Whimsical Woods: Creative Gouache Adventures

1. Introduction: Welcome into the adventure where we will go into the woods and explore the gah paint in a creative and inspiring way. My name is Anya. I'm an Illustrator, and I love to explore different techniques, and I often use ga in my art. If you would like to learn how to paint with gah in a very creative and expressive way, then I invite you to this class. In this class, we will see and explore a lot of fun, easy, and quick tools that will help you to explore this medium and overcome the fear of painting with ash in a fun and creative way. We will explore this paint. We will do a lot of exercises that will explore both techniques, colors, and to composition. In the end, we will use all those tools to create a final illustration inspired by Woodlands. I hope you feel inspired. Let's jump into the class, and in the next lesson, I will show you exactly the steps and the classes project. 2. Tools & Class Project: For the final project, we will paint an illustration with ah and some of the mixed media, and the illustration will be inspired by the woodlands scenery, by the nature and forest. Here are the steps that we will take in the class and the tools that we will. First, we will see what the Ga is and its main properties. Then we will do simple exercises that will explore the paint and teach you how to paint, for example, in layers, wet on wet technique, how to paint in a very expressive, intuitive way, and those exercises are meant to overcome the fear of painting with guash. And also we explore the techniques that we will use in the final project. Then we will search for an inspiration for our painting both for the colors and for the theme. Then we will see how to work with color, how to create effective color palette, and how to use color in a way that is both coherent and varied We will see the tools that will help to paint trees in a fun, modern and stylized way. I will show you also simple tools to create simple compositions. Then we will gather all the tools and paint the final illustration. Again, it will be a forest woodland scene. I cannot wait to see what you will create. So be sure to share your project within the project gallery and show to all of us your beautiful illustration. Let's get started. 3. Art Supplies: Let's walk briefly through the art materials that will be needed for this class. So obviously, we will use ga. I will explain the kind of different that you can find in the next lesson. So if you're new to ga and you don't know what kind of medium is, I invite you to the next lesson. And if we will use also the colored pencils, they are not necessary. You can do all the project with guash, but if you have pencils and would like to draw smaller tiny details with them, then would recommend to grab the ones that are more oily, waxy, the ones that will work good for the mixed media. It means that they will draw over the gash color without any problem. They will cover it well. So, for example, you can use sir wind, light as, or watercolor, pencils, or you can test which one will work best for you. As for the palette, you can use different kind. I have this simple palette that I usually use to work with gashes. I will use several colors, so I don't need extended palette. Good tip is to use plastic packaging object, so it's also a good idea to recycle. Something that you could use, for example, as a color palette. As for the brushes, I would recommend synthetic watercolor brushes, synthetics will work better because they are a little bit harder than natural ones, and they will go for. They will work with Gach in a better way. You can work only with a round a brushes if you want, then I would recommend to take one medium and one large size because we won't get into tiny details. And also if you have a good tip, then you can use also the big brush for your details, otherwise, use tiny for your brush for your details. Also, you can experiment different forms and shapes of your tips. For example, I have those two, the angled brush, and the other one, I don't know its name, but I use it often to paint leaf patterns. So if you have some different kind of brushes, and you would like to experiment to paint with them, to paint trees, then go for it. I will use also masking fluid for the final project. It's up to you. You can skip it. You don't have to use it. I will use it to mask the bird shape, but you can do it in a different way, for example, you could use wash to paint over to paint a bird. So it's up to you. Another thing that is something extra, you don't have to use it, but if you have you can try it out. Those are the precise erasers, which means that you can erase tiny strokes with them. They are usually in form of pencils, so if you have them, you can try them as well. Another thing that we will use in my bonus part, Pam pastels. Those are pastels in this rounded solid form, but it's basically pastel, and I really love to use it. So if you have it, if you want to give it a try to the effect that I want to achieve with them, then I think it's a cool thing to do it in this lesson. Last but not least papers. So basically, ah is more forgivable than watercolor. So if you want to use a lot of water, you could use mixed media or a good quality drawing paper. For example, this fabriano academia paper is suitable also for water soluble mediums. So I will use it especially for the exercises to warm up and to paint trees, the first lessons before jumping into the final project. You don't have to use anything expensive or fancy. But basically, final project will use more water. So if you have watercolor paper that it will be better, I will use arches, hot press. It means that it's smooth. It has a smooth surface. It doesn't have texture, but it's up to you. What do you prefer? If you prefer cold press then go for it. And if you don't have watercolor paper, then anyway, any cheaper mixed media paper, but it should be at these 200 grams, should be a little bit thicker, should work as well. And also, I will use a color paper, but it's okay also to use simple copy paper to cut out shapes and forms. And I will do it just to understand better the composition that I would like to create, I will cut out birds and make a composition. So it's a step that you can skip as well, or if you want to try it because it's also useful tool to make your composition, then just grab some piece of paper and your scissors. Okay, so that's it. I'm very happy to jump with you into the other lessons where we will paint and to the next lesson, we will see better what the guash is. 4. What Is Gouache: If you're new to guage, then let me explain you briefly, what is this medium? Basically ga, you can often here, which is basically more or less true that they're like opaque watercolors. It means that they are water soluble and they are water and mediums that works like watercolors, but they have high coverage. They are opaque. And if you use them as a dense medium without much water, it's really opaque. And more you dilute it, the more it will be similar to watercolors. There are some differences. For example, watercolors usually have this kind of pigmentation and are more unpredictable. Whereas, guash, usually, if you water them down, they are like monochrome, plane. They give the monochrome plane wash of color. And yeah, they cover really well if they are dense. You can find two different kinds nowadays. The traditional gah which it means that you can paint layers with them, but you have to be careful because they reactivate with water. So this is the difficulty that it's the same for water colors. Whilst there are also acrylic ah. You can find acrylic ah. It means that they have acrylic medium inside. Acrylic basically is a transparent plastic in which you add pigments. Here is something which is not full acrylic at not full gash. Basically, acrylic makes your color solid and the color won't reactivate with water. So they're good for layering, and also on the contrary to acrylics, they are they don't have p lasticy surface and a dry opaque and flat, which is usually the thing that we love in ah. If someone doesn't like acrylics, but wants the same quality of acrylic paints, then this is a good solution. The last thing that I wanted to tell you is to look at kind of the coverage that each Gach has. For example, you can find those squares. Basically on each tube, it's the same for acrylics, the same for watercolors. If you saw this and didn't ask yourself what it means. Then this this rectangle means how opaque the color is. So for example, full square means that the opacity is maximum. So it's very opaque, and it covers really well. For example, here, there is half full, half white, black, half white. So it means that the opacity is 50 50. So it's semi opaque. You can find, for example, also, this kind of square, and it means that it's semi translucent. And the last let's say, great, which I'm not sure if W has this kind of opacity would be the rectangle without anything inside, and it would say that it's fully translucent. So it depends on what kind of effect you would like to achieve. I don't really notice this kind of thing, and they are not fundamental for me. But if you want, for example, If you would like to have a piece of art that is really opaque, then be mindful that with some colors, you won't be able to create a full opaque swatch of color. We will continue to explore Gach. So in the next lesson, we will test the Gach qualities. 5. A Bit of Gouache Theory: For this exercise, prepare three or four different colors, and it would be good to have different kinds of opacity. Look at your tubes or containers of Gach and see if you can find the opacity. In this way, you can test different effects with different kind of transparency of g. Let's get started. Finally, the moment of testing the gauche arrived. So let's dip our brushes into the gauche into the color, and let's start to explore it. Before we will dive into the full playing mood, just a little bit of theory, but without stressing out, also here, you can just have this kind of thought inside your head of curiosity. Without thinking of outcome of to see how guash works, just take your brush, take your gah in water and play with it, see what happens if you apply a dense color. What will happen if you will add water to it? You know what I mean. Just keep in mind this playful spirit. For example, here I'm doing it, I'm just playing with the brush and water, testing dense gash, testing more translucent guash, this is it. As for the theory, If you remember in the previous lesson, I told you about different opacity, different kind of transparency. Maybe it's better to say transparency of the color, so I will test it. Here I'm testing magenta, and This packaging. I didn't find the sign, the symbol of transparency. So I wasn't sure. I wanted to test it. It's quite translucent. You can probably see the strokes of the brush in the left square. So it seems that it's not so opaque. It's more translucent color. Here, instead, I wanted to test the full opacity the gah with the symbol of full opacity. So it means that this color should cover really well. It should be really opaque, not translucent color. Let's test it. This is kind of a violet maroon. The first one was magenta. And yeah. Well, I probably you shouldn't follow me by picking the color directly from the tube. Maybe it's not the best thing, but I often do that. So the best way should be to squeeze a little quantity of color in your palette and adding water. In this way, you will understand mixes of color with water. Here I did this. I put water with a color into the palette. This is more translucent, transparent swatch, but because I added more water, in this case, it's more like water color. The last color is this yellow from Windsor and Newton, and it's semi opaque. I was curious, what's the difference and what is semi opaque color? To be honest, this is what I was talking about to test that we always learn, something new. I knew about this story about transparency, especially in watercolors. I knew that also wash have the symbols, but I didn't really put much of thought into it. And instead, by doing this exercise, I thought that it's really useful to know it because, you know, sometimes you just want to achieve a specific effect, and you have to know the paint that you use. If you want to paint really flat opaque colors, then probably with this magenta, I would be frustrated because I couldn't achieve flat opaque color. So it's good to know this kind of stuff. So I realized this by doing this class. So yeah, we are learning every step of the way, and sometimes it's good to do something to know beforehand the medium that that you use. So those are the swatches that I prepared. And I will try to show you closer the swatches to see the opacity. Maybe it's not so visible. This magena is more transducent. You can probably see the paper showing through the brush strokes. This maroon is much more opaque, and the yellow gives more flat swatch, but it's semi opaque. Probably it's about how the color works also on the top of the other colors. Let's test also the layering. So as I told you in the previous lesson, gases are water soluble, and the gases that are not acrylic colors will reactivate with color. So as you can see, here, I painted with yellow over on the top of the magenta. And by using water, big quantity of water, so it's quite diluted color, the yellow color. I reactivated the color that is beneath it. Basically, there are several rules that you should be aware of when you are layering colors with guh. First, be sure that the color beneath is dry. Then second is that the color that you paint on the top must be really dense. Use a a little water as possible. In this way, you won't reactivate the color underneath. And the second and the third rule would be to use as little brush strokes as possible. It also will protect the color not to mix the color that is underneath. So you should probably be quite de side, use a neat and danse brush strokes. So I continue to paint with yellow color. I'm making it dance every time it's more dense, not sure why it gives this effect of repeled color, not sure why it happened. Right now I'm testing the yellow color above the maroon color, and as you can see, yellow, it remains semi translucent. When I painted on the yellow color over the white paper, maybe it wasn't so visible. But now you can see why the yellow is semi opaque. This is also why it is useful to know the transparency of your color. With this yellow, I won't be able to achieve really flat and opaque layer. Test your colors. Remember about the rules, and if you are not able to layer it, then don't be frustrated, not yet and not ever really. But we will play with Guash in the other lesson and right now, just test it, but don't be stressed out. Let me know in the project about your discoveries, if you have any questions or doubts. As well, you can reach out to us to me in the discussion. And I'm curious about your own thoughts about Gach and layering. Maybe you have more experience than me. I'm using Gach in more explorative mixed media way. It's not my unique medium. If you already know me, then I really used a lot of mediums. So it's always something new to discover. All right. So that's it. Again, let me know in your project, in your comments, if you want to share with us your exploration of Guash, and this is the final outcome of this quick exercise, and in the next lesson, we will continue to explore Gua maybe with more playful way and try to warm up our hands. So see you there. 6. Play With Gouache Part 1: Win this lesson, we will start to warm up our hands and play with guash. We will try to paint techniques that we will use for the final project. But we will explore them in a playful mode. Doesn't mean that we will do kids stuff, but I think that we often block ourselves because we want immediately have excellent capacity of using a medium. We want to see results and beautiful outcome. But let's do one step at a time. And to do that, just relax and play. So prepare your paper, your color, and brush, and also water. And with those ingredients, let's start to play. So You can start by swatching out diluted swatches, by switching out dense swatches, it's up to you. For example, here, I'm trying to see what will happen if I will use guash as watercolors. Also, in this lesson, I will start to explore more the techniques that I will apply in the final project. We will use in the most time very diluted and watery washes of guash. And sometimes we will use more opaque guash, especially when we will do layering. So what is most important is to try to have loose hand and try to play with Guash as much as possible. But right now let's not think about it. Right now, let's focus on enjoying exploring the gh paint. So what will happen if I will land to colors, use a little bit of wet on wet technique or if I will paint with more dense color. What will happen if I will paint on the color while it's still wet? And while it will dry, for example, above on the right, I painted two colors, first, yellow one and the red one, and the yellow one was wet when I painted the red, so they blended into each other. So you can start with this more watery swatches and play around by diluting your color more. You can also paint different shapes. Since for the final project, we will paint simplified shapes of the tree so you can start to think about it right now and get used your hand to those shapes paint circles, or maybe ovals or some other shapes that you would like to use as trees, or just any kind of geometrical shapes. You can also start to paint with flayers. So paint on the top of the other swashes. For example, even if it's still wet, see what will happen, how the color will blend. What will happen if the color is very wet, when it's not so wet, when it's dried, when you use very diluted color. So, play around and try to be mindful also of what's happening. And in this way, you will learn and get used to use squash more and more and see what you can discover. Continue to paint rounded shapes. I'm trying to paint something that could be already a tree forrest. So you can play with that as well or just continue in your own way by painting whatever shapes come to your mind. So play with different densities, play with different shapes and forms and with layering and start to get into this kind of process. So it doesn't have to be anything big or time consuming. Every exercise is meaningful. So I hope you enjoyed it that it helped you to unlock yourself a little bit, and in the next lesson, we will proceed. So see you there. Oh. 7. Play With Gouache Part 2: Welcome to the final exercise lesson where we will paint a textured background, the one that we will use also for the final project. This kind of exercise and painting with guash will help you to be more lose, loosen up your hand losing up your style, lose a little bit of control, but at the same time, get more confident with wash. So before jumping up into the final project, it's good to warm up yourself and do this kind of exercise separately. Obviously, if you will be happy with your outcome, you can, then use it for your final project. But right now, let's see what we are doing here. So there are not many rules here. I would like you to explore paint different densities and try to lose the control. But the things that will be helpful for you in this process, are those following steps. So work with gouache like with water color. It means that use it with very diluted, watery washes, and then paint from light to dark colors. So first layers use lighter colors and for the further layers use darker colors. And also work from diluted to dense. So for the first layers, use, really watery wash, and while you will build up the layers, then use the dense color. So what we are doing here, I'm trying to imagine that I'm painting a base for the forest scene. So I'm trying to do a textured background where I already give impressions of impression of trees of shapes of trees. So as you can see, right now, this is the second layer. I'm painting the round oval shapes with wet on the wet background with more dense and more dark color. And I already can imagine that it can be a forest seen. And if you cannot, then don't worry. It's the process of layering. So at the beginning, it's you create a whole mess. And that's okay. That's what I want you to do. Try to do some mess. Try to lose the control. So don't worry about the outcome. This is the exercise sheet. Play around paint tree shapes with wet on wet technique, try to be quick. In order to do the wet on wet technique, you have to be quick. And I ask you to do this on purpose because in this way, you won't overthink it. I want you to play. And yeah, as you can see, I change, also, so use the colors that you want. And try to paint your imaginary forest. This exercise is for you to explore without stress of the of the final outcome. Also, when you lose control, you can discover things that you wouldn't discover if you would try to plant things and do things in a controlled way. And often those are very nice surprise, and you can discover some things that you can apply later on to your style. And it happens only when you are quick, when you don't over think, and when you just explore your painting. So have fun. Again, if you like your results, then you can use it for your final project, otherwise, we will do the same process for the final project. And in the next lesson, we will see how to build an easy color palette. See you there. 8. Inspiration Source: My evergreen inspiration are always nature trees, forest. That's why I propose this for this classes theme. Obviously, feel free to explore whatever topic you prefer. But nevertheless, I will show you how I am searching for an inspiration. So first, my own photos. I'll show you the photos that inspired me for this project. I made them in Italy where I live. A couple of years ago. I was in this beautiful place. It was Autumn. And also right now when I'm doing this class is Autumn. And that's my favorite season as well. That's why I will paint Autumn, because of the colors, because I love this season. I was inspired by this scenery. I was in high rock mountain, let's say, and hill, and I had this view over the trees from above. And that's why I decided to use this as a source of inspiration. Also, if you can see the clouds, the fog is something that really evokes emotions in me. That's why I will also try to represent it in my illustration as well. The other source of inspiration, something that I often very often propose to do in my classes is to create your own moodboard. So I created the moodboard in the pinterest, where I also pint a lot of similar photos of the forest woodlands from above, obviously autumn colors. So I will look at them both for the colors, but also for the shapes of the trees because there are so many of them, and in the In the other lesson, I will show you how you can explore this kind of inspiration, shapes of trees. But you don't have to always use your head. Go to the reference. What I would only encourage you to do is to use the photo references, not to be too much inspired and influenced by other artists or illustrators, just in order to seek for your own style and your own inspiration. So I will leave you the link to the smooth board, otherwise, create your own moodboard, see what you would like to grow. Are those forest trees from above or maybe some other layout, some other point of view. Don't have to do it from above. You could do it just a simple forest sample, straight ahead point of view. It's up to you. Have fun, feel inspired by whatever you want, by whatever season you want to and have fun. 9. Quick Color Palette: If you want to build your color palette from scratch, if you don't have a lot of colors, and maybe you're not sure what colors to use, and I will show you a simple way on how to create very simple color palette from basic colors. I will use basic colors and I will mix them together. Since I will work on autumn theme Autumn forest, I will use warm colors for my forest, and now it's up to you if you want to paint maybe spring colors, then obviously you would like to use other colors. But the rule to apply will be the same. So pick up your basic colors that you want to use. Three, four, let's say maximum five, just to stay simple and quick and prepare them in your color palette. So I'm adding a little bit of water into each color. And I will use two kinds of yellow, cool yellow, and warm yellow, and also magenta, and the parle violet, the kind of my room that I used for the exercises. When I'm ready, I will switch out all the colors from my palette, and I can also start to mix them one with another. You can proceed by painting each color with each color. There's no rule here. Just do it with your own system. But try to create different mixes of your basic colors. Oh, I forgot that I also have white. Sorry. You can also add white for your washes. It's a good solution for translucent colors. Let's say that you would like to have yellow that is more opaque and not so translucent. Then to your semi opaque translucent color at a little bit tiny bit of white, and it will make your color more opaque. It will be lighter, of course, by adding white. Also, it will be more opaque. So sometimes it works good. Since I'm running out of space in my palette, I'm taking the Other palettes, as I told you in art supplies lessons, I often like to recycle different packaging that I have at home different. Plastic surfaces, works really fine. And since I wanted to paint create bigger quantity of the color that I like for my final project. So let's say I like this kind of orange that I created. I want to create an abundant quantity of this color for my final project, so I won't run out of it. I could do that in my palette, but my palette is too small, so that's why I'm using my extra recycled palette. It's also good for Gach because you don't have to use this color right away if it's not acrylic ga. If it's traditional gah, then you can also do this in order to use your color later on. You don't have to use it right away. You can keep your palette and reactivate it with water later on. It's also a, let's say thing to do with ga. If you like some kind of color, you can create a separate container with this color and use it in the future, even in amounts of time. It will be dry, but if you will cover it, protect it from dust and you can reactivate it with water whenever you want. I proceed with creating my tones and hues of warm colors And since I'm a big fan of flu colors, I will add my my red color into my palette to make little spots into my illustration. If you like fluor colors then feel invited to use them as well, depending on what kind of palette you create. Maybe it's not so visible in the video, but, it's really flu very bold striking color. I decided to add greens as well to my palette. What I did is that I use the yellows that I already have, and I add ultramarine color with different proportions. Sometimes I will use more blue, sometimes more yellow. If you will add orange or maroon to it, then it will be more dull and not so vibrant, so it's up to you. Again, I can create diferente, different hues of yellow. As you can see with this technique with several colors by adding white, by mixing all the colors together. You can already have simple and lovely color palette. Let's keep it simple. Let's keep it Pam. And I cannot wait to see what kind of palette did you create or what kind of season? Is it Autumn as well, maybe winter, may be summer, or spring greens? There are many possibilities. I will stop here. So see you in the next lesson, we will paint different trees and start to imagine our forest. So see you there. 10. Tree Shapes: Trees, shapes of trees, forms of trees, how to paint trees. So if you're taking this class, then I'm guessing that you probably don't want to paint to realistic forms and shapes and to realistic trees because I want to show you how to paint more simplified forms, how to paint with more stylized kind of illustration. So in this exercise, I want you to start from building the forms, the shapes of trees before painting the details. And to do that. We will paint just geometrical shapes. Use your wash. In this case, you can be more diluted or dense, it's up to you. And think of the shapes that comes to your mind when you think of trees. It could be oval. It could be circle. For example, I painted the triangle as well. You can paint half circle, Maybe also a square, why not? You interpretation to continue to paint the geometrical shapes, and then we will jump into painting the branches. Now let's paint or draw details, branches, trunks. If you already took my class classes, if you know me, then you know that I really explored the theme of trees really well, and I painted a lot. But I always like to challenge myself to change, to find new ways. Those simplified trees, really those geometrical shapes are something that I like to do right now. So if you want to follow this kind of style, then go for it and explore different mediums. For example, you could try different brushes to see different brush strokes. So right now I'm using angled brush or maybe this one is more like a dagger brush. I use it often to paint leafy grassy textures. You explore your brushes, see what different shapes and lines you can paint with them. If you have some other brushes then round brushes, then try them out. If you have only round brush, then see what you can do with it. For example, later on, I will show you how you can make leave shapes with just pushing the tip of the round tiny brush. This is how you can use around brush to paint leaves with a tip tip shape. I also have this strange brush, seems like a bird's tail and I use it to paint bushes leaves. Now I'm jumping into pencils, colored pencils. Remember to use more greasy, more waxy, pencils, they will cover your gash. As for the inspiration, look at the photos of the trees. Explore different shapes of the tree crowns, of trunks of branches. And most of all, have fun, explore new ways of drawing. Don't be afraid, paint as many trees, shapes as you want until you're happy and satisfied. I cannot wait to see what you created, so if you want to share your trees in your project as well. Let's jump to the next lesson where we will finally start our final illustration. 11. Final Project: Now that we have all our exercises done. We did all the gah warm ups. We painted trees, we painted our background texture and created our palette. Gather your things and think of your final illustration of your colors of the trees, and let's jump in. First, let's think about composition. So think about what elements you would like to add to your illustration. If you want to paint forest, as me, if you want to paint some other animals than birds. And I will paint a forest from the bird view and the birds that are flying over small I mean, faraway trees from above. So I will paint I will draw different size of birds, and then I will cut them out and in this way, see different layouts, play with different compositions. It's useful tip, but you can also just do small swatches, several swatches, sketches where you will paint different compositions. It's up to you. I will finish to cut out my birds, and then I will do some testing of different layouts. This method of creating a composition can be useful for a couple of reasons. One is that you don't have to draw many times your composition. You just have your birds and play as much as you want until you're happy with the layout. The second one is that I will work also with masking fluid. In this way, I will know where I will have to precisely apply my masking fluid. So if you're new to masking fluid, I have a separate class about it. So be sure to look at it if you don't know how to apply it. What kind of medium is it? I explained everything in the class. So basically, it works. Usually It goes with watercolors, but it also works really fine with Gach since Gach is like watercolor. You can use it with different mediums. Anyway. So right now I'm applying it under the shapes where I placed the shapes of the trees. And I'm applying it with a silicon brush. I don't do it directly from the bottle because it has some issues and it's too fluid. I think it's also a little bit old and I wasn't able to apply directly from the bottle. Another tip would be you could apply it with silicon brush, but anyway, it's everything it's also in the other clash about masculine fluid. The other tip would be for you if you don't have skin fluid or you don't want to apply it, mask your forms and shapes. You can also paint directly over the trees. For example, I could paint with white quash over my trees because ash can cover the layers beneath. And since I want my birds to be white, I could do it both ways. It's up to you if you want to use masking fluid. I like to use it. I like to create textures with it, so that's why I decided to use it. All right. Once it's dry, as you can see, it's dry, when I touch it, it's a little bit tacky and seems to be like a rubber gum, and it's important that it has to be dry before you will paint over it, otherwise, you can ruin your paper. And now we can jump to create our background texture. So the same thing that we did in the last exercise. Again, if you're happy with the outcome and you would like to proceed with the exercise, go for it, I will do it once more time. So to repeat briefly the process, use wet on wet technique and start with light and diluted washes and build up your illustration with more dense and more dark colors. I paint also the shapes of the trees. I will do more or less the same thing that I did for the exercise. Think about the shapes of your trees. You can start to suggest the forms already in the background. T also the composition if you want big trees, small trees, this kind of stuff. I will speed up the process. O. As you can see, I already have several layers, a couple of layers, and I'm painting the third layer, so my trees are der and color is more dese. I have the exercise with the trees on my right side, I see different shapes and I choose the one that I like. I will also introduce new colors. I will introduce green color since I didn't do this for exercise, but I don't want it to be only orange and red, even if it's autumn a forest, but still a little bit of green will give a lovely contrast. It won't be to too boring as a palette. I also will alternate shapes of the trees. We'll add some triangles, maybe half circles, I will play with forms and shapes of the trees as well and continue to paint new layers of trees. Do we have limited palette right, but also we have a lot of colors. My good tip for you how to paint different colors in your art is to distribute them in equal way all over your artwork. For example, when I use this olive green eye painted trees more or less in all the places of the forest, then I switch to under color and place it more or less in equal distance in all over the artwork. In this way, the viewer will see different colors distributed equally, and it will help the eye of the viewer you know, not to be guided in just the one direction of your artwork. And it also helps in the harmony of your color palette in your artwork. Maybe you ask yourself, at what point you should stop. Well, there is no really good answer here. It's up to you. It depends on what kind of artist are you. If you like more clean art and like to have clear spaces, then obviously, you can do some art that is really different from this from this messy surrounding. Or if you have something like maybe I have, which is horror Vaki, it means that You don't really like empty spaces in your art. So it's really personal, and there are no right or wrongs, really. So I continue to add elements. So this is a good thing about wash that in the end, you can continue to build up those layers to paint over what you already have and in this way. I think it's a little stressful, maybe than water colors. Anyway, I add pine trees because I thought to vary a little bit the shapes of trees which are basically all round shaped. So I already ask you if you like fluor colors. I use it quite a lot in my art quite often. Even if you have to be aware that it doesn't show if you want to scan it and print it. So it will become flat color, not flu color. It's only visible in real life. So for example, you can see also here. It's really difficult to see. It's real hue. It's how it really is. So this is flue My red of turner, acrylic ah, and I will just paint tiny details. If you never used fluor colors, maybe you can try it. I mean, if it's definitely not your thing, then skip it, but if you never tried it and you have some luer colors in your home, you can see and test maybe it will work for you. It adds just a little bit of sparks. Also, I heard that flu colors are not really light fast. So it's good to put some UV varnish over to protect it from light. Otherwise, the color the fluor color can disappear. Apparently, it's not so good and it disappears in time. So probably I will apply UV varnish after I finish this piece. Oh Finally, I decided that I will call it done, and I start to paint details. So I start with guash. I will test different brush strokes as I did for the trees exercise. And also here, good tip is to use the same color for different parts of your drawing, for example, if right now, I started with my flu color. So I will pick several trees in different places of my drawing in this way, it will all be harmonious and it will result both varied and harmonious. I will vary also the shapes of branches. I will continue in this way. I will swatch different colors, I will paint with different colors, and I will vary the shapes of the branches and trunks. I will also paint colored pencils. And I will try to as as possible. The kinds of trees and branches. As for the colors of details, I will use the same ash palette that I use for the base forms, and the same for the pencils. I will use the same family of colors. So greens, oranges, reds, Also, I will use brighter colors, lighter colors, white, creamy white to brighten up a little bit the colors, but if you will use the same colors as for the shapes of the trees, the art will be more harmonious. But remember not to use the same color on the top of the same colors. So you can play with contrast. For example, I don't know lighter color over the darker color, red over the yellow, et cetera. In this way, it will be varied and colorful, but at the same time harmonious. Also here, it's up to your personal taste, how many details you want to paint, if you want to do less then do less. If you want to fill up all the page, then go for it. But it's really tricky not to overwork your illustration. I think it comes with time, but it's also something personal and it's personal taste. So it's time to remove the masking fluid. I think I finished to paint and draw, and my birds are almost disappeared. And I have some difficulty to remove that skin fluid, but that's because it's old. I think that's the reason and it's really sticky and it's not going away easily. Usually it and it peels off much more easier. Also, it often depends on the paper. Some of the papers will react in the way that your skin fluid will tear off the paper. Yeah, that's something to test maybe before you apply it. Mm. Anyway, I will help myself with the foil. Plastic foil. I will just show you in the second. For the other bird beneath, I used other masking fluid and it worked better and it removes easily. But also you can see the lovely texture it created by applying it with the silicon brush. This is also the kind of effect that I really enjoy, and that's why I like to apply it also with silicon brush. This is the plastic foil. This is a simple kitchen sophon, plastic foil that you used that you used in the kitchen. And it's a good tip. You can also use razor. There are also specific rubber gums that are made to remove masking fluid, but I don't have any, so I just do some homemade tips. V. All the birds are there safe and sound, but they're too flat. I will just add some dimensions to them by adding darker spots, some contrast. Maybe some lighter gray as well for the feathers, but right now I want to define better the contrast. I will paint the beak, for example, and There are several ways that you can do this. You can just draw the out line all around the birds, but I don't want to use it. I don't want to do it. Sorry, because I like the texture that I have. So I don't want to just paint a simple line all around. So I will add some dark spots here and there. You could also paint a shadow, for example, or paint some darker colors. Also around your bird here and there, just know to suggest maybe darker shades and a little bit of shadow. So I will build up those darker colors. And I will use for it just pencils. At this point, I want to use squash because I want my birds to be white, and I think they already are popping out from the colorful background, and I don't want to, you know, use other colors than white and some light lighter colors. That's why it's better for me to apply apply it with color pencils. Again, if you didn't use masking fluid, but you would like to have maybe bird or at this point, I don't know, maybe some other animals that sputs out from the trees, maybe a deer, maybe a rabbit. I don't know. Then you can do it also with white wash. Why not? Try it out. White or other color. Yeah, it's up to you. I will finish to paint details of the birds. So it's finally time to remove the masking tape and see our illustration as a finished piece. But to be honest, it's not finished. Already, I invite you to the next lesson where I will show you some extra bonus technique to add a little spark and atmosphere to your forest illustration. Before we will do that, let's recap what we did until now because maybe this is the point that you will end up your final project. We explored Guash in a more creative and expressive way, and we build up layers from more diluted to more dense, but still in very let's say creative and expressive way. We were thinking about our composition beforehand by cutting out elements from paper, which is very helpful in your layout. And also, you can think beforehand if you like more minimalist and clear composition or messy and full page, or you can just decide during the process. So enjoy your painting, enjoy your exploration of ash, and I invite you to the last bonus lesson. 12. Bonus: Welcome to the bonus lesson where I will show you a little extra tip. If you like mixed media, then I hope that you will enjoy this part. I don't know if you know pa pastels. Those are pastels compressed in a pat. And I usually apply them with the sponges that are specifically for pan pastels, and I will do it to create this atmosphere of fk or clouds, let's say, I use it in different situations. So here I show you how I apply pan pastel. You can try to apply it also by your hand or maybe with a brush. But I found that those sponges are really cool and I prefer to use them. They are specifically for pan pastels. You can buy them together with pant pastels or in art supplies chop. There is also this applicator in form of a smaller sponge and you have different shapes shapes of it. Right now, I'm using the larger sponge. And as you can see, this thin layer of sem translucent pastel is applied. If you don't have pa pastel, maybe you can try normal pastel as well, soft pastel. You can obviously try it by applying it in a normal way or you can do a powder from your pastel and scrub it into your illustration. You can explore this kind of application of pastel as well. Otherwise, give a try to your pampas tel if you have one at home. I have different and I use them in different situations. Right now, I'm using a creamy light colors, of course, for the fk or cloud effect. The other thing that I often do with pam pastels is that I cancel it with erase. For this, I use the precise erase in the form of pencils, and I often use it to add textures here, I'm showing you that you could, for example, paint a tree with pam pastel, and then by erasing it, you can negative painting way create branches. Also, if you want to uncover some parts of the layer, you can erase it. For example, here, I'm trying what will happen if I will paint pain, create branches by erasing p pastel. But then I thought that maybe it's not the case. I again covering it. As you can see, you can smudge it with your finger as well. The difference between Pan pastel and the normal pastel is that you can apply it in a more uniform and opaque way. It doesn't mean that normal pastel is wrong, but it will be different. Try to explore it. If you have pan pastel, try it. Otherwise, you can try it with a normal pastel and see what you can do in order to create some atmosphere out there. I hope you will enjoy. I'll call it done and I think it's enough. I don't want to cover to too much space of my illustration. I guess it's more cloudy effect than a **** effect, for example, the illustration that I did last year is more like a fo. That would be it. Next lesson will be the final lesson, and I will leave you just some final informations. 13. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for taking this class. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope that you learned something new about Guash. And if yes, then please share it within the project gallery. I cannot wait to see what you created, your artwork, so share it with us. I also encourage you to comment on your colleagues work. It's always so good to have a simple feedback about what we do. And about the feedback, I would also appreciate your feedback about this class, so leave a review if you can. And I also invite you to see my profile. I continue to create new classes, new content about different art techniques, and I would love to explore a lot of them with you. So I hope to see you here very often. I will also be happy to welcome you on my Instagram profile. Also, I have a small YouTube channel. So I hope to see you here as often as possible. Until then, I wish you a very creative time. Bye.