent ones so I can see it's pulled
off the color quite a lot. So that's called
lifting the color off. You can also use it, do it with a paper
towel as well. But because the paper towel isn't quite as worried busted, you don't get exactly
the same effect as well. I love using the blotting paper. I'm going to let this
dry and I'll show you. But lovely textures
we have. My tastes. Good piece is all
joy. My texture. I'm just going to rub off the, I think it's a bit hot here. Sought to do its thing, so I tried to get it
over here as well, but it's still a bit wet. Still a bit wet in places
where I'm rubbing off to be careful because
where you put the salt, it retains the moisture
because that's how it makes the pattern that sucks up the moisture around the
paint and you all should be left with a star
regret Naomi Feil, and some paints it works
better with than others. This hasn't worked
that well today. I think it's just too hot here. I've got a brush
and brush it off. But you can see all the
lovely textures we've got, we've got here where we've added the bleach and all the
colors have gone together. This is where we
are, the blotting brushstrokes that tried. And this has really created
some beautiful effects. The salt has made
a difference here, but it's really nice. And then there's some thick, thin, thick paint here. And that adds another texture. And the way it's all run
into each other and that way the colors ever
amalgamated together, It's just created some
lovely effects there. Make sure you have a play
and test out your paint, brush strokes and everything. And it will give you
more confidence to be bold and loose
with your painting.
4. First painting : Okay, now we've loosened up and we've played with our
paints and we know how they react with each other and what
textures with that. I'm going to show you how
to paint some dragonflies. I tend not to the word, draw them out first. If I tend to just
go straight in with my watercolors and paint them because I don't like
pencil lines on my drawings, but I've just provided
you in the PDF in the class resources where there's a pencil
drawing you can trace. You don't have to. You can
draw it on here first. But I'm just gonna
go straight in. I'm just going to
use the Daniel Smith black to start with. And I'm going to start painting. It is quite daunting, just putting on the
first blobs of paint. But if you've gone and looked at the Pinterest board that I've given you a link to in the PDF. You'll see lots
of dragonflies go look at the way they're,
they're put together. The right way. The
way the way, yeah. The way that they join
and the shapes of them, and the way they fly and
the way their wings go, and then all the little
things like that. And you'll find it
much easier to paint. Now I've started off
with doing its eyes. They have quite protruding eyes. I've just done use the
very tip of my brush and then two little blobs. And then I'm not, I probably won't go
back in to this too. Recharge it because
I've got quite a lot of paint on my brush
and it's quite wet. I'm just going to suggest it's the dominant
at the abdomen. Them have dominant abdomen. I'm hoping to talk something. Then I'm gonna do is front feet. They have little claws on
the ends of their feet. They have six legs. I think they're like insects, but you can't see them all
because the wings, the wings, you want to create a
really translucent, transparent to you,
texture to the wing. So I've just rinse my
brush and I've got just like mocked up the
drips so it's not dripping but there's a
lot of water on the brush and I'm just going
to touch where the paint is still wet and pushing my brush down
and then pull out. And that's the first swing. And I must have some light
blue on my brush as well. We couldn't give us a
really pretty effect. Now I'm just gonna
do it exactly the same for the second wing. It has, they have four
wings each to each side. Has can say for each
side, complete count. And then I'm going to do the
same this slide as well. There's not gonna
be as much paint there because you've
pulled it all that way. But let's go over it
again. Having trouble. And then you can also add
some more, if you like. I like to put a
little bit more pink right near its body so it creates like a shadow when you can do the same
again and just pull it up. Try not to go over it too much. Otherwise you won't get that
nice, translucent fear. And sometimes they have little dots on their
wings are usually here. So I'm just gonna
do a little dots and just let it all smudging. That's the first dragonfly. And then if you're
feeling brave, you can use this skill to drag. If you catch the
paper the right time, if it's still wet and you
drag your skier along, it will make dark lines where
all the paint goes into the little valleys created by dragging it so
you see you can create the veins on
the wings like this. Really pretty subtle effect. Now making it look like a leaf. That's the first
day I can fly down. It's really simple, just
a few brush strokes. You don't have to
paint really detailed. And the texture of
the paint has added to the overall look
of the dragonfly. You can add some
more little legs in it as well if you
think it needs it, but I'm pretending
they're tucked up. It's not a precise like photographic painting
we're doing, we're doing
impressionistic painting of a feel of a dragonfly. When I'm painting
flowers as well, I always tell people
to try and capture the essence of the flower rather than paint
it botanically. As long as you'd like
catching the way it feels. And you can see that
the dragonfly just like flying in the sky. Well, that's what I think. Let's do one face on. More flat. Again, I started with its eyes and then I'm just
going to do it's a dominant abdomen autonomy
and that's not a word. And then it has little segments
on its body. Stay wave. And I'll get into legs. And then again, I'm going
to draw its weightings. Again. I'm just going to
rinse my brush and then touch the wet paint there
and then pull it out quite quickly as well, then you're not going
to run out of water on your brush trying to make
them the right sizes. Then I'm just going to
use a bit of bleach on this ones where the
paint at the end, I'm just going to create
some pattern on its wings. I'm not going to
use the scale on this one. And
that's another one. Very quick and simply drawn. Now let's do one on
a bit of bamboo. And if you want
to paint a bit of bamboo is really simple. I just go one line, another line, and another line. Height map. Just using your brush. And that creates like a bamboo stem and you can
do the leaves as well. I'll just do a few
leaves like that. I just do them really simple. Just one streak. You in practice when you're doing
no pain around the piece. Practice with your
brush strokes until you're confident
just to go ahead. Now we're going to do when they sit sometimes with
their little tails. Heads. Tails. Yeah. I like moving the paper, it makes it easier. Don't make things
difficult for yourself. Again, I stopped
with its eyes and then its head and its abdomen. That's the acidic right now. Then its tail. I'm doing this one like it's
got like curl up sometimes. Just really light strokes. You don't have to be two. Detailed. And then thin legs. Too much water on my brush. And Sanofi, hay fever. You can draw the
legs with the with the pencil if you'd
prefer. Drag the paint. The bamboo scale like this. If your paint brushes, you can use the blotting paper
just to block out a bit. If you think you've
gotten a bit OTT was something he can
block it out and then come back in
and add a little bit more. Didn't like his legs. And then I'm going
to do the wings. I haven't got much pink there, so I'm going to grab some
paint from my brush upset. It's not dripping, but
it's full of water. And then I'm gonna do it
swings again so it won't be so translucent these ones
because they're like side view. Trying to do it in
one brush stroke. Then I'm just going
to pick bleach because you don't
need much bubbles. And then I might suggest some
things on the wings detail. And then let's see.
She hasn't dragonfly. Keep practicing these and try or different body shapes
and the brush strokes. And you can see all
the lovely effects we've got from just
using the bleach. And they're very simply done. And they look really
attractive, I think. Joined me in the next lesson, where make more of a picture
with some Bool rashes.
5. Second painting: Okay, now we're masters
at painting dragonflies and we know all about them and what all their
body parts are cold. We can say them correctly. I'm going to show you
how I painted this. We're adding a bit more color in simple rashes and things just to make it attractive painting. Make sure I've got this right. Yeah. I'm going to start off by painting the dragon close
and then I'm going to add, the ball rushes in
after or should I? Bush's first decisions? Decisions now might start by
painting the one up here. Again, you can draw it
out first if you like. It's just personal choice. Whether you feel
confident enough to pay things straight out or you
want to draw it first. Started off as a
dominant abdomen. I'm gonna keep saying that
until I can say it correctly. I don't know why I can't say. When you say something over and over again and
it sounds weird. I keep doing. Suggest
its little legs. A bit more bulbous. Body, tail, bit
uplifting afternoon, It's just like a shrimp I
published in its wings out. I'm going to use the blue here. Sorry, I've, I've
mixed a darker color, blue there because I was doing something
else while waiting for the other colors
to dry. A little bit. I've loaded my brush up and this is the body is still wet. So it's going to all
smudging hopefully, because remember this color blue does not travel as much
as the Black Death. So I'm hoping the black is
going to travel into the blue. We can goes off the page a bit, but I can't do that. Then I'm going to add
a little black dot at the end of each wing because they have a
little textures on. Then I'm going to
add a bit of bleach. And I'm also going to use the skill to draw in
some of the lines. The veins on the wings. You don't have to press
too hard with this. You just need to scratch slightly into the paper
and have an experiment. See what you like best. So
that's the first dragonfly. Now I'm going to attempt
some ball rushes in, it's pit mixed in. I'm going to make, Can
I use the black and the gold together to
make a nice dark brown, green color for the ball
rushes to paint brushes. I just start off with a
little tip like that. And then I just do
this with my brush, really thick down,
press down mist. Mist where the tip was. Don't get in the center. You can correct things. Then a lighter green mix
that we made earlier. Just do. The stem. Has steady my hand is. And then the same again, I'm going to make this
a little bit darker. Let's start off by painting the bowl wash first and
then do the top bit. You see I've painted over the stem because
it was still wet. You won't see it? Because I
can't ever help not doing it. I was putting it
up, be bleaching. Just to get some nice texture
and then you can lump. You don't want a
big blob like that. I'm just going to
add some shadow. It's all still very
wet as I've used quite a wet mix of color there. And it's all great, running
into each other and creating these lovely textures and look how
beautiful that looks, they're stamped and this one. Then I'm going to
add some reeds. Can use the lighter green
mix that we've got here. Again, I'm just using,
doing the same thing, using my brush and then
pressing down and lifting up to create the leaf shape if the
reads and then another one, make sure you load your brush up really well with
the color set. It's like full but not dripping. It tastes a little time to perfect how much paint you need. If I go over this
quite a few times, you should see that stemmed
disappear behind me. And now I'm going to paint
the other dragonfly here. Again, I'm going to use
the same colors as this. You can use all
different colors. You can get black and
yellow dragonflies. And now look at the
Pinterest page. And there's lots of
inspiration on a slight angle. Abdomen. And I can say it now. I might draw its legs in Asda. Going to pick up some of
that lovely blue color, light the brush shapes. I've got nothing on there. And again, touch
the black paint. Press down. Lift up. Need a bit more water. Here. A funny snoring
noise. It's not me. It's my dog. Asleep. Sleep near me. I should have shut
him out. Again. I'm just adding a bit of bleach. And again, I'm going to
use the bumpy scared to draw in some lines. You can see this has dried
really quickly here, so I'm not getting the
lines, but that's okay. I'm just going to add
in some legs for it. It's not going to go over
the top of the legs. Suggest I'm not going to
fiddle anymore with it. I'm just going to leave
it at that and just let it dry and do its thing and **** end up with
some beautiful textures. And hopefully we've painted
two lovely paintings.
6. Bonus painting: I really liked this
play that we did. And I wanted to see what it would look like if I did a dragon fly over the top. So I didn't want to waste
it. I thought I don't know. This looks a bit like
pond water, doesn't it? Apart from this bit here, but
I can make that intellect, lily pad might do that actually. So I'm trying to paint a
dragon fly in the middle here. One flying down towards what
will be a lily pad there. So let's have a go. Again. I'm just going to stop off. I've got my brush loaded
with the black paint. I'm just going to
start off doing eyes. And its head. Dominant abdomen. Set it again. How many times have I
said it in his closet? So don't mind me. Legs. Suggesting
suggesting legs. You can even use this
gear to suggests things. And you can use this gear to if he picks up the
paint on the end, you can use it to
suggest things. I'm going to get black wings because the
backgrounds colorful. So I'm just going to
make a watery mix of sewing couldn't seem
to have the granulation. Sometimes I look at my
palette and look at the colors mixing together
and it looks lovely. I'm just going to do the
same thing. Before it dries. I'm going to add some
bleach to the wings. These two wings
first and then the other ones because
it's so warm here. Everything's drying
really quickly. I'll use a heat map
that his wings and then means that the brushes dry it out at the ends
and definitely want that to look so prominent. And then I'm going to draw
the veins in the scale again. Then I might get a bit
in passing picker and just blocks across
its body a bit just like a highlight
that dragonfly there. And then I was going to
turn this into a lily pad. Then ask, you know, it's
just a thought I had. Just going to paint it into
the shape of a lily pad. Being creative is
abstract expressionism. See that it's a bit but
clearly pedimental. It's like there's a
lily pad this way. I've got some lovely
ladies at the minute. I'm Mike Poland. And you can even draw
any flower for fitting. Experimental. We could do like orange color. We get yellow Lily
didn't have 11 is coming up. Platonists. Blood lump of it. Sort of looks like
a doesn't, it? Doesn't have to be exact. You can. Sometimes it's nice to add a translucent layer
of blue over the top. I suppose some salt in here. Make a really wet wash, like translucent wash over
the top of some of that. Then you can come in with
your bleach and make slight make it to texture. But if you drop in the bleach, you can make like water. The top watery tree EM waves in. The reflection is our
bubbles and things. Chelsea is you're
plotting taker as well. Just have fun experimenting, doing weird things
because this is just a play, play place. But look how effective that is. It looks like a pond and water with your
Dragon flight in it. That was just like an
extra bonus thing that I suddenly thought
I'd look really nice with a dragonfly on it.
7. Conclusion : Hi, I hope you
really enjoyed that. It was fun and simple to do it, and I hope you've
learned a few things to make you a bit more confident
with your watercolor. For your project,
I'd love to see what you created in this class. I'd love to see all
your play pieces and all the lovely effects. And there might be
some textures that you haven't seen before, that I haven't seen before. Everyone paints differently
and everyone creates different ways and
holds the brush differently and creates
all different things. So please post what you've done and what
I love to see you. You will love the dragonflies. Thank you so much for joining me and please look out
for more classes. Bye.
Michelle Kral, ARTIST :)
