How to paint pinecone and tassel christmas card Video Lecture | Master the Art of Watercolour Painting (English) - Art & Craft

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
and today I'm gonna show you how you can
draw from life real life things and I'm
also going to show you how to
incorporate rubber stamps into one of
your hand-painted cards I had a request
to show how to paint a Christmas card
and I thought this would be a great time
to do it since we've got a couple months
you have plenty of time to make some
hand-painted cards so I wanted to do
since I'm from Maine I wanted to do a
pinecone um so I went out my yard and I
picked up a few I tried to get a tassel
to go with it you know the little
evergreen bits but my pine tree is very
tall and there are no green tassels on
the ground so we're gonna have to
improvise on that score but I'm going to
start off by sketching so the nice thing
about going from life is that you can
actually um pick something up and go
from now I'm gonna start I'm drawing by
the way with a UH a watercolor pencil
and I'm drawing directly on my paper and
I'm just trying to basically get the
basic shape of my pinecone here and I
might fatten up a little bit because
these are kind of skinny pine pine cones
and then I want to put a branch in of
course I'm a branch to go by but I'm
gonna wing it and as long as I don't put
too much detail in it's going to be fine
and then I want to throw in where the
tassels are going to go so I'm going to
have a few little tassels coming out
that way
if that's really all I need to go for to
go by now I just got these in the mail
today I haven't even opened them yet um
they are some stamps of Oriental Trading
they are the uh called Christmas song I
believe I'm looking the none of the name
isn't on the oh it's probably on the
door it's probably on this package here
it's Christmas songs clear stamps and
what I like is that um they're very
traditional type of type of design so I
can actually figure out what I want to
add to this so I think that I I want
I'll be home for Christmas and I think
I'll probably stamp it up in one of
these corners I'll see what I'm done
painting what will look good but clear
stamps worked better for stamping on
watercolor paper because they're a
little more squishable and they'll do
into the grooves the texture of your
paper a little bit better all right now
we need a paintbrush and I was throw-in
a little bit of a background color and I
think I want to warm it up with a little
yellow ochre I'm not gonna worry about
I'm gonna not go right on top of where
I've just sketched because I did use a
watercolor pencil but I am then I kind
of shimmy right up to it if I get into a
little bit it's not a big deal but um
but I don't want to lose my entire
drawing and I'll scoot this over a
little bit so you can see I got my
watercolor palette here I'm not gonna
pick it up because how I dropped it the
other day when we were doing this I
don't want to drop it and spill my
paints all over the floor again because
I've got a set that's got pans in it
rather than to color I'm just gonna
throw in a little bit of background and
I want to kind of keep it in an oval so
I have a vignette so I'm gonna tell you
what I did today my busy day busy
weekend with a long four-day weekend
coming up and um I was getting
housecleaning
I had to take my son to an eye doctor
appointment and he was just you know
just a lot to do when my house was a
wreck I needed to I wanted to clean it
up for the weekend and I just couldn't
get going so I told myself Lindsay dust
vacuum mop your floors and then you can
have a painting break and so here I am
having my painting break I'm telling you
what I'm so lazy but this worked all
right so what I'm gonna do now
I'm gonna dry this with my heat gun and
we back and I'm gonna show you how to
paint in the pine cone all right that's
nice and dry I'm gonna use let's see so
since I have this in my hand I could I
should look at it and save them I think
I'll use maybe some burnt sienna maybe
low ultramarine blue to darken it up in
the shadows um you know I can really
look at it a little yellow ochre here
and there and I am gonna use a water
color crayon to get the gray sappiness
on the side so we're cutting and mixing
it up a little bit um but I do believe
you could just leave that out if you
didn't have watercolor crayons or if you
didn't want to bother with it or um okay
I'm gonna show you my palette I'm gonna
try out to draw contour if you do have
Chinese white which a lot of watercolor
sets come with which typically wouldn't
use white in a traditional watercolour
you may use this you may use it you can
do whatever you want your painting I'm
not the boss it you
nobody's boss you you do what you want
you're painting um all right so I got
some burnt sienna here now I'm gonna mix
up my color I have yellow ochre right
there so I get my burnt sienna and you
know another little trick I don't know
if I have a spray bottle handy but a
trick would be to spray your palette if
you're um working with paint like I am
um you know that's dry
you know spray your palette before you
begin your your colors will release a
lot easier for you I didn't do that but
I think I think I'll be fine especially
if you're using less less expensive
paint like these are common student
marks could you cut the student line of
Windsor Newton's watercolors you just
get in it they don't release it quite as
easily as the as the artists grade so
I'm going in kind of in the center of
the pine cone and putting in some darks
this is ultramarine blue plus burnt
sienna my favorite dark and then I'm
going to go in with just the burnt
sienna and I always just tap it off of
my palette make sure it only lumps or
chunks or anything and then I'm just
going to go in and dab in the little
flower whatever you want buddy call
those things oh I just find out what the
the red thing on the root and the
rooster of the chicken is called it's
the waddles just like on a turkey I
found that out from one of my very
helpful YouTube viewers yesterday um
I know in my brain I know what those are
called and I just can't I can't think of
it now big shocker and I'm gonna throw
some yellow ocher I'm gonna kind of drip
that in because I want it to kind of do
its thing and just kind of be lively and
random and notice my where I sketched
with the gonna round out those I don't
you can bring your thing over your
pinecone over to look at it every once
in a while if you have a question on the
shape that's what's so great about going
from life you know if you don't have
pine cones and you have to go from a
picture on the internet that's fine go
ahead and do that but if you have them
growing in your yard go pick them up
have a look they always bring in stuff
for my students to sketch alright don't
overdo this because you don't want to
lose the essence of the pinecone
alright I'll know I clean my brush and
we need that round again oh yeah let's
do the little branch just kind of
that in there just a very choppy strokes
and then we're going to put on our PI
cone and I'm going to use SAP green and
I'm also going to use SAP green +
ultramarine so I have a light any dark
version of the screen of this evergreen
color and it's so pretty in the winter
when we've got snow on our evergreens
here in Maine you can see this the
contrast of the green and the white it's
really lovely actually this is a very
very nice evergreen color just on its
own mix up a bit more of that because I
don't like to run out now at this point
you may if you have a liner brush you
may find that it's a great time to
practice with that and I'll show you
brushes now this is an um this isn't
really a liner but it has a longer
bristle link so if I hold those two
brushes together see how this one eye
here has a longer bristle length I'm
gonna be able to make longer lines oh
this is gonna hold more paint in water
so let me show you here you also might
have a brush is called a liner that's
got like a very long skinny skinny brush
and that is great for pulling long lines
of color so if I see how many strokes I
can make on this before I run out now I
happen to know that the that the pine
needles on this particular tree that a
coat that take ornament that uh motor
fee that a pine cone came from a very
long and skinny and they kind of come in
small clusters like that so that's what
I am painting so that's where the power
of observation comes in house on
electronic comps um you know when you're
out there and you're observing from
nature you learn so much and you don't
even realize you are but you do it's um
it's really something you have the
opportunity you should really take it
even if it's just sitting on your porch
and having a sketchbook with you we're
going on a walk with the kids and having
you all bring you a clipboard or some
papers on it so you can you can sketch
and then they just throw in a few little
wisps over here we don't know where
they're coming from but it just kind of
fills in a little bit I'm going to put a
little yellow ocher at the top
here just to kind of give it the anchor
point and um let's see I think I will
also scrape and we see five of my
favorite tools if I I do have my
favorites all my gold cut up credit card
I just cut up my old debit card today I
should I kept it when I was at the bank
and I just got a new one so then dispose
of it but gee that looks like a good
training tool like a cat and I think I
want to darken that up a little bit so
I'm gonna add a little more of that
ultramarine UI green and just kind of
throw some in there and where it settles
anywhere I've scraped it's going to be
darker alright now I am going to do the
stamping cuz I'm going to let that dry a
little bit before I try to go in and I
use my watercolor crayon to give it the
sappy look sappy I'm going to select my
stamp now this is something cool I want
to show you my zoom out a little bit so
you can see the size of this this is one
of the typical sets from Oriental
Trading Company I mean I will put a link
below the video so you can check out the
set if you want there 16 bucks but it's
an 8 and a half by 11 inch set of stamps
and it comes a three-hole punched paper
and cover so you can just pop it in a
binder it's pretty awesome I was
surprised the first time I ever order
these stamps or stamps like it a set
like this from them I couldn't believe
how big the snot was it was crazy and
and I just really really enjoyed them
now they are not they're not like the
photopolymer I think there are more of
silicone and you can tell when you you
take a sniff when you open up your
stamps um a photopolymer has a very
distinct sweet smell or silicone doesn't
but with watercolor paper these silicone
now I'm not a chemist and maybe they're
not really silicone buttons there I
think they're um they work really well
for watercolor paper so what I'm gonna
do anytime I use one of these for the
first time I will grab a nail file and I
will scuff it up and let me go grab that
grab a block and I'll show you exactly
what I do
okay so I've got some ink we're going to
need that in a second pigment ink does
tend to work a little bit better
the clear stamps and then what I'm going
to do is with my emery board I'm just
going to scuff the surface of this stamp
this um I think when you're working with
like line images and text the clear
stamps are good for that and they
certainly will get into the crevices of
the of the watercolor paper a little bit
better than the rubber blocks the rubber
just doesn't have as much squish you
know they all have their purposes of
what what they're better and and worse
for but I really like these for this
type of application so now I know where
I want to stamp it I'm gonna ink up my
stamp I hope they think that is juicy
because it's kind of an old one it looks
like it is though well it looks like I'm
pretty well inked up and I'm just gonna
put this in the corner and hope that I
get a good impression cuz I'd hate to
ruin my painting although it only took
me like eight minutes so I'm not gonna
worry about it too much oh my gosh I
love it I love the way the red just kind
of makes the green on the tassels pop
alright so I'm going to show you a
couple things that we can do to kind of
give us a little more oomph
so remember when we sketched with our
called watercolor pencil I'm gonna dip
that in water and I'm going to go in and
I'm gonna add some shadows here and
there by wetting my um my pencil it's
giving me some really nice intense
pigment and I don't have to do it
everywhere I just need to do it here and
there remember we are artists we have
cameras we don't need to make it
photorealistic we don't need to make it
perfect you can if you want to
absolutely it's your art you do whatever
you darn well please but I think it's
more about express expression and the
feeling of it all and I want to add some
shadows onto my branch because I think
it's just a little too blah and you know
I can even add a little bit of this
because you know sometimes those needles
do die and they get all kind of brown
and ick so there we go
and now for the final touch on this I am
going to take my gray its silver gray
it's very very light you can use white
on the dip it into the water this is
just a watercolor crayon
and I'm going to add a little bit of
white SAP that I see so yeah it's not
pure watercolor but who the heck cares
it's a darn fine Christmas card I say
I'd be happy to get it in the mail
hopefully somebody I know will be happy
to get it in the mail because it's going
out loyal eventually all right there you
have it a cute Christmas card that
anyone can make honestly I hope you
enjoyed this tutorial if you have any
requests um I make no promises but I
sure will try to uh to get to them just
leave a comment below and I want to
thank you so much for watching until
next time happy crafting