Snow Leopard. Watercolour Masterclass. Animal Painting - Beginners to Advanced.

1. SNOW LEOPARD INTRODUCTION: Hi there, and a very warm welcome to my online watercolor class where I'm going to show you how to paint this beautiful snow leopard. It's a wonderful subject, just perfect for radiant, luminous watercolors. It might seem a bit daunting at first, but you're going to be able to watch over my shoulder as I guide you through it every step of the way. There's a magical feeling you get when painting with watercolors. And once you know the basics, it is easy. Anyone can do it. Like any other skill, it just takes a bit of practice and enthusiasm. We'll be using the wet on wet technique for a lovely loose background, and we'll be using the wet on dry technique where we want to apply more detail. We'll look at how to paint those fuzzy, furry black markings on the snow leopard and other tips and techniques along the way. And I've included a copy of the drawing in the project resources section so that you can download it and trace it, and then not worry about the drawing because this is a painting class. I am a professional artist, author, and tutor, and over the years, I've sowed a lot of work across the world and helped hundreds of people to learn more about watercolor. Art is my absolute passion, and I truly believe that painting is hugely beneficial for everyone. You can see examples of my work on my website. My style leans towards impressionistic and contemporary rather than photorealistic. I like to explore loose approaches that bring out the colour, light, and essence of my subjects. I've tried to replicate this across all the many other videos that I have on Skillshare. Please don't worry if your painting doesn't look exactly like mine. Larry never worried whether he looked like Vanghs or Picasso's. We all have our own unique style, just like our fingerprint. And with that in mind, it's time to get on with our painting. 2. Materials, Drawing, Masking, Paint the eyes, nose and a loose abstract background.: Hi. Hi there. And a very warm welcome to my online watercolor class. Today, we're going to be painting this magnificent snow leopard. I'll be sharing lots of my favorite tips and techniques with you, such as how to create the fur texture and a loose abstract background, and how to paint those blue glassy eyes. Living in the harshest environments on earth, the snow leopard is a symbol of greatness, resilience, and courage. I know you're going to absolutely love painting this wonderful animal. You can either watch the whole video through and have a good at the painting afterwards, or you can paint right alongside me as I guide you through it. Now, regarding my materials, these are the ones that I'm using. But if you have different colours, then don't be afraid to use the ones that you've already got. Most of my paints are either transparent or semi transparent, which will allow the white of the paper to shine through. And this is what gives watercolor its wonderful radiance. I tend to keep opaque paints for when I want to cover up the underlying paper or layer of paint. Now you can see that I've kept the drawing very simple, minimal details so that we get a nice, loose free flow painting. And I've included a copy of the drawing in the project resources section so that you can download it and trace it, and then not worry about the drawing because this is a painting class. Before I start on the painting, I'm going to be using some masking fluid, and you can see here that I've got a variety of different tools which I can use to apply it. You can apply masking fluid to the shapes where you want to reserve the white of the paper, either for highlights or to paint over by hand later on. Now, you do need to wait for the fluid to dry fully before applying paint over the top of it. When it is properly dry, you can just rub off the hard gum either with a clean finger or with a putty rubber, and you'll see that it leaves behind crisp defined white shapes. If the white shapes are a bit too stark, you can soften them with a damp brush, or you can even paint over it. Now, don't use your good brushes for this because the gum will spoil them. So use an old brush or even the handle of the brush. I also use rubber tipped applicators because the gum is very easy to clean off them. You can get a ruling pen, which varies the thickness of the line, but I tend to use an unwound paper clip for very fine lines and dots. Now, you can see here that I'm using my rubber tipped applicator to paint on the gum with little whiskery strokes around the top of his head. I've just added some inside his ear for the whiskers in there. And because I can't get a really good fine point with the applicator, I'm using a cocktail stick or an unwound paper clip to just flick out some of that fluid into a much finer line. And the reason that I'm using both is that the paper clip and the cocktail stick don't hold very much of the fluid, so I'd have to be dipping it in and out quite a lot. So it's easier or quicker to apply the masking fluid at the base of where you want that little whiskery stroke to start and then flick it out with the cocktail stick. I'm stroking the whiskers out in little groups or clumps, but I'm not outlining the entire shape of his head. That would look too false, so you need to leave little gaps in between your whiskery strokes. Having said that, I am now using the paper clip to paint the gum onto these whiskers at the bottom of his chin of his jowels because in this area, the whiskers are going to be longer than the fur at the top of his head, and they'll also be fineer. I've switched to a rolling pin because I want to show you how this works. It's a very useful little tool because you can use the small wheel at the side of it to make the gap between the pincers smaller or larger, and that enables you to paint on the fluid either in thick or thinner strokes. So theoretically, if you have a ruling pen, you probably don't need all these other applicators. However, some people do find the ruling pen quite difficult to manipulate and control. And so that's why I'm showing you all these different methods. And depending on what subject you're painting, of course, you can use lots of different items to apply the masking fluid. You could use an old twig. If you wanted a very natural, scratchy kind of appearance, you could use some sponge, some steel wool. So lots of things can be used to dip in to the masking fluid and create or cover that white space to create texture later on. Now, you don't need to mask every single whisker or bit of white fur. You'll see that further on in the video, we're going to be using a white gelpin and some white acrylic paint to add some more white fur and whiskers. You'll notice in the drawing of the eyes that there are two very small shapes just cutting across the pupils. And those are the highlights that we get in the eye from reflected light. So I'm using the very tip of my unwound paper clip to add a little bit of masking fluid to these two very small shapes inside the pupil of the eye. One of the shapes is just cutting across from the pupil over across onto the iris. And we've also got this rim of white that's going around the black line surrounding the iris that just comes down into the top of his nose. Now, we could leave those unpainted with masking fluid, but I'm adding it there just in case I forget which is white and which is black in this small area. Finally, I'm adding just a little smidging across the top of his nose, and then we'll need to leave this all to dry. I I'm starting the painting with the snow leopard eyes, and I'm going to be using both the wet on dry and wet on wet techniques. The wet on dry technique is simply putting wet paint on top of dry paper or painting on top of paint that's already dry. And this results in a stronger color and a more defined edge where the paint ends, and the paint will only go where the brush takes it. So you have much more control with this technique. The wet on wet technique gives you less control. First of all, you wet the paper with clean water and then apply wet paint on top of the wet paper and let it spread into the wet wash. Now, this results in a lovely diffused effect with soft edges. And because the paint mixes into the wetness of the paper, the color is diluted and the tone is paler. If several different colours are used in this way, they will intermix and blend with each other. So when you drop some blue into a wet, yellow underwash that will result in a blended green. I've started by painting the lower rim of the iris with a very pale watery rinocodon gold that just had a tiny touch of Burnsien added to it. And you can see that that's hardly there. And now I'm adding some much stronger cobalt blue at the very top of the iris. The reason I'm using a stronger toned paint at the top of the iris is because they are in shadow beneath the brow bone above, whereas the lower part of the iris is more in the light and therefore needs to be more pale and glassy looking. While the blue paint is still wet, I'm adding a little touch of turquoise just below it and letting those two colors merge and blend a little bit. Using two colors in the eye, we'll just give it a little bit more interest and depth, and also we'll harmonize in with the background when we come to paint it later. And I'm using a clean damp brush to just soften and blend that turquoise color into the quin gold that we put on first. To blend and soften a hard edge, you need to use a clean damp brush to pull the paint away from the hard edge and blend it softly until the color disappears into the white of the paper or the underlying wash. You may need to clean and dry your brush and repeat the process several times in order to get that gradual gradation of color until it disappears into nothingness. I've added a little bit more of the blue to the top of his irises, and now I'm painting his nose using a watery mix of zarin and burtsiena. I'm using this very pale color to go over the fleshy part of his nose. Now, you could go over his nostrils if you wanted to because we are going to go over those with black later on, or you can just focus on this pink fleshy part. I have got a stronger mix of the alizarin and sienna mixed, and I'm going to add a little bit of depth and contour to the nose by adding this stronger color just down the middle and towards the outer edges. Adding this stronger color also gives me a little bit of a dappled effect, as some of the stronger color settles into the dimples that are in the paper. And that also helps to mimic the skin texture of the nose. To paint the loose abstract background, I'm using the wet intoet technique. Prior to beginning this wetting process, I'd already mixed my colors to go on the background in advance. So I've got some cobalt blue, some turquoise, some ultramarine, and some indigo. And I've also added a little bit of burnt umber to some ultramarine to give me a sort of a blue gray color. So I'm using a clean brush and some clean water to wet all around the snow leopard's head. Now, if you are a slower worker, you don't have to do this all at once. You could just do one half or even one quarter at a time. Because once the paper starts to dry, you'll lose that lovely wetting wet effect. Now, you can clearly see just how wet my paper is and how watery the paint is. By the way, it's spreading into that wet wash when I place it. If your paint isn't spreading like this, then either the paint is too thick or the paper isn't wet enough. Another important point to note is that I'm not placing the paint down in solid blocks of color. I'm leaving gaps in between, leaving broken spaces for the white of the paper to merge in. And that's because I want a nice, loose, sort of snowy icy background. I'm putting the cobalt blue immediately next to the outline of his head and letting that flow blend and lighten as it moves towards the edges of the paper. To other items that I've got ready to hand, which you can't really see very well, at the top of the video, I've got a small pot of household salt, and off camera, I've actually got a little pad of paper toweling ready. I'm going to use both of those to add a little bit of texture while the paint is still wet. Not quite ready for them yet, but just letting you know in advance. And now I'm adding the same turquoise color that I use for the eyes. And I've just dropped that in loosely in and amongst the cobalt blue. Now, we need it a little bit stronger in some places. The left side of the head is going to be more in shadow than the right. So I'm adding some of the ultramarine and burnt tumba below his mouth and jowls and also some of the indigo color towards the left side of his head. Again, I'm positioning those immediately on the outside of his head on the outline and letting that color flow and blend into the underlying colors that I've already put on. So everything is still very wet and blending and softening nicely. You do need to work this background very quickly in order to keep the paint wet and runny. If it does start to dry and you start to get hard edges, the best thing to do is to stop painting, let it dry completely, and then over wet it again. You can also encourage the colors to run and mingle into each other by picking the paper up and giving it a really good shake. You'll get a much more natural and soft effect from that than by trying to brush the colours into each other, which will just leave some nasty brushstrokes. I'm just filling in a few white spaces now, not blocking them in. As I said, we don't want to do that, but just filling in a few gaps here and there. Then I'll give it another good shake, get that color to run and mingle. Another little technique to break up some of that paint, add some little speckles of light, is to just spatter some clean water on with your brush. If you use a small brush, you'll get small speckles. And if you use a larger one, obviously, you'll get larger ones. And again, you can just give your paper a shake to mix some of those up into the underlying paint. I've scrunched up a small piece of paper towel, and I'm just lightly dabbing that in to the paint here and there. That will lift little bits of it off at random, ping a sort of a light airy feel into this background area. Twist and turn your paper towel so that you get random marks in the not too even. And, of course, if you get too much color, then just get a new piece of paper towel. Some paper towel already has textured markings on it, and that's quite useful for this sort of exercise. Watercolor does tend to dry about 20 to 30% lighter than when you first put it on, and I can already see that lightning effect taking place. So I'm just adding a little bit more color to the areas immediately around his head. It is still wet, so it is still blending in. But but because I'm adding thicker colour, it's not blending quite as much, so let's give it another good old shake, encourage that paint to run a bit more. And then back to the paper towel to dab some of it off here and there and break up that solidness. Then before that paint completely dries, before the sheen goes off, I need to add some salt. Applying salt is very useful for creating the appearance of snowflakes, foliage or rock texture. Just sprinkle some grains of household salt into the drying paint just as the sheen is going off the wet paper. Leave it to dry, then gently brush away any excess salt with your finger. And you'll find that the salt has absorbed the paint and left behind some lovely little sparkles of light. And you can use different salts for different effects. Try some rock salt or sea salt or even some dishwasher salt. Before I finish this section, I'm going to just bring some of that blue shadow into the left hand side of his face where his face is also in shadow. And then I'm going to leave that to dry completely before moving on to the next step. 3. Paint shading on the head using tonal values to create a 3D rounded shape.: In this step, we're going to use shading and tonal values to create the three D appearance, the rounded appearance of the head. Adding shading to any white subject is essential to create depth and dimension, which makes the subject look realistic and three dimensional. If we don't have shading, the subject can appear flat, and it will lack the subtle contrast that we need to convey form and light. A bit like the background, I want the shade in to appear soft and blended, so not a lot of hard edges. And therefore, I'm using the wet interwt technique again here. I pretty much all of the head and the ears with a clean brush and clean water. I'm not wetting it quite as much as I did with the background. And again, with this area, if you're a slower painter, you don't need to do it all in one go. You can wet part of the head and paint it first, and then move on to the other sections. I'm starting with the top of his head. He was in the cobalt blue, and you can see that that's just blending in nicely to that wet underwash. And then I'm taking that color just down the side of his head and into the ear. And I'm going to paint the whole of this ear in shadow on the left hand side. It might look a bit wrong at the moment, but all will be well in the end. I'm taking a little bit of the blue color just down the middle of his forehead, where you get that bony dip between the two brows. And then just underneath the brows themselves where they'll be in shadow. Again, you was in my cobalt blue. I'm not pressing the brush really hard into the paper. I'm letting the water that's already there soak up the color from the tip of my brush. To create a nice light, airy feel so there is some element of broken color in there with some areas a little bit stronger than others. I've added a little bit of this blue shadow down either side of the nose. And I've always got a piece of paper towel handy in case I need to mop up any unwanted color that's gone somewhere I don't want it to go. There will be a little bit of shadow underneath his jowls or muzzle and underneath his mouth area on the chin. And also to one side of his left nostril. You can carry on using the blending and softening technique as well if any of the paint just stays in one place, and you want to get a softer look to the edge of it. And now I'm adding a little bit more shadow to that left hand side, which is going to be more in shadow than the right. And you can see how I'm just sort of dancing around the paper with my brush, almost trickling this very light, pale blue colour on. And even in these shadows, we want a little bit of variety of color to add interest and also to continue shaping the structure of his face. So I've got a little bit of indigo now going on down the center of his brow, where you get that dip in the bone. Also adding it again to that left hand side that's going to be more in shadow and taking it down the side of the nose, just underneath the brow there at the side of the eye and underneath the brow bone. Now, the paint is still very wet, so you only need little touches here and there, but it's these little subtle touches that make all the difference. Another little tip to pass on is to use your brush in the direction that the different planes of the face are going. So I'm just going to add a bit of shading underneath the eye socket, and I'm using slightly curved diagonal strokes here, following the direction across the cheek and over the eye socket. And again, these directional brushstrokes help to convey the roundedness of the subject. Snow leopards can be found in the mountainous regions of Central Asia, including the Himalayas. Their thick gray white coat, with its black rosettes, serve as a natural camouflage, earning them the nickname Ghost of the Mountain. In fact, because of their shy behavior and uncanny, almost mystical ability to disappear among the rocks, snow leopards have entered the folklore of local people in many countries and have been described as shape changing mountain spirits. Some believe that snow leopards are spirit protectors of sacred sites like a mountain or a river. They are so rare and secretive that photographers in Asia need to hike up to elevations of over 12,000 feet in the dead of winter to catch even a glimpse of them. They're very solitary animals. They're rarely seen with other snow leopards, except during the mating and when they're raising the cubs. They're among the world's most deadly hunters and can capture prey that is three times their own weight. However, they're not aggressive towards humans, and there's never been a verified snow leopard attack on a person. They can hiss and they can growl and mew, but they can't row because their vocal cords are actually different from other big cats. But they do have large paws like snowshoes that helps them to move through the snow and they can move at a great speed. They can actually run up to 55 miles an hour in short bursts and can jump as high as 50 feet. They live in the wild for an average of ten to 13 years, and the snow leopard is the national symbol of Kyrgystan. Now, although it's not obvious in the black and white reference photograph that we've used, you can see from this other photograph here from this fine fellow, that they do have some rather golden brown shading as well in their fur. So I've mixed some quinacadon gold with a little bit of burnt sienna, and I'm adding that now just along the edges of both ears. You don't want to go too strong with this color, keep it subtle, and I'm also adding a little bit around this right hand side of his face of his head, touching it in again with the tip of my brush and adding some sort of curved strokes following the shape of his head. And then with the tip of my brush, I'm just taking out some little whiskery shapes again to indicate the fur texture. I'm stroking a little bit down the side of each jowl. Since soft, no hard lines, but that again, helps to define the jowel shapes without putting hard lines around the edge of them. I'm adding a few little splashes of that golden color into the background because, of course, his body will be there in that position. So that's just an indication of his body continuing without actually painting it. And then a darker shade of that color over on the left hand side, again, where the fur of his body will be just showing through. And I just need to add some of that darker golden color into the left hand side of his head, as well. I don't want to labor this and certainly don't want to overpaint all the lovely blue and white shapes that we've got. We're creating an impressionistic painting rather than a hyper realistic one. So we just need to put in these little suggestions of this different color without overshadowing everything that we've already done. Standing back and having a look at what I've got so far. I don't think I've got a dark enough tone on the top of his head. So I'm adding in a little bit of my blue gray color along the top there and also just upon his ears. Now, yours might be absolutely fine as it is. This is where you need to have a good look at your own painting and just assess whether there are any tones that need to be strengthened, darkened, or whether actually leave well alone. But in all probability, the paper will be pretty much dry now, so you do need to use the blending and softening technique to blend any darker paint into the underlying areas. But I definitely want to darken the left side of my snow leopard a little bit more. So I'm using my blue gray color, and I'm going to go quite radically now on this left hand side underneath the eye socket, which will be in much greater shadow on this side than it is on the right. Oh I'm using the tip of my brush to just cut that dark color into the fur where there will be little shadows in between the little clumps of fur on this side. And again, I'm softening those little dabs of dark paint in with a clean damp brush. And then once again, there comes a point where I know I need to stop fiddling and overworking it and let it dry before going on to the next step. 4. Paint the black parts of the eye, nose, mouth and ears - mix a rich, vibrant black.: To paint the dark markings in his fur, I've mixed a black. Now, you can't use black straight out of the tube, but it does tend to give you a rather flat, uninteresting color. I was my indigo and burnt umber for the mix. And the mix is much thicker now than what we've been using. It's about the consistency of double cream. Using a very small, pointy brush, and adding the black color in little short strokes. Going around the edge of the left ear and note that I'm leaving little gaps in between these strokes. So I'm not painting a solid thick line around the ear. I'm working my way around the other side of his left ear and also adding the black in the middle of the ear. As well as behind the little tufts of white fur that are sticking up in front of his ear. And then exactly the same procedure on the right side, on his right ear, again, using those little pointy short strokes in the direction that the fur is growing and keeping little spaces in between where there is some white fur, of course, in and amongst the dark. A Okay. Moving on now to add the black around the eyes. Starting, first of all, with the pupil, I can go right over the masking fluid that we applied earlier because, of course, it's absolutely dry. We won't see the full effect of the eyes until we actually do remove the masking fluid later on. The eyes are going to be the main focus of our painting. As I said earlier, I make them much more dramatic than the actual photograph, and that's the beauty of artistic license. So take your time when painting these eyes and especially the black around them because although we can remove paint, it's much harder to remove black paint than a lighter colored one. So having done the pupils, I'm now moving on to the very dark black fur that surrounds his eyes. Again, I'm taking my time just making sure that I keep that black paint within the contours of the previously drawn outlines. And I'm taking that black color just down the side of the eye, down the side of his nose. There is actually a little bit of masking fluid in the way of that, so I'll have to wait until I remove it and fill in the gap with some black later on. There's a strong black line going all around the outer rim of the iris. So that's the one that I'm filling in now here. If you don't have a steady hand and you're finding painting into these tiny areas difficult, you could, of course, use a black waterproof pen. The downside of that is, of course, that because it is waterproof, then you can actually remove it if you were to make a little mistake. The brush that I'm using at the moment, if you're interested, is called a micro mini, and it's a size 20 stroke note. So it really does have a very fine, thin point. It's a synthetic brush, so it didn't break the bank, but any really fine pointed small brush will serve you well for little areas like this. A a and then just below the area that we mask, that will ultimately be white, we've got a very, very fine line of black fur coming underneath the eye and going out to a little point at the side. And because these lines are so tiny, so small, you don't have to worry about doing all the little zigzaggy lines that we did when we did the ears. But it doesn't matter if you've got a bit of a shake your hand here because it will just look like fur. And now I'm adding the same very fine lines on that left hand side of his eye, working my way between both eyes quite symmetrically in order to keep them as matching as possible. I do always find that once you start getting the eyes in place, then the subject really starts to take shape and come to life. Moving down to the nostrils now, and there's a small shape at the side of each nostril, at the side of the nose in black. And then I'm painting the nostril itself. Again, taking my time because these very dark shapes are going to stand out more than anything. So it's important to get that shape filled in neatly. One of the interesting facts about the snow leopard's nose, which is very broad, is that it actually does warm the cold air before it reaches the lungs. Now, there's an even finer thin line going around the top of his nose. And if you want to, you could use a really dark pencil for that because it does need to be very fine. And then you've got the marking in the center of his nose as it comes down towards the mouth. And from the mouth, the black marking goes underneath each jaw. And finally, with a clean damp brush, I'm just sort of smudging some of that black in the center of the nose and at the bottom of his nose so that we get a little bit of a gray tone going either side of those lines. And that just helps again to convey the shadow that's in between the dip and at the bottom of his nose. 5. Paint fur technique. Use magic sponge to lift paint. Use white acrylic paint & gel pen for whiskers: Going to paint all the rest of the black markings on our snow leopards head and face. But before we do, it might be worth just having a little practice on how to paint these. Using a piece of scrap watercolor paper, I've just dampened a small square on the right hand side. And now I'm thoroughly wetting a small square on the right hand side. In between, there is a patch of dry paper. The amount of wetness on the paper is a major factor in trying to create the appearance of fur. When we apply the black paint to the very wet paper, you can see how much it spreads and we'll lose that fur like appearance. When you apply it to paper that's too dry, we get hard edges all the way around, and again, we don't get that fuzzy, fur like appearance. But if we apply the paint to paper that's just slightly damp, you can see that black paint is nicely spreading out, but not too much and giving us that fuzzy furry appearance. So with a brush that has very little water on it, I dampening the top of his head. Now, again, depending on how fast you work, you can do small sections at a time or one larger section. If at any time, you find that the pain is going on too hard edged, then just stop and re wet that area. And then while the paper's damp but not dry, you can start to drop in your little black fairy shapes. Now, it doesn't matter if your paint doesn't fill the entire shape. You can always rub pencil lines out later, and it doesn't matter if you go over the pencil lines, who's to know you can even add a few little shapes. If you think there's any little places that are missing some, you can miss some altogether. It's your painting, so you can decide just how many of these little black fairy shapes you want to put in. One important thing to remember, though, is that this black fur is growing in different directions around the head. So follow the contours of the area that you're painting because that also will help to demonstrate the rounded three D appearance of his head. But I hope you're starting to see now how much these very characterful, black markings bring our snow leopard to life. It's estimated that the snow leopard population is only between 3.5 to 6.5 thousand making them officially vulnerable to extinction. The greatest threat is climate change, but they are also targeted by poachers for the illegal wildlife trade because there's a significant demand for their pelts and parts in the black markets. And they are unfortunately also poisoned and killed by herders looking to protect their livestock. And because snow leopards are segmented and isolated, it does restrict their ability to grow or even survive in the long term. I'm going to let you watch the video along now as I complete all these black markings around his head and face, but I will chip in with any prompts as needed here and there. Oh. And A. Oh. Oh. A. Oh Mm. M. Oh And Oh. Although you can use a brush and some water to lift off paint, I want to introduce you to magic sponge eraser because this little tool works miraculously to remove unwanted paint. You can use it to lighten an area that is too dark or even strip the color right back to white paper, depending on which colour you've used because some colors do stain the paper more than others. Just tear a small piece of the sponge, dip it in some clean water, then squeeze it to just damp and rub over the unwanted paint until the color is removed. Use a paper towel in between to blot and get the last bit of paint off, and keep rinsing your sponge out during use to keep it clean or even throw it away and use a fresh piece. If you accidentally get a blob of unwanted paint in the middle of your painting, or you just want to lighten the tone of an area, give it some highlights, this little piece of sponge will become your best friend. Because it's normally sold as an abrasive household cleaner, it does tend to rough up the paper a little bit. So take extra care if you're painting over the area that you've sponged with another color. So have a look at your own painting and see if there's any areas that you want to lighten or whiten as I have just done. Another very useful little tool that you can use to remove paint is a small artist's scalpel. Now, these are very sharp, so do take care use with caution. And I'm using that point to scrape away some of the paint in these larger black markings. I feel that they're a little bit too dense and not showing the white fur coming through in places. If you take too much off, you can always put some more black paint back on. But the scalpel does tend to rough the paper up a little bit, so it can be a bit tricky. But using magic sponge or a brush to lift paint in such tiny areas would be nigh on impossible. So that's where the scalpel comes into its own. You also need to check your painting for any little areas that you might have missed applying some paint. Now, I've just realized that I've forgotten to add the shadow in the crease down the center of his nose, so I'm just using my indigo to very lightly with my sow brush, add little feathery strokes in that place. And I'm sort of smudging them in to the surrounding area so that they don't look too unnatural. And we get a nice soft gradation from the dark color to the light. I also want to strengthen the tone on the left side of his nose, where it will be more in shadow than over on the right. I'm glazing over that area with a thin, watery mix of indigo. Glazing is simply adding multiple layers of thin, transparent washers of paint on top of each other, allowing the layers below to shine through. Glazing is used to add richness, visual interest, or depth of color, and your layer of glaze may cover all or just a portion of the subject. The important thing is that each layer of paint must be completely dry before applying the next one. Otherwise, you will get the pigments coming together and creating the dreaded mud effect. I want to add a thin line of white to his eyes. You can either use a jelly roll pen or a unibl signal. The jelly roll is not quite as white as the unibL and I don't want it to be too white in this particular area, so I'm using the jelly roll. And as you can see, I'm putting that very fine, thin white line in the black marking just below his iris. To add some more white whiskers to his ears, I've switched to my unibor gelpin. It is a little bit whiter than the jelly roll I find, but you can use either. You could also use some white acrylic paint or white ink if you've got a brush with a very fine point. And I'm using my pen to add a few more white marks around his chin. Again, you need to look at your painting to see what is needed or what's absolutely fine just as it is. And, of course, if you didn't have a scalpel to scratch into those black markings that we did earlier, you could use your gel pen instead. To paint his long white whiskers coming from his jowels and going to use some doctor PH Martin's bleed proof white, that is actually one of the whitest whites I've ever come across. But you could use some white acrylic paint that would work perfectly fine, as well. But before I apply the white paint, I am, first of all, using a mechanical pencil to add a few graphite gray colored ones. I've added a few graphite whiskers coming from his brow bone as well as from his jowls. And now I'm using my very fine pointy rigor brush to apply the white acrylic paint for the whiskers on his jowls. A rigor brush is particularly useful for this kind of application because unlike a small round brush, the hairs are quite long, and therefore, the brush holds a lot of paint, and that means you can complete a long stroke just in one stroke instead of multiple. Notice that I'm applying the paint in a curved arc shape. The nearer that I get to the center of his mouth, the more downward those arc shapes become. You don't want to paint them sticking straight out horizontally like match sticks in a row, you can vary the thickness of the whiskers, the length of them in order to get that more natural appearance. I'm adding a few more whiskers to his brow bone, making these shorter than what they are coming from the jowls and flicking them outwards and upwards. And then while I've got my white paint out, I'm adding a few more little white whiskery touches to his ears. I'm also touching in little bits of white around the left side of his head. I think I'm probably moving into the danger zone of fiddling too much and overworking it. So I'm going to call this painting about lovely snow leopard finished. I do hope you've enjoyed this painting and that you've learned some tips and techniques along the way that you can incorporate into your own paintings. And why not pop it into a mount and a frame, and you'll be amazed how good it looks when you do that? I do hope you have enjoyed this video, and it's encouraged you to have a look at some of my other classes. I've got lots of lovely subjects loaded with more tips and techniques to help you with your own exciting art journey. I'd really love to see your own finished painting, which you can upload to the your project section. And if you could just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. In the meantime, thank you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Happy painting. 6. SNOW LEOPARD FINAL THOUGHTS : A very big, well done on completing your painting of the snow leopard. We've covered quite a few different techniques as you've been following alongside of me. Instead of just copying the reference photos, we've used them in a more loose and imaginative way. We use the wet on dry technique, putting wet paint on dry paper. Used the wet on wet technique, putting wet paint on wet paper. We learned how to create the fuzzy furry appearance of those black markings on his head. We looked at how to recover the white of the paper using magic sponge and how to add white to the paper, using white acrylic paint, ink or gouache. I would really love to see your own finished painting, which you can upload to the your project section. And if you could just take a moment to leave me a short review, that also would be really great. And if you've enjoyed this video, do have a look at my other classes on Skillshare, which are packed with more tips and techniques to help you on your own art journey. In the meantime, thank you for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Happy painting.