Watercolor Christmas Projects: Learn to Paint 12 Holiday Cards

1. Introduction: Christmas is a joyous occasion and it's a season of giving of love and celebration. It's a very time to make meaningful holiday cards to send to families and friends. Join me today as the style a holiday card series. We are going to paint 12 holiday cards. Hi, my name is Joly and I'm a watercolor artist and online art educator based in the Philippines. I have been painting since 2013. My specialization is painting loose watercolor florals I love teaching and being able to break down watercolor painting into easy steps so that it's less daunting for beginners. I have several classes on Skillshare that focus on painting loose florals. To start the class, we will be discussing the materials that you need. Then you'll be learning how to paint Christmas elements such as pine cones, poinsettia, and other foliage. Then let's proceed to the project. I'm so excited to show you all the wonderful kinds that you make in this class. With so many different projects in this class, you will definitely learn different techniques in each project, such as doing wet on wet techniques. You'll also learn how to add some white gouache on your paintings, how to add backgrounds, and also how to add gold embellishments using a metallic gold paint. The class is suitable for beginners and watercolor enthusiasts. I have designed them to meet bite-sized projects that can be done in 10-15 minutes. Being able to finish nice small cards day by day has been very fulfilling for me. I hope that you will also experience this joy too. The weather is getting colder this month. Let's grab a hot cup of coffee and look for a cozy spot in our home. Then let's start painting these cards. Happy holidays to all of you. I will see you in class. 2. Class Projects Overview: In this video, I'm going to give you an overview of the class projects that you will make in this class. In total, we are going to make 12 different holiday cards. Let's start with the first project. This is the easiest project. It's a Christmas tree made with leaves and I also added some gold and white details. It's definitely a good project to start with this class. Next, we are going to paint this red Christmas ornament with some pine needles in the background. The concept of this project is a minimalist wreath. We want it to be simple and then I also added some splatters of gold and it looks really pretty. For the next holiday card, we have here, an open center. I'm going to teach you how to do this nice, clean border. You can write the greeting or a message in the center of this card. This is one of my favorites. It's a very dainty Christmas bubble. You have this very loose ribbon at the top of this Christmas bubbles and I also added some shimmer using gold metallic paint. Then of course we have some gingerbread cookies in this class. We are going to paint four of them and we'll be adding these nice white details that look like icing. For the next project we are going to paint a coroner holiday foliage. I left a space at the bottom part of this card so that you can write the greeting. This flower is a popular request from students, so we are going to add the poinsettia bouquet in this class. Next we're going to paint this blue Christmas bubble with a blue background. I'm also going to teach you how to add some decorations using two things, gold metallic paint and a white pen. I really love this next project. It's a pastel theme holiday card. It has that vintage feel and I really love the color of the background in this holiday card. We'll also be using gouache for the flowers in that card. This is a snowy Christmas tree with also a nice background and some snowy effects at the bottom part. I also added some gold shimmers all over this Christmas tree. For the last project, we are going to paint a hot chocolate mug. This is a two part video, but don't be intimidated by the length of this project. I made it very easy to follow and even beginners can paint this chocolate mug. That's it. While there are just so many projects that I'm excited for you to make, I do suggest that you try all of them because you will learn different techniques in each painting. Now without further ado, let's move on to the next video where we will learn about the materials that we need for this class. 3. Materials: In this video, we are going to talk about the materials that we need for this class. Let's first talk about the paints. I'm going to use the brand Shinhan PWC. This is a Korean artist-grade paint. It comes in tubes like this, but I usually just pour it into half pans because it's easier and more convenient to use that way. Next, we'll need a mixing palette so I'm just using the lid of my watercolor tin. This is from the brand called watercolor, but the paints that are missing inside is Shinhan PWC. I just like this other colored tin that is why I'm using it the most. But of course, you can also use a plastic or ceramic palette. Now let's go to the colors that we need. I'm going to use permanent red, permanent rose, sap green is a beautiful green color that I always use. Then hookers green, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, burnt umber, sepia which is a dark brown color. For the blues here, we're going to use indigo, Prussian blue, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue. Then we're going to use permanent violet, turquoise blue, and then brilliant pink. This is a new color that I'm introducing in the palette, it's a nice milky pink color. This paint has white in it, that's why it's acting almost like a gouache. For the brushes I'm going to use the brand silver brush, and the series I'm using is black velvet. This is a mix of synthetic and squirrel hair. I'm using round brushes and the sizes are four and six. I like using this brush because it can hold a lot of water and still keeps its point. It's very important then that you choose brushes that are pointy. I also like that these brushes are quite soft, that's why it's following the flow of my strokes. Next up, we have a water jar here so you can use any jar that you have at home. Then we need tissue paper so that we can use it to blot out the excess paint in our brush. Next, we need Holbein white gouache. I'm using permanent white. We're going to add white gouache to add that snowy effect and also to add some fillers. Gouache is somewhere in between watercolor and acrylic. The good thing about gouache is that you can reactivate this pin once it dries on your palette. The next material that we need is the Uniball Signo white pen. I do love using this white pen because it gives me more control when it comes to details. It's also more opaque compared to other brands that I have tried. Some people have suggested using the POSCA acrylic pen, so you can also try that. We also need a gold metallic paint for the class. I'm using the one from the actual lab watercolor set, the color is called royal gold. I realized that there's so many shades of gold. I decided to go with this yellow gold color because it registers better on camera, and you can see it more compared to the other types of gold. You can also use metallic paints from other brands. I've used the one from Etchr philosophy and also works well. This is what it looks like on the paper and you can see it. It has a very nice shine and also the scent rub off when you touch the paper. For the paper, I'm going to use the actual lab postcard. This is 100 percent cotton paper and it's called pressed paper. The size is four by six inches. They also make sketchbooks, and I do love their sketchbooks that's why I'm happy that they also have postcards. I also decided to use this because the paper is already pre-cut. It saves me time from cutting paper, so I can just paint on it and stick it on a holiday card. This is another paper that you can use, it's the Baohong Academy. It's also 100 percent cotton paper, but this one is the student-grade version. It's also a watercolor block, which means that all the sides are glued except for one area that you can use to take out one sheet. I personally like using this paper, because it's affordable and it also works well with loose florals. I highly recommend this paper if you are just starting out. Next, we need a masking tape. This is just a regular masking tape from the office supply section. It's about one inch in width. Later on, we will have projects where and we need to tape down our paper using this tape. Let's now go to the next video where we will learn how to paint the Christmas elements. 4. Christmas Elements: [MUSIC] In this video, we are going to paint Christmas elements. I decided to simplify the elements in this class, because we're making easy and quick watercolor cards and we're also painting quite small. We're going to use just 4 by 6 inch cards. For the first element, we're going to paint a pine needle. I need burnt umber. I will use this to add a thin stem. After which, we are going to grab some Hooker's green and we're going to paint some thin wispy strokes. Our stroke will come from the middle going outward. We can also do the other way around, just make sure that the ends are pointy, then also try to paint the needles in different directions. Let's rinse our brush in the water jar and just tap the excess water. We're doing this so that we can create a lighter green color. I'm going to add indigo to my Hooker's green, because I want the deep green color, we want it to be quite dark. Then we'll add it on top of the first layer. This is going to give us contrast and more shadow. For the next leaf, we are going to mix Hooker's green and indigo, and then we'll add some water. We are going to paint some rounded leaves. This will look like mistletoe, but the shape of the leaves should be little bit different; I just simplified the process. To paint this, you can see that I am creating a loop and then trying to fill in the center. We're going to do this a couple more times. Then now we're going to switch to a pine cone. I am just going to use burnt umber. I mean to dab my brush, that will be the top part, and then we're going to move our brush sideways. It looks like the letter C curve, just make sure that you also have spaces in between your strokes. Let's do it one more time just for practice so you can make it a little bit lighter. Let's wait for this to dry so that we can add a second layer. In the meantime, let's paint other Christmas elements. I love adding blue leaves, because this adds a cool tone to your painting. We're going to use a very diluted Prussian blue color, but you can also use other blue colors that you have in your palette. Right Right, I'm just painting my usual go-to leaves. Just make sure that it's quite pointy. Let's practice some more. We can add some Hooker's green to this Prussian blue. But this time, I'm going to add a little bit more green. Then let's paint some more leaves, try to paint the stem first, and then just create those nice expressive leaves. [MUSIC] I'm just going to make some sap green. We are going to paint cedar. We're going to start with a thin stem, then I'm going to add some arms. After adding the arms, we are going to just tap our brush to create those tiny leaves. You can also rinse your brush and then tap it again on the paper so that you'll have a lighter green color. It's always nice to change the value, so that some will be darker, some will be lighter. [MUSIC] Now we can go back to the pine cones, it's already dry. Let's grab burnt umber. This is just the same color, but we want it more pigmented so that we can add some shadowing. A very popular Christmas ornament would be a poinsettia. You're going to paint this. I'm going to start with some green dots , using sap green. For the petals, I'm going to use permanent red. Let's start painting the petals in an S-shape motion, then I'm going to fill it in to complete the entire look, so it almost looks like a leaf. We're going to paint five petals, so this will look like a star shape at first. You can also lighten the color of some of the petals here. Some can be more red, some can be a lighter red. Let me just finish all the petals. [MUSIC] We're going to add a second layer on this poinsettia. In the meantime, I'm going to let this dry and move on to a different Christmas element. Let's draw a holly. I'm going to use just pencil. I find it easier to do a pencil outline. I'll just fill it in with some colors, so you can see that you have here some scalloped edges. Then we're going to add the red berries in the middle. For the third leaf, I'm going to paint it without an outline, just to show you guys. I miss seeing hooker's green, so I'm just doing an outline and going to fill in this leaf with that color [MUSIC]. Now, onto the third leaf, I don't have an outline here, so I'm going to use my brush to make the scallop edges, it's a little tricky to do this but it's also a good way to practice your brush control. Now, I'm going to add some red berries using permanent red. Now, we're going to go back with the pointed here, it's already dry. Let's add a second layer using permanent red, I'm just going to paint in between these two leaves. As I'm painting this, you can still see the first layer underneath. Poinsettia comes in different colors, I've seen it in white, I've seen it in pink, some will have even two colors in one plant, so if you do want to do a pink poinsettia, you can also do that. All right, we're going to wait for the second layer to dry so you can add more details, but in the meantime, I'm going to be adding some white berries on these rounded leaves, so we are going to use Holbein wide gouache, you can also use acrylic or maybe poster paint, you can also use the uni-ball wide signal pen or some people like using the sakura gelly roll, you can also use that. Then we're going to add some snowy effect on the pine cones, so you want to add snowy effect near the darker areas just so the white paint will pop up even more. Another idea is to use just white gouache to add some veins on the leaves, so adding these white details will give the Christmas elements a more winter feel. Aside from adding white leaves, you can also add a darker color, so for this leaf, I'm just using a more pigmented mixture of hooker's green. I'm going to go back to the poinsettia, this is already dry, we can add some veins. We are just going to use permanent red, it's the same color as the poinsettia but we wanted more pigmented. We're not going to add veins on all the leaves, we want some of the leaves to be in a solid color. What you can also do is to add some white veins using whitewash. Now, let's try to do a wet-on-wet technique which we will be just practicing for now. I'm just going to wet an area, this is just a very small area on this paper, it's nice to practice this technique just so we know what to expect in the project itself. Let me just mix up this Prussian blue. You're going to add this on the wet paper, so you want to have that green and look, I'm just going to move back and forth. Then let's rinse our brush to get rid of the color and then rubbed my brush in the tissue paper and then we're going to continue to blend that paint. This is the technique that we will be using later on for some of the projects with a background. Let's just wait for this to dry, you're going to paint on top of it. Let's grab some hooker's green, I am just going to paint a simple Christmas tree, so we do want to try out these brush markings. Just use the tip of your brush, you can sway from left to right, these are just going to be the leaves of this tree, so I'm just going to start at the top and just sway my brush. We're just going to do this as an exercise, so don't feel any pressure doing this Christmas tree, we're doing this so that you will be more comfortable later on as we paint our main projects. You can also rinse your brush to create a lighter green shade. Of course, don't forget to leave white spaces in between your strokes. All right, and now, we are done with some basic Christmas elements. You will be learning more later on as we paint our projects. Now, let's move on to the next video where we will be painting our first project [MUSIC]. 5. Easy Christmas Tree: Let's start our first project. This is a very easy version of a watercolor Christmas tree. We're going to use leaves and then form them into a tree, and then we'll add some gold and white details. To start, we are going to draw a triangle using a pencil, and this will be our guide for the shape of the Christmas tree. At the bottom, I left a little bit of space there so that you can write down a greeting or anything that you want. Let's prepare the colors that we need. I'm going to grab hooker's green. For this project, you can use any green color that you want. Also, it doesn't have to be really green. You can do a blue-themed Christmas tree , that's also good. We are going to start at the top. Let's create a stem first, and then just going to attach some rounded leaves. We can also rinse our brush to create a lighter green. This leaf has too much water, so I'm just going to rinse my brush and dab the excess water. Let's try to absorb the excess water in this leaf. We don't really want a big puddle. Now as we have a different green, I'm using sap green. I'm going to add one more leaf on the upper left side. Let's change the color again. I'm going to make sap green and indigo so that we can get as a deeper green color. Then we'll start with a stem again and then add some leaves. Now let's go back to sap green. For this project, it will look better if you use different shades of green so that it will look interesting as an entire tree. If we use just one color, it will look flat and a little boring, so we want it to look just more interesting. It's now time to add another happy color. This is greenish-yellow. If you don't have this color, just mix your usual green with a little bit more yellow. This color really just brightens up any painting that's why I love using this shade. Let's continue filling up this space with some more rounded leaves. Again, I just switched to a different color. I'm using hooker's green now. When you're painting the leaves, you do want it in a certain direction. We want it to look like the leaves are swinging to the left or to the right, and that will make it look like there's movement in your painting. I have a mixture of Prussian blue and hooker's green just so we can get some cool tones into this painting. What we're also doing is we're moving from top to bottom. If you see some weird wide gaps in between the leaves, don't worry about it because later on, we are going to add some fillers so that it will look fuller and more lush. I'm switching to sap green again, and we're almost at the bottom of this Christmas tree. We just need a few more leaves to complete this look. Now let's grab some more of that Prussian blue with hooker's green, then let's just keep on adding those leaves. I'm also adding some more indigo to my paint so that I can get a darker green color just so that there's more contrast in this Christmas tree. We are done with the base of this Christmas tree, now it's time to add some fillers. I'll be using Prussian blue. We're just going to add some fillers. I'm going to paint a thin line. Then I'm going to put some small dots that will look like small flowers. Then we're going to add that to the white gaps in between the leaves. You can also use these fillers to fix the shape of the Christmas tree. I usually add a little bit more on the sides just so that it doesn't look too straight. It's nice to have those fillers hanging above the leaves. What you can also do is you can change the value of the filler. You can make some darker, some more lighter. Then you can also add a little bit of green to your fillers. Right here, I just decided to use greenish-yellow for some of the fillers. You're probably wondering when to stop adding fillers. My tip is to take a photo of the painting and look at it from afar, then you'll know whether you will need to add more fillers or whether you need to stop. It's just important to see things from a different perspective. Now I do want to extend some parts of the tree, so I'm just going to add some fillers to do that. We're done with the fillers. Now I have here my white pen. I'm using the Uni-ball Signo white pen. You can use a different pen as well. I'm going to be adding some detail, some veins on the leaves. I will also be adding some dots, just some random scribbles on the leaves so that it doesn't look too flat. My suggestion is to just add it ultra neatly so you don't want all the leaves to have veins. You want some of them to be just a solid color. We don't want it to look too crowded, and also we'll be adding some gold details later, so just try to limit your white details for now. Now that we are done with the white details, we're going to add the gold, metallic details. This is a watercolor metallic paint from the Etchr Lab brand. I'm going to paint over the leaves. I want some of the leaves to be gold just so that there is some sparkle there. If you don't have this paint, you can use gold acrylic paint, or maybe you have a gold gouache. You can also use a gold metallic pen, that will also work out well. You can see I'm also adding some small dots all over this Christmas tree. This is a really fun exercise for us to start with. We have a couple more projects to do. I hope that this was a good warm-up exercise for you guys. I'm just going to quickly show you the sparkle there. I've also decided to add some small dots on the fillers. You can do that as well. At the top of this Christmas tree, we are going to put a star. I'm just using my pencil and I am just drawing a simple star shape. I just prefer to draw the shape of the star because I don't want to make a mistake here. I will need a guide for the shape. When you're okay with the shape, now we are going to fill it in with the gold metallic paint. I'm just going to add some finishing touches and just fix the shape of this Christmas tree. We can add some more fillers. Now we are done and I'm just showing you the reflection of that gold metallic paint. It's so beautiful and sparkly. I hope that you enjoyed creating this simple and easy watercolor Christmas tree card. Let's now move on to the next video where we will learn how to paint this red Christmas ornament. 6. Red Christmas Ornament: In this video, we are going to learn how to paint this red Christmas ornament. To start, we need to draw the shape of the ornament first. I decided with this shape. It's an oval shape with a pointy tip. I'm just going to eyeball the shape. You can use a different shape of course. Just keep in mind that when you are drawing something, once you paint on top of that line, you can no longer erase the pencil outline. When you are final with your drawing try to erase as much as you can before you start painting. We're all set. We are going to do a wet on wet technique for this one. I am going to grab a wet brush with clean water, and we're just going to paint the shape of this Christmas ornament. I'm going to paint just the body of this Christmas ornament. I'm not going to put water on the cap of this ornament. I've decided to do a wet on wet technique so that it doesn't look too flat, and we want a little bit of texture as well. Try to spread the water as evenly as possible on the paper. I've decided to use permanent red. I do want a nice rich red color because it looks festive for me. You can use a different color and that's also okay. We're just going to drop in the paint and I'm just trying to be careful with the edges. Let's just slowly fill in this shape. You can see that the paint is spreading beautifully. For this project, we don't really need the color to be even on the paper. It's okay if some parts will look a little bit lighter, I think that will give more texture and more character to this Christmas ornament. Also if you made a mistake, that's okay because we are going to add some gold details later on. I really made sure that the projects will be easy to follow and also if you've ever made some mistakes, it will be easy to cover those mistakes just by adding some simple details such as the gold details using metallic paint. While the base is still wet, I'm going to grab some crimson lake and we're going to add it in some areas of this Christmas ornament just so that it doesn't look so flat. This is, of course, optional. If you don't want to add it, it's okay. You can also add Hooker's green to our permanent red so we can get a deeper red. I'm going to add it on the edges of this Christmas ornament just to give it that shadow look. If you want an even deeper color you can add Hooker's green to crimson lake just to give it an even deeper shade. But just be careful when you're adding this shadow because you don't want it to look like the ornament has some burnt edges . Just be careful with that. Now while we are waiting for this to dry, let's just draw some guides. I want some pine needles behind this Christmas ornament. Let's draw some branches so that we know where the pine needles will go later on. I started drawing some branches from the top left corner. I have here burnt umber and we're going to use that to add the branches. Just use the tip of your brush to create these nice crooked strokes. Now let's grab some Hooker's green and we're going to paint the pine needles. Just use the tip of your brush to create those wispy strokes. I'm going to paint them in different directions. I guess we're going to add about three pine needles here. Then we're going to change the color. I'm going to add a little bit of indigo so that we can have just more contrast. Let's add that to our pine needles. You can also rinse your brush so that you can create a lighter green color. Sometimes what I do is I just mix my green color with the other colors on the palette. Right here, I mix it with burnt umber and then we're adding some more pine needles. I'm doing it very quick so that I can get that more expressive stroke. Now let's rinse our brush again and just paint some lighter green color. I have here some Hooker's green and I'm just going to extend some parts of this pine needle. We're on to the last pine needle and we want this to look like it's behind this Christmas ornament. You can start from the center of the pine needle going outward. Sometimes I do change the direction just so that it will look more organic. I just rinsed my brush again. You can see the lighter strokes that I'm doing. It will make this look more interesting if you have more contrast. We have a lighter green color and the darker green color. Some parts of the pine needle is already dry. We're just going to add indigo to our pine needles just to give it an extra contrast. This area right here needs a little bit more extension. I'm just using water and just dragging the color from the main pine needle going outward. Some parts are still wet. You can see that shine over there. But I think we can start painting the cap. I have here my gold metallic paint. I'm just going to grab a thick mixture. Now let's start painting this cap. I do want that scallop edge at the bottom of the cap, kind of that wavy line. Then you can add a smaller loop over there and maybe you can add a string so that it will look like it's hanging on the pine needle. Now you can add some small gold dots around this painting just to give it that extra sparkle. Feel free to use a different color or if you don't want to add it, that's also okay. This is already dry and now we're about to add our own design. I have decided to add some wavy lines. Then right here, we're going to paint two parallel curvy lines. If you have a gold pen, maybe that will be easier to use instead of painting the thin lines. Now we're going to add two more parallel lines. Now we're going to add some dots and I've grouped them into three dots. Then right here I'm going to paint some petal-like shapes and I've grouped them into three petals per group. In between the parallel lines we can add some dots just to fill in that space. Then we're going to do a crisscross design for this space. Don't worry, you don't need to follow the design that I'm doing. You can, of course, make your own design. You can also use your white pen instead of using this gold detail. Then let's add some small dots again and the petal shapes. Just a finishing touch, I'm going to add just some dots right here and then we're done. I hope that you enjoyed making this simple red Christmas ornament with some gold details. Let's now move on to the next video where we will paint this simple gold mini leaf wreath. 7. Mini Gold Leaf Wreath: Let's start with this project. It's a minimalist leaf wreath with some gold designs. To start, you need to draw a circle in the middle using pencil. I made it a little bit small. I don't want it to take the space of the entire paper. What you want here is a minimalist look. I'm going to grab my gold paint, and you're going to paint all around this outline of this circle. If you have a gold pen that will also work well, and maybe that will be easier for you to draw this shape. You can, of course, rotate your paper so that it's easier to paint some strokes. You can get it better at an angle. If it doesn't look that even, don't worry about it, it's okay. We're going to paint on top of it with some leaves. We'll be able to cover some mistakes. We just go back to this part and just fill it in with some more gold paint. We're all set with this gold ring. Now it's time to add those leaves. I'm going to start with Hooker's green. We're going to start with pine needles. We want a pair of pine needles right here. The gold ring is already dry as I'm painting this. I'm painting on top of the gold ring. Now let's just rotate the paper so that we can paint at a better angle. We're now done with the two pine needles. Now, I'm going to grab some Hooker's green and sepia. Let's just paint some leaves in the middle. I'm going to do my go two leaves. This is what I paint if I need to add a filler. We're just going to paint some simple leaves because we want this to be a minimalist wreath. Now I'm going to add some rounded leaves. I'm using just Hooker's green with a little bit of indigo just to get that deeper color. I'm going to do another set on the left side. The easiest way to paint a wreath is to actually make a pattern. Don't feel bad if you have to paint the same flower on each side or the same leaves, that's completely fine. We're now going to switch to a blue. I am using Prussian blue. We're going to paint some smaller leaves over here. Then we can add some on the other side as well. This is all about layering, just adding leaves on top of each other. Of course, you have to wait for the first layer to dry before you add another layer on top so that you won't smudge the bottom layer. Now let's extend the leaves on each side. It's better to vary the size and the shape of the leaves. If you have some small light gaps, you can add some fillers. I'm using Hooker's green and sepia here. But you can also use indigo or I guess just any dark color that you have in your palette. This is also a good way to add contrast to your painting. Let's just sprinkle some fillers all over the green leaves. You want the fillers to be a little bit taller than the leaves that you have painted. Now let's add some pine needles again. I'm just scribbling some thin lines, just making an illusion that there are more pine needles. You can also start layering your leaves and try adding a darker color to give it more contrast and more depth. The leaves are already dry. Now I'm going to add some white details. I am just using gouache. This is the brand Holbein. I'm going to add some white berries over here. Adding these small white details will give it that winter theme look. Now if you want it to be really opaque, really white, you can go ahead and add a second layer, just paint on top of the first layer. But you have to make sure that the first layer is already dry before you add another layer of gouache. We're just randomly adding some more white berries. It will look better on a dark background. That's why I'm choosing the dark leaves that's where we're going to put the berries. Then on some leaves, I am going to add some veins using a darker green color. Use any dark color in your palette. I'm using indigo, but you can also use black. Just going to put a small dot on those berries. It's now time to add some gold details. I'm going to grab my gold metallic paint. I'm going to make sure that my brush is reloaded with a lot of paint and then I start tapping. You can get some splatters of gold paint, and that will really look so good on your holiday cards. You can add as much as you want. Depends on how much splatter you want on your card. Because you want this to look minimalist, I just added splatters on the upper right and lower left side of this card. You can see that beautiful shimmer. Well, that was very quick. We are done in less than 10 minutes. I hope that you enjoy creating this simple and minimalist wreath. Feel free to use different colors for the leaves. It doesn't have to be just green, you can use other color palettes as well. Now let's move on to the next project where we will paint a dainty Christmas bubble. 8. Dainty Christmas Bauble: In this video, we are going to paint this dainty blue Christmas bauble. So you're going to add some simple floral elements such as leaves and some mini flowers. The first thing that you need to do is to draw a circle on your paper. So that will serve as a guide for painting this Christmas bauble. With a size four round brush, I'm going to grab some ultramarine blue. Then you're going to add some small leaves. Let's start with a thin stem and then we're going to attach some small leaves. Now I'm going to add one more and just make sure that you are painting lightly. We do want this to look way dainty, which means that our strokes are going to be smaller as well. You can try to also vary the shape of the leaves. So some leaves can be more elongated, some can be rounder. Just for some variation I'm going to be adding some Prussian blue to my ultramarine mixture. Maybe we can add some more leaves over here. I'm also making sure that they have enough space in between the elements that I'm going to paint inside this bauble so that it won't look too crowded. Let's add one more here when they make it a little bit smaller. All right. Now we're going to add some small five petaled flowers. Just makes sure that your brush isn't loaded with a lot of paint. So you don't want puddles in your painting. Now we're going to add the flowers in different parts of this Christmas bauble just to balance it out. You can also rinse your brush so that you can get a lighter shade of blue. Then you can add some on the edge of this bauble right here. I'm just going to pay three petals, and by doing that, we are also giving an outline to this Christmas bauble. So it's very important to add elements on the outline of this Christmas bauble so that when you see it, you will get an illusion that it's a round shape. Because we are not going to draw a circle outline for a discrete Christmas bauble. They have here a diluted ultramarine blue color. We can add some more fillers. Just going to lightly dab my brush to create these small strokes, narrowing and the stem to it, so it will look like small flowers. It will also look better if we can paint these fillers facing different directions. So you can see here that I'm slowly adding some more elements on the outline of this bauble. Later on you can erase the pencil outline. So you can grab some indigo or any dark color. We're going to add some small cute dots. This will serve as a filler as well. So while I was painting this project, I realize that it's important to use a smaller brush and it will make your life easier. So for the small details in here, you can use a size four brush, or you can also use a size two round brush. We are almost done with the design, and now we are going to move on to painting the ribbon on top. So you're going to do a wet on wet technique. We want to paint the shape of the ribbon using just water. But for visual purposes, I'm going to add a little bit of blue in my brush so you can see my strokes. When you're painting this ribbon, make sure that you have some white spaces in between your strokes. I started with the center, and now I'm adding the right side of the ribbon. You can see that I'm just dragging my brush and there are spaces in between my strokes. Now let's do the other side, just drag your brush outward and don't be afraid to add water in your strokes. You want this to be quite wet because you're going to drop in some color later on. So I'm quite happy with the shape. Now let's add some color. I'm going to grab some ultramarine blue. Let's hip away pigmented ultramarine blue. I'm going to drop it in the center first. Then I can try to move around the paint, but try not to overdo it because you want it to look quite loose. That means some areas will have more blue in it. Some areas will have just mostly water. Then I'm going to grab some indigo. I'm going to add it in the sides of this center. So that will serve as the falls of the ribbon, or like the shadow. Now let's grab some Prussian blue. I'm going to drop in some Prussian blue in some areas. You can see that I'm trying to just let it be. I'm not really fixing a lot of the areas. The right side of the ribbon looks a bit smaller compared to the left side. So I'm just going to add a few more strokes just to widen that area. If you're going to fix the shape of the river now is the time while it's still wet. Now you can add the string. I'm just using a pencil and drawing a straight line, just as a guide for me. Now if you're nervous about painting a straight line, this is my suggestion for you. Just use gold metallic paint. Start painting some round shapes and stack them up until you reach the top portion. So these more round shapes will look like gold beads. So just keep adding more of those round shapes. You can also use a different color. Maybe you have a blue metallic paint, I think that will also look good. Let's continue adding some details. I'm going to add a small dot in the center of the five petaled flowers. We can also add some dots in Christmas bauble. Just add some shimmer. All right, now you're done and less than 10 minutes. I hope that you enjoyed making this project. You can also do this in a different color. You can see how beautiful it is when you add some small dots of gold. Now that we are done with this painting, let's move on to the next project. 9. Poinsettia Greeting Card: In this video, we are going to make a greeting card with a nice border. There is a space in the middle of this card where you can write your greeting or a message for your loved ones. In order to create that clean space in the middle, we are going to put masking tape in the center of this paper. I already have this one strip of tape, now I'm going to add one more. This is just regular masking tape that you can find in the office supply section. If you find this too sticky, we can try to stick it on your skin or maybe on your shirt first before you stick it on the paper. With a pencil, I'm just going to draw some small circles in the middle, and that will be a middle of the poinsettia. I'm just going to draw three petals and will be my main petals, and then later on we're going to try to lay the petals of this poinsettia. For this project, I want to use a pink color, so I'm using permanent rose. We're going to start with one petal and just make sure that the tip is pointy. Now let's paint another petal. I'm going to be using a more pigment permanent rose. I'm just changing the value. I want some petals to be lighter, some will be more pigmented. We're going to do petals in the same size. When you're done with the three petals, we're going to add the center. I'm going to use up green and going to just paint some small round shapes in the middle. To save time while waiting for the petals to dry, we are going to flip this paper. I'm going to paint on the other side of this card. Later on we will be adding some layered petals on the poinsettia, but we can't do that now because it's still wet. Let's start painting, I'm going to grab some burnt umber and let's paint a very thin stem. Then you're going to grab Hooker's green, we're going to paint a pine needle. I'm just going to use the tip of my brush to create those thin, wispy strokes. Make sure that you are painting it in different directions. Once we're done with this pine needle, let's move on to painting a different leaf. We are mixing Hooker's green and indigo. I want a deep shade of green. Let's paint some rounded leaves. You can paint on top of the masking tape, that's okay. We actually want to paint leaves very near the masking tape so that when he peel it off, you can see that nice clean line. Now we can add a pine cone. I'm going to grab a diluted burnt umber and let's just paint the shape of the pine cone. This is the first base. I'm just lightly tapping the brush to create those nice strokes. There is a big space on the right side, we can add a cedar. Let's grab some sap green. I'm going to paint a thin stem and attach some arms. Then now you're just going to lightly tap the tip of our brush to create the small leaves. You can also dab your brush in a tissue paper if it's too wet. You can also raise your brush to create just a lighter shade of green. To give it a pop of color, let's add some berries, I'm using permanent red, but you can also use crimson lake. Now let's mix these two colors, sap green and burnt umber is already in my palette, so I'm just going to mix it to create an earthy green color. We're going to paint some more leaves that will serve as fillers for those white spaces. Another filler that you can do is to get a dark green color and just paint some thin lines just like this. It will look like pine needles as well. This is something that I love doing. I love getting the color of the flower and turning it into leaves. Right here I'm using just permanent rose, but I made sure that I added a lot of water and really diluted this color because I just want a faint color of pink. By adding these pink leaves, it will make this painting look more balanced in terms of the colors used. Now we'll switch back to the poinsettia because it looks dry already. We can start layering the petals. Let's grab a diluted permanent rose color. I'm going to paint in between these two petals. I made this a little bit lighter so that we can see the petals underneath. But for this petal I made it a little bit more pigment. I'm just trying to vary the values. I want some to be darker pink, some will be lighter pink. Then we're going to continue adding some more petals. Now we need to add just one last petal. I'm trying to paint on top of the masking tape. We're now done with the poinsettia, and now we're going to add some leaves right beside it. I'm going to paint a pine needle here and amazing Hooker's green and indigo. Let's just paint quickly so that we can get those nice expressive strokes. You can also rinse your brush and dab the excess water. Then we're going to paint and lighter shade of green. On the left side, we are going to paint some rounded leaves using the same color. This is Hooker's green and indigo. Now let's add some cedar. I'm painting on top of the pine needles just to layer this area. Let's add some cool tone blues in this area. I'm just using Prussian blue and I made sure to dilute it in a lot of water. We're just going to paint some simple leaves. Now let's paint for the leaves to dry and then we're going to add some white details using white gouache. I'm just going to add some white berries. This will look like mistletoe. I just tried to simplify the way of painting a mistletoe. You can see that the white pops up better when the background is darker. This leaf is really a nice example. This pine cone is already dry, and I'm going to add the second layer using just sprint amber. It's just a more pigment color. Now it's time to add some details on the poinsettia. I'm just using permanent growth and we can add some veins on the petals. Let's just alternate the petals with some vein details. Later on we're going to add some white gouache and also there is a bit of gold. I think it looks prettier when you add details on the flowers. Just adding these white veins will make it look more Christmas-y just it gives that more winter feel. With a dark color, I'm using indigo. Just add some small dots on those berries. If you have a black Pentel pen, you can also use that to add this detail. We are almost done. Now I'm adding my favorite part of every painting and that is to add some gold details. I am using the [inaudible] Lab metallic paint. You can use other brands, of course. There are also different kinds of gold. There can be a rose gold, or there can be just a deeper yellow gold. It depends on what you want to use. I decided to go with this yellow gold because it registers better on camera. You can see this gold much clearer compared to the other sheets that I found. You can add some berries, add some leaves using this metallic color, or you can add some veins, just like what I'm doing here. Pink and gold go together so well, so I really love this color combination. Let's just add a few more details. You can also add a little bit of gold in the center of this poinsettia. Right now let's add the finishing touches. I'm just going to extend some parts using fillers. I'm going to dab my brush and just create these tiny strokes that will look like small leaves. You can use indigo or any dark color just to add some contrast to your painting. Then you can extend some leaves so that they are not all at the same height. You do want to vary the height of the leaves. I went back to this pine cone because I wanted to add some snow effect, so I'm just adding some white gouache. It's now time to peel off the tape. It's also one of my favorite parts when I'm using this tape on the painting. I love to see the clean edges. It looks good because we have peeled off part of the paper. When you're peeling a tape, you just peel it at an angle. It's almost flat. You can see it right there. We are done. I hope that you can upload this project in the gallery section of this class. You can see the sparkly effect of the gold details. I hope that you enjoyed painting this. Now let's move on to the next project. 10. Gingerbread Cookies: In this video, we are going to paint gingerbread cookies. To start, what we need to do is we need to draw the shapes here. I'm going to start with a star. I'm just trying to fix the shape of the star. If you have a cookie cutter, you can also use that to create an outline for your cookies. Then now I'm just adding a Christmas tree, just the outline. You don't really need to follow the shapes that I'm going to do for this project. You can use different shapes for the gingerbread cookies. Again, when you're already okay with your drawing, make sure to erase as much pencil outline as you can before you start painting. Because once you paint on top of the pencil outline, you can't erase that anymore. What I'm doing is I'm drawing near the borders of this paper, and that will really look good later when we add the gold outline. For this technique, I'm going to do a wet-on-wet technique; it means that I'm going to add water inside the shape of the cookies. Then we're going to add some color later on. I added a little bit of color in my brush so that you can see what I am painting here instead of just using clear water. It's now time to add some color. I'm just using burnt sienna. We're going to drop in the color. You can see that it is spreading beautifully. I did the wet-on-wet technique for this project because I want that texture on the cookies. I don't want the colors to look to even on the surface, I want some parts to be a bit lighter, some are darker, just so that it will look a little bit more realistic. Because when you're baking cookies, it's usually difficult to get an even color on the top of the cookie. While this star is still wet, I'm just going to fix some areas and just going to extend some parts. Let's grab some burnt umber, and we're going to add these on the corners or the edges of the cookie. By adding these detail, it will look like those edges are just more brown or it got a little burnt. Be careful when you're adding this color, you still want to get the gingerbread color. You can also add a little bit in the center if you want. Let's move on to the Christmas tree. I chose just a simple shape, I wanted a project that is easy to do and very approachable for beginners. We are going to fill this in with clean water, but for visual purposes I just added a little bit of color in my brush so that you can see what I'm painting on the paper. Once you have filled this shape with water, just dropped in some burnt sienna just like what we did in the star shape. Again, while this shape is still wet, that's the right time to fix the sides, fix the shape, or extend some parts. It's time to add some burnt umber. You're just going to add it on the corners, and sides so that it will have this burnt look on the outer part of this cookie. Let's now move on to this gingerbread man. I'm also going to do a wet-on-wet technique. We're just going to fill this with clean water. Again, mine just has a little bit of brown in it so that you can see what I am painting on the paper. You don't really need to follow all the shapes here. You can choose the shape that you want. If it's easier for you, you can also do just one one. I just grabbed some burnt sienna. I'm just going to drop in some color. As I'm dropping in the color, I'm also trying to fix the shape of this gingerbread man. I'm just going to continue adding some color all throughout this cookie. Let's move on to the last cookie. This is a candy cane. I just added this on the last minute because when I was doing the three cookies it feels a little empty on the lower right. I just figured that it would look good if part of the candy cane was touching the edge of the paper. We're going to do the same technique. It's a wet-on-wet technique and you're going to drop in some burnt sienna again. My tip for you when you're painting food, you have to choose colors that look yummy. I know it sounds weird, but when you're choosing a color for a cookie, it should be a nice, warm brown color, it should feel like it just came out of the oven even if it's just a painting. While I was painting this candy cane, I realized that I forgot to put some burnt umber on the gingerbread man, but that's okay, he still looks good. Right here I'm going to add it on the candy cane. Adding the burnt umber color also gives the cookie contour. It makes it look a little bit 3D. Now, we are done with the base and we just need to recreate the dry. When it's already dry like this sheet. We are going to proceed with drawing some details. I have here my Uni-Ball Signo white pen. For the star, I'm going to put a small dot in the center and then we're going to attach some arms. We're going to do five lines that's going to extend all the way to each corner and then you can add some small round shapes at the tip. In the middle of the two lines, we're going to add the shorter line with a round tip as well. It might look a little complicated but it's very easy to do. The long arms are going to draw a letter V, and then we're going to draw some round shapes there. We're going to do that for all the long arms. We're done with the star shape. Now, let's move on to the Christmas tree. Our concept here is we are going to add some Christmas lights, so I'm going to add the wire. I'm just going to create these curvy lines, it's as if we are draping the Christmas lights on the Christmas tree. I'm going to start from the top going to the bottom, we can see that it gets wider at the bottom. Now, let's add the lights. I'm just going to put some small white dots that will look like the Christmas lights. It's that easy. If you want a little bling on the head, you can actually use gold metallic paint, but for this painting I prefer just using white so that it will look like it's an icing. Let's just add some more Christmas night until we reach the bottom. Now, we're done with that. Let's now move on to painting the details on the gingerbread man. For the gingerbread man I'm going to put some small dots, we are going to do his eyes first. If it's easier for you, you can also use a pencil outline, so that you know where to draw the details. For his mouth I'm going to draw a small letter u shape, so that it looks cute and then some wavy lines on his sleeves. We're going to go back to that later, we're going to make it thicker. Also for his legs, we're going to add some wavy lines. Next, is a little cute bowl and then we're going to add some buttons. I'm going to go back to the wavy lines and I'm going to just draw one more set because I want it to be thicker I just waited for the first layer to dry a little bit. We're going to do that for this sleeves and also for the legs. This is the finished product, it's very cute. You can also do your own design, of course. Let's now move on to the last cookie. For this one it's going to be super easy, we just need to draw some parallel lines. We just want some stripes on this candy cane. We're not done with the cookies, but we still have one more detail that we need to add. Let's add border here. I'm going to use a gold metallic paint and I will use a small brush, this is a size four round brush. Just rotate your paper in such a way that it's easy for you to draw a line. In my case, I like to do it little by little, but I know that some people want to paint the line in one stroke. I don't really intend for this to be super straight, it's okay with me if it's a little uneven. I'm also going to make it a little bit thicker, so I'm going to go back and add a little bit of paint. Now, let's rotate the paper again and I'm going to do this side. When you reach the cookie, make sure that you don't paint on top of the cookie layer. You want the illusion that the gold border is behind the cookie. Now, we have two more sides to go. We have one more side left. If you don't have a gold metallic paint, you can also use a different color. Maybe you can add some red or maybe a green or blue color, something that reminds you of Christmas. We are now done with this project, you can see that beautiful shine on the border. I hope to see your own version of your gingerbread cookie paintings. Don't forget to upload your project in the Project Gallery section of the class. Let's move on to the next project, where we will paint a corner holiday foliage. 11. Corner Holiday Foliage: In this video, we are going to paint a corner holiday foliage. You can see that there's a space right there at the bottom where you can write a greeting or a message. Let's start, so I have here just a reference as I paint. This is a Christmas ornament that I have used a few years ago. Now I want to paint the pine cones, the pine needles, the berries. What we'll do, is we'll grab our pencil. We're going to draw a diagonal line. Then we draw two shapes here, as you can see, that will be the space for the pine cones. To start, we're going to grab some burnt umber. Then I'm going to draw using my brush a branch. You want this to be a crooked line, so I'm just going to draw a diagonal line. Now lets grab a more diluted burnt umber, we're going to paint the first layer of the pine cones. I'm going to start right here at the top. Then I will just lightly tap my brush, and sometimes I'm going to move it in a curved manner so that it looks like a letter C. Now let's do one more pine cone, I'm going to grab a diluted burnt umber. Then what you can do, is you can rotate the paper. I just find it easier this way so that I can paint at the right angle. You can see that I'm shaking my brush to create these beautiful strokes. Now we're going to add some pine needles. I'm going to use this burnt umber as a guide. I'm just going to draw some thin lines, and that is where we will put the pine needles. Now let's add the pine needles, I mix with Hooker's green. Just use the tip of the brush and make these markings. I usually do it from the center going outward, but sometimes I do it vice versa. But something that works out for me is to do it pretty fast so that I can get these wispy strokes. We can also add a little bit of indigo to your paint so that you can have that deeper green color. Now we're done with that. I'm just going to grab some Hooker's green and add it to my burnt umber, you can see that I have a more earthy green color now. Let's just start painting some more pine needles. We're now onto the third pine needle. It will look prettier if some of the strokes are facing in a different direction. Now, I'm just going to rinse my brush, and you can see that I will have a lighter green color in my brush. I also find it easier to do these wispy strokes if I'm holding the brush towards the end of the handle, so that it can be looser. Using a pencil, I'm just going to draw some holly leaves. I just find it easier to draw the shape first before I put some color. For this leaf, I'm going to use Hooker's green. I'm just going to fill in the shape. What you can also do is to paint an outline in this one area and then rinse your brush, and just spread that color all around. This will give you just a different look. You have one area that's a bit more pigmented and an area that's lighter in color. The other leaf is too dark. I'm just going to grab my brush and just lift some of the color. Then I'm going to add it on the other leaf, just to make it look prettier. Now add some berries. I have mixed permanent red with a little bit of Hooker's green, I just want a maroon color. We add the berries as a filler. Now this, they're not a little too maroon, so I'm going to grab more permanent red. Then let's just paint some more berries over here. If there's too much paint in your brush, just dab it in the tissue paper, and then continue painting. We are going to spread out the berries, so I think we can add some more over here in the upper left. I have a mixture of sap green here, we're going to paint some cedar. To do that, we're going to paint one long stem, and then we're going to attach some arms. Then lets just dab our brush on the paper to create these tiny leaves. If there's too much paint in your brush, just dab it in the tissue paper. You can see that I mostly just using the tape and I'm just stippling it on the paper. Let's mix Hooker's green and indigo, we're going to add some rounded leaves. You can see that this is slowly coming together. What we need to do, is really just to keep on adding different types of leaves. Now I'm just going to rinse my brush so that I can get a lighter shade. Then we're going to add some more rounded leaves over here. It's now time to add some cool tone leaves. I'm going to grab Prussian blue, but make sure that you add a lot of water. Moving to add some leaves. For this one, you just want a hint of blue. That's why I'm suggesting to add a lot of water to your paint. We're also using these leaves as a filler. The pine cones are already dry, and you can now add the second layer. We just need a more pigmented mixture of burnt umber. I'm just going to lightly tap my brush on top of the first layer, but make sure that you can still see the first layer underneath. You can also try to soften some edges using a clean brush. I'm going to rotate my paper, this will make it easier to add the second layer. It is looking pretty good now you can add a second layer on the pine needles. You can just grab your burnt umber with Hooker's green, or you can add Hooker's green and indigo. You just want a darker green color to add contrast. You can also start extending some of the leaves so that you can fill in some awkward white spaces. In this area, I'm going to layer this with some pine needles and painting on top of the blue leaves. Let's now go to adding the white gouache. I'm using Holbein white gouache. I'm going to add some white berries on the rounded leaves. If you don't have gouache, you can use acrylic paint. I've also tried using poster paint. But if you are going to sell this painting, I wouldn't suggest using a poster paint because it might fade or crack after some time. You can also add some white veins on some of the leaves. You can see that by adding the white details, it feels more Christmas-y, it does have that winter vibe. I'm going to grab some more white gouache, and then we're going to add some details on the pine cone. My tip is when you're adding the white gouache, make sure that it's near a dark color so that you can really see the white paint. If you want the berries to stand out, I would suggest adding a second layer of white gouache just like what I'm doing here. But when you're doing this, make sure that the first layer is already dry before you add another layer of white gouache. Now, we can add some small black dots on the berries. I'm just using indigo, you can use black paint or maybe a black pen. I'm looking at this from afar, and I feel like we need to add a little bit of red on the upper right so I'm going to add some red berries. We're actually almost done. I'm just going to add a few more details. I want to add more contrast, so I'm just adding Hooker's green and indigo. I want a dark green color and then we can also add some veins on some of the leaves. Here we have the gold metallic paint. We're just going to add some small details. I'm going to add some small dots, most I'm going to add some leaves, you can also add some berries. This is completely optional. If you don't want gold on your painting, then you can stop right here, but I just wanted it to look more festive and wanted to have that extra blend on the holiday card. We're going to add some gold dots on the white paper just outside the foliage. You see the beautiful sparkle here. I'm just going to tilt this paper so you can see it. But as I'm looking at it from afar, it does feel like it's lacking some contrast. What we're going to do is we're going to grab sepia. Then let's just add some shadow on the pine cones just so that it looks deeper. I'm adding the darker areas underneath the white gouache that we added. Using burnt umber, we can add some small branches sticking out that will make it look more realistic. You can also use this as a filler. We are done. I love how we layered this foliage. It looks very lush, and it has that winter Christmas feel. Let's move on to the next project. 12. Poinsettia Bouquet: [MUSIC] In this video we are going to a poinsettia bouquet. To start, we need to draw the petals. I'm going to draw the center first, just some small circles and then you're going to draw the five petals. It looks like a star shape here. Now let's try painting. I'm going to grab sap green, and you're going to paint some small dots in the center and then we're going to grab permanent red. I do want this poinsettia to be a fierce red color, but you can also use a permanent rose if you want a pink shade. You can see that I have my guide here and that will make it easier for me to paint the petals. We want the tips of these petals to be pointy. Let's now move on to the second petal. You can see that I am painting several strokes to form this petal. It doesn't need to be a one stroke petal. If you need to fix the shape, you can fix it now while it's still wet. It's also okay if the petals will have an irregular shape. So it means that it's not really perfect, is not so symmetrical and that's okay. Another tip is to vary the value so you can change some of the petals and make it a bit more pigmented, and then some petals will be lighter in color. Now we're done with this first layer. What do you going to do is we're going to wait for it to dry before we add the second layer. All right, I'm just touching the paper and making sure that it's already dry. Then let's grab some paint. This is permanent red. I'm just going to lay this poinsettia here and add a petal in between the two first layers. You can see right there that the petal that they painted is translucent, so you can still see the first layer petals. Now I will continue adding the second layer. [MUSIC] While we are waiting for this to dry, we can add the leaves around it. I'm just using my pencil to draw a line. This is going to be my guide for painting the leaves. We're going to add some pine leaves, and I'm also going to add a pine cone. Now let's start painting. I have here burnt umber. I'm going to paint just a very thin line. Then we're going to paint our pine needles. Using hookers green I'm going to just paint some thin strokes that they're facing in different directions. I'm going to paint pretty fast so that I can get those nice expressive strokes. Just to add more contrast, we can mix our green with some indigo so that we can get a darker color when I add that onto this pine needle. Now let's move on to the second pine needle. I'm going to do the same technique, we're just going to paint some thin strokes. You can also mix hookers green with CPR or burnt umber so that they can get that first, the green color, then adding another dark color. This is just indigo with hookers green. I just want more contrast. You've seen burnt umber. I'm going to do the first layer of this pine cone. Just lightly dab your brush so that you can create these small strokes, please make sure that you have white spaces in between your strokes. Let's now move one to a different leaf. You're going to mix hooker's green and indigo, and you're going to paint some rounded leaves. You can rotate your brush so that it's easier to paint this leaf. I added these two leaves too close to each other, but I'm not great because once this dries up, I can go on and add a second layer. I can add some white berries or maybe some good details to cover up my mistake. Right here, we're going to add the cedar. This is very easy. Just paint a thin stem and add some arms attached it. Then just lightly tap your brush so that you can get those nice small leaves. You can see that some leaves are also lighter in color and that's because I rinsed my brush to get rid of the excess paint. Let's now add some blue tone leaves. I'm just mixing up Prussian blue and hookers green. We're just going to paint some simple leaves. This one looks a little too green. I'm just going to add a little bit more of that Prussian blue because I want some bluish leaves. It's slowly coming together. But right now we need to add some red berries. I'm just going to add it here, right here on the upper left portion. After adding these red berries, I felt like it was too red and blue close to the color of the poinsettia. So we're just going to add a little bit of Hooker's green to our permanent red, and you can see that the color changed right away. I'm going to paint on top of the barriers that we did. Now we just changed it from red to maroon. Sometimes as you paint, your initial plans will change, and that's completely fine. Just go with the flow and just follow your instinct. There's a small gap here. I'm just going to add a simple filler. With a more pigment and burnt umber, we're going to add a second layer to the pine cone because there's still brown color in my brush, I'm just going to add some stem sticking out. This will add a rustic look to your painting. Now we can layer the pine needles. I have your hookers green with some indigo, and then I'm going to paint on top of the first layer keep in mind that the first layer should be dry before you add the second layer. The poinsettia is already dry. It means that we can now add some more details on the petals. I just have here, red color and we're going to add the veins. You don't need to add veins on all the petals. Later on, we're going to add some gold and white detail. It looks good, but I think I want to add some white details. I'm going to grab my white brush, and then we're going to paint some thin veins on the petals. [MUSIC] Now we can go back and fix some areas. I'm going to make this a little bit thicker. Then now we can add some white berries. Aside from white berries, we can add some fillers right here. I'm just stippling the brush on the paper and painting some small dots, and then you can add some stems. Let's add some five petal flowers, and you can see that I am painting on top of the leaves so that you can see the white gouache. When you're adding the white gouache details, it will always look better if the background is dark. I'm looking at this from afar. It looks like we need to add some more leaves in the bottom layer. I'm going to layer some blue leaves. You can see that I'm painting very translucent leaves. Just to balance it out. We're going to add blue leaves as well on the other side. We're almost done. I'm just going to add some more finishing touches, just some stems or branches sticking out, and then you can add some black dots on the berries. These are very small details, but it makes a huge difference in the overall look of the painting. Now let's add some snowy details on this pine cone. I'm going to grab my white gouache and just lightly dab it on the pine cone. With a dry brush, you can also add some white gouache on the pine needles and on some of the leaves. Try to dab your brush in a tissue paper so that it's not too wet. When you're doing these small details, you want the brush to be dry, so that you can get a dry brush effect. Onto my favorite part, which is adding the gold details. I'm going to add some veins using this gold metallic paint. Make sure to use a nice brush with a fine tip. I'm using a size 4 round brush. [MUSIC] Now let's add some gold berries all around this poinsettia. Then you can also add some gold leaves. We just finished another project. Congratulations for finishing this beautiful poinsettia bouquet. Again, I hope that you enjoy doing this project with me. The gold here really made a big difference. I think the silver metallic paint will also look good on this painting. That's it. Now let's move on to painting the next project. You're going to paint some Christmas bubbles with a blue background. [MUSIC] 13. Blue Christmas Ornaments: In this video, we are going to paint blue Christmas bubbles with a blue background. To start a project, we need to tape down our paper on any surface, and then we are just going to use plain masking tape. This is just regular masking tape from the office supply section. I'm going to start with the background. I'm going to grab some water and just spread it on the paper evenly. You can do this faster if you have a flat brush. But since this paper is quite small, I am just using a round brush. Also, I thought that maybe some of you might not have a flat brush, so we're just going to use an ordinary round brush. Make sure that you are going to spread the water evenly so that you can get a nice gradient paint later. Let's also try to avoid puzzles of water on the paper. Now, I'm going to grab some paint. The color that I'm using is called cerulean blue. You can also use cobalt blue, you can also use turquoise, if you want. I just started at the top and just continue spreading it from left to right. You can also rinse your brush and just try to spread the color more evenly. Then I'm going to start at the bottom and go towards the middle. What we want here is want just a darker shade on the topmost and the bottommost of this paper. Now, don't feel any pressure when it comes to doing this background, we really just want a tinge of blue color in the background. The main star of this painting are the Christmas bubbles. Towards the middle of this paper, you can see that I'm not really adding a lot of color because I want to emphasize the Christmas bubbles. It looks like this from a top view, you can see that we have color on the top and bottom, and then the middle is almost white. Let's wait for this to dry before we add some details. When you touch it, it shouldn't feel cold. When it's still cold, it might still be a little damp, so try to wait for a few more minutes. To start, we need to draw circles and just using a regular pencil, try to find any object that has a round shape and just trace it on the paper. We're going to our wet on wet technique. It means that we're going to add water into the shape of this Christmas bubble. I'm just going to spread it evenly, and I only want the circle shape, I'm not going to add water in the cap of this Christmas bubble. Now, we can add some color. I'm using Prussian blue. I'm just going to spread it on my palette, then we're going to drop in this color. You can see that I'm using a very pigmented mixture, and that's because I'm going to add some gold details later. The gold details won't show up that well if the background is light in color, so we want a really dark and rich color. Just take your time in filling up this space with some Prussian blue. As you're adding the color, you can also try to fix the shape of this Christmas bubble. While the Christmas bubble is still wet, you can also try to drop in more pigmented Prussian blue on the sides of this Christmas bubble. Now, let's just wait for this to dry, and then we can add another Christmas bubble just right behind this. It's going to be a little bit smaller. I'm also going to do the wet on wet technique, so we are going to add water. I'm going to leave a very small space in between these two Christmas bubbles, which you will see later on. I'm not going to add water in that area. Now, let's grab some turquoise blue. I'm just drop in that color onto the wet surface, and I'm just going to also try to fix the shape of this Christmas bubble. You can see that I'm leaving a very thin line in between these two Christmas bubbles, and that's because I wanted to separate these two Christmas ornaments. Let me just finish filling in this space with color. When you are done, let's just wait for this to dry before we add the details. Just touch the surface to check if the paint is already dry. If it is, you can add some gold details. I'm using the gold metallic paint from Etchr Lab. Try to use a small brush so that it's easy to paint these small details. We are going to paint some gold leaves on this Christmas bubble. Try to add the leaves coming from different directions. Because we painted a dark blue color, you can see the gold details very well. When you're adding the details, try to add the details from the edge of the Christmas bubble, going into the center. Aside from the gold metallic paint, I think it will also look good if you use a silver color for the details. For this space, we are just going to paint some tiny leaves. Now that we're done with the design, you're going to add a cap on top of this Christmas ball. Then you can add a tiny loop over there. I'm going to also add a cap on the other Christmas bubble. We are going to do a different design for the second Christmas bubble. Just as a guide, I'm going to use my pencil and just draw a straight line, and then we are going to paint over that line with some gold metallic paint. This will look like the string of the Christmas ornament. I'm using just the tip of my brush and slowly building this line, instead of doing one big stroke. For the second Christmas bubble, we're going to use a white pen. This is the Uni-Ball Signo white pen. We're going to do a simple snowflake design. I'm going to do across first, and then we're going to just paint some diagonal lines in between those spaces. After which, we are just going to draw some circles at the tip of each stick. Then you can add some smaller sticks with some rounded tips. I was initially going to do just one design for this project, but I realized that it's also nice to show you guys that you can use either gold metallic paint or the white pen for the details. We're almost done. We're just going to add some letter V shapes onto the tips of some of the sticks. You can definitely do other snowflake designs, and you can even add some swirls. There are just so many ideas to add to this Christmas bubble. If you're good with calligraphy, you can add a quote inside this Christmas bubble. I'm just adding some small dots to fill in the extra space. Before you take off this masking tape, make sure that your painting is dry so that it will be flat when you take it out from this masking tape. When you're peeling the masking tape, make sure to keep it as low as you can. You want to peel it at an angle. You can see that I'm trying to keep it as flat as I can. This is just a favorite part of mine when you're just peeling the masking tape, and you see that clean, beautiful edge. We have one more tape to go and then we're done. There you have it, this is your Christmas bubble project. You can also do this in your favorite color or you can also change the shape of the Christmas bubble. I hope that you enjoyed this project, and also hope to see this in the project gallery section of the class once you make it. I'll just showing you the beautiful shimmer of the gold paint, and you can also add some splatters of gold paint, if you want. Now, let's move on to the next project where you will paint this vintage holiday card. 14. Pastel Theme Holiday Card: In this video, we are going to paint a pastel theme holiday card. This also reminds me of a vintage theme holiday card. We're going to do the background first. To do the background, I'm going to mix up brilliant pink with some burnt sienna so that I can get that peachy, orange-y color. I've also taped down my papers so that it won't curl up when they add the background. For this project, I'm not going to do a wet on wet technique, I'm going to do a wet on dry. I'm just going to grab some paint and just add it directly on dry paper. From time to time, I will dip my brush in the water jar just to add some moisture in my brush. We're not going to be strict about this looking so perfect. It doesn't need to be a clean background. In fact, I wanted this to look a little bit rustic. You can see that I'm not trying to fix the edges of this background, we just want it to look as is. We do want those nice jagged edges just to add more texture. While this background is still wet, I'm going to grab some water. I'm going to flick my brush and just add some splatters of water. You can see those white spots. That is just water. Now let's wait for this to dry before we add some details. Now you can see those beautiful white splatters of water, that's going to add some nice texture to this painting. I also think that it looks like it's sparkling or it looks like there's snow. Let's start with a pine cone. I just have burnt umber in my brush and we're going to do some brush markings. Then we are going to add a pine needle, so I'm just going to paint a thin stem. Let's rinse our brush and switch to a different color. We're going to use hooker's green. I'm going to mix this hooker's green with the burnt umber so that I can get that earthy green color. We're going to use this for the pine needles. I'm just going to paint some thin strokes. Try to paint it in different directions so that it looks more natural. You can also rinse your brush and bid a lighter green color. Let's layer this spine needle. I'm just mixing the hooker's green and indigo. We are just going to paint on top of the first layer and you'll see that it's just giving it more contrast. Let's now move on to a different leaf. I'm going to mix hooker's green with some sepia. You can see that nice, dark, earthy green color. Let's paint some leaves over here. I'm going to try to paint some nice thin leaves with pointy tips. Then you can also extend the stem all the way down. I'm also going to add a stem right here because we're going to add some white gouache flowers. Now let's add some red berries. I am using permanent red. I'm just going to add a bunch of red circles. Moving on to a different leaf, again, we are going to mix hooker's green and Prussian blue, but I want to add a little bit more Prussian blue because I want the leaves to be a bit bluish. This is going to be a nice contrast to the peach background. I also diluted this in a lot of water because I don't want this to look too strong. We want it quite translucent. Now, this pine cone is already dry, let's just grab a more pigmented burnt umber. I'm just going to add the second layer. Now if you want more contrast, you can also grab some sepia. You can add another layer. You can see that you have some darker areas. Slowly coming together. Now let's grab some white gouache. I'm using the Holbein, white gouache. I'm going to paint some five petal flowers just using gouache because we painted a colored background. You can see this white paint. Maybe we can add just one more flower right here just to balance it out and another one on the left side. I feel adding gouache is such a big game-changer. When it comes to painting with watercolor, it really gives your painting more depth. Right here, I just added a few white berries and also some fillers. You can just put some small dots and attach some stems to it and it will look like mini flowers. We can add more contrast to the pine needle. I'm going to add some indigo and I'm just going to add a few more strokes just so it will pop up even more. Then you can also try to extend the spine needle and make it a bit lose. Now let's grab some indigo and add some white dots on the white berries. You can also use black paint. These white flowers are a bit light for me. I think I want it to be more opaque, so we're going to add a second layer. Let's add more white gouache. Make sure that the first layer is already dry before you add some more paint. You can see that it now looks a bit more opaque. We're adding the second layer because we want this white flower to stand out. Let's add the center on the white gouache flowers. I'm just using sap green and I'm just going to put some small dots in the center. Make sure that your gouache is already dry before you add this detail. We can add some snowy effect on the pine cone as well. Now let's add some more stems here. I'm going to use hooker's green and burnt umber. Make sure to add a lot of water in your paint because you want this to be a light-colored stem. We want this area to look soft, that's why I am using a light-colored green. Now let's look at this from afar and add some more details where it's needed. I'm going to extend this area and just add some more leaves. Now let's peel off the tape and look at this painting from afar. You can double-check if we need to add some more details. This already looks good. But as I'm looking at it, I think it will look better with a tiny ribbon. I'm just going to mix brilliant pink and burnt umber. I want it to be a darker color. Then let's just add a small ribbon. I decided to add this ribbon because I think it looks more like a gift if there is a ribbon on the bouquet. We're doing a holiday card that we are going to gift to somebody, so I guess it just looks good with this ribbon. I decided not to use a gold ribbon because I wanted this painting to be matte. I think it goes well with the theme of a pastel-colored background. That's it. Congratulations for finishing this project. It looks complicated because of the background but I think that you can do it really well. I'm excited to see your work. Now let's move on to the next project where we'll paint a snowy Christmas tree. 15. Snowy Christmas Tree: In this project, we are going to make a snowy Christmas tree design. This is a very beautiful project. It's also very easy to make. We need to start with the background first. You need to tape down the sides of your paper. Let's paint just the background with some water. I'm using my round brush, but you can also use a flat brush. Try to spread it as evenly as you can and try to avoid puddles. Let's start with the first color. I'm going to grab some Prussian blue. You want this to be bit more concentrated. I'm just going to add it at the top portion and we're going to go down and moving just left and right. As we go down, it becomes lighter. We also prefer that. We want the middle part to be a bit lighter in color. At the bottom part we're going to add a snowy effect and to do that, let's grab permanent violet, indigo. We have to make sure that you have a lot of water. We're going to dilute that. I'm just going to add it right here. You just want a few strokes. You don't need to paint the entire area flat with that color. I just want some sweeping strokes like what I'm doing and you just going to leave it as is. Now, let's move on to painting the tree. The paper is still damp and I'm going to grab hooker's green. We're going to start at the top. We're just going to stipple our brush to create those small leaves. You can see that the paint is not spreading so much because I've controlled the amount of water in my brush. If your paint is spreading crazy on the wet paper, what you can do is you can dab your brush and a tissue paper. You just want the right amount of water. Right now I'm also leaving some spaces in between my strokes. You can add a bit more color in some areas. I'm just using the tip of my brush and just moving left and right. We just want the blurry effect of this Christmas tree. We're going to add the main form of this tree later on. This doesn't have to look perfect at all. Then towards the bottom you can see that it's a little bit slanted. I'm going to leave it as is because I want the illusion that it's sitting on a snowy slope. Let's add some contouring and we'll add some shadows using hooker's green and indigo. You want this shadow below the leaves. My paper is still damp as I do this, you can see that the paint is feathery or it looks like it's blurring out. That's because the paper is still damp. It's still a little bit wet. Maybe I'm going to add a little bit more on the top just to fix the shape. Then let's grab some white gouache. I'm going to add some splatters of white gouache that will look like snow. My paper's actually still wet. I want some of that splatter to blend in with the background. I'm just going to continue adding because I want it to look snowy. I'm going to add a lot of whites splatters after which we are going to wait for this to dry before we add some more details. I'm just going to touch the paper and make sure it's dry. If it's already dry, let's grab some hooker's green, and let's start painting the leaves. I'm going to use just the tip of my brush and just lightly touch it and create those wispy strokes. I'm going to make sure that there are spaces in between my strokes and that you can still see the blurry background underneath. It's important to build this little by little. You can also try to rinse your brush and just paint a lighter green color. You can see towards the sides of the tree and making the strokes small and just pointing outward. Now let's grab some more color. This one has more pigment, so it's a darker hooker's green. If some of the strokes are a little bit too bold, what you can do is you can grab some water and just blur it out. The technique here is to add some sharp edges and mix it with some soft edges. Also try to wiggle your brush so that you can get these nice expressive strokes. It's now time to add some contouring or some shadows on this Christmas tree. I'm going to mix hooker's green and indigo. We're going to add this underneath the leaves. We're doing this while this Christmas tree is still wet. Just to make it easier for you to understand, when you're painting a tree, you want the top part to be lighter in color and then the bottom will be a bit darker because that's where the shadow is. Towards the bottom, I'm just going to grab a clean brush and just blur that bottom part. You want it to look soft and you want it to blend in with the snow. Now we're going to add some snowy effect again on the bottom part. We're going to grab some permanent violet. Then let's add some indigo and add a lot of water. Let's paint some diagonal strokes. We're not going to fill in the entire area with this color. You just want` a few strokes that will give the impression that this is a snowy slope. Now let's wait for this piece to dry before we add the snowy effect. Let's just touch the paper and check if it's really dry. Then you can grab some white gouache and I'm going to add some snowy details. The snow will go on top of the leaves. Just lightly touch your brush on the paper to create some nice expressive strokes. Also, we want a thick mixture of gouache because we want the snow to be really white. When you're doing this project, it's better to really use a100 percent cotton paper so that your paper will keep its moisture for a longer period of time. If you're using student-grade paper, usually the paint dries faster. That's why it's difficult to do the wet on wet technique on student-grade paper. Now I'm going to add some snow, I'm going to grab some white gouache and just tap my brush on a pen or on another brush. Let's just add some more splatters on this painting. Now let's wait for this layer to dry again. I'm going to add another layer of snow. My gouache dried up pretty light. I'm going to add another layer of gouache, we're just going to go on top of the same spots that we did. You can see that there's a big difference if you add the second layer of gouache. It is really whiter. That's what we are aiming for in this project. You want a snowy effect. To further give this more contrast, we're going to add hooker's green and indigo. I'm going to add some more shading or contouring. Let's add some shadow. I'm going to add this below the white gouache that we added. This technique will make the snow pop up even more. Let's just do that all around this tree. In some parts I'm just going to extend the sides of the Christmas tree. I'm going to dab a few leaves. This entire painting is already dry and now let's grab our gold metallic paint. I'm going to add some Christmas ornaments. I think I'm just going to add some round Christmas balls and it will look really good on this painting. If you have other colors of metallic paint you can also add that on this Christmas tree so that it looks more festive. Now for the top part, of course, we're going to add a star. I'm just going to draw the outline first and then we're going to fill in this star. It's now time to peel off this masking tape and it's going to reveal a very nice clean edge. Again, when you're peeling this tape, you have to peel it at an angle. I usually peel it close to the surface so that I won't accidentally ruin the paper. There you go. That's your snowy Christmas tree. I hope that you enjoyed painting this project. If you're able to do this, please do upload it in the project gallery section of this class so I can see your work. Now let's move on to the next project where we will paint a hot chocolate mug. It's going to be a fun project, so don't miss it out. 16. Hot Choco: Painting the Base: In this project, we're going to paint the hot chocolate mug with some marshmallow on top. This project will be split into two videos. For the first part, we are going to start by painting the base of this project. This is a yummy hot chocolate mug. To start, we are going to draw the mug first. I am going to just draw the oval shape at the top and then I'm going to add some straight lines on the sides. Then now we're adding the bottom part of the mug. This is a very straightforward mug. I decided to choose something simple and something that is doable for beginners. Then now let's add the handle of the mug. If you're thinking of a different shape, feel free to use that instead of following the shape of the mug that I'm doing. Just as a guide, we can also try to draw some marshmallows. You can draw some round shapes or maybe some rectangular shapes with rounded corners. It's not exactly going to be the final design, but at least we have a guide in mind. I'm going to pile up more marshmallows at the top so I want this to be overflowing with marshmallows so that it looks yummier. Just to add a little bit more design to this mug, I'm going to add a candy cane. You can see right here that we have the dripping chocolate. I'm also going to draw that so that we have an idea of where it will be later on. I'm only going to do two hot chocolate drippings on the side, you can add some more if you want. For this project, I'm not too conscious about the pencil outlines because we are going to cover that up with our paints so this painting is a little bit more opaque than my usual style. Let's type start painting. We are going to do a wet-on-wet technique. I'm going to spread some clean water on the body of this mug, but I'm not going to add water on the chocolate drippings. You can see I'm just adding water all around it, but I want to keep that pretty dry. We'll also add some water on the handle of this mug. Now let's add some color, I'm going to be using permanent red and we want just some more pigmented mixture. Let's rub that in on this wet surface. You can see that the paint is spreading and it's feathering. Just to make it easier, I'm going to do the outline around this chocolate dripping. I'm going to make sure that this area is white. Normally, I would use a masking fluid so I can protect this part. But I realized that not everyone has a masking fluid so we're just going to find ways to make this work and I also want this to be painted in a simple approach. We're almost done with the base, now I'm going to head out onto the handle. As I'm adding this base, I'm also trying to fix the sides of this mug. While this mug is still wet, it's the perfect time to fix the shape if you need to add or extend some areas. Now we're going to add some shadows. I am just going to mix permanent red and Hooker's green. We are going to add that onto the sides and at the bottom of this mug. We are going to add the shadows while this base is still wet so we want this to blend in with the permanent red color. Then you're also going to add some shadow on the inner part of the handle. Now I'm going to add a little bit of shadow near the chocolate drippings. I'm just going to fix this area, I'm going to grab some more permanent red and just paint over this area. We're not going to be so strict about this base because the main focus of this painting will be the hot chocolate on top. It is looking really good so now let's just wait for it to dry up before we add some more details. We're going to add some shadows on the marshmallow so I need to mix ultramarine blue and burnt umber to create a neutral color. Just make sure to add a lot of water onto your mixture and just going to swatch it. You can see it's a nice gray color. Now we are just going to add a little bit of color on some of the marshmallows. We want some of the marshmallows to be just plain without color. Just keep on adding some color and then you can also try to blur some of your strokes so that it will look soft. It might not make any sense right now but later on, you'll see that there's a big difference if you add a bit of a shadow on the marshmallows. You'll notice in this example that the marshmallows actually has a little bit of color from the bluish tint that we added. Just make sure that some of the marshmallows are still white or without any paint on it. Now let's paint the chocolate rim, I'm going to use burnt umber. We are going to paint the rim with this color. Just make sure that the red mug is already dry when you're adding this layer. Let's follow the outline first. Just going to add this ring, but we're not going to go all the way to the back. Now we're going to add some color on the chocolate drippings. I'm just going to follow the shape. We're going to do the same on the second one, just follow the outline first. Now let's rinse our brush and dab it on the tissue paper. Now we can try to blur this area. I'm just pulling in the color from the outline. Now we're almost done with this part. I'm going to rinse my brush and I'm going to dab the excess moisture on the tissue paper. We are going to blur one side of this rim so I want to soften this area. This will look like the marshmallows are floating on the hot chocolate drink. Try to wiggle your brush so that you can blend out this area. I'm going to rinse my brush and dab the excess moisture. I'm going to try to fix some areas. While the rim is still a little bit damp, I'm going to grab a more pigmented mixture of burnt umber. I'm just going to drop it in so I can get a nice contrast. With a clean brush, I'm also trying to blur out some areas again and just try to soften that edge. If you want even more contrast you can grab sepia, just add it on the outline of this rim. This area looks a little bit too sharp so I'm just going to go ahead and blend out that area with a clean brush. We do need to do a lot of blending in this project just to make sure that it will look a little bit more realistic. With burnt umber in my brush, I'm just going to separate all the marshmallows. I'm making these tiny strokes that look like a letter Y or sometimes a letter V. I'm going to rinse my brush, dab the excess moisture and just blend out those small strokes. This is an important step when it comes to separating the marshmallows. We don't want the marshmallows to look like one big blob of paint. You can see I'm also adding a little bit of brown on some of the marshmallows, just to give the illusion that part of it was dipped in the hot chocolate drink. Now let's move on to the next video where we will be adding more details on this hot chocolate mug. 17. Hot Choco: Adding More Details: Welcome to part two of this project. We're going to add more details. Right here, you can see our marshmallow. Well, we want it to be more defined. I'm going to grab some burnt umber, and I'm going to add some more paint in between the marshmallows. Then you're going to rinse our brush and dab the excess moisture. Next, we can try to fade away the strokes that we did. Then you can also add some more marshmallows at the top because I want this to be overflowing with marshmallow. I'm using the ultramarine blue and burnt umber mixture, the green mixture that we mixed earlier on. That's what I'm going to use to add those marshmallows. Just make sure to add a lot of water in the mixture. You don't want it to look too gray. Just want a hint of color. Then we're going to fade away the strokes so that it looks soft. Now let's add some more browns in the crevices or in the cracks that you can see here. What we're doing is we're separating the marshmallow from each other. We can try to fade away this area to make it look softer. I just have a clean brush and just going to soften this. You don't want a lot of water in your brush. Make sure to dab your brush in a tissue paper. We can try to wiggle our brush just to soften this area. This looks good. Now let's move on to the candy cane. Now we need a very light mixture of permanent red. I'm going to do the outline of this candy cane. Just want a hint of red. This looks good. Now, we are going to add the stripes. For the stripes, we want a darker mixture. We want it to be more pigmented. You can see it as I am adding the stripes. It is flowing through the outline, and that's because the outline is still a little bit wet, but it's okay with me. If you don't want this to happen, then you have to wait for the outline to dry before you add the stripes inside this candy cane. The outline dried up pretty light. I'm going to add a little bit more color. I'm going to do another outline with my permanent red color. After this, we're going to go back to the marshmallows. I have here my gray mixture. It's ultramarine and burnt umber. Let's add some color to some of the marshmallows. I'm going to add a little bit of shadow. I guess we'll stop right there. We don't want all the marshmallows to look so gray. Now we are going to separate the handle of the mug from the body of the mug. You can see it right here. To do that, we need to mix permanent red and Hooker's green. I'm just going to paint a line over here. Then after we paint that line, I'm going to rinse my brush, and I'm going to dab the excess moisture in tissue paper. Then we're going to fade it just to make it look softer. Now, this is optional, but you can also add a little bit more shadow at the bottom of this mug. You can just paint a line like this, and then we are going to fade it away with a clean brush. I'm going to add some more definition on the chocolate grim. With a burnt umber, I'm going to do an outline just to make sure that the mixture is very pigmented. I'm also going to add some outline on the chocolate dripping. Now let's rinse our brush and dab the excess moisture in the tissue paper. You can now start to blur this area. Just wiggle your brush and just try to spread that color. Now I'm going to add some shadow at the bottom part of this marshmallow. We're going to use Hooker's green. I'm just going to make a few strokes in between the marshmallows. You can see that it's very pigmented. Then we're just going to rinse our brush and dab the excess moisture. I'm going to feed it away and just let it blend in with the background. You can see that the marshmallow suddenly popped up because we added that shadow. After we blend everything, let's just wait for this painting to dry. Now try to touch your painting if it's already dry. If it's a little dump then it's still too wet to work on it, so wait for a little bit more. Then we're going to add some details. I am using white goulash. I'm adding some small dots that will look like powdered sugar. If you have an old toothbrush, you can use that to add some of the white dots so that it will be really small. I made a mistake of adding a big white dot, so I'm going to just pick a tissue paper and just dab it. I'm just going to lift the color. Let's just go ahead and add some more dots, and I'm also adding some lines that will look like highlights or a reflection. You can also add some highlights on the hand of the mug or on the sides. Another idea would be to add some designs on the mug itself. I was able to do this version with some snowflake designs on the mug. It's right here. I'm adding some white details on the candy cane as well. Now let's mix ultramarine blue and burnt umber. We want a gray mixture. Then let's add a lot of water. We're going to use this as a shadow for the bottom part of this mug. I'm going to add it on the surface and just spread this color. Now, this is optional. Some of you might want just a clean white background, and that's okay. After this, we're going to add some splatters. I'm using just burnt umber. I'm just going to add some brown splatters that will look like cocoa powder. The gray area below the mug is still wet. Once you add those splatters, it will look blurry because the paper is still wet. You can add more splatters if you want more cocoa powder on the hot chocolate mug. Well, if you're having a hard time with the splatters, you can also use your brush and just stipple some small dots using the tip of the brush. After the splatters, I'm going to go in and just separate the marshmallows once again. We're going to add some more burnt umber in between them and then we're going to just blur it away and make it softer. In this project, we are really layering a lot and just adding more and more details to make it just more realistic. Now, if you want to add some more white dots, you can do that as well. After this, I'm going to grab my brush and add some more splatters. I think I want more splatters outside the mug. You can use a tissue paper to cover some parts that you don't want splatters on. With my gray mixture, I can also add more shadow at the bottom part of this mug. Just make sure that you start with a very light color, then you can try to spread it. Now, we're done with this yummy hot chocolate drink. It took us a little bit longer to paint, but I'm pretty sure that you're very proud of your own work. I am excited to see your uploaded project. This is the last project for the class. Thank you so much for trying out all the projects. Let's now move on to the next video, where I will share with you my final thoughts. 18. Final Thoughts: We are now at the end of the class. Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope that you learn different techniques from the projects and that you can apply it to your own work. I am so excited to see your holiday cards. To start making your project, you can choose any card that you want to try. Then you can upload that in the project gallery section of the class so that I can see your work. If you upload it on Instagram, make sure to use this hashtag so that I can see your work as well. That's it. Merry Christmas to you and your family. l will see you in my next class. Bye. 19. Bonus Video: [MUSIC] Congratulations for finishing all of the projects and now we are going to do a bonus video. In this video, we are going to do this beautiful winter floral card. Let's get started. First let's draw two circles and that will be the main flowers for this card. Then after that, we're just going to add the foliage and all the other elements to complete this look. Now let's start with the first flower, we're going to do a muted rose. I'm just mixing here yellow ocher and sepia to get that muted yellow color. Let's paint the center. First I'm going to start with the letter C stroke and then all around it we're going to paint some thin strokes. These strokes are just hugging the center and make sure that you have spaces in between your strokes. Now I just rinse my brush and then you're going to widen some of the petals. You can see that I'm really pressing my brush on the paper, so that it will fan out and create this nice C-shaped stroke. Now for the outermost petals, I'm going to add a shadow and I'm just diluting some indigo. Then you can see that the color is very translucent. It just has that tinge of color, it's not too dark. Just be careful and make sure that you really add a lot of water in your mixture. We're done with the first flower, now let's move on to the second one. This is just diluted indigo. I'm just going to plot in some dots and then we are going to paint some petals. You can see that I'm swinging my brush in different directions. You can come from the center going outward and vice versa. We are just going to do three petals, just to give that illusion that it's hiding behind this rose. I also find it easier to do these types of rose petals if the brush is really wet. We can load this with a lot of water. I'm also using a size 4 round brush because I'm painting on a smaller piece of paper. We are done with the three petals. Now let's grab some indigo and you want a very pigmented color. We don't really want a brush that's too wet, that's why I'm dabbing my brush in the tissue paper. We want to control the way the paint spreads on the wet surface, that's why we need the brush to be a little bit dry. We're done with the main flowers, now let's grab some burnt umber and we are going to paint a pine cone. This is going to be the first layer. Let's wait for the pine cone to dry. In the meantime, let's get greenish yellow. We're going to use this color to add some fillers. I'm going to paint some small buds. When you're done with the buds, let's grab some Hooker's green. We're just going to add some stems so that we can attach it to the main bouquet. Now we are going to add some pine needles and to do that, I'm going to add just some thin lines that will be my guide so that I know where I'm going to place the pine needles. Just use any brown color that you have. Let's start painting the leaves. I'm just going to mix Hooker's green and indigo to get a dark green color. Then let's start painting the thin leaves. Just use the tip of the brush to create the strokes. Just make sure that you paint these strokes facing in different directions. You can also rinse your brush, so that you can get a lighter green color. While some of the leaves are still wet, sometimes I would add a darker color. I'm going to grab some indigo and just drop that in. It will give a more dramatic effect. Now let's move on to the other pine needle. I'm just going to do the same as what we did in the first pine needle. [MUSIC] Now let's mix up a gray color. I'm going to mix ultramarine blue and burnt umber. You can just adjust the ratio if you want it to be more on the blue side or more on the brown side. You're going to paint a filler. I'm just going to start with the stem and then we're going to tap our brush to create those small leaves. Because ultramarine blue is a granulating color, you'll be able to see some granulating effect when it dries up. I think that it's a really beautiful color. People usually don't add some gray color in a bouquet, but I think it's a nice touch for a winter floral, so that you have that cool effect. This is a nice fuzzy filler and you can actually even add some berries using this color. Now let's add some rounded leaves. I'm just going to mix up Hooker's green and indigo, and then you can add a little bit more water to dilute it. We can add some rounded leaves over here and maybe a couple more over here. We're going to try and add some white berries later on. Let's add some more fillers. Lets just grab some sap green and add some stems, and then let's add some small leaves. I'm just going to stipple my brush so that we can get those nice small leaves. We can add a little bit of color to this bouquet. Let's add some red berries. I'm using permanent red. If you don't want to use red, perhaps you can use Prussian blue if you want it to be a blue theme bouquet. The rounded leaves are already dry, I guess you can try to layer some leaves on top of it. Then I'll add some eucalyptus. You can mix Hooker's green and some indigo. Just add a stem and some oval shapes. We're just making sure that we have a variety of foliage so that it will look nicer. Let's rotate our paper and add some leaves. I'm just using Hooker's green and Prussian blue. Again, if you don't want this combination, feel free to use any blue color in your palette. It's all coming together. It looks nice and lush. I guess it's time to add some more details, just make sure that the first layer is already dry. Let's head on to the first rose. I'm going to grab some yellow ocher and sepia. Let's just mix a darker color. Now let's add the second layer. I'm going to paint the comma stroke in the middle and make some thin strokes all around it. But I'm also making sure that you can still see the first layer. I'm leaving some spaces in between my strokes and then I'm just fading away the outer strokes. Let's add a couple more strokes that will give the illusion that these are petals. You'll notice that as we go to the outer part of this rose, the color becomes lighter. Now let's add a detail in the center of this flower. Just use a dark pigmented indigo color. Then just tap your brush so that you can get these tiny strokes. Now we are going to grab some burnt umber and add a second layer to the pine cone. You'll see that it really makes a difference when you add more details. The first layer is usually just very loose and then when it dries, you can add a second layer just to give more contrast. [MUSIC] The pine needles need a little bit more depth. Let's grab some Hooker's green with indigo and add some thin strokes on top of the first layer. Right now you can see that it has more depth and more detail, and it also has more contrast. When you're painting a bouquet, it's nice to mix loose for us with something that's more detailed or just more pigmented. Now I'm going to add some small dots on berries. You can use a black color or indigo, or you can even use a black pen. It's now time to add some gouache details. I'm using this whole bean white gouache, so make sure that you have a thick mixture. I'm going to add some white berries and it will look nicer if the background is darker in color. If you want, you can paint some darker leaves and that's where you're going to add the gouache details so that the gouache will pop up even more. Here in my palette, I have a gray mixture. This is the burnt umber and ultramarine blue mixture that we used earlier. I'm going to add some gray berries. This is going to give a soft effect on this bouquet. It's just a subtle color. I usually like adding these small details because it makes a big difference in the overall look of the bouquet. [MUSIC] This muted yellow flower needs a little bit more contrast. It dried up pretty light. What we're going to do is we're going to add some sepia. This is a nice dark brown color. I'm just going to add it in the center and just add some small thin strokes all around it. Now let's rinse our brush and you're going to fade away some of the strokes, so that it doesn't look too harsh or too sharp. We want the center to be sharp, but we want the outer area to be quite soft. That's why we are trying to blur some of the strokes that we did. We're almost done. When everything is already dry, we're going to add some snowy effect. I'm going to add some white gouache on the pine cone. Maybe you can add a little bit of snowy effect on the pine needles. I'm just going to dab my brush in the tissue paper because I want the dry brush effect. It means that I don't want a lot of moisture in my brush, I want it to be dry. We are done. Congratulations for finishing another project. I hope that you enjoyed this bonus video and I look forward to seeing your work. Happy holidays to you and your family. I hope to see you in my next class. Bye. [MUSIC]