Transcripts
1. Introduction: Look at all of these trees. How can we capture their weight and intricacy, knobbliness and wobbliness whilst
exploring color and composition in a
more graphic style? The answer, for me, lies in simplifying the view. Do you want to try it too? Let's take inspiration from
stained glass windows, using their vibrant colors
and intricate frames as a jumping off point for
creating joy fuelled artworks. In this class, I'll guide you through the process of creating simple yet striking compositions within a structured
window format. This beginner friendly approach breaks down complex scenes into manageable shapes and helps you to analyze your
artistic choices more, making it perfect for
anyone who wants to experiment with color and
explore a more graphic style. My name is Gemma, and
I'm an artist-maker who finds a lot of things
fascinating. I can't help it. There are a lot of creative
pathways out there, and I'm enjoying finding
my own way through them. As a perpetual student myself, over the years, I've been
sharing my art adventures, encouraging other art
explorers to stay curious, because I want you to find the creativity
that you love too. I really hope my classes can support you in trying
something new today. With that being said, my
fingers are itching to start. Are yours? Let's do this.
2. Our Project: Ooh, yay! You made it. Come on in, and let's chat
about what we're making. Our project is simply to create a colorful scene inside
of a window frame, using the reference
photo as inspiration. But by doing this, we'll be identifying
clear shapes and utilizing bold lines to explore structure
and composition. In the following demos, I'll be showing you the
basic process that I use, and I'll be using
alcohol marker pens. But you can absolutely use a different
medium, if you like. The basic steps of the project are: To choose a reference photo; To draw a window
frame and then sketch the main shapes of your
composition inside it; To color in the shapes
that you sketched; To outline the composition
and fill in the frame with black bold lines. At each
stage along the way, remember to take a photo of your design so you can look
back at how it progressed. Do share your photos in
the project gallery, too. I'd love to see the windows
that you're making. In the next lesson, we're going to look at some of the materials that you may need and the
resources that are available. I'll meet you there.
3. Materials & Resources: What are you going to
need for this project? These are the materials
that I'll be using. A pencil and an eraser
for the sketching stage. Alcohol marker pens. I'll mostly be using
Ohuhu markers, and sometimes I'll mix in the odd color from
Artful markers. All of these are
alcohol based markers. Alcohol markers are different from water based
markers as they're generally easier to blend and come in a variety
of brush types. There are brush tips, which are my favorite
because you can move from thicker lines to thinner ones easily and create
expressive marks. Next, you have the bullet tips, which are great for
more precise coloring and always provide an even line, and there are chisel
tips which are useful for filling in
larger areas of color. You may also come across colorless blender
pens like this one, which can help to merge
your colors together. However, I won't be
using this in class, so there'll be no FOMO here. If you don't have alcohol
markers right now, don't fret. Water based pens can create
bold and beautiful designs, and you can still create textured blends using stippling, scribbling, and hatching. Paper. Paper is
probably the material, which makes the biggest
difference when using markers. As you can see from
this example swatch, two colors of marker pen merging will show up differently
on different papers. Smooth papers which
are labeled as "no bleed" tend to keep the
markers at their brightest. The 70 GSM marker paper and the 250 GSM bristol
board examples here are both showing
the brightest yellows. Other papers, such
as mixed media and cartridge paper,
even though smooth, will soak in the markers more, deepening the colors
and allowing them to seep into each other
or "bleed" more. Your choice comes down to
preference and availability. In my main class demo, I'll be using the
mixed media paper simply because I like how the pens blend into
each other on it, and I don't really mind the
slight fuzziness of bleed. And it's the paper that I
have more readily available. So use whatever paper you have to get started and
experiment as you go. There are also some
handy resources that you can download too. In the projects
and resources tab, you will find: A swatch sheet. (And yes, that is
very hard to say.) It can be handy to swatch
your colors before you start, so you have a reference of how each pen looks on
the paper. Feel free to download this sheet
and print it onto a similar paper to the types
that you'll be drawing on. Then color in the trees and note down the color numbers
to look back on later. Window frame templates. This PDF shows a couple of simple window shapes which you can print out
and trace from. Or you can print it out and
draw directly into a frame. There are also image
reference sheets, which include the references I have used for
my examples here, and notes on how I broke each one down into
shapes and lines. In our next lesson,
we're going to start sketching out our windows. This is where you'll be training your eye to simplify shapes and start identifying how they relate to each other
within the composition. It's going to begin
building your window view, and I think you're going to
enjoy it. I'll see you there.
4. Sketching - Deciding on the View: Welcome to Sketching. If we think about
this lesson as if it's one of the trees
that we're going to draw, this is the roots! And roots let in the goodness, So who'd want to skip those? First, I'm going
to choose one of my window frame templates
and trace it onto my paper. I'm simply placing it
on top of my template, and luckily, I can already easily see through the
paper to trace it. Depending on the thickness of the paper that you're using, you may need to place a light
source behind the template, such as a light pad or a window to trace
the frame easier. To draw curves a
little steadier, I rest the side of
my palm firmly on the paper and keep
it in a fixed spot, only moving my fingers. To steady my straight lines, I extend my little finger and align it straight along
the edge of my paper. I then position my
pencil at the start of my straight line and, keeping my fingers still
and my hand fixed, I pull back from my elbow, letting the paper
edge guide the line. Remember, though, this does
not need to be perfect, so don't worry if
the lines wobble. So now we can move
on to thinking about what we can put
inside this frame. Before I start drawing
inside of my frame, I'm going to look at my
image and start identifying the core shapes or areas that
I might want to include. Here's an example of the kinds of shapes that I'm noticing. In this image of a
Golden Trumpet Tree - I am in love with that name! - we have a lovely,
clear tree trunk shape which we can
immediately start with. And then, as we follow
the main branches, we can also note some of the negative spaces
between them. I'm not worrying at this point about the smaller branches. I want to find the
shapes which are leaping out at me and
demanding the most attention. The key is to resist
the urge to draw shapes which are
exact to the image. All you need here is the
essence of each shape. So don't worry if they seem
too simplistic or childlike. It's okay to draw blobs! Blobs are welcome
and encouraged! So let your inner child
take the reins here. Essentially, I'm using
the light and shadow contrasts in this
reference image to create the shapes for me. It can sometimes help
to squint at the image, to blur it a little as you view it, because then you let go of accuracy and step into a more
intuitive way of drawing. You'll notice as I'm
honing in on these shapes, I am not letting them
touch each other. I'm allowing for narrow channels to form in between each one. These channels do not have
to all be the same width. In fact, for this tree theme, variation is better because
nature has some wonky lines. It's not something I need to think too hard about right now. Simply by creating these
shapes separately, channels start
forming naturally. But it's an important
thing to note for this process and we'll come back to explore them
more in a little bit. Now you can see the basic idea, let's talk about how we want to position our
image in the frame. With wider subjects
like these trees, it's clear that they won't fit entirely into my
portrait window frame, unless we make them a lot
smaller - in which case, we'd have a lot of
clear space around them that we'd need to decide
whether we want it to fill. So this is where we get to make some simple but
creative decisions. Shall we position our
tree slightly off center, letting the branches
and leaf shapes take our attention on a curving
journey around the frame? Or shall we place our
tree right in the middle, letting the bold trunk
lead our eye upwards? There are some images which
might seem harder to decide on because their shapes lean
easily towards abstraction. The shapes I found in this
willow tree perhaps have a less obvious structure because there is no clear tree
trunk to connect them, but they will still create
a wonderful window, especially if we embrace that abstraction and let
it take center stage. I am going to place both of my main class demos into the very centers
of their frames. For the golden trumpet tree, I will be zooming
out just a little to ensure I can fit in plenty
of that bold trunk, and for the willow tree, I will be zooming in a little to fill the frame with
those draping shapes. Once the idea is set, it's time to start sketching. Grab a pencil and start drawing the shapes that you're
spotting inside your frame. There's no rush. Just let
your hand mosey around the page forming
the general shapes and getting a sense of
where you're heading. If you think you
have found all of the most prominent shapes
in the tree branches, but have some blank spaces, feel free to improvise a little and add in
some extra shapes. This is not an exact replication of a tree but a creative one. So go with your gut. You should be left
with something which looks a bit like this - no doubt, a little
rough, but that's okay. We don't have to have
all the answers at this stage because that's what
the next lessons are for. Okay, listen up because
in the next lesson, we're going to start
diving into colors. This is where you'll
be discovering the mood of your window and not worrying
too hard whether or not you're coloring
inside the lines. Coloring class is all about playing and finding your
way through the muddle. I'm so happy we can explore it together. I will
see you there.
5. Colouring - Playing with the Mood: Come on back in
because, as mentioned, it's about to get
colorful in here. In the last lesson, we sketched out our
basic composition, and now it's time to start
filling in the blanks. First, let's choose some colors. Color choice is a major element of experimentation
in this process, and there are so many
combinations you can explore. For your first windows, I encourage you to listen
to your own preferences, selecting colors which
speak to you in some way. You could stick to colors which imitate the
reference image, or you could expand into trying out more diverse color theories. I tend to hover around using four to five colors in my
windows as I think this offers opportunities for
blending and variation whilst still keeping the
overall view cohesive. For my Golden Trumpet Tree and my Willow Tree window demos, I'm taking the
yellows and greens of their respective images
as a jumping off point. For the golden trumpet tree, I'm using sunflower yellow
as my most dominant color. I then have barium yellow as my highlight color and salmon
pink as my shading color. I have mint as my
background color, and a warm gray as an optional
background variation. This is a mini swatch of those colors on the mixed
media paper I'm using, so you can see how they
look when they're dry. It's useful to do
a mini swatch like this to compare how the colors
sit next to each other. And as you can see,
I haven't chosen colors which are too far
from each other in tone, so I think they
sit well together. I'm going to start
from the top of the tree and work my way down. In the higher branch clusters, I'll be adding in more
of a high light shade, and in the lower ones, I'll introduce the
pinky shadow tone more. The bridge between
the two will be my most dominant
sunflower yellow. To start, I color in a line of the lighter yellow across
the top of a shape. Then quickly, I switch
to my bolder yellow and scribble it just underneath pushing it slightly
into the lighter shade. Then I switch back to
the lighter yellow pen to swish over both colors
to help them blend together. I tend to keep the
pen caps off at this point so I can keep switching between
shades quickly. There are lots of
different ways to blend, and everyone has a
different preference. Mine is to be scribbly. I don't mind too much if my
blend isn't super smooth. I quite enjoy the cloudy
textures that can appear, especially on this
kind of paper, but do play and see
what works for you. This technique of scribbling
one lighter color, adding in the darker one and then returning
to the lighter one to bring them together is repeated throughout
the rest of the shapes. As I move down the tree, I start using the lightest shade less as a standalone color, but keep it near to use as a blender as I start
adding in the pink. So now I have a few
colored shapes. I'm starting to
get a better idea of how my tree is forming, and I can start to plan more for the black lines
which we'll add later. At the top here, I need to separate the tree shapes
from the background sky. So I draw a line which creates
a channel between the two. Now I can color in
that top section with the mint background color, and I know that there will be a black line between
it and the tree. I'm also going to
fill in a couple of the negative space shapes in the branches
with the mint too, which is as if the sky is
showing through from behind. Now, as I'm finishing off my yellow sections at
the bottom of the tree, I'll let you in on
a mistake I made. With this small shape here, I was actually planning
to color the top half of it mint and the
bottom half yellow. But I plopped the yellow
in the wrong bit, so instead, I made the
whole chunk yellow. It's a small mistake, but even small things like
this can throw you off. But there are always
ways to fix things. So if you color
something a little bit squiffy, don't panic, pivot. I made a mental note
to make sure I used some black lines later to
cover over that pencil line, which still showed through
the middle and carried on. Now I've colored all
of my tree shapes. I can consider whether
there's anything missing. All of the white
channels between my shapes will end
up being black, and I can see clearer
now that some of those channels have
chunkier lumps in them. I can now decide whether to
add in a bit more color into these areas or whether to
leave them to be solid black. I decided to break them
up and add a couple of small yellow patches in. In the lower section
of sky background, I'm going to use the
mint green first and then merge it into the light
gray at the very bottom. As this is a larger section, I'm using longer strokes all in the same direction
to fill it evenly. And when it comes to the blend, I'm sweeping the
darker gray upwards, feathering it into the green, and then pushing the green back towards it to
merge them more. So this is how the
golden trumpet tree looks as we leave it to dry. Sure, it has messy
edges, but who cares? Now, just before we
head to the next stage, let's take a look at how
the willow tree came out. The paper used for this example was the 70 GSM marker paper, which is a lot smoother
and more slippery. As the pens go down
on this paper, the ink seems to slide around, but it also stays
where you put it. It's a funny paradox and very different from
the mixed media paper, which soaks in the ink. And this is where you can make your paper choice work for you. Although I started coloring
in my scribbly way, as I progressed and saw how the ink was
laying on the paper, I changed to using
longer vertical strokes. This really suited the
more droopy nature of the willow shapes and created
some lovely streaky textures. I also added a pink
at the top and a really deep green color
at the bottom on a whim, which I think worked
really nicely, the deep green giving
more weight to the other greens as they're
pulled down towards it. Okay, we have Planned
and we have Played. It seems only right that
we should move on to the final stage where we define the structure and pull
everything together. Yes, my friends, the next
lesson is outlining, and if you have ever enjoyed
a bold black line on a page... Well, this lesson
is going to bring you the biggest smile.
I will see you there.
6. Outlining - Defining the Structure: Get comfy, grab a nice beverage because this is possibly
my favorite bit, and I'm really
hoping you enjoy it. I mean, I'm not meant
to have favorites, but there is something hugely satisfying about seeing
everything coming together. Suddenly, the experimental
becomes intentional, and it's just the best. Grab your best black pen
and give it a squeeze - It's gonna be your buddy today. At its core, this part of
the process is simply about filling in all of those white spaces you
have left with black. It sounds straightforward
and it is, but it can also be a
little confronting. In placing your black, there's no going back, so it's a mini lesson in embracing your choices,
come what may. I'm using the bullet tip end of my black marker pen to draw the outlines of my tree
trunk and fill it in. Then I do the same with
my lower branches and start to outline the shapes
that I meet along the way. With my lower yellowy shapes, I didn't leave such
a clear white line between them and the
background, but that's okay. The black pen is dark enough
to go over the color, so I draw my line around
the edges of the shape, and because this is an
outer line of the tree, I make it a bit thicker. It's a small thing to notice, but the thickness
of your lines and the variety of them will make a difference to
your final piece. They are a subtle way of giving the viewing
eye more interest. My preference is to utilize thicker lines
around the edges of the overall shape and thinner lines for
detail or decoration. However, we don't
need to think too hard about the
connecting lines as the natural channels
that we made when drawing our shapes tend
to be varied anyway. It's your choice whether you draw all of the main outlines first and then fill them in or whether you fill
them in as you go. I tend to do the latter, working my way up
or down the tree, filling in sections at a time. It's very satisfying to see the slightly messy colored edges disappearing under the
solid black lines. Suddenly, it all feels like
it's making more sense. This is a stage for
taking your time. It helps to have a steady
hand as you draw your lines, so don't feel the need to rush. And if a line goes a
bit squiffy or wobbly, make a decision to either
embrace it or change it. You can always thicken the line or take it
in another direction. At any point along
the way, of course, you can outline and color
in your main frame. If you want super
straight lines, you can always use a ruler, but I think it's pretty nice
to have the handmade feel. Once you have your
channels all filled in and your tree is looking
bold and bright, it's time for some decoration. This is completely optional, but I like to add in some thin lines inside my shapes to really
make them sing. In this golden trumpet tree, I think of these
lines as if they are extra branches reaching
through or around the shapes, and they can be great
for covering mistakes. Remember that pencil line that I colored across by
accident earlier? Well, let's draw over that now. My preference here is to draw
these lines quite fluidly, but you could also make them
more angular if you wish. Sometimes I draw two
lines close together, and sometimes I let a line
follow the edge of a shape. There is no fixed amount of decoration or detail
you need to do. You might want it in every
shape or just a few. See what your gut tells you. In the Willow tree example, I used these lines to accentuate the droop
of those shapes. Letting the lines in general move downwards
rather than across. The finished result is a stylized stained-glass-like version of the reference you started with, shining with vibrant
colors and deep outlines. It has taken the essence
of the tree and used its basic shapes to rebuild
a new version on the page. I'm hoping you've been finding this process as
satisfying as I do. If so, you may want to
draw more than one window. Believe me, it can suck you in! And if you do, you can start exploring
more varied ways of composing your windows and utilizing the bold
black lines and colors. In the next lesson, I want to
share some inspirations for expanding your viewpoint, even within the same visual themes. There is a world out there
just waiting to be windowed, so let's take a look
at it together.
7. Exploring - Finding New Ways to Frame: Welcome, welcome. Find your seat because we
have things to discuss. The theme for this
class has been trees. In the last few lessons, as we got to know the process, we have been focused on
drawing them landscape style - head on, full scale. However, as you get more comfortable in
building your windows, you might wish to start
switching up the view. And even in keeping
with the tree theme, there are plenty of
ways to do this. Here are some ideas and examples of things you
might like to try. Zooming in is a great way to change your perspective
on a subject. In this example, I have used my own close-up photo of
tree bark as inspiration. In filling the window frame, this design leans
into abstraction, a bit like the
Willow tree example. The point is not necessarily to recognize what the subject
is on viewing this window, but to play with the
different feeling or mood, this jaggedy linework
might provoke. I'm using a lot more
black in this window, letting the frame encroach further inwards to meet
the shapes inside. The detail lines added
at the end gave me the opportunity to hint at
the textures of the bark. However, zooming in doesn't
have to mean abstraction. In this example, I am focusing on sakura
cherry blossom flowers, which bloom from the branches. You could do something
similar by simply focusing on clusters of leaves. In this design, I am keeping
the colors quite muted, aiming for a softer,
more subtle feel. I take the basic
shapes of the petals that I can see and
color them in with a very pale lilac on
the outer edges and a deeper purple nearer the
centers of the flowers. I chose the one color
oatmeal background for a flat effect and then used the black for the stems and
the rest of the outlining. The end result has a
pleasing simplicity to it, and it's one of my favorites. Perhaps now it's time
to branch out and find different ways to let
the trees enter the frame. Taking inspiration from
this upwards-focused photo, where all the tree
trunks lead to the sky, in this example,
the black lines of the window will pull
the viewer inwards. I used a very
limited color scheme here of orange,
purple, and gray, and although the tree
outlines are fluid, I took the decision
to make all of the inner branch lines straight. Because of this, as
more lines are added, despite the fact that you can still tell that they are trees, the window takes on
a shattered effect, which I really enjoy. Branching out is not only
about changing perspective, but about utilizing your
frames differently. In this example, I
used two windows as a diptych to allow the tree
to spread across frames. I again kept to a
limited color palette using red brown and yellow
umber for the tree, allowing the shapes
to be quite chunky. And it definitely didn't look
too inspiring at the start. But this was definitely a
trust the process type of design because once the black
lines came in at the end, it found its vibe. Using thicker lines between the larger chunks of color
makes the tree feel weightier, but adding in swirl
details to echo knots in the wood and wiggly
lines in the red sections to hint at moss keeps
it from becoming too jigsaw puzzly. Until now, although we have recognized that our black lines are playing a crucial role in our designs, they have been acting in more supportive roles, directing our attention to other elements. Now it's time to
give them the lead. In this example, I am casting the tree trunk and bench
as my focal points, and both will be in black. The overhead leaf clusters and sky background will act
as supports behind them. Therefore, those
colorful areas will be separated into
two large spaces, the blue purple
supporting the top half and the orange purple
supporting the lower half. This simplicity in structure still gives the window
a boost of color, but doesn't make it louder than what is in front of
it - the shadow tree, whose trunk and
branches connect in some way to every
side of the frame. Including the bench in shadow too creates a narrative
in this window, which we haven't had previously. This is not a portrait
of a tree but a scene. This tree will have
visitors to sit beside it. Or maybe none will come. Either way, this window
opens up future doors. Lastly, how's about we let the lines become
more decorative? In this small palm tree example, I used coloring
pencils and decided to fill the background
with swirly patterns. The tropical colors add some zing and texture
to the page while the black marker
lines go on to have an altogether different
kind of party. Stained glass windows
have been a form of illustrative communication
for a very long time. Taking inspiration from them means you can create
something beautiful, but you can also go
further if you wish. Could you tell a story
in a series of windows? What would happen if the
lines which structured your windows were inverted
to white instead of black? How could you change the sizes and shapes of your windows? And in the end, what if you no longer had a frame to hold in
your composition? Where would you
let it expand to? In the next lesson, we'll be wrapping up our
thoughts because, oh, goodness! It's our final
chat. I'll see you there.
8. Final Thoughts: Come on in. Can you
believe this is our last lesson together?
I'm not happy about it. Why do things have to end? But I really hope I'm going
to see you again very soon. Before we part,
though, let's debrief. How has learning this
process been for you? Are there elements of it that
you particularly enjoyed? Are there any parts of it
that you found less helpful? Sometimes classes support us in teaching us something
that we never knew before. Sometimes they do it by reminding us of something
we've forgotten. And sometimes they
simply prompt us to look at things we already
knew with fresh eyes. I would love to hear how
you experienced this one. If you could leave a review, I'd be super grateful. They not only help me to
keep learning and improving, but they also reach out
across the Internet to your fellow students who haven't stepped into
this class yet. Creative courage is contagious, and by writing a review, you might spark someone
else to try something new. If you have created
your own window throughout the class and
are in the mood to share, the project gallery is
where you can do so. It honestly gives me such
a happy feeling to see the art that you're
making because we all create in
such different ways. Remember that this
process does not have to stay limited
to marker pens. If you'd like to paint a
window in Acrylics, do it! If you'd like to create a reductive lino cut
print, take the plunge! I can imagine that embroidery would create beautiful
vibrant windows. In fact, I want to try
that. Eee, new project! The discussions tab
is available below, if you have any questions
or just want to chat. If you decide to
branch out (punny) from trees as a theme, let us know what other
themes you're dabbling with. Let's chat about the different views that we might capture, and we can inspire each other
to look deeper and further. There really is
no limit to where you can take this
style of drawing, and you can have a lot of fun bending the idea of
what a frame is. In this digital example, I let the shapes determine where the edges of
my frame would lay. And then let that frame
extend as part of the design. This "shapes first, frame
later" approach allows for a lot of freedom
and the black lines become a part of that fluidity. In trying out different
background colors, you can play with adding white
back into the design too, giving some of the black framing lines variation and texture. Let your lines be bold and your colors vibrant and let
the subject take the lead. If you would like to catch
up with me elsewhere on the Internet outside
of class, then please do. You can find me at
gemmathepen.com where I share art and craft blogs,
and on YouTube @GemmaThePen where I
share videos made especially for my fellow
cozy curious creatives. I am counting you
as one of those, so do hop over and say Hi. I have a few other classes here that you might
want to check out. And if you don't want to
miss my future classes, you can click follow on my Skillshare profile to
receive notifications. You can also join my free
Penn Diaries newsletter for monthly updates about what I'm currently
making happy with. Thank you so much for
taking this class and spending your precious
creative time with me. It means a whole bunch, and I really hope we'll
meet up again soon. Stay curious. Stay creative, keep making happy, and
I'll see you next time.
Gemma the Pen, Making to Make Happy!
