Watercolor Nutcracker Face

1. 1 Class Intro: Hello. I'm Daniella Melon and author and artist here on skill share. Thanks for joining me for today's class Watercolor Nutcracker faces. In today's class, I'll demonstrate techniques for painting three Nutcracker faces. We'll capture the festive and playful nature of this toy soldier. Using watercolor paints basic painting techniques like using wet on wet pigments wet on dry and feathering out pigment, this class is geared towards beginner to intermediate water colorists. We'll start by sketching her image with pencil onto watercolor paper. I've included an easily downloadable template with a silhouette of three expressive faces with prominent features, wild hair and silly but pronounced beards. After you have your sketch, choose your colors going either traditional or unique. Then start painting the hat, hair and face to create your distinctive image for your class project. Create your own Nutcracker face. Take a photo of your work and posted in the project section. Be sure to follow me here on skill share to get notified of future classes and please consider leaving a review. Thanks for watching. Now let's get started 2. Class Supplies: the supplies for our watercolor nutcracker face class include the templates, and there's to hear that you confined in the project section. Just download them on to copy paper and print them out. There's one face on each page. I haven't eight by 10 piece of watercolor paper. Here, this is £140. It's a nice wait. I have some brushes a 10 64 and one my jug of water. Ah, pencil and an eraser that I used to trace the template and then my water color pigments also use a light source to trace my template, but you can also cut it out or just freehand your image if you'd like, the next chapter will go over using the template. 3. Using the Template: to use my template. I will either freehand sketch the image or I'll use a light source. In this case, I have a little light pad, but you could use a window or a glass picture frame with a light bulb underneath it. Then I just put my printed out template onto that source, have it illuminated, and then I will put my watercolor paper on top of it. And from here I can trace where I want it, because I'm gonna make thes so that I can hang on a tree or a garland or a wall. I want to put my peace So there's enough room up here if I can add additional area to hang it. So I just see my image here and then I'll just very lightly sketch around it, and I'll take my time to create this image just so that it's really nice the way I wanted. Also, at this point after I have traced my image, this is where I will modify my template. So if I don't like the hair to be wild like this, I can alter it. I can make it rounded, or it could make it braided or it can make long strands. And the same thing goes with all the features the nose, the eyes, the moustache and a beard. Now the hat as well. I don't have cheeks drawn in here, but I'm gonna add them after with watercolor paint. And that's also something that consider at this stage is, if other things you might want to add the next chapter will start painting. 4. Nutcracker #1: : to start my neck cracker face. I'm gonna actually work on the skin. First, choose any skin tone you'd like. I'm gonna mix like a PCI color. So I'm just taking some water. Some of this brilliant pink, a little of this for 1,000,000 Hugh. And I'm just mixing it until I find the right combination of color. This is still a little too pinkish for me, so I'm gonna add a little bit of this hens a yellow. And now, Mike, peachy color is starting to form. I'll take a little more of that brilliant pink mix that in. And there I have a skin tone that I like, Got a rinse my brush And I'm just gonna work on right now saturating the paper, and I'm gonna leave a nice, generous amount of dry paper between the eyes, the eyebrows and the moustache and the same thing with the nose. Even though the nose in the skin are gonna be the same color, I want there to be a little white border, which I'm gonna leave a nice, generous spot around My pencil marks could put a little wet paper around my features, and then I'm gonna switch to a very small brush. But I want to make this paper saturated so that the color is nice and light and it runs well. So they're switched my number one brush, much smaller brush pick up my pigment and right on the edge. I'm gonna start, will start on the left hand side because I'm right handed. So if you're left handed, you might want to do their inverse of that. And again, I'm going for a light color. I can always add more color here. I want the darkest color also to be at the edge of my face and the later color in the center. So because I have a lot of water on my paper, I can just use what's on the brush. If I didn't put enough water on my paper, I can go back, dip my brush in water to get the lighter effect in the center of the face. I'll go back at a little more pigment to the outskirts of the face here and just gently carry it over again. I'm being very generous with the space of dry paper. Between my features and the pigment that I add. Dip a little my brush in a little bit of water to get just a little hint of color here behind the eye and then all very carefully move my wet pigment around, Come back in, not the base here. I'm gonna drop in a more pigment, and then I'm going to start on the other side because again, I want the pigment to be at the exterior. But a drop in more pigment and just pull that color ology a wet paper. Create those nice shapes. My brush. Get a little water on my brush to create the lighter Grady in the center of the face. Again, add more pigment to the perimeter and with what's left on the brush, slowly use that inside the face. From here, I'll take what's left on my brush if there's anything left. If not, I'll just dip it in again and I'm gonna do inside this nose here, leaving a little nice edge between the pencil marks and the interior, the nose. Then I'm gonna take a lot more pigment on my brush and on the exterior of the knows, I'm gonna go in. If it runs onto my nose, I'll just dab it off with a paper towel, but I want a little bit of shadow on the outside of the nose. A shadow created by that knows we'll do the same thing here underneath the mustache and then underneath the eyes. I'll go in here behind the eye, where the brow bone essentially would make more of a shadow. Now, just smooth out any colors here, so there's no rough edges. When I'm happy with that face, I'll let that completely dry before we start our next step. 5. Nutcracker #1:: So now I'm gonna start at the top of my hat and work my way down. You can choose your colors here. You gotta choose a color for the crown. Ah, color for this hat part And then one for the top of the hat. A little pillow are bubble on top of the hat. My Christmas colors that I'm gonna use are gonna be pink and turquoise Very untraditional. But I think it'll look really cute on my piece because I'm using pink and turquoise. My hair will either be white or shades of gray instead of a harsh black. So I'm gonna start up top here on this little bobble. I'll just wet it saturated, leaving a generous space between the outlines here in pencil And because I'm gonna go with pinks and blues, I'm gonna have this be the turquoise, This be the pink And I'm going to use gold for the crown. So I'm just starting with the top here and I'm gonna make that to a turquoise. So I take the cerulean blue and a little Prussian blue. I'm gonna mix that together. Then I'm gonna take a little deep green mix that in when I have the color that I want a little more pressure in blue. Listen, dip, dip my brush and get a lot of pigment on my brush. But I want to be able to control it. And then I'm gonna work on the dry area, the paper adding pigment to those to that part and then it's going to run. I'm a wet area. So I'm just bringing my pigment around. Got a foot my piece to side here so that I can painted a little easier that I'm gonna come back in and put a lot of pigment right on the edge and I'll leave those highlights just as they are As it dries. The water might move around as it evaporates in the paper, absorb some and we'll see what type of image we get. But for now, I like it. There are no harsh lines and the color I really like. But a rinse my brush gonna skip over the area that I'm gonna do in pink, and I'm gonna just do this crown area, so I'm gonna put lots of water on my paper, leaving generous space on the edge. And I'm gonna avoid saturating these little areas that I want to put the jewels. And so then I'm gonna take some deep yellow my palate and a little bit of this Hansa yellow , A little water and a little of the vermillion. Hugh, it's a little too gold for my taste. Ah, little to orangy gold. So I'll go back in here with a little of this deep yellow. Maybe one more addition of that, I would take it on my brush again. A number four brush. I'm gonna turn my paper this some time, gonna start at the bottom of my hat, my crown, actually, and introduce the pigment. It just barely touches the area where we wet the paper and we're gonna let that run as it wishes. That would be very careful to get right to the edge. And again, I'm just gonna continue creating the shape of this crown. Now I'm starting to hit the areas that I did not wet on the paper, so I want to be very careful to not leave harsh edges. Come back in, continue making that crown shape, and I'll do this all the way around. Then I'll go around the little jewels that we're gonna add later and I'll come back and pick up more pigment and introduce that right around the border. Give a nice, bold color. Do that all the way around. Then I'll rinse my brush. So I see that it's clear. And I'm just gonna introduce Clearwater to the areas over here. There's no harsh edges. I'll turn this over, see if I want to add a little more pigment to certain areas. And I see I do under this bobble and right on the edge is here, do a little here it the base of these points on the crown. And I love that vibrant color, so I'm just gonna let that completely dry. 6. Nutcracker #1:: Now, I'd like to work on this top part of the hat here. And I said I would do that in the nice pink to go with the theme that I wanted to use. So put some water in my palette. Mix some of this brilliant pink as end of this parallel in Red Prince off my brush. Get a little more that read there. I have a color that I really like Got a rinse off my brush and I'm gonna wet inside This hat will turn the paper to the side It's a nice big shape and I'll saturated Leaving generous amount of dry spite space between the other parts of the hat. This is a number four brush. Then I'm gonna go in and pick up this color and create that perimeter. Same technique we did for the other two parts of the hat create this shape, leaving just a very fine millimeter of space between the top of the hat, the top part, the blue and the part I'm working on now. Gonna go in and I'll do the same thing, leaving just a little millimeter of dry paper between the crown and this pink part of the hat. It's easier if you leave a lot of space at first, and then you just slowly work your way in with a sharp point of a brush. Come over here, turn my paper upside down very carefully. With that sharp point, Bring that pigment closer to that blue part of a hat takes more pigment. Drop it on the edge and then I'm gonna wet my brush. Clean it off. Just take a little of this brilliant pink. It's a much lighter pink. Soak a lot of that on my brush and just deposited here and there on the area on the crown, still leaving some highlights on the white of the paper. And this gives an interesting effect multiple colors. So it's still pink, but it's not all solid, same pigment, the same shade, and I'm gonna let this layer completely dry. 7. Nutcracker #: 1Hair Part 1: So now I'd like to work on my hair and the hair, the mustache, the eyebrow and the beard are all gonna tie together. But I'm gonna start with hair. So with my number four brush, I'm just gonna saturate the paper all over the hair area again. It's not gonna be perfect. I'm leaving a lot of dry space between my other, my head here and the edges so I could get a nice, sharp edge. But I'm just going to start with hair. Then I'm gonna mix a very light gray comix. Whatever call you'd like for the hair. If you want to go brown or black and with the gray, I'm gonna mix it. I have a little bit of the black with some of my water and I wanted to be light, and then I'm gonna take a little of his blue that we made for the top of the hat here just to add it to the gray. It'll kind of coordinated. It doesn't really make the gray blue, but it has a little tent. It looks very cohesive when it's done. Switch to a smaller brush. This is my number one brush. I could pick up some of that color. We just mixed and it's still a light gray gonna turn my paper to the side here, and I'm going to start on the outer outside of the hair right where the pencil mark is, and I'm gonna create that shape. I'll go about halfway down with whatever shape hair I made. I'm gonna go dip my brush in the water and come back and just blend out the edge, not worried about it up close against the face because what I'm gonna do there is add a lot more pigment. Then I'll continue creating that shape of the hair We want nice, smooth edges on one side and then to gently blend on the other, I'm purposely avoiding the interior section of hair right in here. Take some water blended out. You know, I'll rinse my brush, and I'm gonna push some of that water out. So I'm gonna take it and just press over here just like this, Kind of create a clean interior section on the hair. So that's what it's gonna look like. And I want to do the same thing on this side, so I'm gonna just re wet the area lightly just so that I know that it's wet. Sometimes it dries quickly on the paper. They'll come back in with that color and make that exterior shape. Actually, it's easier for me if I do it this way. Create that nice edge on the exterior is what I'm concerned with right now, and we'll work on the interior next. Once again, I'll wet my brush so it's nice and clean and just push any pigment out from the inside. Here. I'm gonna go back more pigment on my brush and very carefully just added to the exterior section. So the darkest area will be at the furthest point from the face, and I also want a little dark area up top here and over down here where it connects. Do the same thing over here, adding more pigment to the exterior spot furthest from point from the face and let this layer completely dry. 8. Nutcracker #1: The Beard: So now we have the hair dried. We're gonna work on the beard. In this case, I divided the beard into three sections, but what I'm gonna do is treat each section as its own beard. Essentially. So I'll start with this middle section just gonna wet the center, and then I'm gonna take a little more pigment. I'm gonna make a little more pigment first. So I put my black a little bit of water, and then I pick up a little of this blue go back, pick up a little more blue, and then a little more water. We'll get a nice sharp point on my brush, and then I'm just gonna paint right at the pencil. Mark introduced pigment right at the pencil. Mark, this will give me the nice little s shape here that we have on this beard. Do it on this side as well. Once I have that all down before it really dries, dip my brush in water and blend that edge out. Just dry off my brush a little, pick up a teeny bit of pigment and create a little line darkest shadow up against the face . Although it's my brush. So that it's damp and blend it out. There's no harsh edges, and I'll come and just deposit a little more pigment right on the edge. Everywhere this will dry, lighter will give a nice effect. Gonna let this layer dry before I work on my other two layers. 9. Nutcracker #: The Beard Part 2: Now that our first layer has dried, I'll come back and work on the two other pieces and again treating them just like their separate beards. So I want the exterior to be the darkest part because I have the interior already done. I'm gonna bring my water right to the edge here on both sides because water tends to pool. Here it the little tip. Just gonna pull it up with my dry brush switch to my number one brush, pick up some pigment and create that exterior shape. I'll go back in my wedding, my brush middle, rinse my brush completely clear. And I'm not gonna bring it all the way to the edge where it meets the centerpiece. That'll do the same thing on this side. Start with my perimeter. When I have a nice shape, I'll go back in dab in more pigment on the edge because it's a bigger piece. So go back in one more time, adding more pigment. We'll dip my brush and water to lighten it. I just extended a little bit further and then lastly, I'll clean the brush and bring it mostly to the edge of that middle beard section. that'll come back and dip in more pigment on the edges one more time. If it's dried on the paper like it might be on this piece of beard, I'll come back in and just with my, um, pigment on a point, just drop it in really emphasizing that edge. Gonna pull the beard right underneath the chin area almost to the entire length. I'm gonna rinse my brush and blend that edge out on both sides. There's any areas that I think look a little strange off. Rinse my brush out so it's nice and clear and just blend any edge. And because we have that little border between sections, it adds depth and texture. I'll go back in with a little pigment on my brush and just clean up this edge of the piece that had already dried in the center section. Make a nice shape because that's what this beard really emphasizes in this painting. And then once my dad, my brush, just blend that out so there's no harsh line skeptical right in the center, and we'll let this layer completely dry 10. Nutcracker #1: Hair: And now I want to do one more layer on the hair. So on the inside I'll take my number one brush and I'm just gonna wet closest to the head and just a little bit out mimicking the shape that we have sketched here. Gonna go in with my brush, pick up some of this pigment and create that nice dark edge up against the face. Not gonna go all the way down And then I'm gonna just pull out the pigment echoing the shape I'll go in with a wet brush just moving around right to the edge of that pencil line that we made from there. I'll pick up a little more pigment. If I have to mix a little more, I will take a little of that black. It's more of that. Blue had much more water. My color is much darker than I wanted. So I'm gonna press some of this pigment to the side, take some cerulean blue little Prussian blue and I'll introduce some of this color back Add a little more water and a little more black, but I'll switch back to my smaller brush, pick up some of this pigment and just create that nice edge up against the head. Now, here I have a little more blue in the mix, and I really like the way that looks. But if you didn't like that, you could go in there and add some more dark black. That's why I'm emphasizing the shape. I'm cleaning my brush, keeping it wet and just letting it bleed out. The darkest color is up against the face because we took that blew that we have in the hat coordinates nicely. Go back in just dipping a little pigment closest to the face, very controlled spots. And then I'll work on the other side. Here. Create that edge, dip my brush and water so it's a little lighter version. Pull it out, mimicking and echoing shapes and then, with a wet brush, bring it right to the edge of those pencil marks. I'll go back in with that color, leaving more blue closest to the face, just pulling it out in sections where I wanted to mimic the shape. Same thing over here. I want to mimic a shape a little more. Rinse my brush. So now it's clean and damp and really emphasize that shape. And when we have it, how I like it. Don't just lift that layer dry, just like that 11. Nutcracker #1: Mustache Eyebrows: So now I want to work on my eyebrows and my mustache. I'm gonna go in with my number one brush. What? It was clear water and just wet center of both the eyebrows and the moustache. I'm gonna go in Mex mix just a teeny bit of this black in with the color that we mix that we used on this hair highlight just so that it's a little more black, Um, gray and less blue. And I'm gonna put just a little on my brush, make a sharp point just a little on my brush and I'm going to start at the base and I'll start with this mustache here. Just gonna make little teeny strokes, creating that nice shape, go up a little bit and then I'll continue when the outline of this mustache, I'll rinse my brush completely, and now it's just clear I'll go in and blend it out. Any areas air Stubborn. I'll put a little water on the paper, but it absorb in and that's moving around because this is £100.140 pound watercolor paper . It's a little thicker, and I could work with it a little more. The lighter pound the more likely it is to tear or rip. So now I'm gonna take my brush completely dry it and pull some of this wetness from the center of this mustache again. Clean my brush and dry it. And that was a nice shadow highlight area. So it's darkest on the edge and latest where I'm removing the pigment. Gonna go do that on the next mustache as well. I'm gonna make sure it's wet in the center. Pull my pigment, create the perimeter, rinse my brush and blend it all out. Pick up any pigment from the center that I don't want to stay there, and now I'm going to the same technique with the eyebrows. But I want them to be considerably lighter, and that's an easy alteration. So all I do is I take my brush, find a spot of my palette and just slowly introduce a little bit of the pigment. And then I have a much later area again. We'll go in. Start with one eyebrow with the center, pick up my lighter pigment and create that shape. We have it all colored in. I'll dry my brush, make a thirsty brush and pull the pigment right off the center. Dry brush. Pull the pigment off the center, and I'll do the same thing with this other eyebrow. Reason I do this instead of just painting the area and leaving the centre dry is it helps me to get very smooth transition from the darkest point to the lightest point. So there are many ways to achieve it. It's just you choose the technique that works best for you in the situation that you have. So there we have the eyebrows, the mustache, the hair and the beard. We're gonna let this layer dry and come back and work on the eyes. 12. Nutcracker #1: Eyes: to work in the eyes. I want the iris and the pupil, um, to have pigments So I'm gonna makes my color And I'm gonna mix a blue my Prussian blue And I don't need very much And a little purple This is gonna be the eye color It's a brilliant color And it will go nicely with my blue and my pink So I'm going to start here and color in where I want my pigment, Billy the inner circle so that I could color that in black with a highlight But I'm gonna take my pigment on a sharp point And I'm just gonna go up top here, depositing the pigment to maintain the shape here. It's a small area, but I wanted to look neat. Then I'm gonna go back to my palette Once I have that bind done, pull my brush and just start moving the pigment around to create that nice black circle. Got a rinse? My brush. Now it's damp and with the damp brush, not a really wet brush. I'm gonna pull that color and see how, because I did it this way. The color is most intense at the top of the I. It's a very pretty watercolor effect. I could go back in here and drop even more pigment in the top of the eye to really emphasize that radiant and it came out beautiful. So now we'll try our hand at doing it in the other eye. So make sure that areas wet but not uncontrollably wet. I'll pick up my pigment and create my shape. Go in with a damp brush, pull it out, continue to make that shape. I'll drive my brush, pick up some more pigment. So its most intense and just drop it up top here, closest to the top of the face. And so they're on the iris. We have a nice Grady int. I'm gonna let this layer completely dry. 13. Nutcracker #1: Eyes Part 2: So now that the iris is completely dry, we're gonna work on the pupil. Could use my smallest brush, some really intense color. And I'm gonna leave a highlight if I make a mistake. And the highlight gets colored in the highlight, meaning the dry paper. I'll let it completely dry, and then I can go over it with gel pen. So it is gonna take some black on the end of my brush. We'll start here, turn this on an angle, but create this shape of that pupil here where it needs the top of the I. And then I'm gonna outline a very big highlight because I can always go in and fill it in. I'm gonna create the pupil and then I'll do the same thing to the other I. So I start with shape, create the highlight, and then I fill it in. Now what I like to do is after I painted to see if they're fairly symmetrical, they don't have to be perfect. But I see this one is just a little off for my taste. I'll go in and I'll leave it just like that. I'm gonna let this layer completely dry. We'll come back and add some final touches 14. Nutcracker #1: Final Details: never pieces dry. I went over it with an eraser and just erase some pencil marks. I left thes pencil marks here. Just so I have a nice guide. We'll start at the top and work in some final details. I want to work on the jewels here, and so I'm just gonna make them purple. So I'm gonna take some water, mix it with a little purple here and a little bit of blue, and I want them to be fairly intense in color. So I take a little Prussian blue little purple and mix it together so I find the right shade that I like. There we go switch to a smaller brush my number one brush, and I'm gonna just wet the center of this main jewel. I'll turn my paper on its side. And now I'm gonna work very carefully at getting the shape Just the rounded shape here, this Jule So work on the perimeter just like that. And then I'll just add in more water. I'll just add in more pigment. I'll take that same pigment work on the perimeter here and on the other. Jewell, over here. I'll go to this other Jewell and again, I'm not working on the exterior perimeter, just the interior of the shape here. Well, rinse my brush so it's damp, and I'm just gonna blend that out slightly. So it's gonna be super light at the edge again. I'm just finding that out. And then when I turn it back on its side, I can see where it's nice and darkest, and I just want to drop in a little more pigment there, and I'll continue that over here is Well, so there we have our jewels for our crown again using my smallest brush. I want to add some cheeks. So I'm just gonna take wet brush and paint some circles here. And because of the shape of the mustache, I could go right on the inside, follow that circle and painted. Gonna pick up a little this pink here that we used on the hat just because I haven't dried on my palette left over. If you don't have any leftover or you cleaned your palate, just mix it in a nice light shade of pink. I'm adding in some extra water and I'll go in here and just drop in some pink, right in the center of the West Circle I made. Then I'll rinse my brush. Just drag it around. I just want a light, Hugh. Just like that on the left hand side, It went very well. The right hand side, he was too light. So I'll go in there and add a little more dropping a little more in the center. Make sure I have those nice rounded shapes. And then I'm gonna take my brush because I have a little of this flesh tone. I'm gonna just pick it up on my with my brush with a very sharp point with a lot of pigment . Not a lot of water. And I'm just gonna very carefully create the perimeter of the nose. Very light strokes. Just barely touching the paper. Come over here on the side middle. Going up here to outline it. Gonna put my brush down on the palate, wiping off as much as I can. Take a little water to brush. Fulls of water, just like it. A very muted tone. And I'm just gonna pull that color on the exterior of the nose. I don't want it to bleed into the nose. I want that to be the latest area, but right on the exterior, it could curl it around. Just like that. I wanted to blend out. So after I have it blended out there will just take some clear water and help it around again. I'm gonna take that nice, dark tone, that pigment. I'm just gonna outline the eyes. This is all optional. Feel free to do this if you'd like. If you don't want to do this, you don't have to. I just think it creates a little sharper edge. A little more contrast again. Very light strokes. And then I'm gonna do the same thing with the gray on a nice light grey more pigment than water. And if it's too dark, it's gonna really stand out too much. And if it's too light and running, it's not gonna work either. Take a little on my brush and I just want to outline the face leaning towards a little more on the side of the hair and the beard, just like this creates a little more shadow to the face, stands out to the same thing on this side. And you could spend as much time as you like doing this detail work, you could outline all the features. Just use a coordinating colors that you'd like. I'm very happy with it. Just like this. And then, lastly for the crown, I'm gonna mix a little bit of the color again. So I'll take some of this deep yellow in the hands of yellow. I just want to make a nice, sharp point of my brush and outline the base of that crown. And here we have our first Nutcracker face. 15. Nutcracker #2: The Hat: for our Second Nutcracker image. We're gonna take the piece of my hair I sketched in pencil and we're gonna work on colors. Could you use this hat here like the traditional English hat? And it's usually black. I'm gonna make it with a hint of blue just so that black isn't so stark. So to do that, I'm gonna take Clearwater brush around the hat, not bringing in the water. Clearwater, The edge of the paper. I'm just saturating the paper right now. Sweet. Get nice. Highlights the switch to my smaller brush My number six brush and we take some black here. I'm going to pet puddles. I'll rinse my brush and I'll take some Prussian blue I'll put it in this one and then rinse my brush again Take a little purple Put it in this one And it doesn't really change the color too much, but it gives us a little bit of darkness toe work with gonna make a nice sharp point with the darkest color that we have here. The number six brush and I'm gonna create that edge, making using a nice, thick line where I'm leaning and pressing the about 3/4 of the brush onto the paper just like this. And I'm trying to go slow enough that the paper doesn't absorb all my pigment. And I'm not pressing the brush totally flat, just 3/4 or so, and this gives it a little bit of give going every so often, and I'll go back and deposit more pigment. And when I deposit more pigment, I don't have to press is hard. I could just let the paper be a little absorbent and pick up some of that pigment and water for my brush coming all the way around here. Nice, thick line this is supposed to depict, picked like a furry hat or a lot of texture on this hat continuing on. So now I have a nice perimeter set up. I'll go back in and just deposit little more pigment. And then I'll take some of that pigment and I'll put it in spots. Nice, thick spots and again, I started stick with odd numbers on that they will come back in and pick up some of that dark blue pigment, and I'll deposit that right on top of the already dark spots that we've added, leaving it so that the center of the hat has the most highlights. Turn this over. Move my paper just a bit. You can see how it's bleeding nicely. Could a rinse my brush, take a little more black and mix it here. It'll go back in and dropping some more pigment again. I'm trying to keep about quarter of it. Um, in the centre, untouched. We're just my paper. Highlights are showing through and here I have nice, nice Grady. And from a super thick, dark outer edge highly pigmented to a little bit of color Little blue inside. I'll go back with more Prussian blue, mix it in with my black, and then I'm gonna deposit it right on top of it again. I like that supersaturated look. You can do that with any color. It doesn't have to be blue, purple, red, green. They look great as well. Just going to posit more color there. And then I'm just gonna make sure there's no harsh edges here. I don't really have any harsh edges. If I did, I would take a wet brush, not super wet that I couldn't control, but just wet and kind of just helped this along and it kind of does its own thing. I'm gonna let this layer completely dry and then we'll come back for our next steps. 16. Nutcracker #2: The Face: So now that our hat is dried, I want to work on adding some color to the face to the skin. Gonna make him an olive tone. So I'm gonna take my brush, put a little water down on my palette, take some of his brilliant pink them to take a little of the hands of yellow and mix that in. I start to get a, um, I will start to get a little PCI tone, but add a little variety in Hue with that. So now that I have that tone, I'm gonna add some sepia. I'll just add it until I get the right shade that I'm looking for, where it's less orange and more warm brown. And then I'll just add some water. So have a nice color there for the skin tone could have clean my brush. And then I'm gonna paint over the skin area the nose gonna leave the eyes of the eyebrows and the mustache untouched. So it'll just be white paper there and here I'm just trying to create a color wash, um, a little wet water on my paper so that I can deposit the color, so I'm going to switch now to a number four. Brush at a little water. Pick up my pigment and I'll start by making the perimeter come around here, Turn my paper to the side. Continue with my colors here, adding my skin color here. Nice sharp point. Continue to add the color while the papers damp to get a little darker on the edges to create natural shadows. Come in here outlined. The mustache under the eyebrows could dip my brush in the water to lighten it up further. So I get a little highlight in the center of the face. Continue adding pigment around here and then underneath the eye the same thing. So now I have my first layer of color. Well, it's still damp. I want to go in there, pick up some more pigment deposited writer along the edge of my face here, all around the edge. Then I'm gonna go underneath the eye and because it's damp, it's gonna run a little bit. I'll go underneath the mustache and the eyebrow. Go right on the top of the eye. Here, dampen my brush, blend out any edges. Come back in one more time, deposit pigment around the edge since we know it dries light. Or anyway, just like that, and we'll let this layer completely dry. 17. Nutcracker #2: The Beard: Okay. Now we're gonna work on the hair and the beard with a clean brush and clean water. I'm just gonna wet. Beard will start with the beard. So I'm gonna wet around there, leaving a little barrier between the perimeter. And I want them to look like there are white beard. So I'm going to use a light color, like a light gray or light blue start with a blue. So this is cerulean blue and some water. Now, I have just a teeny amount of this black, so I wanted to have a really a blue tone for a gray. So now, with a sharp point on my number one brush, I'm gonna start outlining very carefully. Just the tip of the brush onto the paper, and I'll start with about half of a beard. Maybe 1/4 of the beard start with. So I've outlined it. Gonna go in there and rinse off my brush. And now I'm gonna bring water right to the spot where I outlined it. All I'm gonna do is blur that edge. So one part of the edges super concentrated the outline and the other part blends very gently into the beard. Can I take my pigment on a sharp point? Do rest the other half. Um, so I get to about half of the beard, rinse my brush, remove some of the water blend and blur the edge somewhat on the inside. I could come back in with a little bit more pigment and deposited along the edge here because I already wet the paper. It'll bleed, and I'll continue this the entire perimeter of the beard when a nice, somewhat thicker edge. Then I'll come back in with that wet brush. Just the point and blended out, can pick up the pigment and blended out. I could go back in and little deposits throughout it. A little darker color spots, which will create a little bit of a shadow. And then lastly, work touches the face. I want there to be more of a shadow. Rinse my brush. Make a nice sharp point with the pigment, leaving just the teeniest of spaces between where I'm putting the pigment and the face color don't want them toe overlap just yet. That'll go in with some wet brush with a wet brush and blend that out. Make sure it blends nicely to the white. And there we have what looks like a white beard. We'll let this dry and then we'll work on the hair. 18. Nutcracker #2: Hair: and now we work on the hair using the same technique from the beard. We're gonna make it a little lighter, so I'm gonna add a few brush fulls of water and just a little bit of a cerulean blue. If it's too blue, I'll add a teeny bit of this black till I get the look that I'm looking for, which is just slightly lighter than the one we already used. So here we have a very dusty blue start in the right hand side and I'll do about half the hairline. Add a little water to my brush, blended out again, pick up the brush, do the perimeter, pick up a little water and blended out. Now I'm going a lot faster on the hair. Then I did on the beard because I wanted the beard to be a little more precise. The hair can have a little more, um, a little less of a greedy in a little more of a graduated color. I'll do the same thing on this side. Outline my hair. They'll go in with a wet brush. Just blend that out. If I think it's a little too muted on dab in a little more pigment and then I'll blend that out as well. No harsh edges is the key here. I'm not gonna go up against the face on this one like we did here to create the shadow. I want the shadow to be from the face. But if you have a different opinion on that, feel free to add the shadow close to the face. We'll let this dry and then we'll come back and work on the mustache and the eyebrows. 19. Nutcracker #2: Mustache & Eyebrows: we'll start with the mustache and will use the same technique we did for the hair. So my number one brush, I pick up a nice point of the color. This is the same color remixed for the hair. Just gonna leave a slight edge to the outline of the mustache so it doesn't touch up against the flesh color. I'll go in, clean my brush and just blend out this color again. So there's no harsh lines. Do the same thing on this side of the mustache again, leaving just a little space between the color of the face and the mustache. I'll go in and blend that out. I'll go right to the eyebrows. Same technique very carefully, with a point on my brush and could create the perimeter of the shape. That's the shape that gives these nutcrackers their personality and make and prevents it from looking just like a normal face. But the face of what we come to know is the Nutcracker for Christmas time. Rinse my brush and blend out the edges, and now we'll let this dry will come back and work on the nose and the eyes 20. Nutcracker #2: Eyes, Nose, & Cheeks: I'd like to work on the nose first, and what I want to do is create a lighter color off what we see on the face. So I'm gonna take my eraser first and erase that knows any pencil marks that remain. Just brush it off because it's a nice nose to work with. And then to take some water and rehydrate my paint due to brush falls on the section of water that I hydrated and I'm gonna paint in the nose, leaving a little bit of border a white paper around the edge, Just a faint amount. One that you wouldn't necessarily notice appearing to try and believe Blend this out where the little space between the eyebrows and the nose meat. So you don't really have the beginning of the nose Once we have that shape filled in nicely in an almost blends completely with the highlight we have on the paper. I gotta go back in with a little water on my brush and try and rehydrate this color getting a little darker pigment little more intense. And then I'm just gonna outline the nose very carefully. And underneath two sides and underneath, put down a little more pigment. Then I'll wet my brush and just blend that out slightly. It was a little shadow by the nose, but not a lot. I could go back in, drop in a little more pigment, and if it bled into the nose, just take a sharp paper towel and pick up that pigment. Go back, finish this line and with a damp brush, blend this part out now for the eyes. Unlike the previous one we did where we had pupils and irises. This is just gonna be a black iris, I guess. Or black people, whatever you would like to call it. Going to take some black, put it down my palate with a little bit of water. I want a nice pigment, and then I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna leave a little highlight here, so I'll make that little box of, ah, highlight right on the side. And then I'm gonna create my shape, start underneath the highlight, my rounded edge, and then go over it. Have a nice shape there for the I. Then I'll come in here and do the same thing here. I draw my highlight, and then I go around the edge again. I'm trying to get the eyes somewhat symmetrical both in size and shape. Create a little tail here the I and then this one. I want to move a little further, but a rinse my brush and make little cheeks here. So take some water on my palette. A little of this brilliant pink. And because these olive skin I'm gonna take a little vermillion, Hugh, just like that. Maybe a little more gonna rinse my brush, make a circle with my brush just of wet water and they'll come in here with my pigment. Just see where it goes. I want to create a nice, rounded shape for the cheek. I'm gonna add a little more intense color, little pigment right on the center and let that bleed out. And I'm gonna come over here, rinse my brush, and then try the very challenging task of matching the size. So I'm gonna create a smaller circle first I can always enlarge it and then I'll add my pigment Still a little small. I will come back and create my cheek. And there we have our second not cracker 21. Nutcracker #3: The Hat: for our Third Nutcracker. I took the template, traced it onto my paper, and then I'm gonna start painting. And for this one, I'm gonna continue with my untraditional colors. And I'm gonna use purples and yellows for this, and I'm going to start with hat. So I'm using my number six brush. Just got to soak the hat, saturate the paper again, keeping a border of dry paper between the center of the hat and the perimeter. And then I have some stripes here. I'm gonna try and just saturate in between them. The stripes are gonna be yellow, so there are my paper starting to saturate nicely. Good. Mix my color. Here, take some purple, get a nice intense color and then some blue makes impression blue. And with that, take a couple of brush fulls of water. So I get a nice pastel lee soft light color Make a sharp point with my brush and I'll start my hat creating that shape that outline and then letting the highlights fall as they dio on the wet paper. Turn my paper around. So on this nutcracker this hat is the only thing with really sharp angles. The hat in the tip of the nose. The rest of it is kind of rounded The hair and the beard mustache gives an interesting effect. A little contrast. So now just go in at a little more pigment to the edges just to get a little more intensity there. Put a little water on my brush and just continue here with some highlights. And I'm gonna take a little more pigment both of blue and purple and just dropped that in right on the edge. Take it right to the edge. So now I'm gonna switch to my smaller brush my number one brush, and I'm gonna work in here on those little areas in between the stripes of the hat. So again, I'm gonna start from the outer edge, deposit Mike pigment and go about 1/3 of the way. Do it on the other side. Pull my pigment in again about 1/3 of the way, and then with a water down brush, just connect the two. I'll do the same thing with the bottom piece. After I have that first layer down, I'll go in there and add a little more pigment on the edges just to add some intensity. So now I'll just wet my stripe, both of them making sure that they're nice and paper is nice and wet. And then I'll add more intense color on the edges here. Now what that color bleed into the center, creating a natural radiant because I'm gonna paint the actual stripes yellow that are lighter color than what I'm using here. I want to make sure my edges with this purple or nice and sharp. So pull that shape and then I'll do the same thing with this one. Create my intense edge, rinse my brush so it's a much lighter pigment and help that to bleed. Here I create my nice, sharp edge and come over here and do the same thing there, since I want a light highlight in the center. If the pigments run too much, I'll just go in with some clear water and push that pigment to the side. Very happy with this, but I just want to make a little more intensity right on these two edges on this side as well as over here and now I'll let this layer completely dry. 22. Nutcracker #3: Beard & Eyebrows: So now I want to work on the hair. I'm gonna work on the beer, the mustache, the eyebrows in the hair. And so when we do is I'm gonna start with the beard and I'm gonna take that color that we mixed for the hat and I'm gonna mute it down considerably. So I'll take a bigger brush and add a few drops of water to that, and I have a much muted color. Then I'm gonna take my smallest brush, my number one brush, pick up some of that muted pigment and just create the edge. And I'll go about 1/4 of the way down the beard here, following the line. Then I'll rinse my brush, and I'm just gonna believe that out. So it's just not so harsh. Kind of a fuzzy line. The only spot that will be harsh will be the right at the edge here of the beard. The inside of the beard is gonna be very fuzzy, very blended. Continue that. If there's any area where the pigment is too light, I can always go over it. And because I'd meet that first layer and the paper still wet, it will bleed out further. Rinse my brush, blend that out and you can continue doing this, making the line thicker each time if you'd like. I just want a hint of the edge of the beard, and I'm using a lighter hue of the hat just to make this coordinate. Well, so here I have my edge since my brush and blend out the color. I'll do the same thing at the top of the beard, making the line even thicker. Just for more shadow and blending that out. Then I'll come and I'm just gonna make an imaginary line here without pencil, just with the pigment and blend that out and I'll do the same thing down here and I'll blend that out as well. Gonna move on to the eyebrows using the same technique. This time I'm gonna go over the whole perimeter of the eyebrow. That's solid. I'm going with a clear brush of water and just let that all blend out, rinse my brush, do the same thing on this eyebrow, and I'll let this layer completely dry will come back and work on the mustache and the Hager 23. Nutcracker #3: Hair & Mustache: So now the work on the hair with my number one brush mix my pigment again and start making the outline I'm gonna turn this upside down just so there's less chance of me smearing my pigment with my hand We'll create the outline going right up against the face all the way around the hair here And this is where we have nice rounded shapes And it gives a very fun look I'll go over making sure all the spots are really wet with this pigment around the edge And then I'll rinse my brush and just blend out that color all around going in and re wins Rinsing my brush to make it nice and wet Helping this color to flow Gonna flip it over and work on this side Now same technique Gonna make a nice wet edge with a little bit of our very light pigment Really rounding those edges Then I'll go in, rinse my brush and blended out a little. Now I'm gonna carefully work on the mustache, turn my paper to the side and do the same procedure. Create the outline of one mustache and then blend out that color always working on the inside of the mustache. Do the same thing over here and just blend out that line. I'll let this layer completely dry and we'll come back and start to add some color to the face and the eyes. 24. Nutcracker #3: The Face: now, my hair and hat beard has all dried. They form the perimeter of this. So this is a good time for me to go and erase the pencil marks for everything except the nose in the eyes. As you can see, this color is very light, very muted. And that's the nice look, because I want the hair to look more white. Men purple. So right now we're gonna work on the face. So I'm gonna take some of this brilliant pink and a little of this hands a yellow little of this, a little more pink. It's looking quite orange. And now I'm to take a little sepia And this is really trial and error to get the color that you like. It's coming out. Well, now I'm gonna water that down. The couple of brush fulls of water. You could add a little more pink to that. A little too brown for the look I'm going for. And that's much better. We're gonna switch my brush here too. My number four brush. And I'm just gonna very carefully put a little water here on the edge of the face and in the center of the nose. That I'm going to switch my number one brush because it's kind of tight in here, and I'm gonna put a little pigment on my brush, come to a sharp point, and I'm going to start creating on the left hand side, the perimeter of the face. So I go all the way down the length of the face. Then I very carefully pull that pigment out right to the eyebrow underneath the eye, into the mustache. And, as you can see, it's gradually getting lighter. I'll dip my brush in water and pull that pigment all the way to the nose, and now it's very faint colored. I'll come back in with some pigment deposited on the side again. Still maintaining that shape of the face. Pull my brush in water so that my pigment on my brush is much lighter, and I'm gonna pull that right underneath the mustache, right to half of the face. Turn my paper around just because it's easier for me to work with, create that beautiful shape on the bottom of the face and then go in and add more pigment. I also want to add more pigment underneath my mustache and underneath my eye good. Put my get my brush and water and take a little off. Just so have more control with it on the point and go underneath that I again pulling it all the way right to that knows. And currently the latest part is about it, that knows, and that's kind of where we want it. For now, we will add a shadow, but I want to guess, get my face painted so that I can start adding shadows to the next layer. Come back in with my pigment and go right underneath the hat again, working on only half of the face at a time and one more time, I'll drop pigment on the edge down the length of the face, and I'll go a little bit here. Close to the beard. Did my brush in water to lighten the pigment and then make sure that I have the entire half of the face blended nicely. So there no harsh lines and the only harsh edges are for these features. The mustache, the eyes, eyebrows. When that looks right, foot my piece over right to the side, and I'll start doing the same thing on the other side. I like to start with the darkest points and then blend my color out from there and now where it touches the pigment we put down First, I want to be careful to put water on my brush and really blended so that there's no harsh line down the center of the face. Did my brush in water go underneath the nose in the eye and around this mustache will do the same thing over here and around the eyebrow and underneath the eyebrow. So my first concern is that there no harsh lines, and now my second concern is to make nice intensity, nice contrast on the edge of the face, and then we'll start to go underneath our features. They also like to go right up here on the bottom and underneath the hat just where the shadow would be. And then over here, I'll go underneath the eyebrows, rinse off my brush and I wanted to just fade out here. I don't want there to be a harsh line. They don't pick up more pigment on my brush, an outline underneath both eyes and again making sure that that doesn't form a line so much as it just blends out, pick up more pigment, go around my nose and underneath the mustache. I'll go up here and outline the mustache as well. But we can do that again. After all this pigment drives, I just want to create a nice, sharp edge there if I can well, let this layer dry and I'm gonna keep my pigments on my palette so that I can go in and add more intensity if I feel he needed. 25. Nutcracker #3: The Nose: I'd like to work on the nose a little bit here. So just with some Clearwater on my number one brush, I'm gonna wet the inside of the nose and then I'll go in there with a sharp point on my brush, picking up the same pigment we use for the face and just let that bleed inside of it. I'll have a little perimeter on the edge here of just white paper, And then, with a very careful stroke, I'll combine the two. I don't want to bleach out or pull up any color from the pigment we already put down on the face again. I'm gonna take a lot of pigment on my brush. And I'm just gonna create a very gentle line around the edge of the face here, barely touching my brush to the paper. And this will just solidify the edge and make it a little sharper. I'll do the same thing around all the features around the beard where the face meets the beard and underneath and around the mustache again, Just a light hand just barely touching the brush to the paper. But it just sharpens up that edge a little gives a little shadow, and that's a nice look here for our peace. Then I'm going move over to the eyes, go underneath the eye and right at the top here, the same thing over here with the eyebrow move down to my eye and then on this last eyebrow , Then I'm gonna take some more pigment on my brush and go around the nose here on the exterior part, not the interior. I have a fairly thick line, maybe an eighth of an inch. I'll come in with a damp brush and just blend it out slightly in just a little ways, still creating a little shadow from the nose, and I'll let this layer completely dry. 26. Nutcracker #3: Stripes on Hat: So now I like to work on the yellow of the stripes with my number four brush with a mix, a little hands, a yellow and just a little bit very teeny bit of So my color is still yellow but with just a hint of orange in it. Take a sprechen of water and add that as well. No, that will mute down the color I'll take I would turn my paper to the side, take my brush Still my number four brush We'll start at the bottom stripe here and I'm just gonna wet the entire length leaving a little bit of edge of dry paper Gonna switch to my number one brush, pick up my pigment and follow that line even though I erased it connecting the two parts of the hat and I'll do that on the other side here. Then I'll rinse my brush, removing all pigment so the brush is a little bit wet and I'll just combine it here So there's no areas of white except the highlight there gonna switch, um, to the next stripe here. I'm gonna switch to the next stripe here, dip my brush in water, wet the area of the stripe and the same thing work on the edge first, pulling a little bit of pigment that will work on this edge, pulling in my pigment again. Rinse my brush and just combine the two pink pigment areas. While this is drying, I'll pick up more pigment on my brush. Go back to my first stripe and deposit pigment right on the edge, and I'll do the same thing up top here. Turn my piece to the side, see that I have nice, sharp edges. Add one more layer of intense pigment to the edge and then let the layer dry. When we come back, we'll finish up by working on the eyes. 27. Nutcracker #3: Eyes: to work on the eyes into the mix My color don't need a lot of pigment Gonna make them green And I'll start with a deep green Makes a little Prussian blue with that And I'm gonna put my paper to the side and I'll start here at the top and I'll just outline the area where it meets the island here. And then I'll go around. The people pull the color down a little that I'm gonna rinse my brush clear and with a sharp point double check that it is, in fact, clear with a sharp point. Not too much water. I'm gonna encourage it to bleed into the bottom of the eye. Here, I'll come back, pick up my dark green pigment and drop it in and I'll let that dry. Well, I work on the next one. I'll go through the same procedure. I add my intense pigment creating the shape of that iris going around the pupil, but leaving the base of the iris untouched for now. Rinse off my brush, wet the base and then connected with the pigment we've dropped and I'll come back in here, grab a little more pigment on my brush of my deep green and dropping more pigment. I like it to be darkest up top and then light as it gets lower. Could have rinse off my brush and then dry it off and pick up just a little of this yellow from the hat and I'll drop that in at the base and again that will tie it all in together. Go back in, pick up a little green pigment and drop that in just above that yellow and I'll let this layer dry. Then I'll come back and work on the pupils. Now that my irises air dry, I want to go in there with some black, leaving a little highlight and make the pupils. So just have a wet brush and pick up some pigment. I want to be really intense. They'll start on this, I hear with small little strokes will make the shape follow the shape up top here of the I , and then I want a little highlights. We gotta leave box that out right away. If I do go over and color it, I can always go over it with a gel pen when it dries. Then over here I'll do the same thing. Create my shape, box out a highlight and fill it in. See that this pupil is a little smaller than the other one. So I'll just elongate that. And there we have our third Nutcracker face. 28. Class Wrap Up: to wrap up the class. I wanted to just go over our work and then just show you some ways. I made variations on them. So here we have the original Nutcracker with a pink and blue, the two toned hair and the beard kind of a fun look. Here we have our Second Nutcracker with our tall classic hat, small eyes, white hair and a beard. And then, lastly, we have our last Nutcracker or purple guy with very rounded hair, rounded beard, rounded mustache and very furry eyebrows. Kind of a cute look. What I did was I took my images and scan them into my computer, and then I printed them out onto heavy card stock. You could also just cut out your image that you already painted. But here I have the image and I took them and just cut around them, just a wide cut, giving them a little bit of a border. And then I punched holes in the top and they hung them on my Christmas tree. And so that looks really cute on the tree. The colors coordinate well, and it's a fun look being a Christmas themed illustration, another way that I created a little bit of an option with, um, is I When I scanned them into my computer, I shrink them down and made smaller images, and I use those on my trias well, and it gave another fund look, and it's more proportional to the smaller part of the tree. And Leslie, you can take those same images that use on your tree, cut them out and use them as gift tags. Kind of a another use for that same illustration. I hope you'll try your hand at one of these Nutcracker faces and post your work in the project section. Either hang on your tree and snap a photo attached to a gift, or just take it on your workspace. Be a beautiful thing to see all the variations with the colors and the shapes and the personalities of each face. Be sure to follow me here on skill share to get notified of future classes and please consider leaving a review 29. Bonus Class: here. I have a little bonus class for you. It's more of a bonus idea than a class. All you do is you can take the bonus templates that I've included, and these are in the project section. You just download them and print them out. And then you can choose a feature and mix and match so you can use the original templates that came with the class. Or you can take thes and use them individually. And so what I did here they took my piece of paper and I selected the head shape, a different beard, a hat, the eyes, the mustache in the nose. And I just put it down here to make my new template, and they'll cut it out. And so, as you can see here, it's a little bit from this guy a little bit from this guy and a little bit from this guy as well. So there are so many variations that you could make. Give it a shot and let me know what you think