Easy_watercolor_lilacs.mpg Video Lecture - Master the Art of Watercolour

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
and today I'm going to show you how you
can paint lilacs aren't they pretty
they're blooming all over new england
this time of year and their fragrance
just takes me back to being a little
girl and playing underneath my lilac
tree at home so today i'm going to show
you how you can paint this little lilac
and stick it on a card it's so easy to
do and it only takes a couple of minutes
so won't you join me let's get to it
okay so I have my supplies here I have a
piece of 140-pound watercolor paper that
I have torn so I have nice rough edges I
think looks really pretty and I've got
my brushes and a pencil and I've got my
regular standard large palette here and
I usually use this palette upon painting
in my studio so the first thing I want
to do is grab my pencil and I'm just
going to sketch on a branch and I'm just
gonna just throw a couple branches in
there just to give me an idea of where I
want my lilacs to be and I'm going to
turn that upside down for me so you'll
be looking at it right-side up and since
that's a really easy I'm gonna put a
leaf on there too I'm not going to draw
it on a scrap paper and then transfer it
this is easy enough that I don't need to
do that
alright I'm keeping my lines pretty
light so that they won't show up too
much under the paint so to make my
purple I am going to simply mix my
alizarin crimson now I have purple on my
palette but I want to show you how to
mix a color because I'm a big believer
that when you begin to watercolor paint
that you you mix your colors so I'm
using alizarin crimson because that is
more of a cool red and I'm going to mix
in some whoops let's go buy some
ultramarine blue and that will give me a
nice purple and then I'm also going to
make another purple but this time I'm
going to use my crimson and I'm going to
use some oppression blue or turquoise
with it and that will just give me a
darker purple and see I arrange my
my colors my paints in rainbow order so
that I always know from getting more
green purple or from getting a more
green blue or from getting a more red
blue it just helps me keep my colors
straight going back into a little bit of
the red and that's just a dollar you see
how that gives me a more duller purple
and then I'll just have a little trims
and on its own in case I just want to
grab that I don't like a little bit of
blue on its own the ultramarine blue
alright so this is what my cowl looks
like and I'm going to load my brush up I
have a number six round I'm going to
load it up with lots of water I'm going
to dip into my first purple mix the
ultramarine blue and red I'm going to
start dabbing on some petals
I hope my hands not on the way I'm
painting upside down so it's a little
strange we're painting lilacs here and I
want the paint to be really really wet
picking up different shades as I go
generally no home painting normally here
this is how I would do it I'd have my
brush pointed away from me so I'd get
those nice little individual petals and
by picking up a slightly different color
every time it's going to give me a more
natural look and I want to keep that
paint really wet because on you'll see
why in a minute and sometimes I have to
go in and mix up a little extra color on
the fly because I run out it's okay that
I'm going right over my leaf I just want
to make sure I have some definition at
the at the edges and I'm just going to
go in I'm going to rinse your colors
your brush between colors and just add
big gobs of wet color in there now to
get the really pretty look of lilac
those little individual blossoms on a
lilac um we're going to throw some salt
in there and that's going to give us
that pretty look and I'm using kosher
salt
and I'm just going to sprinkle that on
there and let it dry now the wetter your
paper is when you sprinkle the salt on
the bigger the burst of light shapes
you'll get
so while that's drying I'm going to kind
of tap up blow off the extra extra salt
there and I'm going to switch over to my
half inch flat and I'm going to make
couple puddles of color I'm going to go
with SAP green which is here in my
corner I like to put the color on my
palette as you can see my paint is dry
and that's what I do I squeeze out my
paint into my palette and then when I
want to use some I just kind of make a
puddle in the mixing area that way I
don't contaminate my colors and that way
you don't waste thing here your paint
will will be there ready to go
I'm just going to turn my palette and
you'll be able to see what I'm doing on
there and on this is a really easy way
that I like to do we use and I'm simply
going to I just kind of squeeze pinch my
brush get the extra water out I'm going
to load up half of it in green half of
it in yellow and then and it's perfectly
okay to turn your paper so that you are
you can go in and grab and reach
whatever you want to reach the easiest
way and I'm just going to make a couple
little leaves here I could put in a leaf
wherever you like put blamin frame here
and this is just the perfect size to go
on a card now for my branch I'm going to
go in with just a little brick Santa if
my um my paint doesn't seem to be coming
out too dark what I'll do is I'll spray
it spray the well of color or just put
some water in there and let it sit for a
minute until it softens up the old
pigment and then it gets plenty dark so
I always let mine dry in the wells and
then I go back in with water should we
constitute it and I'm just going to pick
up a little bit of purple and that's
going to darken my brown and it is going
to make my branches look realistic I did
smudge my green they're just like my
finger on a second ago so I'll just try
to avoid that I'm just going to go in
and throw in a few branches look how
easy that is
now when this dries you'll see the
really pretty blossoms of lilacs start
to form now another cool thing you can
do with watercolor paint is actually
stamp with it so here I have a red red
rubber stamp doesn't work so well with a
clear it works much better with the red
and I'm going to use my flat brush and
I'm going to pick up some really thick
paint and what I'm gonna do is I've
squeezed the extra water out of my brush
with my fingers and I'm just gonna grab
some blue some of the ultramarine blue
when talking about squeeze out the extra
again squeeze squeeze squeeze get
someone like crimson nice and dark you
want it really thick so that it will
stick to your stamping then I'm just
going to paint it on you don't have to
be too careful about it just paint it on
there and then you can either stamp it
on watercolor paper or cardstock and
I've got some watercolor paper right
here so I'm just going to press it right
down there and then I've got a really
cool watercolor looking calligraphy and
I'll put this all together in a card and
show you in just a second oh let me just
done see if I can bring this up a little
closer you can start to see what the
salt does to the paint it's starting to
make these little bursts of white in
here kind of looks like snow I'm gonna
let this dry the whole way and then I'll
show you what it looks like alright I
just took my paper over to my heat gun
and dried it a little bit you can use a
hairdryer and now I'm going to brush off
the salt you have to make sure your
paper is dry when you do this or you're
going to smear your paint so I'm just
going to gently brush it off and give it
a little blow to get rid of the any of
the extra salt and let me bring that up
a little bit closer and you can start to
see the detail see those little ah the
flecks of texture that the salt gave it
in that cool now to bring out a little
bit more detail I'm going to go back
with my round brush I'm going to mix up
a little more purple and I'm not going
to have it 2x I want
be able to keep some nice sharp
definition and I'm just going to kind of
go in there and just kind of define the
clumps of lilacs less is more honestly
when you're doing this you just want to
give the impression of the flower you
don't need to paint every little blossom
you might as well just take a picture if
you want to do that if you're painting I
think it's you know it's fun just to
capture the essence we have huge while
growing up we had a huge lilac tree in
our backyard and this is actually I went
down to visit my parents on Mother's Day
and I grabbed a bunch of lilac so I
could fill my mason jars with them just
have them all over the house they smell
so nice I can understand a little bit of
detail to the leaves I'm going to grab
some SAP green not too juicy and I'm
just going to go around add a few little
veins doing this upside down I take a
little bit more time I'm just kind of on
the add just a little bit of detail but
not too much because I really want to
keep this light and airy there you go
you can spend as much or a little time
on this as you like
and there you go that's how you paint my
wax it's so easy thanks so much for
watching until next time happy crafting