Transcripts
1. Introduction + Welcome: Have you always wanted to
paint animals with watercolor, but perhaps find it a
little bit intimidating. Or maybe you just don't
know where to start or how to flow through
the painting process. Or maybe you already started painting animals
with watercolor, but always end up underwhelmed
with your results. Hey everyone. My name is Erica and I'm a
traditional media artists working with a variety of different drawing and
painting mediums. I really enjoy
challenging myself with a wide range of subjects, from landscapes to still live, to animals and more. My day-to-day life
revolves around creating art and mentoring
students online. And I'm also constantly creating helpful content aimed toward beginner and
intermediate artists that I share via my website, by YouTube channel and of
course, my membership site. I have over 15
years of experience working in artistic
and creative fields. I went to art school to obtain
my BA in Graphic Design. I then went on to become a graphic designer in
an advertising agency. And after a few years of that, I moved on to becoming a head teacher in a
school environment. I worked in that
school for many years until I started my art
business on the side, selling my art work locally
and also teaching students of all different ages and levels
in my own home studio. After awhile of growing
my own business, I was able to leave my last
regular full-time job to dedicate myself full lead to my business and
continuing to grow it. That's when I decided to take
what I was doing locally to the online space in
order to reach more people. Nowadays, I'm the
happiest I've ever been dedicating my days to continuing
to grow as an artist. As I simultaneously help others reach their
full potential. Painting animals, especially in a realistic way, is
pretty challenging. It doesn't matter what
animal it is that you're painting and what
painting medium it is that you're using. And the reason this is, is because there
are a variety of different techniques involved in painting them realistically. There is a lot of detail involved that we
have to make sure to pay attention to if we're
going for realistic results. And finally, we have to pay attention to specific shapes and proportions that we
need to communicate via our artwork if we're
looking for realism. Because anatomy is anatomy, it doesn't matter if
it's animals or humans. There's anatomy that
comes into play. If we start
distorting our shapes and proportions along the way, then no amount of
detail or texture or shading is going to lead
to believable results. And it's not just communicating a believable sense of
texture and detail, but it's also understanding the three-dimensional
structure of what it is that we are painting and being able to pinpoint lights, mid tones and darks in our reference photo or whatever it is that
we're observing. So that we can make
that wide range of values happen in our painting. Because value is number one
when it comes to developing a believable sense of 3D
Nas and structure in art, whenever you hear the
term value or tone, they mean exactly
the same thing. It's essentially
the lightness to darkness of all of the
colors involved in a piece. And a value or
tone is even above color correctness
when it comes to developing a sense of
realism in your work, all this means is
that instead of focusing so much on picking exactly the same color that you see in your
reference photo or creating the exact same color that you're seeing in
the reference photo, you should be focusing on
developing a wide range of values similar to
what you're observing. You want to create
those lightest lights where you see them in
that reference photo, those mid tones where you see them in that
reference photo, and those darkest
darks where you see them in that
reference photo. That's what's most
important for realism. Constantly comparing
the different value shapes present
throughout the subject. And asking yourself,
is this lighter or darker than this
other area over here? And getting those relationships between the different values throughout the subject as close as possible to what
you're observing. As long as you focus on developing that wide
range of values, you're going to end up
with believable results. Something that I'm
constantly reminding my beginner students of is
that texture follows form. So first focus on communicating that macro level structure of whatever it is
that you're painting. So focus on the
skeletal structure, if you will, of that animal. And then think of the techniques that
will help you develop that texture that is wrapping
around that structure. In this course, I'm
going to be sharing how I do all of this with you. My favorite techniques. I love bringing in one
painting, animals. How do I combine wet on wet techniques and wet
on dry techniques. How I do my layering and stay away from
overworking my piece, the masking fluid
techniques that I love bringing in to help me keep little highlight
sections protected in the eyes and the nose. How I use masking
fluid to help me easily create that
illusion of fur. And also how I bring in white gouache at the end
to paint in my whiskers. And I've made sure to
include a class in this course before jumping
into the painting process, where we're gonna be making some key observations on
the reference photo so that our process
can go a lot more smoothly and we can
ensure better results. But because there's
so much involved, I would recommend this course to intermediate artists have been painting with watercolor consistently for at least
some amount of time. I would make sure
that I know about basic washes and
brushstrokes that helped me create different textures
and have some amount of brush and water control
already developed. I do have a full watercolor one-on-one course
here on Skillshare, in which I share a basic
exercises and must know information that will help you progress your skills faster. I also have more beginner
friendly courses that you might want to check out in the
projects and resources tab, you're gonna be able to find
your downloadable files. You're going to see
that I have prepared my outline sketch for you, which you can trace
over using a sheet of tracing paper to get your
preliminary sketch on your sheet of watercolor paper
and be able to move on to the painting process in my
watercolor one-on-one course, I do have a full
class where I share how to use tracing paper
to do you're transferring, but you can really use whichever transferring method you prefer. Along with my outline sketch, you're gonna be able to find the high resolution
reference photo for you to observe as you're working my supply list and more
with all this said, let's go ahead and jump
into the first-class. Were all be explaining
about the course project. See you there?
2. Course Project + Must Know Information: Hey there and welcome to
this short class where I'll be explaining about
your course project. By the end of this course, you'll have completed
a realistic painting of a dog in watercolor. More specifically,
we're painting a super cute Hungarian Vaisala. I have broken up my painting
process into eight phases. I've also added an extra class in the beginning where we'll be making some important
observations about the reference photo, which will help us move
forward a lot more smoothly and arrive
at better results. It's always very important to observe your reference
or whatever it is that you have in front of you in real life that
you're going to be painting before putting
paint brush to paper. So please make sure not
to skip over that class. We'll then be moving
on to choosing the specific colors
that we're gonna be using in our painting process. You can feel free to change the color of the
background if you wish. I'll be moving on to explaining my technique for painting
believable for in layers, making our way towards the
darkest values or tones, then I'll be sharing
everything that I do to paint believable dog eyes
that have life to them. I'll also be sharing how
to paint believable noses. When it comes time to
painting in our background, I'll be sharing my fail
proof method that I always use to paint large
washes with watercolor. This method always
helps me arrive at great results when I am
painting large areas and helps me avoid creating splotchy venous lines and back runs in my
background and I'll show you how to use the
splattering technique using water in order to add interests and a
beautiful texture to your background wash, As with all of the
courses that I publish, it's my objective to share a
lot of information and tools with you that you can take to future watercolor paintings. Once you're done
with your painting, please take a photo of
it and posted over at the projects and resources
tab here on Skillshare. This is a special gallery where you'll be able to easily post your work as well as like and comment on other
students projects. It's super easy to do and I'd love to see your work
as well as provide any feedback that you
might need or answer any questions that you might have for me to post your work. All you have to do is
click on the Projects and Resources tab right below
any of the class videos. Click on the green
button on the right, upload a cover image, which can be a photo
of the piece itself. But it can also be a photo of your supplies or a photo that you took
throughout the process. Make sure to give your project a title and add a little
project description. I would love to hear about
how it went for you. Any struggles that
you might have had, any discoveries
or key takeaways. And of course, you
can also leave any questions as well that
you'd like for me to answer. You can then add
another image inside of the project
description by clicking on the icon right below the
add more content subtitle, choose the image file
that you'd like to share. And then all you
have to do is hit the green Publish button at
the top and you're all done. Finally, if you'd like
to share your work over on Instagram, please do. I love giving
students shout outs and also sharing your
work in my stories. Just make sure to tag me so that I can see it and cheer you on. And also make sure to tag
the Skillshare account. This goes a very
long way and really inspires other students to
share their work as well, which is very important for
the Skillshare community. Remember that we're all
here to learn and improve together and it's a safe
place for you to share. And all of the other wonderful Skillshare teachers and myself really look forward to seeing your work and are
here to help you out. That's gonna do it
for this class. In the next one, I'll be explaining about the
different supplies that I'd recommend having on hand in order to complete your project. See you there.
3. Supplies: Hello and welcome to this class where I'll
be explaining about the supplies that
I'll be having on hand as I'm working
on this piece, I would recommend having
these items on hand as well as you're moving forward
or something similar, do make sure to download all of the files that
I'm making available for you in the projects and resources tab here
on Skillshare, simply click on the Projects and Resources tab
that you're gonna be able to find below any of
the videos in this course. And right below the green Create Project
button on the right, you'll be able to see all of these downloadable files that I'm making available for. You. Simply click on the file that you'd like to download and it'll be downloaded onto your
computer or device. For this one, I'm
going to be working on watercolor paper from arches. This is cold press paper. It is 140 pounds in
thickness or in weight, and it is 100% cotton. I really wanted to use this higher-quality paper for this one because I am going to be bringing in layering and not all papers
tolerate layering. Well, there are some papers out there that even though
there are 100% cotton, when you're working on that
second or third layer, those layers underneath
reactivate even though they're already completely
dry and it becomes a mess. It can be very frustrating. Make sure that you're
using paper that lend itself for
layering techniques. This watercolor paper
pad offers sheets that are nine by 12 "
and I did end up cutting off part of this
watercolor sheet because the rectangular format was
a little bit too lengthy. So the size of watercolor sheet
that you're gonna be seeing me work in is exactly 9 " in width
and 9.6 " in height. It is totally up to you. If you want to work in exactly my same size and cut off a section of
your watercolor sheet. Or if you want to use
whatever sheet size that you have as is in terms of my paint, I am going to be using a combination of paint
from Daniel Smith, Winsor, and Newtons
professional line. And I am bringing in one pen for my St. Petersburg
White Nights paint set, and that is the burnt sienna. And this is only
because I ran out of my burnt sienna from
my other palette. And this all goes to show
that you can certainly mixed different brands
together as long as they are similar quality. All of these are professional
grade watercolor paints, so they mix together very well. The seven colors that I'm
going to be bringing in our new gamboge, raw
sienna, Alizarin, crimson, fallow,
blue, burnt sienna, burnt umber, and Payne's gray. You by no means have to use these exact colors
that I'm gonna be using in order to arrive
at great results. As always, I'm going
to be swatching these out on a scrap piece
of watercolor paper before jumping into
the painting process so that you can see what
they look like on paper. And you can choose
whichever colors you have available that are most similar to the ones
that I'll be using. I used a total of seven
different brushes. But only five of those were actually used for painting with watercolor or for the
watercolor painting process. The other two were used to
either place my masking fluid, to mask out my highlights
in the dog's eyes and to create little fur
textures throughout its body. And the other one
was used to paint in the whiskers and to enhance the highlights in the eyes using white gouache at the very
end of the painting process. The five watercolor
brushes that I'm gonna be using throughout the
actual painting process. Our a size six mop brush, and the other four are round
brushes and sizes 161,410.3. The small brush that I use
to place my masking fluid is a cheap multimedia
size zero round brush. And the other brush that I
use to actually paint in the dog's whiskers is a
size two rigger brush. You can actually see this brush. It's the second one
from left to right, right there on screen right
after the brown brush, It's a light gray brush
and you can see how the bristles in this rigger
brush or longer, it's a small, fine brush
with longer bristles. And those longer bristles really helped me create those long, fine lines that I'm going to be needing for those whiskers. If you don't have a rigger
brush, don't worry, you can use any small
detailing brush as long as it comes to a nice, fine tip, I would recommend
it being a round brush. What I would recommend
doing is actually doing some test runs on a scrap
piece of watercolor paper. Just do some drills
with that brush and the white gouache that
you're planning on using for your painting
to make sure that you can A long, thin tapered lines. This is very, very important
because you don't want to have to correct
white gouache, because gouache is an
opaque painting medium. And if you create a
very thick whisker or something like that
and you go in and try to scrub it off
and lifted off, most likely than not, you're going to make a mess
because what happens is that since gouache is opaque
when you try to rub it off, it's going to leave
this splotchy, opaque, kind of chalky texture over that section
of your painting. So just be careful and do
whatever drills you need to do on a scrap piece of paper before adding
in your whiskers. I don't need an
extra mixing palette because this palette
that I'm gonna be using has mixing areas
integrated in that palette. I have a few scrap pieces
of watercolor paper, which I always make
sure to have on hand in order to test out colors
and translucency. I also have a role of regular three-fourths of
an inch masking tape, which is what I use to tape down my watercolor sheet down
onto my black cutting mat. I have a few of my blue Scott absorbent towels which
are super important. Any kind of towel or just regular kitchen
paper towels are essential when you're
painting with watercolor. So that you can see on top
of water control and do any lifting that you might
need to do along the way. I have my container
with clean water. I have my masking fluid. This is masking fluid
from Winsor and Newton. I highly recommend this one. I've never had any
issues with it. I have my white gouache
in permanent white. This is also from
Winsor and Newton. And you can see that little
ceramic flower shaped palette that I used to mix my
gouache wash is very thick, coming out straight
out of the tube. So it is very likely that you're going to need some sort
of little palette. Two, squeeze it out into, and also to bring in some
water in order to arrive at whatever consistency
it is that you need for that wash. And finally, you can also see that sheet of tracing paper
on screen right here. This is tracing paper
from Strathmore. And what I did for this one is I traced over that reference photo to get my outline sketch onto my sheet of
watercolor paper. I have an entire
class on how to use tracing paper to do you're transferring and
get that outline, sketch ready on your
watercolor sheet. My watercolor when a one course. So do make sure to check that one out if you're interested in learning about how to use tracing paper for
your transferring. And as I said in
the beginning of this class in the projects
and resources tab, you're gonna be able to find your downloadable with this one, I'll be including
my outline sketch, which you can use to
trace over in order to prepare that preliminary sketch
on your watercolor paper, you can decide if you want to trace over my outline, sketch, or the actual photo, whatever you're most
comfortable with. Of course, you're also
going to be able to find that high resolution
reference photo attached. I am making two different
photos available for you. One that I took right after
placing my masking fluid in case you'd like to have it as reference as you're
placing doors. And I also took a photo
of my finished painting, which you are free to use as
reference as you're working. And finally, you're
gonna be able to find your supply checklist. And that is gonna do it for
this class on your supplies. In the next one,
we're going to be observing that reference
photo together and noticing important
things that are going to help us move forward
with greater success. See you in the next one.
4. Reference Photo Observations: Hello and welcome. In this class we're
going to be observing our reference photo together and taking some important notes, essential things
that are going to be important to have
in mind as we're moving through this process
in order for everything to go more smoothly and arrive
at much better results. Oftentimes, I have to work on
the same painting twice or three times before arriving at something that
I actually love. So do have that in mind, especially when it
comes to drawing or painting a type of
subject that you've never drawn or painted
before or when you're using techniques or a method that you've never used before, Give yourself the opportunity to work on that piece
more than once. I cannot tell you how many times I work on the same piece, twice or three times before
actually filming my process. And this is completely normal. But jumping into the first piece of advice that I
want to provide, always take time to observe the reference photo before
putting paint brush to paper, take a few minutes to observe
this reference photo. Take time to observe not only this particular
dogs characteristics in terms of its fur color. It's for length, the
color of its eyes, the color of its nose, the shape of its ears,
it's overall proportions. But also notice where
are the darkest areas? Notice where are
the mid tone areas? Notice where are
the lightest areas. Try to come to a
conclusion as to where the light source is in
relation to the subject. When I observe this photo, I can tell that the
light is hitting this dog from the upper right. Because if you notice
the darkest values in this dog's body or what
we're able to see of this dog's body are
along the left side. By noticing these key things, you're going to be
setting yourself up for success because you'll know where to create those
different values or tones as you're painting. And remember that when we're
painting with watercolor, we're not bringing in
white paint because we're using the mediums
translucency or transparency in combination
with the white paper underneath the paint to develop those lighter value areas. So we need to plan and protect not only the
brightest highlights, but know that in those
lightest value sections, you're going to have
to leave more of that paper shining
through because if you don't incorporate
that brightness of the paper as
part of the peace, then not only are you
going to get rid of that glowy effect that is so particular and
beautiful to watercolor. But you're painting is
going to end up looking very flat and it's going
to lack dimension. Another key piece of advice
that I want to provide is try to paint a quick
try to keep it moving. Especially in those
beginning stages of the painting process
where we're creating that first layer and
we're really trying to go for wet on wet blurred
out soft defects. Because if you don't, things are going to
start drying on you pretty quickly and
you're gonna be left with more splotchy in us and more texture than
you actually want. And I'm going to show
you my process for making this easier for yourself, but just know that you
have to move quickly, you have to move swiftly
and go in with confidence, placing your color where
you actually need it. The way that you do
it is by observing the reference photo
and acknowledging those different values sections. Try not to spend too long
on one single place. Because not only is everything going to
start drying on you, but if you go in and focus
too much on one single place, you're likely going to arrive
at overworked results. You're going to get rid of
that freshness and that glow. This isn't to say
that you can't go in and try to smooth
textures out that you don't like or try to create softer gradients or remove
paint or something like that. But just try to keep it minimal and move on
to the next place. Learn to embrace irregularities and things that happen when you're painting
with this medium, you're not gonna be able
to control everything. Also acknowledge
all of these shapes that you're painting
in as abstract. Shadow shapes or light
shapes for mid tone shapes. You don't have to paint
these shapes in super perfectly and get
them exactly the same as what you see in
the reference photo. Especially when it comes to those shapes
throughout the dogs, for when it comes to things
like the nose and the eyes, we do need more
precision for that. And I will be sharing my
techniques that will enable you to have more
control in these areas. But when it comes to the for going confidently
place your paint, do any softening that
you need to do along those edges or
whatever you need to do and move on to
the next thing. Things don't have to be perfect. And the last tip that I
want to provide is whenever you're working on things
like eyes or the nose, zoom into that reference photo and pay attention to the
highlight shapes and the different shapes
that you see in these important features
of the dog's face. This is why I provide you great reference photos so that you can actually
open them up nice and large and whatever
device it is that you're using and zoom into
these areas as needed. Alright, and that is gonna
do it for this short class. In our next class
we are going to be placing our masking
fluid. See you there?
5. Masking Fluid Placement: Welcome to class. In this one, I'll be
explaining how I do my masking fluid placement
in order to keep a certain shapes or areas
of my paper protected. While I do my painting, I'm going to be doing two main things with
my masking fluid. Number one is I'm
gonna be keeping little highlight
shapes protected in the eyes and the nose. And number two,
the masking fluid is also going to
help me describe certain textures by placing my masking fluid
in specific ways. Those little shapes that I
create with my masking fluid are going to help me create
the texture in the nose. And it's also going
to help me describe that first texture
throughout the dog's body. So in other words, there are two things that we're trying to do with
the masking fluid. We're keeping little important
highlights protected and we're also using it to
help us describe texture. Let's go ahead and
get started with this first phase where
we're going to be placing our masking fluid. I am using my size
zero round brush, and this is a cheaper
multimedia brush. I wouldn't recommend using your watercolor brushes or any brush that you
particularly like or are fond of to place your
masking fluid because masking fluid can definitely damage your paintbrush
bristles over time. Even if you take measures
to protect those bristles, masking fluid is
liquid latex and it dries fast and it dries
hard on those bristles. And this is why I
don't like using my actual watercolor brushes
to place my masking fluid. And it's also why in many of my painting tutorials where
I bring in masking fluid, I'm actually using
an alternative tool to place my masking fluid,
such as toothpicks. Now, if you have a
masking fluid pen and you want to use that, then by all means, go ahead and use that
masking fluid pen. What I did to protect
the bristles of this paintbrush is I coded those paintbrush bristles in
dishwashing soap before actually starting to dip my paintbrush in my little masking
fluid container. And then once I'm done using it, I immediately go ahead and
wash off that masking fluid. There are three different
things that I am masking out for this piece before moving
on to the painting process, the very first thing that
you saw me work on was masking out the highlight
shapes in the eyeballs. I also placed a
little teeny tiny bit of masking fluid in some teeny tiny highlight shapes that I see along the bottom tier
line especially, and also to mask out any white sections and the
eyeballs that I'm able to see, it's so important that if we're painting a human portrait
or an animal portrait, we plan for those highlights in the eyes because those
highlights not only make the animal or the human
look more realistic because our eyeballs or
moist and reflective, but they also really helped make the subject come to life. So observe those
highlights shapes in that reference photo. I have mapped them into
the outline sketch that I have provided
for you and fill those shapes in with
a thin layer or coat of masking fluid
after masking out those highlights and little
teeny tiny white sections and the eyeballs out
with masking fluid. I also applied some
teeny-tiny, abstract, irregular masking fluid shapes, especially along the top of the nose where that
light is hitting. That knows more. I also did some teeny
tiny shapes right under the nostrils to create
a little bit of a moist effect in
the nose as well. Those teeny-tiny
masking fluid shapes in the nose are going
to help also give off that moist effect, but it's also going
to help provide that texture in the dog's nose. There is no need to
go overboard with those little teeny tiny
shapes on the nose. Make sure as well
that they are not perfect circles or dots that
you're trying to create. Make sure that they are small
and that you are clustering those little teeny tiny shapes together in different ways. Try to stay away from a pattern. Me look as you're creating those little masking
fluid shapes on the nose. I barely touched the
tip of my paintbrush to the nose to create those little teeny
tiny abstract shapes. And the final thing
that I am masking out our little sections of
fur along the outer edges of the dog's body and also
along some of the sections of the individual parts of its
body like along the edges, ears, along the
edges of the snout where body parts are
overlapping over each other. Once I discovered
that masking fluid is such a great way to easily communicate that
illusion of hair or fur. I have continued honing
this technique whenever I am painting animals
and also humans. So what's important to understand is that
when you are drawing or painting for or any
kind of irregular texter, the edges of your shapes
are very important. They shouldn't be left smooth. If you're wanting to communicate that fur or hair texture, you have to think of how
you're gonna be creating Little flyaway
hairs, if you will, or irregularity along the edges, not only along the edges
where the person's or the animal's body
meets the background, but also the edges where different body parts
are overlapping. So where the ear is
overlapping over the head or where the arm is overlapping over the belly or
whatever it is, those different body
parts are overlapping. Think of how the edges of
those body parts have for, if you want to add in a few
of these lines or marks inside of the dog's
body to help you communicate that
texture in those areas, that's fine as well, but I would keep
it to a minimum. I just added a few
of these masking fluid shapes or
marks in the neck. And that is it because inside of the body shape we're going to be painting that texture
using watercolor. We don't need masking fluid. And all I am doing is using
little short flicking motions with my small paintbrush along these edges where I want
to create some effects. And you don't have to go all along all of the
edges. Not at all. In fact, less is more, but using those short
flicking motions is going to help me create those tapered lines or marks throughout those
edges where I want to enhance that fur texture. And as I'm doing these
flicking motions and creating these marks with my masking fluid
or these shapes, if you want to see
them as shapes. I'm continuing to observe
that reference photo and noticing the length of the for
in that particular section of the dog's body because that length of that for
definitely changes from area to area and also the direction of the fur
growth in that area. I'm almost done here. I just made sure to
place some marks along the edges of all of these
individual body parts. If this dog had very
long further than I would be creating longer
marks are shapes. But this dog has short for
it is a short haired dog. So I want to make sure that these little
tapered marks that I'm creating are
going to help me describe that for length, but also bring to mind what direction that for
his growing out toward. I kept a lot of
those edges free. That is important
because if you go over all of your edges
or you try to trace over your pencil lines
with masking fluid that is going to lead to an
outlining look at the end, at the end of your
painting process, when you remove
your masking fluid, you're gonna be left
with a white outline around the entire thing. And that's not going to
look very realistic. So again, there's no
need to go overboard with those masking
fluid marks or shapes. So you're creating along those edges a little
bit goes a long way. Make sure that as you're
placing your masking fluid, you're doing it in
very thin coats because if a lot of masking
fluid comes down and you create very thick blobs of masking fluid that it's
going to take very long to dry this color
unless masking fluid that I am using looks milky and opaque when it is in the bottle and when it is
first placed on paper. And then when it dries, it becomes more
yellowish and more transparent like a transparent yellowish film, if you will. You'll know that it's
dry when it looks transparent and a
little bit yellowish, it's still feels a little
bit tacky after it's dried, but it's no longer
sticky to the touch. And that's when you
know that you can start to paint over it. And that is it for this one. While our masking fluid dries, we're going to be choosing
and swatching out our colors that we're gonna be using throughout this
painting process. See you in the next class.
6. Choosing Colors + Swatching: Welcome back. I'm a huge proponent of
planning your colors before jumping into
any painting process. This will help you arrive at more integrated,
harmonious results, as well as higher levels of realism because you give
yourself the opportunity to decide how you're
going to be developing a lighter versions
of your colors and darker versions
of your colors, which are necessary for realism. And at the same time, through planning your colors, you're going to be able to
stay away from creating undesired colours and moodiness throughout your
painting process, I do want to mention that I have a full course here
on Skillshare, on color theory and the
split primary color wheel. In that course, I explain
about different color schemes, how to tell if colors
are warm or cool. And a ton of information
on this essential art fundamental which is important for anyone who's
learning to paint. So if you haven't
checked that one out already, I would highly, highly recommend working on that course alongside this one. Or maybe after in this class, I'm gonna be sharing my
color selection with you. I'll be swatching all of these colors that I'm
gonna be bringing in this way you can see what
they look like on paper. And if you don't have
these specific colors, you can just replace them with whatever you have
that is most similar. This first color that
I am swatching out for you is new gamboge. It is a warm yellow. It's going to be used
only in the dog's eyes. This next color
that I'm swatching out is alizarin crimson. It's a cooler red. This one is going to
be used mostly in the dog's nose and
also in those pinkish, fleshy bits in the dog's eyes, you can see how this
Alizarin crimson looks pinkish when
I water it down. The next three colors
that I'm going to be swatching out for you are the three browns that I'm
gonna be using for the dogs, for this first one
is raw sienna. It's a very light,
usually brown. The next one is my burnt sienna, which is a reddish brown. It's kind of a medium brown. And then the next brown is
going to be burnt umber, which is a darker kind
of chocolaty brown. So in other words, I
have a lighter brown, I have a medium brown and
I have a darker brown. And I know that by preparing
these three browns, I'm gonna be able to
create a wide range of brown values throughout
the dog's body. We know that value
is number one in order to create a sense of
three-dimensional structure. So I am setting myself up for success to be
able to do that. Next, I swapped out
my Payne's gray. This is a dark gray
that is blue biased. It has some blue in it. I'm going to be using
this gray in the dark, almost black looking
sections in the dog's eyes, the pupil, and sections around the eyeball to paint
in the nostrils. And also at the very end
of the painting process, when I am doing some
final pushing of darkest dark areas
throughout the dogs fur, I'm going to be adding
a little bit of this Payne's gray into my brown to darken it even more and be able to push
those darkest areas. And the blue that I am
using is phthalo blue. This blue is only going to
be used in the background. I want the background
to be like a very dark blue in
the reference photo, that background is black. And I actually wanted to play with complimentary colors in this piece to make
it colorful and also to create more
color harmony. Because this dogs for is kind of orangey or like a neutral
orange, if you will. And orange and blue are complimentary colors
in the color wheel, I wanted to make my background dark blue instead of black. I thought it would be a
nice play with color. It will bring more kind of
playfulness to the piece. And it's just a way
for me to make use of my artistic license and bring in more of myself
into the painting. Feel free to change the color of the background to whatever
color you prefer. I would just bring in my
knowledge of color theory, the color wheel to make sure that you create color
harmony and arrive at the level of contrast
that you like with whatever hue it is that
you decide to go with. And that is it for
my color swatching. Take your time with
this process and with planning the colors
that you're gonna be using, use whichever colors you have
that are similar to mine. And make sure that you set
yourself up for success with three different browns that are going to be used
throughout the firm. You want to make sure
that you go in knowing how you're gonna be
developing your brown values. What are you going to be
using for your lighter brown? What are you going to be
using for your medium brown, and what are you
going to be using for your darkest brown areas? I cannot emphasize how important this is for believable results. I'm so excited to move
on to our next class, where we'll finally
be starting with our first layer of paint
throughout the dogs fur. See you there?
7. Fur (First Layer): Hello and welcome to this
class where we're gonna be working on part one of
this painting process. The first thing we're
going to be painting is the first layer all
throughout the dogs fur. And we're also going to be
creating a little bit of an underpainting using
yellow in the eyeballs, which is something that
I often like doing when I'm painting
animals that light yellow underpainting
and the eyeball really helps bring
a glow to the eyes. So what I'm doing right here is I'm preparing my color mixtures that are going to be used throughout this
part of the process. So first, I created my little
puddle of new gamboge, that warm yellow that you
see right there at the top. And then here at the bottom, I'm preparing three different
brown color mixtures. The first is just plain, raw sienna with water added in. The second color mixer
that I created is a mixture of raw sienna
and burnt sienna. And then the third
color mixture, that would be the darkest brown of these three brown mixers that I'm preparing for myself is just plain burnt sienna
with water added in. When I am painting
with watercolor, I always work from
lights to darks. And in this beginning layer of paint that we're
gonna be creating, we're gonna be focusing on developing those lighter values, the lightest lights to
light or mid tones. And this is why I'm not
bringing in my darker brown, my burnt umber just yet. I will bring that in later for a subsequent layer that we're gonna be developing
throughout the firm. But right now I'm preparing those brown color mixtures
are going to help me create those lighter values. Once I have those first
color mixtures ready, I change my water, especially because
when I am painting in that bright yellow
in the eyeballs, I want to make sure
that I have no brown in the water that I'm using and that my paint brush
is nice and clean. Of course, this way, I can make sure that that yellow is going to be nice and bright. So what I'm doing right here is using my size three round brush. I am starting to paint in that yellow underpainting
in the eyeball. I am painting the
entire iris and pupil section and I'm
staying away from the whites in the eyes and also the pink fleshy bit in the inner corner
of the dog's eyes. Of course, if you masked out
those whites in the eyes, then it's no issue if you
paint over them because the masking fluid
is going to keep those sections
protected for you. It is important that
I don't go in with a super thick and
saturated yellow. I want this yellow layer to be quite watered down, but
definitely visible. So after painting in
those yellow shapes, I remove that paint from
my paintbrush bristles, and I go back in to just
lift up some excess color to make sure that this layer of yellow is nice and bright, but still relatively
translucent. Once that's ready, I go
ahead and change to my size six mop brush because
it is time to get started with
that first layer all throughout the dogs fur. And it is definitely
important to use a larger brush for this
part of the process because a larger
brush is going to enable you to load
up those bristles with a good amount
of paint and water and it's going to
help you work faster. The first thing that I
am doing is I am using my lightest color that I'm gonna be using in the dogs fur, which is the plain, raw sienna. And I'm gonna be painting
in a light, pale, translucent layer
of this raw sienna all throughout the dog's body. The only thing that
I'm avoiding painting in Is the eyeball section, but I'm even painting
over the nose. It is incredibly important and I cannot emphasize enough
how important it is that you take your
time painting in this first layer before
moving on to anything else. However long it takes you to
create a relatively uniform, pale layer of color all throughout the dog's body
except for the eyes and arrive at a nice even sheen all throughout however long it
takes you to get there, just keep going until
you arrive at that nice, even uniform color and sheen
all throughout the dog. Continue going over all areas gently with your paintbrush, bringing out a little
bit of water at a time as needed to soften that color and extend it
out until the entire dog, except for the eyes, is completely covered with this initial pale
layer of raw sienna. Most of this is just me
going in with water in my paint brush and softening that color and
extending that color Out towards those sections
that I haven't painted in. So essentially I just paint it in that color in the beginning. And after that, it was just me going in with water in my brush, what I like doing so that sections don't start
drawing on me too quickly is wherever it is that I decided to
start painting. I start making my way out from
that area and then I come back to the place that I started to wet that
section again. And then I make my
way out a little bit more than I come
back to where I started and run my
paintbrush bristles over that section
again that I'm making my way out a little
bit more and I come back to where I started and so on and so forth until I
get to the opposite side. Then I go over the entire thing again with just water
in my paint brush. One thing I will
say is make sure that you don't bring
out too much water from your container to the point that you start dripping
water everywhere. This can also lead to creating puddles and you definitely
don't want puddles anywhere. Just bring out a little
bit of water at a time. And every time you dip your paintbrush in your
container of water, remove that excess
drip edge by gently scraping the bristles of your paint brush along the
top of your container, then you can go in. I love sharing these
real-time tutorials with you because you can
actually get a sense for how long it takes me to do pre wedding
or this kind of technique where I'm creating that initial pale layer
before moving forward. This is actually the
time that it takes me. But I do want to mention
how long it takes you to get that nice,
even sheen and that pale color all throughout this
large shape is going to depend not only on the type of paper
that you're using, but also on the environment
that you're working in. If you work in a
warm environment, a cold environment, a dry environment, a
humid environments. If you have a fan on
a heating system, on an air conditioning unit, on all of those
things are going to have an impact on
how quickly or how slowly your paint
starts to dry on you and how long it's gonna take you to do something like this, which is essentially a
form of pre wedding before moving on to the
actual development of values and Hughes, Okay, So I finally arrived at
that nice even sheen and that relatively uniform and even pale first layer of color. And everything is very
wet and very workable. So I am now ready
to get started with my first development of values all throughout
the dog's body. So with that initial pale
layer of raw sienna in, I am taking more raw sienna, but it is now less water down. And I'm applying this
raw sienna in sections of mid tones that I'm able to see in that
reference photo. So along the way, I am constantly observing that reference photo and bringing to mind
everything that I was observing in the
beginning when I was just analyzing that photo and noticing where
darkest areas were, midtone areas where and
where lightest areas were. And I'm going to make my way
incrementally towards my darker brown that I have
prepared for myself. So first I went in
with plain raw sienna. Again, only it was
a little bit more saturated or less watered down. And then after having
place that raw sienna, I took my medium brown that
I had prepared for myself, which was my mixture of raw
sienna and burnt sienna. I applied that second Brown in sections of mid tones
and darkest darks. Once again, I am leaving the lightest sections that I'm able to see in that
reference photo, free of any more
of these browns. Essentially, I want
those lightest sections throughout the dog to just have that first
layer of palest color. I started with in the beginning. I don't want to apply any more color on areas
of lightest values. If I start applying color in
areas of lightest values, I'm going to cover up
more of that paper. And I'm gonna get rid
of lightest values. That is not going to be
helpful at all because I need that wide range of values
for this to look realistic. After I had applied more
of my raw sienna and raw sienna plus burnt sienna in sections of mid tones
and darkest darks. I remove that color for
my paintbrush bristles. And what you're seeing me do
right now is I am softening transitions a little
bit with just a clean and slightly damp brush. And I'm also going in and doing some lifting using my
clean and slightly damp paintbrush bristles as a little absorbent sponge to lift up excess paint
from sections that are actually lighter value
areas where paint has expanded and covered
up a little bit too much. It's all about continuing
to sculpt the dog's body. It's three-dimensional
form or structure. And because they took time
with that prereading process, with that first palest layer I have time to continue developing those mid tones,
those darkest darks. I have time to do lifting of excess paint that has expanded into lighter
value sections. Once I did that work with
those first two colors, and I had arrived at a
nice range of values. It was finally time to get
started with my darkest brown, which is my plane burnt sienna. And what I am doing is I am
applying this darkest brown only in darkest
dark sections that I'm able to see in
that reference photo. Leaving the lighter
mid tones and the lightest lights free
of this darkest brown, everything is still wet and in a very workable state because I took my time with that
first palest layer of color. If I had just painted
that very quickly, by this point in the process, certain sections
would already be dry and I would not be able to continue working if sections we're already starting
to dry on me, that would only lead to a splotchy look and a lot of texture that I'm
not looking for. The work that we
did developing that initial palest layer
was incredibly helpful because not only is that
water content that we prepare that paper with helping
us arrive at nice soft, diffused out wet on
wet type effects. But it enables us to start
developing that structure, that three-dimensional
look to the dog's body. And it helps us not rush
through the process and have a little bit more working time to really start creating
that structure. Alright, so I'm
almost done here. I did some work with
that darkest brown, the plane burnt sienna. And after adding
some of that in, I once again remove that
color from my paintbrush. You can see me right here, go in with a clean
and slightly damp brush to do some lifting in sections where the darkest brown has expanded out a
little bit too much. Everything is still
wet and workable so I can very easily go in and remove some excess pigment from sections that are actually
lighter in value, where I want more of that
paper shining through. Now, once you've
placed paint on paper, it is nearly impossible
to go back to the whiteness and the brightness
that the paper once had. But you definitely
can go in and do some lifting using your clean and only slightly
damp paintbrush, bristles as a little
absorbent sponge. Or you can even go in with
your absorbent towel and do some lifting through blotting
with your absorbent towel. You always have those tools on hand to do some lifting and add dimension back
into areas that maybe you have dark and
a little bit too much. You can see how much I am
supporting myself with my absorbent towel that I
have right there to my left. I am constantly dabbing the
tip of my paintbrush on that absorbent towel to remove excess paint or water
before going in. Alright, so I'm
almost done here. I did that lifting and now
I'm just going to take a quick sec to create more
of this middle brown, which is a combination of
raw sienna and burnt sienna. And I'm going to add a
tiny bit more color into some mid tones sections that I'm able to see in
that reference photo, which I haven't really created there a little bit
too light still. I noticed if the paper was still wet enough in order
for me to do that. If my paper had already
started to dry, then I wouldn't be placing
any more paint on my paper. When things start to dry, I stop what I'm
doing and if I need to go into darken certain areas, I do so with subsequent
layers of paint, you can see how I was left with soft effects and
transitions between colors. And this is because I've
been working wet on wet, meaning I've been painting in my colors while the
paper is still wet. These soft effects
and transitions where exactly what I was looking
for in this initial layer. At this point, it is
important to allow everything to dry
completely before moving on to the next class
in which we are going to be painting layer two all
throughout the firm. Feel free to speed up that drying process
using a hairdryer. See you in the next video
where we're gonna be working on that second
layer throughout the fur. And we're also going
to be working on the next layers in
the nose and the eyes
8. Eyes + Nose + Fur (Second Layer): So everything is
dry and hopefully you can see how colors dried, lighter than how they
looked when they were wet, which is completely normal when it comes to painting
with watercolor. And now that everything is dry, I'm gonna go ahead and add
more detail into the eyes. I'm going to be also doing
some work in the nose. And after that, I'm
gonna be working on the second layering of
color all throughout the dogs for so the first thing
that I did was I prepared a little puddle of Payne's
gray on my mixing palette. It's not super, super thick. I am using a coffee
like consistency. So almost 50% paint, 50% water, even when it comes to very dark, almost black looking
shapes like this. I always like getting started with semi translucent layer of paint and then darkening certain sections over that
later with another layer, I find things end
up looking a lot more natural if I
do it in this way. And make sure that even darker
sections that look like black shapes have at least somewhat of a range of
values within them. I am using my size
three round brush to very carefully
paint in the pupil. Also some longer shapes around the dog's eyeballs that I'm able to see in that reference photo, I make sure that as
I am painting in those long dark shapes
around the dog's eyeballs. That I am seeing those shapes
as abstract, irregular, long shapes and not
like lines or outline. Because if I create outlines
around the dog's eyes, that's going to lead
to a cartoony look. It's not going to
look very realistic. That's not what's actually happening in that
reference photo. These dark shapes that we see
are actually shadow shapes, or they can also be those
darker values around the iris. So what happens is that
usually around the iris, which is the colored
portion of the eyeball. In this case, it's
like a brownish color. Usually there is a ring
around the iris that is darker than the inner
portion of the iris. So we also see some
darkness which has actually that outer
ring around the iris, but it's not
actually an outline. And sometimes it is important to ignore what our brain
is telling us to do. Which is oftentimes
going to be to go in and create
an outline around everything we see and we need to trust and what we're seeing
in that reference photo, really practice observing what's happening in the reference. These are more
shapes them lines, and there are definitely not
outlines present anywhere. And practice really making those shapes happen
in your painting. Alright, that's all I'm gonna be doing in the eyes for now. I really need to allow
that to dry completely. And I'm gonna be doing
more layering and detailing in the eyes later on. So it is time to do a little bit of work in the dog's nose. And for this, I
switched on over to my size ten round brush. So what you're seeing me do
right now is I'm creating the color mixture that I'm
gonna be using in the nose. Now, if you observe
the reference photo, you'll notice that the
color and the dog's nose is not too different from it's
for in this particular dog, this is the case
with other dogs, the nose might be a
lot more pink or maybe it's black when the first brown or white or
whatever the case may be. But there is not that
big of a difference in the color inside of the nose
and outside of the nose. Of course, the nostrils are a lot darker because those are holes and there is no light
reaching those holes. But when it comes to the nose itself and the
skin in this area, there is not that
big of a difference. This is also why there
was no issue with me painting over the nose with
that initial layer of paint. So the mixture that I prepare
for myself to paint in the nose is a mixture
of alizarin crimson, raw sienna and a little bit of burnt umber just to
darken it a tiny bit. The mixture that I use has a
good amount of water in it. I would say it's kind of
like a coffee consistency. You can see how that initial
layer that I painted in is pretty
translucent and pale. So once I have that
initial layer painted in, what I do is I add more burnt umber into the mixture to darken
it a little bit more. Then I drop in a little bit of this
darker color mixture in sections of darker values that I see in the nose in
that reference photo. Once I have developed that little range of values
throughout the nose, some lighter values,
some darker values. I remove that color
from my paintbrush bristles and I go in
to do some lifting in areas that I have
perhaps dark and a little bit too much or where that darker value color mixture has expanded a
little bit too much. So you can see me use the clean and slightly damp
bristles of my paintbrush as a little absorbent
sponge to do a little bit of lifting
of excess pigment. And I'm just plotting the
bristles of my paintbrush On my absorbent towel and
going back in as needed. Now you can very clearly
see those little masking fluid shapes on the nose
that I had created before. Alright, so after doing
that work in the nose, it is time to get started with the second layering of color
all throughout the dogs. For this time, we're gonna
be working wet on dry, meaning we're gonna
be just painting in shapes on dry paper. And the objective with this
next layering in the dogs fur is to push mid tone areas
and darkest dark areas. In other words, we're
going to darken sections that need
to be pushed more. And we're going to leave
lighter value sections free of this new
layering of paint. I would recommend
having a good look at that reference
photo once again, and pinpointing sections of darker midtones and darkest
darks that you're looking to push more if you go
into this part of a process with that information
fresh in your mind, there is less of a
chance that you're gonna go in and cover up sections that don't need to
be darkened anymore. Okay. So the color mixtures that
I prepared for myself for this new layering of color all throughout
the dogs fur, lightest mixture to
darkest mixture. The first one is a mixture of raw sienna and burnt sienna. The second one is also a mixture of raw sienna
and burnt sienna, but it's heavier on
the burnt sienna. And the darkest mixture that
I've prepared for myself is a mixture of burnt
sienna and burnt umber. When I am creating
these color mixtures, I'm just looking for
these color mixtures to look different
from each other, especially in terms of value. I want one of these mixtures
to be the lightest, another to be the medium, and the other one
to be the darkest. If you have any doubts that
maybe there's not enough of a difference between your different brown
so you create, I would recommend swatching out your color mixtures on a scrap piece of
watercolor paper and modifying the ratios
of your colors in your color mixtures until there is enough of a
difference between them. And you have a lighter
brown, a medium brown, and a darker brown
that you're gonna be using for this
part of the process. For this part of the process, I'm going to be using
two different brushes. I have my larger size, six mop brush on hand. I also have my medium-sized
size 14 round brush on hand. What I'm gonna be doing is
I'm gonna be painting in those abstract shapes for these different sections of darker values that I
see throughout the fur. I'm gonna be painting those
in with my larger mop brush. And what I'm gonna do
is I'm going to quickly switch on over to
my smaller brush. And with my smaller brush, while that paint is still wet, I'm going to be softening
edges and doing some flicking motions
that are going to help me move that paint
that is still wet in order to start developing
the illusion of fur. We're gonna do this
section by section, switching between my
paint brushes as I go. And depending on
how light or how dark that section in
that reference photo is, I'm going to pick the brown color mixture that is going to help me
develop that value. So I get started with this very dark part
in the dog's snout. This lower part is very dark
in that reference photo. So I can go in with my medium
brown that I just created, which is my mixture of raw
sienna and burnt sienna. Heavier on the burnt sienna. I paint that shape in with
my mop brush and then I go ahead and change to
my medium-sized brush, my size four round. And what I'm doing
with this size 14 round is I am
softening edges. And remember this size
four round brush is clean, it's just slightly
damp and I'm just using it to soften
edges or to create a little bit more of a fur
texture to move that paint around that I've placed
with my larger mop brush. Once I did that work
with my size 14 round, I switch on back to my
larger mop brush to paint in more dark shapes
with those abstract, irregular shadow
shapes painted in. I switched back to
my medium-sized brush and using this clean
and only slightly damp, medium-sized brush, I'm doing
a little bit of work moving that paint around that
I've already placed on my paper with
my larger brush. You can see me go in and soften sections of
that dark shape. And I am doing flicking
motions in the direction of the fur growth that I see
him that reference photo, moving that wet paint
around on paper. And you can see how these slightly curved flicking motions that I'm doing with my
medium-sized brush are helping me start to describe that
fur texture because I am moving and pulling that
paint that is still wet. And I am changing that shape
slightly to describe more of those abstract
irregular shadow shapes under clusters of for. So very similarly to what I was talking about when we were
placing our masking fluid, where the edges of your
shapes need to show that irregularity that
goes hand-in-hand with the texture that
you're trying to describe. We're also using our
medium-sized brush to create that irregularity that we need to describe
this for texture Along the edges of these
shadow shapes that we're painting in with
our larger brush. As you're doing
those brushstrokes with your medium-sized brush, it's so important to
continue observing that reference photo
and bring to mind the length of the dogs fur and also the direction
of the fur growth. Also, try to use strokes
that are slightly curved. Because if you go in and use strokes that
are very straight, that is likely going to lead to stiffness and it's not
going to look very natural. So it's sent to move
on to another section. I switch on back
to my mop brush. I paint in that dark shape similar to what I'm seeing
in that photo there, using either my
lightest brown mixture, my medium brown mixture, or my darkest brown mixture, depending on how dark that shape is in that
reference photo. And after I placed
that paint on paper, I switch on over to my
clean, medium-sized brush. And I'm doing
softening of edges and flicking motions in
the direction of that for growth to either soften edges or pull a little
bit of that paint out in a way to help me
start developing that irregularity
along that edge to describe that fur texture, It's important to
paint in that shape with your larger brush and move quickly to whatever work
you're gonna be doing with your medium-sized brush while
that paint is still wet. Otherwise, you're
not gonna be able to soften those edges very easily. And you're not gonna be able to easily pull that paint out in a way as you're doing your strokes to describe
that fur texture. If your paint is still
wet and you want to darken a certain section
of that shape even more. You can go ahead and drop in
some of your darker brown in those deepest darkest
shadow shapes while that initial layer
of paint is still wet, if you drop in that
second color on that initial layer of
color on wet paint, you're gonna get soft diffuse
out wet on wet effects. Here, I'm doing a little
bit more sculpting using my medium-sized brush. You can see me do
some lifting with a clean and only
slightly damp brush, removing some excess color
from sections that I have, perhaps dark and a
little bit too much. It's just a matter of continuing to compare your painting with that reference photo and making those shadow shapes happen that you're seeing
in that photo. Just as similarly as possible. If you're noticing that you've
darkened an area too much, go in and do some lifting with either your absorbent
towel, do some blotting, or go in with the cleanest slightly damp bristles
of your paintbrush to lift up that excess
color backup and reveal more of that
paper under that paint. Of course, as I said, it's important that
you keep it moving, that you work quickly
and focus on a section at a time so that you can do whatever work you need to do. While that paint is still wet, your paint starts to
dry and you continue pushing on and trying to
do more work in that area, it's very likely that
that is going to lead to splotchy nest and
overworked results. Always keep in mind that less is more when working
with this medium, tried to describe more with
fewer brushstrokes and don't go in and do moving around of color if you
don't need to do that. Also remember that we're
gonna be working in layers. So whatever you
cannot do in terms of texture and value
development right now, you can certainly do
with a subsequent layer, something that has helped me tremendously in my own
journey with watercolor, is learning when to work quickly and when to stop and allow
for something to dry. Because not only
are we working on a relatively fragile substrate that is even more
fragile when it is wet. Painting on paper is
very different from, let's say painting
on canvas or wood, where that substrate
can tolerate a lot of beating and a lot of layering and even
scraping off of paint. Painting on paper is different. We can damage it a
lot more easily. And even though we're
working on paper that is intended for
water-soluble mediums, it is still important to just always remind ourselves along the way that it's still
paper and it's fragile. It's important too. Limit ourselves to
a certain amount of brushstrokes in
any single area, even when that paper is
still wet and workable. And the other thing
that has really helped me is staying on top of water control and
making sure that I am observing and
paying attention to how much water is
in three areas or three things throughout
the painting process because this amount
of water changes And depending on how
much water we have in these three areas or things, effects are going
to be different. So we need to pay attention
and learn to manipulate the water content or the
water to paint ratio, or just the amount of water on each of these three things. These three things that we
need to pay attention to are the amount of water in
our paintbrush bristles. So how wet is your paintbrush? How much water is it holding? How watery your actual color
mixture is on your palate? So the paint to water ratio
in that color mixture and also how wet your paper is
Along the painting process, we need to manipulate
the amount of water in or on those three things. Your paintbrush,
your color mixture, and your paper right
here you can see me do a tiny bit of scrubbing along some sections where
I don't really like the shape that I've created as I did those brushstrokes and that paint has already
started to dry. So what I did here was very
gently and just a couple of times I go in with just a
clean, slightly damp brush. I do a little bit of gentle
scrubbing along the edges. I do a little bit
of blotting with my absorbent towel
and then I just leave that be if I continue
going with the scrubbing, I can run the risk of
damaging that paper. So it's best to just do some
minimal a gentle scrubbing, some quick lifting,
and then allow that area to dry completely. And later on if I need to do even more scrubbing
after the paper has dried or I need to fix that shape a little bit with
another layer of paint. I'll do that then. Okay, so going back to those
must know tips and lessons that I've learned
that have helped me tremendously with my
watercolor painting. I was talking about the paint to water ratios before
and how we have to get really good at manipulating
those paint to water ratios in
our color mixtures depending on what it
is that we're doing. Are you going for paler,
more translucent color? If so, then perhaps add more water into your color
mixture and use more of a T like consistency instead
of like a milk consistency, which I talk all about different consistencies
that we can use when painting
with watercolor. In my watercolor
one-on-one course. So do make sure to go and check it out if you haven't already. If you're going for darker
color than perhaps use a thicker consistency that has more paint than water in it. And when it comes
to the level of wetness of your paper itself, when we're working
with watercolor, we use different
levels of wetness of that paper depending on the
effects that we're going for. Are you going for blurrier soft transitions
between colors? If so, then you have to
place paint on paper. That is, what are you going for? Sharper defined edges. Then you have to work
on paper that is dry. And the more that you practice
painting with watercolor, the better you become
at acknowledging when the level of wetness
of that paper is what you need for the effects
that you're going for. If you're trying
to create a lot of dynamic movement of that paint on that paper than your paper has to have
a lot of water on it. It has to be quite wet. I feel going for
soft, blurry effects, but perhaps you want
a little bit more control over that color. You don't want it to
move out way too much, then it has to be wet, but you need that
even glistening look. And if you apply paint on
paper that is just damp, then you're gonna
get some amount of blurriness and fuzziness
around those edges. But maybe that
paint is not going to expand very much at all. So I'm continuing
to work section by section using
the same technique, placing my paint on paper using my larger mop brush and painting in those abstract, darker, mid-tone and darkest
dark shapes that I see in that reference photo using whichever brown color
mixture I think is appropriate for
the shape on hand. If I see a very dark area
in that reference photo, then I make sure to use color mixture that has more
of that burnt umber in it. If I see it's more of
like a mid tone color, maybe a lighter mid tone that I make sure to use that
color mixture that is heavier on the lightest color that we're using
for these mixtures, which is the raw sienna. And if it's a medium
value that I see them perhaps I use a mixture that has more of that burnt sienna, which is our medium brown. And then within that, you can also manipulate how dark or how light
each one of those is by adding more water into the mixture or more
paint into the mixture. And as a rule of thumb, I almost always start with a slightly lighter
color than what I feel. I need an after
painting in that shape. I just add in a little
bit more burnt sienna or burnt umber into
my color mixture and drop that into
certain sections of that larger, lighter shape. This is very helpful
because if I go in with a very dark brown over an
area that is pretty light, that is going to look quite
contrasting and quite stark It's always very
helpful and it's going to provide
you more control to go in with a
slightly lighter color than what you think you need. And then you can
develop darker colors on top of that lighter shape. So once again, think
of working gradually. Think of working
from light to dark. So instead of making a big jump from light values
to dark values, think of creating a
transition colors as you're working on your
mixtures, on your palette. Adding in more of
your lighter color or your darker color into the mix to get it
to that point that you need so that you don't
have a very big jump between the value that you already have in your background, if you will, and this
new value for this shape that you're just painting in on top of that background value. And finally, make
sure that you're only darkening sections
that need to be darkened do not cover up those lighter values
sections that you created with that
very first layer of paint that we worked on. I'm about to get
started with developing these values and
the second layering of paint and the dog's face. And what happens with lots of dog breeds is that
the hair or fur in their face and head is shorter than the first
in their bodies. Though, for this
particular dog breed, the hair is short,
pretty much everywhere. But what I'm getting at is
I'm not going to be creating lots of fur texture
in the actual face. I did create for texture with those brushstrokes in the ears, but I'm not going
to be developing much texture in
the face and head. So I'm focusing
mostly on observing those value changes throughout the planes of the dog's head, throughout the snout, the
bones around the eyes, below the nose and above
the nose, et cetera. And I'm really
trying to understand the actual structure of the dog's head and
where are the plane changes and what planes or sides of these
different parts of the structure are facing toward the light and which are
facing away from the light. By combining our
understanding of the structure of the dog's
head and really observing that reference photo
to remind ourselves of the light situation in the environment
that the dog is in. We're gonna be able
to do our shading or our development of
these different values throughout this part
of the dog's body. A lot more successfully, but the technique is exactly the same that I have been using throughout the ears and the neck and the other
parts of the dog's body. I am going in and
painting my abstract, darker value shapes with
my larger mop brush. And then I switch to my medium-sized brush
to do softening of edges or any gentle moving around of paint
that I might need to do. Only this time. I'm not using those we've
being curved strokes that helped me describe that texture because it's not necessary. As I'm doing my sculpting of
the dog's snout and head. I'm also working section by section to make sure that I am doing the most work that I can do while that paint
is still wet. Otherwise, if I
start painting in my abstract dark value shapes all throughout
the dog's head. And then I switched to my
medium-sized brush to do any softening of edges or
whatever I might need to do. Those shapes that I
started painting in the beginning are going
to be completely dry. I'm going to have more difficulty
softening those edges. And it's a lot more
likely that I'm going to arrive at splotch genus
and more texture. Right here you can
see me working on two shapes at a time. On this side of the
dogs had nearest US. And even in this case, my shapes are
already starting to dry pretty fast and
I was left with a little bit more texture
than I actually wanted because this was already
a little bit later in the day and it was
getting warmer, so things were drawing
Foster all of a sudden, what you're seeing me
do right here is I'm actually doing some correcting. Because after painting
in those shapes, I had to go in and soften. And then I ended up
with more texture and removing more color than I was actually
intending to remove. And then I had to go
back in and drop in more paint to dark in
that section again, as soon as I felt
that I had done some correction in that area, it was time to
allow that area to dry and switch on to
working somewhere else. Later on after
things have dried, I can come back to that area to do any more work that
needs to be done. But if I continued
scrubbing and adding more color and scrubbing
and adding more color, I would likely
start over-working that area, even more texture. So I've switched
on to working on the opposite side
of the dog's head. I painted in those darker, mid-tone shapes with
my larger mop brush. And then I quickly
switched on over to my medium-sized brush. And that's what you're
seeing me use right now. I'm going in and softening
edges may be doing a few teeny tiny strokes to help me develop a little
bit of fur texture. And continuing to do this work
to sculpt the dog's head. If you do decide to
add in a little bit of that fur texture technique where you're doing
those little strokes. With your medium-sized
brush in the dog's head, especially the face area. Just be minimal and
do it sparingly. Because if you add in
way too much texture, not only are you going
to start describing something that is not apparent
in that reference photo? Because as I said before, this dog's hair and fur, especially in the head, is not very long at all. But also, if you add in
way too much texture, you're going to take away from the focal
point in the head, which we want the eyes to be. The greater the detail and
the greater the texture, the more visual
weight an area has. And we don't want
the dogs eyes to get lost in all of that texts are
in detail that we create. After painting in that initial
lighter, mid-tone shape, I went ahead and added more burnt sienna into my
color mixture and added some darker midtones in some sections that I saw darker
in that reference photo. And after that, I added burnt umber into the
color mixture to make it even darker and darken
some sections within that. And I'm continuing to
observe the reference photo comparing my painting with the reference photo
over and over. Asking myself, is this area here darker or lighter than
this area over here? And does that reflect or does
that show in my painting? If it doesn't, I think
of adding more paint or taken away paint from that
area by doing some lifting. And I just continue doing
this until I arrive at that range of values that I'm looking for in
the dog's head. We're still missing
one more layer in which we're going
to be pushing darkest, dark areas throughout
the dog's body and head. So you don't have to go super, super dark in this layer, but do try to achieve
darker brown mid tones. Right here I am doing some gentle scrubbing
in this side of the dog's snout to
lift up some of that color and reveal more of
the paper under the paint. And I'm just going
to continue using these same techniques and
have all of these things in mind as I continue working on my brown mid tones all
throughout the dog, I'm gonna go quiet as I
continue working on this Alright, so around here I switch on back to working
on the dog's nose. So what you're seeing me prepare right there on my mixing palette is a dark gray puddle
and all that is, is Payne's gray with
some water added in. I would say it has a
coffee consistency, so it's around 50% paint, 50% water in that mixture. It's not super dark
and saturated. I am using my size three round brush to paint
in these small shapes, just like what I was
mentioning with the eyes. I would rather go in initially with a relatively
translucent gray. And then after it's dried, I can go ahead and
darken certain sections within that mid tone gray layer. It ends up looking a lot
softer and more realistic even when you see
very dark shapes and that reference photo, I would recommend developing at least a slight range of
dark values in those areas. And by going in initially with a more translucent version
of your dark gray, you're going to be able to
develop that slight range of values by allowing
it to dry and going back in later to darken certain sections within
that mid tone gray shape. After painting in
those gray shapes, I remove that paint for
my paintbrush bristles, and I went back in
with a cleanest slightly damp brush and just ran my damp paintbrush over little edges of the shapes
that I was looking to soften. So you can see how
even though I painted in relatively dark gray shapes, nothing looks super
stark or distracting. Okay, so it's time to
allow that to dry and do a little bit more
work in the dog's eyes. So what I am preparing right
here on my mixing palette, R2 color mixtures
that I'm gonna be using to paint in
the dogs pupils. The first color mixture,
the lighter one, is a mixture of new
gamboge and burnt sienna, heavier on the new gamboge. And then the second puddle
of color right beneath it is just explain burnt umber with a little bit of
water, add it in. I'm gonna be using
my size three round brush to paint in a layer of my new gamboge over this bright yellow underpainting that I had created before, I painted that entire iris
shape n plus the pupil. And then I remove that color
for my paintbrush bristles. And I'm going to be placing some burnt umber right
on top of the pupil, which is the dark gray circle that we had already
painted before. You're also going to see
me place a little bit of this dark brown along
the edges of the iris. Because as I was
mentioning before, the outer ring of the iris, which is the colored portion of animal eyes and human eyes. The outer ring is often darker than the inner
portion of the iris. I'm gonna be doing this
process for both eyes because these shapes that I'm painting in are quite small. The dark brown that I paint and starts expanding
a little bit too much and covering up almost
all of my bright yellow. So after painting in
that burnt umber, I do some lifting with a clean as slightly
damp bristles of my paintbrush while
that paint is still wet to remove some
of that dark brown from certain sections
so that I can make sure that certain parts of the
iris look bright yellow. I don't want to get rid of
that bright yellow glow completely by covering
it up with dark brown. If you've ever seen
dog eyes close up, then you've probably already
noticed that the edges of their pupils are not super sharp and defined like ours are. A lot of dog eyes have a blurred out effect
around the pupil. And you can definitely
see that in this particular dog in
the reference photo. So by adding a
little bit of dark brown right on top of the pupil, while that initial layer
of yellow is still wet, you're gonna be able to create a slight blurred out effect
outside of the pupil. After I did that
work in the eyes, it was time to allow that to dry completely because
the next couple of layers that we develop in the dog's eyes are going
to be painted in wet, on dry because we
need more control and definition in those shapes that we're gonna be painting in. So it was time to
allow that to dry. And in the meantime, I did a little bit more work
throughout the dogs fur, depending on the range of values and the amount of texture that you've managed
to develop so far with your initial layers of
paint throughout the dogs fur You may have to do more or less in this part
of the process. Maybe if you've already developed
a good range of values, you can see light areas
arrange of mid tones and, and darker values, and you have some texture throughout
the entire dog, minimal in the head. Perhaps you can even skip
this part of the process. And I would recommend
observing your work so far and really acknowledging and asking yourself if you really have
to do more right here, for example, I am
adding some mid tones on top of the dog's
nose and below it. Because when I compare my painting with the
reference photo, I can tell that the values in these areas are darker than
what I have in my painting. But I'm really trying
to avoid doing any more work in areas that I don't need
to touch anymore. If you just go in and
start adding paint with no specific reason when
you don't really need to. Again, it's very likely
that you're going to arrive at overworked results. And the more layering that you do when you're working
with watercolor, the more likely
it is that you're going to arrive at
overworked results. So for me, I noticed that I have to do a little
bit more work with lighter mid tones and maybe darken some sections
a little bit more. And even add a tiny
bit more texture throughout the dog's head, just in a subtle way. And that's what I'm
doing right now. I went in right away with my medium-sized
brush at this point because I'm really
not looking to create any large shadow shapes anymore. I'm giving myself
more control by going in with the
medium-sized brush, and I'm just focusing
on darkening medium-sized, two
smaller shapes. The main points to
have in mind are exactly the same
as before though. I am observing that
reference photo, comparing my painting
with the reference, and asking myself if I need to darken or lighten certain areas. Also, if there are any
sections where there is a very big step between a
light value and a dark value. And I feel that my
painting would benefit from adding in a medium
shape in-between, or to soften that transition between a lighter value
and a darker value. I go in and soften that
transition by making sure that I am using a color mixture that is going to
allow me to do that. I create a bridge shape between that dark value sheep and
that lighter value shape. I'm still making sure to
use the exact colors that I was using before for
my first color mixtures, which are my raw sienna, my burnt sienna,
and my burnt umber. And I am making sure that I am manipulating the ratios
of these colors in my color mixture so that the
color that I'm painting in is what I need for the value
that I am trying to achieve. If I am trying to paint
in a lighter value shape, then it's gonna be the raw
sienna and the burnt sienna. And if I am trying to
develop a darker value, then I'm going to be
bringing in the burnt umber. And you can see how I'm
not spending too long in any single part of
the dog's body. I am jumping around the entire piece and
just loosely getting in those different value shapes that I see in
that reference photo, it's important to
know that whether we judge an area to
be light or dark, really depends on the values
or tones around that area. In other words, it's about the relationship between the different values
that you're creating. Getting those
relationships between your different value shapes
similar to what you're seeing in the reference
photo is what matters. So as you continue comparing your painting with
the reference photo, ask yourself, is this area darker or lighter than
this area over here? Should I darken this section? Did I darken this way too much? Is there a softer transition between these two value areas? What are the lightest areas and what are the darkest areas, and so on and so forth. Alright, before moving
onto the next part of this painting process
in which we're going to be painting in
the background. I'm gonna go ahead and add in a little bit more detail
in the eyes and the nose. By this point, the
eyes are completely dry and so is the nose. And I still need to paint in the pink fleshy bits in the
inner corners of the eyes. I need to add in
a little bit more sharper detail in the eyes. And I'm going to be
amplifying that range of brownish pinkish
values in the nose. The first thing I
do is I paint in those pink fleshy
bits in the eyes. And for this I am using my
size three round brush. And I am using a mixture of alizarin crimson and a
little bit of raw sienna. The raw sienna
neutralizes that Alizarin crimson a little bit so
that it's not super red. I want to make sure that those little pink sections
actually look like a light pink and not leak or red because if
they look super red, it might look like blood and I definitely don't want
it to look like that. So by adding a little bit of that raw sienna into the
Alizarin crimson and by making sure that
I'm not going in super thick and saturated
with my color mixture, I can achieve those
pink results. After doing that, I paint
in a little bit more of my burnt umber around
the pupil and around the iris in order to achieve those darker
brown values around the pupil that I see in
that reference photo and also in the outer
ring around the iris. And then it was time
to do a little bit more of that work in the nose. And for this, I'm
using a mixture of alizarin crimson
and burnt umber. It is relatively watered down, I would say it's kind of
like a coffee consistency, around 50% paint, 50% water. And I switched on over to my size ten round
brush for this, I thought this would be a
good size paintbrush or the size of shape that I'm gonna be painting
it in the nose. And what I am doing in
the nose is I'm just darkening areas that I
see need to be darkened. So far. I only have the
very dark nostrils painted in and I have a lighter, brownish pink, light midtone
all throughout the nose. So I definitely have to
develop darker values
9. Background: Welcome back. It's time to paint
our background. Make sure that everything
is completely dry. Before moving on to this
part of the process, I did make sure to change
my water because it looked pretty murky and had
a lot of brown in it. And I didn't want those
browns and neutral colors to affect the vibrancy and
brightness of the dark, deep blue that I'm gonna be
using for my background. What you're seeing
me work on right now is my dark blue color mixture, which is a mixture of failover
blue and Payne's gray. I'm making sure to create a good amount of this
color mixture on my palette because this is a large area that we're
going to be painting in. And I definitely do
not want to run out of this color mixture as I am
painting in this large area. Because if it runs out and
I have to take time to make more of it than my paper
can start drawing on me. And I can be left with textures
that I really don't want. So make sure that you
create a good amount of whatever color it is
that you're gonna be using for your background. I would recommend that it's a darker color so that the
dog here can really pop, but make a good amount of your
color mixer and make sure that your color mixture is
not super watered down. I would say a milk
consistency where you have a little bit more
paint than water in your color mixture
is what you want. Because we're gonna
be doing pre wedding before starting to
paint in our color, which means that there's
already going to be a certain amount
of water content on our paper that is
going to dilute or watered down the
color even more. So if you prepare a very watered-down color
mixer on your palette, that water is going to be
added to the water that you prepare your paper with as you're doing
your pre wedding. And then what happens
is you're gonna be left with a very pale
color background. Alright, so once
that consistency was where I needed it to be and I had a good amount of that dark blue mixture
on my palette. It was time to get started with the prereading process
and to do my pre wedding, I switched on over to
my size six mop brush. Because once again,
I'm going to be painting in a pretty large area. And this larger mop
brush is going to enable me to do my painting quickly and loosely
because it's able to hold a lot of water and
paint in its bristles. I first do my pre wedding with this larger mop brush using clean water and I am making my way carefully around the dog. And I want you to remember everything that I
shared with you when we were painting that very first
layer of color in the dog. Take your time with the prereading process and
go over everything multiple times until you arrive at a nice even sheen
all throughout. Don't get started
with painting in your background
color until you've arrived at that nice even sheen
all throughout this area. Take your time and
don't rush it. Bring out a little
bit of water at a time from your container so that you don't accidentally drip water all over the place. You don't want to get any water
inside of the actual dog. And you don't want
to be left with puddles anywhere
because that can lead to splotchy *****
and undesired textures. After I arrived at that nice even sheen all
throughout the background, it was time to start painting
in my dark blue color. So I continued to using my size six mop brush to paint
in that dark blue color. And you can see me
carefully go around all of the edges
of the dog and I continue adding color
until the level of intensity and darkness
is what I need it to be. That water that I've prepared, my paper width is doing
half of the work for me because that paint is
expanding out on that water, creating nice soft
effects for me. Not only this, but I've expanded that working time that I have before things start to dry on me so I can continue
adding more paint until I have arrived
at the level of intensity and darkness that
I like for my background. Also, if you create any strange textures when
you're applying your paint, you can go in and
smooth that out because the paint is going
to be wet for longer. Just avoid going over
the same spot again and again so that you can avoid
overworking your paper. Embrace the effects that
watercolor creates. Your background doesn't
have to be super even Once I'm happy with the
color in the background, I am going to allow
that paint to sit on the paper a
little bit longer. And once that paint is at a point at which
it is still wet, but it's just starting to dry. I'm going to be doing
some splattering for visual texture in the
background using water. In the meantime, while I allow that paint to
settle on the paper a tiny bit so that I
can then move on to doing my splattering
more successfully. I do a little bit of
absorbing of excess paint and water that has collected along the edges of
my masking tape. This is important
because if you leave all of that water and paint
sitting on your masking tape, what happens is that that
excess water can start creating little bank runs and splotchy nest along the
edges of your painting. So just take your time to
remove that excess water and paint from the edges of your masking tape.
Before moving on. For my splattering,
I'm gonna be using my size six round brush and I'm just going to be flattering some water on this
blue paint that is still damp if you do your splattering while
that paint is still super, super wet, what happens is
that you will initially see that splattering texture and
then it's going to start disappearing because the paint is still moving around a lot. So by giving that paint some time to settle
on your paper, a lot more likely that
you're gonna be able to do your splattering and
it won't disappear. Splattering is a
very nice technique to use whenever you're going for some texture in background
areas are larger areas. I'm just taking a little bit of water from my container in those paintbrush
bristles and doing flicking motions using
my index finger. And what happens is as you're
doing your splattering, those teeny tiny drops of water gets splattered
on your paper. And the drops of water
kind of push out that paint which is in the
middle of the drawing process. Those drops of water
that gets splattered on that drawing paint
disturb that pain, pushes that paint outwards and you're left with little blooms. The more splattering you do, the more texture you create, the less flattering
last texture. I don't want to go overboard
with this texture because I don't want to take away from the actual focal
point of the piece, which is the dog a little
bit goes a long way. When you're done, make sure to allow everything
to dry completely. And I'll be seeing you in our next class where
we'll finally be removing the masking fluid and
adding more detail to the eyes and the
nose. See you there?
10. Eyes + Nose Details: Once everything is
completely dry, we can finally remove
the masking fluid. I like using my hands to
remove my masking fluid, but you can always use a rubber cement pickup
or even a clean, soft graphite eraser if you don't want to
use your hand or even some sort of soft towel that you can do
your rubbing wet, especially if you
have sensitive hands. I wouldn't recommend using them to remove
your masking fluid because by rubbing sections
of paper over and over again, it can just start hurting
or even creating blisters. But I will say that
your masking fluid should be removed
relatively easily. You shouldn't have to rub too hard to remove your
masking fluid. I've never had any issues with this masking fluid from
Winsor and Newton. Alright, so I've removed all of that masking fluid Already. You can see those
bright sections of paper where that masking
fluid has kept those areas protected for us as
we've been doing all our painting with all of the masking fluid
completely removed. I am now going to be moving
on to adding more detail, sharper detail this time wet on dry and both the
eyes and the nose. First, I prepare a mixture of burnt sienna and some
burnt umber on my palette, a little heavier on
the burnt umber. And then I also create a little puddle of Payne's
gray and some water. I would say both of
these color mixtures are somewhere around 50%
water, 50% paint. So somewhere between a coffee to milk like consistency
would be good. That's all I'm gonna
be using to add in this seat till the
first thing that I do is I use my size
three round brush and this Payne's
gray plus water mix. And I go over the
same shapes that I first painted in when
I started with the eyes, which is that long curved
shadow shape on top of the eye and a tiny
bit below the eye. I also paint in the
pupil shape again. Some of this paint was removed when I remove
the masking fluid. So by going over
these shapes again, I am reinforcing those dark shadow shapes that
I see in the eyes. I also go ahead and
reinforce the pupil. I go in with this
gray and paint in the pupil once again in
the center of the eyeball. The next thing that
I do is I take a little bit of this gray
in a water downstate. So I take a little
bit of water added to the gray color mixture
and I paint in a very light pale gray and paint
in a long shape right below that darker gray shape that I added in in the upper
part of the eye, covering up a section of
the bright highlight. I don't want to leave the
entire highlight shape completely white. So by adding in
just a tiny bit of very pale gray in
that highlight shape, it looks a little
bit more realistic. If you zoom into that
reference photo, you'll notice that the
highlight shape is not completely flat white. There are some sections that
are a little bit darker. So that's what I do with that
very pale water downgrade. Once I'm done with that, I remove that gray for
my paintbrush bristles by swiveling my paintbrush
in my container of water. And it's time to
darken some sections around the eyes with
a darker brown. Sometimes I'm using
my burnt sienna, burnt umber color combination
and other times I'm adding a little bit of that
Payne's gray into the mixture to darken
my brown even more. But I do so gradually
making sure that I'm not creating
a ton of contrast. I definitely want to make
sure that I'm not creating an outline that is super
stark looking around the eye. I am continuing to
paint in dark shadow shapes that I see around the
eye in that reference photo. This helps reinforce
that shadow shape below the upper eyelid. It also helps reinforce that
depth in that inner corner of the eye and in other little sections
and the outer corners, as I paint in this
curved brown shape, especially along the
upper edge of the eye, I make sure that that
shape is irregular. In other words, I'm not
going in and painting a perfect curve line
around the eye. Instead, I think of this dark brown shape as an
abstract irregular shape. Meaning sometimes I'm pressing down my paintbrush
a little bit more. And sometimes it's
just the tip of my paintbrush that is coming
into contact with a paper. This helps you create more
of an abstract shape that is thicker in certain sections
and thinner and others. And you can see how especially
in this I nearest us, I did do a few
flicking motions along the outer edge that helped create the illusion
of little eyelashes. I added a tiny bit of this
brown in the outer corners of the eyes and just a tiny bit in the
inner corner of the eye, near the pink fleshy bit
that I painted in the eye nearest us by creating these
brown shadow shapes in these One corner is
definitely provides more depth and
realism to the eyes. After doing that work
in the dog's eyes, it is time to do a little
bit more work in the nose. So I remove that brown for
my paintbrush bristles. And what I'm doing is
I am going in with my size three round brush
and I'm using my gray, which is just plain Payne's
gray with water added in. And I am reinforcing those
dark shapes in the nostrils. I made sure that these
dark gray shapes and the nostrils still
don't look very stark. If you notice, they still have somewhat of a softness to them. They don't look
super, super dark. And I did soften some edges
by going in with a cleanest, slightly damp brush
after I painted in those shapes and just
running my clean paintbrush bristles over edges that I
was looking to soften after painting that and I removed all of that crave for
my paintbrush bristles. I'm still going to
continue using my size three round brush
because we're working on finer detail right now. And what I am doing
is I am painting in that line that diagnosis
have a right in the middle. And I also create
a little bit of a shadow shape right
under the nose. I'm painting this with my burnt sienna plus burnt
umber color mixture. This is heavier on
the burnt sienna. It is more of a medium brown. And you can see how this brown doesn't look super stark when I paint these shapes over that
pinkish brown behind it. There's not that big
of a contrast or jump between these
two brown values. I also added in a little bit of a brown shadow shape
on the upper left edge of the nose shape because
I do see a little bit of a darker value in that area
in the reference photo. After working on the nose a bit, I take a quick second to add a little bit more
detail in the eyes. Now that everything
has dried in the eyes, I can go ahead and do a
little bit more layering. If I feel I need to
darken certain sections, create little shadow shapes
to add more depth, etcetera. For that, I was using
primarily burnt umber. And after doing that, it was time to switch on
back to working on the nose. I want to add a little bit of a brown mid tone between the dark gray and the
nostrils and the pinkish brown outside
of the nostrils. In order to make this look a
little bit more realistic. And I also want to add a little
bit of a hint of texture which the masking
fluid is already helping us create to
a certain extent. But I also want to
add a teeny tiny bit of those little dots on the dog's nose using light scribbling motions
with my paintbrush. So actually painting a little
bit of texture in there. You can see how I created
some brown shapes right above those gray shapes that I had painted
in in the nostrils, creating a little
bit of a bridge tone in-between the light browns and the gray right here and
painting in a little bit of a shadow shape and the upper
section of the nose shape. And I just did that very, very subtle scribbling
effect with a very watered down version
of my burnt sienna, burnt umber color mixture. If you ended up with very stark, maybe larger white shapes
created by that masking fluid. Something that you can do is go in over those white
shapes with the cleanest slightly damp brush
and do a little bit of gentle scrubbing just
a bit is enough. You should be able to at least soften those shapes a little bit by activating that paint
and softening those edges. Okay, that is it for this phase. In the next class, we're gonna be working on the final layer all
throughout the firm. So we're going to be
pushing those darkest, dark areas throughout
the firm. See you there?
11. Fur (Third Layer): Welcome to Part five of
this painting process. In this one, we're gonna
be working on pushing the darkest dark areas
throughout the dogs for the objective with this
last layer is simply to push the darkest areas
throughout the day. We're not going to be
doing any more layering of brown in any other
sections of the fur, except for the
deepest shadow areas that we see in that
reference photo. For example, there are very
dark shadow shapes beneath the dog's ears and the
lower part of its snout, mainly where different
body parts are overlapping over each other and creating a shadow
on each other. Or where there are plains in the dog's body that are
facing away from the light. What I prepare in terms of color mixtures for this part of the process is a combo of
burnt sienna and burnt umber, heavy on the burnt
umber this time, which is the darkest brown. And I also created another even darker
color mixture by mixing together burnt
umber and Payne's gray. I don't want to add too
much Payne's gray into that dark brown color
mixture because I don't want the color to start looking
more gray than brown. It should still look
like a dark brown. So if you have any doubt that maybe you've
added way too much Payne's gray or
whatever grade is that you're using
into your brown. I would recommend testing
out your color mixture on a scrap piece of
watercolor paper before using it
in your painting. Because if you go in
with a super dark gray, that's going to look very, very stark and very
contrasting over those browns. Once my color
mixtures are ready, I am going to be using my size three round
brush because I'm gonna be painting in pretty
small, deep shadow shapes. And simultaneously, this smaller paintbrush
is going to help me continue enhancing
the fur texture in these darkest areas. I'm gonna be using
those flicking slightly curved strokes
in order to get that irregularity in the edges
of these darkest shapes. I'm not gonna be doing this in every single deepest
shadow shape, only in some where I'm looking to enhance
that for texture. So I'm observing
that reference photo and I'm just pushing
those deepest, darkest shadow
shapes that I see. I'm making sure to
acknowledge these shapes as abstract, irregular
shadow shapes. I am making sure that I
am not creating solid, very heavy, dark color
shapes anywhere. And I am making sure that I am changing and
shifting the angle that I'm using my paintbrush
and how much of those paintbrush bristles are coming into contact
with my paper. Sometimes it's just the tip. Sometimes I press down the entire belly of my
brush so that I create narrow and wider sections in those abstract shadow shapes. And sometimes when
I'm looking to enhance that fur texture, I use those flicking kind of
slightly curved emotions to help me move that paint
and create more of that texture along the
edges of my shapes. Always observing
that reference photo and bringing to mind the length of the fur and the direction
of the fur growth. As you can see, I am not
spending very long in any single area and
I'm just darkening sections that really
need to be pushed more. I always got started with the lighter color of the two that I've
prepared for myself, which in this case is the burnt sienna and the
burnt umber mixture. And then after having
painted that in, I go ahead and use
my darkest brown, which has the
Payne's gray in it. And if I want those
transitions between the two colors to be
soft and blurred out, make sure to drop in
my darkest brown, the one that has the
Payne's gray in it. And while that first
layer is still wet, I finish up with this part
of the process pretty quickly because the work
is minimal at this point. As a rule of thumb, the darker I get with my colors, the smaller the
shapes that I create a specially inside
of the subject. But if we've done our job
right throughout this process, developing that wide
range of values. This is the point
that our subjects should really start
to pop because all that was missing was developing those deepest, darkest values. We have our highlights, we have our light mid tones, we have our dark mid tones, and now we have
our darkest darks. So things should really
start popping at this point. Right here I take a
quick second to deepen and darken some shadow
shapes around the eyes and also inside the nostrils for those darker shadow
shapes around the eyes, I use my burnt sienna
and burnt umber combo, pretty heavy on the burnt
umber at this point. And to darken the nostrils, I use my Payne's gray and
burnt umber color combo. And then I'm just going to
finish up with a couple of more shadow shapes
in the dogs fur. And when I'm done with that, I'm gonna be adding
a little bit of a mid tone in the dog's nose, especially in the front plane. It's going to help me
make the nose look a little bit pinker and simultaneously
develop a little bit of a mid tones so that, that line in the
middle of the nose and doesn't look as stark. It has a little bit more
of a subtle look to it. I also distinguish
a little bit more between what's the front plane and what's the top
plane of the nose. So this helps create more
of a 3D look mixed together Alizarin crimson
and a little bit of my raw sienna to
neutralize it a little. And I quickly paint
in some shapes, right in front of
the nose and in the upper left edge
of that shape. And finally, to finish up with
this part of the process, I'm going to be developing those soft dots in the dog's cheeks where the whiskers are
gonna be coming out. It is important that I develop all of the detail
that I'm looking to develop before moving onto the next part
of the process, which we're going
to be painting in the whiskers with white gouache, the technique that I like
to use in order to create those soft little dots
in the dog's cheeks, which cats also have is I go
in and do pre wedding with water all over the cheek area where I'm gonna be
developing those dots. I go a little bit past the area where I'm gonna
be painting the dots. Of course, everything has
to be completely dry. If you're going to be
doing pre wedding over paint that has already
been applied on paper. And if you're gonna be doing pre wedding over paint
that has already dried, make sure that
you're going in with very gentle brushstroke
so that you don't run the risk of reactivating
that color and messing up the values and the work that you've
already done. Once I have done
some pre wedding, I go ahead and switch to
my size three round brush, and I drop in a little bit of my burnt sienna and
burnt umber color combo, taking clues from that
reference photo in order to see where I should be
painting in these shapes. It's not a straight line, It's more of a curve. And I still want to make
sure that these shapes are not super-pattern me
or super organized. If you paint in these shapes and they look very, very stark, I would recommend softening
them by going over them and doing gentle
tapping over that shape, using a clean and slightly damp brush that should help
soften that color. I just want to make sure
that these dots are very soft looking and they're
not super distracting. By going in with a brown color. That is a good next step after that background color
that I'm painting them on. And by making sure that I'm
getting those nice soft diffused out edges because I'm painting these on wet paper. I can ensure that
the overall effect is going to be quite soft. You can see how I was left with a soft blurred out shapes, which is exactly what I wanted. It creates a much softer
effect if I paint these in on preloaded paper than trying to paint in these shapes
on paper that is dry. I'm going to allow everything to dry completely and
then it's gonna be time to move on to the last part of this
painting process, where we're going to be
painting in the whiskers
12. White Gouache Details: If you've made it to this
point, congratulations, we are officially in the very last phase of
this painting process. It is now time to add our final details
with white gouache, everything is
completely bone dry. And what I am doing is I am
preparing my white gouache. So I squeezed out a little
bit of gouache into this little ceramic
mixing palette that I use for my gouache. And I added a little
bit of water into the wash because it is
very thick straight out of the tube and
I need it to be a certain consistency in
order to paint those long, thin lines that I'm
looking to paint for the whiskers,
I would highly, highly recommend
doing some tests, drills on a scrap piece
of watercolor paper, maybe over some color the way that I'm doing right
here on screen. So that you can ensure that a, the consistency of your gouache is what you need it to be. And B, so that you
can make sure that the paintbrush that you've
selected is good for the job. Both of these things are essential if you
want to paint in those long tapered lines
for the whiskers and also to be able to paint in any final little
highlights in the eyes. This is key because correcting gouache after it's been placed
on your painting is very, very difficult, near
impossible to do. Because what you have
to understand is that gouache is an opaque
painting medium. Watercolor is not opaque,
it's translucent. And after gouache has
been placed on paper, if you try to go in and do some scrubbing over
that white gouache. What's going to happen is
that you're going to create a chalky patch over
that beautiful, luminous watercolor work that you've already been
working so hard on. You want to avoid having to
correct wash at all costs. Once I have added a few
drops of water into my gouache and the consistency
is where I needed to be. I use my size two rigger brush first to enhance those
brightest highlights shapes in the eyeballs. And if you've accidentally
covered up any of your highlights
shapes or you want to add more into the eyeballs. You can do that at this point, just don't go overboard. You can add in teeny-tiny
white highlights in the nose also if you want to. And once I'm happy with that, I'll go ahead and start
adding in the whiskers. I wanna do my best to paint in the whiskers with
one single stroke. And it is very important to observe that reference photo and notice the length and the direction of
that whisker growth. You're going to notice
that those whiskers have different lengths. And you want to get that
in as best as you can. Make sure that the lines
that you're creating aren't super straight because this will lead to
too much stiffness and your whiskers won't
look very natural. Makes sure that
you're incorporating slight soft curves
in each whisker. Continue observing your reference photo
closely for ideas. Continued taking a
little bit of gouache at a time from your palate
with the tip of your brush, you're likely going to
have to reload over and over maybe in-between
each whisker because you're only able to
load up a small amount of paint in this very small brush and that is normal right here. I'm going to make a little
mistake and I want to show you exactly what
I did to correct that. I painted in a whisker and it
was a little bit too thick. So I stopped what I was doing. I went in to do some quick lifting with
my absorbent towel. I removed all of that white
gouache for my paintbrush. And what I'm going to do is
I'm going to do some very, very gentle scrubbing only in that teeny tiny area
where that whisker was. I dabbed a little
bit with my towel, did gentle scrubbing again, lifted again, and then I just left it be I allowed it to dry. And then what I did
was I actually did a little tiny bit of painting
with my darker brown that I was using in that edge
of the dog's face to paint over a little section of that chalky gouache shape
that was left behind. Of course, for that I was using my size three watercolor brush and then I just left it to dry. So I was very, very careful and I
only did what was necessary to make that
mistake less visible, and then I just left it alone. It is definitely not
necessary to add in every single whisker that you see in that reference photo. After finishing
with my whiskers, I went into the highlights in the eyeballs to enhance them a little bit more
with my white gouache, you covered up those
highlights shapes accidentally throughout
the process. This is definitely
an opportunity for you to add them back in. Remember that less is more and you don't
want to overdo it. And with that, we
are all done with this watercolor dog painting.
13. Thank you: If you made it to this point, congratulations, I really hope that you
enjoyed this course. I hope that you learned a
ton of helpful tools, tips, and techniques that
you can take with you to future
watercolor paintings. Don't forget to
share your work in the Projects and Resources
tab here on Skillshare. I cannot wait to see your work to provide
any feedback that you might meet and also to answer any questions that you
might have for me. Don't forget to follow me
here on Skillshare because I have lots of new courses coming down the
pipeline for you. And also make sure
to check out all of the free resources
that I'm making available via my website, my YouTube channel,
and over on Instagram. I would love to
connect with you. Thank you so much for
checking out this course. I wish you a wonderful
rest of your day, enjoy your art practice
and see you soon.