Watercolor Birds: Mallard Duck in Lake

1. Introduction + Welcome: Whether you've always wanted to paint birds with water color, but perhaps are feeling a little bit intimidated and you'd like some guidance flowing through the process, or maybe you're a little bit farther ahead and you've already started painting birds with this incredible painting medium. But you're looking for new techniques to take your work further. This course is for you. Hey, everyone. My name is Erica, and I'm a traditional media artist working with a variety of drawing and painting mediums. I have over 15 years of experience working in artistic and creative fields. First as a graphic designer, then I worked as head art teacher in a school environment, and I started my own art business in 2018. My day to day life revolves around creating art mentoring students online, and I'm also constantly creating helpful resources and classes for beginner and intermediate artists looking to level up their skills, and I share these resources in classes via my website, my YouTube channel, and of course, my membership site. Painting animals with any medium is incredibly challenging. This is especially the case when we're going for mid to higher levels of realism. A couple of reasons why this is is because we're bringing in a variety of different techniques to render detail, texture, three D form, and there's also a lot of observation involved. We have to make sure to pay attention to little nuances in that reference photo or whatever it is that we have in front of us in real life so that we can make sure that we're bringing in those important characteristics and little nuances to really make that animal look like that particular animal. This said, just because we're using a reference photo does not mean that we need to be a slave to the photo. It's so incredibly important that as artists, we learn how to take the visual information that we need from the reference in order to develop the level of realism that we enjoy. But at the same time, we need to be able to change things, to simplify things, take things out or bring things in. If we think that it'll improve the composition or allow us to bring more of ourselves into our pieces. When it comes to working with watercolor as well, learning to simplify is key because We don't want to overly describe things or overwork the piece, which is so easy to do when we're working with this medium. In this course, I am taking you through my entire painting process for this mallard duck piece. I explain everything from how I choose my colors for this painting to how I do my layering to increase dimension and depth all the way through to how I add those final details. Along the way, I also share my favorite techniques for painting believable bird eyes, an easy and effective way to paint water and reflections on water. Simple and stress free way to render feathers via simple brush strokes and how to add splattering using white wash at the end for visual texture. I do want to mention for those of you just getting started with watercolor, I have a full watercolor one one course here on Skillshare in which I explain all of the must know information, that you should know as a beginner just getting started, and I provide essential exercises that will help you progress your skills faster. So you might want to check that out first, as well as more beginner friendly courses that I have made available. In the projects and Resources tab that you're going to be able to find right below any of the videos in this course, you're going to find the downloadable files that I have created for you along with this course. One of these downloadables is my outline sketch. I would recommend tracing over it, and transferring that outline sketch onto your watercolor sheet using whatever transferring method you prefer. I personally enjoy using tracing paper for my transferring and the preparation of my preliminary sketch on my watercolor sheet. And I do have a class in my watercolor one oh one course in which I take you step by step through how to use tracing paper for your transferring. Along with my outline sketch, you're going to be able to find the reference photo, which I would highly recommend observing as you're making your way through the painting process. I'm also going to be making a photo of my finished painting available so that you can use it as a reference as you're working as well. And your supply list. With all this said, let's go ahead and jump into the first class where I'm going to be explaining all about the project that we're going to be working on together in this course. See you there. 2. Course Project: Hey, there, and welcome to this first class where I'm going to be explaining about the project that we're going to be working on together in this course. By the end of this course, you'll have completed a beautiful, realistic painting of a Mallard Duck in a lake. I've organized my painting process into six phases, each of which has a class of its own. As I walk you through my painting process, I provide must know tips and techniques that you'll be able to take with you to future watercolor paintings of animals. To post a photo of your work here on Skillshare, all you have to do is click on the Projects and Resources tab. Once you're in, you'll see this purple button on the right that says submit project. When you click on this button, you'll be taken to a new page where you'll easily be able to both upload a photo of your piece, as well as share any thoughts, experiences, struggles or questions that you might have for me. Here, you can create a title for your project, and click on that larger content section underneath. And if you want to add in that photo at the beginning, you can go ahead and click on that image icon on the bottom. Find the photo that you're wanting to share on your computer or device, select that file, click Open, and it will be immediately added into this content section. Then under your image, share anything that you'd like, whether it's struggles, questions, wins, aha moments that you might have had throughout this course. Anything that you'd like to share, I always love hearing from you. At the bottom of this content section, you'll see different icons. One is for formatting your text. The other is to add emojis, the Adimage icon, which we just talked about, and you can also embed link. Free to add in even more pictures if you'd like. They can be process pictures, supply pictures. And over here to the right, we have this preview area where we essentially see a thumbnail or cover image for your project. You can go ahead and change it to a title image that you have created in a more horizontal format, or you can just go ahead and leave it as is and have it just be a crop section of one of the images that you have uploaded into your content area. It's up to you. Once you're ready, go ahead and scroll back up. Click on the green Publish button and you'll be all done. If you'd like to share your work over on Instagram, please do just make sure to tag me at Erika Underscore Lancaster Underscore Art. I love seeing your work over there and giving students shoutouts in my stories, of course, go ahead and tag the Skillshare account too. It goes a very long way and inspires other students to share their work as. Skillshare is a safe learning space for all of us to continue growing together. So make sure that you're using this gallery, and let's all connect and help each other out. I can't wait to see your work and to help out with whatever you might need. Let's move on to our next class. 3. Supplies: Hello, and welcome to the second class where I'm going to be sharing about the supplies that I would recommend having on hand as you move forward with this course. You do not have to use exactly the same paint colors that I'm going to be using in order to arrive at great results. You can use something that is similar. You can also use slightly different paint brush sizes as well. But I would recommend making sure that you're using appropriate watercolor paper for the techniques that we're going to be bringing all watercolor paper is suitable for layering or scrubbing techniques. And so I would recommend using watercolor paper that is 100% cotton and make sure that it is at least 140 pounds in thickness or in weight. To begin, I'm going to be working on watercolor paper from arches. This paper is cold pressed. It's 140 pounds in thickness or in weight. I did cut off a section of this paper to make it a little bit less long. So the watercolor sheet that you're going to be seeing me work in is 10.5 " by 9 ". I'm going to be using my watercolor set that contains a mixture of paint from Daniel Smith and paint from Windsor and Newton's professional line. I'm only going to be using a total of seven different colors, and these colors are Windsor Lemon, Pyl scarlet, Sap green, Antwerp blue. Paints gray, raw sienna and burnt sienna. I'm going to be swatching out these colors on a scrap piece of watercolor paper before starting with the painting process so that you can see what they look like on paper. I'm going to be using five different brushes, two larger brushes to paint the water area. One of them is a 1 " flat brush, and the other one is a size six mop brush, which is essentially a large and very absorbent round brush. And the other three are round brushes in sizes 14, ten, and three. I'm going to be bringing in a couple of other multimedia cheaper brushes. But these are going to be brought in until the end for the work that I'm going to be doing with white guash. And these are also round brushes in sizes 12 and zero. As long as you're using brushes that are approximately this size, and you're making sure that you're using large brushes to paint the larger areas, especially when we're painting the water, and that you're using small retailing brushes that arrive at a nice fine tip to paint areas like the eye and very small shapes in the feathers, you're going to be just fine. White Gach that I'm going to be using is from Windsor and Newton. This is a tube from their designers Gach in permanent white. I also have a separate little mixing palette for Mach. And this is where I squeeze out that gah, bring in a tiny bit of water to change the consistency of my gah depending on what it is that I'm doing. I'm also sharing a few of my sketching supplies on screen that I use to create my preliminary sketch on my watercolor sheet. On screen, I am sharing the sheet of tracing paper. This is tracing paper from Strathmore. And what I did was I traced over that reference photo. I refined my sketch on my watercolor sheet using my HB pencil. If you don't know how to use tracing paper for your transferring and to create your preliminary outline sketch on your watercolor sheet, that you can get started with the painting process for something like this, and you'd like to learn how to do this. I explain this process step by step in one of the classes that I share in my watercolor one oh one course. And the class where I explain how to use tracing paper for this is one of the last classes, so you just have to scroll down. Of course, you can always use whichever transferring method you prefer. For the refinement of my preliminary sketch, I also used my soft graphite eraser. And aside from these supplies, I have the usual on hand. I have my container with clean water. You're free to use two or even three containers if you'd like. You do want to make sure that you're using clean water as you're moving forward. If you use two containers, it can simplify the process for you because you can rinse out your paint brushes in one of them, and the majority of that murkiness stays within that container, and then you can use water from your other cleaner container to bring into your color mixtures to change their consistencies throughout the process. Or to bring in a little bit of water from your container if you need to do that for any techniques. I have a couple of my blue scot absorbent towels on hand in order to stay on top of water control along the way and do any lifting that I might need to do. I have a couple of scrap pieces of watercolor paper on hand in order to test out colors, whenever I need to throughout the process. Have my role of regular 1 " masking tape, and this is what I'm currently using to tape down my watercolor sheet onto my black cutting mat. I wouldn't necessarily recommend using a cutting mat as a backing board because they are very flexible. And usually, you want something sturdier that you can shift and move to different angles as you're moving along. Because I have to keep my painting in one single area as I'm doing my filming, it doesn't really matter. But I would recommend getting yourself a sturdier board, maybe a wooden board or acrylic board, something like that, to tape your watercolor painting down onto. That is going to make things a lot more comfortable. And whatever kind of tape it is that you're using, whether it's regular masking tape, like what I am using or any other artist tape or washi tape or whatever the case may be. If you think that the adhesive is strong and you fear that when you pull off that tape at the end, you can damage your watercolor sheet. What I like doing is running those pieces of tape over my clothes a couple of times to soften that adhesive before actually taping down my watercolor make sure to download all of the files that I'm making available for you in the Projects and Resources tab. Click on the Projects and Resources tab that you're going to be able to find below any of the videos included in this course, scroll down just a bit. And right under the download Resources title, you're going to be able to find all of these downloadables that I've created for you. The downloadables for this course include my outline sketch, which you can trace over in order to do your transferring onto your sheet of watercolor paper. The reference photo of this Mallard Duck, I would highly recommend observing the photo as I'm also including a photo of my finished piece in case you'd like to use that as reference as you're working and my supply list. Simply click on the file that you'd like to download and it'll be downloaded onto your computer or device. Go ahead and collect your supplies and once you're ready, I'll be seeing you in the next class. 4. Choosing + Swatching Colors: Before sharing about the specific paint colors that I'm going to be bringing into this process and swatching them for you so that you can see what they look like on paper, I want to explain my thought process behind how I choose the specific colors that I'm going to be bringing into a painting. For this kind of piece where I am going for higher levels of realism, I'm usually stemming off a reference photo or something that I have in front of me in real life. And at this point in my journey, I know how important it is to take at the very least five to 10 minutes to do some planning and prep work before jumping into the painting process. This is going to ensure much better results. And one of the most important things that I do during this planning and prep phase is I choose the specific colors that I'm going to be bringing into the piece. This is very important because if I just go through the process randomly choosing colors, I can end up with colors that I didn't want and not only this, but Color is an element of art that plays a huge role behind making visual compositions look harmonious and cohesive. And through choosing our colors mindfully and intentionally and thinking of how we're going to be repeating colors throughout the piece, as well as using some of those same colors in different color mixtures. This is going to lead to more harmony and integration at the end, and something that I personally love doing, is limiting the amount of colors that I am going to be bringing into any painting because this challenges me to think of how I'm going to be repeating different colors to create the color mixtures that I need. Bringing in more colors is not necessarily going to lead to better results. Having said all that, this is exactly the process that I go through to choose my colors. I open up that reference photo and sit with it for a few minutes. I observe it closely and take notes on the main colors that I see. In this particular case, the most prominent colors that I see are green, cool blue, several different browns. I see a darker reddish brown, a lighter, more golden or tan brown. I also see a very dark brown right along the edge of that wing. Aside from those, I also see yellow in the bird's beak. I see an off white in those white feather areas, and I also see a little bit of a bright reddish orange for the duck's foot that we're able to see through the water. In terms of the water itself, I see a lot of greenish tones, and I also see some brownish kind of beige tones which are very similar to that lighter brown that I see in the bird's back. And we also, of course, see some parts of the bird's body reflected on the water. To paint those reflections, I'm simply going to be using the same colors that I'm going to be using inside of the bird. I'm already thinking of how I can repeat the same colors inside and outside of the duck. Once I have that list of colors that I see in my reference, I start connecting those colors with the colors available in my watercolor set. It's very helpful to be able to tell whether a color that you're seeing in a reference is warm or cool biased or somewhere in between. Because this is going to help you pair those colors that you see in the reference with colors in your watercolor set a lot more easily. For example, in this particular case, the greens that I see throughout the water are warmer than the greens that I see in the bird's head. This doesn't mean that I have to choose two different greens for each area. I can simply choose one base green, which is going to be Sap green in this case, and I can just make sure to use it with some blue added in in the bird's head. I have a full course on color theory for beginners here on skill share in case you'd like to check it out in it, I've included everything that you should know about color theory as a beginner just getting started, including a helpful exercise on the split primary color wheel, how to tell warm from cool colors, color schemes that you should know, and much more. I have chosen those specific paint colors from my watercolor set that most closely match the hues present in those different areas in my reference photo or the pairs of colors that I'm going to be mixing to create those colors that I see. I need to start thinking of value or tone. Which is incredibly important if we're going for any level of realism. In art, the terms value or tone mean the same thing, and they refer to the lightness to darkness of any given color. When we're trying to achieve mid to higher levels of realism, we need to make sure that each area of our painting has a range of values or tones throughout it, because in real life, there is light and shadow and there is three D form, and nothing should be a flat color or value all throughout. Every single part of the duck's body is being affected by light. There are planes that are facing toward the light and there are planes that are facing away from the light, and there are parts of its body that are covering up other parts of its body and blocking that light from hitting them. And this results in a range of values or tones that we see throughout its head, throughout its beak, its eye, all of these different body parts, Even the water is being affected by light and shadow. Water is very reflective, and we need to be able to create those lighter value areas, those mid tones, and those darks, if we want it to look believable. When it comes to white objects, white fur, white feathers, et cetera, we also have to think of how we're going to be developing a subtle range of light values. Those areas. Otherwise, they are going to look very flat. In this case, I'm going to be creating a gray to develop those light gray values throughout the white feather sections. And now that you have chosen those base colors, you need to think of how you're going to be creating lighter and darker versions of each. It's important to acknowledge that when we're working with this medium, We lighten or darken colors in two different ways, either through mixing in a second color to lighten or darken our color mixture or through watering down or thickening up our color mixtures. And usually it's going to be a combination of both. Usually, when we're painting with water color, we're constantly shifting the ratios of our colors in our color mixtures, and we're also shifting the water to paint ratios in our color mixtures depending on the value or tone that we're trying to develop. These are all of the things that I have in mind as I am choosing my colors. These are seven different colors that we're going to be using. You don't have to use my same exact colors in order to arrive at great results. I'm going to be swatching these out for you so that you can see what they look like on paper and you can just choose whatever you have that is most similar to these colors. This first color is Antwerp blue. From Windsor and Newton removing this color from my pinfish bristles completely. The next color that I'm going to be using is Sap green from Windsor and Newton as well. This is what Sap green looks like. It's a warm green. I'm also going to be bringing in Windsor lemon from Windsor and Newton, which is a cool yellow. This is what it looks like. Moving on from there, I'm going to be bringing in Pyl scarlet from Daniel Smith. This is a warm red. As you can see, I am preparing my colors in a specific way on my palette. I'm trying to keep my warm colors separate from my cool colors on my palette. Because what happens is that complimentary colors in the color wheel are opposites in the color wheel, as well as warm and cool colors. When they mix together, they mute each other down. The saturate each other. And when we're going for a very bright vivid color, we want to make sure that we're keeping warms and cools separate on our palettes and that we're very careful with complimentary colors or opposites in the color wheel that could be seeping into each other. There's nothing wrong with using muted down or desaturated colors, not at all. You just want to make sure that you are using those desaturated colors or creating those desaturated colors intentionally. This is pral scarlet right there. Then aside from these, I'm going to be bringing in a few neutrals. I'm going to prepare the neutrals on the opposite side of my palette. For this piece, we're going to be bringing in two browns and a gray. The first neutral or brown brownish, I should say, color that I am bring in, is this rosena which is a very light golden brown. Color. You could use something like a yellow ochre. They are actually quite similar. Aside from this, I'm going to be bringing in Burnt Sienna. Burt sienna is a reddish brown and it is darker than the raw sienna. Then aside from this, I'm going to be bringing in some pines gray. Pains gray is a cool gray. It has some blue in it. This is pains gray from Windsor and Newton, which is actually quite a bit bluer than pains gray from other brands. You can bring in any gray or even black that you have available. This gray is going to be used to darken other colors and to create subtle gray values or tones throughout the white feather areas. I'm going to swatch out these neutrals for you right here. This is raw sienna. This is burnt sienna, let me show you what the panes gray looks like. That's it. That's all we're going to be using. Of course, we're going to be creating different color mixtures with these colors. We're going to be bringing two or more of them together to create our different hues and values throughout this stuck. Many times we're going to be using the same two colors in a color mixture but the ratios of the colors are going to be different. 5. Head, Chest + Side: Getting started with the bird's head, I am preparing three different colors on my palette. I'm preparing a little puddle of Atwarp blue. This is plain Atwarp blue. I am preparing a little puddle of sap green. Then over here, I have a mixture of Atrop blue and sap green. Those are the three colors that I'm going to be needing for the head. Will be bringing in some paints gray as I make my way toward the darker values, meaning once I have my initial lighter values developed all throughout the bird's head to darken certain colors, and I'm just going to be using that darker color mixer or those darker color mixers in the darkest areas that I see throughout the bird's head in that reference photo. We're not going to be painting the eye yet. I'm going to be avoiding that area and I'm going to be leaving it just free of paint for now. I want to make sure that I am able to go in with more precision and more control later with a smaller paint brush to paint in the Initially, I want to go in with less pigment and more water. So you're going to see me take just a little bit of color from the edges of my puddles here, and I'm constantly going to be dipping my paint brush in my water container and just using a little bit of water in my paint brush to water down the pigment even more and make it more pale. When working with water color, we're always making our way toward darker colors and darker values. Initially, we want to go in with just a small amount of pigment and we want to build toward the darker values. Observe that reference photo and notice where the green is primarily, where the blue green or the blue is in the back of the bird's head, and what areas are a little bit like almost black looking, then notice how there are lighter values along the top of the bird's head where the light is hitting. I have a fresh container of water by my side. I have the color mixeres that I need, and I have my absorbent towel right here with me as well. This is my size ten round brush. I feel it's a good size of brush for this area. I'm going to go ahead and jump in. I'm going to start with the blue. You can see how I'm taking just a little bit of color from the edge of my puddle here. I had just dipped my paint brush in my container of water, so this is not going to be very thick dark color. It's going to be pretty pale. I'm going to start with the back of the bird's head where I see that color. Dip my paint brush in my water. Bring this color out and dilute it even more with just water in my paintbrush. I'm going over the entire head. Up to or down to the white stripe in its neck. Notice how I'm going over everything a couple of times with just water in my brush so that things can stay a little bit wet for longer. If I just go quickly over everything once, that's not going to help me because things are going to start drying very quickly and I want some gradients where the blue turns into the green, and then the green turns into that darker almost black looking color. So I went over the entire bird's head with blue. We know that the blue is really only going to be visible in the back of the bird's head, dip my pain brush in my water again. I'm going to take some of my bluish green. And I'm going to bring it down into the green area that I see. You can see how I'm getting nice, so diffused effects because everything is wet because I took my time with that first layer. Going in with the green, dropping in the green in the middle portion of the bird's head, avoiding the eye. Okay. Go down bringing the green all the way down. Everything is still wet and workable, so I can I can go in and strengthen the blue in the back of the bird's head with a little bit more of my anthrop blue to intensify that blue. And I'm using my paint brush to merge the blue into the green. To help those colors transition into each other. I need to work fast here, I'm going to start adding in a little bit of pines gray into my blue green. Just a little. I don't want to get super dark. I can still go in with another layer, but this is sap green, a tiny bit of Arop blue, and some panes gray and I'm going to drop in this darker color where I see it there in the photo, around the beak. Where do I see it? Around the beak. Around this area. Continuing to observe that reference around the eye. A little here and there. That is enough for that first layer. Everything is looking pretty dark. I removed all of that paint from my paint brush bristles and I'm going to do some lifting. Check it out. I'm going to do some lifting by pressing down the cleanest slightly damp bristles of my paint brush. Don't go in with too much water because if your pain is in the middle of the drying process and you go in with too much water in your brush. All of that water is going to travel down the bristles of your paint brush, and that water is going to disturb all of that paint that is in the drying process, creating a splotchy background effect. So I'm just pulling up paint from little lighter value areas that I see in that reference photo to give the bird's head a little bit more dimension. Okay. I'm going to clean up some of these edges quickly here while this paint is still wet and using a clean brush, just the tip. I'm going to drop in a little bit more of my darkest color mixture around the beak. I go ahead and do this because I notice that the paint is still wet and workable. If the paint had already started to dry, I would actually be darkening this in a next layer. I'm just going to clean up some edges here with the tip of my paint brush. Because we have to work fast, especially when we're painting on dry paper if we want to create soft gradients and effects. We oftentimes need to leave the cleaning up of edges of our shapes until the very end. Make sure that you are working quickly to create all of the wet on wet effects that you want before that paint starts to dry and don't worry too much about having jagged irregular edges around your shapes. You can take care of that after you've created those general effects that you're looking for. And then after you're done with that, then go ahead and remove all of that paint from your pain brush bristles and clean up your edges if you need to really. I'm going to do a little bit of splattering with water for texture in the head. Take a little bit of water from that container and use your index finger to do some flicking on that paint that is still wet. Okay. That is it for the bird's head. I'm going to go ahead and change my water because we're going to be using very different colors next and I don't want my blues and my greens to affect the way that those next colors look. Right now, this area right here is a little bit wet still. I I start painting the beak, the yellows and oranges that I use are going to start seeping into the bird's head, and I'm not really looking for bleeding right now. What I'm going to do is I'm going to get started with the chest area and I'm going to make my way back or the bird's body, I'm going to be using this size 14 round brush. Look at that reference photo and notice where the browns kind of end and become more kind of whitish feathers. I've included these lines or marks in your outline sketch, so that is helpful. But just know that we're going to focus on this area, and then we're going to create a little bit of a subtle transition. By creating irregularity along this edge of this brown shape. We don't want the edge of this brown shape to be super clean and defined. We want to have irregularity and at least some soft edges so that it seems more like a gradual transition, not that we're seeing a gradient in that reference photo, but there has to be a certain level of softness where the brown feathers turn into the whitish or off white feathers. Over here, there are also brown feathers, but the brown is slightly different from the brown in the front. This brown is a little bit more reddish and darker, than the brown that is over here. The first thing that I want to do is I want to make sure that I have the colors that I'm going to be needing for this part of the process. Mostly it's going to be grays and browns. I'm going to go with this area over here on my palette where I've started preparing my neutrals with my size 14 round brush. I'm going to create more of these and an extra mixture or two as well. This is my pains gray. This is my burnt sienna. Finally, I have raw sienna. And I'm going to create a couple of extra colors here. I'm going to create a mixture of burnt sienna and pains gray right here in between these two colors. Adding a bit of pains gray to create a very deep dark chocolate brown. Okay. So I'm just noticing in that photo, the level of darkness of that brown in the bird's chest in front of its body, and I'm trying to get a level of darkness that is similar to that because the hue in itself, the color in itself can be a little bit different. But you want to make sure that you're able to achieve that value, that level of darkness to lightness of that color. All right. That's that very dark brown. I have a gray over here. I have my reddish brown and I have my lighter brown. Something that I also feel will be helpful is creating a mixture of raciena and bird sienna to have an in between color. I have everything that I need. Pains gray, Pains gray plus burnt sienna, burnt sienna, Burt Siena plus raciena and raciena. Size 14 round brush. I'm going to start with some burnt sienna, and I'm going to start right here. I'm going to try to avoid that white collar. That is such an important characteristic in malls. I'm going to leave the whiteness of the paper shining through there. And I'm going to go over this entire chest area with my burnt sienna. Notice the irregular edge I've created right here. It's not a smooth edge. Notice how I'm going over the entire thing, at least a couple of times so that things stay wet for a bit longer. Now I can go in with my darker color mixture. This is burnt sienna plus pines gray, and I'm going to pop it in in a very irregular way to develop a range of values in the bird's chest and make sure that I'm going dark enough to communicate the darkness that I see there. But I still want a nice range of values, a nice vivid color in this area. I don't want to go in with just gray. I want to make sure that there is a nice use of color bit darker Okay. All right. Cool. Go to remove all of that color from my paint brush bristles. Got a little bit of water splattering on my paper. That's okay. Doing a tiny bit of lifting to lighten some areas with the clean tip of my paintbrush, using it as a absorbent sponge to create a little bit of irregularity here along this edge. To communicate a little bit of a sense of feathers. I'm going to do some gentle scrubbing along some of these edges to soften that edge here and there and not have such a stark looking edge all throughout this shape. I just want to keep it very irregular. You can keep some sections with sharp edges. I'm just trying to lose some of that edge here and there. Then the last thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to do some splattering again. While that paint is still wet. For this, I'm going to change onto the size ten round brush because it has a little bit more of a snap to it and I bring out a little bit of water from my container and use my index finger to flip some drops of water on that drying paint. Those teeny, tiny drops of water that get splattered onto that drying paint. Disturb that drying paint and create little blooms because the water pushes out that paint that is still wet. Your paint still needs to be wet in order for that splattering texture to happen. There you go. There's that bit of splattering. If you paint dries, you're not going to be able to have that splattering effect. All right. So what I'm going to be working on right now is this entire area with the white or off white feathers. Everything over here and this wing over here. Yes, I have a darker brown edge right along the bottom of this wing. I'm going to take care of that. Once I have developed a subtle hint of gray values all throughout this area. I'm going to leave the section with the lighter brown feathers over here along the bird's back and also the entire tail and darker father areas. Or later. This is all about breaking things up into sections so that it's easier to paint. I'm going to do a little bit more splattering before this paint completely dries or some texture. Okay. In order to develop that illusion of white feathers, we're going to need some very pale water down color grayish color. I'm going to be using these puddles that I've already created, you can see how my burnt sienna and a little bit of raw sienna as well has started intermixing with my pines gray, that is fine. I'm just going to be using a tiny bit from here, and it's good because this way, because there is so much of that burnt sienna in my gray, the gray is going to look warmer. If I just use the gray by itself, especially the pines gray which is already cool bias because it has blue in it, the grays are going to have a cooler temperature. But because it has so much of that reddish brown mixed in, going to look like a bit of a warmer gray, which is more similar to the grayish tones that I'm observing in that photo. But what's super important if you want something to look white like white feathers or white fur or whatever the case may be, is that you need to go in with a very water down color so that it looks very pale and you have more of that paper shining through helping you create that white color, that white effect. Because when painting with water color, it's the brightness and the whiteness of the paper that stands in place for our highlights and that helps us create those very light value areas. White feathers, white fur, white objects have a very light local color. Make sure that you're going in pale and water down. Then if you need to darken areas, you can go in and add a little bit more of a more pigmented color mixture on top of that lighter paint while it's still wet. I'm taking a tiny bit from here and I'm going to be using a lot of water dipping constantly in my container to start right here. Along the bottom edge, dipping my paint brush in my water, softening this color more. And I'm continuing to observe that reference photo, making sure that I'm not going past the area that I'm trying to paint that I'm observing color changes that's already enough. Do you have in mind that water color is going to dry lighter than how it looks when it's wet. You can create little brush ropes to help communicate that feather texture, but make sure that you're doing it quickly and while that paint is still wet so that you can have nice soft diffused out effects and not star looking lines and shapes. I'm going to leave that B and I'm going to start with the wing. I'm noticing the wing in that reference, making sure that I understand the shape. Okay. And I start with the bottom edge, which is the darkest section that I see, going in with this water in my paint brush. I'm using strokes to help me communicate that feather texture. I don't want to cover up the entire wing. Hopefully, you can see how I have left sections of paper shining completely. I'm going to create more of my burnt sienna and pains gray mixture that very dark brown so that I can darken the bottom edge and the end of that wing. Softening some of this. I don't want the paint to expand too much. I just want the darkness in that bottom edge. You can see how the paint started seeping down and that's because this bottom section was still wet. I'm going to go in and do a little bit of lifting with a clean and slightly damp brush to fix this bleeding before the paint completely dries. There you go. When you have something like this happening and you don't want bleeding, just go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and use your paint brush bristles as a little absorbance sponge. 6. Beak, Back + Tail: All right, we've managed to do quite a bit of work throughout the bird's body. I really want this entire white feather section to dry. Before I start with the top part, which is a different color and also the tail. In the meantime, we can start painting the bird's beak. Just like with everything that we've been doing, it's important to make sure that our color mixtures are ready before jumping in so that we can make sure that we're painting nice and fast. I want to make sure to change my water because as you can see, it's very murky and this water can definitely mute and also darken the bright yellow that I want in the bird's beak. What do I see when I see that bird's beak in the reference photo. I see a bright yellow, and I also see a little bit of black in that spot right in the end and also the nostril. I'm not going to be doing the black right now. I'm going to be painting in those black shapes in the beak after the yellow has dried. But what I am observing about that yellow in the beak is that the yellow is warmer than the winsor lemon that I'm using. To create a slightly warmer version of this yellow, I'm going to add in a little bit of my piral scarlet into it, warm it up a little and then I'm going to use it in that way. Hiding a little bit more of my Windsor lemon here because it's almost dry on my palette, and I'm just going to take a little bit of this piral scarlet and bring it into my Windsor lemon puddle. This way, I've warmed up the Windsor lemon and it's more of a similar yellow to what I see there. I want to create at least a slight range of values in the bird's beak because if I just create a flat yellow all throughout the bird's beak, that is going to lead to flatness. It's not going to look like it has a sense of dimension. On top of the bird's beak, there are lighter values. There are highlights. What I'm going to do is I'm going to create a second color mixture where I bring in a little bit of rosena which is darker than the yellow. And I'm going to mix it into the yellow there. Those are the colors that I'm going to be using at the beak. I'm going to be using my size ten round brush for the beak, and I'm going to try to at least leave a little high light section along the top of the beak. What are the top planes of the bird's beak? Really think about the structure of the beak and what section the light is hitting most. You can even cover up those black shapes in the nostril and the front of the bird's beak because we're going to be painting the black when this dries and these very light colors underneath are not going to affect the black. Notice how I painted in that light yellow first. I didn't really go in with a super thick yellow. It's relatively watered down initially. And that's it. That's all I'm going to do. Notice how I left a little sliver of high light right here where I didn't really paint in along that edge, and you can always lift up excess color as well. Go to drop in a tiny bit more of my raw sienna. And that is it. That's all I'm going to do. Removing some excess paint here by doing some lifting with my clean and slightly damp brush. Okay. So it's time to work on the back and the tail. I'm observing that reference photo and I'm noticing what colors I'm able to see in those areas. Right here, I'm able to see some lighter browns. It's a different brown from this one here in the chest. Right here, it's a lot redder and deeper and over here, it's more like a golden brown color, much lighter than this over here. Then over here, I see some darker blue feathers and in the tail, I see some white feathers again. We're going to be approaching the brown feathers separately from the blue feathers. The brown feathers in this area are going to be painted in with raw sienna and bird sienna. We're not going to be bringing in pines gray because these feathers are not really that dark. I do want to make sure that I have enough of these colors and also a transition color in between these. And that bridge color really helps create softer transitions. We're not trying to paint every single individual feather. We're simplifying things and we're using brush ropes in the direction of that feather growth to help us subtly communicate the feather texture or feathers being there in that area without really painting in each individual feather. I'm going to go in with the lighter color of the bunch first, which is the plain rosena I'm going to start here in the back. This is my size ten brush by the way. I'm going to leave little sections of white paper shining through. I'm going to bring it down because I also see some light brown feathers in this area. Going in with the next darker color, which is the burnt sienna plus the raw sienna. Then finally, I'm going in with a tiny bit of plain burnt sienna. Remove that color from my paint brush bristles and you can soften edges of these irregular shapes that you've created. Or even develop a little bit more of a feather texture by moving that wet paint on your paper. If your color has expanded too much or you have darkened things too much, you can always do a little bit of lifting with a clean and slightly damp brush. Okay. Go in just a tiny bit. More to develop some darker values there with my burnt sienna while that paint is still wet. Moving onto the blue feathers over here and over here. I just want to situate myself. I want to observe that reference photo and notice what's blue. And if you can't see your pencil lines anymore, or you find it helpful to redraw things just so that you can get a better understanding of what's. I would recommend taking a second to do so. These are white feathers, and then this is blue, and this is blue. I see two distinctive blue curves there. If these are white feathers, I might have to go back and paint those white. That's okay. This is blue. This is blue as well, and I see a tiny bit of blue down here, and then the back. So I'm going to prepare more of my blue. This is my Atrop blue. I want to make sure that I'm taking the blue that I have planned and not take some cobalt or ultramarine, which are beside it. So I'm going to make sure that I have my antrop blue mixu right here. What I'm going to do is I'm also going to add a little bit of pins gray right here so that I can have a slightly darker version of it. If the green mixes together, that is fine. You can repeat that color mixture that you were using in the head. I'm going to use my size three round brush. And I just made sure to dip my paint brush in my container of water to dampen the paint brush bristles before starting. It's important to prepare those paint brush bristles before dipping your paint brush into the paint. Okay. So Andre blue first, and I always want to start with just a bit of color in my paint brush so that I can build toward the darker values. Where can I start? I'm going to start here at the top. And notice my strokes. Notice the type of stroke that I'm using, always having in mind the direction of the feather growth. I can soften the edge between the brown and the blue with a clean and slightly damp brush. I'm going to go in with a slightly darker blue and intensify the blue in some areas. I start with my bit of blue over here again, see this bottom little triangle. I want to go in with too much pain in my paint brush bristles. This is a teeny tiny shape. But I'm always looking for a variety of values everywhere, even in teeny tiny shapes. It helps things look a little bit more realistic. All right. So going back to the blue curved shapes that I had pinpointed before. It's this one and this one. Make sure that you understand what you're going to be painting in before starting. It's this one here. And I'm trying to leave little teeny tiny sections of paper shining. And because it's such a small shape, I don't really have to run my pain push scles over everything with water because it's quick to paint. And my next blue shape is this one here. Changing the strokes in the direction of that feather going up now. All of these are white feathers. I'm going to have to recreate the same color that I was using over here to paint these areas in. We just have to make sure that we swatch out our color mixture so that it can be a very similar color to these grays that we were using over here. While that dries, we can start painting in the little color and also the eye. I'm going to continue using my size three round brush. I'm going to activate this grayish brown color over here on my palette, a little bit of water and develop subtle hints of gray values so that it's not a completely flat white. Just little teeny, tiny abstract shapes in this area is enough. All right. This is what I like doing when I paint animal eyes. I can't do it always because not all animals have an eye color that I can do this with. I can't do this with blue eyes or things like that. But when the animals eyes are yellowish or amber or a reddish brownish color. I like using this technique where I initially go in with a bright yellow and create a tiny under painting layer to the eye because it provides glow to the eye. I just added a little bit more of my Windsor lemon into this Windsor lemon plus rosy and a mixture that I was using before to brighten it a little bit warm. What I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be using this smaller brush to paint in this bright yellow all throughout the eyeball except for the highlight shape and a little bit of the per line along the bottom and top of that eyeball. Highlights are so important when you're painting animal eyes or human eyes. So if you accidentally cover them up or you forget to plan for highlights, you can always bring in a white paint pen at the end or a tiny bit of guash to repaint that highlight or intensify that highlight. While I allow that little under painting to dry, I'm going to take some of my grayish brown color mixture from my palette, and I'm going to start painting in the nostril and the black shape in the bird's beak. The yellow is completely dry at this point. I'm not going to have any bleeding happening if I go in, and I'm still going in with my size three round brush. Notice how this gray that I'm going in with initially is not super super stark looking against that yellow. I would always recommend going in with a slightly water down gray and then allow that to dry and then go in with a second layer to only deepen and darken certain teeny, tiny areas inside of those gray or black shapes. This way, you can have at least a tiny bit of a range of gray or black values in those shapes, and that is going to help things look more realistic so that you don't end up with very flat solid black shapes. When working with water color that can really lead to a negative hole your painting, and that's really something that we're trying to stay away from. I'm going to allow that to dry and I'm going to paint in the first layer in the white feathers over here in the bird's tail. For this, I have my size ten and my size three round brush on hand because some of these shapes are very narrow, very small. I'm going to make sure that I have enough of this gray color mixture that I had created before to paint in my other white feathers. This is a mixture of burnt sienna and paints gray. So this is the gray. It is quite close to what I was using before. So I'm going to go ahead and start. I can zoom into the photo whenever I feel it might be helpful. So I'm just observing this back section of the bird's body. And I have both my size ten round brush and my size three round brush on hand. So I start with a small amount of this paint. You can see me taking that paint from the edge. And then I'm going in. And I'm going to try to paint each one of these father sections separately. But if the paint starts merging or if the shapes start merging together, that's okay. I want to leave little sections of paper shining through to help me convey that texture. This bottom portion here and this feather is quite dark. Notice how I'm leaving little irregular edges in between overlapping feathers. I don't want smooth edges. But don't get too bogged down with detail. And then change to my smaller brush and move that paint while it's wet or even take a little bit more paint to help me create those irregular edges that I'm observing in the photo to separate out the wing from the tail with a dark gray value. Okay. I had a little bit of a darker gray value along the edge of this feather here and I'm going to work on the shapes in the back. Most of the gray is right along the upper edge. So I'm going to start in the upper edge using those strokes. Noticing which father is. And then I changed to my smaller brush, and these are very small shapes. So I'm just going to use the smaller brush to move that paint. Help me create that texture with those upwards curved strokes to help me convey the direction of that feather growth. You can see how just by me moving that paint while it's still wet and thinking of the feather texture as I'm doing these brush strokes and the direction of the feather growth, as I'm doing the brush stroke, I'm already conveying feather texture. Without me trying to paint each individual feather. It's a very loose quick and effective way to develop a feather texture, which really is helpful when working with watercolor. It's so easy to start over working a painting, especially when working with watercolor, when you start fussing too much over small details. 7. Eye + Leg: Right now, almost the entire eye shape is yellow, except for a little bit of the tear line, especially the lower tear line and the tiny highlight shape. What I'm going to do is I'm going to be using a mixture of burnt sienna and a tiny bit of paints gray and my size three round brush to paint in the eyeball shape, and I'm going to try to avoid painting in the highlight, as well as the tear lines. I'm going to take a bit of a darker version of the same color mixture that has a little bit more paints gray in it, and I'm going to drop it into a little teeny tiny section to darken that. Now I need to allow that to dry completely. It is important for me to mention at this point that I am bringing in my artistic license to paint in the bird's eye. The bird's eye in the photo is quite dark and I want to bring in more life into this bird. So I am opening up the eye more and I am making certain sections a little bit lighter. I'm going to be painting in the pupil in a more defined way. And I even changed the location of the highlight as well. I made it larger. Once everything is dry, I'm going to come back and I'm going to be painting the pupil. I can't paint the pupil right now because it's going to start bleeding out and I want the pupil to be defined. The photo, the leg and the back foot is visible through the water. I'm going to be painting that in, and this is a very bright orange. I am using a mixture of Windsor lemon and Pyl scarlet to paint in the leg and the foot. I'm only going to be using that orange color mixture to paint the entire leg and foot. We're going to be painting the water on top and we want to make it look like what we're able to see of that leg and that foot, we're seeing through the water. I'm going in with my size three brush. Okay. That's enough color right there. I'm going in with a slightly damp brush. I'm just softening that color in some areas. Softening the bottom edge of this shape as well so that when I paint the water on top, it can seem like there is a soft transition between the leg shape and the water. I don't want to defined edge there at the bottom of the shape. Dropping in a little bit more right here. Okay. And that's enough. I'm going to paint in the pupil now that everything is dry in the eye, and for this, I added more pines gray into my pains gray and burnt sienna mixture to darken it even more. Feel free to redraw the circle for the pupil, if you'd like. It's a very teeny tiny shape. I'm trying to keep the highlight protected. Okay. And another thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to add a little bit of a light gray value throughout the tier lines that I still have visible because it's a lot of white there. I am going to continue using my size three round brush and a very watered down version of this brownish gray. And I'm going to add this very pale gray just in some sections along that tier line so that I don't have a completely white shape. We definitely don't want a white outline around the eye. That's not going to look very believable. So that white is not super stark looking. Okay. I'm going to go back to my blue green color mixture. And I'm going to darken a bit around the eye along the tear lines that I was leaving before. This will help create a little bit of a raised effect because these are small shadow shapes beneath and above the eye. I do want to make sure that I'm not creating a very stark looking outline with any of my colors, especially because this is a pretty dark color. So when I am going in and painting in these narrow shadow shapes, I want to make sure that I'm keeping them irregular and abstract and that I'm not going in with a very dark line. You don't even have to feel like you have to enclose the eyeball in a darker shape or anything like that. You can just add little shadow shapes in some sections, and that's likely going to look a lot more natural. And one more thing that I want to do before starting to paint in the water is I'm going to soften some edges of these shapes that I created in these feathers in the tail. Feel the texture is a little bit too harsh. I'm just going to lose some edges by doing gentle scrubbing with a cleaner slightly damp brush. Everything is completely dry back here at this point, so the paper has completely regained its strength. You do want to be very careful when you're using the scrubbing technique because you can start damaging your paper. How much reactivating you're able to do once the paint is dry is going to depend on a few different things. The paper that you're using may absorb and hold on to that paint to different degrees, and also the specific pigment that you're using, maybe more or less staining than others. Heavier staining pigments are going to be more difficult to lift and remove than non staining pigments. But whatever the case may be, always remember that less is more when it comes to this kind of technique. You're not trying to get rid of all of those sharp edges. You're just trying to soften some sections here and there. All right, finishing up here and it's going to be time to move on to the next part of this process. 8. Water: We're going to be painting the water. And then after that, we're going to be doing more detail in the bird. To paint the water, we need to make sure that we have all of the color mixtures that we're going to be needing on our palette. You want to make sure that you have most of your color mixtures ready. Maybe you can leave adding in a little bit of paints gray into your color mixtures as you're moving through this, but at least you want the majority of them to be ready on your palette. We're going to be doing pre wetting with clean water all throughout the water area. It is very important that you take your time with this pre wetting process. Otherwise, certain sections are going to start drying on you and you're not going to be able to arrive at those nice soft diffused out effects that you want in the water. What I'm doing is I'm creating more of the same color mixtures that I had in the beginning. Over here in this area of my palette, I have raw sienna, I have burnt sienna, and I have burnt sienna plus panes gray. Then down here, I want to make sure that I have enough of my antwarp blue. We're going to be starting with Antwerp Blue. At blue plus sap green. Over here, going to add some panes gray so that I can quickly use a darker version of these. I'm also just going to be creating a little bit of my orange just in case I want to pop in some extra color in the water. If I run out of any of these along the way, I'm going to quickly make more, making sure that I'm working fast so that things don't dry on me because as I said, if sections of my paper start drying, I'm not going to arrive at those soft diffused out wet on wet effects that I'm looking for. Going to go ahead and change my water because this is pretty murky and we're going to be doing pre wetting with clean water before starting to paint in our color. These are the two brushes that I'm going to be using to paint the water. This is a 1 " flat brush and a size six mop brush. You want to make sure that you're using large brushes because this is a large area. If you try to paint large shapes or large areas with medium size or smaller brushes, it's going to be incredibly frustrating for you because things are going to be drawing very quickly as you constantly need to reload that brush. Whereas with larger brushes, they're able to hold more water and paint in their paint brush bristles because they're larger, so you can load up your paint brush bristles and you can paint large areas quickly. You want to stay away from creating too much texture and streakiness in these large areas unless that's what you're intending to do. This pre wetting technique is something that I love using whenever I'm going to be painting large areas because by pre wetting my paper effectively before starting to paint, I'm providing myself more time because what you need to remember is that dry paper is thirsty paper. If I start painting in this very large area, when my paper is dry. That paint is going to start absorbing into that paper immediately. Everything is going to start drying very quickly. Through doing my pre wetting process effectively before starting, I buy myself more time to be able to do a little bit more work, more hue development, more value development throughout the water area before things start to dry on me. I feed my paper enough water through pre wetting that things dry more slowly. You still have to work relatively quickly, but at least you buy yourself more time. Second reason why doing pre wetting is so helpful is because it helps you create those nice wet on wet diffused out effects because water color is always going to expand in paper that is wet. That water content that you prepare the paper with is going to do half of the work for you so that you don't feel that you have to manually create gradients between your colors. Something I will say, is I am not going by what I see in that reference photo super precisely. Yes, I am observing the colors present throughout that water in the reference photo. I see greens, I see lots of browns. I see the reflection of the ducks colors on the water. Water is super reflective, whatever colors are around the body of water, trees, rocks, whatever it is, you're probably going to see them throughout the body of water. It's very helpful to have the colors that you used already in your subject so that you can drop them into your water as you're painting your water and you can create those reflective But as I said, I'm being very loose about it. I am taking some of that information that I see in that reference photo, but I'm not trying to recreate the reference photo exactly as it is. I am just going to be using Marcystic license, having fun with this, as I am starting to paint in my color, I'm just going to keep working until I arrive at something that I enjoy. I'm going to start with my flat brush. I'm going to do pre wetting with my flat brush, and then I'm going to change on over to my mop brush and I'm going to be applying the color with my mop brush. Taking a little bit of water at a time from my container. And I'm starting with horizontal brush strokes, and I'm going to avoid wetting the duck. You don't want to just work top to bottom. You want to continue coming back to where you started and apply more water in that area because if you just make your way top to bottom or left to right or whatever the case may be and you don't continue coming back to where you started, you can bet that when you get to the bottom or to the right or whatever it is, that place where you started is already going to be dry. So keep coming back to that area where you started. And take your time with this. Don't rush it. I'm going to pre wet the leg. The leg is completely dry by this point. Your environment that you're working in has a huge impact on how quickly or how slowly your painting starts drawing on you, a variable that you have to account for. Every day is different Bay it's a little bit more humid, other days it's a bit more dry. And just have that in mind, if you feel you're struggling a bit more and things are drawing faster or more slowly. When I'm painting in large areas like this, I make sure to turn off my fan because having a fan on or even an air conditioning unit on or a heating system on is also going to have an impact on how quickly or how slowly things dry on you. I'm almost done. I like sharing these real time tutorials because you can actually get an idea of how long each step takes for me. Because none of this is sped up I made sure to go into the nooks and crannies here around the bird. And when I sink down into my chair so that I can see the watercolor paper against the light that is coming in through my window, I can see a nice even sheen all throughout the water area. That's what you want. A nice even sheen. I've been doing all of my brush strokes gently though. I'm not trying to scrub or activate that color. Be very gentle when you're pre wetting over that little leg because you can accidentally start reactivating that color. All right. Cool. I have that nice even sheen all throughout, no puddles anywhere. I'm going to quickly change on over to my mop brush. I quickly pre wet this paint brush with water because it was completely dry, and I'm going to go ahead and get started with my antrop blue plus sap green color mixture. You can see how I'm using horizontal back and forth lateral strokes. I'm leaving plenty of that white paper shining through in some sections to help me create the illusion of water reflections and ripples of water. I'm building my way towards those darker colors and those darker values, starting out with pretty pale color and leaving plenty of that white paper shining through to help me create those reflections and movement in the water. I'm also going to make sure not to add too much darker color around the bird's head, because if I do, the duck's head is going to merge into the background and it's not going to pop out too much to the viewer. I'm going to continue doing these gentle brush strokes, and I'm trying to avoid adding too much green and blue in this area because I'm going to be placing browns and the colors that I used in the bird in the reflection areas. Going to start with those reflections. Going to go in with the burnt Ciena. I'm going to make sure not to do too much blending here between my reddish brown and my greenish blue because red and green are complimentary colors in the color wheel. If I start over blending here, I can start creating brown or just a weird looking color in that transition. I'm going to use some of my burnt sienna and panes gray, darker brown, add it here. You can see how I'm leaving a little sliver of white paper in between the bird and the water. All right. Little water effect. I'm going to be adding more brown before it dries. I can use a little bit of this lighter brown as well here and there. Even a little bit of Atrop blue especially near the Atrop blue feathers that I created over here. This is super bright. I'm just going to lighten it a little by going in with a slightly damp brush and I'm continuing to work fast I can see all of this movement taking place. So I can absorb excess paint and water from my paper. If I feel there's just too much movement, but I am really avoiding doing unnecessary movement of paint after I've placed it on my paper. I'm allowing the paint to do its own thing. So important. Let me do a little bit more of my dark brown, nice, dark brown color. After dropping in that dark brown into some areas that I was looking to push, I removed all of that color from my paint brush bristles and I went back in with a clean and only slightly damp brush to soften those dark brown shapes a little bit. I'm going to add in some of my green. And I see a bit of a reflection of yellow as well from the beak. Things are starting to dry over here at the top. I've done much more work over here at the bottom, so things are still workable at the bottom, not so much at the top. But before things dry too much on me at the top, I just want to add in some hints of Riana there. Going to bring this paint closer to the bird's head. I don't want the bird's head to have a white outline around it. So I'm going to make sure to bring that paint in a little. Getting a back run to fix this. I need to fix this fast. I'm going to take my absorbent towel and run it along the edges of my masking tape because if water is sitting there, it can create little back runs on your on the edges of your painting. That's all I'm going to do for the first layer in my water. I'm going to allow this to dry. 9. Pushing Darks + Adding Details: Okay. I'm going to start adding more detail in the bird. I'm going to start with the beak and the eye. Going back to the colors that I was using in the bird's beak, I was using Windsor Lemon and Rocana Back to my Windsor lemon puddle. Adding a little bit of raw sienna to darken it a bit. I'm going to be using this mixture to define the beak a little bit more and add a little bit more detail. I would highly recommend zooming into sections of that reference photo that you're working on. Right here, I'm adding a little bit of a darker yellow shape to give the bird's beak a little bit more of a believable three D structure. I'm taking ideas from that reference photo and noticing where slightly darker values are. I also added a little bit of a darker shadow shape right under the nostril and separated the top part of the beak from the bottom part of the beak with a bit of a darker yellow value as well. Softening edges a little and just creating a few more very subtle shadow shapes to develop a little bit more of that sense of structure in the beak, using my yellow plus rosy and a color mixture in a pretty water down state. I don't want to make these shapes super stark looking and distracting. Creating some darker shapes here and there throughout the beak. Just to develop a little bit more of a range of values to make it look a little bit more believable. What I am doing right here is I'm doing a tiny bit of gentle scrubbing in the eyeball. Now that the brown layer has dried, I can go in, do gentle reactivating and lifting with my absorbent towel to reveal a little bit of that yellow so that it can shine through the brown in certain sections of the eyeball. And later on, at the end of this process, I'm going to be going in with the white guash, and I'm going to be enhancing the highlight and any little sections of tear line that I might want to bring out again. I'm going to go back to my green color mixture with the panes gray. What I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be darkening some sections in the bird's head. If you notice in the reference photo, this area here is pretty dark. So I'm going in and darkening these areas a little bit more around the beak. And up into the eye. You can see how the edges of these darker green shapes that I'm creating are irregular, especially as I'm making my way into the head and the face. This is very important because it helps me communicate that irregular feather texture. I'm using upward slightly curved flicking motions as I am creating this darker shadow shape. It's really not my intention to cover up too much of the first layer that we already developed. We don't want to overly darken a large area. If we darken too much, that is going to lead to flatness and heaviness. So make sure that you're only darkening areas that really need to be pushed more and leave plenty of that first layer shining through in those lighter value areas. The objective right now is simply to push the darkest value areas a little bit more to add more structure and form, especially in the bird's head, and also to enhance that texture and detail a little bit more. Going to go in with my smaller brush, my size three round brush. I'm just going to add in some darker sections. But because I have blue greens over here in the back of the bird's head, I'm making sure to add in more anwarp blue into my mixture. As I am doing all this, I'm making sure not to create very stark looking, harsh looking lines, shapes or marks. If I find that I go in too dark, or I find that things are looking a little bit too stark, I go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and soften that shape. Go to soften edges of these dark green shapes a little. I don't want my shadow shapes to be super stark looking. I'm going to do a tiny bit of scrubbing here to reveal more of that paper in this area. So we're just going to be moving on to adding a little bit more detail in the feathers in the bird's body, the wing, especially. And for this, I need to create more of the color mixtures that I was using in these areas. So Burnt Sienna. Raw sienna Sienna and paynes gray. I have my size 14 round brush and my size three round brush on hand. Starting with my size 14 round brush, just going to be adding in a little bit more texture in detail in these areas with some irregular shapes that are slightly darker than the ones that I've already added in. And I'm noticing the feather shapes in these areas that I'm painting in And just using the same color that I was previously using in that area, only in a slightly less water down state or a slightly darker version of that color. Perhaps I add in a little bit of paints gray to make it slightly darker, but I never want to go super dark and create very stark looking shapes or anything like that. I'm going to go into this wing right here. I'm just going to create a color mixture that is similar to what I was already using there. And I'm going to do some strokes here. Remember to create those irregular edges in between the feathers where the feathers are overlapping. Tiny bit of gray, help me separate out these two parts of the bird's body with a few strokes there. You can see how it's very easy to enhance the illusion of that feather texture by just going in with a few more strokes using that same color mixture that you were using before water down so that you can keep it nice and subtle. Going to go in and soften that with just a clean and slightly damp brush. I don't want to do too much. It's easy to start overly describing things. I think that's enough detail in the bird. You feel you need to go in and soften anything. If you find any lines or marks or shapes are a little bit too. You can go in and soften, but don't overdo it with the scrubbing and the lifting. I darkening little sections along the eyeball around the edge of the eyeball. We're going to be adding some darker values in the water now that it is dry. What I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be creating more of the color mixtures that I was using in my water. My green, my blue green, my blue, my slightly darker version of my blue green that has the panes gray in it, and also a few neutrals, because we're going to be enhancing those ripples and adding a little bit more detail in the water. Essentially, we are expanding that range of values in the water and creating darker shadowy shapes throughout the water, and this is going to help us enhance those ripples and add more realism into this area of the piece. For this, you want to make sure that you have the color mixtures that you were previously using for the water. I'm going to be adding this into this lower portion. I don't want to add too much those darker value shapes around the bird's head. The bird's head is And I want to make sure that the values around the head, especially stay pretty light so that there is that contrast and that pop. I may add a few irregular shapes over there behind the bird farther away from us, but mostly I want to add that detail over here. For this, I'm going to be using my size six mop brush and my size 14 round brush, and I'm just going to be shifting between them, depending on the size of the shape that I'm going to be creating. This part of the lake is closer to us. And so it makes sense that the ripples here are going to be slightly larger than the ripples back here. This large brush is going to help me create those larger shapes for the ripples. So I'm going to alter between my brushes depending on what it is that I'm doing. But you don't want to do too much. Remember that less is more. Use your artistic license, and we're just going to be adding in a few darker ripple shapes going in with my blue green. Just using kind of back and forth motions like this. Go in with a clean and slightly damp brush after I've placed that paint and with a clean and only slightly damp brush, I can push or pull that paint that I've already placed on my paper, softening the look of it and sometimes making those ripple shapes a little bit longer. Add a bit of a darker color here and there. And I'm just adding a few ripples here and there. Changing to my smaller brush size 14 round. And I'm continuing to do this work all throughout the bottom section first, and just a bit, I'll be moving toward the top. It's so important to have variety in mind when you're working on these ripples and also making sure that you're not going overboard with the amount and covering up the work that you've already done. Avoid creating patterns with these shapes that you're creating. Adding a little bit more antwrop blue into the mix. Maybe adding some of my brown to some of these ripples. I'm also adding some brown ripples under the bird, where I've already developed a little bit of a brown reflection. And behind the bird, I want smaller strokes and lighter strokes to soften with a clean, slightly damp brush. It's very important that these ripples that are farther away from us as the viewer of the scene behind the bird, that they're smaller and also lighter than the ripples that are closer to us. So as you're painting these farther away ripples on the water, make sure that they have a softer look overall when you compare them to the ripples that are closer to us. If you fill up the entire water section with a lot of ripple shapes that might end up being too much to the point that the bird, which is the focal point ends up getting lost among all of that detail. Coming in with a tiny bit of light brown water down brown and just a tiny hint here just so that it's not completely free of ripples. Going to look a little bit too forced if I don't add anything at all there. And with that, I'm all done. 10. White Gouache: Final part of this process. Right here, I have my little guash palette. This is permanent white Guash from Windsor and Newton, and I'm just going to squeeze out a bit of that white wash onto this palette, and I have two brushes on hand. These are multimedia brushes and not brushes that I actually use for watercolor painting. I like using separate brushes for my guash because guash is an opaque painting medium and watercolor is more transparent. This larger size 12 round brush is going to be used for splattering, and this smaller brush is going to be used to enhance those white highlights and small highlight shapes. So I am going to take a tiny bit of this guash and just the tip of my paint brush. And first, I'm going to work on the liven up the highlight. If you completely lost the tier lines, you can bring them back up again, but just going over certain sections with your guash. Wash is straight out of the tube. Depending on what it is that you're doing, you might need to modify that consistency by bringing in a little bit of water into your paint. Go to intensify the highlights right here where the bird's body is coming into contact with the water. Just certain sections here and there. Adding a bit of a bright white high light into some of the ripples. Right there, you can see me create some dry brushing effects here and there. The way that you do dry brushing is you go in with just a small amount of paint in your bristles and you drag that paint brush over a section. You're going to get little areas where that paint skips over the tooth of that paper, creating an interesting broken high light shape. Dry brushing is an excellent technique for certain textures as well. Less is more, we don't want to go overboard with a white guash So I'm going to change on over to my slightly larger brush, and it's going to be time to do our final splattering with the white guash. You might have to add a little bit more water into your gushe in order to properly load up your paint brush bristles for the splattering to happen. You don't want to add too much water, though, because if you do, that is going to water down the gushe too much, and you might not even see the white specs at all. Going to focus on the lower part of the piece set a little bit more visual texture. And I'm just using the index finger of my non dominant hand to do my flicking. If you're finding that you're not able to do the splattering, make sure that the consistency of your color mixture is what you needed to be. Also make sure that you're using a paintbrush that has bristles that have a snap to them. If the paint brush bristles are too soft, then you're not going to be able to have that snap when you do this with your index finger. Just finishing up with my last bit of splattering here and there. And at this point in the process, it's very important to come back and see everything as a whole. This is going to help ensure that you don't go overboard with your splattering or any other technique that you might be using at this point to add more detail. And with that, I'm all done. I'm going to gently remove the masking tape from the edges of my painting, and I'm going to allow everything to dry completely. 11. Thank you: If you made it to this point. Congratulations, I really hope that you enjoyed this course and that you learned new tips and techniques that you can take with you to future watercolor pieces. Don't forget to share your work in the projects and resources tab here on Skill Share. I cannot wait to see it to provide any feedback that you might need, as well as answer any questions that you might have for me. Don't forget to follow me here on Skillshare because I have many new courses coming down the pipeline for you. And also, don't forget to check out all of the free resources and tutorials that I'm making available every week over on my YouTube channel, as well as all of the tips and inspiration, that I am sharing over on my Instagram. I would absolutely love to connect with you over there. Thank you so very much for checking out my course. It means the world to me. Enjoy your art practice and see you very soon.