Easter chick in watercolor pencils Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
tomorrow's Easter so I thought it'd be
fun to kind of do a painting tutorial
using watercolor pencils and we're going
to do an Easter chicken I'm actually
gonna draw this with the marker first so
you can see my lines and then I'll
actually do the painting on the
watercolor paper so for the chick what
we're gonna do is um I have mine drawn
on my watercolor paper already we're
gonna start by and please use a light
touch on a pencil I'm only using a
marker to kind of show you the the basic
shape so I've kind of got this uh lumpy
circle a square so I got a bump here for
the head I got a bump for the chest bump
for the rump I guess a bump for the ronk
and a bump for the back and then we're
gonna have a little bump in here for the
fluffy wings because chicks are pretty
much just big balls of fluff we are
raised we have chickens we raise them
from chicks and they are so darn cute
and the kids and my husband want more
and oh they're so cute but I think we
may be yeah we may be getting chickens
now so then the beak is just kind of
like a little triangle there it's really
all there is to it and their eyes are
pretty close to the beak actually
they're kind of like an opal but they do
kind of have a little tip at the at the
front in the back it kind of almost
looked like a a sesame seed now the legs
come back in from actually the rump area
they're not that they're kind of front
heavy and so I'm just kind of sketching
in little feet there we're gonna have
some grass under there too so uh so
don't worry about that too much in the
back foot is going to you know hit the
ground a little bit higher because it's
further away from us so that's just kind
of perspective so they're just a very
loose sketch it's all we really need
we're gonna put a couple Easter eggs in
I'm going to just all sketch one right
here you can use whatever colors you
want for your eggs you can actually
sketch this with watercolor pencils if
you want to that is that's fine or with
your regular pencil so I'm just putting
you know part of the eggs kind of poking
up out of the ground and then just for
um oh just for funsies I move my markers
I mean my markers their overall my main
desk so I'm all excited I can
grab my markers then we're gonna just
throw some grass in so you know they'll
actually it'll actually kind of go over
some of the feet and eggs so that's a
basic sketch for our painting we're
going to do if you need to pause it and
watch out again and do it again go ahead
and if not let's start making so what
I've done here is I've grabbed some pens
grab some pencils I want to use I've
used three different shades of green
I've used two different shades of yellow
one's kind of a brown yellow I'm gonna
zoom in a little bit here I'll turn them
on again I've got I've just rearranged
all my pencils here I've got a pink and
a red I've got a couple shades of blue
and I have a purple please use what you
have if you don't have the colors I have
just improvise because it will be fine I
promise and I am using a few synthetic
brushes I decided I would get these out
my stuff I like a little bit more of a
firmer brush when I'm using watercolor
pencils and when I'm just using the
paint's alright so the first thing I
want to do I think I'll actually put my
background in first and what I'm gonna
do is I'm going to begin by wetting the
paper and I'm now going all the way up
to the edges I'm really just I'm just
gonna do a very soft background painting
around my um my fluffy chick and around
the eggs just in the sky and I'm gonna
do a very very soft background and to
achieve this I'm going to just wet the
tip of my my brush and I'm gonna be
getting some some paint that way and
softness is key I just want a very very
soft subtle color it is gonna dry a
little bit lighter so keep that mind but
I just want very pastel springy colors
here I hope y'all if you celebrate
Easter go Puri had some lovely plans for
the weekend we just had a Easter egg
hunt at the school kids love that so
that there last year they're gonna be
too old next year so so I really want to
make sure they got to do that I know
we're kind of old fashioned we we have
an Easter egg hunt at this
I know wouldn't be appropriate in most
towns but you know we're fashion I'm
gonna add a little bit of of green into
this to just kind of pulling it down to
the grass area I want it very blurry
because I want you know it to kind of
seem like it's in the distance the sharp
focus will be on the chick and the eggs
so I'm just putting in a little bit of
this in the distance I love this
technique some pencil manufacturers say
not to do this and I've never had a
problem so you know you may want to
consult if you have like a certain brand
these are the Derwent a regular ones I
know they might look funny might like
different than yours because these are
very old but the Derwent regular
watercolor pencils so if you have a
different brand and you want to just
check out their website to see if they
say not to do that that's probably a
good idea and still want to get in there
a little bit I just don't want any hard
edges let's go in there with my green
over here your action upstairs I think
someone's been back from the hardware
store there we go and I'm gonna do the
detailed graphs later but because I
don't want any hard edges I'm just gonna
brush some clear water over the bottom
of the grass there I hear the dog coming
downstairs all right I think I'll do a
little bit of that right under here as
well now when you're working with
watercolor pencils I find they dry very
quickly which is which is really great
I'm working on a Kansan 140 pound
watercolor card I get asked about my
surface a lot
I found the Strathmore watercolor cards
also to be good I kind of shop around
when I'm buying them because I used to
get him at Blix and I got a package of a
hundred for 20 bucks on sale and that's
where I used to always buy them but I
kind of told everyone about that and now
I think they became very popular and now
they're up to like 40 I think so um so
shop around also find Jerry's Adorama or
cheap Joe's I go between the three
places and see you at some of the
cheapest when I'm ready to buy all right
I'm actually gonna heat this for a
second I just want to make sure it's
nice and dry before I go on to
following a chip
it's not completely dry but we're
actually gonna be adding some color on
the the middle of the chick first I'm
going on with this cut this burnt yellow
ocher which is a nice earthy yellow kind
of like a raw sienna you can you know
substitute with whatever you have it
really doesn't matter and I'm just kind
of sketching just kind of shading I'm
gonna go under this little area of the
wing so the advantage of drawing this
out I drew it out with regular pencil
but if you're drawing it with watercolor
pencils the advantage would be that you
would not see your lines after you
painted it it would just be like you uh
it would just be like you which is
painted it without any sort of
guidelines so that's kind of a neat a
neat idea I'm gonna add a little bit of
pink to that beak because because
they're their beaks are kind of like a
coral a peachy color and I like to use
the same colors over and over again so
that my whole composition looks nice
together I'm gonna go over the entire
thing was up with a very very pale
yellow now when you're coloring with
your pencils I try to stay on the edge
so I don't scribe any lines onto my
paper because if you dent the paper
that's where the waters gonna settle
that's where all the pigments gonna
settle and it's gonna look um kind of
forced in here mature ish so to kind of
work on the edge so you don't have to
press so hard and so you get a more
broad broad color and you can see
there's some texture there that's the
texture of the paper you're seeing I'm
also gonna do the legs here let me do
the legs with those same colors I did
for the beak that golden golden yellow
yellow ocher raw sienna whatever you
have and in the pink and we might need
to go in and darken some of these colors
and that's okay because you can you can
glaze over with watercolors it's a
misconception to think that you are
stuck with whatever you put on the paper
you can definitely go in there and now
I'm gonna go in with this little bit of
brighter yellow and I'm gonna just add
it here and there and kind of over the
shadow areas and just to kind of deepen
my color and that may go in and add some
of this with a brush later I'm not gonna
do the eyes at this time because I want
to make sure that I can do that at the
end and have a lot of detail now for the
eggs I decided I want to have one purple
because purple is the opposite of yellow
so that's gonna give it a nice it's
really gonna make my yellow pop and so I
want this guy that's right next to the
the chick
to be the purple one and it's a very
very pale lavender the color is actually
called red violet lake but it's a very
almost dusty lavender color and I'll
probably glaze over a shadow afterwards
and for this one I think I'll do this
one pink so I'm using that same pink
that I did on the beak and I really
don't know if I'm gonna use that red
pencil that I grabbed I think I might
hold off on that to see if I I really
need it because I like to limit my
colors I think you're better off to use
fewer colors your picture will usually
look better all right now let's use a
brush and add some water I'll start off
with this uh number 6 round I prefer to
work with rounds as long as it'll move
my pigment
oh yeah that's dissolving it sometimes I
need like a small flat oops I got a hair
in there that's odd
I've been using this brush for a long
time they have a button here's before ah
something to go in just um just dissolve
my colors grab some fresh water and you
know it's really very easy I think the
sketching isn't the trickiest part of
this whole project and if you find
yourself if you can't seem to get the
sketch right then go online and find a
picture of a chick and trace it and then
have fun pop it up painting it all right
so I've dissolved those colors I'm gonna
go in and do the do the legs and I'm not
gonna really detail the toes I just want
to get a little bit because I know
there's gonna be grass going over them
so I don't want to uh I don't want to
have too much of that pain because I
won't be able to cover it up with thee
with the grass right I'm also going to
oh and while I've added I can actually
grab a little piece of cut-up credit
card and I can throw some of the detail
hopefully we've done off cuz if I have
any watercolor on there from before it's
gonna show I can actually throw in
some little fluffy scratches just here
and there just being very uh very
conservative with my own mother
scratches I don't want too many and then
when I wash over it with color like if I
want to take a little bit of this bright
yellow off the tip here then it will
show up I'm just doing that I was kind
of doing that off the edge because I
didn't want to get it on my painting
you don't worry over there though and
then I'll pick up those little scribe
marks that we put in the keys to make it
look you know feel very easy breezy now
I think you can probably see that it has
picked up some of the little little
feathery marks so I've put in there I
think I want a little bit of this rosy
color in there too cuz chicks are I mean
they're actually our chicks weren't
yellow our chicks were Rhode Island red
so they were much more Brown but these
fluffy I think is probably Leghorn
chicks they're they're yellow but
they're not like super super bright and
things watercolor all you have to do is
really hint at something you don't have
to put in every little detail
I think that's adorable all right we're
gonna let that be for a bit and actually
be able to add a little bit more of that
there we go and we could actually if you
want to connect a little bit of that out
just to give it a fluffy but the I'm
kind of dragging it over the edge just
so you do see some hairs poking out some
little feathers
they're just flat balls at this stage
you're so cute probably only vegan that
raises chickens I don't eat the eggs my
family does thanks you're gonna die a
bunch from today but they're brown eggs
but still I can't see myself going out
to the grocery store buying white eggs
just to dye them well you don't know how
those chickens have been raised alright
now I'm gonna add some I think I'll use
my flat brush for the Easter eggs and
I'm gonna go to this one first because
the purple one is right next to the wet
feathers I just painted this pink one
here we'll have Easter dinner at my
parents house tomorrow I think I will
bring this card for my mother she would
enjoy that I think and I'm gonna add a
little bit of this red right from the
pencil I'm gonna add some around the
edges to really give it that round
feeling
and maybe you know I could add some of
that read that I the red pencil i picked
up that i thought you haven't add some
red but i don't know i think that i'd
rather have it I'd rather stick of the
colors I've already been using
alright I'm gonna heat this again I'm
gonna pause the video while I do it and
then we back it will finish it up okay I
actually went and grabbed a I grabbed a
brown I realize didn't have a brown that
would be dark enough to do the eye so I
grabbed this very soft brown I don't
want to have anything to do near and if
I'm gonna add that somewhere I need to
add it somewhere else so I'll actually
probably add some into the grass and
I'll go in with my round brush it's very
small and I will just carefully colored
in all except for the highlight okay
well now we'll add it I've got some of
that brown on there I'm gonna add some
details around the because I don't want
anything to really you know seem like
it's out of place so you gotta use that
same color here and there you know two
of little they have a little immature
ear you just see like a little dimple
over here it's a little bit darker and I
think that's their ear drop some of it
off so I'm going in and adding a little
detail with that darker color over there
and we take my flat brush wring out the
extra water and just kinda look at so I
don't get too much on there
so anywhere I need a little bit of
shadow I'm just gonna go ahead and throw
it in with without color so it's very
soft but when you start adding it to
other places I really did need a little
bit of definition too
you just start adding a little bit of
dark and it really really makes a
difference
like you totally lose myself in this
cute little painting it's so much fun
all right so now we get our purple eggs
let's go ahead and paint that in very
very soft colors my favorite holiday to
scrapbook is Easter because I love you
know the baskets full of plastic eggs
and the which of course we stay from
year to year and use over and over again
you know so they're not a complete
environmental nightmare and you know the
pictures them dyeing eggs and the Easter
dresses and which my children will not
wear you know but I just I love all the
colors of Easter if there's such a nice
such a nice holiday to scrapbook and
it's you know it's nice to get together
with my family we don't get together
enough my sister and my parents so it's
nice all right and I think I want a
little bit more of the pink on that
other egg cuz that's pretty light all
right about three minutes to wrap this
picture up all right so what I'm gonna
do is I'm start sketching in some grass
I'm gonna go right in with the the
springy green watercolor pencil this is
grass green actually that's the Derwent
name it's just a very yellowy green I am
gonna just drag some went over those wet
eggs this time is of the essence now
kids are all upstairs enjoying the
spoils from the Easter egg hunt this
morning a little bit now I'm gonna
actually liquefy that then I will go in
with some of the other colors that I
have I'm a bigger brush will I be able
to finish this in 29 oh yeah that's such
a that is the question I think I will if
not I'll leave you at a point worried I
know you can finish it okay you already
done with you dark color add some more
details it'll be darker anyway because
you're right on the you're going on wet
paper so if you don't have that many
greens and you're limited just the fact
that you're going in what paper your
color is going to be darker anyway
and I have one other shade of greens
kind of earthy green which are they
don't throw in some under the chick it
kind of actor the shadow and around the
eggs just to give us a little bit of
depth and really that's really about all
you need I like watercolor cards they're
fun to paint sorry about the noise of
the furnace in the background somebody
mentioned putting a fan up so I could
get some of that heat from the furnace
but unfortunately it heats the rest of
the house and not the basement but
spring is a-comin so I was just thinking
oh it doesn't seem like Easter and
Easter I couldn't without the snow good
somebody dies like it's hunting for eggs
in the snow
I am glad there was no snow for this
Easter egg hunt though right and if you
want to stop in any of those lines from
going with a damp brush and soften them
up a bit and it will also kind of bring
it really some of the color that you may
have lost and I would add a little bit
of dark in that dark brown color to the
legs a little bit more that pink in the
yellow to kind of give them a little
more definition but that's pretty much
it I'm running out of time here I want
to thank you so much for watching if you
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miss any other happy Easter and as
always happy crafting