Watercolor Trends 2019

1. Introduction: This video addresses the ways to color our system illustrator. Also I like to teach you other color classes. At the beginning of every year, I do a grand research to keep my portfolio fresh and on-demand. These here, I decided to share some of the trends I find interesting. Incidentally, class I'll show you how to apply various strands to whether colors, styles. We'll explore some new skills and techniques. If you're new to the channel, welcome and thank you for joining. Press a follow button on top and let's get started. 2. Supplies: If you want dry watercolor techniques or new watercolor techniques which are the trends of 2019, you can gather the supplies like I did. You'll need a set of watercolor paint or any paint you have. Watercolor paper. I'm using 140 pounds Canson cold-press. I'll be using a acrylic paper because it's more textured than watercolor paper and we'll need it for one of the trends. A board and a paper tape to tape a paper to the board so it won't wrinkle when we'll be using wet-on-wet technique. We also need a paint palette, sketching pencils or a dull pencil, and big watercolor brush, as soft as you have. It's better to be a natural one, a medium watercolor brush you are most comfortable with, a hand sanitizer which is also for painting, and paper towel, and an eraser for drawings. That's it. 3. Trend 1 : Next hop trend we have in 2019 and 2020 is watercolor and a pencil trend. A hand-drawn alliance with pencil are very popular with some area watercolor. Blobs and i-pods and adding good color are very popular this year. It should be more nature based on topics like some babies have like raspberries here or some fruits, which is, this is some branch [inaudible] with some leaves with flowers. You can use this trend in again branching, if it's some a cosmetic company or a food company, they can require something like this for their website, or you can use it for packaging again and stationary, weddings stationary, it would be very elegant and beautiful. For this technique, we will need more textured paper. You can see here it's like Canvas texture. I pick a credit paint paper instead of Water Guard paper. For the pencils I picked sketching pencils. They're softer this is HB. If you don't have a soft pencil just pick a good one and make sure it's not too sharp. Mechanical pencils which make a really fine sharp lines. One for queries technique because they don't look hand-drawn enough. Let's try this technique just by drawing some lavender branches. Again, if the pencil is too sharp then you can see the lines are so fine they don't look differently drawn so just put it like a little side-wise and you can have more graphite on paper and because the paper is more textured, you can really see all the graphite so it's obvious, it's a pencil line. Hand-drawn lines are very popular because of all the development of technology and some gets in more air to have some hand drawn art. So people start lately in the last few decades, 30 appreciating it more and more and like some traditional materials, some traditional media. Here we have a branch of lavender. Let's have another one this way and again, I'm like trying to add some dynamic with composition. Some will have like more sharper more pieces lines. Why not have some more different width of lines? Maybe a little branch coming from here, some leaves on it. You can see I'm not too precise, it's fun. You can play with pencil just try not to overdo it. These are the helium can be beautiful for some wedding invitations or some any like fancy event invitations. So next week you will have to do, we'll just have some green mixed with ultramarine blue for our leaves. A little bit of purple tips it will work well with the flowers and don't be too accurate just and it has to be really see through. We are adding some color here and there. I also will be, besides coloring, which we already drew, we'll just add some painted branches just in paint, no pencil so they'll go well together. This is easy to do so I'm going to try it too and then maybe I like it and you can income incorporated in your own style. Next we will take some Magenta or have some purple and a little bit of ultra marine. A little bit of color, I need more Magenta this is too purple so try to keep it as water as possible because this is the main picture of this trend, it's tricky bit 80 and helium dot cat and it's sophisticated. Some of it out without any pencil. You you can see that a creative paper is behaving differently, but try to experiment with different kind of papers too and maybe you have more textured water card paper than me. I had just to counseling which has pretty smooth so it didn't show them don't show the texture of the pencil well enough. This is the trend. Pencil and water color. I think it's fun and it is easy and you'll enjoy it. 4. Trend 2 : Next trend we'll be talking about Aura, beautiful watercolor textures, abstract water colors, and color gradients. All those are very trendy in 2019 and 2020. If you're going to experiment with some textures, it's a perfect timing to do so. I'm planning the next class to be all on watercolor textures. But for now, let's start to make a color gradient and shed some texture to it. When you are doing color gradients, don't forget about how colors are mixing together. If you need to, you can do watch the color mixing class. Today I'm going to do color gradient similar to this one. Here we have, in one corner we have a warm blue and opposite corner we have a orange and in between we have magenta. You can see this is a triad combination. We need that big brush and we water one corner first and opposite corner and next, take a lot of figment, as much as you can take with your brush and add it to one corner. Also for bush brush you need a lot of paper towels. Wash your brush very well before they get into opposite color. Because that orange and blue are complementaries and if you get your dirty blue brush into orange, it'll turn into gray. It is the orange and again we're washing with brush very well. I'm going to magenta and I start painting it first to a blue and then to the orange and again to the blue and to the orange until we meet in the middle. It looks too perfect so I want to add a little more to the orange part so it won't look too symmetrical. Also it looks like some blue is missing here. Let's add it there. Next what we have to do to is to absorb excess of water from our brush and from a paper. I'm drying the brush in a paper towel and then absorbing the excess of water from the paper. Ink is too late here, it already created with some bloom. Unlike those would have got imperfections, you may know that, I know. It needs to be a little drier than this, so it has to be shiny, but not in palettes. We'll wait a little bit and meanwhile, we'll take some hand sanitizer. We'll add it to our palette and with the synthetic brush add some colors to one of them wells in my palette and just make sure it's enough color because I don't want to go back after sanitizer into my paint. Because I don't know what can happen and I don't want to contaminate my paint with anything. If you have water color tube is specifically perfect. To use some just squeezed some color into the well. I think I have enough color. I'm still waiting when this one dry more and then mixing your some of these color into the hand sanitizer. Our painting paper is still wet, but not too wet and we'll take some of these thick colored sanitizer, and I'll add some brush strokes to our color gradient. They can be a more geometric or they can be more organic. You can see it reacts more where the paint is a wetter, and it'll have less impact that can't wet, pretty much dry. I'm just pressing the brush to the paper and it creates its effect. Now let's sell it in try and see how it will look after it's dry. Maybe a few more here. A few tips on doing color gradients. Always tape your paper to a surface. Otherwise it will crumble. It already changed its shape and little bit, but it's still easier to work and it will be totally impossible to work if we wouldn't tape it with a paper tape and be careful with the colors you're reducing. Or if you need to, you can look in mixing colors class, or just don't try them first before you try to make some right on a finished piece. I think this trend is very beautiful and I can't wait to see what happens with this piece when it's started to dry. Here is our dried abstract color gradient with some elements and I decided to add more dynamics to it. We can see this diagonal going. With white wash, I want to add some spontaneous, it used to be modely good to these spontaneous lines. In order to do that I'm not really controlling module brush. I'm holding it further off from the tip and I'm just adding some lines. What are color gradients? You can use them for branding, for packaging and all things and different markets. This is our drawn color gradient with abstract elements we did today. In next class, I will show you all the experiments entering with what are color textures now. 5. Trend 3 : One of the trends are bold. Realistic florals are very detailed on a dark background. Things to consider when you are trying this trend are following. Try not to make these teeny tiny stems because then it's going to be very hard to paint the dark background and if you did them, just take a white gel pen whitewash or white ink and add them after you painted the background like this. But in general, just try to avoid them. If you watched my floral classes, you probably already know how to paint a realistic detailed florals. Here are the tips which you have to consider after you've painted your flower. Because of a dark background, it's pretty hard to paint uniformly. You may consider to add some more details like leaves and stems next to your flower. Also, it will add more interest to your illustration. Let's do that now. Also, try to make your stems and details in pale or pleasant colors which will contrast with the dark background. Because if you make them dark even like these ones are pretty dark. They'll be harder to see on a dark background. This trend is used a lot in [inaudible] stationery, also we can see it in fashion design, and home decor. Could be really interesting trend to try. I'm adding another leaf here. You can see, I will try to avoid adding any teeny tiny stems which could be a problem when we will be painting the background, and again, you can go with realistic style and paint a very botanical detailed stems and leaves. Now I'm going with a little more simple ones so it won't take too long. I'm dividing the area so I can paint the dark background in segments, and it won't be too overwhelming for me. You can see this one is a little too dark, so I'm adding more water to dilute it, right on paper. If it's too much watery, just have your paper towel next to you. Again, you can make the stems and leaves really detailed if you want, add more aligns and textures to them. Let's add some green ones too because the flower already has a green leaf. Trying new styles is very important for your portfolio and for your growth as an artist. It keeps your style fresh and at least you are aware with what's going on in the illustration, in the art world which is always good for a professional and maybe one leaf here. Next step will be you have to let it dry very well before you start adding the dark background because otherwise, it's going to just bleed into our leaves. Meanwhile, I'll mix a lot of paint, I'll take blue and we'll mix it with neutral black, and you'll get this indigo color. That's what I want for my background. You can see this area, this area is almost dry, I hope it's dry, it is, and I'll start painting. It's good to have a big brush with a good drawing tip, this is a medium brush. But if you have a big one with a sharp, pointy tip, it's really handy for these illustrations. Make sure your background is dark enough. All our elements will pop because this is the main feature of this trend, of this style. I hope this is dry enough. You can see I added these elements, so I'll have a small section, I can paint separately, or background without it being obvious where one section comes into another and it's easier, especially if you're a beginner, and if you're not it's just more relaxing with this. This is getting so narrow here, I could stop and just relax and take a break and then continue with next part. That's why it's important to add more details, besides. It makes your illustration more interesting, more intricate to look at. This wasn't dry enough, I'll come back to that and fix it later. If you have paint in tubes, you can just squeeze a lot of blue and black or other color, and it will be easier to have it ready to go than just mixing it from pans like I did. Now we're checking if this is dry and are moving forward because this is not dry and I already messed up with this leaf a little. But it's okay, I'll fix it. The focus of our bold floral dark background illustrations, of course, will be bold florals. Just pick some realistic florals from any of my floral classes and freestyles and add a dark background to them, and some more elements and you'll get a trendy, beautiful illustration. You can use on a variety of markets. I hope you get the idea that to try this trend, just paint some bold floral, add some interesting elements next to it which will divide your surface into manageable sections which you can paint in dark color and have a dark background. It's not complicated, and I think you got this. Everything else I will do behind the camera and I'll show you the result. I just finished painting the background and here are a few more tips if you want to try this trend. If some of the leaves are too dark, then you can always use whitewash, white gel pen, and add some details to them. Let's say, this stem is too dark so I'm adding just some white texture to it, and you can see how it instantly becomes lighter and it pops out and if some of the leaves you feel like they need more details, feel free to add them after you edit the background. Like this leaf looks too simple comparatively with our detailed flower. I decided to add some lines, trying not to smudge them when they dry on here. Some lines and some textures will make it more intricate and will make it more suitable for this illustration. But not always, sometimes you want to leave some of the details more simple so all the attentions goes to our bold florals. Also, the interest in bold florals, with these illustrations, with a lot of details and petals because simple florals may not look as good. You can create collections by adding the same color on the background for all your florals, even if florals are different and these are all the tips for this bold florals on dark background trend. 6. Trend 4 : Another trend in 2019/2020 is line art and especially watercolor line art. What makes it aesthetically appealing is the difference of the width of the line in painting and also watercolor transparency. If you want to use more than one color, it's also possible with watercolor. Because this style appeals to French aesthetics. You can look for inspiration French artists. Here I did a study on my test painting, this horse, and a woman. Also, this is a study from Picasso painting and this is [inaudible]. I'm going to list all these painters in the description of the class, so you can look out for inspiration too or look for your own inspiration. In order to try this style, and you can paint any subject in line art, you have to pick a reference picture. Any subject you want and after you have to do a sketch study to understand the shape of the object you're going to paint. I took an Eiffel Tower and I did a quick sketch so I can understand the construction itself and after I have a sketch, I prefer a medium-size brush, the one you are the most comfortable with. Then mix a lot of paint with water. It doesn't have to be too watery, it still has to have enough strength of a color. What you do next just with confident hand, start drawing with your brush. Of course it's not going to be perfect, but that's the point, a hand-drawn line is always more attractive than a precise engineered rendering. You can see where my hand starts trembling and I have to remember that it has to be confident and now I'm not sure if I have enough room here, I hope I do. Okay, I don't have enough room for antennae, but it's okay. Simple confident lines, different width. I picked the Eiffel Tower well, first of all because line art is different length reminding us of French illustrations and because it has a lot of lines and we can paint them. It's going to be an entire class on watercolor line art later this year. For now I just wanted to do something fun and easy so you can have a taste of these art and style. For a smaller details of [inaudible] take a smaller brush. Again, with confident hand, and if it doesn't come good first time it's okay, you can paint a second time, third time, as many times as you need. Because I did already the study of this subject I know what is going to follow next. I know all the lines, because I already drawn than once in my sketch. This are the steps just to find the preference of picture, make a sketch and then try to repeat that sketch in watercolor. Just like if you would draw with a pencil, but you're doing it with a brush. It doesn't take a lot of time and I really enjoy this style. I'm definitely going to explore it more this year. You can see all my experiments on Instagram and Skillshare. I will be painting them in one of the classes. I'll try a few colors. It's just a lot of lines. You can try this on flowers or any plant. I think it'll be suitable. It's a very stylish trend and they love it. You can try different colors. I mean not blue, it could be any color which sits your aesthetics. Could be animals or portraits. This is our line drawing and watercolor line art style. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll try it too. 7. Trend 5 : Next trend which is still going from previous years but it changed a little bit I didn't know. When you twist it and so I painted the flowers. However, that color plan became more limited so make sure you use maximum four colors but there three, or mix two colors between them and get the further four color. That's a good tactic too. Also to the painted flowers so I did a lot of stems in 2019. Make accent on the stems and some herbs. If you are doing a square composition, just make sure you'll have it dynamic. One way to do it is to leave a certain amount of space from here and here and same distance and have one branch going this way. If you're doing it like these, then it'll be easier to make more dynamic and nicely looking patterns if you are using this for pattern design. For painted flowers, we'll be mostly using brush strokes without planning much, and just playing around. I just said, we'll give a limited color palette. For that blue I'll be mixing my favorite dark blue. I'll mix some purple then for the flowers we will have Magenta and also we'll be using a turquoise. Just I'll with start with one branch and just trust your brush and trust your hand when creating flowers. Because it can be really beautiful if you just let your hand play. I feel like I need to add some blue to my turquoise. I've got the structure that if it doesn't turn this branch shall be main branch. We'll have other benches going from it. The Sylvan will completely composition going on I think, different tones. Your lines don't have to be precise. It's a trend is painted the flowers, so I'll just do some dots. Stay calm and gentle. Finally I'll do some flowers. It's nice to have this perfect brush strokes and it adds more personality to your and an experience of different shapes of flowers. If it's not enough, colors just mix natural colors between them, try to mix some magenta with turquoise, it'll get pretty great. Again, I can turn the paper the way you're comfortable cause the way I'm painting is not always comfortable. Draw a flower here, so your flowers don't have to be all the same. Just to show you an example and just to see if I can get an idea but you play with all shapes. Which some classes on painterly flowers. Yes, some painting techniques stick on my blog classes if you want to. You can see I added to a stems to all my flowers and stems. They don't have to be attached to anything they can be just in the air, like this. Then they can intersect. Some stems can be chunkier and some can be more refined. Its okay in pain blades and as given more features to our painting. I hope you've got the idea, this is not a complete project. But I showed you how to get started and just keep going until you are happy with the result. You can understand this past part of the course like all of them can be pastels or you can go contrary, have some strong colors or have a mix of values. Glider colors and darker in colors and this way you'll have a more interest composition. It depends which is your goal. Add some smaller flowers to. Keep your water colors pretty watery and we'll add stems inside and play with different shapes of colors, flowers, leaves. Keep it on. But trends are always about trying new things and if it doesn't come out perfect, it's still adds to your style. I tried something new and it got you some new impressions, new ideas. That's always good for your development as an artist. I'm afraid to leave some stems just in the air. I think this is enough, and lets look at all our examples. Here we have a soft till color pallet and warm colors this is our example we just created and cold colors. Here are some bright colors, but still there are just four colors, you can see it's red, green, yellow, and blue. This one is similar to what we created. I hope that you drive this style and I hope it brings something new to your portfolio. 8. Last Thoughts: Thank you for watching this class. I hope it'll help you to build a successful and beautiful portfolio. If you liked this class, it'd be good if you upload a project to our project section of the class. If you're sharing your project on Instagram, please tell me, so that I can leave you my feedback. See you in my next class. Bye.