Watercolor Masterclass - from beginner to intermiediate | Class 7 - Texture and light effects

1. Intro: Hi and welcome to the seventh class of watercolor masterclass from beginner to intermediate an 8 classes long course that aim to teach you the fundamentals of watercolor painting by make you focusing on one important aspect of it in each class. So by the end of it, you'll have an extensive knowledge of this fascinating medium and you'll be able to make beautiful paintings. If you missed the previous classes, you can find them all on my profile page. In today's class, we are going to study a special technique that we never met before in our previous classes, despite the fact that we explored quite a lot of different subjects and techniques, I'm talking about the dry on dry. In general it's not used very often, but it's important to know it to maximize the potential of watercolor. Since sometimes dry on dry is the key element to render special effects like strong sunlight on the sea, for example, which is going to be one of our projects for today. Let's get started. 2. Project: This is the summary of today's class. We're going to warm up with some dry brush strokes to understand how this technique works. Then we'll play with texture painting a carrot. And finally, we'll paint a seascape, where we'll use the dry on dry to render the sunlight on the sea. So as always, feel free to post whatever you'd like to share in the project section. Remember the practice is key for learning. 3. Art supplies: This is just a recap on the materials you need for this class. But if you want a longer explanation, I made it in class number one, art supplies, which and why. First thing you need is paper. It must be watercolor paper. And my advice is at least 300 GSM. I like they XL Canson cold pressed, watercolor paper. For the brushes, 3-4 round synthetic brushes in different sizes will be enough. But you can explore other shapes or types of bristles if you want. Any basic set of watercolors will be fine for this class. I'm using Sakura Koi, the set of 12 colors. And if you prefer tubes, they are totally fine too. I suggest you to have a ceramic or plastic palette to mix the colors in, one or two jars of water, paper towels, and an air dryer to speed up the drying process. 4. Dry brushstrokes: In this first exercise, we'll experiment dry on dry brush strokes. So we need to make sure that the brush isn't wet. Of course, it can't be completely dry or it won't activate the color, as you already know. Here I have three different kinds of paper because for this technique, paper is crucial not only for the quality, but especially for the texture. And I want to show you the difference that it makes. I'm not trying it on hot pressed paper or smooth paper in general because it won't work. So you need at least cold pressed paper. The roughest the paper, the better the dry brush technique performs. This one is rough grain, a 100% cotton paper. This one is cold pressed, so a bit less textured, but still a 100% cotton. And this one is my XL Canson cold pressed that I used until now. Be aware also to use the right side of your sheet because there's usually one that is less textured than the other. So take that in mind. Let's try to understand how to use the brush for this technique. I'm using my big brush and first of all, I'm wetting it. I pick some color and then I start dubbing the brush to get rid of the excess water. And I take the color again and you can see how the shape is changing and how dry the brush is. And what I can do is also to unravel the bristles like that to adjust the shape. Now we start painting and you can see how the texture of the paper is visible. My advice is to have a scrap paper next to you where you can check if your brush is dry enough. And if not, you can make it dryer like that. And when it's at the right point, go back to your painting. Another way is to put some paint to the palette, then dab the brush, pick the color, and try a different size and position of the brush and see what results you like better. And which one is more appropriate for what you're painting. So for this exercise, make multiple brushstrokes with different brushes, different movements, and also varying the concentration of color. Like now, I'm showing you a dry brush with an intense color. So I'm picking from the pan. Now. I'll do the same with a 100% cotton paper, where I can have a bit more water on my mix. The movement it's just a quick brush stroke and I can vary the pressure. The color runs out very quickly, so I need to reload it frequently. I make this movement to have the bristles to widen and then I go. So with this paper is much easier to get this effect in a clean way. And you can also paint multiple times in the same spot if you want it to be darker and fuller. Now let's try on this paper that is a lot rough. Very easy with this paper. Do this exercise with brushes that have other shapes too. It's interesting to see the differences. So I pick my flat squared brush. So experiment; this warm-up exercise is to try and explore and play with this technique. This doesn't almost look like watercolor, right? It looks like pastels, very dry. Cotton paper, rough cotton paper. 5. Carrot painting: What can we make with this technique? Well, in this little study we’ll paint a carrot and the dry brush technique will help us to render the roughness of its skin. In general, it's a great tool for all those textured and draft materials. We need to make the dry brush strokes first. And so I started mixing my colors. I want a dark color, but I have to make sure that it isn't too watery. The roughness of the carrot is shown especially in the left center, where the light is. So with that in mind, I started painting. And you can see short and quick movements with a light but firm hand. Different directions. I get going. And that is the effect that I get with this technique, very natural and organic. So I pick the same orange and I can paint not as dry as before, we need more water now. So little by little I put some color. And with the other brush, which is moist I soften the edge. Be careful not to cover too much of the middle part, then I can use this motion to have more control on it. Do the same to the other side. Now you can see me rubbing on the paper. So I can blend the colors, but still making the rough texture. Let's try this and make another layer. I want to put a shadow on the side following my reference. So I make some darker color. The brush is slightly wet and I proceed just like this before putting the color and then blending with the other clean brush. The light area is too big, so I paint another stripe of color and even if I the first drybrushtrokes it’s ok because my color is transparent so it will show up anyway, you don't have to over blend. Sometimes you can leave hard edges because it fits the surface of this object. I keep adding more color to make this carrot more dimensional. And as you can see, I'm also creating these little lines because they really reminds me of how the carrots are. Now I want to use a different color like a burnt sienna , to add some details. Now it’s time to add the green part and we can use again the drybrush technique to render its fluffyness. For this green I pick my emerald, but I muted down by adding some red. I prefer more muted less saturated colors in general. I start with some very light brush strokes like that and keep going. Now for the details like the linear shapes, I can use my small brush and use the wet on dry technique and you don't need to follow your reference exactly. Just focus on the motion, on the gesture. I’m adding some darker parts with my small brush, to add some volume. Finally, we can give this carrot a little shadow. But this is optional, so follow your taste. To do so, of course I use wet on wet and I mix a netrual tone, using some orange, green and blue. I don’t want a strong dark color so you can see that i diluted it, and remember that if it flows too much you can always take a clean brush and push the paint back. I hope you like this painting. 6. Seascape part 1: Our final project is a seascape with a dramatic sky. And for this, I'm using the 100% cotton paper cold pressed instead of the usual xl canson, because this time it's particularly important to use a good cotton paper. And I want to prove this to you. Also, we're almost at the end of our journey. This being the second last class of the series. So you may be ready for upgrading your art supplies, at least for the paper. I don't need a detailed sketch and I'm just drawing the horizon line. I'll start from the sky and my inspiration is this picture here. As you can see, there's a warm tone to the horizon and then those stripes of dense dark clouds. So I mix those two main colors. For those kind of smooth gradients can you guess which technique is the best? Yeah, exactly: wet on wet. So first layer of clean water here to the horizon line. And then my warm and I place it above the horizon line. Then I start from the top. And I don't go over everything, I leave some white area. And here I use this movement to make those long, thin clouds. And I could leave it like that, but I'm going to dry it and paint another layer to make it darker and more dramatic. And it's much lighter after dying. I'm using the wet on wet technique again and I add some dark color. I'm tilting my board because I want the paint to move a bit more. But here the paint stops because there’s no water, so with a clean and wet brush I want to help it flow better. And I also add some orange paint. For the sea I'm using the same color, but I want to focus on the light reflections on the first layer. And then I try it on a scrap paper. And if it's dry enough, I can start to paint and with a firm hand, I start with quick and horizontal movements like that. And I don't push too much on the paper, especially at the start, have a light hand. And again, go on with some more paint. And I fill all the space like that. If the brush is very dry, you can also move it like that back and forth and push a little bit more on the paper. And now, just like we did for the carrot, we need a layer of wetter paint to give those dry brush strokes a sense, a context. I still dab it a bit, I don't want to start with too much water in my brush and I started from the sides. When I see an interesting effect like here, I decided where to leave my reflections, I don't need to follow my photo reference. As usual If you feel that you're covering too much and you don't feel this friction from the texture of the paper, it’s probably because your brush is too wet. From time to time, I stop for an overall vision and I decide whether to paint. How many reflections I want to leave. There is not a right or wrong amount. It depends on you. For this painting, I don't want to leave too many reflections, so I am progressively restricting them, being careful to shape them like I want to. And I'm also creating some lighter shades for the sea in order to better integrate those reflections. And I also want to work on the sea texture, make it more realistic and interesting. 7. Seascape part 2: Same light hand, adding some dark orizontal line. Here I think it’s nice but not very realistic so i want to cover more, I feel like that's too much white at this point. Take in mind that the sky is very cloudy, so we don’t have too much direct sunlight. On the bottom I darken even more. You can play a lot with those reflections, you can also make smaller paintings and experiment with the amount and the shape and distribution of the reflections. And of course, with a different palette. I think that I'm getting closer to the result I want but there are still too many white spots. And for these I use dry brush again because I don't want to lose these shapes, this sharpness. Yeah, I think that now there's a better balance between darks and lights in this composition. While we wait for it to dry I want to add some far mountains because I think that they often are a nice ddition for seascapes, like this one. I am mixing the two tones I already used to get a neutral one. And in general, if you followed my other classes, you may have noticed that I do that often. Instead of introducing another color, I mix from my palette in that way the overall look will be much more cohesive. I created a very transparent tone for the mountains that are very far. And I like that they are kind of disappearing in the clouds. For the second layer of mountains I mix some more blue. So it's a bit darker. Third and last layer of mountains. If you prefer, you can use some tape to make sure you don't paint over the sea. And for my focal point, I'm going to add a couple of boats near the horizon. They are going to be just silhouettes, nothing complicated. And for these, I need a very dark color. Always mixing blue and burnt sienna. Use this small brush, especially for these thin lines. And if you prefer, you can draw the shape of the boat with your pencil. Now for the next line, that is thinner how can we do? I don’t have a smaller brush! Well, use this trick. You paint a line with the same brush but with a slighly lighter value, that way it will be read as thinner. And if you want to enhance this difference, you can make the first one, the mast, a bit darker I want to make a last layer on the sea because I feel that there are still too many little lights, it’s a bit distracting especially at the bottom. I want to preserve those strong lights here, but I want to darken all the rest, they will stand out more if I make the others a bit more in the shadow. And it will be easier to guide the eye and attention here to the center and not disperse it everywhere. And a very last touch for the mountains that I want slighly darker I feel more comfortable making a straight vertical line. So I turn my page like that. If there is some small reflections that disappeared and you want to bring it back, you can do it with an exactor knife. So this is an opportunity to show you this tool. Just scrape away some paint and you find the white of the paper. Be careful not to overdo it and don't press too hard. 8. Bye!: Thank you for watching this class. I hope you liked it. And I'll see you in the last class of this course, which will be all about mixed media. Happy painting.