Wild Violets in Watercolor with Pen & Ink Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
oh I had one of those days I had to go
to the grocery store had to do a framing
job I'm telling you I'm ready to unwind
with a little simple watercolor and this
comes by request it's a wild violet now
wasn't sure wouldn't a wild violet
looked like and like a those I thought
the things I walked by all the time I'm
sorry
come to find out they are so this is by
request and somebody sent me a photo and
I'm gonna go ahead and actually draw
this with pens right on my watercolor
paper how exciting oh my goodness I hope
I don't make a mistake we don't have to
worry about that do we all right so I'm
just gonna draw like three violets in
here and I'm just kind of putting in the
petals I'm just I'm stopping my lines
before I get to any like the center
where I have pearls need to connect
because that way I can just kind of I
can can add that in afterwards with a
smaller nib when I'm a little bit more
confident of where everything's gonna go
so I'm just getting my my basic shapes
in here so there's one maybe I'll just
do two we'll see how this boo I know
I'll put a little little butt in here oh
my gosh so okay maybe I've had too much
caffeine I really didn't think I did but
and I couldn't have really what I think
about it I went into the grocery store
and usually when I come back from the
grocery store
I put the tea kettle on and as I'm
putting away guy let the tea kettle heat
up while I'm putting away my groceries
and then yay reward for me I have a cup
of tea when I'm done because I need the
rewards apparently and I like go check
my email or whatever all I have my cup
of tea but at the grocery store today
and they had a sale on these 24 packs of
Diet Coke and I haven't I'm not a big
soda drinker and I and I stopped using
equal several uh-oh oh gosh like a year
over a year ago a year and a half ago
and and that's been great and
occasionally I'd have a Diet Coke but
you know I stopped putting equal in my
coffee and why not
anyway so die coke was just fabulous and
like ha yeah Dyke okay go for one of
those it's 81 degrees right now by the
way and not 45 which is so exciting this
year and it's like yeah hot day diet
coke could have that I filled the glass
with ice I poured myself a diet coke I
was so excited that was awful I did
drink most of it
so maybe but a little aspartame diet
coke caffeine I don't know but yeah I
was uh I was needing a little watercolor
break I was doing some custom framing
and a frame came in damaged and so that
was frustrating so I decided I can't do
anything about that right now I'm going
to do a watercolor he'll be so much and
I said that flowers look a little weird
but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be
alright alright somebody's gonna put in
a little center there now I'm gonna
switch to a smaller nib this is a oh
three
pigma micron from oriental trading they
sent me a bunch of these for my
mixed-media tutorials and actually I
really love doing pen and ink and
watercolor except I haven't done that in
a while so I thought you know that would
be kind of fun to to do that here today
alright so let's see I want to just
connect these petals in I'm just you
know just drawing no big deal here and
what I really the reason I wanted to the
pen and ink was because of the little uh
what do you call little black marks that
the that that violets have and I just
thought it would look a lot nicer with a
pen as opposed to a brush because it'd
be a little easier to control I could
wash yellow over it not lose any of that
um and I'm just gonna kind of get this
little fuzzy part in there it's funny um
wild violets I didn't realize you were a
weed there we did people try to get rid
of them I think they're gorgeous I
wouldn't get rid of them then again my
lawn is a whole mishmash of moss and
various plants that may or may not be
grasses it's a it's very shadowy and
damp it in this part of the world I'll
be happy with whatever it wants to grow
on my lawn you know just throw in a few
more of these little petals here it's
given me some room for a little yellow
Center which will really make the
violets pop um I want to put some leaves
then I'm gonna go back to my oh sorry
actually you know one I can go with the
bigger one this oh eight if you're
nervous about using pen and ink you
might want to stick with a smaller
nibs or just go ahead and use you know
pencil first and go over your lines and
you can just erase them if you want to
but you know don't be afraid go ahead
and try it it's only a piece of paper
you always pay on the backside if you
make a mistake so try not to let it let
it worry you too much and I'm just gonna
put that stem in here somewhere
uh let's see what's gonna need to stem
let's put a leaf over here kinda curling
around this petal maybe that would be
kind of cool and you can go off the edge
if you want to like to see the
undersides the leaves I flipped my uh
that goes my dryer my dryer hissa it's
going I should put a UH a clothesline
out for these three days out of the year
it's warm enough to hang out any laundry
yeah the probably wasted I wasted
endeavour alright so I'm just doing a
few leaves not a big deal um and you
know you could throw in as many or as
few stems as you like and I think that
I'll go ahead and throw in a background
wash I'm gonna grab a big round brush
just step one here second ago did here
is and um I might put some more leaves
and later but I just want to kind of get
some color in there right off the bat
I'm gonna use some SAP green and I'm
gonna use some cadmium yellow try not to
paint where the flower petals are trying
to kind of go around them so if I get my
CAD yellow here or a gamboge I have to
say gamboge because somebody told me
their kids are watching it I'm watching
one of my videos and they kept going
Jimbo's gamboge it's kind of fun to say
I could see why they got to kick out of
it Jimbo's there you go kids a brand new
word for you all right you little SAP
green which I have to say I think that
green it's one of my favorite colors
it's so earthy but vibrant love it
alright so the reason we don't want to
go on top of the flowers it's okay if it
blends in a bit don't don't stress is
because yellow is the opposite of purple
so what do you think happens when we mix
our yellow on our purple we get mud
but side-by-side the colors look
fantastic they accentuate each other but
you mix them together and you get mud so
that's why we're not gonna we're not
gonna wash over it even though it's a
light color and we could paint on top of
it it's not gonna look that great so and
if you get a little bit of green on
there what you can do is take a little
tissue or a paper towel and leave it
which I haven't reach of course I got a
rag here then let's work and you can
just kind of blot blot it out if you
hear elephants in a minute it's cuz my
kids have gotten off the bus all right
winding down we're almost at the end of
the school year all right I'm gonna
pause the video and ride this with my
hairdryer and we'll be back to finish a
painting all right so I've got my paper
dry I decide to go back in I didn't
think my blacks were a little more dark
enough so I'm back in with the 8 nib a
pen and I'm just throwing in some more
of the little streaky vanes here you can
keep it with a fine point or you can
switch to the the bolder points commit
ly up to you and it could have you know
I'm just kind of like I starting where I
want the heaviest line at the inside
just kind of flicking it outwards and
that gives me a little bit more control
and I can even go back in with my
thinner one and drag out some more and
please enjoy these singing uh by my
daughter's upstairs and doesn't realize
the video I guess yes I said you already
did oh there we go we got one sister
telling on the other ok so now I'm going
to I'm going to mix some alizarin
crimson and ultramarine blue to make my
violet color and I think that I am going
to what the petals first and then add my
color and why don't i zoom in a little
bit so you can see that better mmm there
we go and I'm just gonna wet the petals
I don't want to I don't want big beads
of water on there so get my towel handy
I just want to have a soft Sheen on
these
and you can see the micron pen is
waterproof it's waterproof it's not
alcohol-based though it's really great
and they're the elephants I was telling
you about three kids are off the bus all
right so I'm gonna add one more
concentrated color on the outside so I'm
just gonna go ahead and add my color I
can blow my brush off if I'm getting too
much this will pretty much do its own
highlighting and shading when I work in
this fashion I can add more later it's
go right around here I see these every
morning when I walk the dog
I usually get a good good view of all
the roadside foliage because my dogs
often wanted to hop into the woods to do
business so all kinds of lovely uh
lovely foliage in my travels I could
help this blend around a little bit if I
want or I can leave it as is I want to
leave that a little light in the middle
cuz I'm gonna want some yellow there
later now if you want some more veins
and you want them purple if you have a
piece of cut-up credit card which I
always have on hand then you can scratch
in some of those details just kind of
pulling them from the outside save just
like that it's very subtle but it adds
to the realism and it gives you kind of
like a little bridge between the harsh
black beans and the or black streaks up
there really veins of the districts and
the um you can see that and the
difference between the pen work so you
see the difference all right so it would
be the same thing for each of the other
petals you can not follow right along
with me this is a pretty quick quick
thing so I'm just gonna go and wet all
the petals at once and just go right in
there and do it I don't think it's gonna
make a big deal there where the green
got into those petals I think you'll be
fine alright a little bit more of our
mixed purple you could use a you could
use a purple out of the tube if you want
like I dioxide mean violet which I'm
probably misspelling but uh you know you
know what I mean
some of those some of those paint
pigments are really hard
Quinn circa Joan but Quinn's a good roan
that's my favorite to mispronounce you
could probably hear that slurping from
one of my delicate daughters they're
both down here right now they're
pointing at each other making faces
trying to distract me look at me I get
composure
no they're they're holding up signs for
me see that's that they get you there
you asked you to do this you if they can
do things when you're otherwise occupied
hoping for a yes all right okay there we
go now I'm going to work on some of the
petals I'm gonna do the same thing I'm
going to wet the petal and I'll be using
some of the SAP green and some of the
yellow that we've already used cadmium
cadmium or gamboge some warm yellow
basically is what you need and some SAP
green and we'll be using our credit card
scraper again to do any remaining so we
really don't want the veining to stand
up too much on those and I'm just I want
a little bit of a little bit of a wave
to the edge of my petals so I'm just
kind of dabbing my brush thing on the
edges and then grab your credit card and
add the veins and just kind of maybe put
I'm just put for the center vein there
in the center and then you can do things
off you can either go from the outside
or from the inside I think it's a little
bit easier to go from the inside to make
sure that they're kind of going in the
right direction I guess they'll be
easier to do that and they'll show off a
little bit more I think as it dries get
a lot of petals in there a lot of
pigment in there I'm gonna do the same
for the other flowers I have
I put them a little bit more thank you
for sneezing quietly while you could
just let it go it's that would've been
fine a little more cadmium yellow or if
you prefer gamboge a new vocabulary
color vocabulary word when you're done
watching this video today all right to
bless you live oh goodness gracious
must be dusty down here she sneezing
sneezing like crazy sneezing like the
dickens I know thank you that's a little
dabbing here along the edge
oops up got a lot of hand that'll be
fine and I really don't like the shape
of that I'm gonna bring that in around a
little bit out really that will require
some other fussing later with a pen I
think or I might just leave it sometimes
I just like to leave it even if it isn't
perfect
let's face it most of the time we'll
just leave it this is just a watercolor
card I'm not gonna I'm not gonna fuss
about it I'm not gonna freak out about
it and see exactly sure what this was
looks like it's part of a stem so I'm
just gonna make it in somewhere else and
for this little leaf up here I think I'm
just gonna add some color to it you got
a little bit of yellow so it can help
bring up the vibrancy of the purple you
get as much or as little detail as you
want what you do pen and ink I mean you
may start a pending drawing decide you
never want to add washes of color to it
that's completely fine or you can do a
watercolor just like a traditional
watercolor and then decide it just needs
a little something extra and then you
can go for your pen and ink for that so
you know don't feel like you have to
start or or you have to start it with
pen or you have to finish it with pen
you know you can do it however you like
there go and I'm gonna pause the camera
let this drive move back in a minute all
right
I forgot though before we before we go
to dry it when I'm sure we have any
veining done in our little flowers here
if you want to put it in now all right
now I'm gonna pause it and dry it all
right so now we can add some washes of
the purple or mixed purple that we made
or you know use two purple purple out of
the tube that's fine that's just gonna
kind of deepen some of the color and I
want to deepen the color around where we
put the black marks and I'm just doing
that by kind of flicking it up with my
brush and if you don't like the hard
edges there you can go ahead and you can
just take a damp brush just to kind of
wet your brush and I'll show you how to
Gary if you don't like that just wet
your brush and you can just soften the
edges a little bit there as long as your
petals all the way dry underneath it
will give you a good result if your
pills are wet underneath you might get
some some blooms but that's just this
kind of how you learn you do these
different things and you see what
happens you can also add any shadows
like if you have a petal in the back
behind another one you can add your
shadows in there to try it to overwork
it just have fun with it do that to each
of your each of your petals a little bit
darker under here you can actually take
your paints right outside and find some
wild violets to paint today it would be
beautiful a beautiful day here and mean
anyway to do that
my ballgame tonight oh I'm so glad
usually freeze I've been bringing like
blankets heavy blankets to the ballgame
completely
wrapping up in them when they go to
watch the game but tonight tonight it's
it's gonna be nice I might only need one
coat then you know it's someone's coming
I want some of this darker color
underneath these folds of petals there
and then I can kind of drag it out
actually I think you drag it right over
the end of this paintbrush too if you
want to because then you get kind of
highlights and shadows all in one cuz
unlike the credit card scraper it
actually kind of pushes the pigment
around rather than describing the paper
so it just gives you a different look
something you should try and be familiar
with and I think you know you could do
worksheets you know you could just take
paper and just practice techniques over
and over again but I really think the
best way to learn is just to paint
something and then learn techniques as
you go and that's what I try to do with
these videos to just kind of show you
techniques and then but where you're
actually ending up with something when
you're done so you're applying it
because sometimes you know you can do
all the exercises in the world if you're
not you don't know how to apply it then
then it doesn't really do much good
alright I feel like this I did blot this
when I was drawing it so it was super
super puddly so I'm just gonna wash a
little yellow in there see how much how
that makes it nice and vibrant I'm gonna
go in with some of this green around the
edges and just kind of drag in some
veins cuz for some reason they didn't
really show up very well I think that's
because I waited too long to scrape it
with a credit card so there I can put
that in there and if you can hear the
whispering committee either whispering
about something over there I have no
idea what I'm sure they're trying to be
very polite I'm doing a video here and
then I realized I've got this asleep
actually is you could see it's kind of
curled up and turned and I've got the
perspective on it I shouldn't have this
off jaggedy on the bottom so I'm gonna
try did you smooth that out a little bit
and maybe go in with a little bit of
darker paint take some of that
ultramarine that I made my purple with
take the ultramarine add it with the
green and smooth out that bottom now
like to turn my paper when I'm working
right out and then I can go a little bit
of yellow right on the top of that to
help blend it in and I can add a little
bit more detail to that later on I'm not
gonna worry about it oh my goodness worm
will start a time so you know I think
this needs some
some splashes of color please if you
liked this video give me a thumbs up and
subscribe and I appreciate your watching
until next time happy crafting buh-bye