Transcripts
1. Monstera Leaf Tutorial: These lessons, I'll be
showing you how to paint a watercolor monster relief and also a Guash monster relief. Hi, welcome to this fun, an easy lesson ideal four beginners in
watercolor and guash. If you don't know who I am, my name is Lindsay and I'm
self taught watercolor. And now, Guash artist. I've been painting in Guash for about six months now and
I'm a complete beginner. I'm still practicing, still
learning if I can paint this, you can definitely paint it. I do find guash a lot easier
to use than watercolors. This watercolor lesson
is really simple. I'm going to be using some
really simple techniques, ideal for beginners. If you're a beginner,
certainly give this a go. I'm more of a
intermediate painter. If you're on the same level or you're a bit more advanced, definitely have a go at this because I found this
really fun to do. I also learned quite a lot because I was able to use colors that I'm just a little bit unsure where to use
them in my paintings. And this gave me a
really good idea of the colors and how
they act on the paper. I got some granulating
colors to show you, which are really fun to use. I thought I would use
a really simple sketch of a monster reliaf, because I think they
look really interesting. The reason why I chose
a monster relief in particular could leave big
gaps between the petals. You've got lots of white space. It's really easy to
paint each section. I'll be talking
through the brand of paint that I'm going to use. I'll show you all
my art supplies as well that I used
to paint these. I'll also let you know
what colors are used as well in the description
of this class. I'll also leave some other
color recommendations. If you don't have
these exact colors, you don't have to use the
exact colors that I'm using, just use something similar. You don't even have to
use similar colors. If you wanted to change the
color palette completely, it is completely up to you. In these lessons,
you're going to learn a range of techniques. That means how to blend
the water colors together. You'll also learn how
to paint wet on wet. You're going to learn color
blending on the paper. I'm going to show
you how you can mix colors on the paper as well. Instead of mixing
them in your palette, you can actually mix them on the paper instead,
which saves time. You're going to
learn how to blend an edge using a
damp brush as well. I'm going to show you how
to create soft edges. Then I'll show you
how to use the gush and how we can blend
the guash together. Start off with some
practice exercises with the watercolor exercises. We'll have a little practice
of mixing colors on the paper and we'll pick lots
of fun colors to do that. I'll also show you a
few different ways you can use water colors
to add texture. So I'm going to use some salt, some simple water, some inks, and that type of thing to
show you how you can get extra texture in the
Monstera leaves Sky. If you wonder what this is, this is my little dog, Sky. She wants me to play with her. She's just brought me
a little taddy dog. You want me to play, don't you? As soon as I sit on the floor, she thinks that I'm
going to play with her. She's likely when I play
with my little girls, with their board games as well. I also want this to be a fun
painting exercise for you, so don't worry about
the finished result. I definitely wasn't worried
about what color goes wear and what's this going to turn up like. I was
just having fun. And actually I painted
the guash leaf at 10:00 in the night after I
put my little girls to bed. It just goes to
show that this is a really relaxing exercise
and ideal for beginners. Like I said, grab those paints, Follow along with me today and remember that you'll
find the line drawing and reference photo in the projects and resources
area of this class. If you've got any
questions or if you need help with anything,
do message me. Because that's what I'm here
for. I'm here to help you.
2. Supplies and Colours: This has got 20 sheets in it. It's 100% cotton paper
and it's cold pressed. The weight of this is 140
pounds and it's a three size. So I've got 31 by 40, 1 centimeter block, 12 inch
by 16 " block as well. Colors, I'll be using
a Winsor lemon. So this is a really
bright, cool lemon yellow. And then I've got
my cocodonerose, slightly more of a blue pink, so it's a really bright pink. Then I've got cobalt turquoise. And I love this
color, It's one of my favorite colors,
really bright color. And then we got cascade green. And I already use this much. Think I've only used
it once for swatching, so I can't wait to use this one. I'm also gonna be
using thalo turquoise. Because if you haven't used
this, you really need to. It's the most
gorgeous color ever. Let me show you how vibrant
it is when it comes out. It's one of the most vibrant
colors I've ever used. But it's a really beautiful, bluish green. It's gorgeous.
3. Exercises: When you blend
colors on the paper, like we're going to in this
monster leaf activity, you want to make sure that
your paint is wet enough, but you don't want
it soaking wet. So I'm going to wet my
paint about this much. I don't know if you can
see on the palette. I've just added a little
bit of water. Not too much. You don't want it really thick because want to have
enough wetness in the paper so that the two colors blend together or the three
colors blend together. You can have more pigments. You don't have to have a
really washed out layer, you could have more pigment. You can see I'm taking a
bit more of my paint there. As long as you've
got enough water to actually wet
the paper enough, what I wouldn't do is add tons and tons and tons of water. So much water that
your paint is going to be floating on top of the paper. Can you see that? There's
just loads of water. You can see little
puddles forming. What happens when you then get another color with loads
and loads of water? Can you see how the water
is pushing out the paint? So it's actually flooding far, too much into that paint. Can you see how the water
is actually pushing the paint out and
causing this dark mark? You don't want that to happen. What you do want is a
nice amount of wetness. That the edge stays
wet enough for long enough for you to actually
grab your second color. And then you're going to add
the same amount of wetness. You don't want to have the
same amount of water in your second color as you
did in your first color. This is what you
don't want to do. You don't want to get one
in wash of color and then grab another very watery
mix with too much water in. Because that is going to
actually start flooding far, too much into that first color. But can you see
how that water is pushing into the because that paint has already
started to dry. You're then going to
get a harsh water mark. You're going to get a harsh line and you're
not going to get a lovely blend like what's happening here with
these two colors. Also, don't want your paint
to be too dry so that it starts drying before you've actually picked
up the other color. I'll leave that dry
for a little bit. It is really dry. I haven't picked up much
water in my paint there. I'll start getting
the other color now. Get the other color. By the time I come
back to this color, this color has already
started to dry. I can see the sheen has
gone off the paper. Now I'm going to add my wet
colors on my next color. Can you see how
now first of all, you got that dark mark where the paint is
dried on the edge. And so you're going to get
that harsh drying mark. But then also this wet
paint here is actually flooding into the dry paint,
pushing the paint out. It's pushing the pigment
out in the paint. And you're getting this
really harsh area here, which sometimes I
create on purpose. They're called blooms. Let
me show you what a bloom is. If you add a bit of water to your paint that's
starting to dry, can you see how that's
already starting to push the paint out
and it's creating a lighter area in the
middle and then pushing the paint out and it's creating a darker area on the outside. This is the example that I showed you with too much water. Can you see how all those
colors are flooding too much into each other and
creating a bit of a mess. I'll take you to my little
leaf here that I've put down. What I'm going to do
is take my wet color, this is just my naquidone rose. What I'm going to do is
just show you how you can blend those colors on an object. I've just got a
simple leaf here. I'm going to take my yellow. So what I'm going to do
is have a nice wet mix, but not too much water, even layer of water
on the paper. I'm going to take
the same amount of wetness in my next color. It's got the same amount
of paint to water ratio. You could even add a slightly thicker
mix in the first one. If I just take a thicker mix, as long as it's not more watery, then it's going to blend
nice on the paper. This is a slightly thicker mix. I did add a bit more
of the aquidone rose here to the paint. All I'm doing is just simply touching the previous wet areas. If this happens here where it doesn't seem to be blending
as much as you hoped, try not to go in with
a really wet brush and blend those colors because this color here has
already started to dry. What is going to happen
is you're going to get some cauliflower or
backends going on. I would leave it alone and if you're not
quite happy with it, you could always go over it
once the paint is dried. But first, I'm not going
to take my wet brush and start trying to blend
areas because can you see how I'm actually
lifting the paint now? I'm adding water to the paper, which is creating these
cauliflowers and back rings. And I'm just making
a big old mess. So what I want to do
is just leave that alone and just let the
water do its own thing. This is not mixing so
well on the paper. It's because my paper is not very good
quality at the moment. So I'm just using the
back of an old painting. I'm going to show
you how you can mix colors on the paper as well, which is one of my
favorite things to do. If I just add this pink here, then I grab my yellow. If I just grab my yellow
and add that to the pink, what I can do is actually
mix those colors together. The yellow and the pink is now mixed together to
create an orange. Most of the time, I don't
mix those colors together. I won't go in and
wiggle my brush around, which is what I'll show you now. I won't add my paint
to the paper and then take my next color and add the color and then
wiggle my brush around. Because the more you
wiggle your brush around, the more of a mix you get. Can you see how that's
mixing range now, if you wanted to do that,
that is completely up to you. But I find that it's a bit
more fresh this way here. I just add my first color. Then I'll go in with
my second color, and I'll just add
that to the paper. And I won't fast with it that we get two
different colors, which is, I think,
a lovely technique to use and it just looks
really interesting. You could always do this
as well if you wanted to color mix on the
paper, then you could. Let me show you what
happens if I wanted to get a brown or a neutral color. So I'll take my pink,
I'll add my pink here. Maybe I think, well, it's so much easier to
mix on the paper. I'm just going to get my green. I'm going to mix my green here. I'm going to mix it around. Can you see how that's created
more of a brown color now? Now I'll show you the difference between mixing on the palettes. I'm going to take my pink, my yellow, and I'll mix
them on the palette. I've just made an orange, then I can add that to my paper. I want to show you the
difference between mixing on the paper
and the palette. I want to mix a gray. I'm going to take my orange, then I'm going to
add a bit of blue, because blue and orange
are complementary colors, which means they're opposite
on the color wheel. When they're mixed
together, they actually create a neutral color. I'm going to wiggle my
brush back and forth. I'm going to mix this color on the paper that is now turned
to more of a gray color. What happens when I
mix it on the palette? I'm going to take about
the same ratio of paint. That's my orange blue as well. I'm going to mix them together. What I love about mixing on
the palette is you can see your color before you actually
it down onto the paper. It's very similar. You don't always have to mix
on your palette. You could always do it on
the paper and save time. You can also do a
larian technique. If you allow your
first layer to dry, I'll allow this
orange to dry first. Then if I go over with the blue, you can see by me adding the blue over the
top of the orange. Although on the outside
edges it is blue. On the inside, because
it's layered over orange, it's become more of a brown now because colors that
touch one another are going to affect the way
the result that you get. For instance, it's a
good idea to know what complimentary colors are that are opposite on the color wheel. If you haven't got
a color wheel, I highly recommend getting one. What I'm going to do is add the pink and the green together. If I just touch those together, can you see how that's making
a dull color in the middle? It's making an range,
but it's more of a dull range because this is a really bright
green, by the way. It's more of a yellow green. I'll also show you violet and yellow because those two are complementary
colors as well. When you add violet
and yellow together, you get a neutral two. If just mix those two
together on the edge, can you see how that's becoming
more of a brown color? It really is useful if you don't want any dull colors
in your painting. Don't add complimentary
colors on top of each other, and don't add them
next to each other. A good color
combination is anything that's next to the other
color on the color wheel. For instance, yellows and greens and blues
go well together. Whereas the yellow, oranges, reds and pinks also go
really well together. And another good
color combination is the pinks, blues, and purples. That is a lovely color theme and it's one of my
favorites to use. Show you how you can
use water droplets or blooms to your advantage and to add texture
to your painting. When you want to add
texture or water blooms, you do want to let
this dry a little bit. What you want to do
is just watch for the sheen starting to
disappear on your paper, which is what's happening
on this one here. This one's still got
a bit too much sheen. Then you can add your
clear water droplets. If I just add a
clear water droplet, When I've added the
clear water droplet, the water is actually
pushing out the paint. It's creating these little
marks on the paper, which is something
that I love to do. What I'm going to do
is add the water to the edge of this one so
it's a bit too much water. Instead of just blending
out with a damp brush, I'm just blending in with
loads of water on my brush, and that's going to start
pushing the paint out as well. This is what's
called a back run. These, I would say
are more like blooms, and this is more
like a back run. But you can call
these blooms as well. I don't really know. I think people got different names
for them, haven't they? But I call these blooms
these little spidery things. I love using these as
textures in my paint. And I just think it
adds lots of interest. And a lot of painters
try to avoid this. But I actually use them
to make my paintings look more interesting wherever you put these little textures. When I look at a painting, it seems to draw my eye in. So that's why I
like adding them. You can also use salt
to add textures. And salt works differently
on different papers as well. So this paper here is
not very good quality. And I'm also working on the
back of one of my paintings. So I don't know if
this is going to work, but what I want to
do is grab my salt before that paint starts
to dry completely. You want to add your salt while the paint starts to
dry a little bit. So you don't want
it soaking wet, but you don't want it to be dry. Otherwise, it won't
work. Can you see how some of the water is actually starting to suck
up some of that salt? I know it's starting to work. If I could just grab
quite a thick mixture of my chronocrodone rose and then I'll add my salt while
it's still a bit wet. This is just rock salt and you can use
regular table salt. I do find that the bigger
the salt crystals, the better the effect. But I do like using small, regular table salt as well. For teeny tiny little flax. You can see there's some
table salt mixed into this, where you get the
smaller grains. What you want to do
is allow this to dry completely before
you remove the salt. Because if you go
ahead and try to remove the salt before
it's dry completely, you're going to get smears. And I've done this
so many times. What I want to show you is if you add too much
water to your paper, I got loads of water here. And I'm going to add the salt
to the really flooded mix. The salt has started to push away the water and the paint, but you'll find that this won't work very well for
this next technique, I'm going to be using some ink. This is one of my favorite ways to add texture to my paintings, and it's a new technique
that I've started using. And to be honest,
I'm really obsessed. I love the Liquitex, Inc. I just think it's
really lovely quality. This black magic is
really nice as well. Although I haven't
used it that much, I can't really recommend
this completely. But I definitely
recommend the Liquitax. I want to get more
colors because, because I was new to Inc, I was just testing
out different brands. But the Liquitax is really nice. I've also got these
little alcohol inks, which are from Jackson's art. And I got a deep turquoise. And I used them
for the first time the other day and
loved the effect. The only thing that
I would say with these is it's got a really, really strong smell because
it's got alcohol in it. You've got that really
strong alcohol smell. I'm going to show you
what happens now when you add ink to your painting. If you're wondering
what color this is, this is moon glow and it's
one of my favorite colors. What a gorgeous color that is. I'm going to do now is just
take my ink and I just take a little dropper of it and I just drop a tiny little bit. Now it's completely up to
you how much you drop in, but that's the liqureatex, I just leave it alone. I don't fuss with it too much. Then I'm going to
take a little blob of little squeeze
of the alcohol ink. So this is deep
turquoise, this color. I'll add a few little
blobs of that. Then I'm going to take
this black magic, this is by Higgins. I'll drop that in as well. I just love playing around because the inc seems to
spread out quite far. So you don't want to
be aware of that, but I just love the amazing
texture that you'll get, especially with the white ink. I've used this on background. I actually use this
on my sea turtle in my new patrion class. If you're interested
in that, I'll leave my patrion link
down below for you.
4. Watercolour Monstera Part 1: I've already sketched
my Monstera leaf, but I've got a free traceable line drawing
that you can actually print off and use that and
transfer it onto your paper. But they are really
easy to draw anyway. What I've done is I've drawn
the veins quite thick. And the reason why
I've done that is so I can work in sections. You'll see why in a minute. The reason why I'm going to
be working in sections is so that my paper doesn't
dry really quickly. It just makes it so much easier. The first thing
I'm going to do is work with some
nice watery paint. So I've got my Windsor lemon and I'm going to start off by painting the Windsor lemon
onto the top of the leaf. I'm going to paint it
down about halfway. I'm going to rinse my brush off, Darpen it on a cloth
so it's not too wet. And then taking the
thalo turquoise, I'm going to just
touch that lemon. Allow those two colors to
blend into one another. Then I'm going to
paint the rest of the shape of the
thalo turquoise. Can you see where
those two colors are mixing into one another? They're actually
creating another color. You just get so much variation
with this technique. This is one of my
favorite techniques and the reason why I love
water color so much. You can see that I'm just
allowing some of that paint to bleed up into the
leaf. Don't mind that. I actually love that. Look, I'm going to rinse my brush off now. Can you see now? I'm not worried about working on this shape because it's such a small shape. I can take my time with this. I'm going to take
the cascade green. Now, this is a beautiful color. If you haven't used it before,
I highly recommend it. I think it's a
granulating color. But this is highly
recommended for working with landscapes
and now I can see why. Because it is such
a natural green, there's not many pre
mixed greens that you can get that are
natural looking. I do find that with
pre mixed greens they can be a bit right
and natural looking. So I'm just going to paint that. Then what I'm going to do
is rinse off my brush. I'm going to take
the winds or lama because lemon and green, green and yellow always
work nicely together. I'm just going to paint that
right next to the green. I'm just taking some
of the green with me, allowing those two
colors to mix together. You can actually
wiggle your brush around if you want it
to mix a bit more. I'm just going to paint the
lemon in this one area. Might actually paint the
lemon down here as well. Then I'll rinse off my brush. Now I think I'll
take the turquoise. I'm not even thinking
this through, I'm just doing what I
feel in the moment, touching those two
colors together. This is the cobalt turquoise. Now, when those two
colors mix together, they're going to create a green. I'm going to actually mix those two colors together
on the paper. Just wiggling my
brush back and forth. And then with the rest of this, I'm going to paint in that
to case just on its own. I love this, honestly. It is the aqua
elites by Princeton. And this one is a size 12. It's a long round brush, but I love it because it's
the one brush that I've got that just comes to the
most beautiful point. You can get some really fine
details with this brush. I'm just dabbing my
brush on a cloth. If you're wondering
where my brushes go in so far, I'm really
impressed with this paper. It's blending lovely,
sitting nicely on the paper. I haven't got any
ridiculously bleeding edges, which is what I get sometimes
with non cotton paper. Yeah, I'm loving this paper. So far I got the
ronacodone rose now. And you want to be
careful that you don't mix the green and the acodoneer's because they're
complimentary colors. When those two complimentary
colors mixed together, they actually create a
neutral like a gray or brown. If you don't want
any dull colors, try not to let the complimentary
colors touch each other. That's the green and the pink. I've got the
Ronacrodone rose now, and it's quite
watered down because roacrodones are very vibrant. They're very pigmented,
which means that they've got lots of color in them and
they're very vibrant. That's why I've added
lots of water to this. What I'm going to do is
just rinse off my brush. So I've got nothing on my brush. Now, the reason why I'm doing this is because I
just wanted to have a variation in tone, which means the light
and darkness of a color. I'm just using my
clean brush now. I'm just going to paint
in this area here. Can you see how that's
really light now? Just adds a bit of variation. It's a really simple way to make your painting
look different. Instead of picking up or having to choose loads
of different colors. Now I'm going to add
the lemon yellow, because yellow and pink
together make a range. So those colors are
always going to be, those two colors are always going to work nicely together. I'm just, I'm going to actually paint it all
the way to the edge. I'm just painting it to the tip. Then what I will do is
take the conacodone rose. I'm going to drop that in. The reason why I'm
doing that is to hopefully create
an orange color. You got a different color
going on on the end. Can you see how I'm
working my brush a bit. So those two colors mix
a bit more on the paper. I've created an orange. Now that's great, you've got
a different color again. This is the thalo turquoise. Now, painting on the
thalo turquoise, see, I've got quite
a lot of water on my brush, to be honest. I do want to have
quite a wet brush because I want the edge of this paint to stay wet for long enough so that I can
add another wet paint next to it so that
those two colors blend into one another. I'm really impressed
with this paper. Can you see how I'm
getting some lovely, crisp edges so I've got
no bleeding going on, which can sometimes happen
with non cotton paper. Take the yellow now, and
I'll just touch that to the edge of that turquoise. This is the Winsor
lemon going on. Now, if you can hear
anything in the background, my two little girls
are at home now. They're downstairs playing on their ipad with
their big brother. My brother, my son
is 18 at the moment, he's at home because
he works part time and he hasn't
started Uni yet. He is going to start I'm not
going to see much of him. So he's going to be in Uni part time and then
working part time. I'm hardly going to
see him. Bless him. I'm going to dip my brush
in my water jar now. So I've just got some
clean water on my brush. And I'm going to blend that edge out to make it nice and light. I'm doing the same what I
did earlier where we've just got a clean brush and we're going to have some
lighter color. I'm not going to go too
wild with this now. I'm going to take
some turquoise, I think take some
turquoise and I'm going to touch to the yellow, allow it to bleed
in with the yellow. If you're wondering about
the consistency of my paint, it's a mid consistency. I would say it's about 70%
water and about 30% paint. It's not really thick paint, it has quite a lot of
water mixed into it. I'll show you the
consistency in a minute in my palette once I've
blended this out. But can you see how it's such a good idea to actually
paint this in sections, and those lines in between
allowing me to have the sections or the
smaller sections so I can work on
them for longer. This is the consistency of
my paint in my palette. Can you see here, I've
just added a bit of water. I'm going to take the
thicker paint now. I'm going to drop that into the edge just so we've got a
darker turquoise on the end. You're going to have a
range of different tones. Then you've got the
turquoise on the end. And then the light
turquoise at the bottom. Just going to give it lots of
visual interest like that. I take the cascade green. Now let me show you
my consistency. So I got the cascade green. All I do is I have a little
blob of the thick paint, and then I'll just
drag out my wet brush. That's the consistency of
the paint that I'm using. At the moment, it
is quite watery. I'm going to start from this end and I'm going to try my best not to touch turquoise. Although I think if we did touch the turquoise, let
me see what happens. Can you see how
it doesn't really matter if you touch
the wet turquoise? Because it all adds
to the effect. Sometimes I do like the colors
blending into one another. So you've got that
lovely loose feel, then this is the cascade green. I love this brush. Such a gorgeous brush. It's a really lovely quality. When I actually saw someone
recommend this brush, that's why I got it
rinsing off my brush. I think I'm going to
pick up the theo. I'm going to touch the
thalo to the green. This is the thalo turquoise. And I'm going to allow
those two colors to mix. Whoops, Made a big mistake to see how I made
a mistake there. What I'm going to do
is I'm just going to take my lean tissue, it's not very clean,
and I'm just going to touch that to the paper
and hope that it picks it up. This color is a staining color. I think that's why
it's not lifting. So I got a slightly
more paint now, so I've just picked up a bit of the thicker paint in my palette. Look, you can see it's visibly
more vibrant, is near. I love this color. It's
a gorge, gorgeous color. I'll just paint that
right to the edge. See, I'm just using the type of my brush to smooth that out. What you can do is you can
take some clean droplets of water and drop them
into your drying paint. So that'll push out the paint
and create little textures. So it's going to
push the paint out and little cauliflower effects. Or blooms. Sometimes they, I call them blooms, but can
you see how that's leaving? Like a white middle. And I love using blooms
to my advantage.
5. Watercolour Monstera Part 2: I just realized that I have used the Chacrodone
Rose for a while. So I'm going to take
some Chacrodone Rose, I'm going to take
it a bit thicker. I'm just taking it
from my palette. The reason why I'm
not showing you my Chinacdone rose on my
palette is because I've got a really heavy palette to show you that I'd have
to lift the whole thing. And it is so weighty
because it's a ceramic one, It's a really heavy palette, but it's a lovely quality one, I'm just painting
that on quite thick, Accidentally painted
over my vein down the middle, but
it doesn't matter. What I'm going to do
is rinse off my brush. Now I'm just using
my damp brush to pull out the paint that's
going to dilute the paint. So we're going to
have lighter color. Can you see how that's becoming
more of a light pink now? I'm going to use this light pink now to cover the
rest of the shape. Then I might actually take some really thick paint and
drop it right in the tip. So you've got a real umbra
look going on graded wash. Use my thick paint to outline this edge here,
taking the turquoise. Now this is the turquoise
blue paint that on, it's nice and diluted. You do want to have quite
a wet brush, like I said, because you want your
paper to stay wet enough so that you can add the second color
or the third color so that those colors
blend into one. I'm going to paint that around. Then what I am going
to do is just, what? Can I take the cascade green
and I'm going to just touch that turquoise with
the cascade green. Such a lovely combination. Listen to my 0 downstairs.
It's so funny. I don't know if you know, but I got six year old twins and they're little
girls and they love playing on the ipad. Today they've been doing a
little after school club, and while they're
playing on the ipad, there's a little chill out. Now what I'm going to do
is avoid using the pink, because like I said earlier, I don't want the green
and the pink to mix. I've got the yellow.
Now, yellow, blue, and green are always such
a lovely combination because they're all next to each other on
the color yellow, it means that
they're going to mix really nicely together. Yellow and green will just
make a more yellow green. Then the blue and green
will make like a turquoise. And the yellow and
the turquoise will make more of a greenish. Well, let's see what colors go the turquoise and add
it to the yellow. See how when they're
mixed together it makes a really bright green. Let's call s. Then
I might actually add the slow blue on the end. Just real lovely popa color. The four different colors. I just think it looks
really interesting. Just play around. I love just seeing what colors
can mix together. It's such a fun,
relaxing activity. I find I got the
permanent rose now, and I'm going to paint it
onto the end of this one. I was going to
paint it by there, but I don't want
those two colors to be next to each other because I do want to alternate the colors just so it
doesn't look all the same. I'm trying my best not to have two colors the same
next to each other. Just so it looks
really interesting. I'm going to paint
that onto the end. One thing that I
do struggle with, and I have been
getting better at, is actually making
my edges smooth. Sometimes my hands shake, then I don't get a
nice smooth edge. This is something that I've
been working on quite a lot. I think it definitely
helps to have good paper. Let's put the thalo blue, the thalo turquoise,
and the pink together. I don't think I have. Let's
see what color that makes. Just touching that
pink to the blue, I can actually push the
blue up into the pink. If you want to mix those two
colors together a bit more, dry off your brush a bit, and then wiggle your brush
back and forth in the paint. I've got loads of
paint on your brush, but you can actually damp brush then to blend
those colors together. Carrying on with this
painting though, it's a gorgeous color, isn't it? I love it. When I first used it, I was like, oh, stunning. Rinse my brush off and I'm going to see what happens when you get a nice diluted lo, turquoise. You can see here that I've got a bit too much
water on my brush. And what's happened is
that's actually the water. It's actually starting
to push out the paint. If you don't want
that to happen, just try and dry your brush off a little bit so you're
not adding loads of water to your paint. If you've got a flooded brush, then sometimes it can
push the paint out and it can the paint out and cause
these little back rings. Take the yellow and I'm going to add those two
colors next to each other. You can see where I've mixed the yellow and the green
together a little bit. This color has actually
come out of very slight green, more
than a yellow. It is more yellow tones,
but it's not pure. One color combination that
I haven't used yet is the cobalt turquoise and the
pink next to each other. So I'm going to try that out. I just love experimenting. This is a really good way. I've just playing
with your materials. If you've got
certain colors that you just don't know
what to paint with, this is a really good exercise. You don't have to
paint it green. You can just use
whatever color you want. You can use a rainbow of colors. You can paint it in dull colors. It is completely up to you
because it's your painting. And at the end of the day,
you're only learning, you're just having fun and
learning along the way. So I'm just going to paint in. Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to rinse off my brush. And I'm going to use my damp
brush to blend the edge out, and you'll see why in a minute. I'm just blending the edge out. Then taking the
ronachrodone Rose. I'm going to touch that
to the blended area. So I'm not going to go
completely into the blue. I'm going to leave a little gap. But it is touching
the wet paper still. Can you see how that
blending upwards now just creates this
lovely little effect? You can also add the
pink to the turquoise. Once those two colors
mixed together, they're going to
create a purple. And adding a bit more
thick paint there, just in that corner, it's creating a lovely purple
color, like a magenta. You could, even if you
wanted to take your paint and start dropping that into the wet color that
you've already painted. Look on that, it's creating like a gorgeous magenta poker feel. I love that Gordos,
with the last one, I'm going to paint on some
clean water and show you what effects you can get by
painting on clean water. All I'm going to
do, if you can see, it's a little bit
contaminated with the pink. But to be honest, that's a bit better for you
because you can see it better because it's
slightly contaminated, it's showing up better. I'm just painting on that water. Then I'll take the yellow. So this is the Winsor lemon. I'll just drop that
onto the paper. I love wetting the
paper first because it lets you work on
the paper for longer, so you're not panicking as much. I just wanted to show you
that you can actually wet the paper first so
you've got more time. If you're in a hot climate, you've got paper that just annoyingly dries really quickly, like some of my paper
dryers so fast. This method is good
because then you can actually work on the
paper for longer. So I'm just going
to cover the whole of that in the Windsor Lemon. Then I'll take the
permanent rose. I'll just drop that in to a few areas and allow
those colors to mix. What I'm going to
do is I've just decided at the last minute I'm
just going to circle that. I'm just going to cover
the whole of that in the permanent rose or the
quanacodone row, sorry. Got permanent rows on the brain. It's because I use
it quite a lot. If you want to push the
paint out a bit further, you can just dab the
paper like this, it disperses the paint
further into the paint. I think I'll also
add a little bit of the turquoise
at the top here. But I'm going to
avoid the pink with this turquoise because
it is creating green. So like I said earlier, pink and green don't
mix very well together. Actually, I'm going to pop it down here because I
like that effect. The pink and green next to
each other looks great, as long as they don't
touch each other. Because I'm painting
the turquoise onto the yellow paper and it's
creating more of a green. Should I pop a bit of
helo into the end there? Yeah, why not do it for fun? I'm going to pop
the thelo in now. Then I'll pick up the
rose and, oh my goodness, sting the rose And the blue mixing together is actually
making a purple stoning bar. You can easily just
use a few colors, but then you can get other
colors that you might not have just by mixing
those colors together. I'm going to carefully
smooth that edge out, then rinse off my brush, because I want some pure rose at the end to start
at the end here, so we're not mixing the
colors together then. I'm just going to
touch that purple, which allow them to
mix into one another. You could always push that paint into that paint there
if you want to. Here is the leaf finished. Now what I'm going to do in a minute is I'm
going to transfer my monster relief and I'll
show you how I do it so you've got a good idea of how you can transfer
the leaf yourself. Then I'm going to paint
the same thing in Gush. You'll see the
difference then between the texture of the water
color and the texture of the G because is such
a different medium. And then we've got
different colors and stuff like that as well. If you're wondering why
I've got a piece of paper here is to
protect my paper. Because I don't want to put
the oils from my hands on my paper because then it can
actually ruin your paper. Also, I had little
palette things on there and I didn't
want to go any paint on the clean paper. I'm going to show you
some of these colors. Now, just up close, look
at that cascade green. That's gorgeous. You can see a lot more now than it's dried, it's call it little
speckles of brown in it. It's a lovely granulating color. I think I did say
that earlier tonight. I thought it was a
big granulating. And then you've got this here. Can you remember how I rinsed off my brush and then I
pulled out the paint. So I just used
like a damp brush, a damp, clean brush, and I
just blended the edge out. So you got hardly
any paint here. You've got this bit
here where I dropped in the water droplets
into the dry in paint. So you've got these lovely
little backgrounds, but I think it adds
lots of texture. You got this area here where I put the pink
and the blue together. On my left, a little gap, Can you see how the pink
has traveled up into the blue and then it's
creates like a dry in line. I love things like I
love all the things that water color is supposed
to not do. I like that. You can see here,
I've created a bit of an accidental background,
but I like that as well. So I just love the
extra texture. You've got these three colors
that are mixed together. This was the low in my gears all day,
that's winsor lemon. And then you've got
the Inacrodone Rose, which is turned into
more of an orange because it's on
top of the yellow. You had the cobalt turquoise
down on the edges. Which turned into a green because blue and
yellow Mike green. And then I got the thalo blue. And then you've got those
three colors mixed together. So there's the thalo
turquoise mixed with the acrodone rose made
of purple in the middle.
6. Gouache Leaf Part 1: I'll just show you how to transfer your drawer in
onto your paper now. So what you want to do
is take some graphite. All I do is I take my graphite and I hold my pencil
on its side like this, and I'll just scribble over
the back of my drawing. As you can see that
I haven't covered the whole of my paper
because it's not needed. All you need to do is you can normally see the drawer
in through the paper, just scribble over the
back of your drawer in. Then you want to flip
it over right side up. And make sure you don't
turn it upside down, Like what I'm doing right now. You can actually put it
upside down if you want, but I'm going to do it like
this just so you get an idea. And then what you
want to do is take a nice pointed pencil,
nice sharp pencil. Trace over that outline if you hold your paper
flat with one hand. And then trace over the
outline with your pencil. I'll show you in a minute. What that does is it actually transfers the drawing
onto your paper. So I won't show you the
whole thing because you should get the gist
of things here. But if I just holds the paper with this
hand really firmly, I can actually lift up the paper just to see
if it's coming out. Can you see how that's actually
transfer in my drawing? Sometimes. Depending on how thick your paper is or
how rough your paper is, sometimes it doesn't
come out that well. You do want to have
quite a lot of graphite on the
back of your paper. Try your best not
to press too hard, because when you press hard, it creates grooves in the paper. When you create
grooves in the paper where you put that paint, it's going to travel
into the grooves. You can see I'm just
moving my hand along. I'm just making sure that my
paper stays nice and flat. Let's have a go at painting
the Guash leaf now. So I'll be using a range of
Windsor and Newton designers. Guash and I'm going to be using my little
stay wet palette. I do have a little ceramic
palette as well that I use sometimes for guash
this pink I love, it's an opera rose, which is a fugitive color. And that just means that
it fades over time. But I love opera Rose. It's such a beautiful neon pink and it's so punchy
and bright that I, I just can't help
myself using it. And what I've done is I've
mixed it with a bit of white, so it's more of a
creamy pastel color. I love adding white to
guash because it just makes that color look more
creamy and a bit more opaque, which means a bit more, sorry, less see through. You can see me here using white. So I'm just adding those two
colors next to each other. And then I'm just
wiggling my brush back and forth to try and mix
those colors together. I'm using a clean,
damp brush here to try and sort of blend
those colors together, which worked really
well actually. And you'll see that some of
that white is actually being picked up on my brush and
traveling into the pink. I'm not a complete expert on using guash because
I'm quite new to it. I've only been using it
for about six months now. So I'm still learning, but I don't know what it is. I find something so relaxing in watching Gh colors
mixed together, especially when I use white. I want to talk about this
next color that I'm using. This is acrylic wash, and I'm brand new
to acrylic wash, This is actually the first
time that I've used it. I've only got a few colors
in the acrylic wash, but this color was
mixing magenta. I used a little bit
of white with this. It's a bit lighter than it would be if it was in the tube. I'm going to add it to
the top of this leaf, and then I'm going
to take some pink. This pink is acrylic wash again, and it's the Lumi Rose. I have mixed this
with a bit of white, so it's a bit paler because the Lumi rose is a
very fluorescent pink. It's gorgeous, but I didn't
want any neon colors in this painting because I
just thought it might look really unnatural
and a bit too bold. I'm using a damp brush here to try and blend those
two colors together. But acrylic wash
is harder to mix. And it's harder
to blend together because acrylic wash
dries really quickly. It's not as creamy and as sort of pliable as it is with
the traditional gush. You can see me here trying to reactivate my dried
on acrylic Guh. I'm wondering why I couldn't
activate it until I realized that actually acrylic Groh dries within
about 15 minutes. I'm such a donny
doughnut that I was trying to actually reactivate
it while it was dry. On the palette, excuse
my camera **** there, I've got a new
camera and I'm still trying to work out
the settings on it. That turquoise at
the top of that leaf was the peacock bloom. And that is in the
acrylic guash again. So the acrylic, uh, that I'm
using at the moment is by Turner and I'm actually
loving that brand. It's the first time I've
used Turner acrylic guash. But it is really lovely
quality actually, so I'm really pleased with it. This yellow that I'm using
is permanent yellow deep. So this is in the
traditional guash. It is the Windsor and
Newton designers. Guash and I mixed this at the
bottom with a bit of white. So I'm just taking
zinc white is a bit more of an off white compared
to the permanent white. And I do have both. I believe that quash might
do a titanium white, but I'm not completely sure. The ones that I've got are the permanent white and
the zinc white. And I do prefer the
permanent white, but the zinc white is sometimes
better for mixing colors. So if you want to do some
color mixing on the palette, I did read that the zinc white is sometimes better for mixing. So if you want to
mix your colors, but you don't want a huge, drastic change in the color
tone or the color at all, then you zinc white,
because it changes the color less than the
permanent white word. Permanent white is more
of a bright white. But I do love permanent
white, To be honest, I do use the permanent white more for adding details or like layering over the top of the dried guash rather than
mixing the colors together. This bright pink is the
Opera Rose on its own. And you can see now
why I love Opera Rose. It's such a beautiful
bright pink, isn't it? And I was just taking a
bit more thicker paint, so that's why it looks
a bit darker there. And using a damp brush to blend those two colors
together carefully. So some of those or some of that yellowy color was
traveling into the pink. But that's going to
happen with guash. And then this color at the top, I believe was spectrum red. I probably picked it up by accident because it's not
one of my favorite colors. It's a bit too dark for me. I am more of a sort of
bright colors girl. I really love my bright colors. Although I do love
like dark colors, like indigo and paints gray. But I'm not really
much into red. So I don't know why I
picked this color up. It would have been by accident. And then I'm taking my white. So this was the permanent white. You can see how
bright this is now, and I'm just mixing
those colors together, using it to lighten that
pink in the middle. You don't have to do this. If you like the color
that you've put down, you definitely don't have to put white over the top of it. But I was just experimenting and seeing what new
colors I could make. So I was having lots of
fun with this and then just using a damp brush and blending those colors together. Just take your time
with this and have fun, use it as a relaxing
opportunity just to chill out and play
with year art supplies. Because I certainly
had fun with this, some of these colors
I've never used before. So I just wanted to
paint something really easy and something that I
could relax to in the evening. Like I said earlier, I actually painted this when my
little girls were in bed. So it was really late and I
found this really relaxing. It really made me wind down before bedtime,
which was great. If you're wondering what this
color is, this is indigo. And it's one of my
favorite colors. I love indigo. Not only is it an
amazing darker color to use rather than black, but I just love mixing it with colors. I
love it on its own. You can see the difference
between the top area, which was the thick guash
with hardly any water in. And then I've rinsed
off my brush and I'm just using a more
diluted version. And then at the bottom there, you would see me adding
a little bit of water. So some of that
water was sort of traveling up into the
guash and creating like a back run or a bloom or a cauliflower or whatever
you want to call it. And then I was
adding some white. So that was the Zinc white. And then I've got my
Cadman free orange again. And the reason why I
put orange here is because blue and orange
are complementary colors, which means the opposite
on the color wheel. And they help each other
to pop off the page. So they were really
nice together. In combination, if you want to use them in
the same painting, they do work lovely together. But just be aware that
complimentary colors help to dull each other down. So if you mix these
two colors together, they will create
more of a neutral, like a brown or a gray. Or they'll help to
dull each other down. So if you add the
blue to the orange, you get more of a
dark, dull orange. You can see that I'm
using my brush here. So this was just a clean
dump brush and I'm just trying to blend the
blue and the white together, which can be a bit tricky. You do have to practice this
technique and like I said, I'm not an expert,
but I was having so much fun with this,
I just couldn't stop. This one is my new color. So this is Rose Iran. I don't even know if I'm
saying that properly, but the top area, I added white to it. And then this
bottom darker color was the rose Iran on its own, which is a beautiful color. And then I took the
peacock blue and I added that to the
section as well. I just think these three colors work really lovely together. Not only does it
give me the idea of what color palettes
work nicely together, but it also helps me to realize if colors don't
look nice together as well. I'm just using a damp brush here to blend those
colors together. And you can see that
the blue layered over the pink makes
a beautiful purple. So I've taken away
that color altogether. And that wasn't on purpose, it was an accident. If you don't want to
take away your color, all you need to do is
just let it dry a little bit and then you can take that color again and
layer it on top. Guash is re wettable, which means once it's dried, you can take wet paint
or water and re wet it. Next we're going to paint the second half of
the guash monstera.
7. Gouache Leaf Part 2: Let's paint the second half
of the Guash Monster Relief. Now this color that I've
got is the Opera Rose. Look at that gorgeous color. I just love it so much. And if you're wondering
what brush I'm using, this is a smaller brush. So I think this was a size
six that I'm using here. I'm just adding
some purple here. And I'll find out the color for you now because I
can't remember. I honestly don't know how I
forgot this color because it's one of my most used
colors in my watercolor set. It's a Windsor violet. So, like a dioxazine violet. And it's a beautiful
color, isn't it? So I'm just using my damp brush here to blend those
two colors together. And because the violet
was mixing over the pink, we were getting more of a
magenta color in the middle. And I'm just using a
clean, damp brush here, just wiggling my brush
back and forth between those two colors and trying to blend those
two colors together. I love traditional guash. It is really easy to blend and I just find it
really relaxing to use. So this color, now that I've
got, is a bright yellow. And it is a primary yellow in
the designer's guash range. So I love this color as well. It's a beautiful,
bright primary color. And I've also popped on the bottom here my
opera rose again. So you can see that
this is probably one of my most used pinks. I love it so much. I just, I'm a sucker for bright colors. Adding those two
colors together, you got that gorgeous
orange in the middle. And I'm so sorry, you can't
see the bottom of this. I totally didn't notice that it wasn't being
filmed at the bottom. So you'll see me moving
my camera up in a minute. You can see more of
that shape there. So I just added a little
bit of white between the yellow and the pink and
mixed that together, so you've got more
of a peach color. This is my primary blue and it's probably my most used
blue in my palette, only because this mixes so
well with other colors. It is the perfect primary blue. And then this gorgeous
turquoise color I just got from mixing
the peacock blue, which we used on the left. And I mixed it with a little
bit of the primary blue, so it's a bit more
of an off turquoise or more of a teal color. I've got some white
now on my brush. So this was the permanent white. And I'm adding that to the blue. I like to touch those colors together while
they're still wet. Because although quash
is a rewettable medium, I find find it so much easier to mix the colors together while those colors
are still wet. I've just got such a love
for Gush because I find it a really lovely low
pressure medium to use. Because I don't have to
rush what I'm doing, because I know that
it's rewettable. I can easily layer
on top as well, so if I make a mistake, I can just layer on top. So that's the reason why
I love wash so much. You can see at the
top of that shape, I just mixed a bit of white
with the primary blue. So there was a light
blue at the top. And then I'm just
using my damp brush and I'm blending the white
and the blue together. You totally don't
have to do that, but I like to have those
colors blended into one so you don't get
that line in the middle. I don't like to have
that harsh look of the line in the middle. And you can see here, I was struggling a little bit to blend those
two colors together, But just take your time. Use a damp brush. Try not to
have an overly wet brush, because if you do, you're
going to dilute the paint and you're also going to
add blooms to the paint. Which means when you add water or too much
water to the paint, it'll start pushing the paint
out and you'll get that like white or lighter inner. And then the dark paint
around the outside, I'm adding some of
the pink together, so this was my loomy pink
mixed with the white. And then I got a
bit of rose Tian, so that's the darker pink. And then I got some white then. So this is with the
white on its own, and I'm just adding it
on the end and it's just naturally picking up a little bit of
the pink with it, so you've got more of
a pastely pink color. And then taking my damp brush, I'm going to try my best to blend those two colors together. Like I said, I am new to this, but I had so much fun blending the colors.
It was so much fun. I really relaxing. I'm going to take my primary yellow now. So this is a beautiful
bright yellow to use. And I'm going to add
it to this shape here. Can you see how those
gaps that we've left, the veins in the leaf just helping us to work on
section by section. It just means that we
don't have to rush. We're not going to run the risk of touching colors to
one another that we don't want to touch
because there is quite a big gap in between. You'll see me a bit later
on taking my erasor and erasing some of the lines
that are left in between. You could paint right up
to your pencil marks. If you wanted to take off
the pencil altogether, then you could not
paint over the pencil and just leave a little bit of space so you can take
your eraser later on. I'm using some white nuse. This was the zinc white, and I'm adding that and you'll
see me in a minute taking a damp brush and really blending
all that color together. And I love the effect of this. So I wasn't really worried about taking that
white into the darker orange. I just loved the
fact that I used a damp brush and really blended that color
out and took my time. I prefer to not have that
look of the line in between, so I preferred that
I used a damp brush and just really took my time to blend out that color properly. You can use a smaller brush
for this if you want, or you could use two brushes. So what I like to do sometimes is use one brush for painting and then one clean
brush for blending. So I've always got
a nice clean brush, so I don't have to
rinse off in between, and it just stops
you from picking up too much water and adding too much water to paint
that way as well. This brush, I believe, was my Da Vinci Casaneo,
which is a size six. It's a really lovely
quality brush, but it's not one of my favorite
brushes for watercolor. And that's only because
I just prefer to have a really fine
tip on my brushes. So that's the reason why
I'm using it for my gush. Because if it gets ruined, then I'm not going to be
too upset because some of my watercolor brushes
are quite expensive. I've got that peacock
blue at the bottom there, and I just added a bit
of white next to it. So here is a damp brush, and you can see, actually
I've added too much water. There was a bit too
much water in my brush. So use a cloth or paper towel and just dab
your brush on that, and that will blot off
most of the water, so you don't add lots
of water to your paint. I was adding a bit
more of the orange, so that was the
cadmium free orange mixed with a bit of the yellow. And I've got more white here. I wanted to blend out
that edge a bit more. Next step, I'll show you
the finished monster leaves next to each other and also
go through your project.
8. Final Thoughts and Your Project: Well done for getting to the
end of this class today. I hope you had fun and
learned lots along the way. What I would love you
to do now is upload your monster leaf upon to the projects and
resources area. You'll find that tab
underneath this video. If you followed
along with me today, we would love to see those
finished monster leaves. I would also love to see
you go away and practice these techniques that you've
learned on other subjects. Whether these be simple shapes,
simple leaves, flowers, animals, anything really,
it is completely up to you have lots of fun
blending the colors together. And remember to share
those paintings with us, because it gives other students
lots of encouragement. It also gives students other ideas of what
they can paint as well. And I love seeing
your paintings. It gives me lots of
encouragement to make other classes
because I can see how much you're
learning and how much you're enjoying these
classes from me as well. If you want to help me out
and say thank you in any way, the biggest way that you
can say thank you is by leaving a review on my class. So if you just go to
the review section, you can actually leave
a review for me. And that would help
me out massively. If you want to see
the finished Monstera leaves, I'll show you these. Now, on the left, we've got the watercolor leaf. And you can see the
difference between the color, so the water color is
more transparent and it's a bit more washed
out. But I love it. The textures that
you can get with watercolor is just something that you can't get
with other mediums, and that's why I love
water colors so much. And then with the guash, it's a bit more transparent and a bit more creamy looking. So you've got all those
beautiful colors, and you've got some
colors in there that just look so different
to the water colors. I love how these
look side by side. They're so bright and colorful. And actually I think I'm
going to frame them. Happy painting and I'll
see you soon, bye.
Lindsey Dawn Art, Watercolour Artist
