Sea Magic: Painting Boats and Water Reflections with Main Watercolor Techniques

1. Introduction: Do you want to capture the beauty of water reflections and the magnificent sea with watercolor? If so, I invite you to join my class. Hi. My name is Alexandrina, and I'm a watercolor artist with over ten years of painting practice. I invite you to explore this beautiful world of watercolor with me. We will start by going over the essential art materials and color mixes, ensuring you have everything you need to get started. I will show you main color mixes. We will create by using just four colors. Next, we'll dive into practice in the main techniques for painting water reflections, including wet on wet and wet on dry methods. These techniques will help you create realistic and captivating reflections on the water. Once we've mastered the basics, we'll move onto our main class project. We'll begin by drawing a simple sketch of a boat in the sea. Then we'll bring our a sketch to life with vibrant watercolors using just four paints. Whether you are a total beginner or have some experience with watercolors, this class is designed to be engaging and accessible for everyone. By the end of this class, you will have a beautiful watercolor painting of a boat and water reflections to showcase your new skills. Please don't forget to submit your painting to the class project section and lever review. It will help me to improve my future classes and for other students to understand if this class is a good fit for them. Grab your brushes, and I hope to see you in the class. 2. Art Materials and Color Mixes: Let's start with art materials. I will use 100% quantu paper by arches and for wetter colors. Ultramarine finest, peacock blue, burn Ciena and yellow ka. These colors are quite basic, except for peacock blue, and you can find them in any watercolor set. I have a ceramic palette and some paper towels. Also I will use two brushes number eight, more brush by Panux, and number six, round brush by silver brush black velvet. Some additional stuff like needable eraser, that will help you to remove the pencil sketch and mechanic pencil 0.3 millimeters by penal. Before we start painting, let me show you the color mixes and colors watches I picked for this painting. I have ultramarine finest, and it will be the main color for this painting. If you don't have peacock blue or turquoise color, it's okay because you can use just ultramarine finest. You can find a list of all art materials I use in this class and links to them in the PDF file in the attachments to this class. Oh. Now let me show you the color mixes I will use for this painting. First one is ultramarine and burn Ciena. It creates a very nice cre shade, and if you will add more ultramarine than burn Ciena, it will be like dark blue color. V n for painting water reflections and dark areas on the boat, for example. Uh, The next one is Peacock blue and Berciena. It's basically the same mix, blue and Burnciena, but since Peacock blue has green shade inside, it will create slightly different mis that I will use for also painting the water reflections. It has the color of the sea, and you can basically use it for paintings and water. The last mix is not so essential, but I decided to show you anyway because it's mix of three colors, ultramarine, Peacock blue and Burnciena. And this mix just shows us how we can mix colors to control the intensity and the shade of the color that we need. For example, I see that Peacock blue and Bernciena. The previous mix is to green, and I need something more like dark blue color. So I just added some ultramarine into the mix and it appears to be a very nice blue shade. What we will do during this class, we will mix all the colors that are in our limited palette, and in different proportions, we will get the color mixes that we need. Before we move to the next lesson, let's organize our space. I have a reference in front of me on my iPad, you can use your phone or you can print it out and just put it next to yourself. I have watercolor tubes. So if I will run out of color, I can renew the color on the palette, and I have a glass of water ideally to, so I can have a clean water while I'm painting. 3. Exercise - Part 1: Before we start painting our main class project, I would like to share some very useful exercise that will help you to master painting the water reflections. I picked a very simple potter reference that includes just water reflection. You can find it in the downloadable files under this class. And I will just draw a sketch of this water reflection as I see it. I will also use 100% potent paper in a glued pot. I use arches paper because I think it's perfect for painting water. You can also find links to all the materials I used in this class, in the PDF file, in the attachments to this class. So I'm drawing all the dark areas that I see, and if I see some spots, light spots inside this dark area of the water reflection, I also draw it. I will skip the most of the part of this sketch because I'm sure that you can dry it yourself. And we will move to the painting part. Oh. I will create a first layer with a very light mix of ultramarine and peacock blue. Mostly, it will be ultramarine, and we will use a very light mix, so make sure that you create a bigger puddle with a lot of water. I will cover the whole surface of the paper with this mix. As we move closer to the bottom, the color can be more intense. Once we cover the whole surface of the paper, I will prepare using the same colors, and I will these brush strokes that will represent the waves. I add most of the was closer to the bottom and just a few in the upper part, and I will leave it and I will see you in the next we will move to the second layer. 4. Exercise - Part 2: I already prepared a color mix on the palette. I mixed peacock blue and Bernciana. And I will use a scrap paper to try the color on the paper before I start painting. I still use my mob brush number eight, and I load the brush with this dark mix. Then I just simply cover this area of water reflection that I drew while I'm doing my sketch, and I'm just covering the shape as I see it on the reference. You can make the color more intense or add more water and make it lighter, and then you can add some also shapes of the because inside the water reflections, they are also present. H. H. In this big dark shape, I decided to make some highlights, so I'm using clean and dry brush, smaller size. It's round brush number six by silver brush, and I'm creating some highlights in the waves. But you can just cover it with color. Be main idea of this exercise is to show you how to paint water reflections and what are the main steps. Make sure that you have a clean water. I always have two glasses next to me, so I wouldn't be bothered by cleaning water all the time. And this mix of peacock blue and ultramarine and Berciana creates a very nice shade of the sea and seawater. And depending on which of blue pigment you will add, it can be more bluish or more greenish. I continue the same steps covering these shapes, moving to the right side, and I'm working from the top to the bottom. Once the two big shapes are done, I will start painting some spots around these shapes. I see that on the right side, closer to the edge, we have not so round shapes. So it's more a narrow brush strokes like lines, but lines that repeat the shape of the waves. And that's it we're basically done with this exercise. I hope that it was helpful for you, and I would recommend you to practice painting the waves and water reflections before you move to the main class project. O Let's follow up our main steps when we are painting the water reflections. First, we make a sketch of the water reflections as we see it. Then we cover the surface of the paper with almost transparent color mix very light. And working wet on wet technique, we apply some shape of the waves. And the last part is we work in wet on dry technique, and we paint a water reflections on the dry paper with pretty dark color. I will see you in the next lesson where we will start working on our main class project. 5. Sketch: Now let's draw a sketch. I will start by drawing a simple structure of the boat. Because the boat is the main object of this painting, we have to draw it pretty good. It was quite hard for me when I first decided to paint a boat, and a sketch was a struggle. Maybe this simplifying will help you to see the main steps of building the shape of the boat. And now we can move to draw a sketch on the watercolor paper. You can also find a copy of my sketch in the attachments to this class. You can trace it through the window tablet. We will start from the middle vertical line and then drawing the perspective first, and then the shape of the boat. I see that the shape of the boat is a bit different from the one that I draw before. So I'm placing this line of the boat closer to the right side of the paper. And in general, our boat is not in the middle of the paper, it's closer to the top. Because at the, we will have a water reflection. So keep some space to paint the water reflection under the boat. In a very simple way, I will draw the inside of the boat with these sitting places, and also I'm marking the space where the dark and light areas will be. For example, this part that I'm drawing right now is the dark area, and in the middle, we will have sets. This time I decided to draw some more details on the boat. For example, on the left side, you see my initial painting that I created before recording this class, and I liked the result and I thought that it might be interesting for the class. Now I will add some ropes on the boat and the Black theme, I don't know what is it in the middle of the boat that we will also see in the reflection under the boat. You can just take a look at the reference photo and repeat and add some details that you would like to add because I've tried to make this boat not too complex, but still quite interesting with the details. The drawing of the boat is ready, and now I'm moving to draw a water reflection under the boat. You can analyze the reference first because you can see the water reflection and the shape of the edges of the water reflection. Our task is to repeat this shape. Yeah, it can be not so precise, but you have to repeat the approximate shape of the reflection. Because it repeats the shape of the boat and the shape of the waves of the water. H Now, my sketch is done, and I will use the Muskin liquid to cover the rope that is going on the right side because we will paint the waves and the sea, and we don't want to be disturbed by the little area that we have to keep. So the Muskin liquid will help us to stop in the process of painting and just paint as it feels. And I will also remove the sketch with the needable eraser, so the lines would be very light. And if you don't have masking liquid, you can just skip this part with the rope on the right side. You can just paint the boat, like I did on the left painting the initial one. Now I will let the skin liquid get dry, and I will see in the next lesson where we will start painting. 6. First Layer: In this lesson, we will paint a first layer. I will use my mop brush number eight and a light mix of ultramarine and pure water. We will work in wet on wet technique. It means that we have to cover the whole sheet of paper with water. I'm using mix of t marine and water and cover it from the top to the bottom, avoiding the shape of the boat. M As we come closer to the bottom, the color will be more intense. I add more ultramarine in the mix of ultramarine and water. We have to keep the paper wet, and that's why sometimes I go back to the top of the paper to renew the wet surface on the paper. Because paper so absorb a lot of water before we move to the next step. A We While the paper absorbs the water, I will prepare my mix for painting the waves. I will mix ultramarine and burn Ciena. The one thing that we have actually two things that we have to remember about the waves. We have a more wide waves closer to the bottom and more thin one in the top of the paper. And we also have more dark color at the bottom of the paper. We will use more intense color mix at the bottom, like I do right now. Try to keep some light areas in between these dark parts. A. Don't be scared if you think that you ruined your painting while creating the first layer. It's the stage that I always go through, because the first layer doesn't look good at all in of the times. So tt the process and keep going the first layer will be just background for our reflections and it will be fine. But the most important part is to not get your paper dry. And now I see that the paper already got dry, so I have to re wet the surface with clean water and then apply some waves again. You can use a clean and dry or slightly wet brush in some areas where the paper got dry, and you need to smudge this very hard edge. So I'm using this brush right now trying to just create a blurry effect for the waves. Oh. Now, I will leave it dry, and I will see in the next lesson. O. 7. Painting a Boat: Oh. In this lesson, we will paint a boat. I already have mix of ultramarine blue and burn Ciena on my palette, which creates a very nice gray shade. First, I will cover the left side of the boat with clean water. Then I will apply color moving from the right side to the left side. This side of the boat will be darker than the right side, so we will have to keep it in mind, leaving some space for the light part on the right later. On the very bottom of the boat, I will add puree. It's the water reflection on the surface of the boat. While the surface is still wet, you can add some little dots with burnt sienna. It will create a very nice effect of an old thing. Now I'm going to paint the inside of the boat and I'm mix in yellow ocho and burn sienna. If you don't have yellow ocho, you can just use a very light mix of burned sienna, or mix burn Ciena with yellow. While this part is getting dry, I will move to paint in the right side of the boat, and I'm using the same mix of ultramarine and burnt sienna, but make it lighter. I'm creating more intense color on the right side of the boat, so the boat would be darker than the water. But keeping this light area in the miles to the left side. Now, I'm preparing a very dark brown mix with ultramarine and Berciena, and also mixing pure Bernciena in another. I will use this mix to paint the shadows inside the boat. Don't forget to keep a very light color on the edges of the boat. Between the water and the dark shadows inside the boat, we will have a part of highlight. You can take a look at my final painting to understand what I mean. I'm painting the inside of the boat with just one color, this dark brown mix. Now, I'm painting the front side of the boat, and I have to keep the color on the edges than in the middle. And also, don't forget that in the middle, we have some white, and we have to keep this area painted. O. Using the very tip of my brush and holding brush vertically, I will trace the shape of the boat, separating it from the water. Using a very dark mix of Bern siana and ultramarine blue, I will paint this stick in the middle of the boat and some dark elements that we also have. I will add some very thin lines to show the direction and the shape of the boat. And that's it. For now, we will come back to the boat. And now we will move to paint in the water reflections. 8. Water Reflection: In this lesson, we will paint a water reflections, and I will prepare my color mixes on the palette. It's basically one color mix. Peacock blue, ultramarine finest, and burn Ciena. We need to create a pretty dark color. So make sure that you use not a lot of water, so your color would be like a butter consistency. I've created a one puddle with more green mix where most of the color is peacock blue, and I'm creating another puddle with more blue shade where I use a lot of ultramarine. Now I will start covering the surface under the boat with this dark color, repeating the shape of the reflection I drew in the sketch part. First, I will paint the left side, and now while the surface is wet, I will add some dark color right below the boat. Be right below, it will be the darkest area. And also, I can like we did in the first layer, but here in the water reflection. Now I will move to paint in the right side of the water reflection, and just like in the boat, the right side will be a bit lighter than the left one. Basically, when you are painting the water reflection, you have to repeat the color value of the object that is reflecting in the water. M. Now I will paint this dark line that in the middle of the boat, and it also reflects in the water. But it's a bit wavy, so it's not a straight line, like we see on the object, but it's way because the w has its shape. And I can also add some dark spots to represent this structure of the waves that somewhere it's lighter, somewhere it's darker. Now, I will paint these little spots around that also creates the feeling of water reflection, and I will switch to the brush number six because it has more sharp end and I can create more thin lines. Yeah. And we are done with water flexions. Let's move to the next lesson and pain some final details on the boat. 9. Final Details: Welcome to the last lesson where we will paint the final details. And first, let's remove the maskin liquid. I'm using the other side of my brush and gently drag the skin liquid from the surface of the paper. I'm done with the skin liquid, and now I will start painting the details on the boat. First, let's paint this white thing in the middle. I will first cover it with clean water, and then I will apply some very light shade that I have on the pallete. So mix of ultramarine and burn Ciena. Basically, we can't leave any white spaces. We have to cover it even if we see that in real life, the object is white. When we are painting, we have to cover it with some shade. Now I will just apply some color at the bottom of this thing to represent the shadow. Then I will move to paint in the ropes on this wooden stick in the middle of the boat. And first, I will cover it with a very light mix of yellow ka and burn Ciena. You can use just light mix of Berciena and water. It also will be fine. And actually, now I'm looking at the painting and I see that it's more blue, more ultramarine blue, than in the first painting that I created, and you might see on the cover of this class. So it has more turquoise shade, and you can also create more blue or more turquoise painting, depending on the color you use the mo ultramarine or peacock blue. I will cover also the rope that goes into the water with this light color. Now I will add some more shadow on this white thing. Now I can create the texture of the ropes, just using slightly dark color and creating the shadows in between the space of the ropes. I can also add some lines into the inside of the boat to make this look more like sets. He M I can add some small brush strokes that creates more live image, and it looks more realistic. I would say, and you can just p bruh strokes, some lines, some. It will just make the image interesting. Our painting is done. Thank you for joining the class. I hope to see your painting in the class project, and also if you decide to share it on Instagram, you can tag my account to be featured on my stories. Please don't forget to submit a review about the class. If you like this tutorial, you can also join my other class, painting cell boats, and water reflections at Sunset. I hope to see you in my other classes.