Watercolor Sunset Painting: Learn to Paint Trees in Pink Sunset

1. Introduction to the Class: Hello, friends. Thanks for joining the class. My name is Shiba. I'm an artist instructor and a YouTube. In today's painting class, we will be painting a beautiful pink sunset scene using watercolors. I'm very excited to share all those steps that help me in making this beautiful painting and walking you through my materials so that you can even try and follow along. I love to do watercolor paintings, mostly the old rural areas, sea skepes landscapes, birds and animals, and much more. I try to keep my paintings more vibrant and full of rich colors. I'm using very simple art materials for this painting, which you can easily get on your art stores. Let's quickly jump onto a next part and see what are the materials required for this painting, and I see you there. 2. Materials Required for the Painting: Okay. Hello, everyone. Welcome back. In this part, I will discuss the materials I use for my watercolor paintings. Starting with the paper, the paper which I'm using is Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper, 300 GSM cold pressed. I'm using a cold press paper because it creates beautiful bouquet effects in your painting, and it does not dry out soon and gives us more time to work on the paintings. This comes in cutout sheets of various sizes, but here I'm using an A five size. The colors which I'm using is from Winsor and Newton, Cotman, Student Grade watercolors. This color is very good for anyone who wants to start their beautiful art journey. And the names of the colors on my palette is displayed on the screen, as you can see. I have replaced the white color with Cobal turquoise from White knights, as I don't use white in my painting. For the brushes, I'm using three mob brushes of size zero, two, and four and two synthetic round brushes number four and eight. These three mob brushes are sufficient to make a painting of an A five size. If you don't have a similar brush, you can use any brush you have. It's just that you must be comfortable while doing the painting. These two synthetic brushes are good to add details. You can use any round brush you have. Just see that the tapes should be sharp so that you can add details. For drawing the sketch, I'm using a mechanical pencil with 0.7 led. If you don't have a mechanical pencil, you can use normal HB pencil as well. This is a needed eraser that I will use to erase my sketch when required. I'm also using a half inch masking tape to tape down my paper at the time of painting so that my paper doesn't get buckled when applying water. This is a jar of water. If you want, you can use two jars of water, one to clean the brush, and the other one as a mixing medium. A hair dryer to dry my painting when required. I'm also using a cotton cloth to wipe any extra color pigments from the brush while doing the painting. Friends, these are all the materials that I will be using for my painting class. Quickly grab and join me and I see in the next part. Okay. 3. Let's Draw the Sketch: Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining the class. In today's painting class, we will paint a beautiful trees in sunset using watercolors. Before we start, let's apply the masking tape. Here I'm using a half inch masking tape and applying it on all the four corners. Okay. While applying the masking tape, try to keep half of it on the paper and the other half stick to the board. With each application, I'm pressing the masking tape so that it sticks well with the paper. So friends, we are done applying the masking tape. It's time to start with the sketch. For sketching, I'm using a mechanical pencil with lead 0.7. Here I'm starting my drawing with a horizontal line, but I'm also trying to keep this line tilted to show the inclined surfaces found on the mountain sides. Let's add some tree lines to show tall grasses and trees at the distant. At the right I have kept the tree lines straight to show a little more bigger trees and grasses at the distance. Now I'm adding a hump to draw the mountains at the distance. Let's make this tree dark by sketching them. The Now, let's add a small puddle of water. So we usually see these type of puddles and rocks in the mountains due to the accumulation of water from the rain. Here I'm just making the edge of the ground, and I'm also adding a little bit of shadow to it. It's time to add some grasses. For this, I'm just adding some vertical lines, a little tilted to show the grass. Now it's time to add thickness to the ground by adding a second line, which will add volume to the edges close to the purdle. The line which we have added to add volume was not looking that good, so I've removed that. And now I'm just shading the edges to add the volume. This shaded portion also represents a sloping land which we see close to the water bodies. In the same way, let's add a few more shadows to the edges of the remaining areas. In this area, I'm adding the shadows a little bigger to show them wider. As the land is close to us, the shadow would look a little bigger. So we have completed adding the shadows to the edges. Now, let's add some shadows to the ground. I'm making these shadow areas because at the time of painting. This will help me to detect what are the areas I need to paint dark. Let's start painting the tree. I'm starting my drawing with the tree trunk first, and then we will add the tree leaves. For adding the tree leaves don't be much accurate because at last, we have to complete with the paints. So you can just mark the lines and directions to show as to how the tree shod like. Now, let's add the second tree. I'm starting my drawing with the tree trunk first, and also I'm trying to keep it little curved so that it looks more natural. Now, let's add some branches and tree leaves. You don't have to be very accurate while drawing the tree leaves and branches because the random new will, the more natural and realistic the painting would look. For some of the branches have not made them straight instead, I made them little curved and irregular, the way we see in real life. For sketching this third tree, I'm using the same technique. Let's add a few more branches and trees. The trees which I have drawn are the pine trees. Therefore, I have kept them little narrow at the top and wider at the base. Let's make the branches more prominent and dark. I'm not sketching in this area, keeping it as is because later, I will be painting a sun here for which I need white in this area. You can see how I've left this area white for the sun with no pencil marks. Let's add some more shadows. Also, we will paint the reflection of the tree in the water. To draw the reflection of the tree, I'm sketching the tree upside down as a mirror image, as you can see. Let's add a few more pencil strokes to draw the grass. Friends, we have completed the sketch. Now let's move on to our next part where we will be starting with our painting, and I see you there. 4. Painting the Pink Sky: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. In this part, we'll paint the sky as well as the mountain. I'm starting my painting with a mob brush number four. If you don't have a mob brush, you can use any round brush you have with a higher number. Before we start, let's apply the water. I'm applying the water to all the areas covering the entire sky. You can see while application of water, I'm moving my brush two to three times at the same area. This will help our paper to remain wet for a longer period of time. Let's start with the colors. Right now I'm mixing lemon yellow with cadmium yellow to paint the light areas of the sky, which is close to the sun. While applying the colors, we will try to keep a small round area unpainted to show the sun. Now I'm mixing cadmium red to the mixture of lemon yellow mixed with cadmium yellow. This will give you a light orange color. While applying this orange, I'm also placing it a little away from the center so that we can create a beautiful gradient effect. Let's apply this orange at the base to create beautiful gradient effect at the horizon. Now, let's apply a wash off crimson red to the sky. I'm applying this crimson red directly without mixing it with any other color because I want the pure pink of crimson in the sky. Let's add some crimson clues to the horizon. I'm adding some more crimson to the sky to make it look dark. H. Let's make the sky a little more dark for this. I'm adding ultramarine blue to the crimson red, and then we will apply. You can see that this color is bluish red in color, which will help you in adding darkness to the sky, which is away from the sun. While applying the paint, try to give a horizontal strokes as you can see, so that the color blends well and gives you a consistent gradient. Let's add some clouds using the same colors that is ultramarine blue mixed with crimson red, The clouds are looking a little bit blue in color because the amount of blue is more. Also, if you want your clouds to look a little bit red in color, you can increase the amount of crimson in it, especially for the clouds which are close to the sun. The sky at the top is not looking that dark, so I'm increasing the amount of darkness in it by adding a wash of crimson red mixed with ultramarine blue. Friends, we are done with the sky and the clouds, but still we need some pink color clouds which we see at the time of sunset. For the clouds, let's mix crimson red with a very little bit of ultramarine blue. But the amount of crimson red will be more so that the cloud looks red in color. Let's add a few more on the right side. You can see for painting these smaller clouds. I'm using a smaller mob brush, which is number zero. Friends, we are done with the painting of the sky. Now let's make it dry using a hair dryer. I can see that the painting is almost dry now. Let's paint the mountain at the distance. For painting the mountains, I'm using a very light wash of ultramarine blue mixed with crimson red. I'm applying this paint at the edges of the mountains, and then I will blend it down creating a beautiful gradient, as you can see. Okay. So Friends, we have completed painting the mountains. In the next part, I will be painting the dark trees at the horizon as well as the ground. Let's move on to our next part and I see you there. 5. Painting the Land and Lake: Okay. Hello, everyone. Welcome back. In this part, we'll pain the land and the lake. I'm starting my painting with a mob brush number two. Let's supply water to all the required areas. Here I'm covering only the land surface, and then we will paint the lake separately. We have completed applying the water, now let's start with the paints. For the colors I'm using the mixture of cadmium yellow mixed with sap green. You can see my mixture is looking yellow. It's because the amount of cadmium yellow is more. I'm using this light wash of yellow for all the highlighted areas where I want the grasses to look more vibrant. Now, let's increase the saturation by increasing the amount of sap green in the mixture. I'm applying this color to all the required areas where I warn the grasses to look little green. You can see my color is not that thick. As this is the first layer, I'm trying to keep my colors little dilute. While painting try to follow the sketch below, as you know that we have already added the shadow areas using pencil sketch. Now I will be adding dark colors to those areas. Let's supply some more green color. It's time to add some more saturation for this, I'm increasing the amount of sap green and adding a little bit of ultramarine blue to the mixture. For adding these shadows, I'm using same mob brush number two. While adding the shadows, I'm a little random, and at the same time, I'm following the sketch below so that I can please the colors at the right place. Now, let's increase the saturation. For this, I'm using intense blue in the mixture. I'm taking a more sap green and also adding a little bit of crimson red. Now I'm applying this color to all the darkest areas which are away from the sunlight, creating beautiful depth in the painting. Now let's add some more dark tomes at the edges of the land. Apart from other areas, I'm also adding this color to the areas where I want the shadows to look more dark. Adding random strokes like this will give your painting a more natural look and realisticness. Let's add a few more minute details like shadows and small grasses. Let's add a few more dark tones for this, I'm using the same mixture of sap green mixed with intense blue and crimson red. Now, let's pan the grass. For this, I'm using the brush with a flat tape, which I've made by pressing the brush tip of the mob brush. You can see how easily and beautifully we can add the grass using this technique. Now, let's add some grasses here as well. To add these minute details, you can go with the same technique. So we have covered the land. Now, let's paint the tree and grasses at the horizon. To paint the trees at the horizon, now I'm using a mob brush number zero. Let's mix intense blue with crimson red and sap green. But We will mix this mixture taking all the colors in same quantity. You can see that this color is quite dark. I'm starting by applying the vertical brush strokes, and as I proceed, I will be changing its direction the way I need. To make my painting more natural, I will be changing the heights of the grass as I proceed. Now, let's add some more grasses and trees. You can see here I've kept the height of the tree smaller to add depth and distance in the painting. Now, let's increase the height of the tree and grasses. While painting, it's important to maintain the horizon line straight, which I'm adjusting time to time while painting. Here I'm increasing the height of the grasses. I'm using the same mixture of sap green mixed with intense blue and crimson red. Friends, we have completed painting the land. Now let's paint the water and it's reflection. Now let's paint the water of the lake. First, let's supply water. We will paint the grasses at the end once we complete painting the water and reflection. I'm applying this water to all the areas where I want the paints to flow. I'm starting with cadmium yellow, as you can see. I'm also trying to keep a small white area empty to show the sun reflection in the water. Now let's add some cadmium red and blend it with the cadmium yellow. You can see I'm doing this blending on the paper itself. Now, let's add some more crimson red. Adding this crimson red will give your painting a beautiful pink, which we see at the time of sunset. I'm placing this crimson at the corners away from the sun as you can see. Now, let's add a touch of ultramarine blue at the corners and we will blend it with the underlying layer of crimson. This will give us a beautiful bole, a dark tone at the corners. You can see I'm applying this color at once when the paper is still wet and also aligning it with the sun above. Now I'm adjusting the sun reflection by picking some of the colors so that it appears right below the sun. For this, I'm using a damp brush. Friends, we have completed painting the water reflection, the land, and the sky. Let's move on to a next part where we will be painting the trees and I see there. 6. Painting the Trees: Let's paint the trees. Hello, everyone. Welcome back. In this part, we will paint the trees. For the trees, I'm using the mixture of intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. This mixture will be dark in color, as you can see. Let's draw the tree trunk first. Now, let's add some branches and tree leaves. Here I'm applying some random strokes to draw the tree leaves. Let's add some more leaves. While adding these tree leaves, I'm also following the Blow sketch so that it turns out the way I want them. Let's add some tree leaves at the top. As these are the pine trees, we will try to make them conical in shape. We'll try to make them wider as we move down. Here I'm using the tip of the brush to create leaves and branches. The brush which I'm using is a round brush number eight. While painting these leaves and branches, try to make them at the tips and wider as we move close to the tree trunks. Let's add some more tree leaves using the dark mixture of sap green mixed with crimson red and intense blue. Sometimes to draw these small leaves, I'm just dabbing the brush tip, which helps in adding sharp and smaller leaves. Let's add a few more details before we move on to the next tree. So Friends, we have completed painting this tree. Now, let's paint the other one. Before we mix the color, let's clean the palette. Now, let's paint the tree leaves which are close to the sun. For this, I'm using a light wash of cadmium red and the brush which I'm using is around brush number six. Now, this is a synthetic brush. I'm painting these leaves red because the tree leaves are translucent and they reflect light when they come in the way of light. Now I'm adding the same cadmium red to the tree trunk. Let's add crimson red to the cadmium red. This will give you a dark mixture which will help in adding some dark color leaves. To draw the tree leaves I'm using the tip of the brush. If you want your mixture to look less orange than try to use a light wash of cadmium red with more of water in it. Now, let's mix some intense blue with crimson red and a little bit of sap green. This dark mixture will help you in adding some darker colored leaves which are little away from the sun. We will apply this mixture when the orange color is still wet so that it mixes well with the orange. As the color is still wet, this will help the orange and the dark color to blend easily and creating some beautiful transition. Now, let's add some trunks and branches using this dark mixture. While painting the trees, it's very important to remember the atonomy so that you end up making your trees look more natural. Let's add some small leaves and branches. The colors which I'm using is the mixture of intense blue, crimson red, and sap green. Let's quickly leaves for this. The brush which I'm using is a round brush number six. To draw the small leaves, use the tip of the brush and interconnect the dots to form the bunch of leaves. I'm following the Blow sketch as guide, which helps in adding direction to the tree. Let's add some more branches and leaves. Now, let's make the tree trunk wide as I move down. Time to add some more branches. If you want to make thin branches and sharp leaves, try to use a liner brush, Let's add some more leaves. You can see it becomes so easy if we already have a sketch below because it guides us throughout the painting. Now, let's add some more leaves at the top, using the same round brush number six. While adding the leaves, try to make them smaller and narrower as we move up, creating a conical sheap. Let's add some more leaves at the top. The same way now let's paint the third tree. Here also I'm starting my painting by painting the trunk of the tree first I'm making them wider at the base, as you can see, Now, let's mix some mixture of intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. It's time to add some branches and tree leaves. You can see how I'm maintaining the shape of the third tree. If you find it difficult, you can once have a reference of the pine tree on Google so that you understand how they look. Sometimes having the reference helps a lot to understand the basic structure and the aonomy of the tree. Now I'm adding some smaller tree leaves. Here I'm interconnecting some of the leaves and branches as both of these trees are close to each other. Let's add some minor details. I'm using a mixture of cadmium red mixed with cadmium yellow to draw the light color leaves. Now I'm blending them using the tip of the brush. I'm picking up some of the colors to reduce the saturation and strength of the cadmium red. But this, you can use a dam brush but try to do once the paint is dry or else the paint would come out. Let's add some final touches to the tree. So, friends, we have almost completed the tree. Now let's move on to our next part and I see you there. 7. Adding Shadows and other details: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. In this part, we will add the shadows and other details. Let's quickly mix the mixture of intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. You can see I'm applying this color at the darkest areas. The brush I'm using is a round brush number six, and the color is quite dark with more of blue in it because these are the areas where I warn the shadows to look more dark. Let's add some more small details to the ground using the same mixture. Here I'm using some vertical strokes to draw the grass. Now, let's add some darkness to the edge of the land. These are the areas which are away from the sun, getting less of the sunlight. Let's add some more dark color grasses on the left. While adding the brush strokes try to avoid similar brush strokes or else the painting would look a little unnatural. You can see after adding this dark to the painting gains its contrast. Let's add a few more grasses on the right side. It's time to add some smaller grasses on the left. Adding these small details are giving this painting a natural look just the way we see in the actual world. Let's add a few more smaller details. You can see I'm continuously adding the details to the areas where I think my intervention is required. Now let's paint the reflection of the tree. For this, we will wet the area using a clean water. Here I'm using a mob brush number two because this is a soft brush and will not pull off the colors from the paper. Now let's mix some dark color. This is a mixture of intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. As the paper is wet, the brush rokes will be a little feathery and will give a feel of actual reflections we see in water. Let's add the reflection of the leaves. For this, I'm using the same mixture. We will apply all of these paints when the paper is still wet so that it creates beautiful feathered reflection in the water. Here I'm using a brush number six and to paint the leaves, I'm using the tape of the brush. Let's add some more branches. So friends, I hope you understood this process of adding the reflection. Once we have completed adding the reflection, we will start with adding the grasses at the foreground. Before we proceed, let's quickly dry the painting using a hair dryer. Our painting is almost dry. Let's start with the paints. Now let's paint the grasses. For this, I'm using a mob brush number zero. To paint these grasses, I'm using the same paints that is intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. Let's make the mixture dark by increasing the saturation. You can see that this mixture looks quite dark because we have increased the saturation by taking more of the color pigments. I'm starting by adding some inclined vertical strokes, as you can see. While painting this try to be random so that you end up making these grasses look more natural. Let's increase some more sap green. Now I'm adding some variations in the grass by changing its direction. It's time to add some long grasses. For these grasses, I've kept the color quite similar, as you can see. Now, let's add some more greenery on the right. For this, I'm using the same color, that is the mixture of intense blue mixed with crimson red and sap green. Let's add a few more details. Let's add some shadows of these grasses. You can see I'm pulling some lengthy brush rooks to create long grasses. And these are quite dark as the amount of intense blue is more. Now let's try the painting using a dryer. It's time to add some smaller leaves using the same mixture. Here I'm using an intense blue mixed with crimson red. Friends, we have come to an end of this painting session. I hope you understood the process. Now let's move on to a next part where I will be removing the masking tape and revealing our painting and I see you there. 8. Final Thoughts: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. Let's quickly remove the masking tape and reveal our painting. While removing the masking tape, try to pull it out so that it does not tear the paper. If you have any doubt and queries, feel free to ask me in the discussion tab. Also, don't forget to share your paintings in the project section. And last, I to make mistakes while painting, so better, we learn from them to be the best for tomorrow. Till then take care and stay blessed and I see you in the next class.