Watercolour Essentials: Classic Australian Bush Landscape

1. Introduction: In this class, we'll be painting a classic Australian bush landscape using a variety of wet-in-wet techniques and wet-in-dry techniques. Creating and combining soft and sharp shapes can be tricky when you're learning watercolors. We're gonna be using wet-in-wet in order to paint a lot of this scene. Often Wet where does associated with a loss of patrol? Without understanding, timing, really create a mess. But don't worry, I'm going to show you the importance of timing and painting wet-in-wet. I'll show you how to gain control and layer effectively to create soft and atmospheric landscapes. Wet-in-wet techniques bring up the natural strengths of watercolor is essential for you. Your watercolor journey. Creating fine and sharp details are just as crucial when you painting trees, rocks, and grass creates a sense of contrast and interest. But understanding when to add them in is crucial. Before we start with the painting, I'll show you how to simplify shapes and sketch in large words, such as sky, water, reflections, trees, and lead. Getting in those large components accurately is essential for your painting to make sense. So join me in this class. I'm looking forward to showing you the secrets natural landscape painting 2. Materials Required: So just wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about the materials I'm using. And here I'm actually using a bit of 100% watercolor paper, 100% cotton watercolor paper. It's in medium, two rough texture. And actually this one is in medium, or sometimes you use rough medium is a really good texture to use because you can get these nice kind of wet-in-wet effects. Paint takes a little bit longer to dry and there's more of a spread of paint when you're using flat hot press paper, it tends to pull in areas and just doesn't dry smoothly. So really recommend you using some paper even if it's not hundred percent cotton paper, but just checked surface of it, make sure that there's a bit of texture in there. Brushes. I've got a whole bunch of them here. The main ones, I want to separate out these three sets. So I've got mop brushes. And these mop brushes are used to get in large areas. So things like the sky, bits of the land at the back, even some of the trees and darker shapes out there as well. Do you use these mop brushes? Turns with the size of the mop brushes, you really want to pick one that is large and pretty much the largest that you can use, but still be able to get in enough detail. This one is probably too big. So these two here, my detailing brushes, they're just a flat brush and a round brush. So we're looking at details in this particular painting, we are talking about this shapes in the back, eight bits of these shrubs, rocks here, the trunks of the tree and use these as well, bits of details and darkness. The branches, these darker branches as well. I'm using the same smaller brushes. And my third set of brushes here, kinda like my specialty brushes. And this is a fan brush creates these marks, as you can see here, these sort of upward lines that are running in one direction. So it just makes it easier to get in these kind of indications of shrubs, grass. This here is a little rigger brush, and I've used these to get an indications of trees and smaller branches. Really useful brush. And this is a filbert brush. Didn't really use it here, but sometimes you use a filbert brush to blend edges together, creates contrast, lift off a bit of paint in the background, but that's basically about it in terms of my palette. You can see here that to large mixing wells, quite important because I like to make sure I don't have to keep going back and mixing up paint again because it's very difficult to get that same mix, especially in watercolors. So if I'm planning to do a sky Wash and this is cerulean blue. I tried to mix up as much of that civilian blue as possible so that I don't have to go back again and try to work out them mixes. It's not always perfect as sometimes you have to go back, but it's just best practice. I use a lot of this color here, a bit of yellow, which is basically this stuff called quinacridone yellow. I've also got a little bit of yellow ocher in there, great colors. When we want to imply that sort of golden Australian landscape. A lot of the rocks around here have that sort of color. You have this here as well, which is a bit of burnt sienna. I use some of that burnt sienna to get some earth and darker colors in there. Also good to use them for parts of the trees. Apart from that, the rest of it is just some little bits of green. So I've just got a dark green there. You can use whole bunch of doctrines, use hookers, green, you can mix up your own green by mixing a bit of blue with a bit of yellow. Choice is up to you. And if you want to create some lighter greens, just add some more water in there. My final little trick is that I use this bottle of gouache to bring out highlights in the end. And often the I prioritize getting in a nice cohesive and often I prioritize getting in a nice coherent Wash over leaving out those highlights. I find that overall the painting looks just a little bit more connected, rather than me trying to constantly cut around things when I'm painting. I'll do my best, For example here or cut around that tree of life, some highlights on there. But I felt that I lost a whole bunch of highlights here at the back with this, this country in the back. And I wanted to bring out some of them in detail, bit more. Bit of this opaque white gouache works like magic, can see just getting that strong sense of light. The left-hand side of the tree. The problem that, That's all you need 3. Drawing: Alright, so let's go ahead and get started on this drawing. And the first thing I'm gonna do is penciling, pencil in this area out in the back where we've got the separation from the sky and the terrain. These rocky hills and areas where we've got trees, foliage just touching the sky as well. So the way I'm doing this is that I'm just marking the edges of the paper. So about here in here, just having a look to see roughly how much sky I want to include in here. And I'm going to bring this down. Obviously, you know, it might change later on, but I'm just kinda tentatively putting in some of the details, just this separation. And actually I've gone a little bit too low. There should be about here. Okay. Same thing about here. So coming down like that, leaving enough sky, of course you can change it around to putting more sky if you'd like. But I'm just going to keep it like this. And I'm still having a look, I'm thinking even there could raise this up a little bit further like that. That's the great thing about just making sure you've got an, a decent sort of planning here because you can change things up and you don't have to deal with all this later on. You deal with the planning now, so then you can focus on actually the Watercolors afterwards. So we've got a nice amount of sky here. And probably the next easiest bit, I think the pudding is the lake. So we've got a bit of that light coming in there and it just exits out roughly about here. So if we mark the center part of the paper here, it's just on the right-hand side. So just going to draw in that body of water and it exits out like that, goes all the way to the back there. And just going to pencil in roughly where it exits out somewhere here. Somewhere there. Lots of reflections and things in the water. And I'm going to do my best to simplify these down. And it's gonna be quite an interesting one. So let's have a look, which further I'm just thinking, why didn't this attached like that? Just this lake. Again, I'm still on the planning stages, so you've got a bit of wiggle room to do what you need to hear. Okay. So it really often the distance I'd say we've got I mean, there's lots of rocks and things around here, but you've also got like something that these trees, I think the trees are going to be, I mean, for me anyway, some of the most important part, parts of the painting. So just going to draw in this one holding the pencil on the side roughly and just getting in a bit of this branch. And these are white gum trees and so they're going to be, I'm going to leave them as the whites of the paper. Make it a lot easier that way. And I find that just look and they have better contrast. I want to use much quash if I don't need to. You can see here just these branches. And I'm just mimicking the branches a little bit, just using that reference photo to help me out. Again, the great thing about trees is that you don't have to be perfect. This one's just go straight up and down really. It goes all the way here. Need to the river or the Bank of this lake, the edge of the lake. And there's bits of grass and things in years. Well, there's large rock. While I'm here, I sometimes just getting a bit of tea towel. I'm little bits and pieces of detail helps so that since I'm already in this area, and of course some of this will change around, fiddle around with it a bit more later. In the background, we've got these kind of lodge, eroded boulders that form part of this hill here. And I'm going to draw in a few them. I want to leave most of this for the actual Watercolors afterwards. So I'm just going to indicate some of these sort of break off and squarish or rectangular type shapes. But for the most part, they almost just this rusty, orangey and brownie color. This is some shrub here. Okay, so just pencil that in like that. You've even got a tree just coming out like this. I'll just put that in over in the hills to remind me to get it in later. Some smaller ones here. You've got this you've got this kind of smaller gum tree all the way back here and this forms a reflection in the water. This is, this one's quite important. So you're just going in and put in the details of it. Here we can see just goes up. Be careful with some of the detailing here as well. Kinda goes up like this and then you can see branch there and then another branch there. So to just splinter off onto their own little sections. And this one just goes up, splinters off again. And of course, the top which just all this and large, not large but slightly denser foliage do farm with Australian gum trees they don't have, they're not super leafy. The kind of like a desaturated green as well. They're not really super green and that's enough, I think for that area of the tree. Oh, actually find that later on. You can actually put in some more of the detail. Most of it through the Watercolors. That's one. Let's get into the side of this. Is actually a branch or part of the tree or perhaps even another tree I think that's growing in roughly the same spots being blown over. And going towards the right-hand side of the scene. This is kind of shaped angle like this. And you can see just some of the the branches also joining on a touch. More leaf, leafy bits and pieces. Okay. Some of the stuff we'll have to get it in the Watercolors afterwards. Another thing I wanna do is just kind of imitate this tree in the water, the reflection, okay? The main thing is just getting in the branches. So they mirror the tree up the top there, these branches, as you can see in the water. Okay. And then the branches and things just sort of go out and a bit of a, in a general copying that one as well. Then you've got the foliage, bit of the reflection of the foliage here. Okay? This one here as well, just a bit of this reflection of that tree like this. I think that's decent enough. You've also got this reflection of the rocks and things off in the background, which is gonna be very interesting indeed. Actually this bush is probably further up ahead. Drawing it to low down. It's just a bit more further up like that. I think a lot of these rocks have to just doing with the watercolor. Afterwards. I don't want to spend all day trying to draw all the little rocks and things, eroded rocks. There's little shadows all over the place. I love this scene because you've got some sharp shadows and we've got some soft shadows. We've got some shadows on this tree on the left as well, which is an important part. You can see here even this tree forms of shadow hits the wall here and then just goes directly up, casting a bit of a shadow like that. These ones as well. Little bit of a shadow to the right. So we've got to think about that. Certainly going to think about that for later. I'm a little bit of a reflection here with this tree and the water, the tree trunk anyway, like that. Just getting a little bit of that. There's a mirroring of this shrub here as well. Really mirroring over everything in there. Okay, try and get in the obvious stuff. Right here. Just a little shrub in the background is little ones all over the place. And it's a little bit more. Over here. I'm going to draw in a few rocky like shapes. In the distance. Actually there is some type of contrast. There's more darkness there. Really that there's also just sort of areas of light running through. So that's going to form some nice contrasts in this area. But this tree is really one of the main players here. You can see that shadow cast all across and then up here as well as gigantic tree. So I'm going to pop that tree and roughly here, here is this edge of it. Large trunk. There The other bit kinda comes up like this. Like this treats really got so much character. There's even a bit in the center here that looks to be part of it, like burnt even the motor been a bush fire or something that had gone through this area in the past. But that's like a burnt area of the tree. I'm just going to draw this in quickly. Okay, Just a little bit like that. Then we've got this other side of it on the right. That's where it sits, near the river. And then it comes out like this. A round a limb that looks like it's cut off or something? Yeah. Yeah. And I could add it just disappears off to the edge. Like that. There. A lot of this, this is kinda like foliage and smaller branches running through as well. So I'm not going to spend all day figuring that stuff out. Again. Let the Watercolors do a good amount of the work. Here is these little reflections in the water as well. Just picking up bits and pieces on this side of the tree as well. I just wanted to maybe reemphasize that area of it. That sort of comes in more in this pitches, juts out more like this, like that. That's better. Not only that, there are branches that run off in the background. So you can see this one just comes off and then disappears. There's another branch that goes directly upwards and exits the scene like that. A lot of overlapping branches. And just going to draw a few of these in and exaggerate them. Make these made a little bit thicker than what they actually appear in the scene. I just want to exaggerate some of them more. All kinds of foliage and things like that in there as well. But most of this stuff we'll have to be, has to be done with a bit of extra bit of extra color and the shadowing editing as well afterwards. Okay, There's some grass here, looks like good shrub here as well. Rocks, large rocks. These are great light adding in these boulders and things. They help to just add some interest. Even if they're not exactly there, I like to put them in sometimes. Even For example, I might put one in here, a rock or something like that. Some of them near the foreground. That hopefully be an opportunity for me to get in a shadow as well. Running in the same direction as you can see, some trees and things off also running to that right-hand side of the scenes. So shadows kinda run up like that. And then here it has to go. I think this is a decent drawing. Let's go ahead get started with the painting now 4. First Wash: When choosing a brush for this first Wash, she wanted choose a brush that pick up a lot of water. That's why I use these mop brushes, as you can see here, they've got a large belly. Another option is even a flat brush or even a larger brush like this, but this is probably too big. You want something around about the size. So just the largest brush. And I'm going to go in and I think I'll probably use me have a look. I think I'll probably just use this one almost the same size. And I'm gonna go in and grab a little bit of the warmer color first. So certainly just trying to replicate what is going on here. I've got some orange here, which has got this quinacridone orange. I've also got a little bit of Australian red gold, which is quinacridone type color. So you get that golden top of loop to it. But I'm going to add in some yellow ocher to subdue this down because otherwise I think it's gonna be too much. And also a little bit of brown or Burnt Sienna running through here. So I'm just going to add that in and using a lot of water as well helps. Okay, so let's just put it in. It's probably about 10% water, our 10% paint, and 90% water. So I'm just putting in all that golden color hitting the rocks in some places that might be more brown. And so that's why I've picked up a little bit of brown there. Just added it in. Get a lot of this kind of golden, golden looking color all over the place here even. Let's just bring that over. And I'm not so fast as well that getting it 100% correct, I just want to make sure I've got enough of this Goldie looking color running through the scene. It really permeates through everything. And so most likely back a background color. And if you get some on the trees and things like that as well, It's no big deal. And the reason why is because it's because it's yellow once we put in some green in there anyway, it's just going to merge with the green and form a slightly lighter green. So it's no big deal. That's just the shadows thinking that was branch or something. Here we go. Look at it. I'm just cutting around that tree. Often the distance as well. We've got this gum tree here and I'm just leaving a little bit of white, little bit of white like that. I've actually, I've actually should've left more white for this country, but it doesn't matter. We will, we'll make do here more here. That just permeates through everything and bring it all the way through to the front as well. Here. Got just enough I think to to carry this washout. Little bit more brown in there. Touch more brown. Okay. Going near to the edge of the water. Okay. But a tissue paper here, I'm going to lift off a touch of color there. Some running behind the trees as well. You're gonna notice that there is actually some little bits and pieces of this kind of golden color running in the background. Just going to getting a little bit of that, cutting around those trees and touch as well. Okay, fantastic. So in the water now what I wanna do is try to mirror what's going on up the top. So I'm going to actually bring in a little bit of this gold into the water. Just drag that down a touch like this. Write that down a little and it's actually darker in the water itself. So you might want to add in a little bit of gray is what I'm doing, just a touch of gray. And it will just subdue this a little bit. And also here just drag a little bit of this down. And it's not all this color as well because we're actually going to put some green and I'm going to mix up a bit of this green up the top. Really like a granulating type of green. And here I'm gonna just drop the green in, in some areas. And it's again quite a light. Wash up the green. I'm using mostly water in here to get in these bits and pieces just to touch their bit here. You can see bit here and this trees, well, just some softer areas of green I'm doing this now so that it will merge with the yellow so that it doesn't look too sharp afterwards. Okay, there we go. Also, I want to actually try to get in some of the shadows if possible, wants this is almost, almost dry, but look at that which is dropping it a bit of this green. It's a darker green but there's a lot of water in it. Okay. And going up near to the tree line all the way in the distance as well. It's important. Even here, you'll notice there's bits of green and things off in the distance with the orangey color. So that going on in there. And then of course, in the water, you've got some of this reflected green. And again, we'll mix this up with some of these gray to dull it down. So it's not like a really saturated green and it's slightly darker as well. Okay. I'm just gonna do a little bit of cutting round work very, very quick cutting around work for these branches in the water. This leave, leave a bit of that reflection white. The branches anyway. Okay. Here. Green here as well. Here. Here, just kinda mirroring what's going on on the top. Alright. Bit more of these gold running down and green, golden green color like that. Okay? The next step really is just starting to pick up a bit of this ultramarine, ultramarine, but a bit of this cerulean blue for the sky. I'm going to just go for it. Okay. More kinda thick on top. And I'm using this brush to cut around the tree a bit like this. Simple quick outline of that tree. And we're going to leave that part of those branches white. Okay? And this kinda just comes all the way across. You can see joins a bit onto the, a little bit onto the the trees and the mountains, rock and things often the distance. Okay. The right-hand side, it's a bit, It's kinda just dried here, so you're not going to get too much of that effect, but everywhere else you're gonna get a little bit more of that joining on effect. And also you've got some of that green on the branches of these, this tree as well. So I'm going to drop that in, in just a moment. Let me just pick up a bit of green while I'm here. It's troppo bidding for these branches and it's just a soft indication of it like it's not the end product. It's just gonna be enough to provide a quick lighter green color for what's happening. But everywhere else I'm just looking at that and just cutting around the tree to just leaving indications of these branches. And what you leave out. In terms of these branches, these white branches, they really makes a huge difference. So you want to be very purposeful with this and mindful of what you're doing. And cut it leaving gear, just cutting around a little bit of that will do it here as well. Just to highlight that again, here, in a cutting around these tree branches like that, like that downwards. It looks some of it just joins on to the to the bottom part. Oops, too much. It should be lighter as we head down as well. So you want to make the top a bit, perhaps a bit darker in terms of cerulean. But as you move downwards, it should lighten up. Let's bring this around. They're just having a look at that reference as well to make sure I'm on the right track. There. That's another branch there. There. Excellent. Bit darker I think at the top would be better. I'm good. This will mix together nicely, right? And I'm going to move into the water. I just want to join on some of these blue with the green further down. And this is important because we want to mimic that sky. But I'll use a spray bottle quickly in this bottom area to rewet this part. That Just allows the blue to merge a bit better. Okay. Drawing on nicely. That yeah. Okay. Looking good. So what don't wanna do now is I want to start getting in perhaps some of the soft details in the background when we talk about the rocks and all that sort of thing. So I'm just going to spray spray the paper down a little bit with this little spray bottle. I know, especially on that right-hand side, we've lost some of the paper is really started to dry. So I just need a soft and let down and touch. Okay. Let's have a look at what's happening here. So I'm going to pick up some brown and a bit of black, mix them together. Let's see what we can potentially do. I'm just looking to imply what's going on here with some of these rocks and things. I'm not by any means trying to add in a huge amount of detail, but you can see the general shape of the rocks and things that I'm trying to emphasize in here. Notice all the shadows as well. They're really subtle and they're soft looking shadows. So there's not a whole lot of sharp shadows in here. Just trying to let me make a bit of this detail and complexity that's going on in the background. They just rocks, really just on the wall. Even here, this large shadow which joins on with the tree. You can see it just runs all the way up like that. I can do that. Wet into wet there. This will spread out a touch as well. Okay. Good. This is kinda like the river, the bank anyway here. So I'm going to put in some more darkness, bit more brown in the just some of these softness, soft, darker areas, often the background. These we'll just look, I'm hoping rocks, just part of this wall. Without me having to do too much work in here is like shadows even of the branches on the tree just you can see it just creeping through the rocks in the background. Okay. Alright. Some more indications of the shadow. And you know, you've got all this time because the paper's still wet to actually getting these details. And more importantly, join them on with the tree itself. You can see here, for example, you can add shadow goes towards the right, like that. Going to use a bit of purple and a bit of black mixed together. It's quite a dark shadow, so you can see, I'm just going to try leave maybe a little bit of yellow in that section. There. There, there. Here we can just bring that across like that. Here there's like a softer shadow. You can see they just run up like this around here. And the great thing is that a lot of this will actually dry, lighter, slightly lighter shadows also helped to form the edge of this edge of this lake as well. There, There's even this tree which has a shadow running upwards like this. Very slight sort of slither of shadow, but that carries up into these hills and things as well. So little by little, just adding that on. Let's have a look. Here. We played around this shadow, bits of shadow here on the right-hand sides of these trees. And there's even this large area at the back which is quite dark. It has probably the sharp is contrast in this scene over there. But also here you got really dark dark contrasts. And some of these contrast funny enough, just like reflect in the water a touch Okay, but I'm trying to just drawing these on a bit and getting this nice wet-in-wet approach. This tree here has like these kind of part of the tree going up there. I'm going to leave that left hand side of the tree as well, the branch three, so that I can get in a bit of a highlight there. Okay, Look at that. You've got to touch a light on that left-hand side of these little tiny little branches like that. Good bit of darkness here. And probably with the rest of it, I'm going to mix up a grayish color. Let's try this. Just a bit of gray. Maybe with a bit of Orangi, not orange, but just a little bit of this brown in there as well, gray, but mostly just gray. And I want to just merge some of these on to the tree. Really light gray. In fact. And there are some really warm highlights which I'll just quickly get in. Here. For example, just on the left sides of these branches, you see just a bit of warmth in areas. I'm going to, this is what I'm just picking up a yellow rightfully, since some of that and then I will just merge it on just merge that on with the gray areas because it's not exactly pure white. In this section. You get more yellow contrast around here. Even in the branches that slightly warmer quality of light like that. Then we'll pick up some of the gray and just merge it on budget on like that. A bit more of that yellow perhaps here. Or I could even leave most of that just white. Soften that edge a touch. More of this gray color that I've got. And grays are just mixed from your three primaries. Nothing special. I do have a pre-mixed gray though. It's called a neutral tint. And we're still using very light concentrations of colors here. But I want this beautiful kind of wet-in-wet effect with all these branches if possible. And I'll go over the top of it again afterwards, maybe with some darker paint and some sharper brushstrokes. But really at this point, just want to get a bit of color in there. Okay? I will notice, I've notice here also in the foreground there are some softer looking shadows. I'm going to spray that down a touch, spray that down with a bit of water. Let's go ahead and put in a bit of these darker shadows. Just got some grayish color. Oops, probably some more. Spray that down a bit more as even some green back here actually, I guess I'm a little bit of that in here. Look, here's that large sort of shadow that runs towards the right. And then you've got little ones like this. Just cutting around these rocks, these imaginary rocks that I'd put in before. Now suddenly they've, they've come in handy. And they help to imply these shadows as well running towards the right. Actually whole bunch of them. There's so many shadows just coming in. Like a large one there even. I spray this down a bit. Them to be soft. Kinda goes often to the edge again of the of the lake. More darkness at the base, I think would be good. Okay. So having a look at this quickly from a distance, I'm just trying to put in some more shadows that might make sense. Further down here, for instance, these little bits of sharper ones. Even here in the mountains and not the mountains in this area here it's kind of darkness running through there. Here. Even in the water you can see there's a little bit of the reflection of that darkness as well, which are probably getting later. Okay. But a bit of softness in the water if I can just re-wet that a touch. And a little bit of that reflected in the water came just having a look around, seeing what else I need to perhaps do. I might add in a little bit of gray for parts of the tree. So like here, like that, just a little bit of gray on elements in some parts of the tree. It just kinda quite stark white, which I would leave for later anyway. At some parts more have this grayish tinge to it, even this one in the back. But again, it's, this is, can be a stylistic choice to like. You might want to add. You might want to make it look really, really, really, really stark white. So I'll try that. We'll leave it, but I'll make these little reflections dollar because they're in the water. Normally speaking, the reflections going to be darker. But at least you can see a little bit of what's happening there in the water. Okay. I'm gonna go add in a few indications of this tree. Let's just put in some of these. So I'm just scumbling around with a bit of green and putting in some of these leaves. Gum trees here. Here they just go round and this works well when you have an old brush, you can do this kind of thing too. You don't have to think too much about the the brushstrokes. They because the bristles of the brushes just coming off in all kinds of directions. The actual clump of tree with the foliage looks quite natural. Just don't want to overdo it, but bits and pieces you can leave in some of that previous green there as well. So something like, something like that. Even here a little bit there. You see there's a little bit here as well. With this kind of tree or whatever it is there. Even on this top part, might be some leaves we can indicate. Okay. Look with this one some little bit too green at the top as well. The foliage. I'm going to give this a quick dry and we'll go in with some of the extra details. 5. Second Wash: So time for all the final details. So we're talking about the reflections, some of the sharper reflections, details on the trees, and some other sharper bits and pieces. So I'm gonna go in, I firstly, let's pick up a bit of this black and brown. I'm just going to mix up a bit of black and brown together. Get a nice sort of Earth and tone. That's not two, not too dark, but CS2 has some elements of that Browning's in it. So this tree here in the distance, I'm just going to go in and killing. I've got a little brush here. This is a flat brush. With this flat brush, I can just getting some brief indications of this tree. It comes down like that. And I'm using still a lot of water in this Wash because this tree is further back, further back the object or thing that your painting, you really want to make sure that you've, you're going a bit lighter. One, once we hit this stuff in the foreground, we can afford to go darker, leaving a bit of this light on the left-hand side of the branches of the trees as well. Okay. Like that. There's also this tree here which we'd almost lost out. Kinda comes up there and then you've got another branch that just comes up like that as well, which I'll indicate briefly like there. You can just use this same brush to further elaborate on the limbs and the branches. If it starts looking to to, not to detail but too dark, I just quickly rub it out like that. Continue on. Some of this stuff. I'm actually going to work on using using some white gouache afterwards. Okay, bring out a bit of the bottom part of this tree there that I'd lost previously. But you know, you've got things like this shadow here, running cross behind the trees and they form small, sharper, sharper sort of parts on the wall. It'll be more, it'd be more darkness in there. So this stage of the painting really takes probably the most amount of time, my opinion, because you're thinking about these finishing touches and you also you also don't want to overdo it and have a situation where there's too much going on and you lose the intention of your of your painting. I just want a nice loose indication of those trees in the background. And that beautiful sense of light that comes off. There's even a small brush that I have, a rigger brush. This Brushes excellent for getting in tiny little details. And in this case branches, small branches. So I've got a bit of this brush here just dried off a bit so then doesn't drip all over the place. And you know, for example, let's try here. Might be something we will branch or something there that want overdo it, but I'm just picking up a few little things that might help to add detail and complexity to this tree. As you can see, there's actually tiny little branches that come off the sides of the trees as well. So this helps to wages join it up and give it more detail. Because you've got all these other detail in here anyway. Good. I'll do the same here for this one. Here's that other brush I got little flat brush and little rigger brush. Okay. I'm just using a grayish color for this shadows Will the, the limbs of the tree anyway. And because this tree now is becoming, in getting quite close to the front, I can afford to go slightly darker that you just a bit more darkness on that limb there. But the same time, I want to preserve some of that white color on the tree. Okay. Soften that down a bit here as well. As well. Soften that edge, soften that edge and this edge here in the water, I'm just going to darken down this tree bit, this, the reflection of it. Okay, let's have a look at this tree here and left and then we've got a lot of darkness there already. But I'm going to want to just emphasize this a bit more. And in terms of the darkness, especially, you know, I wanna get into some of these edge of that tree that hits the ground like about here. That Okay. No, just feathering it over to that right-hand side part of the tree. There. You can see that darkness over the right-hand side of the tree, bit more brown. Okay, so it's really sharp details. And I'll soften this edge as well. A touch filbert brush here, which is a brush designed more for softening areas but you don't need. It's just one of those specialty brushes that I keep from time-to-time. I've had more more that there. Okay. Good. Some more up here. Here is even a branch that runs upwards. I mean, it's all kinds of stuff going on. This one runs up here and kinda disappears off like that. This branch, that branch up here, there's a darker sort of branch here as well. That sort of comes out of that section and sharper, looking like that. There. We'll look at some more of these branches. Here in the background. I'm just dulling down, just watering down this color that more of these limbs trying to leave in a lot of that light, if possible one, the branches often that down. I get some more sharper looking, sharp looking shadows here as well. I'm going to mix up a bit of purple, wouldn't bit of brown and a bit of black. Okay, and we'll notice there's actually some this darkness here. Extra darkness like this. Like a really sharp or shatter. Some leaves. Shadows are a lot sharper than you think. Also, I'm just trying to use this to, I guess cut out a few rocks are indications of rocks through this background area. Okay. Darkness at the base of this tree forms part of this shadow. You're joining it all on together. You've got this large kind of shadow that goes all the way messed up until the lake there. Okay. That one looks pretty good. So really at the moment, as you can see, I'm just adding in little details. Maybe some sharper shadows would be good as well. A few them just join on. Perhaps like there. Something here, perhaps the got a fan brush and this fan brush is great for adding in some subtle details. And I'm going to use this to get in a bit of green shrubs, green and kind of yellowy green shrubs like grass and things just running through in the areas. I think this is necessary, especially with Watercolors when we're removing details at times. It helps to just add in a little bit more complexity in some areas. So she knew this bank, I'm thinking like maybe a bit of grass would be nice to help bring it forwards. Especially here in the foreground. Just a few little bits and pieces. I mean, the more golden color it actually like this. Just some little shrubs and things in here. Grass really. A bit more here. Just feather it a bit over the top of everything else. I'm just getting some of these. It's kinda like the reflections of the trees in the water, but I'll do it now just to join it up all at once. There we go, just a bit of that reflection of the tree. The leaf, leafy areas be here as well, but that reflection, just making it up a bit, but get the idea bit here as well. Looking at just these little leafy reflections of what's going on above. Because there's actually some trees up here. Just indications of them like that. Soft enough. It's too sharp. Even on the trees you will find there are some slightly darker bits on the right side. Okay? Just shadows, really indications of the shadows running on the right side of some of these. It's in pieces. Let's put a bit here. Be more green, dark green there. Pick up that other brush, this one here. Some more of this stuff. It's in the front as well. So I'm making this intentionally and a little bit darker. And bringing this over the top of that previous Wash as well. We've still got in some of that light, the same time. Black. To indicate the shadow is one small bit of it in the trees as well. Extra contrast. Some sharper shadows running across like this as well. Want to just get in a nice balance of shadows. There are some that look a bit more sharp. Some more detailing on this tree here in the foreground. I need an extra one on the right-hand side of that tree. Good. And more that shadows will. Because this tree is quite close to the foreground, as I mentioned before, a extra darkness with some of these little twigs and things, little branches coming up. It's going to help to bring it forwards. So that's what I'm trying to do here. Dry brush perhaps in the trunk as well. This is a kind of a darker part there for this tree. The rigger brushes good. Also for these bits. Get more little bit more detail in exaggerations of the darker areas of the branches. Lot of this just layering, overlapping shapes. Especially in these tricky in the foreground. I'm quite obsessed with it because it's just the closest thing. Little bit of a little bit if something in here. Oops. There we go. Darkness in the inside of this tree as well. Like that. Too much. I just yeah. Do this kind of thing again. Spray at the base. I want to scratch off perhaps a touch of paint in there. Here, here as well. Quite a dark shadow. For some parts of this area, the front as well. I just want to emphasize that better. I do use a little blade at times like this, and I'll use this to just scratch off as you can see, little indications of detail. So like grass and things like that, you can just do this sort of thing. I'm here, just bits in the shadows and things like that. And it can be a bit messy at times actually. And this is like a texture I'm trying to just indicate on the tree as well. The base, some tiny areas like that. This little bit more of these bits of grass and things as well, just put on some more in here and there. Some sharper beats anyway. Scratching out off as well. Let's get into some of the shadows for this tree here on the right. Flat brush. That greyish coloured paint here. And just goes up. That. And more darkness below. This darkness around there as well. Roughly where we've got the lake. I will just form a little boundary, I suppose, in areas like this. Very, very basic boundary. Okay? So you can see even here on the left-hand side, I can do this kind of thing. Just putting a quick little edge to it like that. I want to put in a bit of darkness with this tree. On the left-hand side of it. Right hand side, sorry. There are some smaller trees often the background, which I can indicate that he was my rigor. And doing that same sort of thing as before. We're just picking up a bit of black paint. And I'm drawing in the indication of some of the branches of them that there might be something there here. Here. Especially where we've got areas where there is like a bit of light. Suppose just breaking that light up a bit helps. That may not actually be there, but it doesn't matter. Just some little darker bits. Small details Maybe some rocks just indicate like some edges of these rocks spec again. It had disappeared off before. Maybe this is flat edge brush would do better like that. Some spots that can really bring out a touch. My even use a bit of gouache in there afterwards too, wasn't my intention, but a little bit of gouache probably will help. Sometimes you get a log or something in the foreground. So just, I can pick up a bit of brown and mix it with some black and just change things up a bit. Put that in, something like that. Because we've got these shadows and low than just running the same direction. So by putting something like an opposite direction like this, I don't know. I think it just balances it out that these two bits that I've just added on, of course, some of this other stuff, sharp a bits and there could be anything really. But I will bring out some of those rocks. Why don't have a few over this side as well, just to balance it out. Pick out some bits on nearly the water. You didn't notice even some of it just comes down through the water, just these little reflections. And, um, this is how I'm gonna do it. Just a few downward brush strokes like this. So suppose, okay, and I'm draw that brushes pretty dry as well while I'm doing this so that it doesn't overwhelm the scene. Extra darkness around the back like that. More here. Lining the this area. Use the filbert brush. Again. If you don't have filbert brush, just Use any other type of brush. I'm just pick up a naught some water. And this is what we're gonna do, soft and pick a few areas to soft an app like there, I think that was just too hard of an edge. Like that. These as well just soften up some of those edges on the trees. Just just add a bit of water and scrub a touch helps to blend it better. Here, for example, think that's too much of a hard edge and distracts. Some hard edges are really nice. I just wanted to leave some of them as well. It's just some of the foliage. You can go in. Darken. Some bits as well. Just continue detailing. More green. You can do this forever. Long you think is necessary. There's also some of these shrubs and stuff in the in the rock. And I'm simplifying it down, just dabbing here and there. Extra contrast perhaps in here just to get in some of these, this tree shape better and indicate perhaps like a some rocks and things there. Some sharper bits here in the back as well. Just just putting these kind of rocky areas that we're missing out before. Some yellowy color. I can maybe use with these shrubs or something. They're using this little brush now, there are some smaller trees often the distance. Just picking out things that I want to draw a painting. Not much at all. Filbert brush again, I'm going to soften this. Let's paint on wet brush. So that edge was be to sharp. We can soften it a bit. Even though you didn't even on the reflections. This shadows the branches 6. Finishing Touches: I've got a teeny bit of white gouache, and I'm going to use this to bring out just a few little highlights and bits that I've lost out before. So just being straight up on the brush. Now, I think part of this reflection here, I've also got to just fix up this a little bit of white kinda coming up through here and joining up it's part of the branch like that. So just going to do that quickly. And even on the edges of the trees, things like that, I can just, so just kind of bring out an extra bit of highlight that I'd lost perhaps before. But you want to be quiet sparing when you're doing this too so that it's not all over the place. And nice little rigger brush. This would be better for that actually. Little rigger brush. And I'll pick up some of these white gouache, opaque. And I can actually get in some of these, there's like a tree here. That's like a part of Part of that tree that's just in the light now, maybe this one here. Notice how I started just skip areas as well. At times it does actually help. I'm another one here. You don't want to overdo it. That's the important thing. I'd actually lost out part of the highlights with this area, so I can just hold that brush further down and look at that like magic comes back. Yeah. Is it a crisper sort of edge and branch that just comes all the way out like this as well. Just here and there will be here. So important to just use it sparingly. Even in this little tree is a reflection. The water. Can you see that little tiny bit in here as well? Little bit there. Yeah. Let's work on this tree on the left. Don't want to overdo what with this one. I find that closer to the foreground, you can just have to be careful with it. And I might actually switched to another brush, mixing a bit of yellow year, just a little bit of yellow into their to that gouache to create a golden one. Wash color. I think this will work better for some of these rocks like here. Little bit of that. Crisp edge spots. Good for indicating some grass as well. Little bits and pieces of it like that. Here. A little bit of it. Again, you gotta be sparing with the application, but basic little highlights here and there. More white spots. We can bring out some details. Okay, and I'll call this one finished