Painting a Creative Alphabet in Watercolor | Irina Trzaskos | Skillshare
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Painting a Creative Alphabet in Watercolor

teacher avatar Irina Trzaskos, Watercolor Artist & Illustrator

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:05

    • 2.

      Supplies

      2:17

    • 3.

      Colors

      3:04

    • 4.

      Alphabet with Branches and Leaves

      12:33

    • 5.

      Floral Alphabet

      26:23

    • 6.

      Geometric Alphabet

      15:39

    • 7.

      Abstract Brushstroke Alphabet

      14:40

    • 8.

      Last Thoughts

      0:18

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About This Class

Welcome to "Painting a Creative Alphabet in Watercolor" class.

Alphabets and typography are very popular subjects in the design world.

Creative alphabets will be a great addition to your portfolio.

In this class we will be painting 4 different alphabets in watercolor: 

  • Alphabet with Branches and Leaves
  • Floral Alphabet
  • Geometrical Alphabet
  • Abstract Brushstroke Alphabet

I hope you will have a chance to paint with me. I can't wait to see your beautiful alphabets.

Happy learning!

x Irina.

Meet Your Teacher

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Irina Trzaskos

Watercolor Artist & Illustrator

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Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Introduction: Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth Traska, I'm an artist and illustrator. Welcome to my new class, painting a creative alphabet in watercolor. In today's class, we'll be painting alphabets in different styles. Alphabets are a very popular topic in illustration world and they'll make a great addition to your portfolio. I love teaching online and offline. Thank you, everyone who enrolled in my classes, you inspire me so much. In the next video, I'll show you the supplies we'll be using in this class. Let's get started. 2. Supplies: In today's class, we'll be using the following supplies. Watercolor paper, watercolor paint. If you have the colors you like and tubes, it's better to use for this class painting tubes. I have only two glasses and tubes, so I'll be using ball tips and pens for my project. Also we'll need a paper towel, an eraser, pencil, watercolor palette, water and two glasses. We'll need a medium round brush and a small round brush. As usual, I'll be using Kolinsky sable, number four and number two. Also near the Flynn brush, I'll be using a small synthetic Flynn brush. If you're making bigger letters than me, you can use a bigger Flynn brush. We'll need a white pen and a black one, whichever one you like. You also can use white gouache. We will need the printed alphabet and one font and just a regular font. This is Georgia from Word. Another font should be bold. These files will be attached in the project section of the course. If you don't feel like committing to the entire alphabet, you can print just one letter and make a monogram. I'll say you can print just one word or a phrase you like. We'll have to transfer the alphabet onto watercolor paper. For transferring I'll be using light box. But you can also use tracing paper or just bright window like we did in painting colorful sellers in watercolor class. That's it. In the next video we'll talk about the colors we'll be using in this class. 3. Colors: In this class, I'll be using only four colors. I suggest you to pick at a limited color palette for your alphabet project. Always test your colors before you start such a complex project as an alphabet. So, the colors we'll be using today are, bright blue, it's a warm shade of blue, turquoise, golden-orange. If you want to use the same colors I do, but you don't have this color in your palette, you can easily mix cadmium-yellow with cadmium-orange, and you'll have this color, this golden-orange. Carmen red, instead of the only colors we'll be using today, you can pick your own color palette. Make sure your color palette works well with all art-work you have, so you can add the alphabets to your portfolio. 4. Alphabet with Branches and Leaves: First alphabet that we'll be painting was inspired by branches and leaves. I want to repeat one more time. Depending on the colors we are choosing for our alphabet, it'll change the character of alphabet. Like here we can see a rusty four colors [inaudible] and here I used green and red and alphabet instantly looks like a Christmas inspired one. First thing we'd have to do is to transfer our alphabet at angular font, not the bold one on watercolor paper with a regular pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect but it's important to be in perfect lines. Next what we are doing, we are only painting branches along the lines of the letters and we'll be painting leaves inside of the outlines of the letters. It's okay if the leaves will come out a little bit from outlines, is totally fine. I've painted first branch and [inaudible] and now I'll add some bright blue inside while it's still wet. Add again some bright blue. You're can give as much or as little distance between the leaves as you like. That's enough for now. Now I'll go to the next letter. The same thing. You can choose any shape of leaves you like. I'm interested in a regular shape for my leaves and one more. You don't have to make the line all the time, you can just start with leaves and paint leaves first and then put some dots or a line in between. Add a little bright blue here and there. Make sure your paper towel is always next to you. This is the first step in our branch and leaves alphabet is still at the end. Branches and leaves [inaudible] and outlines. We have to do it for all the letters. After you've painted all the branches and leaves on your alphabet, it's important to let it dry. After all branches and leaves are totally dry, it's time to remove the pencil marks. After we remove all our pencil marks, we can leave our alphabet as it is because it's already beautiful or we can add a few more little details. We can add little berries, I'm taking color red for it. We can add them in between the leaves just like little dots or we can add a little branch with berries, let's say here and here, or we can even add a branch which is coming outside the letter like this. This is our alphabet inspired by branches and leaves. 5. Floral Alphabet: Now let's paint a floral alphabet. To do that, we need to transfer our [inaudible] watercolor paper and after that we'll decide where our flower will be situated on the letters. For that, I'll be just putting a circle where I would like to have a flower on the ledger and make sure your circle is not coming out too much from the boundaries of the letters, but it can come out a little bit. Let's put, following our intuition, small circles wherever we want. Put three circles on each letter, they can be of different sizes too. It doesn't have to be a floral alphabet, you can paint lemons or oranges, or even any vegetables you want. But in this lesson we'll be painting flowers. Just ran down, don't overthink it. At this stage, our alphabet will be looking like this. After we decided where our flowers will be situated on the letters, we have to paint a little flower in every circle. For my flowers, I'll be using golden orange for middle and carmine red, diluted with a lot of water for the petals. You can paint any flowers you like. Here, I'm putting a few dots for the middle of the flower and then I'm painting those petals around it. You can paint flowers in your own style. Painting entire alphabet requires a lot of patience and perseverance. This way, we have to paint all the flowers on our letters. It's important to paint your flowers and all the letters at the same time so your alphabet will look consistent. After we've painted all the followers and our letters, our alphabet will like this. Before we start next step It's important to let it dry. When our gloves are totally dry we'll be painting the leaves and branches inside the letters, letting in some white spaces between them. For my leaves and branches I'll be using bright blue. It's a similar tower branch and leaf alphabet, this step, but the difference is we can just paint some leaves which are not attached to the branches. It could be smaller and some could be bigger. Just makes it more interesting. Then this way we'll fill the space inside the letters on entire alphabet. In this way, we'll not fill all the letters with branches and leaves. This always before we start next step, we have to let it dry. After our leaves at are dry, we have to fill the spaces in between the leaves inside the letters with some little tiny leaves or dots. For a these I'll use two glasses. Just random brush strokes. Then we'll do the same for every letter. After we filled all the spaces between the leaves with tiny stroke leaves and dots and let it to totally dry, we can remove the pencil lines. After we removed the pencil lines, let's look carefully at our letters and if we think something is missing somewhere like here in the E, I'd add another tiny leaf to complete the shape. Then, now it's time to add those tiny details which are missing like this. I would love to add some detail here in the corner. The shape of the letter will be more clear. Okay. I think other letters are pretty good. Now we go to my favorite part, will add details to our floral alphabet. What we can do is add some dark dots in the flowers and little branches sticking out would add more interests too, like these or even little leaves or branches with leaves. Also it contains some flower buds coming out or seed pods or even butterflies. You don't have to do it to every flower but it's nice to add it here and there. It adds more interest. Anything if you like and whatever speaks to your style, can be all kinds of branches and leaves. Just make sure it doesn't totally change the shape of the letter. After we added dark details, I like also to add white details with my white pen. You can also use white brush for this. In the middle of a flower, I'll add some white dots. Also, I can add some white dots on the leaves, just a tiny bit. We do this for the entire alphabet. After we edit all the details on the flowers, our floral alphabet is ready. If you don't feel like committing to entire alphabet, you can just make a monogram. The next video, we'll be painting a geometrical alphabet. 6. Geometric Alphabet: Next alphabet we'll be painting is a geometric alphabet. For this alphabet, we need to transfer our bold font onto watercolor paper. What we'll do next, we'll take one color. It's a bright blue for me. You can choose any color from your color scheme you picked. What we'll do will be just painting random triangles inside of our letters. Again, don't overthink it, just randomly situated wherever you want. If you don't want to do triangles, you want to do any other shapes, geometrical shapes, you can try them, too. Circles or rectangles, whatever speaks to you. I'm doing my triangle approximately the same size, but it's up to you. You can make them smaller or bigger or different sizes, until that is optional. Don't take it at random, just follow your gut and try not to overthink it. We'll do this for all the letters. After the first step, our alphabet will be looking like this. Now, we have to let it dry. When our first layer is totally dry, we'll be doing the same thing we did at first step, but with a different color. I'll take some turquoise. We'll be drawing again random triangles on our letters. Some of the triangles will be touching the blue triangles we painted before, and some wont, like this one. You can do the same thing with rectangles, squares, or circles, half circles, any geometrical shapes you want. The same way we'll do all the letters. After the step our alphabet will be looking like this and again, we have to let it dry. Next what we'll do will be edging with third and last color. I think the contrasting golden orange. Well the first color will be coloring all the whitespaces which are left on our letters. Some of them are not triangle and it's still the low-key. Because I picked a contrasting color, this step requires patience and precision. We'll repeat this step on all the letters. After this step, our alphabet will look like this. Again, we have to let it dry. After an alphabet is totally dry, I remove the bends and lines with eraser and now we can add the last details with white pen at the edging with dots along the borders of the letters. The same thing inside. These little details will make our alphabet more interesting and cheerful. We'll repeat this for all the letters of our alphabet. After we added white dots along the borders of the letters our geometrical alphabet is ready. 7. Abstract Brushstroke Alphabet: The last alphabet we'll be painting is an abstract brushstroke alphabet. This style is so playful and fun and ideally easy. I think even children could do this. I'll be using a flat synthetic brush, a small one. We'll need, again, to transfer all our bold font alphabet on the watercolor paper. What we'll do is just one color you like. With the flat brush, I'll be putting random strokes within the borders of the letters any way I like. Just follow your intuition and don't overthink it, and have fun. There are no rules, just any way you like. It's just important to try to have it inside letter, but if you miss it a little bit, it's totally fine. Just anywhere you feel like it, and the direction is also optional, however you want. Now, let's let it totally dry. While our first layer is drying, on a separate sheet of paper, try which brush marks your brushes can do and you can use a contrasting color. Let's say my medium brush can do just regular brush marks like these. This simple dot. It's a little too big for our letters, so let's try it with a small brush. This, I think, is better. A flat brush, we can do just something like this or little lines. Also, a round brush, we can do waves or something like this or like this. Anything that brings you joy. Now, let's try to add some brush strokes to our letters. Just adding brush strokes just inside the boundaries of the letters. I'll be using a bright blue for it because I don't want to go too constrasty, but you can use any color you like. You can use a contrast color or a bright color, anything you like. Let's just add some brush strokes in the boundaries of our letters. Some color this paint today, we don't have to. Maybe some dots. That looks dark now but when they'll dry they will be way lighter. Let's do some more lines I'm just pressing the brush on paper, add some dots, or you can just go with one kind of brush stroke on entire letters like this. Again some lines, some dots, just have fun with it. Don't do it random, don't overthink it and the same way entire alphabet. After we painted our brushstrokes on all the letters I want to outline the contour with a contrasting color. What I'll do I'll just take golden orange. You can do the same with the color you used on the letters, or you can go with contrasting color too. I'll put down a little dots of color just along the outlines of the letters, this will help to make the shape of the letter more clear. Before we do this it's important to let our letters to dot and then dry. Here we have some paint which came out of our borders and we'll just go over it with same dots, they'll just make it more interesting. My dots are not on the outline they are just close enough but step outside the letter and the same way inside. We will do the same thing for all of the letters. Again, it's important to let it dry. After our outline dots are totally dry, we can erase our pencil lines and our abstract alphabet is ready. 8. Last Thoughts: Thank you for watching my class. I hope it was useful and interesting. Please upload your projects to our project section of the class. I can't wait to see your beautiful letters.