Watercolor Impressions: Painting a Café Scene with Color and Light

1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello, everyone. My name is Will Elliston. And today, we are capturing the warm and inviting atmosphere of a bustling cafe. It's all about setting the mood, and watercolor is perfect for achieving that rich glow and subtle light effect. To create that feeling of warmth, we'll focus on the contrast between warm colors and their vibrancy indoors and the cooler muted colors outdoors, as well as the lightness and darkness of the piece. Can see that there's actually a lot of expression and abstraction in this piece. We're just suggesting details rather than actually spending a lot of time fixing them. One of the most important techniques of watercolor is how to layer colors, and that's exactly what I'm going to teach today. I've been a professional artist for many years, exploring lots of different subjects from wildlife and portraits to cityscapes and countryside scenes. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor. When I started, I had no idea where to begin or how to improve. I didn't know what supplies I needed, how to create the effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now I've taken part in many worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough to win awards from well respected organizations such as the International Watercolor Society, the Masters of Watercolor Alliance, Windsor and Newton, and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming for those starting out, which is why my goal is to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium in a step by step manner. Today, I'll be guiding you through a complete painting, demonstrating a variety of techniques and explaining how I use all my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have some experience, you'll be able to follow along at your own pace and improve your watercolor skills. If this class is too challenging or too easy for you, I have a variety of classes available at different skill levels. I like to start off with a free expressive approach with no fear of making mistakes as we create exciting textures for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and make it stand out. I strive to simplify complex subjects into easier shapes that encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty of tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in the discussion thread down below. I'll be sure to read and respond to everything you post. Don't forget to follow me on Skillshare by clicking the Follow button at the top. This means you'll be the first to know when I launch a new class or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston to see my latest works. So if you want to learn how to paint mood and atmosphere in your painting, then this is the class for you. I look forward to seeing you in it. 2. Your Project: Thank you so much for choosing this class. I'm really happy you're joining me with this painting today because we're going to explore techniques which excite me the most about watercolor, the vibrancy of color, the dramatic contrast of tone, the suggestion of detail and the taking advantage of abstraction and creating paintings that have full emotion. And by discussing this color harmony, especially the interplay between warm oranges and cooler blues and greens, we learn how to bring a painting together in a very captivating way. In the resource section, I've added a high resolution image of my finished painting to help guide you. You're welcome to follow my painting exactly or experiment with your own composition. As we're going to be focusing on the painting aspect of watercolor, I've provided templates you can use to help transfer or trace the sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for learning how to paint. It's important to have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction you take this class, it would be great to see your results and the paintings you create through it. I love giving my students feedback, so please take a photo afterwards and share it in the student project gallery under the Project and resource tab. I'm always intrigued to see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear about your process and what you learned along the way, or if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend that you take a look at each other's work in the student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your fellow students. So don't forget to like and comment on each other's work. 3. Materials & Supplies: Before we start the painting, let me go through all the materials and supplies you need to paint along. Having the right materials can greatly impact the outcome of your artwork. So I'll go over all the supplies I use for this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and we'll make it easier for you to follow along. Let's start with the paints themselves. And like most of the materials we'll be using today, it's a lot to do with preference. I have 12 stable colours in my palette that I fill up from tubes. They are cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium red, Alizarin crimson, Opramarne blue, cobalt blue, serlean blue, lavender, purple, viridian, black, and at the end of the painting, I often use white gouache for tiny highlights. I don't use any particular brand, these colors you can get from any brand, although I personally use Daniel Smith, Windsor and Newton, or Holbein paints. So let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is a synthetic round brush like this Escoda Purl brush or this Van Gogh brush. They're very versatile because not only can you use them for detailed work with their fine tip, but as they can hold a lot of water, they are good for washers as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details. But for really small details, highlights or anything that needs more precision, I use a synthetic size zero brush. All brands have them, and they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles and a very pointy tip. They're perfect for adding texture or creating dynamic lines in your paintings. You can even fan them out like this to achieve fur or feather textures as well. And that's it for brushes. Onto paper. The better quality of your paper, the easier it will be to paint. Cheap paper cuinkles easily and is very unforgiving, not allowing you to rework mistakes. It's harder to create appealing effects and apply useful techniques like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton base paper, not only allows you to rework mistakes multiple times, but because the pigment reacts much better on it, the chances of mistakes are a lot lower and you'll be more likely to create better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available in my local art shop. A water spray is absolutely essential. By using this, it gives you more time to paint the areas you want before it dries. It also allows you to reactivate the paint if you want to add a smooth line or remove some paint. I also have an old rag or t shirt which I use to clean brush. Cleaning off the paint before dipping it in the water will make the water last a lot longer. It's always useful to have a tissue at hand whilst painting to lift off excess paint. Also, you never know when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that needs wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's important to have them a similar consistency to what they're like in the tubes. This way, it's easier to pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this, of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on painting to the edge, we'll allow you to create a very crisp, clean border. And that's everything you need for this class. I encourage you to experiment and explore with whatever material and suppliers you think you might need for this painting to capture your true vision. Now, let's get on and start the painting. 4. How to Sketch It Out: Now, there's lots going on in this drawing. So it's perfectly understandable if you want to use the tracing template that I'm going to create for you from this drawing. But if you do want to draw it out yourself, if you want to test yourself, make sure to use light strokes to begin with. You don't want to indent the paper. As long as you're using good quality watercolor paper and you use light strokes, you can always rub out without damage doing the paper. So you of break things down into the most simple steps to help you. You don't want to start off with fine facial details or I've, of course, done multiple sketches to work out this composition, and that also helps to break it down into simple steps. So the easiest thing to do is split it in half to begin with, where the window line is. And I don't just do one line. I do about six rough lines, so I've average I've got a lot of wiggle room, so to speak. And maybe there's a bit of curve there for the distance. Then I'm going to add my first figure around here, and all that figure is at the moment is a circle. And then a second figure here, and you guessed it. It's another circle. Maybe add my first vertical here. Adding verticals in interior paintings really helps give it a sense of structure, a grounding feeling. I contrasts nicely with the horizontal line here. Got the table here. You see, I'm using very simple lines at the moment, either curved lines or straight lines. And it's still not recognizable what these things are yet. The head. Now, it does take a bit of time to do a drawing this detailed. So like I said, perfectly welcome to use a tracing template to focus on the painting aspect. Maybe we have a light source here. Secondary light source behind. So abstract building shapes that well, could suggest buildings outside. I'm not trying to get to any small details quite yet. I saw using the side of my soft lead, being very suggestive, not committing to anything yet. H Now, if I'm unhappy with this composition, I might crop it. That's another reason why I don't stick or tape my paper to the board straight away. I in fact do my sketch, and I give it a day or two just to think about if it's ripe for committing the paint. So I've mapped it out. There's going to be a few abstract marks here. In fact, most of it will be abstract except the very center here. So I'm just going to change to a different pencil and start. Sketching out a few details in the middle. But even the detailed areas, I'm going to keep very suggestive Of course, the nature of watercolor is very suggestive, so it doesn't have to be detailed to be believable. There's a few shapes that the human eye recognizes, motifs, so to speak, and our imagination fills out the rest. So instead of taking time, showing you the monotonous details, I'm going to finish the drawing off by myself and then scan it in for you to use as a template. And in the next lesson, we'll start painting. So that's what I'm going to do now. 5. Starting The Painting: So jumping straight into the painting, I'm just going to pre wet this little section on the left here. And I'm using cobot teal blue, which is actually a bit like a Varidian green. It's in my Varidian green pan. And I'm trying to be very bold with this mop brush, putting in a bit of serlean blue, a bit of turquoisish color I'm trying to achieve here, just for the underlayer because we're going to have a lot of orange. The primary color is going to be orange, the main focal color, the color that draws us in the mother color, so to speak, the principal color scheme of this painting will be orange. So having some other colors that complement that color such as this blue turquoise will look very nice together. I'll harmonize quite well. And you can see I'm being quite abstract. You don't have to copy me precisely at all at this stage. I'm just filling in this general area. Of course, you can look at the final stage, the final painting to see why I'm doing this under lair. You can see how it affects the final image, whether I paint over it a bit or leave parts of the screen coming through. Now, I'm taking a bit of this lavender I have and going over it again, just filling out some of the white gaps. Because I don't want it to be just a full block of even color. I want it to be exciting, so I want a variety of variety of cool colors, and a variety of thick and thin pigment. And I'm adding a bit of red in here, which is the complimentary color of green. And you'll see as that blends together, it'll look quite pretty. It's all wet on wet at the moment. And you can't see if you want a very vivid red or orange like I'm doing right now, you have to make sure the paper is white underneath. If there's green, if you paint this red on top of the green, you'll get a gray because it'll mix together and neutralize each other. You can see how these colors are interacting with each other with some hard lines, some hard edges, rather, some soft edges, which means it's blending slightly. And just this general interaction between warm and cool colors looks pleasant. Now you can see I've been quite careful of this stroke of orange to try and not touch the edge of the blue and the green because I don't want it to blend out into there. So I try and be precise when you do that. And I actually want this area to be a bit yellower, so I use the tissue to soak away some of the orange, and I'm adding a bit of cadmium yellow in there. And now I can be a bit more expressive with that red cadmium reb to make an orange on top. 6. Colourful Underlayer: Try not to shy away from the intensity of these colors. You don't want them to look too pale. This is an underlayer and vibrant colors like these reds and yellows. They do dry a lot more desaturated, a lot more intense than they are when they're wet. When they're wet, they look very bright and intense, but when they're dry, they're a bit more subdued, you have to factor that in. So even though whilst it's wet, it looks very vibrant, you've also got to be aware that later on, we're going to be painting over with pure blacks, and that contrast will make these colors look very light, even though these colors at the moment look quite dark when compared to the white of the paper. When we use solid black, later, this will actually be a mid tone. So in this bottom corner, I'm adding a bit of a turquoise color again as a background. These little areas that I'm painting at the moment, they're just random abstractions, actually. They're not anything specific. You can use these moments to explore your own creativity because, again, they're nothing specific. There's nothing right or wrong about them. So this is where our unique interpretation comes in. You don't have to paint this corner green. You can add purple like I'm doing now. You can keep it orange if you want. You don't have to do this underlayer at all if you don't. You can do it blue. It's completely your choice. It's your painting to have fun with, and there's no need to pressure yourself. So I'm trying to connect those oranges together. And now, I'll tell you what, let's move on to the other side. Let's move on to the windows on the right hand side. So I'm taking a bit of this cadmium yellow and filling it out into that little box area, and you can see the vertical line where I'm painting up to. And of course, I'm painting down to that line at the bottom. But actually, it's not so important because it's an underlayer and we're going to be painting back over this later to define that edge. So it doesn't matter if you go over that line. Adding the red, and you can see how a lot of the color mixing I'm doing is actually on the paper. I've used my palette a little bit, but I'm mixing this red and yellow on the actual paper to make my orange. Makes it a bit more exciting. Of course, I'm using Arches paper, and that means that it's a high quality paper. You can use any cotton based paper and the sturdiness of it, the forgiveness allows a lot more errors. And because it's such a tough paper, you can really use the brush with a lot of pressure scratching the paper without bits of particles of paper coming away or falling off. Now I'm painting the light source here, painting around the white little lamp dangling from the ceiling. I'm using cadmium yellow, and now I'm using yellow ochre around the side. 7. Painting The Windows: Leaving that little white strip separating the two windows. You can see I'm going over the edge of her hair of it because it really doesn't matter because we're going to be painting her hair black. It's like a silhouette. We're simplifying her form by creating a contrast between the light of the window and her shadow, her silhouette. And that makes it a lot easier to paint because we don't have to think about all the details. We just need to get the rough shape of the figure, and that's all we need to convey to the viewer for the viewer to understand and comprehend what it is, making it easier on the eye. And this is similar to other city scenes I've painted in which it has the illusion of detail. Of course, the focal point, the figures in the very center on the table, they do have quite a lot of detail, not an awful lot, but just some, and the rest is actually very abstract. We use a few vertical lines to hold it all together, but it's all up for interpretation, and we don't actually want to add too much detail apart from the focal point. But we'll get to that part later on. At the moment, it's all about experimentation and playing around with colors. And you can see, even with this abstract stage, I'm trying to somewhat keep it under control by painting in different sections. So I'm going quite bold with this red on the right hand side of the painting. Because I'm aware of the black that I'll be using later and the contrast that it achieves when painted on top of this. And if these warm colors, the yellows, the oranges and reds aren't dark enough, it won't look correct. I look too light. I'm trying to achieve a bit of a dry brush mark. I'm using this mop brush because it holds a lot of water but also has a bit of a tip at the end. And if you use a fast, swift brush stroke, you can create a bit of texture, bit of dry brush marking. Now I'm using a bit of serlean blue to contrast this orange here because this central window that I'm painting now, I want to imply some objects outside where they're buildings, a little bit of abstract street scene. Again, because the focal point is in the center here. The main focal point is the man's cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate. And that's where the most detail and contrast should be. And as you separate and go further out towards the edge of the paper, it'll be more abstract. I'm continuing to have fun playing around with the whole spectrum of colors I'm using purple now. And you can see how I group the cool colors together and the warm colors together. So I'm playing around with green, blue, purple in some sections, and yellow, orange and red in other sections. And I've actually been using quite large brush strokes because I want to keep it bold. If I use a brush that's too small, then I'll be too fiddly and I'll lose the energy. Even though there might be a lot of errors, it's okay to have errors as long as the energy is there. 8. Complementary Colours: Now, I'm playing around with a few contrasts, adding red into this green and purple to create a bit of interest and contrast in that focal point area. It grabs the attention a bit more. You have to be a bit careful when using purple on top of yellow because they are complimentary colors and they neutralize each other and make a gray, likewise, with red and green. So you may want to practice on a separate piece of paper with yellow and purple and red and green and blue and orange just to see how they do interact. Well, of course, that's why I encourage the playfulness and giving these paintings a go, even if it looks ambitious because it's all about the learning process, and it's through practicing these different color combinations that we internalize the techniques, and it becomes automatic after a while of practice. So far, a lot of this is wet on wet. We haven't done much layering. We're just playing around with different consistencies of water and pigment. Leaving a few white gaps of the paper. I Again, at this stage, I'm not doing anything specific, just trying to feel a general sense of what I'm trying to convey and exploring how I might be able to get that across on the paper. Nothing specific, more of a feeling. So it is quite an abstract stage when we're talking about conveying feelings through something that's a visual y. You can pretty much see how we've done the top half of the page as an underlayer. And now we're going to start moving on to the bottom half. And we're going to continue using a bright orange to do this. Because again, orange is the main color scheme. I'm going to be using burnt sienna, which is, in fact, an orange. Sienna is a type of orange. As you can see, it's quite similar to the orange we've mixed above, even though it's a brown, it's a very vibrant brown. And I've changed to a larger brush because this larger brush creates nice bold strokes. I want to achieve nice dry brush strokes. Mixed a bit of a sarin crimson on the brush. But there's not enough in my pants, I'm just filling it out a bit with the tube of paint. And I'm using a vertical brush stroke, so I'm holding the brush quite vertical just stroking across, going back and forth, getting it well and truly mixed in, getting the paper all saturated. I think now it needs to be a bit darker, so I'm going to add a bit more lizarin crimson. I just kind of criss crossing. I'm not doing the same direction with these brush strokes. Um, 9. Finishing The Underlayer: Just getting that space filled in as quickly as possible. Connecting it up to the window. Now I'm just using a tissue to soak away some of the liquid from my brush because I want to create a few dry brush marks. And using this dry brush, I'm just going to go over this green part in the bottom corner to kind of add a bit of texture. And it looks a bit strange now having that yellow corner next to the red. But in the context of the final painting, it's a bit more subtle. So as you probably know by now of watercolor, 90% of the painting looks like a mess, and at the end, it just comes together. So you have to have faith through most of the process of the painting because a lot of the time, it's a mess. So now we have everything underlaid except the figures and the light sources and the little vertical bars on the windows or the wooden panels. I'm not sure what they could be the window frames. Now using this bold cadmium red, painting the man's back and painting up to the bottom of the table. It's all wet and wet painting now. O adding pure water in there. You can see how everything is pretty much connected. We've got a few hard lines in certain places. But to keep a feeling of unity, it's good to have everything connected. Even if you paint them at separate moments, having them all connect one way or another, it just helps add a feeling of unity and makes it more pleasing and easy on the eyes. I'm tilting the paper here because I want the water to rush down and create a kind of reflection on this table that we're painting. Of course, out of context, it looks it's quite difficult to figure out what I'm doing. But if you look at the final image, you can see what I'm trying to achieve. And I just used a hair dryer to dry it off completely. So the whole painting is completely dry now and we can start working on the next layer. Starting on the left hand side. And because this area is well away from the focal point, I don't want to add too much detail at all. So I'm looking at these abstract shapes, and I'm trying to find a figure in there and maybe painting hairline, the neck, the collar, or the dress or jacket of the figure using the underlayer for highlights, really. 10. Painting The Background: And I'm making the most of negative painting and combining negative painting with positive or regular painting can really create beautifully dynamic engaging pieces of art. With positive painting or regular painting, we focus on adding color and detail to the positive shapes, the subjects or vocal points like this figure. In this caffeine scene, and I'm painting directly onto the figure, emphasizing their clothing, their posture or expression to bring them to life. And it's about building up the subject using purposeful brushstrokes to guide the viewer's eye towards what you want to highlight. But then I'm trying to incorporate that with negative painting, and negative painting works in the space around the positive shapes rather than within them. So instead of painting the figure directly, we're painting the background areas to define the figure by contrast. For example, you might want to darken the space around one of the figures, maybe the chair they're sitting on or the wall of the cafe behind them. Or even the objects on the table like I've done with this little cup. That's how we make them stand out and we can use the background, the underlay to give color to these cups by negatively painting. This creates a sense of depth and allows the subject to emerge from the scene naturally, and it gives it more kind of ethereal or suggestive quality. I'm painting this table using negative painting right now. Painting around the shape rather than the shape directly itself. So by combining these two techniques, we create a kind of push and pull effect that makes the painting more dynamic and captivating. And I'm trying to think of ways to do this throughout this composition to subtly define this busy atmosphere around the figures, the has, the pattern of light filtering through the window, and I'm trying not to overstate them. And then we've got positive painting for the main figures, the two in the central area. This holds everything together, and it balances the focus. Often by incorporating negative painting with positive painting, it allows more of a natural integration of light and shadow. The background painted negatively can fade softly into the atmospheric washes or sharpen the contrast of the figure's form. Meanwhile, the positive details of the figure provide an anchor keeping the painting grounded. So this is a dance between the scene and the suggested, and it transforms just a simple image into a piece of art that has life and movement. And it's how you can get away with abstraction a bit because we're not focusing on the details. We're not actively painting all the details. We're painting the space around the details. 11. Using Thick Pigment: So now I'm going to add very thick pigment, pure pigment straight from the tube, if not even thicker than that. And you can see the dry brush, expressive strokes I'm trying to add onto the paper now. I'm going to come back and wet this area later and reactivating the water will help spread this pigment out a bit more. So I'm not so concerned about it being so thick and messy at this stage. And now you can perfectly see how using dark pigment really makes that underlay from before pop. Because now we've got some of the darkest darks we'll include in this painting. And in order to get these dark pigments, the paint does have to be very thick because if it's too thin, then it'll just be translucent and it won't be light. It won't be dark, sorry, it'll be too light. Often when the watercolor is wet, it looks darker than it is. And when it dries, it gets absorbed into the paper, and it actually dries lighter than it is. H, So now I'm just having fun with the large brush, moving in different angles to try and convey a sense of movement. So I've been using pure black, but I don't always like to use pure black. When I do use black, I'm always incorporating other colors into it. So now I'm adding a bit of red on top of that. I think on the other side, I've had a bit of lavender or burnt sienna. So on top of that thick dark area, I'm actually going back with a more diluted brush, more diluted paint so that it melts some of that dry pigment, that thick pigment and creates some lovely effects. Just cleaning my brush now. And you can see the red pigment actually stains the palette quite a lot. So I'm just using my brush to agitate it and clean it out as much as possible because we're going to be using some blue next. And if the palette is too red, then it might affect how we perceive the blue. I'm actually going to use yellow. I'll come back to the blue later. So cadmium yellow, and I'm going on top of this thick area, this dark area. And again, because it's already slightly wet, it's going to bleed into that pigment in an exciting way. On the left, you can now see how we've kind of conveyed a couple of people at a table, and it's very abstract, but it still sends out a message. We still understand what it is, and that's exactly what we're aiming for in this section of the painting. We don't want it to be defined because it's not the focal point. Now I'm going to give that side of the painting a rest and move to the window here. Now that it's dry, I can I'm just going to rewet some of the areas and just add in pure blue. 12. Face Underlayer: Again, trying to suggest some slight buildings outside, possible buildings. And this blue works so well with the orange. The orange and blue combination is very attractive, I think. Adding some slight touches of darker blue so that it melts into the rest of the wash. And now I'm going to start painting the main lady on the left, and I'm starting with the face and just doing a warm red wash over her face area. Because, again, it's going to be a silhouette, so I don't need to be too defined about the details. There'll be a bit of yellow to keep it interesting. It's a similar color to the background, actually, but I do want it to be a bit darker, so I'm going to add a bit more red in there, make it a richer orange because there has to be some contrast between her face and the window behind, otherwise it just won't be clear enough. And using that same pigment to block out her hand. And this is the same consistency as I used for the face, which is a kind of medium consistency. It's not thick and it's not thin, either. And she'll be holding a coffee mug, as well. When painting things that require quite a lot of details like this, I'm not trying to think of what a hand looks like. I'm just trying to see the general shape. And if my observation skills are good enough, if I match what I see without thinking about a hand, then it should already be convincing. It should look like a hand because sometimes the mind plays tricks on you and you think you know what a hand looks like. So you're drawing out what you think a hand looks like, but it's not actually the right context. Now, I'm taking a bit of green and lightly painting in this white section we left earlier. And having this turquoise in between the yellow and orange windows is very striking. I'm trying not to agitate the paint too much because I want there to be a relatively hard line. And, of course, if this green overlaps on this vibrant yellow, it'll actually dull it out a bit, and the contrast won't look so nice. So at the top and the bottom, some parts of the sides, I'm just adding a bit of a dark pigment, melting that in to make it a bit more dynamic so it's not all one shade h 13. Abstract Background: Now I can continue on working from left to right. And going back to the underlayer on the lady's face, you can see, again, it's very abstract because it's just the underlayer. And I've painted over where the hair is, but I know I'm going to be painting the hair black. So when I paint over that later, it'll correct itself. I'll make sense. Trying to achieve a bit of texture. Using the mop brush. Mop brushes do tend to create dry brush marks much easier than other brushes like the Escoda brush or other synthetic brushes. Using the tip of the brush. And I'm gradually building up the thickness of the pigments, and now I'm going to use some thick uusium crimson. And the thicker the pigment is, the easier it is to create these dry brush marks. And if you think you've gone too heavy, you can just use a tissue like I am to draw out or suck out some of that pigment to make it lighter. Maybe create a bit more vibrancy with the yellow and the orange. I'm not too worried about highlights because I know I can use the white gouache at the end to just add a few more lines to make things pop. One of the most challenging things in watercolor is actually painting abstract things sometimes because you don't want it to be too distracting, but you still have to make it somewhat understandable. And it's finding that fine line going back and forth that can sometimes be more challenging than actual details, painting fine details. Because at least when you're painting fine details, you've got a reference that you can strictly follow. But when you're painting the more elusive things, you're completely on your own of how the pigment is going to react and how you want it to look like. So I'm using a variety of different brush strokes, thick, some small, thin, with wet pigment, some of them, some of them dry pigment, and mostly they are vertical and horizontal, especially in that window section. They're abstract lines, but if you look carefully, they're mainly vertical and horizontal. There's hardly any diagonal lines going on inside that central window. 14. Starting The Man: Now, I always suggest looking at the final image, my final painting whilst you're watching this video, and, of course, while you're painting along because there's some things that I do that I change later on. And if you're painting along whilst you're watching this, without looking at my final painting, you might do unnecessary mistakes that I do because the nature of watercolor is actually happy accidents or mistakes, depending on which way you look at it, which way you look at it. And you don't necessarily have to do the same mistakes that I'm doing if I then rub them out later. And at the time of painting, I don't know what will be a mistake or won't be a mistake because I'm always assessing the painting as I'm going through it. So something that I paint now might feel right, only to look wrong later. And sometimes, most of the time, after I finish a painting session, when I feel the painting is 90% done, I disconnect from it for three days or even a week sometimes, and I come back with fresh eyes and the things that are wrong with the painting immediately stick out, whereas before your eyes are too accustomed to it, so it's less obvious. And these things could be happening in my painting right now without me realizing. So it might be a good learning opportunity for you to look at my final painting and see how I changed it. Maybe I rubbed away some pigment and red a different section, or maybe later on in the process, you can see how I just completely painted over a section. There's a strange kind of contradiction when it comes to painting because I find when I feel like I'm in full control of the watercolor, during the painting process, that feels very satisfying. But often it results in kind of a dull emotionless painting because the exciting aspects of watercolor haven't been allowed to come through. But when it comes to a painting like this, where I feel like I'm I'm not in control, there's lots of aspects that are quite spontaneous. It feels much more stressful because I have to concentrate more because I'm not in control. I have to be more aware about what's going on, and it feels much more risky and unpredictable, but it nearly always ends up with a more exciting, authentic, captivating painting. Because I'm encouraging the watercolor to guide me. And I'm not trying to force the watercolor. I'm trying to take advantage of all the lovely effects and aspects that watercolor has. 15. Bold Brushstrokes: So we started to paint this guy now, and like the lady on the other side, we started off with the face using a nice rich red. And whilst it's still wet, we dabbed a little bit of tone underneath the cheeks, where the eyebrows are just to give it a bit more form. And then we add this dark pigment where the hair is and again, it's like a silhouette with a bit of detail inside. And I'm using turquoise and Faridian green to thickly paste on her back and arm. Using the tip of my brush just to Get this pigment onto the paper. Here's collar. If your pigment gets a bit too dry, get a little bit of water from your tub. Using the tip of my brush to make sure I stay within the lines and then where I know there's lots of space. I try and be expressive. So on the edge of these shapes, I have to be careful, but when painting the middle of the shapes, I use big abstract brush marks, and you can see on his back and his arm, there are dry brush marks there that give it a bit more energy than if it was all finally painted in in a flat wash. And moving back over to the other side. Now that it started to dry, adding a bit more dark pigment in there. Just trying to make sense the painting because it is quite abstract. Thinking about where things are. Maybe that's the chair that the lady's sitting on. Trying to convey that chair with minimal lines. Again, more fun, playful, expressive dry brush marks. More than anything, it's just to get me in the right mindset because I'm going to paint over this all anyway, just to liberate myself and give myself a feeling of freedom, and hopefully that will come through in the painting. And with this thick pigment underneath, it means all I need to do is add water and it will blend itself out. Because it's always better to paint stronger than weaker. If you're painting too weak, it means you're going to have to go over it again and again and again and it's going to look overworked. But if you paint strong, you can usually get away with it because you won't have to add more pigment. There will already be enough on the paper. And if there's too much pigment on the paper, it doesn't look as bad as if it's too weak because it again, adds to the energy. I had to add a bit more, you see, on the face here because I was too weak last time. And ideally, I should have added more pigment to begin with, because having to go over it again, again, it loses a bit of the energy. But it's not the end of the world. 16. Rotating The Paper: If you want, you can turn the painting onto its side. If you're more comfortable painting it at a different angle, I just made an error because I didn't rotate my painting here, so I think I'll give it a go by actually turning my painting around and getting more comfortable angle. It's very subtle. And now we can start painting her hair again. Now that I think the pigment is dried well enough, I'm going to use blue on top of black. I'm just trying to get that hairline correct. Thinking about where the ear goes, the shoulders, the shoulders are the same color as the hair. Now adding a bit of pure water. And like I said, because we use thick pigment before we can reactivate and combine it and connect everything into a nice unity. The neck line there all the way up to the chin. And now you can really see how that dark pigment contrasts with the yellow on the window. That's why when you paint that underlayer in the first stage, you should not be shy about going too strong with it. Notice how I've switched to a synthetic brush with a fine point for these more detailed parts of the painting. I use the mop brush for all the expressive marks, the large, long strokes of the brush, but for these more smaller refined brush strokes, I switched to a synthetic brush. And when it comes to painting dark like this, I usually stick to three colors. I use ultra marine blue, Alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. Because when those colors dry, they almost look black themselves. If you look at my palette. Certainly ultramarine blue, you can see how dark that is there on my palette and also burnt sienna and Alizarin crimson beneath that. When it's very concentrated, it's very dark. And of course, I use black as well. And if you mix those three colors together, ultra marine blue, alizarin crimson, and burnt sienna, that will make a black. So now I'm just considering what to do next, whether I should carry on painting this figure, the lady, or maybe I should move on for a bit just until I decide how I want it to look like. So I'm going to start painting some of this chair. Mixing in some ultramarine blue and black. Nice and thick. And because we've got that under layer of red, the ultramarine on top makes it almost look purple. 17. Correcting The Tones: I had a bit more alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. It was too light, actually, so I've gone back and made it a bit darker, and I've swapped to my moppa brush again. I want the main light source or the highest area of light to be where the windows are. So I've decided to make it a bit darker underneath the tables. Now I'm reactivating these brush marks that I painted before. Swapped over to a larger brush. And really going back and forth because I don't want there to be a lot of paint on my brush because I want to achieve a bit of a dry brush, textured effect. So even though my brush looks very messy. I'm trying to achieve a different kind of effect than the usual wet on wet. I'm doing quite a lot of going back and forth, trying to figure out the composition because I'm basically painting this from imagination. I have various photo references, but nothing has a complete composition. So I've sketched it out a few times and done a few practice paintings, but I'm always trying to figure out how to make it work. So that's why I'm going darker still. Going on top of that red we just painted with a bit of green and a bit of burnt sienna and also for the blue using serlean blue. Maybe even a bit of cobalt blue. It's easy to get stuck in details, which I'm doing a bit here. So I may even go back over this. Again, we have pure black just to make it extra dark. But there's no way going back once I do that. So I'm just assessing it a bit at a time. Adding a bit of shade onto the hands and fingers. I think the best thing to do at this stage is to dry it off completely, see how the paint looks different when it's dry, and then I can decide whether I want to go darker or not. So I'll add a little bit of black here just to see, again, what it looks like when it's dry and then maybe a bit over the leg here, and then let's dry it off completely and have a bit of time off just to think about what I'm going to do next. So now I'm going to go back over it with pure black, adding quite a lot of thick pigment. I'm trying to be particularly thick with my pigment because I'm going to go over it again later to soften these marks out. I often find you can create very interesting textures by adding very thick pigment like this and then later agitating it with pure water. Oh 18. Darkening More: So I'm laying the foundations for a darker wash. Even though we've already painted quite a lot there, I'm not so happy with it, so I'm going to basically paint over everything below the table. You can rotate the board if it's easier to paint at a different angle. I'm using a palette knife just to scrape away some paint to indicate some highlights. And I think the most challenging part of this painting so far is painting underneath this table because there's actually quite a lot of detail underneath there that I don't want to paint. So I'm trying to think of a way to simplify this detail without having to paint it because you've got to think all these chair legs, table legs, human legs. I don't want to paint all those details because it's too distracting from the main focal point. I got to simplify it, but still suggest that that's what there is, Imply this detail without painting it. So what I'm trying to do now is simplify the tones. So I'm thinking about the darkest areas and painting those in and just leaving a few highlights. And in fact, I think I'm going to dry it off again and change to a larger brush, actually. So using a larger brush, I can do bolder strokes, and I can start connecting it all. And by having everything wet in a single wash, it's all part of the unity. So starting with the man's shirt or jumper, I'm connecting it down to below the table and then even up to the lady, as well. And because it's all now wet, all the pigment will melt into each other and it'll look a bit more. I'm even using a spray just to make sure it's wet enough, and it'll all meld together in quite an ethereal way because the watercolor blends, and the pigments merge the flow of the water in a very captivating way in a way, again, that suggests detail without completely describing it, leaving it for the viewer to figure out, leaving it for the imagination. Whenever we can avoid painting things and allow the viewer to use their imagination to finish the picture, that's what makes it exciting. So whilst it's wet, I'm adding this vibrant red that again is going to melt into that wet paint. So this is another example of why it's useful to watch the whole video and look at the final painting before painting along because all that previous wash we've done underneath the table is pretty redundant, actually, because we've painted over it. So if you were going to paint this yourself, you could just skip that part and go straight to this dark pigment that's wet on wet. With watercolor, you always have to be open to change. So I've dried it off again, and I'm just trying to achieve a dry brush mark underneath the elbows of this lady, which could suggest a reflection or a shadow on the table where she's resting. 19. Painting Her Face: And now I'm going to swap over to a fine brush, a much smaller brush to try and get some of the details of her face. Because so far we've just blocked out the general shapes of the figure, and now we've got to soften up some of the edges to make it more aesthetically pleasing. So I'm wetting some of the edges, some of the hair line, and I'm actually taking some of the pigment from the hair to add form to the face. So just about where the ear is. I'm coming across to mark where the eyebrows just underneath the eyelids. It's always easier to paint the eyes closed. I think it's both engaging, more engaging and easier to paint at the same time. So it's a win win if you paint eyes closed. It conjures the imagination more if the eyes are closed. If the eyes were open, it'll be much harder. And with open eyes, there's endless amounts of emotion that it conveys, so it's quite difficult to be so specific and to control which emotion you're trying to convey with open eyes. Using the cadmium red to just pop in a few highlights suggest where the sleeves are. I'm using a bit of yellow to clean up the thumb on the hand. Trying to find the edge of the hand on the other side. Now I'm going to paint mug or cup. And I'm only using this fine brush for these fine details because there are a lot of intricacies that I want to get correct. But up until this point, I haven't used this fine brush, of course, because I want to be as expressive as possible with bold, big brushwork. And this, of course, is the focal point that we're painting now. So it's acceptable to have a bit more detail and refinement in these areas. I'm moving around all the time with these details. Sometimes I'm working on the face, sometimes working on the sleeves, the hands, the cup. I'm trying not to stay in the same place all the time because, again, it creates more unity when you're looking at the bigger picture. If you're focusing on the one point, you could be painting inaccurately without realizing Okay. So I'm basically using a fine line just to indicate the details on the face. I'm doing very minimal shading, actually. Maybe on the neck, there's a bit more of a gradation of tone. And now I think we can move on to try and refine the details on the man. So again, I'm trying to clean up his hands a bit. Clean up the cup, finish painting the mug that he's holding. 20. Painting His Face: This one I'll make green. Having the cup darker at the bottom where it reaches his hands and then gradually getting lighter as we reach the top. Now I'm going to just add a bit of yellow to change the type of green of this mug. Of course, it's your choice what color you want to paint the mugs. I want there to be a bit more contrast to make the red on his hand pop. So that's why I'm adding a bit of dark down at the bottom of the cup. And then at the end, we can always go back with gouache to refine it even more. Adding a few highlights of bright orange on his back suggesting an ear, lighting up his forehead a bit and his cheek Now adding a few suggestive lines down at the bottom to make sense of that darkness. But it's easy to overdo, so I'm only going to do a couple. Where the chairs are. The table leg. Maybe a few more details in the background through the window. Again, horizontal and vertical lines. And now maybe we can refine the figures in the background just a tiny bit. I don't want to refine them as much as the main characters, the focal point. Maybe just darken her hair a bit. Creating a bit more contrast underneath her chin and where her arm goes. Two. Now we're coming towards the end of the painting. We're just doing subtle changes. So I'm just going to add a few very dark lines dry brush on top of these washes down here, and they're barely susceptible, really. They just influence the viewer's eye just a bit. More than anything, I'm just trying to assess the painting to see what's essential and what is actually done. Because it comes to a point where anything more you do actually takes away from the painting rather than adding to the painting, and the painting is what it is. And there's no more options to do anything drastic. 21. Adding Highlights: And the final part of the painting is adding pure highlights. So I'm just going to make sure that I've finished everything else before we do highlights. Maybe using water to soften some hard edges that I don't want there to be very subtle changes when it comes to the end. And often these subtle changes take more time than filling out large washes and the majority of the painting, these subtle things take a bit of time to observe and think about dry brush marks of pure pigment. So I started off with the cadmium red and then went with cadmium yellow on top of that. Just varying the tones of these cups on the table. And now I think we can start adding highlights. So I'm actually taking the paint straight from the tube using that same small brush and just going over some areas just to make a few outlines pop on the top of the glasses, on the top of the chairs, I have the paint thick enough so that it achieves a dry brush effect. If it's not achieving that, I know that the paint is too wet, and when it dries, it'll dry too dark. The white won't be light enough. Now I'm painting some steam coming from the cup. Just a little S curve shape. Maybe she's wearing a bit of a bracelet. Mixing a bit of yellow into this white in some areas. Now, maybe we can paint a few more patterns on the window. Tidy up the light a bit. Maybe there's writing on the window or just some designs on there. It's going quite thick. Really pasting it on 22. Finishing Touches: A a lot of the colours have gone quite muddy through this window, so I'm just using this light paint to bring it up a bit. Trying to clean up the outline of his face using the white quash. Basically, just a line on his forehead and a line where his nose is. I was using my palette knife to scrape away some of the paint because it was a bit too much and taking away the angle, the corner of his chin because it was a bit too much. A nice contrast between his face and the background there. And some of these areas in the background are going to paint white and then go over it with a different color later. In fact, we can do that now, go over because I want there to be a nice contrast between the orange and the blue. And if we did that earlier, it would be impossible to separate the orange and the blue and have that white of the paper beneath. So I'll just use the white wash to create that white on top of it. If we mixed the orange with the white, it would be too pale. But because we painted the white first and then the orange on top of it, it creates that luminosity. Just a few tiny little changes, additions, just softening that edge, adding a bit of green to make that line a bit more attractive. But these are all personal preference. Maybe a touch of green just underneath there, just because it was a bit too all dark. And I think that's pretty much it. I'm going to take the tape off and leave it for a few days and come back to it with a fresh eye and see how it looks like then. But as for now, it's done. Her. 23. Final Thoughts: Wow. Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the demonstration. Now, don't be afraid to give it a go because it's all about trying and there's nothing to lose at all. You can see this painting, there's lots going on, and I can see how it might be overwhelming. But if we break it down, we can see that we're suggesting details and using silhouettes to convey a message. In fact, it's a lesson in learning how to convey a story in a painting. Drawing viewers into a moment shared between two people in a cafe, and it makes them feel like the view is right there in the moment in the scene. A very welcoming, cozy scene is what I was trying to convey. And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In preparation for my class, sometimes I have to repaint things five times just to get the feeling right. So there's no pressure to get it right the first time. It's rarely like that with watercolor. And when you get it, that's when it really feels so good. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and personal style. I encourage you to continue exploring, experimenting, and pushing your boundaries to create your own unique watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the end of this class, I hope you feel more confident and comfortable with your watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes to improving your skills, so keep on painting and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for watercolor painting is so inspiring and I'm honored to be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd love to give it. So please share your painting in the student projects gallery down below, and I'll be sure to respond. If you prefer, you can share it on Instagram, tagging me at Will Elliston, as I would love to see it. Skillshare also loves seeing my students work, so tag them as well at Skill Share. After putting so much effort into it, why not share your creation? If you have any questions or comments about today's class or want any specific advice related to watercolor, please reach out to me in the discussion section. You can also let me know about any subject wildlife or scene you'd like me to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best experience for my students. Lastly, please click the follow button Utop so you can follow me on skill share. This means that you'll be the first to know when I launch a new class or post giveaways. I really hope you enjoyed this class, and it's motivated you to explore more and be expressive with your artwork. Until next time, thank you for watching.