Watercolor Fish: Step-by-Step for Beginners

1. Introduction: Hello, I'm, I'm an artist and illustrator from Argentina. I've been living in Berlin for seven years now. And I created the Berlin art club, where I teach mainly watercolors, which is my latest passion. I started fashion designer at university and when Osiris and then many other kinds of art. But children, book illustration was my thing when I found it, made me very happy. And in 2020, I published my first book also during pandemic, which wasn't easy, but it was a nice challenge. But since then, to be honest, I've dedicated most of my time to teach. I teach in schools, kids in different places in Berlin, in our galleries. And I also teach adults in different places, and of course, in Berlin art club. Since the pandemic, we've also then lots of classes online and now I'm doing my first class here, nervous, but I hope you enjoy it. We are going to cover the whole process of making a fish. I'm going to show you what some of my favorite illustrations I've dedicated a lot of time in creating a scene of flying fish. So I hope you like them and you'll get inspire and you get to do many other fish with me in this class. Since I'm a very big fan of fish illustration, I'm gonna show you how to paint your own. But don't worry, we'll go step-by-step through all the effects you can achieve with watercolors, transparency wet on wet, color mixing, and also details that we're going to use later on, the final fish, like the scales, lining and cetera. But I've got it through that so you don't need to have any previous experience. We're going to experimental art practice a lot. And then at the end, put all that together in our final project. There's also gonna be a bonus for anyone interested. But that's a surprise. I hope you'll join. I hope you have fun and see you soon to start creating my Instagram account is you can go to that, or you can follow the Berlin art club. I leave all the links for you and hope to see you soon. 2. Material: Hello. So before we start, let's have a look at our material. I'm going to show you what I have in my studio or what I use regularly. This is my watercolor paper, a very pretty, it comes all glued in. I recommend taking some papers off because we want to do a lot of practice or you can let them dry. They are and then take them off. I have this little thing here that is actually for cooking, like a plastic spatula such as bachelor. I just recommend it. Do it. Do we need these carefully? Otherwise, you can use a business card or anything that is kind of hard. Not just like ripping them off with your hands because you can scratch or damage the paper. This has a very nice texture, is a concern. Block, is cold, press. They are, that means that you're gonna get sort of this texture. You are going to see the texture if you do transparencies, which is very nice. This is a size, it's a little bit smaller than an A4 and it's 300 g. I recommend something like these. 300 g is at least 300 g is what I always recommend, is a very good thickness. Brushes. I use this da Vinci. I have a collection of the ones that are for Hobbes, for, really for watercolors that you are all synthetic. There, I just recommend having different numbers. I mean, different sizes have some smaller ones and some bigger ones, at least 1.1. So you can do bigger things and the tails. What does watercolors? Obviously, these EEG is a Winsor and Newton box that I bought a long time ago, but it actually has a mix of patterns that I buy apart and I trust may hear the collection of colors that I liked the most. Greens and blues, as you can see, I have them quite empty because I use them a lot. I love these colors and you will use this space to mix them. I show you another little set that I have. These are just some empty boxes that I got and I make here, I put some extra colors or some, I make my palettes. The colors that I want to use for a specific project. I put in, put them there to sort of limit the colors are used. These are Winsor and Newton as well. But there are lots of good brands. You can also use shrink, reward time Petersburg, I use loads. There are lots of good professional brands. Benzyl, it's important. You see this is an HB is important. There is a hard pencil. So we don't get a lot of graphite on the paper and then it gets messy when we want to erase it, erase it. Eraser. Just soft, nothing too complicated here. Just a soft eraser is nice. What else? My acrylic, we're going to use acrylic at the very end for details. Any ran that you have is fine for this. It's not so important, is only for lethal lions. Anyways, I'm going to give you at least the material. I recommend glass for the water so it doesn't fall when we put the rash, when we clean it fast on the side and we make these pressures sometimes if it's plastic, it's going to fall. You can see that I use a lot of blue on there. One last couple of things, kitchen paper. I use it a lot, sorry to clean my brush. So I'll put it very close to your water and have it always very handy so you can repeat these. Don't leave the brush on the water. And as I said, I'm gonna leave you a list so you don't have to eat so fast. These little rush. I don't know what it's meant for, but I use it to clean the extra eraser and you don't use your hands not to make anything dirty. As I said, in the resources area, you're going to find a list of these materials, get ready, and let's paint. 3. Gradients: Hello, We're going to start, and for these effect, we're going to put a lot of water in one of our watercolor pens. You can see I'm using this green. You can use whatever you like. And once you have a medium brush, nothing too vague, nothing too small, full of color and water. We're going to do this lines up and down, up and down. We clean the brush and we come from far on this direction. I'm going to show you this a couple of times. Don't freak out. I just have to show you fast because otherwise it dries. So it's very important here, the Italian mean as well. I'm getting a new color and you can use any color that you like. We make these lines. I'm cleaning the brush and I will come only with water. From far there was a little bit too little water. That's gonna be the question, how much water is enough? The idea that you just shake this first color a little bit, let me show you that it disappears. You see how pretty this gradient effect is. It goes from very dark or very intense to nothing to white. Let's try again terracotta color and a little bit of water from far. Of course, the question here is, how much water is enough? Timing and the amount of water in watercolors is, are the two more important things that we need to master and that you can only do it by repeating. So don't get frustrated. We are just going to keep doing this with as many colors as you like. Always remember to start with a good amount of water and then you fade it with just a little bit of water on the brush. Very clean from far. Like this. Keep going and we're going to add something new at the end. Once you've finished your gradient effects, like before, we are going to start doing some little shapes. Let's say this time in this kind of D letter, this curved line. And we're gonna do the same process. We're going to start with the color, very salt, but we're gonna go little by little from the bottom to the top From far on ways with water, exactly the same process, but this time going under the direction of shadows. This is something that we're going to use a lot for shadows and volume. So a thick line, very soft in color and water from far to shake it to make it disappear a little bit. We keep trying with different colors, always a thick line. I need a bit of water up and down, up and down these little movements on almost pressing a little bit of rash, leave quite some space between them so you have space to work. Make them feel good. You can always clean the brush and bring clear water. Again from far, this is something we are going to use a lot. So it's better to practice. Make as many as you can with all your colors. Try different colors. Start always with these kind of thick line. That's better so you have more color to work with. Don't do it too small and always remember this approach from far. These are the important things here, the amount of water on also to be quite fast, don't forget about that. We're going to start with lines in the other direction. We've been doing vertical. Now we're gonna do some horizontal. The concept is the same. We always get here from far with the water. So it doesn't matter if it's from right to left or from the bottom to the top. But always we approach it from far to get this beautiful gradient effect or bleeding effect to make the color continue following the water. So I'm zooming in here so you see it start with a thick line of color, very soak in water. And you see the movement of the rash is always these tick, tick, tick, tick and very famous for my noises. Tick, tick, tick, tick from far. And that's up to us. How much we want to control it. Like that. I see it. Okay. But you could even repeat these. Don't get obsessed though there is a limit with watercolors we can't reattach and retouch and reattach. We just have to learn to let it be if I'm going to do the last one. Same trick. You can repeat this as much as you can. Again, with all your colors, make as many papers as you like with this horizontal or vertical lines. And you can always repeat this from the bottom to the top to correct it. Have fun. 4. Blending colors: Hello. So we are going to start mixing colors. This is my watercolor said, You've seen it before. I'm adding a lot of water on top of some of my colors. E.g. on top of these blue, always make sure it's very, very wet. I'm grabbing more and more water drops and drops and I'm also adding some to my green. You can use any color that you like. Just make sure that it's very full and the brush is, as you can see, very soak in that color. And this is what we're going to start doing up and down, up and down with our color, just like we did for the gradient effects. And we're going to grab a second color instead of just water. And repeat what we did before this time with color. From far till the middle, we mix them fast in the middle and that's it. Don't try to retard or to force the colors to blend in. If you're using a good amount of water, that should be enough. So one sacrum kinda from far and here in the middle, fast, up and down, up and down. Again with a different color. Remember to get the brush Berries, salt in their color, second color from far fast, like this, we are going to keep repeating these. Try as many color combinations as you like, leaves his chest till you get the hang of how much water is really needed here. So let's keep going and make as many as you can. Once you've made enough to color combinations, we are going to do the same thing, but with three colors. This is very important. Try not to think much about the colors, but we're focusing on the technique. It's not easy. Sometimes One Kyler will eat up completely. The first one. Sometimes it's too dry and they don't really mix. So we have to start fixing these things. Don't forget to show me. I'm very happy to check the progress, the work in progress you are doing. We just keep going like this. The second kind of fast. Don't forget. If you see that the colors are flowing too much, too much out of control, tried to press the brush against the paper a little bit more. These went on the autumn palette. You can try think of warm colors, cool colors, but really don't get too picky. This is just to do it fast and to see how colors blend in. That's the whole challenge for now. Try these three color combos as much as you can. It's important to practice, practice, practice. You can also do whole paper tests with three color combinations as you like. And keep going. We are going to do one less thing, our blending colors at the end. And I'm just very curious to see your work. We are almost done. Oh boy, you that our color blending exercise, this last bit of paper that I have left, I'm going to use it to make a very long drain of colors. Always remember that the new color comes from far, and that's iid. Use all the combinations you like and chest. Keep going, keep adding and adding. A new color. Like this. Could be more intense, could be lighter, more water down or more thick as you like. And this is gonna be our last exercise of blending colors. I hope you had fun. Show me, please, how it looks like. And again, it's just repetition. Sometimes it's gonna do this, sometimes it gets more. I'm blooms, bigger blooms, and sometimes it's not going to blend in so easily. So keep trying. And it's all about the amount of water and about the timing. The more you repeat it, the more you are gonna get it. Have fun. 5. Easy Shapes: Hello, We are going to start sketching this time because we painted enough. Now it's time to sketch and go into shapes. I'm showing you my benzyl, you've seen it before anyways, it's a harp and z, that means it's not a tool via three-way has to say a huge be. So it doesn't make the paper too dirty. I'm sketching mega soft. You see I divided my paper in four spaces just like freehand. Don't worry. I'm making for shapes. Very irregular, doesn't matter. It looks like eyes. If you want the ER, or like ovals, or like leaves. If you want to compare to something. Very easy, doesn't matter much. And we are going to start painting. A medium brush again, nothing tool, tools, small place, and you have to put a lot of water on top of one of your colors and get the rash. So can this color, this is kind of our gradient effect. Water from far and we shake this, this time you can be a little bit more careless, if you will. Just makes everything. The idea is to keep some white in the middle, but we also need to have quite some color. The other part of the line I'm going to make with another color, choose any combinations that you like. I'm going to cover it till it meets the first color. Of course, both have to have a good amount of water. So they meet and they play, they mix nicely. You don't have to see where one starts and the other one finishes. They just have to blend in very nicely. That is always the challenge. Next one. Same thing with different colors. You can even paint a little bit inside of it. Don't be shy. As I said, it doesn't need to be only one line this time where little bit more like Fast and Furious. Second color. This time I'm using a very similar from far on that direction. And I can always correct it a little bit the shape, and play with these colors. You see, I'm, I still managed to leave some white. In some part. We're going to work with these feelings of transparency. That's why we want some white. Of course we're practice practicing inside of shapes. Then you can repeat the same concept in your fish. I was showing you there that I managed to keep some white color somewhere. Does it need to be always half and half? You could do even more, if you like, of the fish. Always water from far and now I'm just mixing it carefully around the sides. So it still looks pretty under shape is respected. Then a second color. Go in a little bit over the first one. That is it. You can even shake it a little bit in the middle to make them play or go over one color with the other. Cool, pretty, this is actually called wet on wet. That's also something I teach and I use a lot. But in this particular class, I lifted out. I'm sure it's gonna come up in my next class, eats less lethal fish. Going to add one color lookup, 3D, paint, buying paint. We can add the second color, almost on top of the first one. Again, with a little bit of water, we shake good. So everything gets very nice together. Very nicely mixed. Of course, you can add a little bit more color if you like. And we are almost done. Practice these as much as you like. At least these four shapes would be nice. And we are also going to use them later. So don't lose them. This is very important. Hope you like it, hope you get the colors to blend in very nicely and see you soon. 6. Lines and Details: So we are going to start with lines and details that then we're going to use for our fish. A good thing would be to already start with scales because we are going to need them. I'm going to start with a row like this, not too big, not too small with a hard pencil. You know this. And what I'm doing is from the top, the middle of the top of these curves, I bring the next one up and down. This is just a basic, the basic logic behind the structure of the scales. So they don't get too big or too small. This helps you control them a little bit. This is the basic concept and you can already start trying with your brush. Of course, it's not gonna be as easy probably. But let's see what happens. Use a good amount of water. Don't press too much the brush, I'm using a medium brush. You could use a thinner brush or even a liner. If you have a medium brush that you really like, then like me, what you can do is to press less so I'm only using the tip of the rash to get this thin line. You can already start mixing colors if you like. As you can see, I'm using a good amount of water. That's why the colors are flowing this pink inside the purple. And you can continue to decide if you want. Again, not too big, not too small. So it's not too complicated or too easy. Again, one row, you could mix colors in rows as well. When you do the next one, we do with blue, on the next one with green and so on. Just practice these as much as you can with all the colors that you want. Let's keep going. So this is our first experiment, four lines and details, and we read it over white, over the white paper. We are going to try. Now another way that you are very pretty scales just to get a little bit the idea, the logic behind this K is the repetition. And now I'm talking my rushing color because we're going to repeat our gradient effects. And this is gonna be the base for wide scale set. We're going to do something that is not too light. It's fine if you leave some empty space like I did. Like color. Second color from far, like always mix them up and down. And that seed can be two colors. Can be something a little bit darker or I mean stronger with more pigment. I just mix them in the middle. I'm adding a little bit of water. That's what I meant. If you want, you can try it some transparency already. Instead of color from our color from far, I did color from far and water from far. At some point. This is up to you. You can try. Let me show you a little bit bigger. I mean, closer. One color, any color combination you want to try. Second color from far, maybe one other color. This is up to you to colors, three colors, whatever tests have fun here mixing them. The only thing is that you have to have the amount of water so it doesn't dry and they mix nicely in the middle. This one is gonna give me a green in the middle because I use blue and yellow when it dries. And we are almost done with our basis. These has to dry. Don't forget whatever details you want to do on top. This has to be completely dry first. So once these is completely dry, don't forget to wait, please. We are going to use our acrylic. I'm adding some drops, one or two drops on the leaves just to use very little. And as you can see, I'm testing that the rash is solved, but not like dripping color, that would be too much. It's a very thin brush this time. Like leave some out if it's two charge and we're gonna repeat this structure here. So as you can see, sometimes you're going to run out of color. This is chest practice. If it's too little, go and get some more. The idea is there is wet enough so it flows and you don't have to get more and get more every single scale. But also if it's totally query, it's going to be see-through. We don't want that. We want it a little bit thicker, otherwise, we won't see it at all, especially in the parcel see-through. So these is the idea. We're gonna keep repeating this. Just show you one more. Wait, one more thing you can try. That E is doing it dabble. Maybe if you do them a little bit bigger, this is something I used for my fish. A lot, is just go in with double lines, which is going to keep repeating these crab fun. Check the amount of water and just keep going. The more you though, the more you're gonna get how much water and how much color you need. We are almost done here. We have a very nice catalog of single line and double line with watercolor over white, with white over watercolor practices as much as you can. So then you feel much more confident when you do it in our fish and joy. 7. Final Project: Fish Sketching: Hello and welcome to our last project. We are going to start with sketching, so then we can paint are pretty phage. And to begin with, I'm starting with this curved line, trying to get these inner horizontal line. More or less the two ends in as if they were placed on the same straight line. On the bottom. I'm going to do the curve line opposite as if it was a mirror. This is any leaf shape, any shape that you like. It could be. I mean, it has to be oval obviously, but it can be thinner or thicker. You could even look for examples if you like, just has to be something simple. And if it's chubby better, because we have more space to play inside of the feet with the tail scales and stuff. I'm just going to add these two films, one on the top and one on the bottom. We always start with the easiest shapes. Don't get it too complicated. This is going to start mutating soon. I'm going to add things here and they are, or make things better. Let's say big, I just like it there. And these kind of the mouth can be like a straight line, then a little curve up. So it looks a little bit happier. Could also be a very grumpy fish chest as you like. And we, from here, I'm going to start correcting. So we can start erasing things that we are not too sure of. E.g. when I tried to make the overall shape a little bit better. Let's see this line we don't need anymore. Definitely, we want to make something softer there. Let's see what else. I have the habit of making all these like very hairy lines, like line next to line next to line. So at some point, once I've placed the things where they need to be, I just erase and clean it up with one really nice line. So it's not so their tea, especially before starting painting, always make sure it's very, very light. So we don't make, mix the graph it with the watercolor. I'm giving some curves to this fin. I'm going to make the connection with a tail a little bit more subtle. Let's make some little curves here. I like this shaky lines, not so straight and not so perfect curvy. Let's connect this also here on the bottom. Let's see if I can get some curves here too. Again, you can check for other shapes, only two fans, That's enough and the tail. So we all have something similar to work with. I think that's almost done. I'll let you have your time. Make these in peace, arrange and rearrange as much as you want. Always with a hard pencil. Don't press too much on. I think almost done. Remember to erase it nicely and see you in the next video to start painting so much, looking forward to it. Have fun. 8. Final Project: Fish painting: So we're going to start painting. We're gonna do this exactly the same way we did our shapes before. That's why we did them. We're going to start with the brush, soak in color with water. Always put a lot of water on top of your color. We start e.g. on this line on the top and I bring water from far these we've already practice. I'm sure by now, you must be a node. Are you must have a lot of confidence, or I hope so. Again, color following the outside line. This time, we can play a little bit more inside the shape. And at some point you can bring a so-called color. Of course you can try this doing our blending color technique in some other paper before starting chest to see your colors, which colors you would like to use together. I'm showing you there the meanwhile I talk so much. This is gonna get dry, salt. What are those to bring water fast and mix it. And then I can continue in this little part in peace. I show you that again in new ways. Worry. We can cover e.g. the tub. I go fast in the middle. I'm very careful around the edges. Tried to have the rush always inside the shape that helps water from far. But this time we can make this almost like round touches to bring the color inside. We wanted see-through, but not completely see-through. Here, I just have a lot more color around the edges. Again. Choose where to put your colors. In this case, I'm going to continue with my green beads of water on carefully. When I keep adding. So I can go over what I've already have. They are still wet and they want to flow nicely. And careful around the tea leaves or little parts. Liter corners of the tail. There is where we have to be full press lethal. Correct or not? The shape. We are almost done with our first layer. This has to be fast, is our wet on wet. So it has to flow nicely. Now we will have to let it dry. And we're gonna start with the details. Once these 0s drive, our first layer is done. We are going to start with the details because we're going to keep putting layers on top. But first, we need to do the scales. Bring your acrylic, your white acrylic. And we're gonna do the same process as we did before when we practice the scales. So, you know, these are a little bit of water on top of our leaves. We mix it with a very thin brush. We're going to get just a little bit as what's enough. My wishful when it on the wrong screen. I'm so sorry. Let's see if you can see it now. While they are, you'll see that I have it in a whole brush. And we're going to start from these division of the head with the body on this direction, go in towards the tail. You can decide if you want to do only one line, just like before. You practice this before. So you can do only a single line for each scale or double lines like these. Of course, if you choose to do them double, this is going to take quite some time. Just be patient. Breathe in, breathe out and continue. As you can see. Sometimes we're not gonna see them too, too obvious, let's say, because we also use transparency, but it's fine because then we're going to add layers on top. Just keep going like this for now. That's good enough. And then we're going to add more color in case they are to invade in the civil. So I'm gonna let you go, continue with this almost like a therapeutical insert size. Continue and have fun, and I'll see you for the next layer. Good. Once all your white details are done, let them dry. Really give these a lot of time. And we're gonna start with shadows. For this, we're gonna use our gradient effect. Remember, we practiced this already with your rash, soak in water with color, I like to call it, has to be a watercolor that is very soft in water. We add the line and from far we failed it. We're gonna use our gradient effect for shadows and for volume as well. This is very nice to divide e.g. some parts, the head, e.g. to the body. The same we're going to do to the fin. So I color it can be or I recommended to use the same color as you have on the background, or at least the same two colors in different parts. But so it doesn't look so different. It looks all together. Look how pretty. It already looks so much better with only a couple of shadows here and there. So again, from the tail or from the body to the tail. And we come from far with very little water. These are just details. You don't need a huge amount of water on the brush. And we're going to keep going taken or else need, needs to be a little bit more visible, where it would be good to have an extra layer or a shadow, e.g. down here in the next fin. Very nice. Also, good to use a very good amount of color. So then we can fade it and we still see it doesn't disappear completely. So last couple of details with a thin brush, we can already do e.g. the mouth and the eye. For these, again, even if it's something very small, I'm bringing in quite some water on the color and then I'm failing it with very little water. Remember, it's always more convenient to have a lot of water on the color and less water when you add it from far. So you could also do this just as a line. This is my personal taste. I like adding shadows everywhere, but the mouth could easily be just a line. For the eye. I'm just going to do the bottom part. A little bit of color and very little water chest tube, fail it. So it looks like a little shadow is gonna look like popping up a little bit. So that is our first layer or second layer actually. And now what we're gonna do is to keep adding, but this time for volume, this is what I meant. We are going to try to make it more I know, three-dimensional, more like a real object or animal. And for that we're going to go around the shape with the same technique with our gradient effect. Careful don't paint inside the eye. We have plans for that later. But again with the same colors. I wouldn't use color that is too different. I would try to stay to a limited palette. I'm going to repeat this two colors. I'm going to ring color on the sides and a little bit of water always from far on that direction. So it fades nicely, but you'll see it's already not so flat. Not so I mentioned, even if it is actually here, careful around the mouth, it doesn't need to be the whole line everywhere. You can decide to bring it like Juilliard, chest under the mouth. The same here. I'm living a very thin line, not to confuse it to match where with the fin begins. Of course you can do these lines with two colors just as you like, and a little bit of water and you fail it. You can also see that the scales are starting to appear. That's very nice. It gets these transparency look that we like so much. Once we have all the outside line or what do we consider more like a volume effect? We could repeat this foreshadows. Just check what you feel actually maybe you already used a very or a slightly darker color and you feel that it's already dark enough. I always use these colors, very watered-down trusting keys. Chest. I prefer repeating the effect and not having a too dark, and then I can fix that. So I prefer checking again and going over. The weird thing about watercolors is that we can always do layer on top of layer on top of layer as many times as we like or as the paper allows. These little part is just checking where we think there is something missing. So e.g. here, it could be a little bit more. There could be a little bit more of color on the outside line or from the outside line to the center. What else? Really take your time here. Look around you again. Check if you feel it's necessary. You don't need to. If you already have a good amount of water of color. Just checking if this is dry, I can add an extra layer. Otherwise, we'll have to wait. Of course, you can use a hair blower in-between layers if you don't want to wait too much, just dry it as you would draw your hair. Is they are now I feel it makes a little bit more sense. Was a little bead wash down. Let's see. What's her down? Maybe a little bit on top, on the top tool and we are almost only missing the eye of color. Always check if you want to use, if you want to paint something smaller or a smaller surface, use a smaller brush. I like it. I'm still not convinced about the tail. So we're going to add just a little bit more. Don't get too obsessed. Careful. I think this is almost done. I quite like it like this. Let's try. Here. I see a lion. Careful. If you want to retouch something that is not as easy as it looks like I kind of disappeared. You to line that I will see you in our beloved acrylic for the last details, I'm going to paint the circle of the eye completely white. Again, this is just my taste. You could do that with black or with blue and leave it like that. I prefer doing it with white. And then I'm going to add a little bit of darker color inside. Last little touches. You could decide if you leave it like this. It will be already quite adorable. Or if you want to paint the inside of the black, I hope you enjoy it. And I'll see you soon for the bonus. Have fun. 9. Bonus: Fish Family: Hello. So to continue with our bonus project, we are going to use these easy shapes that we've already painted. And of course it should be very dry. And we want to transform them into a happy fish family. You can use any ideas that you have to make your own fish, always starting with these shapes. Obviously, nothing too complicated, but as you can see, we can add the fence, we can add details. We're gonna keep working on top of them. Just to repurpose a little bit. I work practice from before. As you can see, doesn't need to be anything spectacular. We just need the basics. We need the mouth can be happy fish can be very mad fish. We need a couple of films external, outside the body that's important for now. So we can work on this pails later, any kind of detail that you can think of. So I lead to draw this and we painted in a minute. So once you've drawn on your fish, we are going to start painting and we're going to start with this Gill, with the fins and the tails. The fin is again our, again our gradient effect. You notice a little bit of color and faith it. And the rest, of course, needs first layer of color because we have it completely wide is something we added just with a thin brush. Get old amount of water with color on your brush. Like always, even if it's small. But just be a little bit more careful, right? The corners are gonna be more complicated. That's why I'm doing this. Like little touches lead to lines, and then I can always carry the color that is here with either a little bit of water from far. This is what I'm doing or just adding more color. This is up to you. It's our first layer. You can be as playful as you like or just leave it flat. And then we're details on top. Of course, just as in our final project in our fish that we just did together, we added at the end or the lions and scales and stuff. That's what I want to work here. Chest, keep going. Choose the colors that you like. I'm using more or less the same Congress that I have on the backround. Remember, start with the good faith it, and then carefully the Kyler on the fence, The tales told by little. And actually do this at your own pace and ICU for the details in a minute. So our fish are almost done. You can see me painted at the speed of light. You can see that sometimes I even played with two colors, and this is up to you. And we have to start with the details, shadows, our gradient effect again, you know that details. You also know that for the scales e.g. lots of little lines, we will have to do smaller brush again. And I wouldn't do this little line under the mouth as I showed you before as a little shadow, very subtle nod line. You could also just do a thick line if you like, but that's going to look a lot more cartoonish. I'm a big fan of these shadows and gradient effects everywhere. It's a little bit harder, but it looks much prettier for the eyes. We again, have a couple of options. I'm just going to do like we did before, a little bit of shadow around it. And I'm going to paint with the same color inside a little bit, the part that should be black, let's say you can also let it do it black. And about the order of days. You can always obviously organize these as you like. You could do all the i's together of all the phage or all the scales and then the eyes. This is up to you. I'm going to start already with the scales. Of course, our previous layer has to be completely dry. Don't forget to wait, please. I can't say that enough. Sorry. Already. You know this already. We've practiced this with a very thin brush because they are quite small this time. We can draw the different techniques you've already seen. We the line, one line with color, with the lions with different colors. And we also did them with white acrylic. You can choose now and make your own combinations or your own versions for each of these fish. Now, I'm doing the single lines with the colors that I already have on the background, e.g. very carefully. This is the part that is very much like meditation. Line after line after line. Very nice. When you have enough water and they flow when the colored touches the previous line that flows inside of it. I'm running out of colors more that it was already sick. I think it's fine. Otherwise, we can take it to the previous one. So it gets a little bit mixed on more water down. Still, correct? In a little bit. So next thing would be the lines. We're going to add an extra layer of shadows. So don't worry about that. Now, let's just do details. I, scales and lions. Remember you can use these shaky lines to make it look a little bit more interesting. I don't know. Chest not so straight, perfect line. So we're almost done here. I'm going to show you how I do the rest. And again, take your time. This is up to you. I just show you some examples. So very important ones. Our fish are done. Look how happy the family. We don't have to forget. They have a very dry careful you'll notice by now. We could already erase everything that we don't need anymore in this case is everything because neither lines anymore. So erase it very carefully with a soft eraser. And we just need to do our last choose. For the last details, we are going to do the shadows, everything that goes to the outside, let's say the external shadows that divide the fields or the tail with the body of the fish. And for these, I recommend using the same color just a little bit more intense. You will get the proportion in the proportion a little bit more of color and less water. So it's not so super see-through, but it still has to be quite see-through. Otherwise, you'll get one of these marks that look very artificial lake marker line, right? And we're going to repeat our gradient effect always, always, always. This is another important line. So I'm also going to retouch it a little bit with a little bit of extra shadow. As I said before, I prefer starting very, very light and then adding on top than starting to dark. I'm just over careful most of the times. For the eyes, as I said before, you can do like a little mini shadow inside or chest pain them completely. The round part inside of the eye painted. And that's it. So again, line that divides here. Very little water. Careful though this little touches don't retouch or presto magic because you're gonna erase your previous lines, are mixed them up. Again on the tail little circle. That's what I meant. It could be just completely round and that's it. And we're gonna just keep going. You can do the shadows with one color or with two colors, you know that as well. So I let you finish your details. We are almost done. I'm very excited. I would really want to see your fish family of recycled fish that were just all vowels. You will go far. We've got to know your animals, stay, you're alive. Remember that watercolors are all about patients. Don't get frustrated the more you do, the more you're gonna get defects. That's my last tip. By the way, I see you for one last video to pour all that we saw together. It's important for me to have an overview or also to show you what you've learned now and what you can keep practicing. I think we've gotten again very far here from chest, some color samples to a real thing, a real fish. Really enjoy painting fishes. I'm very happy to share these with you. Again, don't forget to show me. I hope you've enjoyed all the videos. See you for the last one on please, please show me. Have fun. 10. Final thoughts: Hello and welcome to our last video together. This is just to put a little bit, all in one video, everything you've done. Remember our gradient effects. This is very important. I just want you to have a look at everything you've learned and to keep practicing. Probably if you're here, you've seen many other videos. This is something very particular that I'm a fan of and that I teach very particularly. Maybe you haven't seen this trick of bringing the water from far. But for me it's very, very important, so you don't carry that with you. So practice these as often as you can. As you know now, we apply this into shadows. We do this for volume. So it's very, very important with practice these, you can make many more papers. Just as important are our color mixes. Sometimes we want them to make rooms, these crazy color stains, let's say. We've also cover shapes. Of course, you can practice these first layers of two colors together in any other shapes that you like. These you've learned and you can apply it in any of your future projects. We've also done little details with acrylic, white acrylic. I think it's always great idea to mix these techniques with watercolors because it's a little bit thicker. As you know, it makes, it's going to make the paper waterproof. So if you want to add shadows or any darker color, the white, we'll just stay there. So this is also a good trick to apply. Another things you can play with white details on top of any other thing that you make. And of course, now you know how to apply these fish for scales, for tiny little scales. I hope you enjoy this part. I know it's a lot of work. You can always go back to the previous videos and take again, the more you watch, the more you're going to find little tricks. This is like with any kind of art. The more you observe someone doing it, and the more you are gonna get it. And of course, practice makes perfect. So the more you practice, the better you're gonna get it, and the more confident you are gonna get with it. I hope you've enjoyed our little fish trip together. I hope you have a whole family, happy family of fish, please show me. Don't forget. I would love to see them and ask me any questions you like. I'm very happy to help you. Also follow me here on the top you have my name with a little Follow button. Because I'm very sure that I'm going to keep posting classes here and I love to see you again in my courses and hope you have fun. Thank you very much for joining me.