Watercolor Brush Control Exercises for Beginners

1. Introduction: Hi, guys. My name is Nina, and I have another beginner's class for you today. I will go over watercolor brush control exercises for beginners, and I was specifically go over the use off around Russia's because I feel like it's the most risk top brushed that old beginner should have. On top of doing YouTube and skill share. I also teach private drawing and painting lessons, and the thing that I noticed with my students is when they're new to painting. And I've only been exposed to things such as colored pencils or oil pastels, which is what students start with when they're at school, and when they hold the brush, it feels very foreign to them, and without adequate brush control, pain application can be very uncomfortable and difficult. I also noticed that a lot of my followers are quite need to water colors, which is why I've decided to compile this class today, which is full off watercolor brush control exercises for beginners. However, if you're an intermediate or advanced level painter, you can also use the exercises here as warmups before you tackle your own paintings. So before we start to paint, I'm going to just go over the outline, so you know what to expect off this class. So, like any of my other classes, I usually like to start by going over this class that I use. You don't need anything specific. Just used the face that you already have because you've most likely invested in it already . And those air the supplies that you're going to keep using next. I wish your examples off round brushes that I have and compare different brands and sizes, and then we're going to go straight to exercises, starting with understanding your brush sizes. Then I will show you different brush grips where you can take advantage off the full handle , and we move on to more exercises off brushed pressure, strokes, rotations, understanding, paint load and then textures after all the technical exercises. Then we show you two paintings, which you can do using the techniques covered in the previous lessons and then finished off with closing and class protect. As usual, I recommend for students to always watch the lessons prior to painting along, and when you do decide to pain along, I suggest that you always work at your own pace, So just pause the videos in between whenever you need to. So I hope you guys enjoy this one. And there's something you have fun. 2. List of Supplies: before we start, I will just go over the supplies quickly. You don't have to have the exact same supplies, but use this place that is available to you because this is about getting comfortable and understanding your own supplies. So obviously the first thing you will need are your brushes. I'm going to talk about round brushes for this class because I find it that is the most versatile brush. And I just used different brands in different sizes that I have, and you can also do the same with the breast that you have on hand. I will go over each brand and size in the lesson on brush sizes. Here I have seven brushes, but you don't need seven. I'm just going to use these as examples. Three different sizes or two different sizes will be sufficient for this class. The next thing you will need as appellate this is my go to palette, but you can use anything you have, including disposable plastic plates or borstal in plates. For this class, I will be using a lot of the same color since I'm not going to talk about color mixing and such, So I will use this small disposable condiment bowl, too, have my main color ready mixed with water. The paints that I will be using here as my stint Great pencil watercolors says this. Classes inch for beginners. I decided to use something that is easily available for most people, but you can also use the palette that he have on hand. There's no need for fancy watercolors for this, because we're just going to cover exercises next. I always have with me a clean jar for my water, and I also used tissue to Deb off excess water on my brush. In some of the exercises, I've created exercise sheets that may require you to trace or to draw out. So here I have my masking tape to stick the paper together, a pencil and a razor. I'm also going to use my in light tablet, but you can also trace against the window or download a light up on your tablets. Lastly, here the watercolor papers. I mostly used a four sheets thes are 200. Yes and paper and the brand arto. But midway I ran out and I end up using canceled football. But you can also do this and your sketchbooks or smaller, a five watercolor paper or even large a three pages. If that's what you're comfortable with, I would suggest to have around 5 to 7 sheets off A for in case you would like to do extra exercises. And I also use small postcard size paper that I cut out for the final painting. Exercise this and here, the list of supplies written down in case you want to take a screenshot. 3. Understanding Brush Sizes: So here the brushes that I will be using as examples. These are different brands, but I'd have to say that these are probably my most use brushes. The size is very from large to small. They're mostly synthetic hair, with a few exceptions off next years. I mostly own medium to small brush sizes because I usually paint quite small. However, the exercises in this class can also be used with larger brushes, too, and just going to put them an order from largest to smallest there some sizes, which might look similar, but I've placed them and the order that they are due to the different. Here's where one has mixed here and the other one has synthetic. The difference is that mixed here is softer and more flexible and therefore also holds more water. The bristles can also spread out more as well as come to a very fine point. I find that thes brushes are probably a bit more expressive for techniques such as dry brush, where synthetic hairs are request dirty and bristles are more springy and holds together well. I'm going to start with my largest brush here. I have a size 14 by V Tech. This is a local brand, and this is a synthetic brush. It has slightly better quality than Reeves, in my opinion, because so far I feel like the bristles are holding up much better and at last longer. So firstly, I'm just going to hold down the brush with as much pressure while spreading the bristles and trying to make as wide of a stroke as I can in the next to it. I'm going to go in with the medium pressure and at the bottom, I'm going to paint thin lines just to get a rough range off sizes that I can create with this brush, and I'm going to do the same with the rest of my brushes. This next one is the mixed hairbrush. This is another local brand cold are to media. By the looks of it, this brush is actually close to the same size, if not actually smaller than this one, which is a bee text size eight. However, due to the nature of the mix, hair bristles, it can open up much more and create larger strokes. So again, I'm just going to repeat the strokes. I'm going to make the largest one that I can make a medium size and also the smaller strokes to get a rough idea off the size of this fresh. This one is a V Texas eight, as you can probably see here and putting a lot of pressure on this one, because the bristles are much more springy and stronger. So in order, suspended out completely, it did take a little bit off effort to create the similar stroke size as the previous brush . However, that's not really ideal pressure to make when you're painting, because if you repeatedly apply that amount of pressure to watercolor people, you might end up damaging the paper. This next one is reefs size 14. This was my go to brush ever since I started watercolor just because it's so affordable and it gets the job done. It's another synthetic brush. And, as you can tell, this one's gone through card. A lot says the results are already slightly fraying at the tip, and I find that this also has slightly softer hairs and they're less springy compared to the Retek. So even though it doesn't lost as long, I think it has good balance off the soft to spring Guinness off the bristles here. I'm just showing you a brand new brush compared to the one that I used. As you can see originally, this does have a really nice tip. Moving on. This is a V tech again, size two. I find myself going through this rush a lot these days because I've been painting and my small sketchbooks, and I find that this is a good size for my sketches and doodles. Next is the R two media size two and again this is a mixed hairbrush, so it's much softer and it also holds its shape when it's wet, so aren't like the synthetic brushes. The hairs might bend slightly when it's slightly damp, and I find that this is also why the brush can create more expressive strokes because the bristles are light enough to separate and create interesting textures. And finally, this as my smallest brush that I own. This is a Windsor and Newton sector gold size zero. This as also mixed hair, and I have to say that I really enjoy the quality of this brush. This isn't cheap, though. In fact, out of all the brushes that I showed you today. This is probably the most expensive, but I prefer to spend a bit more on my find till brush, because lower quality small brushes doesn't lost us long since there are barely any bristles to hold themselves together and the synthetic wants that I use free to easily, and I would have to replace them quite often. This brush, while has the slight spring. It can hold its tip very nicely in Crete, incredibly delicate lines. So as you can probably tell from looking at the small collection off brushes that the sizes and hair textures are different from brand to brand. However, synthetic brushes has mostly standard bristles. If you're a true beginner and you don't have a big budget to start this hobby, I would say to stick with the synthetic brushes. They are a really good way to start, and I would suggest to start with medium to smaller brushes like the Reese Ice 14 and the arts media sized too, and the size zero for fine lines. So you won't be too confused with handling the water control. However, to know the size that you need, you first need to understand the size that you're going to paint and use the right brush sizes so you can transfer enough paint and water to cover the surface that you would like, and this is what we're going to cover in the next lesson. 4. Brush Size Exercise: So for this exercise, you can download the word sheet to trace. This is what the words she looks like. I'm just going to quickly trace it using my light tablet. I just used a little bit off masking tape to secure the pages together, and it's good to go. The first exercise is just a Siri's off circles, ranging from large to small on at the bottom of repeated random shapes for you to fill in and practice using your chosen three sizes off brush. If you only have to, you can just skip online. On option is also for you to draw your own shapes. If you don't want to trace down the worksheets, you can also create larger circles to get a better feeling and understanding for your brush sizes. So I think that this is a good range off sizes, However, because I'm mostly paints small size paintings. I think that the size eight Retek is already considered as quite large for me, so I'm just going to use three with a size eight Retek being the largest, the size to retake being medium size and the size zero was their needs and being the smallest fresh here I have three rows off circles for each brush that I'm using. However, if you want to use more than three Brush says is, you can also trace out more circles at the bottom. Before I started to paid, though, I thought that I would just makes up a large amount off paint that I can keep going back to . Since I'm just going to use one color, I use a measure off deep green and cobalt blue. But this is totally optionally can use your appellate just like normal and pick any color that you would like to use. I'm going to first use the largest brush that I've chosen to paint the circles. This exercise is super symbol is pretty much just painting in or coloring in. Just so you get the idea off which brush size you will need to paint a particular size. I get a lot of people asking me what size brush I use for specific paintings, especially on my YouTube channel, and this is understandable, especially if you're new and jumping right into paint with watercolors. It might be a bit intimidating and confusing with old and new supplies, but this is basically what you need to look for. The brush size need to soothe size off the painting. And for tiny details, just use smaller brushes. If you're painting quite large or something like a landscape and you're using a lot off water to cover quite a big space than you would need a larger brush. I personally think that asking the brush size is actually a little bit redundant. As you can tell from the previous lesson, brush sizes can greatly very between brands. So by getting to know your brushes, you will get a idea off which brush size you will need for your personal paintings. The thing is, even if I give you specific brands and sizes, if the painting that your painting is going to be larger or smaller than mine than you might need to find the brush that is suited for your particular paintings, and you might not need the exact size that I used. And this is why I created this exercise so you can see that using a larger brush would be easier when you're painting the larger circle, and if you're using a small brush, it would be easier to cover the small circles because you don't have too much water. However, it's still doable to paint all the different circles with those sizes just not as efficient . So like for the smaller circles, I have to get rid off a lot of water on my brush. And you can tell because the brush has a very sharp tip, and this makes it easier to paint smaller circles without puddling up the space for the next one. I ease my medium size brush and, as you can tell, just from looking at the ratio off the circle compared to the brush, you can tell that the brush is a bit small, and it would take longer to paint the larger circle because the smaller brush means it can carry less water. So you might have to keep reloading your brush or as an option like What I'm doing here is to overload your brush if you know that the size your painting is quite large to make a big blob in the area, and I just spread out the paint using my brush so I don't have to keep reloading because this brush doesn't carry much water and makes it easier to paint the smaller circles because you won't risk the paint puddling up on the medium to smaller shapes. Not this part is slightly sped up because I just need to get this lesson going because I'm sure the rest will be quite self explanatory. But when you do paint a lot to this or do the exercises, I would suggest to really take your time and work with a speed that you're comfortable with . Lastly, I'm going to finish off the last row using my smallest brush, and you will see here because of my small brush. I'd have to continue to reload my brush very often as I keep running out off paint. And it can become quite a hassle while you're painting a large area to me this size and still doable to paint with tiny brush, especially if you want to use Ah what on what technique? By varying the color or alternating the colors. However, as I get towards the end, I'm sure you'll see that it becomes much easier to control at the bottom. I have also created an extra exercise. As you can see, it has different shapes, and this will help you to navigate your brush, using different breast sizes to get to the nooks and crannies off certain shapes. You can even create your own shapes if you would like Teoh for two off the shapes, I have created blobs or random shapes, and that is very useful because when you're painting, the shadows that you create might be weirdly shaped and not something that is a common shaped like circle or a square, so you can make more blobs if you would like to. And that would make really good exercise for a brush control. So moving on this is the extra exercise that I mentioned before. All you need to do is paint the shapes using different size brushes and see how meat you can paint it. A little hint for the small, sharp ends. I like to use the tip of my brush to get to the small corners, and it's also a good practice for your wrist flexibility under rotation. And remember to be mindful off painting the smaller shapes. Using your big brush, he can dump off excess paint using tissue or paper tell so the water doesn't travel too quickly and create a puddle in those tiny areas. I'm just going to speed up the section because I'm sure that you guys know what to do for this one, and you can paint this exercise in your own time, the 1st 1 I painted from the large shape to the small shapes and moved along to the next shape. However, you can also do the larger shapes first than the smaller ones. It's really up to you. We can just have your own system that you're comfortable with. And with that said, I'll just move along with this exercise, and if you understand already, you can just go ahead and skip to the next listen way. 5. Grips: for this lesson. I'm going to talk about different grips toe Hold your watercolor brushes for this particular one. I'm going to tape the sides to make it a bit neater when the lines and and it's going to be one less thing to worry about. This is an A four page that I've divided into two sections with the masking tape, and I made sure to stick my masking tape on a piece off fabric first, so it's easier to peel off later for this. I'm going to use my size eight Retek brush, but of course you may choose any that you have. I like to actually use the larger sizes to get a good range and the lines. So regarding the grips, I'm just going to specifically talk about the length off the handle and, like drawing. If you draw, you would know that the closer you hold the pencil to the tip, it means that you have more control over your lines and the further away you hold the pencil and the longer handle you have, the more loose the lines would be because off the extra handle that acts as an extension to your wrist movement and this is the same with the brush. I would say that the more neutral grip is somewhere close to the bottom, really close to the crimp off the brush and also be mindful that you also have the whole billy of the brush that you can take advantage off, which is the difference between using brushes and pencils is that we have much bigger length for the bristles, which, depending on the pressure you use, may vary the lines greatly for this position. I also like cheese, my pinky, as extra stability. But I suggest practice both without and with to give a bit of exercise to your muscles. From my experience in teaching kids who never painted before their go to position, it's like holding a pencil, which is sort of hold sideways. This is not wrong, however, because off the flexibility and the nature of the bristles, we also need to understand different positions for me. I personally like to hold my brushes up so the tip is facing down similar to Chinese calligraphy. But of course I very depending on the need, I just find that this grip gives the most flexibility, and I can also create very delicate lines. As I can see clearly how much pressure and putting on the tip in the coming lessons. I will also give the exercises on wrist rotation. However, for this lesson, we're just going to focus on painting simple lines and how to create different weights off stroke from thickest, the thinnest using different grips. I'm going to start by painting a thicker line where I hold my brush downwards so the full Billy is touching and the tip as pointing upwards, meaning I can create a thick stroke. And I'm doing this without extra stability as practice. And below that, I'm going to hold it by the side and drag the belly to the right with the tip facing the left. If you're left handed, you can paint the opposite direction, and after that one I'm going to hold it with the tip, pointing downwards and dragging it lightly decreed thin lines. It's OK of it's a bit wobbly is really normal to get that result, especially if your hands are not warm yet. But repeating this does help stabilize your grip. If it's a bit difficult with a brush because of its stuff, bristles You can also practise this with a pencil to create a long line with one stroke, which is what I get my students to do as warm up before during something big. And next. I'm just going to repeat this exercise by holding it closer with better control. And below that, I'm also going to do the higher grip with less control. As you're doing this exercise, you'll probably notice that to drag her brush and create a single line, you are using your arm or instead off your wrist. This is one of the basics that I find so useful. By engaging your lower and upper arm as well as your risk, you can create bigger movements with more flexibility. I understand that it might be difficult, and your lines might be super wobbly in the beginning, but that's totally normal. The more you do it, the more fine muscles you're going to develop for better control. This will also get you used to using bigger movements, which means cleaner lines rather than short, sketchy lines to to the limited movement off the wrist. Notice that because I'm holding the brush lower, the side of my hand is slightly touching the paper, and this creates the extra stability. When you do feel secure enough, try to also create the lines closer together and after that, tried to also create even thinner lines at the bottom way. Andi has an extra. I'm going to use my little finger to stay. Bless the neutral grip, and hopefully you can feel the difference. Instability I forgot to also mention a very important tip is that when you're painting the larger lines, it's okay to have a lot of pain on water on your brush because you are painting a large area. However, when you want to draw thin lines, it's best to slightly dub off access paint, because this will also help the brush come to find tip, and you can control it slower compared to if the brush has a lot of water that is traveling down the bristles and creating thick puddles. And for an extra practice in great ease, my little fingers stay blessed the neutral grip, and hopefully you can feel the difference. Instability, uh, eyes Last tip. One thing that I like to do is check out of. There's any slight bend to the tip of the brush and always twist and turn your rush so the sharpest tip would touch the paper as practice or exercise, he can make as thin lines as possible. Close together, as we did previously, tried to also be aware off using your full arm without resting your elbow. However, you can still use your little finger as stabilization as shown before. Repeat the lines using different grips and see if you can make the lines as then and as close as possible on top of just straight lines. You can also create different types of lines or shapes Here. As an example, I just decided to paint wavy lines with the different grips the same way as I painted the street lines before and here. I also have a few more ideas off different lines. You can try out to paint repeatedly as the previous exercise and drying it out with your full arm as before, without locking your grip with an isolated wrist on. Once I'm done with exercises, I'm just going to take off the masking tape for the clean edges. E 6. Pressure and Strokes: in this lesson, I will go over simple strokes and pressures that you can make with the round brush. As I mentioned before when we were painting lines, he can obviously paint the lines using different parts off the brush, like the Billy or the tip to make different kinds of strokes, whether it be, think or thin. But now we're going toe. Add pressure into the equation by varying the pressure. You are able to control the thickness of strokes and the bigger your brush, the moorings you will have. But the harder it is to paint than your strokes because off the heavy load of the brush can carry, I'm going to stick with the same size eight Vitek. But of course, you can switch to your other brushes to see the difference regarding the pressure. This will very if you have mixed hairbrush due to the softer bristles. So here I just tried to make a straight line whilst varying the pressure from light to heavy creating connected earlier shapes, I tried to create as delicate tips as I can whilst helping myself to stabilize the grip. Using the little finger here, I tried to make thicker ones as well s thinner leave shapes. And if you want extra practice, you can also repeat this with the different grips. The higher you hold the brush, the more tricky it would be to pick it up after putting a lot of pressure, and it might become a bit will be or shaky. But the more you practice, the more you can develop your finer muscles to stabilize your arms. I'm also going to repeat the same thing vertically, and you can also add extra exercises if he would like Teoh, he had also buried the strokes while creating the same type off pressure. So instead of making straight lines, I'm going to make them slightly curved. This is a bit exaggerated, but this can make softer, less stiff leaf shapes, seemingly from different angles. Another way is putting and taking off the pressure quickly to create on even edges, and you can also move it from side to side, toe wide in the shape, and this creates a different leaf sheet. You can also curve your wrist and create a comma shaped by adding pressure and taking it off at the very end to create a softer curve top, which people used to draw things like pedals. However, this would work better if the brush doesn't have too much off the sharp tip. You can also create something like squares or rectangles by dragging the tip off the belly across evenly. This off course can be done horizontally as well as vertically. He can also control the size off the rectangles with different pressures. So, for example, if you would like to create smaller thin rectangles or squares, you can put less pressure, so only a bit off the tip. It's touching the paper. 7. Rotation: Now we're going to go to the topic of rotations like before. I also have a small worksheet that you can trace out. There are only a few shapes to trace, and this is actually the bottom half off the sheikh from the previous lesson. But you can also choose to draw it out instead of tracing of. It's too much of a hassle, as we've previously discussed. Most of the examples were based around horizontal as well as vertical shapes, but now we're going to venture into diagonal shapes and not only just 45 degrees, but also full 3 60 This can be a bit tricky even for me. I admit that I still need to do a lot of practice and warm up before I start getting perfect rotations. But here are some examples off the exercises that I like to do personally for me. I really need to practice, creating a negative circular shape with lines coming towards it, So you can either do this free hand on, imagine the circle in the middle, or you can initially drew out the circle first and draw lines surrounding it, following the angles for the previous one. I mixed the line directions, but you can also do full circles with lines going inwards and another circle with the lines going outwards. And I feel like this is the most effective way off practicing because you'll force your rest to get into positions that you're not used to like having the tip off your brush, going the opposite direction. Now this isn't a position that you'll often find in a painting, but sometimes it does happen when you're painting things like loose flowers, and you might need the tip off your brush to constantly be on either the outside or the inside of the pedals. So even though I don't always come across this, I do like to practice this from times time for this next one. I'm painting this five tips star, and this is very simple shape. And for me personally, I like to use the tip of my brush to paint the pointed tips. So for this, I'm also going to use the same rotation as before, to paint the shape. It's a bit easier because it hasn't outlined that I can clearly follow, and it also has only five tips, so I don't have to be very accurate with every single angle, and you can trace as many star shapes or repeat any of thes exercises more than what I've done since. I'm just doing this to show you as examples. So moving on for the next one, I'm going to paint a star with many thin tips now, and I want to practice my irritations as well as the brush pressure from before. So while I'm rotating my wrist, I try to also apply less pressure at the tip. And as I paint towards the centre, I add a bit more pressure to fill in the slightly larger space for this next one. I'm going to create a basic flower shape, using the previous brush pressure exercise by creating leaf shapes whilst rotating my wrist . And I'm also going to repeat this going inwards and outwards for this. I specifically want to try to paint each off the pedals and single strokes so I get the hang off the motion of transitioning from light pressure to heavy pressure and back toe light. Again, I tried to start with an outlet first because it's a bit difficult to paint this freehand at once for me, personally, it's not so much getting the pressure, but getting the right length and angle off each pedal to get them as consistent as possible . Which is why I like to start with and outline first. And I tried to paint it freehand, going inwards as well as outwards and repeating it again and again. Until I feel comfortable enough, I'd like to also sometimes paint the pedals 90 degrees from older Russians first, then filling in the gaps in between. 8. Paint Load: I'm going to quickly go over the paint load here and how you can test it out with these squares. As usual, I'm going to paint using one brush size, but you can repeat this using different brush sizes, too. I'm going to fill in the squares with heavy load at the top, going to very light load to a dry brush as I go towards the bottom. Usually when you would like to paint a large area, you would load your brush heavily. You can see a heavy load when the brush is almost dripping with paint so you can spread it across and cover more area. It can also create really, what surfaces If we would like to create textures like blooms. When you're painting a small area with puddles off, what ain't When this happened, it takes a very long time for the paint to dry. But while the paper is at the state, you can also do things like what ana techniques and the water the surface, the more uncontrollable the pain becomes next. I just painted the square with the load that I have left of my brush, which is obviously a bit lighter than before. So this time the layer of paint is puddling less, and it's able to create something that is a bit more off uneven coverage. And now, with even less paint load, I find that for this small area, this amount off paint would make a nice flat wash with just the right amount of paint to cover the square without any excess puddles. The more I keep transferring the paint on paper, the less I have on my brush. And as the brush gets drier, the harder it is to glide across on paper and with less water or paint, you can see more of the bristles coming to a point. The drier, the bristles, the more bristle texture you'll be able to see because we're going into dry brush territory where the textures can Adam and more diesel to a painting due to the hard edges. You can check if your brushes loaded with a dry brush by either switching at first or seeing if the bristles will hold its shape when they're separated. But this technique is best paired with ah, higher paint ratio, so the hard edges becomes more visible. So here I'm going to show you how I load my brush with freshly squeezed paint mixed with the tiniest bit off water so you can really see the clear texture it creates. 9. Textures: next, we're going to use the different techniques to create textures for this 1st 1 I'm just going to point the tip off the brush up, and I do a tap in motion to create like a distant bush, and I'm going to repeat this using different paint loads to create different textures. The lighter the paint load, the more texture off the bristles. You'll be able to see which and effect gives more detail due to the lines, and I tend to use the dry brush techniques for things like four grounds and a landscape painting. Because you're able to see more detail, the closer you are to an object, and vice versa. You can also create grass textures by flicking your brush and the more paint you have loaded on your brush as discussed in the previous lessons, the figure your lines will become. So if you want to create them lines for grass, I suggest either use dry brush or barely enough pain load so the brush can hold very fine tip without the paint running out off the bristles quickly and creating puddles. And to do that, you can always stab off access paint on tissue and once you see that the brush looks fairly dry with a nice tip, that's when you'll be able to create those delicate, swished lines for natural looking grass textures. But to get to understand the paint load, I suggest painting from heavy paint load going lighter and eventually to a dry brush stage to learn the differences from experience. Another thing I want to talk about is twisting or taking your brush to create uneven lines . I usually do this to create branches so it looks nice and natural and uneven, and the lines doesn't look overly straight. When I pay the bark, I like to apply more pressure so the brush can create a thicker stroke. And as I get towards the tip off the branch, I tried supply less and less pressure until I eventually take off the brush. You can also use this technique very thinly with your tip or switch to smaller brush to create finer branches. Now I'm going to show you how to create textures, using different motions to fill in certain shapes where to convey or suggest a type of texture to an object. You can do things by tapping your brush differently here I'm topping upwards, and below that I'm going to tap sideways. And for both of these I applied quite a bit of pressure. So the strokes are nice and thick. Next here, I'm going to create a dotting and topping motion to create smaller, more detailed texture. And this, sometimes I used to paint different cake textures for the next one. I'm also going to do something that I use for other kick textures, and I use that for usually the base of a cake. This is the motion that I used to pay the base, and then I used the previous one to layer on top for more details in certain areas. You can also use different thin lines to suggest shapes in a painting, and this is something that you might use for loose paintings that use the strokes as suggestions. You can also try to think off different motions to create different textures whilst trying them out with different pressures and paint loads. The keys experiment and find textures that can make your painting look more versatile as well as organic textures. The round brush is also able to create ankle textures such as squares or rectangular shapes , as discussed in the previous lesson on strokes and as an example, this can be used to apply to painting, which requires two to paint brick sex chair on a building for a cityscape. I'm just going to do a few more random textures. You can also try things like shifting the point of pressure from the tip to the belly off the bristles. And this will give different water or paint distribution, which can create interesting textures. In the next couple of lessons, I'm going to show you small, easy paintings that you can make using some of the techniques that I went over, however, is really up to you, whether you want to create your own paintings or follow along. 10. Painting Exercise 1: Blue Flowers: for the first painting, I'm going to practice the rotation to create flowers. I'm just going to make to blue colors one light and one dark for the light blue. I use a mixture off sky blue along with purple, and I kept this lesson diluted so it creates a light blue color. And for the next one, I used the same color mixture in a thicker consistency and with the addition off black. So for this one, I'm going to use the technique that we've practiced in the lesson on pressure and rotations , and I'm just going to create them pedals, starting with four pedals first and then filling in the rest. I want the darker blue to be inside off where the pedals are pointing. So I start with the tip on the outside, going to the inside of the flower than once I'm done painting the pedals. I finished off with the dark blue mix for the center. It's up to you how many petals you want to include in flour and whether you want the tip of your pedals to be sharp, pointy or around it like mine. I'm actually going to mix it up so I'm going to use both the point tip as well. A surround it just to create a little bit of variety. I'm using my size to V Tech brush here, but can also use a larger brush. If you would like to create larger paintings, I'm just going to paint a few to create a bouquet of flowers using the same technique. Uh, once I have a few flowers bunched up, I'm going to fill in some off the white spaces using a dark blue mix. I'm just going to use the same blue mix as before for my palate, but I just diluted down so it becomes a bit lighter in color. Then I'm going to fill in the gaps. Using this color by adding hidden flower shapes while avoiding the light blue pedals. And the stark boo will help the light blue pop a bit more. A. To this point, I'm just painting very roughly, and I'm not using the previous techniques because some off the spaces are a bit random for you to painful pedals, but you can also attempt to paint full flowers if they are a bit further apart. Next for the stem and the leaves. I just created a green color by mixing sky blue, yellow, black and purple when you can also use any green that you have on hand like Sakhalin before painting all the stems. I'm also going to fill in some spaces with leaves using the pressure technique that we went over before, And the reason why I stopped painting the stems half way through is so the leaves also have some space where it won't have a line from the stem slightly covering it up. But instead I have the choice off placing the leaves there in front or behind the stents and to finish it off. I'm just going to paint splatters, using the same color mix, but with a higher pain ratio. So it's not overly to lie. I'm going toe overload my brush and topped the Russian my fingers to get some spiders around the flowers, and that's pretty much it for the first painting 11. Painting Exercise 2: Lavender Bouquet: for the last painting. I'm just going to paint a bouquet off lavenders. And this one super simple I'm just going to use, like, a comma shape, or like a teardrop shape as practiced and the previous lessons. So I want to put a bit of pressure at the beginning and then slightly flicking it as I take my brush off the paper and we're going to pay like a cluster of them to represent the shape off a lavender. If this is something new for you, you can try to repeat this motion on the scrap piece of paper first before painting the real thing. Then for the leaves. I'm going to use the exact same motion, but I'm going to create a slightly longer line to differentiate it from the flowers. And, as usual for this them. I want to make sure that my brush is only slightly what's so. It keeps nice pointy tip, and you're able to create delicate stems with tip of your brush. If you want a slightly different look to this painting, I suggest to mix up a bit off dry brush technique to create different textures. But I'm going to keep mine nice and simple for this one. For the colors, I'm going to use purple, sky blue and a touch of black to slightly mute the colors. And I'm going to keep the colors like this on my palette so I can vary the colors, whether I want to add more officer in color, like more purple in the mix or more sky blue in the mix. I love this way of color mixing, so the colors that I use work together well, but they're not completely the same, and I'm just going to make those markings as practice before. And as I paint towards the top off the flour, I want to make them smaller. I also like to create gaps after painting a few sections of the flower and alternate them so they look nice and natural. I also like to mix up the size so they don't all a completely uniform. And as for the placement, I like toe angle, the ones I please on the side slightly so I can round them up as a UK later when I finish up the painting. So I'm just going to continue painting the flowers for the time being until I have something that is close to think. OK off lavenders Aziz for the grains. I'm going to mix in sky blue, yellow, black and a touch of purple so you can vary the ratio to create different tones of greens. Or, if you want, you can also just use any creams that you might already have on your palate. So, firstly, I'm going to use the screen to paint some off the stems again for this one. I want to make sure that my brush isn't overloaded so I can make nice and delicate stems without worrying on the pain running too fast. I'm painting them quite short at the moment, and in certain areas like this one, I'm also going to add more flowers so it doesn't look too empty and the stems also doesn't look too long. And then after that, I'm going to continue on to paint the stems again until I can point them all in the same area where I can tie them off as a bouquet. Yeah, I'm also going to add a bit of darker green by adding more black and sky blue and the mixture and using a thicker consistency than before for some of the sounds to vary the value, so there's a little bit of depth in the composition. Next, I took a very watery black to paint the rope so it turns great on paper. And for that I just create a couple of curved lines and leave that to try. Then I continue to paint the steps below the rope, and once the base color of the rope is completely dry, I decided to go over it with a slightly dark, agree to paint some off the defining lines and to finish everything off. I'm going to add some leaves on parts of the stamps, which look a bit empty, and that's pretty much it for the lavenders. You can also finish off the road by tying a small bow if he would like to 12. Closing and Class Project: congratulations in completing this cost for the class project. I would love for you to paint along to the exercises that I have given. I have attached all of the word sheets at the downloadable sections, but she can trace. However, if you want to draw your own shapes, your also free to do that. I just find that tracing the exact shapes might give you a little bit more accuracy and even this throughout the shapes and sizes. We can also repeat any of the exercises using different brushes that you might have, and you can also add on to any of the shapes, textures and strokes if we can think of any outside of the ones that I have given. If you would like to see more beginner painting tutorials, I also have a YouTube channel, which I post weekly watercolors tutorials, and you can also use that as extra practice. If you would like to see more art by me, you can also follow me on my instagram at I g underscoring Janjalani if you're still here. Thank you so much for watching till the end. I wish you the best of luck for the class project and I shall see you at the next class. I