How to draw and paint goldfinch watercolor Video Lecture - Master the Art

hey there Lindsey here the frugal
crafter again second video a row today I
got keys handed
we're gonna paint we're gonna panty
Goldfinch somebody had asked for me to
show how to pay him Goldfinch on my
youtube channel so that's what we're
gonna do today in less than 20 minutes
hopefully I better start Gavin Starr
Gavin I better stop Gavin so we can get
this show on the road
alright let's go to the table what was
that with that crazy editing
that was insane alright so actually
we're gonna go a little out of order
here cuz I've already got this sawed
bird sketched on my watercolor card
we're gonna paint background because
that's gonna take some time to dry then
I'm gonna show you how to sketch this so
um basically what I'm going to do is wet
the entire paper using a one-inch flat
so what ensures that bigger that's a 1
inch this is a Cottman I think most of
the brushes that have the acrylic candle
a pretty good and um I'm gonna put in
I'm going to start introducing the
colors I plan on using I'm gonna use a
little lemon yellow and there's going to
put it on the board and just let it sit
not going to I'm not going to try to
paint anything - um specifically right
now he's a little bit of green SAP green
these are actually coughing water colors
that I'm using they're not artist
quality but they're not bad they're a
great student quality paint to work with
I've got this little set here I'm lost
my alizarin crimson that's gonna replace
that but it's a great little big
intercept um and I think a little burnt
sienna
I should have spritz to Mya palette
before I began cuz my colors a little
wishy-washy that's alright though and I
want a darken up a little bit that green
it's a little dull one more that burnt
sienna in there and I'd like to also
introduce gray at this time and I like
to use ultramarine blue with a little
bit of burnt sienna in that for some
gray and just to kind of give me a nice
neutral because I know I'll need to have
some gray
my painting for shadows and whatnot so I
like to get that in there in the
background I always try to get my
background colors worked in so that so
that everything has color harmony
throughout the painting so now what I'm
going to do is actually flick on some of
the colors that I've used and I also
want to get some mob in there because I
want to have some thistle and it's
something I have different palettes that
I'll use from time to time this palette
has a lot of different colors in it and
mob is one of them it's just a nice
reddish purple and since I don't have
any alizarin crimson in this palette
this will give me a nice cool red option
too
plus it brings out this purpley color
brings out the gold in my bird so so
it's really just a nice nice to that
complementary color in there and I think
I'm gonna flick in a little bit of that
yellow too
all right now I want to make sure that I
don't have anything that's going to be
difficult to lift up on top of my Birds
want to grab a Q or a paper towel hold
on a moment
here we are do your paper towels go off
on adventures without you I'm telling
you my paper towels tend to wander all
over the basement my towels went on an
adventure without me alright so I'm just
going to lift that up there and actually
at this point I think I'm gonna paint in
the tail because I want that to be
blurry now see how I have this puddle at
the end now I'm if I leave that alone
I'm gonna have a bloom there which is
kind of like a roughly edge shape and
that's not really what I want for this
particular piece I want it to be a soft
blended background so I just with edge
in my paper towel I'm just lifting up
that those puddles and the color will
blend in there a little bit more but I
just want to make sure that I don't have
any really big puddles now I can crumple
this up and tap on there and give it a
little texture too if I want to if yot
do you can do that I don't know where
that came from that's not a main exit
it's but I don't even know if it's
southern I don't know oh okay
so let's make a lemonade my greghendo
make it pretty dark I'm gonna do
the ultramarine blue and burnt sienna
ring oh my gosh you know what I did I
just banged my palette and some of my
pans on an adventure everything goes on
an adventure in here
it's a crafty adventure show crafty
adventure time oh my goodness gracious
I don't forgetting at this done 20
minutes already I'm screwing around too
much I don't know where my ultramarine
blue ended up I think it's here no is
that it yeah that's it oh my there's my
burnt sienna and ultramarine give me a
nice dark gray I'm not gonna pick up my
palette again no good will come of it
all right I'm just gonna paint in the
tail because that's gonna be slightly
out of focus and I want that to remain
in the background so I'm just painting
it in on the damp paper I don't want to
blend too much so I'm drying my brush
off on the paper towel and going in
there just kind of moving it around a
bit to remove any extra excess moisture
that might make it travel a little bit
and a little bit of gold on that tail or
that Brown all right so this has got to
dry I'm going to set it aside where I
can't knock it over do anything crazy to
it while it's drying
I've got like water let's see I think I
know how I lost my alizarin crimson hand
I probably I probably banged into it and
it went flying and I picked up every one
but that one okay still appear to be
just missing the crimson oh I should
probably start this video over but you
know it's not gonna happen all right so
I'm gonna draw a bird here pretty easy
just move my reference photo over there
um and we're gonna start and do this
with a pencil but let's start with an
oval the birds body got this little
shape the tail gonna put the a circle
for the head and go really lightly with
a pencil so you can erase the lines you
don't want undo the beak stutters I mean
sorry wings there and a little bit of
nubby there for that
got a the branch is resting on this putz
over here this foots here my phone's
ringing you gotta hang on a second okay
I'm back a field trip has been canceled
that's a it's raining out um here I get
the feeling that you're just thinking
all these factors against you when
you're trying to work all right so yeah
let's put some um let's put some little
thistle plants here and yeah let's do a
couple of these and you know what you
can make it however you want
um a little branch up here you know fill
in your space however you like a little
eyeball there um you really don't need
to get in too much for this detail
because you're gonna paint that but you
know just get the basic shape get the
basic on nuances of everything and a big
tip that I would like to share with you
and I'd like you share this with your
children if they're interested in
drawing don't start with the details
like if I started drawing this um okay
if you want to pause this and catch up
with a drawing go ahead right now okay
so you go and draw and you see this all
the time kids are we drawing and they'll
they'll start with a detail and they'll
look at that detail like that BQ know
they'll make it just so when they'll you
know spend a lot of time with this and
then they'll go to the body and it's
completely wrong so don't start with the
detail start with um start with the
basic you basic shapes and then you know
add on to that you'll get a much better
composition overall and then you won't
have to erase the whole thing once you
realize that it's all out of whack all
right I'm gonna pick up my thing here
it's still not dry I'm gonna take I'm
gonna pause the video take it over to
the heat gun and dry it and come back
and we're gonna start painting the
details all right we got that pretty
well dry I'm gonna jump right in and
start working on the bird and I'm going
to gently just dampen the paper where
the bird is I don't want it to be puddly
wet I want it to be just damp so it will
help the paint flow just going above the
above the branch up into under just
under the eye I'm going to go into the
beak area I'm just going to work on the
yellows right now and we'll start with
lemon yellow up here I'm using two
buckets of water a zoom in a little bit
you know Klose Freya ah there um
I use two buckets of water I use one
bucket to clean my brush off in and then
I use another bucket for fresh water I
actually have a divided bucket so I
could put half-and-half works that well
now you want I am going to use two
shades of yellow with this one I'm going
to also use cadmium red or you can use
new gamboge whatever you have that's
more of a more of a warm yellow see that
see that the color temperature
difference between the lemon yellow and
the cadmium yellow and if you even if
you go when you get like this is student
quality paint this is not my artist
quality paint works very well um I just
would have some synthetic like instead
of having real cadmium this may be a
synthetic cadmium which is great for
students especially children because you
don't want them exposed to the heavy
metal Nanaia ha heavy metal content um
somewhat poisonous I am just filling in
gently the bottom of that now let make
sure I go to the outside of my sketch um
now I'm gonna actually add some shadow
color in there and so there's a couple
different go here I have yellow I've
already used mom if I mix those two
together I'm gonna end up with a decent
shadow color so I'm mixing that on my
palette and I won't burn my palette back
over here because blood will dump it on
the floor again so but I'm just using a
little bit of mauve in my in my yellow
you could also mix up a little purple
added in your yellow you could use the
grade that we make when we use the
ultramarine plus burnt sienna if you're
already using those colors but I highly
suggest that you make your own grays
because they're going to look a lot more
natural they're going to match your
painting better and you're going to
become a better painter for it because
you're going to know how to make those
colors
and um I'm gonna put a little bit under
the chin and notice how I'm just using
the corner of my brush here I'm not even
switching brushes ingest I'm going into
the corner of my brush you can really I
suggest that you start off with a
limited palette limited amount of
brushes and see what you can do with
them it's so easy to collect a ton of
supplies and then feel overwhelmed
because you don't know how to use any of
them so by starting off with a few
brushes they'll show you what I wouldn't
really like I like a round brush like a
number six round a half inch flat and a
one-inch wash you know start off with
those and then build I also love a
number ten inch round I find that a
little daunting for a beginner but um
but you know I mean start with with a
few and work your way out
alright so now I'm going to use a little
sat pre and I'm gonna paint some of the
branches and I'm just um this is a
pretty small card I don't think I really
need to wet them first and again I'm
using my flat learn what your brushes
can do you could do this with a round if
you wanted to I'm not going to do this
part because I don't want to bleed and
bleed into my yellow so I'm just going
to leave that right now I'm gonna grab
one of the yellows have already used I
think I'll use the cadmium yellow so
it's not too vibrant add a little bit of
that in there to that branch and I'll be
also be using that for this branch of
the bird resting on eventually but not
right now because I don't want um it to
get blended into my yellow and I'm going
to get some color for the thistle stock
I think I want kind of a burnt sienna
for that and I think I'm gonna add a
little bit of SAP green into it just to
make it feel a little bit more um planty
and look at the strokes I'm using for
that I'm just kind of wiggling my brush
tap tap wiggle wiggle tap tap wiggle
wiggle are you ready to wiggle we're
talking about that the other day my kids
used to love the Wiggles especially my
son when he was little and he used to go
momma Wiggles mama Wiggles oh he's gonna
be so embarrassed um there was a cutest
thing and he was doing that the other
day oh my gosh she's gonna be so
embarrassed but I thought it was cutest
thing you just wanna just want to give
them whatever they want your mama wit
goes
then he goes mama Avengers still cute
not ask you not my Iron Man it's a
pretty cute yeah
oh yeah I let him watch Iron Man okay so
I feel like this is a little too stark
looking stark like Tony Stark Iron Man
huh Wow
full circle um so I think what I'm gonna
do let's switch to the round oh let's
play with out a little bit and see what
we can do here I'm gonna take some burnt
sienna and I think I'll just kind of
just pull up some uh whatchamacallit uh
just shrubbery I guess and going a
little bit with a little SAP green
because SAP green is I think my favorite
water color color I love it I love it
just um live-ins up so much and it's
gonna this along some off I'm gonna use
a straight them off to be in and um what
I'm gonna do here is just kinda with my
brush strap and down see I'm holding a
strap and down I'm just flicking the
paint to the mauve going into both the
middle of the hip area of the flower
flicking out the little uh
whatchamacallit now something else I
won't tell you so the paddle that I
showed you you could buy a kit like that
has all the pans and then you can
replace the pansies you need it well
each of these pins is a little rectangle
plastic a little look up pretty much so
look at this mob I actually filled out
with artist quality paint so after use
up a color you can refill it with
whatever you want to whatever your
favorite brand is so you don't have to
throw that away it is an investment when
you purchase paints it's an investment
so um so think of it like that as you're
working you know you nothing need buy is
gonna be wasted um I'm taking some burnt
sienna and adding some ultramarine blue
to this and I'm going to make a nice
dark color because the bottom of the
Thistle here is a little bit darker but
I want it to also have colors that I've
already used and I want it to be able to
kind of blend into the stock add some
more some SAP green to that and at this
point I kind of like to just
rip the colors in and let me do their
thing I think that's why I really like
water color a lot of people feel like
it's I kind of out of control but but I
like that you just get a completely
different look than you're going to get
and pretty much any other media all
right so now another thing I could do if
I had like either piece of credit credit
card to the back of my brush I can
actually pull in some detail from these
stocks just by scraping which will
either push the paint away or it will
scrub into the paper depending on how
wet or dry my my paint is if the paint's
really wet it seems to let let me push
the the color off and reveal the lighter
boy to the paper it was really wet it
tends to scratch in I'm sorry if it's
dry or tends to scratch it and scribe
the paper and give me a darker line so
just kind of play with that again we're
learning how to use our tools so we get
the most out of them get those thorny
thistles in there all right I'm just
going to try to find a clean spot in my
hand just kind of touch the paper and if
it's cool to the touch it's still a
little damp if it has no not warmed or
cool then it's dry just a little tip
there for you and I think I want to just
have some undefined splotchy thistles
back here so I'm going to do is use my
flat brush use a round if you're more
comfortable with it really doesn't
matter I'm just going to tap in some
it's kind of like it's not background
but it's not foregrounds just kind of
like a loose um
indication kind of just you're just
hinting that there's something back here
there's some more um yeah what do you
want to call it this more plant life
it's not as defined as these two cells
but it's not as undefined as the purple
in the background so you're just
basically adding another level of depth
and remember we have cameras we could
take photographs if we want a
photographic representation of something
we are artists and we are you know we're
just suggesting the brain knows what a
Finch looks like the brain knows what
this whole thistles look like and we are
just
adjusting what's there and the brain
will fill in the rest it's kind of
awesome so when in doubt do less
when in doubt leave it out okay that is
my that's my motto with painting I used
to work for a for a man and he used to
say when in doubt throw it out when we
were working on like downsizing or
organizing he'd say when in doubt throw
it out my painting motto is when in
doubt leave it out you can always go
back in and add it later usually not
always not with all highlights but you
can usually go back and add it later all
right I actually think that's a little
too too dark I'm going to press it peer
towel in there just lighten it a little
bit and let's lift up some of that and
that's going to be good all right so I
think I want to run us over to the heat
gun again dry it up so that we can put
some more details on the bird be back in
a second all right we're going to finish
this up quickly because we're almost out
of time I'm using my round brush and I
am going to paint the eye and the eye
area I'm just going to try to leave
little sparkles there if we kind of
obliterate the I will just go in and put
some we'll just dig a sparkle out with
an exacto knife later now put in the
wing again this mixture is ultramarine
blue and um and burnt sienna then it's a
little touch of that on the tail just to
kind of very very dry very very dry
brush here a little bit touch on the
tail there just to bring it out do the
legs with a mix of CAD yellow and mauve
it's going to make it kind like a pinky
Brown will feet they're going to do the
branch a little SAP green and maybe a
little bit of burnt sienna with that so
it's a little dull
and that's pretty much gonna finish up
our picture I want to thank you so much
for watching
and um requesting the bird video again
use a knife and dig out the highlight if
you need to and thank you so much for
watching until next time happy crafting