Painting Landscapes : A Watercolor Misty Forest

1. intro: Hello everyone and welcome to this class about painting Misty pine trees with watercolor. My name is Sarah, and I'm a watercolor artists from France. I know I already created a class about pine trees, but since it's winter here, I think it would be interesting to other cool atmosphere, and misty field to our water colors. Landscapes are warmer, my favorite subjects, and I'm always looking for new techniques and tricks to help me convert a feeling of a place. In this class, I'm going to teach you how to paint Misty pine trees to add some SNS to your landscapes. I will show you how to bend a tree, different techniques to create mists, and how to combine these elements to create a landscape. Your projects, we need to create your own misty forests using new techniques we learned in this class with watercolor, water and ink. This class is for you if you are a beginner, or if you want to learn to bend trees with a simple technique, or if like me, you are fascinated by foggy atmospheres. Let's get started. 2. supplies: Let's talk first about the supplies you will need for this class. You will need watercolor paper. The brand does not matter at all. What's important is that it's a thick paper, a 300-gram per square meter. You will need also some tape. You will need it to tape your paper on the cardboard, for example. You will need some brushes, a big one. This is a size 14. You will also need a flat brush like this one or if you don't have one, you can use a small round brush, but a flat brush will be really better and you will need a smaller one. This is a triple zero. We will also use an aqua brush, like this one, filled with clear water and a tiny sponge. Two jars of water, one to clean your brush and one with clear water. You will need some white ink and some paints. We are going to use three colors, one indigo, one's color blue, and one raw sienna. If you don't have these exact colors, it's not important. You can use what you have at home, two blues and one brown. If you have a watercolor palette, it's great, because we are going to dilute and mix our colors. I just recommend that you use what you have and that you have fun in the process. In the next video, I'm going to show you how to paint pine trees and how to [inaudible]. 3. different ways to paint misty trees: In this first lesson, I want to show you how to paint pine trees and some techniques to add mist to you trees. It's important that you add some fuzziness and that there is not too much contrast between your different layers. First, I'm going to show you how to paint a blurry pine tree, and I will use my flat brush and some blue. Start by painting a rough line. It will be the trunk of new trees, and then holding your brush almost perpendicularly to the paper, start drawing the branches and leaves. What is important is to suggest the shape of a pine tree, triangular shape. But don't paint too many details because the goal is to add some fuzziness. So don't be too precise. You can also use your tiny sponge and clear water. First, wet your paper, and then using the flat brush, we are going to do exactly the same thing. I start by painting a line for the trunk, and then I paint the foliage. You can see that the paint is spreading in the water here. This is also a great way to add some fuzziness because your trees are less precise. Don't hesitate to rotate your brush to create some wild wenches. You can also use a brush of this size, but not something too small because remember that the goal is not to paint something neat. I'm just going to show you how a pine tree will look using this brush. I'm painting the trunk first with my blue, and then I'm just creating the shape of the tree. Like the two previous one, the goal is not to paint something perfect and neat, but more the wide shape of the pine tree. This was the very basic way of painting a pine tree. Now, I'm going to show you how to add mist to these trees. First, I'm going to paint a line of pine trees. This is just an example, so I won't spend too much time painting the trees. I'm just painting quickly three pine trees. Now that we have our trees, and before the paint dries, I'm using my flat brush and with clear water, I'm going to paint on top of the trees. Just make sure that you brush is really clean. Then with my clear water, I'm just going to paint one line, one and only line on the top of the trees to add a feeling of fuzziness. With a tiny sponge, you can also remove the excess water, and then you have to wait until it dries. Now, I'm going to show you two other techniques. First, I'm going to paint some trees just like I did before. We just have to wait a few minutes until all these trees are dry. Now that it's dry, I'm going to use my tennis bunch, and I'm going to wet the paper here and there above my trees. I'm just gently dabbing the paper. With my brush, I'm going to add a few drops of blue paint. It's the same ending goal that I use to paint the trees. The blue drops are going to spread on the water, and it creates a foggy atmosphere. You can also add this drop around the trees. So first, which wet your paper with a sponge, and then add a few blue drops in the water. If your paper is drying too fast, you can use your tiny sponge again to wet it. You can see here how it creates a misty atmosphere. Now for these guys, they are dry too. I'm going to use the white ink. Just make sure that your brush is clean before using the ink. I'm going to add some drops of ink on top of my trees, and I want to create a shape of a wave. It's as if the mist were between you and the trees. You can also add some ink beyond the trees, and I will add a bit of water to blend the ink with the background. You want to create some fuzziness to the ink can't be too needs or clean. It's great if the ink is blending with the water, and that's it. Now we are going to use our flat brush to paint some trees. This is a technique that you can use to paint the trees at the background where they are a little bit blurry. So with my flat brush and my blue, I'm just dabbing the paper with the tip of my brush. It's like creating the top of the trees and create a line. Then I'm going to clean my brush, and with clear water, I'm just putting a line that touches my marks. I'm just adding a few more trees in the background. What is important is that you are able to see the top of the trees and to create a line with it. If you line is a little bit curvy, it's even better. Like this. I would like to show you two more techniques that you can use to paint misty pine trees. This time, we are going to use our tiny sponge to wet the paper. Remember to use clean water. I'm just randomly wetting my paper. With my brush, I'm going to paint the trees exactly as we did before. I'm starting with my trunk, and then I'm painting the foliage. You can see that as the pen touches water, it's diffusing and creating a misty effect. You can see the difference here. The paper was more wet and so the paint is diffusing a little bit more and the tree is less defined. Remember that you are looking for creating an atmosphere and not paint something very neat, sharp or defined. For the last one, I'm going to do exactly the same thing, but this time with my flat brush. I'm wetting the paper with my sponge randomly as we did earlier, and I'm doing just as we did here. I'm just using the tip of my brush and I try to create a line with the top of the trees. What is great with the technique is that you can add a lot of contrast between blurry and clearly defined areas. Now, I'm cleaning my brush and I will use clear water to add at the bottom of the trees. I'm just painting to lines as we did earlier, and you can see that the blue and the water are mingling together. Then you can check if there is not too much whitespace, and if you need to, you can add some more treetops. I think it's done. Now you can see that there are many ways to paint misty pine trees. In the next video, I'm going to show you how to use and combine these techniques to create the finished landscape. 4. final landscape (part1): Now we are going to paint a whole landscape with misty pine trees. I'm going to use these three colors, phtalo blue, raw sienna and indigo and I'm going to add them to my palettes. This is the phtalo blue. I'm going to add a bit of indigo and a bit of raw sienna. I'm placing the raw sienna close to the indigo because I want to be able to combine them to create a kind of gray. I will also add some water to my palette and then I'm adding to my water a bit of raw sienna, not too much and also a bit of indigo. If it's too dark, you can also add some water to lighten the color. Because I don't want it to start painting the landscape with the blank page, I'm going to create some texture here and there on the paper. With my big brush, I'm going to wet the entire sheet of paper and remember to use clean water to do that. You don't want to have puddle on your page, but you paper needs to be entirely wet. Now I'm going to add a few drops of light gray to create some texture. I don't have anything specific in mind. I just want to add some color to already have something to begin with my landscape. I'm also adding a bit of gray at the bottom, I'm just zigzagging with my brush. Your gray needs to be really, really light, so don't add too much pigments. You can also use your aqua brush to add a bit more water if you need. It will create a different kind of texture. I am just adding a few drops here and there. But the more water you will add to your paper, the longer it will take to dry. Now, you will have to wait until your all sheet of paper is dry and then we will start painting our trees. To paint our landscape, we are going to use the different techniques we saw earlier, starting from the back and then adding more and more layers to the front. For our first layer, the layer of the background, we are going to use this technique and our flood brush. I want to use a very light color so I'm going to add more water to my mix. To create the gray, add a bit of raw sienna and a bit of indigo. Just try add a bit of one and a bit of the other until you are IP with the results. But your color need to be really, really light. Just to show you again, this is the technique we are going to use. With my sponge, I'm going to wet the paper here and there just at the top of the paper. With my flood brush, I'm going to paint the top of the trees. Remember to hold your brush perpendicularly to the paper and just rub gently at the paper. Don't paint a straight line, but more a curvy one. Then add a bit of water at the bottom of your trees. I'm painting just a bit more trees to make sure there isn't some white spots left. With my sponge, I'm removing the excess water and you can also use your sponge to add a tiny bit of water at the top of the trees. Not everywhere. It will add some easiness, and I'm going to add a right here, another layer of trees, still using the same water recolor. I'm going to start at the top this time and I'm painting a curvy line of treetops onto the right side. You can see them some lines are neat and when it touches the water, the lines are more blurry and this is exactly what we want. I'm adding some water at the bottom and with my sponge, I'm removing the excess water. When we added some water earlier, we used our flood rush. Using my sponge now is a way to stretch that line to make sure that I won't be able to see it when it will be dry. I'm seeing this layer is done. I hope you can see the misty cold atmosphere is starting to create something here. Now, we need to let this layer dry and then we will be able to paint another one. We are going to paint another layer of trees, but this time a little bit bluer. I'm just going to add some phtalo blue to my mix, just a tiny bit. This time, I will use this technique, the flood brush, but without wetting the paper with my sponge first. We are still painting the trees that are in the background, so they need to be more suggested than shown. This is also how we create the misty atmosphere. Since it's still the same process, I'm going to speed up a bit the video. I'm going to paint some more trees here. You can also change a bit your mix by adding more of one color. I'm adding some more raw sienna here. It's okay, if you brush touches a wet area. It will be even more beautiful this way. Then I will add another layer here but this time I will be adding a bit more worthy enough in my mix. Changing your color between each layer is a great way to make sure that there are always different from each other. This time I want my trees to be a little bit bigger. It will add some depth to your painting. You can see that you don't always have to wait that it dries. You can paint one layer after the other because it's okay if sometimes the pen touches a wet area. This kind of painting is unpredictable and that's the beauty of it. Try to paint bigger trees because the trees needs to be taller at the front. To finish, I'm going to add a bit of water here and there with my aqua brush to create some texture. Now I'm going to let the all seem dry. 5. final landscape (part2): We are going to start painting some trees that have really the shape of a pine tree, a triangular shape, and we are going to use our flat brush because we don't want to add too many details. But first, I will add some more blue in my mix and also add a bit more water. First with my tennis sponge again, I'm going to wet the paper even there, but only the bottom of the page. I start by painting my trunk again and then by turning my brush, I'm creating the shape of a pine tree. I'm going to paint another tree here in the corner of my page. Again, I start with my trunk and then adding the foliage. Don't try to be too precise. We are using a flat brush because we don't want to control everything. Now with my sponge, I'm adding water at the bottom of the trees to add a bit of easiness. I'm going to do the same thing in the middle of my page but this time I will paint smaller trees. I think my paper has started to dry, so I'm going to wet it again. With this layer, we're going to add pine trees at the bottom of the paper and almost fill it. After that, when the painting will be dry, we will add water and white ink to create clouds of mists. It will also be a great way to link all the layer we've previously painted. I'm going to speed up the video a bit, but you will be able to watch the entire process. Now we just have to wait for this area to dry and then we will add some white ink at the bottom and at the top to link all the layers. Just a bit of patience. This is the final step, and this is when the magic is really going to happen. This is my favorite part. I'm going to use white ink. The idea is to wet the paper first, then add a bit of blue, a bit of ink. This is about when you can really have fun and enjoy the process. Just to give you an idea, this is what we did earlier with these two groups of trees. I will start with the ink and actually I will take a brush that is not too small. Make sure that your brush is really, really clean before you start. I will start at the bottom and start adding some ink to create the mists. You can see that I'm just zigzagging with my brush and doing it a bit randomly. Then with my small brush, I'm just going to add water and stretch the ink because I don't want to have some sharp edges. I don't know as you can see it on the video but the effects created by the ink and the water is beautiful. Always use clear water because you don't want your ink to turn dark. This is not an excess process. This is actually the part where you can have fun and experiment. I want to add more whites, especially at the bottom. The goal is just to add ink, blend it a bit with water then add more ink, more water until you like what you create. Now I'm going to repeat the exact same process at different paths of this painting. First I'm using ink and then I'm adding clear water to blend it a bit. Instead of choosing your small brush and clean water, you can also use your aqua brush, it will do exactly the same thing. To finish, I will add a bit of blue in the background. First, with my sponge and clear water, I'm going to wet my paper in a few areas and then I will add some drops of blue. Take your time to do this because you don't want to have puddle on your paper. You just want it to be slightly wet. I'm using my smallest brush because I don't want to create a mess and add too much blue. I just want to create tiny blue areas on my paper to connect all the layers with it. If it's too dark, you can also use your sponge to remove a bit of blue. It's all in finding the right balance. Adding these blue is also great to create a cold atmosphere. Just repeat this process, wetting the paper, adding some blue until you are happy with the result. Think more about an atmosphere than tiny details. I think I'm going to stop here and let the whole thing dry. But you can still add a bit of water, a bit of ink, a bit of blue, a bit of ink, it's up to you. I hope you had fun and that you can now see that painting is misty landscape, is more about feelings and following a precise technique. 6. project time: Your projects will be to create your own misty forests using the techniques you learned in this class. You can experiment with different ways to create mists using water, watercolor or ink, but the most important thing is to have fun in the process. Make sure to upload your project in the project section of this class because I really want to see you landscapes.Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope you are now ready to paint a lot of trees. If you'd like to see any of my future classes, please click to follow button upon this video. I will see you soon.