Rainbow Safari - Paint a Watercolor Zebra Using Inspiration from the Color Wheel

1. Introduction to the Course: Hello and welcome to this course, Rainbow Safari, Paint, a Watercolor Zebra Using Inspiration from the Color Wheel. My name is aura Lesnjak and I'm a self-taught watercolor artist and content creator. In addition to my Skillshare classes, I also teach watercolor painting on my YouTube channel. I have a free Watercolor E-guide available on my website at creat with aura.com. You can find links to all of these on my Skillshare profile page. I love color and I love experimenting with different color combinations and unexpected palettes in my nature-inspired artwork, painting with unusual and phon, colors may seem like you could choose whatever colors you want to create an animal in rainbow colors. But too many colors or colors that don't play nice with each other can be harsh and jarring, and the result is Art beds and harmonious. In this class, I will show you how to use a free color wheel tool to plan and paint beautiful animals using vibrant and harmonious color palettes. For this zebra, I will show you how to use a complementary palette which uses colors on the opposite sides of the color wheel. During the preparation lessons, I'll show you how to use the color wheel to select your colors and how to mix your complimentary colors with watercolors to allow for subtle differences in hues, which will add more depth and interests to your painting. I'll show you step-by-step how to use varying values of your colors to indicate lights and shadow. And other important watercolor techniques, including wet-in-wet, wet-on-dry, glazing, fixing problem areas, and final touches. This course is recommended for intermediate watercolor painters and ambitious beginners who would like to paint animals in phon and unexpected colors. As your instructor, I'm also here for you if you have any questions or need some help and guidance along the way, I think you'll really enjoy this class and be sure to follow me on Skillshare so you can be notified when new classes are published. Get your supplies ready, and let's have some FUN painting this striking green and purple zebra. I'll see you inside the Course. 2. Class Project: For your class project, you can paint this zebra, which I provided an outline for and the link to the reference photo, or choose another animal if you prefer. I do suggest that if you use someone else's photo, that you get their permission to use it first, especially if you plan to display your artwork online. Otherwise, you can use copyright-free photos available on websites like unsplash or pixabay.com, which is where I got this zebra image for the colors, you can use the green and purple complementary colors or use a different set of complementary colors. In the next lesson, I'll introduce you to a free online color wheel tool, which makes it so easy for you to explore and discover wonderful color combinations. I will see you in the next lesson. 3. Using the Color Wheel: To experiment with your color palette, you can use a traditional color wheel or there are free and easy tools to use on the Internet. I love color.adobe.com because you can get inspired by trending color combinations. Or over on the Color Wheel tab, you can select from multiple color harmonies. Complimentary colors are those on the opposite sides of the color wheel. So if I know I want one of my colors to be purple or violet, then I will see that its complement is Green. With this tool, as you choose a color closer to the center, the corresponding opposite will also adjust. You can click on the white circle or the black circle, and that will give you the brightest values and the darkest values of each color. Clicking the different color harmonies along the side, you will get a sense of the logic of the color wheel. What makes us split complimentary or a triad, for example, since zebras are primarily just black and white, it makes sense to choose two main colors for this project, which is why I'm sticking with two complimentary colors. In the next lesson, I'll show you how I use my color wheel Inspiration and translate it into mixing my watercolors. I'll see you in the next video. 4. Mixing Complementary Watercolors: I'll be using for tube colors for the zebra and will be mixing my own Purple and Green from these colors. This gives me flexibility with some different hues and tones of the colors. Even though the colors will be purple and green, I will adjust some of the mixtures within the painted areas, making them either more yellow or pinkish or bluish, for example. All of these are also cool colors which are bright and vibrant. For the Purple, I'm using alizarin red and phthalo blue. And for the green, I'm using aqua green and hansa yellow. Remember I do have a supplies list in the resources for this course. I'm going to mix up my purple first and I don't want it too watery. I'm making tonal shifts from bluer to Pinker to get an idea of the range I can use in the painting. Checking the values from intense to lighter by adding more or less water to the paint. Now for the Green, I'm gonna do the same thing with more green and shifting to more yellow. Again, I'm adding water to see the lighter values. Now that I've tested my colors, It's finally time to start painting the zebra. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. Painting the Green Stripes: I have the zebra traced onto my cold press watercolor paper and taped down to my board and ready to paint. This is where you need to look really closely at your reference photo because it gets confusing on which are the Stripes and which are the whites. Since I'm starting with green, which is the lighter of the colors and will be the whites. My eyes play tricks on me since it's contrasted against the white paper. And I have to remember that the white paper will be where the Purple goes, which will be the dark stripes. So I'm painting wet into wet and I only pre wet a small section so that not all the paper dries before I get to it. Moving on to pre wet, the next section, working left to right I'm also looking closely at my reference photo because I do want to pay attention to shadows and highlights. The zebra is back, is lighter than towards the belly. So I'm shifting the value at the top by adding more water to the green mixture. Here we're the main starts. There's more of a shadow on the top of the Neck and the bottom is also darker and that's lightest in the center. I'm using more of the pure aqua green dropped onto the wet paper to depict these shadow areas. I could also have used a more concentrated mixture of the same green as before, but I think it looks more interesting to add a little variety of color. You can see that by paying attention to the light and shadow areas, it helps to give the zebra more of a three-dimensional appearance. The next lesson, I'll continue painting the Green areas of the head and face. So I will see you then 6. Painting the Head Stripes in Green: Moving along to the Head of the zebra, I'm repeating the same process with the turquoise in Green, painting the Stripes wet into wet. Again, I'm looking at the values and my reference photo and adding the deeper bluer values to the shadow areas on the bottom of the jaw bone to create the impression of dimension and contour. The lighter green is used for the lighter and more highlighted areas. At this stage, the greens and blues seemed to be too intense to take the place of white. But once the deeper Purple Stripes are added, it will make much more sense visually. Don't be afraid to go a little bold with your application of color Painting the back of the ear here. I'm using a smaller brush for these smaller areas and carefully painting around the tiniest Stripes. I'm adding the water and small manageable sections. Then we'll add the color. You can see that I'm making this area very wet and the water is raised off the paper. I'm adding some of my lightest values here, so the extra water will lighten the value even further, which is fine for this area. For these really small sections on the head. I'm careful not to just add the color, but making sure I'm adding it to the correct areas and not where the Purple Stripes we'll go. Now inside of the ears, I'm painting wet into wet and leaving the center of this ear with the white of the paper and letting the colors softly blend towards the center. In the next video, I'll start painting the main with the same colors. So I'll see you there. 7. Painting the Green Mane Stripes: I'm starting on the Mane by wedding each section, then adding the greens. If you are more comfortable just winning one or two sections at a time, that's fine. Do whatever is more comfortable for you. It's just important that you do add the paint to the wet paper so you keep those soft edges. I'm making the part of the main closest to the Neck the lightest and value. And adding the deeper blue-green towards the top. After I add the light green, I use my smaller brush to add the deeper color. I'm using small strokes to paint onto the dry areas of the paper to get distinct brush lines to look like the individual hair clumps. Then dragging the brush stroke either into or out of the wet area to let the darker colors softly blend with the light green. The next video, we'll be starting with the beautiful Purple hues. So I will see you in the next lesson. 8. Painting the Purple Stripes: Now that the Green watercolors are all completely dry on the zebra, I'm going to erase some of the darker pencil lines that I don't need anymore. I know that I'm going to be painting between the green areas, so I don't need those pencil lines to guide me. I have my purple mixed from the cool phthalo blue and Alizarin. And I'm going to start by painting the first layer of the, I just delight even layer of the Purple. I like to get a little bit of the life likeness of an animal before I get too far, just to help me get an idea for the expression and personality. Now, just like I started with the green, I'm going to paint the Stripes wet into wet, starting on the left side of the paper. Once this deeper color is on the paper, it makes the green looks so much lighter and appears to be more of a tinted white color than the bright green. Just like with the lighter green, I'm using more pink and the Purple on the top of the back where the light source is. And deeper purple with more blue towards the bottom. Again, I'm just wetting a few sections at a time before adding the Watercolors so the sections won't dry too quickly. The next video, I'll just continue painting the dark stripes. So I'll see you there. 9. Painting the Neck Stripes in Purple: Welcome back. We're continuing on with these Purple Stripes. And since it's a bit more of the same, I'm just going to speed the footage up a bit. And I just want to repeat that. You needed to keep making sure to study your reference photo so you know where to add the deeper shadows and lighter highlights to give your subject dimension and contour. Switching to my smaller brush for the tinier Stripes so they can keep those crisp edges. The next video we'll be completing the Stripes on the head. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Painting the Face and Muzzle: I'm still using my small brush to paint the Stripes wet into wet in these smaller stripe areas. On the bottom of the head, I'm using the deeper bluer purple, since this is a shadow area. For painting the nose and Muzzle area, I need to make sure the Stripes flow into the area without hard edges, so wet it first, then paint the stripes right into the Muzzle. I worked carefully but quickly filling in the Stripes so the water doesn't dry in that area. Now I'm switching to the lighter pink or purple to paint the Muzzle area. This is a little trickier than the Stripes to get the highlights and shadows and the right areas. I did avoid adding water to the nostril as this will get added later. Also, I left the chin dry since there's a definite separation between the top of the nose and the chin, and that will get added later as well. In the next video, I'll be adding the purple part of the Mane. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 11. Completing the Face and Mane: Time to finish the main. I wet it a little at a time and I add the paint than at a little more water than the paint and so on to avoid hard edges in this area. Now in painting the chin wet into wet as one section, it's much darker than the top of the Muzzle and I made sure the top was dry before adding the Watercolour and to make sure it didn't run into that area. Now, to add a deeper color to the Eye and using a pinkish tone at first, so it's not as dark as the surrounding stripe. Now back to Finishing the Mane. I'm using my small brush and dragging the paint into the dry green sections to give the look of more hair texture. In the next video, I'll be completing the eyes and Finishing Touches. So I'll see you in the next and last lesson. 12. Painting the Eye and Finishing Touches: Welcome to the final lesson of our complimentary color rainbow zebra. I'm going to spend some time really bringing some life into the, I remember that I did to glazes of light purple already. Now I'm using the deepest blue I can make for my palette to paint the pupil. To fix that extra surprised Look, I'm using a more watery glaze at that same color to cast a shadow on the top part of the eye. This is a shadow that's cast by the upper eyelid. I use the same color to paint the inside of the nostril and I add this to dry paper. And also for the inside of the ears, I make the Purple a little bit lighter and use my small brush again to do negative painting. Which means I'm painting the white ear for by painting around it in these strokes of dark color. For the other ear, I use one hard edge where the white fur is and I blend out the Purple softly to the other edge. This looks different because this ear is facing at a different angle and you don't see the heart edges of the white fur on that side of this ear. For the final touch on the eye, I'm using a bit of white gouache to paint a highlight. You could also use some acrylic paint or a gel pen. I'm also using another bit of blue to paint the pupil to make it darker for some more contrast. Just these small Touches really brings the zebra to life. And this is one of my favorite parts of painting Animals. I also decided that the green on the main needs to be a little darker on the bottom where it meets the Neck. I add some more water to paint another glaze of color wet into wet. And these sections, I use my damp brush to softly blend the color towards the top. Lastly, I'm using some more purple to paint some light brushstrokes on dry paper for the front of the Mane between the ears to give a little more for detail. And the zebra is done. All that's left to do is remove it from your block or your board and frame it up. Please join me in the next and final video where I will wrap up the course and suggest Next Steps. I will see you there 13. Congrats and Next Steps: Thank you for joining me on this color wheel exploration course. I hope you enjoyed painting along with me with this Watercolor Zebra or other animal of your choice using complimentary colors. Remember if you have any questions about the course or watercolor painting in general, please feel free to reach out to me and I will be happy to help. Don't forget to follow me on Skillshare, so you'll be notified when I publish a new class. And of course you can also follow me on my socials and watch my free tutorials on YouTube, or get a free Watercolor E-guide from my website at creat with aura.com. I'll links are posted on my profile. I'm really glad you joined me for this class and I really look forward to you joining me for my next one. Until then, happy painting