Welcome back, fellow artists and art-lovers! 🙌🖌 Hope you guys getting started with watercolor, or looking to improve on your shading techniques find this full class helpful. 😬 *For immediate access to my libraries of exclusive, real-time, fully-narrated sketching and watercolor tutorials (with downloadable outline sketches, reference photos and supply lists), classes/workshops and assignments on Art Fundamentals, feedback from me on your work, live monthly trainings and paint-alongs and more: **www.patreon.com/erika_lancaster_artist* 💚
Hi Erika I use patreon for art tutorials and have been searching for water colour artists often especially for water colour pencils. When searching for you either using 'watercolor' or your name in the search box you do not appear. I intend to join you next month using your link here, but I just thought i would point this issue out to you. Carol
I've been doing art for my whole life ... sculpting, acryilc painting, oils ... and I can say that, at lest for me, watercolor is the most difficult. Layering doesn't work like it does with acrylic or oils. It's a whole different animal. And it's, in my opinion, the most difficult of the three mediums. This is a necessary exercise! Paint mixing is a required exercise. Blending happens a lot faster than with acrylic. Oils? you can blend over and over, wash over and over for days or months or years. I totally appreciate this lesson in watercolor because it's the fastest set and the hardest to make a grade of color without lines. Watercolor is actually the most difficult medium I've ever worked in.
Thanks so much for watching and for taking the time to leave your valuable comment. 🙌 I started with opaque painting mediums myself (acrylics and oils), and I have to agree with you. 🎨 Not only can you layer paint on thick and cover up mistakes relatively easily with those mediums, but you're working on substrates that can take way more of a beating, as opposed to working on paper. With watercolor, it is even more essential to practice beforehand and go in with a strategy because we won't be able to easily correct mistakes, if at all, since watercolor is transparent. You also make a great comment in relation to how watercolor is so immediate. We have to go in with confidence and not "fiddle" with the paint after it's been placed on paper, or its easy to overblend, flatten areas out and make them look overworked and heavy (the opposite of what we're trying to do when working with this medium). Another key difference is that we're bringing in the beauty and brightness of the paper as part of the piece, and no white paint is necessary, when we learn to do this. Thanks so much for watching and wish you tons of enjoyment moving forward with this rewarding painting medium!
i'm 20 minutes and feel almost guilty thinking this is some type of college course class. the way you teach how to think about light hits me harder than any other teacher.
Hi! I'd recommend buying brushes that are intended for watercolor use, as their bristles tend to be soft and absorbent. They are made to hold paint and water. I like a pointy tip, as well. This said, almost all my brushes are very affordable. If I had to prioritize what to invest in, in terms of paper, paint and brushes, first I'd buy good quality paper, then paint, then brushes. One thing I'd also say is, make sure you're using a good size of brush for whatever area it is you're going to be painting. If you go in with a very small brush to try to paint quickly, it's going to be very frustrating and you'll likely end up with lines and texture you weren't looking for. For this exercise, I'm using a medium sized (12) round brush. Link to the product is in the description box below the video. Hope I've answered your question!
This was excellent...best lesson I've seen for developing shadows. Naming the parts of a shadow was very helpful. Thanks so much... definitely a reference video for me!
Thanks for the great lesson. It would be great to see your approach to the anatomy of form and cast shadows on a variety of other basic shapes including pyramid, cube and cylinder.
Thank you for this in depth video. All of the information is super helpful to me as a super beginner. I love how you stated many important things beginners should know or learn outside of the main idea of the video. Cant wait for your next video. Have a great day!
Hey, Danielle! Thanks so much for watching. I'm so glad this one was helpful! Wish you tons of progress and enjoyment in your journey with watercolor. Much more to come! Take good care.
That was super, super helpful. I linger between a realistic style and a more impressionistic style, but this information will be very helpful in either approach. Thank you.
Excellent lesson. I really need to work on my tonal changes so this explains this all very well. I am a bit confused by your cast shadows which you do in colour. I thought grey shadows would look more realistic. I have never seen coloured shadows ... or is this just for the purposes of this excercise?
Hey, Gayle! Thanks so much for watching. That's a great question! 🙌🙂 For this exercise, I wanted to keep things simple and limited in terms of the colors that I was using for each sphere, just for clarity. I wanted to keep things, within each sphere study, as monochromatic as possible. This is a great way to practice values and shading. This said, I want to encourage you to observe shadows around you in real life closely, as they usually _will_ have color to them, or at least you'll find that the temperature of the gray is cooler or warmer, depending on the situation. When I am painting a fuller piece, I try to mix in a color into my gray (if I'm using a ready-made black/gray), or I create my own gray by mixing together two colors (brown and Ultramarine Blue being my favorite way to create gray). This is, in my opinion, super important when working with watercolor, as we usually want to make vibrant, interesting use of color. Using a gray or ready-made black alone for shadows tends to lead to flatness, dullness, or it sometimes ends up looking very stark. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any more questions. Enjoy your art practice! Erika
Mind blown! I always knew to go from light to dark, and then maybe add the opposite color to the shadow in the suface. Can't believe I didn't make the connection that a different color can be just as effective as simply going darker. Now I wonder, are there specific circumstances where a certain technique is best suited? For example, analgous vs. complimentary vs. monochrome?
Hey, there! Thanks so much for watching, and for your comment/questions. 🙌 There is no specific technique that is better for specific subjects or types of art. It really comes down to what outcome you personally enjoy. If you enjoy brighter/more saturated colors, then try using analogous colors for shading when possible (not necessarily all throughout the piece, but wherever you can). This said, there are certain types of subjects like portraits, that require we paint skin, where we want muted/desaturated colors for it to look more realistic. Or even food illustrations. For example, when I paint baked goods such as doughnuts or croissants, I need to bring in neutrals like yellow ochre and browns, as yellows and oranges just wouldn't bring the level of realism I like. If you like more realistic/natural color outcomes (most colors around us in real life are muted or desaturated to different degrees), or you just simply enjoy muted colors, then go with complementaries or add neutrals like browns or blacks into your mixtures. All of these are effective ways to shade, as they all allow you to develop that wide range of values you need for believable depth. It depends on what you enjoy, the level of realism you're after, and the specific subject/object that you're painting. Hope this helps! :)
This is incredibly helpful. It is super informative and I have watched it a few times already. Question re: Monochromatic sphere- Would you ever use a blending brush (such as a little mop or a filbert) to blend the transitions of phthalo blue? Just to push the paint and water around, after you're done adding paint and just need to tweak the sculpture?
Hi, Erica! Hope you're having a lovely day. 🙌💙 Thanks so much for watching and for your question. You can go in to do tweaking with whichever paintbrush you find most comfortable or leads to the effects you like, with any of these spheres. When it comes to painting with watercolor, I have found that the less you go in and "fiddle" with the paint after it's been placed on paper, the better and the fresher the outcome, though! So if you're going to do it, make sure that the paint is still in that wet/workable state (don't go in and move paint around when it's already started to dry), and do it gently/minimally. :) That's what I'd recommend.
Do you have any tips for progressing from light to dark? I am trying negative painting and am having some difficulty getting progressively darker while maintaining a uniform shade at each level.
Hi, there! Thanks for checking this one out, and for your question. 🙌🌟I have many step by step watercolor tutorials here in my channel where I take you through my layering process. You can check them out in this playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLUhSVLFDaUTLedrd1uPRjP2uET6gV4B_d *I do have a question for you: Is there a reason why you're trying to achieve a uniform shade at each level? Though knowing how to create flat washes is helpful, for sure, rarely do I actually use flat washes when painting.
So very helpful to have specific names for different areas of light and shadow. Do you have a list of the colors in your palette? Or are they just the ones in the two links above? Thank you!
Hey, Renee! So glad you found this one helpful. :) Here's a video where you can see how I set up this paint palette and all the colors in it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hiBtwNwcnZs.html In the description box below the video, you'll find links for the Daniel Smith paint/paint sets that I used. Thanks so much for watching and for your questions! Enjoy your watercolor journey. 💙
