Transcripts
1. Why should you take this course?: Hello and welcome to my watercolor class. Today we will paint this adorable cat in watercolor and I will explain every single step I take to create this realistic cut. Uh, this course is meant for people with intermediate level in with the colors. But if you don't have that much experience or you just literally started out with this medium, don't worry. I will explain every technique I use on remix that create every pigment I take and basically older materials that you need in this class, um, so that you can feel comfortable and confident painted with watercolors. I have been teaching what a color for the past five years. And I had students off all different levels from people who have never held the brush before. Do those who are pretty confident with water colors. This'll allowed me to develop a very unique program off teaching watercolor two people off different levels so that it's interesting for them to follow the process but also challenging so that they can improve and grow with every cause they take with me. So the party I will guide you from the very beginning to the end. Through this journey, I hope you will love it and see inside the course
2. What supplies will you need?: Hey, guys, Welcome to my course. I'm super excited to share with you how to paint this, um, super cute little cat. But first, we need to discuss what materials we are going to use in this lesson. So let's stuff from the paper I'm using, um, Kansan, French Brent. And this paper is ah, hot press. But I really don't like the picture off this particular paper, so I'm using the flipside off my paper. This is entirely up to you. It's not good or bad. Right around. Different artists prefer different sides of paper because the face has more visible grain. And it's a little repetitive, so I don't really like that. And the flipside m is more smooth, more like 13 kind of no texture at all, um, paper. But if you decide to use the flipside, make sure that nothing would make sure it's more like be ready to. The possibility is that the side will act a little bit differently from the other side, so it might not observe water as well as as good as the other side or the colors who act differently. So, um, just be ready that it might not behave the way it used to or the way you are used to when you were using the face side of the paper. I also have the tape. I will touch my paper to the table because it's more comfortable to record like that. But usually I use ah, big current tape tablet, so it's more comfortable to, you know, lift top so that the water can move on the layers can makes. So it is a more comfortable to use stuff. But my favorite is 300 GSM, and that means that it's pretty strong. I don't need to. Well, I can't say I don't need to type it. Tape it because I will use, um what techniques s so I I want to avoid the buckling up in waves on my paper, But 200 geez, um is a very reliable thickness of paper and this is how my paper looks like. Currently I am residing in Thailand. So that's why some of the signs are in tight. Just waited for for local market. But here you can see it's ah 200 trained GSM a three size I cut it into two so it's more comfortable for me to use. But I do love using a big size of paper when I have more space and nothing Corden Nicholas because it takes longer. Also, if you decide to use cotton paper because the one I'm using is Salo's If you decide to use constant paper my absolute favorite iss harsh. Uh, looks like this. It's also pretty big size. Um and this paper is 100% cotton, which means that it will absorb much more water. It will keep the paper wet. Ah, for longer than that certain newspaper. Which means that this will be easier for you to move the layers mixed layers. And you will not have like, uh, sharp ages when you're layers dry and other cool benefits has come with cutting paper. Also, this ah, this block this paper comes in the bloc, which means I'm sorry show you like this. Which means that here it's old glued with all sides. This is my paper painting that I just started yesterday. Um so it's glued everywhere, which means you can faint right away. You don't need to attach the paper to tablet or anything. It will not buckle up at all. It will always remain super straight, so it's very useful to have blocks. Um, the only thing about arse paper is that it absorbs color. So when it dries up, the cover loses its our brightness and intensity. Eso just keep that in mind, Aziz, an intern. It'd another my beloved bigger brand is Sanders would afford. And this one is also 100% cotton, And it has a very nice smooth, um, picture. It's really good for Mike. Botanical art, as you can see here. And also portrait because it doesn't have, um, much off their extra on the surface again, it is up to you what type of paper you use. Um, we're not going to use too many red techniques in this cause. So that's why I sick to Telos paper and usually majority of students, they do use, um, total s paper. So I would like you to have Kohl's experience. Eso you can. I used the same paper issue. Do, um, also, you might need a separate piece of paper like this just to, uh, check your colors. You make says to make sure you mix there right color that you need, um, we will need a soft pencil. So HB or know anything be really like In my case, I have to be, um it's very soft. So in case of any mistakes or anything, you can easily, um, raise it with the razor. Um, the Whitaker said I'm using in this class is, uh, yes camp. A little of the white nights. It's a Russian professional watercolor set aside. You can see I use it a lot. Um, like this, and I also use a palette. So make sure you have a nice big pallet, so you can mix your colors to make sure that, um, you have enough space for that. Also off course, let's discuss the brushes so I will have a natural Kalinsky brush. Um, it's not their biggest, like a middle size. It's number four, um, and the natural brushes. They have this ability to absorb a lot of water and release a lot of water on paper. So which means that it's a little bit more difficult to control the pigment. But on another side, you can release beautiful. You can create beautiful washes with this brush because it's very soft, Um, and it can keep a lot off border and pigment in it, as opposed to synthetic pressure, which doesnt observed too much water. It also doesn't release a lot of border. It's pretty hard and bouncy, so this precious great for details and more controlled moves on when you're painting. So when you have to control your layers and border more precisely, you would probably choose our synthetic brush. So this one is also quite ah, small, Um, doesn't have a number. I think it's like three or four as well. For the tiny details, such as eyes and imperfections in the eye off, the cat will need a small brush, and this one is number three. It also can be number one or two like really tiny. The sun is synthetic, and for the background, I would have a bigger brush. This'll one is have synthetic off natural, um, has oval kind of shape. So I really like the shape is very comfortable to make nice, different patents on paper, and I will use this one for bigger wishes for the for and maybe the background, and also really depends on the size of paper use. If you decide to take a bigger size like a three are You are busily will need bigger brushes than this one's. I take a smaller piece of paper. It's a four size s. So that's why I don't need really massive brushes, even though I do have, like, a this little baby that I like using when I'm working with, uh, big artworks. All right, So the few final moments, um, I have some additional pigments over here in case, um, I need something more than I have in my bullets. So here have all the possible brands like Kirby's or Newtown Danielle's may, um, the Senate here on no other different types. It's very comfortable to use, um, pigment in tube because, um, when you work with a big piece of paper big artwork and you need to make a big wash, it's really it really takes time to create the right mix from fan. Speaking of the pigment from pens, you will use it really fast. You don't need to mix it many times and in like, most probably that that makes will look a little bit different every time because you have to create it every single time, as opposed to take in, ah, to squeeze it as much as you need. Um, makes it here, and you will have really big, uh, lake off washes that you need to apply on your paper. Um, fuel final moments. I use this little water spray to apply it on the my he said So I kind of wake up my pants cause they're drive. Also, I used the same thing. For what? In the area. If I need it, I I think I will not need it in this particular cross paint in the cat. But just for you to know, sometimes it sound very useful to just pray your painting in the places you need to make more smooth. Ah, washes and mixes and it will play out just right. Also, for small, shiny details on the Catholic A whiskers and perfection in the eye. We can use our my job in or for a one time I was using just like a regular correction pen and that you can buy in any store for school. Um, it had It's really, really white and thick. So if you need to cover on top of the A painting like super bright white, uh, color, that's the way to go. Um, the pain doesn't really cover much if you have dark layers, but we will see how things go. Go on. Um, I will keep those two handy. Um, just just for you to have a choice. So I think that's pretty much it. And, um, feel free to print the image. The photograph of the cat in the photograph is in the attachment to this lesson to this cars. And, um, if you freedom printed or use it from your phone screen. So you consume any owners and out or tablet or computer screen, whatever. You feel comfortable. No limitations. All right, so now let's move to the second part and discuss the colors that
3. Work on your color scheme: All right. So open up your reference and let's discuss, um, the colors. We are going to use things glass, the colors here. So, uh, its, uh no matter how long you have been painting, it's really useful to think up front. Um, what color palette and what colors him you're going to use in your artwork because you can just end up using, like, 15 different colors for one animal, which can be a little weird unless it's your specific idea or style. Anyhow, let's take a look at our kitty and think off the lightest colors to the darkest that we are going to use. So the face of the can is in light. The It's closer to us because we're looking on the cat from the top and the body is more in a shadow, so the colors for the for neck and body will be a darker, the tone, booby darker. Um, I think that for, um, the lightest part off the face, I will use cadmium yellow, But condom yellow is way too bright as you can see, So in order to calm it down, we need to mix it with a little bit off violet because file it is a, um of complementary color in our car wheel. So here you can see that. Now I do have the yellow, but my yellow is not so bright and crazy, colorful as in the beginning. So I think this looks more natural. If we're going to paint a cat, then for the brighter part off the for I will use TT and red. I think it pretty much reflects the color off the, uh the fair. And for darker part, I will use, um, burnt sienna for the shadows and in order to calm down burnt sienna who makes it a little bit with somebody in blue. Uh, make sure that when you mix the colors, if you want to get a darker tone off, um, brown or orange, you need Teoh. Add a little bit of the complementary color so you add a little bit of determining in order to make original color darker because if you if you add too much ultra Marine, you will just get some gray or mighty tones. It's very important to keep the balance. So here we take, um, Sienna and just a little bit off drama. Dean and we get this, um, Dr Tone off brown. And the same thing applies for orange. Because if you look at the color wheel, you will see that, um, the orange the spectrum off the orange includes brown. So that's why the complementary color will be somewhere close to blue. Or, um, maybe Violet a little bit their son The thing most of the time when three million blue has the tendency to graduate, which means that when you paint yeah, this color, this pigment tends to create little texture and dark spots. And this is our, uh this can be a really nice effect if you need it. And we just need to know that older matting blue probably in every single brand, has the same quality to graduate. And I will see a whole show you what it means here you can see on there face off the lady some spot, and those spots were created because I makes the skin color with the ultramarine blue on. And I achieved this not super perfect, uh, skin texture if or you can see it more clear here in the sky. So it looks like it's ah, raining somewhere on the back. Eso you see those little tiny spots? Those are created not because of the paper texture, but because off this ability off ultramarine blue to graduate. All right, so if you don't want Teoh Excuse me. If you don't want to have a graduation in your painting, you can try to mix um burnt sienna with another bit of violet. You will get a little warmer tone, but I think it will do as well. All right, then, for the for, um, on the belly, we would need Teoh if I the same color as earlier cadmium yellow and a little bit of fun, Violet. But just a little because that part is in shadow and I will also add a little bit of permitting. So make sure you don't You find the best balance around in order to find the color. So the mix, because if you add too much, blues will turn into green. If you have too much file it, it will turn into gray. So you need to spend some time mixing colors to find the best combo for the color mix. You're going to use, um, for the bottom part off the cat for. So I think this color would be just fine. And there's another option that we can use is to use your sienna with a little bit of a marine. And ultimately, the difference is that when you add in promoting into burns into rosiana, it doesn't create green tone because when you do the same with, um, Kuttner yellow and vermilion, eventually you get green because yellow bus blew make spring. But because Rosiana is actually brown pigment inside the pent, there is ah, brown pigment, not yellow pigment. That's why when you add blue, you don't get green because it is not ah, yellow pigment. So to be more illustrative for you to understand what I'm talking about, if you take if you look at what the pigment consists off am, for example, you look at, um, condom yellow from white knights Netscape a little. You will see that. Well, maybe you don't see it on the screen, But I will tell you that the pigment, um big man that that this pain consists off is B Y 35 which means pigment yellow 35 So cadmium yellow has yellow pigment in it. But if you look at You're Sienna. Um, here we go. The, uh, white nights near Scalpel Eater. It's Rosiana. It's a marketing name. It doesn't mean anything. What is important is to know what is the pigment inside the paint. So when you look at the pigment, you learn that it's actually pigment brown. Seven. So it's brown. When you mix brown with blue, you're more likely to achieve some sort off greyish great tone with the yellow wish sub tone or me tone instead of just pure green. So that's really interesting and important to to learn. And as I was talking earlier here, if you look at the color wheel, you can see that if you take um, yellow color. The opposite of yellow is, ah, violet or purple, and this color is a complementary colors. All the colors that are opposite each other are complementary colors, complementary couples, which means that if you want to make yellow look less bright, less toxic, you know, um, and calm it down. You need to add a little bit of the opposite color in this case, Violet. If you want Teoh, let's look at the blue and orange. If you want to have blue, but you want to make a darker and not so bright to calm it down. Because, for example, if you're painting, the sky is very rare that the sky will be so, so bright. So you add a little bit of orange to make this blue collar more calm and eventually darker on. This applies for all the colors in the color wheel. So if you don't know that it's very, very useful for you to practice by yourself and create the cholera Wilbur yourself so you can see how those colors are created. All right, so here we discuss the most important colors that we're going to use. Um, so again, this is not limited. You can use pretty much any color that you prefer. Um, eventually, those colors should be yellow, orange, brown, blue. Violet, Uh, what exactly is that you're using? Or Brende? What colors he will prefer to use. This is your personal choice. Just make sure that you mix them before you apply it on the paper. So you know that those colors are friendly. Have they don't create mud, they look clean and nice, and after that, we will taint
4. Let's draw a sketch of a cat!: Let's catch our cut when you're sketching with yourself pencil. Even though it is very soft, make sure that your lines are very soft and smooth. Otherwise it will be hard to erase them. And if he raise your pencil too often, uh, risk to damage your paper, which will later on affect your water car painting in general, Um, to make sure that, uh, you locate Theano Emmel and everything fits into your into the frame off your paper, you want to start from a simple geometric shapes and outlying where will be the face off the cat and then build up everything else. So I've created a circle for the face, and now I will locate the eyes. Nos. All right. So when I broke someone to know where the face will be, um, I can move on detailing, um, all the elements the gets eyes sit pretty far from each other to make sure you know the distance you can measure How many eyes conf it, Um, in between the eyes. - Now I'm sketching the nose. I'm not going to draw every single detail that I see on the reference it is not necessary because we're going to paint it with political later on, we need just Teoh. We just need to outline the most important edges and distances so that we keep the proportions. Some are going to sketch the whiskers. I'm going to sketch the pattern of the for cause old. This is not really necessary because we will do this right away with our watercolor. - I'm just marking the outline off the ferry face. So I know how far I need to go with my car. Here goes the ear and over here, and Denise will be the barely and the rest of the body off the cut that is in a shadow. So I just mark the overall size of the animal and everything else will be done with watercolor directly. All right, I will touch a photograph off this sketch. Eso You can look at it if you need. And when you're sure that your sketches well done, we will move to paint into the woods color
5. Apply first layers in watercolor: Alright, guys. So now we are ready to finally start painting our super cute cat. Um, feel free to take a sip of coffee or tea, whatever makes you feel comfortable and let's dive into it. So Azaz I mentioned earlier, uh, we should start. Well, there's a common rule in watercolor that we should start from the lightest, uh, tone and move layer by layer to the darkest own. So when you look at your for the reference, you need to decide for yourself what color is the lightest one, and this is the color you will be started from. So in my case, I will start from cadmium yellow, and I will add a tiny bit off a violet, just a tiny to make my my cadmium less bright. But it is still pretty nice yellow color. This will be my base color, and I will start from it. So I'm applying my first transparent layer on the face off the cut. They're white areas. I will keep white as a piece of paper. So instead of using white pigment, I use white whiteness off the paper itself to show the colored. Um let me see. Since I'm painting on a similar spay per the colors get try really fast. So this is your job to make sure that when the wash gets dry, it doesn't leave sharp edges. If it does, you need to take a semi wet brush and basically just wash out the rough, Um, rough edges off the wash that you've created. So my first layer is very relight. I'm not looking for any details. Anything, um specific. Just a very generalistic first layer first to wash. All right. Next I will add. I will take my TT and red dish in red and a little bit of cadmium yellow to make my collar more golden like and less portage and I will add This makes in their places where I see a little bit of a change off the tone So where a very light for becomes a little bit more orangey, but not too much yet. This is the place where I'm going to add this collar right away. I will take a little bit of car mean, which is, uh, cold being kind of pinkish color. Well, technically it so it's red, but the way we see it is looks like it looks like thing, and I added on the nose to show the nose bridge. And I just want to make sure that the the way how the color spreads is very soft and smooth , and I take a very transparent plummeting to just a little bit here to create the shadow that the nose bridge creates nature. I just had it slow, and I keep going with my t 10 red mix with cadmium yellow and just apply it in the places where I see a slightly darker tone. Comparing to the very 1st 1 we applied, you know, right underneath the eye, there is ah noticeable Orrin G kind of outline, which are making right now with very light layer, so I don't want it to be sharp or very noticeable. I lost. My brush is natural, and it really absorbs a lot of water and release a lot of water. So my layers of very watery and wet, which helps to basically mix colors the way I need and with them as much as I need to do that, and I'm doing the same over here, I create this sort of an outline Oreo underneath the eye but I don't just leave it sharp and dry. I blend it a little bit, so it looks more rather like a shadow than, ah, uh, they come to line. All right, um, as we speak off the ears, I would like us to a little bit Discuss it. So here's a river for feeders, some hair growing out in this place, and it's super soft. So if you just draw it like sharp lines, it will look very noticeable and dry. Andi Sharp, obviously. So the way to demonstrate this. Ah, hair. The soft hair that grows here instead, off drawing the hair. We need to draw something that is darker than the hair. So basically create negative space. Negative painting 1,000,000 that people instead of faint in the hair, we will paint the area around the hair but outlining the shape of the hair. So to make it more the usual, I will mix my orange mighty 10 red with a little bit of ultimate ing to get kind of grayish tone. But linen still, Tolliver's the orange. And with this I am applying the natural color off this hair that we see over here in a very very transparent layer, So do not do not overdo it. Be very careful. And at the same time, I'm mixing well, Tom, I didn't blue with violets to have some dark tone at a little bit of mars brown or any brown that you have in your palate to achieve a pretty dark color with a little bit of on blue purple undertone. And with this, we will create this shadow in between this, um, the hair which is ultimately there the year. So here, instead of trying Teoh paint every single hair. We are painting the darker space between the hair, outlining it this way, creating this feeling off Rafi hair. So because our layers are pretty humid, it allows us to to move the layers, basically forming the shape of each hair the way we need it. Okay. And here in the bottom, um, the hair gets slightly darker. So well, it's what I'm adding this starker, uh, tone over here and add in a little bit of a contrast with my t 10 bread. What would here? So then worry. It looks a bit weird for now, but, um, this our first layer, it's called under painting and they will add more details. Uh huh. Stood enough so it will look more really sick. For now, we need to prepare the basic tonal work. So we have the material to work with. All right, So now we can do the same thing with the left here. First of all, prepare this greyish mix and also have my blue purple brown mixes. Well, ready. So it underst I'm mixing this colors. Cellulose paper gets, um, dry really fast. So we need to act fast, right? So let's start first week, mark the hair itself. It always, uh, wind wing when you add Ah, a little bit of, um, fresh stone and play with tones so they're not Oh, identical. But the change and flow so that at some sort of freshness to the painting And now it's baked, uh, inside the darker part of the ear. And this way, outline basically the shape off the ear. I would take a synthetic brush and lift the pigment. In some places where the hair is much later. You can only do it while your layers are but relatively wet. Otherwise, if your paper is too dry, it will be much harder to lift the pigment and tried away. I will mark this incline of that year over here. Little brushes. Um, too small. I also noticed that my moves are more like 13 dots. I'm kind of trying to just leave the marks over here. Um, instead of just covering everything with one length, right? And now we need to wait that our first under painting is fully dry, and we can move Teoh our next step to apply new fresh layers.
6. Second layers & deepening the tones: All right. So now it's time to have more concentrated and bright colors over here. And I'm referred in again to my t 10 red, and we will start working on patterns that we see on the fur off the cat. Here is, um, the same task to stay alert that you were layers they tried pretty fast because of the Telus paper, which means that you really need to keep an eye on those, Um, and just so fewer chokes because when they will get dry, it will be very, very challenging to make them, um, stuffed again. It's pretty hard to move layers and fix mistakes when you're working until a newspaper. So you don't really have much options to, um, correct yourself. There's some beauty into it as well, because this also doesn't give you time to, you know, over think it and kind of procrastinate over your picture, and it makes you move fast, think fast, decide what to do next. Um, so I think there is as some beauty in this as well. Now, while this layer is getting dry, it's still wet. I would like us to take burn sienna, which is warm. Brown color. Um, maybe at just a little bit off ultimate ing to make it less powerful, less bright according to our color wheel. Remember what we discussed in the previous class and edit to create this pattern on the third of the kitty. And since the previous layers, um, still wet or almost almost dry, But still, there's some human entered into the paper. It allows us to add the pattern, but this pattern will also blend and makes naturally, um, so we will have nice soft transitions. And in case you got pretty sharp stroke just, uh, at some, take a semi wet brush and correct the direction over this joke like for example, here my strokes bridges sharp. So with a semi wet brush. Not not do what? The water should not drop from their Bristol's, um, semi what? I'm applying the, uh like I'm moving the layers with my brush. - I don't want to see any sharp strokes over here because the fur off the cat is very soft, very gentle, so everything we do should very soft. And if you get sharp edges just to let them with the semi with a brush and forward, I have read all from which is slightly brighter than burnt Sienna. And I want to mix it with the detain read to achieve an interesting tone for some particular areas off the pattern on the for. But don't worry, we will get back to this a bit later when the layer will be fully dry so we can working it more. For now, let's get going to the lower part of the face. And here we have this cute little chicks and I'm sort of preparing this first layer with, um orange t 10 red in my case and then a little bit to the corner here. I had a darker tone off, um, burn Sienna with a mix off. It's our money just to make a darker over here and then to prepare this area soft in in all the strokes that have done. Don't worry, we will get back to it today. We're working in layers, which means that we will come back to the same ways few times so you don't need to do everything from your first attempt. I'm working with Hermogenes. Uh, if you don't like the regulation effect, feel free. Teoh, use Violet instead of with remaining. But make sure that Violet isnot dominated, so it's not too much off the color. So your cat doesn't turn into a cartoon character. The Purple Face all right here. What's important in the place where, over here, where the blue area starts, I want to make the transition or connection between the two areas more soft or softer. So I dilute this area with a tiny brush. So I have more control. And since I'm losing the color as well, I'm need to edit again over here. Be very careful because you don't want to damage your paper men and that you should not stay here for two on if you will, you know, move a lot and try to pick the color and put it back and diluted with water and all about hold this moves for two on. You will eventually see the paper giving you to reflect, basically falling apart. So this is not, um, the best paper for a lot of damage is and picking up the pigment and old. This manipulation, said we're doing, can be pretty damaging for paper. I'm slowly moving to the chin and with a bit of our sienna I had some yellowish tone to it . You can do yellow. I'd like our Sienna More waas rosiana mixed with blue doesn't give me green sub tone So I feel more safe. All right, So we arrived to these other side off the chick, and I'm working with this tiny brush cause it's more comfortable to gain control over, um, the water, since this brush is synthetic and also pretty small, so it can't absorb too much water. And it comes with ease. A lot of water damage in my picture. I would also like to get some, um, light pink tone and edit here on the chin. I think it will make the key t even market. Uh, well, you can do it. You can skip it. It's not really important. All right, So since we are already on this side, just need to make sure that didn't This part is also really soft. No sharp edges. All right. And now we can switch back to Metro brush and work the left side. When is the same story the T 10 red first? Um, by the way, did you notice that since I'm using the flip side off the paper and my, my colors, my brushes literally sliding on paper so it doesn't have any texture, um, on the surface of the paper to actually stick to, uh, which makes my brush literally slide over the place. So if you do not like this feature, well, don't just opposite side, um, of the paper. But I think it's important for unlearning artist to experiment and try both sides just because them, uh, producer off the paper decided that this side is the main line. It doesn't mean that, uh, this should be your choice. So experiment tried both sides aside for yourself. Which one you prefer if you like to have some texture, or if, like, when there's absolutely no, um, well, grains on your paper and no texture on your paper at all. So ever sent a super smooth like in my case, but also can be a little bit challenging to control the brush because it's sliding over the place. So old experiment and personal experience for sure, right. So now, um, the smaller brush I want to work on a small details off the Britain and again with my burnt sienna. I'm applying it Oops, I'm applying the poor. Return the darker tone over here in order to create this for fitness of the for, we always need to dilute the edges. - The more soft the edge, the more fluffy the face looks so you can literally go around and to dilute this edge. What the cat cat's face To achieve this feeling off fatness here a swell. I want to make the transition and the connection off this elements more soft, so I'm diluting it. Besides, I might need to fix the shape of the slept side. It's a bit too big, comparing to the right one. If you need just, uh, step away from your painting or take a photograph to see the mistakes or some disproportionate. It's a really great to another way is to show your painting to yourself in the mirror. That will also help you see if you made any mistakes in terms of proportions or like weird lines or anything. Sometimes you continue to trust the I all right, and now we need to leave the face to dry to be able to continue applying new layers
7. Paint realistic eyes, nose, mouth of a cat: Alright guys. So instead of a blind, more and more layers on our kitty face, um, I think it would make more sense if we bring it a little bit to life by painting the eyes. Eyes are my favorite elements due to paint. No matter if it's ah um, an animal or a human. I really like to spend some time, uh, making it look realistic in nature. So that's why um I would like us to paint the eyes first so that you could connect with this kitty more. And after that we will add more details to, um, the rest off the face. So actually, I would need a smaller person, this one, and and I might as well go with the synthetic brush because synthetic brush has ah ah, bouncy and, um, effect. So the tip is very bouncy on, and it allows me to control the amount of water that I received the release on paper. So I will start with a light Codman, Gilo on and apply it around the iris. Also, make sure you don't cover everything because we need to leave the highlighted spots on the I as just my paper. I don't want to use, uh, a pan or correction on George Open to make it more to make it just you know why I don't want to make it artificial. Um, so I would prefer to just keep the paper white when we are working on the highlights. Now, I added a little bit of green to my yellow to achieve this kind of emerald color. And I edit in some places, but not just everywhere. And so I hope now you can see more clear what I'm doing here. So I keep their yellow parts. Yellow is still shining through. I added a little bit off greenish down, and now I'm adding a little bit off my daughter Marine, which also eventually becomes, has like a green undertone because it's mixed with yellow. And in the end of it all, I take yellow okra and applied just here on the top around the eye because this is the place where we have a little bit of a shadow from the island, which is only natural. So this part of the Bible should be a little bit in a shadow. And here I keep adding a little bit of food from a dean and basically allow into color, allowing the color to make some blend by itself without controlling it too much and also remembering about the white highlights that I need to keep bite. So not color it with pigment. And I'm not going to paint the iris right now because my layers are wet. If I add black color as a virus, it will spread everywhere. But I need a very high controlled oval to paint the iris. So in order to have this control, I need to make sure that my paper is fully dry. If you feel like your strokes are too sharp, go ahead and dilute them with a semi wet brush. I'm doing it right now. Here in the area off dear looked, we can make it slightly darker. And don't worry. We'll outline the I when it will be fully dry, so it's more safe. Meanwhile, I'm moving to the right eye. It's pretty much the same. I'm applying yellow first because the lightest color and I can always make a darker I'm not covering it fully with yellow. Here goes a bit of green. Also remember about highlighted spots that I need to keep clean and white just clean later . And here's a little bit of would throw money and closer to the iris. And since the layers air still wet. Uh, big man just flows freely, making it more natural and a nice looking Don't worry about the Irish. We will think that it paint it in later. When you have fully dry, I make sure that your brush doesn't have too much water on it. If it does, you're risking to have a lot of water released by this brush on your eye and basically blurring everything with this water. So you want to make sure that your brushes absolutely well, not absolutely dry, but much more drive than than what you can say like that. And as well, if you feel like you were Strokes are too sharp. Dilute them with them a little bit wet brush not too wet. Just simulant. Sure it doesn't, uh, release too much water on your eye. It's a very delicate area. For now, we just need to balance out the colors and we will get back to it to apply some darker tones. I'm just supplying a little bit of a shadow so it's more visible. And for now we need to wait until the eyes get fully dry. So now we should not touch them. But we can move to painting. The nose and nose will be very nice soft in their nice soft colors, although makes my Carmine, which is a very cool cold. Red, uh, looks more like pink, and I mix it with Cardinal Yellow to achieve a very nice soft binky tone. But this area where the nose is, um, changing the tone from this a very soft color, do more noticeable. I think I've got too much water. That's why it's oh, bleeding right now, even with the synthetic burst. Sometimes something easy to fully controlled the brush and we'll turn in it, but I'm sure we can handle it. Remember, we applied a little bit of a shadow on the nose bridge before. I want to kind of reminded a little bit, so it's more noticeable, and I dropped too much of the blue so and I'll need to get up real fast. And the wife said, will get dry and stay there forever. And here we go. Nice. Here goes the other signs of the nose. I just want to show it a little to create a little bit of a shadow. Um, here in the bottom, we have a little bit of a shut. It was well, so I'm aiding them Mics off. Um, raw sienna and drama in blue here, Onley in the bottom to create the shadow. Since ah, we need to show the volume in order to recreate the two dimensional feeling there toe in order to show the volume in it too. Um, outline the shadows. So here we are. Shadows are in the bottom over here and also in the areas where where the whiskers were growing from. I can mark them right away. And because my brushes wet the these spots that I'm creating are not very, uh um, Sharps not not too distracting. It's exactly what I won't. Since we need to keep it all very soaked and smooth. All right, let's get back to the nose. A little bit of Teton red here to just outline how the shape knows they're here. And the same goes with the car. Mean read and right underneath the nostrils. There's a little bit of pinky spot. It is Also, the shadow at the nose drops so slightly, a little bit right underneath the nostrils. We need to create the shadow to make it look more realistic. You know, it's bleeding too much. So lift it. We can also outline the mouth. There is a shadow over here, so I am trying to carefully create the shadow so it doesn't so the big man doesn't flow in the areas that I don't need. Make sure your brush doesn't have too much water on it, Otherwise it will be too difficult to control it. And here we go. All right. Great. Now it's some. Now it looks more realistic and recognisable as a cat. So we are much closer. Teoh. Desirable result. Trying to imitate some hair over here again. Very soft strokes don't need to really make sharp lines in here. The nose is dry so I can paint nostrils If your nose is still what you need to wait. Otherwise it'll leak in the places you needed to be the nostrils. I'm painting with this mix that we were using before here and shadows. So it's basically brown blue and Violet. Um, I would not suggest you. I mean, I would not recommend you two years black. In this case, it's nice when you're painting to have the same color scheme visible through the throughout the whole painting so that the doctor only used here we can use also in the nose and in other places where we need dark layers. I think the only place where we will use the black will be actually dumb virus. All right, so let's, um, pain the Irish. So we're done with the I Nice. Both of them. Just one on and, um oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Well, that's unfortunate. Okay, when this happened, you need to use a wet brush and Simula brush, not dripping water word, and collect the color really fast and mark the area with the same color. Okay. Oh, I think I save it and hear the same lift. The pigment neither fear tissue clean tissue to do that. Who? All right, Safed? Well, stuff like this happens sometimes. Um, right. Hold your brush. Um, who? Okay, that was stressful. So, uh, the iris the iris has this shape of diamond, and this is the only time when I will use purely black color when you paint the iris. Ah, remember about the highlighted spots, so just keep some white areas in the iris from here, you can take ultramarine blue, pretty sick layer of it. So it looked more dark and edit from the iris just a little bit down to show an interesting , um, pattern on the on the I. - And from here, we can create very carefully our line off the I you need on their reliable brush. That is pretty hard. So synthetic brush will do. Natural brushes are very soft, so there's risk they will not be able to create a line that we need. All right, well, I think that will do for the I and because forward to paint there, right, I So for the iris, your brush should be really Dr Oh, mind so dry that it doesn't even paint in. Um should have a little bit off humid on it. Remember to keep your highlighted spots. Do not cover white areas completely. Try to make the both iris iris is, uh, symmetrical e . And now that the outlined the I, we have nice, realistic. I said cut. Just cover a little bit tear ducts, so it's not purely white. People want to can add Cem more return to the I to make it more interesting. Take a step back. Compare if both eyes are fine. Same size. All right, I think that will do. Just correct A little bit too. No survey here and now we're ready to move to paint the areas around the eye and more details to the patterns.
8. Deepening the tones, creating volume: I just, ah, took a step back and realize that my right eye is, uh, not the same as the left one. It's a little bit is proportionate. So again constructs it enough that he needs to take breaks and look at your painting from a little bit of a distance Or take a photograph, um, over it so you can see if something is off to be able to fix the problem while you're still can, because if, for example, I would continue drawing and, um, work on the eye as I was planning to, I would definitely not be able to tweak the the ice shape after that. So it's very useful to take breaks. Um, evaluate where you are. Okay, now I think it's better. Um, everything else looks pretty much proportionate. Okay, so now I would like to work on this area. That's right above the eyes or around the ice. I would say I need, um I take red okra and burnt sienna. Well, they're very similar. And dean, and little bit off with remitting just little to make this brown color a little darker. Do not add black. If you want to make a color darker. It will only make it, um, flett a and muddy. What you need to do when you want Teoh make the color darker tone darker. You need to add a complementary color, which is the opposite color on the color wheel that I showed you in their colors. Human class. All right, so now we need to create this Cem fluttering above the I. I'm not making one straight line. I'm trying to create this kind of like, uh, dots that, like moves. I'm also mixing it up with a detain read or some very bright orange. I'm here. I also don't really want it to be super sharp, so I blended, but just a little. Besides, I think I need a little darker tone. So I'm taking more of promoting blue, mixing it with, um, burnt sienna turns to make it a little bit darker to create this shadow, then on underneath the eye, because you can see I'm balancing between a clear color from depend and mixed collar that is a big doctor. And here this same color goes a little bit away to the Parton. That would be no ready working home earlier. I might need a smaller brush to create more delicate strong's. And from here I'm marking the pattern further, and it's the same thing. I'm, um, mixing up the clean color from the pen, which is bright and and juicy, with the color that I mixed. So those two colors are not happening exactly. Same because it's boring when the colors are just pure color from the palette. You want to play around and see the variety of different tones and colors in your painting , rather than just one pure boring color with the semi wet brush with some pigment. I'm recreating making like, um, sharp, um, dots to recreate some texture. Ah, more part rather than yeah, it's more like a part. No, no for not really it extra all right, and I will do the same on the other side over here and here we go, outlining this similar button around the eye. I'm mixing up darker tone would light a tone all right to my being in. My strokes are on the too sharp, so I'm trying to make them a little softer by, um, blurring the strokes with a semi wet brush. - Um , I think this site or not a little bit too dark, Um, comparing to this one. So what you can do about this ISS? We're basically heading a little bit off. They're lighter layer over here just to brighten up this This area, this trick might not work if your paper is not very reliable, Um, there is a chance that it might hurt the paper, but, uh, it's really takes time and practice to actually figure out how your paper behaves. Ed is some bright spots on the cuts for just to make it more interesting. Um, and also right now, I would like to take our burnt sienna, mix it with a little bit off violet, maybe at some damaging to have especially dark color and work through some brothers. I might also as well take a smaller brush for this type of work. Ah, see that I am not making one's trade line. I'm kind of building up this line with short strokes. This allows me to make it look like this line is actually formed by short for short hair. The cat, if I would make it just strong straight line and look artificial, considering that they're painting a kitty and It's also important to stop and not overdo the painting. Um, and still, it is still watercolor, so it should be light spacious. You don't want to make it to have him here. I just want to add a few details, um, to show that the difference between the hair my strokes are pretty and soft. Uh, they are soft because the brush is samu it. It's not very dry. That's why my strokes are radius. Often not sharp. - Mm . Same for this. Signed. Right. Here we go. Um, I might move a little bit up the partner over here about the eye so it matches the left eye more proportionate. Those are just few details, and I think our faces done spiritually. And let's move to Thief Final Part, which is painting the three body off the cut.
9. Painting fluffy body of the cat: So for this part, I would need a bigger brush. I will also prepare the makes that I will use. It will be for Sienna with a little bit of Norma Jean, but still, or sienna should be dominating. My also add a bit of violet was too much. So I need to world for Marine. All right, I think this will be enough. First, I need Teoh wet the area the for here. Then I'm taking my nature brush and by some hair, the guts body. In some places, it's Tucker. Some places is lighter. It's entirely up to you. You don't really need to make a perfect copy off the for Oh, it's really not. It's not useful in the first place. Nobody is going to check how exactly the shirt off the cab was lying down. Just our job to make it look like a for should be soft. That's why we are working on the went surface using button right technique. Be ready that the paper might buckle up. If your paper got drying some places just feel free to end more of a litter issue. Go. It's down shadow. What paper allows you to move layers longer and changed the directions. And also make the feather sorry for some bird. Uh, sir, more soft and realistic. Then we moved Teoh A add in a little bit off our original colors. De turned red in my case that I mix it with the blue and purple, so it's slightly darker. I remind you that this place we're painting right now the body of the cat is not as, um well, first, it's not so detailed, and it's darker because it's not the focal point of our painting, and I want our viewers to look at the face of the cat and not be distracted on every anything else. Plus, because the hat comes first when they look at the cat from some fight. Um, the cap, naturally, cuts had naturally drop shadow on the body. That's why the body is a little bit darker than the face. All this we need to count in in order to create a realistic painting with the cut here is Well, if you want to make this part softer to recreate the for, you might blend a little bit. This parts make sure that your strokes are not to visible not too dark, not too distracting your attention. And I'm injecting a little bit off cadmium yellow just for more interesting effect. Now, while this layer is too wet, I would like to lift the pigment in some places to recreate this some curly parts off the for. I think here in this area should be slightly darker. And in order to make a darker you need to increase the density off your pigment. Which means that he said that you had more dark colors too. You're mixed, but more. They can artistic her pigment to increase the density. Okay, I think it's enough. Don't me no need, Teoh. Overdo it. And another important moment is to remember that the cat's body is not just hear it also extents in the back. So there is some tail and you know the rest of the body. So we need to show it as well. And I went to this area first than I take my detain read that I was using in the beginning as the collar off there for I add some with drama in blue to make it darker and on that but area, I am adding the layer for the rest of the body of the cat and its tail because somewhere and I don't want to leave it awkwardly. Um, hang in there. I want to kind of at some by ground. So my background toe be mix off blue and green, and I also allow colors to blend so that the rest of the body is out of focus. This also allows me to make more specific here, over here, maybe get a little bit inside and follow all the way down. I think this background is nicely reflecting the, um, the color of the eye so it balances nicely and in the meantime, I'm changing to a smaller brush. And I just want Teoh t to make a different concentration in different places. So somewhere it's a bit darker somewhere it's lighter, especially in the price is close to the for, so I want to dilute the edge off the for. It's been since in blue over here by diluting the edge I make the for looking more fluffy and salt, and I kind of bring this color off the background inside the for basically creating the shape. Both the outline of the body of the cut here. And one, the transition to be less noticeable. So I'm kind of went in in the back of the cat, All right. I think now we are almost done. The final little tiny thing left are the Whisker said we are going to, uh, pain twist the Ben Open. Uh, I found a mistake that I need to fix right out. It's this white places they should be diluted. The hand should be fluffy. So I'm deluding the edge with the cat over here, making it more fucking and also to differentiate it from deep back. All right, now we need to wait until this is absolutely fully dry, so that then we can finish our painting by and in the final last white elements.
10. Final details and Voila!: Alright, guys. So we're almost finished. And there few final moments that that's going to Dio everything is flying to get my hands, um are to end the whiskers and a few elements with Joe Pan or correction pen, as I explained in the very beginning of our class. So first, I would like to add some a few white elements on the I just highlighted spots, the smaller ones which I couldn't, um, leave, uh, when I was painting with a brush. And they need to do too many, just a few. If you do too many. Don't look not realistic, Um, and maybe a few hairs over here as well. Just a few. You don't need to, Ah, make a complete throwing, uh, with Ben. Plus, it will be pretty noticeable that it's a pen, so don't overdo it. And the whiskers make your hand very confident. And the moves fast and sharp so that your whiskers are straight, not wobbling. Remember that they're growing from those from those heroes. Spots that I left can't for some of those that are a little bit more invisible. I will use the correction pen. Yeah, all right. I think now our kitty is done. And if you have any questions, please do reach out to me here in a skill share. Or you can send me a message in my instagram, which is Yana Trouble Art or Facebook, which is also young, A gentle art. I'm the responsive. I'm always happy to help if you have questions or if you want to show me your sketch before you start painting or your final artwork, the project are for this cost will be to paint a cut. Um, don't worry. If you feel like this is a bit too challenging for you, just go for it. Try it and I will do my best to help you improve your work. Uh, if you want to see more of my paintings and what I do, uh, go ahead and follow me on Instagram and Facebook. You can visit my website to see more of my paintings, which is young Yana travel art dot com and let's be friends. Thank you and hope to see it in my other causes.
Yana Shvets, Professional watercolor artist
