Watercolor Crystals & Gems Made Easy

1. Welcome!: Hey guys, have you always wanted to paint crystals and gems, but it seems like it's too hard. Well, in this class I'm going to show you a breakdown as my process and how maybe it's not as hard as it might seem. We will touch on how light interacts with crystals and how you can mimic that in your painting. It would simple techniques using watercolor, ink and gouache. From simple flat illustrations to a more delicate, refined the up to a more illustrators sketchy style. There's no limit to how you can bring these magical deities to life and have fun while you're at it. Come on in and let's make some magical crystals and gems. See you inside. 2. MATERIALS: All right, so first you're obviously going to need your watercolors, some kitchen towels, your brushes, a couple of jars of water. I have to is me here. And if you like, you can also use some metallic paint. I also have some white gouache. You can use white ink if you like, or a white gel pen. Another option is to use some masking fluid, which these do come a little bit more expensive, but they're really fun to use. How it works is you put on the masking fluid onto the surface of your paper that you want to keep white. And that's just going to prevent that area from being painted. So over here I have a few crystals and gems from my very small collection. Now it'll be really good if you can actually get your hands on a couple of actual crystals and gems so that you can see how the light interacts with it. In real life, you can move it around and actually get a really good look at it. But if you don't have these at hand, No worries, You do not have to go out and purchase them. I have prepared a Pinterest board with a few references and feel free to use during this class. One of the first things that you will want to notice is how light interacts with these crystals or gems. First of all, depending on how opaque or transparent they are, far more opaque crystals, it's very basic where the light hits is, where you'll get a reflection. You'll have light and shadow. As with any opaque object. But for more transparent gems such as this rose quartz, you'll see that light actually travels through the crystal and you can see it over on the other side. We have a little bit of light bouncing inside and pulling around it. That can seem counter-intuitive to how we would normally think about how light would interact with an object. But it's all just a matter of observation. And you can certainly do a lot of observation, even just using whatever resources you have online. 3. SKETCH: When it comes to drawing out your crystals are gems. It really helps to just break them down into simple shapes. So for example, I'm looking at this and says Crystal over here. While it might look complicated, is really just a bunch of triangles and rectangles arranged together in a certain way to give us this shape. So when you're looking at it, if you're drawing from physical reference or even just a photo, try to break down the whole thing into smaller shapes. This makes it a lot easier for you to draw out the whole thing. Don't really worry about any of the other Patreon details. You can just add that lightly in later on. For this rose quartz pebble, this is more of a somewhat circular, oval shapes, so it doesn't have to be very exact. I'm just sketching out the general shape of it, marking out where that highlight the reflection of the light would be, and a little bit of where the cast shadow would be. I'm also marking out a little bit of the areas on the stone where it would appear a little bit darker. For this one, it's basically a cube that is at an angle and we have not very defined edges to the cube where it's been worn down and polished quite a bit. But essentially the form of this is a cube, and then we can just mark on the patterns afterward. This one was a really fun one to do, and I drew this one a little bigger than its actual size. But while it does look a little bit, while it does look a little bit complicated, it could just really break it down into a bunch of lines and rectangles that are all next to each other. I'm not really worrying about the actual form while I'm sketching this out, I am just drawing what I see in the moment for something more irregular, like this rose quartz charge over here. Essentially the basic shape of it is irregular, sort of a for corner pyramid. And that's the basic shape that I'm starting with. And then I'm just going to be adding in the irregularities on the sides and the surface later on. But it makes it so much easier to just see the actual basic shape that is formed is taking before worrying about any of the other minor details. 4. PRACTICE 1: Alright, so we are finally starting with our watercolor. Now how I sometimes like to start my painting sessions, I don't do this all the time, but it's good thing to start with is a little bit of a warm-up. Watercolor is a transparent medium and you can actually do a lot with just the one color. If you know how to balance out how much pain to how much pigment you have versus how much water. Here, I'm just drawing a few rectangles. And with each rectangle, I'm using more and more paint compared to water. For this first one, there's quite a bit of water and not much paint in there, so it looks very, very light and very transparent. For the second one, I'm going to be adding a bit more paint and so on. The next time, moving onto some circles over here. And I'm doing basically the same thing for the first one. I have my paint added to one side compared to the other. For the second one, I'm leaving more of the paint over on the edges, leaving a nice, much lighter highlight towards the middle. For this third circle, what I'm doing first is I'm wetting the whole surface with water. And then I'm going to take some of my paint on my brush and just drop it in. And I'm actually going to let that bleed and spread as it would, because you sometimes get some really nice funky organic patterns when you just let the paint and the water do what they would. Next, I'm moving onto some simple shapes. Over here. I'm keeping the light source at the upper left side. So I'm assuming that these crystals are opaque. We would of course have the lightest side over where the light is, with the darker colors over the shadows on the other side. We're making use of what we just practiced a little while ago where I'm using just the one color, just the one paint pigment. And just by controlling the amount of paint versus water, I am able to get these varying tints and shades to use for these shapes over here. This is really good practice for you to get the hang of experimenting with controlling the amount of water versus the amount of paint that you have in your mixture and on your brush. And seeing what you are going to be able to do with that. You can see here that I am actually layering on top of this side of the shape here. Since watercolor is a transparent medium, a lot of your painting practice will involve waiting and layering and coming back to build on the color and the opacity. I have a couple of other shapes here and I'm doing more or less the same thing with the other colors. Feel free to pause and rewind this as much as you like. You can actually do this worksheet several times if you like, with different colors. And trying out different ratios of paint to water. Just have fun with it. You can actually do this worksheet several times if you like, with different colors. Trying out definite ratio of paint to water. Just have fun with it. All right. 5. PRACTICE 2: All right, For the second half, more practice, we're going to see that there are a few circles over the bottom of the page. I've just turned mine over so that it's easier to paint on it. I'm using these circles to sort of experiment with what I might do when I actually get into painting crystals. So as we said, the shape of the crystals are essentially very geometric, regardless of whether they are cut and polished or if you're seeing them. And unfinished crystals, they generally tend to have very geometric look to them. That's why it's going to make things a whole lot easier if you started looking at them and figuring out the basic shapes. For this first one, this is more or less what the bottom of a circular diamond would look like if we're looking at the bottom and seeing the tip, the middle. And it's got quite a few sides to it. These are decides that I am just painting out in various shades of more or less the same color. It. The next ones I've drawn in some random shapes into the circle just to mimic what a crystal might look like. There's not really any rhyme and reason. I did these ones. And it doesn't really matter while you're still doing this practice. For the blue one, I just fill it in with various shades of blue, just flat washes in each of the shapes. For this green one. I'm doing more or less the same, except that adding in a bit of gradient for each of the shapes. There's more paint on one side of each shape or one corner. It is more diluted towards the other end. And doing this will help you give the illusion of light playing around in your crystal or your gen. This last one, I'm doing more or less the same. I am first giving it a little wash, a very light wash of purple and gray. You can use any color you like. And once that's dry, I'm going to go back in and start filling in those random shapes inside with little gradient as well. And I'm only using one color here. But since we did put down a very light wash, begin with. So at the sides of those are the sides of those shapes where it's a bit more transparent because there's more water the previous layer is going to show through. And that's going to give the crystal that hint. Very light tone color. 6. PINK DIAMOND - Flat Style: All right, Now that we're done with our initial practice, you can get started with trying out a few crystals and gems. I've encoded in the project resources section. Links to a Pinterest reference board, as well as some PDFs of the sketches that I made for these gems. Feel free to head on over there, download them, and use them as much as you like for this class. For this first pink diamond can use any color you want. Actually, this one, I am just going to be painting it in flat shapes. So I have the diamond and the pattern drawn onto my watercolor paper. And I am just going to be filling in the shapes a little bit at a time. Just a flat wash of color and I'm going to be using more or less and the same couple of colors. I think I'll be using pink and a little bit of purple. For this one. I'm just going to be painting each each geometric shape in this overall pool diamond shape, a flat wash of color. I'm going in at random intervals for each of the shapes because I don't want to be painting. I don't want to fill in two shapes that are side-by-side with a very similar color. And also this is watercolor, so it's going to take a little bit for a, for each wash to dry. So I'm just going to try and avoid painting directly next to one that still might be a little bit too wet because that is going to obviously have the paint bleed into the wash right next to it and spread in a way that I will not want it to. In this case. This video is sped up and every now and then I actually take a step back and wait for it to dry. So you may need to do that as well while you're following along. So feel free to just pause, take a break, and wage for your first layer. It is a couple of shapes to dry and then come back and continue. In if you haven't. Pretty pink diamond. 7. GREEN GEM - Geometric: For this next screen jam, I'm still going to be using mostly flat washes, but I'm also going to be incorporating some of the gradients that we practiced earlier on. Now in this one, I'm also going to be taking a little bit more into account the direction of the lighting for this trend. For this one, I'm taking that lighting is almost directly overhead, but a little bit towards the left as well. So as we discussed earlier, with gems are crystals that are transparent or semi-transparent, where the light is actually able to go through a gym or the crystal. There is going to be quite a bit of light bouncing inside and sort of like you could call it collecting within because of refraction and all that. So contrary to what we might think and how we're used to seeing light interact with more opaque objects such as your table or a wall or a rock. The side that we expect to have much darker shadows, that is actually where we will be seeing quite a bit of the light pooling. And this is the light that is inside the crystal bouncing around, inside over there. And also because their crystal again is sort of transparent, light, this flow through, it does bounce around inside and flows through and comes out over on the other end while they are still shadows that are going to be formed. They're not exactly quite how we're used to seeing them just because the light isn't being completely blocked. Now it might sound more complicated than it actually is. But on the bright side, this does actually make it quite a bit easier to mimic the look of light bouncing around in your crystal. So because the bouncing around of this light is very erratic and random also depending on the material of the crystal itself and the cut, etc. It kind of makes it rather easy for you to mimic the effect of the light interacting with your crystal as you're painting. You can see, I'm going back into some of those shapes with a second layer. After that initial layer has dried, just to add a bit more contrast and a bit more saturation to the color to make it look like it has a bit more shadow on one side of each shape, then the other. Now once I'm done with the initial shapes on this crystal, going to go back in. And just using the similar colors I'm going to paint in a few more, smaller triangles and shapes in-between. This is because this is a semi transparent crystal, meaning that it is a colored crystal, but it's not completely opaque. So sort of like how you would see in a crystal in real life. You can't see through it. You'll be able to see your hand or your finger on the other side, for example. And you'll also see bits of the facets, the faces on the other side, the underside or the other side, the crystal while you're looking at it. So I'm adding these few shapes over U2 mimic seeing light interacting with Z other sides of the crystals. But we're seeing it through this top view that we are painting. Unless is definitely more here, you don't want to overdo it. And it does take a little bit of practice to figure out when you should stop, but at the same time, just go ahead and have fun. I could leave it at this, but I think I want to add a little bit of highlights as well. So I'm going to be using my white gouache. You could use white ink. Or if you have one of those white gel pen set will work perfectly as well. And I'm just going to add very few of these white highlights over here. And some of them are going to be along the edges of the shapes. And a few are going to be smaller versions of those triangles that we added earlier. And this is just going to give the impression, the illusion of more light being reflected. And it's going to make it look more like what a gym might actually look like in real life. 8. BLUE CRYSTAL - White Highlights: Now for our blue crystal over here, unlike with cut and polished gems, crystals are going to be less symmetrical. You still have geometric shapes there of course, as the basis. They're going to be less, even there's a bit more irregularity and you have a lot more room to play with. I suppose you could say, I kind of like painting Crystal's. More than that. I enjoy painting refined cut gems. Just because there's a lot more room for you to play around with the shape. I am using. More or less, just the one color here. This is a bit of turquoise mixed in. Whereas I think a royal blue. Similar to what we did in our first exercise. I'm just varying the amount of water that I have mixed in my brush and with the paint to give me these various tints and shades of the same color. Now once I'm done with the base color and adding in more of those shadows that I like. I decided to go back into this one with a bit of my white gouache paint. Again, just because I want to add a bit more of those highlights here and there. And I wanted to be a bit irregular. And this is just going to give that crystal, that more reflective look to make it look more elegant. Well-being, unpolished. 9. AMBER CRYSTAL - Texture: For this brown one, I'm going to be using my complexion skin tone palette just because this really has a nice collection of ochres and browns that I wanted to use in this dark amber crystal. This crystal, I'm using the techniques similar to the one that we used for blue acquire marine crystal that we painted in the previous class. Except afterwards for this one, I wanted to be a little bit more textured. So we're going to be coming back right after we fill in the bass tones and colors for this shape to add in a little bit more of the texture. But with it. Because this is a cut crystal, but it is an unfinished ones. So I want this to have cuffs and scratches that the surface would have from the tools before it's actually published. I'm going back in here and multiple times after leaving it to dry for a little bit, I'm coming back in with another layer to deepen the color, to add a little bit more shadow. Painting with watercolor is quite the process. It can take a little bit more efficient. So just hang in there and have fun. I believe, some music playing an audio book or a podcast, or have something playing on Netflix in the background when I'm doing these paintings. Once I am done with the base colors and I'm happy with that, I'm going back in here with my brush and taking a color darker than the section that I'm painting and adding in those very fine lines just to indicate these GFS and scratches that the surface of the crystal would have gotten from being cut with a tool. The darker side, I am using white gouache to add in those scopes and scratches because because if you would observe in real life anything that's light-colored once it gets scratched, we usually see the shadows of the scratches and that's why the strategies appear darker. Whereas if you use scuff up something that's darker colored, we see those scratches as much lighter than the base color of the actual object. More or less. The same concepts going on here, and I'm also using that white gouache to add in a little bit of highlights as well. Again, more is less here I'm using very fine lines to indicate those those fine tools scratches. We don't want to overdo it. There you go. 10. RAINBOW CRYSTAL - Ink & Watercolour: Sometimes I want my illustration to be a bit more sketchy comic book story. And that's when I'd like to use some ink. I have here a black and white ink. I will be using gouache instead. You can use liquid ink. If you prefer to use a pen and nib, you can. I do have these waterproof pens over here, one with a brush tip and to his tips in various sizes. And these are the ones that I'm going to be using. For this rainbow crystal. I'm starting out with doing the lines and some hatching with my fine liner. First. You could do this before or after and painting with watercolors. But for this one I'm just doing the lines first. These pens are waterproof once dry the ink is waterproof. One's drive, so you just have to make sure that whichever pen or fine liner you are using, it is going to stay waterproof once it's dry. Otherwise, once you start painting over it with your watercolors, you are going to get a lot of unwanted smudges. One thing to know that my initial inking there may be some lines that I want to thicken out. And I could use fresh tip one for this or it could just a second my lines by using the same fine liner pen. Using one with a thicker nib. Then I'm going to go in and add some of the lines to indicate texture. This case similar to the previous one. I do want to add a bit of scarf and scratch marks. Want this to look like a natural, unpolished, uncut crystal. There's going to be a bit of weathering on it. And the legs I'm going in with a bit of lines and some hatching just to help with that. Once I'm done with that, we're ready to start with the painting. First. I'm going in with very light washes of the colors that I wanted to use. In this case, I'm using yellow ocher and a bit pink, purple that I had earlier. As that previous layer is drying, I'm going to be adding on a little bit of Payne's gray on some of the areas where I want to emphasize a little bit more of that shadow or the look of the crystal and being weathered down by the elements are by time. Going back in and adding another layer of color to intensify and add saturation in the areas where I want to some grays. In the areas where I want it to appear a bit more stuffed up a bit word either dirty or in shadow. 11. BLUE & PURPLE CRYSTAL - Sketchy Illustration Style: For this last one is the look that I'm going for is sketchy, sort of comic book, graphic novel type of look which I tend to prefer. When I'm illustrating crystals like this. I'm going to be using my fine liners to the inking, but I'm going to do that after I've finished painting with watercolors. Once all of the colors and shadows are done, That's what I'm going to come back in with my ink. White gouache. Feel free to follow along and enjoy. In 12. CLASS PROJECT: And our class is done. Your assignment or class project for this class is to paint at least one crystal and any style or a medium that you like and share it with us in the project section. If you paint more than one, feel free to share them all with us. If you'd like. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the discussion section of this class. And I will get back to you as soon as I'm able. If you post your projects to social media, feel free to tag me on their results. I can see it and share it and cheery line. If you guys want to learn more from me, feel free to take a look at my other classes over here on Skillshare as well as the thousands of other classes on this amazing platform. He finds his class valuable. It would be really great if you could leave a review to help other students decide. They'd like to take this class as well. I'm really excited for you to enjoy this class and I hope you have a fun time. Take care, Have fun. And I'll see you in the next class.