Watercolor Painting Daily Challenge: 12 Days of Autumn Leaves & Mushrooms

1. Welcome to Class!: There's something so magical and calming about autumn, don't you think? I find the colors of the seasons so inspiring. I love to watch how they change each day. I also love the rain and how you can go on a walk after it stops, and then you find the so-called oldest art of nature, mushrooms. They remind me of fairies and fairy tales. It's why I love to paint them. Hello, friends. My name is Elina, and I invite you to celebrate Autumn with me. It's my favorite season, so I decided to do something special. Join me for a 12-day challenge where we'll paint a different leaf or mushroom each day. We'll start with the simplest plot and we'll gradually implement more and more elements and techniques. Each of the paintings will take you about 30 minutes and in the end, you will have beautiful collection to hang on your walls or use as postcards to send to your friends. I will also give you my tips for staying consistent and for making art a part of a daily routine. As a former manager, of one of the biggest fashion retail brands, I know what it's like to feel like you don't have a spare minute left in your day. I managed that job and my greatest time for three years before I decided to become full-time artist. During that time, I tried many things and found out what works best for supporting a sustainable creative practice. If you don't feel like participating in a challenge right now, you can watch the class at your own pace and even choose which projects to paint. If that sounds good to you, meet me in the next video where I will tell you more about the class structure and how the challenge is going to take place. See you there. 2. Class + Project Overview: Welcome back. In this video, I will tell you more about the challenge and how it's going to take place. With this class, I challenge you to paint 12 autumn paintings with me. I divided them into two, six Autumn leaves and six mushrooms. We'll start with the leaves in Week 1 as they're an easier object to paint than mushrooms. Inside both themes, we'll start with the most simple plot and we'll gradually move towards a more complicated project so that you can have a head start and learn new things as we go. We'll also use different techniques and I will give you some tips for each of the projects, including how to make your watercolor paper look like vintage paper and how to make your botanical illustration. A good idea is to start the challenge on Monday. This way you'll start the week motivated and you'll have the most complicated project for the weekend. You can paint it on Saturday and use Sunday as a break or you can use the whole weekend for the last project or for catching up with anything you have missed. Or you can come up with your own idea on how to schedule your painting session. It's up to you. Most of the projects will take you about 30 minutes. So you'll probably need less than 45 minutes per project, including time for setup and cleaning and tidying up after the painting session. You can use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process. I will mention every time when it's time to leave your painting to dry. I will upload one video per day from Monday to Saturday for both themes. This way you'll stay focused on the current project and you'll have extra motivation to come back to the class each day. Of course, if you join later, you will have already all the lessons available. So you can even paint few at a time if you want. Of course, you can always choose to take this class at your own pace and even skip some of the projects. In the next video, I will tell you more about the materials that you're going to need in order to complete the class. See you there. 3. Materials: Let's review the materials that you'll need for this class. It's not necessary to have the same materials from the same brands, you can just use whatever you have available already. Let's start with the paints. For this class, I will use these two palettes by Art philosophy, odyssey, and essence so for the leaves, I will use odyssey. I like it because it has warm yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. The colors have specific names, but I'll just mention them as brown, red, and so on because I don't want to confuse those who are using different sets. Don't worry too much about the colors just use the closest ones you have. I will mix the colors directly here on the metal lid. This palette is brand new, as you can see. The essence I like for, its earthy tones. It has some warm yellows, browns, and some nice greens. You see that I have been using it a lot. Next is paper. I will use Fabriano Artistico. It is 100 percent cotton and 300 GSM. The sheets are smaller in size so that we can finish each painting quickly and won't go into too much details. I will use the paper tape to tape the sheets to this board. You can use whatever board you have, even the back of a sketchbook or magazine. For brushes, I will use my ⁣Schimoni Art Brushes. They are synthetic. These two here are quills Sizes 3 and 5. They hold a lot of water and have sharp tips. For smaller details, I will use these round Size 4. For long and thin lines, I will use my rigger Size 8. Basically, you will need at least one big brush with a sharp tip and a smaller one. For one of the projects, I will use masking fluid, and to apply it, I will use this silicone shaper by Tintoretto. It has this soft tip that allows you to paint different shapes with it. This is the masking fluid that I will use, it's by Royal Talens. For those of you that don't know what masking fluid is, this is a liquid that is used to preserve the white areas of the paper. You apply it and leave it to dry and you can paint on top of it. After everything is dry, you can easily remove it, then reveal the white spaces again. For the sketches, you will need a pencil, eraser, and optionally a ruler. I will use paper and a cotton towel. Two jars of water, one to rinse off my brush and the other for when I need clean water. This is pretty much everything that you'll need in order to complete the class. In the next video, I will give you some tips on how to stay consistent and we'll talk about the benefits of having a daily art practice. 4. How to Stay Consistent: [MUSIC] There are tons of benefits to keeping a regular art practice. Research has shown that engaging in just 45 minutes of art-making significantly reduces the levels of stress hormone cortisol. The process slows down the mind and help to block out distractions. As a result, people are feeling much calmer and less anxious. Seeing a completed work of art you have created stimulates the release of dopamine, the feel-good hormone. This lowers the feeling of depression and increased feelings of confidence. Creating art can also help us become better problem solvers, stimulates the imagination and makes us more observant. Now that you know all these benefits I bet you would love to hear how you can support a regular art practice in your day. Here are my tips. The key to consistency is setting a specific goal. Ask yourself, what this specific area listed goal that you can set for yourself? It can be painting 30 minutes a day as we're doing in this challenge. It can also be 10 minutes or an hour each weekend. Make sure it's achievable, but also a little bit challenging so that you're setting yourself up for success. Stick to a schedule. Make a schedule with the times you have decided for yourself. You're likely to take it much more seriously when it is in your daily planning. Although this way you can make sure that your time for art is blocked out instead of leaving it for whenever you have time. Use reminders. This is a new habits so you need to remind yourself about it. You can use sticky note or an app on your phone, even a simple alarm. Don't be too hard on yourself if you skip a day or a week. Just promise yourself that you'll get back to it as soon as I can and remind yourself that all this is for your well-being. Celebrate milestones. For example, painting five days straight a whole month where you painted each weekend. This will give you an additional confidence boost. Get everything ready beforehand. You can use the night before for cleaning up your creative space, decide on the project, or preparing your materials. It will be much easier the next date to start when you have everything ready. Lastly, you can find an accountability partner who will check on you and you can talk about your successes and struggles. Whether you're doing this class as a challenge or not, I hope that you already feel motivated and inspired to finally start. We're taking off with the next video. Day 1 in our firstly. 5. Day #1 - Cherry: Let's do it, Day 1. I have all my supplies ready and now we'll start right away with the sketch. Now we'll upload our sketches in the resources section of the class, so if you want, you can just copy them. You can use a light box or you can print them and use this tiny window instead. You are probably wondering why you need a ruler to paint nature objects. Sometimes I will use it to mark the central vein of the leaf. This is slightly off center, I will erase it. Of course, I will make this land more natural with some curves here and there, and the leaf we're painting today is a chair leaf. Here's where the leaf will start, the rest will be the stem. It's pretty simple, it just goes like that. It's slightly narrower at the top. Now, I draw a line like that. For this side, I will turn my paper this way. Now that I have the basic shape, I will make the lines bolder. Next I will draw the veins. They're slightly curved like that. Now I will take some of the excess graphite. This is our final shape. Actually, the edges of the leaf are not smooth, but we'll use the shape of the brush to paint the tiny spikes. I will now tape the paper to my board. I'm rolling my eraser to make the sketch paler. I'm ready to start with watercolors. I'm wetting the entire area of the leaf. You want the leaf to be covered with an even coat of water without pools or dry areas. It needs to be glistening. If you go outside of the lines, you can blot it with a paper napkin. I'll start adding the colors. First, I will add some yellow. I'm making water mixture and I drop it here and there. I leave some lighter areas for highlights. Now I'm taking more concentrated color and again, I place it randomly. The color spreads nicely because the paper is wet. Now I'll add another color. I'm taking this orange and I'm adding it to the yellow. I'll place it mostly on the right side of the leaf. Now wiping my brush and now I'll use it to take some of the excess liquid from the leaf. You can see how much water and paint I have. I can tilt my board in different directions, then this way the colors will blend really nicely but that's still have a lot of liquid and I will soak some of it with my brush. Remember, I wept it on my towel so now it's semi dry. I'm wiping it and I come back again to soak some more. I'm fixing the shape a bit. Now I will take more of that beautiful orange and now I'll add it to the leaf. It's starting to really pop out. Again, I put it mostly on the right side. Now, making a mix between the yellow and orange, I take the excess off my brush with the napkin and I will paint the blades of the leaf. I'm just using the tip of the brush, I press it on the paper and it creates those tiny spikes. They're facing the tip of the leaf. Keep that in mind. Now with the damp brush, I will take that extra liquid again. I'm fixing the shape. I will take some brown and we'll continue with the rest of this side. Too much liquid again. It's important to know how to control the water you have on your paper and brush. If you feel like you need more guidance for that, check my first-class watercolor secrets. I will now go to the other side of the leaf. This time, I'll mix more of that orange. I'm adding some brown to the mix. This is one of the key to making your leaves realistic, switching between different colors and tones. I'll add more brownish mix to the left. Now we'll use it to add some color spots. It needs to be thick so that it doesn't spread much so I'm using less water. I think some brown wherever I feel like it. I'm taking the paint straight from the pan now. I will use a smaller brush to paint the veins. Again, use a thick mixture so that it's visible and it won't spread much. Now, don't worry if they turn out pale, we'll go back to this part when the leaf is dry. I think some last color spots with a very thick paint straight from the pen. The more the leaf is drying, the harsher they will look. Finally, sounds platters with clean water this will create some texture. If your leaf is not listening, better skip this step as it will create a different effect that we don't want right now. Now I will leave this to dry. My leaf is now dry and I will use my small brush to paint the veins on dry. I'm mixing a reddish-brownish mixture with almost no water. I will go over the lines I painted on with. I'm not pressing too much and the brush is almost dry, leaving this less pronounced line. With clean water, I will smudge it here and there. It also creates a nice texture. I will add more of that texture to the entire leaf using the mix I already have on my palette. I pick some of it and I place it on the paper with such wiggling moves. Same on the right side with more red in that mix. Now with an even darker mixture, I'm going back to the veins now. Same thing I did while painting the central vein. I need very thin lines. I even interrupt some of them on purpose. This was too dark, so I'm plotting it with my napkin. The veins should be thicker and darker where they are closer to the central vein. I will smudge these with need some clean water. Finally, I'll take some very dark brown and I'll add some spots with it. Sounds platters with different colors. I will write the name here below so that I won't forget it. Now let's remove the masking tape. Our first leaf is ready. Great job guys. I will see you tomorrow for Day 2 of our autumn challenge. 6. Day #2 - Ginkgo: Welcome to Day 2 of our autumn challenge. Today we will paint together a ginkgo leaf. Its shape is a bit more complex, but if you find it too intimidating, I remind you that you can find all the sketches in the resources section of the class and copy them. So let's start. First I'll draw the stem. Then it goes like that. I'll connect those two lines with a semicircle. I'll make the lines more visible now. Now this part is wavy, so I'll try to draw natural-looking tiny waves that go up and down. Inside the leaf we have those tiny lines or veins that connect the stem with this wave edge. I'll fix the shape a bit. Now I will remove the excess lines. It will be pretty light in color, so I want the pencil lines to be barely visible. This is the shape of our leaf. As I did with the previous leaf, I will wet the entire area. My water is not exactly clean, but that's okay. You can see even better this way. I'm carefully filling in the shape and now we'll leave some space before I erase the pencil lines. Now we'll start with this yellow, but this time I will add some of that warm brown to it. And also a little bit of white. This will make the color milkier. I will drop it into the white area and I will help it spread with the damp brush. I hold my napkin with my other hand so that I can quickly get rid of the excess water. I'm filling the shape with an even coat of that color. Now I will make more concentrated yellow. With that, I will paint some lines through the entire length of the leaf, leaving some spaces between them. I can even pick some of the colors with the damp brush. I think more saturated paint. I'm always following the same direction from the edge to the stem. Now I will bend the stem using the same color. I will add some brown spots, especially on the right side. With the damp brush, I will soften everything. I'm taking my rigger brush now and I'm mixing yellow and brown. With that mixture, I will paint even darker lines from the wavy edge to the stem. I love how this gives the leaf a three-dimensional look. Now we'll darken the edge here and there with thick brown paint. Whenever it turns out too harsh, I will soften it with my bigger brush. I can also drag some of that color in the direction of the sun for some additional contrast. More darker spots on the edge. Now I'm mixing some really dark brown, and now we'll add some dots with it, especially on the darker areas. This is how we achieve a realistic look. We have to manage to keep some highlights, then we lay the midtones, and finally we need some dark accents. Leaving it to dry now, and we'll be back to add some details on dry. I'm mixing again yellow, brown, and some white. But this time I want the mixture to be darker, so I use more brown and less water. We'll use that to paint the tiny lines of the leaf. We don't want those to be super smooth and sharp looking like this one. We want them to be natural. So I will take some of the excess moisture of my brush, and I will try again. Even that's not quite right, so I'll do that again. This is what we want to achieve, natural-looking line, so that we can emphasize the texture of the leaf. Now we'll start with some short lines here near the edge. I will make this edge here darker too, and the other one just a little bit. Remember, we don't want to outline it, just to add some contrast to it. Some on the stem too, and I'm going back to this edge. I will switch to my rigor now, and I'll paint some longer lines. Each time I take fresh paint, I will dip my brush in a paper towel. I'll start from one side, and carefully drag it to the other. Some barely visible lines. Oops, my hand was shaking, and now I'm left with this little line. I will try to fix it. Unfortunately, it's impossible to leave the color, so I'll have to cover it with some texture. I will continue painting some lines before I move to the texture part. I wanted to make this part darker too. I'm adding some texture now with a very light mixture. My brush is semi-dry, so it leaves these nice marks on the paper. Now with just some water, I'll smooth some parts. The result is barely visible. It just takes out some of that rough textures look. You can skip this part if you're happy with how your leaf looks. Finally, let's add splatters. Some dark accents. Let's call it today. I will remove the paper tape. I'll just write the name of this one. Here's our second leaf. I think it looks pretty nice. Congratulations on completing Day 2. You're doing so well. See you tomorrow for Day 3. 7. Day #3 - Oak: Hello and welcome to Day 3, my friends. Today we'll paint together an oak leaf. It's really beautiful and it's one of my favorites. Let's start. I will use my ruler to make guide for the central vein. Let's make it a bit wavier. Now I'll draw the smaller veins. They are more or less symmetrical and near the tip they're very short. Then they become longer and longer, and then they're getting shorter again. We finish with two shorter lines at the bottom. Next I'll draw a wavy line around them like that and the same on the other side. Removing the excess graphite. I can even shape my eraser like a cylinder and roll it over my sketch. I will also draw a few tiny holes inside the leaf. Today, we'll incorporate green color inside the leaf and you need to know which colors exactly to use. What could happen is that the red color you're using my might mix well with the green. I will use this green from my palette, so I'll see how it mixes with the yellow, orange, and red that I plan to use as well. Naturally, when I mix it with the yellow it gives me this warm and juicy green. Even though it's not very typical for autumn leaves, I quite like it. Next I'll see how it mixes with this red. This is what we're trying to avoid. Look at this green base that we have over here. This red is definitely out of the picture for today. Let's try it with the orange-red I've been using so far. Yes, this is a lot better. Finally, with that warm brown, also good. So I'll stick to the same colors for today plus the green. I will start again by wetting the paper. I am carefully filling in the shape. I go around tiny holes. Once again, we want to achieve an even coat of water. You can see now that this is not the case for me. At some places I have puddles and some are looking a bit dry. I will take my board and I will tilt it in different directions so that the water spreads evenly. Now I'll take what is left with my brush. Now we'll start with the same yellow color once again and I'll just add it to whatever I have here on my palette. Just some random spots. I still have a lot of water on my paper, so I'll have to take care of it. I'm taking some of it with a clean brush and I wipe it on my napkin. Back to that yellow-orange mix and I'll add some more of it to the leaf. Adding more orange and brown to the mix. I'll add it to the very tip of the leaf. Now I see that I still have a lot of water on my paper, so it's not spreading very well, but I'll help it with my brush while I get rid of some of that excess liquid again. I will continue to add this color on the left side of the leaf. Sometimes I'm taking brown straight from the pen. I will take now an even darker brown and I will blend this with the rest. I will add more of that dark brown in some some places. Here, I carefully go around the holes. Let's move to the right side. Same process. I'm dropping some color and then I spread it with my brush. Now I will add the green. I will first mix it with this product here to make it look more natural. I'm now helping the colors to blend. Some more brown on this side. Now switching to a smaller brush now. With dark brown, I will go around the tiny holes once again. Now some dots here and there. Some around the edges especially in those parts, it makes the leaf look very realistic. I will also add some contrast to the stem, adding some dark brown. Some splatter with clean water. Now we'll leave it to dry. My leaf is now dry. You see that it lost a lot of its vibrancy. This happened because all the time I was working, I had a lot of water on my paper, which dilutes the colors. In the Day 5 video, I will show you how you can paint a vibrant and saturated leaf if this is what you want. But now let's continue with this one. I'm happy with how realistic it looks. I will add some texture to the parts that look plain and boring, like here and here, here too. I'm taking some of that brown and with the semi dry brush, I will smudge some paint on those areas. Some Dutch too, it's better to use a smaller brush for that. Our greens merges too. Let's make it a bit darker. Just some random spots here and there. Some tiny dots with dark brown, some splatters, and now let's paint the veins. Again with a dry brush. I'm not trying to paint a straight line with one move. I'll just go back and forth with my brush like that. I will smudge it wherever it looks harsh. I'll add some dark spots to it. Just makes it look more natural. Now the smaller veins, same process. Remember to rub your brush or wipe it so you can get more natural-looking line. Whenever I feel it looks unnatural, I just merge it with a clean, damp brush. Some ways I paint interrupted and the last two, some more texture, more dark accents and it's done. Let's write down what leave this is and that will remove the masking tape. The tree is done. Congratulations guys. We are officially halfway through the leaf part. Tomorrow's one is quick and fun just to help you keep that momentum. See you there. 8. Day #4 - Ash: Hello and welcome to Day 4. Today, I have prepared something quick and fun to help you catch your breath and get motivated to continue with the challenge. We're going to paint an ash leaf. Ash leaf has a longer stem and then it has a few smaller leaves attached to it. We have one here on top, and then the rest are more or less symmetrical. They also get smaller towards the bottom part. I will take the excess graphite. Now I will show you a new technique that I will use to paint the leaves. I find it very fun and practical and you can use it for painting almost anything. First, I'll prepare a mix with my base color. It's not very thick, but it's also not very watery. I'm loading my brush with it. Next, I will take a darker color by using just the tip of the brush. I have my brush loaded with the orange color and at the tip of my brush, I have a thicker brown paint and I will paint the leaf like that, pressing the brush sideways so the colors that mixed on the brush create this nice gradient on the paper. It takes some practice to make it look good. I haven't used this brush for that so far, so my first attempt is not very successful. Let's practice one more time. I'm dabbing my brush to get rid of the excess moisture and I load it with the orange color. Taking something brown with the tip. This one is better. Once we're happy with the leaf, we can add some more colors, spots, dots, or veins. Let's move to the actual painting now. I'm washing my brush, I'm wiping it. I'm taking the orange and then the brown with just the tip. You can even hold your brush like that for a moment so the colors can mix even better. I'm tracing the outlines with the tip of my brush. Then I'll repeat the process for the other side. You may need to tweak your hand like that or you can turn your paper so that you feel more comfortable. Now I can fix the shape and add some darker spots. You can drop other colors if you like it, but I want to keep this one simple. I'll move to the next leaf. Once again, the same process, washing, wiping, loading with the base color and taking the darker one with the tip. Turning the brush upside down for a moment and then tracing the shape with the tip of the brush. You might wiggle your brush a bit to imitate the roughness of the leaf. I will go to the other side without loading the brush again. I feel I have enough paint for that. After the next one, it's getting easier when you get used to it. I feel this technique takes a bit of preparation, but once you get the hinge of it, you'll love it. It's great, such natural blends between the colors, and it can even surprise you sometimes with the results. It's best to use it for smaller areas as you need to quickly cover the element before some parts get dry. If your brush is not holding a lot of water, you may experience this debenture laying on the paper may dry in patches or almost immediately. In that case, you need to adjust the amount of liquid you were loading initially or change the brush which one that is softer and takes up more liquid. It takes some adjusting, but it's worth it to have this technique in your arsenal. Here I got some dry spots, but I like the effect, so I will leave it. Now I will splatter some clean water. Here I got the bigger drop so I will fix it. Some parts of my leaves are dry already so the effect from the splattering won't be that visible. I will continue now with the second side. Here I also got some white spots, but I will leave them and emphasize them by dropping some of their color around them. Now they look more natural. Same thing with this one. It seems like my orange mix lost some of its vibrancy because the leaves on this side look paler. We can fix that later. Now the final leaf. Adding some dark color around the edge. I will take now my size 2 brush and I will add some tiny dark spots. You can mount them on wet and on dry. This one is very pale, so I let more saturated brown. Now some orange. Next, I will mix both colors to paint the stem. First with the watery mix. Now I will drop some brown here and there, mostly on the right side. I will add some very thin and pale veins. I will add some darker brown here and there. Some texture. I will add more orange to these two leaves on the right, and some for texture. I will write the name of the leaf and I will remove the masking tape. Here is our leaf for Day 4. Congratulations if you made it this far. Just two days left, and we'll be ready with our leaf collection. See you tomorrow for a bright and saturate maple leaf. 9. Day #5 - Maple: It's Day 5. Welcome. Today we'll add some pop of color to our leaf collection and we'll paint a beautiful and vibrant maple leaf. Remember when we painted the oak leaf and I told you about this one and today, I'll show you a different technique with which you can make sure your colors will stay as saturated as you see them, even after they are dry. I'm preparing the sketch. I'll draw the stem and the veins and next I will draw a jagged line around those veins. I'll draw these little spikes here and there, but the biggest ones are where the veins are so keep that in mind. Or you can always copy the sketch from the files uploaded in the resources section. I will take the excess graphite with my eraser. For this leaf we'll use the wet-on-dry technique. This way we'll make sure that the colors will stay vibrant because there's less water on the paper. One of the tips is to prepare a mixture that is bright and vibrant, so not much water but also not too thick so that you'll work smoothly and the paint is not drying while you're still working with it. I have prepared my orange and red orange puddles with paint. I will start with the tip and I'll work from top to bottom. I've loaded my brush with lots of liquid. This means I should be careful around the edges. Another tip for using this technique is to always make sure the edges of the color you're laying down are not dry. This way you'll get smooth transitions. I'm constantly checking with my edges and now I'm dropping more liquid there with the tip of my brush. If you run out of paint, try to mix it using the same ratio between paint and water. I will now work with this left part which is big so I make sure the edge here is not dry. You can see now that I wasn't very careful and my new mix, is more watery than the one that is already on the paper. This is what you want to avoid. I will try to drag it with my brush so that I won't get a watermark. With orange mix, I will continue on this side. I have a lot of liquid here in the middle while the upper part is already drank. This will lead to a harsh line between them. I will try to fix it by introducing more liquid in the upper part. This is very tricky. You need to be very careful and always try to match the level of wetness you already have in your paper. Going back down, I continue with the yellow, orange mix. Once I fill the entire leaf, I check for areas where the colors didn't blend and I help them with my brush. I will splatter some clean water to add some texture to the leaf. Now, mixing the colors for painting the stem. I'm dropping some darker brown to it, and with the same dark brown, I will add some dots, some random spots. I will darken some of the tips and around the edges, the paint is still wet, so I get nice blends. Now some splatters. I really like the contrast, these dark brown provides. Some final touches. Here the paint is starting to dry, so I must be careful. I will splatter it with plain water again. Now I'll leave it to dry. My leaf is now dry. You see that we didn't lose much of its vibrancy. I'm now mixing a reddish brown for the veins. You already know how to paint those using your smaller brush with more pigment and less water and shorter strokes instead of trying to paint a longer one at one go, it's also better if you avoid smooth lines, instead tried to make these different body quite movements. I will add darker brown here and wherever I feel like the veins are not very visible. I was much some of it. That's it. I'm writing the name of the leaf and I'm ready to remove the masking tape. Here is our bright, beautiful, vibrant maple leaf. With that, our day five is complete. See you tomorrow for the final and most complicated one from the leaves. 10. Day #6 - Chestnut: Welcome to Day Six of our Autumn challenge. Today we're going to paint our last leaf. It's going to be really interesting and a bit challenging. We're going to paint the horse chestnut leaf and for those of you who are interested in botanical illustration, we will also do that. I'm really excited. I will start the sketch by marking the middle vein of the leaf. It starts about here and it has two veins that go like that. Then we have two more that go upwards. Now let's draw the shape of the leaf. This upper one is the biggest. Their shape is very similar to the cherry tree leaf, rounded but pointy at the tip. It also has these little spikes, but we'll paint them with watercolors in the same way as we did with the cherry leaf. Now I see that I drew this one too big, so I'm going to fix it. I will make these two slightly rounder. The two bottom leaves are the smallest. Erasing the axis lines. I still feel this one needs to be bigger, and this one rounder. It's complicated shape and we need to find the bonds. I will place a stripe of paper tape right here in the middle. On the right side, I will paint the leaf with water colors and the left one, I will leave blank for now, so that I can show you later how I make my botanical illustrations. I will show you the different options once we get there. But basically, you can use a pencil, pen, fountain pen, whatever you like and of course, you can just fill it with water colors. I will start by wetting the biggest leaf with clean water. We don't need much as the shape is small and we will fill it quickly with color. Just a very thin layer so the colors blend nicely. I will take some of that yellow and I will fill almost the entire shape with it. I will add more concentrated color. Now I'll mix the green with the same yellow and I will use it to paint the edges with those tiny spikes. The same way we painted the cherry leaf. Here, I will switch to brown, and back to that yellow. Here, the spikes are becoming smaller and smaller. I will try to blend those colors so everything looks natural. Some brown here next to the stem. I wasn't sure which brown to use so I took a bit from the dark and light brown. These brown seems to work better with the rest of the colors. Some spots. Some splatters. I'm darkening this part here. We are ready with the first leaf. Two more. The same process first, I'm wetting the entire shape. Starting with the yellow. Some green near the tip and for painting the spikes. Switching to brown now. This time I'm going to start with dark brown. Let's move this transition. Let's change the spikes on the side. Some details with the brown. I feel like it changes the whole look of the leaf, this dark brown. The last leaf. The same process again starting with some yellow. I think the green near the tip. You can turn your paper so that you can feel more comfortable painting the spikes with just the tip of your brush. Adding some brown near the stem. Connecting the brown and the green with some yellow. Always making sure that the colors are blending nicely. While the colors are wet, you can still fix the shape. I think some darker spots. I want to add more dark brown here. Now I will paint the stem. I'm just drawing a line with my brush, and now I will add to it some darker spots. I will leave this to dry and I'll be back to paint the veins. My leaf is now dry and I will paint the veins. The horse chestnut leaf has a lot of veins. We want to use the lighter colored paint them. Otherwise the leaf will look too heavy and artificial. I'm adding some yellow here and I get this mustard color. I will use my rigor because the lines need to be very thin. I'm not drawing the line all the way to the edge. This gives the leaf looking lighter and more natural. One line here next to the tape and we are done with this part. Next, I will remove the paper tape. Now, I will show you the different options for the rest of the leaf. Option one is to complete the illustration using a pencil. You can keep the shapes simple like that or you can add different tones and thicknesses to the lines. You can add details. You can even shade some parts of the leaf to show different colors. Another option is to use technical pens like this microns. They come in different thickness and colors. For example, here I have sepia color, it's very thin, so I get these delicate lines. Again, you choose the level of detail. This is the thickness of 0.1. This is black color in 0.1, so a little bit harsher against the paper. This is 0.8, so a lot thicker, but all these are drawing lines that have the same thickness. You can vary a bit by changing the pressure, but the difference is very subtle. You can also combine two different thicknesses for a more 3D effect Another option is to use the brush pen. I have one here that is filled with ink, but there are tons of options on the market. So with that, you get a nice line variation by changing the pressure is really nice for illustrations. You can also use it to fill a shape. This one especially is filled with water soluble ink. So it gives you the option to play with that too. Another option is to use ink and deep pen. It's one of my favorite things to use. You get the more subtle lines variation, and you can draw very precise details. The more practical version is a fountain pen. You fill it with ink and then use it straightaway. This is what I'm going to use today. You can use whatever you have available. I have filled my pain with sepia ink and I'll outline the leaf on the left side. I will try to make it look natural. This pen has a fine nib, but they also come in different options. I haven't tried the more bold ones, but I imagine they're fun to use. Now let's try the veins. I will add some darker details, spots, and dots. This instantly changes the look of the leaf. I will draw the vein here. Now the smaller ones, again, I try to make them very delicate and thin. Now the next leaf, I'm being very careful not to smudge the ink that hasn't dried yet. The last one. Some light touches. Now I have the option to leave it like that, but I will show you one more thing that you can do. I will draw lines with my pencil that will point to the different parts of the leaf. Now I will write their names. My handwriting is a bit boring, but you get the idea. I will erase the lines, I needed those so that I can write the names straight. Now I will draw new ones with my pen, only this time they will start from the middle of the letter, not below them. Apparently these are called blades and not spikes as I call them. Our leaf is ready. I'm super happy with how it turned out, but I'm even more excited to see what you all come up with. Congratulations for making it this far. With this, we're wrapping up the leaf series, you did an amazing job. You can use tomorrow to catch a break and come back refreshed the day after for our first day painting a mushroom. See you soon. 11. Day #7 - King Trumpet: Welcome to Day Seven. This is also the first day of painting mushrooms. We are going to start with the simple one, the king trumpet. These mushrooms have a relatively small cap and a thick stem. They're edible and quite delicious. They have also been called superfoods, and they have also been shown to lower cholesterol and help weight loss. Here below, we have these straight cuts. This is it for the sketch. I'll take the excess graphite with my soft eraser. This mushroom is quite light in color, especially the stem. I will start by wetting the entire mushroom. For most of the mushroom series, I will use the Essence palette because it has these nice earthy and natural tones. This is just clean water, but my brush hasn't been cleaned, it's why I get this light color but that's okay. The stem of this mushroom is white, light beige, or light gray. For the gray color, you have the option to use the ready one if you have it in your palette. I have it there, but honestly, I prefer to mix it myself. This way, I can control how warm or cool it will be. I will mix this blue with brown, and I will get this nice light color. You can mix ultramarine and burnt sienna, for example. I think more blue will make it cooler and adding brown will make it warmer. I mix a slightly warmer gray, and now I'll add it on this side. Here. Here on the bottom part. I will try to pick up the color here, I want to leave it white as it reflects some light. Now, I will mix a darker gray and I'll add it, again, focusing on the right side, but trying to stay away from the very edge. I will darken this part slightly, and I'll pick up some of the color here. Now, let's add some more to this part. I will use this beige color; you can use yellow ocher, raw sienna, or Naples yellow. I'm taking the excess water from the cap and I'll add the same beige color there. I'm filling the shape and I leave the color to flow down freely. I think some warm brown to this side. Dragging some of it below the cap. Here, this part is very dark. I can even add a darker brown. Now, I'll leave it to dry. Now that my painting is dry, I'll erase all the pencil marks that are still visible. If you have painted on top of them, that might not be possible. Let's continue adding more volume to the mushroom. I will start with the dark brown below the cap. I will just help myself by making the shape more visible. I add some dark brown here. I soften the edge with the damp brush. I even pick up some of the color and it leaves a nice highlight. Some dark color here. Again, with some clean water, I will soften the edge. We want a nice transition here. I'm mixing the light and dark brown and now I will add that color to the left side of the cap. Again, softening the edge with a clean brush. The right side we want to keep white. That shadow below the right side of the cap. I'm fixing the shape. I will switch to my small brush and now we'll mix again a grayish color. With that I will add some texture to the stem. I'm trying to follow the shape of it, just leaving some drivers markings. Here where we have the cut, it's darker or so I'm adding more of that texture. It doesn't look good on this side so I'm putting clean water on it and I wipe it. I'm softening the texture here and there with some clean water. Below the cap, we have those lines so I'm adding them now. Very thin and delicate and again using a semi-dry brush. Some texture on the cap itself. Some very dark spots. Adding some contrast here. I think this part can have some dark details too. More texture on the stem. I stay away from the lighter part. We're done. I'm writing the name of the mushroom, and now we will remove the masking tape. With that, Day Seven is complete, we have our first mushroom. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day, see you there. 12. Day #8 - Porcini: It's Day Eight. Welcome. Today, we'll paint porcine mushroom and we're going to make it look like a page from a vintage book. I'm super excited to show you. But let's first start with the sketch. This mushroom has such an irregular cap. The mushroom is edible too, and very delicious. Its stem is thick. Here below, again, we have sharp cuts, and that's it. Pretty simple sketch. Taking some of the excess graphite. Now, we'll do something that we haven't done in this class. We'll paint the background so that it looks like vintage paper, for that, I will wet the entire sheet of paper. Now, we'll use this dark brown to make water mix. I will add some blue to it to mix it a bit. You can use sepia, Payne's gray, whatever color you find suitable. I will add this color to my wet paper now, making some random spots. I try to stay away from the stem of the mushroom, but otherwise, I'm going for a messy look. I will tilt my board so that the color will flow and make a smooth background. I will wipe the liquid from the sides, I don't want it to get back into my painting. You can repeat that a few times until there is no excess liquid on your paper. I will make some splatters now. Some with clean water. I will wipe the color from the stem. I want to keep it as light as possible. I will leave this to dry in just a bit so that it's not shining anymore. Now, we'll add some more of that water and mix. Some more splatters. I'm just being messy there. There's no right or wrong. I'm cleaning up the stem again and I will leave it to dry now. My paper is now completely dry, and now I will paint the mushroom. I'm wetting the cap first. I will use this warm brown to paint it. Now our darker brown. Now with the damp brush, I will drag the color so that the entire shape of the cap is filled with it. I will add some of this warm yellow here, and with this dark brown I will add some spots. Now we'll add such small dots here on the cap while it's still wet, more dark spots. I will add just a bit of that light color here below the inner side of the cap is showing. I will add the stem now. Be careful not to mess with the cap. If you want you can wait until it's completely dry. I will dry this part so that the colors are not warm anymore, and now we'll repeat this dark edge. I will add more details to the cap while I have this color on my brush. Let's go back to the stem. I will paint it with this warm color. I'm mixing both warm colors to get something in-between. Now I will add brown to that. Now we'll use this to add some shadow here, some stripes down the stem. Now let's add some dark brown. With the damp brush, I will smooth those lines a bit. Now we'll use this grayish mix for the bottom part. Again, that's brown and blue mixed together with lots of water. I mix the same color, but this time I'm using much less water and I get this dark gray, almost black color. I add some spots here like there are some particles of the soil. Now I will leave it to dry. My painting is now dry and if you want you can leave it as it is, but I'm going to write some interesting facts about the porcini mushrooms with ink and my dip pen. This will make this painting look like a page from a vintage book about mushrooms. You can find those facts in the Resources section of the class if you want to copy them. Another option is to add the names of the different parts of the mushroom as we did with the horse chestnut leaf. You can find them on Google. I'm starting with the name first, and now I will add the fact. Ideally, this would look better with handwriting that is smaller in size. My letters have always been big and round. I usually like it but for such a botanical illustration, it will look nicer if the letters are really tiny, maybe also a bit messy. Now we can link the text with the parts of the mushroom that they correspond with. It's done. Our vintage botanical illustration is ready. My hand is always stained like this when I'm using a dip pen. I will remove the masking tape, and with that Day Eight is complete. See you tomorrow for a light and easy mushroom illustration. 13. Day #9 - Suillus: [MUSIC] Welcome to Day 9. Today we're going to paint a Suillus mushroom. It has light colors and each shape is similar to the Porcini mushroom. The new thing we're trying to say is painting some grass and the base of the stem. This can be seen when the mushroom is not good, but both from the ground and it's a nice addition to the illustration. These mushrooms are also called Slippery Jacks because the cap can sometimes be slimy. Not all species from this particular mushroom are edible. For this one, we can also see the bottom side of the cap. This is what I'm drawing now. [MUSIC] Now I draw the central line for the stem. I needed just to make sure I draw the stem in the middle of the cap. After that, I will erase it. [MUSIC] It actually starts from here. Let's remove the excess lines. [MUSIC] I will start by wetting only top part of the cap. [MUSIC] As I said, this mushroom is pretty wide, so I need to take some more of those pencil lines. [MUSIC] I will use these warm yellow and drop it in the white area. [MUSIC] Let's add some warm brown to that. [MUSIC] I'm adding it here. [MUSIC] Again, I will try to protect the upper right corner. I imagine this is where the light comes from, so I want it to stay very light. [MUSIC] I'm wiping the colors with my damp brush. [MUSIC] Let's add more concentrated brown now. [MUSIC] I will try to wipe some of that color again. [MUSIC] I'm taking darker brown and I'll drop it here on the edge. It creates a nice effect. [MUSIC] With down brush, I will smudge some of it. [MUSIC] Again, I'm lifting some of that color here. [MUSIC] Let's continue with the bottom part of the cap. That makes water yellowish paint and I add it to the entire area. I tried to leave a tiny gap here and there so the brown doesn't flow everywhere, just in some parts. But it spreads more than I anticipated, so I'm trying to fix it by going over it with a clean brush. [MUSIC] Here next to the stem, I will add darker colors. It creates a nice volume. [MUSIC] I will also dry some lines like that following the shape of the cap. [MUSIC] Let's paint the stem now. [MUSIC] Using the same water and a mix of warm yellow, I covered the entire stem with it. [MUSIC] I will now add some brown here on the left side below the cap, and here next to the bottom part where the grass will be. [MUSIC] I'm shading the left side of the stem slightly. [MUSIC] I'm taking my small brush and with the dark brown, I'm going over this part here. [MUSIC] Now it looks better. Some dots on the cap. [MUSIC] Some texture, the same way we did so far with every mushroom and leaf. [MUSIC] I will add dark brown here to increase the contrast. The paint is very thick and my brush is almost dry. [MUSIC] As much as the bit with the damp brush. [MUSIC] I think some more of those lines here below. Smudging, again with a damp brush. [MUSIC] I will add some lines to the Stanford texture. [MUSIC] Some darker ones here on the left. I will darken this part a bit. With the dark brown, I will go over this edge here. [MUSIC] I'm mixing dark brown with brown and blue blue. With that, I will paint some lines here at the base. So these may be tiny branches or parts of some kind of moss. [MUSIC] add some green. I will mix it with the light yellow here to make it more natural. And we'll take some of this green too, it's very light and fresh. I'll start with it. Just painting some tiny lines and dots, some dry brush marks. Now we'll take the dark green now and we'll add some of it here and there. [MUSIC] Some random spots. With a mix of blue and brown, I will darken this part as if there is some dirt. [MUSIC] Final touches with the light green, it's very dark so I can use it on top of the darker colors. Some splatters with the dark mix. The mushroom is ready. I am writing the name. Now, I will remove the paper tape. [MUSIC] Day 9 is complete. Only three more. See you tomorrow for a really challenging one. 14. Day #10 - Chanterelle: Welcome to day 10, today is going to be really challenging. We're going to paint a Chanterelle. [MUSIC] We're going to do a lot of glazing and shape of the mushroom is quite untypical. But don't worry, we're going to do it all step-by-step. Let's start with the sketch. Now starting with very simple geometric shapes, and after that, I will add the details. This mushroom is funnel-shaped, so it's quite different from what we have painted so far. I will add a smaller one over here to balance the composition. So these mushrooms are edible and very popular. I haven't tried them, but they're supposedly very delicious. I'll make this smaller one a bit larger. Now we'll start to add the folds of the cap. It has a lot of little bumps, it's quite irregular. The name Chanterelle comes from the Greek word for cup, which refers to its shape. In some Slavic countries, they've been called little foxes. Under the cap they have folds that gradually become smaller. Quite interesting, this mushroom. Let's write the name at the beginning for a change. I'm taking some of the excess graphite. Make sure you can see the lines otherwise it will be quite challenging to paint the cap afterward. Let's start with watercolors. I will prepare a big puddle of this warm yellow. I'm adding a lot of water to it. We need enough of it to cover the entire mushroom. I'm just filling in the entire shape with this color, remember how we painted the maple leaf? Try not to leave dry patches. I'm ready. The only thing I will do now is, I will mix the same yellow with some brown, but this time with less water. Now we'll add it here below the cap. I'm wiping it here from the cap, I want to stay only under it where the shadow falls. This is our first layer. I will leave it to dry, and I'll come back to add some volume to the mushrooms. My painting is now completely dry. I'm making a mix of the same yellow with just a little bit of brown, and I will come back to this part here to add some more shadows and contrast. So I'm adding some of that color, and then I'm washing my brush and with a dump brush, I'm smoothing the edge. I want to have a smooth transition here. I'm trying to blend this seamlessly. I'm adding some color to the edge here, it's still wet so it blends very naturally. [MUSIC] Let's leave this part alone. We spent a lot of time here. Let's repeat the same on the small mushroom. Adding some color. [MUSIC] Blending it with clean water. Trying to achieve a seamless blend between the shadow and the base color. Some more contrast. With the same mixture, I will add some shadows to the cap to define the folds. I'll cover this bump here. Again, smoothing the edge. Adding some color here too. The middle is also darker. It's starting to look more 3D. I'm trying to make smooth transitions between the colors. Adding some shading here. Here we also have a fold. Let's add some of those folds here below the cap. I'm still using the same color. Here we also have a deep shadow than the smaller mushroom is casting. I'm adding darker brown and I'm blending it. More darker brown. Taking more of that brown yellow mix and I'm going back to finish the cap. We have a few more folds to define. Just some simple strokes to show the bottom here. Now I'm taking my small brush and I will add more of those lines below the cap. I'm taking the excess moisture from my brush. I don't want this to be too defined. I'm trying to follow the shape of the stem, so these lines are darker and thicker just below the cap, and then they gradually become thinner and lighter. I'm adding more contrast just below the cap. [MUSIC] With the dull brush, I can smooth some of the lines. [MUSIC] Let's add some more dark lines. [MUSIC] The same for the baby chanterelle adding some lines with a dry brush first. [MUSIC] Then smoothing some of them with a dull brush. [MUSIC] Let's add some dimension to the cap. [MUSIC] Here I'm using very dark brown to show the depth. [MUSIC] Some light yellow on the folds. [MUSIC] This should be enough. [MUSIC] We're almost done. I need to add more darkness here in the middle. [MUSIC] I'm switching to a smaller brush and I will add more delicate dark lines here and there. [MUSIC] The cap is more defined now. [MUSIC] Same for the small mushroom. [MUSIC] Now let's add some texture with a lighter color. Some on the side of the stem. [MUSIC] Some on the cap. [MUSIC] Using a dry brush to get this roughness. [MUSIC] I will go over this part with clean water to smooth it a bit. [MUSIC] Adding some more texture here, some more volume, I'm just looking at the mushroom and searching for spaces that look too flat. [MUSIC] I just want to add more darkness to the bottom side of the stalk, so I'm mixing some blue to my brownish mix, just a drop of it to make it colder. [MUSIC] Adding some more texture to the left side. [MUSIC] We are done. I know this one was challenging and I'm so proud of you for making it this far. [MUSIC] There are just two days left. Tomorrow we'll get to paint a really special mushroom. I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next video. [MUSIC] 15. Day #11 - Lactarius Indigo: [MUSIC] Welcome to Day 11 of our autumn challenge. Today we will paint a very special mushroom, Lactarius indigo. It's a blue-colored mushroom that grows in eastern North America, central America, and East Asia. [MUSIC] The book color is usually more intense on the bottom side of the cup, so we'll paint this one as we are looking at it from below. [MUSIC] Surprisingly, this mushroom is edible. The flavor is said to be similar to the portobello. [MUSIC] This mushroom is also bleeding blue when cut. I find it quite interesting. [MUSIC] We'll start the same way as we did in the previous video. We'll cover the entire mushroom with a light coat of paint, this time blue. [MUSIC] You can definitely use indigo for this one. It's quite appropriate. I'm covering the entire mushroom with my pale blue mix. The stem too. [MUSIC] Now with my small brush, I will make more concentrated blue, and now we'll paint tiny dots around the edge of the cup. The first layer is still wet, so they spread and it looks very natural. [MUSIC] Some on the stem too. Here we also have some bigger spots. [MUSIC] Now with the damp brush, I will soften those that have a hard edge. This also activates the paint and I get more blue coat on top of my previous one. But as long as this happens around the edge, that's fine. It will only add some volume to the cap. I'm dropping more dark here and there, where I see that the paper is still wet. [MUSIC] Now we'll leave it to dry. Now that my painting is dry, I'm preparing another puddle of blue color. This one is more saturated but still transparent. With that, I will cover the inside of the cup. I'm filling into shape carefully. [MUSIC] Here I will drop more concentrated paint to increase the shadow. Now I'll fix those hard edges by going over them again. Now I'll add even more from that blue. Here I want to pick up some of the color to create highlight, more dark blue here below the edge. This really makes the cap to look 3D, some here behind the stem. I will now add just a little bit of this warm yellow here and there, just some tiny spots, some here on the bottom part. I will soften the edge with clean water, some spots here. That's enough. Now I want some really dark gray dots on speckles of dirt here. Again, I will leave it to dry. Now my brush has just some clean water on it, and now we'll take some concentrated blue with the tip of it, that dark hair. We'll repeat the technique that we used to paint the ash leaf. We want something like that. Once again, I'm washing my brush, taking out the excess moisture, and dipping the tip of it in the blue paint. This way I get this smooth transition. In this way, I will add more volume to the cap by darkening the outside of it, maybe even darker. Yes, that's better. Because the paint is already mixed on the brush we get this nice transition. I'm adding more darkness here around the stem so that it pops out. [MUSIC] Here below, I will add more blue. [MUSIC] I'm smoothing the edge [MUSIC] and I'm lifting some of the color here. I want this part to be light. [MUSIC] I feel I need even more darkness here. Yes, that's definitely better. [MUSIC] I will add even more blue with my small brush. [MUSIC] Some dots on wet. [MUSIC] A bit more darkness here. [MUSIC] I will also add more volume to the stem. [MUSIC] Using the same mix, I will darken the left side of it. Now let's [inaudible] the transition. [MUSIC] Some more dots here. [MUSIC] Now we'll use the same mix that I have here to add even more volume to the cap. I'm just going over the edge with this watery mixture and I paint irregular lines. I won't be smoothing the edge of this. [MUSIC] I'm taking very concentrated blue and I add brown to it to make it darker. [MUSIC] The consistency is very thick. It's a very dark indigo color. With that, I will paint the lines inside the cup. They start from the edge and continue towards the stem. [MUSIC] Sometimes the lines are interrupted and sometimes they end in the middle of the cup. Try not to make it too perfect. [MUSIC] Now I will add shorter lines here [MUSIC] I need it to be more dark and more dense here next to the stem to show depth. [MUSIC] Some dry brushing. This creates the illusion of more lines, while at the same time, it still looks light and not overcrowded. [MUSIC] Let's add more dry brush here too. [MUSIC] I'm going over the places where I feel I need more details. [MUSIC] Now with clean water, I will smooth some of the lines and dry brush markings. [MUSIC] This is it. [MUSIC] I will write the name of this alien mushroom now. [MUSIC] Day 11 is complete. Just one more to go. You are doing so great. See you tomorrow for the final painting on this challenge. [MUSIC] 16. Day #12 - Amanita Muscaria: My dear friends, welcome to day 12, the last day of our Autumn challenge. You made it. Let's wrap it up with a beautiful and eye-catching mushroom the Amanita muscaria. I'm starting with a vertical line to mark the center of the mushroom. Then I'm starting to shape the cap. We can see a beat from underneath. I draw another half ellipse here. Then I draw the stem a little wider at the base. Here it has this thing that is called the ring. Now I will just make the lines more visible. I will erase the lines that I don't need, and the sketch is done. Next. You know these mushroom is known for its bright red cap with white dots on it. The easiest way to paint that is to use masking fluid. I'll use that to keep my paper white. I'll just paint the dots with the masking fluid and then I'll paint the rest of the cap. After it's dry, I will remove the masking fluid. Now we'll have the white dots preserved underneath. I will use my silicone shaper to add the masking fluid because I don't want to ruin my brushes. Masking fluid can be really bad for your brushes, so be careful. You can use an old brush and dip it in dishwashing soap first and remember to wash it very thoroughly after you're done with the masking fluid. These are not actual dots. They're quite irregular, some are smaller, some are wider. In here, I will use the masking fluid to go all around that edge. Now I will leave it to dry. The masking fluid needs to be completely dry before you start using watercolors. The masking fluid is now dry and now we're with the area of the cap. Just the upper part. I will now prepare, mix with the red orange and the yellow orange. Now we'll take the very diluted bright red and I'll place it here where the lightest part of the cap will be. I think some more of that color. Now add to it some of that deeper red. Even some of that deep brown. Now add it to this part here. Here too. Now, I'm washing my brush and I take the bright orange. I add it around that very diluted thread that I introduced first. Now I take some right straight from the pen and drop it here and there. I try to keep those white areas untouched. I just need to make sure that here the shape of the mushroom is defined. Right now I have a lot of liquid on the paper and I can even tilt it a bit to encourage the colors to flow. With my small brush, I take some of that dark brown. I even add some blue to it to make it even darker. Now we'll drop it below the dots that I made with masking fluid. This immediately makes the cap look more realistic. I stay away from that little puddle in the middle of the cap. There's too much water there. So I wipe it with my damp brush. Now I'll add more color there because I lost it. These colors are so pretty, I can't stop myself for wanting more and more. But let's go back to the small brush and the tiny shadows below the white dots. I'm adding some more of it. Here in the white area, I use red instead of that deep brown. Some more bright colors here. Now I'll leave it to dry. The cap is now dry, and for the stem, I will go back to my essence palette. I will start by wetting the rest of the mushroom, including underneath the cap. Here in the water went outside of the pencil lines, so I will blot it with paper towel. I will start by mixing brown and blue to make a gray color. I use a lot of water. With that, I will paint the area underneath the cap and the upper part of the stem. Here I want to add warmer color to make it more interesting. I blend the colors. I will add some of that brown here. It's too reddish so I'll add some blue to it. I'm mixing colors directly on the paper. I'll keep the area of the stem untouched. Now with some brown, I'll go over the edge here. More of that brown next to the stem. Now I'll leave it to dry. My painting is now dry and I see that I need to add more contrast to this part, so I'm taking the same mix that I used and going around the stem. I'm filling the entire shape with it. A bit more brown. Now I think it looks good. With the same grayish mix in the small brush, I will add some texture to the stem. Just some lines with the same dry brush. Smoothing some of it with clean water. Some dots here to define the ring and same here. Now I'll switch the warmer colors. I'm mixing blue and brown for a darker gray, and I'll add some even darker lines here below the cap. Here too for some contrast. Some brown below the ring. Now, I will add some tiny dots with brown, some lines, some dots. I will soften this one since it's too harsh. That's better. More details with this warm yellow. Some final definition on the ring. Now, let's paint some tiny grasses next to the base. I'm mixing the green with this yellow so that it's more natural. With my small brush, I paint small curvy lines. I'm adding brown to the mix to get a darker green, and I add some darker lines. I can even try with some blue. Finally, let's try to mix more vivid green to add some bright blades of grass. When you use different shades of the same colors, it helps for a realistic look. Let's remove the masking fluid now. I'll just use my finger. Now, we see those white spots. But actually, we don't want them to be completely white. I'll add some of that light yellow to each of them. Mainly on the bottom part of the white area. Here too. While I'm adding that yellow, the red paint activates, and it may bleed a bit, but that's okay, it even makes everything look more natural. Try to leave some white highlights. I will add some of that dark brown underneath to make them pop even more. Don't outline them entirely, just some touches here and there. Remember that the light comes from the upper right, that's where the highlight of the cap is. Let's define this with a very watery, grayish mixture. I will go around the edge once more. I'm taking dark brown. I will add some yellow dots here. I think it's time to stop. I'll remove the masking tape. Wait, I forgot the name. There. Removing the masking tape. Congratulations, guys. You completed day 12 of our ultimate challenge. I am so proud of you. Let's meet in the next video for our final words. 17. Wrapping Up the Class!: Congratulations on completing the class. I hope that you had fun as much as I did. Take a moment to appreciate and celebrate this achievement. Now, it's up to you, if you want to continue on your own. You can set up your own guidelines so that it fits your daily routine best. Maybe you want to explore in your subject and your medium, play with the idea. Also, take a moment to reflect on how showing up consistently made you feel. Do you feel more relaxed and calm? Did you feel motivated and energized? Maybe it was a bit stressful for you, and you need your art practice to be more rules. Answering those questions will help you understand how we need to continue forward. I am so looking forward to seeing your beautiful creations. Don't forget to post them in the project section of the class. Share about your journey. I would love to read what was challenging for you and what did you enjoy the most. You can also DM me on Instagram. I am always happy to chat. If you post your project there, don't forget to tag me. I'll be happy to share your work in my stories. If you have a question for me, just post it in the discussion section of the class. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Until the next class guys. Happy painting.