Tree Frog Watercolour - Working with Green

1. Introduction: Hi and thanks for joining me today. This is the painting that we're going to be doing, a little tree frog. This lesson, I guess really it's about, it's about Green's, about layering and about lifting in some highlights. Now, with painting with green, I want to try and you convince you that it's much more fun to mix up your own greens. So let them mix on the page rather than to buy a tube of green paint and rely on that. So this is all wet-in-wet and letting the colours bleed. And it's about trying to keep the vibrancy and trying to keep their really bright, beautiful colours in there. And just using a few small darks to really let the work pop. So we'll go through the reference sketch and materials and step-by-step through the painting so that hopefully by the end, as always, that you end up with something that you're happy with. 2. Materials: So we'll go through the materials that we're going to need for today's lesson to start off with the reference photo. So this one is from Pixabay and you can download it from the Skillshare site. I've also included up there, if you don't want to do the sketch yourself, I have put on a template that you can also download. I would encourage you to sketch yourself if you can face it. In terms of the actual painting, I paint on a board, I paint flat. I don't tape the painting down. And nor do I pre stretch the paper just because I'm a little bit lazy. If the buckling bothers you, then wet the front and the back of the paper with clean water tape it down to a board and let it fully dry. Now, I'm using Arches, cold press paper. 300 g cold press is my favorite brand, but of course, if you have a preference, by all means use that I would just say use a good quality paper because if you use a cheaper brand, you can get frustrated pretty quickly. Okay, In terms of paints, I'm using today. So my yellow and blue, I'm using cerulean from Winsor and Newton, and I'm using some Hansa yellow medium from Daniel Smith. You can use some cad yellow for that, that would be fine. From Daniel Smith, I'm also using some Van Dyck brown or you could use burnt umber would be fine. And I've got some indigo. I do like Daniel Smith indigo, I find that that's a really nice, strong dark. I also have a couple of other Winsor and Newtons. I've got some burnt sienna, some yellow ocher, or you could use raw sienna. And I've also got some quinacridone gold. It doesn't really matter if you don't have the quinacridone gold. It's just a really nice vibrant colour. A little bit goes a long way, but if you do have it, it's good to use. I'm also using just a tiny spot of some white gouache. The brand doesn't matter. I've got art spectrum. You could use China white or titanium white if you didn't have the gouache. I've got three brushes for this one. I have a neef 4750 LP This is a squirrel taklon mix. It's a size ten. You just need a reasonable size brush that comes to a nice point. I have a little synthetic for the details and then I've just got a bright stiff synthetic. This is just for lifting out a few highlights. So it's just a really nice stiff brush. Eraser, pencil, jar of water, some tissue or toilet paper, and then whatever palette that you have handy. And I think that's probably all. And we're probably good to start with sketch now. 3. Sketching Up: So starting off with the sketch, so keep it nice and simple. I'm just using a HB pencil for this. Don't, don't go too dark on the sketch because we're painting with a lot of yellow in here. It can be hard to get the pencil off underneath the paint so it keep it light. Get the position of the eye right The position of the pupil in and a few of these little lines, where we've got the border between the green and the brown can go in, but don't get too caught up in that. The other thing to just be aware of is that your stick, your branch needs to make sense coming from the top to the bottom. So make sure those lines follow through. And I'm actually, I'm leaving out this little bit of brown here on the back of the frog only because I always forget to paint it in, so I'm just not going to bother. I have popped a little template up for you if you don't want to try to sketch yourself. Having a look at that, my branch on this, a little bit fatter at the bottom than the top. That's okay. I think we're probably ready to start painting. 4. First Wash on Back: Okay, now I'm going to start with my size ten brush. It comes to a nice point so I can get into some of the smaller areas. I'm going to start by wetting the page down first a little bit with some clean water. For greens, I like to let them mix on the page rather than mixing up my palette. I'm going to start on the back here and just roughly wet down. So I'm staying out of the leg, staying out of this little bit in the tummy. Now I'm going to come for the eye. I am going to come just over the top. I'm just over the top of the eye there. Catch the light. So I've got some puddles of water there. Then I'm going to grab a little bit of my Hansa yellow. And I'm just going to whack that into that wet page. Coming over the top of the eye. Then I'm going to grab my brush and grab now some of my cerulean. Squeeze a bit more and then just drop that into the yellow, making sure I'm coming. I'm dragging that to my pencil edge and just letting it mix together. I'm not really trying to force it to mix on the page. Alright. I just pop a little more, squeeze out some paint. pulling down the bottom here. Now, I need to come out of that and let that just do its own thing. I'm just looking at the top here. I'm just going to drag that, make sure I'm wet all the way up to that pencil edge up the top here. Now the only thing I want to do here now is just watch and see if I'm getting too much. I'm pooling of water. So if I've got heaps of water in here and I sit here and let it dry and I'm flat. Or that pigment will push to the edge. And I'll get a really hard defined line around where it hits the dry paper, which I don't want. So if you look and you think I've got too much water on there, we'll just wick a little bit off. I'm just going to tidy that up there. So what I'm going to do, dry my brush, tilt my page and I'm just going to touch my brush and wick off that excess water. So I wanted a lot of water in the first place to let it mix. But then I just need to back off so I don't have huge puddles of water. And now I just need to come out and let that dry and do its own thing and see what it's, what it's going to do. 5. First Wash on Face and Legs: So I'm dry in here now. I'm going to come in and put some of the other greens. So we do the same thing. Take my size ten, brush clean water. I'm going to wet under the nose here on the right to the tip of the nose, underneath the eye. I'm going to come on the bridge of the nose there as well. It doesn't matter if I touch that green here where the eye is because I'm dry there now so nothing will happen. Drag it down. Now this kind of transitions a bit, there's a little bit of brown in there. I'm just going to come through that. You can probably see I've got a little bit of green tinge still on my brush, but that's okay into the front of the leg. Now. I'm also going to do the thigh here and I'm going to not touch I'm going to not touch the arm. I'm going to keep a little bit of white paper between the leg and, the arm there. And then I'm also going to keep a little bit of a gap between the leg and the bottom of the leg. So this little line here, I'm going to keep dry paper. So I'm going to come underneath. I'm going to stay out of the toes for the minute. You'll be able to see a bit more clearly when I put the paint on. So again, damp not soaking coming with my yellow going to start up the top here. And just let that run down. Drag it through the leg. Not being particularly fussy. Bit more water up the top. here. Im going to push that all the way to the front of the nose and bring it up to my pencil line, on the bridge of the nose. Then I'm going to pick up some more of my cerulean. I've just squeezed out some more cerulean because I've run out of paint. And then just drop that, walk that around again not being particularly fussy more yellow. So again, just letting the paint mix on the page rather than mixing up the green in my palette. Leaving that gap between the top and the bottom of the leg. Back up here. I think I probably need a bit more cerulean on the front of the nose here. Picked up a bit more paint tease that through. And there'll be multiple layers to go on here. So it doesn't matter if I don't get it all on the first hit. I just want to keep it nice and light and vibrant. Now to keep me out of that, while that's drying, I'm going to come and have a look at the foot here, the browns down here. Now I've just cleaned my brush. I've got less water on my brush and than my page, I'm just going to tease that green across top of the foot there, so it's just smoothing that, blending. So I don't have a hard transition from the green to where I'm about to go. Just wetting that down, just a bit down at the front of the toes. So I've got very little water that's just a bit damp. Then I'm going to pick up some burnt sienna, paint my tissue because I don't want a whole lot of water in here. And I'm just going to I'm going to start my tip this way and go back into the foot. So I'm just going to drag a little bit of brown, take the excess water from my brush and let that run back into the leg there. I might just tease it, just my pencil inch just at the front there. Then I need to come out and let all of that settle in. And actually, one thing I will do before I let that settle in, I'm still wet. when I look at the reference. I know that there's a little bit of brown in there. I'm going to take just a touch of burnt sienna and just touch it a little bit into that green just to tell my eye where that Brown is meant to be. And then I'm going to come out and let that dry. 6. Throat and Tummy: So it's been about five minutes and i'm I'm dry here now so I can keep going. I'm going to come underneath the chin here. So what I can do is clean my brush. I'm actually going to take now a milky wash of yellow ocher. I'm just going to come straight onto that. So it's straight on and filling that whole area. Now down here it's actually green. So I'm going to, I'm just going to go onto dry paper. I'm going to grab a bit of yellow, drop that in, and then I'm just going to drop a bit of cerulean. Now I could have painted that when I was doing the rest of it. I just forgot about that. I've just run a bit more water on top of that to help it mix. And I'm just going to drag that yellow. just into that join. All right, now, while that's drying, I'm actually going to start to drop a few dots in there, a few browns. So I'm going to take, I've got some Van Dyck brown here. Not much water on my brush. And I'm just going to drop into that wet page. A few bits of Van Dyck brown. Now I'm not going to overthink that, because I'm going to go in here a few times, just want to start to get a little bit of brown in there, wash my brush, take off the excess water. So I've got I've now got less water on my brush than I do in the page. just going to tease that up a little bit. And just want a few bleeds and mixes going on in the page. Bring that right up to the edges. Chin there. Might just soften the edge. So I've got a fairly dry brush and I'm just going to, I'm just teasing it over this. Here where I've got a bit of white paper just to get myself a little bit of a wash there. Okay, now things are starting to move and I need to get out of that and let it dry. So while that's drying, I'm going to come and think about some of the colours in here. So again, I'm going to start with yellow ocher. Milky wash of yellow ocher. Take the excess off my brush and just colour in. Basically up to where the eye starts through this stripe into the tummy. So i'm, I'm really wetting the page with some yellow ocher effectively. Alright. Now, while that's wet I'm going to take thick Van Dyck brown, take the excess. I'm just touching the heel on my brush to the tissue to make sure my brush is really dry. Just start to drop a few bits of brown into that yellow ocher across the top of the thigh. And while that's still wet, I'm now going to pick up same kind of consistency of burnt sienna I've got here now. And I'm going to drop a little bit of that burnt sienna into that brown as well. And then when I look at that bit of the arm, that's where that, I've put that soft little brown So I'm going to tease that across so I've just washed and dried my brush. I'm just going to bring that across so I keep drying my brush. just tease that around. So again, it's just the first wash. I don't have to I've got lots to go in there. I don't have to get too caught up in that. While this is still wet, I'm going to go one more round. of dark. I've picked up some more Van Dyck. I haven't stayed exactly true to the reference there, but no one will know as to where that fold is, so it doesn't doesn't matter. Just in front of the knee, behind the elbow. Tease that across the top. Then I'm going to wash my brush. Take off the excess, just soften that. So I'm just blending that Van Dyck edge softly into that underneath wash. And the little sort of spotting that you can see in his tummy there, we'll worry about that after I'm not ready for that yet. Softening, I'm just going to drag that dark just back a little bit there. Okay. Been in there a while probably need to come out and let that dry. So I'll put my brush down and then we'll come back and we'll probably start and we'll get the leg the branch in and we'll start with the eye. 7. Eye and Branch: It's been probably ten minutes now and I'm fully dry in there. I'm going to do a little bit of a wash on the eye and put in this branch. So I'm going to take a small synthetic now. For the eye, I'm going to put in some color around the pupil with some quinacridone gold. That's what I'm going to use. You could use burnt sienna if you. Don't have the quin gold. I want to take, I've got some squeezed down my palette here. I'm just going to come straight onto dry paper. I've not got enough water. It's not actually moving straight onto the dry paper and just paint. That. Doesn't matter if you, if you paint into the area of the pupil because we'll tidy that up with a dark later. Because when you're painting flat, so just tilt your page up to make sure that it still makes sense because you can get a bit of a skew when you're painting flat. Then while that's wet, I am going to take now a little bit of burnt sienna. And into the top of that, I'm just going to drop a bit of that brown into the quin gold. I've come, I've come a little bit into the pupil, but that's okay. I'm going to wash my brush, take off the excess on a tissue and just blend that in now I'll probably go a lot darker than that. But just initially, that's as dark as I want to go and I'll come back when it's fully dry and keep playing. We'll do the branch. Back to my bigger brush. Now, anytime, I don't often paint logs and leaves and branches and things. But usually if I'm painting a stick like this, I like to paint it first with water and then drop the pigment into it. And I don't want to have a really sharp cut off. So I want the paint to taper. So what I'm going to do is take some clean water, paint underneath the foot. Then just drag the water down a bit, do the same at the top. Not too much water. This brush holds a lot of water. So I've just put on probably more than I needed then, tease that up. So you can see wet but not saturated, start with some yellow ocher. Just going to drag that through top and bottom. Now I'm doing the top and the bottom at the same time because it's the same piece of wood. So I want it to have the same colors in it. Alright, then I'm going to pick up maybe some Van Dyck and some burnt sienna together. A bit of both. And I really want the water to do the work. for me. I'm not really thinking about I'm painting a branch. I just want the water to to wick the paint around. So I'm going to drag a couple couple of lines through. And now I'm going to put on some more pigment and stay closer in here. Because again, I want it darker, where it touches the frog and I want it to disappear so it moves out. So now I'm going to go with straight Van Dyck. I'm going to chisel out that shape underneath the foot and the leg. there, all still very wet. And we can have multiple goes at this. You don't have to get it in all once and I'd rather have multiple rounds and go too heavy and decide that you've got this really clunky looking branch. I've just put that on. It's probably a bit much so I've just washed my brush and I'm just going to drop a bit more water into that. And I can sort of feel like I'm starting to fiddle now I might just I might just drag that up slightly. Definitely starting to fiddle now, so I'm going to come out of that and let that fully dry before I do anything else. 8. Starting the Darks: So again, it's been about another ten minutes and everything is dry. So I'm going to start up, come back to the eye and I'm going to pop in the pupil. So I'm taking my small synthetic and some indigo, straight indigo, not much water on the brush. And just paint that in starting in the middle of the shape and pushing out rather than starting on the, starting on the outside edge. Okay. So I'm going to also now put in the little nostril here. Now what I'm going to do, I'm actually going to take some Quin gold, or if you don't have the quin gold, some burnt sienna. A little bit on my synthetic brush, my small synthetic, I'm going to pop in line in and paint that down coming to the eye. And then into that, I'm going to pick up some Van Dyck brown and just drop that into that wet paint. Wash my brush. If it doesn't move, nothing much happens. If doesn't move, just get a bit more water and drop it on. And I might actually, I might actually pop a bit of burnt sienna in there as well. So I've now picked up some burnt sienna on my brush. Just drag that into the wet page. Wash my brush and I'm just going to sort of join that up a little bit. To that eye, I'll stay out of that while it's a bit tacky, because things will start to move in there and I'm going to come underneath the chin. So I'm going to stay with my small synthetic, the throat rather. So I'm going to just wet down. Just damp, in through here. along it's lip to that front of the chest. I'm going to pick up a little bit of burnt sienna and a bit of Van Dyck together. And I'm going to come on to that damp page tease that down to the join. Wash my brush, clean, damp brush, and just blend off that edge, so dry it on the tissue. I'm after a transition, I don't want hard edges here, a clean damp brush, just teasing that around, keeping it nice and soft. Quick look at the reference. come through, now, I need still probably a bit too light, so I'm going to pick up a bit more Van Dyck and drop that in. While everything is still a bit damp. Now you can see where I've got that hard edge there. Where my paper is dry. I'm just going to worry my brush over that. Just a rough it up a little bit. Okay. Now I've probably dried off a bit up the top here now. So I'm just going to get a bit more water and paint this down again because I didn't put much water on it dried pretty quickly. Now I'm going to the same thing. Bit of burnt sienna, bit of Van Dyck together. Wash my brush, dry it off. Then that together. Now this is the sort of thing we can, we can keep going back again and again and again. You don't have to get it all right initially and this will dry too light. So we will have to go again anyway. You're better off working up to it than trying to get it all at once and making mistakes. So happy to just slowly do it. Now I want a little bit more warmth, I think up there. So I'm going to take a bit more burnt sienna and touch that. Okay, so there's a little bit of texture in there at the moment, not quite enough. I'm going to come over onto this side now and let that dry and we'll come back into there. So here I want to emphasise, I'm going to go onto dry paper. I've picked a bit burnt sienna, bit of Van Dyck brown. I'm just going to paint that circle, drag it down a little bit and a little bit towards the eye. And then I'm going to get some water and just mess it up a bit. So just drag my damp brush through. And if when you do that it, you know, you disappear all the pigment. You just grab a bit more. I'm just going to grab a bit more burnt sienna. drop it in. Wash my brush and just soften that back into the wash underneath. Okay. Given that we're still working up in this part of the face, I'm going to darken off the top of the eye here. So I'm going to take some Van Dyck brown, paint my tissue so I don't have much water on the brush. And I'm going to darken off that top part of the eye. So painting around, in Van Dyck brown washing my brush, taking off the water and the paint and then just blending that. You have to keep washing and drying your brush. So I want more dark on this side, so take up a bit more paint now. I'm going to just re-state a line. Well, I didn't actually not re-state and I haven't drawn it in the first place, so I'm just going to paint a bit of a dark underneath that quin gold to show the bottom of the eye. I'm going to blend, gotta keep cleaning and drying my brush. Okay. So I'm going to stop coming out of that, let that dry and then keep working on the darks. 9. Starting the details: There's more to go in the face, but because we've been in there for a little while, I'm going to come out of that and work on some of the darks down the bottom here. So we're going to start with my big brush. I'm going to wet down the bottom third of the arm here. Come all the way across to the touching the knee. Okay, then I'm going to pick up a combination. I'm going to take a little bit of indigo and a little bit of Van Dyck brown and just touch that, that's a bit much water. My brush holds, as I said, my brush holds a lot of water, dry that, and just let that tease up. Wash my brush, take off the excess water. I'm going to drag my dry brush across the top of that join where that milky wash is meeting the dry paper, then down where I'm wet here, take a bit more paint. Same indigo, van Dyck. Make sure I've not got much water on my brush. And I'm going to go darker down here. So I want darker down the bottom here. Coming around that. just washed and dried my brush. I might actually drop, might actually drop a bit more green in here. So this time I am going to mix up in my, well a bit so take a little bit of my yellow, a little bit of my cerulean on my brush and then just drop it in. I'm just making a slightly stronger green. Just tease that up. The reason I keep drying it and teasing it is that I don't want to a hard transition between when I'm putting this second wash on, I want it to look like it was all done at the same time. And I've got a little bit of a light. Here. I'm going to I might actually warm it up a bit. So I'm going to take it this time a bit of Van Dyck and a bit of burnt sienna and just not much water on my brush. Just drop that in. Now that I'm quite likely will have to go darker there, but I can feel that it's quite damp in there now I've been in there a few times, so I'm probably better off coming out, letting that dry and then going back in again, if I need to, I'm just drying my brush and I'm just making sure I'm keeping an eye on that wet edge. Making sure that I don't get a hard line, just softening it back with a clean damp brush. So where I'm going to come next is underneath here. I'm going to take I'm actually going to wet this down underneath that line that I left, and I left that just so that I really I could see where I was going. Do the same thing initially, bit of Van Dyck, bit of indigo, dragging my brush along it. Because I've, you know, I've kinda been a tease that out. I've lost all my color. So I'm just going to pick up the Van Dyck and indigo again. Just drag and underneath washing my brush. Just going to soften off the back there. So I've cleaned my brush, just dragging my damp brush. And I think again, I probably want some of the sienna in there, pick up a little sienna And a bit of that van dyck. My page is still wet. I'll get that little bit of bleeding. Now. I want more bleeding down the front of the foot there. So I'm going to clean my brush, put a bit of water there, pick up, pick up some van dyck, some burnt sienna, and just drop that into the wet page. wash my brush and I'm gonna tease bit of that brown down the toes to sort of give me a little bit of a wash. Now, I also want a bit more green on here, and I want the couple of spots. So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to mix up, pick up a bit of my yellow and a bit of my cerulean. come straight onto dry paper. And be careful not to touch, well, not to run a whole lot of water into that brown that I've just put on. I've just strengthened that green wash. Then I'm going to put a couple of, I'm gonna put two little spots of van dyck. So this is really thick paint. And just drop that onto that leg. Okay. Now this is a this is a sure sign that I need to stop in this particular area. You can see here, I'm starting to cause, there's a little flash of white there that I don't want. I will need to fill that in, but I don't want to do that now because I'm going to, everything's going to move. So I've got to let that fully fully dry. So while that's while that's drying, I'm going to come in here. I need to warm this up a little bit, so I'm going to pop a little bit more yellow ocher in here. So I'm coming onto dry paper. Just painting. right over the top of that. I'm going to chase that up. I'm going to come up a little bit under the throat There so into that top of that arm. Just with the yellow ochre. Okay. And I'm going to put a little bit more while that's drying. I've got some Van Dyck and I'm just going, oops I didn't actually get any I'm trying to go for a dry brush here. And I'm just going to put a few little spots of van dyck just to get a bit of texture in there. So if I do it wet and wet, I get these little soft spots. But if the page is too wet, it will just go into a full flat wash. So you've gotta you can kind of test the paper so you drop one in and if it holds, you can keep going. If, if it spreads too far, come out and let the page dry for another minute or two. While I'm in here, I'm going to take a little bit, so I'm damp along this edge. I'm just going to tease a little bit of Van Dyck. Just along the border. Just let it bleed into that wet page a bit. Okay. Now I'm going to walk that. I'm going to keep walking that I'm not wet all the way up here. I'm just going to drag that. van dyck a little bit up towards this little, it's ear, I'm assuming. Just get a bit stronger color in there. Okay. Now I'm fully dry there. So I'm going to come back a bit more under the throat. I'm picking up straight Van Dyck onto dry paper this time because I want it to stick a bit more. I'm going to tease that down. Now we're going to lift some highlights out of here. And then I'm want to go darker as well underneath, the throat right in the middle here. So again, onto dry well and a little bit damp there. So I've lost some of the subtlety that I had there before, but I will pull that back when we lift in some highlights. And then pick up a little bit more paint and leaving a few a few lights through there. I've just washed my brush, taking off the excess, softening that wash in, pull that through. And I can see here I want that to be a stronger green. I'm going to take again a little bit of my yellow, a little bit of my cerulean, take the excess off my brush. That's too much, more yellow I think. just tease that through Okay, and I want to match that, I've got a slightly different green there now. So I'm gonna take, do the same thing on the front of the arm. It's going to take a little bit more paint. So I'm dry there now. Just want to umph up the green. So I think I'm going to put a touch more yellow just in the wet paper there. Okay. And now because I'm I've effectively wet that whole arm again. You can see that I'm still quite light here. So I'm going to take a little bit more Van Dyck, bit more indigo and just have another re-state of the dark bottom of the arm. There, dry my brush off, tease that in. And I probably, let's see if it sticks. take a little bit of the blue and the brown again and just drag a slight dark. Didn't really come, didn't get enough paint. Just at the front of that arm there. before I stop. It's got this little bit of burnt sienna just on the front of the knee there. So I've just wet the knee down and I'm just going to drop a little bit of burnt sienna and a little bit of van dyck just on the front of the knee. The Van Dyck right on the edge. Surrounded by that sienna. 10. More of the Detail: So coming back up to the face now and I'm going to do a couple of things underneath throat before we come up into the nose. So start with, I'm going to take my stiff synthetic brush. I'm going to make sure it's clean. And I'm putting some water, take off the excess water so it's clean and damp. And I'm going to come on to this part of the throat and I'm just going to lift a little bit of a highlight underneath. Now, if you don't have much paint on here, nothing's, you won't see anything much happen. clean my brush again and then lifting underneath, the throat here. Now, I do a lot of lifting in my work because I find that it's a good way of getting some interesting things happening without having to work too hard for it. Not that I'm a lazy painter, but let's just, you can get some nice effects. If you lift off too much, you can just fill it back in again. that page Now You can see I've got some, a little bit of texture happening now. I've lifted off, I think I want a bit more dark back in here, so that page is a little bit gammy because I've lifted it with a clean, damp brush. So we take now my Van Dyck and my sienna, and I'm just going to put a few more darks. Back in and I'm kinda chiselling around where I've lifted, deciding where I want to keep light, where I want to keep dark. So I think I probably need a bit more dark up underneath the lip here. so i'm a bit dry up there. Bring that. Don't know if you're under throat was beautiful and you lift highlights and you don't need to, you don't have to do this. Just don't want a bit more happening under there. And I think I might restate the dark just underneath. I'm going to chase that around. Just speak up a bit of my birth brown, so I'm just going to touch that. So I often will find myself putting paint on, lifting it off, putting it back on, and you'll find 1 where I'm happy with that. It looks okay. You can keep doing it as long as he let it dry in between. There is a limit depending on what brand of paper you're on to, how many times he can leave before you start to damage the paper. So you do need to keep an eye on that. Getting a little bit because I haven't painted in the lip. Yes. Okay. Before I do that, I'm going to come into the front of the face here with some strong of grain. So we pick up again with my small synthetic grouping of my yellow, a little bit of my cerulean onto dry paper. And I'm going to leave and little bit of a light underneath the nostril. They're washed my brush, bring that. I've just got clean water, bring that all the way to the front and over the top of the nose. And I'm going to keep it more yellow, I think coming underneath the eye here. And again, how much paint you have to put here depends on how that initial wash came out. You might not need to strengthen the paint here. I get to a point where I'm not looking at the reference, I'm looking at what works with the painting that I've got in front of me, which I think is important to not get too hung up on the reference. Now I'm going to bring that color down further, again, leaving, leaving a little lot on either side, I think there. And then as I come down to this part, I think it gets a little bit stronger. On the bottom here. I'm not going to leave semi lights. I'm not going to leave the little white stripe is I come down to the bottom. And I think there probably needs to be a bit stronger blue green in that just underneath. I didn't pick it up enough blue. Wash my brush. Just softening that in. Now I also need the green on the top there. So again, take a little bit more yellow, a little bit of a blue. And I'm just going to really carefully painting the top there. And then I wanted to re-state. I've kind of lost my I don't my eye. There isn't very definite. Picking up for the yellow bit of green. And I'm just gonna restate the green on top of the eye there. And then as I come onto the back, there's a little bit darker just in here to pick up. This time I'm going to pick up a little bit of the grain and touch it to my indigo. I've got a little bit of indigo in this mix, so that will give me a slightly darker green. But the ulna or washed my brush. And I want to blend that in. And I'm gonna chase a little bit of that stronger grain just down on the side here. It's going to strengthen that up a little bit. Because I've been fiddling in there for ages. I'm quite dry here. So I'm gonna put in just a little line of burnt sienna along that nib. So I'm on dry paper and my brush is pretty pretty dry. Didn't have much water in there. I'm just going to wash my brush and I'm just going to soften off from there, put a little bit of a lumper pain. Okay. I'm then going to leave a little bit of a highlight. So that same skew synthetic brush, I'm claimed it. Dry depth. I'm just going to lift a little bit of light. Just for fun really. Just along this edge. I'm pressing pretty hard. And then teasing that wash bag. Now, depending on I didn't have a whole lot of paint there. So it's a pretty subtle effect of depends how much pigment you've actually got there as to how much you can see it. Again, if yours looks lovely and you don't want to put that inventory. And if you put it in and you don't like it, you can backfill it. I'm going to put a highlight in the eye. Some darks underneath here, strengthened up a couple of the dark surround the legs here. And then we'll see, we'll see where we're at. So I'm going to use some gouache. I'm just going to take up, pull up my small synthetic, stick it straight into the tube. Take off the excess. Depends how gluey you go, ashes. I'm going to put one little tiny one next to it. So my brushes a little bit tatty. So it's a little bit hard to get a clean shape in there. The other thing you can do if you haven't got enough room lights at the bottom of the eye here, you can drag a little bit of gouache, three months, months. Okay. So I'm not going to worry. Clean that up a bit, make sure you clean off your brush because it keeps on giving. Then I'm going to come underneath the foot here. So clean water. Then I pick up Van **** and a bit of indigo, drop that underneath. That's probably more, a bit more in detail. Probably want to be more brown. So it'll pick up more Van **** and drop that. Wash my brush and paint up with water up to meet that dark. And remembering again that it will dry lighter than this. So you actually got to make sure you get enough pigment on that. It sticks oil, we have to do it again. I'm going to pick up a little bit of burnt sienna in there as well. And then just let it dry, let it do its own thing. I'm washing my brush. Come in, break it down. You can see how that keeps it disappears on us. I'm just going to take a bit more. And then on the day. Okay. And then up top, I'm going to just wet down little bit. And take, I think I'm not going to use the indigo, I'm just going to use a little bit of Van **** and a little bit of burnt sienna. Not much water on my brush. Just make sure that my gap there is close between the frozen branch. Drop a bit more dark onto there. 11. Finishing Up: Okay, a couple of things we need to do to finish off. I'm going to lift a little bit of a highlight underneath the eye here. I think I'm probably going to warm up, strengthen up under the chin and in this little bit of the tummy and the mobile few darks to go on this leg to make it a bit more 3D. So we'll start with the eye. I'm going to take my stiff synthetic again and again. Yours might not do this. I just want to leave just a little bit of a highlight underneath here. So I know I've put paint on there to strengthen up. But I just want a little bit. So clean the brush, dry it off, and push pretty hard. And while that's Dan, I'm just going to I didn't want the highlight. It might, I should probably use a slightly smaller brush to do that. But given either have one, I'm just going to bring this up, picked up a bit of grain. Don't want it to go quite that far. I'm just going to backfill. I'm okay on this part. I'm going to just see Microcredit. I'm going to take a little bit of quinacridone, gold, some dry there. I'm just going to put a little bit of a wash of queen gold just over the top, all the way down. It just gives it a little bit of a pop. And this is two lights in here. I might actually use, I'm going to use a little bit of burnt sienna and Van **** together. Just a little wash to just go over the top of that. Because it's just a fraction to Brian has picked up a bit of burnt sienna and to match the queen gold. But I've got up there, I'm just going to pop just to flesh of that green gold in that Tommy as well. Now I spots have disappeared a bit. So I can probably re-state. No. Maybe I'll say maybe couple because that's now on dam in there. So I can put a couple back in and let that dry and see whether that some dark enough. I think it probably cues. Now. I'm happy with that half the frog, a need to come down here, a need to reconcile to people what's going on down here. So I need a shadow underneath this leg because I want it soft initially, I'm going to take my small synthetic paint with water along the bottom there that I pick up some burnt sienna initially and put that along the bottom of that leg. So I'm just softening drug clean dry brush, just softening the edge which it because I want it to blend. But it does mean that I kinda dilute the pigment. So then I need to come back and re site. So I'm going to pick up a bit of burnt sienna and a bit of the Van **** and drag that. And I think I might strengthen up the grain. I think migraine has disappeared too much there as well. So I'm gonna go onto dry paper, bit of cerulean, bit of my Hansa yellow. I put some on, wash my brush and drag my clean damp brush along the joints so they kinda it mates at Brown but it doesn't bleed fully into it. Tastes that around. I'm going to have to do it a third time. This time straight with Van **** because mine dark has disappeared, so I'm still damp. I picked up van dot with not much water in it. Yeah. If you do this and it drives at dressed too light, you can just wait till it fully draws and do it again. I'm just trying to get it all in at once and I want to strengthening there. So I'm going to take up the event. Ok. I'm dry underneath the knee. I'm a bit wet coming into that green. So again, I don't want much water on my brush. I'm just going to clean my brush and soften. Okay. I need I need a bit more interested in the grain on that leg. So I gotta pick up my blue and my yellow again. And I'm going to come onto dry paper and just be a bit messy. Just put a bit of a wash. And then I'm just picking up a bit more paint and dropping that into that wet leg. Possibly a bit more. I've got a lot of the blue here. I might just balanced, set up with a bit more cerulean through the leg. And I'm going to just make it a little bit darker down here. So I'm gonna going onto dry paper. I'm going to take a bit of my indigo into migraine mix. I'm just going to tidy up that shape and make it just a touch darker down the bottom there. There's a good remember that this photo has probably got a flesh on above the Luke's so the lighting isn't yeah, I'm not really necessarily following what the lashes on the reference photo. And I want to be a bit more of a join between the, want to see where that ligands bit of my indigo was probably more integrated. I wanted to clean my brush and just drag that. Sitting back. Just having a look. On the other place, I might go now is I might have one more go at strengthening this dark under here. So Van **** onto dry paper, Van **** and indigo straight onto dry paper. Clean my brush. And then just teasing that into the wash underneath. And if you're, if the pigment disappears, when you tease it up, grab a little bit more, and drop it now into the page that's slightly wet. I know I said that was the last thing that I probably want that blue to match. The doc I've got underneath the leg here. I'm just picked up again, a little bit of indigo and a little bit of Van ****. Just re-state that line underneath the leg and maybe again at the front of the knee that isn't quite clear delineation there is a lot darker. I'm just I'm like come into that funny spot at the front of the knee. So I just picked up a bit of burnt sienna to do Van ****, they just re-stating that little patch on his knee. Now I keep saying last thing, but just to warm up a bit more of a burnt sienna just on those toes, I've got a little bit too much light on them, so I've just come onto dry paper. Just wait a little bit of a C and a wash over the top. Okay. So this is probably where I would slip away and leave this for 24 hours and come back and see if there's any tidying up that you need to do. Are there any of the dark, dry it off a little bit too light. You can come and have a tweak. But because we've been sitting at this for a long time and you really you lose the ability to tell whether it needs anything else. So I'm going to stop that there. When you finish your painting, please feel free to post a photo. Feel free to ask me any questions. I always love seeing people's work and I hope you enjoyed the lesson and thanks for joining me.