Watercolor Heart Bubbles for Beginners

1. Class Intro: Bubbles are fun and whimsical part of not only childhood, but fun memories from bubble baths to blowing bubbles in the summertime. And bubbles are kind of whimsical. In today's class, watercolor heart bubbles. We're going to take advantage of a whimsical nature, as well as the playfulness of bubbles. We're going to use our imagination and create them into heart shapes instead of just a standard round shapes. This way, we get a little bit of shape and something of interest aside from just a round bubble. This class is great for beginner watercolor artists because we're going to work on the three keys to make a bubble come to life. Transparency, lightness, and arenas. Instead of coloring in a bubble or a shape completely, we're going to let the watercolor do the work. We're going to blend the edges, make lots of bright color, and make really soft tissues as well. We're also going to take advantage of the arenas of bubbles and let the white paper shine through. There's a downloadable class supply list, but all of the supplies necessary or things that you have already. There's watercolor pigments, just a pencil. I like to make my own templates, so I just use some card stock. I actually use an index card and it helps me to make these perfectly symmetrical hearts will show you how I do that in the next few chapters. So let's get started. 2. Class Supplies: So here are the class supplies that we'll be using today for our watercolor heart-shaped bubbles to make the heart shapes because I like them to be symmetrical. I create my own and I use a template that I make using just a little piece of card stock. And here I use index cards just because they're convenient and inexpensive. So to do that only the pencil, the index cards, and a pair of scissors. Then I use my watercolor paper. I've cut to size at four-and-a-half by 5 " just because that size is convenient, but you can use any size paper you want. I'm going to have a larger piece, six by eight, then I can use to make additional bubbles. I have a 6.1 for my watercolor brushes, but use whatever brushes you're fond of in the Navy, my assortment of watercolors reference the specific ones I use when we use them. And I'll also include a class download that includes all these materials in a list formation. In the next chapter, we'll start by making our templates. 3. Making the Templates: So to start with, I wanna make my templates and I'm just using four by six index cards. You can use card stock, you can even use paper. The stronger the paper, the easier it will be to work with the template. You could also freehand sketch your hearts if you'd like. But in order to make them symmetrical, I find that this method works best. I'll take one piece of card stock and I want to make the heart symmetrical. As I stated, I just fold the piece in half. Now I can fold it in half lengthwise or width wise. But whatever size I sketch out will be half the full size. And when I open it, that will be the full width of the heart. So this is kind of a fun project because I can really tailor it to whatever size that I want. And I can modify it because it's inexpensive, isn't easy to do. I can make lots of them. But one thing I do like to do because I use the negative space, the part that isn't the heart. I find it easier, but you're more than welcome to use the heart itself is I want to make sure I have a little gap both on the top and the bottom. So then I just carefully cut in a smooth way by moving the paper, not the scissors. And not only do I have a heart that I can use in my work or saved for mixed media projects. But then I have my template so I can sketch out that to use as my heart bubble. I'll do the same thing over here as well on both pieces. So for this one, I'll make a skinnier heart. And the bubbles are gonna be a little more rounded than a standard heart. So I'll just round off that edge. I like to make my loop. I can take a few sketches. Don't have to make it perfect the first time. Once I have it, then I'll just cut it out. And I can even modify it. My sketch is just a guide to help me create that shape. So here I have another heart. You can see it's a different shape and a different size. And then I have the template, then I'm going to use lastly, I'll make a smaller one. So I'll just fold this piece just on the edge, not perfectly in half and create a shorter, stout or little heart. Again. Then I can just cut it out as I want. So that will be the finished size. And here is my template. Now I can trim it down to be a little more convenient to work with. And I'll do this on all of them. So now in the next chapter we're going to start our first sketch and then our first painting. 4. Making Bubble Sketch #1: So to make my first sketch, I have one of my four-and-a-half by five inch pieces of watercolor paper. And again, you can use any size paper you want. And then I have my three templates that I made. I'm going to use this heart. So I'll set aside my other templates and then we'll just place my heart on my paper. I don't find it necessary to tape it in place, but if you'd like to use little tape to hold it in place, just some washi tape would be good. And then I just lightly sketch around the shape. So when I remove it, I have my symmetrical heart. Again. I want to keep it nice and light because when I paint over this, the pencil marks will remain. I feel like this heart bubble isn't quite right. I'll modify it. And for the point as well, I just want to round that tip a little bit just so that it's more bubble-like. Can do the same thing. Up top. I'll take my eraser and gently erase those points. And any pencil marks that I don't want to remain. There's any that are too thick. Now's the chance to clean those up. In the next chapter, we'll start painting. 5. Painting Bubble #1 - Blue Layer: Now before we begin our first layer, I want to just point out that off camera. I have a jug of water, which is a fairly large jug. And then I have a smaller jug. I keep the smaller jug specifically for using clean water on my piece to blend. And we'll be doing a lot of blending today in order to make this heart really come to life as a bubble, more so than a heart. Well, we have to do is make it look very transparent and very airy. So the key is going to be to add just enough color to indicate what it is, but no more than that. So to start with, I like to dip my brush in Clearwater and just sharpen that point a little bit. Then I just gently stroke around the interior of the heart in one layer, one brush layer just around the inside of that heart. This is kind of softening the paper up for the next step. Don't want to use so much water that it runs just enough so that it really starts to soften the paper a bit. So now I'm going to choose my color. I'm going to start on my first heart with making it predominantly one color, but we're gonna use other colors to enhance that. So you just choose a color that you like from your palette. I'm going to choose a cobalt blue here. I'm gonna take a little bit of this pretty blue and set it down. Making a little well inside my palette. Now from here, because this is our dominant color, we want this bubble to be reflective. So we're going to choose colors on either side of the color wheel, the color that we selected. So for blue, that would be green on one side, in purple on the other. But we're not going to make that leap from green to blue or green to purple. We're going to throw in some variations. So it'll be a purple blue and green blue. So I'll make another two wells just with a little bit of those blues. I'll rinse my brush. I'll take a little of this deep green to mix it in with one of the puddles. And so therefore I have my other color on the color wheel. And I can mix the paints until I get the color that I like. That's a variation. And then I'm gonna come over here with just a little purple and mix that in with my blue. Again, I play with it until I get the variation that I want. Just want a slight variation enough to look different than my main color. Come back, take a little more of my main color, and I want to mix it with a little Prussian blue just to get it a little unusual, a little less than direct from my palette. So now I'm going to take my brush and with a very sharp point, I'm going to go around just little areas. And again, I want a very sharp point. I can even switch to my smaller brush, but I'm going to barely touch that heart right on the pencil line. So I have one area. They're going to come to the bottom of my piece and go right over that curve. Really build that shape up. And then I'll go one side over here. I've chosen three areas. You can choose more or less, it's up to you. I'm going to rinse my brush so that it's clear. And I'm just going to blend out the color. Blending it out because I don't want any harsh lines. And I want there to be a nice variation. So I'll pull that color away from the actual line that we made. So it's just a soft blend. Turn my piece around, wet my brush again. And I'm trying to do this before the color dries on my paper. But you can see the difference between my initial color or I placed it down and where I've blended it out. And then I'm trying to bring it to the center of my bubble, but keeping it as close to clear as I can. For the last one, I wet my brush again so it's perfectly clear. Gently scrub case it dried in any spots, and then just pull it out. And as you can see, the deepest color is around the perimeter of this heart. And the deepest color is around the areas specifically where I made that first introduction of the paint to the paper. So once I have that complete, I'll rinse my brush one more time and press any color from the center, pressing it out to the edges. It's a very soft color, very light. But there are areas that are really very bright. I like the way that looks. I'm going to let that dry somewhat probably for 30 to 45 s, just enough to really sink into the paper, but not completely dry. Then we're going to come back and add our next layer. 6. Adding Green & Purple: So we have that first layer of that blue. The page is still somewhat damp. It's not really wet, just a little bit of dampness, which is what we want. And now I'm gonna take my thin number one brush. I like to wet it. And then I'm gonna pick up this green blue that we made. I'm just going to dab it in areas beneath and to the side of the first initial blue that we put down. Going to keep my number one brush still damp, just rested on my palette. And then I'm going to take my number six brush, wet it with water, make a sharp point, and gently blend out that color. Again, the key is to keep the pigment on the edge of the heart. And to make sure there are no harsh edges, I'm going to set my brush aside, reload my number one brush, and add a little bit of green to that next area. Take my number six brush, make sure it's nice and clean with just freshwater. And blend out just a little bit. And then I think I'll do this in one more spot. Just like this. Rinse that brush. Take my larger brush and blend it out. That's looking very nice. Now to make it look like a bubble, to have a little reflection, I want to take my number one brush again, pick up that green and just make a little line that resembles the curve of that heart on one side. And then I'll do it over here as well. And if you notice I'm doing it on areas that aren't heavy on that green. I rinse my large brush and again, just blend out the color so that it's just barely staining the paper. And I'm really happy with the way that looks. Now I'm gonna take my number one brush, rinse it off, and pick up just a little bit of purple, that purple blue color we mixed. And I just wanna put that down in just a little area much smaller than the green. I'm going to set that down. Pick up my larger brush, take most of the water off of it, and just help that to blend out. And you can see it's just a hint of that purple color. I'm going to come over here to the same thing, just a little hint of purple in the areas that the paper was wet. It whipped it out, which is a beautiful effect. And now I'm just going to go in there and blend it out with a clean wet brush. And I'll do one more area on this side, just a little bit of purple. Just to pull that in. Now I want to take that purple and again add just a little section of pigment. I'm following the curve that's behind it, which happens to be the heart this time. And I'm blending it out ever so gently. If I blended it out too much, I can introduce a little more pigment. And again, I just play with it, gently blending it. I'm looking for just a hint of color. I want it to look airy and light. And so I'm quite pleased with that. Now it's time to let it completely dry. I'll let it dry for a good maybe five to 10 min, maybe longer. I want the paper completely dry so that nothing smudges. And then we'll come back and enhance any parts that have faded when it dries. 7. Painting Final Details: So now my painting is completely dry and the heart bubble is dry as well. There's no smudging involved. I want to start by examining the heart and seeing where I want to make a little more contrast. I like to have a little contrast on the edge and then just a little bit of reflection on the inside of the heart. So that's exactly what I'm going to enhance. Going to dip my brush in Clearwater and sharpen it. Then I'm gonna pick up a little of this cobalt and Prussian blue mixture, can even add a little more Prussian blue just to make the color a little richer. Now I would want a very sharp point and I barely want to touch the paper. Certain areas, I'm just going to really enhance that edge, making that line really nice and sharp. Again, I want to keep that bubble, that outline exactly as it was. Just making it a little sharper. Just going to go a little bit past where we put down the initial blue. Just to extend that. Again, maintaining that shape and keeping that heart really intact. I'll even just go around in certain areas that don't have a nice clean edge. Taking my dominant color, that blue and just inserting it there. So I liked the way that's sharpening that edge. I'm going to do the same thing by cleaning my brush, by picking up a little of that deep green, just making it a little sharper and brighter in color. And a little of that cobalt blue. Again, I can just play with it until I get a nice sharp color. And again, I just want to outline it barely touching that edge. Extending a little beyond where we put down that initial green can even overlap some areas. Then lastly, I want to do the same thing with that purple. I rinse my brush, pick up a little more of that purple and just really make that nice sharp outline. Any of the areas that don't have that outline, just going to take my time and create it. Now if any of those areas look too much like a line, too much like a really specific painted on. I'll dip my brush in water until it's clear and just blend the edges on the inside of that bubble. It softens them and as it dries, it will soften them even more. So again, I'll just go around just trying to build it up and play with it a bit. Now the last thing I wanna do is keep this nice and light. I'm really pleased with the way this looks. I just want a little more reflection on the inside of this heart. So to do that, I'm going to switch to my larger brush, my number six brush, wet a little area on the palette and then enhance those colors that we put down. I'll start with the green and I'm going to wet it just slightly with a little bit more water and just place that green down. I'll rinse the brush, Pat most of the water out of it, and just tap it around. I want that green there. But I don't want it to really be harsh. I like having about 85% of my heart without any color. The key is to make sure that that bubble has a lot of white behind it and just a nice blend. Rinse my brush. I'm gonna do the same thing with the purple. Pick up a little bit of purple on my brush, make sure it's watered down. And then follow the shape of that heart. I'll come back in, remove most of the water from my brush and just blend out the edges. So I get a little bit of stain of color. But nothing to distract from the actual bubble itself. Can rinse my brush one more time and just blend those edges out. So this is the part that takes a long time because you really want to play with it so that you have a lot of clear and very subtle colors. This is the part that takes the most time. You want the outline, but not a straight line anywhere. So that's the first bubble and I'm quite pleased with how that looks. Next chapter, we'll start our second bubble. 8. Making Bubble Sketch #2: So to create our sketch for our second heart bubble, I'm using these smaller heart. Just going to place the template down on my watercolor paper and sketch out just to round it the same way I did with the first one. I can remove it, see if there's any areas that I want to modify and make that modification, want to really round the edges here. Then I'll just take my eraser and erase. I want the pencil marks remaining being the ones that I don't mind seeing. You say accidentally show through. So that's my sketch. In the next chapter, we'll start painting our colors. 9. Painting Bubble #2 : So now, even though this is a smaller bubble, I want to paint additional colors just besides the one dominant color. Really make it very whimsical. Could do the same thing where I take my larger brush, my number six brush, because I'm comfortable using the six brush. You can use whatever brush you want. If you want to use a smaller brush, that's fine. And I'm going to just soften the paper on the outline, or I should say the in-line of the heart. So I want to create that wet layer just on the inside of that heart. And I'm just going around the perimeter on the inside. So the inner perimeter. Now from here I'm just going to play with different colors. I'm going to start with this crimson lake. It's a beautiful deep pink, almost a berry color. So I like to put that onto my palette and dab it and see if I want to add additional colors to it. I'm going to take a little perylene red just to mix in with it. And now I'm going to outline on that pencil mark with a very light hand. Just some of the area of this heart because we wet the paper, it may run. So I have two nice marks here. I'm going to come in with my larger brush, Clearwater, remove some of the water and blend out those marks. Again, I want the center of that bubble to be clear. And just a gradual fade from where we put down that pigment. Rinse my brush again because I want to keep it nice and clean and blend out that second area where we put down the Crimson Lake. Now if it's dried and this seems to have dried a little bit, I'm going to really scrub it with my brush gently. I don't want to tear the paper, but I do want to create a little bit of an edge. Lastly, I want to make one more section of this beautiful crimson lake will do it just on the left side of the bottom. I have my little line. I come in there with a little clear liquid on my brush and blend out that edge, kind of pulling it on the shape of that curve. Now I want to come in here and I want to take a little bit of this deep green, like the way that looks. And I'm going to take a little of this lemon yellow. It's a cool yellow. And just mix that in with the green just a bit. Then I just want to put a few little dabs of green, maybe five or four or five little dabs of green down. Because I use just small amounts. I'm going to take that number one brush, wet it with clear water and blend out those edges. I'm happy with the way that looks. There's any areas that are a little harsh to take a little more time and blending them out. Lastly, I want to come in here with a little of this cobalt blue and just set it down on areas that I haven't added the pigment yet. Again, rinse my brush and blend it out. That makes it very beautifully colored bubble, particularly for the first layer. You can take whatever's on the brush and transfer it over here. Just to really outline those shapes. Now with a wet, clear brush, I'm just going to blend those edges. I'm not trying to draw color to the inside of the heart. I'm just trying to make those edges nice and light and softly blended. Can do that here a little bit more. That looks great. I'm going to let this completely dry. And then we're gonna come back and introduce another color, as well as brighten up the existing colors. 10. Adding More Color: So now our first layer has dried and you can see the nice edge that we have and the colors fade in as we get to the center. I want to introduce another color to our bubble here just to make this truly whimsical kind of a rainbow bubble. And then I want to work on adding a little more definition. So I'm gonna take a little lemon yellow on my wet brush and just put it on my palette, adding just a little water to lighten it with a sharp point. I'm just going to dab a little bit of lemon yellow. Just in a few areas here, not too many. But you can see how that yellow, that introduction of yellow really makes the color pop. And it brings a little more life to this bubble. Looks great. I'm going to stick with my number one brush for now. Clear it off and I'm going to pick up a little more of that lemon yellow. Now I want to imagine a channel of a concentric heart that I'm going to leave completely clear. I want there to be that transparent layer, that concentric heart. So I'm just going to get a good section and add just a little bit of this yellow here. And if I was to follow that line around, I would have another heart within the heart. Rinse my brush, we'll clear water. And now I'm just trying to blend out that edge while maintaining that little transparent heart. The color is going to fade. So I'll go back in there and dip in a little more of that yellow. Again, work on blending that out. And then I want to take a little of that cobalt blue and pull that over here. Blend that out. And I'll take a little of that crimson lake over here. I'll make two little spots instead of one. And as you can see, when I blend it out, if you were to draw a line all the way around this center area that we've been coloring. You'd see another heart emerge. Take a little of that, a little bit of that crimson lake that's on that brush. And just pull it up here just to help the IC that heart. So I'm going to let this dry and then we'll come back and just enhance some of those colors. 11. Painting Final Details: So the heart is dried. You could stop here if you want. I'm gonna take my number one brush. Just a little bit of that crimson lake. And a very light hand. I need to make it to a very sharp point and just really sharpen that edge by barely touching my brush to the paper. I'll go around with a nice sharp edge and just continue to outline using the colors that we already introduced. So now I'll switch to the green, adding a little more deep green in it. Just to pull those colors around. It's very faint and subtle line. But it's enough to trick the eye into the nice perimeter of that bubble, makes it a little sharp edge. But it's still maintains that bubble like appearance. Do the same thing with cobalt blue. Again, making sure that I have enough liquid on the pigment to make it so that I barely touch the paper and really sharpen that point. And then lastly, I'll just go in with a little bit of that lemon yellow on any area that I didn't outline yet. That will just enhance the color and really make it all popped together. There I have my rainbow bubble. The next chapter we'll finish up by doing multiple bubbles on a single page. 12. Making the Bubble Sketch #3: For our last design, I want to overlap the bubbles. I want the bubble in the front to be transparent enough to see a little hint of the bubble in the back. So I'm gonna take my largest heart here for my template. And I'm going to set it down on my paper and just make a light sketch. I'm not trying to scar the paper. Just trying to make a sketch so that I can see my heart. Then I can place my second heart over it. However I want to do that. So now again, I'll take my eraser and my pencil and soften any points. And I'll change any of the shapes that are here if I want to. I can even come in and put in a third heart. But I'm pretty happy with just the two. The idea is that the first heart that we painted was basically a single color dominant. The second heart repainted was very whimsical with multiple colors. And now we're going to work on transparency for the hearts. The next chapter we'll start our painting. 13. Painting Bubble #3: So to start our painting, we're going to start with this longer Heart, going to take my brush. And again, do the same technique we did before where we went with Clearwater, just around the inside of the heart. So once I have that done, now I don't want it to be so wet that the water runs around the paper. So if there is too much water, they're all either mop it up with a paper towel or just give it a moment to dry. I'm not going to work on the heart in the foreground just yet, just working on the background heart. So I want to keep in mind that anywhere where it overlaps, I wanna give the impression that it's very faint with the heart in front of it. So I need to choose my colors wisely accordingly. I don't want to choose a color that's going to turn to mud when it contradicts each other. So I'm going to start in the background by using blues and purples. So I'll take a little purple on my number one brush and set it down. Make a second little puddle. That'll take a little blue, cobalt blue and mix it in with one of them. Again, I'm going to stick with my number one brush. I'm gonna pick up that cobalt blue and purple mixture. And I just want to paint around the side here, creating that line and that perimeter. Rinse my brush, switch to my number six brush and just blend everything out. I want the majority of my color to be on the edge. And I can even push that pigment around, pulling it away from the center of the heart. It's okay if I pull it all the way up top and around. Rinse my brush with that brush nice and clean. And just blend the edge out. Then I'm going to switch to my brush again, pick up that same color and do just a small area opposite the first one that we did. Creating that nice heart-shaped rinsing my brush, cleaning it up. In this blending that edge. I'm going to paint all the way around the heart with a nice fainted color with whatever's left on my brush. Then I'm going to clean my brush, remove most of the water, and just push any pigment from the center, pushing it to the edges. If this is too thick, I can break that up as well. Sharpen my brush and just blend it out. Again, creating nice soft edges. Then I'll let that layer completely dry. 14. Painting the Second Heart: So for the next layer, since I want the bubbles to somewhat coordinate, I'm going to start on this second layer, as well as playing with the first. So we'd take some clear water on my brush and just go around the edge. I'm also going to go around the edge on the area that we overlapped. But I'm not going to work that area too much. I want to put the Clearwater down and brush around the edge. I'm going to rinse my number one brush, re-wet this purple pigment and just create some areas of purple on this second heart. So once I create that outline, I can set my brush down, take my larger brush, and just blend out that edge. The same procedure we've been doing all along with these bubbles. No harsh edges and lots of clear space and very subtle pigment towards the center of the bubble. So now that I have my two edges done with that purple, I want to come in here on the area we overlapped and create an edge as well. Coming with my larger brush, Clearwater, and just go around the edge, softening that pigment. Going to pull that color down, connecting it and moving it along. Come back in with my number one brush and add a few areas of this purple color to this bubble. Start with two. Rinse my brush and do that blending. Same thing over here. Really helping that pigment to move around. The key is getting that soft blend. There's any areas that really aren't blending. I can go in and take a little bit of blue on my number one brush and just pull those colors together. Just trying to create that soft blend. I'll take my large brush and blend the edge. And I'll let this layer completely dry. 15. Building Up Color: Our layers are dry, so now let's introduce some interests to our bubbles here. There are good start to take my number one brush, wet it with clear water. And just on the edge here where we haven't introduced color on this bubble in the forefront. And over here as well, the same reasoning we haven't introduced color to the edges. I'm just going to wet it with some clear water to soften the paper and let it get ready to introduce an absorb a little bit of color. So now I'm going to take a fun color, gonna go with a little crimson lake on my palette. A little bit of water. Just to dilute it a bit. Again, sharpen that point, and then come around and introduce a little pop of color. Don't want to go overboard not looking to fill in the entire area with that pigment. Just a little bit. Then again, I'll rinse my brush and push that pigment back to the Perimeter. Do the same thing in all the areas we introduced that color. Now on the area that has the color underneath it from that heart, I don't want to scrub it too much. So I'm going to switch to my larger brush and just blend out that edge. Now I'm going to take that same brush and take a little of that cobalt blue purple mixture and just do a little bit of introduction of color here and there. Just really little spots. I'll blend out the color and just make a little bit of interest. Again, the key is to make that blend, particularly for this layer, that nice soft blend. Now for the bubble on the back, I'm going to rinse my brush. Just add a little bit of water on areas that don't have the pigment, but I'm avoiding this heart right now. This is a lot of purple and blue, so I'm just going to introduce some water to soften it up. And then I'm gonna take a little bit of lemon yellow, put it on my palette, and just deposit it. I like the way that looks. Just a little pop of color. I'll rinse my brush and just barely blend out the edge. Then I'm going to take whatever wetness I have on my brush, pick up just a hint of that lemon yellow and put it down here on the base of that, on the base of that heart. And I'm going to really fade it out. So it looks like it's underneath this heart. I just want to gently blend out any of the edges here and let this layer completely dry. 16. Painting the Background Heart: Now these layers have dried. We can start adding definition. But again, start by working on the heart and the background. Take my number six brush with clear water and gently just outline the heart again. Again with that larger brush. I'm gonna go in there with that cobalt blue, a little water down. And with a sharp point, I'm going to just very gently go around the edge where I already introduced that blue. Then I'll rinse the brush. And I want to work quickly here while everything's wet. I'm going to come in here with the purple. Again, taking more pigment on the brush is needed. Continue to outline those areas. Then lastly, go in there with that lemon yellow. Again, just enough pigment to make it pop. Now I want to rinse my brush, get it really nice and clear, and just blend that out. I'm gonna be very cautious going over the area that covers that heart in the background. Just introducing enough water to make a nice blend. When I have that done, I'll come back in with that purple. And again, I'm going to envision that concentric heart on the center here. Rinse my brush and blend that out. It's nice and subtle. And I'm forming those lines. Come in here with the blue. Finish that off, then rinse my brush, dry it, and just pat it down, get a little bit of color, but not too much. Now with a very sharp point on a clean brush, I'm going to pick up that yellow and just dab in a little bit of pigment here and there. Just threw out that wet area. Take a look at this. There's any areas that are uneven or have harsh lines are gently blend them with a clean brush. I can come back in, add a little more pigment, maybe even a little more purple. Again, rinse that brush, remove some of that water, and blend those edges. Just introducing a little bit of color to this bubble here. I want to make sure that those edges are nicely blended. Then there's a little bit of clear area on that bubble. I can even come in with a, with a dry paper towel and just pick up a little bit of the pigment. And I'm going to let that layer completely dry. 17. Painting the Foreground Heart: So now to work on the bubble in the foreground here, I want to be very cautious of the area where it overlaps with the background heart right now, going to take a wet brush and just introduce some more of that crimson lake. And just very carefully go around the edge anywhere that I already did. This will brighten that color up just a little bit more. Dip my brush in water. It will be a little bit of pink left on it. And I'm just going to gently blend it out. Again. We're preventing any straight lines, any harsh edges. Then I'm going to switch to my number six brush. Make sure I have Clearwater. Just blend that out. I'm going to come back in with my larger brush and crimson lake. And again, I'm going to envision that concentric heart and just emphasize it a little. I'm purposely avoiding going over that heart where it overlaps right now. I'm going to go around it with a wet brush, soften that edge. Going to pick up a little that cobalt blue because it's going to reflect from that other bubble behind it. Blend that out. And that will blend nicely and create more of a purple look as well. Blend out those edges. And then with my smaller brush, I want to make sure it's nice and clean. I'm gonna pick up just a little bit of yellow and introduce it. And that's gonna be the reflection from that heart in the background. I want to let this completely dry and then we'll come back in and work on that area to make this heart look like it's in the background. 18. Painting Final Details: Now to finish up this painting and make this heart look like it's in the foreground. What we need to do is make this a little crisper and brighter than this. So I'm gonna take my number one brush, pick up a little more crimson lake, and just mix it on my palette. Now, I'm going to start by going over the line where the two hearts intersect. And I'm really enhancing all the edges of this heart. Going very gently though, almost subtly. Rinsing my brush with clear water and just blending it out. I like that effect that it gives where it's kind of a dull blend on the inside, a smooth blend. I'm going to pick up a little more purple, not too much though. And come around on that heart as well. Grab my number six brush and blend this out. And I want a little more color and a little more blend on this heart in the foreground. So I'll go around making a little bit more of a border. Take that purple and do the same thing, continue to outline it all the way around. Then I'll take that number six brush and just blend that out. Getting a nice soft line. Take a little bit of pigment on my brush and really make it come to life over here and over here. Anywhere we introduced that purple blend the brush using Clearwater. Blend out that edge. I'll come back in with a crimson lake. And this is the process that you do because depending on how much pigment you added and the amount of pigment underneath the heart. This is what you have to do to really make it pop and come to life. Your dominant colors, you're vibrant colors. You're vibrant and crisp shapes should be the one that you're seeing right now. And then heart in the background will be just a little less vibrant. So I have my heart come back in with clear water to blend that out. As long as that's a nice soft blend, were in good standing. I also want to take a little of that cobalt blue, mixing it in with that purple. And just introducing that in a few spots, particularly where the two colors meet. Again, go back to my blending brush and blend that. It's starting to really come to life the way I like it. I still want to envision that concentric circle. And now I'm going to take a little of that Crimson Lake and I'm gonna go opposite the side where I put that color. I put that crimson lake down and then opposite here. Rinse the brush and start blending it in. I can pull it up a little. It doesn't have to be perfect or excluded from the heart. Mental. Take a little purple, introduce that, and then just some clear water to blend that out. I want those edges soft. Going right over that area for the background. Just with some clear water, I go over that area and that concentric area. I'm just going to take my paper towel and gently press. And that's going to pick up just a little bit of pigment, just enough to give it that transparent look. And so therefore we have our hearts layered on top of each other. The next chapter, we'll do a class wrap-up and I'll show you some variations using this process with just different colors and shaped hearts. 19. Class Wrap Up: So here are the three hearts from class today. We have the heart with a dominant color. So this is my blue heart, even though it has elements of purple and green, it's primarily a blue heart bubble. Then I have my rainbow heart bubble. And this was really fun and a little bit whimsical. It's still clear and transparent. There's lots of layers and lots of reflection of colors. And this is typically what I think of when I think of a bubble. And this is my layered heart bubble. By layering them, you'll see a little bit of the heart and the background peeking through just the edge. So every so often, not even solidly the edge. It's kind of a fun take on the project. I wanted to show you some variations. You can take your images, your watercolor images, and scan them into your computer. And then you have just the image to work with. Now from there you can get a lot of variations. Let me give you an example. For our blue heart bubble. You can see how you can layer them upon each other after you have that image. And you can get like a greeting card or a different effect that you can use. And then by showing the bubbles trailing off, you get really more of a bubble feel. You take your initial image and transform it into something else. Now with the other two images, I did the same thing. I scan them into my computer and then I just combine them here. And I have a little card full of my little heart bubbles using the same techniques and just different colors, you can get different effects. So in class, we made our blue heart. But over here, I did the same technique, which is variations. Here I did mostly a yellow heart and here I did purple. And as you can see, the amount of the colors of the blue and the green in here. We're a little different. And so therefore I get a little different effect, but they're all recognizable as bubbles. Now in class I showed you a rainbow heart. Here's another rainbow heart of different size and shape, a little bit larger. In fact. Then I just created that with bubbles trailing off. So you can really take this and go quite far with it. And lastly, instead of making a solid dominant color, I just played around, this is a cross between the rainbow as well as the solid color. I use the same techniques that I used when I made the first bubble, the solid color bubble, but I just change the colors. So instead of using lots of yellow in this case, I mean each quadrant really a different color. And I combine them all here in this finished piece. So that's how I created my three different types of bubbles that you can then take and make multiple copies of making your own template to make any size, shape that you'd like. I hope you'll create your own bubble and post your work in the project section. 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