Watercolor and Ink Cosmos Painting for Beginners

1. Class Introduction: Ink and watercolor is fascinating technique. And I fell in love with it ever since I saw for the first time the beautiful paintings by Beatrix Potter. I have been practicing this technique for quite awhile. And now I would like to share my knowledge with you in this class, which is perfect for beginners, but also for more experienced watercolor artists want to try ink for the first time. I will explain my techniques both for ink and for applying watercolor. First, I will explain my inking and watercolor techniques. Then I will get you step-by-step, or in this case layer by layer, by showing you how to apply each layer watercolor to give form to your flower painting. We will then refine the painting with a final details. And I will also explain how to use the darkening mix for the shadow areas. We will be using cosmos flowers as reference. And I will provide you with the reference images and the tracing in case you would like to follow along exactly what I'm doing. Since this class is more centered on the watercolor and ink techniques, I won't go into details about drawing the flowers. But if you have difficulties during, you can always use the reference images and the tracing I provide you with. By the end of this class, you will have acquired new skills and techniques that you will be able to apply to your future paintings. So if you're ready, let's get started. 2. Class Project: The project for this class is to paint, ink and watercolor, flower composition, hopefully a cosmos, but you can choose if you go like this type of flower. I chose this because it's quite simple to do. And you can choose to paint just one flower or the entire composition. I'll leave that up to you. In the class downloads, you will find the reference images for the composition I did, but also additional images in case you want to try a different composition. You will also find the tracing and the pictures of the ink, the ink and watercolor. Just for a reference for you. Don't forget to post images of your paintings on the project section. And I'm really looking forward to see your versions of this painting. 3. Materials: You won't need too many materials for this class. So here I have the tracing for the cosmos. And you can do just the one flower like this, all the flower with the leaves. You can add to the bud, or you can do all three. If you feel like trying it. I give you the option. You don't have to do the composition as it is. And you will find this in your class downloads. And then you will need some paper. And here I have Fabriano statistical paper, 300 g. And it's hot press. And you can use a cheaper paper if you like. But just be aware that the results might not be as well as if you use the good paper. So you won't need a lot of paper for this project. So I would advise you to use some nicer paper as you can get. And then you will need, Let's put this on the side. You will need brushes. Brushes are a matter of personal preference. And I have an old toothbrush for color mixing because otherwise you're good brush and I get ruined. So that I have to actually have a smaller one for picking up as molar quantities. And then the bigger one. And then these are some brushes that I use. So the row number one. So when you buy them, what exit gate? Let's put this on the side for the moment. So these are all number one. When you buy them, just be aware that there might be differences according to what make you, you choose. So the first two, Winsor and Newton, and this one is Rosemary encode. And between the first two there is a difference because they are both CD27, both Winsor and Newton. But the middle brush is a miniature brush and the first one is a normal CD27. So as you can see, there's a difference in in the hair. Designs are shorter. The many-to-one. So I like these because I like to work quite a lot with dry brush. So these are quite good for that. But this is a personal preference and you're going to have to try different brushes and see which one you like. This is a number three, again, miniature brush. Quite a bit shorter, but they hold a lot of water. The brushes, then you will need pencils and erasers. I have mechanical pencils. So there's different types of mechanical pencils. This is a 0.5. I'm pencil here, and these hold quite a bit bigger. I'm pencil inside. So it depends which one you like to work with. You can use just a normal so as well. And you can use, you should have an eraser, but you can use just a normal eraser as well. These are quite good for erasing small details and you will need a palette. This one is one of a kind, broadly was made to order, but you can find in shops pallets which are just like this, like that. And whichever one you will show a shape you like to work with would be good if it's a ceramic palette rather than plastic. Because I find it you can mix better with a ceramic palette and they don't stain. The plastic palette tend to stay. But if your budget doesn't allow it to, then plastic will be alright. And then you will need the pains, of course. So you won't need all of these. These are a lot of pains. I don't use all of them all the time, but I've accumulated over the years. So I will give you a list of the pains that I will use, but you don't have to use exactly the same. And of course you will need some ink pens because we're going to do ink and watercolor. I have here different makes. This unit I think pronounced. And you can have different sizes. So this is 0.03, quite small. I'm not sure if you can see it, but it's very, very thin for small details. And then I have the microns, 0.1 and 003 as well. I quite like the microns. And of course you can use a dip pen and ink. But if you're just starting out, probably these ones are better. And even better if it's not completely new if you've been using it because then the income be so strong the line. But if you've been using it, don't worry, you just have to practice a very light hand. And then you will need water jars, one for rinsing your brush and cleaning it, and one for diluting the paint. And of course, some cloth or paper towel to dry your brush. And then I would advise you to also keep a column mixing book, color, mixing recipe book, as I call it. And this one, this is actually from another class. But I keep this for my color experimentations. And I have some templates and I are some pages where they're just not down. When I find a color for, let's say here I painted a tulip and iris. And these are the colors for the leaves, the flowers, and so on. And I just write down the initials of the colors that I use. And you can use your own method. But it's important to keep a record of the colors because sometimes you want to paint the same thing and sometimes the colors are good for different things as well. It's a similar green and e.g. and you can change just slightly the concentration of one color or another. And so it's important to add this record. Oh, okay. So I think this is all you need. And once you have all your materials gathered, we can move on to the next lesson. 4. Watercolor Techniques: Before we start with the actual flower, I just wanted to show you the technique I use. I have another class where I go in depth into different techniques. But for this flower, I mean, my favorite techniques is actually painting wet on dry. But I will show you the wet on wet technique as well because again, is something very personal. So I don't want to tell you, you have to paint this way when you might be more comfortable and happier to when you paint in a different way. So we show you the techniques you need to try them and then decide which one you like best. For the wet-in-wet, we need to wet the paper first. And this one here is Arches paper, 300 g hot press. So it's quite smooth. And I'm just putting a layer of water just all over the petal. And you should be able to, maybe to see, there you go. So it needs to be shiny and there's a party or that is already drying. So you shouldn't have water pooling on the top but it shouldn't be dry either. Okay. And then once he starts drying, you just pick up the paint and start dropping it. So I usually start to where there is a shadow or the flower, the petals, whatever it is, is in shade so it will be darker and just drop the color. You can turn the paper because it makes it easier to work from inside towards the outside perimeter. And then with the same brush you can rinse it and then sort of go in-between where the paint is and when the water still is. So would the area without the paint. And you can just go like this with a brush or you can wait another brush and tap it on there, a paper towel and just use the other brush to sort of make this a transition here. Okay, So until it's wet, you can still a drop a little bit more color. When it starts to drain, is actually starting to dry now. So it becomes a bit more difficult and then it should be left alone. Okay, And just going to use a damp brush to transition here. And once you start drawing, you shouldn't touch it anymore. And if it's necessary, you can add a second layer. And this layer is quite dark because I just wanted to show you on camera. I wanted to make sure that you see it. But normally I will start with a light, lighter color as well because it's easier to add more layers and make the transition even his mother. Okay. My older way of working is by using a wet on dry. And when you do this, just make sure that your lines, your pencil lines are very, very faint. But otherwise you wouldn't see these here. So I'm going to apply the color. And again, normally I will start with a with a lighter color. But just to show you on camera. So I'm going to play a good amount of color. And then with another damp brush, I'm going to make the transition. And it will depend on your brush if you rinse it and then tap it on the paper towel, or if you if it's just enough to do this, it depends on how much water it holds. And again, you can play with this until it's still wet. But then as soon as it starts to dry like this one, it's best to leave it. And then anything that you need to do. More. Than this, you just have to wait until it dries completely. So once the paint is completed j, we can just apply another layer of water, just being careful not to disturb the paint underneath. So very lightly without scrubbing. And then again is the same. Principles should be there should be a sheen. We're not pulling water. And then I'm going to use the bigger brush. I'm going to apply another layer. And this time I'm going to bring a little bit more to this side. So that to give it a little bit of color on this side as well. And as you can see, we have this nice transition. And if it's a larger surface, I would either use a bigger brush or the wet-in-wet technique. If it's a smaller surface, I prefer the wet-on-dry technique. With a larger surface, you might have a little bit of problem with the paint drying. Um, today is a bit, I'm quite a hot day, so, um, the paint dries quite quickly. So this one here I'm going to do again wet-on-dry just to keep it the same technique. But you get more or less the same result up to a certain point. Okay, So I'm applying the paint up to here and then it reads the brush. I'm tap it on the side. And then I just apply the brush on top of the paint. Then rinse it, tap it on the side, and apply it. And just be careful that there's not too much water left in the brush because otherwise, we'll be doing the blooming so-called key. So as you can see, this is the technique. So try, try them both, Um, but again, I would advise you or wet in wet, if it's a larger area, um, and start with a light color, this is quite dark because I wanted to show you on camera. But start with a very light color. And I play, build the color, applying more and more layers. Because if you start too dark, then it will be more difficult to correct any mistakes. And also, it might be too thick the paint. So when you apply the second a water layer, you might pick up the paint if it's too thick. There's one more thing I want to show you, this flowers, they have ridges in the petals. So he makes this sort of light and shadows. And to do that, I basically pick up the color. So maybe slightly thicker, but not, not really sick. So the consistency of milk, let's say. And then you do a line. So a line. And then with a dump brush, you make a transition like that. So you touch the tip of the brush in-between the paint, the applied, and the dry paint. So let's do that again. So I'm going to do it from this side. I have a light pencil line in here. I'm going to apply the paint. Damped brush. Touch the tip in the previous paint. Okay. So as you can see, it creates a sort of shadow in there. And it looks like this flower as some ridges. I'm gonna do it here again. Pick up some paint. The worry if it's, the line is quite thick because when you put this brush, it will make this transition and newborn see the thick line anymore. You would just see the color I'm transitioning. So you will see this shadow basically. Again, be careful that you don't have too much water on your brush. Okay? So this is the basic technique that I'm going to use for the cosmos later on. 5. Inking Technique: In this lesson, I'm going to talk to you about a little bit about my technique for inking. And I have here some drawings just to show you. And here there is a selection of pen that go from the smallest one I have 003 all the way up to 0.6. And the brush. For this type of painting, I like to use this Maupin, the zero-zero three. Now I'm going to just show you how I do this. So this here is basically something that I took from this painting. And it's this bird here. And normally what I advise you to do is to follow the contour lines of your object, whatever it is that you want to paint the contour lines or explain it to you. Let's say you have, let's pretend this is an apple. Need to live. But the contour lines will be the lines going across like that. So the longitudinal lines, I think these are so like this. And then also the lines going this way. So these are the contour lines. So in this case, the, the bud is sort of rounding at the sides here and here. And the leaves as well, they are quite straight along. The contour lines will follow this. So let me show you here. So for the contour itself, I would advise you not to do a straight line, continuous, not straight but continuous line because we'll look a bit like a coloring book type of field. So another thing I need to mention, this, pencil lines are really, really dark. You need to keep your pencil lines very light. But because I wanted you to see on camera, I made them quite dark. So that's another thing, but I'm going back to the contours. So what I do is I put my pen down. And then every now and then I just lift the pen and live a small gap. And sometimes I lift the pen and then do a couple of dots. So this way it mimics a little bit the dip pen, because the dip pen is not as continuous as this type of paint. And also it doesn't look like a coloring book type of thing. So everyone then keep your hand light and just lift the pen. Not too much that it looks too broken, but just a few times you need to practice this a and C, whichever you prefer, but I wouldn't do it too often. So here again, so every now and then just lift the pen and then maybe do a few dots. And it could be easier for you to draw going towards yourself. Or if you find it easier to draw going that way, you can always move the paper. So e.g. I. Can move it this way. If it's easier for me to go this way, I find it easier to usually come towards me. So like this. Okay? And then thus the flowerpot, this yellow part. Alright? And then for the lines, I don't like to do too much ink. And when I do this type of work, because I like it that you can see the ink, but it's shouldn't be the protagonist of this painting. The protagonist is the watercolor. So yes, you have the ink lines, but it's not a work of crosshatching or anything like that. I'm going to do some lines and for the insight lines, you keep your pen, your hand quite light. Don't press too hard. Try to keep your hand relaxed and just do the lines that follow the contour. Like this. And not too many. Probabilities is enough. And also try to do a few more if you want, whether it's the, the shadow. So here e.g. I. Will do a few more but not too many. Okay. And then sometimes I do this sort of, um, mark, so something like this. And I'm going to do it in a larger scale. So I can show you. So it's basically a sequence of small curving dashes, something like this, but made in a very small scale. Okay, and this gives you an impression of a darker part but also texture. But it doesn't make the work to heavy as if you do like hatching and crosshatching and becomes too dark for this type of work. And then here is the same thing. So keep your hand light. It's a series of broken lines for the leaves again. So it's going up like this. And try to alternate. So don't do sort of lines like this. Try to alternate where the pencil comes up. Dependent mean. So some delay this. And then to give the impression here that this is curving, we can follow again the the contour line. Okay? And then maybe here. 6. Inking Technique - Extra Examples: The same thing for this leaf. So this is sort of this leaf here and here. So I'm going to do the contour again, same way you can turn the page. And then here, this leaf turns like that. So if you want to add some lines, they should go, they should follow the contour. And this spot here, there is a shadow caused by this part. So maybe there are a few more lines, but not too many. Then again, is a matter of following the contour of the leaf and keep your lines sort of broken. And just about barely touch the paper. Okay, and then let's put this away. For our flowers. I'm going to do one petal here. Same thing. So every now and then just lift the pen bit of a gap and then something like that. And for the center, Let's get to flower here. So the center is not around. It's a roundish shape. But as you can see, goes in and out this little flowers, they're not completely circular, so don't do a circle, but do something like a small shapes like this going in and out. And then there are the dark parts here. So you can sort of do some of them. And then it depends on the state of the maturity of the flower. This one here, as you can see, it's quite different. So this is sort of starting to grow in forming this little dome. So you can do a little kind of marks like this. So it will be so flight that and this will give the idea of this, this flowers, this little dog. You can use this for texture when you need the sort of texture like this. So we will fix your marks. And if we take the pencil marks away, just makes sure that the ink is dry. And now you can see there are gaps in here, so it's not a continuous line. And you can see this of texture that will show when you add the yellow for the center and for the leaves. If you decide to do the leaves as well, because you don't have to, you can just do one flower. These ones are quite small, fine leaves. So you can see this has gotta just one, but they're quite small so you can't really do too much here. Again, the contours are always the same sort of technique where you lift the pen every now and then. And then for the insight, maybe you can do a little tiny marks here and there to give it a little bit of a impression of a shadow, maybe somewhere. But you can't really do too much because the leaves are quite small. So something like that. In the next lesson, we're going to start inking the actual drawing of the cosmos. As See you in the next lesson. 7. Inking the Contours : Before we start inking this, I just wanted to show you that if you have a pen that is not completely new and is a bit going a bit dry. It might be actually better for you if you are just starting off this paint Nevada for awhile. And it's a bit die. So not completely, but it will be easier for you to make a mark and not being too strong when the pin is not actually brand new. Of course, if you don't have a pain already, don't worry about it. Just keep your hand light and try. Do some practice and it will be fine as well. But in case you have something already lying around that is not completely new, then you might find it easier to work with that. Okay, So this is the drawing I'm going to work with. I have done all three of the flowers and I will do all of them. But as I said before, you don't have to do all three of the flowers and you don't have to do the leaves. If you don't feel confident, you can just do one of the flowers, e.g. this middle one, or even this one. And you can add things as you progress. You can just do it. And you will have a little, nice little painting to frame at the end. Okay, so I'm going to ink this and it will be the same as I showed you before. The same process as I showed you in the previous video. And it's basically a matter of following the line, but not as a continuous line. So something like that for a sample. And of course you might like more or less of these gaps. I quite like it when there's a few like this. And I'm going to speed up the process because we already talked about it and it will be a bit boring for you to watch me doing this normal speed, I think. For this center, again to just two little marks that are not continuous, continuous line. Then I would do mark here and there. Just to show the texture. And one good thing to do, I just started with a middle flower, but it's ideal to start. I mean, depending if you're left left-handed or right-handed. For right-handed, start from the left towards the right. Because now I can put my hand on top of this. I mean, it's probably a dry already, but it's always a good idea to start from the leftmost. And of course, if you're left-handed, start from the other side. But to avoid putting my hand on top of that, I can always add like a sheet of paper. Then it's always a good idea to rest your hand on something is some tracing paper, some just normal paper. Because your hands as the natural oil of the skin and when you put it on the paper, then it might interfere when you add the watercolor. If you put your like oils from the skin in there. Which doesn't sound very nice, but that's the way it is. Okay, I'm going to carry on with this. Alright, so now that we have the contours, we can proceed with the inside of the flowers and stems. 8. Inking the Inside: Now that we have the contour, we can carry on with the inside of the flower. And it's the same technique as I showed you already. So where the folds of the flower, you can just highlight these ones. So do that first. And again you follow the direction of the petal. Then I wouldn't do too much more. Here. Maybe. Some lines here where there is a little bit of shadow. I always think of the light coming from this side because I'm right-handed. So maybe a little bit here and then give it a bit of that texture. And this is another technique that you can use. So you sort of put the pen down and flick it. So without going too slow, you just put it down in flick. And you want to practice this. But if you keep the pressure for longer, it will do a longer flick. If you lift the pen Alia, it will be shorter. But I like the technique I showed you before. This is just a lifting the pen instead of the flicking Here in there of this little marks. And as I said, I don't want to do it too heavy on the ink. I think this is just about enough. And what I want to do here, and for the stoke is the same thing. So broken lines, a bit more here because it's in shadow. Not too much. Then just barely, barely touch the paper. And then every now and then you do the little marks. And of course the bigger is the the touring, the more details you can add. That this is quite, quite as more during. In a way, it could be better because you don't have to worry about too many details. Okay? And then as I said, you can just do this and the worry about the other flowers, but I'm going to do all of them. And then I will see you once this is finished. 9. First Watercolor Layer: I have here the finished drawing with ink, and I have erased the pencil marks. So make sure that the ink is dry and do that before you eukaryote. So I'm going to do this middle flower. And I have the colors here which I prepared, and they need to be reactivated. So if you have color paint left in your palette, you don't need to throw it away. You can just reactivate it with a bit of water. And this color here. I'm going to show you here in my recipe book. It's basically this one here, so it's Permanent Alizarin crimson and Helios purple and Haley's purple, if I remember well, is from Sennelier. And I will give you some other paints that you can use, some of the mix if you don't have these colors. But also if you want to do your own cosmos and you want to mix your own color, it would be actually better for you to do that. You don't have to follow exactly what I'm doing. I'm just going to show you my techniques. Okay, So I'm going to, as I was saying, reactivate the color. And then I have, I usually have a more diluted version as well. Because for the first layer, I'm going to do a very diluted a layer for the petals. So I'm not going to start dark. I will always start very light. And I have the reference images. So as these ones here. And I will add this to your downloads and also a few more images for you to use. If you'd like to do a different flower. Okay, So I've just placed the image is in front of me. And you can print them if you like. If you want to use those. You can print the images next to you. And basically, I'm going to try this color to see how strong it is, still a bit strong. So I'm going to add more water. Okay. Something like that already. It's quite good. And make sure you mix it well. And then I'm basically going to apply the color. And I usually start where there is a bit more shadow. But this is such a light layer of color that it doesn't really matter too much. But I still follow the contour lines of the petals. So I won't go this way, but this way. So I'm just going to do this for each petal. And at the moment it doesn't matter if you go over the other petal because we're going to apply this layer all over the flower. And I will speed it up a little bit because this is all the same process. You just add the paint. And I might use the actually slightly bigger brush for this. Okay, so that was the flower. Then. I will do the same thing with the start and the center. And I'm going to reactivate the green as well. But this time I'm just going to use my mixing brush because this could also be a bit harsh on the, on the nice brush. That sounds like a tongue twister, harsh on the nice brush. And then again, you need a diluted version of your color. That's why I like this palette because you can have the more dense color in the well, and then you can dilute it in here. For this, I'm going to use the smaller brush because that's quite a small surface. And be careful. This color has dried or it's dry enough. Because otherwise, if you touch with all the color, the width color, it would just mix and blend together. If you mix the red with the green, you will have a brownish color as well. So we don't want that for our nice flower. And if you see that this might be a bit still dark. So I'm going to dip my brush in water and then a sort of a diluted a little bit more because I just want a layer of color covering the during and the moment. But I don't want it to be strong, too strong. And some of these, um, cosmos, they have actually a kind of reddish color on the Stokes. I'm going to do the same thing with the leaves. Okay, So I'm going to do the leaves as well, but you don't have to do them if you don't want to. And I will add the little bud too so we can add the green in here as well. Just being careful not to put my hand on wet paint. Hopefully. Maybe it did. And try not to have too much water in your brush paint. Because otherwise it might make a big puddle. We don't need a huge amount of water in the brush. Then to add a little bit here, the sepals. Then I'm going to reactivate the yellow color. And I'm going to add some water as well. I'm pretty good in this world because there's some red in here. So I'm going to make it light as well. And then do the base wash for this center. I'm doing a sort of stippling action. Okay? And then I'm going to add the light wash to the centers or the bud is a bit darker than this, but I can add a base wash of this color the same as the petrol and then make it darker. Always make sure that the layer next to it is dry. And just lift, lifting a little bit of color here to make it quite light because of the highlight. But this color is going to dry even lighter than it is at the moment. So that was the first layer. This is how I start normally. And then the next step will be to add the shadow. I'm just going to show you is this flower here. So there are shadows on this side. And here because the petrol goes upwards, this was taken outside. So there's not the same sort of shadows that you can have when you're working inside with a control light. But more or less, I always work as if the light comes from the right, from the left. And in here this is, the splitter is going up, so there's a bit of shadow there. The sun was more or less on the side when I took the picture. But I might add some shadows where you can see here just to make it more realistic. And also you have to be careful to add a shadow underneath. So this petal is on top of this one. So add this dark shadows here and here for sample. But I will show you this in the next lessons. So as we add more layers, we will shape the form of the flower. Okay, So I see you in the next lesson. 10. Second Watercolor Layer: Now that the first layer is dry, we can carry on with the second layer. And I have gone ahead and done the other two flowers. And if you want, you can do this as well or just carry on with just one flower. And I will put the video at the end of the class with the complete process. So I'm going to carry on with this flower, the center flower. And I have here a reference picture that I took some time ago. And I will follow this but also add my own shadow because, um, as I was saying before, this is taken outside. So the light was quite diffused. So we have some shadows but they're not very defined. Some of them. And actually one thing I wanted to show you, if you have a reference picture and you're not sure about where to put the shadows. You can always edit the picture either on the iPad or on your computer. And go into the saturation and go all the way down and turn the picture black and white. And this will show you exactly where the shadows and highlights. Whoops, where the shadows in a later. So this will help you quite a lot when you're, when you're adding new color, I'm going to leave it as the original. And let's move it to the side a bit. So I will start my second layer. The color is a bit thicker, a bit stronger the pigment, but it's not too thick still. So you shouldn't, shouldn't ever worked with very thick color anyway. So I'm going to start for sample this time where they were, this should be a shadow. So somewhere here where the petal is on top. And then when my second damp brush, I'm just going to create this transition here. Maybe needs to be a bit more larger. Then you just basically make this soft transition like that. So let's do it in here. This petal is underneath. So I'm going to put a stronger color here all the way up to this point and then the light would hit the pedal there. So with a damp brush, I'm just going to make the transition here on this side. And this is basically how I do the darker and lighter areas. So there's another petal here. This petal here is underneath this one. So let's just load your brush and add the paint. Then with the second brush. Just a play the transition. And you can rinse the brush if you see that it's picking up too much color. But makes sure you don't have too much water left on this brush. Otherwise, he would sort of make a kind of cauliflower effect. Okay. And then there is another sort of shadow area around this side. And then we can add a shadow down here. Make sure this doesn't, the paint doesn't dry because otherwise you will have a sharp line. So you have to be a bit fast for this. Okay? And then in here, so we will have a little bit of a darker area here. So I start from the darkest area and then a width the brush diet and with a dump brush, just apply the transition like this. And let's see a little bit there as well. Although here is, it's not as much because here we have the light coming. But just a little bit to show that this is under the other petal. And don't worry if you think e.g. that here I should have been darker because once it's completely dry, we can always apply another layer of color. A glaze is called. So a very light color like we did at the beginning. And it would darken the whole petal. 11. Third Watercolor Layer: So that's j and the colorful, this should be a bit thicker. See if I can put it here. Again, not overly thick but a bit thicker. And it's still the same technique. So let's see. We have dark area here. And this will give you that idea of a 3D effect. As soon as you add the shadow, you can see that this petal on top is kind of lifted. So down here is quite dark too. And you can only make this color dark up to a certain point, then you will need to use, I mean, with layers. Then you need to darken this color that you're using for the very dark shadows. And I will show you how to do that. Alright, so underneath here we have a little bit of a shadow in here as well. And you don't have to do this all at once. You can do a little bit, didn't do the transitioning here, and then do the next bit. So it fits along petal. You don't have to do it all at once and get panicky because the paint is drying. Okay? And then for the sort of folds, I call them bridges sometimes but the folds of the petal, we can do the same thing. So pick up the color and Mr. this one. So decide where the light is coming from. And this bit here is probably curving like that. So here there will be a shadow and you do I'm not all of it. But you you stop before you can do halfway through. And then with the brush. When you do the transitioning effect, it will carry on that line. Dump this brush again. And let's do the same thing here. So we stop around there and then transitioning. And as you can see, you can see the line down here now because the brushes dragging the paint there. And maybe a little bit here like that. And you do the same for the other petals as well. And you can always apply a little bit more. If you feel that it should be a bit longer. This slide in here, we can apply it on this side. And this means that this is actually going like that. This petal, the petal. So as you can see, it gives you that 3D effect. So I'm going to carry on with the rest of the flower and speed up the process a little bit. 12. Using the Darkening Mix: So when you basically, you can't make it darker by adding more layers, you need to darken this color. And a good way to do that. Many people say to add the complimentary. But if you add the complimentary to read which is green, you will get a brown. And let me see if I can show you. You can add a little tiny bit of green to make this darker. But as soon as you start adding green. So like this, maybe this color is a bit late, but hopefully we show. So it's gone a bit darker. But then if you want to add more and make it darker, it will start turning brown because this is a, or even gray. So as you can see, it's not a pleasant color because this is a mixture of the primary colors. And if you mix the three primaries, you're gonna get a neutral where as I call your order, gray brown color. And I have a class about mixing colors. But here, I'm just going to actually use this mix here, which is a darkening mix. And I can show you the marketing mix, which is this gray here, is made with Winsor blue, green shade, quinacridone, magenta, and lemon yellow. Which is basically the same colors for this green. But the only difference is that you have different quantities. So you add more, more blue, more red, and more yellow, and you end up with a gray. So to darken this and just going to put a bit more here. And then I'm going to reactivate this color. I always have some of these kind of mixed in my palette. Always add tiny bits at a time. Because otherwise you might get too strong of a color and then it will be almost impossible to go back. And as you can see, it's made it darker, but it's kept the red underlining color. So he hasn't change the color to brown. This is a very important tip. So as you can see, it's dark but is not brown. It's a darker shade of the I keep saying red because it's in the reds. Sort of real, but it's a magenta type of color and it's darker, but it's not brown. So this is a really important tip for color mixing. And then e.g. we can apply this in here, which is very dark. And you can talk a little bit before where the darker colors stopped. So e.g. if we apply it this area, apply a very thin line and then transition it. So be careful with this. Darker colors. Don't make it too dark. Apply it a literal the time. Then we can do the same thing here. And maybe around this area because this petal is folded. So it will be a bit darker there. And a little bit in this area here. If you want to make it darker, you can apply a second layer of this. So as you can see, it's darker on this side and a little bit lighter on this side, which looks like the light is hitting this side. And I think this is okay for the petals. Um, what I normally do is to finish the painting and then they'll look at it for a day or so, or even half a day. But if you leave it one day or a couple of days and then go back to it and look at, look at it again. And then you will see that there are things that needs to be adjusted. So I'm going to carry on with all the flowers. And then we will look at it and decide if we need to add any more details. 13. Final Details: Here we have our finished painting. Well, it's not exactly finished. You could leave it like this if you want to. But I would advise you to as I said earlier to leave it for a while and then go and look at it again. There are little details that need to be finished. For example, in certain places, some of the darker pla, the shadows need to be strengthened. We can do that with our darkening mix. If I reactivate some of this color and get some or this darkening mix and make this quite a bit darker. Then we can go where the shadows are stronger and make it a bit darker. And this really lifts the petals when you add the darker shadows underneath. I'm using a brush from Series seven miniature brush from Winter in Newton, you can use a small brush doesn't have to be miniature. There is also, for example, this one here is a Da vinci brush, which is a zero and is quite small as well. For details, these are best. Then just add the shadows, very close to the petal. So that it forms that little bit of a darker shadow that lifts the petal a bit. I'm going to add some here as well. If it's quite thin, you don't need to to do that transition with the brush. Then maybe a little bit here. This is almost like a dry brush technique where you pick up just a little bit of color, not too much, and you use your paint on the dry paper, and you almost use it as almost like a coloring pencil. I just going to add a bit here. Very light touch, very small amount of paint that you put down and you will get those little shadows. I'm going to add a little bit here where this part of the flower casts a little bit of a shadow. You can strengthen a little bit some of these. I wouldn't do it on all of them. Maybe the biggest ones where there is a bit more shadow, and maybe a bit here. You should do that with the petals and also with the stoke. The darkening mix I told you about before. You can use it with a green as well. I'll reactivate some of this green. Then we'll add some of the it makes it darker. It's a really great mix. I use it all the time. I might have added a bit more bit too much water. There was a little drop on the brush. You can always leave this to dry a little bit. Of course, it means you have to wait for it to dry. But if you think it's too paint, you can always double it on the side of your palette or a little bit on the paper tower and then do the same darkening for the stork as well where there is a shadow. In this case, it will be on the right side for me. And there is a tiny little bit of a shadow on this side. Almost you can see it, but it's there because if you look at a cylinder, when the light shines from the left, there will be a tiny little bit of a shadow on the left as well because it's going round. Just do this for the entire stoke. Then we have the highlight in the middle. And then might make it a little bit darker. Little tiny movements, just gently touching the paper. Maybe I can add a little bit of this darker color in here as well. Again, using the I just saw maybe a little bit here. You basically do this for the entire or the entire composition, if you've done all of them. For example, here, you can add some of the mix. Because this side is in shadow and for the green as well. In case you want to do the back facing flower. I just wanted to show you quickly how I did these sepals here. I think they are called sepals, those ones. I have a bit little sepal in here. I'm going to add. Basically what I did here was to add a diluted yellow. So as a first layer. And then there is a little bit of pink on the top. While it still, the yellow is still wet, you add a little bit of the pink on the top, and a little bit of the green at the bottom. Here you can add the darker green because it's going to be diluted, and then you lease the brush and you tease the paint. I will mix with a yellow, and it will create this transition as well. Then you can strengthen the color with other layers as well. Of course, the penta mark needs to be very light if you're not using the ink, otherwise you will have the ink there. That's how you do it. Then once it's dry and you're happy with the color, you can always go back with the gbrah technique and for the brush, I can show you once more in here. You just pick up some color, not too much. If you're not sure if there is too much, you just take a little bit of scrap paper and just do some lines like this. Then when you're happy that there's not too much paint in your brush, you just do these little movements. Like if you had a pencil, really, and it doesn't look like you're doing much. But if you notice, we have strengthened this shadow here. You just paint like you had a pencil in your hand. Just a little tiny movement. When you build up, this is a long process, it will take time to build up. If you're happy with this result, you don't have to do the dry brush at all. But if you want to try it, you can even do this again on a separate piece of paper and then try the dry brush just to see if you like it. But it's basically that pick up As you can see here, it's quite dry. Sometimes I add a little tiny drop of water but very, very small because it shouldn't be too watery. At this point, it should be quite dry. Then use your brush as you use a pencil. That's I think the best way I can describe it. And this will make the final work much more smooth. But as it is, it's fine and you can frame this and enjoy your painting. 14. Bonus - Complete Painting Process: Bearing 15. Final Thoughts: Congratulations on completing the class. I really enjoyed sharing with you my tips and tricks for watercolor and ink painting. And I hope you have learned new skills that you can use for your future projects. Your next step is to complete the project and then post pictures in the project section because I would really love to see your beautiful artwork. And then after that, just keep practicing. Choose another simple flower, like a crocus or another flower. That is not too complicated. And keep practicing your ink and watercolor techniques. Please remember to hit the Follow button here on Skillshare. So you will be notified as soon as I post a new class. If you like, you can check out my profile to see my other watercolor classes. If you'd like to keep in touch, you can follow me on Instagram at category anti-art, or you can check out my website category and the art.com. Thanks again for taking my class and I'm looking forward to seeing you in my next class. Bye.