Coastal landscape one brush watercolor tutorail Video Lecture - Master

hi there Linda here the frugal crafter
with a coastal watercolor tutorial for
you today you're going to need some
paraffin wax or a white crayon or a
candle just a hunk o acts that you can
use for later on in this tutorial I'm
going to sketch on with my graphite in
pencils and the reason I am is because
to me they really look like coastal
Maine colors I'm going to use a number
four um indigo dark indigo to begin my
sketch you can use a regular pencil but
I kind of looking go a little bit darker
for my video if I know I can I can
remove my lines later so about a third
of the way down my paper I'm gonna draw
in my horizon line and then I'm just
gonna kind of put in a rocky coastline
this is going to be very a very mean
very main picture
alright then I'm going to switch over to
one of my greens and I'm gonna put in
just this kind of a landmass up here now
cakes around the coast this kind of
little peninsula area and I also want to
put in some tree line up here not too
much I just want to kind of get a basic
area in and since I do I am coloring and
draw I am drawing with this pencil I'm
also going to throw in a little bit of
color too just so I have it there now
I'm going to go in with a kind of a tan
color this is chestnut and I'm just
going to very roughly throw in some
rocks mostly just a some scribbly lines
that will be my rocks
I know it probably looks like a mess
right now but it'll all come around when
we add the pain I promise you and look
how I'm holding I'm holding my pencil at
the end that just gives me a looser a
looser look and it helps me from getting
too bogged down with details and also um
no just keep it really sketching this on
a big rock over here to I think was just
throwing a nice big rock there
alright so that's basic sketch
and we're gonna do the rest with the
paint but first before we add any water
to this I want to grab some wax I get
rid of my box here this is just regular
candle wax but you can cut a piece off a
candle I try to keep it chunky you don't
want to have too much detail so if we
are using crayons break it in half and
use kind of the rough area in the middle
now where the waves come in where they
hit the water that's where you're going
to have the breaks and the white foam so
that's what I want to throw in here kind
of near the edge near the coast where
it's coming up to the rocks that's where
we're going to have some foam I think I
want a few more rocks in here so I can
have some more splash enos it's just so
a few right there and you can kind of
drag backs it's going to be stronger
white right next to the rocks it's going
to kind of mellow out try not to go over
the rocks because wherever you're
putting the wax that's where it's going
to remain white and we're not gonna be
able to paint over that area if you've
put a lot of wax there and maybe just to
feel a little uh I don't know just
little white caps out here it was funny
one of the first jobs I got as a
freelance designer was to draw was to
draw rubber stamps for a couple
companies the one company wanted um a
coastal should they wanted a beach and
so you know coming from Maine I drew
what a beach looks like which is like
this and they were like I know you've
misunderstood us is not the beaches that
we're looking for that's not the beaches
that we have and I think of a South
Carolina or the company was out it was
kind of funny alright um I'm going to
use a large brush to wet the top of my
paper above the horizon line um I am
wedding I'm kind of waiting right over
the tree area a little bit not too much
I don't want to disturb those lines too
awful much but I also don't want them to
be a hard line either because they're
further away from you the things at the
bottom of your paper are closer to you
generally attended closer to you so
those would be in more sharp focus and
the stuff further away will be softer
and that's um
so that helps give you depth that's why
some paintings look flax everything's in
focus alright now I'm going to add some
ultramarine blue and I'm going to add it
to the
top of my paper and what I do is like I
get some off my the cape my color my pan
of color and then I swirl it out that
way I don't have any clumps or any weird
big chunky over saturated areas of my
brush and I'm just gonna go across the
top and I'm going to work my way down I
want it darker at the top of my paper
that's how the sky looks if you're if
you're outside a nice calm blue sky day
you'll notice that it is darker towards
the top watercolor also dries lighter so
you want to make sure you go a little
bit darker than you think you're going
to want it when it's you know completely
done and you don't want any puddles in
this area of your picture otherwise
you're going to end up with you're going
to end up with blooms and sometimes that
will work to your advantage and look
like clouds but it's kind of a difficult
thing to control so you might want to
just watch over that now I want to put
some clouds in here but what I'm going
to do is a technique called lifting and
it's very easy and this is one of the
first things I teach my students and you
just crinkle up a paper towel and you've
bought up some clouds because it can be
very addicting so if you go overboard
and you take out too many clouds you can
always paint it over and do it again so
don't worry if you end up going a little
crazy and blotting out too many clouds
never rub your paper you always just
want to do a little blotting okay you
put natural generally there puffier on
the top and then they um and then they
kind of flatten out on the bottom
another thing is it's actually more like
the top and the bottom of your paper so
if you had a big if you had clouds your
clouds would be smaller towards a
horizon line and they'd be bigger
towards the top of your paper so if you
did tiny little clouds on the horizon
line around the horizon keep them
smaller and keep the bigger ones up
towards the top and ultramarine blue is
a sedimentary color which means it sits
on the top of your paper and it doesn't
really stain so that's another reason I
would use ultramarine blue as opposed to
phthalo blue but it's also the color of
our main sky so I know different parts
of the world you'll have slightly
different sky will look a little bit
different alright so I'm going to leave
that because generally it looks better
if you just leave it the heck alone and
I'm going to start painting in the water
because I know I can either water the
sky in the water aren't touching here so
I know that I can get a lot of a lot of
color down and it's not going to bleed
around or disrupt my sky
want my blue to be a little bit darker
so what I'm going to do is add a little
burnt sienna to it and I know I'm going
to use that burnt sienna again in the
rocks so I try to repeat my color as
much as I can so I got this nice gray
nice blue gray there and I'm just going
to actually put it right in on my dry
paper but I am using very wet paint so
I'll be able to keep my edges nice and
blended just by because my paint is so
wet so you wanna make sure you have a
nice big juicy puddle of this I'm also
working on rough paper and if you never
tried rough paper the landscapes is a
grey they're great and great choice for
rough paper especially if you're doing
something like this something that's
rocky it will help give a little more
believability to your painting there's a
paper and I don't know if they still
make it or not I was trying to find it
but I have some in my filing my filing
system that I bought probably ten years
ago is called Canson just shut no
Strathmore 100 I think and one side is
rough and one side is smooth so it's
like half a hot price and rough in the
same in the same pad of paper it's in
the same piece of paper it's very cool
so if you get a chance to try that I
think that if you're limited on space
and money that's a really nice option I
don't know if it's 100% cotton or not
but it certainly is a versatile paper
alright so you can see where I've
painted the wax where we have the white
areas they're starting to really look
like a seascape you ever get a chance of
you ever come to Maine and I hope you do
because we have a beautiful state yet if
you ever come to Maine bring a little
box of watercolors bring some watercolor
cards
spend a day on the coast and sit on a
rock and paint you can go to Acadia
National Park you can sit your little
bottle of water or something so you can
paint and just paint or there's lots of
free beaches on the coast and Searsport
Belfast you know just sit and paint I'm
sure there's lots of beautiful places in
southern Maine to where you can just sit
and paint I'm not that familiar with
southern Maine but a Mid Coast
definitely there's a lot of lot of
options for you so I'm just kind of
concentrating my color in here in
especially around my waxy areas just to
kind of give the illusion of kind of big
swells of water being a little bit
deeper in in areas kind of being pulled
by the tide and again I'm just using the
ultramarine blue and the burnt sienna
now you probably say Lindsey you're not
cleaning your brush between dipping into
those colors how are your colors not
getting contaminated and I'll show you
my palette okay and because the paint is
dry the dry cakes there I can get away
with that a little bit so if you know
and especially if I'm mixing a dark
color I want to avoid getting too much
water in there so that's that's why if
you're nervous about I usually tell kids
just rinse a brush between colors just
just to be safe but you know if you're
careful you can you can kind of go back
and forth and when you're done just make
sure that all your paint colors look
nice and vivid all right the key to a
landscape I think is also not doing too
much to it all right we're gonna leave
that be and I'm gonna go in and work on
some rocks mm-hmm excuse me this is like
I've only havin up a while but this is
my first video of the day so I'm a
little froggy
I apologize um okay so I wid some yellow
ochre here I'm going to dull it down a
little bit of that grayish color that we
made a little more burnt sienna lyrics
it's getting a little green from the
blue I just wanted I don't want the
yellow to be as bright as a regular
yellow ocher so I'm just kind of done it
down a little bit with the UH with the
burnt sienna and the yellow ochre okay
now I'm just gonna am using my flat
brush for this lookit we've used this
big brush so far for everything so
sometimes it's kind of nice to do that
and just get used to how you can um you
know use your materials kind of like an
economy of materials now the nice thing
about doing rocks with a flat brush is
that it automatically mimics the shape
of a rock the the at least the rocks up
here which are they're they're pretty
pretty geometrical I mean sometimes if
you're painting like a picture of a
stream of more pebbles it'll be a little
bit softer and rounder but um this is
very sharp rocky coast and there are
some pebbles around the coastline and we
could do that with with the round brush
or we could actually
little burnt sienna we'll grab a little
bit of that that bluemix to dull it down
a little bit and you can actually tap in
some little pebbles with a corner of
your brush just like that just to give
it a different texture it's nice to have
a variety of textures you can use the
same colors over and over if you have a
variety of shape and texture you're
going to have an interesting picture you
might even want to do that with your
round brush let's just play with the
square let's just play with the flat
brush and see how much we can do of this
painting with just a flat brush I'm also
going to go in with that darker color
that we made and add some shadows and
you're probably wondering Lindsey why
have one gotten out the credit card
scraper yet oh we will
don't worry don't worry I want you to
play with the flat brush though and see
what you can accomplish with that just
be careful as you get around the water
area that you don't completely let it
all run together
doesn't bother me sing a little bit of
paint go crazy but you want to just be
aware of that so that you don't lose
your lovely blue see so you can define
the little spaces in between your rocks
just by randomly tapping your brush a
lot of people a hard time with rocks
doesn't have to be difficult you know if
you just think of you know contrast you
need some shadow you need some light you
need some hard edges and they are their
innate and their natural they're made in
nature you don't want to fuss it they
shouldn't look man-made unless you're
painting Mount Rushmore or something you
know they should look they should look
easy alright I'm going to go in just a
little yellow ochre to kind of lighten
up kind of dirty brush yellow ochre I
call X I'm going on my palette where
I've got some other colors in there and
I'm just going to lighten up any areas I
need to
now your brushes if you're using a
watercolor brush when these clear handle
ones they come with a scraper and and
you can use that and you can use that to
push away paint and make highlights see
that how in subscribing the paper and
making a darker highlight I'm a darkish
I'm actually scraping away paper by
scraping away the paint rather and
giving it a highlight so you might want
to play with that a little bit please
don't think your painting is too
precious that you can't try some of
these techniques because it's only a
piece of paper and you can get another
one and I buy my paper but generally in
the 22 by 30 inch sheets and then I'll
tear it down so you get a lot of paper
you get a lot of different on different
sizes and you don't have to you don't
have to be stingy with it and if it's a
you know I know most artists give the
advice buy the best you can afford if
the best you can afford is going to make
you feel like your stuff is too precious
to use then buy the cheapest stuff
you're not going to worry about that
would be my advice because I don't want
anyone to be like well I'll save this
for when I have a really good idea or
I'll save it for when I get better but
you're not going to get better unless
you actually paint can actually scrape
away some highlights with the edges of
my credit card tio so I'm getting some
nice really nice rocky
faces here it's hard planes of the rock
this get very addictive so just keep
that in mind you don't overdo it and
scrape away all your paint so here and I
think part of this is how what the paper
is and the sedimentary colors I'm
actually moving a lot of color around
rather than just then scribing in darker
lines I'm going to throw in a little bit
more on these rocks in front here and
then we're going to move on to the trees
and let that dry so we can put in some
darker shadows later so let's just leave
that be a little bit the only real white
of the paper I want to be the in the
water so that it really stands out
alright so now I want to grab some SAP
green and a little bit of ultramarine
because we like to keep using those same
colors that we've been using that's how
we get harmony and I'm just going to go
in I'm going to
happen these trees back here so you're
probably wondering why I added the blue
well the reason I added the blue is
because it's going to make it cooler in
temperature and cooler colors recede in
warmer colors advance so these nice warm
rocks we have here they're coming
towards us and helping us with the depth
in our landscape and these cooler trees
are receding they're going further away
and helping us see the depth here now
I'm not going to put too much detail
here because this is far away we don't
if we add up too much detail here it's
going to make it advance and you really
don't see that much detail I don't know
if you can hear that but there is a very
very intimated chicken outside my window
I don't know what's going on I think
they're laying an egg or something all
right I think I'll actually throw maybe
a little bit of of a sand bar back there
just to help divide it from the water a
little bit I can't really tell get a tip
my painting up my horizons a little
crooked it's hard to tell when I am uh
when I'm doing the painting sometimes I
get a whole debt rate set up for me for
a second so in this case if I ever
really crooked horizon when I go to mat
it I'll actually tip it a little bit
behind the mat so that I can straighten
that up a little bit cuz that is really
quite um that's really quite off but the
I think my papers not torn correctly so
I was going I think I was like they
don't think my papers got very square
but that's alright I'm not gonna worry
about that but just you know just let
you know if that happens to you now I
want these trees appear to be a little
bit warmer in color and brighter so what
I'm going to do is just use a SAP green
on its own and tap in some trees every
once in a while somebody will say that I
remind them of Bob Ross which I've had
to be a very compliment because he
really brought art to a lot of people
and people that would never take in art
class otherwise so so whenever I would
somebody says that I think of I always
take my happy little trees get put my
happy little cheese in there I caught a
Bob Ross show on TV the other day I was
having lunch and I sometimes I'll just
turn on the TV while I'm having a lunch
break and he was on
I just sat as mesmerised he is little
squirrels in the studio I think anyone
that can bring art to the masses they
could teach anybody how to paint is is
great and I know he has a lot of credits
but everyone has an opinion and but I my
opinion is that he brought a lot of
people and that's fantastic
I'm going to warm this up even more by
adding a little bit of yellow ochre into
it and that's going to help it look a
little bit warmer and come forward a
little bit painting some more trees down
here just just start filling in the area
all right we're good about to wrap up
this painting cuz I see them just about
out of time
or egads I'll have to edit something
can't have that now can we
I might have to I might have to on this
one um and let me get a little bit
ultramarine blue and a little bit of
yellow ochre right down here and then
we'll scrape up some details on these
trees because we want these to be um to
be a little bit more in the foreground
so I do want some more detail on these
so I'm going to scrape in some branches
so I'll use the back of the handle here
just to give it a little bit wider
trunks and I'm gonna go in with some
darker colors and look we've been using
this brush the entire time you know what
I am going to edit this together I'm
going to make this go a little bit
longer because I really don't want to
rush it this is kind of been fun to
paint and I want to make sure that you
can that you can finish this and not
feel rushed I'm going to add a little
bit of shadows here it's ultra marine
blue with a with a SAP green just to
kind of give it a little bit of depth
even though these are closer I want them
to a little bit more depth especially as
they're silhouetted against the sky just
tapping on with a corner of my brush
just to give the treetops a little bit
more definition
make it tall when are you there maybe
here we go
all right you know look at me I'm gonna
edit oh my gosh how exciting I love that
exciting not get too excited and I still
the start paint on my brush so I'm
actually going to go back here and add
some more dark I really want this to be
to be pushed back a little bit more so
I'm going to go right on over and
actually I'm going to see if I can
correct my horizon a little bit while
I'm at it because I could see it's
really tipping let's bring that over a
little bit so see you can correct with
watercolor don't feel like you're stuck
because there's always corrections to be
made sometimes my best paintings are
ones that I've cut at that point where
it's like oh man I ruined it but then
you know well nothing left to lose so
I'm going to try this and that's how you
learn and sometimes you actually end up
with something better because you've
gotten over that fear of ruining the
paper now that looks I think a little
bit straighter I hope let's see I look
straighter to you I hope so um I'm going
to add some more dark here
see how my my computer does editing it's
a little bit faster now we got a new
computer and I'm hoping that that might
alleviate some of my editing stress my
editing dislike all right
so now what I'm going to do is add some
more darkness to the rocks because
that's nice and dry now and I'm going to
keep with the same brush I think this is
going to be a great Explorer your one
inch flat brush and actually this is an
add 1 inch angular angular angular brush
so you can use either the 1 inch flat or
the angle the angle I I think I prefer
the angle a little bit more than just
the flat they generally cost the same
amount so if you're deciding between
flat or an angular and you might want to
consider the angular I think it's a
little bit I think it's a little bit
more versatile because you have that
little tip there and it's easier for
side loading and some other techniques
but um they'll both work fine if you
have the flat use the flat don't I don't
feel like you have to run out and grab
this brush
it's fun though isn't it time to go buy
a new brush it's all my little um I have
my little what do you want to call it
little I don't know shopping cycles
where it's like oh I want to go buy some
brushes or now I'm going to be buying
some paper and I'm gonna buy stamps now
I'm going to buy paint you know I'll get
my little um kind of my little shopping
I don't know grooves and I want to buy
this or I want to buy that I'm just
adding some dark shadows around some of
these some of these rocks to kind of
help bring them out and define them I
think I want to give this a little more
depth so I'm actually going to go behind
this little group of rocks and darken
this area up over here on the beach and
so my black I'm just using burnt sienna
and ultramarine I haven't I haven't
added any new colors here so try to mix
your colors as much as you can you know
try to keep creating it's just like
using the same brush really stretch your
creativity really stretch your supplies
but it's really important with your
paint that you try not to have too many
colors or you start to get discord in
your painting if you want to have
harmonious painting then try to repeat
colors as much as you can so notice how
I'm dipping my brush around I'm tapping
I'm rotating it I'm getting as many
different shapes and marks as I can from
this and I'm keeping it random I'm just
I'm not worrying about how the brush is
going to land so much as I am just
trying to get some random marks in there
that will represent my rocks and mimic
the rocks and I feel like I need a
little bit more up here maybe warm it up
up there a little bit because it is
getting hit with the song a little bit
more up there so a little more burnt
sienna ultra yellow ochre let's stick
with those up here a little bit more so
I can can feel a little bit warmer up
there with the sun's hitting it and if
you do get it too colored if you get too
much you can always go in with
um hey look at if you have oil painters
brushes around those are great because
they have stiff bristles you can wet
them you can scrub out an area and then
you can blot it off with a paper towel
and you can get back to your lighter
color Al's maybe I could show you that
in a second let me get an area too dark
so that I could show you how to fix it
alright when I let that dry I'll show
you how to fix some of those how we can
bring out some highlights in case you
run into that problem cuz hey I got
another 20 minutes there to go I can
paint for 40 minutes today oh boy
alright so now I want to I want to dark
in I'm still going to use this brush I'm
gonna use the same colors to actually I
was thinking I was gonna skip to the
round brush but now I kind of like the
challenge of just doing this all with
one this brush I'm going to add this
dark brownish gray color ultramarine and
burnt sienna around the areas where the
wax is to really give it some contrast
alright because it's you know if you've
got wet rocks there it's going to be a
little bit darker and I'm also going to
add a little bit more into the water I'm
going to add a little more movement and
so I need mostly ultramarine blue and a
little bit of burnt sienna which I
already have on my palette there so I
think that's dark enough it's kind of
like a nice uh nice slate gray is the
kind of color it makes and what I'm
going to do is just kind of keep my
strokes horizontal you want to make sure
that you're painting with the the
movement of what your of what you're
trying to create here so I am going with
the movement of the sea and I'm just
going to throw in these are these darker
waves and that's really going to help me
get um get that movement you get the
realism that I want this painting okay
it's going to dry a little bit darker so
you'll make sure you have as much in
there as you need now if I forgot a few
rocks there so long ago throw those in
won't add it I don't think it's near any
wet paint I think I can get in there
just fine throw those right in there
and then I'll do a little scraping just
to kind of define the edges a little bit
so so far actually everything we've used
here our sedimentary colors meaning
colors that will just kind of stay on
the surface of the paper so it's really
easy to lift and to do a lot of these
techniques that we've been working on
all right oh I'm really as I guys you
get as you go further on your painting
you might find that you really want to
move into a smaller brush and you can
absolutely do that but try to hold off
as much as you can see what you can do
with this big brush for lifting I am
going to need to move to a smaller brush
just or a different brush rather just
because I need to I need to scrub some
out but it's it's a good technique to
learn anyway just throwing it a few more
shadows in here while I'm at it
alright so final step will be lifting
out some of the highlights and I'm gonna
pause the camera while I go find an oil
painting brush to use for this okay so
these are scrub these are just oil
painting brushes flats or filbert or
will work really well and I've just got
this small one it is a number two which
is a bigger than a number two watercolor
or synthetic brush and what I'm going to
do is go in here and I've wet the brush
and I'm just gonna wiggle it on the
paper and what it's doing is it's it's
lifting up the the pigment and allowing
me to lift out a highlight we do this in
a few more places where the Sun is
really strong now you do have to worry
not worry but you need to be aware that
it's going to slightly damage the
surface of your paper so while you're
doing this if you were to paint over
this it's going to really suck up the
paper a lot more the paint a lot more so
I reserved this for kind of the end of
my painting session so I'm not going to
be adding any more glazes or washes
because if I do those on those this
paper area where I've lifted it is going
to be much more absorbent because I
removed some of the sizing on the
surface
but I just do this kinda at the end
anyway so it's not really that big of a
deal all right so I've added some
highlights there I'm going to add some
highlights down here in front I feel
like I want this to be brightened up so
it kind of picks up in front it was kind
of like lifts itself away from the
background a little bit because this
gives me a little bit more of a natural
look
maybe a little bit right over here on
these faces of rocks there so I was able
to add a little more dimension now I can
go in a little more shadow around them
if I want to make that um pronounced a
little bit more now if the paper's still
damp you're going to get fuzzy edges so
just keep that in mind I'm just going
back here where I didn't wet the paper
and just kind of dark in that little
area draw some of that up
and you can go in with your scraper if
you want some really fine lines I just
wanted to give a little bit more shadow
in a couple of those places
and really that's all there is to it
find a spot you want to sign your name
and then maybe I'll sign mine over there
with a pen or a small brush and there
you have it thank you so much for
watching this extended long watercolor
video if you like the laundry video let
me know if you didn't like it you can
let me know that too because uh let me
know if it's worth editing thank you so
much for watching please give me a
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video and till next time happy crafting