How To Paint Raspberries in Watercolor Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today I'm going to show you how to paint
an easy raspberry scene and the cool
thing is you're actually going to be
using painting tools you make yourself
so what I have here is a pencil and the
eraser wasn't so hot on this pencil so
we're going to use this to paint our
raspberries with we're also going to
need an exacto knife for later on our
handy dandy credit card scraper and I'm
two brushes I'm going to use are a three
quarter inch or we can use a one inch
flat whatever you have don't fuss about
it too much
and a number six round again go up or
down a few sizes if you don't have a
number six use what you have
alright so what I've done is I've taken
a watercolor greeting card and just
clipped it on to my piece of foam core
and I'm going to wet the background with
clear water and my larger brush and if
you prefer you can tape down your paper
if you want to have a nice white border
when you're done that's absolutely fine
I know that does give you a kind of a
cool reveal when you take the tape up
and you see your beautiful painting now
we're going to use a little bit of
ultramarine blue and I'm gonna put that
um OH kind of put some up towards the
top and in the middle we're just going
to get a very blended background as you
can see here it's just kind of like just
some modeled color and there we're going
to use some yellow ochre which is your
kind of Dijon mustard color and we're
also going to use some SAP green which
is a really your earthier grain if you
don't have SAP green you can use some
hookers grain and mix it in with your
yellow ochre a little bit and it will
look a little bit more like the SAP
green the SAP green I have actually had
the artist quality SAP green in my
Cottman kit because I had run out so I
have to be careful because it's a lot
stronger than my eye Windsor Newton this
is the M gram SAP green I'm using there
and um we can just kind of let that just
mix and mingle and really you don't have
to do much to that now at this stage or
your paper is wet whatever your paper is
wet everything's going to be blending so
I want you to get used to using your
pencil eraser for painting at this stage
because the everything you do here is
going to be in the background and kind
of blurry and that finds a great way to
get used to this technique so what I'm
going to do I move my palette over here
so you can see I'll be using crimson and
I'll be using mauve which is a mom is
kind of like a purpley color so if you
don't involve take your crimson
a little bit of ultramarine to it I'm
gonna wet the eraser and I'm just gonna
kind of spin it in the the mauve color
swirl it out of my palette here I just
want to make sure that I don't have any
gobs but I have a good concentration of
color there and then it's almost like
we're stamping because we're going to
just tap on some raspberry shapes okay
just look just like that do that here
and there and these are going to be
fuzzy you will have to reload because
your eraser is not going to hold as much
paint as as like a brush would let's tap
a few in here I'm thinking of just like
this is kind of like an all-over
picture of some raspberry bushes so I'm
not even gonna worry about anything I'm
just gonna put in some clumps of color
and that's what you should do - don't
don't fuss don't worry just get some
color dabbed in there and these are
going to be faraway berries if some look
really cool or they end up being right
where we want our foreground berries
that's fine we can put them there but I
don't want you to worry about these
being your focal points at this point I
just want you to get used to that tap
tap tap okay and when we want more and
I'll show you how we're going to get
more deliberate lines - as we go so at
this point I'm done I have enough if you
want you can if you want some softer
berries in the way background you could
go in with your brush and just kind of
tap in some little dabs because things
farther away from you would be smaller
so you could just put in a few dabs of
the crimson and the mauve if you want to
but that's you know personal preference
that really doesn't it it doesn't matter
if you want to do that go for it you can
even do the same thing with a little bit
of green so you get a few like more
concentrated areas of the green but
that's completely up to you so now I'm
going to pause the video while I dry
this and we'll come back and finish it
up alright the paper's dry and now what
I want to do is take my round brush and
I'm going to use a little bit of burnt
umber I know I usually use Brent's HANA
but I want kind of a um a more neutral
brown and I am just going to make a
branch well that's alright you have a
little wiggle in that's alright
and a little bit
more of that there a little bit darker
here along the edge if you have a little
stem kind of coming down here and I'm
going to add a little bit of the SAP
grain right into that and that will give
us kind of a place for us to have our
raspberries I can put another little one
over here like I did on the other
painting that I showed you at the
beginning of the video I was inspired
this morning I went to pick up my son
from week-long Boy Scout camp he's back
home now and there was raspberry bushes
kind of where I parked and looks like oh
wow the raspberries are in season I got
to do a painting of those alright so
we're gonna do the same thing with our
pencil and this time because we already
got the kinks out we've already you know
practice this technique so you don't
have to worry about it um this time
you're gonna stamp
you're gonna stamp and give a little
twist and you're just building like the
little little segments of the
raspberries and the cool thing about
this is you're not gonna get the same
impression every time so you're going to
get a little bit of highlight and shadow
as you go it's more easy to see on this
one here how I've got some lighter and
darker spots so just kind of build it
you can stamp it like a rubber stamp you
can twist it just depends on on the look
you want and I recommend changing it up
a little bit each time so that you get a
little bit of a different a different
look he'll give you more water on your
eraser it's going to um it's going to be
more solid color if you have less you
can get more of like a highlight in a
shadow don't worry we're going to put a
high highlight on these
afterwards so if you have some like that
are completely solid don't worry about
it we're gonna deal with that just get
used to this technique because I think
it's something that you'll find very
useful you can even do this with
acrylics um in fact that's where I first
did this technique was with that I
should show you my brush boxes
raspberries I will do that don't let me
forget to grab that brush box before I'm
done here and I'll show you that and I
want to put is really I want this just
the sucker just loaded with her as
berries I love raspberries I'm just
gonna put on a few more here let's do
some over here on this branch and so
these blurry ones in the background
are gonna help um make our picture
believable because we're gonna oh yeah
that is just a loaded raspberry bush
because we can see all those berries in
the back so you can use this technique
for blackberries um any sort of berries
that would have that sort of segmented
look you could um if you're painting
like say you did a still-life and you
had a sliced open pomegranate you could
use the same technique to get the
pomegranate seeds so keep that in mind
keep these file based techniques away so
that when you are painting something
else you'd be like well I want to look
kind of like that then you can say oh
yeah the raspberries that's how I'll get
that that's how I'll get that look on
this picture all these on these
techniques build your visual vocabulary
so just keep that in mind any time
you're getting ready to to do a painting
and you're looking for a certain effect
remember all the techniques you've
learned because they build on your
experience and on your know-how all
right so now what I want to do is paint
on some leaves and it will give an
opportunity for these berries to dry so
what I'm going to use is a round brush
and raspberry leaves are kind of they're
like they're ovals but they're jagged
ovals kind of similar to um to roses and
what I'm gonna do you can see that can't
you I am going to just cut well you know
what I can even draw on an oval for you
so you can see and then I'm gonna just
tap on my color it's very watery because
I want to be able to control and I like
to move my painting around as I go and I
think I'm going to add in some yellow
ochre I like to repeat the colors I've
been using I maybe throw in a little bit
more SAP green towards the edge so I get
a nice I like that a kind of gradient
color and then with my handy dandy
credit card scraper which is my favorite
tool which I don't think I could buy a
tool that was more useful I'm going to
scrape in my veins and I find that with
these with these jagged petals if I
start the edge and scrape in I like the
way it looks a little bit better so if I
tip that to the light I think you can
see the veins on there so what we're
going to do is make some more leaves and
you can um we'll start with an oval just
to make it easier for you to see um
just so you can kind of get an idea your
your closer the leaves that are closer
to you it will be a little bit more
bright
evarin and the ones and you can have
some more faded ones that are kind of in
the background this is a one give the
impression that's very full of leaves
but when you give the impression of
something you don't have everything
painted super realistically you have
some things in detail and in focus and
some things are not you do need to do
your your scraping well the paper is
damp or wet or you won't get any sort of
effect from it so just keep that in mind
too and this works because we are
damaging the paper slightly and getting
that effect and put another one maybe
put a group of three over here so I'll
start just by I'll put in my three ovals
and put that one out a little bit deeper
these are pretty liftable colors so I'm
not gonna worry about that too much I
can even just wash over them with water
if I wanted to make sure I didn't have a
really hard edge I'm going to go back in
with a SAP green on the edges and do my
dabbing so I have those nice nice zig
zaggy edges and I like to move it again
you know make sure you're comfortable
when you're working that's why instead
of taping my paper down to my table I
like to use a little lightweight board
so I can move it when I when I want that
makes it so much easier and all these
foam core is very rigid and very
lightweight so I find it extremely easy
to work with I want to make sure I don't
lose my ability to get my lines and so
I'm doing that right off the bat - I
think probably have enough detailed
leaves here now that if we want to throw
a few in the background to be kind of
hazy we can do that as well in fact we
could probably if you want to even try
this technique with a flat brush you
could here's one I could do a little
side loading if I want I could just take
a wet flat brush just wet the edge with
paint and I could just kind of throw in
little leaves in the background that way
- so it's just another another way to
skin the cat but this is kind of sense
it's a bigger brush it helps you be a
little bit more vague I think helps you
be a little bit
to find and makes it look a little bit
more soft and natural do a few of those
back here maybe oh just so you have a
little bit of a little something
happening in the background I'm just
kind of wiggling and tapping that on you
know so I get a nice it get a little bit
dark around the edge and that really
just fills in now the tops of our
raspberries want to have those little
this little teeny leaves there and I'm
against at grain that's got a little bit
of yellow ochre in it I'm just flicking
up those little little leaves seed
catalogs are great if you on if you
order you can order see catalogs for
free when you're planning your garden
keep them because you can use them as
painting references a lot of times as
berries you can keep as reference you
know this great photographs of berries
obviously because I'm trying to sell
their products so they're just a great
resource for painting as well as
gardening I had some seed catalogs cuz I
had high hopes of starting a garden this
year but I flaked out on that to kind of
glad I did because some are so short and
I really like to enjoy it to its fullest
and I don't like digging in the dirt so
you know how that is like get kind of
lazy um and you can put in more more
leaves if you want to that's completely
up to you now if you have some flowers
that some berries that you're not really
happy with you can go in and you can
just with a damp brush you can actually
shape your flowers because the way you
applied your paint with the eraser it
will they'll be really strong
concentrations of paint that you can
move around and that is very easy to do
or if you you feel like you have too
much a light area you can just brush
over it with the water and an alter it
that way so go ahead and refine anything
you think needs to be refined don't
overdo it because you know you want it
to look natural you don't want it to
look perfect because nature isn't
perfect you'll see those raspberries
where maybe a bird has come along and
chomped off a bit and you know that's
not going to look perfect like a sea
gull like you want to make sure it looks
natural too you know that's going to
make it believable if some of these look
a little funky
you then they'll make bounzer that are
perfect stand out even more and my paint
blue there so I'm just gonna block that
off now on I'm gonna dry this one more
time because I'm going to show you how
we're going to put our high highlights
on be back in a second all right I'm
back I dried my painting now this
probably looks alright as it is but I'm
going to show you the difference between
leaving it like this and adding a
highlight so here on this piece I have
highlights and it just looks fresher and
more sparkly and more realistic and all
I did was I used an exacto knife to cut
out some little sparkles because the
paper is white so if you use your um
your knife you can cut right back to
that paper and give it a nice highlight
and I've shown you this technique before
but I really think you ought to try it I
know it's a little scary to think about
cutting into your paper and you want to
do this as your last step because it's
uh it's it's not reversible um if this
makes you nervous and you don't want it
to deal with that I mean we've only
spent ten minutes on this painting it's
you know I think you should feel pretty
brave but if you don't you could always
use a little white paint or a white pen
I mean do whatever you want it's your
painting but if you want to keep it a
transparent watercolor then then use
your knife to go in there and scrape up
some highlights this is really useful if
you're painting like a bird and you want
a little highlight in the eye or if
you're um if you're doing a portrait of
an animal and you want little little
whiskers or something really to stand
out a highlight to really stand out
after the fact it's a great technique to
learn and I recommend learning on a
quick painting like this so if you do
make a mistake you're not out you know
ten hours of work you know like if you
were doing an animal portrait or
something you're not out all that work
if you do mess it up it's just um it's a
really great technique and I'm just
using you can use any exacto knife craft
knife you could probably even use like a
pottery needle tool anything that you'll
be able to scribe the paper with I this
is one of my favorite techniques um if
you're a child and watching this video
ask mom or dad before you go ahead and
try this because look I'll close my
fingers out of that blade I don't want
you to cut yourself so you do have to be
careful I think in your case maybe like
a pottery needle tool would be a little
bit safer or um you know maybe you can
maybe mom or dad you figure out
something
so that you can do this a little safely
but it's great technique and I put a
cork on the end of my knife when I'm
done so I don't cut myself or so nobody
little fingers don't cut themselves if
you want to add a little shadow anywhere
like these three leaves are kind of blob
together I'm going to use my flat brush
the half inch flatten them and do that
sideloading technique again and I saw
I've just bought I just rinse my brush
off I'm going to blot it and just put a
little a little green on the corner of
my brush see I've kind of got it up one
side and then of course I'm turning my
paper so I can handle it easier I'm just
gonna go right under here and just add a
little color to the leaves in the back
easy as pie easier raspberry pie oh my
gosh I'm gonna have to cook I bought a
bag of granny smith apples I'm telling
you what I don't know what I was
thinking they're the worst look at
things I think I was gonna do some I was
gonna to my father a juice cleanse but I
got a little lazy and I didn't so I
think I better make a pie yet stead of
juicing I'm making a pie that's just so
wrong so very wrong but uh but yeah I
bought a bag apples and wasn't any good
by was just thinking easiest pie
raspberry pie better make apple pie for
the apples go bad I'm losing it so let
me I'm just blowing the crumbs off there
and I'm gonna put my initials cuz that's
what I put on cards and I know it's
wrong to put that little dash there but
I like it that's what I've always done
so sorry staff I know hermetically she's
gonna know who I'm talking about - oh
and I wanted to show you my brush box
before I left so this is my acrylic this
is where I keep my acrylic we zoom out
this is where I keep my acrylic paints
it's on my shelf it's a nifty little
little box he had I put toilet paper
rolls there too it's like you know what
it is it's for picnics and it's for your
silverware and your napkins and I put my
brushes in this but I put some toilet
paper rolls in here to keep them from
all falling over but what I did is the
same exact technique but I used acrylic
paint I didn't add any highlights and I
just twisted it on there and made those
little little vines raspberries and you
know not gonna win any awards but I
think it's awfully cute and it certainly
brightens up my studio so I hope I
shared some tips with you today that
will get you painting if you have any
questions please leave a comment oh and
I wanna let you know on my blog I'll put
a link below I put a new page up this
just for requests so if you have
a request that you would like me to do a
painting tutorial whatever it might be
you can leave it there and that's gonna
help me hopefully keep all my requests
in one spot so I don't forget to do them
or lose a little post-it notes I stick
them on so there you have it how to
paint raspberries in watercolor if you
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watching until next time happy crafting