Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hey everyone. My name is Irina Trzaskos, an watercolor artist and illustrator. Welcome to my studio to explore the magic of watercolor. In today's class, we will be painting a fairy. Fairies have played a very important role in my Oscar Year, and I hope they will help you. to add some beautiful subjects to yours. Fairies are a beautiful subject to paint, and they are on-demand on children's market. if you are a pattern designer or creating art for a children's market, it's a nice object to have in your portfolio. Also, they're wonderful gifts for those who like fairies, and also you can put them on the invitations for fairy tea party or some greeting cards for little girls or younger girls who fairies. If you are new to this channel, welcome, and thank you for joining. There's a follow button on top, and let's get started.
2. Project and Giveaway: This class is very special to me because my full-time art career started after I painted some Harris and when my husband saw them, he said Harris needs some stories. That's how he wrote, Seven Children Stories and I illustrated them. These are some illustrations from the children's stories, and in today's class, we will be painting this ferry, and because this class is so special to me, this is the newest book we published this spring with all Seven Stories. Fully illustrated by me and written by my husband, Justin Trzaskos. I want to give away three of this beautiful books autographed by me and Justin to three lucky winners between those who will post a project in the project section of a class before July 31st, 2018. The project request is this our ferry or any ferry you like to paint.
3. Colors and Supplies: In today's class we will be using supplies we're using in most of my classes, it's watercolor paint, water colored paper which is cold press, 140 pounds from Canson quite affordable and It's a good paper for beginners, especially. Water paint palette, paper towel, medium round watercolor brush, this is number four, and the small around the watercolor brush this is number two. Also need a pencil and an eraser. If you're going to do a transparency chart of your paints you'll need a waterproof black marker. It can be like this or it can be thicker, just make sure it's black and it's waterproof. Next I want to show you the colors we'll be using today. I'll be using following colors, but you can use any colors you like, especially after you test their transparency. You may take your own decisions and create your own color palette for this illustration or for your own illustration. First color, I'll be using is lemon yellow. Then we'll be using a little bit of cumin orange, not too much. For skin tone. Again, I'll be using red ocher. If you need to derive this skin tone to a darker one, you can add some violet in it. If you need a really pale skin tone just dilute it with a lot of water. As you can see it's darker. Again, if you applied your skin tone and after it dried it's too light, just wait until it totally dries and then add another layer or two layers until you get the right color. Next color we'll be using is magenta, violet. It's a very colorful illustration so I'll be using a lot of colors. Emerald blue, bright blue, teal and likewise from Winsor Newton. The rest of the paint is white knight. I'll leave a link in the supplies list in the project section of a class. Then we will be using for the hair of the fairy we'll be using sepia, which is a beautiful brown, which is matching well with a lot of colors. If fairy is brown haired then, you should use a sepia or any neutral brown. If she is a blonde, you can use Naples yellow or yellow ocher. I won't be using it but I want to show you. If she's a red head you can use again red ocher, just a more brighter tone than for skin tone. If she has black hair, you can use indigo. You can use Payne's gray. Try to avoid using black. Because it looks very flat. But these four colors are very nice for hair or you can do panacea colored hair if you want to. These are all the colors and supplies we'll be using today.
4. Watercolor Transparency: Some basics of watercolor class. I showed you how to read your labels of your watercolor and see if it's transparent, semitransparent, or opaque. Today, I want to show you a practical way how to check if your colors are- how transparent your watercolors are because all watercolors are transparent. It's the property of this medium, but some colors are more transparent and some are less transparent. This is a practical way how to check it, and you'll need a black marker water profile. What you'll do with it, we'll just draw a black line. My marker is not too good, but it has to be like a very dark, black, beautiful line. If you have a bigger, nicer marker than me, then I hope you'll have a better line. After we do that, we have to wait a little bit until the marker dries so it's waterproof. Next, what we'll do, we'll take the color. We will dilute it with a little bit of water, not so much, and we'll paint it over our black line. This is lemon yellow. Let's put some more. Now we have to wait until it dries. Meanwhile, we can test the next color, which is cadmium yellow. Again, we'll take in quite a lot of pigment, not too much water, and then the same thing. Next is Naples yellow. Next is golden orange, cadmium orange, and so on. Try all the colors you have. You may need a bigger paper and draw two lines and [inaudible] all you have something like this or bigger. This has to dry, but after it dries, you'll have this result. When you look at the black line, you can see some colors have this residue, like it's lighter. It makes them black line weigh lighter. You can compare here a lemon yellow has this lightening on the black line and cadmium yellow doesn't. Naples yellow again has it and golden orange doesn't. We can see a residual on some of the colors, so that means they are less transparent than the colors which almost didn't leave any mark on our black marker line. This is a very easy way to check all your paint and see which color is more transparent than others.
5. Drawing a Fairy: Let's start with drawing the fading. To draw a fading we'll need to make first an oval for the head, then we'll have the neck, shoulder. Let's draw a face. It's an eyebrow, nose, mouth, another eyebrow, the eyes. Make the smile here with a mouth. Next I want her to have some flowers on the top of her head. For flowers, we'll draw just the circles. Again, your drawing doesn't have to be as dark as mine. We'll draw some flowers, but we can always add more when I will be painting. Here we'll have the hair and a little bit here. Now it looks like a girl. We can't see this shoulder so we'll have a hand. I'll leave you a template and a project section of the class if you just want to learn how to paint alone or draw. The hands are tricky so we're making them really easy simple shaped. The body, then I'll have a skirt and legs. We'll decide later if she'll have shoes or will be barefoot. Then we'll have the wings. Let's try to make them symmetrical. But a little bit they're not symmetrical. It's okay. Then we'll have lower wings overlapping with upper beings. That's where we'll see how water color transparency works. Let's make it [inaudible] The girl will stretch to make it symmetrical. We'll try. I will leave lines [inaudible] but for you just go over it with an eraser and make them as light as you can so only you can see them. This is the drawing for our fading.
6. Painting the first layer: For the watercolor transparency, it's very important to let the layers dry in between. Now we'll start painting the first layer. But before we start painting the first layer, on everything, I want us to add some light shining through the wings. For it, we'll do spots of water. Some of them are coming outside the wing line a little bit, so just pick blobs of water. Then we'll dry the brush and we'll take a lemon yellow or cadmium yellow, whichever yellow you like the most, and I'll put a little dot, a teeny-tiny dot. It doesn't have to go to the edges. It just has to dilute in this blobs of water. Those will be our fairy lights, and while they are drying, let's paint the face, and the hands, and legs of the fairy with a skin tone. For skin tone we'll be using red ocher. Just like we did in Whimsical Portraits class, it's a nice pigment which makes a really smooth and nice watercolor wash. Again, take it as dark as you need, and if it comes out too light after the first layer dries, you can add another layer, but only after it dries. Mix enough of pigment and water mix so you have enough for entire face. This face is a little bit small, so it's easier than in the whimsical portrait we made. This [inaudible] neck and face, and now let's paint the hands. When the watercolor wash, it's very relaxing to paint. Just make sure your brush has a nice sharp tip. I hope your pencil lines are not as thick as mine, and the legs. Absorb the excess of paint with a dry brush by drying it in the paper towel. Like here, we didn't do it, and you can see there is a little mistake, but it's okay. Next, while these lights are drying, we can't go into the wings, so what we can paint is the dress. For the dress, I'd like to have a lilac color, so mix some magenta with some violet, and we'll get this warmer violet. We'll dilute it with a lot of water, and we can paint the dress. This is the first layer, so we are just putting the main colors in. The dress doesn't have to be as smooth as the skin. You can leave some brush strokes here, it's okay. You see, I didn't mix enough color, so I'll mix some more, and it will probably will make a little different color tone. It's a little darker but it's still okay. Again, I have excess of paint here. I'm drying the brush, and absorbing it. I need some more lilac here. Now we have to let all of this dry to make sure all the lights are dry before we start painting the next layer.
7. Painting Fairy wings: These two wings are totally dry and these are still drying, so we'll start drawing this part. On the wings layer of the fairy will get really creative with our watercolor wash. First, let's paint at the upper wing. We'll start covering it with water, but not all of it just from here to some portion here. Then lets start with magenta. Let's try to make a really beautiful watercolor wash with beautiful color transitions. Next let's take some ultramarine blue. Next let's transition into the teal. We'll be adding more water as we go, like this. We'll end with some yellow. I'm using lemon yellow for this. So assiduous we have this beautiful, multi-colored wing, let's fix some of the spot here. Then adding some lines with some magenta. Later we can add some water lines after it dries. Now, let's try to make this wing as symmetrical as possible to this one. Again, we are covering a part of the wing with a lot of water. Then let's start with magenta. You can see the paint is going only where the water is and it's avoiding with dry areas. So that's why I waited for the first layer to dry, otherwise it would blend with of the hands, and it wouldn't be as pretty. Again we add magenta, then ultramarine blue. Next we'll add some teal. I'm looking, and I'm trying to make the colors to be symmetrical and sometimes it's not easy. Well, most of the times it's not easy, but do your best. Then l wet with more water. Beautiful, beautiful wings. With a lot of colors, may look so magical. We're ending with some lemon yellow, which instantly add some freshness to our wings. Some ultramarine blue in here. Lets add some lines with magenta while it's still wet. Now, I have to wait until the upper wings are dry. Meanwhile, we can work on the flowers and on the hair. For the flowers I was thinking, this circles are not flowers they're just showing where the flowers should go. I probably should take a smaller brush like this. For flowers I was thinking some pennies, my favorites, of course, otherwise this season. Let's make the middle with some lemon yellow, and then we'll take some magenta and just pin some petals. I'm trying not to cover. Let's add some orange, [inaudible] magenta. You know how much I like that combination, magenta, orange. Really gives some a beautiful color. We're painting the flowers first and the hair after because the flowers are on a top of the hair and it'll be hard to paint them after we paint the hair. It would limit us in choosing which shapes on the flowers. So taking some yellow and orange. Some orange here. It almost looks like dandelion. You'll remain down a flower crown with dandelions. We used to make this all the time when we were little, so much fun. Let's put some more dots. Now, I have to wait until flowers dry before we add any leaves because otherwise the green would that into reds and yellows and the flowers will then be so pretty. Meanwhile, I'm taking magenta and painting the lips. Lips of our fairy, is so smiling. To the nose will be aware from red ocher just like the skin we did, the same color. Now, wait until its dry and then it'll be lighter. For the eyes, I'll take some cv. If you didn't have cv, you can mix into their skin tone some violet, and you'll get that brown, which will match perfectly. So the eyes. I'm diluting it with more water for eyebrows. I'll start taking the same mix as for the nose of red ocher and I take one little line under the chin to show where the neck starts, and some little ears. I forgot to fill them before. Once again, we have to wait until flowers dry and the wings dry.
8. Adding details: When the upper wings are totally dry, it could be dried. Totally dried we can pin below the wings, mine are needed to drag just a little bit more, so while they drive that, I could spend some leaves on the flower cloud. I want to make them blue so I'm mixing seal with violet. It gives me a beautiful dark blue. We've the leaves, you can get creative, you can add different flowers, branches, small flowers, different shaped leaves. So like clock round, just details that might feed it part in any painting. Of course you can add different colors on leaves. [inaudible] led some to requires wants to match our wings. Let's take some and leaves me for. Before we start painting the hair, dark hair is saying we can't paint any bright flowers or leaves Okay. This is enough for now, so let them dry and now let's paint the lower wings. So for the lower wings I want to use bribed blue below, just one color. It's a color with a high transparency, being mentored high transparency and find why I want to use it for lower wings. Plus I want to lube it with a lot of water. Then it will give me even more transparency, around hands here. Equals are so tiny. Do you remember that rule up, smaller width details will be there at the paper. If you have a very detailed pins and you should take just a bigger format, they'll be easier to work on details. So you can see that upper wing loading, even they're overlapping, but because of watercolor property transparency, we can say that. I think it's beautiful. So just take your time, don't trash it like me. Just tough lady graph around the arms being some wings. You can choose different colors, of course. Well, now we can now paint the hair and then the legged tie again before it will start aiding and the last details. So from here, I usually use some sapphire. But if you want them to a different hair, you can use naples, yellow or yellow or browns or you can use red ocher and I had to ocher for her and had hair. I'm going to use a payne's gray for black hair. Try not to use black, payne's gray is better. If you don't have payne's gray, you can make some some ultramarine blue with an adult, almost black, which will work put on black hair. The datum hair creates a beautiful contrast here. You can use some highlights. Let's add some highlights, we've some light olga and what the sun is shining. But in talking to here, is one of the most difficult things to feed an idealistic paintings, but in the illustration and could always tell ice H_2O, solid shapes. We don't have to show the entire texture on the hair. It's easier to put illustrators who are home, deadly stick artists. Now we have the main color of the hair. We have the wings, and once again, we have to let it dry. In this class you will probably be drinking a lot of tea in between the layers. It's beautiful, by the next detail we'll be editing some details on Adobe even more beautiful.
9. Final details: We got to my favorite part, when we'll start adding the last details. I want to make another layer of the skirt. We'll start by adding a belt on our dress. Next, we'll mix some more of that lilac we had for the dress, or you can try to experiment with a different color too, and see how they overlap. What I'll do, I'll just add, like a petal, another layer of the skirt. Once again, because of the watercolor transparency, and because the belt is not dry yet, you can see this watercolor magic effect, where you can see all the layers and the same thing on another side. Here, you can see how beautifully it overlapped with our wing, and you can see the layer. I want to make it not too perfect on the end, so it will look like flower petals. Like this. Now we'll let them dry and maybe wet some more layers. We'll see how it looks. While our skirt is drying, add a little more here. I want to fill this gap with some blue, because it will look a little weird, and this white just with some wet brush. While our skirt is drying, let's add some more details on the dress and onto the wings. Let's take a smaller brush, that's a magenta, mix it in this violet, add some water. Let's add some water violet. I have a [inaudible] lilac or purple. Let's add some details here. Here, we can see them because of the hair. Then let's add some dots. At this point, you can just play and whatever details you want. Next I want to make some blue and turquoise lines on the wings. Very watery. You can see how instantly the view of the wing is changing because of the texture we are adding to it, and the same thing here. It's bright blue or some turquoise. On the lower wings, I want to do the same thing, but with a lemon yellow. You can see the difference. Lemon yellow is not as transparent as some bright blue. You can see how it's covering more of this purple than bright blue too. Here you can see how light would shine from the very first layer. Nice. Again, we can add some more lights with lemon yellow on the upper wings, like this. Of course you can use white ink, whitewash, which is always adding some more magic to your painting. I don't want to use it in this class, because it's some just about watercolor and the watercolor properties, but you can for your project. This is fairly dry. Let's wait a few more minutes, and meanwhile, add some more texture to our hair, or to fairy's hair. Again, we'll take some sip here, very watery, and just add few lines, few brush strokes here and there. [inaudible] shape a little bit. A little wild. You can see how hair can instantly change a character. The dress is pretty dry. I would like it to be drier but, don't want the class to take forever, so let's add some details here, then we'll add some more on the bottom of the dress too. Let's take some magenta with a lot of water, really watery, and I'll add another layer of skirt. For the bottom part, let's take some more blue, and again, with a lot of water and we'll add some more detail like little leaves. Just teeny tiny loops, or maybe another row. Now we get to leave white space between the loops, that will make it look like leaves. The shoes of course, let's make them teal, my favorite. Just like this, and little pose. This is our magical fairy.
10. Last Thoughts: Thank you for watching this class. I hope you've had a chance to be paint with me and now you have your own beautiful painting. If you like the class please leave a review on the uploaded project on the project section of the class. If you are sharing your projects on Instagram, please tag me. So I can see your artwork and I'll see you in my next class. Bye.
Irina Trzaskos, Watercolor Artist & Illustrator
