Realistic Illustrations Made Easy: Watercolor Bird & Florals

1. Introduction: Have you ever wondered and amazed at several true to life renditions of botanical and animal body art, and thought how they really achieved this dramatic output with watercolors? Have you ever felt intimidated and skeptical if you can create them too? Then this is the right course for you. What if I say that you can achieve the same effect with very less time and effort? Curious to know how? Welcome all, I'm Ezhil Aparajit, an artist and art educator from India. Having graduated with a degree in zoology and also a masters in computers, I've been so fortunate to have a mix of science and technology in all aspects of my life, and working in IT for more than two decades and also parallelly running my weekend art school for more than 15 years, have given me a balance and also an interesting mix of tech and art. I teach several mediums, watercolor has my heart always. My go-to subject is always nature inspired ones which helped me to reconnect myself with science and nature. In this class, we will be choosing a subject that's inspired by nature. We will study and create a realistic portrait of a bird, accessorizing with loose florals. This class is relevant for beginners, intermediates who are familiar with watercolor techniques and also professional artist who wish to experiment and also explore this type of style. A highlight of this course will be to bridge the gap between loose style, free-flowing techniques, along with the scientific and realistic illustrations. You will learn how to choose the main subject and also the most important part, composition, along with sketching bird parts and also floral composition, choosing the color palette and steps for the first layer made and final layer with details. Anything related to nature, birds and animals always ignites my passion. I feel truly blessed and extremely happy to pass on the knowledge to you all. I'm so very excited to get started. Let's dive in the world of flora and fauna. [MUSIC] 2. Class Project: We're going to create realistic bird illustration of the clues florals. In the end, you will be able to come up with your own creative ideas and create them by using the techniques learned in today's process. There are so many occasions when you would have seen a true life, scientific or botanical portraits or animal and bird illustrations and would have felt, how can I create such realistic look and feel in less time with an easy approach? No. I'm going to show you how exactly you would achieve those effects in a simpler way with considerably very less time than the scientific illustrators usually spent. To begin with, we will try different avenues to get inspired to choose the subject to paint. Although I have already selected a bird subject for this course, once you learn this technique, you can apply to any bird illustration. The Himalayan Monal is the subject of this course and the reason is simple. It's such a mesmerizing, magnificent avian creature found in top heights of the snowy Himalayan range. It belongs to the pheasant family to which all the beautiful peacocks belong to. This bird is not explored much in paintings, especially watercolors, like the peacocks. With these metallic iridescent feathers, exploding colors and light this is a brilliant choice for our painting, giving us great choice to explore the limitless color tones and values. In this class, we will cover how to choose the subject, look for inspiration, composition and the layout, sketching tips, watercolor techniques, which will be like a quick review, understanding the different parts of the bird portrait, Himalayan Monal. Then we get into the watercolor, actually the first wash, mid layers and the Monal final details. Finally, we'll wrap up that, adding a loose style style. A basic understanding of watercolors would definitely help but I've got you covered. There's a glimpse on watercolor technique used in this project, which would help all with no basic knowledge to get started. Aren't you all excited to get started? Then next, let's discuss the supplies you will need to get this project on. 3. Supplies: [MUSIC] Let's talk supplies here. This is always something all artists, beginner, professionals, always feel so excited about trying. But beyond this excitement, this is the most important crucial feature which can make or break a tasteful creation. I'll categorize all of these into four, the last one being all other extra accessories that you can find at home. The first and foremost, which is very important, is the paper. Three hundred GSM, so you can just find it. Three hundred GSM paper is very important. In this one you can see that it is rough. This brand is Arches, where we also have the hot-pressed, which is a very smooth texture. You can see this one, it's almost like so smooth. This is perfect for all these details. This one, the rough texture, this one has a lot of grains. This is best for landscapes and if you want some textures. Even far and further I have tried, so this really works well. You also have one of the most sort after one, which is the cold-pressed one. Again, as you can see, you can get these in different sizes and dimension. We will be sticking onto A4, and I will be painting the bird portrait in the cold-pressed paper. You will also be requiring some sketchbook for rough practice like the bird parts, so some 130 GSM or 150 GSM should do fine. Now, the next one, the most important supply which is the colors or pigments. As you can see, I have placed all different brands like selenium, Daniel Smith, one of my most favorite brand, and also this Winsor & Newton. This is a professional one, and this is Cotman, which is the beginner one, and I also have Van Gogh. These, I have organized in my palette in such a way that I have these blues and violets here, and all these yellows here, then the red and pinks here. I have not included green. In most of the cases I'll be mixing green or you also have a lot of ready-made greens that's available that you can go ahead and use it. For this particular project, we'll be using predominantly cobalt blue or cerulean and phthalo blue. You can see this one here, I will also produce this color chart. Then we will be using orange, sap green, then emerald green. You can also mix these greens or you can also get the ready-made greens that's available. Then the burnt sienna, burnt umber, and one of the most favorite one is Payne's gray. The Payne's gray also, which adds that dark shades all over. Then lemon yellow and violet. All these, you can use either of these brand or you also get in already made. This one is the White Nights. You also get these ready-made pans. This is very good and really cost-effective also. But I normally squeeze in all of these paints and arrange it according to their color. You can just create this color. These are very important. You can just use the color wheel to choose the actual color palette, so what would you be using for your main subject and also the floral accessories. Now coming to the brushes. These are the paper, pigment, and now the brushes. This one we'll be using predominantly the round brushes. Again, you use variety of brands like Silver Brush, Princeton, Rosemary, and a multitude of other good brands. This one you can go for any decent brush brand with a Size 8. This is Size 6 and then Size 4 and 2. This one, if you're doing a bigger wash of the background, you would require also this flat brush like this, otherwise, a small flat brush. This is predominantly I will be using. This is also called as the scrubber brush. This one we can use it for lifting purpose. These brushes should do good. Now comes the other accessories that you would be requiring. As you see, we would require some two pots of water, one for cleaning the brush and one for wetting. It would be always good to use two pots. Otherwise, like I also use water bucket like this. As you can see, there are some grooves. I prefer more than the glass jars, so this one where I can clean the brush also then and there. Then you can have the rag cloth or some towel, which would be really helpful, and of course the kitchen towel that you can use, it comes in handy. Then for all these sketching and other purposes, we can use the regular HB or H pencil and eraser, and if you need some scale, sharpener. If we will be doing some background, we would require this masking tape, but in our case, we wouldn't be requiring because we are not going to do the background. We're just going to use the bird along with the florals. This is the supplies and this should do good. Of course, load off your interests and love to paint. Let's get started, folks. 4. Choose a Subject: [MUSIC] Let's choose the subject now. More often, we postpone and put off our painting endeavors mostly due to this reason, unable to decide what to paint or to choose a subject that will please and at the same time challenge our skill level. I'm here to guide in choosing just that, to effectively select a subject to paint. Let's get started. Before we check the sources for inspiration, let's consider some parameters to think about while searching and choosing the subject. Choose a subject that invokes your interest. When you choose a subject that you love, more likely you will be inclined to finish the painting. I'm a nature-inspired artist, so any subject that revolves around florals, landscapes, animals, birds always excites me. If you look at all my collections, I will have ideas based on the same. Choose a subject that is based on your skill level. If you're a beginner and wish to do a fauna art, then focus on a section instead of the full view. You can check this peacock in full view from head till the tail feather. It might be an interesting subject, but it might be slightly difficult for a beginner. Here, you can see the same peacock, but we're focusing only on one part. The portraits really work well for the beginner for the same reason. Here, you see, you might want to attempt the peacock portrait, this one, rather than the full view of this peacock. You can choose the subject based on the color palette. You can see the same peacock example here. Yeah, I'm a fan of all of these pheasant birds like peacock. You can choose some bright hue like this, royal blue and rich green. Based on the color palette, you can choose a subject. Or if you're really interested, you can go for birds with a monochrome palette also. Something that you always have to remember while choosing a subject is to award some different and difficult angles. Take an example of this one. See, you can notice that this particular, this hind view, the front view, and the beak, it looks quite short, but it might not be the actual size of the length of the beak. This is called as foreshortening. Also, the placement of the eye that you can see, these are also quite tricky. As a beginner, you might want to avoid these types of different view. Also, you have to avoid initially at least birds with some preys or some eating poses, they might not be like an optimal posture to start with. You have to start with a subject that gives a good exercise for all the techniques and also pleasing to work with. If you are a nature-inspired person like me, you can go for florals or animals or birds, but all of these are the pointers, whatever I have mentioned so far, it's all subjective. It all boils down to one's own preferences. Where are the sources from which you can choose from? There are so many places where you can find your inspiration. Now, these are few of my favorite sites where you can get royalty-free pictures that you can use as a reference. My go-to place first and foremost would be Pinterest where I've created several mood boards of the subjects that I'm interested in. You also get in various sites like Unsplash, where you can go ahead with some keywords that you can choose from, as you can see. They have beautiful high-resolution, good-quality images, which are royalty-free too. The same goes with Pixabay. Pixabay is also a wonderful website where you could get high-quality picture. Here, I've given the keyword as bird portrait, and you can see the portrait view, the bird's view till the neck that you get, which I mostly work with. One more place like where I frequently find a lot of inspiration is the Instagram. This is my page. You can see all my artwork mostly is based on nature-inspired theme like birds and animals. I also like to save some images that I find in the Internet and I have several collections. Now, I have curated all of these bird pictures and portraits under this birds folder. This is the one that I'm currently working with, that's the plum-headed parakeet. Such gorgeous creations, and most of these I've already created as an artwork. You can go to Instagram. You can also go to Facebook where you can find some groups specifically for artist, where they can get some free reference and you can also request those photographers for specific pictures that you're interested, and usually you get a response within a few minutes with beautiful, royalty-free images. Let's go back to Pinterest and see what we have in store. The subject that we're going to do in this session would be birds, so let's see the birds. Again, you can see several colorful birds here. For this session, typically, I have created a subsection which is pheasants, this is what we are going to do. Here, you can see all the birds that are predominantly ground living. They don't fly much, but yeah, they have the flying capability, but they are just like heavy ground-living birds like hens, chickens, partridges, and peacocks. See, of course, our favorite peacock. I have done several peacock portraits in full view. But look at this here, what we have here. Such a gorgeous beauty, Himalayan monal. They have such luminescent, iridescent hues of feather. These are such glorious beauty to paint, not just for their charm, but also it is a challenge and good exercise for our painting skills to bring out the tonal values that you can see here, and various colors in this metallic hue. Normally, what I do is I save my favorite ideas in a separate pin. I have created a separate pin over here for the mood board just for the Himalayan monal. If I'm working, if I want to select this, I'll create a separate tab entry as you can see that. I have also downloaded these pictures and I've saved it in my local machine here. As you can see, these are all good quality, high-resolution pictures. As I told you earlier, look at this attractive male and a subdued female here. Such a gorgeous beauty, isn't it? Look at their striking eye. Something that's very important in all the garden animal portrait is to get the expressive eyes. Don't forget all those three tones that you can find it here. Look at it, this was the mating down that I was talking about. The male has to attract, but if you look at the surrounding and the females, so they almost like merge with one another. That is the beauty of creation. Let's choose a portrait reference from this collection that I've got. I will also be sending these pictures so you can find this reference in the download section. This typical size [inaudible] neck would work really well. Look at this majestic look. So [inaudible] neck. Of course, they have this blue and violet tone mixed here. I guess still this one, it would make a really good composition along with some loose florals. If you want to try out with some blurred bouquet background like this or something else, that's up to you, but I always find this combination of loose floral and realistic illustration, it has worked really well. Look at the beautiful, gorgeous blue and orange. These are monal in flight. This would make a separate lesson by itself. Pinterest. Where I also have a separate board for my florals. Now, the style of these florals will be loose freestyle, unlike the realistic mono, this combo of different styles adds a charm to the composition. This best suits for a beginner who can effortlessly and efficiently add these floral elements. But if you happen to be a seasoned professional artist who love to depict these florals in a different way, including some tonal value shading or ink, or some realistic levels, you can go ahead also. But whatever be the choice, ensure that our main subject, the bird, doesn't lose the focus. These poppies, you can go for the same color family. The mono is blue in color, rich royal blue. If you want to go for a different shade of blue, that, again, would be nice with a monochromatic finish. All these complementary colors like the sunflower, or some orange peach peonies, or this cosmos flower, so this will be pretty good again. If you want to still have a muted floral composition, then you can go for these white flowers. You can always go to my Pinterest, I'll be leaving the link. You can just check my Pinterest boards. I think for our composition, we'll go with the sunflowers along with the monal. You can also see these eucalyptus leaves which are different from the regular one. I think we'll go for this combination, that's what we will be doing next. We have to decide on the composition which we will be seeing next. What we have seen over here is we've picked the subject, which is a beautiful Himalayan monal, along with the floral that we are going to add as an accessory. This is what we are going to do. We have finalized the subjects, and next, let's get onto the composition. 5. Composition: [MUSIC] Let's move to the most important aspect of any type of painting, the composition. This involves arranging the various elements of your art in an interesting and intriguing way. Now that we have a main subject, Himalayan monal, a close-up portrait of the bird, we can either add an abstract background or add other elements like floras, leaves, or other accessories to enhance the composition and make it look finished. Now that we have our main subject, the Himalayan monal, a close-up portrait of the bird. We have already seen these complimentary some flowers will look really good, the greenish-blue hue. All these type of blues will also look much better with the monal. A tip that you can keep in mind while composting the painting is never to overwhelm the primary subject. In our case, this is going to be our monal. This already is a beautiful subject. The flora should be like an add-on. It should complement the main subject, but it should never take the focus away from the protagonist. Let's add some sample flower arrangement around the portrait. That can be done. How do we do that? Either you can use of some digital programs. In this case, in my iPad, I have Procreate. I've already loaded this monal. Here, choose any brush and you can compose some flora elements around it. This is not a very difficult composition because it's not like a full-fledged scenery or a landscape where you have several elements. This one is pretty much straightforward here. I just have like one single bird, which is at the portrait level. With this space that we have, we can add some flower. Say, for example, we are going to use the sunflower over here. Maybe on one side, we can keep the sunflower and some filler flowers with some leaves or buds. The same thing goes here. If you want to keep multiple, I can keep. Maybe I can have some sunflower over here also. Some flowers like whether it could be like some flowers or it could be any other flora leaves and other fillers that you want to choose, you can do it. Otherwise, this is one way. Another way is like instead of doing all of these, just at the both ends of this monal, we can also do it from this side. If you want one from the bottom here, another one with the leaves and some flower which is coming from the top. This will also complement. Always if you want to keep something like this archway like this, where you can arrange all of these flowers. That can be done. Or if you want to keep one here and some bunch of flowers here, you can do it. You can have several compositions in some digital software like Procreate, or Photoshop, or even the basic Paint, or anything that you have in your device. Otherwise, we can also do it traditionally. In this case, let's have this here. Now, what I normally do is I have several thumbnails. You can use your sketchbook for this. You don't need to have your watercolor. This is going to be a portrait. In this, keep arranging for some element. As I told you can have your flower arrangement here and also here, these opposite sides and have some leaves or fillers here. This actually looks pretty straight so we can make it a little curved also. Now, this one, as I told, you can have it like an arch. You can have some flowers here. You can have it in several different layouts. It's up to you how you want to do it, like add some leaves. Again, the same thing here. This is just a rough one. [LAUGHTER] We'll go to this sketching phase where we'll do the actual sketching. This is just for the composition. Or we can have the flowers here and here and maybe two or more flowers. Thinking about this eucalyptus leaves, those things again, we can do it with other fillers also. Keep doing different thumbnails like till you are satisfied and happy with one of the compositional layout and use that one. Most of my arrangements would be like this. If you pick the fox for this example, it has a very nice orange. For there to complimentary would be this blue. I've used this blue and this is absolute, I didn't sketch anything beforehand. Just I wanted to have a simple flora. The blue with some sap green I have included. On contrast, if you see this beautiful colorful hummingbird, one of my favorite. This is a very colorful bird. I've also given equally colorful floras here. Again, I have taken floras from several references here. This I wouldn't call it really loose. I also have used the reference, but you can see that I have given some muted tones. It's not very bright popping red, or pink, or something. I won't have the highlight. The highlight has to be given to this hummingbird, not to the flora, so I've kept it a little muted here. Now, if you take this example, again, one of my other favorite, the lion and its cute innocent cub. I want to keep it very simple and soft here, so I have opted photo. This is already muted. The dull brown and yellowish peachy stone of the lioness and the cub. It's already muted, so I wanted to keep it much more simpler and soft so I have used these white floras for this. This one, it's also the same color of the lion, but still it has, again, a very innocent eyes. It's again in the same colors. It's not a very attractive or a catchy color here. I have kept some nice complimentary over here on which is your blue and also some pink and orange over here. This one here, as you can see, again, it's a beautiful colorful peacock. Here, this is mostly blue, so I have kept a lot of flowers which are quite not so opaque, but it's very transparent and simple, but it's a colorful one. I have one more peacock, but it didn't have flowers. It's just a peacock. But you can note here that the eye of the peacock is something very important along with these feathers, also these shine and everything that you see. For any animal or bird portrait, the eye is something that's very important. Here again, one of my favorite, king fisher. Here again, it is all blue family. I've kept some orange and pink here. Now, here comes the monal that I've done way back that you can see. Hope you can see it here. This is just a monal. There's no flower over here. Again, the eye is popping out here along with this crown and this blue. This is not a portrait, it's almost like a full view of the bird. What is very important is to get this sheen and the luster of the feather of the monal. The crucial step in painting and drawing, which is the composition, spend more time in various composition and ideas as a practice. Use all of these simple thumbnails that you see. Use this pencil sketches to arrange and rearrange the elements to be used in the final painting. This is what we did right now. We will be using this type of the composition. Either the arch or the flowers on both the sides with the monal in the middle. Next, what we will be seeing, again, another crucial step before we actually start our painting, which will be the sketching. 6. Sketching: Okay, we are at the sketching phase right now. I'm using Arches over here. So I'm using the cold press. You can see that 300 GSM, and it's like pure cotton. This is a bigger one. This is the A3 size. So what I have done is, I have just divided the page over here. I've used the masking tape. So I've used the masking tape. This is really not mandatory. If you want, you can use it. I have used it for this reason that when we use this model in the middle. We can have this sunflower and the petals close to the edge and it can form a clean edge like once you take off this masking tape. So you can use this one up to your choice. Otherwise, if you want to just keep it loose completely loose, I don't want to clean it, then you can go ahead without that. Since this is a bigger one, I'm going to cut it so that we have enough space so that you can also view this sketching clearly. There are different ways to sketch. Let's see some of the commonly used methods. Some of the commonly used methods that we have for sketching is using a trace; using a tracing paper, or carbon paper, or using a grid, or else using a pencil or a divider. We are going to see all of these methods one by one. So I've got this Himalayan model that we have chosen as the bird portrait. As I told, we can use the first method, which we'll be using, the tracing sheets. As you can see, this will be acting like a lightbox where you can just keep it on this iPad directly, or also on a print of this portrait, and you can start sketching because this a tracing paper. We can also use carbon sheets like this to draw this outline and we can use it, and digitize it, or we can start using for our sketching. These are the commonly used one. There is nothing wrong in this, but I haven't really used tracing for all my paintings and portraits. I use another method, which is using a pencil to check the proportion. That's quite easy for me. If you're a beginner and you're very comfortable with tracing, you can definitely go ahead with tracing. We also can see the next method would be the grid method. I have this model, this I have loaded in Pixar, you can use any paint editor. What you can do is you can have a printout like this. Here I've taken a printout. This is an A4 sheet. I've already cut this paper also into an A4 one. You can take a printout and then divide this into multiple grids, or you can also do one more thing. If you have any picture editor, you can load your picture. So here our selection would be this particular model portrait. Here in the tools section, I'm going to the crop. Now as you can see immediately, it creates a grid line. There are several dimensions also. So default, this is the square dimension, or otherwise like if you want a portrait, you can see that it turns into some rectangles so that you can use it again. Yeah, so several options. These are the dimensions of social media. You can either go for the square if you want to have the square. In our case, we are going to use this A4-sized sheet. We'll go in for the portrait version over here if we go for this portrait version. There are nine grids over here, nine sections or the squares. Now, if you want more, all you have to do is just tap on that and you can see multiple grid lines over there. The same thing goes for this, so this will be like a perfect square. You can replicate the same thing. You'll have to draw these grid lines here according to this dimension, whichever dimension that you're using according to this particular size, you have to create that grid and accordingly draw. Another one is, you can do this. You can take a printout with the grid. What you see here, digitally, you can take a printout of this one. You have to create another grid, and you can go ahead and do this one. You can also do this print with a composed reference picture also. If you're using the Procreate or anything, that will also be helpful. Use these grid lines to estimate where each of the subject parts will be placed. The beak is here, you can see that. It is in the second column and it is in the fourth row. Like this, you can just estimate each and every part where it will be placed and you can just replicate it. Also this is time-consuming because you have to draw this grid, I have to replicate it here and do that. Something that I normally do is I go in with very less grids. Or, what you can do is you can just fold the paper or whatever reference that you have into half. You can have like one half here and another half and this other half. Typically there is nine grids. If you have that one that will be much more simpler. So same thing, you can divide this page into half and here. Divide those into different sections like this, six grids, or nine grids you can create. This will be like very few sections and halves and then you can try to capture the subject. This is something like a doable one; it doesn't consume much of the time. The last method, which is my favorite, would be using the pencil. Here I have a mechanical pencil. You can do the same thing with a regular pencil also. If you're taking this one, the print it's okay, otherwise, if you're not taking the print, you can just maximize to match the size. If this is going to be the size that you want to capture it here. Zoom in and then use your pencil to replicate. Use this pencil. You can see that, let's take the example of this beak. Now the beak is of this size so you can mark it here. Again, what is the size of the space? You can keep checking the size using this pencil. Or I find this divider easier than pencil so I keep this measurement say for example. We will use the print from here. Now if you see this one, say for example, if I have to place this and you can also make sure where exactly you have to place and also you can see that it is almost from here. From here. It exactly starts from here. If you want to go on till this one here. This is almost the same size, this is A4, and this is also A4. I have cut this into an A4 one. If you want to really see where exactly, all you have to do is you have to keep marking that, which becomes much easier. This is the place where the head will be coming. Let's measure the crown. From here, the crown is almost still here. Let's just like randomly roughly mark it. Then from here, these would be like your eyeball measurements. This will not be the perfect one, but that is absolutely fine. I find this one very convenient and easy. Sometimes I just do it with a pencil instead of the divider so you can measure it like this. This is the size of the beak. The beak is, please do it as almost to the tip right here from here. If you see this, let me take this divider. From the tip of the beak to the place where the crown is starting, so this is the measurement. The crown has to start from here. This is more than the irregular it is, I think this is needed it is very helpful from here and it is almost, the nose is almost of a tip that you can see. There is a bump. Then you have the head here. I'm going to combine two of the images that I already told you. I have this one more of spam. You can see this is more curvier, it has a lot more colors, but it's not so clear and it has a shorter beak and I like these eye. Of course, this is of more clarity, but this around the eyes is very nice and it also has a deep brown. I'm not sure if you can see in the video. But it has deep brown eyes that you can see here, and you can see the heavy black color over here. Pigment off that beak, it fades away, then it goes near the tip. As you can see, the upper portion of the beak, it just curves right on top of the lower beak. I think the lower beak, goes inside that on the upper one it almost covers that. I'm going to combine both of these together. That's where I've got the brand, but this clarity of this one, these feathers are amazing here in this one. The highlight of the eye is the most important part of any bird, animal, or human portrait. You have to make the eyes expressive. Which has to convey a story or it has to talk to you. Even just looking at a very static picture, you should be able to see the eye talking to you. Always keep the three tones in mind, which is the mid-tone, and also the dark tone that you have. If you bring it all of these three tones, you should be able to get very nice expressive eyes. Here, Here just like fully drawing only that. Yeah, with this, we can wrap up the sketching. I made the eye a little bigger. Let's wrap up this one. Once you have done this, we can just go ahead with the next module. My usual go-to method is the last one that I described using this pencil or the dividers. This is very helpful, very helpful if you want to get into this freehand sketching. That's very important. But if you are someone who's like an all freestyle illustrator, you can start with the colors using your brush strokes. But if you are a beginner completely, you can use one of the methods that I have already described, using a train or a grid. But if you really like to draw those freehand sketch but with some little guidance, then I would suggest this one using this pencil to have the eyeball measurements to capture the subject. Choose the method, whichever you're more comfortable with. Now let's jump to the next module, which is watercolor techniques. 7. Watercolor Techniques: [MUSIC] Here we come to the most exciting part. Getting started with watercolor, main main medium. Though I have painted in sketched using several other mediums like acrylic, oils, pastels, gouache, charcoal, whatnot, watercolor always has my heart. It's such a versatile medium which has a mind of its own. As water can be controlled, watercolor flow and run at there free will, like a little child. All we can do is just to manage the flow and create absolutely stunning effects. The output that we get it, usually not just our effort, but also of this lovely medium which can fell vast areas with such an ease. It would definitely help if you know to paint watercolor already. But if you are an absolute beginner, not to worry, I've got you covered. Let's try to go through few important watercolor techniques and implement it in our project. Now, there are several watercolor techniques that you can learn when you are a beginner before you actually venture into a big project like portraits or scenery or whatever it is. It's always better to learn some of the basic techniques. There are so many techniques available, so I'm going to cover some of the important watercolor techniques. We'll be mostly implementing all of these in our project. Now the first one that we have is wet and wet. The wet and wet, this is the most commonly used technique by most watercolor artists. Wet and wet, that is the first one, then wet and dry, dry and dry. So these are the predominant ones when we talk about the water and the pigment. You can also try other techniques like blending, forming gradients. Also one more technique that is very much of great help is lifting. right going to see all of these five techniques, wet and wet, wet and dry, dry-on-dry, blending, and lifting. If you want you can go ahead and draw those rectangles or squares, the way you want to practice. I'm fine with that. You can use masking tape also to create those squares to practice, but we're just going to see it without this quickly. This is just like a refresh up. Here, what am I doing? I'm just applying a layer of water. You might not be able to see it unless and until you can see some reflection in the video. What is important here is you have to allow this one to settle for a few seconds. This is also pure cotton paper, 300GSM paper. Always practice also in good quality paper, not some random sketch books. Please don't do that, at least for watercolor. The surface is of great importance. This one will be the cobalt. I have this dull-blue here. These are the Daniel Smith color. So now you can see how it spreads beautifully. This technique that you see, where the water guides the pigment throughout and you get a very soft and beautiful finish, this one will be the wet-on-wet. You would be able to see the dripping, you can just guide them. You can have several layers. That is the advantage of pure cotton paper. It has this water on, so it is still wet. You can see after these many seconds the cotton paper gives that moisture. Again, it depends upon the place and the climate. It depends upon the weather also. It is still wet. This is your wet-on-wet. You can use this wet pigment on a wet surface. This might be directly on the paper. I had applied the pure water on the paper. This is underpainting and it is still wet. Now I want to give something on top, like this. Now this is also a wet-on-wet technique. This is the tallow blue, this is the same blue that I'm using. You can see that soft finish. This will be of great importance while you're doing the bird portrait. The first few washes, we'll be using this wet and wet. Now the next one that we have here will be the wet-on-dry. Let me take something else. This one, it is the wet pigment, but that's on a dry surface. This also gives us a nice one. When you are doing the feather, fur, or some florals we can use a combination of this, but this wet-on-dry. This one is also quite important. The paint would be really wet, but the surface is going to be dry. This again, it could be on an underpainting that is completely dry, then on top we want to lay the details of the feather. That technique is also wet-on-dry. Either it could be a dry pure paper or dry underpainting. Now the next technique is quite interesting to create some beautiful textures. That's called as your dry-on-dry. Let me take some of the color. You can see that my brush is almost dry, so just moist. I'm not loading any water also. This is a dry surface and I'm almost having the dry pigment. Can you see that? Look at the texture. It brings out the texture of the paper beautifully. This one, again, you can do it on the plain paper or this is especially useful when you're doing some texture. Say for example, the bird has a texture. some of the feather you can define, but some you want to just bring out the texture. The paper texture also plays a role. This works really well with rough texture or the rough pressed or this one, the cold pressed also works fine. Look at that beautiful texture. This one is called as the dry and dry technique. So these three are the most important techniques. Wet and wet, wet and dry, dry and dry. 8. Additional Techniques: [MUSIC] Now let's go to something else here. This is Quin Rose so let me use this one. For that it would be nice for the blending if we have some wet surface so I'm just going to wet the surface here. [NOISE] I have got this Quin Rose. Here you can see that, of course this is such a beautiful pink. This is Daniel Smith, the Quin Rose. This is Opera Pink. See talking about the colors, if you have this, this is the tallow blue or some yellow, which is that gamboge yellow. See blue, yellow, and deep pink that is good enough to create millions of color combination. Not necessarily that you have to have the entire thing, you can just go ahead with just the three basic colors. Here the primary colors would be like what? The yellow, blue, and red. That's what they say. But there [LAUGHTER] is another tip while you are in this watercolor feel for such a long time. More than the red, pink plays a great role for these types of combinations and to capture millions of other color. Here I'm using this orange. It will be nice if you are giving this harmonious colors. These are the colors that are present in the color wheel. Always for this blending, you have to keep wiping off otherwise the previous color get it over. Now the last one is lifting. Lifting might not be so great. Again, it depends upon the paper. Also about the pigments, some pigments are staining. Some of the pigments are non-staining. If it is really staining pigment it is pretty much difficult to lift. Now for this lifting I'm going to use a flat brush over here so let me take my flat brush. Either you can just lift it from the fresh paint that you have. Of course this is a yellow so this is not so. From very light color you can still lift but if it is a very lighter shade, you might not be able to see this so clearly. Let me just use this one here. Now you can see this. You have to keep taking off the pigment on paper so that you always have a fresh brush bristles. This is a very useful technique which is called as what? Lifting. You can also use this clean edge. If it is still not wet you can also create some thing like some extra so you can see that right. If you want to bring that, you can also use the fresh tissue. Maybe for clouds in all it is very, very helpful this type of technique, lifting technique. Now, see this is completely dry. You can also use this technique here. It should be a damp brush and so slowly, don't damage that surface. Slowly if you keep doing. You can see that? You can also use this, the fresh tissue. Don't use that stained one, but you can use this tissue. This one is the last and a very, very useful technique which is your lifting. The more deeper the color, the lifting will be more successful. If you have a very light color like this one, yellow, it might not work. You can see that very clearly. Now this is your lifting. Though we have several techniques in watercolor, it also depends upon the paper texture, the pigments to achieve these effects on an optimal level. A tip here or a trick that I usually try is to try these different texture paper like cold-pressed or hot-pressed, rough-pressed. Example the dry on dry gives the best output on cold-pressed or rough. Lifting can work well with hot or cold-pressed and also non-staining pigment, as I told earlier. Now for our project, we will be using mostly wet and wet and also wet and dry. Of course on lifting we'll be using. Another tip is to check for the water pigment ratio. Now if this is not right, we won't have the best expected output. Throughout the demo, I'll highlight whatever is the best ratio to follow for various other techniques. Now that you have seen these techniques, try to practice and explore more on various combinations and get comfortable with using the watercolors. Now, don't forget to use the 300 GSM cotton paper even when you practice, as I told earlier, which will definitely help to boost your confidence with great output. 9. Creating Your Palette: [MUSIC] If you see this reference picture of the model, it has several gorgeous colors that are like a rainbow. I've created small pieces of these colors that I usually try with various techniques and they are really fun to do. You can try that as well and you can see this color wheel. You can have these color wheel handy whenever you want to create actual project. These colors can help you a lot. Let's make our palette ready with the required colors. Usually we need to start from the lighter one. If it's a watercolor, we usually start from the lighter tone to the darker values. When it is watercolor, and if it's some other opaque medium, like, gouache or acrylic or oil, you can start with very dark and thick opaque layers and you can build those light on top. Since it's water color, we have to maintain the transparency. Always work from light to dark. This will be the sap green with a little bit of that yellow. [BACKGROUND] This should be little bit more deeper, so you can adjust that water and that ratio. Then of course I have the orangish shimmer coat to the side which is more like that yellow also, and of course you add blue. This is the cerulean blue that I have. Oh my God. This is the direct pigment. I should have a little lighter tone on that. Then of course I have this very dark Payne's gray. Payne's gray is nothing but a bluish black or gray. This one is a combination. This is not the actual original gray. This is the almost that color palette that we have. Let's do the first wash. 10. First Wash: [MUSIC] So let's get started. Before we start, I have given it quite dark. What I'm going to do is I'm just slightly going to dab because if you have a very lighter segment, and the watercolor is transparent, we will be seeing the pencil marks. Not that it is wrong, it's okay to see your pencil mark, but if you want to have a clean one, let's just take off. This kneaded eraser is very handy, so just dab, no dust nothing, so you get that lighter tone. I'm just going to apply the base color. I'm applying with the quite thick more brush here. Just apply the water. Wet only the areas that you will paint immediately, as depending upon the weather condition in the country where you live, your paper can dry faster, and it also depends upon the paper's quality, the cotton paper, pure cotton paper, it can hold it for a longer time. So now I'm going to wet the surface except the eye. Here in the place where I live, it's not very hot. I guess the paper will retain the water for some time. The first foremost thing that you see on top, this is dominantly green that you see and a little bit of the blue that you see on that side. The first wash it's going to be really light. There was some dirt. The watercolor will flow like that. Don't worry about it, don't worry. It isn't beautiful the way the water flows. It is so therapeutic. It almost has that peacock's color here. [MUSIC] This is a very deep color, this cerulean, you can see right here. It's quite dark, you have to be really careful. Always keep in mind that this becomes a little dull a little later. Yeah, once it dries, the colors will not be so vibrant like this one. Now I want to try this, so this is a different type of hue. The blue comes here and this is the cobalt one. I have this red. Here I have to give that pure black. Either you can use this mixture, [NOISE] this dark blue and this one. Otherwise, you can use the directly that Payne's gray. I have the Payne's gray in a separate palette here. This is white nights, I have it like pans. I'm going to put a little of Payne's gray here for this mixing with that green, so it is like a greenish-gray. This contrast is something that's quite important. [MUSIC] So when you have to draw some straight or proper lines, you just press your brush against the paper and that's it. There is a little bit of blue here. I just think I'll keep it like this because you can see that there is one more which is of a completely different shade here this paper on top. So far this first layer has worked out. This is the first wash that we have given, doing, identifying, and checking the first one. To quicken the process, you can use a hairdryer, but ensure that it doesn't make the color flow out if it's too watery. So great that we have get started with this Himalayan monal. The first wash, that's the most important step to initiate and so getting started with our creative project. Now let's move on to the next step, which will be to add the mid-layers. 11. Mid Layers: Here we are at the next step of adding the mid layers, where we create various tonal values. This is the transition phase where we can slowly see the subject coming to life, but not just yet. But we are going to just do some basic three layers. First wash is done and then the middle layer that we are seeing now, and then we'll go to the final details. Of course we will fill this beak and also to some extent the crown also. Because this doesn't need multiple layers, one or two layers, that is good enough for this. This will be part of the final details also. Let's mix the dark colors. Now what do we want to do before we start with this dark color is that I want to lay a very delicate wash for the face, neck, and also the body. To do this, we have to do it very, very gently. We should not disturb this underpainting. It should be a very gentle wash with water. Because I want to have that smooth finish again, I don't want to have hard edges. This type of wash is also called as the Tea wash. I'm applying this water. Be very careful. You can dab the excess onto a tissue or rag. Let me just cover the entire thing, but it might dry quite quickly. We have to be also quick enough to fill those mid layers. You can give a few seconds for this to settling. I'm not touching the aorta beak. It has to be like a damp, it should not be like dripping, wet or moist. As you can see, it's pretty dark. You can do section by section also. Maybe we will finish the face and then you can carry on with other parts. I'm just trying to lightly, gently mix it up. This is fine. Now in the middle, I haven't applied anything, I think we'll apply a very gentle wash of this reddish tone that we have. We had mixed all of these colors earlier. When the green and blue mixes, it doesn't create a lot of issue but when you want to mix the green and red that's when you get into some issue because of course, like [inaudible] they are opposite to each other in the coloring. I don't want these, I just want like smoothly because the excess water that is there near the wet area will naturally flow into the dry area. That's when you have that cauliflower effect or some people like that. But if you want to give a smooth finish for this, you can just avoid it, you can just get your brush onto that one. This one, I'm making it a little light because the midsection, maybe we can do some florals, which is getting covered in this one also. Now this is done. Now you can see the contrast, it's done. You can see that these two sides, and also here, it's all done. Now next to the final detail, we can have the eye, crown, but we'll do the feathers here, to some extent the V-shape feathers. Let it dry for a few more minutes and then we can go ahead with that. This one, I've taken a little of this Payne's gray, which I'm going to use it for the beak. This beak again, use this beak that is there in this one. Don't worry, I'll provide you with the line drawings so you can have an idea how it is done. It's spreading too fast. This is an indication like if you want to really try, it's an indication that it's like a puddle of water, too much water than that one. You can then to just likely dab and get that. If you see this beak, it's predominantly this gray and it's spreading quite fast. Don't worry if you have that, we can always define it, not an issue when it is still wet, we can still define it. We have to build up this mid tones like this, we have to add the darker tones to bring up the contrast. You can see that the [inaudible] is lit from the right side. In this one, this picture, if you can see, it is actually lit from this right side. This is almost like glistening, you can see that the feathers are really like having that shimmer effect. We have to do all of these dark on the opposite side. Also note that to create a shimmer, or like a luminous lustrous feather or fur, we need to darken both sides, that is like one tip. If you want this to be like glistening or gleaming, these two sides, you have to make it dark. Same thing if you want to make this one as gleaming one, you have to make these two quite dark. This is applicable to all the shimmery lustrous objects, we need to lay light and dark tones right next to each other to create this effect. Now I guess this one is almost like getting settled here. I'll remove my excess paint, I don't need so much, I'm taking off this excess also. Now, what I'll do is just redirected. I'm doing everything with the 12 number brush, if you're confident with the big one, you can use it. Otherwise, you can use size 6 and 4, that we will be using it anywhere when we are doing the final details. We have to draw this one small lobe, white bit also over here. Let it dry and then we'll do the other part. I have to also have some white thing here because there is a ridge here which is connecting the nose on this. Now, this is almost pretty much dry. We'll start with the v-shape, the feather pattern. I'm going to add a little bit of brown there to get the coppery thing. As you can see, this is the neck actually. You can see that this is, so here something that you have to keep in mind while you're doing these feathers, you have to observe that pattern that you see here. This v-shape feather structure of the plumage. We can use the mid-tone colors for this now and later, so once it dries we can again add the dark tone to provide the shadow and depth that we can do it. A good trick here that I can share with all of you here is, we don't need to spend countless hours replicating each and every pattern that you see. Each and every feather by feather, pattern by pattern exactly. All we need to do is understand this pattern like how it is. What is the shape? What is the size? Especially where the size is changing. Here the size is small but it is still the same v-shape but the direction is also different but here it is pointing downwards. But again, it is a v-shaped one but the size is bigger. One more thing that you have to notice is where the pattern is changing, the directions are here, everything is downwards and here it is like going side. Typically it is like in the horizontal and the curve or the sideways that is going. This v-shape is small in the face and sides and bigger in the neck and much larger on the body. Also observe these patterns and different size and spacing, so whether it is fur or feather. They cover according to the contours of the body. When the contours say for example, so this one is like changing the contour or the edges of the body so it keeps changing. After observing all of these features, size, and direction and the pattern. We don't need to keep cross-checking the reference image, I don't do that. We're not taking a photocopy, we're not doing an accurate scientific illustration. Unleash your artistic liberties and be free to quickly fill the pattern in your own way. That's what I'm going to do. I'm mixing the sap and the viridian green here, so this is quite bright as you can see. Now what I want to do is I want to do a very mild wash because see, these are appearing quite like an outline. We don't want to do that. I'm using this water. I'm doing a very, very again, a gentle wash. We can define the shadows a little later in the final details. It's like we are applying a light wash on top of that so that it becomes like one with that body. I'm not disturbing so much but like if it fades off, we can erase the last dark lines there. This one as you can see it starts from here. These are the v-shaped feather, so that is going on in this direction. For this it would be better to define the shadow instead of these feathers that at least so what I'll do is, so the shadow is little darker. Let's mix this Payne's gray with that green and blue. We can define those outlined. This is again like the v-shaped one. This one again, it may not be 100 percent accurate. Once you get that pattern to an extent, yeah, so we can go with that. This can be under the details section also but I'm doing this one as a mid-layer because we have still more rather features that needs to be completed in the final section. Again, so this pattern as you can see, so this goes on and it goes like this, it's curving like this. As you can see, the mid-layer to some extent like we have got it, so we have built like one more here. We're almost like halfway through. Now, the next one that we have to do is the final details where we'll be doing the nose and the beak, eyes and crown, and add the shadows and shade the darker patterns for the body. Let's move to the next one, the [inaudible] final details. 12. Final Details: [MUSIC] What are we going to do here? In the final stage, we're almost completing it here, so let's finish the feather first. We already have created these V patterns that you can see in the previous session, mid-layers. Now let's make it three-dimensional. If you want to make a 2D into a 3D the most important feature to implement is the light and shadows, tonal values, and contrast. See these differences in these tonal values are the one that makes the difference. Let's do that now. I'm using a size 4 brush, so for these details size 4 or 2 brush will be just fine. [MUSIC] Now we're almost done with the feathers, these feathers, so let's do this neck feather also. Now the neck feather is also the similar v pattern but it is much more smaller and the direction is again facing downwards. It's not so clear here. It's a very, very tiny v-shaped pattern that you can see. [NOISE] Here dominantly, I'm mixing this brown and the blues here, so the cobalt and Mediterranean. [LAUGHTER] Sorry. This ultramarine blue. At any point of time, if you feel that these lines that you are giving is too much looking like some border or it's not looking like a three-dimensional pattern, you can always reduce the intensity of these borders or these final details by just going over the entire area with a small wash through the mid-level when we did without disturbing the underneath one, we can do a small light tea wash very gently, so this will put everything together. At any point of time always please remember that you don't have to copy exactly piece by piece or cell [LAUGHTER] by cell, you don't have to do that. You can always indulge in your own creative dimension. Here again, as you can see, I'm combining two pictures. [BACKGROUND] This one, and this one, so little bit of this here and there, it'll be ready. It's [BACKGROUND] exactly your artistic liberties. [BACKGROUND] [MUSIC] Again, we are doing the negative space here, so there are some highlights. Or you can use your white acrylic as I told you earlier. Otherwise, if you want to just build layers and not choose so much of white, I normally don't do these white gouache or any other opaque medium unless and until it's not so possible to just continue with your watercolor. Otherwise, I'll just stick on to the watercolor, so it'll be a pure watercolor, but you don't have to if you're a beginner if you feel that these are going to take a lot of time, so you can again switch back to a white gouache. You can just add these dots instead of filling the entire thing and leaving those dots, so you can definitely go with your white gouache. Maybe I'll add this gouache to this one to have that. This is the same thing here, so through the beak, that is white. Be very careful with this black. You might keep your hand on that and it might be quite terrible [LAUGHTER] having this black all over. This is the place where we have the attachment as you'll see. [NOISE] I've just lifted something here. This beak is getting attached to the head or the face with this ridge. [MUSIC] Here again, we're doing a little bit of that reshape or that elongated one and also this negative space painting. I'm just marking the place where the shadow or the space beneath that feather. The feathers or the fur is the one which is going to take all our time. Using these steps, as you can see, you can considerably reduce the time and the effort that it takes. We need that shape and size correct, but we don't need to exactly replicate like a photo, so this one will definitely help. So go over the pattern, check for that size, and also check for the change in the direction of the feather. [NOISE] That is good enough. On the head, this will be a mix of this blue and green. Again, it is just the pattern that we have used now. Those lines that you see, and again, those negative space between those feather. Once we've defined that as I told you if you feel that it's standing out these feathers, you can do a very light gradation. Using the tea wash, very lightly, gently, you can bring all of these together. I'm just using a clean brush here. Don't go inside that dark area. [BACKGROUND] I don't want to go also here in this one. So this has to be quite listening. As you can see, this is the dark area and this is the dark area. Of course, this particular area will be quite bright. I don't have much brighter space maybe at the last end, so we can apply some whitewash or something that you can use here. Now, let's do the beak. [MUSIC] You can use a dry-on-dry technique that we have seen earlier for this one, so on the dry surface with a dry brush, so you can bring in some extra. [MUSIC] Let's move on to the feather now. I'm going to use a mixture of the tallow blue along with viridian green and sap green. So these three I have used. You can take a very light mixture of blue. Here I've mixed sap, viridian, and also this tallow blue I've mixed. This one, what I'm going to do is first do that round crown shape here. This is not a very exorbitant, open, broad crown like the peacock, but it has its distinctive style of oval structure that is like gracefully gives or adds a charm to that subject there. We have already drawn the feather pattern, so I'm just going by the same thing there. We'll fill the feather, the oval structure first, and then go ahead with the stem or the stalk. [MUSIC] Each feather is this beautiful, I would say, simple oval structure which is connected via these thin shafts or stalks, which are quite darker in color. If you look at peacock, these shafts are almost transparent or white in color, but here this is quite dark. You can always erase those pencil marks if you don't need them. [MUSIC] Now, we are almost to the last part which is the eye. Before going inside the details of the eye, let's finish off the area surrounding the eye, the diamond, this space. It almost has this deep blue texture. [MUSIC] We are near the eye and now let's get inside the eye. You need to be quite careful here because you can't really rectify the mistakes easily when you're dealing with the eye. Observe the eyes. I'm going to use the other reference, as I told. This one it has an oval small eye. Take extra care near the eyelids, use the tip of the brush to do that. I have slightly mixed some mixture of purple here, that violet. You can see that I'm going to use this eye, but a little bit more brighter. The upper and lower eyelid if you see, it's pretty dark, and there is a deep brown also here and some highlights. It does not come out so much like an oval shape or the round shape that I showed here but it has like the previous reference. This one it does come like this shape. That's fine. Let's go with a deep brown. I want a pure brown, so I'm going to wash my brush. I'm filling this brown, you can use the burnt umber with sappy old solution using this. Now, this upper part is the highlight. There'll be one pure highlight and there will be lighter portions also. I'm just going to use this black gently. Now, wash your brush and dry this color, whatever we have done already in this portion where you have the highlight, but I don't want to fill the entire thing, there should be one bright highlight, so leave the space for that bright highlight, and also some medium one. Now, in the middle portion, that's going to be the pupil, this is the iris, and the center round portion that you see, that'll be the pupil. I'm going to make it quite dark there. I'm just giving some shading, bringing the portion there. I'm going to gently use this blue that I have here to fill this one. This is not pure white, this has slight blue and violet, the same blue that I'm having there. Finally, we are done with the final touches and details. Look at this result after adding this small details, especially the eye and also the crown. It has made the painting come alive. Such a delightful feeling to finally finish off the model. This one you can see that it's a perfect combination of this and this. The beak is like this one. Almost we have got all the textures and other things. If you want to go ahead and add some white highlights to these run or to the beak, you can go ahead and add it, definitely. Also, maybe more highlight for the eyes. The eye is good enough here, but still if you want to add more, yes, you can definitely go ahead and do it. We are done with this. We can just relax a bit and do the loose florals next. 13. Adding Florals: [MUSIC] Yay, you made it here to the last segment of adding loose florals. This section will be mostly a laid-back one, painting florals around the subject mostly in a freestyle, loose style way. Let's choose the color palette first. Now, this is going to be interesting and yeah, very relaxing. We are in the final phase of adding florals. We have already seen in Pinterest mood boards where I have shown several beautiful floral arrangements with complementary colors and also homogeneous colors. I've already shown the sunflower that I've done with another monal also. I think we'll go with that one because for this blue and blue shade of green, the yellow and brown definitely compliments and it will not take a better focus. This monal, if you can see, it's a multi-hued one. We can focus on a soft and muted one. The yellow sunflowers, it has the perfect arrangement so we'll go with that. I've drawn, roughly, something here. You don't really have to sketch. You can just go by the flow. I'm going to use this dark brown in the middle. This is completely loose type of florals. [MUSIC] I'm using this gamboge around here. For the sunflower you have to do this petal so they're just like this which is like an oval shape here. Do this randomly. This is a loose type. I have also done sunflower in a realistic type also which is petal by petal and that arrangement with the center one. I have done that also but somehow the loose type of this is quite relaxing. I'm doing with a Size 12 brush. If you want, you can switch the brush and use pretty much big. [NOISE] We can also use that five-petaled floral that's pretty easy. Although we will shape one just by pressing the brushes. You can also have some inspiration from the reference pictures. We can loosely typical flowers or buds and if we have the leaves. These are typical oval shapes, nothing fancy. [MUSIC] I'm going to [inaudible] [MUSIC] Here you want to keep these florals next to this primary subject. That's quite important. You be the judge. This one, my space here is quite less because I've taken more space for this. Depending upon the space that you have got, decide how many flowers that you want to include or the leaves and how you want to do it. [MUSIC] You can go ahead and do it. Let's check, once more, the final details like if you want to enhance some features of the monal or not. There are two things. It's fine but the beak, the white portion, it has become a little less [NOISE], as you can see, in the main subject. I have taken this one. It also has quite a bit of white here and this one also it has lot of white. If you want white specifically you can use this acrylic ink which is the pH matting acrylic ink or if you have some gel pen also it's fine. I'm fine with that but if you want to add that extra white. If you have missed something and you want to add it here. Some texture that I see here. You can also use a white gouache also. That is also fine. [MUSIC] With this we are this done with the Himalayan monal along with the florals. Well, I think the feathers and other texture to monal, it was almost close to the main subject. As I told the main subject, again, it's like I had mixed both of these. It's absolutely fine so you don't have to really take a photocopy of that one. Let your imagination be loose. Especially with this loose style florals, you can add your own. You even don't have to rectify anything at all. Accordingly, if you're a loose style floral artist or botanical illustrators, you can just add any type of leaf that can enhance the main subject over here. Let me just remove this and see how this looks. But we haven't really used this one, the masking tape. Here, I just removed the tape and you can see that it looks pretty good. These floral elements are adding its own charm. This practice of combining this realistic illustration and adding some loose style elements like the florals on the background can make us loosen up and enjoy the [inaudible]. Just let go, flow with the process. Let me finish this officially now. [NOISE] 14. Conclusion: Wow folks, congrats, you made it. We learned how to do the realistic illustration and techniques, how to create it with considerably less time and effort. We learned how to find inspiration for reference pictures, compose the sketch, work with several color palettes, and use different washes and layers to get to our satisfying output. I showed you my process, approach, and methodology of doing more smart work rather than hard work to create compelling illustrations. I really hope this class inspires you to create more rewarding renditions and get out of your comfort zone. Anyone can paint, that's what I truly believe, and I'm excited to see what you come up with. Please make sure to share your results of this course in the project section. I hope you enjoyed this class and if you did, please make sure to leave a construct review. This is my first class with Skillshare, and I would be coming up with more other classes shortly. I had so much fun creating this class, and I hope to see you in some of my other classes soon. Happy creating, forks. Until I see you next, this is a Ezhil Aparajit signing off. [MUSIC]