Birch Tree and Lupine Flowers watercolor tutorial Video Lecture - Master

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we're gonna paint some lupins and
hey I want to let you know if you have
kids that love to paint my daughter
Maisy actually did a looping tutorial
for kids on her channel crafty twins if
you want to go check that out but I had
to teach at an adult class this week and
I had a student recommend or request
lupins so this is my first attempt and I
was it I was thinking you know this is
just a little too big of a canvas for
for the students to do and get done in
an hour and a half and so then I worked
up this one this all greeting card and I
thought that's a little bit better
that's what we ended up doing in class
this was done with my cure my core
watercolors at home this was done with
my little Cottman travel set so that I
thought well um some folks some of you
guys asked for the looping tutorial here
so I thought I would do kind of like
this but on a card size just because I
don't have too many of these kicking
around I'll never Sullivan much off five
too many people like the scarcity
there's a little tip for you this is our
view that sell in craft fairs and
whatnot so after looking at it for a few
days I actually kind of liked it so
sometimes it takes a couple days for you
to really enjoy a painting it always
looks kind of yucky when you're first do
it you guys find that I do anyway
so one over here is a just a five by
seven greeting card and some watercolor
paint so I'm going to keep my padlet
right over here so you can see it I got
to grab some water and I'll be right
back okay and I'm actually going to
start just by getting my tree trunk in
and then we're just going to kind of
skip around a little bit
I want my I'm going to wet kind of just
a kind of a line where I want my tree to
be and I'm going to kind of tip my paper
so you can kind of see I'm just putting
in this kind of a a rough I did put one
branch on there but I'm not going to go
too crazy I just want to get the kind of
the tree area wet pretty glossy see that
and now I'm just mixing a little bit of
burnt sienna and ultramarine blue in my
mixing area here always have a lot of
that going on so I like I like that gray
mix I tend to mix it up my largest area
this tin that I'm using is actually when
you buy the introductory sets of the
core cube its core but it's spelled qo
are watercolors by golden they come in
these tins and they're just fantastic
little pellets and I ended up getting
the three
introductory sets of six I bought the
high chroma set and then I just fell in
love and I got the the other two sets of
six there's a set of twelve but it has
some colors from each of the regular
sets I think so it's up to you maybe I
want to get all three of the six sets
you don't nee I mean try them out you
don't need them all then you might want
the set 12 maybe a little bit cheaper to
do that I'm not 100% sure pretty much
all the big stores have them but I
noticed marry artists which is a little
independent store had the best price
marry artists Cabo I'm not affiliated
but they do have a good price and I'm
just kind of dragging it down just to
let it fade off now I'm going to use my
cut up piece of credit card my very
fancy tool and just kind of scraping in
some lines on the tree this is a birch
trees got those kind of papery lines
bring it up closer so you can see you
know the water kind of sinks in there
and then it really shows up and we can
adjust that a little bit more later and
you can even pick up some of the paint
now this isn't very precise you pick
them up in a puddle and pool and give
you some cool interesting effects and
then sometimes we'll go on with a round
brush because it's not going to hold as
much water this little round it's like a
number four or five mix up a little bit
more color and then use that a little
bit stronger just to add some little
darker areas well not sir places that
the bark has been torn make it look
really random and natural right now we
do need to dry this before we do our
background now you could have done your
background first and lift it off the
tree that's actually what they had my
students do but I think this way might
be a little bit quicker um if you know
since we're just working at our own pace
here in a video so I'm gonna dry this
with a heat gun actually let me show you
how long it takes to do this together
well it takes like a couple seconds a
hairdryer works just as well so don't
feel like you have to go by this this is
great if you're Stamper if you noticed
and for you really don't need it okay
guys it's actually good for shrink film
so if you like to do like the shrinky
dinks
there we go like two after the paper
cools just kind of feel it with the back
of my hand and if it's room temperature
then then it's won't then it's dry if
it's cool to the touch and it's not so
what I'm going to do is wet my
background you could tape your paper
down on all four sides and have a nice
little border when you're done I'll tell
you though I often forget what side my
card opens when I do that and then I
have of like cards open the wrong way so
I just clip it plus it's easier and it
saves tape you can go through a lot of
tape is a watercolors I'm just wetting
my paper about 3/4 of the way not going
over my tree just kind of going up next
to it because the paint's only going to
go where the paper's wet now I'm going
to take some of that same blue um the
nice thing about the core paints I'm not
sponsored by them or anything I just uh
they're kind of new and I and I always
when I go back and use them again alike
I just love these um is that they you
only do I put these tiny lil drops out
back in March or April and the grades I
haven't used him every time I've painted
but I mean it just takes so little the
binder is not gum arabic which made me
concerned at first it's a banner called
aqua Zahl and but it's been used in
conservation for a year so i'm not
worried about using it i haven't noticed
any of my paintings fading i'm not that
you know what had these out long
obviously but i'm enjoying them of
course you know use whatever kind you
have if you want um some clouds you can
lift out if you want to I kind just like
that patchy sky tap it helped my paints
kind of blood I just wanted a little bit
darker at the top and the bottom Oh
kitty cats meowing at me oh my gosh my
kitty cat cymatics I'm keeping them in
because I heard cat meow this morning
and I opened up the back door and there
was a little tiny bird just sitting
there exhausted on the patio so I picked
it up and I can see it was not injured
it was just exhausted and I held at my
hand for like 15 or 20 minutes I got a
picture I put it on Instagram at the
frugal crafter as my Instagram handle if
you want to check it out I put it on
Instagram oh my gosh this purse so sweet
and I held it and I just waited for it
to just kind of regain its strength and
then it flew off and I went up and
landed in a tree because I was like
where am I gonna put this my cats are
gonna go after it
so I've got the cats in because I just
want to make sure that bird had a
fighting chance now I'm going to take um
some alizarin crimson and a little bit
of that same blue I was using going to
make kind of like a purpley color I'm
going to add a little bit of that grey
that we made just to tone it down a
little bit make sure it's a little
heavier on the blue then on the red so
it you know fades back and I'm going to
put in a distant mountain and my papers
still damp not puddly but just damp
semi-gloss not super shiny that's why I
did a little blot with that sponge
I want it fuzzy okay then what I'm going
to do here get out okay I've rinsed my
brush I'm going to pinch it to take out
extra water but I still want to damp and
I'm just gonna brush along the edge to
soften X I want to kind of fade away now
we got a question the other day about um
what do you do when you get brush it
when you get how do you avoid getting
brush hairs sometimes the first time you
use a brush you'll get some hairs I find
usually if I wash my brushes before I
use them then that any loose ones just
come out at that point some really cheap
ones are going to keep losing hairs and
if they keep losing hairs then then just
toss them sorry to say I mean I hate to
say it but usually if you get a decent
brush that doesn't happen like I know
like the world line legal brushes are
pretty good and not very expensive and
they rarely lose hair so that's why I
recommend for a budget brush that's
actually decent I use them myself like
this is an aqua on right here I love
them this is a world this is like three
bucks this is the soft grip all their
soft grit brushes are like 2 or 3 bucks
or maybe 2 to 4 dollars depending on how
big they are and they're they're
definitely solid citizens in the brush
Department alright so I want to put some
I'm kind of foliage and flowers far away
I'm going to start with some of the blue
because lupins can be blue I'm just
going to tap some of them right over
that mountain the papers damp it's the
paper is doing the work guys
we're not we're just having a cup of tea
I'm glass of wine we're doing whatever
we're just talking having a chat
all right I'm gonna put in some purple
mix it myself you know
that's how Lenny do we mix our own
purple cuz uh
we'll use it I think I might dip into
hide all fake dipped into the Gentile
Mikey bees on the same colors let me use
a crimson and the blue put in some
little purple so it does a little wet if
you just touch your brush off on to like
a sponge or paper towel if you think
that you're getting that you know the
paint is running too much you just need
to kind of let a little bit of that
water come out you know this and this is
going to fuzz away and that's fine you
don't want it like really crisp at this
point these are in the distance I'll
take a little bit of this green which I
think it might be called green gold it's
very similar to a SAP but I'm not going
to call it SAP I'm not sure if that's
what it is in the core line but you go
ahead and use SAP green I'm mixing a
little bit Ultra rinks it feels a little
too light a little too yellow and blot
my brush off there excited a little too
much and I actually use a corner my
brush for these because I just want a
little bit of foliage in there okay so
nothing so far on our paper is really
dark so we can go ahead and let it dry
and we'll be able to paint over any
lupins that we compressed so I'm going
to pause it dry and we're going to
continue on okay your Levins can be any
color I'm going to put a couple distinct
ones in the front and then I'm just
going to kind of fill in now I didn't do
this on the adult class right but I did
it I'm going to show you here the
difference you really can't see the tops
of the lupins in this picture you can a
little bit more in this one so you kind
of have the yellowy green buds at the
top so I'm going to put a couple I'll
just up close I'm going to start by
tapping in with a little round brush
little more your little girl little
yellow ocher actually this might
actually give Naples but it looks very
much like a yellow ochre I'm going to
put a few of these just in the
foreground
and then pick up a little bit of SAP
green well that makes it I made that was
pretty close to SAP green just kind of
DAB it in there stick a little bit of a
two-tone and then I think I'll do one of
these like I'm like a purpley red color
and the little strokes you're going to
do and it might help you actually might
help you have to put a stem if you're
doing these for ground ones so I'll just
make a little bit of a but honestly I
wouldn't even bother with this too much
unless you're painting the really big
picture and go ahead and make this
bigger if you going to make it bigger
and get more detail you might even go
online and find some reference photos so
you can really see what they look like I
mean we got our back door all spring
here and me well do mostly June and July
but basically what you want to do is
just put kind of like little you kind of
strokes and you can go in with a little
bit more of either of the colors I'll go
with a little bit of mix a little bit
more blue in and just dab some in there
to let it kind of run and I would
continue this one right off the bottom
of the page I'm gonna do one this little
bit more red this little you strokes and
it gets wider as it goes down let them
overlap
mix a little bit of purple all right now
all the other ones are going to be very
kind of sloppy I mean that's what those
are super neat but these other ones are
going to be kind of sloppy I'm just
going to go in with my breads and
purples and yellows whatever I whatever
color blue pins I want I can even just
tap them in with these brushes and not
you don't really have to worry about the
tops on those ones there's pretty much
getting in yeah that kind of conifer
coniferous cone-shaped what am I trying
to say I don't know some yellow ones in
there - the only reason holding a sponge
is little have a paper towel handy yeah
I want more yellow yellow
I'm not worried with the yellow because
I can always put a more green there and
they can become foliage I think I will
switch to around
I think mate I could use this one I'm
usually more comfortable with a bigger
brush but whatever I can I can switch
you can switch you can do whatever you
want as you get what you start working
down further on the page though you want
to make them bigger okay cuz I'll be
closer to your eyes and therefore
they're going to look bigger okay that's
going to give you some depth and
perspective you have a lot of purple
lupins I'm going to make sure I do a lot
of purple ones here we do in Maine
anyway I think the wild ones tend to be
purple and blue you can buy seeds for
the yellow ones I don't know if you if
they they keep coming back yellow every
year or if they kind of get changed by
what you have planted in your soil to
light nippy color just add water can
make some of them taller if you want to
it's like one another detailed one here
maybe accent that one a little bit
another tall purple one and will does
put a little bit of a I'll use strokes
just be a little more precise as you are
boy that's not precise that's hot mess
as you're going towards the front of
your paper at the bottom of your paper
rather there we go alright a little bit
of yellow on the top of that or a little
too green or something there we go
alright for the foliage we're gonna do
some of that green
for some of the blue and the Lupin
leaves are kind of like a star like that
more green and really just paint a few
paint a few precise ones and then all
the other ones can just be kind of like
keep a little grasses in because it'd be
grasses there too it was ironic the the
woman that asked me to paint lupins
didn't end up making it to class but it
were in the small conference room and we
usually have a couple people that come
to the classes and I haven't done them
in a couple months because I've been
super busy and we had 14 people we had
the conference room table at the library
was packed and um we had somebody
sitting in the corner just like holding
their paper on their lap to paint I was
standing painting the entire time it was
like awesome it was nice that people
came to my class it's so funny you know
cuz like it's I have a class and I'll
charge $35 person is packed with gills
and tell the class where it's free and
you can't get anybody to make the time
to go not funny
the way things go no feel like you need
just a little something with some detail
you can add you know shrubs or whatnot I
want to put some branches on my tree so
I am going to mix a little bit of the
brown and blue because branch trees on
birches tend to be a little bit darker
and I'm just going to throw a few more
blue in there
whatever you what also going to put in a
little bit of some slops of color help
to find the tree a little bit and then
I'm going to dab on some green leaves
birches have green leaves and then
that's going to finish our painting of
course spend some more time with it you
can find some photos to go by if you
want some you know some problems more
detailed pictures of lupins it's not
really very detailed that's very
impressionist stick but I hope it helped
you anyway fun little warm up painting
for you on a Thursday and I do hope that
you give this a thumbs up and you hit
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thumbs up it really gives me the passion
and a motivation to make more of these
water coloring videos for you like I
said if you want a little branch if you
feel like it just needs a little
something-something just grab a little
bit burnt sienna and you could pull up a
few little you know just a little maybe
a little tree that hasn't quite sprung
to life this spring yet you know pull a
few of those in there that can really
help add a little bit of texture and a
little bit of scale you know if you have
this really tall tree and you get the
shorter flowers it really does help by
adding scale just wants little tricks of
the trade and there you go thank you so
much for watching and until next time
happy crafting