Watercolor Travel: Develop Your Style in 14 Days of Landscape Painting

1. About The Class: Are you ready to find your very own personal painting style? In this class, I will take you through 14-days of self-discovery practice and watercolor exploration as we paint diverse landscapes from 14 amazing destinations around the world. Taking this 14-day challenge will help you build a consistent painting habit, which is essential in developing your painting skills. Secondly, you will overcome the fear of starting and the pressure to paint something perfect. When you take the pressure off your shoulders, you don't just enjoy the process of painting, but the artwork itself reflects your joy as an artist. Lastly, you will develop your very own personal painting style as you fully understand the mind of watercolor. On each prompt, I will explain in detail how and when to apply different watercolor strokes and techniques to help you evaluate your unique painting style after the 14-day challenge. I'm Bianca Ariola. I'm a watercolor artist and Skillshare top teacher. Over the years, I've taught thousands of students across the world, and it is my purpose to inspire people to discover and pursue their creative version. I teach what I love and need to learn as a student. It is my greatest passion to help my students, not just to paint, but also to grow as an artist. I'm sure you're excited to travel the world in watercolor with me. Let's jump in. 2. Finding Your Style: Our number 1 goal in this class is for you to find your own personal style. For you to achieve that, you have to number 1, learn to enjoy the art of creating and number 2, understand by experience the fundamentals of watercolor. We will paint 14 landscapes in 14 days. Each lesson will take around 20 minutes, and on each lesson, I will teach important principles and key learnings or insights that we can take from the exercise. I will paint on the sketch book and will not use masking tape to create borders. Borderless worksheet for me, takes away the pressure to create something perfect. It also encourages watercolor flow and looseness. I'm excited on how your creative journey will tremendously change in the next 14 days. Let's gets all the supplies we'll need, and I'll see you on the next video. [MUSIC] 3. Materials: Welcome to our 14-day world tour. This is going to be a very fun adventure of painting landscapes around the world with watercolor. Let's check out the materials you'll have to bring in our trip. First is watercolor paper. For this tour, I use this cold press watercolor sketch book from Etchr. This is made of 100 percent cotton and 300 gsm. You may also use a watercolor sheet or block for your projects. Next is watercolor paints. Here are the colors that are in my watercolor palette. These are yellow ocher, burnt sienna, Indian red, perylene violet, Quinacridone Rose, neutral tint, Amadeus genuine or the oxazine violet is an alternative, horizon blue or cobalt turquoise light, lavender, compost violet, Payne's gray, permanent alizarin crimson, peach, indigo, olive green, blue apathy genuine or lunar blue, cobalt blue, perylene red, new gamboge, hematite genuine for rock textures, and titanium white for highlights. You may refer to the color swatches to find a similar shade if you don't have the exact colors that I have, but I also encourage you to use the watercolor set or palette that you prefer using to give your paintings a more personal touch. The brushes that you will see me using all throughout the class are mainly round brushes. First is Renaissance pure red sable hair brush in size 8 and 10. I use this for all the washes. Second is silver silk synthetic brush in size 10, which are used for fine strokes and details. This is a black velvet liner brush size 1 for painting thin fluid lines for branches. Prepare also two cups of water, pencil, eraser, tissue paper, and water sprayer for moistening the paper and creating soft edges. I intentionally didn't use masking tape to create borders on my paintings as I want each exercise to be as loose, liberating and pressure-free as possible. You can download the reference photos and final paintings in the Resource section in the Project and Resources tab below this video. That's all you're going to need, so pack your bag and let's get started. 4. Day 1 Philippines: Welcome aboard. For our first destination, let's visit this iconic lighthouse in Batanes, Philippines, my homeland. To start our basic sketch, draw first the horizon line. I place it somewhere below the middle of the page. Then I draw a rough sketch of the tower in three-dimension. Since our focal point is this lighthouse, I made it a little big to occupy the major part of the spread. Connected to the lighthouse is a small stone house beside it. Don't be stressed on drawing the details. We just need to draw big shapes to portray the general structure. Then let's draw a downward slope as the lighthouse is situated in a luscious green mountain overlooking the ocean. Let's finalize some lines here in the tower, making sure that it looks proportion and solid in structure. I will also add some sketch here to show the details of the viewing deck. Lastly, let's add some window here on the tower and on the house. Let's start painting. Using my sable brush, I get a mix of cobalt blue and a bit of amethyst genuine for the color of the sky. I added amethyst to tone down the cobalt blue a little bit. Using a spray bottle, I moisten the paper just to make the washes easier to bleed and blend. Notice that I sprayed some water on top to create that soft edge on the sky. I also tilted my paper so paints will flow down and create a natural gradient from dark to light for the sky. I avoided painting the tower at the moment. I also darken the upper part of the sky to show linear perspective. Using my sable brush, I sip the excess water puddle on my horizon to prevent watercolor backflow or blooms. Here I mix the color of the mountain using yellow ocher and a bit of olive green. With quick and bold strokes, I colored the mountain area. I also drop in some greens and let the two colors blend naturally. Now to show the downward slope of the mountain, I changed the tone of my mixture to a darker green mix using olive and blue apatite genuine. I also paint the area with a stroke that allows the direction or angle of the ground to be visible. The layer is still moist. I take advantage of it by dropping some hints of other colors so they will blend nicely. The secret here is to alter the thickness of the mixture, so when you lay your colors, you can create a distinction between the middle ground and foreground. When you lay your paints with the same tonal value, the tendency is the area will look flat. I also add some splatters to show texture on the mountain as I don't want to paint each grass one by one. Now let's paint the distant mountain with a cold green color. I notice the foreground to dry a bit, I scratch the paper to create this grass blades effect. I also drop in some thick burnt sienna to add warm accents on the green foreground. Let's paint the ocean at the background next. Here, the mix should be darker than the sky to separate the two fragments. Notice that my brush is almost dry, that's why I created those white unpainted gaps that looks like the glare on the ocean. I fill in the blank area using the leftover greens that I have. Next, I add some more strokes and splatters here in the foreground to serve as accents. I make sure the sky fragment is dry before painting the lighthouse. I mix a light bluish-gray color to paint the shadowed side of the tower facing us. I'm mixed amethyst genuine and horizon blue. Using the same colors but now darker in tone, I will paint the other side of the tower. Now let's paint the base of the lighthouse with burnt sienna mixed with some violet to make it a bit darker in shade. Notice that I simply vary the tonal value of the colors per side to create dimension on the structure. I also left the one side of the tower unpainted since it is the lighted side of the tower. I use Indian red to paint the viewing deck of the tower. My mix is a bit thick and dry, so it will stand out. Let's add some strokes to complete the painting of the tower. Remember the [inaudible] on altering the tone. Next, I paint the roof with Indian red. To make the color darker, I add a bit of neutral tint as I paint the sides of the house. Let's finish off by adding some details like the rails and windows on the tower. I use my synthetic brush so the brush won't hold too much water and it is easier to control the stroke. It is almost like drawing with a pencil. The consistency of the paint is also thick and almost dry so you can create defined strokes. Now I rub my brush also on the base of the tower and on the house to show some rough texture on the wall. I will add some random strokes with white paint for accents. Lastly, with a dark green color using my leftover green and indigo, I add some grass strokes in the foreground and some tiny accents to complete the painting. This is our final painting. Hope you fell in love with the Philippines. Let's move on to our next destination. 5. Day 2 Japan: Who wouldn't love the delicate beauty of sakura of Japan. That's why today, we will paint a cherry blossom tree on a vibrant yellow flower field landscape. Let's start by positioning the horizon line. Next, let's draw the tree trunk. I make the stroke a bit shaky for a natural look of a tree. I even hold my pencil in a different manner to make loose strokes for the twigs and branches. I just draw some lines here on the horizon as my guide for distant mountain or trees. I moistened my paper with my water sprayer. I mix a color for my sky using amethyst genuine and horizon blue. The mixture is a bit watery. I use my sprayer to soften the edges of my strokes. I intentionally leave white unpainted gaps on random areas to depict clouds on the sky. I also didn't paint the middle part as I reserve it for the cherry blossoms. Again, I keep spraying the edges to make the area look soft. Notice how soft and light the tonal value of my sky is. We need to make it light so it won't overpower the color of the tree. I tilt my paper a bit as we will be playing with some flowy paints as we paint the field. I use yellow ocher and the new gamboge for a bright yellow color. The mix is a bit creamy. Next, I paint some green strokes and create connection between yellow and green. Here I changed the angle of my brush and apply very thick consistency of yellow. I use my sprayer to let the colors bleed and flow down. I also tilt my paper more to help the paint flow down. Next, I add some thick dark green strokes on the edge. Then I will use the sprayer again to make them flow. The green paint should be really thick and creamy so when you spray water, you'll create a nice gradient and the paint won't look too faded. I add some dots of green at the background just to put additional elements. I also splatter some yellows here in the foreground while the layer is still wet. I splatter some green too and try to protect the sky from splatters by covering the brush. Let's paint the distant building on the horizon. I use amethyst genuine and horizon blue but the mix is slightly darker than the color of the sky. I also drop some darker spots using Payne's gray. Now that the sky fragment is dry, I use a wet brush and roll it on the tree fragment to randomly wet the surface. I mixed peach and quinacridone rose and drop some colors on the area. Notice that I have created strokes with hard and soft edges in effect. I left some white unpainted gaps to prevent it from looking like a blob. I also hold my brush in a different manner so I have less control and the strokes would look more relaxed. You can splatter paints to make various sizes and shapes of flowers. While this layer is still moist, I make a darker tone by adding perylene violet to my mix. I dropped some dark spots on some areas just to create shadow and dimension. Be careful not to overdo this step so you won't lose the freshness of the colors. Using a small brush, I paint the twigs and branches. I use burnt sienna, amethyst genuine, and the leftover pink mix for this. Make the strokes as fine as possible. I suggest that you vary also the thinness a little bit and make the stroke shaky and not stiff. I make the color a little darker to make it pop among the pink background. Now let's paint the branch and trunk using a big brush with its hair flat on the paper. My stroke looks a bit dry to show the rough texture of the trunk. Let's add a few more strokes for the branches and emphasize the dimension by darkening some parts even more. The key to making it pop is to make sure that the tree trunk appears darker than the flower field background. If the tree has the same tonal value with the background, it will definitely look flat. As our last step, let's blend the base of the trunk by adding some grass around it. This is our cherry blossom tree landscape in Japan. Our next destination is an incredibly beautiful environment so don't miss it out. 6. Day 3 Mongolia: Now that we've gone through some green landscapes, we're going to have a taste of Mongolian winter. Here I drew the horizon line and draw the outline of the mountain. We will be painting the Darkhad Valley so let's play some outline of dried trees here in the foreground. I tilt my sketchbook and moisten my paper. Next, let's start painting the warm light of the sunset with yellow ocher mixed with a bit of perylene violet. I paint with a very light stroke and blend in perylene violet on some parts of the sky. Notice how softly and quickly I move my brush. Also, avoid too many strokes as I don't want my sky to look overdone. I make the upper part a bit darker, we're using a creamier mix of perylene violent and amethyst genuine. Using the same purple mix, I add a few thin strokes to make the sky more interesting. Next, let's paint the mountain. I mix indigo, Payne's gray, horizon blue, and a bit of amethyst genuine to have this rich deep blue color. Remember to make the mix darker than the tone of the sky. I also painted the mountain while the sky is still moist so I get the soft yet controlled edge. The right timing is very crucial so the mountain would not bleed uncontrollably to the sky. I darken some parts of the mountain to show its sides. I also darken the foot of the mountain with few broken strokes. Next, I paint the foreground snowy valley with a color similar to the sky. My stroke is quick, that's why I create a dry stroke. Here I paint the steep side of the valley using a dark blue color similar to the color I used with the mountains. I layer again some more dark strokes on the mountain since it is still moist. Now, I changed my brush to synthetic and make a thick blue mix to somehow show the horizon line. I also make some quick thin upward strokes to show some dried twigs on the snow. The fragment is partially dry that's why you see some strokes with hard edges and some with blurry ones. Next, I will dry this layer completely with a heat gun to fasten the process and I need the layer to be really dry before painting the trees. Using my synthetic brush, I load my brush with a thick color mix and remove the excess water from my brush. I start with the trunk and try to blend the trunk on the ground with my finger. Next, I use a liner brush to paint the twigs. I start from the trunk going out and make the stroke smaller and finer as I reach the top. Now, I flattened my round brush and get a dry paint to create some impressions of leaves. I simply dab my brush around the twigs, just make sure your brush doesn't have much water in it to achieve this effect. I'll make another tree beside it using the same steps. I tried to wiggle my liner brush a bit as I paint the twigs. I also thicken the trunk and blend it on the ground by adding some strokes. Here's a simple way to paint a pink winter sunset. Don't forget that the color of the shadow of the snow reflects the color of the sky. See you on the next lesson for another winter trip. 7. Day 4 Germany: Welcome to Day 4. Let's visit an enchanting winter lake in Germany. This [inaudible] is different from our usual painting process as we will purely enjoy the uncontrolled liability and spontaneity of watercolor. The sketch is so simple, draw a horizon line. On top, will be a range of pine trees, and below will be their reflection. I will use just two colors, indigo and Payne's gray. I get indigo straight from the tube and dab some thick horizontal strokes above the horizon line. I do some random strokes too below the horizon line. Notice that I vary the thickness of the strokes and make them broken lines. This is the fun part. Using a spray bottle, I wet the upper fragment holding the sprayer at the direction going up, and tilt my paper so the watercolor bleed will go on that direction. I slightly move my paper to somehow direct the movement of paint. I do the same thing of wetting the paper but this time, on opposite direction to paint the base wash off the reflection. Notice that there is some white unpainted gaps in the horizon line. It is important to preserve some white spots in the middle to give a sense of separation between the land and reflection. Since the paper has pool of water, I tried to remove the excess water with my natural brush. I prefer doing it this way rather than dabbing the pool of water with tissue so I won't lose the natural effect the paint has created. Now I load my brush again with pure pigment and add some strokes to show the tree reflections. As you paint the reflection, the surface should still be moist so that the painting will have soft edges. I wiggle my brush to portray the image of the pine trees. I also varied the height and gap between the reflection of the trees. Now let's paint the pine trees. This time I use darker color using indigo and Payne's gray. As you paint this, observe the height or angle of the reflection so the trees and reflection would have a mirror image. The surface is also moist as I do this step, but since my brush has very thick amount of paint and my brush has almost no water in it, I am able to create defined strokes. We are almost complete with the painting. I'm just removing some more pool of water and adding little strokes for details. I'll dry it with my heat gun to speed up the drying process. Now that the fragment is dry, I'll add few pine trees with dark tone for added emphasis. This is our final painting. To recap, when painting reflection, the reflection is a mirror image of the object being reflected. Also when painting wet on wet, we take into consideration the level of moisture in the brush and in the paper. Timing is important to create the desired, defined yet soft effect on strokes. Preserving some small white spots is also very important to separate the two-dimension. On our next destination, we will still use two to three colors but we will mostly paint wet on dry in adding layers, so you could also see which approach best suits your style. 8. Day 5 India: Today, let's visit India and paint the gorgeous silhouette of Taj Mahal. Let's start with the horizon line then draw the outline of Taj Mahal. Next, let's create a mirror image for its reflection on water. The idea on this prompt is to practice painting layers to portray the backlight and the silhouette. When we paint silhouette, the color is not really all black. There is a play of tone to portray it more realistically. Let's paint. I start with the color of the sky. I mixed burnt sienna and yellow ocher. I paint the sky starting with a light tone in the middle and softly gets a bit darker as I reach the edge. I added Indian red to make my mix a bit darker in tone. I use my sprayer to soften the edges. I add water on my wash to make a light gradient towards the horizon. Now let's paint the water fragment. The water always reflects the color of the sky and the object around it. Since this sky is warm, water should have the same warm color. Make the wash dark in the area close to to and softly transition to a lighter tone as we approach the horizon. I sprayed some water but the sprayer is facing up so the water drops will be finer. Let's dry this layer before painting the silhouette and reflection. Now let's mix burnt sienna and amethyst genuine for our brown color. The colors should be slightly darker than the background. As I paint the lower part of the structure, I vary the tonal values by either adding few water or few paint. It is crucial that the background color is thoroughly dry so we can create a hard edge on the outline of the silhouette. Here I am dropping some dark colors on random spots to give the silhouette some texture and mood. As we approach the edge, the color should be thicker and darker. Doing this gives the image extra depth and drama. I make them mixed really dark by using neutral tint. Now I get my synthetic brush to paint the fine details of the tower and doom. Once you're done, I soften the edge on the horizon using a clean damp brush. Now let's paint the reflection. The reflection should be darker than the structure since there is almost no light. Just like the silhouette, the reflection is not painted with black or with a single dark color. I still vary the tonal value creating mid-tones and dark tones. You can also observe the movement of my brush as I paint the reflection. I move it sideways to show the movement of water that affects the shape of the reflection. As you paint this, always keep in mind that the reflection is the mirror image of the object being reflected so we won't get lost on painting the reflection. I also slightly cut the straight white gap in the horizon line so it won't be too distracting. Now you can see the misty effect that we have achieved by dropping dark spots of colors on the silhouette. It gives the picture texture and also creates an atmospheric mood. Let's add some final details using a synthetic brush. I will dry this layer again, and we are done. This is painting in layers or in wet-on-dry technique. This technique is not as tricky as the wet-on-wet technique that we did with Germany. But the crucial thing when doing this approach is applying the appropriate tonal value on each layer to achieve depth and retain the transparency of watercolor. Let's learn more about watercolor on our next travel destination on the next video. 9. Day 6 Turkey: Welcome back. Today is our Day 6 and we will be traveling to Turkey. Let's paint chimney rocks and hot air balloons. Let's start with the basic sketch of the rock mountain. Again, we just draw lines and try to portray the essence of the place with colors later on. Next, let's draw some hot air balloons, I vary the size and position to show distance. Let's start painting. I moisten the paper with some water. Next, I get yellow ocher to paint the light on the horizon. I add a bit of burnt sienna to make the color warmer. Next, I mix amethyst genuine and horizon blue to create a bluish mix to paint the upper part of the sky. I avoid painting over the hot air balloons at this time. I gently move my brush and softly blend the blue and yellow colors. Since I added a purple color in my blue mix and burnt sienna on my yellow ocher, I prevented having a green mix in the sky. I also add drops of darker color on the sky to show perspective. Here I will start painting the landscape. I use the same mix of horizon and amethyst genuine but added a bit of burnt sienna to paint the distant mountain. I painted this mountain while the paper is still moist, not too wet so the colors will not bleed to the sky. I get a darker brown mix to paint the other mountain closer to us. The tonal value has to be darker than the sky so it will pop. Next, I create an orangey-brown mix with a very creamy consistency to paint the impression of rocks. Notice the direction of the brush as I do the strokes. I do downward strokes to portray the rocks and the consistency is also very thick and creamy. Next, let's paint the ground with a quick dry brush stroke. Again, the movement of my brush depends on the angle of the plane that I want to portray. I sprayed a bit of water so I can create some hard and soft edge on the landscape. Notice that loose but intentional strokes like this are sufficient to portray the essence of the place. I dry this layer thoroughly before painting the hot air balloons. I mix a deep blue color using indigo and cobalt for my main balloon. Create dimension on the balloon by changing the tone, softening the color, makes it look rounded. Feel free to use colors that you like for the balloons. Just don't forget about the tonal of value. For more defined strokes, I change my brush to a synthetic one. I do the same step to the other balloons, but for the distant balloons, they must have a lighter tone. Our main balloon should be the only one with a very saturated or dominant color. I vary the colors of the balloons to make it more interesting. Don't put too many details on the other balloons so they won't overpower our main focal point. For our final step, I will add some dark highlights and accents on the rocks and on the landscape. You don't have to put a lot of it, a few spots here and there already make a great difference. This is our final painting. I hope you are slowly getting more relaxed and fearless when painting. Let's continue the habit and paint our next destination. 10. Day 7 Egypt: Welcome to Day 7. Are you enjoying our trips so far? I'm sure you do because you're still here. Today we will travel the desert and paint the Egyptian pyramid. Let's start by sketching the pyramid here on the right. Next, I draw the horizon and draw an image of a camel with a tourist riding on it. Since it will only be a silhouette, we just focus on drawing the general shape or outline of the figure. Next, I will draw a cast shadow on the ground as we will be painting a glowing sunset at the background. Let's start painting. I will pre-wet the background with clean water first as I will be painting glowing light in the background. I paint a circle using yellow ocher and a bit of new gamboge and kept the inner part of the circle unpainted. Next, I add burnt sienna around the yellow ocher. The next color will be new gamboge and perylene red to make the light look warmer as it goes away from the brightest light. I also strengthen the yellow to add more contrast. Now I use Payne's gray and a bit of [inaudible] violet to paint the rest of the sky. This dark color has to be dark and well blended with the orange color. I spray a bit of water to soften the edges. Next, let's paint the horizon with new gamboge and burnt sienna. I use the same mix plus Indian red as I paint the desert. As I paint the foreground, I add a bit of amethyst to create a darker brown color. I splatter a bit of color to show the texture of the sand. Let's add a bit of strokes in the middle ground to enhance the plain landscape. I dry this layer completely then we can proceed on painting the pyramid. Using amethyst genuine and neutral tint and burnt sienna, I create a deep dark brown color to paint the top part of the pyramid. See how thick the color is. Now I get another brush to mix a lighter shade of brown to paint the portion of the pyramid that is slightly lighted by the sun. I blend the color both light and dark, just like what we did on painting silhouettes. Next, I create an even darker color, almost brown-black to paint the other side of the pyramid. Since the tone is obviously darker than the other side, we create a sense of dimension. Now let's paint the cast shadow using lunar blue and amethyst genuine. I paint the cast shadow on dry paper for a crisp defined shape. I darken the shadow closer to the camel and make it slowly fading out. Now let's get an orangey-brown color for the silhouette of the camel. The same principle that we did on the pyramid will be applied here. Don't worry if you feel that your figure doesn't look like a camel, with just the right dark strokes and layers, it will look better. I make the image of the rider even much darker by using neutral tint. Next, I add some dots of dark colors at the background, and the painting is complete. Congratulations for completing the first seven days of this challenge. I'm so excited to start another week with you. 11. Day 8 Italy: I'm so happy that you completed the first half of our world tour. I'm sure you're discovering a lot about watercolor and your favorite colors, strokes, and style. Let's continue our journey. Today, let's go to the beautiful landscape in Tuscany, Italy. Don't forget that you can download the reference photo in the resource section for your guide. Here, I draw the hill. Next, we draw a small stone house surrounded with some trees. I'll add a small house on the side just to complete the home position. I'll draw a mountain at the background. Then next, I lighten my sketch by erasing it slightly. Let's start painting. I moisten my paper with a sprayer. Let's start painting the light in the horizon with a light wash of yellow ocher. Next, I mix amethyst and horizon blue for the color of the sky. I also blend the colors softly. I darken the upper part so we create aerial perspective. Since we add a bit of amethyst in the mix, we avoided a green color in the sky. Next, let's paint the cool distant mountains. I use amethyst, horizon blue, and burnt sienna for this color. I paint the mountains while the sky is still moist to get that soft edge. I avoided painting the house and trees. Make sure that there is continuity as you paint your mountain. Next, I mix yellow ocher and a bit of burnt sienna to paint the hill. I drop a bit of green to add a hint of grass too. Now, I do quick stroke to paint the landscape. I love the texture that my dry brush creates as I do this style. I continue painting the hill, but now with a greenish mix of color. Notice, that I drop colors on the yellow edge to show connection, and then do the dry brush stroke again to show the slope of the hill. I continue painting again with yellow. Next, let's add splatters of green to paint the details in the foreground. I love how splatters create details and texture without going into details. It is like bringing out the unique characteristics of watercolor. Here, I am creating a dark brown mix to paint the stone house. When I paint with my sable brush, I've flattened the brush to have an even stroke on the paper. Doing it this way helps the paint to be spread evenly also on the brush, so the application on paper looks better. I just softly blend different shades of brown as I paint the house to create texture. Now, let's paint the trees. I paint first the lighted part on the right, then create the darker mix to paint the shadowed parts on the left. I love the light shade of green, I create using olive green and yellow ocher, then mid-tone green using olive green and lunar blue, and dark green using olive green, lunar blue, and indigo. When you often use the same color palette, you create a sense of color theme on your paintings. Even if you mix and match them, the colors don't really look muddy. This track thing, unlike using a lot of different premix watercolor paints. Here, I am just completing the painting of the trees around the house. I also left small white gaps like what we did on the cherry blossom tree. Now, let's paint with a lighter tone, the house on the side. It is just a supplement on the home position and not really the focal point. Remember, that when painting, you must keep the focal point look like the focal point. Other elements should not overpower it. This will make your artwork pleasing to the eyes, and second, doing this helps your viewers see at first glance, the main thing on your painting. This is our final painting. Let's explore painting mountain textures on our next lesson. 12. Day 9 Switzerland: Today let's paint the fascinating video of Switzerland. Let's paint lofty mountains with sheets of snow on the peak of the mountains and of course a cozy Swiss chalet. Let's start by drawing the mountain ranges. We don't draw mountains with curved lines as how kids do it. We should keep the outline jagged. Next, let's draw the chalet on the foot of the mountain. Let's make this sketch as simple as possible. I add a few lines to show the door and windows. Now let's paint. Here I get a mix of olive green and amethyst genuine to paint the mountain ridges. I want you to pay attention on how I make the strokes. First, my brush hair is flattened. My paint consistency is a bit creamy. Third, my brush doesn't hold much water, allowing me to create dry brush strokes. Doing this gives us an instant sheets of snow impression on the mountain. I start my stroke on the edge of the mountain so I get a hard border, then quickly drag my brush to the direction that will show the form of the mountain. Always keep your mixture thick and creamy. If your mix is watery, you won't be able to do this stroke. Next, I'd get a light wash of ocher and blend it with a little bit of the dark green colors to paint the lower part of the mountain. Here, the wash should be really light. While the area is moist, I drop some hints of dark color to create the general texture and dimension of the mountain. Here, I darken the area around the roof to define its shape. It is like doing negative painting. Since we don't want too much white spots on the mountain, we lessen it by simply layering a softer wash of light, yellow ocher. On the right side of the mountain, I change my color to make it similar to the reference photo. Again, we start with dry strokes on top, then lights off wash as we move down the mountain. Here on the hill, I draw vertical strokes to portray distant trees. I vary the size and height. The stroke is also blended to the moist background because we want it to be part of the middle ground. I do the same technique on painting the grassland. I do few quick strokes and keep color connection every time I change colors. I even splatter some paints for more liberating watercolor effect. Here in the foreground, I make the green color darker by adding indigo to my mix. Next, I splatter some yellow, orange colors to show impression of wild flowers on the foreground too. We are almost done with the grassland. Let's add a little detail on the mountain since the layer is already dry. Here on this step, we are adding dimension so it won't look flat. We want to show impression of mountain range with little strokes. Keeping the peaks of the mountains really dark is the key to make it look more alive. Next, let's paint the chalet. I start with the roof using [inaudible]. Then with a darker and creamier paint, I paint the side of the house facing us. Remember the principle in painting the sides of the lighthouse with changing tones to show dimension, that is the exact thing we are doing here. Let's add more depth on the chalet by adding more dark strokes. Here I'm using my synthetic brush for crisp strokes. Now I'm defining the shape of the house by doing negative painting. As an accent, I put some white strokes on the house and on the foreground. We can stop from here as the painting looks complete, but I think we can enhance the painting by adding a little color on the sky to create contrast too. I moisten the sky area with water, then paint a light wash of horizon blue and amethysts here on the big blank space on the left. Since the first wash looks so pale and gray, I make it look more vibrant by adding a bit of horizon blue. I keep the edges soft by spraying some water. We're all done now. Next up will be old mills and meadows. I'll see you on our next lesson. 13. Day 10 Denmark: Our travel wouldn't be complete without a trip to an old mill in Denmark. The sketch is pretty simple, but we need to follow the rule of perspective to make the picture look beautiful. First step is to set the horizon line and assign a vanishing point within that line. Next, all the lines that you will draw on the plain should intersect on the vanishing point to ensure correct perspective. Here as we draw the road, all the lines should be directed to one vanishing point within the horizon line. This is what we call one-point perspective. Now, let's draw the wood post on both sides of the road. I just make a rough sketch and keep it very loose. Lastly, let's draw the old mill here on top of the horizon line. I start with the roof, then a basic outline of the structure, and lastly, the turbines. I draw some details in the middle ground to enhance the composition. These details don't have to be a particular object. Lines and shapes will actually do the work. Now let's begin. I moisten the entire page with spray bottle. Next, I mix the color of my sky still using Amethyst's genuine and horizon blue. I make the mix leaning towards the blue shade to create a bright day. Don't forget to make the upper parts darker for aerial perspective. Next, I get ocher and some green mix to paint the horizon. I tilt my paper a bit to avoid backflows of paint. I vary my strokes ranging from flat horizontal stroke to dabbing of brush and splattering of paints to make my landscape more interesting. Since the subject looks too plain because of very minimal elements in it, we create added interest by varying our brushstrokes as we portray the bushes, and grass, and road. As I paint the greens on the road, there should be a transition of light to dark from the vanishing point going out. The direction of my stroke should also follow the direction of the fragment. For example, as I paint the grass in-between the road, I did swift diagonal stroke from the vanishing point going out. Then as I paint the middle, I did horizontal strokes as base wash, then drop some greens to portray the grass. Here, I paint the soil using [inaudible]. Let's splatter some thick yellow ocher paint to portray flowers in the foreground. I also add splatters of [inaudible] to create accents and connection in colors in the foreground. I scratch the bush to create texture on this solid blob of color. I dry the paper completely then I will paint the wooden post. Using a synthetic brush, I paint each one with a dry stroke. The paint should be thick enough to stand out among the greens at the background. I create dimension even on this post by darkening one side of it. Next I connect it to the ground, by adding grass blade strokes using dark green paint. Let's enhance the road fragments with few dark stokes. I go back to painting the wooden posts with dark paint to define the sides. Next, let's paint the windmill using leftover paints. Remember, the principle is shared when painting the hot air balloons. We make the same principle, in this step. We make the shape look rounded as we create a transition in the tonal value. Putting dark tones on the shadow part and light tones on the lighted part. Next, let's paint the roof and the turbines. Notice that I paint the turbines with very dark antique color because I want it to look so sharp. Since it is our focal point, it has to stand out. And the only way to do that is to make it darker in tone. Let's paint the bees and create the impression of fence around it using rice strokes. Now I'm adding some spots of dark burnt sienna and dark wing color on the foreground to further enhance and define the road fragment. As you do this step, make a choice of few systematic spots of strokes. The main purpose of this step is to control the road using suggestive strokes or lines. You don't need to outline the road with a straight line. Broken spots of color is a better and not destructing way to control the shape. Finalize by adding tiny grass strokes in the middle ground and foreground. You can also add final splatters of thick yellow paint in the foreground. Lastly, darken the turbines as needed. You can also add very tiny strokes of birds in the sky to make it look more pretty. This is our final painting. For next lesson, we will be focusing on creating a rough textures using the unique properties of granulating watercolors. 14. Day 11 United Kingdom: Textures, tones, granulating watercolors. Today's lesson will revolve around these three elements. Let's paint this stunning prehistoric monument, the Stonehenge in UK. We begin the sketch by drawing the horizontal and standing stones. If you look at my hand movement, I draw the stones intentionally shaking my hand a little bit. I keep the shape very irregular to make it look more realistic. After drawing this, I set up the ground and also add a small rock here in the foreground. Now let's start painting. I moisten my paper with spray bottle and prepare my Hematite Genuine paint. The special thing about this color is its granulating property. Granulation is the effect that you get when the pigment particles clump together rather than settling evenly on the painted surface. This effect makes painting rocks or stone textures very natural and easy. I will mix some Hematite Genuine on my paints to create granulating effect on the paper. We bring out the full beauty of granulation by placing good amount of water on the surface, then dropping generous amount of granulating paint on that wet surface. Here on our first tone, after placing the base wash, I add another layer of granulating paint while it is still moist to bring out the granulating effect. The same thing I do with the horizontal stone on top. Now I create dark tones using branch and Hematite Genuine. Let's continue painting. I paint the base wash of this tone with a light wash. Then drop a good amount of Hematite Genuine on the moist surface. I let the paints to blend or spread naturally so I won't interfere the movement of colors. I outline the stone with a darker color to bring dimension. Let's move on to the next stone. I do the same step of painting the base wash with a light tone. Next I get a darker tone and drop some hints of it to show the rough texture and uneven color of the surface. Here I want to emphasize the lighted side of the rock, so I paint the side with a mix of horizon blue and amethyst genuine. I go back to the other rock and darken some spots that need to be really dark to make it look more alive. Let's continue painting the other one. The process is very repetitive. As you practice painting rocks, remember that we need to show dimension and texture by playing with tones. We create dimension by making sure that the other side of the stone that is in shade has a dark tone while the side on the stone lighted by the sun has a very distinct light tone. Next, we create texture on the stone by creating color mixes that is slightly similar in tonal value, but a little bit different in hue. At this moment, you can notice that the stones still look a bit flat, as there is no strong contrast between the sides of the stones. But later on I will show you how to make the sides more distinguished by adding contrasting tonal values. While we wait for the layer to be dry, let's paint the grass. I still use my olive green with a bit of blue. Since the grass is not really our focal point, we can paint it with some light and loose washes. Just create color play between greens and oranges to make it more alive and not dull. I paint this small rocks in the foreground still with light colors as they are not our focal point, and we don't want it to steal the attention from the Stonehenge. Let's darken the green stripe below the Stonehenge. It is a good way to connect the stones to the ground too. Now I'm using a synthetic brush and create a dark brown using branch and a neutral tint. This is the portion where we enhance the contrast on the stones to make them dimensional. Using dry strokes, I darken some portions of the edges to create separate shown between the two sides. Again, you don't need to outline the entire side completely, just do suggestive strokes and it will be sufficient. Here I'm mixing the color of the sky. The mix shouldn't be too bright. I didn't pre-wet the background before painting the blue because I don't want the colors of the stones to bleed. We need hard edge between the sky and stones to emphasize the rough solid texture. I continue painting the sky with soft washes and spray water only on the edges. I'm adding very light spots of branch in the horizon. They also darken, again some corners and cracks on the stones and small dot and spots like this to further enhance the picture. Just be mindful not to overdo the stroke or not to add dark stones on sides that should be light in tone. Let's add some final details and accents and our painting is complete. Let's apply most of the techniques and strokes we learned from the previous lessons on our next project. 15. Day 12 U.S.A.: For today's destination, let's visit the Red Rock Canyon, towering red sandstone peaks and desert road. We'll apply all the techniques and principles we've learned starting with perspective. Now, let's draw the horizon line then identify your vanishing point within that horizon line. From there, we draw the guide for the road and boundaries of the desert. All lines should be directed towards the vanishing point. Next, let's draw the van. Make the roof slightly on top of the horizon line. The sides of the van should also lead towards the vanishing point to make sure we get the right perspective in our drawing. Let's draw the car's shadow on the ground too. Next, we draw the sandstones. I make rough sketch trying to create an impression of towering stone peaks. I do the same thing on the right, but make it less detailed than the one on the left. I finalize my sketch by making sure all parallel lines are directed to my vanishing point. Now let's paint. Moisten the paper with water. Then next, let's mix the color of the sky still using amethyst genuine and Horizon Blue. I notice I have very vibrant blue in the middle, so I try to dilute it by adding a bit of water. I intentionally leave white gaps to show some impression of clouds in the sky. Here I'm dropping some dark tones of blue on the upper part. Next, let's paint the sandstones. I get thick and creamy mix of burnt sienna and paint the fragment with downward strokes. I add in a bit of amethyst to create a slightly darker tone for dimension. Use a darker tone to paint the shadowed sides of the mountain. When painting subjects like this, in an expressive style, you don't need to be so particular on copying the reference photo. You just need to identify which side is lighted by the sun, and which side is in shadow so you can play with light and shadow and you put down the colors. It is not mindlessly pleasing light and dark tones. When you have set up the tones, you can drop hints of color to add interests in the texture. Now I'm mixing Indian red and neutral tint and a bit of [inaudible] genuine to paint the base of the rough mountain and also the very dark dawns on the mountain top. I use synthetic brush, so the stroke will be so bold and containing almost purely paint. I use the same color mix for the stones in the middle part. Here, I vary the washes from dark to milky wash. I want the left sandstones to be more detailed, that's why painting this chap on the right, will not have much detail since strokes, it will be more of color blending. Now let's start painting the desert starting from the area near the horizon. I paint the sand area with the same color mixes that we did earlier. Then proceed on painting these bushes on the foreground with mix of greens. I move my brush copying the movement of the grass stool. Now I change the stroke to sideways to paint the ground. Remember to vary the direction of your stroke depending on the object or fragment you are portraying. I darken some portions of the grass in the foreground by adding indigo in my green mix. Now let's paint the ground with burnt sienna and a bit of yellow ocher. I kept the rightmost side part of it light by doing dry strokes. I also splattered some dark bronze of paint for sand texture. This being the left side of the road with few loose strokes, as it doesn't have to be too colored, unlike the fragment on the right. Next, let's mix the color of the road using lavender and neutral tint, make the foreground darker in color, then slowly transitions to light on as we move closer to the vanishing point. Let's dry this layer completely before painting the vent. Using ocher and new gamboge, I paint the backside of the van with a synthetic brush for more controlled strokes. Next, I paint the side with a lighter tone of yellow-orange. Next, let's add strokes off lavender to paint the top and bottom part of the van and keep some unpainted spots to show light. Let's add a bit of dark outline and paint the wheels too with very dark neutral tint. I mix again lavender and neutral tint to paint the cast shadow of the van on the road. I'm going back to the van to add some more lines and details. Let's paint the lines on the road next. When doing this, the line should be very thin near the horizon line, then gradually getting a bit thicker as we approach the foreground. For our final step, let's add accents of opaque white paint on the van and on the road. I darkened the wheels once more and added some small accents like small posts on the desert side. Then we contour the road by adding spots of dark gray color on the side. Here is our final painting. From rough textures, let's now move on to painting vibrant flower field. I'll see you on the next lesson. 16. Day 13 New Zealand: Welcome to Day 13 where we'll visit the lovely lavender fields in New Zealand. I'm really excited about this tour because I love lavenders. Let's begin sketching. I place the horizon on the upper portion of the paper, then I draw the distant mountains. I do very light strokes of some row of trees at the background. Next, I select a vanishing point and use it as my guide for drawing the rows of lavender. I made five rows of lavender in the field. Next, I erase the unnecessary lines and the vanishing point. I defined a bit my main sketch creating those curved outline on the edge. We won't be painting the field in detail, but I tried to create the direction of the lavender, so I know how to do my strokes later on. We want to portray that cylindrical shape, so we take note of that when we apply colors. Let's lighten the sketch, and moisten the paper. Using horizon blue and amethysts genuine, I paint the sky with a very soft gradient. Since the foreground will be heavy on colors, we will keep the sky simple yet very soft. I also paint a bit of ocher on the horizon for sunlight. Next, let's mix our green and horizon blue and amethysts genuine to paint the whole distant mountains. I paint a mountain with a slightly creamier mixed in the sky. The sky fragment is also still moist giving me that soft blend. Next, I mix lunar blue and green with a bit of ocher to paint the field and trees near the horizon. I drop some dark green colors to create layer. Next, let's paint the grassland with quick strokes of green following the direction or angle of the land. Let's add a very pretty color of lavender using lavender and amethysts genuine. Notice the consistency of my mix. Because it is creamy, the blend between the purple and green is controlled, soft and very vibrant. Let's drop some dark violet color for texture. Now let's paint the greens in-between lavenders. I do this same swift diagonal stroke using light green. Then I add dark tone of green on the edge. We are painting on dry paper here, but we work fast, so when we add another color, the two colors will still blend nicely. Here here when I paint a lavender, the green stroke is still moist leaving a nice colored connection between green and violet. Notice the direction of my stroke as I paint the lavender. I do semicircle strokes following the curve sketch that I did earlier. Light comes from the right, so we make the left side darker and the right side of the lavender light. I display with the ratio and proportion and lavender and Amethyst Genuine to create different shades. If I want a darker tone, I add more Amethyst and less water in my mix. If I want a great mid-tone, I add more lavender and a bit of water. For the light tone, I just put generous amount of water. I splatter water in the field using my liner brush. This will create tiny blooms to show impressions of delicate flowers. The stroke and application of appropriate tone is crucial to making your field not to look flat and plain. As I paint the left side, I didn't make it as detailed as the other ones. It is almost blurry. Now let's create textures by lifting technique. Using a clean liner brush with water in it, I create downward strokes that will in effect lift off the colors on the fragment. The timing when doing this is very important. In order to achieve a nice effect, you have to do this while the fragment is a bit moist which is not too wet and not too dry. As the fragment dries, you will slowly notice some lines of lifted paint. Next, let's add some highlights using Amethyst and lavender. Let's dry this layer before adding some final details. I get a thick and dark green color to contour the field. Doing this gives more dimension to the rows of lavender. I just put dabs of paint and not really outline the entire field. See the difference that it brings when we dab paints on the lavenders. It created dimension giving that rounded shape on the rows of lavenders. Now, let's enhance the middle ground by adding some strokes. Since the colors on the mountain faded a bit, we can paint again the impression of distant trees. I'll add one tree here to create balance on the home position. I'll paint the tree starting with the yellow-green color, then connect a dark green color. Let's finish off by splattering some purple paints in the foreground, and I will also splatter lavender and lastly, opaque white color. Let's add a few more dark strokes, and we are done. Tomorrow is a bittersweet day for me, so let's take our last lesson in the next video. 17. Day 14 Australia: Let's end our tour painting the cliff rock in Australia. I have an initial sketch here, but I will still take you through the sketching process. I started with identifying the horizon line, and then from there, I draw the ground with zigzag strokes, then vertical lines to draw the cliff. Next, I draw our focal point, which is the big tree in the foreground. I won't draw the details of the tree but just the main trunk and few branches. I will use my Hematite Genuine and once more to create the granulating effect of the cliff area. Let's pre-wet the paper with few water. I use yellow ocher to paint the ground. I do very light wash just to create the base color. Next, I blend in some brownish greens using olive and [inaudible]. Here, I get dark green color to paint the trees at the background. I paint with different shades of green so it won't be a long stretch of plain, monotonous green stroke. Now let's paint the cliff's texture. I start by slightly pre-wetting the rock fragment, then I will drop in a thick mix of brown mixed with Hematite Genuine. I let the paint flow down on its own. I strengthen the color on the edge for more contrast. I help the paint flow more by spraying water. Here we can now see the gradient of color on the cliff rock. Let's remove the puddle of water with our brush to prevent it from flowing to the foreground. I add a bit of warm orange-brown color on the surface for interest. Now let's apply once more the principle we learned when painting sandstones. We identify the shadowed portion so we can make them dark in tone. This will give the picture dimension. I continued painting the left side using the same step, but this time, the color is leaning to brown shade and not as dark as the first ones in the middle. Now that the middle part is dry, I'll paint the cliff and the background. Notice that I vary the shades of brown depending on which side is in shadow. Here I painted some green dry strokes to show trees down the cliff. Let's finish the last cliff here on the right. Now, let's paint the grassland. I start with downward strokes copying the movement of the grass. Then I make a wash to paint the ground. I still do the swift dry stroke wash towards the edge of the land. At the foot of the trunk, I paint darker green shade of grass. Of course, this will not be complete without splashes. Let's proceed on painting the trees. We do the same technique we did on the cherry blossom tree. We pre wet the paper by rolling the brush. Next, we put hints of colors and leave small white gaps to prevent big blob of paint. We also add in dark shade of green to build the volume of the tree. I add few more dry strokes here on the edge of the branch. Now, let's dry this layer so we can paint the trunk. I start with the highlighted portion of the trunk using mix of amethyst and horizon Blue, I make it very light in tone. Next I get a dark shade of brown to paint the dark spots of trunk. I also paint the branches with dry brush stroke. Using a liner brush, I paint some twigs on the end of the branches. I keep this stroke shaky and very thin. It is like dancing or wiggling your brush with very light pressure. Now, I'm adding some creamy mix of ocher as highlights and accents on my tree. I do the same thing with Burnt Sienna. I keep them mix very thick so it will look a bit too. The last step, I'm darkening some spots again on the cliff for added contrast. Let's also add some more grass pleats as final details and we are done. This is our final painting. Thank you so much for completing the 14 day challenge with me. Let's wrap up and evaluate our experience on the next video. 18. Assessing Your Style: Congratulations for finishing the 14 days of landscape painting with me. You are a true winner. Completing all these 14 prompts just prove how dedicated, passionate, and committed you are in growing your painting skills, so keep the fire burning and never give up. Let's undertake a self-evaluation to see what your strengths and shortcomings are. Then from there, you could focus on improving your own personal style. Browse through the 14 paintings that you did and try to observe your works very carefully. Try to identify the techniques, strokes, and effects that you really love doing and enjoy incorporating in your art works. For example, try asking yourself, is painting wet on wet an enjoyable approach for you? Or is it layering of paints using wet on dry? Secondly, do you find it satisfying to work on each and every detail, or you are like me who loves to portray details with loose and expressive strokes and splatters? I want you to identify your strengths. Remember, the approach that allows you to best express yourself, the approach that makes you feel happy and inspired. Next, identify the challenges that you encountered, these may be techniques that you loved but find difficult to execute. If so, keep practicing and studying that technique. Don't let frustration get in the way. Through consistent study and practice, you will eventually get it. On the other hand, if these struggles aren't actually relevant to you, you can park it first and focus on developing your strengths and working on the areas that are useful for you. I encourage you to list them down and moving forward, think of opportunities where you can intentionally apply those observations. Whenever you watch classes, instead of trying exactly how the instructor paints, challenge yourself to incorporate your preferred strokes and techniques while applying the new learnings you get from observing their style. Most importantly, continue the habit of painting every single day. The rewards of good habit may not be immediate, but will definitely impact your life, your watercolor journey in the long run. It's my greatest passion to help you, not just to paint, but also to grow as an artist. Feel free to leave in the discussion section any help you particularly need or painting subject that you'd love to further learn. I'd love to hear from you and see how it can best help and intentionally guide you as my students. [MUSIC] 19. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope this course has helped you to discover your personal painting style, develop a consistent painting habit and also fully understand how watercolor works that will surely help you paint any subject that you would like to paint. I'm excited to see your work, so please upload them in the project section below this video. You can also share works on Instagram and tag me biancarayala, so I can see your work and share feedback. Thank you so much for joining this class, and I hope to see you on my other classes.