Watercolor: Paint Dreamy Doors & Windows

1. Introduction: Are you ready to paint the coveted style of a beautiful exotic door or window scene? Loose watercolors seem intimidating, but truth be told, they are the easiest way to use watercolor for three reasons. One, you don't need a lot of control or advanced techniques to create something truly beautiful. Two, working in layers provides the opportunity to return with fresh eyes each and every time that a layer dries. This is so important especially while learning a new technique. Three, without realizing it, you get to play. When we create for the process, we learn skills that we didn't even realize that we were adopting as our own and we can surprise ourselves with the result. This class covers; framing an isolated scene using doors and windows, adding texture without overthinking, brush techniques that will help you create your intended strokes, working with paint to water ratio to get optimal results, learning to enhance and detract from details in your art pieces. When you are finished with this class, you will be able to create your very own loosely-painted watercolor door scene along with a window scene. As you work on the class project, you will be free and feel free to experiment with colors of your choosing and follow along with my instruction and/or add additional detail if you decide to, but most of all, embrace the process and allow yourself a smile or two as you create. This class is for all levels. Most importantly though, it is suitable for the beginner, even if you have never, ever touched art supplies before. I can't wait to see what you create. Let's get into it. 2. Materials: I'm going to go over quickly the materials that I'm using in this class, although please feel welcome to use whatever you have at home. It's basically imperative that you use watercolor paper that is meant for watercolor that is 140 pound because we are going to get our paper quite wet. This is Stillman & Birn it is a sketchbook. I like to work in my sketchbook just because it makes my journey here really fun. Feel welcome to use loose sheets or whatever it is that you have around your house. Watercolor paper. I've linked everything that I'm using in the description so that you can grab anything that you need. I'm also using Daniel Smith watercolor. Again, feel welcome to use whatever you have. I love Daniel Smith because these colors are super super pigmented and they're all professional grade and they last forever. I also have this little chart that I created because when you create your own palette, then you will probably notice that you can't really tell what's what, especially when you have an entire row of greens. I have painted them here. In regard to creating your own palette, if you just have that as a side note in your head right now, be sure to take my class on how to prep your watercolor palette the right way, because there's a wrong way and we want your colors to last a long, long time. Then in addition, I am using three brushes. I'm using The Pigeon Letters wash brush, one inch. I'm using large brushes. You can use whatever size that you want to, but I'm using large because I really want to encourage you to be loose with this project. This is a number 16 round, also The Pigeon Letters, and then this is a number 10 also The Pigeon Letters. These are the brushes I recommend. Again, they're linked so that you can grab them. They are cruelty free professional grade. You'll also want a jar of water, preferably two, one for warm colors, one for cool colors. That way you don't have to keep changing your water out as much. I have some paper towel, a little bunches on hand. If you have any oopsies, you can use those. Then I also have some washi tape and you can use any painter's tape and that's just to create our frame around our painting so that we have a nice crisp frame when we're finished. You also need lastly, a pencil, and I am using a Blackwing pencil. Pencils, I feel like some people care, some people don't care what they are. These pencils are my absolute favorite. I've linked them below, but please feel welcome to use any pencil. We're not going to really do a whole lot with sketching, but we're just going to do enough to where we can form our shapes. That's it. Let's get into the class. 3. Sourcing Inspiration: When it comes to sourcing inspiration, I have created doors and windows board, a board for you guys in Pinterest. The thing that I want you guys to think about when you are sourcing inspiration is you do not have to think about making this exactly like what you see, but you can totally make it exactly what you see. The idea here is just to source inspiration. You could see colors that you might want to change. You might see like this is a beautiful scene with this yellow door here and you might want to change it to make it an arch, semicircle at the top or you might want to change the framing. These are all things to think about. But one of the things that I really like about searching Pinterest for this type of inspo is that I just want to point out things that I recognize. This one I love because it's got this brick. Another one that I love, like this guy, it's got this texture on the wall. This one I really love because it's got all the shadow. We're going to be going over putting shadows in your pieces, and it's so much easier than you would think. But the other thing I like about this is that it's got this frame around the door itself, and then the arch at the top, it's got some door details. It's got this step. It's also got some plans. These are things that you can explore as you are seeking out your inspiration. Of course, you can use the board that I have provided as reference. Like this one has a cactus in it versus the hanging plants over the door like this guy. One of the things I really like about this that I notice is the stones. I also like how the trunk here is climbing upward. I like the colors of the buildings. I like that it's white with blue doors. These are things I could take some of these elements and incorporate it into a scene like this blue one. Basically the options are limitless. As you explore, you can use my board. You can also create your own board. You can scroll down after you are on an image and then you'll see that there is additional inspo below if you're familiar with Pinterest and you probably know the endless trap that we get stuck into, so please don't do that. Just use this as quick reference. Find something you love and go with it. You know what? You can paint five, 10, it doesn't matter, paint a taxonomy of them where there's a whole bunch of windows on one page or a whole bunch of doors on one page. The idea here is not to get stuck on the inspiration part but rather to actually take this and make it your own. That being said, again, you can paint this as your reference exactly or you can interpret it. One more thing I wanted to say though, is, look at this little kitty. No one's saying that you can't use an angled image like this or like this because we know what the shape of a door is. We know what a rectangle is and then how to add a semicircle at the top. I can't stop pinning. You guys don't do this. See, even in a lesson I can't stop pinning. But you know what those look like. Just because this is angled doesn't mean that you can't paint it and go with it and make it yours. Then you can borrow aspects of each of these. Let's say I love that there's a wreath on this pink door, but I want the door to be purple. I can put a wreath on this door I can put an archway, I can do anything. So take this, make it yours, and let's get on into it. 4. Dreamy Doors: After I source inspiration if needed or wanted, I'm going to actually just sketch basic shapes. I'm not going to sketch this whole thing out. I'm going to let my paint, do the work for me when it comes to variety in depth and I'll explain how we're going to build that up. But for now I'm just going to very loosely with the edge of my pencil, I'm going to sketch in a general shapes. The bottom where the side of the building meet the ground, I'll have pretty low, I might have some steps in this area or like a door frame, if you will, on the step. Then your door. You want to have a general area here and you can go straight across, you can curve. I'm going to do a curved one. The curve doesn't have to be exact. If you notice that your pencil lines are a little bit dark, I'm doing mine a little darker than I would like to, but I'm doing that so that you can see what I'm doing and it shows up on the actual camera. But if it does get a little bit dark, you can always take an eraser and just really lightly erase that. Use a separate eraser, but really lightly just go over it so that the lines aren't quite as dark. But then from there, if you want to add where it's going to stop up here or if you want to add any elements that you definitely want to put in, you can do that now. I may add a couple of pots. I can put those in. Just draw simple lines at an angle, like potted plants and then I can go from there. That's really all I'm going to sketch. I'm not going to do too much with this because I want to again let that paint where for me. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to wet my entire paper, so I'm using my wash brush. It's got a nice, generous tip to it. I'm going to completely submerge in water and to do this rather than make it so that I just do a quick dip. I actually want to go on this side. What it looks like is I'm pushing and moving the bristles so the water gets thoroughly saturated here. Then I'm just going to wet the entire page. I also wanted to make mention why I am using tape when this is already on a sketchbook. It's not so much so that my paper won't work because you can see that it's not actually taped down to anything. It's actually so that I can form this frame because I'm going to paint edge to edge. So creating a white frame around it just adds some interest. Once that's saturated, I don't want to like make it crazy shiny, but you can see that it's just got that sheen to it. I don't want any puddles, but I want it to be what enough to where my watercolor will work in my favor with what I want. Now I'm going to add just enough pigment to where the background gets created. I'm going to do the same thing where I wet my brush. This is a number 16 round, also by the pigeon letters. I'm completely soaking my brush and then I want to grab my background color. So I'm just going to use a French ocher by Daniel Smith and I'm just taking this pretty small wells. I may have to go in here a couple of times, but I'm rolling my brush to saturate the bristles as best I can. Then you can always test to see the color and your palate. This one looks good to me. I really like it. I'm going to bring that over saturate so it's nice and wet and I'm going to just lightly add it everywhere that I will want it. It's going to look like a hot mess at first, but this is just getting that base down before we do any details. My wall is going to be this beigeish color. I can bring some of it down a little bit and then I can go into doing my door. I want my door to blue. So I'm going to grab my in blue. It's not as what as I would like it. I'm going to get my brush a little more wet and let that blend upward like this. I'm okay with my watercolor bleeding because I think it adds to the overall finish up everything. Then I want the ground to be a brownish color. I really like this hematite, violet color. I'm going get this a little more wet. The hematite violet is like this, really cool if you can see that very well, but it's like a brownish that has this undertone of violet which is really cool, spreading that just very lightly. Then letting that sit. Now while my watercolor is still wet, I'm going to add in some plants. I'm going to want this to look like it's cascading, it is coming into my scene doing an overhang over the door itself. Just like we laid this background, I'm going to do the same thing for a green background. I'm going to use green apatite genuine and make sure it's wet. I'm just going to come in and set down some color and let it bleed. It's on the tip of my brush and I'm just setting this down and lifting up, setting down and lifting up. I'm going to have it come all the way to the frame. You can do this however you want to, but having it go all the way up is like an overhang of a tree. I'm going to overlap the door just a little bit and then leave that as is. I might pull some of it this way. But that looks good. Don't worry if it looks like a hot mess because we are going to continue adding to it. If you want to add blossoms, which you totally don't have to. But one of the things I really liked when we visited Spain and Portugal is that there are so many vibrant blossoms and so I am just going to find some areas to put little pops of pink throughout and then leave that. It might look strange. I know it's the process though, so bear with me. Then from here I can add some greens to the pot area. It's a little drier than I want it to be, but I'd rather be too drier than to, what I'm I saying? To not as, never mind, you get it. I stopped trying to talk. If it gets real pigment, just drag your brush through your water and then bring it up and you can see that where you add the water, it's going to bleed into that. That's where you can salvage lot pigment and get it to spread a little more. Now I'm going to add another color to spread over my pot. This is, let's see [inaudible]. I think that's how we say it. Genuine and this is just my back. See this is too strong, so I'm getting my brush clean, just water and then I'm just going to drag some of it over like that. This is just laying the background. It's just like that undertone. I can change this. I can make it more of a terracotta color or anything like that. At this point, any other background, hue or coverage that you want to add do it, because when you return to it, that's when we start to actually build upon it. So I can do like some sky up here if I want. I'm going to let this dry completely and this is a great time to go get a cup of tea. You don't have to, because this is going to dry in two seconds for you because like magic, we are in a video tutorial, so all right. Once that is dry, we're going to go back in and we're going to add detail that is more of a wet on dry versus what we did at first which was wet on wet. The paper's dry, I'm going to go in with paint and add detail. As you can see real quick though, this green apatite genuine color by Daniel Smith. It's got this gradation. Here where it separates which I love because it has that dirty undertone. It makes her really beautiful nature scene in just one color, which I love. Now I've gone in and I've grabbed the same color and I'm just going to do the same thing. But you're going to notice that it's not going to bleed now. Now it's just going to stay wherever I put it. I'm just doing like little clusters. I'm going to surround some pink areas. Some areas are going to be more spotty like this where they are more concentrated, in some I'm going to spread. That's going to enhance the depth because I can also, once this layer drives go back in again and make there be some even more or like intent shadow if I want to. Just going around making some of this spread, some of it more concentrated. But you can see how now, since we added that shadow or the background color at first, now it has a way more depth had we just gone in with this technique at first. Then if you find an area like this that wasn't done, I've just created. I put less pain on my brush, and then went in, so it was a little bit lighter and then I can come in and do a little more right there. It's just some of those things that the more you practice, the more you are able to build up this idea here. I'm going to bring this all the way down. Maybe do a little more what on that right here by getting it wet first and going back in, and then just a few here and then let that dry and then do the same thing if you need to add more depth. I just thought that I want it to climb. Then I'm going to do these plants, and I might grab a different tone, a different hue of green for some separation. I'm going to grab actually a green gold. This one has a really pretty light liny green. I'm just going to set this down, not so much spotty, but to form the shape itself. It's fine if things overlap or bleed, that just creates, it's part of the charm that this creates. Then I'll go in with another color. I'll bring it back to the green apatite, and then just merge those together a little bit. Do somewhat on wet, let that bleed. That's creating some shadow. Once that part is done, I'm just going to keep working. I want to point out that, so these are hanging right here. I'm going to add some more detail in blue. I'm going to grab that same Mayan blue color, and I am going to, with wet on dry, come in, and add a shadow effect. I'm not going crazy with the darkness necessarily or the pigment. I'm not making it too saturated, and I'm going to bring this in and see how that's creating a shadow. Then I'm going to bring this all the way down and add some depth around the edges which makes it look like it's more like the Dora's marred. What's the word I'm looking for? It's basically set back versus being. Depth, darker colors will detract while lighter colors will enhance basically. That's what the deal is. That's going to look like it's set back a little, and then I'm just grabbing a dry area on my paper and I'm just doing a thin line up, to create some detail on the door. But just a little bit because I don't need a lot. I'm letting this loose watercolor concept do the work for me. Then it's still a bit messy, but that's because I'm going to go even darker with that blue, so I'm just basically putting in like the base of a shadow for those details. Now go into the pots. I want this to be more of like an orangey terracotta color. I'm going to grab this yellow ocre color and just cover some of the bits here, but leave some area uncovered so that it has a little bit of that undertone showing, but it's just an overall wash with the brush. You can go in with a deeper tone for some shadow. Like the wet on wet for shadow is great because then it will bleed on its own where the paint naturally wants to travel. Then I can add in some detail beneath the door. I'm just going to do a drop shadow. I don't want it to be too defined. I'm just taking this Tim and I color. That's how I said, and making sure that it's got a lot of opacity, basically more water on my brush than paint. Then another one where it has some separation and white space to form the illusion of steps. Here we go. I should want to bring that up a little higher and then the blade will occur, which is fun. Yeah, anytime that you need to add that separation, just go back and with pigment in one particular area and it'll do that for you. But I don't want to get carried away. I want that to be all that I do here. Then I'm just going to add some water to the edges to let that bleed out, so it's not a hard edge. Let's say it just blends into the bottom there. Then I can add some green, I should get that a lot more. There we go. Add some green to the base here if I want there to be like illusion of grass or something, or like shrubs, or weeds, or something. Now that that door is pretty dry, I can go back and enhance the shadows that I made, and then concentrate them to just mainly one area, which is at the top here. Then on one side, since this is the shadow side, I'm going to really darken just this area by adding more pigment. Now it's got that nice deep shadow. I'm going to go in with a little bit of a deeper color too to just enhance it. To really emphasize that that is some depth. All I did was I just actually mixed some of my black with this blue. That's in there now. Now I'm going to focus on the wall a little bit more. So I'm going to add in just some random marks. That is going to create the idea that there is some texture on the wall. I don't have to really think about where I'm putting it, how, or why; I'm just letting my brush do this strokes for me. I actually did that a little darker than I wanted it to be. Anytime you do that, you can just take a paper towel and dab that area. It will also help if your brush is clean and you get the whole area wet. Then lift that up and see it's nice and transparent, again for the most part. I like how that's looking. I'll do that a little bit over here too, and I took the door shadow with me. Here's another way that you can see that. I'll wait for that area to actually dry before I go in and try to detail that wall space. But now I can go in and add more depth to plant here. What I'm going to do is take a real dark green, and this is apparently in green. I don't have a ton of water on my brush, It's just enough to carry the paint, and I'm going to do even smaller little dots here. Just do them in clusters, and this is just adding that additional level of coverage. So it really defines the plant, but still keeps a nice loose watercolor style. Something to keep in mind too as you're doing this, wherever the source of light is, like in this instance, it would be toward the top. Creating more darkness and depth toward the bottom is going to make it look more realistic, if you want it to be more realistic. Then I'll do the same thing, but with a lighter color on these plants, assuming that they are pretty dry. I'm just going to keep this deeper shadow toward the bottom. If you want even a finer details, you can always go down in brush size. I just like this loose style. I just think it makes a really pretty image from a distance. I'm going to do a little more on the wall as that's drying. Maybe I bring in a little more blue toward the top. I'm not creating a hard edge or anything. I'm just letting it peek through. Now, I'm going to define these pots once they're a little more dry. Looks like it is now I'm going to grab this yellow och-re again. Now is where I'm going to really lay that color in thicker, and then let the rest of it. See, I just very lightly just over some of the bottom area and maybe some of the top. But I'm leaving a lot of that area open so that that depth is in there. But they are much more defined this way. I'm still a little bit wet toward the bottom, so it's not getting that Chris blind, but that's okay. Then see how this is starting to bleed more? The wetter that your water color is, the more it's going to bleed. But as it dries, you can still have a little bit of bleed with more control. So I'm going to take that same color and put it in here just with the tip of my brush. So I have a little more separation. But I still see that it is merging in with the background which I like. I'm just going to bring a little more tonnage through the bottom, so that I have some dimension there. I'll do the same thing with the green. Then what I also want to do is, once this area on the pod is a little more dry, I'm going to bring some of this green up into it. Just a little bit. So it's not just a wash, it actually has a purpose. I change that depth here, so I grab the perylene green again. Here we go. Now the door is looking dryer, I'm going to bring even more deeper pigment in because I want to darken this even more. But just the line, nothing else. Basically you can add as much depth as you want. So this could totally be done now. But I want to add even more in here at the bottom. So see how just adding that deeper color is going to add more depth. You don't want to overdo it. But doing it enough will add a lot of interest. That's dry enough now, so I can go into this side. That's all I need to do to create that texture. I'm going to add a little more interest to this plant here. I'm just going to grab that the darker version. It's not really slightly darker. It's like a yellow or a version of the rich green gold. I'm just going to set that down like this how we did before. Just so I can add a little more dimension to the plant. Since they're in the foreground, anything that's in your foreground should be more detailed than what's in the background. So don't neglect these little plants if you do plants. Then I also want to add little pops of color to them. It's okay if it's bottom wet because I don't mind if it bleeds. I think it's fun. Makes it pretty. I'm just using a red color. Then I'm going to go back in, and add just a little more pop to the pinks now that they are dry. No more water there. So they're not as concentrated, but they are popping there. That is it. Then you have this awesome door illustration painting. 5. Dreamy Windows: Now we are going to go into painting a window. For this one, we're going to sketch it out first, of course, as we did before. This one we'll have a little more to sketch out just in case you want to add any frame within the window frame itself. That's the first thing I'm going to do. It's not going to have the whole scene, it's basically just going to have the texture on the wall and then maybe plants on the window sill. You can make this as large or as little as you want to. Again, I've taped off the edges so I could have a nice white frame afterwards. I'm going to have the window sill be about right here. Then just create a guide for where your window will sit. I'm so drawn to these arches right now that I think that my window is going to sit on an arch. Then I'm going to draw the interior detail. I'm not going to go crazy with it because the paint is going to go, but centering would be a good idea, which is not what I just did. But the watercolor should cover up these pencil marks for the most part. But if they get too dark again, you can just erase them a little bit. Then I'm going to add some here, more lines. Then you can choose if you want to add one here, but I think I'm just going to leave it and then have the frame work the detail for me. If you want to create even more of a solid frame, then you can always do that to help guide or you can eyeball it as you paint. I know that we all have different styles on whether we jump in or we use our reference, but I'm not going to do much more than that. Then my window sill is going to be about right here, and I'm going to put some pots for potted plants on here. Pots can be the shape where they're coming inward like this or they can be more of a curve, totally up to you. I think that looks good for me. Then I will show you how I will paint these to where they really blossom outward quite nicely, and then we can add the shadow and depth. This time I'm going to use a number 10, and this is The Pigeon Letters brush again, round brush number 10. I'm going to completely saturate it in the water, and then I'm going to lay the base. For this one, I'm going to choose a blue color for the wall instead of what I did before, which was more of a creamish color. I want this to be a little more vibrant. I'm getting plenty of paint on my brush and lots of water. I want to just point out that before in the previous lesson, I did water first. This one, I'm going paint on dry. I just wanted to do this so that you can see the difference. It's not going to blend quite as much, whereas if I add the water, it will bleed on its own. I'm just doing this so that you can see the different ways that you can apply it. That being said, that is when I'm applying it directly, I'm actually adding a ton of water. Just because you might not do something in a wet on wet way, if you decide that you want it to spread more, just add more water and drag that paint and it will spread anywhere that you connect the water to it. Not to worry if it's too pigmented at first. I'm going to leave that and then I'm going to go in and add a little bit of detail on the frame. I'm not going to do too much because I don't want too much bleed, but the reason I'm doing it now instead of waiting for it to dry is because I do want a little bit of bleed, just because I like the way that it looks. If you want more separation, don't do this part until the wall color dries a bit. Mine is pretty dry on that side, but it will grab. See like in some of those areas, I just like the way that bleeds look. Then I can carry some of that. Again, the more that we layer this up, the more it will differentiate from this bleed so it's not going to be like "Oh, that's totally grabbing it" because it's going to be a lot darker as we layer on, if that makes any sense. Then I'm going to do the same thing just very lightly. You can see I'm going over stuff, it looks like a hot mess again, but that is okay. I'm also going to add a little bit of that blue to the interior of the window, it will act like a reflection. You can see that was too much, so I'm getting more water on my brush and I'm just going to drag it so that it bleeds into the other parts, basically dragging the pigment along with the water that's added. The same thing. I'm getting my brush completely clear paint, adding water, and then grabbing the pigment here and putting it over here as well. Now I'll put a little more since that part is really wet, I want a little more bleed. So I'm going to add a little more of this light brown color so it will bleed into that. I just like the way it looks. Remember when we put this background color in as we layer on, that's where we have that depth. Even in a loose style like this, we're creating depth by having these layers, they look a little bit more messy, and that is where we're building upon it. This is mostly dry right here on the outside, this part is going to be a little wetter since I just applied paint. What I'll do is I'll grab a green and I'm going to start building on my plants. This is going to be that same situation where it's just going to be very loose and the color is just going to bleed more, but see how I have it cascading down. You can do your plants structured where they are mostly contained like this or you can have it to where they do reach a little bit and have more of that fall. But then I also want to add some branches that come and reach toward the window as if there's a tree or a hanging plant on a ledge up here, something like that. You can also vary the tone. So when it's wet on wet, you know that you can vary the tons directly. I want to actually grab something a little different. There we go. I can set that down and add depth with a deeper color right away if I want to and that will bleed into that wet color. Then I can go back in with more detail once this first layer dries. Basically we're just getting the foundation down so that we can go from there. If you want to do it now, you can also add the color that you're going to put into the pot. This is going to be too dark. There we go. See, that's pretty heavy with the bleed since that green is pretty wet still. If you don't like that, again, you can always take a piece of a paper towel and just dab it in that whole area and it's going to pick it up, the whiter it is, the more it'll pick up, and then you can just add a little bit or you can wait till it dries more. But when you pick it up a little bit with the paper towel, it's going to take a lot of the water that is in the process of drying. I'm going to let this dry. You guys don't have to wait because luckily, I can edit this. I'm going to think about this as essentially painting three layers. This is dry, and I'm going to paint on the second layer. This one's going to be a little more pigmented but not as detailed as the third layer. First, I'm going to do this window frame. I'm going to go in and I'm going to do a little more form, so maybe grab a little more pigment to push that form in so that we have a little more structure. But you can see, I'm still doing this pretty loosely. If I'm going outside the lines at some point, I'm not worried about it since this style is loose. Now, at the windowsill, I want to keep in mind that this area is all going to be sitting out or protruding. I'm just covering the whole thing and then I will go back in and add detail, not even really detail, just a bleed once it's a little more dry but still wet so that I can form where that separation is from the platform to the frame, basically. Just putting in a little more here. Now, you can see, and if you have this happen, I'm really messy and so I just pick it up with my finger but you can always paper towel it to pick some of that up. I just like the bleed. But you can see that the initial layer bled out right here, right here, right here, but now that I have this more defined color on here, it's not going to be as obvious and it looks more of like just a texture in the background. Then what I want to do since this is wet is grab just a little bit deeper color in just some areas. That's way too pigmented. There we go. In just some areas, go through and drag that new color through just so that it has even more assumed detail but without actually having to put that in specifically, if you will. I am going in the center here. This is still very wet but I just wanted to put a little bit of dimension in there. I'm not going to do it the whole way but just a few places. Now that's done, I'm going to do a new layer on my plants. I can do the same color because I had a lot of water to paint ratio versus just even. I could use the same color and it's going to come out more vibrant, or I could change tones and do a similar technique where it is a new color with a lot of water and movement, or I can meet it in the middle where I add a little more structure. I'm going to do that actually and then there's going to be some areas basically where instead of setting it down, I'm sending it down but also moving my brush and then lifting up and doing the same thing, and then going through and doing these little marks. That's going to create overall depth but then a little bit of detail before we put on the final layer that is the detail layer. This one's like a mixture of them. Then I'm keeping this area up at the top lighter. I'm not going to add a ton of that depth there because it's the light source if it's coming from this direction. Doesn't have to be too specific, but it will help in overall form if you do it that way. It doesn't have to be only on the areas that you already painted, it can be in areas that are new, like coming down like this, having separation. Then I can see how I'm losing a little bit of that pigment but I still have paint on my brush, that just shows just more dimension so I'm going to work with that. What I do want to do though, because this area is pretty flat is go back into the initial color I had and then just do a little bit of that detail. See how it comes up a lot more pigmented, it looks darker because I had less water on my brush this time. I'm going to bring it out like this a little bit so I have more of the light coming in. I might bring a little here. Now, I want to emphasize some shadow. Since this is hanging over, I'm going to grab the blue color that I had. It might look pretty drastic at first, but I'm just going to basically come underneath this plant here and add what would be a shadow. Working too fast, I don't want the blue to be on this because the shadow that will be on the frame should be the same color, it's just enhanced because it's a darker version there. We're just taking the same color of what we used before on the wall to create that shadow. I could do underneath this whole area because that's going to be a windowsill and then bring that plant shadow down. There we go. Then I'll have this whole area since this comes pretty low for my shadow from the plants. See how that's creating that shadow and depth. Now, what I also want to do though is hit the side a little bit the same way but I don't want to go crazy because it's going to be the lighter area and the detail is on the shadow and the depth. I'm going to actually bring that up through here too since there's a lot of white space. I'm going to take the very tip of my brush and I'm literally just holding it by the top and I'm just going to let it move like this. That's going to create some extra detail in the wall, in the very tip. The reason I'm holding it so far away instead of having my hand up-close is because this is going to make these details more imperfect, whereas if I was right here, then I'm controlling them and I don't really want to control them, I want to let the brush do what it wants to and if there's any area after that that I don't like, I can just go in with water and blend it out a little bit. You can do that anyway because then it's just carrying that detail with it. See how that just added a ton of texture. As you're working on this on your own, you might notice when you do this that you hate it, but my suggestion to you is at this point, especially after adding these details, because I've gone through this so many times, is to take a moment and take a break and walk away from it and then return to it and you're going to see that big picture view. It's not going to be like these itty-bitty details anymore that you're paying attention to, it's going to be the grand scale, because I promise the grand scale looks awesome. It's just a matter of when we build up these details, things can look really off. I know this feeling. I'm just adding some of that same blue to the inside of the windows here but I'm focusing primarily toward the top of them and then dragging it down a little bit, but that's going to increase the appearance of a reflection but also that shadow, and then I can bring water on my brush at the base and then pull it upward and that's going to pull that color down without actually having to paint color onto it. Now, I'm going to let this layer dry. Wait, I want to do the pots first, but then I'm going to let this layer dry and after that is when I'm going to really enhance the final depth. Here we go. Now that the second layer has dried, we're going to do our final layer. I'm going to add a lot more depth to the window itself. I'm going to grab a deeper color blue and then mix it with the blue that I used. I'm just going to come through toward the to, and then I can do the same thing where I rinse my brush really well and then just bring the water upward to where it touches that paint I just put on and then it will drag down on its own. Then to the top here. That's just to emphasize the depth in the window itself. Then I'm going to add even more of the deeper color underneath where I did the shadows before, but I'm not pulling it all the way through the shadow, I'm doing it toward the top part of it. That is to show the depth of the shadow itself. It's got the real deep shadow and then it gets lighter as it gets further away. You don't have to do this part, but I'm actually going to bring some of the shadow, I grabbed the wrong color, blue. I'm going to bring some of the shadow from the top and just drag that down like this a little bit. Then I can do that also with the plant. Assuming that maybe there's an overhang or something that we don't see that's out of frame, just adding additional shadow adds more interest. Totally optional, you don't have to do it. Now I'm going to add the depth to the greenery, grabbing a different tone this time. I'm just going to use the tip of my brush and make little clusters in different areas of this darker green. It's like assuming more definition without actually putting it in. That loose style. You can focus on making the primary amount of this technique toward the bottom or toward the side or you can scatter it throughout however you want to do it. I always like to take the final detail piece and bring it down just a little bit more. I just think it creates more of that playful eerie live, if you will. Bring that through these guys. Just the tip of your brush and I'm just moving it pretty fast. Then you can also do some of that separation, so here is those dots, and here's where I push it a little bit. It's going to add the depth, but not necessarily the details, what we'll call. Then I'm going to bring this one all the way down because it goes pretty low anyway, and I like to bring my detail down even more. Now I'm going to take the tip of my brush and grab a deeper color for the window. I could just use the same color just with less water on my brush. I'll do that first and show you what that looks like. I'm just going to now focus on just the center of those areas. The tip of my brush, I've got more control this time. Then the area that I told you I'm going to separate. I'm going to do some color here and then see how it separates right there. I'm just making sure that I have a little bit of empty space in between those two. I'm going to go through here. See how, what this is doing is by defining just the centerpiece, it makes it look like the frame has more shape and dimension to it. Almost like it recesses or even protrudes depending on how your eyes see it. That's like literally just as much as we need. The pots now because they are blending in quite a bit, I think I want to make those be pops of colors, especially since I didn't put flowers in the plants. I could choose, like red, something that's going to contrast well, or an orange, maybe an orange and red. Now I'll do that. I'm going to get a little more water on my brush but still be saturated. Then I'm just going to do a little bit of detail and it's okay that's not bleeding like the wet on wet where it bleeds the whole way. It doesn't need to since it's a looser style. I actually want to bring it here so you can see that it reaches up higher. There we go. At that point, basically, I mean, this is done in a loose way. This would be it, this is all that I need to do. Now, if you like more detail, you could essentially just let each layer dry and add smaller and smaller detail as you go along. Bring that down a little more, and that will make it so that you have more of that focus. What I want to encourage you to do is in-between these steps, since you do have to let it dry and come back to it with fresh eyes, what it's going to let you do is see and appreciate the loose style for what it's meant to do. Then it creates this really beautiful piece because I understand I have a hard time seeing more of the, I guess it's not really abstract, but it's more of that loose, playful style and I love some line work. Trying to refrain from putting more detail in and just accepting this really fun loose style, will open your eyes to all sorts of new techniques that you can do with different types of things. Like right now, you might see doors and windows as being really fine, but then what other subject matters can you apply this style to? I would encourage you to play with that. 6. Project time!: Thank you guys so much. I hope you had as much fun in this class as I did. These projects are so much fun to create. I can't wait to see your doors, and your windows, and your color choices, and your creative choices in what you decided to include, and enhance, and detract from, and all the things. Be sure to upload your work. I want to see it. Other people want to see it. Also be sure to head over to the pigeonletters.com. You can grab my freebies, and lots, and lots of other resources that I readily make available for you. Also be sure to follow me so you know when I have new classes up for you and I will see you next time.