Transcripts
1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello, everyone. My
name is Williston, and welcome to this watercolor
class where we'll be embarking on a journey through the charming
waters of Venice, capturing the beauty and
romance of this iconic city. Throughout this class, we'll dive into techniques
such as washes, glazing, and negative painting, as we bring a charming
scene with a godl and the chanting architecture of
Venice to life on the paper. The composition I've
come up with allows for a unique interpretation
and expression, without relying on details to make a captivating painting. I've been a professional
artist for many years, exploring lots of different
subjects from wildlife and portraits to city scapes
and countryside scenes. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor. But when I started, I had no idea where to begin
or how to improve. I didn't know what
supplies I needed, how to create the
effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now, I've taken part in
many worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough
to win awards from well respected
organizations such as the International
Watercolor Society, the masters of
Watercolor Alliance, Windsor and Newton and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming
for those starting out, which is why my goal is
to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium in
a step by step manner. Today, I'll be guiding you
through a complete painting, demonstrating a variety
of techniques and explaining how I use all
my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have
some experience, you'll be able to
follow along at your own pace and improve
your watercolor skills. If this class is too challenging
or too easy for you, I have a variety of classes available at different
skill levels. I'd like to start off with a free expressive
approach with no fear of making mistakes as we create exciting textures
for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and
make it stand out. I strive to simplify
complex subjects into easier shapes that
encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty of
tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn
mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of
painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with
my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing
and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in the
discussion thread down below. I'll be sure to read and respond
to every think you post. Don't forget to follow
me on Skill shat by clicking the follow
button at the top. This means you'll be the
first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston
to see my latest works. Let's get started with
learning fun and exciting watercolor techniques
and how we can use them to paint your
own Venetian scene.
2. Your Project: Well, thank you so much
for choosing this class. I'm delighted to
have you join me on this enchanting
exploration of watercolor. Today, we'll be transporting ourselves to the captivating
scenes of Venice. Why Venice, you might ask? While Venice is a city like
no other steeped in history, culture, and timeless beauty. It's unique architecture and picturesque canals have provided endless inspiration for artists, especially watercolor
artists for centuries. What I think is great about
this is that it encourages unique results that can be taken in so many
different directions. You can really follow your own creative path and use it to have fun
exploring watercolor. I've planned out a step by step approach you can
follow along with. But if you're feeling brave, you can add your own
individuality to it. Maybe you want to choose
different colors than I do, maybe ones you already have, or maybe you would prefer bolder more abstract
brush strokes. There's no right or wrong
way to go about it. In the resource section, I've added a high
resolution image of my finished painting
to help guide you. You're welcome to
follow my painting exactly or experiment with
your own composition. As we're going to be focusing on the painting aspect
of watercolor, I've provided templates
you can use to help transfer or trace the
sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for
learning how to paint. It's important to
have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the
watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction
you take this class, it would be great
to see your results and the paintings you
create through it. I love giving my
students feedback, so please take a photo
afterwards and share it in the student project gallery under the project
and resource tab. I'm always intrigued to
see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear
about your process and what you learned
along the way, or if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend
that you take a look at each other's work in the
student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see
each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your
fellow students. So don't forget to like and
comment on each other's work.
3. Materials & Supplies: Before we start the painting, let's go over all the
materials and supplies I use. Having the right materials can greatly impact the
outcome of your artwork. So I'll go over all the supplies I use for
this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and we'll make it easier for you
to follow along. Let's start with the
paints themselves. And like most of the materials
we'll be using today, it's a lot to do
with preference. I have 12 stable colors in my palette that I
fill up from tubes. They are cadmium
yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, Cadmium
red, Alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cobalt
blue, Serian blue, lavender, purple, di black, at the
end of the painting, I often use white guash
for tiny highlights. I don't use any
particular brand. These colors you can
get from any brand, although I personally
use Daniel Smith, Windsor and Newton
or Holbein paints. So let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is
a synthetic round brush like this coda polar brush
or this Vangf brush. They're very versatile because
not only can you use them for detailed work
with their fine tip. But as they can hold
a lot of water, they are good for
washes as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few
in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for
broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth
transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details. But for really small details, highlights or anything
that needs more precision, I use a synthetic
size zero brush. All brands have them and
they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles
and a very pointy tip. They're perfect for
adding texture or creating dynamic lines
in your paintings. You can even fan them
out like this to achieve fur or feather
textures as well. And that's it for
brushes onto paper. The better quality
of your paper, the easier it will be to paint. Cheap paper crinkles easily
and is very unforgiving, not allowing you to
rework mistakes. It's harder to create
appealing effects and apply useful techniques
like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton based paper, Not only allows you to rework
mistakes multiple times, but because the pigment
reacts much better on it, the chances of
mistakes are a lot lower and you'll be more likely to create
better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available
in my local art shop. A water spray is
absolutely essential. By using this, it
gives you more time to paint the areas you
want before it dries. It also allows you to
reactivate the paint if you want to add a smooth
line or remove some paint. I also have an old
rag or t shirt, which I used to clean my brush. Cleaning off the paint
before diving it in the water will make the
water last a lot longer. It's always useful to
have a tissue at hand whilst painting to
lift off excess paint. Also, you never know
when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that
needs wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper
to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's
important to have them a similar consistency to what
they're like in the tubes. This way, it's easier to
pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful
to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the
dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this, of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding
around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on
painting to the edge, it'll allow you to create
a very crisp clean border. And that's everything
you need to paint along. I encourage you to experiment and find out what
works best for you. Now, let's get ready
and start the painting.
4. Tips for the Sketch: Now, with a scene like this that can be thought
of as quite complex. It's very important to
take a while to break down everything into the
most simple steps and the most simple shapes. The first thing to do with
basically any landscape, skyscape or scene in general is try to find
the horizon line. Sometimes it doesn't exist, but many times it does. I'm going to guess that it's around about there according to my to my reference,
somewhere around there. Maybe it's not a horizon line. Maybe it's just where the land separates from
the sea or the water. I'm just doing little
marks depending to give reference to where I'm going
to put certain things. That's the edge of
the building here. I'm going to have a few
abstract bits down here. Okay. And you can get lost
with all the details. But as long as the fundamental shapes are right to begin with, then the details become
less overwhelming. Put a boat here. We have some
reflections going on. Then I think buildings
can go that high. I can do a bit of a
jagged rooftop here. The good thing
about this painting or this style of painting
that I try and do is leaving it open
to expression. So I'm not directly drawing what I'm seeing and
feeling roughly what the rooftop looks like and doing a jagged edge that is similar to that. A few aerials. A rooftop there then can do
a few markings like that, which can indicate windows. Maybe in the dead center
somewhere around here, we can start to put
a little tower. Which can be quite difficult
to draw completely vertical. If it's off center, it'll
look a bit strange. Make sure when it
comes to your drawing that you get it right with the pencil because if you don't get it right with a pencil, when you can easily rub it out, then it'll be very difficult to get right with the
paint later on. That's the same with
every single drawing when it comes to water color. You must make sure
that the drawing you're happy with the
drawing before you start. If you're not happy
with the drawing, then it's going to be much
more difficult with the paint. Especially if you're learning as a beginner and you're not so confident with your
drawing ability, then it's going to
be hard to rely on that during the
painting process. If you're a bit more intermediate and you're quite comfortable with
your drawing skills, then you can rely on that a
bit later on when you paint. Painting is actually
the same as drawing. It takes the same perception. The only difference is, of course, when you're painting, you're using volume
and tones in a much more using a thicker way of
applying it to the paper. A brush and applies
a lot more space, but a pencil, if you took the
time to fill in the areas, it would still do
the same thing. When I was learning how
to paint watercolor, I would actually do full
tonal sketches with a pencil before I actually did a painting
for a little study. And if I couldn't draw how
I wanted it to look like, if I couldn't visualize
it with a pencil, then I wouldn't
attempt painting it. But if I could first of
all draw it with a pencil and achieve the kind of visual composition I
wanted with the watercolor, then it's very easy to follow it along with
watercolor later on. It sounds like I'm
repeating myself a lot, but it's one of the most fundamental mindsets of painting and composition, and it gets ignored quite a lot because drawing is
quite a tedious thing. It's not that rewarding because it's not at the end
of the day, the final image. So I'm just trying
to define a bit more the boat that I want to include the gondola
as it's Venice. But you can practice drawing any subject at your own time or your own leisure time.
It doesn't have to be this. You can use the
template that I upload. Any drawing really helps your
overall drawing ability. It doesn't matter if you want to learn how to paint landscapes,
wildlife, portraits. It's all the same mechanism,
the muscle memory. So as long as you're
doing some drawing, the overall ability
will improve with it. And the drawings don't
even have to be well, I was going to say, they
don't have to be successful. In fact, the drawings shouldn't really be
successful while you're learning because you're learning to find the boundaries
where the boundaries are. And if you get it
right all the time, you're not learning how
far you can take it. So you've always got to push yourself out of
that comfort zone. So that's roughly
it all blocked out, and you can go back and
forth adding more detail, which is what I'm going
to do now off camera so that I can perfect
it to how I want it for the template and
to make it easier to paint in a more clear
demonstration later on.
5. The Background Wash: So the first thing
we'll want to do this painting is get
the paper a bit wet. So I'm going to use
this water spray just to put a light mist
of water on there, just to everything slightly
damp, not over saturated, but just so that the whole of the paper is already
wet because we're going to do a big wash using my mop brush just to
get a nice base color. I'm going to start with
this cerlian blue, nice and lightly in the top. And as you see, because
we've already wet the paper, it's got nice smooth edges. I'm just going to
go back and forth, mixing it into the paper
nice and smoothly. I go to add a bit more pigment to make it a bit stronger
because we can always add more, but it's a bit more
difficult to take away, then maybe add a bit
of purple into there, just for a bit of a
variety of color, and go back and forth horizontally to get a
nice smooth transition. I'm just adding a bit more
pigment going back to the Cerilian bit by bit, adding a bit more to
make it stronger. Then adding a bit more water and starting from the
bottom moving up, and I'm going to take some
burnt sienna and swirl that in from just below where the
buildings are and merge that up to
the top of the sky. And this is very
light. We don't have to be very strong at this stage. This is just to kill the
whiteness off the paper. Bit more burnt sienna. Go over the boat here, we can still see
the pencil lines under leaf. That's okay. Go back and forth. I'm not applying much pressure
with my brush at tool. I getting quite thick with a
Sienna now starting back at the top and going
for a second take. Every now and again, I do
a few brush strokes into that wash down below where
the Burnt Sienna is, and it incorporates it nicely. Now, going back with
the burn tiena upwards. And because it's wet,
even though you can see some brush strokes
are going into that blue and criss crossing, because the paper is
wet it'll dry smoothly. They won't have a harsh edge. You can already see it's
starting to blend out. And by the time it's dry
in a few minutes time, it should be very
smooth altogether. But I'd like to
create that interest that kind of imperfection. Clean my brush. Whenever I go between the blues
and the burnt Sienas I also I make sure I
have a clean brush so that I don't infect the
color, and I keep it pure. So I'm adding a bit of
blue and purple down. This is where the
water will be down in that bottom right section. So I'm putting a bit of blue there to match it with the sky. And at the bottom, it's even thicker with the blue. Because the closer it
comes to the foreground, the darker the water is. If you think of the water, it's more like a mirror, when you look at it across, it reflects the
color of the sky. And the closer it is to you, the more you see of the
actual water color. Just smoothing out some of the edges where there's a bit of build up of pigment
while it's still wet, I can just blend it out a
bit using my mop brush. It's quite important to use a
thick brush for this stage. If you're using a small brush, it just won't be that smooth. Clean the brush
again. And I've got this little towel in the top right hand corner
that you can see where I I dap my brush each time I wash my brush just to make sure it's not
overloaded with water. Now, I'm just going
to get a tissue and clean off the surplus
water and pigment that's on the side of the board
of my painting because I'm about to dry hair
dryer and I don't want any of that water to
go back onto the canvas. So once I've done this,
I'll use the hair dryer, dry it off completely, and I'll touch the paper just
to confirm that it is dry, and then we'll get back to the next stage
of the painting.
6. Starting The Buildings: So it's completely dry, and now we're going to move
on to some thicker pigment. So I've got my Van
goof brush here, which is a synthetic brush. I use it in most classes, and I'm going to take the burnt sienna
that we used before, but in a much thicker form. And I'm going to first of all, put it in the bottom pan, and then I'm going to add a bit more liquid water
to it to dilute it. I'm also mixing in
a slight bit of ultra marine into
that burnt sienna because that's its
complement color, and it slightly brings
down the vibrancy of it because I don't want it to be too bright and vivid
for this part. So it turns into a
kind of muted brown. So I'm starting from
the left and moving to the right, painting
the rooftops. And I use a mixture of the side of the brush and
the point of the brush. And I like you can
see me doing now, I'm adding a bit
of blue in there, a bit of green down
at the bottom. So I start off at the
top of the roof tops, and then I use the
point of the brush just to add a few aerials. And then once I've
painted along a bit, then I can mix
into a bit of blue and take my time to think about the next
set of buildings. So I've just mixed a thicker
bit of pigment using the yellow and mixing that into the very top where I'm
doing the aerials. And you can see I'm
moving along a bit, starting with the aerials. And then again, I'll move down. And I'll just repeat
this for a bit. So going from the
aerials to the roof top. Slightly increasing the amount of water that I use each time. It starts off quite
pure in color. But then when I mix a bit of black or ultramarine
or cobalt blue. Then it brings the tone down and creates a
bit more variety, both in tone and color. And I'd like to keep a few
white gaps in between there. I don't just fill it all out. Keeping it quite abstract. I'd like to imply that
they're rooftops without actually painting in
the details of them. So as you can see, I'm tilting my brush to
get the nice point. And then I apply more
pressure and tilt the brush a bit to
the side when I want to fill in more areas. But I always like to start with the aerials to begin with, because it marks the very
top of the buildings. There we go. Basically
filling up my brush with pure water and spreading
out that top pigment we have connecting it to the
aerials and then it just bleeds down and fills
out the whole area. You don't have to have
the perfect consistency of pigment to water on
your brush each time. If you already have a lot
of pigment on your paper, you can use pure water to
spread that pigment out, or the other way around, if you've got too much
water on your paper, you can add stronger pigment
to help build it up. Down trying to achieve a
slight dry brush effect going quite light with
the amount of pigment and water I have on my brush to just roughly add some
texture, quite subtle. Because those buildings
that we've just painted in the distance, and they're not the
main focal point. They're not the main
center of interest that we're not trying to create a lot of
attention to that part. I'm not trying to keep it clean. As long as I paint in
the areas that I want, I'm actually keeping it quite
random and messy, really. Just dabbing bits of pigment of various consistencies
to create interest. I don't mind if I don't
fill it all in correctly. Again, this is an
underlay stage. Just like the layer before, the main wash of the
sky in the water. We're still on the
underlay stage, so we don't need to
think about details. I'm getting very dirty of it. You can see I'm tapping it with a tissue to get unevenness. I'm aiming for a
slight texture. Okay.
7. Creating Texture: So we started off
with those buildings with a more of a
orange influence. Now, I'm going to boost the neutral tones
of them by adding blue. So it's more of a kind
of neutral brown, a kind of grayish earth color. A bit of purple there
for a bit of variety. I think blue orange and the
main colors in this painting. Those are the three
colors that I'm going to have to keep the color
scheme harmonized. So I'm really adding the blue and purple into this part
and letting it bleed up. And I'm trying to be careful how far down I go
because I don't want to break the horizon line. Where the buildings
touch the water. So now I'm basically using pure blue to spread
out this wash, create a bit of
difference in color, although it's harmonized blue and orange compliment
each other. And I mix my blues. I've got cerlian blue, I've got cobalt blue
and ultra marine blue. And I just make a combination of those each time I
want to use them. And I'm connecting that blue to the rest of the
building up above. Okay. By using the
tissue earlier, we create unevenness because we allow some bits to
dry faster than others, and then when we connect
it with this blue, it further exaggerates what's
wet and what's dry and rather than being
clean exact layers of wetness and dryness, we're making it more
dynamic because we're mixing the whole spectrum
of wet, dry, damp, moist, and along with that, the different dilutions
and consistencies of pig and that's one of the
most important things about water color is the range of wetness to
dryness and all the levels in between
and the thickness of pigments from highly
diluted to pure pigment. And when we compose a painting, we got to try to think
about how we can use every single aspect and connect them all in
an interesting way. So, of course, as a beginning, it's very overwhelming
because not only have you got to think about
pigment consistencies and the dampness of the paper, but then you've got to think
about the drawing ability. You've got to think
about the color theory. There's all these
unconnected factors that can be quite overwhelming. But that's what these
lessons are for. So you can follow along,
even as a beginner, you can give this painting a go and you'll learn something. I'm very happy when I see beginner students attempt
ambitious paintings because it's all about learning. It's not about creating
a masterpiece each time. And the more you put yourself out there
with these challenges, even if the outcome is not very attractive
because you've done it, you've learned a lot, and
that's what's more important. When I was learning, I would pick my top
hundred paintings and attempt to repaint them, even though they were
dramatically above my ability, and the outcomes were
absolutely terrible visually. But I learned so much
in the process of doing that that I felt it was the most valuable
exercise I could do. So now I'm mixing in black to create a kind of
neutral monotone hue.
8. Dynamic Contrasts: Okay. So what we just did there was the opposite of trying to create
a clean wash. The first thing we did
in this painting was to do the sky and
the background wash, which was to keep
it nice and clean. But then we purposely
in the last stage, try to create as much
texture and messiness, I guess, as possible. Controlled messiness, though. We were trying to be messy, but in a controlled
way, so to speak, like we were keeping inside the sections that we are
meant to keep messy. Now, this bit that we're
doing now on the roof, we're using thick pigment, and we're basically painting the silhouettes of
the main buildings, starting from left to right. I start from left to right
because I'm right handed, and I don't want my hand to smudge what I've
previously painted. But if you're left handed, you can flip the
painting around, using the flipped
template I provided, and you can work
the opposite way around from left to right, or right to left rather. So I start with thick pigment when painting these silhouettes, and I use pure water to drag
it down in a controlled way, making sure I don't go over that line because I want to keep these verticals as perpendicular to the horizon line as possible. And I'm merging them into
that area we painted before. Agitating the pigment to
make sure it blends nicely. Then, while it's
working its magic, hopefully, we'll add a few
more aerials to the left. Trying to create a nice
vivid orange by putting in some yellow into
that burnt sienna and painting some nice
terracotta roofs. Now, I'm trying to paint a
few strong horizontal lines to counter the strong vertical
lines of the buildings. Now, I emptied my brush of water and tapped it on the
building there just to suck out some pigment to make
it a bit lighter and I'm using a tissue just to
make it even lighter now. And then using my palate knife, but you can use a
tuff big if you want. Just to scratch some
white lines in there, a bit of extra texture. By painting that building
with dark pigument, we now have a full tonal range that we know what to work with. So we've got the whitest whites, which would be the
paper, the sky. And we've got the darkest darks of that top building there. So we know what to reference
in our tonal range. And now I'm just drying
it out with a hair dryer. And now that everyth is dry, it allows me a period to just sit back and think
about the next stage. So I'm mixing a bit more
of that vivid orange. And going back to the roof, I had to keep that roof white before to really boost the vibrancy of this
yellow orange mix. Because if I had gone
over it before with that neutral to the muted tones, then there's no way I
could get that vibrancy. And the contrast between
that muted tone and the vibrant orange
is quite strong. Just thinking about
where else I can put this vibrant orange now
that I have it mixed. Mixing in a bit of burnt sienna, just to bring it down a bit. It's a bit darker at the top. This roof has a slight
angle to to it. Clean my brush and paint
a few more roof tops. Separate from that one. Basically, stretched
out triangles, really.
9. Painting Windows: I'm mixing more of that
muted brown color. It's almost like sepia, but I've mixed it myself
just using burnt sienna and blue ultramarine blue and defining the edge
of this building. Still a bit wet from
the previous wash. And to paint windows, I just do little streaky
lines like that. Just small little streaks
slits in the building, and it tricks the mind to just think that
they're windows. You don't need to draw
the window panes, just one simple thin line. And it just implies windows. It's quite important to
get them matched, though. They can't just be random lines. For the windows, they
have to be all aligned. So one on top of the other, or next to them with equal gaps. Just think the roof needs
to be a bit darker here, so I'm adding a bit more
burnt tiena on this one side, just to define that edge. What next? I think
I'm going to clean my brush and slightly
wet the paper down here, reactivate it because
I want to create some smooth edges mixing in some cerlian blue
into that brown. And you can see how, there'll be a nice
smooth transition there. Mm. Bit of purple. Turn it down a bit. Maybe we add a bit more blue. Then start doing a similar
kind of thing here. And you can see where we
pre wetted the paper. It's kind of bleeds upwards. These are kind of ripples
that I'm painting now. Those thin horizontal lines. Now, it's further
defining that edge. Still a bit wet, but that's
okay. Just having fun. Playing around with the pigment. That's all it comes down
to is having a bit of fun. I'd rather create a painting that doesn't end up
so well but had fun painting it rather than having a visually good looking painting that was just a hard
time and I had to push, and it just wasn't fun. It was just a chore. It
wasn't pleasurable to paint. But ironically, usually the paintings that you
have fun with, they turn out nice anyway because you associate
good emotions with it, you insert happy expression. And whenever you look
at that painting, it just reminds you of
the fun you had with it, even if it isn't what
you expect it to be. So as long as you keep your
mind open and positive, usually, it'll turn out fine. That's just right outlook for life or with
painting in general. Not sure what to do
with that edge there. I think I'll leave it as it is. I like to use my finger a lot. You can see me
dabbing and scraping with my nail every
now and again, Okay.
10. Painting The Domes: Clean my brush. And what next? Let's take some of this muted brown and
start painting the domes. So I use this base color or the brown to fill out the
majority of the shape. Making sure not to go
over the pencil lines. And then when I'm pretty happy with the way I've painted
out the rough shape, then I can interact with it by smoothing out the
bottom edge and then mixing a thicker pigment and extending it to the top,
connecting it to the top. So, sorry for the
obstruction of the view, but keeping the bruh
perpendicular to the paper, so I get the most of
that point because I need the very tip of point
of the brush to create the sharp tip of the building and connect
it to that dome, and you can see how
the dark pigment merges with the
lighter pigment there. And it creates a kind of form, a feeling of three
D, some depth. Then I can suck a bit
of the pigment out in the middle to
emphasize that form. Maybe insert a bit more color. To make it a bit more dynamic. Keeping the edges and
lighter towards the middle. But no harsh lines
or at least try not to have harsh lines in the dome. Now, considering whether
to paint the next dome or not or carry on
with a few details. I'm going to start
painting the next dome. Starting at the bottom this
time with thick pigment. Just defining where
the bottom of it goes, and then go to the top. So before with the other dome, we painted the base shape and then added the top of the
dome and with thick pigment. Now we're doing the opposite. We're starting with
thick pigment, and then we're going to use a more diluted wash to
connect it to the main dome. So both ways are correct. Just depends on what you
feel like at the time. It's probably safer to start
with the thick pigment first because there's less of a time limit with
the thick pigment. If you do the first wash, then once that dries, you can't really
blend it because it's dried and reactivating it will look kind of overworked. So starting with pigment is good because it's basically already. You just have you can
reactivate it quite easily. It's a safer way to work. So now I'm connecting it with
that more diluted pigment. Still very dark, but
a lot better than the first pigment we put went over the edge
there. It happens. You just use a tissue,
have a tissue in your hand all the time to blot
out those mistakes. You see how when
I'm painting this, I'm kind of doing
a curve and then lighter on one side compared to the other just to get that
feeling of depth again. And hopefully it will blend
smoothly as it dries. A few splatters of water.
To keep it exciting?
11. My Top Complementary Colors: Okay, what next. The dome is
drying a little bit uneven, so I'm just going to smooth
in that edge on that side. Connect it to the wetter parts. Now I'm going to reactivate
this dark pigment at the bottom, and connect it. You see when I add this
thick pigment now, it will gradually bleed upwards. Because it's not super wet, so it's not all going to
spill out into the dome. It's just going
to gradually have the smooth edge to it
rather than a hard edge. And you can really see
now the darkness in pigment contrasted with the
lightness of the sky there. When painting
buildings like this, it's best to try and find a photo that has the
sun behind like this, so you've got a very
strong silhouette and all the buildings are in shade rather than complex shadow. Because when everything's
in a one shaded area, then you don't have
to mess around with complicated shadow
shapes because it's all in shade anyway. Well, thinking of where
the building ends, trying to keep those
verticals very and not bendy. Spiky rooftop there. Maybe it's a spire
or a thick antenna. Leaving those windows white, two wheeled windows
on the main tone. You can see I've also incorporated
a bit of red in there a bit of a lizard in a crimson Just to give
it a bit of warmth. So the warmth contrasts with the coolness of
the water very nicely, I think. So blocking out. I'm trying to keep
my horizontal lines and vertical lines very clear cause I think
that's visually exciting to have them very
perpendicular to each other. Okay. You can see now that my pigments are quite thick now on
this side of the painting. But in a minute, we'll
loosen up again. We'll get quite abstract. But I do try to keep a few white spaces
every now and again. The white of the paper just to have that contrast between
the white and the dark. But we can always go back at
the end with white go go. Just to emphasize those white
highlights in the shade. I'm mixing some blue again
because blue and orange, blue and brown look
very nice together, being complimentary colors on
the wheel, the color wheel. You can see in most of this
painting when I have a wash, I start with one color, and on the other
side of that wash, I end it with the
complimentary of that color. So you can see in this
bottom corner it's blue, but in the top corner on the
other side, it's orange. And that's what keeps
it interesting. Whenever you do shading, you can look at the
complimentary colors. That's the same with
yellow and purple. You could do that,
or red and green. They're complimentary colors. But there's so many different
shades of blue and there's so many different shades of brown that they all
look nice together. Brown is basically a
desaturated orange. And orange, like I said, is the complementary
color to blue. But then next on the color
wheel to orange is yellow, and opposite of
yellow is purple. So anywhere between orange and yellow and blue and purple, they look very nice together. It's what I have in my
mind most of the time when I'm painting those colors,
those four colors, and their relationship on the color wheel. Okay.
12. Soft & Hard Edges: Trying to smooth
the edge up here. Because when you
have smooth edges, they can imply anything. But if you have a hard edge, it means there's a
certain amount of detail, you have to paint in there, and it limits what you can do
when it's a hard edge. You have to know for
certain what you're going to paint with a hard edge. But it's a bit more elusive
when it's a soft edge, so you can get away
with less details, and it just implies something. It allows the viewer's
imagination to fill in the gap. I felt like some of
these edges were too rough to to find, like I was just telling you. So I just roughened
it up a bit by using the tissue and
rubbing of the brush. Just keep it a bit more eusive. An atmospheric, if you think
about fog and atmosphere, it's all very smooth
and Not very defined. I'm making this bit darker here because if you look carefully
at the pencil drawing, there's a guy on the boat on the gondola and I want to make sure I paint
him dark enough, so I'm going to use
that purple both for the building and the man.
That will be clearer later. So we've painted
the buildings now, pretty much finished that, and we brought it down
to the water level. And if you squint your eyes, you can basically see the buildings as just
one big silhouette. We have a few abstract
markings that imply buildings. As it dries, bit by bit, I'm adding a few more pigments to imply architectural
things or buildings, but they're just random. They just imply it rather
than actually define it. So just coming to the stage
of finishing this building and seeing what else needs to be done before we move to
a more abstract phase. I always like adding a bit of abstract to my paintings just because it creates
a burst of energy. And if something is too direct, it's not So captivating,
it's missing something. It may as well be a photo. I'm not trying to convey
some sort of realism. I'm trying to capture the way something feels,
not the way it looks. And I feel like adding a bit of abstract markings to
it really helps that. So this is some guash
that I'm using now, white guash mixed
with yellow cha. I have in a separate pan, but I'm also using pure
white guash as well. And this is while the paint
and paper is still quite wet, so it's still got a
soft line and it's bleeding out when
I'm applying it. These little white lines
just imply highlights. Little reflections that
could be in the shadow. But I don't want to overdo it, so I think that's
pretty much it. Maybe you add a bit more
interest to the rooftops. And then, cleaning my brush, and let's move on
to the next stage. So I'm going to
dry it completely.
13. Getting Abstract: So that it's completely dry. Now we can start thinking
about the next stage. And I'm going to
create a kind of abstract mark on this right
hand side of the painting. And I'm going to start off by pre wetting these
areas that I've pencled in where I want
the abstract marks to be I could do it organically, but I wanted to be
a bit more precise with how my abstracts
will go, will turn out. I actually drew out
my abstract marks, I'm going to paint them in
with a bit more control. And hopefully,
I'll be a bit more spontaneous when it comes
to applying the pigments. So going straight in with the Serian blue this
is quite strong. And just moving that pigment around the wet areas,
which is filled in. I'm trying to create a
kind of drip effect, making it look like
it's dripped down. Of course, if I was
painting at an angle, then it would naturally
want to trip anyway, but I am painting fairly
flat on the table, so I have to create the
illusion of a drip myself. When I paint out and
about on location, then my easel is able to
flip onto a different angle, so I can organically
create a natural drip. But with the camera
angle, when I'm filming, it's impossible to film
when I'm changing my angle, so I have to paint flat when I'm recording classes or when
I'm painting at home. So at the top, I'm applying
a very thick pigment so that I hide the edge between this blue abstract
mark and the buildings. So it's a nice
smooth transition. Even though by the
end of this painting, we'll know it's a water scene. We're ironically
missing out the water. We're not painting the water. We're like negatively
painting the water. We'll paint the boat
and its reflection, but we won't paint
the water itself. So I'm just turning it around because I want it to
drip down the other way. Now we're going to do a
similar thing on this side. Trying to force a trip mark. I really love this color blue, the cilian blue mixed
with a bit of purple. Connect it to the top.
Using the rotation of the board just to move
that pigment around. We're really trying to
encourage drip marks here. And then, like I always do, I have to think about
it's complimentary color, which, again, is going
to be an orange. So I'm going to have to
incorporate that somewhere. Get a bit more purple in. Okay.
14. Breaking The Rules: You could actually paint
this abstract mark first and then paint
the buildings on top. There's many different ways
you can go about a painting. But this is the one that
I decided to give a go. Just using a tissue
to suck out some of that water and create a bit more texture and
interest, uneven drying. So they dry at different times and create interesting edges. So I'm going to clean my brush, and now we're going to go
to the other side of it. Maybe I'll pre wet it
just so that we have a nice smooth gradation when we start to add
this pigment to it. This is not a building. This is just a very abstract mark. So creating that soft
edge on the left of it, and now I'm going to
start connecting it down. Trying to feel my way through it rather than overthinking it. You see how we've got a nice
bit of yellow at the top, then a bit more orange, then purple and blue
at the bottom there. All complimentary colors. Now, connecting
them in the middle. Quite a thick pigument here. See, this abstract mark, it's nothing in particular. It doesn't even imply anything. It doesn't imply building,
it doesn't imply water. It just adds a bit of
excitement, a bit of expression. A few splatters of pure water. I I don't want to
overdo this part. I create a few sections
here of thicker pigment. But I think we've pretty much done with this abstract section. Maybe again, adding thick pigment where it's very wet so it bleeds out. Adding a bit more blue, blue. Just using intuition for practicing with water
color and how it reacts. Having fun with it.
Seeing where it might go. Trying to do the opposite
of following the rules, trying to break the rules
or not even thinking of the rules, having fun. But doing that to
contrast these, these more detailed areas
like the windows, Oh. Just softening that edge at the bottom of
the building here, so it just blends out again
to create that atmosphere. It just connects everything. When you have a soft
edge like that, it means everything's
connected. It's not split off. If you look at any
part of this painting, it so be somehow connected. If you look at the roof, a gradient that connects
it to the dome, There's a few exceptions
like the white highlights. They're completely isolated. But they work to
contrast to taks.
15. Starting The Boat: So I think we're done
with that abstract bit. Now, I'm getting thick blue, and I'm going to work
on the left hand side, make it a bit darker here, to create that depth, that full range of tone, and painting a bit
few more ripples on the water, distant ripples. Now, I am losing some of the pencil markings
for the boat here, but we can always restore them. Plus, when it dries, watercolor dries
slightly lighter. So we might be able to see some of the pencil lines
once it dries. It's going right to
the edge of that blue to create a nice hard border when
we take off the tape. Okay. Now, keeping it elusive where the water
connects to the building. I'm not trying to capture
the attention here. Rather, I'm trying
to paint in a way that it doesn't capture
attention and just fills the space because the main the main dome is
actually the center point. And this boat that we're about
to paint compositionally, it's facing towards
that main building. So everything that
main focal point. Painting more ripples with
the tip of the brush. That's the way we're
going to paint the water just by
painting the ripples. And only on that
left side, really, we're going to paint the
reflection of the boat. And by the reflection of the boat is basically
showing the water. The rest of it's just the
reflection of the sky. Yes. That's why painting water is quite a deceiving thing because when you think about when you look
at water like this, whether it's at sea or by a
lake or a pond or in Venice. You're mainly looking at
the reflection of the sky. You're not seeing the water, and you only see the water
when there's a ripple. Or when you see something
reflecting in the water, the reflection shows the color
of the water underneath. So I'm using thick pigument
just to fill out this boat. And it looks
complicated this boat. It's quite a few details, but I'm going to try
and keep it simple by painting it all one
tone and all one color. So we don't need to worry about mixing up the tones
in this boat, nor do we have to worry about
mixing different colors. We're basically keeping
it all dark blue. I'm starting off with
a thick black for the main boat because it's quite an easy shape,
just the boat itself. But when it comes into
painting the people and the more details on
top of the boat, or the, we're going
to keep it simple. You don't have to
worry about mixing up the tones or the colors. So I'm taking my time just
to make sure I don't go over the lines and paint what is needed to be
painted correctly. Because it can be
quite confusing with all these pencil lines. To know which bits need to be painted on and which bits
need to be left out.
16. Using Thick Pigment: So, I start with thick
pigument because it allows me a bit
more freedom because I can always just
use pure water like I am now just to
spread out that area. I can fill it in and then
use water to spread it out. We as if it was more diluted, if it was pure water, then there's only so much I can do of it before it becomes
too diluted. So I'm trying to be very
careful at that point. I want to create a
nice white highlight, so I'm creating a white line
there by leaving it out. Then painting this figure here, the man who's rowing
the boat, the gondola. All the same dark blue. And what you can
do, if you want. You can paint as much as
you can with the detail. But then remember, we're also coming back with white
quash at the end. So if you do go over
any of the white lines, the white highlights that
we're meant to leave, then we can restore
them later on. So don't be too panicky
about going over them. Starting from left to right, again, now that we're getting into the more
detailed parts of it. I'm keeping this top
bit a bit more diluted, but that's purely a matter of choice of opinion,
personal preference. It really doesn't
matter. You could start adding a bit more dark
to it now, for example. With this part of the painting, it really doesn't matter
whether it's light or dark. I do find the darker it is, the easier it is because there's less tones
when it's darker. When something's mid tone, a difference of tones is
apparent, more obvious. But if you keep it darker, then it's a bit more subtle. There's less details in shadow. So, before you paint this bit, do make sure that the
drawing is accurate, 'cause it'll be so much
more difficult to get correct with the paint brush, if the outline isn't correct
for you in the first place. So there's a little bit of perspective we're
painting on here. But again, if the drawing is
correct, it should be okay. The buildings don't
really have perspective. We don't need to worry
about that with this one because they're
just a silhouette. Now, adding a little rope
from the boat to the water. M. Do on the other side. But now, let's
sort out this man. It's a darken him up a bit. See, the background, the
buildings are a similar tone, so I need to make him stand out. And he's wearing a little hat, and he's holding
a ar or a paddle. Then on the back
of the gondolas, they have these spokse
little metal spokes and a little fin kind of
thing at the very back. Just while it's still wet, I'm still dabbing
a bit more pigment just to make it a bit darker. The heads in particular. But again, it's all one color, and mainly, it's the same tone, just a dark tone. Okay.
17. Painting The Water: Now, adding a few ripples, the reflection of that that
I'm about to paint in. A kind of zigzagging doing light zigzags to create
the illusion of ripples. On the other side, too. A bit too dark, so I'm just tapping it with a
tissue to lighten it up. Now I'm changing my brush
to another mop brush, a smaller mop brush, though, because mop brushes are good for applying large areas of pigment. And they also add a bit of texture if it's needed,
which I might want. So Just filling in this area and connecting
it to the boat so that that thick pigment
just bleeds out, and I'm agitating a bit to encourage that
smooth transition. I don't want to be able to
see a clear defined area, and I'm creating a
bit of dry brush, which also looks like a little bit of
ripple in the water. Connecting it there and
agitating it again. And I'll go in with a bit of
a thick pigment later on. Just to encourage that
smooth transition. Using my other brush cause
it has a nice pointy end. The mop brush is a bit too soft to have
a nice pointy end. And it's easier to do dry brush effect on the mop brush than it is
this synthetic brush. So now applying
that thick pigment just to have that
smooth transition. Back to that mop brush. Keeping these nice
and horizontal. Parallel with the
edges of the paper. Painting the reflection
of that man. Again, they can be
quite abstract. I mean, it's not even necessary to use a mop brush if
you don't have one. It's just a personal preference, and through trial and error, you just decide
what you may want to use and what you
may not want to use. So now that it's dried a bit, I'm adding very thick pigment into this part I've
already painted, which will bleed out softly. It will have a nice smooth edge. It won't lose its form, but it'll have a
nice smooth edge. And again, that's quite
symbolic of water. The feeling of
ripples, reflections. So I think this is quite
a intriguing composition because the viewer associates themselves with that
boat entering the scene. So I'm just trying that all
out. With the hair dryer. And now that it's
completely dry, I'm just going to
reactivate this bit here, just to pull away some pigment, lift off some pigment. So I have to agitate
it with water, a clean brush, loosen
up those pigments. Wait a few seconds, and then I'll get a tissue
and rub it away. We'll see how that looks. If I don't like it,
I'll have to pan it in. I think that's okay. Adds a bit of again, a bit more dynamic element to it by having the light on the dark and then
the dark on the light. And very finally, adding a darker edge to emphasize
that dark on light. Sorry for the obstruction. No, on the other end,
let's move it out.
18. Finishing Touches: Now, not much left to do. Just going to add a few highlights now
with the white gouache. Add a few more horizontal
lines and dabs. Just a few cracks of
lightness in the darkness. A few shimmering highlights. With my smallest brush. Painting a few vertical lines,
arbitrary vertical lines. I'm not sure what they are.
Again, I'm emphasizing a bit the horizontal lines and the vertical lines in
a kind of subtle way. Going back to the boat. With that white just to add a few more details
with the whites, where I could have been a
bit more careful before. I'm just emphasizing
the white rim of the side of the boat there. A few dabs onto the people on their shoulders on their arms. A few miscellaneous items maybe in the boat that I
couldn't tell you what they are, but they just give the illusion of a few
objects on the boat. Maybe a few ripples
in the water. Now I need a pate in the ar, and there's a bit
of a highlight, so it's going to be white. Let me finish the front
of the boat here. Again, white on. I'm not sure the names of
these parts of the gondolas, but they all have them. More is dry brushing, this white, creating
that texture. Now, a few highlights on this chap on the fella
rowing the boat. I think the edge
is a bit too hard. I want to keep him
a bit more elusive, so I'm just softening
out his figure a bit. Because I want to
imply someone there rather than directly
paint details of him. So I have to wait for
that to try a bit before I go back there
with the highlights. Go back to the buildings. Emphasizing that
highlight there, making it really bright. Cleaning up some of the edges. It's easy to take
the step a bit too far by adding too
many white marks, but I'm trying to be
subtle with Icing them. Go straight across with that. This white that I'm using
is not very diluted. It's creating texture
on the paper. I'm using the dry
brush technique here. And it does mean I have to keep on pushing her and reloading
my brush quite a lot. And I have to move fast when I want extra texture like that. So now I think we can
go back to this sky and paint the highlight
on the hat on the hair. The shoulder creeping
down his arm. That's a bit better, I
think, than it was before. And now that I'm
getting to a stage where I'm really having to
think about what to do next, and that is a sign to me that
I've just about finished. Of course, there's more
things I could do, but I'm not going to go back
and do any major details, what's done is done
at this stage, and I'll just look around
looking for minute things. Definitely not trying to
overwork anything at this stage. Maybe I'm done with
the highlights. Maybe I'll add a few
more dark low lights. And then we can call
this painting done. Then we'll take off the tape. So I'll mix some very
thick pigment in some areas that might just
need that boost of contrast. A few taps, smudge it out a bit. Just whether roof meets the building or a
few more windows. Now, I'm just going to
have one final look at it. Put the brush away, see if anything major needs to be done, which I don't think is the case. And let's take the tape off.
19. Final Thoughts: Welcome back and congratulations
on completing the class. I hope you enjoyed watching. And if you haven't already, now is the perfect
time to apply what you've learned by painting
your own en scene. When we set out to
paint this nicne, we aim to create
something that was both expressive and captivating. I believe we've
achieved just that. What's even more exciting
is that each of you has the ability and opportunity to take this painting
into your own direction. You can experiment with
different colors, brush strokes, and techniques to make your
painting uniquely yours. Throughout this
class, we've explored three essential elements of successful watercolor painting, Ts, textures and colors. I hope you now have a better understanding of how to use these
elements to create a painting that is not only visually appealing,
but also expressive. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and
personal style. I encourage you to continue
exploring, experimenting, and pushing your
boundaries to create your own unique
watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the
end of this class, I hope you feel
more confident and comfortable with your
watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes
to improving your skills. So keep on painting
and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for
watercolor painting is so inspiring and I'm honored
to be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd
love to give it. So please share your painting in the student projects
gallery down below, and I'll be sure to respond. If you prefer, you can
share it on Instagram, tagging me at Williston, as I would love to see it. Skillshare also loves
seeing my students work, so tag them as well
at Skillshare. After putting so
much effort into it, why not share your creation. If you have any questions
or comments about today's class or want any specific advice
related to watercolor, please reach out to me in
the discussion section. You can also let me know about any subject wild life or scene you'd like
me to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate
getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews
fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best
experience for my students. Lastly, please click
the follow button up top so you can follow
me on Skillshare. This means that you'll be
the first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. I'm really looking
forward to seeing all your different
interpretations of this vencin. I wish you all the best of your painting until next
time by for now. Okay.
Will Elliston, Award-Winning Watercolour Artist
