Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hey everyone, I'm Melissa Hyatt. I'm a watercolor artist, and I'm here to share with you my 12 essential
watercolor techniques for improving your
watercolor practice. I have been an artist
all of my life. I've taught hundreds of
students in the last ten years. I want to share with you
a lot of the techniques and just everyday tools that I use to set
myself up for success. We're going to talk about
organizing your workspace. We're going to talk about
Nixon paint on your palette. The paints that I love
to work with the most, we're going to try some
different techniques. Wet on wet, wet on dry. I'm going to show
you ways that I get texture into my paintings. We're going to even
paint some clouds. And hopefully at whatever
level you're at, you're gonna learn a tip or a trick from me
that you're going to take and use it in your
everyday watercolor practice. So get your supplies ready. And I'm going to share a list of supplies at the
end of this video. And I hope to see you in class.
2. Class project : I wanted to take the time to introduce the class
project to you. The class project is
going to be two parts. The first part I talk about in section four and getting
to know your paints. So you're gonna be creating little test strips for each color that is
in your palette. I know we don't all have
the exact same palette. And it's just good for
you to get to know what these paints look
like on the paper. Full strength and
then lightened. And you'll find out more
about that in section four. So I want you to
share your chips. Here's another version
of the trips that I've done and I keep
these on my studio. So share these then as well. In the other sections, you're going to start to build a chart of watercolor
techniques. So you're going to put about
six boxes on each page. And then in each section
you're going to test out these different techniques that I'm going to
share with you. I want you to share these as well in the class project area. If you have any
questions along the way, make sure to ask and make
sure to share these photos of these class projects in the projects and resources
section as well. In there, I will have some supply lists and other information for
you regarding the class. Again, if you need feedback, make sure to share it
in the Skillshare area. Alright, Happy painting.
3. Organize your workspace: One of the first steps
that I take when I get into my studio and
I get ready to paint, as I need to organize my
supplies. I might hand it. So I keep my palette right
here at my right hand. I've got my two jars of
clean water, ready to go, variety of brushes, my water
bottle in front of me. I've got my paper ready to start painting some of
my color swatches, which we're going to talk
about this in the next video. It's important to
get to know your paints and your palate. So the reason it's important to keep the palette on the right side if
you're right handed. If you are left-handed, I want you to put the
palette on the other side because I'm just going
to show you e.g. if I'm mixing some paint here in my palette and I'm gonna
go working on my page. I bring the paint right from the palette over to the paper. If I'm right handed and my
palate was on the left, I constantly be bringing
paint across my paper, which could lead to an accident and we
want to avoid that. So set yourself up for success. Get your palate, your brushes, all your supplies ready. I like to use this
stack of paper towels to dry my brush or to get
some paint off of it. And I keep it really handy
right here next to my palette. I've got extra tubes of
paint just in case I need them and my color swatches. So get your desk setup and I'll see you in
the next lesson. When painting with watercolor. I like to have two
jars of Clearwater. The reason is I like to keep
one jar clear, like I said. And the second one
is the one that I predominantly use
to rinse my brush off so that I am ready to
go and mix a new color. So I like to start
out with two jars. Try it. It works for me.
4. Get to know your paints : Once you have your
space organized, what I'd like you to do is
get to know your paints. So I am going to use
my spray bottle. If you can use an
eyedropper if you have it, I just want you to
activate your paints. This is the palette
that I typically use when I'm in my studio. And you can see I have a really wide variety
of colors in there. So what I like to do is have
a reference of those colors. While I'm painting. These are some chips that
I've made previously. I like to keep these handy. There's another swatch
grouping that I did. I'd like to keep them
handy so I can refer to them as I'm
painting to help me find the color that's going to be closest to the
color that I need. For the piece that
I'm working on. I've got to strip here and
I'm going to add to this. So put that brush in the water, get it a little bit wet. And we're going to start
with, I'm going to do a pink. This color is called
permanent rose. I'm getting some
pigment on my brush. And I'm going to start
on the left side with very heavy
saturated pigment. You can kinda see as I'm
laying down that pigment, that it's very dark. Now what I wanna do is get a little bit of
water on my brush. And I'm going to pull that pigment over towards the right and you could see
that it's getting lighter. I'm going to repeat again, getting water on my
brush so that I can gradate that color out
a little bit lighter. Now you can see that
permanent rose is moving. I'm tipping the paper. I'm moving a little
bit of the pigment down so we can see the gradation of what
this color looks like, fully saturated,
partially saturated, and then with lots of water. If you're finding that your saturation is maybe
a little even throughout, you can use a paper
towel and just lightly lift up just a little
bit of that paint so you could see
more of a gradation. And the next thing I like to do is I want to make a note now, which paint is this? So this is the tube that I use to put this paint in my palette. The color is permanent rose. Now write the name, and this one is
by Winsor Newton. So I'm going to put a
W M for Winsor Newton. This way all my
chips are labeled. And I'll know when I pull this reference out
to find a color, I'll know exactly
what that paint is, and I'll know what to use for the piece
that I need to do. So I want you to try this, get a nice strip of paper. Any size will work. This one is about 3 " wide and make yourself
some swatch charts. They can be squares
or rectangles. I have such a wide variety. I'm always testing
out my colors. I'd love to see the swatches, so I want you to work on that, get to know your colors, and then make sure you share
a photo of your swatches. It's part of your class project. I like to paint with watercolor
that comes in tubes. A lot of different brands make watercolor
pigment and tubes. I like the consistency of the paint when it
comes out of the tube. And what I do to
refill my palette is, this is Winsor Newton, burnt sienna, one of
my favorite colors. I just take that
tube and I squeeze about a nickel or dime's
worth of paint into that. Well, and then I'm ready
to start using that color. But that lid on until I
need to refill again. Pro tip number two, I like to use paints in tubes.
5. Mixing Paints: I want to talk to
you about mixing puddles of paint
on your palette. In my watercolor practice, I love to mix my colors in my palette before
I put them onto my paper. So one thing that I find a lot of beginning
watercolor students tend to do something they
tend to do is they'll take a tiny little bit of paint. And this is no exaggeration
and they will mix is really, really little puddles of paint. And that's not a very big
quantity of paint as it. If you are painting a piece that's
eight-and-a-half by 11, and it's the sky that
you're painting. You're never going to
have enough paint. Show you a landscape that
I worked on in the past. If I only have this
amount of paint, this amount of paints
never gonna be enough paint to paint
this whole sky. So I want to set you up for success and I want to make sure you're mixing enough
paint into your palette. So be generous. The great thing about
watercolor is that you can reignite these paints and you could use them over
and over again. So I've got a little
bit of a blue. This is one of my favorite blues is called diverted or blue. I've got some of that
out in my palette. I'm adding a little bit
of water with my brush. I'm gonna deepen this a bit. I'm going to add a little
bit of cobalt in there. I need to get a little more. Why don't we go it's starting
to move a little bit. So I'm getting a little bit
of a bigger puddle here. Again, I'm rinsing my
brush in-between colors. I'm still using the blues. So I'm going to test
this color out, test this cobalt blue and the little bit of art
that are mixed together. See how I like that. Maybe I decide I would like this color
a little bit darker. So I am going to dry my
brush off this time. When you want to make
a color darker or you need more saturation of paint, less water. So that's nice. That's making it a
little bit deeper. I'm going to test it
over here on the side. I think that looks good, but I'm being generous. So you could see I have a
pretty large pallet here. So I'm being generous about
how much paint I'm mixing. If I don't use all of this paint in a
particular painting, I can reignite it. I could use my
spray bottle and I could use this paint
at another time. I don't want you
to worry so much about wasting paint
because you'll use it. Another item that I like
to use to mix paint on, this is just an ordinary
white ceramic plate. And you could see I have some
green and a little bit of brown left on here from the sunflower piece
that I was doing. And I'm just coming back in here with a
wet brush and look, that green pain is activating again and I can actually use it. So a ceramic plate is a great additional
area to mix colors. I love to have lots of area
to mix color in as well. I use these butcher trays and
they're really wonderful. Again, I've got some
blues mixed on here and I can easily just re-ignite this by putting a
little water on here. But it gives me a
really nice surface on which to mix my pigments in. So play around with it
and mix yourself up some nice pools of
color as we start to do some of these
exercises in the class, always rinse your brush
off in-between colors. Let me explain what I mean. If I am mixing purple, I've got some blue
in my palette. And I'm adding a little water. Now. I've got blue on my brush. So if I just dipped it
right into the red, I'm gonna make that red money. I'm going to rinse it in
my jar, dried off a bit. Now I'm going to grab some red
because my brush is clean. And then I'm going to mix
my purple in my palette. So make sure you rinse your brush in-between
switching colors.
6. Wet on wet technique: So now I want you
to start working on your watercolor
techniques chart. The first box that we are going to play around in is our
wet on wet technique. So get a nice size
piece of paper. This one's about nine by 12. And make yourself six
boxes on this page. Just use a pencil,
make some squares. It could be totally free hand, does not have to be perfect. You get yours. I'm gonna do the same thing. I've got my piece of paper. And I'm just going
to draw six boxes. In these boxes, we are
going to try all kinds of watercolor techniques
that I use in my practice. Here we got simple as that. So first off, we're going to need to mix
some colors and our palette. So I'm grabbing a brush. This is a number ten brush. It doesn't really matter
what size right now, but you want a good
size for mixing. Wet your brush. And what I like to do is I want you to grab
one light color. Let's use a yellow paint, some yellow in my palette. I'm going to add a
lot of water to this because It's wet
on wet painting. And the most
important thing with that type of painting
technique is that you need to have a lot of wet paint
and then you have to have more wet paint moving into that paint so that they can
blend and mix together. Okay. So don't just mix a tiny, tiny little, little
puddle of color. You'll run out before you
can even cover this area. Make yourself a nice,
generous puddle. Let me show you how big
this one is on my palette. About this much paint
mixing around on my palate. It's a nice light yellow. I want one light color. And then I want you to mix a darker color for
the second color. That Next is a green. I don't want to keep
this color a little bit darker than the first color. So again, we're
mixing two colors. One is light, light yellow, and now I am mixing up a green. I'm going to use a
little test swatch so I can check these colors out before
I put them on the paper. This is another practice that I do pretty regularly
while I'm painting. My studio is full of little
chips of color swatches. And then this is my yellow. And my yellow is
really, really light. But I want to be able to see
the contrast when I do this wet on wet technique sample between the light and the dark. Alright, so once you have
your two colors mixed up, I'm gonna make just a
little bit more yellow. I want you to fill
this whole first box with that nice yellow wash. And again, you want to have a
lot of paint on that paper. You can tell that the area is wet by if you see a reflection. So when I look here, I can see a reflection happening in that area where
the yellow is. That means that the
paint is still wet. So this is just a
good technique to use to check if your paper
or your paint is still wet. So that's my first
color going down. Now, I want to just make sure that you remember because
we're working wet on wet. You don't want to stop and pause for too long because
this paint is already been absorbed into the paper and it's
already starting to dry. So you might want
to experiment with lengths of time for letting
the first wash dry. But now I'm going to
move in with some green. And I'm just going to make
sort of a leaf shape. But what's going to happen? Because this is so wet, you may have already
guessed that that's green paint is
going to start very quickly mixing in with
the yellow paint. I'm not really getting much
definition and suddenly my leaf does not look
like much of a leaf. But that's okay. The point of this
technique is that we want all this paint
and all of the water. And we want those colors
to blend and to mix. What I'd like to
do while this is drying is I want to show you a couple of examples of how I've used this technique in my work. So one of the pieces that
I'm still working on, I created a very washy, ethereal background and I didn't really want it to
be terribly detailed. I really just
wanted these colors to mix and blend together. So I wet the paper first
and then I dropped in some yellow and you can see red and green
and blue over here. I splattered a little bit. And I really wanted to keep to create these soft washy edges. So that's one example of
one I used wet on wet. Another example is in this
cardinal that I painted. And you could see in the body of the Cardinal
here that there's a washington us to the colors that the
yellow and put some yellow down and the
red is blood with it and it creates a
really nice softness. So this is another
example of how I used some wet on
wet on this piece. But I also used wet
on dry as well, and we'll talk about
that in the next lesson. The next example I want
to show you of wet on wet painting is in
this sunflower piece. I worked very wet, especially in the centers
of these sunflowers. I put some gold down
and some browns. And then while this dark
brown was still wet, I started adding
the yellow petals. And so what happened is because the brown paint was still wet and I'm putting more
wet paint next to it. That wet paint found
a place to go to, started flowing into the
petals of the sunflower. I really loved that effect and that's what I was going
for in this piece. And I did the same thing. Even in the leaves. I put some water
and light washes of green down and then
add a darker washes. So this is another
example of how I use wet on wet painting
in one of my paintings. So as I was showing
you some of the pieces that I've painted using
some wet on wet technique. In the interim, this piece has started
to dry a little bit. And you could see that
the green and the yellow, I've really started
to fuse together. You can also play around with this idea of adding
in more paint. So I'm just taking a little
more of that Grameen. And now this has
dried a little bit. So you're going to see that the new paint is going to
behave a little differently. It's probably not going
to move quite as much. And you can probably see a
little more delineation. So I'm adding in a
little more green. You can see how it's blending. And then what I'd like you
to do underneath that box, write a note to yourself
that that is wet on wet so that you can have this chart to refer back
to as you're painting.
7. Wet on dry technique: Another technique I
frequently use in my watercolor practice
is painting wet on dry. And what that means
is my paper is dry. I could have other
washes on the paper, but in this case my
paper is just white and you will do the same
thing in, on your chart. You're going to start
with dry paper, no color on it. And what we're going to do, I've got a little bit
of a smaller brush, but it doesn't matter
what size you use. I happen to have a number
seven and I'm just wetting this puddle of
blue that's on my palette. You can use whatever
color you've got there. If you have some of your
wet on wet colors left, you could use those. So what I wanna do is
I'm just going to make, gonna make some
lines in this area. And what I want you to notice is how much control I can get in my line quality by using
this technique, wet on dry. Make sure you note it at
the bottom of your chart. And this is the way that I typically get a lot of
detail into my paintings. Because as you can see, the color is pretty much staying where I'm putting
it on the paper. It's not bleeding and it's not blending like it
did in the wet on wet. So these two techniques, they both have their
purpose and they both have a time where
I will use them. So I just want you to
play around in this area. You can write, make letters. You could just use shapes. I like to just play with line. And seeing what
happens when I put a lot of pressure
on the brush and maybe just a little bit
and just play around here. This is the wet
on dry technique. I want to also show you how I've used these techniques
in a painting. So here is a painting that
I did have some shells. What I did first was I put some light washes of a
very pale blue down. You can see here
in the sand dollar and in the shell shapes. I had sketched these shapes
onto the paper first. I put that light wash down
and then I let it dry. When that was completely dry, I came back in with a dark indigo and I did all
of this fine line work. So if I would have tried to
have done that line work. Well, this wash, the light
blue wash was still wet. What do you think
would have happened? Well, if you guessed the
paint would have run, you would be correct. This is an example of me
using wet on wet first. I did those washes with
the light blues first. And then I added a little blue into it and
then let it dry. I then went and did
the wet on dry like in these dark areas in the sand dollar and the
outline of this little shell. So this is an example of
using the wet on dry. After I've done a little
bit of wet on wet. What I'd like to work on now I'm gonna move my chart
out of the way. And I want to actually work
on a piece to show you. This is very typical of
my everyday practice. I am painting in the middle of painting this little
Christmas tree. This is the reference
that I was looking at. So what I want to
continue to do, I don't want to hold
that down there. It is. I want to continue to add
some depth to my painting. You can see here, I've got some light
washes in there. This piece is completely dry. So again, not a super
important for the wet on dry. I know it sounds obvious, but I want to be
able to get a lot of the detail in these pine
needles on this tree. So I don't wanna
do the dark lines in it with a wet
on wet technique. I want to use the wet on dry. So first thing I'm gonna do, I'm actually going to
use the green that we discovered on this plate
that I showed you I had I love additional
mixing areas. And this kinda just gives
me a headstart to the green that I want to mix
up to paint this tree. So I'm making a little bit of a darker green because the greens I have down right now
they're pretty light. So I want to make sure
these new lines that I'm going to put in there
are going to show up. So I want to make sure that
they are a little bit darker. And I'm just going to
mix a little bit of a bluish green into
this puddle of paint. I like to have variations in the range of colors
that I'm mixing. So I've got a little
yellow green, I've got a little blue-green. And then this really
deep forest green. I also think that that makes the painting really
interesting if I'm using different shades of a color and different
values of a color, it's not just the same
color all the time. So I'm just cleaning off my brush and I'm putting
it in the clear water. And I'm just going to start
I want to be mindful that I don't rub my hands into an
area that I'm working on. So I'm going to start at
the top of this tree. And I'm just going to
pick up a little bit of this darker shade of green. And I'm just going
to add here and there some needles onto
these little branches. And I'm going to get
some water on my brush. I'm gonna go back in there
with a little bit of water, just wanted to light
in this spot a bit. But I love that. I can really control what I'm doing because I let the
layers underneath dry. Now, I can get a little bit more detail
into this painting, into this little
tray and start to give him a little bit of depth. And this will take me
quite a while to do. I'm just going to maybe work on this top section just to show you how I can control the color and control
with a paint is going because what's
underneath is dry. So this is putting I'm putting
wet paint on dry paper. So this is wet on dry. So make sure when you paint in your little technique chart
for your class project, make a note to yourself. You could even write down in there that it's
really good for detail. And it helps add dimension. Already you can
see the difference and the top half of the tree, how it's getting a
little bit more, a little bit more depth to it. That's not as washing
hands down below. I need to come back in. I don't have the branch
on the tree either, so I need to come
back in and put some branches and
I'll probably use a little bit of a brown,
a brownish green. But I just wanted to show
you how I use wet on dry. Get especially good for detail. So you got to let a little
details into this tree. Despite earning some of the darker green that I
mixed up here on my palette, I can let this dry
and come back to it. So that is wet on dry
painting, give it a try. Often in my paintings, I switch off between the
wet on wet technique that I shared and the wet on dry
technique that I shared. I just wanted to say
to you that you don't have to choose one technique when you're creating a painting, you can go back
and forth between multiple techniques when
you're painting in watercolor. Mostly explore it. Find your own style,
and have fun.
8. Ways to paint with water : Now I'd like to
show you ways that I paint with water
in my watercolors. I know that may sound
a little bit strange. But you have to remember
with this type of medium, It's not just the paint that
you're putting on the paper. It's how the water
reacts with the paint. And there are certain things
that you could do with the water to help you achieve
the look that you want. Starting in another
square on your chart. You can put below it paint with H2O or paint with
water up to you. But what I'd like to do is
show you ways that I use water to help me soften
areas and create effects. So first off, we
need some paint. I just used the yellow and the green earlier in the
wet on wet technique. So I already have some green on my palette and
I do love green, so we're going to use that. And I am going to put a
brushstroke down on this paper. And I'm going to paint a leaf. I'm just gonna make a
really simple leaf shape. Now once I get this
color down on there, I may decide, you know what, these edges are just a little too sharp and I want
to soften them. So I'm going to show you
what I do is soften them. I'm going to rinse the
green off of my brush, dry my brush off with
just a little bit. Now I'm going to use
that jar of Clearwater. My second jar. And I'm going to wet my brush. And now I'm going to put water down and I'm going to come up right next to that
green that I put down. And that green that
I've put down, I made a sharp edge with it. Now what's happening
is I am adding water and the water gives
the paint a place to go. So this is really going
to change the look of this just by adding
a little bit of water right to the edge
of where the green was. Now that edge is softening, that green paint is
moving into that. I do this a lot of times
when I'm painting. It could be really anything. It could be landscapes, it could be flowers, especially. I like to have some
soft color changes going on when I paint flowers. One other place I
want to show you how I use water when I paint. This is a landscape
that I painted. I was on a creative retreat and Morocco and we were
painting outdoors. We're painting on plain air. And I wanted to soften these areas up in
the sky with clouds. Were there were not a lot of
clouds in the sky that day. I put some blue paint
down and then I went in pretty quickly
with the water, get the blue to soften to
give the feeling of clouds. So I very often will use
clear water to paint clouds. And I'm going to show
you a little more about that in my pro tip. So play around in this section, creating lines on the
paper. I'll do another one. I'll use this purply
blue that I have. And you really can see the effect when you
use a dark color. So I'm going to put
some blue down. It could be any shape. It could even just be a line. I'm just going to
make a brush stroke. I just made one
blue brushstroke. I'm rinsing my brush and
I'm just going to come back in with just some water
right next to it. You just bring the clear water right up to the
edge of the blue. And now you just let the
paint and the water starts. You could see how this
blue is starting to move into the area
where the water is. And it just creates
a nice soft edge. If you wanted to just
create a shape with that, or if just soften
it, you can also blot a little with
the paper towel. But just using clear water
you can see how you can get a nice soft edge on that shape. Okay, try it in your mouth. When I'm painting landscapes, I paint a lot of clouds. I used the technique I talked
about in this section, painting with clear water to
help me make those clouds. What I like to do is put a little Clearwater down on
the page with a clean brush. And I like to have that blue that I'm using for
the sky already mixed up. What I'm gonna do is put some
of that blue on the paper. I'm going to come up just to the area where the
cloud is going to be. And what happens is the paint
just fuses a little bit with the clear water
and starts to create a really lovely soft
billowing cloud.
9. Create texture with salt: I'd like to show you now
is how I create texture by using household products. Table salt, a
little finer grain, and then kosher salt. And it's kinda fun
to play around with incorporating salt into some of the washes in your painting, you get some really
beautiful textural effects. I'm going to show you a previous
sample that I had done. You're gonna do
this on your chart. I've now created a
page to from my chart. And this square, I painted down a blue wash and I put some
table salt on the right side. And then I added some kosher salt in
this lower left side. You could see this
beautiful texture that it gives the wash. And this is great to use. Again, it could
be the background of a piece that you're painting. If you're doing
something more abstract, it just makes really
great shapes. I frequently use it in the ocean when I'm
doing landscapes, and it just creates a
really cool texture. What I wanted to do,
I have some paints already mixed up on this tray. I'm just going to
wet them a little. I want you to mix yourself up. A really big, really
big puddle of paint. Pick your favorite color. I'm going to use blue, that happens to be one
of my favorite colors. But I want to use a
lot of water and a lot of paint because the salt is basically going to absorb the water and it's going to
push the pigment around. So you want to make sure that
you've got a really nice to see wash of color
down there and paint. The first box that I'm going to drop the salt into
is my table salt. I just had these
little containers that I filled up with salt. I'm just going to
reach in and grab some of my finger and
just sprinkle it. You could concentrated in
one area more than another. But the thing with this
is you need to let this dry completely before you
try to brush off the paint. Because if you don't, it's just going to turn into just a muddy little mouse
of water and paint. So just make sure that your
patient and that you let it dry first before you
try to remove the salt. Alright, so I did
the one section and I'm going to do the same. In the kosher salt section. I'm using a little bit
of a brighter blue when it gets some water
going in there too, and make it really washy. And the kosher salts much, much heavier grains,
so it's chunkier, so you'll probably
even need a little more paint in there. Then I'm gonna do
the same technique. I'm just going to pinch, have about that much in my hand. And I'm just going
to drop it in here. And you could already
see, I love this. I feel like a kid
when I do this, the salt is pulling the water towards it and it's kinda pushing
the pigment away. Look, look at this great texture that you can already see here. So we drop in a little bit more. I like a little bit of a
grainy texture with that. And now I'm going to let
this completely dry. And then when I come back, I'm going to show
you how I rush off the salt and what's left
behind is the textured area. So now I let my paper dry where I did my
salt experiments. We've got our table salt here. We've got our kosher salt here. And I'm just going to rub, rub some of the salt off a bit of a little
bit more on here. We just basically brush it off. And what is left behind are these amazing textures
like we'll look at that. I love that. The kosher salt gives you a, I'd say, a more depth
in your texture. And this table salt is
a little more subtle. I can still feel a
little salt in there, but that is a great way to get texture into your painting. So now I want you to try it
on your technique chart. When painting with watercolor, I like to create depth
by using layers. These are some layers that I put down already on this crab. So what I'm gonna do now, I want to continue to add depth. So I'm going to layer on
top of the colors that are already there to create
a little bit more depth. I'm going to load up a little
bit of a blue on my brush. And I'm going to add
that blue on the edge of this claw on both
sides of the crab. And I'm going to show
you a close-up of this. But this is typical
of my practice. I like to layer darker washes on top of lighter
washes to create depth. So you can start to
see here how the depth and the crab actually
starts to happen.
10. Layer washes ro create depth: The next technique I want to
share with you is layering. And we're going to be layering
washes of paint to create depth in one of your little
boxes on your chart. I want you to make some shapes. They can really be
any kind of shape. It's up to you. I'm going to stick with leaves, an elif mode with
this class today. So let's do it. I'm going to make
a couple of light green, really simple shapes. You could vary the
color a little bit. I'll show you a little closer. This one's a little bit darker. I would have them not
touch at the moment. We're gonna do some overlapping. But I want to show you what happens when you
overlap the colors. But for right now,
if you could just paint a few little
shapes in there, and we need to let
this area dry. So you've got a
couple of options. You could work on another
project while this dries, or you could use a hairdryer
and you can dry it. And I'm going to actually use the hairdryer
and I'm gonna come back with this dry so that I can show you what happens
when you layer on top. So just remember that it's a
little bit of a time lapse. But it's important that you let this layer dry before we
put the next layer on. Otherwise we're gonna get
the wet on wet technique. Right now my first
layers have dried, my little leaf shapes or dry, make sure yours are dried too. Before you attempt
this next part, I'm going to use these
same, the same values, same colors that I used in those first few
shapes I put down. I want to add more shapes, but I want to overlap them on top of the leaves that
I already painted. Because watercolor
is transparent, that means you can
see through it. So as we layer colors
one on top of another, you're going to change the
color that's underneath and you're going to create
yet another color. So it layering becomes
really important and getting some effects
in your watercolors. And it's good to
understand that concept. And by just creating
simple layers like this, you can even layer lighter
colors over darker colors. And you're still going
to get a color change. And it's really
pretty incredible. I do love color and I
love seeing the changes that happen with just
subtle differences. I want you to play
with this and overlap. A lot of shapes. Have fun with it. You could expand.
I've kinda non be out beyond the edges of the box. And I've added leaf shapes. The first few that I have there, I can see the darker colors are slightly less transparent, but you're still going
to get a color change. But now I've created with
just those same greens. I've created so many different
variations of that green. This is all just
done by layering. I'm going to let that dry here. While I show you another example of layering in a painting, this is a whelk shell that I found here
on my local beach. And I have taken this
painting probably, I would say I'm about
80% of the way done. But what I wanna do
now is I want to continue to layer
some darker colors, especially in this deep
part of the shell here. I need to get some
more darks in here. And I, very often in
my painting technique, I start out very light
with my paintings and I proceed to get darker
towards the end. There are definitely times where I will put
darks and sooner. But my typical practice
is light to dark. So now the important part is I need to do more layering on the shelf and I need
to get the darks in there so that this
part really pops. So what I'd like to do, I'm gonna look at my cell. I loved paint from
live reference. I love to have a good If I if I can't
have the object with me, I'd like to have a
good photograph. I take a lot of pictures
that I use myself. And I have a friend
who's a photographer. I use a lot his references in my paintings,
especially my birds. What I'm doing now
is I'm mixing up, I'm looking at the shelf. There's a really
nice sort of orange. A little bit of orange,
a little bit of brown. I am mixing up
some burnt sienna. I just added some up around and really pretty brown That's kinda gradient is
called hematite brown. So I'm adding that in
and going to use one of my little swatches here
to test out that color. I'm actually a little too
dark, a little too brown. So I'm gonna go back a
little with a little more of that sort of golden
orange color. Even going to put a little
yellow ocher in there. I love the warmth
of yellow ocher. I want to show you the
file in my palette. I've got this nice puddle where there's a little bit
more of a brown hue here. This is a little more orange. So I'm going to test that
out on this test strip. And now I think that looks pretty good too what
I want to achieve. And I'm going to layer in section we're
talking about layering. I'm going to layer in a little
of this orange brown here. Just along this edge
of the show where there's a little bit
of a shadow happening. And most of that is happening because this part
is very rounded. I'm now taking just a little
bit of water on my brush. And I'm just softening
some of that brown. But I still want to make sure
I get that layer in there to pick up the darks as well. I'm going to put a little bit, I love this orange glow happening in this
part of the shell. So I'm going to add a little
bit of orange out there. I'm layering on a
little more orange. So it's all part of
this layering process. And now I know this
is really wet, so I have to be careful that
I don't want this dark, the really dark brown I
put in there to bleed into this light
part of the shell. So I just have to
be mindful of that. And I'm going to
add a little bit up in the upper
areas of the shell. I'm going to add a little
more of this brown as an accent because there's definitely some shadows
happening here. I want to make sure
I capture that. So this is layering. I'm adding layers. I have many layers that
I painted in here. Previously. They have dry fully. And that's the effect
I wanted to get. I didn't wanna do it
completely wet on wet. So this is using some
layering to create depth in this painting so far
and it is still wet. So this paint is
going to be a loop, but this is what I have so far. And I'm going to do a comparison for you and show you what before and after to understand
the layering effect. But make sure you fill in your shapes in your layering
process on your chart.
11. MIx Media: I want to show you a
few examples of how I use different mediums. Combine them with
watercolor to create depth or texture and different effects with
my watercolor practice. So another object
that I love to paint, another creature is I
love to paint birds. So this is a little
piping clover. This is a photo reference
that I have here on my desk. I like to paint from reference. I have a friend who's a
nature photographer and he lets me use his
photos to paint from. So I started here with a
pencil sketch of my bird. And I added some light
lashes where I saw grays. And what I want to do now, I've added a little
bit of texture with some colored pencil. I want to continue with that
and continue to add some of the details into this bird
by using a different medium. So much like when
I work with my C, I'm going to pick some colors. This is a jar of Prismacolor, colored pencils that
I have in my studio. I also will use some
watercolor pencils, which are fun to work
with because after you put watercolor pencil
down on the paper, then you can add some water to get some really nice effects. But I'm going to test out my prisma colors on
a little test strip, much like I test out my paints, I want to make sure I've
got the right color before I go into my piece because you can't really erase these colored pencils
or lift them out. So I wanna make sure I'm using the color
that I really want. I want a really dark
almost black color for around his neck and the eye. And a little detail on the tail. I'm going to get an
orange as well because there's orange in the
legs of this bird. So color pencils are a fun way to add some color and
depth to your pieces. You could play around
with whatever you have. I sometimes borrow
art supplies for my kids, art supplies. But here I happen to have a
set of the colored pencils. I'm going to add a little bit. This is a little bit
of an orangey gold, which is good for his legs. There's a second leg behind the one going horizontal
that's much darker. So I want to try to get a
little more orange back there. Oh yeah, that's good. Getting a little
depth to that leg. And also in his beak is a
little darker orange as well. I love all the feathers on his, on his head and around his eyes. I've got a light gray. I'm going to add a little bit more texture
with the light gray. So when I work on this piece, I need to wait for the watercolor washes to dry before I can put
colored pencil on them. So that's just a
note to yourself. Before you start playing
around with them, mixed media, you want to let whatever you've
painted down, they're dry. I'm going to use a little
bit of this brown, brown in the back of that tail. Really just adding a
few little highlights. Even though they're dark. Little texture. I love the
texture that it gives. And I'll share a few
examples as well with you. At the end of this video
of pieces in my portfolio that I have combined media on. I have a floral, I did some colored pencil on
a couple of other pieces. Okay. I think you get the idea. I'm going to bring this
up closer so you can see some of the detail
that I put in there. The little dark on the legs and all of the feathering here. So I'm liking how that's
looking right now. I'm going to move on
to my next piece. I might come back
with a little bit of watercolor wash into the legs, but where I put the
colored pencil, it may resist the
wash a little bit. So you just want to kind
of think about that as you are kinda strategizing how you're going to paint your piece and get the effects
that you want. Because the colored pencil
is now on the surface of the paper and it may resist the watercolor a little bit. So that is an
example of how I use colored pencil in my pieces. Another way that I like
to combine mediums in my paintings is by
using pen and ink. I'm going to use
today some Dr. Ph. Martin's, this is
a Brown India ink. And I've got my favorite. Pen holder and the nib. And what I liked to just
dip the pen in some ink. And I keep a little
piece of paper handy. I want to just play
around with that ink. Make sure I have the
right amount on the page. I also like to play around
with how it looks on top of a wash of paint. And you can vary your line work by the amount of pressure
that you put down. This is a botanical
study that I did while I was traveling last year. And the photograph I chose, I painted this while I was actually looking
at this olive tree. It's an olive branch. And I kept the
washes really light. And my idea was to add accents and a little bit of
dark with the India ink. So I've got my reference here. This is from a photograph
I took of the olive tree. So I've got that right here. I'm working in a sketchbook,
watercolor paper sketchbook. And I'm going to
dip that pen again. I'm going to test it out. This little strip. You more ink. I'm going to work my way. I'm right handed, so I'm going to work from the left side of my page over to the right because if I did it
the opposite way, I would be smudging my work. So I'm gonna look
at my reference. I don't want to
outline every area, but I just want to add a little more delineation to my branches because my
washes were really super light. And when I needed to, I did back in there. Make sure the stem a little
bit of depth as well. I'm just kinda
looking at the shapes here on my reference. A lot of these leaves are
overlapping each other. Sort of pick up on that. I love this leaf that kinda pointed upwards towards the sky. And there's a very distinct vein down the center of these feeds. So I want to make sure
I pick up on that. Again. I'm gonna put a little bit of edge on the branch
is right here. And then some of these
olives hanging off of the branch gives them a
little bit more definition. They're very textured, may even add a couple of
marks onto the olives. So I can really see
the texture that. But I really just
encourage you to play. You can play with
Micron pens, perhaps. I play around with these sometimes to do some
fine line work. This is a 0.5, those are black. I have some Tombow brush pens. These are really fun
to play around with, to do maybe some hand lettering
or to get paint effects. So I've even had some students use their kids crayons to get some
texture on a painting. So play around with what
you have before you go buy a ton of new supplies. Lately have been
really interested in using pen and
ink in my drawings. I've also been doing just
some pen and ink pieces. So it's just kinda fun to play around with different
ways to create our art. So here is, I'll show
you a close up of how that olive branch is developing. I'm just continuing my way down the branch and then
I can even come back. I can come back with
paint once this is dry. Also, love how many leaves
are coming off of here. And I'm even going to add a
leaf that is just purely ink. Attach that to the stem. I've got the smaller little
grouping coming off here. So play around and really, really make it yours. There are so many options out
there on ways that we can. Create our art and I just really encourage you
to explore and make it yours. I'm also a big proponent
on taking classes. I've taken classes
with other artists, had gone on creative retreats. And it's just a
really wonderful way to see how other artists work. And I'll share with you some of the artists on Skillshare
that I follow. And I do a lot of their
classes. I was learning. I will share some more pieces after this section finishes up. So you can see how I've
used different mediums. Pen and ink and color
pencils in my work. A couple of pieces I have here, I showed you briefly. These are some pieces I
created that appeared on a wine label from a company
that is nearby where I live. And these were created with watercolor wash and a little
bit of colored pencil, watercolor pencils, and then
a little bit of black ink. So I combined a lot of
different mediums in that I wanted to try something a little bit different and
get some nice textures. I'm finishing up my
olive branch here. I think I'm almost done. I like the botanical
quality that the ink sort of lunch at. And you can see the difference. If you go back to
the beginning of the video and look
and see when I first pulled out
this olive painting, it was super, super light. I do tend to paint light, but I love the definition
that a little bit of ink can really
make a difference. Have fun, explore. I just wanted to
talk to you a little bit about something
that's really important throughout
your artistic pursuits, and particularly
with watercolor. You need to have patience. And that is something
that is hard to come by. Sometimes it can get a little frustrated
when you're trying something new and things aren't working out the way
you want them to. I just want you to give
yourself some grace and give yourself a chance to explore and to just be patient
with the process. Sometimes I find with students when they're
working on a piece, they will continue to work on it while the
layers are still wet. And sometimes the piece can
get a little overworked. So that's a case where you need to exercise a little
bit more patients. So I tend to work on a couple
of pieces at the same time. Or I'll work on a piece for
awhile and then walk away. So this is my pro tip for you for this section
and just for your whole watercolor
practice is to approach it with
a lot of patients.
12. Use Paper towels in your practice : Often in my watercolor practice, I use paper towels. I want to show you
a couple of ways. I use paper towels
on a daily basis. So one thing that I
do and I'm just going to wet my brush and pick up, have a wash of blue
paint and my palette. And I am going to fill some in one of the
boxes on my chart. And after you watch
this part of the class, you could do the same thing. So I'm going to put
some paint in here. And you can use this technique a couple
of different ways. If I feel like the paint
I put down was too dark, I could just punch up
the paper towel very loosely and gently
blot on the paper. And it will lift up some of that pain and also can create
a really nice texture. I'll show you a little closer. So that's one way you can
get a little bit of texture. You can also lift up a little color if you feel
like it's a little dark. And I often use this technique when I
paint my landscapes, whether it's in the
sky or the clouds. I do with the paper
towel as you can see, I'm even just doing it
here while I'm talking to you is I dry my
brush off with it. So sometimes there's
too much water on my brush or I wanna get
some paint off of there. I'll use the paper towel. One way that I can serve paper towels because I
don't like to have a lot of excess is I create this
bundle of paper towels. I wrap it with a handy wipe, which you could buy in the grocery store or
any store near you. And I keep it right here
next to my palette. So that when I'm working
with a particular color and maybe I'm changing colors and I want to get some water and
paint off of my brush. I just wipe it onto this bundle. The paper towels
just continue to absorb the water from the brush. And I can just not have to
use terminals, paper towels. So this is just a little
trick that I like to do using these paper
towels and a bundle. I use this over and over again and you can just
change the outer layer. So those are a couple of things that I'd like to
do with paper towels. And I want you to try them out. Get your chart out,
and play around with textures and things that you can make with the paper towel.
13. Tip your paper : I'd like to show you how you
can move the paint across the paper by picking up
and tipping your paper. I've got some blues
mixed up here. And I'm going to
apply a lot of paint. Having a lot of
paint is important for this technique
to really work. Because if there's not enough water and
paint on the paper, the pigment is not
going to move. So put a little blue
down and I'm rinsing off my brush and now
getting clear water. And I'm going to put some
clear water down below. Because what I want
to do is I want to have some of this blue
that I painted down. Move into the area where
I just put the water. I do this a lot when
I paint the sky, I'm doing a landscape or an abstract washy background
and tipping the paper, you could see the paint is
moving in this direction. I can also change the direction. Now I'm gonna move it sideways to get it a little
more evened out. But you can see why having a lot of paint on
here is really important. I'm going to add a little
dark right at the top, because the sky is usually
darker at the top than it is by the horizon
is usually lighter. So I do this a lot in
my landscape paintings. And I will tip my page
just to let the paint flow down into the area that's a
little lighter or vice versa. If you wanted to
lighten this area, I could put a little water, more water there and then tip it back so the water runs
back into the dark area. So this is just a
technique you can use to move the paint around depending on what it is
that you're painting. Chipping the paper. Have fun with it. When working with
watercolor paper, It's important to make sure your paper doesn't buckle
when you're working on it. There's a couple of ways
that you can achieve that. One is to use what's
called a watercolor block. So this is an Arches
watercolor block. And what makes it a block
is that the pages are adhere to each other so that when you're painting
on it and it's wet, the paper won't buckle it, holds it flat for you. Sometimes I use a watercolor
block and times when I want to use a larger sheet or a different size
than a block comes in. I taped my paper down
to a piece of board. This is called date or board. It's a little bit of a thicker
foam core type structure. And I take the painting
with a piece of paper. I use white artists tape
and I just tape along the edges and this will keep my paper flat while
I'm working on it. I tend to work very wet on wet, so I don't want my
paper to buckle. So make sure you either use a watercolor block or you
tape down your paper.
14. Masking Fluid : Now I'd like to show you
some effects that you can get by using something
called masking fluid. Masking fluid is great
for saving out the white of your paper when
you're painting in watercolor. Since watercolor is transparent, I choose not to use white
weights and opaque color. So when I apply masking
fluid to my paper, it'll save the white for me. And I can paint on top
of it or use it to perhaps create a
pattern which I love to do since I am a
surface pattern designer. I want to show you how I
kinda prepare my brush. I don't use a favorite brush. I use maybe a brush that's kinda been around
for a little bit. And I coat the bristles with
just an ordinary dish soap. This is just some dish
soap from my kitchen. And I am just putting
a little bit of that dish soap on
the bristles of this brush and removing a
little bit with my finger. So what I'm doing here is I am coding the bristles of
the brush so they don't get ruined by the
masking fluid because the masking fluid is
very gummy and sticky. And so you don't want to ruin a good brush by putting
masking fluid on it. This is a tinted masking fluid. They're all different
kinds out there. Winsor Newton has a nice one. It's not as obvious
on the paper. I do like using this one sometimes because it has a little bit of a blue tint. I could see what I'm doing. What I want you to
do in your square on your technique sheet
is I want you to just create a pattern and use the masking fluid to
create that pattern. So I'm just making some
dots, the masking fluid. And the way I have to think
about this is that where I'm putting this masking fluid is where there's
going to be white. And I'm going to paint
right over in this area. I'm going to put a wash, probably a blue wash over it. And then I'm going
to let that dry. And what's going to happen
is that the the part right now where the masking fluid
is going to stay white. And once the washes dry and the mask masking
fluid has to dry first. So right now I'm
just making strokes. I'm making a little floral
little petals and a center. We first need to let
the masking fluid dry. Okay. And then once the
masking fluid is dry, then I will put the
paint wash on top of it. Then what's going to happen
is that the masking fluid, wherever I'm putting the mask, it's going to save the
white of the paper. So it's pretty handy way to create textures and patterns. Even if you are, perhaps
you'd like to do landscapes, so you paint
buildings and there's a white area on maybe the
roof of the building. So you could use your masking fluid to
save out that area. And then that way you can
just paint around it and not worrying about forgetting that the way it needs to be there. It's also good if you
do a snowy landscape, you can put the
masking fluid down where the snow was so that you don't have to paint
everything else around it. So it takes a little while
for the masking fluid to dry. So I wanted to hop on
and do this part first. I'm just making a little pattern in my box on my
technique sheets. So you could just do the same if you've got masking fluid
and you want to try this. Otherwise you could just
watch and try it in a future point in time. But it's pretty
fun to work with. And I'm going to let this dry. And I'm going to share with you, I'm going to work on
another piece so you could actually see me using it in my practice, how I would actually
use it for a pattern. So let this masking fluid dry and then we're
gonna come back. The next step in the process
of using the masking fluid. I want to show you a close-up. This is all masking
fluid has dried and it is now going to resist the paint that
I'm going to put on top. So I want you to try this
on your square root two. So I've got my little section. I'm going to grab some paint. I have this jar of water here. I'm going to get just a little
more pigment here and use my spray bottle to
wet that paint. I just want to make sure
I've got enough pigment that's going to cover the
square that I'm going to paint in here to show you how the masking fluid
saves out the paper. So I'm just painting this blue in over those areas where
I put masking fluid. And it's sort of like
using a wax resist where the pink can't go wherever you have
that masking fluid. So it's just going to kind
of beat up a little bit. But I just get all
that paint in there. I kinda do like a nice deep blue so you could
see the contrast. Now I've covered that area where the masking fluid
was with paint. You can see it's shiny, which means it's still wet. We need this now to completely dry and I'll
be back to remove it. Now I've let the
masking fluid dried. We put a layer of a blue wash on top
of the masking fluid. And now I'm going to show you the magic when you remove
the masking fluid. So this is a rubber
cement pickup square. I've listed it in some supplies
in the resources section. But it is it's not
really sticky, but it just provides
a surface that lifts off the masking fluid
as I rub it on the paper, it pulls it off for you when you don't have to worry about. If you maybe have ink
or oil on your finger, you don't have to
worry about that getting on your painting. You can just use your
finger to get it off. You can also use an eraser. Those are just a
couple of ways to remove the masking fluid. But it's kinda cool
because look what's happening as I'm lifting
off that masking fluid. I'm going to show you
in a corner here. The masking fluid is
this blue area here. There's a little bit left. And you see that's where I
painted it down on the paper. So it was saving out
the white paper for me. Now as I'm lifting off the
masking fluid with my pickup, it's cleaving me beautiful,
crisp white paper. If I was continuing
on and I was going to maybe paint in some of the
petals on this little pattern. I could also just
leave it like this. I love that effect because
I feel like it looks like a Batik or a hand
painted little pattern. I want you to play around
on your technique chart. If you have some masking
fluid or once you get some, create yourself a
little pattern. You can also write
letters or make lines whatever shape you want and
then put a wash on top of it. Once it's dry, let
the wash dry and then you can lift it off as well. Now I want to show you on
the piece that I started, the spotted eagle ray
in my sketchbook. This is a speed ball
watercolor sketchbook. So it's a nice heavy hundred
and 40 pound weight paper. And I often do some little
studies and designs. I paint a lot of sea creatures. Here are some of
my sea creatures. And an oyster shell, one of my crabs. So I'd like to play
around in my sketchbook. And so I thought this
was a perfect place to put the eagle ray I've
been wanting to paint. What I did first is I did a pencil sketch of the
shape of the animal. And then I created a pattern on his back because he's got this beautiful spotted
pattern on him. And I created that pattern
with the masking fluid. So now what I want to do, that masking fluid is dry. I'm going to come back in. I'm wearing a brush. I want to use, I love
a dark indigo blue. So I'm just going
to mix myself up. Really nice, deep indigo blue. I'm using indigo by Holbein and it's got a
little bit of like cobalt, which was in my palette. So that'll add a little
interest to the color. I'm just mixing that all in. And I've got a pretty big brush. I'm using a number 12. I don't have to worry about
the details so much. I want to get the
color into this shape. It's got a beautiful
curve to this wing. And I'm gonna come up and
you could see the paint is resisting where the masking
fluid has been put. So that is going to save
out the white for me. So I'm going to have that
beautiful spotted effect. Get that back. Weighing on him. Continue to load this wash. Into his body area. There are some areas on the face that are a
little bit lighter, so I'm gonna make sure I don't go quite
as dark up in the face. Chip. So we talked about
tipping paper previously. I'm going to tip
it a little to let the dark come to the edge. I want to add a little more
of a wash up into this wing. I can also like let it dry and come back and
add another layer. But I kinda wanna do
this in one layer. So I'm add a little bit for the tail and just get a
little more washed in here. Watercolor does tend
to dry a little lighter than what you
see when it's dark. So something to keep in mind. If you want to darken something
up while it's still wet. If it's already looking
a little light to you, then it's a good time to do it before it's completely dry. Darker there. And then I'm
going to rinse my brush. And I just want to pick up a smaller brush because
I just want to come in. I'm just putting a
little clear water on my brush and I'm just
going to come back and the front part of the face with just a little water and give
the patient a place to run into because there's definitely
a lighter value there. There we go. So now I'm going to wait. I've got to let this dry. I'm gonna be patient and
let that completely dry. And then once it's
dry and when I come back and I'll remove the masking fluid and we'll see what happened with the
mask and the wash. So the final step in the
masking fluid part of painting, my ray is removing the mask. So my dark blue wash
has completely dried. And I loved the way the
paint sort of pulled down here at the bottom part
of the ray which left some really nice dark areas. I love that. Now I'm just going to take
this rubber cement pickup square and I am just going to rub it gently
over the body of the ray. And I'm going to lift off all of those areas where
I put masking fluid. So it's going to leave me
basically white paper. So the masking fluid just acts. That's a little bit of a
protectant on the paper. I painted that blue
right over it. And now I have all
these lovely spots and I'm going to add a little
bit more detail into those. Then he is going to
pretty much be done. So I'll just show you quickly. I'm just going to in
a lot of the spots, there was a secondary
little.in his patterns. So I am just going to be
producing small brush. Look at number six. I'm getting some more of that. Dark blue, navy
blue wash my brush. And then I'm just going to make a tiny little.in the
center of some of these larger spots kinda mimic the pattern that you
find on him in nature. So this is just one way that
I use masking fluid and creation of some of my patterns and in some of
the objects that I paint. Play around with it and I hope
you enjoy working with it. When working with masking fluid, I like to use an old brush and sometimes I will use the bristles to apply the
masking fluid to the paper. But there are times
when I actually use the end of the brush,
the wooden part, it's usually got a little
bit of a point on it and it just gives you a
good surface to get that masking fluid down on
the paper width and it also won't ruin the
bristles of the brush. I have another trick for that, which I showed you
during the class. But another option to
apply masking fluid is to use the back side or the end of the wooden
part of the brush.
15. Final thoughts: So thank you for watching my
class and taking my class. It really means a lot to me. And I just hope that you can
take some of the methods that I use and some of the
techniques that I showed you and merge them into your
own watercolor practice. Most of all, have fun. I love to paint and I find
so much joy and peace when I come to my studio and I get out my paints
and I start painting. I hope you find that
place too as well. If you want to share
your workspace with me or your art as
you're working on it. You can find me on Instagram at Melissa Jane Hyatt and use the hashtag watercolor
with Melissa, continue to explore and to play. And if you want to learn more about my
watercolor techniques, check out my other classes. Thank you.
Melissa Hyatt, Watercolor Artist and Beach lover
