Simply WaterColor: Kitchen Herbs

1. Intro: Hi, guys. My name is Paula, and I am a self top watercolor artist. My third video on sculpture, and today we are going to do some simple kitchen herbs. These look wonderful. Held up on your kitchen on a little piece of twine with some clothes pins. I'll put a picture in the project section of what I thought currently in. Like it. You like it, compliments on it all the time of people who get super cute. This is a great easy decoration for your kitchen. It's a cedar help if you guys enjoy it and let me know what you think. Let's get started. 2. Materials: For this video, you're going to the palate clean glass of water, a paper towel and some brushes. I am using sizes two and eight from Masters Touch some watercolor paints. I like the pen tell Set and some watercolor paper. This is struck more paper in reusing size 5.5 by 8.5 inches. 3. Cilantro: All right, We're going to start with those cilantro plants. Salah chose a great herb. It's a lot of in a lot of Mexican dishes, and it goes great with lying. So to start this piece, we're gonna need toe make a little bit more green here. We're gonna be using mostly a very light green lime green color. Um, we're going is a little bit of a darker green as well. Um, just just a bit told down version of lime green. So we're gonna start with a bright, lingering color and card a little dressed up for my paper there. So brush it off, Hum, um, equal amounts of a dark green, and we're gonna mix those together and see what it looks like. So it looks pretty good, but it's kind of fake looking. It looks very commercial, not natural at all. So we're gonna have a little yellow brown color, and that's a great mixing color, cause the yellow is gonna break up and the browns gonna give it that all of the olive color always goes really well. Um, that over there is a dark green mixed with pressure in blue. So money he's a little bit of a little bit of that in their tone It down bring out more of a blue green color. And I'm just gonna test it over there on my paper towel to make sure it's a good color. And I'm gonna just a tad of brown black mixture. So to start off, we're going to make a long, curved main stem pretty thin with some further offshoots. Don't worry about making perfectly straight lines. Like I've said in the past, nature is never perfect. So don't worry about tryingto make perfect, perfectly straight lines. All right, To create the leaves, you're gonna have the lead at the end of these elongated stems. Now, on this first leaf, I'm using the tip of my brush facing up, and it's kind of creating really sharp edges, which I don't love. So I turned the brush around so that the point is facing towards the center, and that gives me a bit more of a blunt edge, not a sharp pointy. So when you're creating these leaves, make sure the pointer tip of your brushes facing inwards towards the lead in the back of your brush is creating the tips of the frayed edges, uh, shape of cilantro. We kind of want the base or the sides of the leave to be just a wide slash tall as the top . So we don't want to create really sharp, sharply sloped sides or edges. We want it to be equal, kind of all around. We also don't want to create edges that comes straight out from the side of the leaf, so almost imagine, like you're drawing three leaves and connecting them all together to create one leaf. But it's very subtle. You want to be careful to not create three separate leaves, all very close together, because that it's gonna look too much like parsley. People get partially of cilantro, Could use a lot persons a lot darker and leads air about larger. And they always come in sets of three. Just like that grouping. I just finished there. So a couple couple groupings like that is okay, but try not to do it too much when you do, um, do some groupings, make sure that the bottom leans air smaller on the top. So it's totally okay to go back and add, uh, sections that you forgot because you gotta balance it out. Make sure it all looks good. Um, And again, Totally okay. To use different shades of green to cilantro is mostly a bright green by Brecht, Green color. But it also has shades of dark in it as well. And there you go. Get a beautiful cilantro plant. Look great in your kitchen. 4. Rosemary: All right, So we are going to do a little Rosemary Sprague here. Rosemary is great. It's Ah, awesome. Arabic goes well with chicken and potatoes. So to start with this rosemary sprig, we need to who not drip on your paper to start, we're gonna start with the brown black of stent. So we're just gonna mix up running that block together? Mostly brown. We don't want to have it. A too dark and black pretty, pretty bright brown color toned down just a little bit. We're gonna have two off two branches or two options. Rosemary can come in lots of forms. If you don't like this version of rosemary, check out my first video of stationery cards. I did another version of Rosemary. That is just a single Sprague with all the same a shade of leaves. This was gonna be a little different, Has three different colors of leads. And I personally love this one. I think it's dynamic and beautiful. So check out the other one if you want to see it on the version of Rosemary. So right now I'm just edging off the bottom of that stem toe look like it was cut off of the larger Rosemary bush. And then just making sure my two sticks emerging while together looks natural. You know, like one stick drawn, another stick. Sure. My lines are all clean. Got nothing. Um, that's gonna dry. Look weird later. All right? So clean my brush off, um, so that we can get our greens mixed. We're gonna use three different shades of green. Um, for this one, uh, the 1st 1st shade is that same green color remix for the cilantro. On the second is just a darker version of that. And the third is a blue green color. You see me using it right there. That blue green color is mostly dark green, um, Prussian blue. And it's a little bit of brown, like literally a little bit of ground. It's mostly Prussian blue, and it's really pretty. Don't be afraid to use the blue colors when you're doing pieces that we think should agree . The blues are really pretty, and they bring a lot of depth to your paintings. Um, rosemary leaves. They're pretty long an elongated, and they do not have appointed tip. So make sure when you're drawing these, you don't let the end of your brush. Come off your papers. Create a point. You really want to be careful with that? A little bit of a point. It's OK, mostly rounded. Do make sure you are tapering it down as it touches the branch low. We don't want a blunt fat edge coming out of the branch, so you can see I'm using the tip of my brush toe leadoff, and then I'll go back in and fill it in and fix the lines and soak up any extra color paint that was left behind. So with the three colors that I'm using, I'm gonna use various shades of each. So sometimes I use the color straight off the pallet with just a tiny bit of water, cause I want a dark and vibrant, and sometimes I'm going toe. Water it down, um, and use it off the edge of money. Jaar there, just like you saw. And that's again, gonna add depth to your to your piece, and you have lighter and darker shades of the same color. It looks really nice. It almost looked with leaves are overlapping. Sometimes you can create the effect of leaves in the foreground, leaves in the background. So with rosemary, the leaves grow on it almost in a world pattern. So that means that they grow on the entire 360 degrees of the branch, not just on one side, and that kind of grow in a circular motion. So in order to create that effect, I am going Teoh curve the leaves upward, and I'm gonna kind of draw them in clumps so the clumps are gonna be close together, but I'm going to think of them as their own separate and entities. So we'll have a couple of big leaves with a couple smaller leaves, the center on the sides and all traded. Put some darker leaves and later leaves within that world to create almost a three dimensional look to it. And it looks really nice when you can have that variation of color and in size looks very natural. And again, just make sure that you're soaking up the extra water or color on your leaves, especially if you're using more water or more. Coach create different shades. Don't leave that watch the color behind. When it dries, you'll get splotchy looking leaves, which some people like. That's totally Okay, if that's the look you're going for, great. If you want more uniform, um, color, they'll make sure that you go back and soak up that that extra color. Easy way to do that is just to dry your brush off. Um, don't get wet, just dry it off and then go back and soak that color up. And remember that less is thus, sometimes don't overdo it when you think it looks good be done. Just a couple little extra accent leaves. Once the bigger leads have dried, you can go back over them with another color to create that three d like I was talking about. 5. Thyme: So now we're gonna do a little sprig of thyme times, a pretty common herb. It smells really nice. It goes really well with lemon and chicken, so just start. We are going to create a brown black color. It's just regular good old brown and a little bit of good old black, mixed together toe Rita stem like color. This is the same color I'd used for my rosemary. So if you're curious about the mixing, you could go back for that video. So we're going to create a kind of Derby line. Have you ever looked at time? It's. But if you ever pick a spray off of the bush, it's very Kirby. An elongated has branches coming. So that's what we want are beating toe look like so a couple lines not to over exaggerated . Just enough to give it some shape. Orgasm branches off the site here, varying lengths. Just have fun with it. Don't worry too much about trying to create a certain number of branches on one side over there. Time usually grows along the ground, and they usually have your leave a branch of one side or the other for our leaves. We're gonna use a medium green color And this is the same calorie mixed up for the rosemary . So that very spot had a mix up this color Cool And watch the rosemary video pretty dark green, a lime green, a little bit of brown, a little bit of black, little bit of blue. And for these leaves, we want to create small clusters. So time likes to grow in little clumps kind of space out for stem. So creating a world appearance can be kind of tricky in a two dimensional picture. So we wanna have clumps. Um, you wanna have some of it? Baker and some but smaller. You've got some appearing at their behind the bigger leads air in the background. You just gonna go along and painful postures are clumps of leaves. I suggest, um, grouping of three or 42 was also good when you get 45 in one clump, especially, they're all the same size ends toe look like little marijuana leaves, which is not the look for going for with this piece. So be careful with your clusters and don't necessarily make them all the same. Size, hand and large groupings make sure you go back and clean up any, uh, heavy deposits of paint on any of the leaves. Immerse video with the stationary. I talked about going back to the dry brush to clean up those those leaves to create a more uniform look. You're gonna go through, create clusters along your piece of fine, make sure you do some some big and some small, but we do want to kind of keep it all the same color. No need, Teoh Very in our colors with this one. There are certain varieties of time that are very gated and do have do have two different colors. But that's not not what I was going with this piece. You're more than welcome. Teoh. Look up a piece of variegated time and see what that looks like it if you prefer that go for it. I prefer to paint my leaves away from me. And so you see, when I turned the paper there, it's to more easily paint the shape of the leaf. Also, want to be careful that money hand is not going Teoh being what I just painted so because I just did those leaves over there. I don't want to stick my my hand, right at what paint ruined my meeting. So I turned the paper a lot. Time is one of my favorite herbs. It goes really well in a lot of dishes. One of our favorite dishes is a limit time chicken. It's got a lemon chicken stock base with lots of time sweet onions, and we serve it over rice and some big chicken. It is delicious. 6. Basil: all right for this last piece were to do a little sprig of basil. Most everyone knows a basil is If you meet in Italian food, you've probably mazel. So let's get started. So for this, Basil, we're gonna use both of our brushes that I showed you in the beginning, we've pretty much consistently been using that number eight brush, far other free herbs. And this one we're gonna use the number eight and the number two. So to start out, we're gonna do a line green, and it's lime green with just a little bit of brown. A little bit of dark brain, dark green, a little bit of just want to teach. Offer that light green, and we're going to start with some oval shaped leads. Basil leaves are very wide on the sides and have kind of study tips. We don't want three elongated pointy tip. Well, because that's just not what is, it looks like. So try to focus on keeping the sides wide. Um, and the tips study. You need to practice a couple times. I highly recommend that took me a couple practice is a little more. I figured out how to make it actually went basil. And not just some sort of leap off a tree or the same leads that I did. My roses. Those were the wrong shape. So, um, once you got the shape down and you got your first week pain and it's on an angle with the tip kind of pointed towards the corner of your paper, we're going to make sure you blur the outline that you drew initially. And it's pretty easy to dio a little bit of water and paint. You just go really close to that line and then didn't in the all year the color. We also want to make sure stroke lines aren't visible. So once you get all of the color on there, you want a pic of direction and make all your stroke line school that same direction to create consistency. I really like to paint my leaves away for me. So I turned the paper when I'm ready for my next leaf. It just how I do it. How are like it? It also keeps my hand out of what I just barely painted. So, uh, feel free to turn your paper. It's not glued down. You could move it. And again, Once I've got my paint on there, I'm going to be a lot more conscientious of my stroke lines. Basil is one of my favorite herbs. I have a pop, just grows right on my kitchen, right in front of my kitchen sink. So them doing dishes like I look at it and it goes in all of my homemade pasta sauce that I make basic goes in there and whatever. I make tomato soup, my crush of fresh basil, and it goes in there. So he's an awesome, versatile herb. It's a great one. I love it. So how Basil grows is it has that seeing world shape that we talked about with the rosemary and then we talked about with the time, um, for this one, I wanted to create a visa for looking down on the basil instead of a side view like we've done together, um, herbs. So these these 1st 3 leaves there are the bought, and so they're gonna be much larger than the next one. The next leaf I'm gonna dio is going to be growing on top of sight leaps over there. And I wanted to be darker. It's a new leaf. It's not, um, grew later. So we're gonna create, uh, kind of a dark rain. Make sure your pain your pizza or dry before you start on your next leave. Don't do like I didn't touch it and then have to go back in and fix it. But I guess have saying, With that dark green, it's a a little bit dark green pressure blue Lang green brown again. Same base I use from that rosemary. Go back and watch that video person more color mixing now now that it's dry. For this time, I'm gonna fill in and I'm gonna overlap my next leave on top of those two little bigger lease to give the appearance that this one is growing on top of or out of the center of my stem, which we can't see. I'm not painting it, and it's a It's a world look as if it's on top and coming out beside. So we want a darker color to represent the new leaf, and it's also gives more depth Now, Basil, if you've ever seen in real life it's super fine E. The light just hits it, and it creates a strange appearance. So to mimic that, we're gonna make one side of the leaf lighter than the other. And all I'm doing is trying my brush off, taking some of the paint away and then blending those colors together. It's not such a a rough transition again. Make sure it's dry because these next two leaves we're gonna dio are even darker on on top of those other ones again. So dry, dry, dry paint. Okay, so our ready and we're gonna add a black brown to that same shade of green. We just get a little bit darker because these leaves their small on even a newer than the one we just did with these new baby leaves because they are new baby leaves. I'm not making them as wide as the leaves that we did in the beginning because they have a chance to grow that big. So they are under there much more similar to the leaves that I do on my roses or the leaves that I did in that wreath piece that I did with cedar stock prints. So these air kind of more similar toe our normal everyday leaves that we paint once you've got those leads painted again. Make that they are 100% tried before you move on. Uh, this painting, you don't see me do it. But I walk away for long periods of time between these leaves sometimes just to make sure that her totally dry before I move on. Okay, So for the veins of the basil leaf, we're gonna use our white, and I'm just gonna put it on the side there. I'm gonna take my nurse. Should get it wet. And just mix that white with whatever creen I've got on the side there. Looks like a a little bit of dark green. A little bit of lime green. There's some blue something. Get in there. Basically. I want to dull down that white color. We don't want upped White as our veins. That's not gonna look natural. It's gonna pop too much. I want to see the veins, but I don't want it. Teoh be obvious either. Very subtle. Look that we're going for so dull down that white. Create a nice green coat. That brush you notice I didn't use hardly any water. Um I want a very thick paint for these lines. mostly so that I have control over where it's going. The more water use, the less control you have over your clean nous of your lines. So for the veins, I'm going to do a line straight down the middle tip to tip, and then we're going to add her curving towards the top of your leaf veins. Up the side of these veins are opposite of each other. So make sure whatever you do on one side, you do exactly the same on the other side with basil leaves, the veins are kind of spread out a little bit. So don't do them too close together who won't look like basil. And, um, I would air on the side of bigger gaps because you could always go back and add something in between. Later, if you go too close together, that's it. Without having to redo the whole leaf, you're stuck with how it is right there. I I did. If they gap, it decided, No, I want one in between there. When I go back in and add that again, I'm turning my papers. I go, I'm I'm a bit more study handed painting these lines towards me that I am away from me. So turn the paper as I go at those veins and I like to start with a lighter color. I just go. It's a bit more forgetting if you mess up for your lines. Aren't a straight or you're, you know, figuring out the consistency of your pain. Um, the lighter color is a lot more forgiving once you get into those dark leaves, no mistakes air hidden, he who will see exactly you know the line that you paint. So use those lighter leaves, your practice leads or actually do some practice veins. If you jenny practice leaves to practice, your shape, go in and the veins on them toe work on those lines, just like I saved those little ones for Rush, the starkest ones. And at this point, I've got a good feel for how far apart I want Theo angle of the curvature. But I think I like and way we go for those veins, you're done. It's a beautiful little sprig of basil that you couldn't hang in a kitchen, right, basil and calligrapher, and it's super cute. 7. Thanks For Watching: Hey, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video. I had a lot of fun painting these herbs. The time was especially great. Um, I'm always getting compliments on mine. I really like using these products or pains over here. I hope you put your projects in the comments. I love seeing that you go. They're working on and stay tuned for my next video guys, but