Assignment

For your final class project, you’ll use observation to paint a bird of your choice with watercolor.

Before diving into the main project, we’ll create mini paintings to practice some fundamental techniques.

The project for this class has three parts —

Practice Project 1: Basic Watercolor Techniques
Practice Project 2: Painting with Light & Shadow for Depth
Final Project: You can choose your own reference image or use the ones I have provided, or even paint the Toucan alongside me in the class.

Your steps:

Watch Video 1-2 to get an overview of the class, your project, and the materials required.
Watch Video 3 and make your own Night Sky mini-painting to practice the techniques you’ve learned.
Watch Video 4 and practice painting lights and shadows—you can paint anything of your choice—a lemon, bells, an apple, a pear, etc.
Watch videos 5 - 12 and then do the following steps:

Select a reference picture of any bird—preferably one with black color in it (or you can use the ones I have provided in the Resources section).
Observe the reference picture and identify the light source and the lights and shadows of the subject.
Make a pencil drawing (or you can use the ones I have provided in the Resources section).
Paint the subject you have chosen using the techniques learned in this class.

Materials Required :

Watercolor paper
Watercolor paints (tube or pan paints)
Paint brushes in different sizes
2 Jars of water
Paper towels
Pencil
Kneaded Eraser
Clipboard and Masking Tape
Heat gun/ Hair Dryer - Optional

I have provided a detailed list of the materials I used during the class, it’s attached in the Resources section. You don’t need to have exactly the same colors as mentioned throughout the class. You can use similar colors that you already have available with you. The biggest thing to consider is using a varied range of values and tones of colors.

Project Resources:

Pencil Sketch — Lemon Branch
Reference Image — Toucan
Pencil Sketch — Toucan
Detailed list of materials with swatches of colors I used throughout the class
Resources for your assignment —
- Reference Image Penguin
- Pencil Sketch Penguin
- Reference Image Puffin
- Pencil Sketch Puffin
Final Paintings
- Practice — Night Sky
- Practice — Lemon Branch
- Class Project — Toucan
- Assignment — Penguin
- Assignment — Puffin

Sharing your artwork:

I can't wait to see what you create! You can share any aspect of your project in the Project Gallery, but here’s what I suggest:

Your first practice mini-painting using the basic techniques of wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry.
Your second practice project—identifying light and shadows for depth.
Your works-in-progress from any stage of the project.
Your final project of painting a black bird.

Pay special attention to:

Studying the reference image carefully
Preserving the highlight
Preserving the light colors of your painting
The movement of your brush to depict roundness.

Remember to just have fun while painting!

If you share your art on social media, be sure to use the hashtag #createwithsaumya, so we can all see what you're working on! Please reach out to me if you have any questions or need extra guidance.

Happy Painting!

Saumya Lakhotia

Watercolor Artist

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