Transcripts
1. Welcome To The Class!: Hello everyone. My name is Will Elliston and in this
class we're going to explore the mesmerizing world of
watercolors whilst creating a beautiful red panda with its striking colors
and adorable features. Not only is it a great subject
for watercolor painting, but also a wonderful opportunity
to learn and practice various techniques with their fiery fur and
playful spirit. They're a symbol of
beauty and mystery. Capturing their essence on paper is not just an
artistic endeavor, but also a tribute to
the wonders of nature. I've been a professional
artist for many years, exploring lots of
different subjects, from wildlife and portraits to city scapes and
countryside scenes. I've always been entranced by the possibilities of watercolor, but when I started, I had no idea where to begin
or how to improve. I didn't know what
supplies I needed, how to create the
effects I wanted, or which colors to mix. Now, I've taken part in
many worldwide exhibitions, been featured in magazines, and been lucky enough
to win awards from well respected
organizations such as the International
Watercolor Society, the Masters of
Watercolor Alliance, Windsor, and Newton,
and the SAA. Watercolor can be overwhelming
for those starting out. Which is why my goal is
to help you feel relaxed and enjoy this medium in
a step by step manner. Today, I'll be
guiding you through a complete painting
demonstrating a variety of techniques and explaining how I use all
my supplies and materials. Whether you're just starting out or already have
some experience, you'll be able to follow along at your own pace and improve your watercolor skills if this class is too challenging
or too easy for you. I have a variety of classes available at different
skill levels. I like to start off with a
free, expressive approach, with no fear of
making mistakes as we create exciting textures
for the underlayer. As the painting progresses, we'll add more details to bring it to life and
make it stand out. I strive to simplify
complex subjects into easier shapes that
encourage playfulness. Throughout this class, I'll be sharing plenty of
tips and tricks. I'll show you how to turn
mistakes into opportunities, taking the stress out of
painting in order to have fun. I'll also provide you with
my watercolor mixing charts, which are an invaluable tool when it comes to choosing
and mixing colors. If you have any questions, you can post them in
the discussion thread. Down below, I'll be sure to read and respond to
ever think you post. Don't forget to follow
me on Skillshare by clicking the follow
button at the top. This means you'll be the
first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. You can also follow me on Instagram at Will Elliston
to see my latest works. So let's dive in and unleash our creativity as we bring this charming Red Panda
to life on paper. Are you ready? Great, let's go.
2. Your Project: First of all, thank you so
much for joining this class. I'm really happy that you're here painting along
with me today. We're going to paint an
adorable red pender. And through our time
together in this class, we'll explore the
subtle techniques and beautiful hues that
water colors offer. We'll learn how to
blend color seamlessly, create texture that leaps off the page and infuse life
into our paintings. Remember, there are
no mistakes in art. Only opportunities
to learn and grow. So don't be afraid
to experiment, to let your creativity flow, and to express the
red pandas spirit in your own unique way. In the resource section, I've added a high
resolution image of my finished painting
to help guide you. You're welcome to
follow my painting exactly or experiment with your own composition
as we're going to be focusing on the painting
aspect of watercolor, I've provided templates
you can use to help transfer or trace the
sketch before you paint. It's fine to trace when using it as a guide for
learning how to paint, it's important to
have the underdrawing correct so that you can relax and have fun learning the
watercolor medium itself. Whichever direction
you take this class, it would be great
to see your result and the paintings you
create through it. I love giving my
students feedback, so please take a photo
afterwards and share it in the Student Project Gallery under the Project
and Resource tab. I'm always intrigued to
see how many students have different approaches and how they progress with each class. I'd love to hear
about your process and what you learned
along the way, or if you had any difficulties. I strongly recommend
that you take a look at each other's work in the
student project gallery. It's so inspiring to see
each other's work and extremely comforting to get the support of your
fellow students. So don't forget to like and
comment on each other's work.
3. Materials & Supplies: Before we get started
with this painting today, let's go over the materials
and supplies I generally use. Having the right materials can greatly impact the
outcome of your artwork. I'll go over all the supplies I use for
this class and beyond. They're very useful to have at your disposal and we'll make it easier for you
to follow along. Let's start with the
paints themselves. Like most of the materials
we'll be using today, it's a lot to do
with preference. I have 12 stable colors in my palette that I
fill up from tubes. They are cadmium
yellow yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium
red, Alizarin, crimson, ultramarine blue,
cobalt blue, sill, blue, lavender,
purple, di, black. And at the end of the painting, I often use white guash
for tiny highlights. I don't use any
particular brand. These colors you can
get from any brand, although I personally
use Daniel Smith, Windsor, and Newton
Holbein paints. Let's move on to brushes. The brush I use the most is
a synthetic round brush, like this Escoda Pearl brush
or this Van Gogh brush. They're very versatile because
not only can you use them for detailed work
with their fine tip, but as they can hold
a lot of water, they are good for
washes as well. They're also quite affordable, so I have quite a few
in different sizes. Next are the mop brushes. Mop brushes are good for
broad brush strokes, filling in large areas and creating smooth
transitions or washes. They also have a nice tip that can be used for smaller details, but for really small details, highlights or anything
that needs more precision. I use a synthetic
size zero brush. All brands have them and
they're super cheap. Another useful brush to have is a Chinese calligraphy brush. They tend to have long bristles
and a very pointy tip. They're perfect for
adding texture or creating dynamic lines
in your paintings. You can even fan them
out like this to achieve fur or feather
textures as well. And that's it for
brushes onto paper. The better quality
of your paper, the easier it will be to paint cheap paper crinkles easily
and is very unforgiving. Not allowing you to
rework mistakes, it's harder to create
appealing effects and apply useful techniques
like rubbing away pigment. Good quality paper, however, such as cotton based paper, not only allows you to rework
mistakes multiple times. But because the pigment
reacts much better on it, the chances of mistakes
are a lot lower and you'll be more likely
to create better paintings. I use arches paper because that's what's available
in my local art shop. A water spray is
absolutely essential. By using this, it
gives you more time to paint the areas you
want before it dries. It also allows you to
reactivate the paint. You want to add a smooth
line or remove some paint. I also have an old
rag or T shirt which I used to clean my brush. Cleaning off the paint
before diving it in the water will make the
water last a lot longer. It's always useful to have a tissue at hand
whilst painting, to lift off excess paint. Also, you never know when an unwanted splash or drip might occur that needs
wiping away quickly. I also have a water dropper
to keep the paints wet. When you paint, it's
important to have them a similar consistency to what
they're like in the tubes. This way it's easier to
pick up sufficient pigment. A hair dryer is useful
to have for speeding up the drying time and controlling the
dampness of the paper. And lastly, masking tape. And this of course, is just to hold the paper down still onto the surface to stop it sliding
around whilst painting. Also, if you plan on
painting to the edge, we'll allow you to
create a very crisp, clean border and that's everything you need
to paint along. I encourage you to
experiment and explore with whatever materials
supplies you want to use, but for now, let's get
started with the painting.
4. A Playful Background: I've taken my time to draw
this out as best as I can. Not adding all the details, but just enough to block
out which sections I'm going to paint
a certain color and other sections that I'm
going to do another color. I don't need to put
in little details, it's just blocking out
the main shapes really. But it still takes
a bit of time. But I've left the
template for you to use in the project
and resource section. So hopefully you can
use that to save you some time so that we can
get on with the painting. As is often the
case, I'm going to start off painting
a soft background just to get the feel of the painting before
we do anything serious. Just to loosen up because a blank canvas is very intimidating you to start
off by loosening up. It's a nice way to ease yourself into the painting process. Let's have a bit
of serilian blue. Just a little bit. Not much. Some serilian blue there. Then what shall we mix with it? What do you want to mix with it? I'll choose yellow. Oka. Very soft off
yellow kind of color. Golden color. Really. Maybe
that's even too strong. Just going to keep
it very light. Use up that blue,
cleaning up our palette. Now I'm just putting
it on the paper. More serilian, more yellow Oka. Mixing up makes it a kind of
green color, which is nicer. Does I like the idea of that few splats? Maybe some yellow. Remember, you can use your
own creative decisions. You don't have to
paint exactly what I'm painting with all these branches and
background elements. You could just maybe fade
out a simple branch, whatever suits
what you're doing. If you have enough time or just want to do a
quicker painting, a bit of a background
over here too. Loosening up, getting
ready to paint. There's no stress in this part. Getting used to the feeling
of the brush on the paper. A few more green splits, Okay, and for the
background, that's fine. Let's dry it off
of our hair dryer. Now, we've loosened up.
5. The Tail Under-Layer: So it's completely dry, the papers flattened out again. Now I'm going to mix under layer color just for this tail, which is going to
be a burnt sienna, maybe a touch of yellow Oca. It is going to be very light because it is just an under lay just to take it off white. Maybe here it can
actually be white. 30 tissue to dab, dab it off now while it's still wet. We're going to take that
burnt sienna and dull it down a bit and start painting
the bottom a bit darker. Maybe a bit more burnt
sienna, a bit too dull. I'm using the tip of my brush
just to create a bit of fur texture right there. Needs a bit of warmth, I think. So I'm going to add a
bit of burnt sienna under the burnt sienna. A Lizarin crimson, that is. Remember that if you're
painting a long, well watching me, this is
still just the underlayer. I'm not painting with
that thick pigment yet. Still keeping it
light to mid toned. Ohh.
6. Painting The Branches: And that's okay for
the underlay on the tail because you can
see the stripes there. We'll come back later to do those stripes on
top of what we've already done with a darker tone. Now let's start painting
the tree on this side, so I'm going to a gray and I'm going to show you how to mix a gray without
using the black. You take burnt sienna or brown, ultramarine blue that already
neutralizes it quite a lot. That's already basically a gray. And then if you want to
take it a tiny bit further, have a bit of Alizarin Crimson. There you go. You've
made your own gray. A nice exciting gray though, that has pigments of
blue and brown and red. So when they dry, they're
more interesting than just the basic black. It's painting this branch starting off with a
quite thick pigment. That's okay. We can use the
water to spread it out, trying to mimic the
bottom of the branch. Here I dip from different sections
of this pigment, make it bluer in some areas, make it browner in other areas, and then hopefully it'll mix
quite nicely on the paper. I say, hopefully because you never know how
it's going to go. You allow the pigment
to do its own thing. That's worse exciting. You don't have to make the
pigment do its own thing. You can control it all the
way to the fine details, but I feel that loses
a lot of the magic. If you want to capture
that magic of water color, you've got to learn how to
work with its spontaneity using different thicknesses of the brush as I'm going up here. And in fact, I'm going to make the tips of these
branches a bit more vivid, tad more exciting, nicer color using the tip of the brush and the
merging it into there, then you can bring
some of it up as well. Maybe a branch here, even though it's not
connected to anything, just adds to the composition. Then a few abstract
like branches here, not necessarily connecting
to the main branch, just to fill in that
area at the bottom. Now starting on the other side, I'm going to do a similar
thing and connect them. I can feel that my brush
isn't full enough, so make sure you've got enough
water on your brush and a the water just slips off
it without any hassle. If there's not enough
water on your brush, then it's just not going to
fall off the brush nicely. And it'll dry too quickly and
it'll create uneven marks.
7. Varying The Colours: Adding a few more colors to
make it more interesting. Bit of green. Maybe go back to that purple color, making that area nice
and dark for the shadow. I'm not scared to paint
over the lines there of the little clause because I can still see the pencil marks under them and I'll come
over a bit darker. We have a different
pigment later, unlike other mediums
like acrylic and oil. You've really got to think about the whole process when
painting watercolor, you have to plan ahead. So you've got to
see which lines you can paint over, ones, you know, you're going to come back to the whites that
you have to reserve. Because other mediums,
you can just paint white paint on top or
lighter colors on top. But with watercolor, we're using the
transparency of the paper, That's what we rely on. We've got to think about that throughout the
entire painting. That brown color mix, sillon in there make a
slightly off green color, taking some purple
and darkening. If it, this is a good example of just letting the pigment fall into the wet paper
and bleed out. And it will do its
blending itself, getting quite thick
with a pigment here. But that's okay. That's what makes it exciting when it
leads out the way it does use some pure water to
paint from the edge. Now with a bit of brown, I'm just going to
connect these lines so the branches just
fade out as they dry. Now I'm going to go back into this bit here and you can see that the edge had already
dried right here. I'm just applying some
water and using my brush, the bristles of my brush to
reactivate it and to soften that edge even though
something can, you can still reactivate it. If the paper is good enough, the pigment that you're using, it doesn't stain so much. You can move the pigments
about and create a soft edge. Again, like I've just done here. I'm just bringing the paint across to connect
it to the tail. And then that will
be the branch done. I'm adding a yellow
green pigment to the branch now and dabbing it across the different
sections just to influence not just one area. That's the nice thing
about water color. You just dab it in and it
just spreads out subtly. It doesn't look so obvious, but it has this
subtle indication of a different color going back to the darks again on
the bottom where the shadow will be
and as it dries, it will merge up again. We'll deal with this, the edge
of this tail a bit later. For the time being, I'm just focusing on the branch now. I'm going to use
very dark pigment, using the tip of my brush to do a few of these small
ones that are coming off underneath quite
thick watery pigment. But it can be quite
deceiving because black when it's wet and
watery looks very dark. But it can dry almost a light
gray, not black at all. Black can be deceiving. You do have to make
sure you've got enough pigment mixed
in with that water. The same goes for white
wash as well actually. But the other way around, it looks like it's much whiter
than it is when it's wet. And then when it
dries, it's almost transparent and quite dark. Different pigments have a different relationship
with water, and you just takes a bit of
experience that you're not expected as a beginning to
know the correct water ratios. I just want to match the
colors here a bit better, make it a bit more
blue and harmonized. And I'm going to dry that
again with the hair dryer, and we'll start painting
the red panda itself.
8. Painting The Head: Okay, to start the panda, we're going to start
with the ears. We have a light yellow Oka, tad of burnt sienna. Maybe a tad of regular
yellow cadamyan yellow. Just simply blocking
out that area. That will do. I
think that color. Same thing to her son. Welcome. Where it's still damp. Pumpkina had a bit of brown just here where
it can bleed out. Maybe just on the very
tips of these ears, I'll do a little red line, not red line, brown,
burnt sienna. It like that. As it gets close to dry, I just use the tip
of my brush just to agitate the pigment to create
a bit of texture like this. Already using the pigment
that's on the paper. Those are the ears done well, the under layer of the ears. Next I'm going to get
more of the burnt sienna. A tad drop of Alizarin crimson. Make it slightly redder. Now that's quite potent there. So I'm going to take that
and dilute it in this pan. And I'm just going to fill in some of the main areas
just stroking it across. I think some of it
can be a bit lighter, so I'm just going to
suck the water out of my brush and bring up some
of the pigment away from it, and I'm going to go back in
with a bit of yellow Oca, going up to the
lines by marked out. I'm not even using
a small brush. Using the very fine tip of my regular number eight
synthetic round brush, which I talk about in my materials and supply
section of the class, leaving every now and
again some white gaps. I'm not filling
it up completely. I almost see it as
a wash even though we're not using a
large brush and we're using a thin line to fill
out all these areas with white gaps in between the different furs
to imply a texture. I still see it as a wash though, because we're basically using one color to block out a shape. I can add some water in there just to add
a bit of texture. I keep on interfering with it as it dries to
create texture. Usually, it's not nice to interfere with the paint
and paper as it's drying, but if you want to create
texture, you have to.
9. Painting The Body: Using the same pigment. I'm going to go to this side, I'm going to fill
out this section starting off with
the furry edge, and then I'll come back
to block it all out. Once I've got that
edge painted out, it takes a bit of time to get the fair texture because it just loads of
different lines. There's two ways you can
approach my classes. You can try and copy my paintings
as exactly as possible. And I'm perfectly happy
for you to do that. Because when doing that, you're trying to learn
the specific technique and trying to master the craft and work out how to
achieve certain techniques. And then of course, the other
way to use the class is to try to adapt it to your
own particular style and not following
directly what I'm doing. Both are good because
the second option helps find your creativity
and unique style. In this section here, I'll
just fill in without texture just covering it up. I'm going to add some cadmium red into this because
that's a very potent red. Nice, strong, vibrant. And we can make orange when
we mix it with the yellows. And then we can add
more water and fade it out to connect it with the
furry edge we painted earlier, making sure to keep that texture as we get
closer to the edge. It's a useful brush because I'm using the tip of it to create the fur texture and
then the side of it to block out all
of the larger areas. If you had a small brush, you wouldn't be able to do that.
10. Head Details: Now I'm going to go back up here with some darker pigment. So even though I'm using
my own mix of colors, spurned sienna,
Alizarin, Crimson. You can use whatever colors
you have in your palette. You can use my
color charts to see what fits well
with your fission. But if you're already been
painting for a while, you know what colors
you may want to use. If you're a complete
beginner, you can experiment. There's no harm in practicing, even if you're not
adding as many details, just just filling out the area. Having to go of your paints and brushes is just good practice. You have to be a
bit more careful at this stage because we're
using darker pigment, so it's more obvious
with the underlayer. We can be a bit more free
because we always overlap it. But with this one, especially
when we get to the edge of the patterns of the fur
in the face details, we have to make sure we take
our time and don't go over the lines painting in some detail. Then using some dry brush marks just in the direction
of the fur. And of course, dry brush is when there's not as much water with the pigment on the brush. When you brush it
along the paper, it drops more
texture rather than having a wet, smooth brush mark. When you get to this
part of the painting, find a bit more
relaxing as well. Because even though it's
a bit time consuming, you take your time, you can relax, you
can listen to music. You can just time out, zone out from all
the business of life and just focus
on the painting. It's quite therapeutic having
a relaxing time, painting pink the eyes inside, then we'll come
back to them later. So it's good practice with
brush control using the tip. After doing a few
paintings like this, you get really good at doing a few details, getting
quite intricate. Of course, it's not just details that
make a nice painting, it's also the elusive
brush marks that we did on the branch and we will
do with the shadow work. These details are
in nice contrast to that elusive side of
the water color we'll do later onto the other side, it looks quite complicated, but as long as you get
the drawing right, take your time making sure the lines are separated
into different sections, then it's just coloring in the painting part is
just fun and relaxing. It takes a bit of time. Maybe it's not technically
a complicated thing, the drawing, it's complicated and that's just a thing that
you can improve over time. Ironically, the most
important thing I find about painting is actually
the drawing underneath. Because the drawing is the
skeleton for all paintings. Once that's all
laid out properly, then the painting process
is so much easier. But of course, it's a bit
more tedious that stage, I wouldn't necessarily do
a class on how to draw, even though I've touched upon
it in different lessons. I think people are
more excited about the painting process.
That's what I focus on. I think it's quite
dark inside this bit. Using a bit of tissue to
lighten up some area there, pull away some pigment rather
than cleaning my brush. Again, just to do that, I'm just going to go around
the edges again, just to emphasize
the fur on the parts that I've missed out quite dark. I generally work from
light to dark and now I'm using the
darkest part of the fur.
11. Fur Textures: Mainly using the
tip of my brush. I could use a smaller brush, but that just means
I'll have to keep on refilling it every
three strokes. But when you've got a big
brush with a fine tip, it just saves you so much time having to go back and forth. In this painting, I've
gone for a style that is less about washes
and about details, I guess these fur
details and textures. But you could go for a more stylistic
textured approach if you want a faster
way of going about it. You could use washes to
create elusive textures instead of individual fur,
like I am doing here. That's where your
creative decisions and your own unique influences can make your painting
more personal. That's what I like about seeing all the paintings in
the student gallery. The project gallery is how
everyone has their own take and switches a few things up and changes a few things
for their own liking.
12. Nose, Eyes, Ears: It's got to paint some shadows. Let's go just across here, some whiskers. I'll just do that while I'm painting
the shadows on the face. Of course, while we
are painting the face, the details here are
quite intricate. It's obviously much easier to paint on a larger
sheet of paper, which I understand can be intimidating for a
beginner or a student. I certainly found
it intimidating. But actually it should be less intimidating because you
actually have more freedom, because you have more
space for details. I actually struggle with
smaller size sheets, starting with the darkest darks. Take a bit of pure
water and just interact with that dark pigment to get a nice soft edge so that it
bleeds out nice and smoothly. Then the same again up here. I'm going to just
use the pigment on the water from the brush
just to spread out some gray into the nose painting around the eyes,
little black hoops carefully leaving
the black paint that's in the middle
of the eye untouched. Same on the other side. I'm just going to
roll my tissue up to a little point and just dab
out some of the middle. Now I can go back to that nose and I'm trying to get
a bit of shading in, some smooth shading using
the tip of the brush, so it's quite delicate. This part, again, it takes a lot of precision. And being steady with your hand. Of course, the larger you paint, the easier it will be too. If you're using small paper, I can imagine that will
be a bit of a challenge, but still be a fun
exercise to do. I just smudging it out a bit, blending the light
side of the dark side to go back to these ears and paint the shadows inside by
negatively painting the fur. I used a blue gray for this, because blue is the
complimentary color to orange, All look quite nice together. I go back and forth from adding pigment and
taking away pigment. Of course, I put more pigment
on when the brush is full, but if I use a towel or my fingers to squeeze out
the liquid from the brush, I can actually pigment and paint out from the
paper to make it lighter. Again, a bit like a sponge making sun bits even darker.
13. Starting The Shadows: Okay, now is the time
to get very bold. We're going to paint
the dark parts here, taking some black to begin with, and just carefully
painting up to the line. And that's solid
black, that line is. But as we go down, we're
going to incorporate more colors and
make it a bit more interesting than just black. I'm going to use
this cobalt blue and on the other side, crimson. As these colors fade, their vibrancy will show
and appear at this stage. Of course, with the
pigment being so thick, it looks like black as well, but it will look prettier when it's
diluted and spreads out. I will just do a
slight under lay here. It's going to paint them and interact with
that pigment there. Now, getting some of this strong burnt
sienna mixing in there. This part of the painting
will be looser and more free. So paint this bit a bit lighter so that we can go back with a black on the other side to
separate the two legs. So now I dried it, I can, like I said, go up here and separate the legs, creating a nice little division between one leg and the other. Dark against light or light
against dark in this case. Same again on the other poor, just filling out the
edges and then we'll fill the inside in a bit later.
14. Making Darks Interesting: Add more colors in there. I tend to use all
these dark colors at their darkest tones. If I want to go any
darker, then I use black. I don't use black just
for the sake of it. Then once I've laid
down these colors, then I pick up some
water like this. Just move all that pigment
around, reactivate it. And you'll see the
magic of water color moves these pigments in a very attractive
way as they dry. A few more splashes of
cobalt blue here just to make the contrast
between the orange. Really, you can see again
on my color charts that the cobalt blue and
orange or burnt sienna work in a very nice way. I'm going to do a
similar thing here. I'm gonna paint out the other
side of the arm so that the front leg or arm that's facing us has a clean outline. I'm painting the
shadow in between the front legs and
the back legs. Right now, now I'm going to mix some orange. That's a burnt sienna, some cadmium yellow
and cadmium red. I'm going to interact
with that black, so it's not a hard line. And it gradually merges
into the rest of the fur. You can see that
gradually that black will fade into this
color as it dries. I'm trying to think of how to mix it into this fur gradually, in a way that's smooth and
is not very distracting. Let's add a bit more
red there, I think. Or at least blend it
a bit more black. Looks very dark when it's wet, when it dries, it
lightens out a bit. You don't necessarily have to worry about the cleanliness or the tidiness of your
brush strokes as long as the tones are right, if you see that there's
a dark area that needs to be darker or an area
that needs to be lighter. As long as you get
those sections right, it should be visually appealing. Coming back to that blue, making it slightly purple. Get this bit really dark. Again, bringing out the black, Maybe I'll do a light glaze of blue smudging in those claws. I want to soften
this edge of bit, so I'm just going to wet it go of it once or twice
just to soften it. That should be
enough. Now, putting on heavy pigment there in the
middle where it's darkest, then again, with
that purply blue. No, I'm just agitating it and letting it blend
out and do its thing. And I will influence it a bit. Like I think maybe
it needs to be a bit redder in some areas. I'll dab red in there, some blue here. We got some nice fur like
textures going on here.
15. Painting The Tails: And we're making
some progress now starting to come together. I'm going to reactivate
some of this branch, connect it, that way that I have to paint the pattern
stripes on the tail. I was going to lighten
that bit up there. I made a bit of a mistake. I darkened the wrong area. That's okay. That's a good
thing about water color. You can just rewet it and
correct it happens many times. I'm using the spurt
sienna very thick. Now contrasting the
under layer we did, I'm just moving my brush
around an organic way. I'm not trying to be
slow or sophisticated, really just flicking brush around host roughly trying
to keep in the lines. It's okay to paint
outside the lines a bit. Now I'm going to add a bit
of interest in there by mixing up the different
consistencies of water. Having some areas
a bit thicker in pigment and other areas
a bit more diluted. Can I make this bottom
one a bit of a darker? Why not darker? Just less
saturated, less colorful. We can make some of
these bits talk, I think spray it to a light spray just to rewet it to get the water flowing. Then some darker pigment in there to the sides so that it gives the illusion of form so it's lighter
in the middle. Fill this area a bit out because I think it just
ends too abruptly. Are now I'm going to dry it now that it's
all completely dry. I'm just going to
mess it about a bit. Keep it from looking too tight. Add a bit of form to
the to the sides. Okay, I think that
tale is now done.
16. Adding Highlights: Just sharpening the claws, increase that shadow
underneath the lip area. Now, using the white quash, going to do a few
highlights on the eye. I find these white dots, just make it that much cuter. A few whiskers, there may be one broad one
is coming down here, another one coming down there. And then I did the white lines so that they connect
with the darker ones. So it's obviously light
and dark on light, so I can carry some of them on. Like that gives a nice little effect. Okay. Oh, I will just add a few
highlights on the top of these. The very tips, I can just put a few on
the branch too.
17. Painting Leaves: Almost done. I'm
just going to add some leaves onto the branches. I'm going to clean a section
so I can use green paint. I think I'm going to change, I'll keep the same brush because I've done most of the
painting with this number eight E. A tiny bit of vidian tone it down
with some black though. Add some blue. I'm going
to add Cerilian blue. Then bring in some yellow ochre. And there you have a
nice natural green. Just starting off
with the tip and then filling it out,
bringing it down. Starting off with the
tip, connects to ash, make them some of
them a bit darker. I don't have enough
water on my brush. I need to be bolder. I need to add more pigment. There we go. Just a few ambiguous kind of leaves to a few gray
down ones varying a few of my leaf colors maybe can make sun them quite blue. Make it a bit greener
by adding yellow Oca, a few lighter leaves, just they're doing their thing. Now sum up here, let's
do a big broad one here, overlapping the branches a few more down here. And I think that's it.
Maybe one there or not. Okay. I think that is done. So I'm going to
take the tape off, disconnect from it for a bit. Have one final look. See if there's anything
obvious missing. I just noticed something there. That's why you need disconnect from it every
now and again because I can say that it's
finished and then I see something that is
not that obvious. There's a dark bit here on the ear where it
just bleeds out. That by itself is
not that noticeable, but it adds to the
feeling of the painting. Okay. Like I said, disconnect for it for a while. Have a few final checks to see if there's anything missing, and then I'll come
back and we'll go over everything that
we've learned together.
18. Final Thoughts: Welcome back everyone, and congratulations on
completing this class. I hope you found
this painting as inspiring and
fulfilling as I have. If you haven't already
given this painting ago, now is the time to put what
you've learned into action. In our time together
in this class, we've explored the subtle
blending of colors, the delicate play of
light and shadow, and the intricate details that make the red panda
so captivating. But beyond the strokes
of our brushes, we've delved into
the symbolic spirit of this remarkable creature, a symbol of balance
and adaptability. In the watercolor painting, balance and adaptability
are essential, Balancing the right amount
of water and pigment, and adapting techniques
to different subjects allow artists to create
harmonious and fluid artwork. Remember, watercolor painting is not just about technical skills, but also about expressing your creativity and
personal style. I encourage you to continue
exploring, experimenting, and pushing your
boundaries to create your own unique
watercolor masterpieces. As we come to the
end of this class, I hope you feel
more confident and comfortable with your
watercolor painting abilities. Practice is key when it comes
to improving your skills. So keep on painting
and experimenting. I want to express my gratitude for each and every one of you. Your passion for
watercolor painting is so inspiring and I'm honored
to be your teacher. If you would like feedback on your painting, I'd
love to give it. So please share your painting in the Student Projects
Gallery down below. And I'll be sure to
respond if you prefer, You can share it on Instagram, tagging me at Will Elliston
as I would love to see it. Skillshare also loves seeing
in my student's work, so tag them as well at Skillshare after putting
so much effort into it, why not share your creation? If you have any questions
or comments about today's class or want any specific advice
related to watercolor, please reach out to me in
the discussion section. And you can also let me
know about any subject, wild life or scene you'd
like me to do a class on. If you found this class useful, I'd really appreciate
getting your feedback on it. Reading your reviews
fills my heart with joy and helps me create the best
experience for my students. Lastly, please click
the Follow button up top so you can follow
me on Skillshare. This means that you'll be
the first to know when I launch a new class
or post giveaways. Remember, your art has
the power to inspire, evoke emotions, and
to make a difference. Thank you for joining
me in this class until we meet again,
keep painting. Keep exploring, and keep embracing the magic
of creativity. Goodbye and happy painting.
Will Elliston, Award-Winning Watercolour Artist
