Watercolor Christmas Projects: Create Wreaths and Holiday Cards | Joly Poa | Skillshare
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Watercolor Christmas Projects: Create Wreaths and Holiday Cards

teacher avatar Joly Poa, Watercolor Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction Video

      3:01

    • 2.

      Class Overview

      4:27

    • 3.

      Supplies for the Class

      6:43

    • 4.

      Pine

      2:19

    • 5.

      Cedar

      3:30

    • 6.

      Holly

      4:30

    • 7.

      Mistletoe

      4:57

    • 8.

      Fillers

      3:31

    • 9.

      Cotton

      3:49

    • 10.

      Pine Cones

      4:33

    • 11.

      Poinsettia

      6:24

    • 12.

      Twigs

      1:38

    • 13.

      Ribbon

      3:38

    • 14.

      How to Paint Small Wreath

      10:14

    • 15.

      How to Paint Border Wreath

      9:19

    • 16.

      How to Paint Christmas Ball Glass

      10:18

    • 17.

      How to Paint Christmas Ball Twigs

      7:39

    • 18.

      Class Project: Christmas Wreath Part 1

      8:34

    • 19.

      Class Project: Christmas Wreath Part 2

      11:02

    • 20.

      Class Project: Winter Wreath Part 1

      8:48

    • 21.

      Class Project: Winter Wreath Part 2

      10:53

    • 22.

      Christmas Gift Ideas Part 1

      8:23

    • 23.

      Christmas Gift Ideas Part 2

      7:30

    • 24.

      Final Thoughts of the Class

      2:21

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About This Class

Christmas Season is HERE! I am sure that you are looking for gifts to give to your family or friends. Well, you have come to the right class. :) Handmade gifts are great because it is unique and made with love! In this class, we will learn how to paint holiday themed wreaths and cards for beginners.

We will learn 10 botanical elements which are the following:

  • Pine, Cedar, Mistletoe, Holly, Fillers, Pine Cones, Poinsettia, Ribbon, Cotton and Twigs

This class is filled with projects that you can choose from. Here are the wonderful projects in this class:

  1. Mini Wreath
  2. Border Wreath
  3. Christmas Wreath Big 
  4. Winter Wreath
  5. Christmas Ball Glass
  6. Christmas Ball Twig
  7. Cutout Holiday Card

The wreath paintings can be framed and given as a gift. Write down the favorite quote of your friend in the middle of the wreath to make it more special. You will also learn how to form your own wreath.

A simple gift that you can learn in this class is a card. You will learn a special trick about how to fold your card properly to make it look more professional. :)

Everything looks so fun to make! Let's start making our gifts! 

Meet Your Teacher

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Joly Poa

Watercolor Artist

Top Teacher

Hi everyone!

My name is Joly and I am a watercolorist based in the Philippines. I discovered painting with watercolor back in 2013. I started out as newbie and learned to paint better through making mistakes and learning from other amazing artists. I just love how we can express ourselves through painting, creating wonderful watercolor florals using our artistic interpretation. It makes each painting really unique!

My instagram account (@jolypoa) serves as my art journal where I post my progress in the form of timelapse videos, real-time videos and photos of my paintings. My goal was also to be able to share what I have learned in watercolor. I hope to be able to do the same here on Skillshare! :)




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Transcripts

1. Introduction Video: Greeting season to me Joly. That's my name. [MUSIC] Hi, my name is Joly and yes, that is my real name. I'm a watercolor artist based in the Philippines. I'm also known as Jolypoa on Instagram. I love painting flowers. That's where I post photos of my paintings. Also, paint process videos just like this. I usually share anything about watercolor in my Instagram account. [MUSIC] Christmas season is here, and I'm pretty sure that you're looking for gifts to give to your friends or to your family. You have come to the right place, because today we are going to learn how to paint some simple and easy watercolor Christmas projects [MUSIC]. Lets start the class, we will talk about the materials that you need to get started. Then you will learn nine botanical elements, which are the following. [MUSIC] For our mini projects, we are going to paint a mini wreath and a border wreath. You will also be painting some decorative Christmas balls, and this is actually one of my favorite projects in this class. After learning all the skills in this class, you can paint your own wreath, like this one, or a winter wreath that you can put in a frame to give as a gift. Aside from framed paintings, I will also be teaching you guys how to fold a card properly so that it looks like it's professionally made. I'm also going to share with you this really fun holiday card and this is a greeting card with some cuts out watercolor paintings that you guys can also make. This class can be both enjoyed by beginners and also seasoned artists, as I will guide you step-by-step, on how to paint these Christmas elements. The goal of this class is for you to learn the basic watercolors Christmas elements and eventually create your own unique wreath or holiday card. Let's start painting. [MUSIC] 2. Class Overview: [MUSIC] This is just a class overview as usual. We're going to start with the materials first, and then we'll talk about these botanical elements. As you can see, I painted everything in actually just one sheet. You can also do this as well because I think that it looks good as a painting. Can frame this one. Then we'll talk about how to paint a poinsettia. I find it difficult to paint poinsettias because they have a lot of layers. But in this class, I'm going to simplify how to paint a poinsettia, and you can easily follow this painting. After learning all the botanical elements, I wanted some sort of a warm up for you guys, so I decided to include a mini wreath like this one, and also this border leaf, so these will be composed of mostly leaves and fillers and some berries so that it's just easy to paint, but at the same time you'll be able to create a small project. Of course, once you're comfortable already with painting a wreath, because we painted a small one, we can now proceed to painting a bigger one and a more complicated wreath, but it's still easy to paint. This one just has poinsettia with some cotton and pine cones and some of the other floral elements that we have practiced. You can also paint your own winter wreath. For those of you who doesn't want a warm wreath, and you wanted something a bit cooler, a bit more blue, you can also paint this one, so that's the reason why I've included this in the class just to give variety and to give you more ideas on what you can paint. Just in case you're wondering, these are actually all the same botanical elements that we have painted. I just turned them into blue. You can also do that. You can change some of the colors, make it purple or pink if you want. I've also added a five petaled flower over here. After painting the wreath here, and I'm going to paint some Christmas balls that are decorative Christmas balls. It looks like this one, and this is actually one of my favorite projects. I made this into blue so that it will look like it's glass, and then it's filled with a lot of pine cones and some berries and pines. This is such a simple project but it's so pretty, and I've included a gold string over here that I just painted using a metallic paint. After learning how to paint this, you can turn it into a Christmas card, so I made one over here. I won't be doing a demo of this Christmas card anymore since it's pretty much the same as the other Christmas ball that we painted, I just made it a little smaller. This is just one of the ideas which I'll be discussing towards the end of the class, so don't worry about that. Also another Christmas card that I wanted to show you. This is just a border wreath, but it's a different style and I will discuss that more later. Another idea that you need to check out towards the end of the class is this Christmas card with some cut out botanical elements over here. I will show you how I prepare this. Also I'll be teaching you what they said in the introduction video. We are going to discuss how you can fold your paper or your card properly so that you'll get a really nice and clean edge. This class is really filled with a lot of ideas, a lot of tips, and I'm really excited for you guys to try out the paintings that I will teach you, and so let's start. 3. Supplies for the Class: [MUSIC] Let's talk about the materials, and I'm going to start with the brush. I am going to use this black velvet brush. This is a size 6, it's called a round brush. I will mostly be using size 6, but you can also use size 8. When you're choosing a round brush, make sure that you use a brush that is pointy. I love this brush because even if I load this with a lot of water, it still keeps its point. For the paint, I'm going to use the ShinHan PWC. This is a Korean artist grade paint, and it comes in tubes like this. I just squeeze it out on the pans. Another brand that I can recommend is The Art Philosophy, Watercolor confections. When you buy this, it already comes in a half pans like this. For the colors, here are the colors that we will be using in this class. I'm going to be using permanent red, crimson lake, sap green, olive green, hookers green, burnt sienna, burnt umber, sepia, indigo, prussian blue, and cerulean blue. This is also another paint that I will be using, but this is optional. If you don't have this, it's okay. This is the Art Philosophy, metallic accents. I wanted to use some metallic paints for my greeting cards, and it just gives life to a painting. But of course this is optional, so you can choose not to use metallic paint, and we will also be using a white gouache. This is the Holbein gouache. It comes in a tube. I'm going to show you what it looks like inside, and this is quite opaque. They love using this to paint some snow, so I would recommend buying this white gouache. Another material that we need is this white pen. This is the uni-ball signo broad, and you can also use a different brand. This just produces a really opaque white stroke. I hope that it's convenient, and it comes in a pen, so I don't need to wash anything. If I wanted to use this, I'll just draw some details, and that's it. You'll see me use this a lot in this class. We also need a mixing palette. This is just the lid of my paint box. You can also use a ceramic palette or even just a plain ceramic plate. You will need a glass jar for our water, and of course some tissue to blot out the excess paint in our brush. For the paper, I'm going to use Saunders waterford, and this is cold pressed, and the thickness is 300 GSM. I love using cold press paper for loose florals. If you want to paint realistic florals, go for the hot press, because the hot press paper has a really smooth texture. This paper comes in a block form, so I'm just going to show you. All the sides are glued except for one part right here. One block, this one has 20 sheets of paper, and you have a space here where you can just slide your cutter or a palette knife right here to take out one sheet of paper after you've painted. The reason why people use blocks is because, it keeps your paper in place, and it prevents your paper from warping or being too wrinkly when the paper is super wet. But of course, you can buy a large sheet of watercolor paper and just cut it into smaller pieces, because usually the blocks like this, it's more expensive compared to buying one large sheet of watercolor paper. We're using a pencil, so use any pencil that you have [LAUGHTER] it doesn't have to be a special pencil, because we are just going to use this to draw some guides for our painting today. You also need this masking tape. This is just regular masking tape. Thickness is about half an inch, but you can use other sizes. You can just cut it, and you're going to use this for our border [inaudible]. We're not done with the materials for the painting part, but if you will be doing the Christmas card that I will show you at the end of the class, you will need paper. Try to choose thick paper for the Christmas card. This is roughly around 200 GSM, and you can use your card stock if you have one. Then we'll need this double-sided tape that has foam, also need some scissors and also a ruler. That's it for the materials, let's move on to the next video. 4. Pine: For our first botanical element, we're going to paint this pine. To start with this leaf, we are going to prepare some burnt umber. You can also use burnt sienna. We're just going to paint the center first and I'm going to paint just a thin line. Then let's just grab some sap green. We're going to paint thin lines. I'm just going to use the tip of my brush and I'm just going to paint some quick strokes. They will look like needles so we can paint it in different directions. I usually like starting from the center, going outward. The thin strokes can be easily achieved when you paint really fast. Just make some quick strokes and you'll be able to create these expressive thin lines. Let's go on with the second layer. I'm going to just grab some indigo and I'm going to mix it with my sap green to create a deeper color. We are just going to paint another layer of those needles. I'm just painting on top of the first layer that we did. Again, I'm just painting it in different directions because that will look more natural. Also adding that darker shade of green, it just gives this pine more depth. We are almost done. This is a good and easy warm-up exercise for you guys and I love the Christmas Eve feel that this pine gives to a wreath or a floral arrangement. Let's move on to the next video. 5. Cedar: Right next to the pine is some cedar that we are going to paint. I'm just going to grab my sap green. Let's paint the center again. I'm going to paint the stem. Let's start with a thin stroke and then we're going to paint some branch like strokes. I'm going to paint some tiny leaves using sap green. But there's too much paint in my brush and I am getting those puddles. I'm just going to dab my brush in my tissue paper just to take out the excess moisture. Let's start painting these tiny leaves. I'm just stamping my brush. I'm using just the tip of the brush to stamp some strokes that will look like small leaves. For me, this is a no-fuss leaf. It's very easy to paint. You need to just dab your brush lightly on the paper just to create these small strokes. You can paint the leaves individually, or sometimes you can combine some of the tiny leaves and it will still look pretty. Let's grab some olive green. I just wanted to change the green color in the cedar. Whenever I paint leaves, I usually love changing the shades of green to make it look more interesting. I love how cedar looks like a spray of tiny leaves. I'm just going to continuously dab my brush lightly. As I go up towards the tip of the leaf, I am making smaller branches. Let's add another line in the center to make it thicker. Right now it feels like this cedar looks a little empty, so I'm just going to add a few more small branches. You can also add some indigo to our sap green and just create deeper shade of green. Let's add one more branch over there. It's nice to use a pointy brush for this cedar. A pointy brush just makes it easier to create thin strokes and also small leaves like this. This is the last project I'm going to add here. We don't need to make this look so perfect. As you can see, I'm also painting the tiny leaves in different sizes. Some are actually smaller, some are a little bit bigger. That will make it look more interesting. We're done. 6. Holly: [MUSIC] So hollies are very popular Christmas ornaments and we're going to paint them today. We are going to start with the berries and I'm going to grab some permanent red. Let's just paint a cluster of berries and I'm going to paint some round shapes. Now let's add a deeper shade of red. I'm going to add Crimson Lake and I'm doing this so that the berries won't look flat. So I'm just going to add more berries and I'm also leaving some white spaces so that the berries will be defined and they won't look like one big clump of berries. We can also just dip our brush in the water jar and just tap the excess paint out so that you can get a lighter shade of red and you can let the berries bleed into each other. Let's move on to the leaves. I have here some Hooker's Green. I'm going to teach you different ways to paint the leaves. One way to paint the leaves is to start with this shape. This is a regular shaped leaf that's pointy on two ends and I am also allowing it to bleed into the berries that are still wet. Now let's add some scallop shape on the sides. I'm just drawing these shapes and I will fill them in later. This is just one way to paint the scallop shape holly leaves. I think this is one of the easier ways to paint this type of leaf. It could be because we had a guide in the beginning. We had the shape of an ordinary leaf and we just added some jagged edges on the side so they almost look like thorns on the sides of this leaf. So another way to paint this leaf is to just draw the outline and I'm using sap green here. So we're going to draw the scallop shape and after painting the outline, we are going to fill this in with color. So I'm still using sap green here. While the leaf is still wet, I'm just fixing the shape and extending some of the points. Let's paint one last leaf and I'm going to use the first method. Again, let's paint our base and then just add those scallop edges. So you can also try to draw the shape using pencil and just fill it in with color if that makes it easier for you. While this is still wet, I'm just going to drop in some indigo to add some shadow and depth. This is a technique that you can also apply to different leaves or even florals. Now that I'm done, I'm just going to let this dry and we're going to add more details. So I'm just checking and this seems to be dry and I'm using my white pen. This is the Uni-ball Signo White Pen. I'm adding some highlights to the berries just to make it look more interesting. Just adding these small details just makes your painting look more alive. So let's move on to the next video. 7. Mistletoe: [MUSIC] In this video, we are going to paint mistletoe like this, and I will be layering the leaves so that we can see the white berries on top of the leaves, and I will show you how to do that. Let's start with some sap green mixed with indigo, and we are going to paint a stem first. The mistletoe have leaves that are long and slender and they are slightly curved. Let's just paint a thin line as the stem, then let's paint a loop for the leaf. I'm just going to paint outward and go back in to where I started. That was just an outline, so I just filled in some color for the leaf. Let's do it one more time on the other side. Let's just paint the outline and it doesn't really have to be just one stroke, you can paint small strokes until you form that leaf. That's sweet, another pair of leaves at the top of the stem. All right, so there's too much paint on this leaf, so I'm just going to let my brush soak up all the excess paint. When you're doing that, make sure that your brush is quite dry so that it can absorb the extra paint on the paper. Let's extend this then let's add one more pair of leaves. I'm still using the same sap, green, and indigo mixture. Of course we can go back and just fix the shape of the leaf. Let's just wait for this first layer to dry. When this is already dry, we are going to add another layer of leaves. For the second layer, I'm going to make sap green with a little bit of Prussian blue. Let's add a second layer of leaves and it's going to be the same procedure as the first few leaves that we painted on the first layer, so we're just going to create a loop and it can be just an outline and we can later on just fill it in with color just like what I did. As I'm adding the second layer, I'm also making sure that there's enough overlapping space wherein I can draw the white berries later. You're done with the second pair. Let's move on to the last pair of leaves. It might be a little tedious to create these loop shape leaves, but the effect or the result is really, really nice. After painting the second layer, we're just going to let this dry. Now that this is already dry, we're just going to use a white pen. This is the uni-ball signal white pen and I am going to paint or draw these small berries. I notice that with this pen you need to hold it at an almost upright angle so that the ink flows better. You can also use gouache or poster paint to paint these white berries, but I just love using this pen because it's so convenient and I don't need to watch anything anymore. It's just easier to paint round shapes and these white berries will look really good on a dark background. We'll finish the look of the mistletoe. I'm just going to grab some very pigmented indigo or black paint and just paint a small dot on each berry. All right, so we are done. 8. Fillers: [MUSIC] Let's paint berries like this. Fillers are actually very important when you're painting wreaths or floral arrangements because they just fill in those small gaps. It just makes the wreath or floral arrangement look fuller. So I just started with a permanent red color. You're just going to paint some round shapes. I've decided that the stem will be also red. You can of course, change the colors of the berries depending on the wreath that you are painting. I'm just going to rinse my brush and tap the excess water out so that I can paint a lighter shade of red. I'm doing that to make this filler look more interesting. Just give it more depth by adding different shades of the color. So you can paint as much berries as you want. It also depends on how big the gap that you want to fill in. Let's paint some simple leaves. Right here I'm just mixing cerulean blue and sap green. So this is a type of filler that looks good for some winter floral arrangements or a winter floral wreath. I think I'm going to add a little bit more blue. We want the overall look of this filler to be cool. It looks wintery. So we are done that's the last leaf. Now let's try to paint another filler. This is just a more pigmented cerulean blue. Let's start with a thin stem. And I'm just going to lightly stamp my brush on the paper to create these small leaves. Sometimes we can add fillers that are darker just to provide more contrast to your wreath or to your floral arrangement. Let's paint a round tip leaf. So this looks a little bit similar to the mistletoe, but I wanted to create a fatter leaf. And here I'm using just sap green. When you're adding this filler, you can also change the color. You can add a little bit of blue, or you can even add a little bit of violet. I'm just going to let this dry and we're going to add some details. I'm using my uni-ball signal pen and I'm going to paint some veins using this white pen. I think this method makes it look more interesting, but of course you can also use a darker shade of green for the veins. So we are done with the fillers. 9. Cotton: [MUSIC] In this video we are going to paint this fluffy cotton. To start I'm going to grab some sepia and I'm going to dilute it with a lot of water. This is the mixture that I will use to paint the white parts of this cotton. So I'm just going to paint four separate round shapes that resembles my reference, which is on the upper right. That is just an artificial cotton because I couldn't find the real one in our country. I just got an artificial one. I'm going to leave a white space in the center of this cotton. And while this is still wet, we can of course go back in and just fix the shape. To give life to this cotton I am going to add a very diluted cerulean blue. By doing this it will give a life to this cotton plant that I'm painting. So I'm just painting on top of the very diluted sepia. Now let's grab some very pigmented sepia. I don't want my brush to be too wet. I'm just going to dab it on the tissue. We are going to paint this on the center of this cotton plant that we painted. I wanted to control how this paint spreads. That's why I wanted it to be a little on the dry side. Let's wait for a little while for this first layer to dry. I'm just going to mix up some sepia and burnt umber. All right, so let's paint the sepal. So I'm just copying from my reference. It's very helpful to have a live reference. It could be a real plant or an artificial one. I'm just creating these pointy strokes. I'm just going to rinse my brush to achieve a lighter shade of brown, and I'm going to paint these curved strokes. I'm going to rinse my brush and tap the excess water out. Let's start to fade the strokes just one side of this stroke. By doing this, we are defining the four separate cotton balls. You can see that it's now more defined. We can also spread some of those brown colors but make sure that it's very diluted so that you don't end up with a brown cotton. So while this is still wet, we can go in and add a very diluted cerulean blue. I really love the pop of blue on those cotton balls. That's too much blue right there. So we're just going to absorb it using tissue. Now, all right, so we are done. 10. Pine Cones: [MUSIC] Let's paint some pine cones. I want pine cones with snow. Let's grab some brown sienna and I'm just diluting it with water. Let's just damp our brush. We're going to start at the top of the pine cone. I'm going to paint one stroke over there, and then let's paint some U-shape strokes. Let's try to zoom it a little bit. I am just gliding my brush. I'm holding it at a 45 degree angle. I'm just letting it glide on the paper to create those U strokes and also painting quickly, leaving some white spaces to make those strokes more defined. The first layer of our pine cone should not be that pigmented, because we are going to create a second layer which will give more definition and depth to our pine cone. Let me show you how to paint it one more time, and then painting slowly right now. But from my experience, it looks a lot better when you're painting quickly. These are just short, small strokes. They look like the folds in a pine cone. You can also go back to some of the parts in the pine cone to fix some areas that doesn't look good. I'm going to let the first layer dry. When this is already dry, we can add the second layer that will give this pine cone more depth. Let's just grab some burnt umber, and I'm going to paint the same strokes. But I'm also leaving the white spaces. Why I'm not painting on top of all the white paces. I'm also leaving some of the burnt sienna on the first layer as is. The second layer will look like shadows of the folds on a pine cone. Just continue painting the U strokes. They don't have to be in a uniform shape. Some U strokes can be wider, some can be narrower, some can be bigger or smaller. If you want a more defined pine cone, we can also grab some sepia. This is a really dark brown color. I love adding this towards the bottom of a pine cone. I'm adding this while the second layer is still a little wet so that they will blend with each other. We're done with that and we are now going to add the snow. But first I have to let this dry, make sure that the pine cones are dry before you add the white gouache that will serve as our snow. The reason why you want the painting to be dry is because you don't want the gouache or wet gouache to mix with the brown color on the pine cone, and we want a really defined white paint on the pine cones. I am just mixing these gouache with a little bit of water and we are just going to dab this lightly on some areas of the pine cones. I'm just adding it randomly. I'm not making any pattern. It's like stippling your brush, just adding these tiny strokes that will look like snow. You're done with the first one. Let's do it again on the second pine cone. We can also use poster paint or if you want to use the white pen, you can also do that. But when it comes to painting a larger area, I do prefer using white gouache over the white pen. We are done. As you can see, it was really quick and very easy. 11. Poinsettia: [MUSIC] In this video, we are going to paint this poinsettia, and this is just an artificial poinsettia. Let's just start with the center. I'm going to make it pretty simple. Let's grab some sap green, and I'm just going to paint four oval shapes in the center. We are going to beat a simplified version of a poinsettia today. You can also use pencil to sketch the shape of the petals just like what I did here. I used it as a guide for painting this poinsettia, and I just grabbed some permanent red using my size 6 round brush. I'm just going to gently press my brush and create half of the petal, and I'll go back in, going downwards, and I will fill in the other half. As a guide, we will start with five petals, so we will repeat the same petal. Let's just crag our brush and then just slowly press it to create a broader stroke. As I'm ending the stroke, I'm also lifting my brush to create a pointy tip. To create a lighter shade of red, I'm just going to dip my brush in the water just to get rid of the excess color. We're just going to play around with the colors here and it doesn't have to be all in permanent red. You can also use other colors. Poinsettias have different colors. I've seen them in white and also in pink. You can also use a size 8 brush so that the strokes will be bigger. We are done with the first five petals and now we are going to paint in-between those petals. Let's paint the petals in-between. I'm just going to drag my brush in an S motion. This petal can overlap with the first layer that we did or you can also leave white spaces. It really just depends on you. With our poinsettia flower, we can vary the shapes of the petals and that will actually look more organic or more natural. With some petals, I'm also curling the tips since you can see some of the tips are slightly curled. I'm just going to grab more permanent red and we're going to paint on that part. As you can see, I've changed the shades of red. Some are a bit lighter, some are darker, and that will look very, very nice at the end of the painting. If you have any imperfections, don't worry about it because we are going to layer another one later, so you will most likely cover that imperfection. I'm just going to let this dry and later show you a finished product that I did. You will be painting this in a while. We're going to add those smaller petals. This is already dry and we're going to add the smaller petals using permanent red. For the smaller petals, I'm going to create five petals. Whenever I'm painting five petals, I use a star as a guide so I'm thinking of the five points of a star. We can also add a little bit of crimson to our permanent red just to change the color a little bit and make it look more interesting. If you wanted to create a winter wreath, you can actually use a poinsettia. Just change the color. I can make it blue or a little bit purple. Just have fun with painting this flower. We're done with the flower, and right now I'm going to let this one dry. We are going to add some veins using white pen and also a darker shade of red. I'm using the uni-ball Signo white pen again. We are just going to add veins to some of the petals. I usually just start with the center and then I add those small branches on the side. We're going to add this randomly. I have decided to put these veins on the first three petals; the smaller petals. I'm going to grab a more pigmented red, and we can also add veins using this style. I'm using my size 6 round brush. If you don't have a white pen, you can use this technique for the petals of this poinsettia. Another fun idea would be to use a gold pen if you have one or a gold paint to create the veins. You can also add some glitters, or if you have glitter glue, you can use that as well to add veins through the petals. For some of the petals, we're just going to leave them blank just so that it doesn't look so cluttered. We're on the last petal. We are done. 12. Twigs: [MUSIC] Let's talk about how to paint the twigs in a wreath. I'm just grabbing some burnt sienna and let's just mix it on our palate. Let's paint some short and quick strokes. It will look like I am breaking those strokes. During this technique will give us an effect where it looks like the branches are intertwining. I rinse my brush, create a lighter shade of brown. As you can see, I'm also pulling some of the colors from the first few strokes that we made so it's like bleeding into the lighter brown color. We can also lay a darker brown. I'm using burnt umber here, a more pigmented mixture. We can also add an even darker color, which is sepia. I'm just creating all of these strokes that will look like mini branches. We can also paint some thin strokes that will look like twig sticking out. Just to blend in all of those strokes. Going to rinse my brush. I'm going to paint with water. I'm painting on top of all the strokes that we painted awhile ago. I just want some of the colors to bleed into each other just so that it looks more cohesive. That's it. 13. Ribbon: [MUSIC]. Let's paint a ribbon just like this. We are going to use that for a Christmas ball later. Right now, I just sketch the shape of a ribbon and I'm going to paint on top of it. I'm just using permanent red. You're going to paint the center first. This one looks like a square with rounded corners. Then let's try to paint the right part of this ribbon. I'm just painting some strokes. These are thin strokes. I'm just slowly building the shape. We want to leave some white spaces that will look like the highlights or will also look like the folds or pleats of the ribbon. Let's do the other side. Again, I'm just painting these thin lines. I'm just going to slowly form the shape of this ribbon. You can also paint the outline first before you fill in the color inside. While the ribbon is still wet, we can go back in to fix some areas that are uneven. We can proceed to painting the tail. I'm just going to try to paint the outline first and then going to fill that in with color. You can also paint two parallel strokes like this. They look like S shapes. Then you can just create a letter V at the bottom and then just fill this in with color. Let's grab some crimson lake. I'm just going to add this as a shadow to this ribbon just so that it doesn't look too flat. I like adding this near the knot of the ribbon. You can also add the complimentary color, which is green, so it makes that into your crimson lake or red color and it will create a deeper shade of red. I'm just going to let this one dry and we'll add more details. I'm going to use my white pen to add details. I'm going to try to add some strokes over there. I'm in the center just to separate it from the sides. Let's add some more strokes. I want to add more lines near the folds of this ribbon. It will give this illusion that there are folds or pleats in this area. We can also add some white lines on the tail. That's it. We're done. 14. How to Paint Small Wreath: [MUSIC] Combining all the botanical elements, we're now going to paint a small wreath. Use any round shape object and just trace it so that you have a guide. I just use an ordinary pencil and we're going to paint a smaller wreath like this. I'm going to start with some sap green and let's paint some oval-shaped leaves. We are going to paint a quick and easy mini wreath. Now let's add a little bit of Prussian blue to the sap green and let's paint one more leaf so we can layer this later once it's already dry. I'm going to rinse my brush and I'm going to get some permanent red. Let's just paint some berries. We can also paint some holly and I'm just going to paint the base first. Once we are done with the base, you can paint the scalloped edges and you can continuously just fix the shape while it is still wet. I'm going to rinse my brush to create a lighter shade of green so I'm going to start again with my base leaf. Then let's just add some scallops again. Let's move on to painting some pine and I have here just burnt sienna. I'm going to paint the center and then you can grab some sap green and I'm going to paint some needle strokes. Just paint quickly to create these thin strokes. If it's your first time to paint a wreath, what you can do is to make a pattern. You can choose maybe three botanical elements, for example you can start with mistletoe and then holly and then pine and then start with the mistletoe again, then holly and pine and so on. This will just help you create a really nice wreath to start with. Eventually, you can create a wreath with more elements. But I would suggest to start with just a few ones and right here. I started the wreath at the bottom and I'm going clockwise so that can also be a guide for you, but of course it's still depends on your preference. Let's add some berries again. I'm using just permanent red. Let's mix our sap green with some Prussian blue and I'm going to paint some oval shaped leaves again. These leaves can also be just fillers and I think we can add one more near the pine. Let's start with some holly again, I'm just painting the base shape. Then let's add some scalloped edges again. I'm just drawing these scalloped edges using a brush. Let's start with another one, but this time with a lighter shade of green. We are now four minutes into this painting and you're about two thirds of the first layer. Let's change the color of the berries and I'm going to use crimson lake. You can add as much berries as you want. I'm going back to the pine and I just grabbed some burnt sienna so I can paint the base of this pine and I just painted too thin strokes. Now I'm just grabbing some sap green and let's just quickly paint those needle strokes. We can layer these needle strokes with a darker shade of green so we can add some indigo to our sap green. In case I'm grabbing some sap green and you're going to paint another set of oval leaves so we can close the first layer of this wreath. Now I'm just going to make some sap green and add some random leaves on this wreath. I'm going to layer it. I love adding olive green to my wreath because it's a color that just makes the wreath look brighter and happier. Now the oval leaves are already dry, so I have here a mixture of sap green and indigo and we are just going to layer on top of the first oval leaves that we painted. When you layer the leaves, it just gives more volume to the wreath so I am just filling in those white gaps. On the left side, I will add one more oval shape, then one more on the lower right. I'm just going to keep on adding some random leaves and you can put some veins on the holly. I'm going to grab some permanent red and I think we can add a few more berries. Aside from the leaves, we can also layer some berries. Here comes one of my favorite parts. I'm going to use my white pen and I'm going to paint the mistletoe. We are going to paint some round shapes using this pen. Of course, you can also use gouache and also poster pen. I'm painting the white berries on top of the oval shaped leaves and they will look really good on a dark background. It just makes them look more pop up. I think adding these white berries just makes this wreath look more interesting and it looks more festive and it just feels more like Christmas. You can also add some veins on the leaves, using this white pen. This is such a nice technique that you can also apply to other florals even if it's not a holiday theme floral. With a very pigmented indigo, I'm just putting some white dots on those berries and even on the red berries. I think one of the keys to creating a really nice wreath is to add some contrast and also to add small details that will make a huge difference. I think we'll need to add some darker leaves so I've just mixed some sap green and indigo and we're going to paint some extra leaves on this wreath so I've made a tiny red smudge on the upper right of this wreath so one of the berries was still wet. Just be careful when you're painting a wreath so that this won't happen to you and you can blot off that red smudge or what I did was that I just painted white gouache on top of it. I'm just adding more layers of leaves. As you can see, we have more volume now because we're adding more layers. In this way, our wreath doesn't look flat. That's it, that's our mini wreath. I hope that you enjoyed painting this. You can write Merry Christmas below the wreath, or if you can fit it inside the wreath, that would be good as well. Then just cut this paper out and stick it on a blank Christmas card so that this will be your cover. 15. How to Paint Border Wreath: [MUSIC] In this video, we are going to create a border wreath. So I just have some masking tape here and I just taped them into a rectangular shape. These are four strips of masking tape and I just got these from the office supplies section. So it's not any special tape. We're going to paint some botanical elements that you learned a while ago. So this video will be slightly sped up because we're just reading the same elements as the ones that we painted in very small leaf. But this time we are just going to change the shape and we are going to paint this floral border. Later on, we're going to peel that masking tape, and that will reveal a very clean edged rectangular shape. There will be a whites-pace in the middle. It will be surrounded with beautiful Christmas elements. In the middle, you can write Merry Christmas, or happy holidays, or any message that you want. I started painting the pine first and then now I'm painting some oval shaped leaves. So it's okay to paint on top of the masking tape. Once we peel that off, you won't see any painting underneath. So I will be adding some winter filler leaves. I'm going to add some cerulean blue to my paint. I'm going to paint some leaves. You can make some of the leaves a little bit lighter or some can be more pigmented and just play around with it. Now let's add some berries and I'm going to let it bleed into some of the leaves. Now let's paint some holly and I'm using just Hooker's green. Another leaf that we learned today is a cedar. I'm using sap green. I'm going to paint the center first, which is a thin stem, and then let's add the small branches. I'm just going to stamp my brush. So I'm just dabbing the tip of my brush and I'm creating these tiny, tiny leaves. I'm also rinsing my brush to create a lighter shade of green. When you're painting something like this, don't overthink, just keep on adding these Christmas elements. Eventually they will all come together, as long as you have figured out the colors theme that you will use for your floral border or your wreath. I'm going to add some pine over there. Painting pine just gives a wreath or this floral border some volume. You can also change the shape of some of the leaves. I'm going to just paint some oval shaped leaves, and you will add another layer in awhile once this is already dry. Let's add a pop of color. I'm going to add some permanent red. You can also use crimson lake. Let's just add some berries and let it lead with some of the leaves. I think we can add some wintery leaves over here. I'm just going to use some very diluted cerulean blue. As you can see, I allowed it to bleed into those berries, and the berries look like they just faded away. I think it's nice to see some happy accidents. Just allow yourself to have fun while painting this border wreath. If you feel like there's too much paint on your paper, just grab a fairly dry brush and let that brush absorb the excess paint on the paper. Just like what I did. It's now time to add some layers. I'm just adding a cider on the left side. Just create a spray of tiny leaves. Then I want a more pigmented cerulean blue. I'm going to paint these fillers. I like adding fillers that are a bit more pigment, because it just gives more contrast to the wreath or the border. The oval shaped leaves are now dry. I'm going to grab some sap green and just paint on top of it. I just grabbed some very diluted cerulean blue and I'm going to layer my wintery leaves so that it looks fluffy. So on the upper left part, I feel like we need to add more berries, more red on that side. When painting a floral composition, just stop and look at your painting from a far. Then just observe if you need to add some more elements on one side, or if you need to add a different color. Because it's nice to see things from a different perspective. I've shared this in my previous classes that sometimes I do take photos of my painting. Then I just look at the photo and check if I need to add some more leaves or flowers. So the bottom part looks a little pale, so I'm just going to grab a more pigmented color and just add some fillers. It's now time to add the mistletoe. I'm just using this white pen. Like I mentioned in the previous projects, you can use a quash or poster paint. You can also use your metallic paint. If you have gold. You can add some gold mistletoe just to make it look a little different. Or add some gold leaves or maybe a metallic blue wintery leaves. That would also look good. Now let's just add some finishing touches on the berries. Its adding a very dark indigo dot on the berries. You can also grab a darker shade of green and just add some veins or just use your white pen to add some veins as well. I think that adding white veins on the leaves, it just gives this Christmassy and holiday feel. Let's all just wait for this to dry, and Here comes the big reveal. We're going to peel off the masking tape. This is one of my favorite parts because once you peel it, you'll see a very clean edge. This is just such a simple technique, and yet it gives such a huge effect on this border wreath. I'm pretty sure that you can use this project for your Christmas cards or even as a painting that you can put in a frame. I'm really excited to see what you can do. 16. How to Paint Christmas Ball Glass: [MUSIC] Let's paint a different kind of Christmas ball. This one will look like glass, and we'll also add some Christmas elements on the Christmas ball. To start, we need to draw a circle. I just use my makeup, but you can use any round shape. It can be a tape or a glass jar. Let's paint the inside of the circle with just water. We are going to do a wet-on-wet technique for this part, and then let's grab some cerulean blue. I'm just going to dilute it with a lot of water, and then let's just drop it in the circle and we're just going to spread it. I use the wet-on-wet technique because I wanted it to look quite soft, and I wanted to add another color in the center, which I will show you in a while. For the bottom part of this Christmas ball, I'm going to add a slightly more pigmented cerulean blue, just so that it looks like there's a shadow. While this Christmas ball is still wet, I'm going to grab just a tiny bit of sap green. Just going to mix it with a little bit of cerulean blue, and then going to drop it in the center. I'm just going to mix this, and let it blend in with the other colors. I think we can add more cerulean blue at the bottom part. Let's just wait for this to dry. You can also use a hairdryer to speed things up. Let's now decorate this Christmas ball. I'm just going to grab some burnt sienna, and I want to start with a pine cone. We can start at the top of the pine cone. I just lightly press my brush, and then we can just paint the U strokes. I'm wiggling my brush and just letting the tip of the brush move. Let's paint another one on the left side. I'm just going to start with the base first, and then you'll just go back in later to add more details. Let's move on to adding some berries. This is just to [inaudible]. I'm just going to add some berries in-between the two pine cones. We can also paint some berries on top of the pine cone. What's nice about this mini project is that you can fully customize this project. You just need to paint the base Christmas ball, which looks like in glass, and then you can add any ornaments on top of it. You can even add some glitters, or if you have some metallic paints, you can paint some designs on the Christmas ball glass itself. We can now paint some pine, and I'm just going to paint the skeleton of the pine, so we're just going to paint some thin strokes. This is just burnt sienna. I'm using this as my guide as to where the leaves will go. Sometimes I prefer doing this instead of using my pencil, because with pencils once you paint on top of the pencil stroke, you can't really erase it anymore. With the sap green color, I'm just painting some needle strokes. These are just very thin and quick strokes using the tip of the brush. Try to also change the direction of the strokes. Then I have my mixture of sap green and indigo, just to give more depth to these leaves. We can start layering the pine. I'm trying to use different shades of green, just so it looks more interesting. We can also add a little bit of brown to our green to create a more earthy type of green. I think I'm going to add a little bit more at the top. Let's just paint some thin lines, and then I'm going to paint the needle strokes again. Just try to spread out all the pines on this Christmas ball. I actually love layering leaves, and one of my favorite combinations is sap green and indigo, which I've used here a lot. I feel like adding a darker shade of green just makes the entire look of the painting more interesting, it just gives more depth through your leaves. I'm going to add some berries over there. I'm just going to spread out the berries. Don't forget to add the stem later. I'm just painting the round shapes right now, and then I'm going to add the stems in a while. It's now time to add the second layer of the pine cones. I just have here burnt umber, and I'm painting the same strokes that I painted on the first layer. But this time I'm just going to leave a little bit of the light brown color underneath and also some of the whitespaces. Now to add some depth to the pine cones, I'm going to add sepia. This is a really dark brown color, and this will just give that extra character to your pine cones. While you're waiting for this to dry, I'm just going to grab a pencil, and then I'm going to draw a handle or a string attached to this Christmas ball. Let's just grab our gold paint. This is from the brand Art Philosophy. You can use any gold paint brand that you have. I wanted this Christmas ball to look really extra special, that's why I'm using gold. If you don't have gold, you can use any other color in your palette. Now that everything is dry, we are going to add some snow effect. I just have here my whole white gouache, and I'm still using my size six round brush. I just diluted my gouache with a little bit of water, and then just going to lightly dab my brush on the paper. I'm using just the tip of the brush, and I'm just stippling my brush creating these tiny strokes. Let's do one more. This is such an easy technique, and it just give so much life to what you're painting, it just makes it more wintery. We can add some snow on some of the elements here, so I'm going to add some white snow on the berries. I think we can also add some snowy effect on the pines, and I'm just painting some white gouache on top of the needle strokes that we painted. We are done. 17. How to Paint Christmas Ball Twigs: [MUSIC] Let's paint a more elastic-looking Christmas ball. Right here I just drew a circle and I use just a round object to trace that shape. Let's mix some burnt sienna with water. Let's start by painting some broken lines. We use a brown color so that it will resemble some twigs and I'm also painting in different directions. The goal with these strokes is that it should look like we've wrapped around some twigs in a round object. I just painted with some burnt umber and then right now I'm painting with just water from my brush. I just wanted some of the colors to bleed into the water. We can also grab some CPR. This is a really dark brown color. What I'm doing is I'm adding different shades of brown. Doing this will create more depth to this Christmas ball. [NOISE] You can also add an outline on the outer part of this Christmas ball. But later on, we might need to add some twigs sticking out so that it doesn't look so perfect because you want this to look a little elastic. I just mix my burnt umber and CPR. Just going to add a few more dark brown strokes. As you can see, I'm painting in different directions. It will look like the twigs are intertwining with each other. I'm going to grab some clean water and paint some strokes using just clean water. I'm just going to drag some of the colors and this will help out in breaking down some of the strokes that look too harsh. Then we can try to add some twigs sticking out on the sides of the Christmas ball. Just paint some tiny strokes. Now let's wait for this to dry. Once it is dry, we can try to add the ribbon on top. I am just using my permanent red. Let's start with the center. Then I'm going to paint the right part of this ribbon. I will just paint some thin strokes, making some quick strokes to make it look a bit more expressive. Then we can draw this shape right now. Then you can just fill it in with color. Don't worry about the shape because we can go back to fix it later. I'm going to paint the other side. I'm making some small strokes and also leaving whitespaces. I'm making this an outline first of the ribbon so that it's easier for me to visualize the entire look of the ribbon without fully committing yet so that I can adjust the shape later on. But of course, you can sketch the ribbon using a pencil if that feels more comfortable for you. I've just got some crimson red and I'm adding a shadow on this ribbon just so that it doesn't look flat. I'm also trying to fix the shape now and try to fix the shape while the ribbon is still wet. Let's paint the tail so I'm making two parallel S shapes. Then let's just fill this in with color. Towards the end of the tail, you can paint a letter V to create some pointy tips. Right now I'm mixing a little bit of indigo into my permanent red just to add some more shadow on this ribbon, but this is optional. As we put the the shadow near the North or the center of the ribbon and also near where the tail comes from. I just waited for the entire Christmas ball to dry. Right now I have my white pen and you're just going to draw some white details. That will look like highlights. I usually love adding the white details on the ribbon just to separate some of the details, such as the center of the ribbon where the knot is. We're almost done. I just drew a string at the top of this Christmas ball using a pencil just as a guide. I'm just grabbing some metallic gold paint and we are going to paint this string using this gold paint. I really think that this will spruce up the Christmas ball that you painted. This is one way to spruce up the Christmas ball that you painted. Instead of using irregular black paint for the string, you can use metallic paints. I think that adding metallic paints just brings in a more festive look through your Christmas ornaments. Right now I'm just adding some white lines on the Christmas ball twig. You can also use some white gouache and add some white details that will look like snow. You can also add some different Christmas ornaments beside or on top of the ribbon. I'm really excited to see what you can do with this Christmas ball idea. 18. Class Project: Christmas Wreath Part 1: [MUSIC] This is one of the major class projects in this class. Today we're going to paint a Christmas tree. I just drew a circle as a guide. I just used my pencil and I also drew a rough sketch of the poinsettia which will be my main botanical element in this wreath. The size of this paper is nine inches by nine inches, but of course, you can use any size that you prefer. I'm going to start with painting the poinsettia. This will be the highlight of our wreath. One of the ways to prepare painting a wreath is to draw a rough sketch. It can be just a small sketch on a scratch paper. What you can do is you can paint the size of the wreath so it can be just one circle, and then add more circles in the wreath. I'm just going to try to draw on this paper. This is what you can do. For the main flower, I drew a bigger circle. That's the red one. Then you'll probably need medium-size flowers, which I drew in the orange color. Then I drew some pink circles, which is smaller than the orange one. It just means that we are going to paint a smaller flower in that circle, or it could also be some leaves or fillers. I hope that made sense. What you can do is also to create a pattern so you can create one big circle and then one small, another big and then another small one. When you translate that into a painting, you'll have a pattern for your wreath, so you'll probably paint a big rose. Then beside it you will paint a small five-petaled flower and then another big rose. I'm just discussing this because I know a lot of you are also confused as to how you can create your own wreath. For me, it's just mixing up the shapes and sizes of the elements that you will put in a wreath. For example in this Christmas wreath, I'm going to paint a really big poinsettia. Then I'm going to mix it up with some small pine cones and some green leaves so it will just look more interesting compared to painting all the elements in the same size. I'm now done with the poinsettia. After that, we're just going to paint the pine cone, so I just grab some watery burnt sienna. I'm going to just paint some new strokes to create the folds in a pine cone. Let's paint some fluffy cotton here. I just have here a very diluted sepia. I'm painting four cotton balls here. Let's grab our cerulean blue. I'm going to dilute that with a lot of water and we're going to drop that in on the cotton. It just gives that luminous glow. I will just grab a very pigmented sepia and drop that in the center of this cotton plant. While you're waiting for the cotton to to dry and also the pine cone, I'm going to paint wholly just beside the cotton. I will start with the berries. Then let's just grab some Hooker's green and let's paint the leaves part. As a guide, I'm going to paint an ordinary shaped leaf just like this, and then we are going to draw the scallop shapes on the side and just fill that in. I just rinse my brush to create a lighter shade of green. As you can see, the berries have bled into the cotton ball, but we can take that out in a while. We can blot out that red part in the cotton ball. Let's paint one last leaf over there. It takes a lot of patience to paint these scalloped edge leaves. I'm just going to try this part, so that I can leave off some of the red paint. I've just mixed my sap green and indigo. Let's move on to painting some oval-shaped leaves. You're going to layer these leaves once it is dry. Once the first layer of the poinsettia is already dry, we can start adding another layer of petals. I'm going to paint just five small petals. If you want a deeper shade of red, just add a little bit of green, or you can also add a tiny bit of violet. Now let's move on to adding layers on this pine cone. I just have here some burnt umber and I'm just painting some u-strokes. Then I'm going to add some sepia and just intensify those shadows. Moving on to the cotton, I'm going to grab some burnt umber, just mix with a tiny bit of sepia. I'm going to paint the sepals. Then let's just dip our brush in the water jar, just to add more water in my brush and create a lighter shade of brown. Right here, I just painted some curve strokes just to separate all the cotton balls. I'm just fading away one side of that stroke to create more definition. I will leave the other side as is, so I'm not going to fade it because I want one side to be very defined and the other side to be quite faded. We can also add a drop of diluted cerulean blue. 19. Class Project: Christmas Wreath Part 2: This is already dry as you can see. I have a little smudge over there. We are just going to cover it with another layer of leaf. That's a tip right there, if ever you have painted a floral element or just a leaf. That doesn't really look that good, but you can't erase it anymore. What you can do is just to layer another leaf or layer something else on top of it just to cover the imperfection. Let's start painting the pine. I just use burnt sienna for the center. You can use burnt umber as well. I'm just going to start painting the needle strokes using sap green. I'm painting this in different directions to make it look more natural. Use the tip of your brush and lightly touch it on the paper and move from the center of the pine going outward. To add more depth, you can just mix your sap green with some indigo to create a deeper shade of green and just add more strokes. Let's add another one near the poinsettia. You can also slightly curve the center stroke of this pine, just so that it will have a different orientation. It's nice to change the angle of the leaves to make it look more natural. This wholly is already dry, so I'm going to just add a cedar on top of it. I painted the skeleton of this cedar first, and then right now I'm slowly adding those tiny and cute leaves on the stem. Just lightly stamp your brush on the paper. You can also try to wiggle your brush a little. I've decided to add more tiny leaves. I've added two more branches to make it look fuller. Try mixing sap green and little bit of indigo. Let's just add two more oval-shaped leaves, and one more leaf over there, which has a pointy tip. I think we can now add some blue fillers. This is just cerulean blue, and I'm going to paint some leaves. I've diluted the cerulean blue so that it just looks softer. Let's just paint another pair of oval leaves. As you can see, I started painting the main elements in this wreath, and then I'm just slowly filling it in with more fillers and leaves. I'm just looking at the white gaps in between the main elements. That's where I'm going to put the fillers and the leaves. Always try to vary the leaves and fillers that you will put in the wreath so that it will look more interesting. I have here a more pigmented cerulean blue. I'm just going to make these tiny strokes that will look like small leaves. Let's add a blue leaf there, but that's too blue. I'm going to add a little bit of sap green just to tone it down a little bit. I'm just using all the greens and blues in my mixing palette, and I'm just mixing them together, so we're not going to let the colors on the palette go to waste. Then let's add another leaf over there. While we are waiting for some of the leaves to dry, I'm going to add some details. I have my white pen again and I'm just going to add some veins on this poinsettia. Again, we don't really need to add veins to all the petals. We can try alternating the details. Some will be blank, some will have some white veins. A good idea is to use some metallic gold paint, and use that as the veins for this poinsettia instead of using a white pen. Right now I'm just using a more pigmented red to add more veins. We are almost done with the details on this poinsettia. Then we are going to proceed to adding some white berries. They will look like mistletoe. This is one of my favorite details in this Christmas class. I'm just checking if it's already dry, and if it is, we can start painting some white berries. I have here some burnt sienna and my brush. You're going to paint the twigs. I'm going to paint some broken lines. I don't want the line to be super straight, so I'm making it a little crooked because it looks more natural, and I'm also varying the pressure in my brush to create a more expressive stroke. I've already introduced some burnt umber strokes. Right now I just have clean water in my brush and I'm creating the same strokes for the twigs. I'm just pulling some of the colors that are still wet. This technique will give you a softer look for some of the twigs. Then we can add some sepia and add more depth to this wreath. I'm just continuously painting the same strokes and painting it in different directions. Our wreath is almost done, but we can still add some fillers and leaves to make this wreath look fuller. I'm just going to add some simple pointy leaves using sap green. Then you can add a little bit of cerulean blue to our green. Then you can also create some oval-shaped leaves. At this point, just feel free to add more leaves and fillers. To add a pop of color, let's add some berries. I'm just spreading it in different parts of the wreath so that it just looks more balanced. The red color of the berries have bled into this leaf, but that's okay, I'm not going to clean it up anymore. I think that's a happy accident. If you want to cover it up, you can layer it with another filler or leaf, just wait for this one to dry first. I'm going to grab my white pen again, and let's just add some veins to the leaves. I'm just going to alternate it. Some leaves will have veins, some won't, just so that it doesn't look too crowded. Just to add some finishing touches to the berries, I have a very pigmented indigo. I'm just going to put some dots on the berries. You can also use just a plain pen. With a slightly darker shade of green, I'm just going to paint some veins on the leaves. This one actually looks interesting because some of the veins are white and some of them are dark-green. Then we can add more fillers. I have here some white gouache, I'm just going to add some snow on this pine cone. Then you can also add some snowy effect on the twigs. After adding some snow, I think we can add a little bit more volume on the twigs part of this wreath. I'm just going to grab some burnt sienna and burnt umber and just add more texture. We are done. Congratulations on your class project. 20. Class Project: Winter Wreath Part 1: [MUSIC] This is the second major class project. I wanted to introduce a wreath that is the opposite of what we painted earlier, which is more on the rustic and warm colors. In this video, we are going to use mostly the blue color so that it just feels cool when you look at it, and it gives you that wintery vibe. I'm going to start by painting some cotton, and I have here just a very diluted sepia. What I'm going to do is I'm going to paint maybe three pieces of cotton on this wreath, and right now while the sepia is still wet, I've just added a little bit of diluted cerulean blue, and then I'm going to drop in a very pigmented sepia in the center. Let's now add the other cotton and this one will be at the top, and I'm just going to add a little bit of cerulean blue as well. For this wreath, I'm going to paint in clusters. I'm just going to draw some circles, and that will be the placement of the cotton in the wreath. After painting the three highlights of this wreath, I am going to fill in the gaps with some leaves and some fillers. The paper that I'm using here is still Saunders Waterford, and this is nine inches by nine inches. You can of course use any size that you prefer, and the brush that I'm using is slightly bigger. This is a size eight black velvet brush. Sometimes I like changing my brush because it breaks my usual habit of painting certain strokes, which means that a new brush can help me discover some new strokes or create new florals. I've just diluted some cerulean blue and we are going to paint some leaves with a pointy tip. I will be using mostly blue colors in this wreath just to get that winter vibe. Let's grab some Prussian blue. I'm going to paint some pines. I know that the pine that we painted before, it was mostly sap green with a little bit of indigo. But for this wreath I'm going to change the color. I'm using just Prussian blue here, and we are painting this pine with the same strokes so the only difference is the color. You can be creative with this. You can use a different color. You can even use purple if you want. I'm just going to paint quickly and just drag my stroke, and also paint in different directions. I know that we mostly use red or crimson for the berries, but for this wreath we are going to change the color. Now, let's paint some oval shaped leaves, and what I did was I just mixed up green with a little bit of violet just to create that moody grayish color. It looks a little too gray so I'm going to add a little bit of cerulean blue. I want this wreath to be predominantly color blue. Most of the elements here in this wreath were discussed earlier. The only difference is that we are changing the color and making it color blue. Again, I'm going to add more blue to this leaf because it looks a little too gray. Then let's grab some cerulean blue and we're just going to paint some leaves with pointy tips. I'm introducing some sap green to my cerulean blue to create a greenish blue color. Let's get back to painting some more pine, and these are in a blue shade. As you can see, I move from the left side to the right side of this wreath, and I think that this looks more organized. If you have seen my previous classes, you would have learned how to paint the five petaled flower. Right here we're going to add that to my wreath. I'm just diluting some cerulean blue and making sure that it's quite light. I'm just painting five petals. Some of them can overlap with the cotton beside it. When painting these five petaled flower, just make sure that you create some expressive strokes, and that you feel as if you're dancing with your brush because you're swinging your brush and creating different strokes, and varying the pressure. Now I'm going to add a darker shade of blue, which is indigo. While the petals of this blue flower are still wet, you can go on and fix the shape and extend some of the petals. We have just one more small gap and I'm going to add some berries over there. If the berries are not sufficient to cover the white gap, you can add some blue leaves just like this. We are almost done with the first part of this winter wreath, and let's head on to the second video after this. 21. Class Project: Winter Wreath Part 2: [MUSIC] Now this layer is already dry and I'm going to add more details. Let's just paint the sepals first for the cotton ball and then I'm going to paint some curved strokes just to separate the cotton balls. I'm using a Size 6 round brush to fade away one side of the stroke. Fading is one of the techniques that I taught in my last lecture class, which was about using a quill brush. You can also use the feeding technique on other florals. You can use this to separate some of the petals. I'm just going to fade one side, but the other side, I will leave it as is, which means that it will have a more defined edge. I'm also adding a little bit of diluted cerulean blue because I want this cotton ball to have a tinge of blue color just to blend in with this wreath. Let's head on to the last cotton ball. If you have accidentally faded the entire stroke then just go ahead and paint another one on top of it. Let me just grab some cerulean blue and some sap green and let's start layering the leaves. For the layering of these leaves, I'm making it quite translucent, which means that my mixture isn't too pigmented. As I'm painting the leaves, you can still see the leaves underneath. Now let's grab a diluted cerulean blue and add some layering of leaves over there. I'm also adding it in different directions. Now let's just continuously add some leaves in the white gaps. We're going to start filling in this wreath and make it look fluffy. Then I'm going to grab some indigo and I will just add more depth to the pines. We're adding a darker color so that this pine won't look too flat. We can also add some stems, just a darker stem to make it more defined. With a Prussian blue color in my brush, I'm going to add more berries on this side just to balance it out and create a triangle shape here. The top-left looks lacking in berries, so I'm going to add a few more. For the five petaled flowers, it feels like we have lost some details. I'm just going to grab some very diluted cerulean blue and just paint some wispy strokes. I'm doing this so that I can separate the petals, and then I'm adding some indigo in the center just to deepen this color because I want the center to be quite bold in color. We can start adding some oval shape leaves. This is just indigo with sap green and a lot of water. I think that this shade looks really great, it looks almost like sage green. It's just blending in with all the blue elements in this wreath. As fillers, we can also paint some wispy strokes like this just to make it look like they are like stems sticking out. That's nice filler if you have a white gap and you don't know what to add anymore. Now let's mix more pigmented cerulean blue and going to paint some tiny buds. This will give more contrast in some areas of the wreath. We are just dabbing our brush, creating those tiny strokes. I think I want the content to be a bit more blue, so I'm just going to paint another layer of cerulean blue on top of it, but of course this is optional, you can keep the cotton whiter than what I'm doing now. I will just add a few more blue leaves, and I'm adding this one near the five petal flower, just to make the flower look more defined. If you have a light colored flower, you can just add a more pigmented leaf beside it to make that flower pop up. I'm adding just more leaves to make this entire wreath look fluffy, and I just add more volume. In this wreath is already dry. What you can do is we can grab a darker shade of blue, which is indigo. I'm just going to paint some random leaves. As you can see, this is all about layering. Sometimes we're just painting some simple leaves, but when you layer it, it just gives that extra character to the wreath or to a floral arrangement. It's now time to add more details, and I just have here my white pen again. We're going to add some white veins. Just add this all throughout the wreath, but don't add veins on all the leaves so that it doesn't look too crowded. Are you excited? Well, this wreath is almost done. These are just some finishing touches. You can also add some metallic paints, so you can use gold or if you have a metallic blue paint, you can paint some metallic leaves. I think gold will also look good here, so you can add some gold berries if you want. I'm going to add some white lines on the pines as well, just to separate some of the strokes that we did. Then you can add some highlights on the blue colored berries. We can add some white berries as well, because this will look good on a blue background. This is also a very quick way to cover up some imperfections in some of the leaves. If you're not happy with some of the leaves, just add some white berries to cover it. Grab some indigo and we are going to paint some stems for the white berries. Just paint some thin lines to attach the very to the wreath. Looking at these wreath, I think we can add a few more white berries at the top. Then let's add some stems. Well, that's it. Congratulations for finishing your winter wreath. 22. Christmas Gift Ideas Part 1: In this video, we are going to talk about some ideas that you can do after painting the projects. This is our Christmas wreath, and what you can do is you can write something in the middle or just actually leave it as is, and just put this in a frame so you can give it as a gift. It's the same with this winter wreath. You can write down some message in the middle, or at core or just simple happy holidays. Then for the smaller paintings that we did, so we also made this smaller wreath. As you can see, I haven't cut this yet, but if you were to make this into a card, it would look like this. You can just write the message over here or also in the middle. This is the other painting that we did. This is our border wreath. We left a whitespace in the middle so that you can write the message or a greeting right here. Another idea is to paint this on the paper and just cut out the outline, and then you can stick this on another greeting card. Another painting that we did was this Christmas, this is actually one of my favorite paintings in the class. What you can do is you can leave a space right here. This is where you can write your greeting. I did put a marking right here, so I just wrote Merry Christmas using pencil. Then I can just use a different brush pen on top of the pencil marker I did. I'm just not so good with brush lettering, but I'm sure that you guys can do a really good job. Then you also have another Christmas ball right here. Again you can write anything or you can just cut out up to here and just put this in a frame, and that will also be a really good Christmas gifts. Here are more ideas for you. This is watercolor paper that I've cut into a 7 inch by 10 inch size. If you fold it, the size will be 5 by 7. Anything, it's a really good size. I just painted some leaves as a border. I then use the masking tape because I didn't want a clean edge right here. I just wanted it to look really loose and organic. I painted one layer of leaves and then I painted another set of leaves on top of it, so I just layered it. I also use my gold paint right here, if you can see it. It looks really pretty so this is another idea for you guys. I'm just going to show you the other border that I made. This one has some clean edges, but this one doesn't. Let's put it side-by-side. They still both look pretty, it just depends on your preference. I just wanted to show you different ways to apply all the techniques that we have learned today. I also use my white pen, as you can see, I added to my berries and some white veins. I'm going to show you how to fold your cards. Well, because we don't want some wrinkles on the side. Usually that happens when the card, or the paper is quite thick. I'm going to show you a technique on how to fold this properly. [NOISE] But before that, I wanted to discuss with you guys that when you're painting a card, don't fold the card right away. Try to paint first like this before you fold your card because you want to paint on a flat surface. Of course, if you try to paint on a folded card, for example, like this, it just bounces and it will be difficult to paint, so you want to paint on a flat surface. [MUSIC] Let me show you how you can fold your card properly. I'm going to discuss the front page later. But I just drew a line in the middle. What we want to do is we want to create a scar on the paper so we don't want to tear the paper apart, but we want to put pressure on the line. The best tool is a bone folder, but I don't have that right now. I'm just going to use the back of the scissors. I'm going to use the less pointy part or the back of the blade. You can also use a credit card or something sharp, but not too sharp that it will tear the paper. Let's start. I'm just going to press my scissors over here. This is not the sharp side. I'm just going to make a dent on the paper, but I am not tearing it apart. [NOISE] In this way, your paper will have a better looking fold on the outside. I think we are ready. We are ready when we feel that there's less tension when you're trying to fold the paper. [NOISE] Also by doing this, I feel like this edge feels flatter. We can also use our ruler to pass it. As you can see, we have a beautiful fold. I'm going to try to zoom it in. We have a really nice fold, and we don't have those wrinkly parts. It's very nice. Even if this is 300 GSM, it's a thick paper, you're able to fold it well, and it looks clean and crisp. That's how you make a card. [MUSIC] 23. Christmas Gift Ideas Part 2: Now let's talk about the sign of a [inaudible] here. This is just a Christmas ball that we learned a while ago. I just painted three Christmas balls, so this is quite small. For this one, I just painted some pine cone and then some pines and berries. Then right here, I painted a ribbon and then just added some leaves. Because it felt a little blank, I added some dots using gold paint. This is a gold paint. Then we have a metallic blue paint over here. I just added some gold strings. Then at the bottom, I tried my best. [LAUGHTER] I just wrote this Merry Christmas here. I'm pretty sure you can do a way better job than me. Then of course, on the inside, you can write your message. Another idea is also paint at the back. We can paint just a small detail that's related to the design in front. It can be some pine leaves or some pine cones, or a Christmas ball right here, just one. That's another idea for you guys. That's it for this part. For the last idea that I want to share with you guys is to cut out your paintings. I know it sounds painful to cut your paintings. But I think that sometimes we have some practice, watercolor ornaments. Instead of just leaving them on the paper, you can just cut it out, and then we can arrange our own flora arrangement on a greeting card. I have here the poinsettia. I also have different elements right here. They all look so cute. I really wanted to share this idea because I think it's a great way to design your own Christmas card. We just need some tape like this. This one has form. I just stick some double-sided tape at the back and we're going to stick all of these elements on this greeting card. I wanted to use this form type of double-sided tape because I want it to look like it's floating. It looks a little bit like a 3D effect. Also, one good thing about this is that before you stick all the elements on the greeting card, you can arrange it first, like this just so you can see if it looks good or not, and just take a photo before you stick everything in. I'm going to try to do this, and I'm going to show you the final piece. I'm almost done with this card. I'm just going to take out this green part, then we're just going to stick it onto paper. This is actually quite fun. It's also unique. One idea is to curl some of the petals of the poinsettia so that it just looks more 3D. I think I have two more leaves to stick on this paper. We can also try to fold some of the edges. Just looking at the camera if this one looks good. We have one last piece. Just going to curl this one a little bit. I like adding this leaf. I think I'd like to add this leaf over here. Let's just try to adjust. I think this is good. I want some of the elements to go beyond the edge of card. But, of course, that is just a preference. It really just depends on how you want to arrange your florals. I'm really excited to see what you can do with this idea because it's so fun. Then I have one more over here, which I think we can put over here. I just wanted to show you guys what it looks like. Then on the side, it looks like this. If you wanted more like puffed up, just put two pieces of the form together so that it will be higher. That's also another way to do this. I think that this is really nice. I hope that you enjoyed all the ideas that I showed you today. I really hope that you can paint some greeting cards and winter reefs. That's it for this video. [MUSIC] 24. Final Thoughts of the Class: [MUSIC] This is the end of the class. Thank you so much for watching and congratulations for finishing the class. This is such a fun class, because you will need to learn the basics of how to paint some Christmas elements, and then afterwards you'll be able to create your own unique watercolor wreath or holiday card. My tip is for you guys to incorporate your own style in your paintings, and you can also add some decorative elements. If you have an old Christmas decor that you don't need anymore, you can just cut it out, cut some of the leaves or maybe berries and then just stick it on the holiday card that you painted, so that it will have a different texture and it will look really nice. One more tip is to write down the favorite quote of the person that will receive your gift. If you have a wreath like this, so write down the favorite quote of that person and I'm pretty sure that he or she will like the gift that you will give. Work with what you have. Your materials do not need to be expensive. I think that anything that's handmade, it's made with love and I'm pretty sure that the recipient of your gift will appreciate your handmade greeting card or painting. If you're able to try painting some of the projects in this class, do upload it in the project gallery of this class, or if you're going to upload it on Instagram, don't forget to use this hashtag, so that I can see your work. Don't forget to follow me on Skillshare, so that you'll be notified every time there's a new class. That's it for the class. Thank you again for watching. I'm really excited to see all your paintings, and see you in my next class. Happy holidays. [MUSIC]