Painting Fur - Mastering the Wet on Wet Technique

1. Introduction: I spent almost a decade using watercolor, and it never fails to surprise me. It's such an appealing medium to use, because of its brilliance, and its transparency, and the more I use it, the more I am drawn to its intrinsic beauty. I'm Louise De Masi, I'm a professional artist and teacher, and today I'm going to show you how to paint this gorgeous koala in watercolor. In my opinion, watercolor is the most exciting medium to use. It is certainly the most magical medium. It brings me so much joy, and I'll never tire of trying to master it. The aim of this class is to help you gain confidence when you paint wet-on-wet, because the wet-on-wet approach is the best way to utilize the potential of this dynamic medium. I'll take you step by step through my entire painting process. You'll see how I set up my palette, and how I paint those important first washes. Those first washes are the most important, because that is where the freshness and the strength of the painting lies. The most direct way to achieve that freshness, is to work wet-on-wet. Being aware of how much water you have on your paper, how much water you have on your brush, and how much water you have in your paint, is really important. My aim at the end of this class is for you to have a better understanding of paint and water ratios. I'll demonstrate the different levels of wetness of the paper, and how the paint reacts differently on each stage. We'll blend the colors on the paper, and with minimal effort, I'll show you how you can create texture in your painting, with nothing other than your brush. This is predominantly a cool painting, but you'll see how I add a touch of warmth to balance out the temperature. We'll start simple, and then we'll build up the details with minimal fuss. You'll have access to the line drawing of the koala, some progress photos of my painting, and my final painting. I'll also provide you with my reference photo so you can begin to understand that you don't need to include everything you see in your painting. I'll give you lots of fundamental skills that you can practice, in order to complete this beautiful painting. Let's get started. 2. Paper Wetness: Hi everyone, welcome to my Koala class. This koala is not all that difficult to paint, and it shouldn't take you too long to complete it or popping from time to time to let you know anything that you need to know. In this video, I want to show you the different stage of paper witness, and I'll show you how wet my paper will be for most of these painting. I'll also show you briefly how I create the texture on the fur with the brush. Painting in watercolor is all about the timing, knowing when to put the pigment onto the paper, and knowing what consistency that pigment should be, is really important. It takes a lot of practice to understand this. You know that there's wet paper and dry paper. But if you've painted with watercolor, then you'll know that there's a lot more to it than that. There is 4 stages: wet paper, dry paper, dead paper and almost dry paper. Let's have a closer look at the 4 stages and the stage that I'll be using almost all the way through this painting. Let's have a look at this water and painting some water on a piece of ash rough paper here. Now I'll show you the water on the paper and you can see how wet that is, this puddles, I could really go for swimming there. You can see it's just floating on top of the surface, that's really wet paper. I don't very often paint with the paper like this or do some times but not often. So when I put the paint on the paper, when it's this wet, it just swims everywhere,it just goes all over the place. You can pick your paper up and you can move it around. So I might use paper this wet when I'm painting a background or something like that. Sometimes my paper may be quite wet like this, if I'm painting an initial wash on something, but it's usually not quite this wet because that's got a lot of movement in it and you can see that the water is floating on the surface. The paper here is too wet for this koala painting, so if I say I'm painting on with paper, it's not this wet. I'll just wet another Section of this paper so you can see how wet the paper will be when I paint the koala. When I put the water on the paper, I use my brush to blend it out just to smooth all those puddles away. You'll see me using this brush here when I put the water on the koala. So when I paint the koala, this is what I will do or spread the water out so that there's no puddles sitting anywhere. Here you can see the water that I've just painted on the paper. You can see it's smoother, it's soaked into the paper a little bit. There's no great domes of water sitting on top of the paper. There is a sheen on the surface, so it's still wet, but it's fairly smooth, unlike this puddle here, and you can see how that water is raised up. There's too much water for this particular painting, that's the two wit puddle. But here, that's how my paper will look when I paint the koala, evenly covered with a sheen on the surface. When I put my paint on the paper, it will still move, but it won't move as far as it did on that puddle on the left. I can scribble with my brush, and create little patterns. This is how I'm going to create the fur. I'll be using the tip of the brush and I'll dot it on the surface of the paper is to release the paint. Now what I don't want to do is create perfectly spaced, evenly shaped dots. I'm not looking for this when I paint, that's too perfect. What I want is just random little spots of paint like this. Sometimes I might push the paint, swirl it around a little bit with the brush, but the main thing is I'm trying to create texture and I'm also trying to leave some white-paper showing. That's what I'll be looking for when I paint my koala rather than these little dots over here that are too perfect. The other thing to watch is that your brush isn't sopping wet with paint and water, because if it is and you put that brush on this damp surface, the paint will just explode everywhere like it did on the wet puddle to the left. Here my brushes just to wet and you can see that that paint is spread too far. So what I like to do if I think I've got too much paint or too much water on my brush before I touch my paper, I put on a cloth or just damp it gently like that just to get rid of the excess and then paint. I don't do that all the time, but sometimes I just know that I've got too much water on there, so that's when our damp it so that I don't get that happening. Most of these painting will be painted on paper that's this wetness, so I'll call this damp paper. You can also paint on paper that's almost dry. I'll wet another Section and then I'll let it sit there for a little while just so that I can show you what the differences is. I've let that paper sit for a little while and you can see that it's still damp, but the sheen is starting to go away from the surface, it's starting to dry. When you put the paint on this surface, the paint moves ever so slowly, you get fuzzy edges on your paint lines. The paint doesn't move as much as it does on those other 2 examples that I showed you. So you do get a small amount of movement, but it's basically just creating those fuzzy edges on your paint lines. This is the dangerous time to paint when the papers like this, because if you start to put more water on there, then you start to create watercolor blooms and all sorts of things will happen. If I take a really wet brush again with lots of paint and water on it and I drop it onto these damp paper, it moves to not quite as much as those other 2 patches of paper, but you can see there is movement there. So you don't need to worry about this stage of dampness for this particular painting because I might be painting on paper that's like this. Nearly all of the painting that I do for this koala painting will be on paper that's as damp as this. The other way that we can paint on watercolor paper is when the paper is completely dry, and then the paint doesn't move at all, it just sits wherever your paintbrush went, so some areas of this painting will be painted on dry paper. 3. Supplies: Just want to give you a quick look at the supplies that I used to paint the koala. These are the brushes that I used. This large one here is a Da Vinci Maestro. This is a Series 35 and it's a number 8. I like to use these Maestro brushes because they have beautiful fine points. This one here is also a Da Vinci Maestro. This one's a Series 35 as well and it's a number 5 so it's a bit smaller than that number 8. I've got a little tiny one here, which is a double zero so that's a Da Vinci Maestro Series 35 as well. This one here is a silver scrubber brush. This is a half-inch Filbert brush. I use this one to remove some paint to create highlights. The bristles on this brush are really stiff so just a word of warning, if you're going to use this brush to make sure you're using good quality paper because it will tear your paper. I used Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper to paint the koala on. This is Cold Press paper. It's size A3, so it's 11.7 inches by 16.5 inches. You can use Hot Press paper if you'd rather. As I said, this is Cold Press, so it has a bit of texture on the surface. I used Saral transfer paper to put my drawing onto my watercolor paper. This is just a transfer paper that's works free. It comes on a roll and I just cut a piece off just to fit the size of the drawing that I'm doing. These are the colors that I'll be using. These are Winsor & Newton paints. That one there is French Ultramarine. This one is Winsor Violet, Burnt Sienna, and some Payne's Gray. They are the four Winsor and Newton colors. This is Buff Titanium by Daniel Smith. I also use some Winsor & Newton White ink. If you don't have this, you could use some White Gouache instead. I use a little ceramic palette to put my paint on. I talked about this palette in the palette setup video. I used an eraser just to reduce my pencil lines. This is just an ordinary STAEDTLER Mars plastic eraser. This is a Gator Board. This is where I retouch my watercolor paper to after I've stretched it. It's just a foam core board, so it's fairly soft. I don't actually show you how to stretch the paper in this video, but I do have a free video that you can watch where I show you my entire process of stretching watercolor paper. This board is fairly thick. You can get it in different thicknesses, but this is the thickness that I have. It's about half an inch or so thick. I use a cloth to wet my brush on and I've got a fairly large water container. I also use a hairdryer and a water spray bottle to wet my paints. 4. Preparation: As I showed you in the supplies video, this is the paper that I'll be using. This is the Fabriano Artistico paper. As I mentioned in the supplies video, the size is A3. So it's 11.7 by 16.5 centimeters. I've stretched my watercolor paper and I've attached it to a board. Now this gummed tape has started to lift, so I had to put some staples in. To make sure that the paper stays flat when I paint on it, I'm just going to put some tape around the edges and that will just make it more secure. I'm not going to go into how to stretch watercolor paper in this tutorial, I do have a video that explains my process already. I'll just put the last piece in here, and that will just make sure that my paper stays flat while I paint on it. I'll be painting fairly wet, so I like it to stay flat so that I don't get those hills and valleys forming in the paper while I'm painting. This is how I've got my painting area setup. I'm right handed, so I keep my palette and my towel and my water to the right of me. I've got a box of tissues there ready, if I need them. I've got my reference photo ready on my iPad as well. Now to get my drawing onto my paper I used Saral transfer paper. This is a fine art transfer paper that's wax free. It just comes on a roll and I cut a piece off to the size that I need. I just put my drawing over the top of it and trace it on. Once I've got the main lines of the koala drawn on there, I just come back with my pencil and just add some more detail if I need to make any changes that need to be made, and then I'm just drawing anything that I left off. I've also done a small study of the koala painting in my visual diary. This is a Winsor & Newton visual diary that has some watercolor paper in it. I did this quick painting the other day and that just helped me to work out the colors that I was going to use, and also the techniques that I'd use to create the fur. Doing this little study has given me the confidence to start this larger painting. 5. Palette Set Up: In this video, I'm going to show you how I set up my palette and how I put the paint at the highest point of the well. I'll mix up a gray with two colors, and I'll use that gray for most of the painting. Some people have asked me what you do when you run out of paint and you mix the color again and the color is different to the first color that you mixed. For this painting it doesn't matter. If you run out of gray paint, just mix up some more. If it's a slightly different color to what you started with, so be it. There are so many different grays on this koala that it really wouldn't matter. Mix up enough paint to get the initial wash all over the koala, and then when you run out of it and you have to mix small, it won't matter if it's not exactly the same. Watch this video and then we'll get painting. This is a little palette that I like to use. It's a ceramic palette. The reason i like to use this one is because it's got sloping wells. You can see inside there that those wells are sloping and it's got a deep section in each one. I'll show you why I like those sloping wells in a moment. But first I'll show you how I put my paint on the palette. So I've got two colors here, one is French ultramarine, and the other one is burnt sienna. I use both of these colors to mix up a gray and this gray will form the main color of the koala. So because I'll be mixing them together I'm going to put them into this same well. So I put the paint on the highest point of the well. I don't put the paint right down the bottom of the well in the deepest section. The reason I put it up here is, so that the paint isn't sitting in the water. So I'm just going to put the burnt sienna into this same well, because I'll be mixing them together. I'm also going to be needing some burnt sienna just on its own. So I'll put a little squirt of it over here just on its own. Now, for some Winsor violet, this is a color that I like to mix with the gray. So I put the gray on the paper and then I drop some of the Winsor violet in to it just to add interest to the painting. So you'll see me do that throughout this painting. This next color is Payne's gray. So all of these colors so far have been Winsor & Newton colors. Now I have a Daniel Smith color here, this one's called buff titanium. This is a creamy color. Would I use a lot of this in the painting? There are a few areas where we I put it. So now we just give them a quick square of water, and this is one of the brushes I will be using this is a da Vinci Maestro this is a number 8, is a series 35. So I'm just going to mix the burnt sienna with the French ultramarine here just to make my gray paint that I like to use, and this will be the main color of the koala. I tend to favor the blue, I prefer a cooler gray. So I tend to put more of the French ultramarine into the mix. I'll just check this mix on a piece of scrap paper before I start just to make sure it's close to what I want. So that's fairly blue. So I think I probably need more of the burnt sienna mixed into it. You can buy a color called James Grey by Daniel Smith, which is a mixture of these two colors. So if you don't want to mix your paint, you can buy just some James Grey and get a similar color. So I think that's better now with that burnt sienna in there. Now I just want to show you why I like this palette with the sloping wells. As I said, I put the paint on the highest point of the well, which allows the water to float down to the bottom there. So then I have a choice of using the watery paint that's at the bottom of the well. So we use that when I want to pile color. But if I wanted darker color, I can wipe my brush over the pigment that's up the top, and I can get so much darker pigment then. So I usually use paint at the top on damp paper. So that gives me that really dark pigment, or the dark color. So sometimes I'll have a wash already laid down in the lighter color but when I want to add some darker areas, I'll just pick the paint top up here, and then I can get the darkest section in the wash. So as I paint the koala I'll tell you when I'm using the watery pigment or when I'm using that darker pigment from the top of the palette there. 6. Washing in the Head: This is the fun part. Now we're going to start painting. The main thing to remember here is to keep your colors fairly pale. I find a lot of people who are new to painting and watercolor tend to put the color on too dark, right at the start. Then that leaves some nowhere to go. Just watch that, just keep your colors pale. The first wash is important. You want to keep it light and fresh and you want to try and leave some of that white paper showing if you can. Have fun. Just getting some water on my brush. It's time to start painting. I'm going to start with this ear here. I'm just wetting it with water I'm taking the water past the edge of the ear here. I'm taking it out into the head itself. Just so I don't get a hard painting on forming here. If I was to stop the water right across here and my paint went there, then I get a hard line forming in the paint. I don't want that I want soft edges. I've got water all over the ear now. I will show you the water on the paper just so you can see how much is on there. Here it is here. It's evenly covered. You can see there's a sheen on the surface. I don't have puddles of paint sitting anywhere. I've taken that water pass that line there. I used my largest divinity brush to put the water on. Now I'm going to use this number 5 brush to put the paint on just to give me a bit more control. I will use the gray that I mixed up. So that with the French Ultramarine mixed with the burnt Sienna. Because I've already got water on the paper, I just dab off the excess painting water on the cloth. Then I just start painting. I want nice soft edges. I want to leave some white paper showing as well. I don't want to completely cover this with gray paint. I just get some more paint. Just take off the excess again. Sometimes I take off too much paint and then I find I have to reload pretty quickly. I just typed that excess paint off because I don't want to flood with paint. I want to try as I said, and leave some white paper showing. I'm flicking the paint with my brush. Every now and then I'll take some of that paint off the outside edge onto the dry paper. Sometimes I'll just use the tip of the brush and I will dot the brush against the surface and that just releases a little bit of paint. You can see I've left some white paper showing in that ear. Now I want some Windsor of violet. Just wash the paint out and pick up some of the watery Windsor of violet. My paint to slipping down the pellet Hayes, I'm just pushing it back up with my brush. I want watery Windsor of violet not the dark pigment. I'm just getting that dark pigment off my brush. Just mixing a bit more up there. I am going to dab these onto the gray areas. I just want the violet just to blend with the gray and create some interests. I don't want it to completely take over. I'm just dabbing it gently onto those gray areas. I am putting it on the gray areas because I don't want to lose my white paper. Now I'm just going to switch to my bigger brush again. I'm going to continue on with the water. I use these bigger brush because it put the water on quicker than that smaller brush. I can keep going with the water and now I take it further over the head. If I had with this area earlier, it would have dried by now. That's why I took the water out past the ear just so that I could join it up here. If I had stopped it where the ear this. I might end up with a hard paint line there and I don't want that. I'm just taking down to the nose over the eye. I won't paint water on that other ear yet because it'll dry before I get to it. I was thinking of just stopping the water above the eye but I will take it over the top of it. I have stopped the water at the edge of this other ear. Because if you have a look at my finished painting, there is a hard edge there so on the ear on the right, there's no paint age at all. On the ear, on the left is a hard paint age there. That's sufficiently covered with water now all over there. I'm just going to use the same brush and pick up some of the gray paint. Now that brush is heavily loaded with paint. Because I've got water on my paper, I just want to take off the excess. I just gently dab it on the cloth just to get rid of some of that paint. Then I just start dabbing it onto the wet surface. Here again, same thing I want to leave some white paper showing. I don't want to completely cover the paper with gray paint. I've just painted in the top of the head there. I'm sorry, the camera wasn't far enough over. Now I'm just dabbling with my brush. I'm just dotting that onto the surface to create the texture that I see on the far. I'll just pick up some more of the gray paint. Take off the excess again. Then I keep dotting with my brush, just using the tip of it to try and create that texture. As I said, I want to leave some white paper showing. The one thing you want to watch is that you don't have dots of paint everywhere. You don't want to go dot, dot, dot and just have all these little circles all over the head. I'm just trying to create texture with my brush without having a patent start forming. We can just take the paint down beside the nose there. Our paper is starting to dry again a little. I'm just trying to paint as quickly as I can. I will just show you the top of the head here that's out of the camera frame. There you can see that I've left the white paper showing. I'm creating a random textured effect without having a pattern forming. Now what I want to do before that dries is use some of the buff titanium. I am just going to wash that gray out of my brush and pick up some of these buff titanium color. Use it watery. I am just going to dab that here and there just on the gray areas. Need to be more. Again, I'm trying to avoid the white parts. Wash that out and now I want some Windsor violet. Just watery. I don't want it to be too dark. I just dab that on as well. Again, I am trying to put that on the gray areas rather than the white areas of paper. I'll put them on the white parts of the paper. Then I'll lose them. Now I need to paint that other ear. I've got to put some water on there. I will just paint it on like I did on the other ear. Try not to flood the area that are just painted with water. Take the water out of my brush and just sop some of it back up. Just so that it's not too wet. I don't want the paint to float on top of the water I want it to sink into the paper. Now I get more of the gray. Take off the excess again. I've switched onto my smaller brush. This is a smaller area. I want to try and take some of those flicks off the edge onto the dry paper. I just flick that paint off onto the dry paper there. Again, I want to try and leave white paper showing. I've left some white paper showing there. Wash that out of my brush, pick up some of the watery violet and then drop that onto the gray. Little bit more. Then I can just move it around. That's the head and the ears washed in. 7. Washing in the Arms: Okay, so now it's time to do the same thing to the arms. Just using my larger brush, this is the number eight DaMaestro, just to paint some water, just like I did before. I want good even coverage, and I want the paper to be nice and wet. I don't want the water floating around on top of the paper, but I do want a shade on the surface. By the time I'm finished painting the water on this arm, then the paper should be ready straight away for me to put the paint on. I just smear the water up, and make sure there's no puddles lying anywhere. It's just evenly covered. I'm only putting the water on this arm, I'm not putting it anywhere else. Now I'm just going to use this small DaMaestro, this is the number five. I'll pick up some of the gray paint. This is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna. Take off the excess, and then on it goes onto the wet paper. We'll start up here with the ears, just so that I can get in the edge of that ear. I want to do the same thing that I did on the head. I just want to leave some white paper showing. I'm trying to create that texture with my brush. I'm just dotting the tip of the brush and I'm scribbling with it, basically. Let's pick up some more paint. Then I dot it around and just scribble with my brush. I'm just getting some more paint. Some people worry that the color isn't the same as when they first started, and sometimes it's a different color when they pick it up. But don't worry about that. That's okay for this painting, we're just painting fur, and there's lots of different grays on this fur. If it's a slightly different color each time you pick it up, so be it. I'm just getting in the edge of the arm there. You can see that I've left white paper showing. Now while that's wet, I want to drop in some Winsor violet again, so just a watery Winsor violet, make sure it's not too dark. That can just go on the gray areas. Just wherever you want to put it. As I said, I try to avoid the white areas because I don't want to lose them. That color will soften out when it's dry. Never dries quite as dark as there. Just spreading that paint out there. That has dried. Now I can paint these other arm over here. I dried it with my hairdryer because I didn't want to disturb it when I painted this one. I'm just going to do the same thing with this one, I'll paint it with water first. I've just noticed that I've missed a bit of the hair up in here. But I'll paint that on later. A little section in there. Get nice even coverage over the top of that arm. Then when it's nicely covered, there's still a shade on the surface, pick up the gray paint and dab the white again. Just get the edge of the arm in, that touches the face and then you can just start dabbing. Leave the white paper showing. If you put your paint brush on the paper and your paint just goes everywhere, you've got too much water. You've either got too much water on your paper or you've got too much water on your brush. Or you might have too much water in your paint mix. You need to adjust that. You want the paint to move on the paper, but you don't want it to just flow everywhere. Before that gray paint dries, just do the same again, just drop some Winsor violet here and there on the gray parts. 8. Washing in the Side: Now that the arms are dark, I can just paint this little section on the side. I'm just going to do exactly what I did on the arms and on the head. I'm just using my larger brush just to paint the water arm. Just get it evenly covered and I take off the excess water, just so there's no paddles for me. Smooth it out with my brush and sop up the excess. But I still want that chain on the surface. When I put the paint on, I want the paint to move. I've got the gray paint again. So this is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna. Conflict field reflects off the side here and there, just don't overdo that if you do it, you don't want too many. Now this area here is lighter on the reference photo. So even though it's lighter, I still need a bit of texture in there. So I'm just going to just add a little bit of gray paint in there, not a lot. That's where most of the white paper will show. You can see that my paint moves with the water that's on the paper. So if your paint is not moving, you might need to touch more water on there. So I have left quite a bit of white paper showing in that larger patch in the middle there. Now I've got some Winsor violet, just doing the same thing. Dropping out onto the gray areas. 9. Washing in the Bottom: Now we've just got this final section at the bottom just to wash in. Again, I use my number eight division. My strategy is to put the water on. Just as before, I put the water on carefully. I want a reasonable amount of water on the paper, but I don't want the water to be floating above the paper. When I finished putting the water on, I just check to see if there are any puddles and if there are I just remove them out with my brush and stop some of them back up. But I want the water on the paper to have a shan on, when I put the paint on. There, I've got some buff titanium on my brush. I'm just dropping that onto that lighter area that's in the middle there. That's in the sun. Also going to put some of this on the gray part as well. I'll take it out past the light area. I'll put a little bit at here as well. Now we've got some of the gray paint. This is the burnt sienna mixed with the French ultramarine, but it looks a bit blue. This, I'm just going to spread that elevate. Now I'm looking at my paper and over here. It's starting to dry so I need to put some more water on it before I paint. I've just put some more water on it now. Now I've got some gray paint using my number five monastery, so I've switched into the smaller brush. I'm just dotting it on the surface, just like I have been doing. Just using the tubular brush and just releasing the paint to so that I get the textured, mottled look. I'll paint the gray paint around that sunlit area that's in the middle there. I got a pencil line there. I think you can see it. I'll use that to guide me to make sure I get the paint on the other side of it. Again, I've got white paper showing. I'm pushing that paint just past the pencil line because I want it to bleed into that sunlit area just a small way. Just picked up a bit more paint. That was a big blob of paint. My brush was too weighty when picked the paint up. I should have dabbed off the excess on a cloth. You feel a little flakes off the side. I've left those two areas that are in the sunlight there as much as I can. Now I've got some of the Windsor volatile on my brush. Just dotting that onto the gray areas. All of these colors have been fairly light in this initial wash. You don't want to make anything too dark at this stage. I will be building up the color. But just to begin with, keep all your colors fairly pile. Can always make them darker, but you can't really make them lighter. Here I'm just pulling off some paint just to create those little hairs that come off the side. Okay. That's how my painting is looking at the moment. So that's everything washed in. Now I've left these areas of sunlight. You can see that there is a bit of white paper showing up here on the sun. I'm going to take a photo of that for you so that you can download it and it will help you to paint yours. This is progress photo, one that you can download. Use these photo just to help you get your initial wash all over your Koala. 10. Painting the Detail on the Head- Part 1: I want to start painting the shadow that's around the eye. I've just popped the reference photo there so you can see what I'm trying to achieve. I can see a gray shape that I've drawn in with my pencil. It's darker in some areas, but you can see that basic shape that's there. That shape I'm painting with water again because I want to work on the damp paper. Now I've got the gray paint again. This is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna, so painting that onto that area that I've just wet. The wetness of the paper just helps to keep all those colors transparent as well. If I happen to put the color in the wrong place, it's easy enough for me to just wipe it off if the paper's damp. I'm just painting that basic shadowing and then I'll come back and dark in it in some places. I still need to show that this is fur so I'm just dotting this paint on. Still sinking that I need to show the texture. Here I can just pull it into the ear. Just take it up to the top of the ear here as well. I'm going to get some of the Winsor violet and then I just drop that on. Now I've got just a touch of Payne's gray on my brush. You can see that this area here on the reference photo is slightly darker. This area is all in shadow, but the shadow has got different colors in it and this area here underneath the eye is darker. So that's why I've chosen the Payne's gray. It's quicker and it's easier for me to use the Payne's gray than it is to try and mix up the French ultramarine and burnt sienna into a darker color. The Payne's gray is ready to go, I don't have to worry about mixing it. I'm just softening the paint there. The area around the eye where the actual eye slit is, is slightly lighter so I've lift that lighter. Now I've got the Payne's gray, I'm just taking it up into their ear here. That just helps define the edge of the ear. So just use the watery Payne's gray here. I think if you wiped your brush over the pigment, it would be a bit too dark at this stage. I'm just dotting it on, just trying to get that darker shape that's in there. The paper's still damp. Now this edge just here I'm not very happy with, so I'm just going to use a damp brush just to soften it away so just there's not such a hard, sharp line there. But because I did that, you can now see my pencil line. I need to put a bit more Payne's gray just over the top of that pencil line. My brush is just damp, it's got no paint on it. I'm just moving that paint around. Just got a touch more of the Winsor violet there. Over to this eye. We don't need to do much over here. I've just got some of the gray mix so I'm just painting it onto the dry paper here. Now I'm just going to take my damp brush and soften away that paint edge. Just taking a bit of color off there so it's a bit lighter. Just up here, there's a shadow that's cast by the ear. I'm painting this on the dry paper. I'm just using the gray mix. I know it looks like Payne's gray, but this is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna. I'm just following the shape that I see on the reference photo there. This pitting here that I neglected to paint early when I painted the low shade, I can fill that in now to suite the gray mix on the dry paper. That's the area underneath the ear there. I just dub a little of that paint onto that shadow that I've just painted as well. 11. Painting the Detail on the Head- Part 2: There's a little shadow that sits on the ear here. I'm just drawing that in so that I know where to paint. I'm using my number five brush and the gray mix. This is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna, and all I'm doing is painting in that shadow shape that I see on the ear. This is dry paper that I'm working on. Before this shadow drys, I'm going to use my damp brush to take some highlights out, just so that this shadow won't be all one color. I've washed the paint out of my brush, my brush is just damp, and now I'm using it to suck up some of that paint. That will reveal a lighter color there. That will stop it from looking so flat looking and all one color. I keep wiping my brush on a cloth to get rid of that excess paint. Now I've got my liner brush and some paint is gray. I'm painting that color onto the darker areas. The area is where I haven't removed the paint, and that will make it more interesting to look at. Just painting a few little extra flicks here. Now I'm using my brush to take off a bit more of that paint there. There's another shadow up here on the top of the head. I'll just paint this one the same way, just with the gray mix on the dry paper. I'm looking at the reference photo as I paint to make sure I get the shape of it right. Now I'm doing the same thing on this shadow. I'm using my brush as a sponge to take off some of that paint, and then I use the paint gray again and the liner brush, on the darker areas just to add a bit more color to them. That pigment there is a bit dark sitting there like that. I'm using my bigger brush to spread the pigment out. It's not all concentrated in one area. Through here, there's a darker patch of fur that I can see on the reference photo. So I thought it might be nice to try and paint that in. I want to work on the wet paper again, just so that I get those soft fuzzy edges. This is some water, and I'm wetting that area where I see that darker patch. Now I've got my liner brush again. I've got some of the gray mix, and I'm dotting that onto that damp area. I just want little spots, don't want them all the same size or shape. I want them to sit randomly on there. I'm dotting and scribbling with my brush on the damp paper, and I'm using the gray mix, which is the French ultramarine and the burnt sienna mixed together. Just picked up a bit more paint then. If you put it on a bit heavy just use your brush to spread it out. Down here I'm starting to paint some darker sections on the ear. This is the gray mix again, I'm painting on the dry paper. Now I'm thinking I might put some more of that speckledy color that I just put on the head, just on the ear here. Again, I want to work on the damp paper, and again, I put the water on and then I take the excess water off so there's no puddles lying anywhere. I find it's easier to spread the water out with this larger brush. I'll give that water a chance to soak in a little bit, and I'll put some more paint here on this area. As it dries, they spread out and you don't see them quite so much. You might need to re-do them. If the paint is too wet as I showed you earlier, the paint will spread too far. I don't really want hard spots, I just want soft fuzzy ones. I'm basically trying to add areas of interest on the painting. I'm thinking I might paint a few more of the darker fur bits here, and where I just painted then on dry paper. I've got my larger brush here ready damp to take off any marks that I don't like. That's one of the advantages of painting on damp paper, you can pretty much remove any mark that you don't like, as long as it's not a staining color. Just a bit more water here, and I'll take off the excess with a tissue this time so I don't have to wait too long. That's more of the gray mix and I'm darkening that area. Now I'm drying it off quickly with a hairdryer, and now I'm removing any pencil lines that are still there. Now I just want to darken this area here on the shadow that's there around the eye. I've got some of the gray mix again. It's watery, I'm painting on the dry paper. As watercolor paint dries, it dries lighter than what it looks like when it's wet. I've usually got to give things more than one or two coats. There I'm just softening the paint edges just to make sure there's no hard lines. Over here I can paint in the darker section of this eye. Just use the gray mix or you can use paints gray. Just painting on the dry paper there. Make it darker than the previous color so you can see it. Now this one is dry and I can do the same thing over here. 12. The Nose & Further Detail on the Head: Time for the nose now. I'm painting some winter violet onto the dry paper. I'm going to put a darker color over this and you'll see some of the violet showing through. I push some paint back there because I went off the edge a bit. That's winter violet on the dry paper. Now before that dries, I'm going to put some Payne's gray on this lower section. I want it to bleed back over the violet. I'm dotting it onto the paper, and I'm letting that water on the paper move the pigment. Now I'm going to drop some water up the top here to create a watercolor bloom and that will add a bit of texture on the top of the nose. Now it's dried. I'm just putting a little bit more of that gray mix underneath the eye here. I just felt it needed a bit more. Now, as I said, the nose has dried, so there's a shadow at the top of the nose. I'm painting this on with the Payne's gray. The paper is dry here. Now I've got some darker paint. This is the darker Payne's gray. I've wiped my wet brush over the pigment to get it this dark. Rather than use the watery paint, I've wiped my brush up the top where the pigment is sitting. I still need a bit more work up here on this little patch of dark fur, so I'm just going to give it a second coat. I've wet it with some more there. Taking a bit of the excess off because I'm in a hurry. Just with the tissue. This time I thought I'd to Payne's gray rather than the gray mix and that will make it a bit darker. I'm using my liner brush and I'm dotting that onto that damp area. He don't want to end up with spots, so he's got the measles. Don't make them too uniform. Spread them out if they look a bit too uniform. Now I've got my silver scrubber brush, and I have just taken a bit of paint off underneath. This is a really stiff bristle brush. It's got really stiff bristles. I use it wet, but the paper's dry. Then just scrubs off a bit of paint. You've got to be really gentle and you want to be using really good quality paper. If you're using cheap paper, you'll just end up tearing the paper. Just be very careful if you decide to do that. 13. Painting the Shadows on the Arms: I start painting the shadows on the arms in this video, and after I've completed the shadow on the shorter arm, there's a progress photo that you can download that corresponds to my progress so far. It's called Progress Photo Two. On this arm here, I have a bit of trouble where the paint bleeds down further than I wanted to, I tried wiping the paint away with a damp brush that didn't help, eventually I got a tissue, well, and I damped the area with a tissue to stop the pain from flowing so far. I should have done that as soon as I saw it, so if your paints spreads further than you wanted to, just use a tissue to damp at it. Always watch your painting as it dries, sometimes little things will start to happen that you can correct if you get to them before they dry. I also notice a water line forming on part of the arm, but I was able to wash it off with a damp brush. Now, it's time to paint the shadow on this arm here, I'm painting some water over the top, I want to work on damp paper again. I want good even coverage over, I don't want any puddles of water sitting anywhere. I'll use paints gray again like I have on the other shadows, I've got some watery paints gray on my brush. Let's paint it right here on the tip up against the face and I'm letting it bleed back onto this arm, and run along the edge of the other arm, and then it bleeds back onto this one. It's taking along the edge of the face there, and there's a shadow over here under the ear as well. Now, I'm thinking I might need to wait a little while, it needs to be darker, but I think the paper is still a bit damp, I might need to just give it a few minutes, or just get some more pigment so I wipe my brush over the pigment itself, and then I'll damp that dark pigment on the edge here, dark inside area. I'll do the same thing over here with a darker pigment, and I'm just thinking the paper still a bit damp. I've got that lovely soft edge just there, but I need a more defined line here, I'm just thinking the pipe is still a bit damp, so I'll give it a few minutes and let that water absorbed into the paper slightly. This is the dark pigment again, let's see, I think I'm right. I'm just dotting that darker pigment on, and that will deepen the color and create more of an edge there, you can see I'm just dotting it rather than stroking it, here I'm pulling that dark paint backup into the dry paper to create some more hair on the ear there. Here's a progress photo that you can download. This is Progress Photo Two that gets you up to this stage of the tutorial. Now, just over here under the eye, just here, I can still see my pencil line. Now, I'm not going to be able to get that off because this is paint over the top of it. I'm thinking if I just use my scrubber brush, I should be able to rub over it and get rid of it, the scrubber brush is wet, the paper is dry. As I said in the previous video, be very aware of where doing this if you're using cheap paper because you will tear the paper. I just got rid of that, I'm just creating a little hammer here beside the noise as well. Time to paint the shadow on the arm here, I want to wet the shadow but what I want to do is extend the water past the edge of the shadow line so I take the water down further, which will give me a soft fuzzy edge on the edge of the shadow, I just want to take the water further down in that pencil line that I've got there. So far I was just to take it to the edge of the pencil line, then I'd have a hard edge on the edge of the paint, and I don't want a hard edge, I want a soft fuzzy edge. I'm just making sure there's no puddles and that the water's going on evenly. This is the gray mix, this is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna. Just diving that onto the damp paper there, again, I want that texture in the fur, so instead of brushing it on flat, I'm using the tip of my brush to create that fuzzy texture. Just get some more paint. I want that paint to softly bleed past that pencil line. This is where I said at the star, where the paint went too far, I think possibly my paper is a bit to wet, so you'll see me later on I'll grab a tissue and wipe some of it way, up here the paper feels a bit dry, I'll keep putting it on and I think I'll be right taking it up under the ear there. Now, I've got some paints gray on my brush and I should get it this dark. I've just wiped the wet brush over the pigment, and that gives me that really dark color. It's darker up here on the reference photo, so before that gray dries, the layer I just painted a pop this darker gray on. You can see I'm still diving with my brush, tossing the paint on with the tip, just spreading it out along where it touches the face, and under the nose. You can see how the paint has seeped well past my pencil line. It's further than I wanted it to go. Now I think I've just realized that it's gone past it, so I'm gently using a damp brush just to try and get rid of that excess paint. I have to be careful because I don't want to flood that shadow with water and create a watercolor bloom. I'm just being very gentle with my brush. Just keep an eye on all your edges as they're drying. Now I've got some of that really dark Payne's gray again, so I've worked my brush over the pigment. I just want more of a defined inch on this shoulder. I'm just putting a bit more paint there. Everything's still damp. Just along here, I want a soft edge but I want to be able to see it more. That's why I've put that darker Payne's gray. I'm just pushing it back into the shadow there to set this one or accumulate it in one spot. Now I've switched into my liner brush. I've got some more of that dark Payne's gray pigment. I'm just dotting it through that area. Then we'll create a few dark areas in the shadow. This is the Payne's gray taken from the top of the pellet. When the paint is squirted out, I just want my wet brush over the pigment to get it that dark. Here I'm just feathering that line along with the facets just so that I don't get a straight hard line there. Now I've got some more of the gray mix on my brush and I'm taking that shadow line further down and around. Now I have a tissue. I'm having a bit of trouble with this edge. I'm thinking if I just use a tissue that might take a bit of that paint away that's bleeding there. Now over here I need a bit more color, so I've just put some water there. I'm using the watery Payne's gray this time. I need a shadow but I don't need it to be quite as dark as what those darkest areas are. Now I'm just pulling that paint into that other arm in order to create some here. Now I need it to be a bit darker where the two arms touch one another. If I use that pigment again from the top of the pellet where it's squirted out. Look at that dark rich pigment. I can paint that on just one [inaudible]. Now I'm going to spread that paint out a bit so that it's not only accumulated in one spot. Just putting some water down here on that bottom of the arm. I want to put some more paint down the bottom here to darken it. I've just got the gray mix again on my brush, so the French Altro Marine mixed with the bencana, doesn't matter if it's a slightly different color to what I've been painting everywhere else. I'm dabbing that onto the depth papers that have paint and it bleeds back onto the arm. It's a bit dry here. The paper is dry. So I'll just put a bit more water there, spread it out. In my liner brush now I've got some of the winter violet, just adding interest to that gray. Just painting some darker little spots there just for interest. Now I'm putting a touch more water there. Some more of the winter violet. Now I've just noticed just along here, there's a water line forming. I don't know if you can see it. I'm just going to scrub that away with my damp brush. That's why I say you need to keep an eye on things as they dry. Now I just got a touch more of the gray mix running along this bottom edge here just so that it's not so straight. That's the French Altro Marine mixed with the bencana. Now I've just dropped some water in here just to create some more texture. The paint is just starting to dry. If I dropped some water in there and just moved it around slightly with my brush I can disturb everything, which helps to create texture on the fur. There is a white section of fur here on the arm, and I want to darken the hair above it. Just so that you can see that white section of fur. I'll dampen the area above that section, just with the water. Now I've got the gray mix on my liner brush. That darker section of fur there creates that lighter section underneath. I've taken a bit of that paint up higher there to blend it in with the rest. To make a marker that long, I'll wipe it off. 14. Painting the Shadows on the Bottom: Now I want to paint the shadow that runs underneath the branch. So I'm painting some water on there. This is the gray mix that I've got, the French ultramarine mixed with [inaudible] just painting along the edge that's wet. It's a little lot section there. Like it might be a foot. I'm leaving some of the underbrush showing I'm not completely covering it with this color. Paper feels a bit dry here again, so I might need to get more water there. I'll just put a bit more water. This shadow comes down underneath this area here. Runs along the bottom there. Some more of that water, and then some of the gray mix again. Every now and then I flick the brush into that sun-filled spot. Then I dot the brush over the rest of it. I need a bit more water here. Now I'm getting some windsor violet. I'll drop that on before it dries. I'm using my brush now to spread that paint down because I put it on a bit dark there. If you do that yourself don't panic, just wash the paint out of your brush, and then use your brush to move the pigment around. Now I've got my liner brush and I've got a touch of Payne's gray on it. I want the paint to be a bit darker there around that little section. Now I need some more water up in this area, the shadow continues up here. I take it down into the shadow that runs across the lake, then I've got some gray on my brush again the gray mix, and I paint onto the damp paper. Not keen on that edge face I have to soften that away. I've just got some more paint on my brush and that paper's still wet. I think I've run out of water here on the shadow, so I need to bring some water down. Pull it down a bit further. There's some more water now, and I can keep going down that section. I just kept having to use my brush, I don't want to completely lose that lighter under wash, so that's why I'm doing these little dots with my brush. Just trying to create texture in the fair and lighten dark areas. As I mentioned in the paper wetness video, I just need to be careful that I don't create little uniform spots here. Every now and then I just give it a bit of a scribble with my brush and run the brush along length ways. My paper is getting a bit dry here so I'll just put a bit more water there. I've got some more of the gray paint now. Here I'm just painting flat I'm not worried about putting the texture on. I've got enough there through the shadow that I don't really need it in the bottom here. I switched to my liner brush. I know I've got some Payne's gray on my brush. This time I've wiped my brush over the pigment to get that really dark color. The paper is still damp from when I wet it the first time. It's not as wet as it was, but it's still damp. It's still allowing me to get those fuzzy edges on the paint marks. I'm painting these marks on a diagonal across the shadow. If you have a look at the reference photo you'll see those darker fair marks, that is the diagonal line of dark further you can see. That's just what I'm trying to paint at the moment. This is Payne's gray, I'm just starting it along with my liner brush. The reason I'm using the liner brush is because I just want to have tight control of it. I don't want it to go everywhere. I'm just going to take the shadow over here as well. I've just put some water there, and now I've got the gray mix again. You can see that shadow on the reference photo, that just curves around the body here. Then there's that little sunlit spot in the middle there, or these two sunlit spots there. That's the shadow of the branch that's on the leg here. I will have to put some paint on those sunlit areas later but I'm just not doing it just yet. Now I've got some windsor violet. I'm just dotting that onto the damp paper. Back to my liner brush now, and I just want to see if I can paint some more of those darker lines that I see on the photo. This is Payne's gray, I need to reload my brush. I've worked my brush over the pavement here to get it this dark. There's a little bit of darkness just here, I think it needs to be slightly darker. I've just put some water there, and now I've got Payne's gray again on my brush. Just tapping that onto the damp paper there. I felt it needed more of a shadow there. Just spreading that out now with my damp brush. Here I'm just trying to create some more of the color blooms by dropping some water onto there while it's not quite dry, that just creates a bit of texture. 15. Adding More Detail to the Bottom: Shadow work has dried. So now, it's time for me to start putting some work onto those little sunlit areas. I'll wet this one here with water and I'll start working on this one. Soon, I'll work on the white paper again just to keep everything consistent. What I need to do is bring some of that fur from the sides into the sunlit area. I've got one liner brush and some of the gray paint, so the gray mix, this is the French ultramarine mixed with the burnt sienna and I'm just feathering this paint in from the sides. So on the same angle that I did those darker lines in the previous video, I just want to give the indication that the fur actually travels into this sunlit area. So I need to put some up the top here as well, just some little areas. I'm just using the side of my brush and scribbling. So the paper is wet but it's not sopping wet. You can see it's just giving me those fuzzy edges. Its not going everywhere all over the place and swimming away from me. It's just giving me those fur edges of my brushstrokes. Take it into the dry area as well. So into the darker area. To settle, it looks like it's continuing from there into the sunlit spot. The other thing I want to do is put some of these buff titanium onto this area. I did put some on earlier. It had dried but it's a big pale looking. So I just thought I'd put some more on there. So that's the buff titanium. If you have a look at the reference photo, you can see a creamy color in the sunlit spot. So that's just what I'm painting at the moment. I use that bigger brush if I put a mark on that I don't particularly like. So I'm just wetting this area over here. I have to do a similar thing over here. So I've got the gray again, the gray mix. I'm thinking it's a bit too wet, so I just need to wait a little while until some of that water has soaked in, I'll just took a bit off them. See if that's better. That's better. So just doing the same thing. I'm taking it from the dark gray into the larger area. I'm keeping that same angle going. Those darker lines are fair on the shadow of the branch. I have to keep the paint lines going in that same direction. So if your paper is too wet you paint, which is spread everywhere, so just wait a little while until you just getting those fuzzy edges on your brush strokes. Just putting a bit of color over there because it was too bright, we're standing out too much. So that's just the gray mix that I put on there. This area here seems to be bothering me. So I'm just using my scrubber brush here, I just want to take a bit of paint off, I just don't like, the look of the way I've painted it. So I've just taken a bit of paint off there. So I always use those scrubber brushes wet but the paper's dry. As I said in an earlier video, don't use these brushes if you're using cheap paper because it will just tear the paper. Okay, I think that's good. 16. Painting the Shadows on the Side: I want to start painting the shadow on the side of the koala now. I'm painting some water where the shadow sits, and I'll take that water just past the edge of the shadow, so that I can get a fuzzy edge on the edge of the shadow. Again, I just want the water to be evenly over the paper? I don't want it to be too wet, but I want it to be wet enough that my paint bleeds when I put it on the surface. I've got the gray mix again, doing the same thing that I've done all the way through the painting. Just tapping it on, dotting it on with the tip of the brush so that I get that texture. I don't want little uniform spots, I just want to create rough feel like texture. If it starts to look a bit uniform only a little bit strange, just alters the way you're using a brush. I still want to see that previous layer of paint coming through the layer in places. So I don't want to completely cover it with these gray paint. Because I took the water and just pass the shadow's edge, I've got little fuzzy edges on the edge of that shadow there. Here I'm dropping in the winds of violet to add interest to the gray. I've got the Winsor violet sitting underneath the branch here. I needed to put it above the branch to be consistent with the bottom. Now I need some more water, I haven't white this part up here, but the shadow runs underneath the arm here, so I just need a bit of water on to here as well. Got to hand line this, so I'm just smoothing that out. I'm just pushing that paint into the dry area so that I get those little jagged edges. Back to the gray mix, French Ultramarine mixed with burnt sienna. Tabbing it on. Paper feels a bit dry. I'm thinking what I could probably do is just put the paint on and then come back and soften the edge with my dent brush, so I see if that works. It's just not quite as white as it was when I did the side shadow. I just got a bit of water there on my brush now. Starting with the tip of it again. Switched my liner brush now and I've got some Winsor violet. Just dropping that on. Here I'm using my brush to scribble some of that paint onto the lightest some ream patch. We're using the paint that's there on the paper. I'm just squiggling onto the dry part of the paper. I'm trying to repeat what I did on the light section underneath the branch. As I said, that keeps us two areas consistent with one another. Notice too, where I've got my hand on the brush. I've got it right back up the handle away from the bristles, just to keep everything loose. Over here, I've got an area I need to paint. It's an area of white on the arm, that's tucked in on the heap. But although its white for it is in the shadow, so I need to put some color on here. I've got some of the gray mix and I'm painting it onto the dry paper here. I put little sunlit spot on the outside part here. If you have a look at the reference photo, you can see there's a little spot of sunny. That's what I'm painting now. I think I might try and take a touch of that color off as it looks a bit dark. Just take just a bit of the color off before it dry so it's not so dark. These little remarks here that I just painted, I painted on the dry paper. I'm thinking I need to be consistent with my paint marks and put some of these down here. These earlier ones that are painted on this section were done on the damp paper. Now, I'm doing it on the dry paper. That will give me some marks that are similar to those marks in that area above the branch. So you can use the Winsor violet, you can use the gray mix. At the moment here I'm just using the Winsor violet. Now I've got some gray on my brush. As I said, the paper here is dry. Then any marks that I didn't like, I just came back with my damn brush to take them off. I'll do the same over here in this section as well, just on the dry paper. 17. Deepening the Shadows: I'm getting there. I need to now darken some of these areas in the shadow, everything is dry, I'm just re-writting this section up under the here, it's quite dark under the ear. I've got some Payne's gray here, but I've wiped my weight branch over the pavement to get it really dark. I am just taking it around the ears, and I just let it blade back onto the shadow, and I'm sorry that my hand is in the way here. I'm just feathering that out so that it's not such a hard line there , just blends into the shadow there instead of looking like a dark spot. Up here too, it's a bit darker if you have a look at the reference photo. I'm just darkening this area. Look at your own painting. You may not have to do this. Just say what you think, use your own judgment. You might have done yours dark enough the first time. I've got the Payne's gray again and again I have taken it from the top of the pellet. I have just wiped my whip brush over the paint. Take it right in under the ear and then feather it back on to the rest of the shadow. It's just going to be more painting, and now spread it out. The paper's damp. Just got my bigger brush, just pull it out further. I was struggling there with that little brush. This shadow of the ear extends down onto this little hand here. I've just got some of the gray mix and I'm painting on the dry paper. Standing back to have a look, I'm nearly there, I think. Just a few more things I want to do and then I will start painting the branch. Suggest here where the two hands touch one another. Just got a bit of the gray paint there. Just creates a bit of a shadow there. Over here on the side, I just want to darken the shadow slightly. I'm just painting on drawing paper with the gray mix. Just watery gray. Now I'm softening away those edges so you can't see them, and just under here I can see a bit more of a shadow on the reference photo, so I've just put some water there. I want to paint on the damp paper to make sure my edges are soft. I've got some darker Payne's gray now, so I've wiped my whip brush over the pigment, and that dark inside little section in there. 18. Painting the Branch: In this video, I paint the branch. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to keep the painting with just cold colors on it, or whether I wanted to introduce warm colors. So that's where this little study came in handy. I was able to say what it looked like before I committed myself to painting it on the proper painting. The main thing to remember here is to leave someone paper showing on the branch. Don't fiddle with the paint too much. Put it on the paper and let the water in the paint do their thing. Now, I want to paint on my paper again, surprise, surprise. My beat brush here. I'm going to wet branch but I'm not going to wet all of it. I'm just going to wet a section of it or paint that then I'll wet next section. If I wet the entire branch at once, it will dry before I get to paint on it. All I have to do is keep my paint within the boundaries of that water that I've put on it. Just need to be aware of when the water finishes and make sure that I keep my paint away from that. That will keep all my paintings soft, which is what I want. I use my brush to smooth that water out to make sure there's no puddles sitting anyway. Same way I've been doing it all the way through this painting. I'm going to use burnt sienna. So use the watery Pentium Sienna. Just pulling a bit more pigment into the water areas to make it slightly darker. Now I'm ready. I'm establishing the shape of the branch, so the edge of the branch. Then I pull it into the body of the branch. I've got that edge they now and then I pull the painting to the body. Bottom edge now, I'm moving the paint away from the edge of the water, and I'm also leaving some white-paper showing on letting the water moves the pigment. No forcing too much. All I'm doing is getting the shape of the branch there. Pick up some more paint. This time I need the gray mix, but I've run out, so just going to make some more up. Doesn't matter if it's on the same calories before. That's the French ultramarine and the burnt sienna. Now, I paint that on. All the time I'm trying to keep the white-paper showing in places. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to for us too much with it. If you force too much, you'll just end up creating mud. Now, I've got the violet and drove that all. I've got to do all of these before the paper drys as well. I'll just put some more there until this little section. You can't force the paint too much. If its going to get it on there and let it do what it wants to do. Now, I've got some more bent Sienna. I established the outer edge and then I just push it into the middle. I dotted on, I try and leave the white paper showing I don't want to completely cover that. I'm using my big brush and I'm trying not to fiddle too much. Just dropping a bit more watery majors to spread that point out because I thought that I might have lost too much white paper. Now, I'm waiting this section up here. I've chosen burnt Sienna because I wanted to warn the painting up. I've been using mainly cool colors, and I just thought the bent Sienna would warm it up and create a contrast. I just wet the next section of the branch with water, and I have to work fairly quickly because I don't want the paper to dry. I need to make sure I've got my paint mixed up and ready to go. That's Moosen wit. Start with the burnt Sienna again. Doted on, try and make the white-paper showing. Just got some more paint, establish the shape of the branch or the outer edge, and then I just pull some of that color in. I'm just painting randomly. It doesn't matter what it looks like. It's just getting the shape of that branch on. That's all it's on my mind. I need some more water, seems to have dried. You want your paint to move, if it's not moving, you need more water. Now, I've got the gray. You want soft, fuzzy edges. Don't fuzzy with it too much. That's the gray mix. Trying not to force. Now I've got this section over here on the other side of the koala. I just wet it with water again. Just going to charge it up a bit. Now, it doesn't do this on the reference photo, I realize I just didn't wanted to finish so abruptly. Start with the burnt Sienna again. I establish the shape of the branch. Leave some more paper showing. I'm just going to feather after age at the top there. Just fixing the shape of the branch there, dropping in some gray, just when the paper is still damp, hasn't dried yet. Avoiding the white areas because I don't want to lose those. Now I'm going to draw it offers my hair dry so that I can do some more work on it. 19. Painting the Shadows on the Branch: My branch is dry and now I'm just drawing in those cast shadows that I see on the branch. I'm going to make sure I get them in the right position, joining them up with the shadows that are on the koala itself. These shadows are quite easy to paint. Just make sure you branch is dry, and then you can start to paint them. This is winsor violet and I'm just painting on the dry paper, I'm not wetting the paper at all. The cast shadows on the branch have hard edges, so I don't need to worry about making the paper damp to get soft edges, so I can just paint it straight onto the dry paper. The only thing I'll have to watch is that my paint is transparent. I don't want to put a really dark shadow on there because it will just look strange, so just keep your paint pale. Mix some water with it, and test it on a piece of scrap paper if you're worried. You want to be able to see the branch showing through your shadow, you don't want the shadow to take over. I'm using the winsor violet just to create consistency through the painting and because I know it just looks pretty easy shadow, it's got that brown color coming through it. I've done this before, so I know that it looks good, so that's why I'm using the winsor violet. I could've used gray, but I prefer to use the violet. Just dropping a bit more of that winsor violet in there, darkening up this one, it's not quite dark enough, I don't think I can it draw to light, so I'm just giving it a second layer, I think they're good. That has dried now, so now I want to just create a shadow on the underside of the branch, to make it look rounder. It's just looking a bit flat, so just moved in for you, so I just want to put some water along the branch, just so that I can put some color on this bottom edge and have soft edges on the paint, so make sure your shadows are dry, you don't want to disturb them. I got my liner brush here and I've got burnt sienna. Now I've wiped my liner brush over the pigment to get the color that dark, I'm running it along the bottom edge and I'm flicking it back up, just so it is not just sitting on that bottom edge. I'm mainly doing it where the koala sitting. I want to put the darkest color there, I don't really want to draw attention away from the koala, so that's why I've got that darker color there. Now, warm colors advance, cool colors recede. This area needs to recede because I want it to curve away, so I've got some Payne's gray here, and I'm running that along the burnt sienna just to cool it down, so this watery paint is gray. I wanted to see that brown color, but I didn't want it to advance towards you, so hopefully that will help. I'm going to put a bit down here as well, mainly near the koala. The burnt sienna first, and then before that dries, I'll put some Payne's gray on there. This is the Payne's gray, and hopefully that will make it recede. I need some water on this section of the branch now, just putting a little bit more burnt sienna there. The burnt sienna on the bottom edge, and then some Payne's gray to cool it down. I add a bit more paint, now that is just the Payne's gray still. I'll just put a little bit more up here too. I just need a bit more moisture, I just want to put a bit more work on the branch itself, so I just got some winsor violet, I'm just dropping that onto the wet paper, and I think that will do it. 20. Final Details: Some last minute things to do. The branch here came over the top of the hair, so I need to put a few little hairs back over the top of the branch. I've just got the gray mix, painting on a drawing paper with non liner brush. Spinning field or flux over the top of the branch, and that's really all I need to do there. I've got my scrubber brush, and I'm starting to rub off a bit of paint in the direction of those diagonal darker strokes. See you remember those dark lines that are put into the shudder, and then I continue down into the sunlit spot. I am just rubbing off the paint just to create some highlights. Now this brush, as I said, I use it wet but the paper is dry, and then I just use a tissue to take off the excess paint. You have to do it very gently because you would damage the paper otherwise. As I said earlier in one of the other videos, I have said it a few times now, don't do this if you're using cheaper paper because you will tear the paper, so do a little test spot somewhere in conspicuous before you do this. Because if it damages you paper, you wont be able to do it. That's just added to the illusion further, and as I highlight down the side here, we have a look on the reference photo, I don't know whether it's completely necessary to put it in, but I'll just show you what you can do. I've just taken a bit of paint off there. You don't have to use a scrubber brush, it is easy, you can just use any bristle brush. Any brush that is slightly stiff should take the paint off for you. The brush needs to be wet or damp, and the paper needs to be dry. This little highlight on the side is dry, so I just want to wet down the left-hand side of it. I just want to put a bit of paint there. There's some water down the side, and now I've got my liner brush and some of the gray mix. The French ultramarine mixed with the Ben Sienna, running it on the edge of the highlight, which helps to sink that highlight down into the fur. Otherwise it looked like it was floating above the fur, it didn't belong. Here, I've got some Windsor and Newton white drawing Ink, and I'm just going to use this to add a few little extra hairs here and there. All I do is take the lid off and then just dip my brush into the ink pot. I will use a little liner brush, just tip it in, wipe off the excess, and then I can use it to paint some little fine little hairs here and there. You can use whitewash to do this as well. I prefer to use the ink because I find when I water the white washed down that it makes it too transparent. I don't have to water the ink down, it's running enough. This is still transparent, a little dry and you'll still see the paint through it, but it's just not quite as transparent as the Cauchy is when you mix water with it. You've got to mix water with the course to make it flow off the brush. I'm just painting some stray hairs here and there, just coming off the edge, and one thing I see people do wrong when I do this is they paint too many, they just overdo it. Just remember that less is more. You don't want to do too many of these little extra strokes. Just here and there, just use some restraint, and don't overdo it, and of course you don't have to do it if you don't want to, you can just leave it as it is. I'm just extending some of those little strokes of marks that I made earlier, making them longer. There's a couple of whiskers off the side here. I don't want to overdo these either. You brush right upon the tip, a couple over this side as well. That is all I'm going to do there, split couple down here onto the branch. Couple over here. Now here, I'm just darkening the section under the branch. Just wasn't quite dark enough for me. I've got some of that gray mix again, I'm just painting on the dry paper here. This area seems to be bothering me, so I'm just going to just take a bit of paint on here with the scrubber brush. A little bit more up there as well. Now sometimes these highlights might be bit stiff and harsh looking. If they aren't just paint some water over the top of that shadow area, and that just leaves a bit of pigment and puts it back over the highlights just to soften them so that they are not so stiff looking. I guess that's the word. Now, up here on the head i am just going to put some burnt sienna spots. I've only used the burnt sienna on the branch, and I just want to repeat the color somewhere else, I can't say these burnt sienna spots on the koala in the reference photo, but I just want to repeat that coloring in the painting. I thought that would be a good spot to do it. I dampened it, and now I've got the burnt sienna, just a few little random spots here, just repeats that color. See we happy to know that it's all finished now, there's my sleepy little koala. 21. Final Thoughts and Thanks: Congratulations. You made it. You learned how to create texture with your brush. I hope you have a better understanding about what your paper needs to be when you work with it. There's one thing I really want you to have learned from this class, and that's that watercolor is a medium that will happily paint itself and those first washers will often determine the success of the painting. Take care when you paint them and think about what you're trying to do. Please upload your projects to the project page so that we can all admire your beautiful work. I look forward to seeing all of your paintings. Thank you, and I will see you in my next class.