Watercolor sunset tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
and I got a request on my youtube
channel to paint a sunset so I thought
hey why not
so all I've done here is I taped a 5x7
watercolor card down to my piece of foam
court and I drew a horizon line about
two inches up from the bottom so I've
got three inches on the top and two
inches on the bottom so you're probably
thinking Lindsay why do you do that one
you put it right in the middle because
there's something called the rule of
thirds basically you know that's not 1/3
of the paper exactly but you don't want
to have things too symmetrical or
matchy-matchy or it tends to lead to a
boring painting what we're going to do
here what I am doing is wetting my paper
with a one-inch wash brush now I got a
question on my ask crafter about what
brushes I recommend there's so many good
brands out there the royal brand has
very affordable brushes but what you
want to look for are these are acrylic
handles and I'll tell you why for
acrylic and watercolour painting because
if you get distracted like I do if you
have kids you probably get distracted
when you paint sometimes if you leave
this in the water by mistake the the
handles won't swell and split like
wooden handle brushes will so this the
ferrule won't become loose and you'll
have a nice brush also the belt edge is
great for scratching detail alright we
have wet paper what we're gonna do is
put a little ultramarine blue hope is on
my palette I've uh I rescued this
palette I used to be my one do I travel
pallets and found it in a bag and it hid
some of the colors were a little moly
looking so I cleaned it up and saved I
could for paints I think I've got some
similar marine here I'm going to add it
to one of the corners and um we get some
really nice colors in here and I'm going
to add a little of a sail or turquoise
right up here in the corner because I
really want to get a nice rainbow of
color I'm gonna put that right in there
just to work it in there just to give me
some nice saturation I'm gonna work in a
little bit of lemon yellow and I'm gonna
have to be careful not to cross them
over because I really don't want them to
turn um to turn green so I'm going to
add some of this down near the horizon
that lemon has a green cast to it anyway
so I think I'll go in there into some
CAD yellow - you can skip the woman I
guess that didn't work as well as I
thought and I'm going to add a little
bit of alizarin crimson in here I want
to have a nice um vivid sky let's kind
of work that across isn't that pretty
it's very very plain right now I think I
want to get a little bit more color in
there because it's going to dry later
we've got our watercolors and yes more
more crumbs in there we can always lift
some out later and we get to doing the
clouds that down a little bit and now
what we do at the top we want a mirror
on the bottom so I'm going to bring that
a yellow over I'm going to introduce
some of that crimson and some of the
blue and the thing about a sunset that
makes it a really great beginner project
is that you really you know the only
color you worry about is in the sky
everything else is kind of silhouetted
because of the bright vivid colors now I
want to add some life even a little more
blue in that sky it's just what I want
have a little more contrast so I'm
bringing that blue down a little bit
more doing to the bottom I do the top
sometimes if I feel like my colors I'm
blending it off I'll just give it a
little tap let them give this thing look
at that they're kind of moving around
now I'm going to use my paper towel and
I'm going to lift out a couple clouds
here I like how the the sky is kind of
at a diagonal I want to increase that
motif will add some color to these
clouds later if you skinny or ones down
near the horizon I'm just a I'm bending
my paper towel and getting a dry spot as
I go and I want to put these reflections
of these clouds on the water as well
alright now if you end up lifting too
much out just let it down and repaint it
not a big deal
um your watercolor paper is very durable
and it can handle a lot of that so I'm
gonna do here is I'm gonna go dry and
paper driving paper off with my heat gun
come back and we're gonna finish this up
all right now you're seeing the dry
paper look how much lighter the paint is
now that it's dry that's something you
want to keep in mind whenever you paint
that it does dry later now I want these
kind of a bigger floppier brush to paint
I kind of like I mentioned it before
match the brush with white your painting
I'm paying clouds so I went to a bigger
floppier brush um now the reflections
you're going to find on the clouds are
going to kind of be a little opposite
the tops of our clouds are going to have
that crimson that crimson look so you
just kind of draw you top of your clouds
with the crimson here clouds really
close here right in the yellow are
actually going to stay pretty yellow
pretty pretty white so we're gonna leave
those alone but we're gonna marry what
we're doing here remember with mirror on
the bottom we got reflections in the
water go on and pull some color out if
you get too much on there you can add a
little bit of yellow and I'm going to
let it mix in with the red that I just
put in there because we want that
beautiful glow of sunset clouds or maybe
their sunrise clouds you know I really
don't know what are what do these look
like to you your picture can be whatever
you want and I can even add a little bit
of a rim of the crimson on the bottom of
my clouds and just let it blend the less
you do I think to a sunset and the
better it's going to look it's going to
look natural you don't want to look like
a human painted it you want it to look
very Furio and natural so that's what
I'm going for here but don't be afraid
of the color it's only a piece of paper
um you can almost tell I think when you
look at a painting and someone's a four
it was afraid you know you don't want to
be afraid in your painting there's no
reason to nobody has to see it if you
don't like the way it turns out and if
you get a big glob of color just set
your on your just blot your brush off
set it in and you can soak it right up
and if anything is too dark you can go
ahead and blot it will take away any of
the darkness and I want to do again a
little bit of
just trace the bottom of that cloud
there and I can even throw in a few
orange clouds if I want to just you know
here and there
just that just the hint of some clouds
you don't have to be too specific I
wouldn't be too specific actually I
would be kind of vague with it if you're
just kind of adding them for imagination
you're just kind of suggest that they're
there I can add some perfectly clouds up
high and I think I'll do that because
this is kind of a little boring um even
though we're going to add more stuff to
it I really want it to be kind of
interesting so I'm mixing up a little
bit of purple with my alizarin crimson
an ultramarine blue in my palette and
I'm just gonna throw in just a few
Puffy's right over there there getting a
little bit more there a little bit
darker the sun's not reaching up there
so much and put a few streaks in there
and I got to do it to the bottom because
we're reflecting everything is getting
reflected so you know just be vague
about it that's almost like the Sun the
Sun is like right right over there I
think all right now we're in dry this
again and we're gonna paint our our land
areas which are really gonna make the
sunset come alive so let me drive this
and I'll be right back alright my paper
is dry come back your picture probably
looks something like this now I'm going
to show you how to mix up a black now
maybe you want to go and use some up
painting some drawing ink or maybe you
just want to use black from a tube but I
really recommend that you make your own
black because it's going to match your
painting better so what I'm going to do
is I grab them strongest colors that I
used in this piece and a lot of times I
use ultramarine blue and burnt sienna
but I haven't used burnt sienna so I
don't want to introduce that now so I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna grab my crimson
and I'm gonna grab some turquoise that's
gonna give me a really really dark
purple let me show you here almost black
and then I'm just gonna kill the purple
with a little bit of my yellow so really
I mean talking about color theory you're
basically you know you're dealing with
your primary colors and the different
you know amounts of each color to get
the colors you want
and then you know I might add a little
bit more blue to this just to darken it
up a little bit and when you're making
your black I would try it and just want
your custom mixing anything mix more
than you think you're going to need
because it's sometimes hard to go back
and get that exact same color especially
when you are a beginner so I'm just
going to keep mixing until I've got a
big puddle of whatever I need and you
know as it shifts too much to this or
too much to that you can you can add
other colors I'd rather have a little
purple than a little yellow because I
want to have a nice inky color so I have
almost this like midnight black here
that that I'm going to use for my
painting and I bring my painting back
and I am going to use my number six
round and I am just going to start
painting I think that I will put um
let's see I think I put like a little
island over here let me just kind of
gonna um I'm painting upside down so um
you're seeing it right side up a Weiand
frame there we go um so I just want to
let you know that in case you're trying
to paint upside down I'm painting upside
down so you don't have to and then I
want to make sure that under the horizon
line I do the exact same thing or as
close as I can you know don't worry
about it being too perfect this is art
it's not photography doesn't have to be
perfect and I think I really want to
encourage that glow like the sun's just
going down and I want that glow so what
I think I'll do is I'll take some frames
and I'm just going to drip it like
really intensely right into the wet edge
of that um of that mountain we're going
to see how this works it may not work
that great it may be awesome I kind of
like it I kind of like it almost looks
like the Sun is like reflecting off the
edge of that going over the inky color
maybe a little yellow in there let's
just see what happens why don't we this
is experimentation this is fun
let's add a little bit of yellow in
there and see forget see if it turns
into muddy mess or see if we get
something
awesome here and I think you know it
doesn't matter with watercolor
especially above all the other mediums I
think you can paint with it for 50 years
and still find something new every time
you go to paint and I want to redefine
my horizon line even though you
generally don't see too much of it when
you have a when you have a silhouette I
just wanted to pull something in there I
felt like it did something and I want to
mirror that glow underneath the horizon
line as well so I'm just gonna go ahead
barely extending what I've already done
just so I get that glow of red on the
edge I like it works for me
and let's see you'll need I will not
have anything on the other side maybe a
little bit of something over there
um yeah why not let's go and back with
our dark mix and just kind of pull a
little something across maybe so it's
just kind of like a couple mountains off
in to the distance meeting in the middle
maybe there's a road going through this
is your imaginary landscape you can um
you can make it however you want it
that's what's so great about art and I'm
going to go in and add some more dark in
there after but I did love the look of
that glow on the edge I'm just cleaning
my brush before I am get my brush into
my paint palette I usually rinse it off
because I don't want to contaminate my
colors this isn't my favorite painting
palette but I did wanted to get it out
and see if I had successfully cleaned
out Maya my palette I I always have a
lot of them paying palettes going
because I used to teach watercolor
classes to kids and adults and I think I
might start teaching to adults again the
watercolor because it's just such a such
a joy to see somebody paint you know but
that's the don't think they don't think
they can do it and then they do it and
they feel so awesome
alright key believe that I could just
gab and gab and not anybody in the room
with me oh yeah you probably can you've
been watching my channel for any amount
of time a little bit of that I love the
color i do like putting color and see
you would not get the color in your
shadows it
if you were using black from a tube so
that's another reason you can just fill
your shadows full of glorious color and
you keep adding color I just love that I
love it you love it you can't answer me
but I love it you can leave a comment if
you love it you leave a comment if you
think Wednesday you've totally lost your
marbles um and we talked about there
that was crazy look at but I love it I
think it's I think it's awesome yeah
just dripping that color the sun's just
glowing is making everything glow at
this hour of the day I love it all right
so we also want to add um okay so we've
got basically we've got whatever's the
top of the paper is close to us that's
why the clouds are bigger bottom of the
paper is closer to us stuff in the
middle close to the horizon is further
away I also want to throw my little
horizon line in there just with the
digging in there with the edge my brush
just so I have a sense of my bearings
and but I do want to throw something in
to give a little sense of scale so I
think I put a tree in and I think
hopefully this dark is dark enough I
think I might mix up just a little bit
more just in case I want make sure I
have it nice and inky and ready to roll
here alright so what I'm gonna do is
just paint on a tree over here cuz I
really want this kind of a lit up area
to be my focus don't be afraid I know
you're painting over the whole thing but
really don't don't let it don't let it
worry you and by going the whole length
of the paper I'm actually adding some
really great scale and I think I'll just
throw a few little branches when I do my
branches I got my brush I'm just using
the tip of my brush you've got a know we
could do an autumn sunset here we got
bare branches or you could dab on some
leaves you do it in the same color and I
want to put some kind of some brush
coming up from the bottom remember this
is just a quick painting I'm showing you
how to do a landscape this is gonna hang
in a gallery nobody's gonna frame it you
know just have fun with it don't don't
worry about a thing when your paint
especially if you're doing one of these
quick tutorials of mine I want you to
have fun I don't want you to worry about
it and I get turned around for a second
because I've no idea what it looks like
painting upside down I gotta turn around
for a second here sorry about that just
throwing in a few more trees bring that
down
maybe I should like put it let that
stuff dry in the background first and
you know what might be pretty what if we
painted a few geese flying flying south
for the winter they're gonna get bigger
as they cope they kind of quick seagulls
don't die maybe this one's further away
there we go
maybe that one a tail he's closer we can
see a little bit more him um maybe
that's number little nose maybe maybe if
I use my fancy credit card scraper tool
I can get my little nose little beak
there we go
lead them on their goose lead them to
Canada some of the goal in the winter I
don't know I don't think I'd go to
Canada in the winter I think they'd
probably go south I don't know I'm no
expert clearly well you know I think
that's just fine what do you think we
sign my name they could turn it around
to sign I can't do that upside down can
barely write my name right side up so
just put my little Mitchell's in here
somewhere
LM w13 okay so the true magic I'm going
to dry this off because I want to show
you how light everything is when it
dries and I'm also gonna show you how to
remove that tape so you don't rip your
painting hopefully be right back
actually real quick I decided before I
wanted to do that I want to darken up my
foreground objects that's a tree and the
shrubs there because I feel like they
should just be a little bit darker
because they're further away from the
light source and I really want there to
be a distinction between those glowy
mountains and the really really
silhouetted shapes in the foreground so
I am going over them with that same
black mix that we made so we're not
gonna see any the colors independently
in the
in the foreground we're going to what's
going to be a lot more solid and it's
going to contrast which is a very
important word to know is are just going
to contrast a little bit more and I
think maybe I'll put in maybe another
little shrub trying to make a living
here I'm using my brush straight up and
down because I want to give it a nice
control and yeah now the thing about
removing your tape when you're done is
that if you have wet paper it's going to
want to pull so the area down here is
going to want to pull more than the end
rip more than the area on the dry parts
of my tree I kind of want this lacy so
I'm adding in more branches but it's
that scare so you don't have to do it
you whatever you want you can even if
you make a huge mistake just dab dab dab
dab and it'll look like you have leaves
on the trees and it's not a big deal
alright so I'm not going to dry that
again I'm going to turn it around for
you though and when I pull the tape off
the thing I find that helps the most and
it might tear a little bit there on the
edge is that I kind of pull it I lay it
flat against itself like that and I just
kind of pull it see see it does see how
it wants to tear there I'm gonna come in
when that happens I come in from the
other side and it's because the paper is
wet and I warned you that would happen
and it did but pull it kind of at a
right angle away from the painting and
it fix that little touch of glue or with
a touch of paint when you're done okay
on the margin it's not that big of a
deal I can glue that little flap right
down with a little white glue when I'm
done but that's why it's because the
paper's wet so see I will sacrifice my
card to show you why it happened what to
do and what not to do all right we're
gonna have time to take this tape off
and still be under 20 minutes
barely all right and I just think it
adds such a pretty frame and I mentioned
before when I was a kid
water coloring I always taped my paper
down because I loved at the end when I
could take my tape off and reveal the
beautiful white frame and that might rip
a little bit there no it's not it's
doing good alright so there you have it
how to paint a sunset or sunrise you'd
be the judge in watercolor thank you so
much for watching until next time happy
crafting