Underwater Waves & Light: A Watercolor Painting Class

1. Lets dive IN ! : Hey, everyone. I'm Swati Hide, a watercolor artist based out of Bangalore, India. You can see all my works on tinted Toodles, and you can see most of them are water themed or aqua based. I have structured this class in short, easy to follow lessons where we build the painting step by step from the sky to the underwater globe, to the wave textures, and finally, the sting ray. You will learn how to layer colors, create moment in water, add light rays, and bring life to your painting with small details. This class is perfect whether you are a beginner or someone looking to deepen your watercolor skills. All you need is your basic watercolor set and a little curiosity. If this is something that excites you, I humbly invite you to join my class. So grab all the supplies required and get started. 2. All that you would need!: Let's go through all the suppliers that we would be needing for this painting, starting with paper. I'm using Arch's 300 GSM cold press paper in form of my sketchbook. This is of size B five. For brushes, I'm going to be using brushes from silver brush brand. They're really great. I'm using black velvet and belli aqua series, starting with this flat brush of size one, I'll be using it mainly for the washes. Next up, oval wash brush of size one half. This is a great size for adding my underwater scenes to create that moment of underwater rays. Next up, some round brushes. This is size eight round brush from Bale Aqua. This is a synthetic brush. I'm using it mainly to create paint in the wave section for crisp waves. Another round brush is from black velvet series size four that I'll be using for sky as well as some parts in the underground underwater. Then we have angle brush of size quarter. I'll be mainly using it for creating the rays as well as rocks. A liner brush again from the Black Velvet series to mainly add the boundaries, the lines. I'll be explaining all the paints that I'm using. But again, it's marine blue from Holbein. That's a turquoise shade, and these are the shades. You can use any other brand turquoise as well. Next up, it's cadmium yellow. Cadmium red light. These two are from white knights and a white wash, this is from mi. I'm using a water two water jars for cleaning the brushes, a paper towel for dabbing off excess paints and water, a pencil to initially draw my sketch. I'm asking to tape it down the paper and begin with the painting. We have all the supplies. Now let's get started. W 3. Painting sky: Welcome to the first lesson and thank you for joining the class. I've already completed the initial sketch for this project, and you will find the reference image available in the class project section of resources. Feel free to use it as a guide as we paint together. We'll begin by working on the sky. I'm using a flat brush of size one from silver brush, black velvet series. I've started by applying a light even layer of clean water only to the sky portion of the paper. Roughly, it is one third of the paper. For this, I'm going to be using the BFI paper size as mentioned in the material section. I feel it provides a very balanced vertical composition. Let me keep all these brushes aside so that I can use this mixing palette for creating a very good gray for my sky. Create the cloudy moody sky, I'm mixing turquoise blue or marine blue, cadmium red light, and cadmium yellow. These three colors are essentially the primaries for this painting, so they naturally combine into a harmonious gray with a soft blue tint. I'm keeping the blue or turquoise a bit more to get this tint. Since all the shades in this mix come from the same palette, they blend smoothly without turning muddy. When I even apply orange or yellow over the sky, they won't mix each other and create muddy shades. This is one of the biggest advantages of using a controlled harmonious mixtures. I like this gray sheade for my sky. So next up, I'll start with wet on wet technique. It's always starting with the lightest shades. So I'm starting with the yellow for the sky. I'm first adding yellow, leaving a small circular area untouched for the sun. Since it's wet on wet, it will blend and create a very good sun in the middle. Next up, I'm introducing cadmium red light along the horizon line and blending it gently into the yellow to create a warm, glowing sunset effect. Our skies need not be the same. You can use reds in different places than how I'm using. For painting this section, I'm using round four size brush. This is a natural black vevet brush. This helps me create softer, cleaner transitions. Switching back to my bluish gray mixture, and I'm applying it to the topmost part of the sky, blending it towards the red and yellow layers. Since all the colors come from the same limited palette, everything merges beautifully without being muddy, as you can see here. Once you're happy with the gradient, switch to a angle brush. I'm taking off size 14, wet the brush lightly, dab off excess water on a tissue paper or a paper cloth, and gently pull the strokes outward from sun area. Apply light pressure. This lifts some pigment and creates soft glowing rays across the sky. This technique works on wet on wet as well as wet on dry. So if your sky is completely dry, then also you can achieve this, but you might have to put a little bit more pressure to it. My paper is still semi dry and I would like to add some clouds. I'm picking up a synthetic brush from silver bell aqua series and using the cadmium red light to add small subtle clouds. This brush gives excellent control for precise details like this. If I choose to add it from the natural blend brush, there is a risk of water or paint seeping into my background. That's why I would like to go with a synthetic brush here. I'm adding clouds sparingly along the same horizon lines and adding it as in where I feel they are possible. You can skip this step if your paper is completely dry. This completes our sky. This brings us to the end of lesson one. In next lesson, we'll move on to painting the underwater. 4. Painting underwater: Welcome to the second lesson. In this, we'll start working on the underwater portion of our painting. I'm switching back to my flat brush and applying clean water only to the underwater section, not on the wave surface for now. Follow the boundary line and wet the entire underwater area, including the rocks part. This section will be painted again in wet on wet, which will help us achieve soft blends and natural underwater light effects. Using my oval brush of size water, I'm applying the paint in diagonal strokes to mimic the direction of the underwater rays. Our main color for this underwater area is turquoise or marine blue. One of the beautiful qualities of watercolor is that once these strokes dry, their texture remains visible, giving us a lovely organic pattern of underwater. I'm extending these strokes all the way to the bottom edge of the paper to avoid having a flat, single tone underwater, we'll have to introduce tone variations with our color. But I'll continue to keep the middle area slightly lighter to give that glowing underwater effect coming from the sun rays. I'm mixing a bit of cadmium red light with the turquoise shed to create a darker, richer shade of blue green. I'm adding this deeper shade to the sides of underwater area. This frames the painting and draws the viewer's eye towards the center where we want the sunlight to appear as if it's filtering through the water and the wave. If you do not have an oval brush, you can also use a flat brush or even a bigger size round brush. Switching back to my angle brush, I'll create more of that darker mixture and begin adding underwater rocks. I'll gently dab the brush onto the paper to build texture. Since these rocks are underwater, they naturally appear in cooler, bluer tones. The dabbing motion creates an uneven organic texture and subtle shadows, giving that illusion of depth and reflection. You can keep a watch on the angle and pressure of your brush to recreate this effect. There is no need to paint each rock precisely. If you're looking for a precise look, you are welcome to do so. I'm also adding tonal variation here by darkening one side of the rocks, suggesting a soft shadow cast underwater. I feel there is too much white space toward the bottom. So I'm switching back to the oval brush and slightly glazing some turquoise over those lighter areas. Since my paper is still wet, I'm also dropping in a bit more of the darker turquoise along the sides to deepen the effect. If your paper has already dried, you can skip this step. Now with an angle brush, I'm using it to lift the rays again underwater. Just like we lifted paint to create the sunlight rays in the sky. We'll do the same here. Remember that turquoise is a staining pigment. So after every lift, make sure to dab your brush on a tissue paper or a paper cloth before touching the paper again. I'm lifting the strokes at the same diagonal angle as before to keep the underwater raise consistent. You can keep the rays thin or hold the brush horizontally for a wider, softer raise. Choose whichever effect you prefer. I'm lifting also with my oval brush so that I get more of the softer raise in the middle of my paper. At this point, you'll notice that some rays look soft and subtle in the background while others, especially made with the oval wash, appear sharper and more prominent. The ones that are done with the angle brush. This combination creates a beautiful illusion of cylindrical light rays traveling through the water. To finish, I'm switching back to my angle brush to add a bit more texture to the rocks with a darker turquoise mix and a touch of cadmium red light. Since the paper is drying, I'll get to see how much the paints are drying in what way. This will help me again to add some of the depth to my rocks. This completes our underwater section. Let this completely dry before moving on. In the next lesson, we'll be painting the surface of the wave. See you there. 5. painting wave surface: Welcome back to lesson three. In this lesson, we'll paint the surface of the wave visible in our reference. We'll continue using the wet on wet technique, but this time, the surface needs to feel slightly sharper than the underwater area, so the viewer can clearly distinguish between water surface and what's beneath it. I'm using my oval brush to apply a smooth even layer of clean water across the entire wave surface. Covered the whole section while leaving just a small space for the white section there. Wetting the area ensures we can create smooth blends while still allowing some sharper strokes for the wave structure. For the waves, I'm mixing turquoise, red and yellow, keeping the overall tone more blue green to reflect the water. Unlike the gray that we used in the sky, these shades give the wave a lively watery feel. Since I want some harsher edged waves, I'm using the synthetic brush Belle aqua because it provides more texture and control for the wave strokes. Natural brushes tend to blend too smoothly, but we want defined flowing structures to capture this surface movement. As I paint, I'm switching between different mixes of turquoise, red and yellow creating the subtle variations in town. Your strokes may differ from mine, and that's perfectly fine. The key is to keep blue green tones dominant and avoid overblending, so the waves remain distinct. B I'm paying attention to the direction of the waves following the flow shown in the reference sketch. Near the horizon, strokes are small and fine. While closer to the foreground, they become broader and thicker. For the wavefold where the surface appears from the underwater area, I'm using a darker shade of the same mix. I'll also lift any excess blue in that area with a lineup brush to create a clean separation and have that white boundary. This fold will appear darker, adding depth while the highlights remain brighter. Since we have used cadmium red light in the sky, I'm reflecting the same color lightly on the wave surface as well. This mimics how water naturally reflects sunlight, helping to tie the whole painting together. I'm also adding a few tiny wave details near the horizon for making it more real. To prevent the surface from looking flat, I'm adding subtle blue tones wherever needed. You can adjust the intensity based on your preference. Oh I'm also using my liner brush to add details to the wave pool, drawing small boundaries and lines across the waves that follow the water. This creates the illusion of movement and depth. Zig zag strokes are added here and there to mimic natural water flow. I'm also placing small bubble like marks with the darkest shade near the fold to enhance the sense of movement and activity in water. I feel this will be much better when the paper is completely dry, so I will stop it for now. So see you in the next lesson. E. 6. Adding sting ray: To start this final lesson, I'm adding a few turquoise plats across the water area. These tiny splashes help suggest bubbles and movement underwater, bringing an extra sense of life to the scene. I always feel that platters add energy and spontaneity to a watercolor painting, making it feel more dynamic and alive. I'm going back to the bubbles once my paper is completely dry. Next up, I'm painting our stingray. Painting this completely freehand, but if you prefer, you can lightly sketch it beforehand using the reference provided in the class project. You can also sketch it after the water layer has dried, but be careful not to make any mistakes as you may not be able to erase it. To give the sting ray a sense of moment, I'm starting with a darker shade made from our mixture, applying it to the lower portion of the stingray representing the flap and the shadowed area underneath. For the top surface of the stingray, using the lightest blue to reflect the light hitting the sting ray from above. I'm keeping the surrounding underwater colors intact so that the reflection from water is preserved. Since sunlight and underwater rays are falling on the stingray, I'm first defining just the border to create a clear shape. You can use any brush you feel comfortable with synthetic or natural, or even a liner brush. I'll be switching in between these brushes. I'm adding the tail now, which is the key for showing motion. I'm doing it in one swift stroke, but you could also use a pen or liner brush for more precision if you prefer. To finish, I'm going back to the bubbles we added earlier. I'm using a bit of white paint to enhance them and give them more dimension so that they look realistic with both light and shadow. Some areas remain darker while others get highlighted. This creates the perfect illusion of bubbles floating in the water. And that is it. This is our final look, and I'm really happy how it has turned out. Thank you so much for joining the class and painting till here. In the next lesson, we'll do a tape, peel and reveal our final painting. 7. Thank you & thoughts: He