Watercolour Monstera Leaves

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Esther Peck. Besides painting flowers, I love to explore different subjects. Today, I'm teaching you how to paint Monstera leaf. This is a basic class. I will discuss about colors used, how to mix the colors, how to paint with masking fluid, create textures, and how to draw Monstera leaf. Finally, I will paint two different Monstera leaves, one with masking fluid and the other without. It was so fun painting with basking fluid and pulling up the dry fluid. I have a little Spider Woman Mormon. Don't miss that video. I hope you will join me. See you soon. 2. Getting Ready with Art Supplies: Welcome back, good to see you back so soon. Today I'm showing you the supplies that we need to pay a monster leaf. First of all, let's starts with the pin. I'm using set green, Perlin green, cookies green, that Is already on my parallel; and Lemon yellow. The brushes that I'm using are number six, round brush, NNO number two round brush. Optional are masking fluid, dish washing liquid, rubber sealer and picker, eraser, you need a pencil and I need a pellet with a deeper well for us to prepare paint like this. I need two jugs of water, one for cleaning my brushes and another to add to my paints. The paper I'm using is arches cold press 300 gram and a 100 percent cotton. Have all these thing ready and I'll see you very soon. 3. Colour Swatches: I'm so glad that you're able to join me today. For today's lesson, we are going to learn how to paint monstera leaf. Before that, we are going to learn color swatches. These are the colors that I have tried out early on, there are some greens that we're going to use for monstera leaf. We are going to use perylene green, sap green, lemon yellow, and one other green, hooker's green. I'm going to start with green, a lot more, and then add in water, and then I have perylene green, this is a very dark color, and now I'm going to have these two colors mix. I actually mix them, sap green and perylene, and I get this very beautiful color. So let's see this way how I join them together. We have three, one, two, and we have three colors to color here. I'm going to use this hocust green over here. This time I'm going to have my perylene green here. It's quite dark. I'm going to join these two colors together. I mean, I blend these two colors together, and I get this. Another very pretty colors. Later I'm about to cut them and write them down. Now I'm going to use these two colors that I got over here. Let me mix again, and these two colors that I have over here. For painting this monstera leaf is really about colors, so colors are very important. For this time around, the color swatches, we are going to spend a little bit more time. These two colors, I have them mix, and I'm going to add in a little bit of perylene in here. I think we are almost done now except for the yellow that I haven't add in. I washed my brush coloring and I get my yellow. This is my yellow and actually when you mix with a little bit of green, it looks a bit of yellow green color. With these colors here, you will see that I'm very close to the colors that I want now. This will be the dark green that I'm using, this will be the mix, and a little bit of the sap green color that over here will probably be here and the yellow will be here. I hope you get your colors ready. If you don't have this brand its fine. You can actually use another colors. 4. Exploring Leaf Textures: Hi, it's good to be back. For today's lesson, I'm going to teach you exploring textures on the leaf and I have prepared this [inaudible] to show you the textures that we can pin. With my color swatches that I prepared earlier, let me show you this. How to prepare, fill the area with water almost near to the pencil line. I start with a mix of Hooker's green and perylene green, which is over here. Let me see, yes, this one. Using the round brush again, apply sap green on the front and the end. I keep some area untouch so that I can apply a lighter color yellow for the highlight. While it is still wet, I apply Hooker's green and perylene green, which I have prepared earlier on over the same area. Also, I add a little bit of perylene green to create the shadow. Wash the brush thoroughly and apply yellow for the highlight, where this part, this fore here, it appears on top. I add a mixture of Hooker's green and perylene green again over the lighter area and allow the color to mix. I would like to add a little bit more sap green over here for the texture to create more texture. Overall, the front and the end of the leaf is darker and then it show a fog. In a sense it show a fog, can you see that? This is what I have done earlier and when it's dry it looks this way. If there is too much water, you may like to pick it up. Using my brush, I just pick up the pen. Too much water and you manage to flow so much already. But I would like to have a bit more texture, so I add more that can mix up my colors, which are here. Sap green and perylene green, this color or Hooker's green and perylene green, which is this color. I just apply the color for them to mix. I'll add in a little bit more of the sap green. You can see there's some texture. While this color is still a bit the darker area, I just add a bit of yellow again, just to get a bit of interesting texture. If you want to see a darker color again, you apply and you allow it to flow again. Explore this before you start on your most thoroughly. Have fun. I'll see you back again. 5. Draw A Monstera Leaf: Welcome back. For today's lesson, I'm going to teach you how to draw this monstera leaf. When it comes to drawing, we always take note of the shape. For this monstera leaf, the shape is basically a little bit like a heart shape. I will work on this. I mark it out first, how big I want. This is my center vein, I would draw a very light leaf, and it's from thick to thin. Very lightly. I mark it somewhere here, or you look at a contour here. It's a little bit of a heart shape like I mentioned. This way down, try not to have it too symmetrical it won't be too nice. Then it will broaden up a little bit like here. It looks like quite a big one. You take note that here is a bit straight. When I paint this and when I draw this, I actually refer to one monstera leaf that I saw from a photograph. Now I'm referring to this. I mentioned before that we need to have reference, at least something to look at. I feel that this part is too much here. I think I'm going to come up with one ready. I'm going to divide them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, five portions. This is the bigger portion, one, so I have four here. Then I will draw it in, and I draw this vein here, continue to add on. I need to have double line here for the veins. This one too. I'll add in, monstera has this hole here, so I add in. I try to maybe add in some here, some here, and over here I will continue to have a bit of irregular shape coming in. Some more here, and lots of holes to make it actually more interesting with more holes. But with the holes, it can be a bit difficult to paint later on. You'll see what I mean. I have one side done. I have already drawn one side and I will be drawing the other side. This side is i have done, and I'll be drawing the other side. They are quite the same. But I need to turn my paper this way, it maybe easier for me. I may just check how it should look like. Basically, I think we're almost done here. I have finished drawing the monstera leaf. Some of you may be afraid to draw this monstera leaf thinking that is too difficult for you. I hope you will give a try to it based on what I have taught you, by getting the shape and slowly mark the veins, and add in the holes and the bigger holes here. But if you're still not sure how to draw this, don't worry. I'll be sending you a drawing of this so that you can paint your monstera leaf. I hope to see you very soon. 6. Full Demo with Masking Fluids: Hi, Great to see you back so soon. Today I'm showing you how to apply masking fluids to protect those lines, so that you wouldn't get untidy lines. Let me show you a piece of painting that I did earlier. This is what I did without masking fluids and so I think it will work better with masking fluids and I try these out and is so much neater. Let me show you how we use a masking fluids and not destroying your brush. I'm using a O number two toothbrush and I have my dish washing liquid ready prepared and I deep it inside so that the brush is coated with the dish washing liquid. I dip into my masking fluids and this, I will look very carefully. So you apply the masking fluids underlined, they're supposed to be the veins and on the holes there. Other parts that you need to mass are the veins here, the holes. If you think that you need to mass here, you can too. I have my Monstera leaf mask with masking fluids, and here's reference piece. This is my artificial Monstera leaf. I just wanted to show you where are the areas that we have highlight and where we should have it more depth. Based on this artificial Monstera leaf, the part that you need to have depth is here. Which means our end at a darker color here. The side that filter upwards, is the part that you need to highlights all this area here. Basically it will be here highlight. Here I'll apply more darker colors. Let's get started. As I have already applied masking fluids, I can just apply water freely, over the whole Monstera leaf. So this, I can actually use a bigger brush. I'm applying a little bit more water, because it would dry up over here. When I reach here I use less water. I just spread it out nicely. It looks at is going to be fun. Actually, this is the first time I try with masking fluids for painting Monstera leaf. The last time I painted, I painted them section by section, which I will show you in another video. For this piece, I'm playing with masking fluids and it should be a lot faster. See over here it dry up already. That's why I apply so much, as it has already dry up. I'm not going to let there be too much water. So I just make sure, that there's not too much. Especially the center vein here, I apply a bit more water in case it doesn't flow, and that each here, the center I'm okay. If it just dry up I can apply water again, but this is the part that I want to add on more paints, so I am ready to start. These are the color that I've already prepared. I will start with hokers green and paralleling green, this color which have lighter green here. I will start it over here and here. They are all prepared here. Because I have masking fluids, I can just paint quite freely actually now and I allow the paint to flow both sides. This end and this end. Early on we talk about having here highlight. I'm adding this. If you're not sure, refer to a photograph. If you don't have an artificial Monstera leaf or you don't have a real Monstera leaf, you can take a photo as a reference or even a Google for one picture to check under highlight area. I will add in the mixture of set green and perlin green now. Over here, beside keeping the highlight area, just checking on my highlight. Am not going to, I got to work on big fast because of the water on the yellow because this is the highlight. Yellow, which I have prepared earlier. When you are painting this Monstera leaf, make sure that you prepare enough paint. You don't want to paint halfway and then you realize that you have to go and mix the paint again, the way you have to start applying water again. I like to have a bit more interesting area here, which we talk about in our earlier class about getting texture, adding in some more paint and I add in, paralleling green for that depth key. Especially for this front of the Monstera leaf there's a lot depth. Here I'm going to add in quite a lot of that. While it is still wet, the paint actually blend easily and you don't have to work really very hard on that. I have this done and I'm pretty happy with it, except for this jar of water, which I have to get rid very soon. Let me show you how you get rid of it, clean water dip into your, just cleaning it off. Because there is the area that I didn't mess and I'd be monitored to show all my paper. It's pretty clean again, so just be careful. It is still wet here, which I'm fighting for time. Over here I just paint this way. I have a masking fluids. This is the area that we need to have more, two sides the front and the end of the leaf. Over here is not dry yet, so if I want some textual I can still add on. I like to have some texture. So that's why I'm adding on. While painting this side, I saw that side. I'm adding in some more set green. Continue to add on more paints, at the ends of the Monstera leaf. I'm liking this, I can see the color coming up. Again this side over here is the highlight area so just watch out. I like to have a bit darker here, a bit darker. We talk about this bending. Where the veins are, this area should have the depth. I'm adding in more darker green that is paralleling green and the mix or so. I have a mix over here. For that I have to add in some yellow. Yellow when it mix with this green, it will naturally become yellow green. It's a very pretty color, the yellow green, where the highlight is supposed to be. But if you think that you have left to much yellow, you can actually just add in some more green which I think I'm rinsing in for the texture. I'm adding in here a little bit. This is the highlight. It looks pretty good. I need to let it dry before I clean off the masking fluid. I see you again and I'll be able to show you that very soon. The Monstera leaf is dry. Now I will use the rubber cement pickup to clean up the masking fluid. I need to be very careful still. This is like a spider web, so sticky but it's really fun. Another one. I prefer rubber cement pickup than using my hand because there's once I tried to use my hand to clean off and I tend to pull out the paper as well. This cement pickup work better for me and it's very affordable. I got it, I think from an online shop. So far it is working pretty well. I saw the cream portion here. For working on the small holes, it's so easy. Let's pull. Some more. Wow, this is fun. I feel like Spider-Man. It's really fun. Let's clean up. This part is dirty. I may have to use white cream to clean up. I need this part that is not clean. Overall, it looks good. Here's the highlight area. Okay, did I leave out anything? Oh, yes. Two small holes there. I'm very happy with this actually. It was so easy to paint with the masking fluid. I will try another one without the masking fluid to show you. 7. Painting Monstera Leaf: Welcome back. For today's lesson, I'm going to do a full demo of how to paint a [inaudible] leaf. We're going to work on section by section. I start with adding water onto the area which we have done in the last lesson. I hope you have done enough of these practices. I will have two section together because they are quite a small one. I'm using a number 6 brush for this smaller area. Just got to be careful that you don't have the water ran over there, and I start with set green. Keeping the area that's supposed to have highlight clear, because I'm going to add in lemon yellow later. I will use the mix of perylene green, and hookers green over again from the same technique that I taught you in my earlier class. Basically, they are going to be the same except for some of the section where the leaves have holes like this. Now, I work on it. Just add on and despite I keep it clear of pen first. I would like to just wash my brush and add on a little bit of perylene green just for that shadow, for the depth look. Now I add in the bit of the yellow. This is a small area. I notice that this part, I have a bit of pen come out. This is where you have to keep your brush clean, and just clean up. For this painting you need to work very neatly actually. Let me continue with my second section. When you apply water, you have to be very careful that this line and this line don't get much, or you will not have a theme. I think for this for this one I work by [inaudible] by itself. This is the highlight area. I add in the sheets for the depth. I add in more perylene green for more depth. You will throw up a bit. Now I can see the highlight, this area. For this small area, I didn't want to have a lot of texture yet. Maybe on some other parts. Now you can actually see the highlight and some areas I'm be concerned on. You can actually try to clean up. I'm using clean water. When working on this, you actually really need to be very careful. But you can actually, yeah, clean it up. Now it looks okay. Some people might like to work on one ciphers, but I think working on both sides together, it helps me do have a leaf that looks most symmetrical with low size. I'm working on the side now. Again apply water. I start with set green again. It dry up very fast because over here is very windy, and I use my mixture of hookers green and perylene green for the depth. Sometimes I add in set green and in perylene green again for the depth or so. I like how this turn out the shine. This side should be the one cleaning off a little bit to create that shine thing. This will be the shine. I add in a bit more of my mix here. I think I got that. Even now it's still a little bit wet. If I want to add on a bit of texture, I still can't do it as a whole. A lot of water. Let's continue with this section of the leaf, water gain, applying this layer of water is actually very important to keep it neat. There's this piece that I painted was actually my third piece. My first piece was actually very untidy. The line wasn't kept clean. With a few training, this piece is neat, at least. Let me add water again because it dry up very fast and I add on set green again. It dry up so I just add on. Tidy up the line while it is still wet. This one seems to dry up. A bit too light before I can do anything. I'm using a number 6 brush very close to the pencil line. If you are working without a masking fluid you have to be very careful. I think there is some water coming out, though I tried to be very careful. I have this section done. I just use a dry brush. Do is dry. I'm going to use this mixture that I have prepared earlier, caucus green and perylen green right here. Mixture again. Because right now you have no masking fluid you need to work quite carefully. Unlike the one that I did with masking fluid. I can go over. Just like adding here, being here need to be darker. It's not too dry here. I need here to be darker still. I have one section of it done. I have already filled the air rail is clean water. Most near to the pencil lines. Now I'm going to add on the pin again always that these are the two ends. This darker color, because we want here to have the highlight. The mix must always be enough. I need to add in some yellow. This is the highlight. Over here, I think is not dry yet. It is still wet, which allows me to add on colors. Here. We give it routed over the ages smooth or other. This is going to look quite nicely terminally dry up. I work on the other parts. Another way of painting. You can actually pin directly with the colors. Instead of adding in water. But you should add in the lighter color first. I'm adding inset green. You actually need quite steady hands too. For this. You still can play around with texture. Right here, I can add in some darker tone I have finished this piece without masking fluid.