Watercolor Painting Highlights

1. Intro to Watercolor Painting Highlights: You know, rules and guidelines are great and they're there for a very good reason. But sometimes it's good to break the rules a bit. Hi, I'm crispy, artist, designer and watercolor and drawing teacher here on Skillshare since 2016. Watercolor painting is my go-to activity to lower my heart rate, get my mind off of things, and forget the world for just a little while. My goal is to teach you how to bust through the crippling effects of perfectionism so you can express yourself freely through your art. That means my classes are a no pressure learning zone where you can come and explore and play with no judgment. In this class, I'm focusing on breaking some rules, like having to color in an entire subject. For example, we'll be using some constraints to only highlight the subject and only using one or two colors to do it. Instead of painting it completely. Constraints are so important to growing as an artist. You can compare it to raising the bar for a gymnast or adding an additional ingredient to a recipe you've been using for awhile. Constraints challenge how we think about things and they make us better at things. That's why I'm excited to show you this technique. Because it will give you new options, like a better understanding of how culture impacts your work and get you thinking outside the box. It opened my eyes to a whole new art style and helped me break creative block. In this class, I'm going to show you how I think about using these two particular constraints. So you can understand how to do it for your own projects to make unexpectedly beautiful work. You'll also learn how to break down and assess your subject matter for this project. You'll practice brush control, and learn how to make your initial sketch a bigger part of your watercolor work in the future. This column is perfect for artists looking to up their drawing, painting and concepts skills. Surface pattern designers wanting to improve their sketching process and ways to add watercolor to their motifs. And any other artists looking for a challenge or a fun project. You're going to need for this class as a watercolor paints set, a medium-sized watercolor brush, pencil and eraser, and some paper towels or rags. Watercolor paper and a cup of water to rinse your brushes, plus an optional black archival pen for outlining. Ready. Let's go. 2. Your Project: Project in this class will be to create at least one drawing with some watercolor highlights added to it in only one or two colors. Meaning we won't be painting the entire subject matter, but only highlighting certain aspects of it instead. Let me show you what I mean here on Unsplash. And I just looked up architecture in particular Chicago architecture. But I found this really interesting image of some doors. And I thought they would be really fun for this project because number one there, to sketch a few rectangular and a couple of circular. There's a circular line up here. But for the most part, very simple and very interesting. I love doors anyway. But to explain how I might approach this project after I sketch it, is that I might take my paints and maybe just highlight these crevices, but just maybe where the shadow is. On this side of each of these circular petitions up on the top of the door. And then again down here I might paint just the top and the side. And that would, you would know there was a square there. I might put a little dash of paint here and maybe one above the door. I might outline it or not. But this would be a great subject matter for this project. Another subject matter for this project would be, let's try pottery. Pottery is beautiful, has really clean lines. Something like this could be very interesting. Just capture the side. I tend to go with the shadow when I'm, when I'm highlighting. And that's not to say you have to. Sometimes there isn't shadow. This picture, for example, there's not a ton of shadow on these bowls. I might draw them out, maybe draw the outline and then the line in here and maybe just outline the highlight half of this circular part here. It'd be for each bowl that could be fun. Let's try something else. Flamingos are gorgeous and fairly easy to sketch as well. So another simple projects like this one, even though his wings a little bit open, kinda gives it a little character. So you could draw the teardrop, the S curve of the neck and the head, and the legs. And then maybe just I would probably put splash of flamingo pink on this neck and on the legs. And then perhaps just highlight a little block here and a little block here. I think that would be an incredible representation of this lovely creature. If you are more advanced and you're up for a challenge, you could do something a little more complicated. Like for example, this image here. You can absolutely choose black and gray as your, your colors, or just one of those. But you can see there's some really strong shadow and light in this picture, and that's a really great way to pick a subject matter as well. So if you have a little more experienced in sketching, you can capture this dance pose really nicely and use these highlights just to capture either the highlighted part or the shadow part or maybe something else that you notice that you really want to, maybe you just want to bring out the hair. You really liked this skirt or whatnot. In the following videos, I'm going to take you through three distinctly different projects and show you how to paint your very own watercolor highlights through these examples. 3. Project Upload: I'm going to show you step-by-step in this video how to upload your project in case you've never done it before. Birth to go to the Projects and Resources tab under the class videos. Then click the green Create Project button. From there you'll want to upload your cover image for your project. Choose a file. Then click Submit. From here. If you want to replace your image, just click the button below. Find an image. And below you can make it larger or smaller with the slider. Or you can drag it side-to-side to position it. When you're happy, just click Submit. Now your project needs a title. It can be funny, descriptive or whatever you like. Below is your personal project field. Click image to add image files. Then position your cursor underneath the image to add descriptions. I'm adding a series of images to show my entire process for this project. You can do it any way you like the law. You can also add a video or links. When you're done, just click the green Publish button. Once it's published, you can go below the videos and see your project on the right-hand side. When you click on it, you can see that all your images are uploaded. On the right is where people can comment. And like your project. I comment on every project. So I can't wait to see you in this space. 4. Colors: So when I'm looking to choose colors for any project, I generally go to Pinterest. And on Pinterest I have a board called color palettes, and I save hundreds of them. At this point. I have over 700 pins in here. You can choose from. This is a gorgeous color palette and any two of these combinations will look amazing together. But there's lots and lots more. These roses with the green and the gold, that's stunning. There's lots and lots and lots of options that you can choose, something that you like, choose something that jumps out at you. As you go further down the board, you'll see a lot of different options. Sometimes they tend to save them by season. This blue and peach look beautiful. You can do your own search here as well, or on your favorite browser to find any color combinations that you need. I just particularly like the search engine because it's really beautiful and it's a wonderful feast for my creative eyes. This is another example. By using the color wheel, you can pick a color and look directly across it to find its complimentary color, and this will never fail you. Those, that will always be a good combination of colors. If you like fashion, you can always look at an outfit that you like. These two colors are amazing together. There are form of complimentary colors. If you'd like paintings, you can look at paintings. Maybe you want to choose some colors from my favorite painting that you have. Going back to the color wheel. You can also choose the colors that are right beside another. Those are called analogous color combinations, and that's another beautiful combination. They're really just versions of one another. So maybe you have a favorite color or maybe you have some colors in mind. I hope this inspired you either way. And I look forward to see what colors you choose for your project. 5. Tools & Materials: So for supplies, if you've taken my classes before, you know, I love to keep it simple. This class is no different. So I'm going to be using a medium watercolor brush, round brush. This is a size seven, but you can use anything from five to seven. A to B pencil any polymer eraser for some quick sketching. And a micron pen. It's this as archival ink that won't run with water. Any archival ink pen will be fine. That's a small brush from my garage for my painting. Supplies just to wipe off eraser dust. My trusty pencil sharpener. Am including some paper towels or rags for wiping off my brushes. Then I have this Viva colors, cork pan set. The colors are very vibrant and this is so lightweight, it's easy to paint with, and this set is completely sustainable, so I love using it because it's good for the environment. Then next we have paper. So I'm using my favorite paper. This is a Kansan £140 watercolor cold press paper. Meaning it has the texture. I love watercolor paper with texture, the more the better. So you can see if I zoom in here, how sturdy these pages are. You can rip out the pages here at, near the spiral. And I could put lots of water on this paper so it's holds up well, then all my projects stay in one place, so it's really convenient. And then I have a cup for water so I can rinse out my brushes. And that's pretty much it. 6. Rose Sketch : We're going to start with a simple sketch of this rose. This rose has a mostly white body with pink kind of around the edges. So I thought it'd be a great subject matter for what we're gonna do here today. So I'm just gonna go ahead and start with the basic shape of the rose bud. It's kind of shaped like a vase a little bit. And the small leaves on each side, I'm not going to draw them all in. I'm going to keep this a very simple version. And you'll notice the stem is technically straight, but I love to add a little bit of an arc. It just makes it so pretty and graceful. And I think I'm just going to add one leaf and a thick. I'm just going to leave the line the way it is because I want to keep these highlights really, really simple. And I think one lobby able to do the rest with my brush so we know where the leaf will go. And now at the top of the rose, I'm getting this spiral shape of the petals going. And I'm not drawing a spiral per se, but I'm just drawing loops around loops. Getting a little bit bigger. I'm not drawing every single detail, but just enough to know that there's a rose here. That pedal is kind of coming at an angle. And then we have another one on this side that's coming out a little bit from the body of the flower. This is a great time to erase and move things and so forth, because this is going to be our guide for our painting. So definitely stand back, take a look, make sure you're happy with everything, move anything you want to move. And that's that we're all ready to paint. 7. Rose Painting: Now I'm going to take the sketch of this rose. And I'm going to look at the image that we're following here. And what I really want to do is capture these pink highlights, but I'm going to change the color. I think I'd like to use an orange. So I'm just going to take the tip of my brush and just follow the spiral lines I created with my pencil. They don't have to be perfect, just sort of just following along loosely. So far I'm liking the orange. You can make it any color you like. I'm filling in that lower area just for a little personality, a little bit of shading. I'm not even sure what that is, but I like it. Just completing my lines all the way around. It's good to stand back and just look at what you're doing and see if you want to add anything or maybe a little shading down to the other side as well. And while that's drying, I'm going to go ahead and start the stem. So I am going to paint one line going down, falling, following my pencil line. And then now I can take more color and just drop it in. And it will just stay right on that line. What that a little thicker. And that was the line I drew for the leaf. And I'm gonna go ahead and paint these leaves right under the flower. I'm just keeping it very simple here. In order to just capture the shape and the essence of the flower. I'm really happy with that. You might notice how quickly we did all that. And the point is to capture an object and its most simple form with very few colors and still capture the item beautifully. So I really wanted to capture the shape of the rows, the shape of the stem and the leaves, and see the beauty and the simplicity. The constraints were to draw a very minimal sketch and paint with one or two colors. And we've accomplished that here. So you can see how you can take any flower and do this. Just break it down to a very simple format. And not sketch every single line that you see in the photo, but catch the shape, capture the texture, in essence, capturing this item from your perspective. 8. Bird Sketch: This time we're going to be working on this lovely bird. And I'm going to work with the dark orange and a blue on this particular one. I'm not gonna do any of the background or any of the detail per say as far as all the feathers go, I'm just going to go ahead and sketch out the head. I always start birds with the head. I mean, it just seems to be a great place to start because everything stems from that. The beak is a bit curved. And then the eyes about right there. And there is a line that goes right underneath the eye, separating the top of the head from the cheek area, then the body pillows out from there. So you have this clear round separation between the head and the body. And it's kind of like a teardrop shaped body. The long tail going continuing down below. And I have one claw here. I'm gonna go ahead and show that just so it makes a little bit of sense, but you don't even have to do that. I just really want to on this one. You can use your own judgment on the details that really stand out to you because that's gonna be part of your own self-expression. And that's what makes each one of these projects so unique because you see the world differently than I do. A little bit of magic going on here. Now I'm going to show a little bit of the feather decided after looking at it for a moment that I kinda wanna see maybe a couple of lines there. I'm pretty happy with that. I didn't think I was going to show the little twig it was sitting on, but I kinda like it there. I'm just going to erase most of that and we are ready to paint this bird. 9. Bird Painting: We have this bird sketch. And I've decided I want to, I want this one to really pop. I'm not going to be painting, filling in the whole thing with paint. I'm going to go ahead and do some outlining with an archival pen. This one is a micron size 08. And I'm just going to keep it again, really simple. I'm using some not solid lines are threaded around each other here and there to show the feather texture like this. And then I'm gonna do this tail. There's the eye. I'd like to leave a small part of the eye white just to show some reflection. It makes it look a bit more realistic. Two. And then this clock, maybe I'll just leave the twig without an outline that would make the bird really pop more. So I'm gonna go in, I've decided to do this bird in blue and orange. And I'm keeping it light right now. This is my first layer. I might add more saturation later, but right now, saturation is just another word for more color. So I've got the whole head and back painted. Now I'm working on the underbelly a little bit. This really highlights the shape of this bird. And down at the tail, here we just part of the tail. And now with some dark orange, this is really like a sienna, a little more orange in it. I'm going to do some feather detail right here. Gives a little bit of variety and it captures a little bit of the essence of the original bird without it being exact. I've decided I want a little more saturation here with this burnt orange and even more saturation here. So I'm just choosing to paint certain parts of the bird. That twig got a little dark compared to the birds. So I don't want it taking over. And I'm going to go ahead and fill in this beak rather than painted because I really wanted to stand out. Right knee, leave a little bit of my marks. I'm done just to leave a little texture there. So I've decided not to do anything with the line under the eye. I don't think that's a crucial enough detail to include here. But as you can see, I've decided to add more blue to the back of this bird. I feel like I need a lot more pop. Maybe on that side of the tail. So this won't be shading per se that I'm not working with a light source per se, but I'm just looking for color to accent the shape of this bird just to highlight its qualities. Maybe I'll just blend that these light and dark blues a little bit more. Yeah, I'm liking that a lot. And I'll see you in the next project. 10. Shells Sketch : Now I'm going to show you a project that in essence becomes a series. And I'm going to use different shapes of shells. So I'm going to start with one shell here at the top. And it's going to be that fan shaped shell in the center with all the ridges in it. I love that type. I don't know what they're called, but I love their shape and I love all the depth and shadow. Now I'm not gonna go into all that detail, but I would love to include one here in this project. And I'll show you how I'm going to simplify it. I'm just going to draw some of the ridges. I'm not going to draw all of them and it's not gonna be exactly like the image, but I'm going to draw enough of them that it's going to look a lot like this shell. I'm drawing a little bit of a curved line, but that one was just a little too curved. This shell is not flat, so these curves show that there's some shape to this shell. So even with some very minor sketching, you can show enough detail to make, make it really stand out. And that's plenty, plenty of lines. Okay, Now I'm going to draw the next shell and I think I'm gonna go down in over a little bit over here on the right. And I'm going to do a very similar shell, but the lines are going in the opposite direction. They're going across the shell instead of up and down. So it looks like a cone with a big semicircle on the bottom. There's a little bit of a curve right up there on the left side. I'm just going to sketch a few lines just so my paintbrush has a little bit of a guide when we paint this project. Now the next shot I want to sketch is from the same image as the first shell. But they are the shells that are all around that fan shaped shell. And they have these sort of Sienna colored or brownish colored markings on them. And they're kinda go in a pattern. So they have this spiral on the top and then they have a larger body that ends with the little opening. I'm not going to show the opening part, but this would be considered the backside of the shell. Now this last shell I'm going to sketch is going to be a spiral shell, probably a type of snail shell. So that is the outline. And then I'm going to draw the spiral on the inside. Just very simply. There should be a line right here as well. Perfect. 11. Shells Painting: So I am getting started on this shell painting. So each shell I'm going to choose to paint just a little differently to highlight their different elements. And on this shell, the big draw for me were these deep crevices that are so dramatic, really. There's a lot of color, other color going on, but I don't want to really feature that. I just want the shell shape and texture to really come through. So I'm just going to take a light orange just like this. 12. Shell Outline: Now that this paint is dry, I'm going to go and I've decided to after the fact, go ahead and outline these shells just to bring out their qualities and so you can see them better. So unlike the bird where I outlined it first, another option is just like this, where you can paint and then outline if you so choose. So I'm just going to go ahead and just follow the scalloped shaped shape of this shell all the way around. And it really brings out the watercolor lines and it makes a lot more sense now. Very, very lightly, I'm going to maybe just put a hint of a line along each ridge just to give it just a little bit more shadow. I might even following the entire lines just to hint here and there. And that's looking great. Now I just have to finish the curve at the bottom. And that's it. Now this clam shell, I'm just literally going to outline it. I'm not going to get too fancy with this one. It's got two colors. And I like this orange on this side and the bottom that almost looks like shading. Maybe just a few lines in there just to show a little extra texture because there's so much texture on this particular image in that does add just the slightest bit more. So that's great. Now this one I already outlined, I'm just going to show you how I just outlined each section one at a time. And then I just did a big outline around the edge there. And same with the snail shell. I just followed the spiral and did the outline. 13. Overview: We've done a lot of great work today. Let's do a quick overview. The first thing you'll do is choose your subject matter. From there, you'll pick the colors you want to use. After that, you'll gather your tools and materials. Then you will start your sketch. Once your sketch is finished, then you can paint your highlights. Once that's done, you can choose whether you want to outline it or not. Don't forget to download the class workbook in the projects and resources tab under the class videos. There'll be a list of all these steps and more. I can't wait to see what you create. 14. Final Notes: Thank you so much for coming and spending some time with me, my studio today. I am really glad you came and I'm so excited for you that you've decided to work your creative muscles and build your competence as an artist. These exercises will absolutely help you with that. In the meantime, I hope you've had fun learning how to paint using constraints. You can follow along with me on any or all of these projects. Or you can choose your own colors and your own subject matters to Pete. What aspects of those items will you highlight with your watercolors where you outline them or maybe not? Either way, I cannot wait to see what you create. Now the next step is to put what you've learned to work. It's your watercolors out and your art supplies and try your own watercolor highlights project. If you have any questions about your project, please consult the project video, which is the second video in this class. For the projects and resources tab under the class videos. If you have any questions at all, please leave me a message in the discussions tab. I'm happy to help in any way I can. And I would so appreciate your review, which helps me create a bright kinda classes just for you. Well, that's it for today. Until next time.