Transcripts
1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello, everyone. My
name's Will Ellison, and today we'll be painting a stunning African sunset with silhouettes of elephants and a peaceful reflection
in the water. This class is about using bold and vibrant colors and
embracing the natural flow of watercolor to create an effect that's
dramatic yet effortless. We'll be exploring
techniques like wet on wet blending
for a glowing sky, layering for rich colors, and simple silhouette painting to create striking contrasts. Even if you're new
to watercolor, this class is designed to
be fun and approachable. You don't need to worry
about fine details. This is about
letting the paint do the work and letting the
expression flow out of you. I've been a professional
artist for many years, exploring lots of different
subjects from wildlife and portraits to cityscapes
and countryside scenes. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor. But when I started,
I had no idea where to begin or
how to improve. I didn't know what
supplies I needed, how to create the
effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now I've taken part in many
worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough
to win awards from well respected
organizations such as the International
Watercolor Society, the Masters of
Watercolor Alliance, Windsor and Newton, and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming
for those starting out, which is why my goal is
to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium in
a step by step manner. Today, I'll be guiding you
through a complete painting, demonstrating a
variety of techniques, and explaining how I use all
my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have some experience, you'll be able to
follow along at your own pace and improve
your watercolor skills. If this class is too challenging
or too easy for you, I have a variety of classes available at different
skill levels. I like to start off with a free expressive
approach with no fear of making mistakes as we create exciting textures
for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and
make it stand out. I strive to simplify
complex subjects into easier shapes that
encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty
of tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn
mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of
painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with
my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing
and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in the
discussion thread down below. I'll be sure to read and
respond to everything you post. Don't forget to follow
me on Skillshare by clicking the Follow
button at the top. This means you'll be the
first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston
to see my latest works. So grab your brushes, and let's create a breathtaking
sunset scene together.
2. Your Project : Thank you so much as always
for joining this class. Sunsets are such a
fun subject to paint because they allow so much
freedom and unpredictability. In this project, we'll embrace that loose expressive
style while still creating a structured
and beautiful composition. We'll focus on blending warm and cool colors to create
a rich, glowing sunset, using wet on wet
techniques to let colors flow naturally and
create a dreamy effect, painting simple yet
powerful silhouettes for the elephant, tree, and grassland, and then
adding reflections in the water to bring depth and
tranquility to the scene. In the resource section, I've added a high
resolution image of my finished painting
to help guide you. You're welcome to
follow my painting exactly or experiment with
your own composition. As we're going to be focusing on the painting aspect
of watercolor, I've provided templates
you can use to help transfer or trace the
sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for
learning how to paint. It's important to
have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the
watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction
you take this class, it would be great
to see your results and the paintings you
create through it. I love giving my
students feedback, so please take a photo
afterwards and share it in the student project gallery under the Project
and resource tab. I'm always intrigued to
see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear about
your process and what you learned along the way or
if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend
that you take a look at each other's work in the
student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see
each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your
fellow students. So don't forget to like and
comment on each other's work.
3. Materials & Supplies: Before we start this painting, let's go over all
the materials and supplies I'll need
to paint along. Having the right materials can greatly impact the
outcome of your artwork. So I'll go over all the supplies I use for
this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and we'll make it easier for you
to follow along. Let's start with the
paints themselves. And like most of the materials
we'll be using today, it's a lot to do
with preference. I have 12 stable colours in my palette that I
fill up from tubes. They are cadmium
yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium
red, alizarin crimson, Otramarne blue, cobalt blue, serlean blue, lavender,
purple, viridian, black. And at the end of the painting, I often use white gouache
for tiny highlights. I don't use any
particular brand, these colors you can
get from any brand, although I personally
use Daniel Smith, Windsor and Newton
or Holbein paints. So let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is
a synthetic round brush like this Escoda Purl brush
or this Van Gogh brush. They're very versatile because
not only can you use them for detailed work
with their fine tip, but as they can hold
a lot of water, they are good for
washers as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few
in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for
broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth
transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details. But for really small details, highlights or anything
that needs more precision, I use a synthetic
size zero brush. All brands have them,
and they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles
and a very pointy tip. They're perfect
for adding texture or creating dynamic
lines in your paintings. You can even fan them
out like this to achieve fur or feather
textures as well. And that's it for
brushes. Onto paper. The better quality
of your paper, the easier it will be to paint. Cheap paper crinkles easily
and is very unforgiving, not allowing you to
rework mistakes. It's harder to create
appealing effects and apply useful techniques
like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton based paper, not only allows you to rework
mistakes multiple times, but because the pigment
reacts much better on it, the chances of
mistakes are a lot lower and you'll be more likely to create
better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available
in my local art shop. A water spray is
absolutely essential. By using this, it
gives you more time to paint the areas you
want before it dries. It also allows you to
reactivate the paint if you want to add a smooth
line or remove some paint. I also have an old rag or t shirt which I use
to clean my brush. Cleaning off the paint
before dipping it in the water will make the
water last a lot longer. It's always useful to
have a tissue at hand whilst painting to
lift off excess paint. Also, you never know when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that needs
wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper
to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's
important to have them a similar consistency to what
they're like in the tubes. This way, it's easier to
pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful
to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the
dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this, of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding
around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on
painting to the edge, it'll allow you to create a
very crisp, clean border. And that's everything
you need to paint along. I encourage you
to experiment and explore with whatever you
want to use for this class, it's a whole
learning experience, and that will improve your
style in the long run. Now let's get on and
start the painting.
4. Sketching Tips: When it comes to
sketching, we want to start off with the
easiest parts first. So the first thing
I did was draw a straight line where the horizon is,
where the middle is. And that's about
two thirds down. It's off center. And then
I just do a big circle, a big oval for the trees,
and as you can see, I'm gradually adding
a few more details. I start off with a rough
line, a rough shape, an outline, and then gradually I move to smaller
and smaller shapes. With these elephants, for
example, you can see, I just add a circle
to begin with, and then I go along the outline,
drawing the silhouette, swap over to a finer point, finer lead in my pencil. I spent a lot of time
practicing how to draw circles at different
angles, different widths. Ovals, basically, or ellipses, because so many shapes can be
simplified within a circle. It can be a boring thing to do, but drawing 20 different
circles at different angles, different thickness
levels really helps improve your
sketching ability. And then once you're expressive
of your blocking out, you can go in with
a bit more control, and it'll be more emotional, but correct at the same time.
5. Starting With Yellow: So I'm going to break everything
down into small steps, making it easier
to follow along. And the first step is to
pre wet all the paper. And I'm using a mop
brush to do this because it just picks
up so much liquid. If you use a small brush, it'll just take a
bit longer to do. It just saves a bit of time. And to be honest,
I'm not actually wetting all of the paper. I'm still allowing some
gaps of dry paper. To have a bit of
variety in there. And whilst it's absorbing, I'm mixing yellow
acorn to my brush. And the good thing
about this stage is we can be nice and expressive. We can start light so
there's no pressure. If you're overwhelmed
by lots of pigment, you can take your time with it. Just getting a
feel of the color. It's pure cadmium
yellow at this stage. And I'm using Daniel Smith because it's such a vibrant
yellow that they have. The pigment is like
fluorescent almost. So I'm just swirling it around, doing a few dabs it's not
absolutely sodden wet, but you can see I'm being quite generous with the amount
that I'm laying on there. I'm not overthinking
it at this stage because I'm trying to
paint loose at this stage, and that will achieve
natural results, allowing the watercolor
to create its own magic. Going back in with
thicker pigment now. Still very wet,
not pasty at all, but we started off with
a very light mild wash. And now we're bit by bit adding
more pigment. Wet on wet. This painting is going to
have a whole range of colors, the whole rainbow, the
spectrum, starting with yellow, and then we're going
to move around the watercolor clock,
adding some reds, blues, greens, you name it, whatever color you want you
can include in this painting. But by breaking it down
these small steps, we can have more control and manipulate the watercolor
how we want to. See how creating a range, a variety of pigments of
thickness of pigments, some light, some are dark. And we're basically doing that with every single
color that we'll do. So let's move on
to the next color.
6. Adding Red: Now we red, it's a
similar process. It's the same state
of mind of creating a variety of diluted pigment, starting off quite light. Sometimes I'm
overlapping the yellow. Sometimes I'm filling in
the areas where there's not much yellow or
no yellow at all. Again, trying to mix and match, create a nice variety. Even a bit of burnt sienna to bond the yellow and the red
because in the color wheel, but yellow burnt sienna lies in between yellow and red because it's actually an orange. Brown is an orange. And you can see that if you look at it, it's like a burnt
orange, burnt sienna. That harmonizes the red
and the yellow together. You can see the pencil marks
of where that grass is. And as we're going to be painting water below the
grass for the reflection, I'm making sure my brush
strokes below are horizontal. Above the grass, it
can be very abstract. And specifically around the sun, I'm trying to make
it quite circular. But even then, I'm not
refraining myself. I'm trying to put
myself in a little box. I'm experimenting at this stage. Yellow dries less vibrant
than when it's wet. So I'm trying to compensate for that by being very heavy with the yellow
at this stage. Likewise, we have this
red, this camion red. Again, Daniel Smith, as well as Windsor Newton do lovely reds. Pyl orange is also a lovely one. Pyl orange is actually
very close to a red. You can actually
use it as a red, even though it's got
orange in its name, Pyl orange is a
color I love using. And you can see now
how on some areas, I'm soaking up pigment
with this mop brush. That's another reason you
might want to use a mop brush because it can almost act
as a sponge in some areas. It can draw water
and pigment out, and then you can repurpose that pigment in a
different area. And because it's the
same pigment within a different part of the
painting, it's harmonized. There's a unity that's being made by
repurposing the pigment. When it comes to wet and wet, you've got to be aware of the wetness levels as things are dry because if an edge dries, then it's going to be
difficult to merge it cleanly, seamlessly together. So you often have to work quite quick when you're
painting wet and wet like this. I'm actually using the brush. I just put a lot of water on the brush
and just spilling it out while it's wet on wet so
that it disperses outwards. In a nice even way. If the paper was starting
to dry more than this, then it would create
quite harsh marks, but because it's wet on wet, adding drops of water doesn't actually create
that much texture, just a bit more interest.
7. Adding Blue & Purple: Notice how orange
painting is so far, yet we didn't actually put
orange on there directly. We use lots of yellow and red, and together, they obviously
mixed to make orange. I started off with lots of yellow because I know
how potent the red is. And you can see that now
that we've put on the red, there's not so much yellow. It's mainly orange and red. So when it comes to doing
the painting yourself, be aware of that that the yellow is not as
potent as the red, so you need to
overcompensate for that. Now we're going to go
stronger with the red, and this is a sarin crimson. And the painting is still wet. But because we've allowed
it a bit more time to dry, the brush strokes will hold
their form a bit better. If you feel like
you need more time, then you can use a
spray gun to keep it alive and keep that wetness
level the way you want it. Now would be a
dangerous time to drop pure water on there
without any pigment because the power of the water will just push the
pigment in an uneven way. Now we're going to start
integrating another color, moving along the color
wheel started with yellow, orange, red, and now we're starting to add
a coolness to it. So adding some blue and
this blue when mixed with the red will make
it kind of purple. You can see it's actually
making a bit of a gray here because blue and orange
are complimentary colors, so they gray themselves out. But having this blue next to an orange is a lovely
contradiction. They're complimentary colors, so they look lovely together. But I need to add a
bit of purple in there to link them on the color wheel. Blue and red has
purple in between it. So adding that purple
connects them well, much like the orange does
to the red and yellow. I'm trying not to
overstate the blue, so I'm not too displeased
that it's being grayed out. I just wanted to add a
little influence of blue, even if it's not
visible because, of course, we're going to be painting the tree
on top of there. So I didn't want a nice big
vibrant color underneath it. I wanted a muted tone
and a lighter hue, a lighter tone with
a less vibrant hue. I've kept that yellow mainly where the sun is and
where the grass is. And then as I've
expanded outwards, we've gone to orange and red. And now I'm just using a tissue to dab away that
sun in the middle. Doesn't need to be
super refined or clean. Just a little inkling
of that's what it is.
8. Painting The Water: If you want clean,
smooth transitions, then your brush has to match
what's already on the paper. Whether that's a very
watery brush with watery paper or a
pigment heavy brush with lots of pigment
on the paper. Whether it's close to drying, you don't need much water or whether it's
absolutely sodden, and then you have to
have a very wet brush. Otherwise, it will suck
out a lot of that liquid. On the other hand, maybe you want to create a
bit of interest, bit of contrast and diversity
or variation in there. And in that case, you
don't want to match your brush with what's
already on the paper. See I'm applying these horizontal lines
where the water will be to imply ripples. The line was getting a
bit hard around that sun, so I'm just using pure
water just to scrub it a bit and soften
some of those lines. Those lines were getting hard because there was a difference in consistency on the paper. And it only gets more extreme
if it's not dealt with. Sometimes you want
that. But let's say you apply a brush
stroke right now, you paint a different section
for a couple of minutes, and then you come back and apply another
brushstroke next to it. But 2 minutes later.
Now obviously, the first one will be closer to drying
than the other one. So in another 2 minutes time, one section will be almost dry, and because of that
difference in wetness, the edge will be much harder. So you have to
compensate for that by possibly not putting as
much pigment on your brush. Here, this section I'm
painting is almost dry, at least it's not wet enough
to create a soft edge, so I'm having to help it
out by applying more water. And I don't mind if it gets a
bit muddy like this because this muddiness
actually contrasts with the vibrancy of the sky. If everything was super vibrant, then it'll actually
make it less striking. Having two vibrant
colors next to each other doesn't look
as captivating or as extreme as having gray
next to a vibrant color. So by allowing some muddiness
and some grayness in there, actually works to our advantage. Also because grays are
naturally subdued, they're not shouting
for attention, so we barely even
register it consciously, but it still influences
the painting in a good way by indirectly boosting the
vibrancy of the other colors. In this water at the bottom, we've completed full circle the color wheel by including
green and turquoise. The purple is only
subtle at the moment, but we'll add more later. The good thing about
this painting is that it allows you freedom to choose how much of each color you
personally want to use. Maybe you want to
add lots more green, make the water green, and maybe you want to tone down
the orange a bit or the reds. Maybe you want to add
blue into the sky and leave the red a bit more subtle. It's completely your choice, and I'm sure you have
unique preferences, and I'm excited to see
the variety of projects.
9. Starting The Ripples: Now let's completely dry it so far so that we can work
on a second layer. Because we're going
to start painting the reflections or the
ripples on the water. And if we don't dry it, then it will get a bit messy. We need some hard lines, and we can only achieve
those hard lines if the paper is dry underneath
it. I'm mixing a purple. I already have purple in my
palette but that purple in my palette is actually just ultramarne mixed with
elasuin crimson. I just add it in there by
myself just to save time. You can achieve this exact
same color just by mixing a sarin crimson and
ultramine blue. They're horizontal strokes
that I'm doing now, but with a variety
of thicknesses, leaving a few gaps in these
variety of thicknesses.
10. Colour Variation: I generally apply
my initial strokes, and then I go back quickly and dab a few pigments
of other colors. So that was quite a purple
stroke to start off with. And then I went back and
dabbed some blue in there. And then as I had
blue on my brush, I carried on painting
the ripples, and it created a nice
transition of color. And now in this new section, I'm starting off with thick ultra marine blue with a bit of cobalt blue
mixed in there as well. And I'm connecting it
just slightly so that it's not isolated with
the other ripples, but it's a completely
different shape. And like with the
left hand side, we went from purple to blue. Here, we're going to
go from blue to green. So let's start getting
a bit of green on our brush, some
viridian green. And around the edges, I'm
trying to be a bit abstract, not trying to overthink of it. I don't want it to
be a clean edge but just a few
squirls of the brush. A few organic shapes. So now we have purple, green, the whole
spectrums in there. Try and think about your variety of brushw or brush strokes. You want some of them to be thick and you want some
of them to be thin. Of course, there's
lots to think about. You've got color brush
strokes and tone. So, nice. We've already
established a variety of color with that purple,
blue green mix. And then when it
came to applying it, we thought about the
variation of thickness. So we've got big
thick brush strokes, and we also got little
thin ones here, too. And now we got to
think about tone. Got some light areas, and now we're dabbing wet on
wet, some thicker pigment. So these elements are
not in isolation. They work together. It can seem like a lot to think about. But actually, the painting reminds you of these things
because one way or another, you're going to
apply a brushstroke, and it's going to
be a certain color and it's going to
be a certain tone. And it's going to be a
certain thickness as well. And it's never going to be perfect or exactly the way you want it when you apply the brushstrokes.
That's just the nature. Even with me painting this now, you can plan your best for it, but you have to adapt.
That's what I do. I respond to the way the watercolor is
reacting on my paper. It's not so much like I'm
forcing it because then the painting will
look forced and it'll lose its organic nature. This water is quite
an important element or the painting
because it frames it, along with the tree
that we'll paint later, which also works as
a framing element. Because of the tone, it kind of forces a kind of
focus on the center. It makes it look
brighter in the middle. This is a mid tone, really, because we'll come back with the darkest tones for the
shadows, the silhouettes. And those are the
easiest parts to paint really because it's
just a pure silhouette.
11. Responding To The Painting: And like I was saying before how I respond to what the
painting is saying, I could see that the tones
weren't right there. Of course, in hindsight,
I know it's wrong. At the time when I was painting, I couldn't tell those
tones were looking off. So that's why I'm using the tissue to dab out
and correct these tones. And then I'm thinking, Well, now the tone is too light and there's
not enough going on. So I'm going to go back on top and create a bit more
interest, a bit more texture. There needs to be more ripples, and the tones need to match
the other side a bit better. And I'm also thinking, Okay, now I've wiped away that purple. So where can I integrate
the purple next? And it'll probably be the
shadows, the silhouettes. I know that that tree is going to be one of
the darkest tones, and that means that the reflection of it will
be quite dark as well. So I'm mixing a very
dark pigment here, which is black with a
bit of burnt sienna to keep it interesting
so that it's not a pure hueless black. And it's very thick pigment, but because it's wet and wet, it's going to melt a bit
into that pigment and paper. Maybe there's a few reeds
poking up in the water. So when you're happy
with the ripples and how the water looks, you can dry it off completely because we want hard
lines for these reads. I've also changed my
brush to a small one. Not my smallest one, but much
smaller than the other one. In fact, so far, we've painted the whole
thing with that mop brush. A mop brush is good because
it has a nice point. It can hold a lot of
pigment and water, as well as a sharp tip.
12. The Baby Elephant: Let's dry it off again completely so that we
don't brush it with our hand as we start painting the silhouette
of the baby elephant. If you're left handed, it might be better to paint
the other way around, starting with the tree and
moving from right to left. You can always watch
these videos in a different order or you can even use the flipped
template that I provide and just
paint it mirrored. The pigment that I'm using
here is not particularly special because it's so dark. The only thing I
will say is that I don't like to use pure black for the reasons I said before, I like to have it influenced
by another color, and I'm using a bit of
blue at the moment, but maybe you can use
green, purple, red, whatever color you want to
use to influence the black. This is all so useful because even though we're
painting a very dark, thick pigment at the moment, we might want to dilute
it a bit later and pull some of that pigment out or repurpose it somewhere else. And if it's just black, pure black, then it'll
be quite soulss. But having that blue in there or whatever color you want to choose when it comes
to diluting it, it will look a bit more vibrant. Having your drawing
clear is very useful for painting this part because we're only filling in. We're only coloring
at this stage. There's no real
tonal work going on. There's good practice
for your brush work. Brush control, how much pressure
you need to apply and at what angle I start off
with a very thick pigment, and then I keep on adding a bit more water and not
water from my water tub, but some of the more diluted watery
pigments on my palate. Because, again, it's so dark, it doesn't really matter
what color it is, and I don't need
to get pure water. And by just getting that hydration from my palette can stretch out the
pigment a bit more, especially when it comes
to painting these tusks on the trunk because that
requires a bit more precision. And if the pigment's too pasty, there's not enough water there, then it's difficult to
get the details, correct. But then, again, if
there's too much water, even though it looks
black when it's wet, if there's too much
water, when it dries off, it'll dry too light, and we'll lose that effect
of a silhouette.
13. Big Elephant: And now we're moving on to the large adult elephant,
the mummy or daddy. Painting that small
elephant first with a nice test to see whether we've got the pigments correct
and the tones correct. Of course, it's still
wet at this stage, but because there's so
much pigment in there, and it's not that diluted. I actually dries a lot faster. Is a nice exercise for people who feel uncomfortable using thick pigment because it's essential to use thick
pigment in so many paintings, but it can be intimidating to put that
much on your brush. So having this
painting require it, it's a fun exercise. Because it's a bold contrast having these silhouettes
against the vibrant sunset, but it's controlled boldness, so you don't have to
feel so overwhelmed. Also, it was nice painting
the baby elephant first because it
was a bit of a warm up for the dexterity, because this large elephant
is the focal point, really. So the small elephant
can be a bit more abstract and
loose, not as correct. But there's a few more details that we have to get
right on this elephant. You can see how
that first half of the large elephant has a bit
of tonal difference to it. And if it was pure black,
it might look a bit dead. Of course, I don't mean
the elephant looks dead, but having that
variety of color, adding a bit of
red in there now. Matching or contrasting rather with the blue on the other half. It's quite nice thing
to play around with. Of course, there's nothing
wrong if you want to use pure black and keep
it a tonal exercise, that's perfectly fine, as well. I'm playing a bit more with
the tonal variety now, having a bit more
shadow underneath. But that's just me having fun. It's not necessary, and
maybe even I'll paint over it later because it is
meant to be a silhouette. The sun is behind
it, so technically, there's not meant to be
much shadow work going on. If you're not comfortable
playing with tones, you can just keep it a pure
solid block of color tone. You can see a theme starting
to happen with variety. We've got lots of different
variety going on, varieties of color,
brushstrokes, tone. We've had also variety of
abstraction and detail. The sky and the water
is very abstract, and we are playing into the watercolor allowing it to create its own magical effects. Yet, with these elephants, there's a lot more
control going on. It's a bit more refined. And that's what creates
interest as well, the variety of control and chaos of definition
and abstraction. So you can take your time, enjoy yourself, put some
music on in the background. Make sure that drawing is
correct and just paint within the lines for these bits. When it comes to tree and the leaves and the
trees and the grass, we can paint outside the lines.
14. Painting The Bank: Well, I had fun playing
with those tones, but it doesn't look right, so I'm going to paint over them. That's okay. It's all
about experimenting, having a bit of fun. Doesn't need that tonal detail for it to be a strong painting.
It's not what it's about. It works better just to
have a single block color. You can still see the variety or at least the subtle variety
of color going on in there. There's still an influence
of red and blue in there. And although it might not be
that consciously obvious, it does have a subtle
influence to the painting, having those little changes
of color inside the. Anyway, on to
painting the grass. And again, it's just a pure
silhouette to start off with. Using this dark, slightly monotone hue the same brush, but I'm using the side just
to fill out the areas, and then I rotate
the brush to make it vertical and just strike the brush up to create those sharp little
blades of grass. Connecting the elephant's
legs to the grass, but keeping those white gaps in between the legs,
the little triangles. And this bit is great because it's open
for interpretation. You can make the
grass as thin or as thick as you want. It
really doesn't matter. Maybe the bank is very large, or maybe it's very small. And notice how
within these darks, there are subtle colour
changes here as well. The green is taking place now. Now we can start incorporating some blue in there as well. If you look at my palette where the ultramarne blue
is, it's very dark. It's the next darkest
pigment to black. And I use that ultramarne
blue to mix the purple, and that's the next
darkest as well. And then we've got a isarin
crimson in there, too. So we've got a lot of
pigments that when concentrated and used thickly
is already very dark. And that ultra marine
blue when mixed with the burnt sienna, they're
complimentary colors. So when mixed together,
they turn to a gray. So there's actually not really a need to have black
in your palette. Of course, if you want to paint a completely monotone painting, do a tonal study, then
it's useful to have black. And I do that sometimes because actually this painting is just as much a tonal painting
as a color painting. I do many paintings or
do studies and practice paintings just using
black or sepia or a monotone color
because a lot of the time, if you get your tones right, the colors look
after themselves. Or at least they're
easier to work out.
15. The Sun Glow: Right here where
the sun is glowing, I want to make it a
bit lighter and use red because there'll
be a bit of a glow as the sun is coming through
the leaves and the trees, there'll be a warmer
glow to the silhouette. So I'm mixing this dark red, this maroon color
into there to create this kind of feeling of
warmth where the sun is. Maybe the grass is a bit translucent or the
bark on the tree, the trunk is reflecting some of that warm color from the sun. The nice thing about using
pigment when it's so thick is that it's very
easy to manipulate it. We're not having to worry
about being so delicate because when the pigments diluted and we see the
white of the paper, we're going to see where
those edges are all rough. But when the pigment's
thick like it is now, the pigments melt together
much better cohesively. At this stage, I'm
still not being so concerned about the
edges of this grass yet. We'll come back later with the
main texture of the grass. I'm just filling in the main
middle ground at the moment. Now I'm going to start mixing
some thick cobalt blue, maybe some purple
onto the edge here. You see when it goes
on top of this red, it actually looks like
black or at least dark. It doesn't look like
blue or purple. Just an interesting way to apply dark tone without
using pure black. So we've got a nice
glow of red there, and it transitioned from
the dark on the left. And then maybe we
can start blending it out to another color as we reach the right
edge of the paper. So I'm going to use serlean
blue, very thick as well. But because it's wet and wet, it'll softly blend and merge. Just blocking out
the general shape. And maybe we can add some viridian green in there as well. Just create a nice full
transition of colour. See how color isn't
that important. Because in real life,
there's no way it would be that color green or
that blue or that red. It's the tones
that make it work. If we saw this painting in black and white, it would make sense. And then we can use
whatever color we want. So ironically, if you
struggle with using color, just think about the tones, how it would look
without the color. And I think the
tone is too light, so I'm going to add some
dark pigment into there. Blocking it out all wet on wet. Now we can start
thinking about adding a few strokes of grasses and long reads and
things like that. Even though we've got
a variety of tones, these all count as dark tones, what we just painted there. If you squint your eyes, it minimizes all the different
levels. It's the same.
16. Painting The Grass: So let's completely dry
that so that we can put our hand on the paper if we need to
without agitating the pigment. And now, basically, I've sped up the footage for this bit
because it's quite repetitive. Using the tip of my brush
just to go up and down, creating little spiky
blades of grass. I'm trying to keep them organic. And by that, I mean,
they're not all uniform. Again, we have the variety. We've got some a
little bit higher, some a little bit lower. I'm not actually trying to
match the color perfectly. I'm just kind of generalizing. If it looks a bit blue below, then I'll pick any blue. If it's green, I'll
try and match that. Just having a brief look at that area of that
area we blocked in. You can see it's subtly
green subtly blue there. But I'm not being so
strict upon myself. I'm actually using
a bit of dry brush. I don't mind if there's
an extra bit of texture. O. I'm purposely making it uneven. And as we're getting
closer to the sun here, a bit like that blocked in area, it's getting a bit redder. And the blades of grass
here are much higher. I really want them
to go up into there. Maybe there's a bit of straw or I don't know the technical term wheat or
something going on there, a bit more texture. As the leaves get higher, the blades of grass get higher. Of course, we have
to do a bit of reflection and match it below. But it doesn't need to
be perfect symmetry. So many of the synthetic brushes like this have a fine tip, so you don't actually need
to use a brush this small, but it is convenient, safer. I like this brush because it's not the
smallest one I have. If I compare it with
the smallest one, you can see it's got
a thinner point, but it doesn't hold
as much water. So every single stroke, I'd have to go back and
forth between my palate, and it would actually be
much more time consuming, whereas this one I've got now, it has just the same fine point because all the bristles are
brought together at the tip, but I don't have to go
back and forth as much.
17. Starting The Reflections: Now we can start extending the reflections down
where the tree is. Even though we haven't painted the main tree or the trunk, we can start painting
the reflections because it's going to
be abstract anyway. Starting off with a bit of
purple then mixing in a bit of green. Again, it doesn't matter. That green that I'm
placing now could be blue, orange, pink, whatever color. Because it's open
for interpretation. Maybe I'm painting using green because that's
the color of the water. Maybe the pink is reflecting
the warmth from the sky. Whatever you choose
will mean something. And there's no right or wrong. It's all about interpretation
and what you want to say, and you don't have to
think about it too deeply. Most likely, I chose
green here just because I saw it on my palette
and I thought, Oh, yeah. Why not? No deeper message
than that, really. But I guess there's
subtle influences, even if they're
unconscious that draw me towards green in that
particular scenario because there's a bit of a red, orange glow to the
water in that area, and green is a complimentary
color to that red. And because those colors
look nice together, the green probably stood
out to me that way. Now we can start doing the reflections of
the baby elephant. And we can be a bit looser. We don't have to be so
defined as when we painted the actual real baby elephant rather than the
reflection because, of course, the
ripples of the water will distort us anyway. So we just need to imply
that that's what it is. We can paint a bit faster. It's hard enough painting
it upside down anyway. Really, when it came
to the drawing, I rotated my paper upside down and just basically
drew it the right way up. It's a nice little
trick painting these reflections as silhouettes because other than
a few little bits of detail we have to
do with the brush, it actually creates
that illusion of reflection on the water. And it's not that
difficult to do. As long as we've got
the drawing there and we paint in the lines. Again, like I said,
we don't need to robe out tone that much as
long as it's dark, it should complete the illusion. And that's the baby done. It's easy to get stuck into details when you're in
the middle of a painting. For example, me
watching this now, I'm aware that I could
have stopped and move on because it's
done. It's a reflection. Doesn't need to have
anything more done to it, but there's a almost
gravitational pull to just keep on doing more and more details
when it's unnecessary. Y.
18. Big Elephant Reflection: And now time to paint the reflection of
the larger elephant. It's a similar idea. You might have to draw in
your pencil lines, again, if they're a bit hard to
see against the water. But such a big area, a relatively big area, takes just a few brush
strokes to fill out. We don't need to
be clean about it. It's only the edge of the shape that we need
to be clean about, so we can just fill in the
large areas quite quickly. And after this exercise, you should feel more
comfortable with your brush work because we're having to rotate it and
if you're a beginner, I understand how everything
feels a bit uncomfortable, and it just takes a bit of time, and that's perfectly normal, and you don't need to be harsh on yourself if
you're feeling it's difficult because you
need to naturally feel and work out in your own time how far up
you want to hold the brush. And there's no right
or wrong way about it. Maybe you want to
hold it closer. You can see how far
I'm holding the brush. Because that's naturally
what feels good to me. But I'm sure all artists have
their own different ways. Maybe you even hold
the brush different. And then the
pressure that you're applying when you have a
curved line like that, sometimes applying
pressure bends the brush and creates a
nice curve on the brush, and you can use that
curve at the brush to paint the curve on the paper. So rather than painting
everything with just the tip, sometimes we're making use of the whole size of the brush, and that's another
reason I like to use as large a brush as I can with the shape that
I'm trying to paint. I guess I could have used a
larger brush to paint this, but because I already had
it in my hand when painting the smaller elephant's
reflection, I didn't even think about
swapping to a larger one. But it's insignificant,
actually. They're similar sizes, and it's good practice to experiment
with all types of brushes. I'm feeling like these
reflections are a bit flat, so I'm just adding a bit
of red on top of there. And then mixing
in some blue just to create a bit of interest. The reflection or the light makes it look like it's white, but it's just very wet
pigment at the moment. I also noticed that as it dried, it was too light because, again, when dark
pigments are wet, they look much darker than they are than
when they're dry. So once it dried, I had
to put another layer on.
19. Subtle Clouds: I'm going to apply
a few clouds using yellow ochre and
caving them yellow. But because I'm painting
them on top of the red, they'll actually look orange. And these clouds are just horizontal brush
strokes, really. And they mimic or at least they're in harmony
with the ripples, which are horizontal
strokes, too. And having this kind of pattern of horizontal strokes Again, unifies the painting, anchors it down because there's a lot
of chaos and abstraction. So a few horizontal
strokes along with that main line where the
shadow is the grassland. It's all a kind of horizontal
theme motif going on here. And it connects the sky to the tree that we're
about to paint as well. Just a subtle connection,
but that's what it is. Without these lines, the
tree will be isolated. So it's a circle kind of
composition, as you can see. But the kind of connection
of the tree to the sky, to the water, it's subtle, but that's what I'm
thinking of here. H
20. Using A Sponge: Now when it comes to
painting the tree, I'm not going to paint
every single little leaf. I'm going to use this sponge, and it's an organic
sponge, a coral sponge. It's not a artificial sponge. And you can see that it has a variety of gaps
in and different sides. It's not so uniform or
smooth. It's rougher. So when I dab it with my palette
and then onto the paper, it mimics nature a bit more, the randomness of nature. If I were to use my
brush to do this, it would look too contrived
because as humans, it's difficult to figure
out randomness nature. Organic things are
harder to paint than constructed things
or man made objects. I'm using very
thick pigment here. To contrast that background, and we'll paint branches in later to give it
a bit more form. Starting off with red on the left hand
side at the bottom, and then we can start
incorporating other colors like this serlean blue and
green on the other side. I'm making use of all
the different angles. But I didn't quite
like that shape there. So you've got to look
at your sponge and think about which is the
best angle to dab it. And you can use the sponge
for all types of things, whether it's leaves, rocks,
waves, anything organic. Just imagine how long it
would take if we used a small brush just to paint in every single
little leaf like this. I'm rotating the sponge
as I do it as well. I'm not just dabbing
the same point. This green on the
right hand side is in contrast to the red because they're
complimentary colors. And as I dab them in the middle, they mix to neutralize
each other. O.
21. Blocking In The Tree: It's easy to get over
excited with the sponge. I felt myself going a bit too far because I don't
often use it, and I had fun playing
around with it. So I've given a little
bit of a break, and I can start activating that pigment that's
already on the paper, using a vibrant green as
well with a bit of yellow, just to connect some of it and, again, create that variety. Make sure pigment
has dried a bit. Don't do it straight
away because you want to keep some of that pigment
from the sponge on there. You don't want to
activate at all. You don't want it to
soften it out completely. So I'm starting at the top, focing on the edge. Allowing a few gaps of
the paint underneath. Mixing a blue on my brush as
we go to the left hand side. Bit thicker with
the serlean blue here and letting it
roll off my brush. You don't have to rush yourself when it comes to this stage. You want to think about how and where you're
going to reserve and preserve the white of
the paper and a lot of that texture of the sponge, take your time to consider which parts you're going to
leave and then use the tip of your brush to create a textured
outline for the leaves. This blue when painted
on top of the red, reactivates the red and turns
into a bit of a purple. Again, purposely not painting all of it, leaving little gaps. And if you do happen
to paint over it, you can go back at the
end with some white. Now I'm going back with some dark pigment as we're
getting further down. Random strokes, twizzling and criss crossing my brush
strokes, dabbing. See how I'm holding
the brush different now when I was doing the
detailing on the elephants. I'm holding it
closer to the end, and that means the
brush strokes are going to be a bit more
expressive, a bit more random, and it'll inject energy into the painting rather
than when you have to hold it close to the tip when
you're doing the details. Now switch to my
smaller brush now, and also notice how I
am holding it closer because I need to be careful with these branches and
leaves that are poking out. Those have to be a bit more controlled as I'm merging
them in with the blue.
22. Adding The Branches: Now you can see we've
got all types of exciting things going on
that tree at the top there. We've got red, green, blue, and we've got dark, very dark and mid
tones going on, and they're all melting
and blending together. But now we have to
paint the branches. We have the bushy
top of the tree. Now we need to paint the numerous branches that all connect until that main trunk. So start with a
single one there. And the idea of a tree is that all these little
branches that come up, they should equal the same
thickness as the trunk. So even though
we've got loads of little branches coming
when brought together, they should still be no
thicker than the branch, the main trunk that's
coming from the ground. That's a general
rule. Of course, it can be difficult
to work out when there's so many little
branches like this. But you can use your
awareness and judgment, and if it looks like
there's too many branches, you can make your trunk thicker. Using a very dark pigment, blending that red,
swirling brushstrokes. And then when it
comes to these areas, just random swirls, not necessarily connecting
or making logical sense. Just trying to create a balanced distribution
of branches. And you can see now that
glowing grass of red below the tree is quite powerful in between the green of the tree and the green
of the reflection. That red and green look
very nice together. Then on the other side, you've got that purple of the water contrasting
with the orange, again, being
complimentary colors. The only thing that is missing really is yellow and purple. There is a bit of it. But it doesn't matter too
much, I don't think. Going back with the sponge. Sponge helps make it
a bit more abstract. It was a bit overworked, and the sponge restores
it back to nature. If your tree is a
bit too watery, you can even use the sponge to draw out any excess
pigment or water. I also pinch a sponge to change and manipulate
the shape of it.
23. Finishing Touches: I think it's looking
a bit too light, so just adding some dark
ultramarine blue whilst it's still wet so it has
a nice clean edge. Then using the rest
of the pigment just to fill out some
of these branches. I have gone a bit too heavy
with the pigment on the left, and it's harder to distinguish the branches
against that sunlit sky. I'll have to come
back a bit later with light pigment guash to emphasize and clean
some of those lines. It's so funny that often the more abstract
parts of the painting, the messier parts like this, take more time to do than
the detailing parts. I personally think that painting loose and
being successful with it is more difficult than
painting refined and detailed. It takes a different
kind of approach, one that's a bit more
elusive and harder to grasp. And the truth is, it's unpredictable to create
a loose painting that's expressive you have
to risk it because the nature of being
loose is that you're allowing it to
do what it wants a bit, and that's partly
outside your control, and there will be failures, and there will be mishaps, and sometimes it won't
go the way you want it. But that's the nature of it,
because when it does work, it feels that much better. So I got my white guash out, and it's actually
white quash mixed with a little bit
of yellow ochre to give it a bit of warmth. And making those reflections
shine a bit more. These reflections, those tiny little lines that we've painted, would be impossible to
paint when we first applied the blue of the water because they're too detailed, they're too refined, and it would take away from the
expressive nature of the water, those gorgeous washes were blues and greens and darks
are mixing together, we wouldn't be to
paint that whilst also reserving those little
horizontal brushstrokes. So now I'm going back in to this tree trying to negatively paint the
branches, basically. And I'm using the end of
my brush just to scratch away to further define
where the branches are. And I'm using a dry
brush technique. So I'm using the
pigment very thick. So when I apply the brushstroke, it only touches the teeth of the paper and
not the valleys, leaving that leaf
like organic texture. And I think that's
just about it. Disconnect from it for a bit and come back to it
with a fresh eye.
24. Final Thoughts: Welcome back and
congratulations on completing this
African sunset class. I hope you had fun using
loose techniques and bold colors to express
your own magical scene. We explored how to blend
colors seamlessly, use silhouettes for impact and create reflections with ease, all of which you can apply
to future paintings. Remember, watercolor
is about letting go and allowing the
paint to move naturally. Sometimes the most
beautiful results come from happy accidents. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and
personal style. I encourage you to continue
exploring, experimenting, and pushing your
boundaries to create your own unique
watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the
end of this class, I hope you feel
more confident and comfortable with your
watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes
to improving your skills, so keep on painting
and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for
watercolor painting is so inspiring and I'm honored
to be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd
love to give it. So please share your painting in the student projects
gallery down below, and I'll be sure to respond. If you prefer, you can
share it on Instagram, tagging me at Will Elliston, as I would love to see it. Skillshare also loves
seeing my students work, so tag them as well
at Skillshare. After putting so
much effort into it, why not share your creation? If you have any questions
or comments about today's class or want any specific advice
related to watercolor, please reach out to me in
the discussion section. You can also let me know about any subject wildlife or scene you'd like me
to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate
getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews
fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best
experience for my students. Lastly, please click
the follow button Utop so you can follow
me on Skillshare. This means that you'll be
the first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. I can't wait to see your
finished paintings, and I look forward to
painting with you in my next class until
then Happy painting.
Will Elliston, Award-Winning Watercolour Artist
