Watercolour Painting of the Elements: Earth, Air, Fire & Water | Karina E. | Skillshare
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Watercolour Painting of the Elements: Earth, Air, Fire & Water

teacher avatar Karina E., Use a pencil as a magic wand

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Introduction

      1:59

    • 2.

      Materials

      5:12

    • 3.

      Earth

      8:04

    • 4.

      Air

      10:09

    • 5.

      Fire

      7:09

    • 6.

      Water

      10:37

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About This Class

Do you want to expand your watercolour painting experience?

Looking for inspiration and topic to work with? How about painting  Earth, Air, Fire & Water!

In this class I will demonstrate the process of creating four artworks from start to finish using

  • watercolour painting techniques
  • silver poster paint
  • silver coated paper
  • masking liquid
  • markers

I will show the materials I like to work with when I create paintings in an asian style.

You will see how to:

  • Create Colour Palette
  • Work in the format of series
  • Check out new tricks & tips
  • Achieve Asian style of painting
  • Learn about Asian art materials
  • Figure out how to correct mistakes 
  • Use the reference for your series
  • Get Inspired and motivated

This class is good for all levels and it assumes you have a basic understanding of doing cool things.

Lets learn how to work with nature elements and their textures!

Meet Your Teacher

Teacher Profile Image

Karina E.

Use a pencil as a magic wand

Teacher

I am Karina Eibatova, illustrator & artist born in St.Petersburg, Russia.

I have been fortunate enough to make a living solely from my artworks.

& I am grateful to share the creative process and reveal some of my favourite tips on Skillshare.

 

 

 

 

I specialise in:

drawing painting illustration murals video typography

My portfolio reveals colourful surrealist explorations as well as more traditional approaches. 

You are welcome to follow me on instagram & Facebook.

 

 

 

See full profile

Level: Intermediate

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Transcripts

1. Introduction : Hi, I'm Karina Eibatova. I'm an artist and mostly I paint with watercolors. In this class, I will demonstrate process for creating four watercolor works in series, which is dedicated to four elements. Earth, water, air, and fire. Those artworks are created in ancient style with ancient materials. However, it's not really necessary to use those specific tools. You can work with the medium you have. I will walk you through the color palette I used for the elements series. I hope to inspire you in finding your own favorite color combinations and shades. This class is good for all levels and it doesn't really matter in which medium you specialize. I have some tips and techniques that I will show you with artist reference. I have tried to add a magical vibe in all parts of the classes. You can enjoy as a background while you're painting or you can use it as a study reference for expanding your knowledge base. I will show you some tools that work well together with watercolors. This class will be an inspiration for you to create your own elements series. Water, fire, air or earth. What's my favorite element? What will be yours? Ready to find out? Let's take a look. 2. Materials: Let's talk about materials. You can have your own set of tools I am just sharing what I was using. Here's paper I bought in Malaysia. You can just make a circle and normal water color paper if you want to get this Asian looking style. Here are some of my markers. I have a lot of brush markers from Japan and Korea and usual white pen. Then I will be demonstrating the use of masking liquid used together with the soap. Silver paint for adjusting mistakes since my background is silver. Also, napkins and cotton pads are useful and I have brush counter, very empty keeping one and an Asian house. I suggest that you find photos of the elements you wish to work with to study the texture and choose the color. Find your favorite blue. Experiment with green. Make it complex don't limit yourself with color palette you have. Find different shades and hues, I will try to demonstrate my paints and try to inspire. This painting of a flower, some abstract shapes I painted in Japan. Together with another flower, which I'm showing in my water color class with Japanese materials. Here, there are a lot of my favorite skin colors showing [inaudible]. Number 1 and number 2. Paint is green and emerald green mixed with black, [inaudible] and yellow gray and the little bit of pen work. Something very important here, is the quality of the paper and the thin brush for the details in the petals. I have a water color paper, and we got paints in tubes. Using tubes is easy for fast mixing of colors. The paint is already moist and clean. Let's start with skin colors. I will demonstrate the color and you will see the name of it taken from tube. I have different brands of Jaune Brillant This Yellow gray is like cotton leaves. Paint from tubes is fully pigmented and saturated. In this format, it is also easier to mix a large amount of paint if you're aiming for a big painting, It's actually very practical. I would say you have more control over the process of breaking the color pallet. Emerald Green hue is so bright. Let's mix it with black. Then with Arctic Blue so cool. Indigo also goes well with green for creating [inaudible]. Prussian blue is very vibrant. My favorite is Payne's Grey. This is my type of dark color. Mixing it with white is also cool, making a nice bluish-gray. Lavender, I love this color. See how it looks together with orange and Jaune Brillant. Yellow is just so strong, needs to be mixed with white. Vermilion hue is vibrant red. What I want to say here, colors vary in several different ways, including hue, saturation, brightness and gloss. Pick basic colors, which are black, white, red, green, blue, and yellow and find some cool color combinations and matching shades. Some color's names come from the name of an object. Such as Orange. Not other way around. 3. Earth: First, I'm going to paint the Earth. I'm taking the marvelous paper with silver round. If you have no access to get one of those, you can use any other paper. If you want to get similar result, you can make a circle in the middle. As an inspiration for you, I found this image after I finished the project. It is an amazing graphical algebra, by the most popular Japanese artist of the Edo period, Katsushika Hokusai, Ohio painter and print maker. You know him for sure by his famous great wave painting. Here are my paintings with landscapes in interesting shapes. I liked combination of skin color and blue or green. I prepare my favorite watercolor, it is dirty pink. It's going to be the color of my Earth. The color is something like skin. Most of the time I start by making the area of the paper wet, so I'm taking some water with the brush and applying it where the Earth will be covering. Then I'm adding some paint and letting it flow. Now I'm drawing a tree, in Asian paintings, they often draw trees that curve and bend so if you want to have an Asian touch in the work, try drawing tree that bends and curves like Bonsai trees. Then adding some mountains in the background, some Asian looking clouds in white color. My tree here is a very imaginary tree. I don't even know what is this stuff,, probably flowers. I will show you a few videos of nature, and you are welcome to make screen shots, which can serve you as painting reference. Hitting a very pale mount in the background for perspective and of course, here comes this sun. I use Japanese markers that are like a brush. I really like them. I have different colors and different brands. For outlining the flowers and leaves on the tree, I'm using the brush banned from the company store called MUJI. One of my favorite stores in the world. I first tried this pen in 2011. They still sell the same pen and you can get in other stores, of course. This silver paper is also new to me and I'm really enjoying the process. I also have a silver marker, so amazing, set of shadows. Here comes the plants. I love applying this yellow marker, it looks like gold on the silver. Some extra lines on the clouds. Also, I added the reflections of the sun on the clouds. Try doing that. Then I'm adding some more trade to smoothen the reflections. It can be water, but also Earth. Look at the texture of the stones and sand, and the hills in the background. Now, let us say some green paints for making plants. Since I'm a fan of water color, I have many different brands. These are Korean and Japanese paints. Olive green, Sap Green, Celadon, greenish, yellow, compose green. Those names of the colors and not necessary to know. It is important to mix or have complex color not just straight green. Use yellow, brown, white, and blue to create different shades. I'm starting with greenish yellow. Again, I'm painting imaginary plants, hitting a lot of textures and funny shapes. Hitting some dots and lines with marker. Painting just trees, leaves and stones can also work fine for Earth element. To be honest, I don't really like the outcome so I take the brush and apply lots of water on the painted area and take the color off with napkin. I just want it to look smoother, more like a painting than a drawing. Something like that, smoother and softer. Now I'm adding some dark plants on the front row, to add some perspective. Working on the mountain and some final touches with a dark color. Remember, we always start with light and end with dark shades in the water color, because you cannot over-paint water colors, so here is the Earth. To be honest, when I was painting this, I had not yet decided to make a series with elements. 4. Air : Let's start with an inspiration. Here is your color bridge by Yoshida Hiroshi and like all the Japanese would cast with the moon and here are my paintings which might represent the air. This can also be about smoke or clouds can illustrate air well. We will be using silver for the reflection of the moon and masking liquid to protect the areas we should not be painting. First, I'm going to protect my brush from masking liquid with dish washing liquid, dipping my brush into the dish washing liquid and then dragging the brush over the rim of the container to remove some excess liquid. It is best to use old watercolor brushes, if any lattice left in the brush will destroy their good point very quickly. Then I'm dipping the brush into the light x masking and drawing the moon. I wanted to remain silver, also I want to make silver stars and the reflection of the moon in the water. Every now and then, when you pick up fresh masking liquid, rinse the brush out in the water and apply more of the dish washing liquid before using the masking liquid. If you don't do this, the maximum liquid will start to dry on the brush and you will end up throwing it out. Edit, am painting clouds with shades of gray and orange which reflect the sunset. Now, I'm applying dark color for the sky and adding a lot of water to make the clouds look soft. Here comes the sea. Sea, sunset and moon rise. So I'm making the gradients from dark sky to the bluish, pinkish sunset sky and then the sea from pinkish to bluish. I'm now trying to make it look real, just following the flow in my imagination. I'm making some dark shapes in the clouds as host for creating more volume. Now, I'm allowing the painting to dry, it is important before the next step. Then, the magical moment [inaudible] and using my finger to take off the masking liquid. Now, the rest of the sky and it is time for editing some silver reflections coming from the moon. I find it important to add reflections, silver for silver moon, orange for sun. Washing with a wet brush to make everything smoother and for adding half-tones and volume of the clouds. This sunset, somehow remind me of my painting. Look at the colors, I always use markers in the end and it is important not to overdo it so it looks like a painting. In the daylight, the silver doesn't shine so much and this is with the lamp on. Now, I'm adding some dark shades to the sky for more contrast and then, I'm applying water to the clouds to make them softer and then I take away some paint with a napkin. I finished by fixing the horizon line and smoothing out the water. Here is the painting of the sky which represents air. 5. Fire : Fire. The inspiration I have chosen for you is wood cut, Oyune Magoshichi Taheiji by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. I like the shape of the fire here. So let's start with mixing the colors. Yellow, orange, gray, paint is gray, lots of clean water. I decided to paint a fire using vibrant colors. Testing the strongest color, the lightest part should be drawn first. So I'm starting with yellow and then gradually adding orange and red at the edges. White in the center. I think I overdid it, here with red. Well, I will fix that. You can look at fire endlessly and paint it endlessly too. Some smoke, here it is important to use a wet brush and not to over paint the smoke. So it remains transparent. Now, in adding the woods in the front, dark lines, actually to my taste, it is too saturated. Finishing this smoke with white paint and darker shades. Some of the smoke can go straight from the fire. Now, I'm fixing some parts with silver paint. I think it is important to leave more blank space, it's too late now. In the end, I decided to reduce the vibrancy and colored over the red parts. So here it is. Looks quite '90s. Later on, I took more color away with a wet brush and napkin, reducing the saturation, leaving more transparency. Take care of the transparency in water colors. Since that's what makes them special and different from all other mediums. 6. Water : Water my favorite element probably. That's why I love watercolors so much. Here is an inspiration for you to small fishing boats on the sea by Katsushika Hokusai again. Or you can check the great bait by Hokusai. Here are my paintings with water and gentle sunset and the waterfall. It's also created with Japanese materials. I will start with masking liquid in order to protect the areas which should not be painted. First, I'm going to protect my brush from masking liquid with dish-washing liquid. Start by dipping a brush into the dish-washing liquid. All the hairs in the brush are protected, drag the brush over the rim of the container to remove any excess liquid, then take the masking liquid. If you need to shake it, do it very gently so no bubbles will appear. Or shake it 15 minutes before using. Then dip the brush into the Latex masking and draw. Masking fluid is liquid latex, which is a natural rubber. Though there are synthetic versions of it as well. As the watercolor artist, it allows you to protect parts of your painting. It allows you to quickly paint over areas of your paper without having to try and paint around complex shapes. You can also use it on the painted area in order to create layers. Masking fluid is used by acrylic artist as well as watercolor and ink artists. Before I was using wax and tape for achieving the same result. So much more hustle. After letting it dry, I'm applying some water for painting the sky and then I made it dark painting Grey is by the roof from light to dark in water colors. It likes some more water, doesn't matter how much water or paint you put into the masking liquid, it works. Here, I want to share with you water color paints created by my friend in Italy. He collects and grades the material himself and put the finished product in shelves. Isn't it beautiful? All the paints here are made from natural ingredients such as stones and plants that we use those for painting stone here. Adding some darker shades in lines. Study how the water is moving and leaving in order to paint it. I always use [inaudible] gray, it's my favorite dark color. After many dry I am taking away the masking liquid move with my finger. First, I was scared it wouldn't work so well. As I've never used it on the silver paper, but look, it works just as fine as on the normal paper. Fantastic trick. Now, it is time to add the final touches. Here I am using the lavender color, look how everything is shining when I turn the lights on. Painting of the water requires details, so please be patient. Now, let me just shade some lines with silver paint. Smoothing up the gradient, as usual I use markers in the end for the final touches. Washing the sky. Adding some more lavender color to the sky, and then final dark shades from low volume. In the end, I just made the sky cleaner, smoothing the gradients with a wet brush. Okay. What is your favorite element? Do you know already?