Wolf. A Free-Flow Watercolour Masterclass with Jane Davies

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] Hello and welcome to this intermediate watercolor class. Today, we're going to be painting this much-requested wolf together. They are very special animals steeped in mythology and folklore, and I've always been fascinated by them as they resemble our much-beloved pet dog, I know you're going to take a lot of knowledge from this class. I'm Jane Davis. I live, paint, teach, and walk my lovely Spaniels in the beautiful South Downs National Park, England. Over the last 15 years, I've taught myself the free-flow technique that you see today. Not having been to art school, finding my own way has been fun and sometimes daunting, but it has allowed me to develop my own style. This has led me to teaching others either on a one-to-one basis or as part of a group in a wonderful studio in the heart of the South Downs. Also, I own a successful commission-based business, painting pet portraits and wildlife art in my own home studio. In all my classes, you will follow along in real-time where I can guide you to keeping your work loose and fresh without over-fussing. I have over 20 classes valuable in Skillshare now. If you're just starting out, my three beginner classes will guide you. Then you'll find over 20 masterclasses covering a wide range of beautiful subjects. In each one, I'll share the techniques I use in my own professional work. We have a lot of fun together and you'll gain the understanding and confidence to incorporate everything you learn into your own work. Plus, I'll share a few of my tips and tricks along the way too. As ever, I've provided you with a wonderful reference photo of him along with a downloadable template for you to print out. The template gives you a stress-free drawing, so you can just enjoy painting. I'll be showing you the joy of simply placing paint onto wet paper and allowing the paint to work their magic. I'll be guiding you through sectioning areas off and adding two layers where needed to create some depth and interest. I'll also be showing you how to create those beautiful sulfur lies. Of course, I'll share many of my professional tips, tricks, and musings as we work our way through the class together. If you'd like to learn more about me, or my work, please pop over to my website at janedaviswatercolors.co.uk. This can be found on my profile page, along with links to my Instagram and Facebook pages. I'm very active on my social media pages, where I love sharing my art, especially on stories with many ideas, works in progress, and tales of studio life. I really hope you will share all your paintings on the projects and resources pages, as I love seeing your masterpieces. Don't forget, I'm here to help if you get stuck or have any questions. I want you to experience that buzz of painting in this liberating wet-on-wet, loose style. So come and join me. [MUSIC] 2. Materials: Welcome along to this wolf class. He's actually been a much asked on requested subjects, so I'm not entirely sure why it's taken me so long to teach it, but it's been really fun and lovely to put together for you, so I think you're going to love this one. So as ever, I shall run through the materials I'm using today and I'm going to start with my paints. I have a girth light, brown ocher, which is a nice warmer light ochrey tone in it. Then I've got burnt igisi, genuine a real favorite of mine when I use in a lot of the classes actually, it's a nice granulating color. Sepia, again, another favorite of mine if you follow my classes. Then I have a tiny little bit of white gouache, which just for the catch lights in the eyes, nothing else. Lunar violet, which is a nice quality color, it's nice, granulate beautifully. I got a satellite, genuine, which is, again, just the purplely luliky toned in here. It's a really pretty color actually. And I've got a yellow ocher and that's for the eyes. And I've got a transparent brown oxide again just for the eyes. I got a hematite genuine, which is a brilliant color, actually, one of my very early colors I bought from Daniel Smith. I've gotten about it, but it is lovely because it really granulate and push the other colors around. So a really fun one to add to your collection if you haven't got it already. Now if you haven't got these exact colors, please don't feel you can't do this class. As I say, just have a look in your own collection of colors and obviously, I haven't followed this wolf colorings exactly to the reference photo it's very different, so I would find something that's removes around and granulate if you have something like that. But again, if you haven't, don't feel you can't do this, it would be lovely to see, and some people come up with some amazing color combinations. So, yeah, feel free to experiment with your own colors, and don't be afraid if you haven't got any of these because you'll do a stunning job I'm sure. So next is the paper, and this is Bockingford and it's £140 and it's being stretched onto a board. I will put a link to the paper stretcher which I use, which is really handy whether you can get in other countries, I'm not sure, but if you're UK based, you definitely can. Otherwise, stretching your paper, I would suggest having a look on the Internet, on your web browser, and find the best ways to stretch paper because there'd be lots of different ways and it will explain it better than I could ever. So if you're unsure on how to stretch paper, it's worthwhile because then you have a nice straight, flat surface to work on, it's not buckling. Also, I've got some pot of water. I have a little rubber. I have this it's about an inch high, it's just used to pop my board up so I can tilt. And those who are familiar with this little heart, my puppy found it and has chewed it. I don't know if you can see it, it's now got teeth marks in it. But hey, I guess it adds character. So I've got a bit of clean film or shrink wrap depending on where you are in the world and what you call it, that's just to give this nice, interesting texture here. A bit of paper towel kitchen roll. Brushes, so I've just paused because I haven't got my pencil in the lineup, so here's a pencil and I've got four brushes today. The first one is just called Eradicate Billy little brush, if you haven't got this, it just takes color out wonderfully. I've got a size 8 round. I've got a number 2 round and I've got a very fine number 1 rigger, just for doing whiskers. Just find something that you don't have to have those exact sizes. Just a nice big round, smaller one you feel you can do a little bit of detail with and you'll be absolutely fine. I have a hairdryer off-camera, which is quite handy just to finish off drying layers, so you can carry on with the next lesson. It's handy but not essential. And lastly, there's a lovely template and great reference photo in the projects and resources pages and I always say, don't feel using the template is cheating. This class is all about the technique of painting, not about drawing. So use a template and give yourself a head start so you've got a good shape to work with. Well, I think that's it. I don't think there's anything else I need to tell you. So let's go and sketch him up and then we can paint him. 3. Sketching Out: Before we put any paint on, we need to sketch him out. Obviously, I've already done this. I'm just going to give you a few little tips that will help you when you come to sketch yours out. As you can see, he's very loose. There's no defining edges, everything is very wishy-washy in that coat, but there are some important lines we need to get in to make it all work. Most importantly I spoke before I start on those is the eyes. Really makes sure you get those in the right place and get the eyeball just right as well. There's a little half moons, so take your time with those. Obviously there's no hurry at this stage, so it's worth giving a little sketch out and leaving it and coming back in 10 minutes just to check there's no obvious things you've missed. Now, I've done a little dotted line, which is not probably very obvious here, but it will be very obvious on the stencil or template. I will mark it in a different color for you. But it's worth putting this in because we're going to be wetting certain layers and missing certain bits out. It's actually the white parts beside his muzzle, underneath his eyes. This is the white markings there either side of the coat. Get those in because it's going to be really helpful if you do. The other line that's important is this coat line here which runs up here. Just wiggle that in. It doesn't have to be exact, but it's just nice to get it in. This way it's going to be very loose down here, through further down, but just make sure you get a little bit of fluff here. It's all quite straightforward really, especially if you've used a template, which I would advise you doing, but obviously it's up to you. The line here, there's a nice frowny line here and the eyebrows. But the main thing is, or one of the main thing is you try to keep your pencil marks as light as you can. Now obviously mine's quite dark so you can see them. It's more of that. But the goal is to have the light enough that you can rub out and you don't see them on the main piece because it's just nice if you don't see them when you finish your little masterpiece. I don't think there's any other little hints to help you. Just take your time as I say. Any commission I start, I would always sketch out, come back half an hour. It's all it takes really. Just relook at your drawing before you start. I think I've probably said enough. I think we need to get some paint on him. 4. Ears: On to the fun bit. Let's grab our bigger brush and we're going to get that nice and wet, and we're going to start with the ears, let's keep it nice and simple. I tend to start with the ear because it's something you're starting your painting and then not too scary to start. We can section them off quite easily and allow for that paint to move around, we've got started as it were. You want to wet down both ears, nice and wet. Make sure you stay within your pencil marks and you've covered it all and a good trick to see whether you've covered it all. It's just a duck your head or tip your paper slightly into the light and you'll see whether you've missed any bits, you just don't want any dry patches you want it all nice and wet. Otherwise if you do the paint runs around the dry patch and it doesn't allow it to flow in as much. Nice and wet so it's not paddling but it's very near to paddling and is that wet. A lot of people just don't realize how wet you need it to be to allow that paint to move and do the job for you really. I'm going to start with my, I'm going to pronounce this wrong as well geoflight. [LAUGHTER] I'm going to start on the left hand side ear. Just going to tap some coloring working, you can see the warmer areas. I'm tapping that in, I'm also going to pick up this, the tiger is all in my hand at the same time. Give it a bit of a squid. I sat on my desk for an hour at the top on that little tap. See that starting to move now, if it isn't moving, maybe you haven't wet your paper as much as you thought you had. You can always tap a little bit more water in and that will allow paint to run again. I'm not trying to get anything defined in here as I say, he's so loose and he's so open to interpretation. Coat colors and wolves are probably very unique, so we're not having to thankfully find your copy and exact marking. I've just picked up my sepia, three paints in my hand now, now I'm going to try and get that darker line in it's running down the right hand edge. You can even dibble. Dibble is always nice. It just allows it to run a bit more involved than, than actually painting it on. Always trying although there's not an obvious light source, I'm recommending this is a lighter side and this is a slightly darker side. It's quite nice to do that so you get a little bit of contrast. I don't actually want to add too much paint here, so it's all very nice and loose. I want to get that darker areas so let's get rid of some of these, so the darker area inside the ears. I've picked up the lunar violet and I've got with sepia. I'm going to start with the lunar violet, it's a really nice color actually this. I'm tapping and allowing, doesn't have to be exact. You don't have to get them in exactly right place, just an impression. Probably a flick of the year and the whole pattern and markings would change if that makes sense, just the angles so it's just an impression. The thing is to be brave and allow, I'm going to leave that and see how that looks. If I keep adding it's going to merge and I'm going to add too much paint. Pushing some of that back, I don't want it to move I want to try and keep that nice white area in the ear. We're doing almost exactly the same with the right head ear, make sure if you're in a warm area or warm place then make sure hasn't dried on you. Just tap a little bit more water and just to make sure we are heading to spring in the UK and it's actually really sunny at the moment on. I'm looking forward to build a warm weather. I've picked up my bedtime because I have got a lunar violet which I shall put down, let's have that geoflight and let's start tapping that. Again a bit down here and I can put the tigers I had to top of it, doesn't matter. Get it to move a bit more up this ear, I will pick up that lunar violet to go in a nice bit of lunar violet and this corner here. Run that up into the center that ear. I was pondering where I've got this a tiny bit too wet, it's almost paddling too much and not giving me any. To define this I can feel it's sitting on top of the water a little bit more. I'm just going to hold for a minute, and it probably was the case actually with this ear as well, to push some of that back. You probably got your timing better than me, but I'm going to add a little bit more strength onto that side of the ear. This is me being a little overeager as ever. Much better. It's blending too much is lost some of that strength because the paper was just a bit too wet. I'm going to hang on a tiny minute and then I added a little bit of water to show you how you can add more water if you were in a warmer place. I think I've over saturated enough and gently pull some of that up. It looks a bit better there let's use a sepia, I just want a little bit of darker than the edge. You don't always have to go all the way down one edge, you can do a little parts of it just to catch the eye. I'm going to put a little bit more there, I just feel I want that nice and dark, that corner there. Now we're actually not doing particularly any more layers on him, on the ear. We may wet down, but we're not actually not good to actively put too much more color on here. I'm going to do a few little flicks out to here, a couple little bit up here and I get too carried away. There's not that many but a little bit, see that because you have, there's a little. Just realized my back line is a little bit too low. I need to move that up a bit I'm just going to sketch that, I'm going to rub that out. Yes, that looks better. Adjusting on the fly, put these down there. As ever we need to allow that to dry because I like to allow layers to dry before I move on, especially in the classes. It makes it more straightforward so we can carry on with the next class in a nice orderly fashion as they say so, yes, allow that to dry and we'll do the next bit in a minute. 5. Body First Layer: We've started the painting, haven't we? Look at those ears. The next bit, are you ready? We have to work fairly quickly with this one and nice and loose. Firstly, get whatever you've chosen to just tilt your board. My poor little heart's being munched by my puppy. Anyway, I'm just going to pop this under my board so it's giving me a tilt right down to this left-hand corner. You can see that. Let's move up a little bit for the time being to cut these off. Hope that would be more helpful for you. Yes, I've got a nice tilt here. I'm going to pick up my bigger brush, wet it, and then take the excess moisture off. Then we're going to add color all along this line we've jotted in. I'm going to start off with something just a bit cooler, I think down the bottom, and a little bit more strength. We're just popping down, it's nothing very posh, we're just adding it like a little potter space and then put it back down. I might put a little bit of a styBC in there in there. You can pop them on top of one another, really doesn't matter. That's a bit of tiger's eye. I turn up a nice lump there. It's almost sitting on we've always picked up a piece. If you're using pans, give you a really good russells, you've got lots of paint on your brush. Some bit of sheer of light. I can't get enough here on my brush. [LAUGHTER] A little bit of slug light. Doesn't want to pick up either. I put it down there. I go again. Before this dries, you can wash your brush, it needs to be nice and wet. It's almost dripping and don't take any excess moisture off to split your formula from the water. We're going to go straight in. We're just going to russell along this line. Wipe that little lineup. Well, now we're going to be lovely and loose, we're just going to pull some of this down. Let me think of it. It's not moving to give out blood vessel, move it around, let it flow. That's why it's really important to have this on a tilt or it won't move for you. We can pull it right off the page. Give them a russell round. You can leave some nice white patches. If you could almost do this with your eyes shut, it would probably produce you something really interesting. But you know the theory, hopefully, just to keep it lovely and loose. We're going to do a few flicks before that dries. Pull from these down, just some wiggle marks. This is sticking a bit. I'm going to give it an hour before Russell and you can add if you feel you didn't get enough paint on, it's looking a bit washed out. You can simply just add a little more paint there and just allow it to run. That's absolutely fine and to do that as well. You can have a mixture. Try and if you can stand to even if it's just for a short while, on this is a really good time to just stand and get away from your picture. You can see what's going on and you get impression further away if your sitting it's quite hard to work really loosely. What color have I not used? Let's have a little bit of Lunar Violet for a better strengthener, allow that to run. You just want something this interesting. Obviously, the reference photos that are cuts off, we can't really see what's below him so we're guessing. We just want something that's pleasing really, has nice sense of flow something interesting. Am I going to have the ocher dye? Let's put a little bit of ocher. It's not coming out very ochery. Contaminate it a bit, it's better. You can even add a little bit here. Now before I fill too long here, we're going to need to wet this area. Let's get on to do that. What we're going to do now is to wet. Let me put a little bit of color in too, so you can see what I mean, we're going to be wetting this area here. I'm just allowing it to run. Just allow it to run into the interior line and off if it needs to. Up to these dotted lines underneath the chin up to the ear, along that back, and just join it up. The idea is it starts to run in there and push some of the colors out as well. You don't get a very solid line. But you also want to add a little bit of color into this area we've just wet. I'm going to break off light put a little bit there. A little bit of tiger's eye. Again, it's the same principle, just something that's pleasing, not adding too heavy. Just keep everything nice and light. If you can possibly stand, it's a really good technique to just the keeping things loose, I think. Let me put that down. A little bit of Lunar Violet. There's quite a strong line here. Hopefully, you can see that on your reference photo and let's just get that little bit into it, helps on the final piece to make it a little bit sent to the actual face and the structure. Here is yours looking. If it's looking like you've got a bit of a line going on you can just put some more water. You can even give it a better tilt if you want. Just allow it to run a bit more. You can play around with the height, your paper is at. Just watch out because if you're adding as much water as I am, you'll end up with lots of puddles. It is worth just sucking some of those up. We need to do just a few flicks out here. My little brush. Again, those as well. Flicks up, flicks some down, try and start solving the middle to try not to stop right on the edge here with you. It's very tempting to go too far then. Vary your brush sizes as well. We need a cling film down as well before that dries as well. As I say, there's a lot going on in this layer. Let me just step away from it. Let me have a look. I think is picking. Actually hoping I'm quite pleased with that. I might put just a bit of sepia and a bit of the Lunar Violet. Maybe just a little bit more line in there. Just something a little bit of somewhere. Also because we're going to put the cling film on this area it's quite nice to obviously have some paint for your cling film to work. You can also add just a bit more paint and maybe actually show them the photo. Just the cling film does some nice marks. The minute you think you've got something and at the point you think if I do much more on going to ruin it, then stop because I'm getting there. I'm just going to make sure my line is nice and neat there. Just going to strengthen darker lineup. Drop a little bit of water and just keep it all soft. I think I'm there. Let's put those paints down and get my little bit of cling film. [NOISE] I have off-camera. [LAUGHTER] Tear a little bit off and I'm going to lay this on over these areas. Where we put that strong line of paint is going to straddle the two. I'm going to go over the top. That makes it. Then I'm going to do squeeze it. I wanted to look like this. I'm going to pinch it. It gives the impression the coat is still running down. It makes sense. You don't want it squeezed that way. You've got the lines going that way. You want the lines you cling film running down. We'll see how that dries. Now the only thing we cling film is it takes a little while to dry. This is a really good opportunity if you've got little jobs to do or you can want to go and have a better lunch. It takes probably an hour to dry. You can speed it along with a hairdryer. I probably will just because I need to get the class filmed. I will allow that to dry for at least a quarter of an hour before I put the hairdryer on and I will show you. I probably won't film me hairdressing it. But I will probably start on a very low setting and have it really close. What you don't want to do is to go underneath the cling film and lift it up if it's still damp so you want to try and dry it. We can hold the cling film and hair dry it. The trick is to not let the cling film blow away. Ideally, if you can leave that to dry there, that will be the best way. See you in the next lesson. 6. Head First Layer: Now I'm rather impressed with my patience. [LAUGHTER] I actually allowed this at least 45 minutes to dry and I went to sit in the garden. It was very pleasant. When I came back, I just heard your idea as I showed you in the previous lesson and peeled off gently. Onto the head. We need to lay this flat to take your support or whatever you use to talk to your board. I'm actually going to move this down a bit so you can see better. It's the brush underneath. We're going to wet down the head. I'm going to use just a little bit this hematite to show you where I'm wetting stuff down so you can see clearly because it's a bit complicated. This little bit of color is just for you to see why I'm wetting down, so you want to add a nice, clean water. We're going up to the ear, up to top of the head, again around this ear, right out to the end of the fluffiness. We're going to miss out the inside of this dotted line. Let's put a bit of color down so you can see. I'm going round and in around this square here we wet. What we will do, wet it down. Once we've done the color down and almost dried, we just wet these layers so they then merge a little bit, but it just allows us to keep that nice, white separate, so we keep the [inaudible] in it. Then around the eyes, you're going around the makeup. Hopefully you can pop a bit more color. I did stress this color is just for me to show you, but so you're going around the makeup as well. Then same the other way, Write down that little edge and touch where we put that darker little line to touch right up against that. You see almost it starts to bleed and you're touching the existing color. You get a little bit of bleed, which is absolutely fine. Then down it is tiny little toggling down to the muscle around the nose, right down to that dotted line where we cleared on this. It goes right down underneath the nose and on top of the nose and fill it all in so all needs to be wet. As I say, if you're taking your time wetting stuff down, you quite often find where you started has started to dry, so just drop a little bit more color in so you've got what we call a nice working wetness. It's not saturated and sitting in puddles, but it's very close. If you're unsure and you're still not sure, it's worth and it's very boring, I know, but doing little squares on a piece of scrap paper and just dropping color as the paper begins to dry. You'll get a gauge of how quickly the paint moves in wet water and how little it moves when it begins to dry. I think we are ready. If I squint my eyes, I can see where the dark is. We're going to start the muzzle here in just one color. I've got this hematite genuine, which is a really lovely color and I'm going to use tiger's eye if I can find it. We're just going to literally all nice and loose, just dibble that all the way up. Hematite is an amazing color for pushing out the colors out. If you haven't got it in your collection, another one to add to your shopping list. We should come down here a little bit, down to those corners of that sectioned area off. We're just going to keep adding colors, so it just keeps moving out. I've got a T-shape that comes over here a little bit. Let's grab this and circle it. I'm going to clean my brush first to get it nice and clean and we're just going to tap. Get enough paint to my brush, I'm going to tap it across, just tapping and add a little bit hematite if it's not giving enough color, but we don't want to go into these eyebrows. You see where you've left your marks with the eyebrows, you want to leave those out. It will merge, but you just don't actively want to put paint into it. We are going to comes down to a little toggling. Just keep an eye on it. It's lovely. If you can stand, just try and stand a little bit because you can really keep above it and see where you're going and seeing how it's looking because obviously yours is going to look different to mine at different stages and you're probably using different paint, so they might be reacting differently. We will do another layer here. If it's looking a little wishy-washy, then don't worry too much because we will do another layer. Add a little bit the tiger's eye and do from the nose upwards again. We will use a bit of p of light even. I will get this name right at one time. I think I've said it wrong so many times that I can't remember which is the right way of pronouncing it despite looking on YouTube before I started. We're the tapping up against that blocked line, right up against there. Where is that transparent brown? [NOISE] I've got four tubes in my hand now, but there's a lovely woof around the I want to start getting that in as well. Again, just tapping. I can put a little bit of the hematite with it, move around. Accordingly, this is a he. [LAUGHTER] I'm not sure why I decide he or she on these paintings, but this is very obvious. It is okay. That's with the hematite and with a bit of toy zoy and I've got a bit of transparent brown. Again, just tapping. Again, same symmetry here. It's a little bit lighter, isn't it? We say keep in mind to keep it a bit lighter. Now some of my color is starting out and my paper just buckling a little bit as it's sitting in a puddle here. I want to keep those eyebrows a little bit clear. Just keeping mindful just to suck some of that paint up if it moves in. Again try and look away. Another nice area to try and keep clear is also underneath the eye. You can see it's very obvious white patch underneath. We're just going to carry on strengthening on the left-hand side, but just keeping mind a little bit lighter. I've used bit of sunlight and a bit of hematite. I just want to keep this side just a bit lighter. Let's say we do another layer. This is just getting ground for better depth down and the next layer will give you. We can then add where needed. I think that's actually looking quite nice for this layer. The risk is, certain parts will start drawing. I can see this is drying now, this is still quite wet, this is quite wet up here actually still so I can continue, but you start getting on shaky ground when little bit start drying and other bits aren't because it's easy to forget where your dry bits are. A little line down there. [NOISE] I'm just trying to use a bit more strength there and a bit more strength here. If you squint your eyes, you can see where those dark patches on. I'm just working on the dark patches. A bit of light over there. He had got some amazing colors and it's lovely to be able to try and capture them. That's with a bit of transparent brown, a little bit there. I think I need to stop. I'm mindful, we need to join these patches up as well. I'm [NOISE] just going to pop these colors down. Now you're going to have to judge your own piece at this point. When you join these up now, I can see on my piece here, this area around here is beginning to dry so I can quite happily join these up. My brush, I clean it off, take the excess moisture off. You want your brush the same wetness as your paper. You don't want to be adding a lot more water at this stage. We just want to join them up and they will soften. They touch right to the edges. Again with this one, I can see mine is yet at the right stage so it's just going tacky. This is right actually now, but if he's paddling at all next to where you're going to join these up, just hold on a minute. Just don't follow me if your paper's still wet. This is a really good reason why you want to keep your lines as light as you can because if it wasn't for the lines, this will be lovely and soft now, but obviously you can see the lines quite clearly at the moment, but that's fine. That should all just soften enough and reserve our white for us. If I squint a little bit, I just haven't got quite enough depth there, so I can just add very carefully, I'm probably up the hematite because that moves a lot. Let's have a little bit of tiger's eyes, not quite as much. I just want to tap a little bit in there and a little bit over there. That will obviously then soften into that white patch. I'm multitasking trying to concentrate on the painting. Here some a little bit of lunar violet. I need to take my own advice. I need to stop because [NOISE] I'm going to risk over fiddling this and I say there is another layer. The best thing to do, we're going to leave that to completely dry or dry as much as you can before you put a hairdryer over it if you're using hairdryer. If not, then leave it to completely dry on its own. 7. Head Second Layer: Lovely. You can really see him starting to come together, can't you? It's always a nice stage, you're like, I've got the first layer down you can start to see your painting coming together. This is another quite a big layer. We're going to wet quite a lot of areas down and we're going to put this makeup on. Have a little bit of time. If you're looking at your watch thinking, well, can I do this quickly? Just give yourself a bit of time for this one. [NOISE] Just opening up my iPad, which is switched itself off. We will be wetting the ear down. Both ears will be going right around. Instead, we're going to do be doing that makeup. We're going to be going around the eyeball. We're going to be painting in that makeup if that makes sense. We're going around the nose and we also will be missing out these white patches. I don't know best way to tell you. [LAUGHTER] We'll be doing exactly as we did before. We'll be joining them up. We'll also be wetting this chest area down. Best thing if I start I think so. Let's wet these ears down very gently. If you ever wet to start, if you're doing a second layer, you want to keep everything ever so light. Keep your gear brushes touching because you don't want to disturb that first layer. Obviously, some will move around, but you don't want to actively disturb it as much. You want to keep it as soft as possible. You will find you're adding probably more water than it is necessary. But we can always soak that up as better. Better to apply it gently. We're coming down around the eyeball, but we're going inside the eye this time. But we're missing the eyeball, so I'm missing that colored yellow. I hope that makes sense. Don't worry if you see here of these colors ever so softly you're probably fine it's starting to shift a bit. Don't worry, keep it nice and light. Keep your brush nice and soft. Say we're missing out those squares we missed before going around the muzzle like we did before. Underneath the ear nose and then we're running down the chest as well. To the line, we added the paint on that very first layer we did on the body. You duck your head until you can see the sheen where you've added the water. You can see where you've added it. It's quite easy to miss bits when there's lots to wet down. Also, I put a hairdryer over this. If you hair dried your first head layer, you'll find your paper will be a little bit warm. You'll find your paper will be joining as well. I'm going to add a bit more water there. That's all nice and wet. The reason for this layer is we're strengthening ready. If you went very strong on your first layer and you think goodness, that's quite strong. You can almost intake a little color out if needed but really, ideally, you'd have kept it nice and light. We're adding a little bit of strength where needed ready. I don't really want to go into the ears too much, but the reason I added them in it's so we lose that very exact line where they were wet together. Just give a little bit of softness and blend. But if you again, if you've found some part of your ears is a little bit washed out and you want to add a little bit color, you can at this stage, but I'm not actively going to do too much to the ear. We have to see a dry patch. [LAUGHTER] I'm going to start. Again if it's really wet, you want to do the bits that are going to move the most. The areas you want to be as soft and the paint to move as much you start on those. We're going to leave the eye makeup to the end where I know the paper will be a bit dry and the paint won't move as much. I hope that makes sense. I'm going back to doing that with the hematite and the burnt tigers eye. Squinting my eyes, I'm going to add that little bit of strength. The forehead again. Obviously, there's a nice strength by the eyes using that stripe. You'll find this second layer, your paint won't move quite as much as they did on that first and that goes, as you build up the layers, you'll find, your paint won't move as much. It's a nice way to gain control where you think you haven't gotten any control. When you start adding layers, you'll find your paint won't move as much, so you can build up a little bit of strength without it wising too much. Now where's that that lunar violet? Let's add little bit lunar violent. Look at your piece, so it's going a little bit brownie or vice versa, and then add another color in that you want to add. Don't be afraid is very much open to interpretation. A little bit there. Just squint your eyes back and forth to that reference photo. If you can flick your eyes back and forth that gives you a really lovely, almost superimposes itself. Let's have a little bit of sudden light. Don't want this peach too strong up. I'll top here, so I'm going to keep it nice and soft add that little bit. If you squint your eyes is almost like a V is now running down. I'm going to add a little bit of hematite this side. Tiny bit of the color at the top. Once I get rid of that pencil mark, I want to be able to see that there is a little bit of something going on up there. Go finite. There are too many. Can't jugal that many of them at the moment. Let me put some of these down. Go down on this muzzle line. Let's find the transparent brown. Let's try and keep those warm areas around the eye as I start build some of those up. I see a tiny little white so I will try patch there. Again we want to bear in mind to try and keep the eyebrow reserved. Just keep them ever so soft. I didn't want to reserve in what we did here, just that it was a little bit too much. The trick is just not add the paint on those. Bear in mind we got all this wet down here, and also I'm just going to add a tiny bit of water, because I can see this is beginning to dry and I don't want this dry yet. I don't want to wet these patches down in a minute, but if I allow this to dry too much here, this is going to be dry, so when I try and wet this, there will be no blending. Just keep an eye, makes sure everything stays as much as you can, wet. You can always just add a bit of water. Just tapping a little bit of color, one that's a bit tiny a little bit stronger that side. Let's have a little bit of hematite there. There's this line that runs down here. Again, you can do a few more flicks if you flick a little bit. Didn't do much on the first layer, I can do a few more. We can flick some of this into your clean filmed, just do it really random. Just pull some of that down. Keeping the brush ever so light. Again, you don't want it to rustle with that special clean filmed markings, so keep ever so light. I'm just going to put that tiny of a hematite there before another potential cool coat line in there. Don't get too particular or worry too much where those lines are. Just something that looks pleasing. Put on hematite there and keep that strong line. Is quite important line this one here that runs from the here down. I'm just trying to get away from it, I'm going to look away. I think that's looking all right actually, I'm doing okay. Let's have a little bit of lunar violet. Still want to build this bit of strength here, these eye markings here on the right. Not so much on the left, but just a little bit. We have lovely lines. Now my paper is beginning to dry here, so I can just put that line in, that's running down the forehead. There's also a very soft line here. You want it so it's beginning to dry. That line you put in, it's ever so soft, it just blends. Personally, I don't want it very hard, but there's nothing really to stop me putting it in later, but I like them to be nice and soft. I'm just putting those lines in there. That's a little frown line, isn't it? Well crease line is always the first creasing. You might find that this is disappearing, so put a little bit more, there isn't enough between the eyes. I need to keep the eye open as it were [LAUGHTER] to do this makeup. Now this is beginning to dry. This is still wet. Mainly I added some water here, didn't I at that stage there? I reckon this is ready. So it would be the stage you'd hair dry it out. If you've got a texture paper it's beginning to be dry on the tops of the textured paper. It's a little bit getting used to what it looks like. It's quite hard for me to show you on this camera. I don't want to move it, but it is beginning to dry. [LAUGHTER] It's probably the best way to put it. Be mindful, you don't put your hand in any bit. But with the sepia and your little brush, you want to clean your brush and get this lovely and creamy, a good amount. You don't want to add too much water. You want to get a nice amount on your brush. We're going to do this makeup. I'm going to go underneath, start right up against the eyeball. Out a little bit. Just tiny bit up at the top, but not too much. This makeup really starts to bring him to life. Just going to go quiet now with concentration. That's looking right. I don't want to put too much of a line now, I might even paint that in when it's dry, actually at the top. I don't want that to blend too much or disappear. No, I need to hold for a little bit because that's still wet. Now, I'm probably going to join my left hand squares up now because that is drawing. Just with a damp brush, same as you did in the first one, just join them up. You should find that. Just gently blend and if it hasn't, we feel there still a bit of a strong line, like a boxy line and you can always just add a little bit of color. Just go around those markings. Just so allows it to blend in a little bit. We don't really want to be left with two square boxes. Say, look away from it and see what you think. That's done pretty well. I think I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm going to join this one up, just beginning to go. I'm just going to pop a little bit of hematite right underneath the nose, and give it a little bit of shadow underneath. Just paint too much down there. I'm actually going to join this one up as well. Equally, if it runs into much, you can always just soak it up or like we did with the other one, you just add a little bit of more color around the edge of it. So be glad at this one, there's a lot going on. Lots to think about, isn't it? I think we're just about ready to do that sepia now. We're going to exactly do as we did with the first eye , to go around. Make sure that the eye makeup is very similar, otherwise you want to keep them as close as you can to one another. I'm actually going to put a tiny little bit of lunar violet in here to strengthen it out. Let's make that a bit darker. If it moves a bit like mine is, don't panic, just clean your brush. Just put a drop of water. Just gently push it back in. You'll also be clipping that white area underneath the eye, clear as well. You want to keep your eyeballs even as well. That one needs to look the same as that one. Neatly put my fist in it. Make sure they're the same size. We can always shrink them down a little bit or alter them when we do the eyeball, but it's quite nice to get them done at this stage. I think we're doing all right here. Just looking away from it. I'll put a couple of flicks out of here which I haven't done. Pick up that [inaudible]. Don't want anything too heavy. Put it back here. It's actually dry up there but I don't mind. Soften that a little bit. I'm getting to that other tricky stage again. I can see bits of drawing, so I'm going to be careful. [inaudible] creases have gone a little bit, so I'm just going to add those in. You see how dry that is. How it's beginning to dry. Put a little bit of lunar violet, it's going to crease and disappear again. I think I'm there for this layer because again, I know if I overfill too much, I'm going to ruin what I've managed to achieve so far. [NOISE] Like me, I would leave it to the stage unless you're confident that a lot of it is still wet and you got little bits to carry on with better. Just be mindful and careful you don't overdo it. It's ever so easy. Yes, we just need to allow that to dry and we're going to pop the eyes in and that will definitely bring into life and we can see where we're going a bit more. 8. Eyes: Let's get these eyes in. Let's really bring him to life. Fairly simple layer, the first one. I'm going to wet down each eyeball and you're going to be touching where the makeup is and butt up against it as it were. If it blends a little bit, that's perfect. Same with the other one. Now we ocher, whichever color you've chosen it's a nice yellowy orange. Almost did it obviously red gold but didn't in the end, but yeah, there'll be plenty of other colors. All you're doing is literally just dropping the color in, tapping it in just so you got a nice intensity. Same with the other one. Nothing fancy. Just make sure you got a good amount of strength. Go right Right the eye makeup. We're going to pick up the transparent brown. You don't want to add too much water at this stage on your brush and make sure it's damp obviously, but not so saturated. We're going to tap a little bit of transparent brown along the top. It's coming out a bit murky. Just to give you a little bit of shadow. Well, it's always a nice thing to put shadow underneath the eyelid just gives a bit more, generally, there will be in essence of the light seen showing up underneath the eyelid but it's always a nice look I think and I will tend to try to do that. Same in the other one. Just tap it in. Add a little bit more water if it's gone a little bit just like that. It's a little bit playing really. If it is moving too much and it's gone too far down, you can add a little bit of ocher to almost push it back up again. Same with this one. You'll know when it looks right and the minute it does look right, stop fiddling. I think I'm there and I need to stop, and we'll allowed that to dry and add another layer in a minute. With a hair dryer as soon as it's starting to go off, but don't [inaudible]. [NOISE] Now once it's dry, we're going to re-wet it again. Same process, clean your brush. Make sure it's nice and clean. Tap a little bit of water in. Always apply it if you're doing another layer, just go very gently over the top. Because it's such a tiny area, you'll find you probably got a little bit of a bubble. Now at this stage, we can make sure that our eyeball is nice and round. We're going to actually take a little bit of color out around that, knock back that sepia. That makes sense you're just rounding the eye. We won't do another layer over this, this is just making sure things are sort and you've got your eyeballs about the right size from one another. Adding a little bit more color if you need to so I'm going to add a little bit more transparent brown just again at the top. The more color you put underneath this eye, the more surly he looks but a little bit more menacing, I suppose. Just give you a little bit more presence I think. Tiny little bit of lunar violet. You may have enough. It's a little bit, judge your own piece. Tiny bit again up on this right-hand eye. Now we're going to add a little bit more ocher. We want these eyes to ping. Now we need to just gauge it the right time we need to put the pupil in. It's always a little scary so I'm going to use sepia because I know that doesn't shift too much and I'm going to wait until it just [inaudible] to go off so I know it won't move too much. Just waiting. [LAUGHTER] You could almost paint it in dry, but it tends to look a little bit stary so it's nice if you just soften the edge, you just soften a little bit. I'm going to wake this up and make sure I've got a nice amount on my brush, I'm ready to go. I don't want to be adding any water at it this stage so this needs to be nice and creamy without too much water. Again to start, the eyeball actually goes right up to the very top so that does make it a little easier. You can start in the middle and just gently work your way out. Take your brush away, have a look. Tap, take your brush away, have a look. Bring it down a little bit more. It comes down a little bit, doesn't it? Take your brush away. [LAUGHTER] Now I'm going to go quiet. Concentration. It's looking all right. I just need to let a little bit of sepia off that corner. I have a lovely one-to-one lady, she was a Skillshare [inaudible]. Hello, Linda. [LAUGHTER] We were talking about how hard it is to obviously guide everybody in what stage they're at because obviously, you're all going to be at a different stage now in how your paintings reacting so I just have to go with my piece. Onto the next eye, I'm going to do exactly the same because I can see that's beginning to dry. You have to judge your own piece and hopefully, I can guide you as much as I can but that's the joy of having somebody sitting beside you, you can go a little bit there, a little bit off there. Again, I can see that's just blended a tiny little bit too much so clean the brush, take any excess moisture off. I can just gently bring the eyeball back up again to our pupil. You can always add a little bit more color. [NOISE] Mind that darker area underneath the eyelid. A tiny little bit of [inaudible]. It's just a fiddly stage just like a little bit one minute you have it, next minute it disappears so it's just not panicking. If it really does go a little bit pear shape, I used to struggle with the eyes and sometimes it's best to let it dry, wet the eyeball and eye down again and just start afresh again or where you were at that stage where you thought, oh goodness, we're going muddy. Because drawing it gives you just a bit of a pause somehow and you can somehow see where you've gone wrong. I think that's looking pretty good actually. I'm not sure I can fiddle much more at this stage, but what I want to do before it actually completely dries it's just to take that light out gently with a clean brush, no water. Not too much excess water. Let's put those down I'm [inaudible]. We're just wiping some of the paint away just to bring that really lovely sense of light on those eyes. They almost glow then, don't they? I'm going to leave it at that stage. I'm going to let that completely dry for a minute and we can then tidy any areas up if need be, or they can be done in the finishing-off stages, we'll have a look when it dries. [NOISE] I rather like them at the moment. I can see I've got a few raggedy edges here on the eye makeup, but I think that's best done in the finishing off stage. We can just soften and just shape some of these and just take some of that hard edge of which if like me, you've got as well. But I'm pleased to have my eyeballs gone. Yes, I hope you got the same stage. [LAUGHTER] Brush it down, we're going to do the nose next. 9. Nose: Nose is nice and easy and it's quite a satisfying thing to do. I'm going to use my little brush and we're going to wet the whole nose again, light right against your existing colors. Now I'm going to use the hematite and the lunar Earth. I'm going to get the same colors on my brush at the same time. I'm just going to tap along that bottom and allow it to move up. Keep tapping. You can give your board a little tilt if you feel that will help. Generally it should move up on its own. Keep tapping. We want to reserve that little bit of that lovely light on the top so clean your brush, if it's not moving, maybe a little bit of water sometimes helps. Pull it up against the side, go around a little bit. I'm also going to pull down my tiny brush. Actually we're just going to put that little mouth piece in. Hit the dark area underneath it. Just up to see a bit of chin. Just a hint don't get too much. Just join it up. Your nose is done. We will put the nostrils in once that dries, but it needs to dry we might do that on the finishing off bits as well. Add a tiny little bit more. A little bit more strip at the bottom that'd be nice shown at the bottom. Lovely. I'm going to leave it to do its thing. [NOISE] 10. Finishing Off: Right then, lovely people, we are almost there. So just the last little bits of tinkering. I realized that we didn't put those catch lights on the eyes, so we should do all that. Firstly, I'm going to rub out these pencil marks because it just makes it come to life, I think a bit more. Again, so very gently, and make sure it is really dry. Such very upsetting. Get your rubber out and find your painting still a bit wet. So hopefully your lines were lighter than mine. Mine are a little bit heavy just so you could see what I was doing. So I can still see some of mine. That's as good as I can get. Now I'd like to sort out the eyes first just so it helps me to see the painting I think. It's just a nice bit to do to get the eyes fixed. So all I want to do really is just to shape this eye makeup. We either put a little bit on so I can just see scrolling into my iPad a bit more. I just need a tiny little bit more color here. These are all the finishing off bits. Not always necessarily relevant to how your painting is looking. So I will just go around my painting and guide how I do it. Some bits will be relevant to you, some bits might not, so don't necessarily follow me on everything. So be a guide to your own piece. So I've just popped that in there. We just need to put those. No, let's stick to the [inaudible]. [LAUGHTER]. I'm getting distracted. I just want to let that dry really. So I'm going to just move over to this left-hand eye and I've almost put too much makeup on, so I'm just going to wipe a little bit away and get that shape right as well. You can see it's a nice, it just pulls in a little bit there and comes back out. Actually, it hasn't got such quite a lot of paint here on that flick. So I'm just going to use my finger deeply out of it. Equally at the top, I just want to shape it. It's really nice stage now because there's nothing wet at the moment, so we're not rushing. You can just be quiet and still. I will just go around and look methodically, and look at that reference photo, really flick your eyes back and forth and you'll be able to see the bits that need doing. I just want to pull up that eyebrow. A sort of frown. There's real obvious markings here, isn't it? It just pushes into the eye a little bit, pull it out of it. Fingers are great. It just squishes the paint without actually taking too much off. So I'm liking that. I think that looks quite nice. So let's stick to the eyes. Let's not try and get carried away with all the bits. This little bit I'll be drying out. So I'm going to do exactly the same as I did here. Just shape that very strong marking. So your bit might be fine. So look at your own piece, see what you think. Just soften that bit. A bit of a squeegee just to stop it being too hard. My flixer got a little bit too much. Again, just a bit of a squeegee. Shape of my eye isn't too bad. Lost a bit on top. Just add a little bit now. I say look away and try and get your eyes. That's really important. I said that the sketching out bit is to make sure your eyes are the same size because it's so important because the rest of it as you see is ever so loose so we're really relying on the eyes to focus in and give us our shape. Equally these tear ducts. I can see mine. This, again, it's a bit too heavy compared with that one. That can [inaudible] either soften. Murky there. I think they're looking quite good. I might just have a fraction too thick still. Some of the previous, recent classes I've done the next day lesson, so I'll see how it looks the next day. If I feel there's a lot, I could still carry on adding to, I will record it, if not, then I've been pleased with it. So I'm just picking up the little white gouache, we are going to those catch lights in to get a lovely creamy consistency. These catch lights are lovely. They are in the right position, but always try and put them where the animal is looking. So they're obviously looking straight at us so I'm going to put it top almost. I'm going to follow that reference photo pretty closely actually because they're in a very good place. Look at that. I really made it ping. But make sure that again, they are even with one another because that will be a big tell with your eyes when you look at it. Let's leave those actual eyes for a minute. One of those [inaudible] was [inaudible] little side distracted with at one point. I was putting. So I'm going to grab my hematite, I just want to dabble a little bit of paint down here and on the other side just to get those eye. Not even sure what they are actually. They are almost like the eyebrows, aren't they? But they are really strong. But they're very obvious, aren't they? So let's just try and put those in. Again, just soften that line down. Now we could try it. Let's try and work methodically around. So I'm going to start at the very top. I'm going to look at this. This has gone a little bit heavy. I'm just going to take some of that color out. I'm just going to use the soft brush. I've put a kitchen clean kitchen roll. I'll just dab some of that out and get rid of some of that very obvious. You can still see my pencil marks, which is a shame, but I'm going to just do a couple of flicks with a [inaudible]. So I can actually get some paint on my brush. Just a few. See that won't disappear off the camera. [NOISE] Let's just take a very hard line off where it's gone up against the wet paper. I quite like the ease of doing things is an awful lot to take off there, but I might not just flicking a few with molecule eradicated brush. Let's just do a few flicks into that dark area that we put in. Again, you want to just block that out with a kitchen roll. Just an impression. Again, you can do that same with the other ear. If you haven't got one of these eradicated brushes, they are amazing little brushes. They really lift the paint out. I want to do just a couple here? Careful if you use the same colors, mean somebody Daniel Smith paints ever so easy to lift out. Tap with my finger. I want to lift it out too much. I've obviously got very obvious pencil mark which I can't get out, but I'm just going to leave that. I'm working day down here. You can add a little bit of it. You can add a few flicks in here if you feel your flicks weren't very obvious. I'm going to use a hematite because I don't want too strong. Just a little bit soft. Again, I don't want to do too much, just an impression. You can tidy up the edge down here, so I'm just going to tiny bit of paint there. From that out, now, we need to put just a hint of a chin. I'm just going to take a little bit of color out from underneath this dark mouth area we put in. Just lift it with a clean piece of kitchen roll. It's not very obvious, but I think it just helps. Lovely. We'll do the nostrils in a minute. I just want to go round, so taking any color out. This patches are worked well. I'm pleased how they've worked, so that looks okay. I don't think I want to add anything. No, I think I could put the [inaudible] again. Could add just a few little flicks to put into artificial in some helmets too flicker or too obvious. Go flight. Being random again as I've disappeared off the other side [LAUGHTER] at a covering their hair, so it looks nice. I'm moving around. Again, I could do something, something similar. Just here few flicks up the back, but I think the risk is personally for how I liked my work to look a little bit carried away. I think I'm going to leave it. I'm not going to pop a little bit, just a few there. Quite an obvious one there, isn't it? Sometimes you just do suddenly, oh, yes, that was good. I'm glad I did that. Other times, you're like, oh no, I shouldn't have done that. Let's put those down. I get carried away. Can we back up here? I've got a legal bit raggedy with the top of my ear, inside of my ears I say. It's going to take some color out. Can piece of kitchen roll. I think you can always put these frown lines, take coat line to the same order that they've creased. Put those, picked up the hematite again because that's a very soft color. If yours didn't come out, you can add those in or maybe you're very prominent. I'm flown lighting coming out as well. From those my finger, you going to pull this ear to the function down a little bit, same with that one. Yeah. I think we just need to put those nostrils in. With the lunar violet little brush. Don't want them too obvious, they're not really that obvious, but just a little around, and the I flick up. Find a spare piece of paper. [NOISE] Move on it. The little round, and then they flick out, and that's this shape here, flick out. Saying the other side. Say, thankfully in this one you can't really see them. It doesn't really matter if they're not 100% precise and we're going to take a little bit of color out, but they're generally that shape. That helps. [LAUGHTER] Just need to wait for that to dry a little bit. Whiskers this yellow thing, so while that dries, let's put those in. With a tiny little bigger brush, I'm going to lose the lunar violet again, clean my brush. You can avoid it. Now we're going to do some really. You could do with a pencil if you're not feeling brave enough because it's a bit scary, we could put a fine liner pen, just a quick flick out. Heavy there. He probably would have them up here as well. He couldn't actually see them, but a couple up here as well. What's called a little bit heavy. We can rescue that. [NOISE] I think we're getting there. We're almost there. I just wanted to take a tiny little bit of light out. These nostrils so they are dry now. It's just a little hint. You can plop them with your finger. It's going to make that nostril just a tiny bit bigger. It's going to look little smooth skimpy. Put that line down the middle. Usually have a crease which you can't see but pop-in. A little bit hard on the edge so soften that. Only tiny little things that there's such a small tweaks, but they do make a difference. Yeah, the last thing I want to do is just this line here. It actually comes out a little bit further. What if in the corner of the eye runs down a little broader than I've got it. Say yours might be absolutely fine, I don't necessarily follow all my little tweaks here, because yours might be absolutely fine to say have a look at your piece and see what you think you need. Necessarily follow all my things. Yeah, I'll be interested to see what it looks like a little bit later on when I can see it with a fresh pair of eyes. I feel there's something not quite right. I can't put my finger on it at the moment. But if I see could be this eye, I touch too much makeup. Anyway. Yes, if I see something that's very obvious that I think I can help and refilm, then I will film it for you. But other than that, I really hope you've enjoyed painting him because he's been a challenge. You've had to move quite quickly in certain stages, but he's ever so satisfying to paint. Yes, thank you for following me and as ever, please do share these on the projects and resources pages. Any questions again, pop those in the discussions on each class. I'm hopefully quite quick at answering any questions, so don't hesitate to reach out if you're stuck on any part. 11. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] I hope you enjoyed this class. Wasn't he a joy to paint? How dissecting those areas of go is a good way to gain control of your painting and make it feel less daunting. Did you add that cling film? It's a great way to add a little bit of texture and interest, isn't it? Hope you enjoy painting the beautiful eyes. Don't forget, the hint of shadow under the eyelids makes all the difference. As I always say, it's worth stepping away and coming back and looking at your work with a fresh pair of eyes and tweaking if necessary. We look forward to seeing you in the next class. [MUSIC]