Color Mixing and Brushes for Beginners PLUS Sunset Painting Tutorial! Video

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we're gonna paint a sunset and the
reason I decided to choose as kind of
simpler painting is because um I want to
kind of go over some color theory color
mixing and brush tips and usage and this
photo is from Bixby IX over at paint my
photo which is a site where you can
paint the photos there and not have to
worry about about usage the
photographers have given permission to
use their paintings and I'll put a link
below to that photograph so you can find
it for yourself so I'm going to here a
few brushes that I like to use a lot I
could pretty much do most of my
paintings with just like a number 8
round or a number 10 round this is a
number 8 by Royal and I also like to
have a fun working larger than a
greeting card size I like to have a flat
brush and um wash brushes can be a
couple different different things you've
got your flat washes this is a one inch
flat a royal majestic this is a one inch
flat water color round by Royal so I
mean sorry this is 3/4 and that's an
inch so an inches is significantly
bigger when you have them side-by-side
but you don't really need both and I
would probably go a little bigger if you
have to pick I would go with a larger
size but one size I really like and what
I would probably even use over just a
plain flat would be an angular I find
these to be super convenient because
it's really easy to blend and decide
load with this because you have that
little point it's easier to get in and
do some details so this would be my
favorite wash would be an angled wash
but of course you can get by with a
plain one with just a flat wash
completely up to you I prefer an angled
one another option is an oval wash and
this is really thirsty it holds a lot of
water it's great for filling in a large
background and it gives you it won't
give you hard edges so that's the the
benefit of that so if you find you're
painting you always end up with these
hard square edges you might want to give
one of these a try and I think we're
going to use this for our background
today because I don't often and I
thought you might find it very useful
this is the royal majestic line they're
really high quality but they're not
crazy expensive so we're gonna do some
color mixing and I want to bring my
palette right in the middle here so you
can see it and I'm sorry this is too
beginner for you so you might want to
skip ahead if it is too beginner for you
then then feel free to just go ahead
what
going to do is use a red yellow and blue
and since I want to make sure that I
have more of a purpley color to work
with I'm going to make sure I go with an
alizarin crimson or quit acrid own rose
or one of my more cool based Reds as
opposed to a cadmium red like see that's
cadmium red deep so it's much more
orange II that's cadmium red medium so
you can see how it how the color is a
little bit different there
okay so we have either I think this is a
quinacridone rose but you can also use
alizarin crimson because that's that's a
really good actually really good primary
red and if you have to pick one that's
probably the cleanest red you can get so
I've got two buckets of water one is for
rinsing my brush and the other one is
for getting fresh water from alright now
I'm going to grab a blue and my favorite
primary blue would have to be
ultramarine it also is slightly purple
biased so it's going to work good for
this picture so that's why I'm choosing
this but again if you could only afford
one bottle of blue one tube of blue
paint I think an ultramarine is going to
serve you very well especially if you
like to do a lot of landscapes alright
and now for yellow I'm going to go with
a warmer yellow I'm gonna go with a
cadmium yellow or new gamboge or um not
not a lemon basically you could go with
a cadmium yellow medium or cadmium
yellow deep I would just stay away from
any of the lemons because it could turn
your your your blue more green and for
this sunset we really don't want that so
this is a CAD yellow medium it's really
a quite a neutral color you can see how
this looks very primary here so let's
say if I do want greens I can still get
a good green here we're not going to use
green in this picture but you can see
you get oh you'd a fairly earthy green
it's not going to be super vivid because
we're not using a greenish blue I hope
you're doing the color theory I know
it's going to be really kind of beginner
and basic to some of you but I know some
of you guys have brought struggle with
this alright
but I'm going to be able to make a
really lovely purple with my red and
blue here okay see how that makes a
really nice purple for our sunset and
then for our orange we're gonna need a
very sufficient orange with um
with these colors I'm going to need a
lot more of the yellow always rinse your
brush off before you go into that pan of
color so you don't end up with a mess
but see I can get a nice orange it would
be more vivid if I used a cadmium red
but I want to kind of show you the
limited color palette mixing I'm going
to work in my art journal because this
is going to be such a such a fun easy
project without a lot of background so I
might decide to go and collage over it
later so I thought it would be kind of a
really fun base plus I've been so busy
lately that I I just want something fun
to work on I've got a big craft fair
this weekend actually I'm like an
artisan Expo and I'm a little uh no I'm
not unprepared I've got I could I could
go with what I have now and be
absolutely fine but my retail space I'm
kind of run low in inventory this month
so I didn't realize it till the the
manager called me and said Lindsay you
sold out of this this and this we need
some more inventory and I was like oh my
gosh I'm gonna grab there in two days
I'm freaking out I'm gonna start in the
middle at the horizon line so the
horizon line is the area where the sky
and the earth touch it's gonna be right
about here about a third of the way down
the paper and I'm gonna go right in with
my yellow that's where the Sun is going
to be and I'm gonna kind of just drag it
out okay and I will tell you I my
horizon line might go off because I am
NOT looking at my paper straight on I am
looking at it at an angle you're looking
at it straight on so if it goes off a
little bit just make sure when you paint
yours you have like maybe a book or
something to prop it up on so you can
check okay and then I just I really want
someone is concentrated yellow in there
this is a Kansan mixed media art journal
nothing fancy go ahead and use whatever
you have you'll only have cardstock it
will be more absorbent but you know I'm
a big believer and use what you have
okay so now I'm going to use my mix here
my yellow I usually just go in and grab
clean yellow when my brush is clean
because that red really overtakes it I'm
going to go ahead and add some of the
yellow in here I find it's freeing to
work with the big brush and sometimes
out like the craft stores like the
big-box stores they'll have like 40% off
their brushes and they usually have some
pretty affordable options like the royal
brushes
Robert Simmons has some simply Simmons
you can get the larger sizes fairly
inexpensively also Princeton I've
noticed has a has a line of pretty good
student brushes so keep that in mind you
don't have to spend $50 for a brush
these days used to be a used to half do
if you wanted a big brush it was crazy
but now there's so much more available
now I'm going to go right in with my
magenta or rose or crimson whatever
you're using for your cooler red and I'm
going to go right in and add that in
there if you're working on watercolor
paper it's going to blend a little bit
better so keep that in mind but don't
let that stop you from using something
else you know using what you have
because that's another thing I get asked
a lot it's a guy what kind of paper you
using where do you find this paper
because I know this you know YouTube is
all over the world and not everybody has
access to the supplies that we have in
the United States so I just wanted to
make sure that everybody could do this
with what they have on hand I'm just
picking up some of my orange make some
streaking it in I think it will be a
really fun base for an art journal page
alright now I'm going to mix my blue and
red and get some purple love ultramarine
I find that it's very useful I think
probably cuz I live in the Northeast so
do we kind of have colors let everything
seems to have an ultramarine blue kind
of color too it's kind of you know less
vivid vibrant brew fuel if you live
somewhere tropical like the Caribbean
you'd have these more turquoisey colors
but I think we always paint what we know
and those are what we see so I'm going
ahead and adding some of that in here
with my light you know this is really a
fun brush to use and if you're using the
smaller size you'll notice that the tip
will actually kind of pull into a point
so you can actually get some detail my
favorite brushes aren't necessarily
going to be your favorite brushes so
don't feel like they have to be don't
feel like you have to use what I use I
definitely advocate maybe picking up a
sampler pack and seeing what you really
like sometimes I feel like when I paint
a sunset it's like the same sunset every
time I go it's like Lindsey's generic
sunset did you identify done five videos
on this already I probably have probably
just do different sizes that are
slightly slightly different that's
alright
okay what I'm going to do is pause
and hit this with my hairdryer so it can
dry and we'll be back and we will finish
this up okay now something I kind of
forgot to do earlier I would like to add
I would like to make the Sun area
brighter like it is here on the picture
which means I need to lift back to the
light of the paper I'm not sure if it's
really going to be possible on this
mixed-media paper but I'm gonna try and
when I want to lift rather than damage
my watercolor brush I'll go in with a
can oil painters hog bristle brush and
I'll go in there and just kind of scrub
the surface and it will loosen the
pigment and then I can blot never rub
with the paper towel just blot and look
at that I was able to lift off that
bright white for the Sun so if you're
using this regular paper a regular
cardstock it might you might start to
get what looks like little balls of
paper on there that's called pilling if
that happens you know what if you have
some white paint go ahead and you can go
right in and paint with white there
wouldn't be a you know a traditional
watercolor but you but you know if
you're painting a cardstock you're
painting on something that just is not
letting you do what you want to do you
know do what you have to do don't worry
about it don't worry about the rules
have fun and enjoy what you're doing so
there I've lifted out that light spot
now so that's another tip for you
have like a cheap hog brush in your
arsenal so you can lift up mistakes as
they happen
I think I'll also lift up a little bit
of white in here this for a little bit
of a glow in the water
ya don't have to go crazy with it just a
little bit there she learned a little
trick you can do that with clouds too I
usually try to lift off my clouds while
the paint is still wet with like a paper
towel but you can do it either way now
we're going to mix a black and you're
probably thinking well every set of
watercolors I've ever had came with a
bottle of black Lindsay why do I want to
bother with that well if we use black
ink or if we use black watercolor paint
it'll probably look all right but it's
gonna look a lot more natural if we mix
it ourselves so what I like to do is
start and I'll use a smaller brush
because I actually know what I'll be a
better idea to use this brush here
because it's not gonna pick up too much
water and it will really aggressively
grab paint so what I'm gonna do is start
with my darkest color which is my
ultramarine blue and I'm not going to
get like a pitch black I'm gonna end up
with like kind of a grey color but it's
look realistic it's going to look like
it belongs so you want to just have
enough water in there so that you can
pick up quite a bit of paint so see how
much I'm putting in there it's almost
like the consistency of whole milk so
it's not really watery and I think
that's where people get in trouble when
they're mixing is that they get the
paint too wet so I just want to use
enough enough you know moisture to be
able to pick up the paint all right I'm
just gonna I'm just kind of trying to
scrape off as much of the paint as I can
before I rinse and I'm going to go in
with the red because that's we're going
to use the most up would be the red and
of the blue okay
so purple is kind of we're going to go
four and then tonight kind of knock down
the purple will add a little bit of
yellow and then we will probably have to
adjust as we go see how nice and dark
that is already so that's kinda like a
really really dark purple all right I
want to make sure that I'm just getting
color and not a lot of water here with
this yellow okay so it's time to go
brown and the yellow is actually quite
opaque so um so we have to it's gonna it
is kind of overtaking so now we need
more blue and we need more red actually
if you look right there it almost looks
a little green that green tells me I
need more red so I'm adding what's on
the opposite of the color wheel so if I
was looking at a color wheel and we had
green red would be the opposite and this
is going to make it tint a little to the
orange side and if it's a little orange
I know go on the opposite of the color
wheel from orange and that's blue so I'm
gonna go back in here and get more blue
I'm just going to try to not have to
rinse my brush off every time so here
you can see it's really getting like a
dark dark grey now okay I just don't
want to contaminate my blue so I'm
rinsing off each time hopefully this
isn't shaking too much and I'm just
gonna can well I can't I do do need a
little bit more water I need to release
a little bit more pigment there and
actually when you're working with dry
cakes of color it's not the end of the
world if you go right into the color
because it's only going to really Sully
up the top layer that's the other reason
I like working from cakes because you
did
the chance of wasting is so much less
and I like to mix up a nice big batch so
that I have enough to finish my picture
all right there we go we've got a pretty
good nice batch of just a dark dark gray
okay so see it's not that hard you just
don't overreact if you get the wrong
color just go back in and try again okay
so now we're gonna do is we are going to
put in our horizon line with the black
and it might be a little scary because
um because we've you know have this
lovely background but don't worry about
it it's all gonna be fine
I'm gonna try to do this straight I'm
gonna tip it up just a little bit cuz I
a hard time telling what I have you know
how straight it is I'm using my brush
straight up and down to draw this black
highlight and the reason it looks black
is because we've got that bright Sun lit
lighting everything from behind so all
we're seeing is outlines of things in
the shadows alright
I did what my brush before I picked up
the color because I needed to make sure
that my color was going to flow and I'm
gonna put this a couple big trees here
I'm gonna go ahead and put one of them
in and you could switch to a smaller
brush like a dagger though because those
have a lot of a lot of control or you
could just stick with your round I'm
just going to stick with a round I want
to keep this basic enough that you know
anybody can do this with the materials
that they have alright I just had to get
that line in there and then we're going
to have a little bit of a shadow
underneath in the water too so I'll just
have to keep you know make a note of
that so I'm just kind of dabbing in
random shapes to allude to the fact that
there are these trees and things in the
background on the other side of this
lovely lake make sure you if you ever
get the chance you know anytime you're
maybe you're driving or you at the beach
and you happen to be there late or
you're camping you know take time to
observe these things because then it'll
be in your mind when you go to paint
like oh yeah I know what that really
looks like in real life you can draw
from your own experiences instead of
only relying on
on photographs and take your own
photographs I'm not a very talented
photographer my photos never come out
you know beautiful like the ones on
paint my photo but just recording the
information and then going from the
things that I painted in on location my
sketchbook it really it really helps in
building your visual visual vocabulary
so and go ahead and add your own little
trees on there I'm not painting exactly
what I see I'm just kind of looking and
saying what what do I think this needs
what shape should I put there you can
totally totally do that and you know and
this is a great project to try out your
different brushes so if you have some
brushes you've never used before you
know see what kind of marks they make
don't be shy especially in an art
journal that's what I love about art
journals is that you don't have to worry
it's just a piece of paper nobody has to
see it when you're done you know just
have fun with it all right so now and
put the shadows in the water so I'm
gonna go ahead lightly just put some
shadows in here it's not a really a deep
dark shadow because there's actually
like a brittle in the water if you see
here's that ripple going through the
water there so we can actually put that
on later I just want to get a little bit
of the shadow put in there and then
sometimes what I do is I'll just grab
like a fan brush and just kind of drag
it even though it's water color it's not
really what use the fan brush for
typically it will help and you know this
instance making your paint look a little
bit more natural and do the same thing
over here to keep it really draggie
I know I'm feeling mellow which is
totally awesome because I was kind of
stressed about my my upcoming craft fair
and artisan Expo because it's a it's
kind of a higher caliber than I've done
before so the other people are a higher
caliber well now I want to say that
because you know not to diss anybody
they've ever been in a craft show with
but it's definitely more businesses main
based businesses and main base crafters
so I'm hoping that I can really hold my
own against um not that the competition
or anything I do want to drag in some of
that purpley color that I showed you on
the photo a minute ago so I'm just
grabbing off my palette just that purple
that we mixed up I'm just kind of
grabbing someone else left and I'm I'm
just going to kind of drag it across
drag a little bit over here just to show
the ripple in the water now again don't
freak out if it's not coming at exactly
the way you want because you can always
add some journaling over it it's your
art journal it doesn't have to be you
know anything in particular and now just
to kind of bring some scale to the
picture I'm just going to put maybe a
couple cattails and things in the front
with my dark mix and I'm kind of mixing
up a little bit more on the fly here I'm
just going to put in maybe some cattails
here they're not the picture but I feel
like it just wants that scale and maybe
even a big tree I like to I like to do
things with scale and that just helps
give a little more depth and dimension
to the picture and this was pretty quick
I mean we had to learn about some brush
techniques we got to learn about mixing
colors we got to learn all kinds of
stuff today I hope you did anyway tough
little cattails I'm just going to kind
of wiggle that brush on like that and
please feel free to use this tutorial to
teach other people to paint if you know
people that want to learn I think
sharing is caring and rising tide lifts
all boats please give me a thumbs up and
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and do share it with your friends that
also enjoy painting or that might want
to learn because you don't really need
to know how to paint to do this tutorial
I want to thank you again so
for watching there are links in the
video description so you can find this
tutorial and you can also find other
places um that I'll be and there you go
and I guess that's it I keep I it's like
oh I got 30 seconds left because my get
will shut off at 30 minutes but I think
that's all I need to say so thank you so
much for watching until next time happy
crafting