Think Positive, Paint Negative: Watercolour Negative Painting

1. Think Positive - Paint Negative / Introduction: Hi, everyone. I'm Lou. I'm an artist, an illustrator, originally from Buenos Aires, living in Berlin for the past ten years, and I'm very passionate about watercolors. This time we're going to do a lot of negative painting. If you're not familiar with that, it means that we work with a lot of layers and things overlap and you have to decide which goes in the foreground, which goes in the background and add a lot of magic of watercolors for that to happen. It's a lot of fun, and I decided to show you that based on different tree leaves. And I hope you enjoy it. Shortly about me, I've been teaching here in Berlin for around eight years. I created the Berlin art club where I teach mostly adults but also kids, and I teach around Berlin everywhere in different schools, kindergartens, I teach at museums, at a gallery, in lots of places and mostly watercolors. That's what I love the most. Um, so if you have seen my other videos or if you haven't seen my other videos, I recommend you to watch them and if you have um, you know how we work, it's very slowly step by step, so no worries. You'll get awesome results. This course, I would say, though, that needs a little bit of previous experience because we don't go so slow as with my fish or birds. If you're a total beginner, I recommend watching those first. Um, and before we start, I just wanted you to see my work, to check it in my Instagram. It's Lujan Cordao and to check my other classes in the Berlin Art club that you can find us at berlin.art.com. I think that's all, and let's start painting soon. 2. Watercolour Material : Hello. Hello and welcome to a little introduction to watercolor materials or what you need for this workshop. Basically, watercolor paper, anything that is around 300 grams is going to be fine. This is from a brand called aquapath but I normally use Canson. You can find all these in the resources. I made a PDF with lots of recommendations. Just check for something that has a texture that's good size wise, I cut this in half. This was in a four and I cut them to have something smaller. For this workshops better for you to work small so things don't dry, it doesn't get so hectic. You're going to need paper, brushes and watercolors. Obviously, these are da Vinci brushes. I really like them and I normally don't recommend numbers because every brand uses a different number scale, let's say. This is a six is a four, could be that these are fine. That makes sense. This one is a little bit bigger. But something like 4-6 and something smaller would be great. At least two round brushes. It's just synthetic hair and brushes. Check that they say for water colors, that would be amazing. Obviously, you're going to need something for the water. I prefer glass that is not going to fall we see kitchen paper. You're going to need a pencil and an eraser, that's just any pencil that you have at home. Um, nothing too important there. This time we're going to use washy tape for making a little frame around the paper. So, any color, it's the same, doesn't matter much, we're going to throw it away. And for the colors, this was originally Windsor and Newton wear a color set. I've already shown it in other videos. It's a mess. I just like it like that. I just keep cleaning this every now and then, but I replace this so often that normally it's in a state of chaos. I really like finishing the color before throwing it away. Lots of the colors you see that are pretty worn out, but I keep using them. Watercolors last a long time, maybe years because we use a lot of water. So mostly you just get water on this and you get a lot of color over and over again. So I would never throw them if they look like this. Anyways, I have RMS and as I was saying they were originally Windsor and Newton, but I have some Smink. I have St. Petersburg is another good brand that I like. I have God, so many different ones. But basically, Windsor and Newton is a good brand for beginners, they have a beginner collection, let's say, and a professional one, any of those Sminkes an awesome brand, it's going to be a lot more texture. Probably this is Shriminke. It's a lot more pigmented, this one probably too. Yeah, I think with those two, you should be fine. It depends where you are, I mean, actually, what you can find, but also check that PDF because there I made some other suggestions. So I think that's it. Let me know if you have questions, you can always contact me. So yeah, feel free to do that. And yeah, make sure you have lots of oranges, reddish, green because we're going to paint. Um, leaves, and I'm going on an autumn direction. This one here is just green and yellows, but I also use some oranges, reds, so get ready for that if you are going to buy some. Okay, I think that's all and seeing you soon. Just start pinging. 3. Technique: Gradient Effect: Hello, hello. So we're going to start with our first video and our first technique. I'm using a small paper. All this that I'm doing is gonna be in half an A four, DNA four paper. So it's quite small, and I'm going to divide it in two, so it's going to be even smaller because it's practical to turn around the paper and also, we're going to do background some big things, and it's just easier, so nothing really dries to work a little bit smaller. As you can see, I'm using washi tape to put all around. Gear one that doesn't have a lot of glue that is quite plasticky, even a bad one that you wouldn't use for wrapping presents because it's too bad. That's perfect. Because otherwise, it's going to rip off the paper. And I'm dividing it into more or less similar spaces, and we're going to start to paint. First, we're going to make two backgrounds. Use two colors that you like. For the whole course, I chose greens and yellows and oranges to go in the direction of trees and autumn. So I'm going to stick to that, but it can be any color that you like. And as you can see, I'm using these little spaces in my watercolor set to mix these two colors with a lot of water. We just want to make sure that we have a lot of water, so things mix ups, I made a stain. So colors mix nicely. Big brush, and here just start painting. We're going to cover the whole thing. There's not a lot of tricks here, get a little bit the feeling of how much water you need. If you use too little water, the two colors are not going to mix together. So it's better to have too much, and then you just wait for it to dry than too little and nothing is really drying. For the first one, I'm only going to use green, very, very light, by the way. And the second one, I'm going to use this orange, yellowish, turn into an ochre, something because my pan was 30. Always clean your watercolor set when you put new colors. So this doesn't happen, but at this point, I don't really care could be any color. Just very uneven with quite some water, and that's it. Go over the edges, go over the tape. So you're sure you have the whole square done, and we're going to wait till it dries. And I'm going to do some magic now, and well it's right. And now that it's right, we're going to start with our gradient effect. I'm going to use this green. I'm going to mix with the previous green. It's just two different greens and I'm mixing together. And with a medium brush, I'm going to make this thick line, and I'm grabbing chest water, and I'm going to go from the bottom up. It's as if you would like to erase this line. So there if you still see these little spots, you can repeat it chest with water. So you really can't tell where this line ends. The idea is that it goes from very dark on the top to nothing to completely see through nothing. The same I'm going to make here on the white. So again, gradient effect, there I see the line very clearly, so I'm cleaning the brush, and I'm going to clean that line. And that's it. You see that it really disappears and you just see color fading. That's the idea. Every time you make one of these lines, you have to wait till they dry completely. So now this is dry. You can also use a hair blower if you're not patient. And again, thick line, water from far. Always water from far. That's an important thing. We're going to use this effect in all the next videos. That's why I wanted to practice with something abstract without drawing, without the leaves, just to make any shape and any kind of line and work with this effect to disappear it. So water from far and repeat. So I can still see it. So I clean the brush and I get a little bit more water. So let it dry and next line. So I'm going to let you practice this. Please show me. I'm going to repeat this. I'm going to go a little bit faster. So it's not so much time for you because you know this. What I'm changing here is that you can really make a thick line. You don't need to think of one thin line. This could also be surface, could be like a big block of color, and then you fade it. That's another possibility. I'm going to do the same in the next paper. And I let you practice that. Yeah, I just put it faster for you so you can sit and repeat it at home, and then don't forget to show me, especially if you have any problems. Looks easy, but it's not, so a lot of patience and a lot of repetition. You can make as many as you like with many, many colors. Lo So, we're almost done here. I hope this worked. The result is gonna be very pretty. I'm gonna remove the tape and a. You get these little mountains. You can also turn it around how pretty or waves or whatever you like. It's just to practice this effect. So practice a lot. Show me, make it with different backgrounds with different colors, and hope you have fun. 4. The Logic Behind Negative Painting: Hello, hello. So we are going to start with our process of understanding negative painting. For that, I'm using just a regular sheet of paper, any kind. This is just for sketching and your pencil. Obviously, if you want to have an eraser close by, maybe it's a good idea. I'm going to make some little examples of what we're going to see. Later, we're going to work with leaves, as you know. And my idea is that you see this and maybe understand a little bit the logic of negative painting. The thing we need for negative painting are objects that overlap, basically, because if nothing overlaps, you can't really show or use the technique to show what's behind and what's in the foreground. So in this case, I'm making two sets of leaves and each has two leaves. And I'm going to put this closer so you see it better. Yeah. Let's imagine this is our first project and we need to paint it. I'm going to make this darker because once we have it drawn, we have to define what's closer to us. So this one would be on top. This would be number one, and this would be number two. What we also need for negative painting, this is our paper. We need or, like, it would be optimal if things reach the edges. You see there, I cut the little bit of number one. The more we do, the more you're going to understand this. But let's imagine now we have three leaves. This is going to be kind of our last project. So you can see a little bit of everything now. Let's imagine this kind of maple leaf, I think it is. So we need another one that is behind it. They are, and we're going to make one more. In this case, you would have two options of what you can do with color. You could paint the leave number one empty. This is number one, and convert the other two in the second layer two, or leave one as two and the other one as three because you could even give more layers, and it would be like, one is very close to us, two is close to us, and three is far. That's the idea. Number one is always the closest. So the logic of this, it's all about layers. One more. All these little examples of drawings of compositions you can use later. Let's make a slightly. I'm taking for a reference of leaves. You can just Google. It's going to take a minute leaf catalog or leaves illustrations, and you're going to get the name of each tree and stuff. I'm going to make this one that I think is very pretty it's a little bit more complicated. That's also something that I wanted to say. Maybe don't go to something so complicated because then when you have to paint it, it's going to be obviously harder if it has many of these little curves around it. If you've already done this, go for something complicated like this. You could even make three of these ones. It's just that then we have to rush and the color dries, so it gets oil a little bit tricky. So this would be our one and the other one could be our two. This is also just to show you that behind doesn't mean like under. Behind could be really on the back like the previous ones. And we have two options. These two I make in, so you know what is going to happen later. One option is to leave number one empty to leave it completely white with the color of the paper, and with the same same composition with just two leaves. I'm not making a masterpiece. It's just so you know how it works. One and two. The other option would be to color everything, the whole paper, make it a background, and then go. Let's go on the other direction. Makes more sense. Leaving one empty and covering number two. Is this too abstract? Oh, my God, I'm dying to see your comments. This way, you will have color on the first on the first leaf. Anyways, just have this little sheet sheet sheet close by. It's all about the layers, and we are going to start soon and we'll go through this again. 5. Negative Painting 1: Leaving White: Hello, hello. So we're going to start with our first experiments. As you can see, I already painted, put the washi tape and painted one of these squares rectangles with an easy background with two colors like we did for the gradient effects, and I left one empty. And I'm going to use also something that you already saw. There is this example of the two leaves together that we sketched before, and I'm going to repeat it twice on these two steps. I just did the background before not to use so much time. And now we do the drawing together. I'm just going to repeat this twice. And as I said before, you can choose any plants that you like, any leaves that you like for this, but nothing too complicated. This already will be complicated enough. Let's call it like that. Let's see if I like it. Always shrinking how much I show you, to be honest because also this I could have just shown you the drawing done, but I always think it helps that you see me and you see my mistakes and you see how to fix things I like. I like not to edit so much, to be honest. But well, the washi tape you obviously can put yourself, and I will do it in some other video. So you see or in case there is something that I'm forgetting to explain. And as you can see, I'm trying to imitate this twice. I could have also copied it, like trace it, so it's twice perfect, but I really don't care that is exactly the same. And we're going to see the two effects that I showed you before when we saw a little bit behind the scenes, the logic of negative painting. This one, I'm going to leave with the leaves in front of us white, and the other one I'm going to do with the leaves already with color, already with the background on them. Extra complicated. I decided to add a new leaf here in between just because the composition seem a little bit empty on the top. Sorry. And same thing here. Again, you don't need to first. Maybe if it's your first attempt, you can make it much easier and make one long stem and one leaf. This is up to you. As you can see, you can always erase on top of the background. Just be gentle. And that is it. Think we are ready to paint. Once you're done, what you're going to need is a medium brush and soak it in a lot of water with color. I use these empty spaces, as I showed you before. And I'm going to just mix and play with these two colors as I go. There is not like a specific order or what I use more or where. I'm just going to mix them. I'm kind of doing this is not then put speed up or fast forward. This is my normal speed because you have to be fast so nothing dries. I'm obviously leaving the first set of leaves or the first plant empty, completely white. I'm going to go full around it, and I'm playing with two different greens and a yellow that I'm going to mix directly on the paper. So when you go around the plants, go very slowly. And when you are farther from the lions, farther from the tree corners, you can go faster. So here, again, very slowly. And I can carry this color from here to there everywhere just because it's still wet. So make sure you use a good amount of water for this. Always move the paper around. You don't need to be stuck to the table. It's better if you can move it. So it's more coffee for your hand. This is the easy part. Look, I just have to go over all the other plants. I'm ignoring what's happening in the background. And I'm just painting, painting, painting. At the brush, you're going to hear me say this if I didn't say it before. I use this medium brush just because I like that the tip is very pointy, very sharp, and because it's quite big, it holds a lot of water. Of course, for a background, this big, you can use a bigger brush and cover more, but maybe it would be trickier around the edges and the small little corners of the drawing. So I'm in between, not too small, not too big, and I think is the best option for this. So Keep going, keep going. And we achieve something like the background that we already had. But this time, leaving the leaves empty. I kind of like the shape. It's quite a little bit shape less, but I like it. I made some interesting straight lines that weren't on the drawing, as I also said before, I think, I just erase the lines later. So the drawing for me is a suggestion that it's wrong, but I normally change the drawing as I go. Exactly the same thing. But now over the background. Carefully. Same colors. You don't need to maybe you think you have to go darker because you make this pop up, but just because the colors are overlaying, they are going to be darker, so you don't need to worry much. There, I even use a little bit of water directly on the paper. So careful around the drawing. And I'm not comparing with the first one. Don't worry about that. They can be a little bit different. It's just so you learn these two options with one same thing, but it doesn't mean it has to be exact. And we continue look how pretty that is starting to appear. You can see if you're using yellow like me, maybe don't put it exactly where there was yellow because maybe it's too saturated, I would play a little bit with using yellow, but also using green where there was yellow. There. So it's not only yellow. Normally, it doesn't sum up yellow plus yellow so nicely. So I mix it with a little bit of green. And this is working so smoothly because I have a very good amount of water and I can do this. I can go over things and they are going to mix. The paper is also quite good. That is very important here, not the best, I have to say, but it's quite good. This aqua pad paper I decided to make some stains here and there just because. Also because it still was still wet. Otherwise, don't touch it, just let it be and we follow. We continue in the next layer. So we're almost done. Let it dry a lot, a lot, and then we continue. So once they are completely dry, we're going to do the same to the plants on the back to the leaves on the back. That means we're going to paint around them. And this time, we're going to respect those, and we're also going to respect the white one. So the white one obviously has to stay white. Did I say the white, the white one has to stay white. And now, the one that was in the background is also going to stay lighter. We are basically just making the background darker. Again, can be the same colors in a different position in a different place. Light green and darker green, and I'm playing. This is also up to you how much depth you want. If you want it to look like, very far, very dramatic, the background can be much darker. Otherwise, you can just use a lighter color. Normally, when we do negative painting, we work with many, many layers, mesmin so you see the details. There. So normally, we try to go quite light because you can always add more accents and more depth in a new layer. But if you do the first layer very dark, you can't undo that. So it's better to be safe than sorry, I guess. So pay attention because it gets confusing. Sometimes you forget which layer or which lines you're respecting I'm going to make this one with you, and I'm going to let you look at the second one, which is going to be exactly the same. By the way, for this exercise, we are just covering everything. Later on, I'm going to show you another way of doing negative painting with the gradients that we used before. But the technique of painting is as if you're making a background over and over again, just respecting shapes, just leaving shapes empty. So Look how pretty how they start to emerge. They appear the leaves that weren't are like magic. They are pretty. Careful. Remember to always add more color. Don't go too far. What I mean is be careful here with the shapes go around them. Carefully. And then don't go too far. Like, I go around this, maybe that's enough and you see already come with more color and more color. Don't just, like, keep going with your strokes because the more you go, the farther you go, the drier the brush gets, and you're going to start seeing some lines, the strokes, the dry strokes of the brush, and that's not nice. We don't want that in watercolors. So last little bit, careful around the white. These lines are quite thin. That's why I say it's not so easy. But patience, you can also choose what you do first. Maybe start with the corners that are easier and then go around the lines. That's more of a challenge. I try when I do these tiny bits, not to press the rush. So I touch the little corners, you see, with the tip of the brush very, very gently. And then I can go with the side of the brush or paint by pressing more. Oh, there is a little layer there. Sometimes you can just ignore it or carry it out with your brush. When it dries, you can remove them anyways. So little darker part here it is again. To it left. Ah. Hmm. This is a ticking bump because things are drying while I try to get this little hair out. W I just ignore it, and when it dries, I will just blow it. So little corner, and we are done. So this is how we are. We're going to do exactly the same. With the second one, I'm going to show you that a little bit faster. S, we are the here. You see the two options. Now when they are very, very dry like this, look so pretty. The only thing would be to very carefully erase the pencil. Here you have your two options with and without leaving white or with or without a background. Hope you enjoyed it. Show me how it went and let me know if you have questions. 6. Negative Painting 2: With or Without Gradient Effect: Hello. So for our last project together, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to prepare two colors, and we're going to make two little paintings with two slightly different techniques. But first, let's prepare the backgrounds. I chose these two colors. You can choose any colors that you like. I'm going to continue with this palette of greens, yellows and orange colors. And you know this. By now, I'm just mixing them kind of fast so they don't get dry and the colors mix and, like, flow one into each other. I'm going to make some random stains here and there. Right now, we're not going to think too much or plan too much in advance. Just stain the paper a little bit, just so it's a little bit more fun. Quite light, I would recommend. So because later, you know, we're going to add layer after layer, and if it's too dark, it's going to get too saturated. So try to use a lot of water, try to use light colors and only a couple of touches here and there. And meanwhile, I make the colors for the next one. Wait, I'm going to make some little dots. Um, I wanted to tell you about these techniques that we're going to use. We're obviously going to do negative painting, but it's going to be in two different ways. One is going to be covering the whole surface around the leaves, and the other one is going to be just making a shadow over the background with a gradient effect. Right now, I know it sounds abstract, but you're going to see it soon, so, you know, oh, second, little square. I love the size. Also, if you want, you can make them apart. Remember to hold your brush. Other was a little bit dry. I should have put more water there. I'm going to go over it. If you it's too dry just add a little bit of water on the paper directly. Making it in any direction. This is not important. It's just to have a pretty stainy background. So a couple of dots. And we're almost done. This is as you like. You can also add some lighter colors. I'm going with the yellow now, and almost done. We're obviously going to let this dry. And when it's completely dry, I see you again and we draw together a little composition. Three leaves together. It's gonna be. So let's let it dry and see you soon. So now it's completely dried and I'm going to start drawing. Remember to get an H B, pencil, something hard, not too graphite, not a two B or a four B, that you will never be able to erase something soft. And I already sketched this in a normal paper. Now I'm checking how it went. You can sketch first a couple of leaves and then decide which ones you want to do. I went for this mot or less chestnut leaf shape if you just Google shape of of leaves, you're going to get so many different ones. This was, like, a little bit simplified version of it. And I on purpose did it, so it reaches one of the sides. So it's kind of exceeding the left side, and I'm going to make two smaller ones around that one, so then we can send those to the back, like first one ID that's going to be in the total front, and I'm going to make two more that tar behind it. That's the logic here. I recommend making three leaves that are the same from the same tree. I'm thinking what's more convenient here. But I don't want you to go crazy with trying different shapes. Take your time here. You can also erase if you like. That's also possible. So check which position is better or what you like the most. I made it again, quite simple, one, two, three, that's it. And I'm going to try to copy it. So you have the two versions of the same composition, the two different techniques you can use while still using negative painting. So more or less the same, I'm going to make one in the center. Exceeding the left side. These ones have like two, like, smaller pointy shapes, let's say, on the bottom, and then two bigger ones and one big head, let's say. Again, just check for chestnut. Leaf or maple is also very, very easy to draw. And the last one. So we're almost there. Draw as soft as you can also. So then you can erase this easier. And we're going to start painting before just check if your lines are too hard, you can erase them softly with an eraser, normal eraser. And that's it. So once it's done, we're going to start with the colors. Again, prepare the colors. I'm going to use these two colors that I used before. I'm going to prepare them in these empty spaces, and I'm going to start with the first one. What we're going to do with the first one is just leave the big leaf in the center empty and paint around it, all around it. Start with a medium brush or a bigger brush. I prefer a medium one because I can go on the pointy corners better, and it still covers a lot. And every now and then, I just switch colors. This is completely spontaneous. It's not planned. Sometimes I'm going to use the yellow, sometimes I'm going to use the green. That's it. You see that already the first well, the little leaf on the top already disappear because this one is becoming much more present. We're going to rescue the one that disappeared later. So of course, you have to be kind of fast. That's the tricky thing also because it dries and the colors won't really mix. If it dries, but carefully around the shapes and then just fast over the rest. This, I would say is the easiest way is just, like, covering everything around it. And on the other side, we're going to do the version with gradient effect that is a little bit trickier. So thick line around the sides, like outside the leaf and then color color color. There. I really don't care so much about the pencil lines, I have to say, because I can erase that later. Just use it as a guy kind of cheating. Also, add mordot if you like. Why not? While still wet. If it's not wet, leave it. But here it's still wet, I can go a little bit around the shape and add something else fast. So let's leave this one to dry. And meanwhile it dries, we can start with the second version. This is going to be the gradient effect one. I'm going to use the same brush, that's okay. Always prepare the colors in advance so you don't get them directly from the pan. I mix it already with a little bit of yellow. What we're going to do here is start the same way, go a little bit around the shape, but come just with water from far. Gradient effect. We've tried this before. So water from far, I'm going around because I thought it was too light. Color around the line and water from far. You just want to shake this line, so it disappears. There it is quite well. Actually, check very carefully the shape there. I think that's better. And line thick line. Don't go with a thin line. It's gonna be harder to erase and go around it. And again, I'm going to check that the edges, the tiny, tiny corners are more or less fine. You can even paint more. Doesn't need to be only a line. Here, I just added more, and then the water from. So sometimes I let go over it once more, if I see it still wet, just to make it a little bit more dramatic. And as you can see, the leaf starts appearing and it's like a shadow around it. It's just we're not doing much on the other leaves. We are just making this shadow. I got a lot of focus. Now, I move it there. Um, you don't need to think about the other leaves at all. We're just adding around this one for now. So let's leave some time for these to dry for both of them, actually. And maybe when the first one dries, I'm going to already erase the pencil. You can see the difference already. One is completely flat all around, and the second one has this, like, gradient color disappearing. Please, like, let it really dry. This wasn't a minute. This was many minutes or use a hair blower and dry it, and then you can erase the color, the pencil. I mean, let's check here. Also, check how it works. Don't be too hard. Like do little touches and check. Sometimes, depending on the paper, maybe it takes too much color, the eraser. You have to be careful and obviously don't erase the lines around it, the lines of the other leaves. So we're going to continue with the leaves around this, make sure you have enough color. And maybe switch to a smaller brush if you like, just because the corners are smaller. I'm a little bit lazy. I do everything with this brush because I know how to control it, but yeah, the little corners are gonna be. Even smaller now. The thing now is that we have to go around the first leaf and around the second one. So I'm doing this very carefully because it's easy to get confused. Even for me that I've done it for very long. I love this effect, and I'm checking where it's better to begin. Careful because it's very easy to change the shape that I like I just did, for example. So I'm going to go over it and just make it darker and better. But there, we repeat what we did before, plus around the new leaf, around the small one. I decided to go from here down. You can do this in the order that you like. Just be careful and remember for this one, we're just blocking all the background. Careful, for example, with this little stick with the Stem, is it? Or am I making it up? It is a stem. Stem is for plants. Well, the little part of the branch, there is this little stick. And again, you have to be fast so this doesn't dry. This union there is, good. It was still wet. That's the magic of using a good amount of water. Nothing. I mean, you don't see lions where things match. Here. You see, now the two new ones are starting to appear. Looks easy. It's not. Be patient. If it doesn't work, you can always start over. You can even do this without doing the background till you get it right and then make one with the background. Be patient, be forgiven with yourself. Be very careful around the shapes and then color doing these soft touches and then second color or the same color all around it before this rice Oop there. And go over the tape. Remember that's also nice. And we almost have it just missing the little part on the bottom. Oh, this little corner here, I was missing. So careful don't retouch if things are already dry. I kind of did something funny with the drawing there. It's fun. I'm gonna leave it like that, but you see it has four corners. I don't know what I did. I probably went over one that I didn't see in the drawing. Well, this always happens. It's just practice. Don't worry. It's not the end of the world if you change the shape or forget something. This is just to learn the technique, and then you can use it for 1 million other paintings or projects that you design and think more carefully. But this is just the way to learn the technique. So careful and then just cover, cover, cover. And in the middle, I'm just missing a little bit. And we're almost done with the first one. I have to tell you that wasn't so bad, was it? Hope everyone is still breathing. Don't panic. It's all good. And voila. So gonna let it dry, and we continue with the other. I switched to a smaller brush here. Maybe it's a good option because we're going to do gradient effect, and you know the corners are small. Let me show you closer. So you also see the pencil. This when it dries, you're also you're always going to see stains. Don't worry. It's like that. The water makes marks, it's all good. We're not aiming for any perfect. Oh, a drop speaking of not perfect. They are water from far. Any perfect look just has to be messy and stainy. That's the wood part of it. So don't stress about that. Color, that was very little water. So grab more water. If that happens there I'm happy because that's not gonna dry. I can even make it a little bit thicker if I want. Don't go too far. You see, I do two lines and water from far. I'm not going to draw all around the leaf because that's not going to work. It's going to dry. So one line and water from far, press, press, press. I'm extending this bit of color that there was there. Line, water from far and the little corner here. Line and very little water because this space is tiny. Here, I'm just going to color that little corner, water from far. And I think that's it. Am I missing something. I think it looks fine. Let's continue with the one on top. And we're almost done. Then it's up to you if you want to add details to this. But remember, a little bit of line, a little bit of water. Don't scratch too hard the paper because you're going to get all the color that is on the first layer. You're going to get it all mixed with this, so we try to be as soft as possible. I'm remembering all the tips as I go. I'm going to make a summary for you. So water from far water from far, even on top of the tape, if you want. Line a little bit of water and line here. If it's thick, it's better. It's going to be easier to make it fade. You see, I'm not using a huge amount of water just enough so this line moves. That's it. We are almost done here. I'm taking here and I see a couple of things that I could kind of fix. It's not completely necessary, but it's bothering me that this corner is quite light, super light. So I'm going to add a little bit more color here and do another gradient. You can do this as many times as possible. The thing is that it's quite risky because every time we go over it, we have the risk of changing the line, changing the original drawing. So I wouldn't do it much. But I want to have this one a little bit closer to us, also. So I'm going to add this here. If you feel like retouching something, just wait till it's completely dry. I think I'm going to leave it like this. It's a good example enough for a first introduction, I guess, to the two effects, hope you like it. I'm going to let them dry. And now that they are completely, completely dry, don't forget to let them really long. I'm gonna peel this. If it's not coming off, be careful. You can use a hair blower because it kind of melts the glue, and then you can take it off easier and easier and you don't rip off the paper. Anyways, the trick is to have it to almost push against the paper. Ah, this little thing is killing me here. Come on. By does I want to leave. Da da da. So be careful, and that's what I mean, like, very much against the paper. Like, I don't know how to say. Don't pull on your direction there. I think I took a little bit. I know, it's still fine. So it's gonna it's very rewarding. I'm doing it slowly, but it's so nice when you see it. Tan. So I think you said last project. Is our almost last project. We're going to make one more painting like your final class. But this is to show you these two effects. Ah, they are it peeled. So I always like that. I should have done it with the hair blower. Careful, it also depends a lot on the washy tapes that you're using. Use a bad one, one that has very bad glue, so it's easier to peel off. And the d, d done. Little last bit. And, oh, it gives me so much more mental peace now that I see without this red frame. Oh, look at the white happiness. Almost done, and I show you. So, hope you enjoyed it, hope it wasn't too stressful, and I see you soon for our last bit of the course you. 7. Negative Painting: Final project : Hello, hello and welcome to our last project or your final project, actually. As you can see, I already painted the background. You know how to do this. Change the colors if by now you are completely bored of the yellow and green. And you can always make this sketch first in a normal paper, like I show you at the beginning, just to be sure that you like it and that you uh, yeah, are happy with the drawing before going to your paper with the background. I chose for these maple tree leaves, making my own version. I didn't want to make them as pointy as they are just because it's going to take a lot longer. And for this, I'm going to add for this video, we're going to see something new that you can do besides the obvious negative painting around the leaves. I'm going to show you a new trick, something you can add for the veins. So I'm going to show you a little bit faster how I drew this just because you're going to have your own version. Again, I would recommend sticking to three leaves that I would say, do it as I'm doing it, but it could be any leaves that you like or even even three different leaves. The veins, this is the new thing. I would like you to add a couple of lines inside the leaves. Not too many but these little veins, at least the central one and some smaller ones going from here, from the center to the tip of each part of the leaf. So check again, originals. We're not going to work on the design now. When you have this, we are going to start actually there. I'm preparing the color, and we're going to start with the veins. This is something that we didn't do before. But this is an excellent way to practice negative painting because you can already leave the veins, especially the central one. Leave it much later. So we're going to paint around it, obviously, just to leave that part lighter. I'm also adding some dots here and there. That is also kind of a new thing that now that you practice so much, maybe you can try. Very, very gentle with a lot of water as usual and very, very see through. So color in the middle. And I don't care if I go over the leaf or if this is just staying in the center because then I'm going to cover all around the leaf. So we don't really care. Just water from far make this disappear. Maybe I see too much the line here. I'm going to erase that just in case, you know, we erase just with water from far, just not to see where the line ends. Going to add some touches here and there. You can also play with different colors, even in the same line, if you like. There was a lot of color. But I like it. It's also fun. Doesn't need to be so super subtle. And last one lying around it, lying around the line on the outside, and second color if you like. And I'm going to use this oh so dry a little bit more water here and make this color fade and disappear. So we're almost done with this little part. Of course, you have to let it dry. Don't forget, little dots, if you like, only where you see that the color is still wet. And now I'm going to let it dry. So once this is, look how lighter it looks. It's crazy. Went very, very light, but I have to say I kind of prefer it that way. You could even repeat it if you like, but I'm going to leave it that way. And I'm going to start by painting the other lines, the tiny, tiny lines, the veins that we drew before with a much smaller brush. And you're going to get this feeling of depth. Really looks deeper, looks like texture as you could touch these veins. So small brush, color around these little V letters, let's say, kind of retouch it too much, Ban a little bit more later. And around these lines, little color line. You can choose how much color you want for this. Be very careful. And the other side as well. So a little bit of color from line to line and water from far. Line and color. Remember, don't go too far with the color. You can even do like I did and actually color between these spaces and then fade it from far. So I'm going to get a little bit more color. This is getting very, very light there. I like it a little bit more. And you're going to repeat this endlessly as many times as you like. And for now, it's just this gradient effect all around the lines. You don't need to worry about the logic of what's behind and what's in front for now. It's just making these tiny lines come to life. So tiny places are going to be a little bit harder, but still doable. So I really like very see through things. Again, you can add more color if you like, but I like seeing the color disappearing. Love that. So one is almost done. And I'm going to continue with the next one. You can choose. Maybe you make one leaf that is a little bit more orange orange, one that is more green as you like. Right now in Berlin is the perfect time for that. Autumn is starting, and I'm going to go now showing you a little bit faster because you know how this goes. So color color, color, water from far some parts you can even just make very light and leave them like that. Maybe you don't even need so much water if it's very light. So now I'm confused about what I did with leaf. Yeah, it was bigger. So I'm going to cover that. Doesn't matter. Again, it doesn't matter so much where the leaf ends because then we're going to paint all around. Then we're going to make the background darker. So that's a good thing that now you shouldn't care much about the shape, doesn't matter if you go over the line. So line, water from four, almost done. I add a little bit of yellow here, and the next one. Last one. Again, the more of these lines that you add, the more complicated it's going to be. But it's also good exercise. It's just like teaches you to respect the shape a lot, a lot. A little bit of green that I haven't used in this one so far. Look how magic, how the lines appear. Of course, you could have made the center and these lines together, but it's a little bit more complicated. That's why I did them individually, each line. This is the one that I didn't like at the beginning. It was too light. Just going to add some touches here and there, and this part is almost most Done. I missed this tiny one here. I'm going to add it now. Have a look, check that everything is fine, and then we're going to start our negative painting around all of the leaves. So Do. Let's let it dry and magic. It's d. So again, maybe medium brush. You can prepare your colors already, put a lot of water so then you don't have to be running and nothing dries, and you don't need to. To worry that the colors don't mix. So I'm mixing yellow with this green, and now you have to decide which leaf is going to be on top of which. What I did here is to use the orer like as if they were falling. So this one is going to be on top of the rest. And what I suggest for this one, as you like, you can also do the one where we paint all the background, but for this one, I am using the gradient effect. So I paint the line or I even paint more than the line like this. And then I'm just going to bring water to make that color or line disappear. So a little bit more color pretty going to let it expand a little bit. Because I see that it's still wet, I'm going to make this line here. You can always move your paper as I'm doing so you see if it's wet or not. Going to bring more color here. And but as you like, you can make it all gradient with a color background. And I'm going to go over the stem because that's the idea to make this one on top of that one. And here I just do a gradient effect. Normally, when we do this technique, well, it depends on your project, but normally we play with both. We don't do only, like, a background plug in everything or only this shadow, this fading effect. We normally play with both, a little bit here, a little bit there. Or depending on the logic of the paper, we do have some intention intentionality. Oh, if you see this line, always erase it if you see where the color is ending, and look how pretty we almost have one leaf here, then. What's going to happen and it's happening to me? I like this, like, little broken corner. Is that probably you get lost with the drawing. It's not symmetric anymore. I don't care. It's just to practice this technique. And we're almost done with this first one careful around the edges. And I'm gonna let it dry, and I'm going to show you the next little bit, a little bit faster because now you know this. Let's see. I can even cover a little bit more here. Oh, I like it. It's starting to appear nice. If this is still wet, you can correct or add a little bit of color. If it's dry, just let it be, you don't need to. And once this is, same process to the next one. I'm going to show you this faster because you know it, but it's good that we go over it with some tips and how to solve mistakes. So here I don't have to forget about the stem has to appear again, so I'm going to go over it. Shape carefully. Water from far always. I made this kind of brownish with the green and the yellow that I had. I also quite like it. When I use a lot of orange, really block the other leaf. So it looks like the third leaf is really behind. It's really one falling on top of the others. I mean, one on top of each other or one on top of the one over it. You know what I mean? My English, God. But the good thing is that you can see it. So careful when you go around the shape, color, color, color, and I try not to touch much what I already did for the first one because that's done. I'm going to make this little space that should be empty between them, just like this, little bit uneven. I think it's fine. Maybe here darker just because I see that it doesn't look like so deep. Maybe that's better, and that's it. Let it dry, and we're going to make the next one. I'm just traumatized by the little shape here. Maybe it's better. Careful. I'm doing this, but it's still kind of wettish. You shouldn't. Wait till it's dry. So now that the first two, look how much you see them before it was nothing. Now they're starting to appear. Of course, later, you can choose if you want to retouch the veins, if you want to add something, be very careful, but you can we always use 1 million layers. So that's always very much allowed. I try not to retouch or to retouch as little as possible out of principle. Because some mistakes are nice with watercolor, so we shouldn't worry so much. It's all good. Orange. You can always clean things with your finger as I did. Just pushed a little bit of color out of the leaf with my finger and then corrected it with the brush, obviously. Oh, I like this transition from orange to green here and little last bit here on the bottom, too, the leaf appeared very happy with that little that last a little bit. So done. Let's give it some time to dry. And what you can do is erase the shape and then check if you need to add more details. Careful with the eraser, as I always say, just do little touches. This has to be very, very dry. Otherwise, you're going to remove the watercolor. Oh, I just did, I think, I'm going to retouch it in a minute. The thing, I mean, it's always nicer to erase and then have another look right to see if you need to retouch something depending on your paper and on your colors. Actually, sometimes you remove too much with the eraser, but, of course, we don't want the pencil lines. So once this is done, let's do some small last retouches and we're going to be ready very soon. This is really up to you. You can add more color around them as much as you like. Right now, I'm just fixing this part got to white with the eraser. I can always happen. And I'm going to add some more color to some of the veins. A super speed for the last touches. I don't want to bore you with this last bit because all of you are going to need more retouches here or more retouches there or no retouch at all. So this is just my example and, like, my little problems to fix or where I think should have more color. This is what I mentioned, maybe between the veins, and maybe these little corners so they pop up a little bit more. But every one of you is going to have a different experience here also based on your drawing. So very little. Corners. This one I feel especially lost. Maybe I was too shy with the color. Normally, that's the case. I'm over careful. But this is up to you. If you see it and it's very saturated, also, just let it be. Since it's good to learn where to leave it also. And we are almost done. Oh, my God. Hope you've enjoyed this. Hope to see all your projects for each class or for each video. You must have a project and you must have questions. So post, share it. Find me. You know where to find me in the description. You have all my contact details. So last project, let's remove the tape, and W hope you enjoyed it and see you soon. Oh 8. Final thoughts: Oh so here I am again. I hope you enjoyed this process. I hope it wasn't too frustrating. I know what countries are not easy to deal with. But when you get the things to work, it's quite magical. So I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please comment. If you did that person comment, leave me a comment. I'll be happy to help you if something didn't work or if you have questions. Also, it would be awesome if you can leave a review so other people know which level you think this workshop is for or any other things you feel like sharing that would be awesome. Also, follow me and tag me if you've done your homework in the Berliner club or at Lujan Cordao my name and my last name. I would love to connect with you and to see any follow up work you do at home. Yeah, hopefully soon I'll be making more videos. Follow me, and let's share a lot more. Who knows? Who knows what's next? Thank you. Keep painting. Bye.