Watercolor for Beginners: Minimal Japanese Stones

1. Intro: Hello, this is a and welcome to my another Skillshare class. We'll be painting minimal Japanese stones. Now, I created this course before. It was my first course ever published on Skillshare. But what happened was unfortunately not much reviews, so Skillshare decided to close it. What initially got me to be inspired to create this class was I had a huge creative block. I was very scared to stop painting last year that I made over 240 something paintings. And it was because I thought I'll lose it. And that's exactly what I felt like when I came back from Japan after two weeks of staying with my parents. I didn't paint. And that's why this happened. So when I got back, I couldn't paint. I just lost it. I didn't know what to do. So what I got to thinking was, okay, what inspired me like when I just started like painting. What brought me relaxation paintings. So that was the Karen's, these stacked stones. So I've decided to create many of them. I created over 30 of these same paintings over and over. Like a crazy person, my husband will say. But basically while I was doing this, I realized some points that I thought, oh, I could share these tips. So here I am. I've created this class, hope you enjoy it. And the final project would be to post the stacked stones that you've created during this class. Without further ado, let's dive in. 2. Materials: I'll go over the materials that I'll be using. If you want them as a list, it's provided in the resources section. First of all, you need needed eraser. Needed erasers are good because they don't damage the paper. And then pencils, watercolor brushes, I have three different sizes, then I'll be using this Fabriano sketchbook watercolor pad for the sketching or warm ups that I do because they're more affordable. But they are cotton 25% which basically means that it's not going to take much beating. If you, I want to use the same paper that you'll be using for the final project, that's totally fine. It's up to you, but I prefer to do it on this paper. And then for the final project, I'll be using this watercolor paper pad is a paper block by Bow Hong. It's hot press, 300 GCM. I've heard a lot of good reviews about this. Like it almost is like *****. And I love *****. It's really expensive, But I wanted to give this a shot. I really like it at the moment. The only problem I see is the block papers are usually glued on all sides. That's totally normal. But what makes a difference here is that it's really harsh, like they put a lot of glue on it or something that it's really difficult for me to tear. I've been tearing the paper when I take it off of this path, but regardless, I'm using it. And then you need some watercolor paints. I'm going to use this guns thumb, that was a gift from my parents who live in Japan. I will provide the pigment information like the colors that I'll be using. So then you can probably find those easily available with what you already have. Okay, and then the next thing that you will need is a palette. You need a mixing area for your paints and also water. So I'll be using this because the Gunsie thumb watercolors doesn't come with a palette. You need some clean water as well as paper towel. And then finally, I'll be using this brush holder because it's quite convenient. And you'll also need a spray bottle to activate your paints before you start. Okay, so let's dive into the class. 3. Warm Up : We will be going over some different watercolor techniques, watercolor basics to warm up. First of all, dry brush refers to a technique where marks are made with a sparsely loaded brush, resulting in broken edges and textured effects. Here I am using this green and not loading too much water, but more pigment. And then creating different strokes with my brush. Now, different brushes will give you different techniques. Just play around and see what kind of paint marks you can make. We will be working on wet, on dry necks. When wet paint is applied onto dry paper or onto areas of dry paint, the pigment will spread less than if you apply paint on a wet surface. This gives us more control. So here I am creating like different circles and even some lines try to do that. This gives you more control than wet on wet, which we will be working next. But I would say dry brush technique is the one that gives you more control. But learning how the watercolor paint with different ratios of water works is quite helpful. Okay? So we will be working on wet, on wet sign, wetting the paper first, and then applying a green pigment over this wetted area. So wet and wet is an effect that you can create by applying paint to wet paper or into a wet wash water color, pigments will merge and blur together naturally in a way that no other paint medium can achieve. This is one of my favorite ways of working with watercolor because really you can't do this with any other medium. And I just love it. Usually I work on wet, on wet first for my initial stage of creating a painting. Usually this is the technique that I do here. Basically, I laid a area, I laid a green paint over this area, and then I'm adding charging into this area with different colors. Here I'm working with a red paint and then I'm going to apply another pigment inside. So I'm using a lavender here in pretty much going wet in wet technique. Next we will be going over this pigment to water ratio. This is very important, It's basically to understand how you control the water to pigment ratio. This is how you get the values to make a two D dimensional surface look three D. Because the more values you add, the more realistic paintings get. You need to know how much water is in my brush and how much pigment is in my brush. Or either how much water is on the surface and how much water and pigment is my brush holding. This all changes how the surface will look once you apply your brush onto the surface. Now I'm going to be working on a scale of six here, but I really recommend you do a seven scale, because that's seven to nine is considered the scales that you would need here. I'm starting off with more pigment. The most pigment I can hold in my brush. And less water, almost no water. Just a bit. And I'm working to create this circle. This practice I think is the most important thing that you would do in this warm up section. I still struggle to do it after years of practicing. You'll see me struggle a bit here and there. If you have hard time detecting how much water or pigment is in your brush, I suggest you have a scrap paper, a watercolor scrap paper on the side so you can test your colors there and check if it's the right value that you need for your next circle. Yeah, that's a suggestion I can give. This is really, you just need to practice over and over. Yeah, here, I'm really sorry. Like a bit of the bottom section is going to be cut off. I've created six, but it only shows five. I apologize for that. The way that you can control the pigment to water ratio is basically by adding water to the pigment that you have here. I started really dark, as I said, it was less water. More pigment then on the palette. This is why pallet is really. Important to have a mixing area. You can add water or either clean your brush and add more water. That's how you control the amount of pigment. Now for the gradient bit, we are going to work the same way. We're going to create a gradient by going next, really light and then getting darker. Now if you did the other way around by going very light first and then getting darker, which might be easier, I personally think that would be a easier way. You can go dark first and then go light here. I'm using the pulling technique where you basically have a pool at that bottom bit and then just dragging it down here, I'm adding more pigment as I go and not much water because I put enough water to make create that pool that I can drag down. This is one of my favorite activities to do because it's like super fun. This act of you holding the paper to use the gravity to pull down the water is just so beautiful. I don't know. I often do it with my paintings as well. For portraits that I create on a daily basis, when there's so much water on my paper, then I'll just tilt the paper so the water comes down. And sometimes you can create that tear effect like somebody is crying. Not that all my portraits are sad portraits, but it's really pretty. I like that effect. I'm using more pigment than water and then finishing the gradient up. Okay, next we will be looking at wash. Basically, a wash is a smooth flat layer, which is also a good base for adding details in darker mixes or building layers to vary the tone. Basically, I will be creating a wash just like how I created in the gradient. It's basically very similar, but basically I'll use less water so I can control it more better. I want the whole surface to pretty much be in the same value. Being mindful of how much water and pigment I have, that it's even when I work on this flat surface of this circular shape, you don't want to rework some areas because that will create uneven layers, I would say. Okay, for the second bit. I'm going to use two colors to create a flat wash. I'm going to use this Malachite, because I just love this color. I will be creating a wash on one half of the circle, and then I'll clean my brush out and use another color, this green, to create another wash from the other side. I try to mingle them at the end together. Actually, this mingling is a term that is used in watercolor techniques. But you're basically putting them together. Just connecting them. At the last moment, there is my wash with two colors. Now I'll be explaining how to charge this technique. I do love as well. You will first wet the surface. You can either use clear water or use a pigment and then wet the surface first. You don't have to make it even or anything, just wet the surface. And then I will go get a different pigment. If I want, you can use the same pigment, but you want to understand the pigment to water ratio in your brush. Because sometimes if you have not much water in your pigment compared to how much the surface has water, then it might suck up and not spread as much. But here I'm charging in with equally the same amount of water in my brush as well as the surface. It's spreading the pigment inside the wash that I've created. And you could do with different colors just to test out how it looks like. Use more water for some more pigment, for some charging to see what kind of different effects it will create. It's quite fun. For this last bit, the light source, I've marked this sun mark right here. Because that's where I want to imagine the light source coming from. Which means that you'll create the lightest light there. The value has to be like a one or a zero almost. Then on the other side, you'll have the darkest dark here. I think I was using a Prussian blue. Then mixing more water at the midpoint and less pigment, then I can create this light source coming in from the right hand side. Yeah, I've used quite a lot of water. You can even use less water than I did right here to have more control over your water color. But I tend to just like using a lot of water. Yeah. Try to do this. You could also do it in a different way. I'm adding more pigment on the left hand side because I just thought it wasn't enough. But another way to create this light source is by going in on the right hand side, wherever that light source is, you can flush the whole area out by adding water. That's one way of doing it. And you can also just like squeeze out. This is what I'm doing. I'm adding water so it flushes out all the pigments to the other side. But another way is to clean out your brush. It becomes like a sponge, like squeeze out the water and then suck up the pigment and water on the right hand side or the light source area. This helps as well. Now we're going to create various brushstrokes here. I'm just going to be working with different brushes that I have that I'll be using for the final project. I'll create different brushstrokes. Some can be mimicking what like petals might look like a leaf might look. You can play around with very thin lines, but also create really thick lines as well. So try to just play around with what your brushes you have in handy can create. I'm pretty happy with the various brush trucks that was able to create. I hope you were able to learn more about your paint brushes too. Now let's dive into the next class. 4. Tips On Color: I've done a class where I explain how to do your own Japanese inspired color palette, like creating them. If you haven't checked that class out, please check the Japanese minimum watercolor hearts. It'll teach you how to create your own palette that's inspired by Japan. Here I've created different U palettes that I've looked into. Pintras, just scroll through different paintings that I liked, and then I jotted down what colors they've used. So I created them with my own watercolor paints that was close enough to the color that I've seen through all these paintings. And then basically, I created a tally of all these colors, how many times it's come up a lot in Japanese paintings that I liked. And then I created my own stones with those colors. I have three, but this one right here was created with just like a Japanese sumi ink palette that I had already. So it's already been made and I don't think that's quite fun to use, although it does look pretty, so I'm not going to be using that. I've looked through these three and I think I prefer this one on the left, basically. I've created even an Instagram post to ask votes on it, but I'll have to scrape that out and be like, okay, I need to go with this. So initially I've used Malachite for this, and then later on I use this red called Carmine. Carmine. And then I thought those don't work. And then I went for this gold color. I use pen touch Acura calligrapher pen. And I still don't like the goal, so I'll kind of think of which goal to use later. But I've created so many stones, I just went with three. Sometimes I use five. I looked at the composition, I use different colors, and I just thought, okay, this is the final that I'll be going for here. I've created a Japanese, aka it's like a Japanese, your own signature in Japanese language. And basically, I've created this with that class that I've introduced to you in this beginning of the lesson, so check that out. First, I'll be using this yellow ochre. It's usually P Y 42, and then I'll use a gold and then Prussian Blue, which I believe is PB 27. And I'm sure you have this around in your house somewhere if you're watercolorist. And also I'll be using this color called indigo. But it's really close to pines black. So if you have any pines black, it should do. And then finally I'll be using black, which is, I believe, PBK 11 most of the time. But any black will. I'm not too sure if I like the order that I have here. So I'll be testing that out, this gold, I don't know if it really works to be right there underneath the yellow. But let's see, so we'll test this out in the next class. I really suggest you go through your inspirations through pintras. Just check out the color palettes that they have and then swatch them out and come down to like few colors that you like. And then for the next class, we'll be going over those swatches that you've created, those palettes, and then actually create the stones and see which one you like the most to do for your final project. 5. Testing: I'm definitely going with the yellow ochre, Prussian blue, indigo and black, and the gold. But the gold, I'm not too sure where I'm going to place this. I'm going to test out a few different ways and see which one speaks to me the most. This is like a good way of testing out to see what speaks to you the most. Because sometimes we just have to do it in order to see it and then come up with which ones you like the most. Now I've free handed the sketch of the stones. They're not perfect, but it should do what I keep in mind when painting. Is that also spacing? It is quite important because water color, you just need to let it dry sometimes or else the color goes flowing into the different areas. But sometimes that could be pretty too, because here you could see that I mingled these two right here. So the black is seeping into the indigo. So that could be quite pretty as well. This one I'm going to put the gold at the top and then yellow ochre here. Then I think the Prussian blue should just be next to the athe, the indigo, because I don't know, just those two look quite nice together and then maybe stronger there. And then I'm going to mingle these two right there. The indigo, I don't mind the indigo mixing in a bit with the C, but I'm going to create the space right here just to give it a bit of time. Then usually it's very important to be mindful of where the light might hit on the stones. You could look at the resources section and download the PDF of the stones for reference. Then you can create these points that the light is hitting and it's the lightest light. You can leave it like that. Or you could even just tap in that water a bit and let it move. And then the black. Now, I tend to not use as much black. I think you've heard this before, but sometimes the black just does it. It's just like, so powerful. It could be blunt, I think might be the good word, because it doesn't have interesting colors inside and whatnot. But if you don't like using black, you could even just mingle that bit of indigo into it and see how that works. It's mingling and I quite like that effect. Then the darkest darks might be like right here. Okay, I'll let that dry and then I'm working in with this gold at the top. I'm also going to test to see whether I like using the calligraphy pen ink because gold could be quite powerful. Or if I'm just going to use this watercolor paint gold. Okay? And then the next one I will go the blues first. And then maybe I might try the blues first, and then maybe even the gold at the bottom. Let's see, this is personal taste. I suppose being mindful of where to put the darkest dark when you're practicing this and testing out the colors is very useful. I tend to like it when there's that strong line right here and also right there. Being mindful of where you place the dark. While doing the test could be helpful in the Daron. I don't mind these two mixing. Creating a bit of space there for now. And then being mindful of the lightest space as you practice, you're going to get way better for the final piece. And then I'm going to connect that bit, mingle it, okay. And I somehow, I think it works better when the black is placed at the bottom, just to give like the weight. I'm going to place that right there. I don't know, I don't think I quite want to change the black around. But sometimes that imbalance could make it look like, feel like it's Japan inspired. Like the asymmetricalness of things. But I think I'll choose gold for that middle. See how that looks, creating that light space right there? Even going in with a dry brush with less water could help then. I don't like quite mingling the yellow with the dark blue because I don't know. I just don't like the look of it. So I'll just leave it there and then I'm going in with the. Now, golds are difficult to create, the darkest, the lightest lights to that matter. Just going in between that wiggly thing to create the light source here. There. Okay. I don't like the bluish gold as much, but let me see if it can create more depth. No, I don't like it. Okay. And then next I'll do the same thing I did with this one because I do like it. I'm just not too sure yet. Leave the cold, the Persian blue. If you're struggling to keep that negative space, you can do this technique of going in with like a brush and then charging in into those dark and then the end throne. I think I'm going to be playful with this one as I've done it before and see what kind of textures I can create by moving the paper around to let almost the water do its thing. Nick that bit. What I'm going to do is I'll quickly, while that indigo is what I'm going to create the shape right here and touch some areas and get a lot of water and pigment, put it there and then we're going to flip the paper downwards. And if it's not moving, then we're going to all it is a bit, we're going to connect it with water. I think I went a bit over there, but it's fine. You can always clean squeeze your brush and use it as a sponge to clear up any areas that you don't want the plate to flow. Okay. I think I quite like it. We might need to work with layers for that one. As I put a lot of water at the end, then we're going over with gold. Okay, so the next final one, I'm not too sure. Hmm, I might even try test to see whether black on top does look weird or not. Just testing. Why not? So the lightest bit should be right there and right there. And then black. I might choose a gold for that one. Yellow. Let's go. Yellow ocher in there. Very dark there, there. And then we're going with the Prussian Blue. Minding a bit of that. Yeah, right there. I'm not touching it as much right now because I don't want them again to mix together. I never like greens, that's just me and then dark right there. Okay, going to touch it and then we're going to get the digo. Now that I've completed the test for different scenarios, I think I still prefer this one. I will choose this for the final project. Once you're done with testing out and seeing different scenarios, you ready for the final project. Let's get going. 6. Final Project First Layer: Okay, so we'll be getting into the final project. The first layer, I am creating this yellow ochre pigment on the watercolor palette, and I'll be starting from the top. The yellow ochre is a PY 42, I believe, usually. So if you want to use the same colors, go ahead and follow. And now I'm going to be mindful of where I am going to place the lightest lights. I do have the pencil marks for this sketch of the stones a bit darker than I normally want because I thought it'll help for you to follow through together. But I am be mindful of the lightest lights of where the sun will be hitting these stones. Here, I'm creating like a negative space right here. Because I've created so many of these stones, I know where the lightest lights should be placed and what makes them look really pretty. I really suggest you to test things out and see for yourself what works best for you and what you visually like here. Because I don't want this hard edge lines. I'm adding a bit of water and blending those lines together. You could just soften it the way I just did with placing some clean water over the top and just swiping it over here. I'm dabbing in more pigment than water and creating a darker value at the top. And moving it across if you don't like the lines that you've created. Because we'll be working in layers and we'll be adding more and more layers. We'll be working on second layer and the final detail layer. You don't have to be too careful of making that crisp line at this point. It doesn't have to be quite even, it's more like an abstract painting painting stage at this point. You don't have to care too much of how things look not as right. It's very good to embrace those imperfections that you see. Like here you could see there's like imperfection on the bottom line. It's not straight, but we're painting stones and they're not straight, they're curvy. You don't have to mind too much of that right now. Okay. Next I'll be working with Prussian Blue for the third stone right here. This is the third stone. I'm going to work first on the Prussian, and then I'll work my way down because I still want to leave that stone for the gold later. And I'm working in with the lightest light of this Prussian blue as the first layer. And let me tell you, Prussian blue is one of those really tricky watercolor paints that I use. Like, I don't know, maybe it's my personal feeling towards this specific color, but they just don't move the way I want it to. I think it's something to do with the maybe big particles in the pigment that it can't be crushed too much or something. It never goes. Even if you think like while I'm using this Prussian blue, especially on hot press paper, it just doesn't look right at first. But it's okay, We'll be working in layers. And the more more layers he put on it, it'll look better. And also I've been doing like a light fast test with all the pigaments that I own because I do do commissions through s because of that, I want to know what specific paints I have and what I'll use so the client can be notified with all these pigments that if they choose are quite light fast, then it's fine. But if they're prone to getting faded away over time, then I don't want to use that. And I want to let the client know there was one client that said they wanted to use Opera Pink. Now Opera Pink is like one of those colors that definitely fades over time. And I heard it was quite fugitive. So I am wanting to know for myself what all my paints react to, like direct sunlight. So that's what I'm doing and Prussian Blue is really interesting because they just changed over a month. They completely changed, but once I put them into a dark corner of the room and left them, they went back. So it's almost like a mood ring. So it's quite interesting. I thought I'll share that. Here, I want to explain about the shareness of the watercolor painting surface. So once you've laid out the watercolor paint and the water and it's starting to dry out, there's like a moment where there is like a sheerness to it. You can kind of tilt your paper and look at it, but when it's shear, it's like right in between getting dried and a bit wet when you put a bit of clean water on that, that's when you can create these really interesting effects. Because it'll push the pigment away. That is called like a back run, a cauliflower, a bloom effect. I quite like those. You can try that out if you'd like. Here, I'm going in with the indigo. I am working with a big brush and you have to be really quick when you work on big areas because they can really dry up really fast and you really need tons of water if you don't want to have to think about the time that you'll need to finish it quickly here, I've created again that light source like I did at the top, Prussian blue one. And now I'm dropping in some water to create that blooms, pushing out the pigments away because it was getting into that shear stage. Now, I'm adding a bit more dark value on this bit right here of the indigo because that's where the shadow would be hitting. Um, the shadow of the pression blue stones. Then I'm working, this is like a gradient almost. Because I'm working down and I'm adding some more depth at the bottom bit. I'm adding even more and more values to some area. Do remember that It might look dark right now, but once it dries up, it's going to be lighter than it looks right now. It just looks much more darker when it's wet. Okay, next I would be working on the bottom black stone. Now I'll try to wet this indigo because I want to have enough time to be able to mingle that indigo with the black that I'll be working next. Okay, I'm going to dig into this black and I'm going to be, again, mindful of the light source that is coming from the right hand side. I'm not just going to mingle the top stone yet to this black as I don't want the colors to mix yet. Now I'm coming, leaving a bit of a negative space right there on the right hand corner. Coming down these area on the left should be the darkest darks because of the shadow again of the stone above. Then I'm coming over here to outline the stone. Now I am going to connect these two and just look at that. It's so pretty when it mingles in with the black. Sometimes black again doesn't quite move the way I wanted to. It's just like the Prussian Blue. Maybe it's more obvious, maybe that's why I don't like it. But now I'm connecting this light source area with as much clean water as possible just to soften it. But I think I went overboard a bit here and it just looks a bit muddy. I don't like that look. When you don't like the look and you want to regain that whites, you are going to get the paper towel, squeeze out excess water from your brush, and use it as a sponge to get out that paint out of that line. Now, I think it looks prettier and clean. I can soften the edges a bit with my paintbrush. I think I will then go into the gold. The second stone gold is again, as I mentioned, quite tricky because it's hard to get the lightest light in the darkest dark. I think the lightest bit is not much of a problem. But because this metallic shimmery basically color doesn't quite have too much value. It's not dark enough, it's just difficult to make it dark. But anyhow, I'll give it a shot. Again, being mindful of where the light source is, this is easy, I hope, because once you sketch it, you can see the outline. I really highly recommend using the sketch that I have in the resources section to outline the sketch for yourself on the final project, because it'll help. It actually has those lines where the light source hits. I hope that helps. Again, I'm using the paint brush as a sponge to clear out the space where the light is hitting it the most. And I'm trying to get those dark value areas as much as possible. These stones were actually inspired by this brand love. I don't know if you heard about it, but I really like Loev. It's one of my favorite brands, not that I own so much of it. Having a toddler, it's not the best thing to be hanging around your shoulders and not that I can afford too many of them. But I was flipping through their catalog and it was so pretty and there were these cans stacked up like stones stacked up like this. It was actually inspired by that, and I just sketch those with the actual light source, like the lightest lights that they had. And yeah, it kind of worked. I just love it to this day and I just paint it over and over. Okay, so my first layer of this painting is done. So I will let them dry. Completely dry, and we will be getting into the second layer and after that, we'll be getting into the details. 7. Final Project Second Layer: We will be working on the final project, second layer. Now I am going to say that you want to leave the areas that are very pretty. Now what I mean by this is that while I'm working on this yellow carpet, there's areas that I really love, like how maybe I've created some blooms. There's some effects going on that I really like to leave. I would leave, I wouldn't paint over it necessarily. And I will be mindful of that. And also, again, the lightest light area that I want to leave with the light values, I'll be mindful of that. And then I'll be working on my second layer. Now I am working on these edges right here because basically using a hot press paper, one of the good things is that I can be U, there's no, uh, it's not a rough surface, it's very smooth, right? So basically, you can use a pencil to make like a very smooth line. Same goes with paint brush. You can make a very smooth line, smooth strokes, but then on the other side, it means that it's going to show those really edges quite distinctively. Which means that you have to make those edges really crisp as possible. Because we are painting stones and it does have this minimal feel, then you can go quite loose in some ways, but I'd like to keep it crisp and detailed and very finely aligned. I don't know how to explain this for some areas and some you can work more abstractly. I hope you get what I'm trying to see here. But anyhow, that's how I feel and that's how I do my works. Okay, I'm working on this yellow ocher. The second layer of this. Being mindful, I'm going to mention again where I want to leave to the light source three. I'm also adding values where the dark darks are. I'm adding more pigment to that area here. I'm just trying to create like a bit of a dry brush stroke technique to create some effects that I might want just playing around with that. Next I'll be working on this third rock, the Prussian Blue rock. Again, being mindful of where I want to leave and the light source, and making the edges crisper by making it a smoother line. I'm being mindful of also I'm going to say this warm time, the light source area has to be curved. It doesn't have to be, but if you think about it, the rocks are curved, likely the lightest light areas will be curved as well. I really recommend keeping those light source areas curvy. It'll look more realistic, I think in my opinion, because the Prussian Flu doesn't quite create the very strong value that I want that I'm seeking for. I will be adding the indigo that I'll be using for the bottom stone for the second layer as well. Why am I using indigo and not a black, let's say, is because these two create a harmony in the color palette that you'll be using. Because indigo is naturally darker than the Prussian blue and it's much more stronger, I just thought, okay, I'll use that to add more value to the Prussian blue. And I think it quite works here. I'm tapping in, charging in with the indigo and adding it at the bottom bit here, where it's probably much more darker because of some shadows. Here I am struggling with a bit of the buckling of the paper. Now, if you're using blocks, it doesn't really buckle as much. But because I'm using so much water for this final project, it's starting to buckle. What happens when it buckles is that the water will pull in areas that you don't want it to pull. I'm struggling here to keep the water even as much as possible, and moving it around to those areas that it wouldn't quite necessarily pull. Sometimes these could create like really interesting effects. I just let it be at times. But I try to control as much as what I want to make it look like. Also, if you're taping down your paper, that's fine. That's also a good way of working. But I just love using these blocks. Although it does buckle here and there, I assume that even taping down a water color paper will still buckle if you use as much water as I am right here. As I added some indigo for the Prussian blue. To add those darkest darks, I am adding black because I will be using the same black for the bottom stone, the black one. I thought this will keep that harmonious palette together because it's just using a limited palette. But I wanted to go stronger on some areas to create dark shadowy areas. I've added the black here and here. I'm struggling again with another problem. Basically, my light went off. I was recording it with lights on, but the light source just went off. I am explaining here that I need to basically stop this recording, but wanted to tilt the paper here and there to create the effect that I wanted. Because sometimes tilting your paper just creates such a lovely effect. Like this, drippiness. But here, I didn't yeah, it didn't work as much as I wanted it to, So I'm just trying to move the paint around here and there. And because this is such a time sensitive medium, watercolor is just one of those mediums, like oil paint, you can just leave it because it dries. It doesn't stay, you can't move it around anymore. Once it's dry here, it's quite time sensitive. So I'm just working into these areas that need some bit of work even without the light source. I hope you don't mind. Yeah. Then I've decided that I am not going to stop the recording because again, it's time sensitive and I still want the indigo to mingle in with the black that I'll be working for the bottom. I just went ahead and I've dipped my paint brush into the black. To start with the Blackstone painting again, I love the blooms that I have for this Blackstone right here. Just look at those blooms. It's so pretty. Just being mindful of where I want to leave and where I want to darken and where I want to make crispy edges. I'm being mindful of that and I'll be working forward for the second layer of the black stone painting. Just look at that. It's so pretty. I just love it. Especially the black. I guess it buckled a lot because I use quite a lot of water. It's created these effects. Now I'm trying to mingle in that indigo with the black and try to work a bit faster. But it's not moving around too much. I'm just around the areas that need to be darkened. Definitely, this area needs to be darkened a bit more, but I want to leave that beautiful cauliflower back run bloom, whatever you call it there. I'm trying to work around those areas, but being mindful of where to darken, I'll be just working ahead. Again, being mindful of where I want to leave out, adding values and also making the edges crisper with clean lines. Hope you enjoy the rest of the video and I'll give some final thoughts before we move on to the next class. Okay, now that I've completed my second layer, I'll be waiting for this to completely try to work on my third layer. And then I'll be, once I've done the details for the third layer, then I'm going to work on an on the right bottom here. If you don't know what a di signature to mark completions seal actually you can check this class out to create your own. 8. Final Details: Final details. Okay, We're going to be looking into two ways of cleaning out unwanted paint. Now what I mean by that is that here I have unwanted paint marks, and here two probably dripped while I was painting. I'll explain to although there are three ways, then. Number two, we're going to make the out lines of these stones more crisp. We'll be adding more values there. I do like the looseness, but I might have to come into work for the details over the top of this camera. So I have a second angle camera recording right here. Hello. So I'll use both recordings for this last bit and then we'll be working on a to mark the completion of the work, which is a signature, but in the seal kind of style. If you don't know how to create that, again, look at my Japanese Minimal Watercolor hearts class to learn how to create that. First I'll be working to get rid of that paint mark right there. I'll use the synthetic brush. And then put a bit of water and then scrub it off. Now, why I use synthetic is because if it's natural hair, it's usually much softer. It might break the point, and you don't want that with synthetics, it's much stronger. You can go more rough with it, but I do recommend using a bristle brush that usually does the job better, or you can use this magic eraser. Now I put a bit of water and then rub the area a bit. It does seem to damage the paper a bit, but sometimes you just want to get some paint marks out of the way this will do the job. Or you can get guash, a white paint to cover up the areas. But I don't necessarily do that way of covering up the paint marks because it just creates that area of very white patches which I don't like. Okay. So I'm going to go over these outlines of the stones with this Raphael brush I have. I have what series it is specifically in the material list, in the resources section. If you want to check what exact paint brushes I use, but this is so thin, I just love this brush because I can work on very thin areas. Yeah, I don't know. I just wanted this paint brush once I saw it, used by this Japanese illustration artist that was working on really, really thin details, like small details of mini characters. That's where I looked into it and then got it. Okay, we'll be going over all the outlines of these stones. And basically just being mindful of those outlines, you want to make it as smooth as possible so there's no dented edges. If you don't like those really crisp lines and it's creating this really strong edges, then you can soften it with water, more adding water and blurring those edges. I'm just going to do that for all the stones. I hope you enjoy this process and yeah, I'll be using the recording from the front as well because you might not be able to see some areas with my head coming over the camera. So I hope you enjoy the rest of the videos and I'll give my final thoughts at the end. What I do want to say about when it comes to clearing up these edges is that you do want to make some areas really crisp and strong, and almost like directly having the paint, like the pigment onto some areas. But some areas, you want to make it less sharp by doing some areas, some areas not as sharp and blurring the edges creates more like a realistic look. I really suggest you try this technique out Also. Finally, I'm clearing up these edges and I'm pretty much done. I just love how it looks. Now we finally are going to create the seal to mark completion of the work. But it's not a seal. We're going to be just writing our name in Japanese with our watercolor brushes. Also, I like to be mindful of what the size is going to be like. I am not writing in Katakana, but I'll be writing me my name in Chinese characters in Japan. This is how we write down. If we use kanji, I'm writing that and also being mindful of the size of my name, I'm writing down with cadmium red. Then to create that like seal look, I'm going to put an outline outside of my name, like this rectangle that just pretty much fits my knee. That's my. Okay. I really quite like how it looks. I like how I chose this color order as well. Yeah. I hope you enjoyed creating your final project in as well. Please, please share this final project. On the resources section, I quite like to see what kind of variations you all come up with. Okay, I hope you enjoy the class. 9. Final Thoughts: Well done for making it this far. Please give yourself a pat on the back and please upload your projects that you've done. The final project is to paint this Japanese minimal stone. And if you have the warm ups that you've done, as well as like checking into the palette that you want to play with and also the testing out. If you've done that, that'll be nice to share as well. So I can see the variations that many of you can come up with. It's really cool seeing other people express themselves in a very different way. I hope you enjoy the class and yeah, please leave a review that'll help and comment on the class. And I'll be happy to reply and comment on that as well. Okay, so thank you so much for watching and see you next line. Bye bye. 10. Bonus: Okay, so this is going to be a bonus content. Although I do have another class explaining on how to do the Japanese pattern called Segi Ha. I thought I showed you my process in the short video. So first, as you can see, I added the pencil lines. I added horizontal lines 2 centimeters apart. And then I created these dots in the middle, 2 centimeters apart. And the next one, I kind of went one centimeters apart from the top and created another 2 centimeters apart. A dots, it's diagonal. And then with a compass, I went 2 centimeters first and then created a semicircle and eventually made them shorter semicircles as I went inside those semicircles. Finally, I was thinking about using a white ink, but ended up using the silver saca pent touch calligrapher to do the lines. It went well until there was a moment that the ink just gushed out, creating a big circle on the top of the work. I had to cover a lot of the areas with similar circles, although I would have wanted the work to have a clean look. I think it looks okay. So hope you enjoy this. See you next time. Bye bye.