Secrets of Wet-on-Wet Technique: Painting a Red Mushroom with Watercolor

1. About the Class: Are you looking for a fun and simple glass to improve your painting skills? If so, I invite you to join me in painting a red mushroom with watercolor. Autumn season is my favorite. It's so colorful and full of inspiration. We spend more time at home, and painting can be a fun activity for a cozy weekend. 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 watercolo with me. In this class, we'll explore everything from finding the perfect red shade to getting familiar with the key materials we'll be using. You'll just need five watercolos, two brushes, some watercolour paper, and a masking liquid to get started. I will show you every step of the painting process, how to draw a sketch, apply muskin liquid, and use wet or wet technique creating smooth, natural shadows with soft edges. In the beginning of the class, I will show you basics of wet on wet technique and main steps of mushroom painting. In the attachments to this class, you will find full list of my favorite watercolor paper, art materials, and some references for your inspiration. This class is perfect for beginners, but also makes a fun and relaxing project for those who are a bit more experienced. As a class project, you will paint a beautiful red mushroom, perfect for adding a touch of autumn to your artwork collection. Sounds exciting. Grab your supplies and join me as we dive into this autumn inspired watercolor journey. Enroll now and let's create something beautiful together. I hope to see you in the class. 2. Art Materials: Before I share art materials and colors I use for this painting, I wanted to share with you the process of searching for the right red color. I see by the reference photo that I need quite warm color. So I picked four colors from my palette. That can be quite warm. It's cadmium red deep by PVC, it's permanent red light by Vang, it's carmine Byron Brand, and it's Berlant red Byron Brand. Before every painting, it's very important to choose your color palette, and to do that, you need to make swatches on the scrap paper like I'm doing right now. I can see that out of these three colors, permanent red light by Van Gogh is the most close one option that I need, but it's too light. I need more intense color, and now purlin red seems like the perfect one. If I want to make a bit of warm shade, I can add a bit of yellow to this color, creating more orange mix. Now I need to find some additional colors that will help me to create more dark and more lighter mix with this main red color, and also colors that I will use for painting other parts of the mushroom. So I picked paints gray and ultramarine that will help me to darken my mix with red and also to paint some other parts of the mushroom with a light mix with water. And for the light parts of the cap, I can mix Pearl and red and yellow or reline. So for this painting, I will use the following materials. I will use 100% lose paper, aurora, cold breast texture. Muskin liquid by Sminke. You can use other muskin liquid by other brands. I will use it for these scales. You can search for the right red out of your palette like I did with the watches. I will use Berlin red, Brim Brant. Also, I will use allene, which is yellow, and this mix of Berlin red and line and also ultramarine and paints gray. I will use two brushes number eight, S Coda Bar, and number two, Scud a reserva. Now let's move to the painting. Mm. 3. Wet on Wet Basics for Beginners: Before we move to painting, I would like to show you a simple step by step of wet on wet technique. First, I cover the area with water with a very light color mix. Then I add diluted paint. Move your brush in the same direction as the shape of the object and from light to dark areas. You can lift color on the wet surface by pressing and moving the brush. Wet on wet creates seamless blends and soft organic transitions between colors. While the surface is wet, you can build up a color by applying color again and again. This technique can be quite challenging for the beginners. So if you don't feel confident in this wet on wet technique, I recommend you to practice in a simple shape just to feel how you can control this flow of the paint. Normally, I apply color on the edges of the wet area and let the colors travel and blend on the surface of the paper. The main challenge with this technique is that we have to work until the paper gets dry. So the cotton paper is better in this case, because it gets dry slower than the cellulose paper. You can remove some color from the wet surface with a clean and dry brush. Lifting the color can be useful for creating highlights. Now let me show you the difference between 100% cotton paper and a cheap cellulose paper with not very good quality. You will see how the paper can affect the result of your work. I will repeat the same steps first cover with a very light color mix, then building up the color, and I will create a highlight by lifting the color on the wet surface. I've tested a lot of paper, and I have a few brands of cellulose paper that I love. You can find the list in the attachments to this lesson. Now you probably can see that the color doesn't go so smoothly as on the cotton paper. So you can see the edges of the color I newly applied. The main difference between cotton and cellulose paper is that we can work layer by layer, creating a lot of layers on cotton paper, and it looks okay, while the cellulose paper sometimes look like this. You see that I'm trying to leave the color creating highlight, but I already damaged the paper with a brush. And here are the main steps when I paint an object. First, I analyze the reference, and I see where the light comes from and where the shadow will be. Normally, it's opposite sides. So it means that every part of the object will have light areas and dark areas at the same places. For example, here on the right side, we will have shadow, darker areas, and on the left side, we will have light areas. Also normally the light comes from top, so it means that darker areas will be at the bottom of the object. I created the first very light layer, and I start applying dark color at the right side where the shadow is and at the bottom. Also, we keep in mind that every object has the shadow under it. So basically, here we will see the shadow under the cap on the stem. Now, I see that the edges of the shadows are too rough and it doesn't blend on the surface. It happens when the surface of the paper is too dry, so the color doesn't blend and it stays in the area where you place it. So it means that I have to re wet the surface of the stem. And very carefully, I'm moving my brush from the light areas towards the dark ones. Now I can reapply the color at the shadow and let the color blend with the existing light layer. Now I will do the same steps I did with the round shape. First, I will cover the area with a light mix. I marked the area of the highlight for you so you can understand where I will leave the lightest area. And I'm again, moving my brush in the same direction as the shape goes. As I move to the right side, I start applying more dark intense color as on the right side, we have shadows. Now I can clean my brush and dry it on the paper towel and remove some color, creating the highlight. And I continue building up the color, adding more and more color mix from the palette. I'm mixing up some daka shade and I apply it at the bottom of this area. Now, I see that the edge is still quite rough, so I decide to reapply some light red color into the mid tone and to connect the aa of the shadow with the main tone of the object. Now I want to paint the last part is this under cap area, and I use pretty dark color the darkest that I have in this painting. I can apply color straight to the dry surface using wet on dry technique. Usually, I use this technique when I need to paint very dark and small area. These are the main steps I follow when I'm painting the object. And, of course, the final step would be some details. I hope this was helpful, and now you feel more confident in moving to painting your masterpiece. 4. Sketch: Let's start with a sketch. First, we need to create the middle line and to build up main shapes like the cap and the stem of the mushroom. The cap has irregular shape, so I'm trying to catch the main direction of the lines. Now, when my sketch is almost done, I have to refine the main shapes and edges to check if it's correct according to the reference image. Also, I can sketch some direction of the lines on the gills to make it easier when I will be painting. The main thing is to not press the pencil too much. The lines should be very light. This particular mushroom is called flyer garic and it has a very specific pattern on the cap. If you know this red mushroom has these white spots or very light spots that we will also sketch a little bit. It's called scales. So I draw scales, and now I will just remove the strong pencil lines with the need poliza. Now I need to cover the scales with a muskin liquid. I take a wooden stick very sharp one, and I apply muskin liquid on these little spots. You can use brush for this purpose, but be careful because the muskin liquid will damage the hair of the brush. So if you use it, use the one that you don't need anymore. When you apply masking liquid onto these spots, try to make them not round but quite irregular in size and in shape. Now I will let it dry and meanwhile, I can prepare color mixes for the painting. 5. The Cap and the Stem: Let's start painting. First, I will prepare color mixes on the palette for painting the cap. I need some light shade, which is Berlin red and yellow. I'm using Aline by white knights, but you can use other yellow that you have in your palette. So I have this pretty warm red shade, almost orange, and I start painting the cap. It will be pretty light and warm at the top and closer to the gills on this edge, I will add more intense red shade. Mm hmm. Now when I created the very light first layer, it's time to build up the color. I will apply some darker colors closer to the edges of the wet area. That's why we're using wet on wet technique because it allows us to create very nice smooth edges between the light areas and dark areas. I can add even more color while the surface is still wet because watercolors tend to become lighter when they get dry. Now, I'm darkening my red color by creating a mix of ultramarine and peril and red and using this intense color in some areas. It I can also create daka shade of the red by mixing paints gray and pearling red. It is quite dark then mixed with ultramarine and also mixed with ultramarine can be pretty cold because ultramarine creates more cold shade mixed with red. Now, I will let it dry and I will move to painting the stem. For the stem, I'm creating mix of ultramarine and water very light cold mix, and also a yellowoca and paint cream. I will use a lot of water in these mixes because I need very light color. So now I will clean my brush and I will cover the area of the stem with a very light mix, almost water. Once I cover the whole area of the stem with a very light mix, so the surface is wet and I can apply some more color. I'm using this mix of yellow Oca and paints gray, and I apply it at the very top of this area. Also on the left side, I will apply a little bit of ultramarine. For now, I'm just trying to build up the color, and I can use my clean and dry brush to lift some color from the right side. The beauty of the wet on wet technique is that if I see that the color is too dark, I can always remove it with a clean and dry brush like I'm doing right now. I want to wait a little bit until the paper will get a bit drier to paint the shadow below the rings on the stem. And meanwhile, I can prepare the brown shade for painting the gills. I'm mixing basically all the colors I have on the palette, paints gray, pearl and red, yellow oka. And basically, that should be enough. I add more yellow oka to make the mix more yellowish, and that's it. Now I switch to the smaller brush number two, and I add a bit of shadow under the rings on the dam. I will clean my brush and try it and drag the color a little bit down to create more smooth edge. To make these shadows more smooth, I clean my brush and apply some water next to the dark area. Then I move this water towards this dark area, creating this more smooth edge. You can also use paper towel to reduce amount of water from the brush, and I will do the same with the very top of the stem, applying first the shadow, and then slightly lifting the color, creating the smooth edge. Now I can add a little dark dots onto the wet surface. It's almost dry, so the color doesn't travel a lot, but still creates very nice watercolor effect. Now we can move to paint in the gills. 6. Gills: Let's move to the last part of our mushroom, the gills. First, I will cover the surface with clean water using my brush number eight. If you see on the reference and on the sketch, the gills are like splitting into pieces. A right part will be darker than the left one. So now I will paint the left part. I'm using mix of ultramarine and paints gray, and I apply this mix onto the wet surface. I move my brush from top to the bottom because at the bottom, we will have dark areas and the shadow. When at the top, we will have more warm colors like yellow Oka and brown shade that I mixed. I started painting the texture, creating the direction of these lines, and I'm using my brown color that I mixed in previous part. The paper gets dry pretty fast, so that's why I have to apply some water and color again. I mix ultramarine with the brown shades I already have on the palette creating more interesting shades. I leave some space with the light colors or even white paper between these dark lines. And in general, the first layer should be always pretty light because we always can make a daka, but to make it lighter, it's pretty difficult with watercolor. I switch to the brush number two, and I apply some yellow Oca at the very top of this wet area. Now I can continue painting this texture with the lines on the gills. And I can move brush also from top to the bottom, adding some dark color in some places. Like I see on the reference, the middle part of the mushroom will be dark. The surface of the paper is still wet, so somewhere colors blend on the surface, and I'm okay with it because we will create some more detailed strokes when the surface will get dry. And now is the right time to add some dark shadows at the bottom. But be careful because we don't want to make it too dark. For these dark areas, I use mix of ultramarine paints gray and a little bit of brown color that I have on the palette. Oh. Now I want to create some bright brown shade. So I'm mixing yellow Oca with some red and some colors that are left on the palette. Using this color, I paint some other lines. I use very tip of my brush and not too much water, so I can control the line and make it very thin. It's important that the surface of the paper is already fully dry. Otherwise, you won't control your brush stroke and you won't be able to make a thin line. But Now I want to dock in some areas. So I mix in the colors that are left on the palette, creating pretty neutral, brownish or grayish shade. Using this color, I will move again from the top to the bottom, and I will create different thickness of the brush strokes, making somewhere more thin lines and somewhere making more thick lines. Try to make different distance between these lines so they wouldn't look like the pattern. There are no perfect shapes in the nature. So basically, when we painted the scales on the cap of the mushroom, we also created very diverse shapes and not round but more irregular. So we are doing the same with these lines on the gills. Now, I'm moving to the right part of the gills, and I will use say mix of ultramarine and paints gray. First, I will cover it with clean water. And I will apply some yellow cha right at the edge of these two parts. I can add some brown shade right away at the corner. When I see that the color is too dark or it travels too much, I can always reduce the water from the surface of the paper using dry brush. Now I want to add some very light mix of ultramarine and water from the palate to the left side of the gills to make it also more in shadow than the middle of the mushroom. While I'm waiting for the right part to get dry, I can also add some dark lines in the middle of the mushroom where the surface is dry. This contrast between these light areas and dark areas will also catch some attention and bring it to the middle of the mushroom. Now I can come back to the right area and I will add some dark color at the edge of two parts, creating this more intense contrast between them and also some lines highlighting the texture and direction of the gills. H 7. Final Steps: Welcome to the last lesson. First, let's remove the masking liquid from the surface of the paper. Make sure that your whole painting is fully dry at this point. You can use fingers or the other side of the brush. Now, I switch to the smaller brush number two, and I use mix that is left on the palette, ultramarine and paints gray. I add some water to the mix, and I use this color to cover these white areas, white scales. Normally, in painting, we can't leave the white areas, and we have to cover it with even just light colour. Every object, even a tiny detail has its shadow. So now we will paint the shadow below these scales. For this, I will use mix of paints gray and pearl and red. Also, I will add some colors that are left on the palette, and I will try to make this mix not too dark. And now I will apply this color under the scales, not every one of them, but at least under some of them. I can darken the color on the edge between the light gills and the cap of the mushroom. And also, I can add some little dots on the tam and our painting is almost done. I can add a little bit more dark color to the right part of the gills to again, highlight the contrast between the left and right part, and that's it. I hope that you like this tutorial. Please don't forget to submit a class project and share your painting. If you decide to share your painting on Instagram, don't forget to tag my account Art Kurdikov. You can also submit a review about this class and share your experience. Don't forget to submit your class project. Inside the class, click on the button submit project. Then upload the image of your painting as a cover for the project. Write a few words about your painting experience and give your project a title, and click on Publish. I can't wait to see your beautiful paintings, and I hope to see you in my other classes.