Watercolor Food Illustration: Stack of Pancakes | Erika Lancaster | Skillshare
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Watercolor Food Illustration: Stack of Pancakes

teacher avatar Erika Lancaster, Watercolor + Sketching + Artist Mindset

Watch this class and thousands more

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

Watch this class and thousands more

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

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction + Welcome

      3:30

    • 2.

      Course Project

      4:01

    • 3.

      Supplies

      4:16

    • 4.

      Masking Fluid Placement

      7:43

    • 5.

      Pancakes + Syrup First Layer

      31:13

    • 6.

      Blueberries + Plate First Layer

      34:14

    • 7.

      Pancakes + Syrup Second Layer

      15:11

    • 8.

      Blueberries + Plate Second Layer

      21:04

    • 9.

      Removing Masking Fluid + Final Details

      10:08

    • 10.

      Thank you

      0:44

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About This Class

If you're an intermediate watercolor artist who loves painting food, or you're interested in learning techniques to improve the level of realism in your work, this class is for you! 

✱ What you'll learn:

  • How to choose and mix colors for realistic results

  • How to layer watercolor without overworking

  • How to use masking fluid to protect highlights 

  • How to create the illusion of transparent syrup

  • How to ensure paint will stay wet for soft gradients/effects

  • My secrets for arriving at high levels of realism while maintaining painterly qualities

  • How to paint whites in watercolor

  • How to use glazing to intensify colors

  • Much more!

✱ Supplies you'll need:

  • Tracing paper
  • Watercolor paper *Cold Press, 140 lbs.
  • Drawing pencils *Suggested grades: HB, 2B
  • Soft graphite eraser
  • Kneaded eraser *Optional*
  • Watercolor paint set
  • Paint mixing palette
  • Watercolor brushes *Suggested type/sizes: Rounds (14, 10, 3)
  • Cheaper multimedia brushes (for masking fluid) *Suggested type/sizes: Round (1)
  • Masking fluid
  • Container with clean water
  • Absorbent towel or kitchen paper towels
  • Scrap pieces of watercolor paper
  • Masking tape or artist's tape

You can also find Erika here:

Website

YouTube

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Meet Your Teacher

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Erika Lancaster

Watercolor + Sketching + Artist Mindset

Teacher

"This is probably the best class I have taken on Skillshare. Well paced, organized, practical applications, engaging, and informative. Thanks Erika, very well done."

"Erika is a very good teacher, the course is for beginners but I think it has some gems for more experienced artists. Looking forward for her other classes."

"I think Erica gave a thorough explanation that would allow anyone to begin working with watercolours. You can review any of the individual chapters again to reinforce what you heard or to do the practical work. I really enjoyed the class."

"Excellent presentation and very useful information. Would like to see more of this teacher."

"This is a great class on food illustration. It covers color mixing and pr... See full profile

Level: Intermediate

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Transcripts

1. Introduction + Welcome: If you love painting food items with water color. Or you've been working on your food illustration for some amount of time. And you're interested in learning new techniques and methods that can help you arrive at better results more consistently. This course is for you. My name is Erica and I'm a traditional media artist working with a variety of different drawing and painting mediums. And I enjoy challenging myself to draw and paint different kinds of subjects, ranging from still life to animals, landscapes and more. My day to day life revolves around creating and selling my artwork, as well as creating helpful resources for beginner and intermediate artists that I share via my website, my Youtube channel, and of course my membership site. I have over 15 years of experience working in creative and artistic fields. First as a graphic designer in an advertising agency. I then moved on to working as head art teacher in a school environment for many years. And I've been running my own art business for six years now. I'm incredibly passionate about continuing to grow as an artist and helping and motivating others to continue on their artistic paths as well. In every single class, tutorial, and course that I share, it is my objective to be fully transparent with what I know and my own personal techniques that I use and provide the tools that will help you succeed, not only with the piece on hand, but that you can also take with you to future pieces that you work on. I want to empower other artists to stay on their paths and reach their full potential. In this course, I am taking you through my entire painting process for this realistic stack of pancakes with blueberries on top that I painted with watercolor. I've broken up my process into phases and each phase has its own class. I would consider this course appropriate for artists who have been painting with watercolor consistently, at least for a few months. And this is because achieving higher levels of realism really calls for greater observational skills. More attention to detail, at least a basic understanding of color mixing, so that you can achieve that wide range of both value and hue required for realism. And the process is going to be much more enjoyable for you and you'll be able to arrive at better results. You already have a good understanding of the medium, you have practiced basic washes, and you already have a good level of water and brush control. If you're just getting started with watercolor, I would highly recommend checking out my watercolor one oh one course that is available here on skill share. That course covers all of the must know information on watercolor that you should definitely be aware of as a beginner. And I also provide essential exercises that will help you progress your skills faster. I also have a full course on color theory here on skill share, which I would highly recommend if you're just getting started with any painting medium. It is super thorough and it includes everything that you should know as someone just getting started with color and color mixing. If you're ready to learn all about my method for realistic watercolor, food illustration, and my favorite techniques that help me arrive at higher levels of realism while maintaining painterly qualities, let's jump in. 2. Course Project: By the end of this course, you'll have completed a realistic watercolor illustration of a stack of pancakes with blueberries on top. I've broken up my process into six phases, each of which has a class of its own. This realistic watercolor illustration was created in two layers and I'm going to be explaining all of my favorite watercolor techniques that allow me to create soft, diffused out effects and also sharper details. And how I do my layering in order to arrive at a believable sensation of depth and dimension. I explain about the paint colors that I'm going to be bringing in and the main color mixtures that I'm going to be using in order to develop that range of both values and hues needed for realism. You do not have to use the exact same paint colors that I'm going to be using to arrive at great results. I'll be swatching out all of these paint colors on a scrap piece of paper for you so that you can see what they look like. And replace whatever colors you don't have with something similar. As I move on through the painting process, I share muscnel tips that help me arrive at realistic results while maintaining those painterly qualities that I love. I also provide muse information to layer water color while avoiding overworking your paintings. All of this is information that you can take with you to future watercolor pieces that you may decide to work on. Once you're done with your painting, please take a photo of it and post it over at the Projects and Resources tab here on Skill Share. This is a special gallery where you'll be able to easily post your work as well as like and comment on other students projects. It's super easy to do and I'd love to see your work as well as provide any feedback that you might need or answer any questions that you might have. For me to post a photo of your work, all you have to do is click on the Projects and Resources tab below any of the videos in this course. And to the right, you're going to see a section titled My Project. And right beneath it there is a blue button that says Submit Project. When you click on that blue button, you're taken to a new page where you're able to upload your image. Click on Upload Image, find the photo of your piece and that's going to be your cover image. You can then give your project a title, Explain a bit about how your process went for you in the description. And here I would recommend talking a little bit about any discoveries that you made, things that you struggled with, things that you feel went well, any key takeaways that you might take from this course to future artwork, any questions that you might have for me. Once you've shared a little bit about your process and how things went for you, you can then go ahead and add in another photo of your piece inside of this project description section. This is important because if you only upload a cover image, I might only be able to see part of your photo. So once you're done with your description, simply click on this image icon right here below. Add more content. Find your photo on your computer again and it'll be included in your project description and you're done. All you have to do is click on the green Publish button on the upper right. And that's it. If you'd like to share your work over on Instagram, please do. I love giving students shout outs and also sharing your work in my stories. Just make sure to tag me so that I can see it and cheer you on. And also make sure to tag the skillshare account. This goes a very long way and really inspires other students to share their work as well, which is very important for the skillshare community. Remember that we're all here to learn and improve together, and it's a safe place for you to share. And all of the other wonderful skillshare teachers and myself look forward to hearing from you and seeing your work. 3. Supplies: I'm going to be working on watercolor paper from arches. This is cold pressed paper. It is 140 pounds in thickness or in weight, and it is 100% cotton. I did cut off a couple of sections off my sheet so that I didn't end up with too much empty space around my illustration. The sheet that you're going to be seeing me work in is 7.5 " in height and 10 " in width. I used a total of six different colors from Windsor and Newton's professional watercolor line. And these colors were Windsor, lemon, raw sienna, burnt sienna, Antwerp blue, a lizard, and crimson and paints gray. As I move forward in my painting process, I'm going to be swatching out these colors for you, as well as the main color mixers that I'm going to be using so that you can see what they look like on paper. And you can just replace whichever colors you don't have with colors that you do have that are similar to mine. And your painting is going to turn out great. I brought in a total of four brushes, but one of those was for my masking fluid placement, and the other three were for my actual watercolor painting process. The watercolor brushes that I brought in are all round brushes, and their sizes were 1,410.3 And the other smaller multimedia brush that I brought in for my masking fluid placement was also a round brush. In size one, I used colorless masking fluid from Windsor and Newton. This is a great masking fluid that I've never had any issues with. And in terms of my other painting supplies, I have a container with clean water, a couple of my blue scot absorbent towels. I used a roll of regular 1 " masking tape to tape my watercolor paper down onto my block cutting mat. I always also make sure to have a couple of scrap pieces of watercolor paper in order to test out colors and translucencies or consistencies. And finally, another thing that you're seeing on screen here is my sheet of tracing paper that I used for my transferring or my creation of my preliminary sketch on my watercolor sheet. So for this one, I traced over the photo using my tracing paper, and then I use that tracing paper to do my transferring and prepare my preliminary sketch. It's totally up to you if you'd like to go with tracing paper or any other transferring method, but if you're interested in learning how to use tracing paper for your transferring process and how to prepare that preliminary sketch prior to jumping into your watercolor painting. I have a full class on how to use tracing paper to do this process in my watercolor one oh one course that you have available here on skill share. This is one of the final bonus classes. So if you'd like to learn how to use tracing paper for your transferring and the preparation of your preliminary outline sketch, you can go ahead and check that one out. All right, and finally, I do want to remind you that I've made a few downloadables available along with this course. Which you're going to be able to find in the Projects and Resources tab here on Skill Share, right beneath the class videos, you can just click on the Projects and Resources tab below any of the class videos. Scroll down a tiny bit and you're going to find a subtitle that reads, Download Resources This one, I have made my outline sketch available, so you can actually trace over my outline sketch instead of the reference photo, because I always end up changing a few things. And sometimes it's just easier to trace over the outline sketch instead of the photo. But I'm also attaching the high resolution reference photo so that you can observe that as you're moving forward with your painting process, You're also going to be able to find a couple of photos that I took after placing my masking fluid. You're going to find a photo of my finished illustration, which you're free to use as reference as you're working. And of course the supply list with the list of colors that I used as well as links to all of the different items that you're going to be seeing me used today. 4. Masking Fluid Placement: I'm going to be placing my masking fluid just a little bit here and there. Mostly in the blueberries, the syrup, and also the plate. For my masking fluid placement. I'm going to be using this very old cheap multimedia brush. This is a size one round. What I'm going to be doing just so that I'm able to use it for a little bit longer, is I'm going to be coating my paintbrush bristles with a little bit of dishwashing soap. Because if I just go into my masking fluid with my paintbrush bristles, just as they are, I'm going to ruin this brush and I'm not going to be able to use it anymore. All right. My paintbrush bristles have been coated. I have formed my bristles into a nice fine tip, and I have removed the excess dishwashing soap that was just dripping down those paint brush bristles because I don't want to get too much water into my masking fluid. And I'm just going to pour a little bit of this masking fluid from Windsor and Newton into this lid, which I wouldn't necessarily recommend using your lid of your masking fluid bottle as a little container because masking fluid dries very quickly. And it can just make opening the bottle of the masking fluid difficult for you. Any little plastic lid, anything like that will do just fine. All right, I'm observing that reference photo and I'm going to start placing a little bit of masking fluid at a time, very thin application so that it can dry quickly in lightest highlight areas that I see in the syrup. Any highlights in the blueberries and also in the plate. In the ceramic plate, these highlights are super important to get in. I will be taking a photo of my piece after I've placed my masking fluid in case you'd like to check it out. But right now I'm just observing that reference photo and I'm just placing it loosely where I see those highlights there. Now, your highlight shapes don't have to be exactly the same as you see them in that reference photo. Sometimes I create little highlights when those little sections are not a pure white highlight but a very light value that is perfectly okay as long as you don't go overboard. As long as your highlight shapes are irregular and abstract, they are relatively similar to what you're seeing in that reference photo. In terms of shape, terms of size, and in terms of location, then you're going to end up with realistic results. But you can definitely check out that attachment that I'll be making available for you where I took that photo after placing my masking fluid after it's been dried and has yellowed a little bit so that you can see exactly where I placed my masking fluid in case you are curious. Okay. That top section I think is good as is. I see a little bit of syrup in this blueberry and this blueberry, a little strip of syrup that is dripping down. I have left that out of my little composition here. I'm also trying to make sure that my high light shapes are not super large because that can end up looking very stark at the end when you remove that masking fluid and have that large white shape showing. Of course, you can always soften the look of that large white high light by just reactivating that paint a little bit with a clean and slightly damp brush and softening that look a little. The light is hitting these pancakes from the right. In general, if you see the stack of pancakes, most of the lighter values are along the right side, darker values are along the left. And you can also tell in the ceramic plate, there are darker values over here on the ceramic plate, and there are lighter values over here. The pancakes are stacked in a very irregular way. It's hard to tell, but you can definitely see a darker cast shadow in the front, over here, right beneath the pancakes that are covering that light and impeding that light from hitting the pancake beneath it. But you can very clearly see the cast shadow on the lower left, over here in these bottom blueberries, the cast shadow is always going to be opposite to the light source. If the cast shadows are on the lower left. This means that the light source is on the upper right. When it comes to the brightest highlights, especially when you only have one single light source, those lightest, brightest highlights are going to be on the side where the light is hitting the objects or the subjects. This is especially easy to tell if there is only one single light source, if there are multiple light sources, or it's another lighting situation where it's just the softer, more diffused light, then the location of a light source may not be as easy to tell. But we have to get really good at noticing those kinds of things. Because if we don't think about those things, our value development throughout the piece may end up not conveying the level of realism that we're looking for because things are just not consistent. Over here, the section of the plate is behind the pancakes and the light is able to reach that area directly. I can see some highlights over here. This plate is made up of a reflective, smooth material. Highlights are also important in the plate going to be protecting a little bit of this front central lip or edge of the plate over here, a little bit over here as well. I'm just going to be missing a few little highlights here and there in the blueberries and I'm going to be all done with my mascular fluid. All right, so the blueberries are a little bit more opaque, if you will. But I do want to incorporate just a few little highlights there. Even though I don't see super bright highlights in the reference photo, I don't have to add highlights into every single one of them. But I'm trying to place the highlight shape in the light side facing toward the light. All right, that's it. I don't want to go overboard with the masking fluid. I think I've placed enough. I'm going to go ahead and pour the remaining masking fluid back into my bottle. I'm going to close my masking fluid, nice and tight, and I'm going to go ahead and wash the bristles of my paint brush that I was just using so that the masking fluid doesn't dry there and completely ruins those bristles. All right. So my masking fluid has to dry completely before starting to paint. And you'll know that your masking fluid is dry once it looks a little bit yellowish, a yellow transparent film on your watercolor sheet. At least if you're using colorless masking fluid, like I am when you first place your masking fluid on your paper, it looks opaque and milky. And then as it dries, it becomes more transparent and yellowish. And it stays a little bit tacky to the touch, but it's no longer sticky. 5. Pancakes + Syrup First Layer: While my masking fluid dries. I'm going to start preparing my first color mixtures that I'm going to be needing for the first part of the painting process. And these are the color mixtures that I'm going to be using for the pancake sections that are free of syrup and also the syrupy sections. The way that I'm going to be doing this is I'm going to be painting the sections of pancake that have the syrup on them, separately from the sections that don't have any syrup on them. You notice in the reference photo the syrupy sections, the parts of the pancakes that are covered in syrup have a different hue, a slightly more yellowish golden hue. When you compare those areas to the hue of the other parts of the pancakes that are not covered in syrup, Those other parts of those pancakes that don't have any syrup on them are not as yellowish, they don't look as golden, they look more like a more opaque beige, especially those larger sections of the pancakes. The side sections are more of an off white. But what I want you to notice here, what's most important is notice that difference in hue or color between the syrup areas and the non syrup areas, because that is going to inform your choices when it comes to choosing the colors that you're going to be using in your color mixtures to paint the syrupy areas versus the non syrupy areas. Both areas, both the syrup areas and the non syrup areas have a variety of values within them and we're going to be developing those values. It's very important that we do if we're going for higher levels of realism, but it all is going to come down to your color choices. When it comes to the syrupy sections, I'm going to be using Windsor Lemon. I'm going to be developing values in the syrupy sections by adding rawciena into the lemon yellow racienas, the light Beijie Brown. And I'm going to be using a little bit of burnt sienna in the syrupy sections as well, so that I can develop a range of values in the syrup areas. When it comes to the sections with no syrup in them, I'm going to skip the Windsor Lemon. The first color that I'm going to be using is the Raciena. I'm going to be bringing in the burnt sienna as my midtone. And then to develop darker values and shadow areas, I'm going to be adding in a teeny tiny bit of pains gray, which is going to help me create me add a little bit more burnt sienna so that I can show you. Pains gray plus burnt sienna is going to create this deep dark chocolate brown. And I can get it as dark as I want to make it by just adding a little bit more pains gray into the mixture. A teeny tiny bit of paints gray so that I can show you here, you can see how I'm able to create a very dark chocolate brown here to help me develop that range of values that I need for the non syrup areas. Then these are the colors that I'm going to be using for the syrup areas, Bringing in quite a bit of Windsor Lemon. So that I can make the hue in those general areas look different from each other. But that range of values is important in both areas. You have to have light areas, mid tone areas, and darker areas in the syrup areas. And then lights, midtones, and darks in the non syrup areas as well. I'm going to go ahead and start creating my puddle mixers over here on my palette. This is plain Windsor lemon and then this is raw Sienna. Then I need my burk Sienna. Okay, so let's get started. My masking fluid is completely dry and I have these two paint brushes on hand. This is a size ten round and this is a size three round. And I'm just going to be switching between them depending on the size of the shape that I'm painting in. For example, this narrow, complex shape over here. It might be helpful to switch to my smaller brush to paint that in, but for my larger areas, I'm going to stick to using my size ten round brush. You can just switch between them as you see fit, making my way from my lightest color toward my darkest color using my size ten round brush. I'm going to go ahead and start painting in this area. Make sure that you're observing that reference photo and you're painting the sections that have the syrup in them. I just spring out a little bit of water from my container and just using a little bit of water in my brush and just painting in a little bit of water, softening this bright yellow. And simultaneously, because I'm running my paintbrush bristles over that area that I just painted with a little bit of water in my paintbrush bristles. I am going to be keeping that section wet for a little bit longer so that I can then drop in my second color. And I'm going to have those nice soft, diffused out effects, because I'm going to be dropping in the second color while that initial color is still wet. Okay, to make my way down here, I haven't even taken more color from my palette. It was just that first load. Then I've just been using water in my paintbrush. Taking a little bit more water, making my way down, pulling that color all the way down, running my pain bush, bristles over everything a couple of times more before going in with my next color. You can see how light this color looks because I have softened it so much with water and have been pulling it down to cover that entire shape. Now that I have that nice even sheen throughout this entire first syrup shape, I'm going to go ahead and take my bit of raw Sienna, which is my next color. I'm going to be dropping in this color in shadow areas that I see. This is a mid tone, if you will. I'm not trying to cover up all of that first bright light layer. That's not the case at all, remember, we're just trying to expand that range of values. I'm focusing on the little midtone areas that I see, grabbing a little bit more raw Sienna right here under the pancakes where I see a little bit of shadow in those areas. Hey, I don't want to cover up my bright yellow entirely, so I'm going to go ahead and take my last color before allowing this to dry. And I'm just going to be placing the darkest color in the darkest areas that I see. The little shadows created by the blueberries. Just keep everything loose. There is no need to be overly obsessive about getting everything exactly like you see it in the reference photo. We are going to be darkening certain areas with a second layer. And that second layer you can go in and create darker shadow shapes. I've done all of my initial layer there. That's all I want to do. I have not gone in with my paintbrush to try and merge things together or soften things or anything like that. I just dropped in my color confidently and try to leave things be as much as possible. If at this point in the process, after I've dropped in all of my colors, if my paint is still wet and unworkable, and I want to go in to soften any little textures to help merge my colors together a little bit more or create softer gradients, anything like that, or even lift up some color. For example, here, I think this has expanded a little bit too much. I can use the bristles of my paint brush as a little absorbent sponge to do some lifting. I'm going to switch on over to my size three round brush and I'm going to be doing exactly the same thing for all of my other smaller syrup sections, starting with my Windsor Lemon. I'm going to do this section here, This is too bright, too saturated. I'm going to dip my paint brush in my container, soften that with just water in my brush, and pull that color toward the right, just water in my brush. I'm going to take a little bit more painted in this section right here. These are smaller shapes. Do your best to stay on top of water. Control, help yourself with your absorbent towel. You can just touch the tip of your paint fresh bristles onto your absorbent towel to remove that excess water. That's my first layer there. Moving on to the medium color, which is the raw sienna, dropping it into shadow areas and midtone areas here. Trying to leave certain little sections where my windsor lemon is more dominant. I don't want to cover that windsor lemon up completely because then I risk there not being enough of a difference in hue between the non syrup sections and the syrup sections. All right. Moving on to my last color, which is the burnt sienna. And I notice right there, the darkest areas are here. Which makes sense because there are a lot of blueberries blocking that light from hitting those sections. Just a little bit over here. And that's all I'm going to do there. I drop in too much. I run the risk of that burnt sienna covering up too much. Doing a little bit of lifting before allowing everything to dry. Pressing the bristles of my brush there, I think I absorbed way too much color. Looks too light, so I'm dropping in a little bit more. But at Sienna, I'm going to work on this area over here and then that little, teeny tiny section over here. I remove that darkest brown from my paint brush bristles. I'm going to go in with the plain Windsor lemon. Again, just going in with water in my brush, softening, running my paint brush bristles over that little shape a couple of times. Going in with the raw sienna, which is the medium brown, dropping it in, finally going in with my burnt sienna, which is the darkest brown that I'm using in the syrup sections. This is a very small shape. That's all I'm going to do, going into the little, teeny, tiny, syrupy section right here. Water in my brush painting, that little area, in going in with some Rosana, so small, doing my best not to cover up all that Windsor lemon plus it's in the light side. If I go in with the darkest brown, I want it to be super minimal. That's enough. That's all I'm going to do while this. I'm going to create my color mixers that I'm going to be needing for the non syrup sections. I'm going to switch on back to my size ten round brush. As I said, for my range of hue and value that I'm going to be needing for my non syrup sections. I'm going to start with the raw sienna. I'm going to be moving on to the burnt sienna as my medium color. Then I'm going to be creating a darker brown, which is going to be a combo of burnt sienna and a little bit of pains gray and I'm not going to be using the Winsor lemon. Here's my Burkiena little puddle. Then over here I'm going to create the third puddle that I'm going to be using for the non syrup areas. This is going to have a little bit of pains gray in it. See how quickly the gray darken that burt Sienna. I didn't want to go with that dark, not for this first layer. So I'm just going to add a little bit more burnt sienna. Create a chocolate brown. I think that's good. Test out your color mixtures on your scrap pieces of water color paper. So I'm going to start with this bottom pancake right here. This syrupy section is almost completely dry, so I shouldn't have any bleeding. I'm going to keep using my size ten round brush for these small areas. I'm going to be painting the top part of the pancake which is like a lighter brown and a beige brown separate from the off white side sections. I'm going in with my first color, which is the raw sienna, using the same technique that I was using before, where I go in with this first color and then just go in with water in my paintbrush to soften the color. Try to make my way around the blueberries, Going in with just water in my paint brush to soften that everything is wet here, running my paint brush bristles over everything a couple of times. Okay, now going in with my medium color, which is the burnt sienna, I'm primarily dropping in the burnt sienna into the midtone areas and shadow sections that I see. Notice a little shadows created by the upper pancake on this lower pancake. Just let your paint merge together. Going in with a little bit of my darkest brown. And I'm just reinforcing the darkest areas nearest the pancake on top. That's all I'm going to do. For that one, I'm going to switch to my smaller brush to paint in this little section over here, my size three round. It's exactly the same process. The tricky thing here is to not get lost because you can accidentally start painting in a side or an off white section. Just be careful with that and keep looking at that reference photo. Okay, first color has been painted in going in with the medium color, dropping it into the shadow sections. And then finally, the darkest color just closest to the upper pancake there, go in to do any lifting that you might need to do. If your darkest brown has expanded too much and covered up that entire section. You can go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and do some lifting to reveal a little bit of that paper again. Sometimes if the darkest color expands too quickly, it's going to eat up all of those lightest values. And then it's going to look very flat because you don't have any lighter values. All right. So I'm just going to keep making my way up until I reach the top one. And I'm going to make sure to skip over that little side section of the pancakes. I'll be painting that later that's a lot lighter. And I want to make sure that I do keep those side sections very light and very different from the top sections. So I'm just going to change to my size ten round brush. And I'm just going to keep making my way through these using the exact same technique. Start with the section here. What's cool about painting food items that I love so much is that many of them are very much like painting organic objects, going in with just water in my paintbrush. Now they're like organic objects in the sense that there's a lot of irregularity and imperfection involved. No, two pancakes are the same. Every single pancake is going to have its own irregularities, its own imperfections going in with my medium color. Now the same thing happens with fruits and vegetables and flowers and trees and clouds and rocks. Going in with my darkest color now and placing it just in the darkest shadow sections right on top of this shape. Changing on over to my size three round brush going in with my racist. There's that first lightest layer going in with my medium color, dropping it along the top of the shape where there would be shadow going in with my darkest color. Moving on from there, changing on back to my size ten round brush and I'm going to make a little bit more of this Siena plus water mixture because I ran out making sure that my puddles have the right consistencies. Because as we move on working, we are getting a little bit more water into our puddles and watering them down little by little, even if we remove that excess water drippage offer paint brush bristles. Every time we go into our container, we are bringing in at least a teeny tiny bit of water into our mixtures and we're watering them down. So you want to make sure that you're keeping an eye on your puddles, on your palette and making sure that the consistency is what you want them to be. Okay, so going in with my first color, which is the Rosiena, taking a look at that reference photo and making sure that I understand the shape that I'm going to be painting in. Going in with just water in my paintbrush. Going in with my medium color, and then going in with my darkest color. Using my smaller size three round brush for this small shape in the left running, my pain brush bristles over this shape 23 times, going in with my medium color burnt sienna, and then going in with my darkest color which is burnt sienna, plus a bit of pains, gray. Everything is still wet and workable. If I want to do any softening, any lifting, I can go ahead and do that. It's going to remove some of this dark brown that was expanding a little bit too much into the lighter value zones. Moving on to the next pancake, I'm going to make a little bit more of my rowena little puddle here. And going right in. You can see how light this color looks. I always want to go in light and translucent or that first layer so that I can build up my values incrementally. Going in with my medium brown, noticing where the darkest shadow areas are, and dropping it in in those areas. Okay. Going in with my darkest color now. And I'm just going to be dropping it in to the darkest areas that I see. Going in to just pull a little bit of this pigment toward the left, expanding the shape a little bit. I want to soften edges between my colors or values and a change to my smaller brush drop in a little bit more of my darker brown into this area right here. This little, teeny tiny section right here is so small and is in shadow, I'm going to go in directly with my medium brown which is the burnt sienna. And then I'm just going to place a little bit of my darkest brown here and there. Now onto the final pancake, I'm going to make sure I have enough of that raw sienna there. Burnt sienna. Burnt sienna, plus a teeny tiny bit of pains, gray. Let's work on that last pancake starting with the first color. Take your time. This is definitely a shape, the largest that we've painted so far. Take your time with this area. Make sure that you run your paint brush, bristles over everything multiple times as you're painting in that first layer, so that you can keep things wet for longer. Okay, first layer is done, going to go in with my burnt sienna. This top pancake has very dark values and it makes sense because it's the top pancake, there is nothing covering it up. This section over here especially, is in the light side. Well, I'm not going to use any of my darkest brown over here. I may use a tiny bit of it over here, but I'm not going to be using my darkest brown in the section. I'm just going to be developing a very subtle range of values here so that things are not super flat, but I want to keep things light. That's enough there. That's all I'm going to do. I'm going to move on to painting these areas. These are much smaller, so I'm going to use my smaller brush ross. This is a very small section, I just went in with my first two colors in that area. And not the darkest one, painting the section in first color, then just a little bit of that medium color. Specially here next to the blueberries a little bit along the edge. Then this other area here will have a tiny bit of that darkest brown. Because this blueberry right here is creating a little bit of a shadow, keeping things wet. Going in with my medium color, which is the burnt sienna right here next to the blueberry, a little bit along the edge, a little bit along the edge of the syrup. And going in with my darkest brown to create a tiny bit of a shadow shape here along the blueberry and along the syrup. Cleaning up the edge here with a clean brush. Now I'm going to be painting in the side sections that I left. I'm going to start at the bottom so that I can give all of that chance to dry. All of this here is completely dry. I shouldn't have any bleeding. Going to be painting these sections in with my smaller size three round brush. What I'm going to be doing for these light sections, for this first layer is I'm just going to be going in with a down Rawsiena, Wd down. You want to use a T like consistency so that those sections can really look like a off white color. If you go in too dark, too saturated, too thick. Even with your raciena, which is very light, those sections will likely not look off white. They'll look too similar to the top sections. Make sure you're going in nice and light watered down. I'm just going to be painting these sections very quickly, very loosely. I'm not spending very long in these sections at all like I did with the others because I'm not really trying to develop that wide of a range of values as I was doing with the tops of the pancakes. I just want to lay down a little bit of a hue in a quick way. And then with a second layer, we're going to be darkening certain little sections here and there. Maybe even dry brushing a little bit, leaving little specks of paper shining through. You can see how quickly I'm moving through this process. I'm not spending too long in any single area. All right? So this is the first layer done all throughout the pancakes, both the syrup areas and the non syrup areas. Once this strikes completely, we're going to come back and we're going to be pushing those darkest shadow sections using the darker and darkest color mixtures that we have already been using in these areas in that second layer. When we're pushing those shadow areas, creating those abstract regular shadow shapes, that is going to help us kind of define edges a little bit more here and there. And of course, we're going to be expanding that range of values, which is going to help make things really pop and look more realistic. Let's move on to working on the plate and the blueberries. So this is what my water is looking like right now. You can see how it looks, kind of orangish, brownish color, very murky. And because we're going to be bringing in blues which are complimentary to orange and the color wheel, it's important that we use clean water and that we also keep things organized on our palette. If orange and blue start intermixing because they are complementary colors, we're going to start creating a brown or desaturated color. For this part of the process, I'm going to be using this section over here on my palette. So think about how you're going to keep your colors organized on your palette as well. That is also important because if your puddles start seeping into each other, especially when the colors are very different or complimentary colors, that can also lead to a muddy or at least desaturated lo. 6. Blueberries + Plate First Layer: My water has been changed. And I'm going to talk about what I'm going to be doing with my colors for the blueberries and also for the plate for my blueberries. I'm going to be using Antwerp Blue on its own, which looks like this. I'm also going to be using a combo of Antwerp Blue and a lizarding crimson to create a little bit more of a purplish hue. Sometimes I'm going to be using plain Antwerp blue and other times I'm going to be using a combo of antwarp blue and a lizard and crimson so that there can be a slight variety and hue in my blueberries. It's going to make things look a little bit more realistic, but I'm also going to have darker versions of both my blue and my purple. To develop that range of values that I need in those small sphere like structures in the blueberries. I need some darker values as well. I'm only going to be able to get so dark with these colors. For that, I'm going to be creating a darker version of both by adding in a little bit of paints gray into both. For the bluish green sections in the plate, I'm going to be creating a color mixture which is anthrop blue and a little bit of sap green for that bluish green color, it's totally up to you if you want to make this green, blue turquoise color mixture more going toward the blue side or more going toward the green side. It's just a matter of changing the ratio of your green and blue in your color mixture and using it in that way. I'm also going to be creating a darker version of this blue green. Adding a little bit of paints gray into it, But essentially those are the main colors and main mixtures that we're going to be using in the blueberries and in the plate. Okay, first and foremost, I have my plain anthrop blue right here. From there, I'm going to create an anthrop blue plus Alizarin crimson mixture for my purple. This is Alizarin crimson right here. I want a little bit more of a blue purple. I'm not going to go too heavy on the Ellsarine. Little bit more antwrop blue. All right, cool. I'm going to use anthrop blue with a little bit of pains gray. Tiny bit of pains gray in my darker sections, in some of my blueberries. And then I'm going to use my anthrop blue plus a lizard and crimson plus painesray to darken areas of blueberries that I paint with my purple. Sometimes I'm going to be painting blueberries with my blue and I'm going to be dropping in a little bit of purple and vice versa. When it comes to my blue green, I'm going to create a mixture of anthrop blue. Then add a little bit of my green, which in my case is sap green. I'm going to add a little bit of sap green into it and just play with the ratios until you arrive at a blue green that you like. Think that's good for me. Then I'm going to create a darker version of that, right beneath it by mixing together Antwerp blue, sap green. You guessed, it pains gray. As I'm moving along, I am thinking of color harmony and repeating colors throughout the piece that is always going to lead to more harmonious, integrated results. These are the main color mixers that I'm going to be needing for my blueberries and my plate. I'm going to be painting the white sections in the plate. This section right here, the lip, until I'm going to be using my size 14 round brush to paint the plate because these are larger areas, just like what I've been doing so far. I'm first going to be going in with my lighter color mixer and I'm going to be painting that in very similar technique to what I've been using so far. Because I have my, my masking fluid there blocking out the highlights for me. I don't have to feel like I'm walking on eggshells trying to protect them. Going back to where I started running my painperspristles over that area several times, then making my way down a little bit more. Skipping over the syrup sections, I can paint the shadow sections that I mapped out with my pencil, but I don't want to paint the syrup sections. Okay. Before I make my way down and risk this drawing on me, I'm going to go ahead and paint in some darker values in my plate to take some of my darker blue green mixture. Drop that in and shadow sections. I'm going to continue making my way down, making my way around the syrup part. This I can paint because it's a shadow created by the blueberry, It's not syrup. And I'm making my way around the blueberries, going in with just water in my brush. As I pull a little bit of this pigment out and toward the right, toward the light section, this is a little bit too light. I'm going to take a little bit more pigment. I can always remove some of that by doing some lifting if I need to. But I need to work nice and quick so that I don't have sharp defined edges and texture. It's important to get that color in quickly. The section over here is also blue green, removing that color from my pain. Push ples. Now if things are still wet, workable over here, I can do some lifting in areas of lighter values that I see. Getting a little bit of pains, gray into this and dropping it into shadow sections and just doing a little bit more work. Before this dries, think of shadows created by the blueberries. Remember that the light is on the upper right. And also remember that you are going to be going in with a second layer to darken the darkest shadows. All right, I'm just going to quickly create a little bit more of this. Anthrop blue plus sap green plus paints, gray mixture. Everything is still wet and workable because I took my time with that first layer and also the environment that you're working in, Whether it's warm, cool, dry, humid, you have a fan on or heating system on. All of those things will have an impact on how quickly and how slowly things dry. Do have that in mind, Those things change. They vary day by day. Just intensifying the darker shadow shapes with my darker mixture here before things dry. That's enough for my first layer just going to go in quickly to do a little bit of lifting some lighter areas that I see, where the darker color has maybe expanded a little bit too much. But I'm being very loose about this, cleaning up edges If you want to, it's more than enough work for the plate. For now, I'm going to start working on the blueberries. The blueberries are, of course, much smaller. For those, I'm going to be using a smaller brush. I'm going back to my size three round and here are my four color mixtures for that. Lighter blue, darker blue, lighter purple, darker purple. Really the same technique that I've been using for everything so far. You want to go in nice and light. Initially, notice how I'm taking my paint from the edge of my puddle, and I just brought out a little bit of water into the puddle to water it down a little bit more because I don't want to go in super saturated and thick. Because if I do that, I'm going to be getting rid of my lighter values, going in with just water in my paint brush. I want to go in nice and translucent and water down. Notice how light that is. That's just plain Antwerp blue that's been watered down. I'm going to go in with a little bit more of my Antrop blue in a slightly more saturated state. A little bit of a thicker state now I'm taking my pigment from the center of the puddle. Then I go in with my darkest blue, which has a little bit of pains gray in it. I'm going to be moving through my blueberries in that same way. First paint in my lighter blue. If you notice that you go in with too much pigment right off the bat, remove that pigment from your paint brush, bristles and go in with just a little bit of water in your paint brush to soften that color. See how light that is. Then you can go in with your blue in a slightly more saturated, thicker state to darken the midtones, so to speak. Then you can go in with your darkest blue. I'm going to intensify the darks opposite to the light source. If you want to do any lifting, you can do it while your paint is still wet. I'm going to be going in with my purples for another two, same thing. I first take my purple from the edge of the puddle, going in with just water in my brush and getting in that nice light, pale first layer so that I can work toward my darker values and my deeper shadow sections, taking a little bit more of my purple from that central section of the puddle that was a lot of water. These are small shapes. I'm going to remove a little bit of that pigment from that top star section. I'm going to be painting later. Now, I'm going to go in with my darker purple that has the paints gray in it. And I'm going to place that along the bottom edge. Notice which blueberries have that upper little star section showing. And try to leave that upper section very light and very translucent. Because we're going to be painting that later, doing a little bit of lifting here. Moving on from there, I'm going to paint another purple one. I'm trying to skip between my blueberries. I don't want to start painting one that's right next to another one that I just painted in because my color is going to start merging together and I'm not looking for bleeding right now. I'm going to paint in some blueberries with both colors, have those colors intermixing. And some of them, there's my first layer painted in with my Antwerp blue. I'm going to go in with some purple. I'm going to place my purple in those darker areas. Then I'm going to take some of my darker purple and just drop it into shadow sections that I see trying to leave that upper little star section light. I'll be painting that later. I'm going to keep moving on like that until I finish painting all of my blueberries. Feel free to use your blue, your purple both. What's important here is that all of your blueberries have lighter areas, mid tones. And then later on, we're going to be pushing the darkest darks. This process is really all about working from light values toward darker values. What's helping me a ton here is giving thought to the spherical structure of these little blueberries. And also really thinking about how these blueberries are overlapping over each other and creating shadows on each other. I don't have to get everything exactly as I see it in the reference photo to arrive at higher levels of realism. But it is important to think about the three dimensionality of whatever it is that you're painting and giving thought to how light and shadow work. Wherever it makes sense that there would be shadow, that's where I'm applying more of my pigment. At making darker, I try to keep those sections where the light is hitting lighter in value or more translucent or paler. I'm going to continue working on this quietly. If some of your blueberries merge together visually in this first layer, don't worry because what the second layer you're going to be pushing those darkest shadow shapes in between your blueberries and that's going to separate them out. Again, visually doing a little bit of lifting here for this paint dries and here trying to develop at least a little bit of a range of values in all of my blueberries. And trying to keep that little star section if it's showing very, very light and translucent. Making sure that when I create more of my different color mixtures, I take the color that I have planned to use, not accidentally bring in another blue that could make things look a little bit off. At the end, we start using a different blue or a different red. For the purple, I had a little bit of bleeding, so I went in with a slightly damp brush to absorb some of that paint that started merging into my previous blueberry. Sometimes I think blueberries are dry but they're really not completely Get a little bit of bleeding happening. Water color is always going to expand when paper is wet, remember that? Okay, I'm almost done with these blueberries up top. Little, teeny tiny sections of blueberries showing behind this one. So I just painted them all at once. See this bleeding spot here? I'm just going to go over that again with a clean brush and you can see how I was left with a little bit of a splotch there. I'll fix that later with my second layer. If I try to fix that right now, I'm just going to get more bleeding and it's going to look like a mess. It's very important that when you're working with water color, you just know when to stop and when to allow that paper to dry completely. Fix little mistakes like that with another layer layer is in. Take a little bit of my purple, drop it in here and there. Then going in with my dark blue, then dropping that dark blue in dark shadow sections. I'm going to be working on the bottom blueberries first. I'm going to make more of my color mixtures that I was just using because I'm running out plain anthrop blue blue plus pains grey. My purple which is a mixture of anthrop blue and Alizarin crimson. And then right beneath it, anthrop blue plus Alizarin crimson plus pains gray. With my size three round brush on hand, I'm going to go ahead and use the exact same technique that I was using for the top blueberries. In these bottom ones, lightest color, midtone, darkest color, it's a little bit too dark. I'm going in and lifting, I'm skipping a few so that I can give that a chance to dry Antwerp Blue in a slightly more saturated state. In Antwerp blue paints gray. I can paint this one here because these are separated by a little masking fluid shape. My color is not going to merge together. I'm going to use some purple in this one. Darker purple going in with some purple over here. Painting in that light, first layer, light and translucent, going in with a little bit more purple. Adding it into the mid tones purple, and adding it into the darkest darks that I see, deep, darkest shadow areas. If you need to do any lifting, you can go ahead and do that. Okay. Making my way back. Going in with my blue, this one is pretty dark because it's behind the stack of pancakes. I need to paint in that little syrup section there. I'll do that in just a bit darker blue. It has the paints gray in it, going in with purple. Now, just painting in some color, then just going in with a little bit of water to soften that color. Going in with more purple, creating a little bit of a midtone, darker purple that has the paints gray in it, Cleaning up the edges a little here, I went out of that blueberry shape a little. I'm going to use my absorbent towel and just do a little bit of lifting, pressing down my absorbent towel along the edge where I had that bleeding happening. And I'm just going to leave that be because that paper around the blueberry is still damp. And if I start placing more color, it's just going to keep expanding and getting into that blue green. I'm going to leave it as it is for now and I'm going to fix it later. Going in with some blue Finish up my blueberries over here. Plain antp blue. A little bit of a heavier consistency. And then darker Antwerp blue lift here where I see the star. Where I want to paint a little bit more detail later. Then I have this one here that is peeping out from behind. This other one that I had already painted need very little paint in that area. I need very little paint here because it's a very small shape. I got to stay on top of water control there. I'm going to see if I can place a little bit more purple here. Right now, this blueberry here is looking very flat because I had to absorb a lot of that paint. I'm just going to paint a little bit more, Soften the edge a little and I'll leave it. All right. I finished with that first layer in all of my blueberries. The next thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to add a little bit of a very light gray in the white sections of my plate. I can't leave those white sections flat white because it's going to lead to flatteness and not much realism. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to use some pines gray and I'm just going to add pines gray quite a bit of it into this blue green mixture so that it looks primarily like a pines gray with maybe a little, teeny tiny bit of blue green in it. These sections are white. When you're painting white things with water color, whether it's animals or objects, you really want to make sure that you're using your color in a very, very watered down state because we're incorporating the whiteness of the paper to help us create that white color. If we paint everything with gray, it's going to look like a gray thing. Like a gray object, fur or gray feathers or whatever the case may be. You want to be careful with going in super light and water down a T like consistency. And we're not going to be covering up all of the paper in that area. We're going to leave plenty of that paper shining through. Observe that reference photo and notice where the grays are. I'm going to use my size 14 round brush because it's going to help me go in loose and quick. That is a little bit too blue. I'm adding a little bit more paints, gray into the mixture. Watering it down right here next to the lip, I see a little bit of a gray. I'm going to remove that color from my paint brush bristles. And I'm going to go in and soften that gray quite a bit, while it's still wet to create a bit of a curved look here. That's mainly where I'm placing the gray. And I'm leaving all of this section just free of color. Notice how light that gray looks. If you want to drop in a little bit more while that is still wet, you can drop it in. But take it slowly and incrementally toward your darker colors if you're going to be darkening areas in white objects. Now, this section right here is also in shadow because those are the planes of the plate opposite to the light. I also want to get a little bit of a gray in that area. Just paint that in moving from my paint brush bristles, removing that excess water by dabbing my paintbrush on my absorbent towel and softening this color, cleaning up edges. I'm going to drop in a tiny bit more of my gray, especially because these are bottom planes of the plate that are facing away from the light, so I can go in a little bit more liberally. Finally, I'm going to be painting in the top lip of the plate, very similarly to how I did with the side sections of the pancakes using my size three round brush. And I'm going to be leaving lots of that white paper shining through unpainted. And I'm just going to be going in with very watered down blue gray that I just created. And just painting that in very quickly, very loosely. Starting at the left, there is masking fluid along the lip here, which is covering up plenty of that paper for me. That's it. Before moving forward, I'm just going to quickly paint in that little syrup section that I forgot to paint in before I did change my water because it was like a very grayish blue color. So I didn't want that to affect my vibrancy of my colors that I'm going to be using for the syrup section here. Even though this syrup section is very much in shadow, I do want it to be visible. I'm using the same sequence of colors that I was using for my other syrup sections. First going in with my Windsor lemon bit of raw Sienna, which is my next color. And then finally, I need some burnt Sienna. 7. Pancakes + Syrup Second Layer: We are officially done with the first layer. All throughout the piece. That was a lot more time consuming than the things that we're going to be doing next. Because essentially in the beginning, you're painting larger areas. The general larger areas is what you're painting. And then as you move forward, your shapes or areas that you're painting get smaller and smaller because you're really just painting in the shadow shapes. What I'm going to be moving on to doing now is I'm going to be pushing the darkest shadow shapes in the syrup because we're going to be focusing on pushing the darker midtones and the darkest darks. I'm really just going to be using my darker colors that I created for the area on hand. When it comes to the syrup, the darker colors that I was using were the raw sienna and the burnt sienna. That's why I created more of those two. Back to my size three round brush, starting with the syrup. I'm going in with my medium color first painting in that abstract irregular shadow shape, similar to what I see in that reference photo. Then if I feel I need to, I drop in some of my burnt sienna, which is the darker color that I was using into certain areas to darken them even more, softening the edge there. I'm first painting in the raw sienna shapes and then I go in with some of my bert sienna into the darker areas. But I'm really trying to stay away from the look of outlines. And I don't want to darken things that don't need to be darkened anymore. Sometimes I just need to go in with the raw sienna softening the edge here. Because I'm painting on dry paper now, I'm being left with hard defined edges around these shapes that I'm painting in. If I ever want to go in and soften an edge, make it look less stark, I just remove that paint from my paintbrush bristles, and go in with a cleaner, slightly damp paintbrush and run my paintbrush bristles over that edge that I'm looking to soften. Think of the volume here created by the syrup. You can see how by adding in a little bit of a darker value here along the edge, I raised the syrup and gave it a sense of volume. All right, I'm making my way down. First going in with the raw sienna. Then the burnt sienna, trying to intensify the shadows here behind the syrup. Removing that paint from my paint brush, bristles and softening the edge. There's a couple of dark spots in this part of the syrup, so I'm going to go in with my dark brown that I created for the non syrup sections. Is a mixture of burnt sienna and pains gray. And I'm going to be dropping in a little bit of this color into those areas just because they're very dark. In that photo, I use that dark brown in between the pancakes where there would be shadow. This is important because we're able to see through the syrup, so we would be able to see those shadow areas in between these pancakes. You can also use the darker color, especially down here. That's enough. That is it. I don't want to go too dark in the syrup sections. Okay. So now I'm going to work on creating some shadow sections in the non syrup parts of the pancakes. The colors that I was using for these areas are my raw sienna, burnt sienna, and burnt sienna plus pains gray. But I'm just going to be using these two now because I'm just working on midtones and darkness darks. I'm going to go in with the lighter color of the two first, starting with this one at the bottom. You can see this as going in and reinforcing those deep mid tone areas and the deepest shadow areas. The second layer, I'm not trying to cover up the lighter value areas, I'm just pushing those darker value areas really seeing these shapes that I am painting in as abstract, irregular shadow shapes softening the edge and then I'm going to go in with my darkest brown. It has the paints gray in it. I don't want my dark brown to look super gray because that might lead to a burnt effect and I don't want this to look burnt. Do make sure that your dark color mixture looks like a dark brown and not a gray. Essentially, you're painting in your medium color to intensify that darkest shadow section. And then you're softening the lower edge. Then you're just dropping in the darkest brown along the top edge. That's that burnt sienna in. I remove that burnt sienna from my paint brush bristles softening the lower edge and going in with my darker brown to just darken that upper section. I'm just going to continue moving forward in that way, Siena, first abstract irregular shadow shape disappears right around there. Remove that paint from my paint. Brush, bristles, soften the lower edge. Take a little bit of my darker brown and place just a little bit here and there to intensify the shadows nearest the pancake on top can intensify some shadows over here as well. Burt Siena. First soften the edge, go in with a bit of the darker brown, just here and there, and move on to the next paint in that shadow shape. With the medium color soften, the lower edge, go in with the darkest color, go in with the medium color. Notice how abstract my shadow shapes are and drop in a little bit of the darkest color. Getting to work on the next painting in my shadow shape first with the medium color disappears over here. Soften that, soften the edge, dropping in a little bit of my darker brown. This looks very dark in that reference photo. That little section on the left is small, so I can just go in with a darker brown to paint in very little, teeny tiny shadow shapes. And that's it. All right. The top pancake is very much the lightest one of all. It's nearest the light. I don't want to go super dark in that one. I'm going to add a little bit of shadow. Here under the blob of syrup, to create a little bit of a shadow effect. And again, raise to give it more of a raised look. Create a little bit more of a believable sense of volume. Okay, painted in those shadow shapes, softening the lower edge. You don't have to soften everything, but if you feel that your shadow shapes are way too stark looking, then it might be worth softening them just a bit. Dropped in a little bit of a darker brown here and there. Over here, I'm going to create a little bit of a shadow here. I'm going to add a little bit of my darkest brown right here. I know that this is a syrup portion, but this is very dark. And it makes sense because of all the blueberries here, they are creating a shadow in this area. So I did allow myself to go in with my darker brown here, even though it's a syrup part. All right. So I'm just seeing everything as a whole right now, noticing if anything needs to be darkened a little. That's just a tiny bit of burnt sienna in the syrup here. It's a little bit too dark. Softening that a bit. I'm just softening this. This looks a little bit too stark to me, placing a little bit of burnt sienna here at the bottom. All right, when it comes to these lighter off white sections on the sides, I'm just going to be darkening a little bit of that strip. I don't know what to call it, but doughnuts have that as well. You can almost see like a shape or a line here. And I did map it out in pencil, but all I'm going to do is I'm going to add a little bit of burnt sienna into my yellow ochre that I had to use for those areas. I'm going to just, in a very irregular way, create that illusion of that line. I don't want to call it a line because it's actually like a long irregular shape. Here's a little bit of Bert Sienna. But see these more as long irregular shapes than lines because if you just go in and paint a line going in with a little bit of Bert Sienna here to darken some sections, you just go in and paint a line. It's going to look very unnatural. It's always important that you see these as abstract, irregular shadow shapes. If you're looking for more of a believable look paint in that lightest color and then just drop in a little bit of the medium color here and there. Notice how these shapes that I'm painting in are thicker in some sections and then more narrow in others that I'm just darkening certain sections with the darker brown. Hey, going in with my darkest brown and just creating very small final shapes here and there inside of those long lighter shapes to develop a little bit of a range of values. 8. Blueberries + Plate Second Layer: I'm going back to my blues and purples. I'm going to change my water. What I was doing before was I was going in with my first two color mixtures in a very water down translucent state. And then I used my first two color mixtures once again in a less water down state. And then I went in with these two when it comes to developing the darker midtones and darkest darks in the blueberries, I'm going to be going right in with these two in more of a coffee like consistency instead of a tea consistency. And then I'm going to create my darkest darks with these two that have the paints gray in them. Size three round brush, start with a purple one painting in the shadow shape and adding a little bit of detail into the little star section on top of the blueberry. Removing that from my paint brush, bristles, softening edges of the shadow shape. Not so much the star area, I'm going to leave it at that. My darker color started eating up my lighter color, way too much. I'm just doing a little bit of lifting when it comes to painting in the detail for those star parts in these blueberries, the ones that are showing this section more. So thinking of painting in the shadow shapes created by these triangular sections that are sticking out. It's not about going in and painting a perfect star. It's about thinking what darker value shapes would be created by those little triangular sections that are sticking out. You're painting those little shadow shapes or little darker value shapes. Not all of these blueberries are going to need a second layer softening the edge. Going in with my darker blue, soften and lift. Going back to my purples. You'll fred to zoom into the reference photo. Some of these blueberries have this circular hole showing. And you can see that in that reference photo, which is opposite to the little star section on the opposite side of the sphere. That's what I'm painting in right there, going in with the darker purple, dropping it right in shadows, softening the edge, dropping in a little bit of the darker purple lifting here. I'm going to have to paint in the little star section and this one a little bit later because everything is way, way too wet for me to start painting. Sharper detail, lifting some more to soften this, dropping in some of my darker blue lifting and softening and trying to keep the paint from covering up those lighter value areas that are already there. We're just looking to push those darker shadow shapes and to create a little bit more of voluminous little sphere effect. Okay, I'm trying to create an shadow shape to help me convey the little star at the top of this blueberry. When it comes to this detail that we are able to see in some of these blueberries, try to acknowledge those shapes as just abstract shadow shapes. We're not going in and painting the, the little star. You're able to communicate that. It is that section just by painting in shapes of different values for those blueberries that do show that little section. I might have to go in with a third layer to just those teeny tiny shadow shapes in those little star sections. But I'm going to have to do that later after everything dries. Going in with blue, softening, darker blue and back to my medium blue to create little abstract shapes right there at the top of the blueberry. I'm going to leave it at that. Let it dry, Soften that, go in with my darker purple up in the edge. Okay, I paint in little shapes for this star on top of this one that I wasn't able to paint in before because everything was so wet. I don't want to paint a perfect star or anything. It's a lot better if it ends up being a little bit imperfect. Reinforcing the darkest starks, taking some of my darker blue, dropping it in here. This looks a little bit too perfect for me. I'm just going to go in and soften some of these triangular shapes that I painted in make them look a little bit more imperfect. And I'm going to keep moving forward. The detail in these blueberries detail and shadow shapes, I should say, try to skip a few. When you're done with one, try to skip to another section. Because if you don't, you're going to run the risk of having your colors merge together. This is the one where I had that little splotch incident before. With this layering that I'm doing right now, no one is going to see that soften here a little and I'm going to soften this darker color with the pains gray. Drop it in, see a little bit of that star at the top. In this one I'm just going to do very irregular shapes there to help me convey that little section there. This one over here. I don't think I need to develop darker values because it's very much in light. But I do just want to create little, teeny tiny shapes. Because I do see that little star, dark little star section there. I see very dark values right here in the blueberries that are behind these. I'm just going to darken that area with my dark blue. It's just a matter of giving thought to what blueberries are overlapping other blueberries and darkening shadow areas where it would make sense. I also see some dark values right here. I'm just going to go into some of these little star sections and darken here and there with one of my darkest colors. Whether it's the darkest blue or the darkest purple that have the paints gray in it. And I'm just going in and loosely darkening some little shapes inside of the shapes that I've already created. I don't want to do anything else because if I continue pushing those darkest values and those details, I can end up with something that looks very overworked. So I'm just going to go ahead and finish my detail in the bottom, blueberries softening the edge. And going in with my darker blue that has the paints gray in it Just made a little bit more of my blueberry color mix Here I continue my blueberries here at the bottom, painting in those shadow shapes and a little bit of detail in that little star shape, softening the edge and dropping in a little bit more of one of my darker colors. Softening darker color opposite to the light, back to my medium purple. This was the blueberry I was having trouble with before. For this one over here, I really just need to go in with my darker blue that has the pains gray in it because it's in shadow. It's pretty dark. I do need to darken some little sections in that syrup beneath it so that the light is a little bit more consistent. There we will be removing the masking fluid in just a bit. Just going into dark and little sections. These star shapes improve the shape. In this one was a little bit off before. With the second layer, you can really fix edges, define things a little bit more. Just don't do it through using outlines. Do it through abstract shapes of different values. Softening the shape a little bit here with a clean and slightly damp brush. To finish up the spottom section, I'm just going to create a little bit more shadow shapes on the plate itself. I'm creating my blue green, very similar to what I was using before. Adding a tiny bit of paints gray into it. Going in with my larger brush, I'm just darkening certain sections. I want to push a little bit more. I'm going to soften that edge. The clean, a slightly damp brush. This blueberry right here has quite a shadow in that reference photo. Just going to add it in. I'm going to add in a little bit more paints, gray into my mixture. To darken it a little bit more, drop it in, darken the shadow right here under the pancakes, removing that from my paint brush, bristles going in and softening anything that I feel looks a little bit too stark, softening edges. And continuing with the shadow shapes with my dark blue green color mixture. Shadow shapes created by the blueberries on the plate as well as the pancakes on the plate. You don't need to soften all the edges, but if you do want to soften some edges, you can go ahead and do that in know, a little bit more of my dark blue green right there, Just a tiny bit here and here. I'm going to leave those shadows sharp and defined like that. Finally, I'm going to add a little bit more of my paints, gray into my blue green mixture. And I'm just going to paint in some shadow shapes on these planes that are opposite to the light where there would be shadow. Removing that paint from my paint brush bristles. Notice I painted in a smaller shadow shape over that larger lighter gray shape. I'm going to fix that little section of syrup there, going to make it a little bit darker. Need some of my burnt sienna and maybe even a little bit of burnt sienna plus pains gray. Because that section is very much in shadow. Even though I wasn't really using my darkest brown for my syrup. That section is very much in shadow because I want to keep the lighting consistent. It just makes sense that I prepare a little bit of that as well. All right. That's the burnt sienna, soften edges going in with my darkest brown. There it is. I love a little, teeny tiny section of plain Windsor lemon shining through. 9. Removing Masking Fluid + Final Details: I'm going to go ahead and start removing the masking fluid from this upper section over here. Give the bottom section a little bit more of a chance to dry. I'm just going to be using my thumb to remove my masking fluid. But if you have sensitive skin, sensitive hands, you can always use a rubber cement pickup or even a clean, soft graphite eraser to remove your masking fluid. Make sure everything is completely dry and that your hands are very clean. If you're going to be using your hands, your masking fluid should come off relatively easily. You shouldn't have to rub super hard. All of my masking fluid has been removed. My water has been changed one last time. In this last phase, I'm really looking at a few things at once. I am looking at everything as a whole, as a complete composition. And I want to make sure that as a whole, everything makes sense. Everything has the level of finish and detail and contrast that I want it to have. Nothing looks unfinished. And there are essentially a few things that I'm doing. If there's anything that needs to be darkened, if I need to push the contrast in those deepest, darkest shadow areas anywhere throughout the piece, I go ahead and do that. If I need to soften or make highlight shapes that are very stark and white and distracting a little bit smaller or a little bit softer. I go ahead and do that by going in with some gentle scrubbing with the cleanest, slightly damp brush. Or by going in and painting in some very light, translucent color to make the high light shape a little bit smaller if there are any edges. Sharp defined edges around shapes that I need to soften a little bit. I go in with a clean and slightly damp brush and do gentle scrubbing along those edges. If there are any areas that look a little bit too flat and I feel like I need to develop a little bit more of a mid tone or a darkest dark. I go ahead and use my different color mixtures to do that. First thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and soften some of my high light shapes. I'm using my size ten round brush and with just a clean and slightly damp brush, go in and do some gentle scrubbing in those highlight shapes to soften them a little. Do your scrubbing gently and know when to stop because you can certainly start damaging your water color paper and there is no taking that back. By going in, you should be able to activate that color at least a little bit by activating that color and pushing it and pulling it into those high light shapes that should help you make them look a little bit softer and not as stark. Just make sure that you're working first on the syrup sections. The blueberries, You don't want to be going in and scrubbing syrup sections with blue in your paint. That's the syrup sections done there. I removed that yellow from my paint brush bristles and I'm now going into the blueberries and softening a bit there. Going in and softening some high light sections in the plate. Gently scrubbing with a clean and slightly damp brush. One of the key differences between water color and other painting mediums is that water color can get reactivated even after it has dried. We can use that to our advantage, softening some irregular edges here. All right, just to finish up, I'm going to be darkening little sections all throughout the piece. I'm just going to be using the same colors that I've been using in each element. Cleaning this edge up just a little. Just to finish up, I'm going to be darkening little shapes all throughout the piece. Pushing those final, deepest, darkest sections, maybe just adding a little bit more detail. I'm just going to be using the same colors that I've been using all along. Darkest versions, wherever it makes sense, less is more. In this last part of the process, we really don't want to start overworking the piece. I'm always interested in arriving at a certain level of realism while maintaining painterly qualities at a certain level of looseness. Going in with my darkest brown. One last time. Bert Siena Pains Gray. As I'm painting in these dark shadow shapes in between my pancakes. With this darker brown I am making sure that I'm not going in and creating lines. Certain sections of these shapes are wider and others are more narrow. At some points they're not even touching. I'm making sure to only push those darker values where I see them in that reference photo. Darkening a little section here first with the burnt sienna, then with the darker brown it has the panes gray in it. I didn't like how that high light shape looked there. A little bit of raw sienna, the edge of that blueberry there going in with a little bit of burnt sienna right here, create a little bit more definition along the edge of that syrup so that we can see it a little bit better. Sometimes we can define shapes not by painting the shape itself, but by painting a shadow along it. Just going to be adding a little bit of a shape with my burnt sienna along some of the edges of my pancakes. I'm going to add a little bit of a shadow shape here inside the syrup, where I see dark shadow shapes through the syrup so that there is a continuation. The very last thing that I'm going to do is a quick right wash of color that I'm going to be adding in the syrup. I'm going to go back to my Windsor lemon, make a little puddle here, and we're looking for a tea consistency. It's pretty watery. And I'm just going to use this in a very water down state. I'm using my size 14 round brush, by the way. I'm just going to loosely go over the syrup section again, very loosely. I'm not really trying to fill the shape in, I'm just going over certain sections to brighten this color. And this is a glaze that is really going to help the syrup come to life and help make the hue brighter and different from the hue around it. In those sections with no syrup in them, I'm going to be adding a few little shapes and marks in these off white sections With just the tip of my smallest brush, my size three. I'm just dragging my brush, creating a little bit of a little dots, little marks so that they are not super smooth looking. And with that, we're all done. 10. Thank you: You made it to this point. Congratulations, I really hope that you enjoyed this course and that you learned a lot of new things that you can take with you to future artwork. Don't forget to share your work over on the Projects and Resources tab. I can't wait to see it. And to help you out with any questions that you might have or feedback that you might need. Don't forget to follow me here on skill share because I have lots of new courses coming down the pipeline for you. And also make sure to check out everything that I'm making available over on my Youtube channel, Instagram, and over on my website. Because every single week I am sharing free, helpful resources for artists. Thank you so very much for joining me on this one. I wish you a wonderful rest of your day. Enjoy your art practice and see you soon.