Class description:

Have you wanted to paint black and white animals but felt intimidated? Have you heard that you shouldn’t use black paint from a tube but didn’t know what else to do? Have you painted a black animal but felt your painting was a little dull or flat? Then join me to learn about mixing lively black and neutral colors!

In this class, we will learn

A few color theory basics
Tips and tricks for choosing paint combinations
Common color combinations
How to make and adjust black and neutral mixes
How to plan your painting to get a variety of values and shades

During this class, you’ll have the opportunity to

Try out color combinations with paints in your current collection
Adjust your black mixtures to make warm and cool shades
Practice mixing colors on both the palette and the paper

We’ll take these new skills and knowledge and put them to practical use painting a simple but lovely watercolor orca.

This class is geared towards mid-to-advanced beginners who are looking to learn something new without adding too much complexity. If you have had a little practice with your supplies and feel comfortable with them, come join us to take a step to the next level!

Project idea:

For this class, your project will be to paint a watercolor orca using two paints of your choice. Before getting started with this project, there are a few exercises you’ll want to complete. These exercises will help you practice new skills before you apply them to your painting. The exercises are:

Lesson 6: Example Combos - Mix your own choices of paints!
Lesson 7: Mixing Warm and Cool Shades - Make partially neutralized shades
Lesson 8: Mixing on the Paper
Lesson 9: Quick Intro to Wet-on-Wet and Edges - Make different types of edges

While these exercises aren’t officially part of the class project, feel free to upload them as part of your project. Share with us what you learned to do (or avoid!) and any insights you gained from these exercises.

When we reach the class project, I’ll help you produce a beautiful work of art by:

Explaining how I plan my painting
Reviewing how you can personalize your orca
Narrating my choices as we paint the orca in sections
Discussing final adjustments you may choose to make

When you’re done, post your final painting to your class project to share with our community!

If you have any questions during this class, feel free to pop them into the Discussion so that I and our community of students can address them. Also, I’d appreciate a review of this class once you’ve finished it. I would love to hear what you found most valuable AND what your biggest challenges were so that I can make the next class even better!

Thank you for joining me!

Note: This reference photo for the outline and painting comes from Amaury Laporte on Flickr and is available under a CC BY 2.0 license. This license requires attribution and changes made must be noted. If you share your painting to your personal social media (and please do so your friends can see your wonderful work!), please follow the terms of the license.

Video Lessons Outline

Skillshare classes, on average, include 20-60 minutes of pre-recorded video content broken down into a series of short, 2- to 8-minute videos.

Tip: In addition to the linked Help Center articles throughout this section, you may find the following articles helpful:

Teach With Confidence for tips on how to get comfortable on camera and ways to show your authentic self in your lessons.
Prepare to Film for suggestions on what visuals or other assets you might need to prepare for film day.

Intro Video

No more than 2 minutes in length, your intro should share a bit about you and your background. You should also provide a brief overview of what you'll be teaching, and outline what students will learn and why your class is important.

Helpful Resources:

Planning Your Intro Video

Title:

Welcome!

Format:

Talking Head, Physical Demo

Visuals:

Black/black & white animals, clips of lessons

Length:

~2 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Hook - We’ve all heard the saying “Never use black paint.” Well, how else are you supposed to paint wonderful animals like these? By taking this class, you can learn how to paint black animals without ever picking up a tube of black paint.

Intro - Hi, I’m Lyndsay Newton, a watercolor wildlife painter. As a pet owner and former zookeeper, animals have always been a huge part of my life. It’s no surprise that they entered my creative life as well.

Art has been a part of my life for years. I’ve worked with other media, including quilling and needle felting in 2D and 3D. Watercolor has been of particular interest for me. It’s been a pleasure to take my artist’s eye from these mediums and apply it to watercolor. It’s my pleasure to share what I’ve learned in my explorations with other artists - including you!

Value - So, what is it about black animals that make them so challenging? While you should “never say never,” there is good reason to avoid black paints in your work. Premade black paints can come across as dull. When you create black paint by mixing colors, you create a rich black color that can bring your watercolor animals to life. You can also create warm and cool shades to liven your artwork even further. On top of all that - it’s just plain fun to mix up colors!

Who? - This class is for beginners who have worked with watercolor some but are still looking to grow their color mixing skills. It’s also great for anyone interested in discovering how much they can accomplish with just 2 colors.

What? - To achieve this, I’ll cover some basic color theory plus a few extra tips. We’ll see what color combinations we can use and practice mixing colors on both the palette and paper. We’ll adjust our mixes to get warm and cool shades. With all that under our belts, we’ll paint a simple but lovely watercolor orca.

Alright! Let’s get started!

Project Video

Take some time to explain the project and what students will submit.

Helpful Resources:

Planning Your Project Video

Title:

Class Project

Format:

Visuals:

Length:

~2 min

Lesson 3: Supplies

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Supplies

Format:

Physical Demo, Talking head, jpgs

Visuals:

Presentation of supplies, jpegs showing where to find files

Length:

~2 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Water cups with lids

Palette

Pencil

Kneaded eraser

Transfer method - trace with light, trace with graphite paper, or freehand

Rag

Paper* - HOW MANY FOR LESSONS AND PROJECT

Paint*

Brushes*

*Recommend students to invest in quality supplies. Poor quality supplies can work against you and keep painting from being fun - personal experience.

If using cheap paper for exercises and good for project, that’s fine, but some exercises should be done on the paper type you will use for project, and I will point that out in each lesson where applicable.

I provide:

List of supplies I’m using

Reference photo

Outline

Final painting example

Extended set of combinations to make black

Lesson 4: Color Theory

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Color Theory

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Color wheel, Swatches to show warm and cool

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Traditionally, 3 primary colors are red, yellow, blue

Each reflects the light of the color you see and absorbs the other wavelengths of light

If all light is absorbed, you get black, which happens when you mix all 3 primaries

Complementary colors

Warm and cool colors

Lesson 5: Tips When Picking Paints

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Tips When Picking Paints

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Swatches, Dots of Hansa YL plus P Scarlet and PB(GS) in equal amounts, mix and paint in circles on paper

Length:

~2 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Avoid granulation

Avoid multiple pigments

Consider soft vs strong pigments

Lesson 6: Example Combos

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Example Combos

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Swatches, painted mixtures in ~1.5 in squares in rows of 3

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Go through Y, R, B and show potential complementary combos with swatches

Show one mix up

Show a few favorite mixes (full list of mixes in reference file)

Have students pick 5 combos from their supplies and mix up, painting each color, one on either side of their mix

Lesson 7: Mixing Warm and Cool Shades

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Mixing Warm and Cool Shades

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Mixing warm and cool shades from a combo, set of 5 ~1.5” squares with a color on either side, each shade next to its predominant color, and the black in the middle

Length:

2-3 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Reminder of warm and cool shades.

Demo getting a mix halfway between one color and black

Have students pick favorite 3 from previous lesson and mix, using 5 squares - 2 of each color extreme, 1 black, and one each halfway between color and black

Lesson 8: Mixing on the Paper

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Mixing on the Paper

Format:

Physical Demo

Visuals:

Demo mixing the paints on the paper, 2 ~1.5” squares to demo a single pair, one square per color

Length:

~2 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Determine where you want your black

Lay down 1 color

Add paint where you want black

Blend out

Exercise: Paint the 3 2-color mixes on paper. Have 6 squares, one for each color, and mix black and blend out.

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Quick Intro to Edges

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Clips from class project during definition of each edge. Demo techniques

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Review 3 types of edges used

Demo Hard Edge with Wet-on-Dry

Demo Wet-on-Wet

Demo Softening Edge on Wet-on-Dry

Exercise: Wet-on-Wet and Soften Edge - Practice with various levels of water on your paper until you learn what level gets you the results you like. Then paint wet on dry and practice softening edges.

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Plan Your Painting

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Reference photo

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Review direction and where to put lights and shadows

Discuss color mixing (on paper, emph main color; on palette for light gray behind fin, muted second color for chin)

Point out some hard edges and edges to be softened, in addition to letting the water do its thing

Suggest alterations - could plan one color at edges and one more central; could rotate orca for any angle/direction of light and plan different shadows

Remind students they have an outline they can transfer or draw their own

Premix and test neutralized colors to make sure you have the shades you like

In addition to the items in the Supplies list provided to the right, you’ll want to premix your partially neutralized colors (one warm, one cool) and you’ll need an outline of the orca on a piece of watercolor paper. Feel free to make your own drawing from the orca reference photo or use the outline provided, along with graphite paper, a light box, or a bright window, to transfer the outline to your watercolor paper.

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Painting the Fins

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Painting pectoral and dorsal fins

Length:

~4 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Explaining choices as I go along

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Planning Your Class Lessons
Lesson Delivery Tips

Title:

Orca Project: Painting the White & Gray

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Painting white and gray areas

Length:

~4 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Explaining choices as I go along

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Painting the Head

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Painting the head and upper body

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Explaining choices as I go along

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Painting the Body

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Painting the central body

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Explaining choices as I go along

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Painting the Tail

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Painting the tail and flukes

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Explaining choices as I go along

Lesson

Each video lesson should focus on one core concept or technique.

Helpful Resources:

Title:

Orca Project: Adjustments

Format:

Physical demo

Visuals:

Final painting

Length:

~4 min

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Pointing out any areas that could be changed for personal preference

Any touch-ups needed

Tip: Need to add more fields to plan your lessons? Just highlight the entire Lesson block above, copy it, and paste it as many times as you need below this tip box.

Conclusion Video

The last video in your class! Summarize key takeaways and encourage your students to post their projects to the Project Gallery. Don’t forget any final reminders, such as asking students to leave you a review or follow you on Skillshare.

Helpful Resources:

Planning Your Conclusion Video

Title:

Wrap Up

Format:

Talking head, physical demos

Visuals:

Clips from lessons that match key concepts

Length:

Talking Points and Key Concepts:

Thank you for taking this class. I hope you enjoyed it and found it valuable.

As you continue with your art, don’t forget the key principles of mixing lively blacks and neutrals which include:

Mixing complementary and near-complementary colors

Choosing non-granulating paints and paints with only one or two pigments and

Choosing strong colors for deep blacks

In the end, don’t be afraid to test out something new! You never know what you’re going to discover.

Thank you again for joining me and I hope to see you again in another Skillshare class.

Lyndsay Newton

Wildlife Artist in Watercolors and Felt

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