How To Paint Holly in Watercolor! Christmas Card Idea Video Lecture - Master

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
I've been asked so many times over the
past month to do some Christmas card
watercolors so we're gonna start off
with doing this a holly branch this year
hopefully they'll be more to come if you
guys like the Christmas card the videos
just let me know like watercolor
Christmas cards they don't have to be
Christmas cards you can use this for any
sort of winter thing but I just wanted
to show that so what we're gonna do is
work on a 5x7 Strathmore watercolor card
and on my blog probably not quite yeah
but very shortly in a day or two I'm
gonna have this pattern available for
you I just figured since I was using
masking fluid and I wanted to kind of
have this process stepped out for you I
thought it'd be a lot easier for me to
make just make a pattern and what I like
to do is actually this is five by seven
you can print it to five by seven or you
can enlarge it if you want to do this on
a bigger canvas which I think would be
very appropriate watercolor paper
whatever you're using
I highly recommend watercolor paper for
water colors I'm using some graphite
paper here and I am just I taped my
image down so it doesn't slip okay
little tip for you there and then I'm
putting in my paper and I'm just gonna
go ahead and trace the entire design
here okay and the reason I like to tape
it down is because then I can kind of
lift it up and I can peek and I can see
if I've forgotten something now I'll
show you here so I can lift it up and I
can see I've got that transferred but
then I can put that back in its not
gonna move it and I can continue on with
my design so I'm gonna finish tracing
this and we'll come back and start
painting okay so when we take our paper
are off and remove the graphite paper we
have our image here and you could
freehand it I just figured you might
want to try this a couple times if
you're doing a Christmas card you might
want to make a bunch and it would just
be a little bit easier that way and then
we're gonna use some masking fluid and
I've already stirred this up this is a
Windsor Newton colorless art masking
fluid they also have it tinted different
companies make it tinted stuff this is a
little bit of a yellowy tint to it but
you can get it with like a blue tinge as
you can see it a little bit better now
here is a very important tip when you're
using masking fluid you want to take a
soap and it can be any kind of soap and
you want to wet your brush with the soap
because otherwise if you put the fluid
on your brush it's
going to permanently and it might ruin
it you may be able to wash it out but
chances are you can't so make sure that
you use soap up your brush first and use
a brush it's not your favorite one don't
go using like an expensive brush for
this now because we have snow on a holly
branch and that's white we're going to
use a white of the paper so I want to
mask those areas off so I'm just dipping
into my masking fluid and some you know
if if you using it more often you could
pour a little bit out into another
container so you don't have to leave
your masking fluid open but I'm not too
worried about that because I've been
using this one for years and pretty much
as fashion and it's been fine for me
this isn't going to take that long to
mask out either and I'm just kind of
thinking about where the snow would fall
and that's kind of how I am placing the
masking fluid just like that the tips
and edges of things and then I do the
other other ones do a little bit
differently you know as long as you just
kind of think of okay I've got a berry
there I'm probably gonna have masking
fluid this will take probably about ten
minutes to dry but that's alright
because I've already have one masked out
I want it to kind of look like groups of
snow kind of like bunches so I am kind
of dabbing with my brush so I get that
rough edge I don't want a really smooth
edge up at the top I want it to be
really have that kind of crusty snow
fluffy snow texture and oh I pretty much
will keep a brush when I use a brush
masking fluid that you will usually
become my masking fluid brush and you
don't need a ton it doesn't need to be
really thick you can go fairly lightly
if you can't find masking fluid in your
area some people have told me that
rubber cement has worked for them
personally and now I've tried it and it
might be alright for like kids projects
like you know if you're not really
needing to be that precise I personally
not had great luck with it
doing watercolor masking but you know
maybe I just had awful masking fluid you
know awful rubber cement so that's kind
of what it looks like now I'm gonna
clean that's not in my regular water
brush but I'm using this bucket over
here and I'm not using this to clean my
brushes with because I don't want to get
any of those rubber particles in my my
watercolor paints cap this up really
well and then we're gonna skip over
we'll take one that I've already that
I've already let dry Beth I right there
power of YouTube and I am gonna tape
this down I don't think I have room to
do like a really have room to do a
border on this clay didn't really plan
my drawing for that so I'm just gonna
tape around the corners if you print
this off and you want to have an even
border than just pretty little touch
small or what you can do is when you go
to print it you just set the print size
and you can set it to whatever size you
want you can do an 8 by 10 whatever you
like okay so now what we're going to do
is paint our background wash and I'm
gonna use I'm gonna wet the entire paper
you could use this blow I should clean
that brush a little bit better I was
paying the berries last so just gonna
let that and I'm gonna do a wash and use
some lemon yellow and some SAP green or
hookers green whichever green you have
actually I think I'm using hookers rings
I'm using my York appellate but you can
use whichever one you like I don't think
this is gonna be one we finished in 20
minutes to tell you the truth it
actually took me it's this it looks
deceptively easy so I'm gonna go in with
the yellow over the berries and over the
leaves that's gonna give me a nice depth
of color when I go to put on the put on
this you know subsequent layers and then
I'm gonna go in with my hookers green
which is just it's just a little bit a
less earthy than the near sap and I'm
going around I'm going right over my
masking fluid but I'm going around the
believes I'm gonna get this nice dark
color in here and it can seep in and
that's totally fine but I'm just kind of
this is this is really background this
is like those leaves kind of far off in
the distance the kind of excited and
doing a lot of Halloween projects I'm
excited to do a Christmas project not
that it has to be Christmas you can even
paint like a little chickadee or
something you can use this as part of a
large
a larger painting altogether we're gonna
do some color mixing too so I think
you're gonna learn quite a bit from this
exercise now the masking fluid is
protecting the paper Oh another tip if
you want to speed up the drawing of your
masking fluid be very careful you really
don't want to heat it maybe like a
hairdryer at a distance you if you're
really careful maybe your heat gun at a
distance but you don't want to cook it
and bake it on to that paper permanently
so you're best off if you can just leave
it and let it dry but if you're
absolutely cannot wait then you could
very gently use a hairdryer at a
distance okay I think I want a little
bit of that maybe in and around now if
you just do a lot like I did there and
got a little green on the berries take
your paper towel don't freak out just
take your paper towel kind of put it
around your finger like that and just
blot it I just don't want to have the
only thing I want stark white on this
picture is going to be the the snow okay
so that's why I'm kind of covering
everything now I do want to deepen up
some of that dark around the edges so
I'm gonna take some red and mix that
with my green those are opposites are
gonna make a great a black kind of color
a great a kind of brownie black color
add some of that in hither and yon we
will be going in with some glazes so
don't don't worry we'll be darking it up
more you don't have to do this right now
if you don't want to I'm gonna put in
some kind of red dab just to be kind of
like faraway berries and I can actually
put a little bit if I want to put a wash
on the berries yeah no afraid I think
I'm gonna hold off on doing a wash on
the berries at this point cuz I'm afraid
it's just gonna bleed out of control a
little bit now if you want to and if you
want to dry your paper as you go then
then just keep your hairdryer back a
little bit so you don't cook anything
I'm gonna pause it so we can let this
dry and then we will we'll be able to go
in and add some details okay the
background is dry we're gonna switch to
a flat or an angle you can use either
one this is about a half an inch wide or
number 12 and I am going to dip the
corner of
into my dark brownish green color kind
of mixed maybe out a little bit
ultramarine - that too okay so that's
what I got here just on the corner
actually know what letting mix up a
bigger puddle of that add a little more
blue to that this is gonna be kind of
like it's gonna really make the leaves
pop out of the background sharpen them
up a little bit okay so my brush is
clean it's damp I'm lifting picking up
some paint on this remember this is the
red and green mixed evenly and the
reddit user is kind of like a crimson
and hookers green and then a little
ultramarine blue so it's a really dark
green right now and what I'm gonna do is
go right up along the edge of my leaves
and just kind of give that definition
okay so it's really gonna give them a
nice hard edge you if you if your paint
creeps all the way around you don't get
a nice blend you can rinse your brush
off and reload you will need to do that
here and there just Nitra the beast
okay now that I can kind of see my edge
I'm gonna clean my brush off just scrape
the extra water off of my bucket and I'm
gonna reload just look how I'm laying my
brush I'm just laying it kind of flat
down in there and loading up the entire
the entire side of the brush so that
that I paint can feed down and I'm just
side loading we're gonna use this
technique again on the leaves with two
different colors so it's a great
practice right here and if you've ever
done any tole painting you probably know
how to do this and I think tole painting
is an excellent way to learn brush
strokes because you have to be so
precise and tall painting
I took tole painting when I was in high
school and and it's a fantastic way to
learn a discipline so I know people will
say well I only did a little Tull
painting
don't say you only did a little tall
painting the the women that tole paint
are and men too I just never had any men
in class with me they they have
discipline there is such a level of
discipline there so please don't ever
say you just do a little tall painting I
mean that's like saying I just random
Boston Marathon I mean you are learning
the hard stuff you are learning how to
put paint on your on your canvas and
you're learning how not to
you know ruin your brushes by getting
paint in the ferrule you're gonna
there's a lot of discipline in a toll
painting lesson so please don't ever
feel that it's not you know it's
something to be ashamed of or that it's
not worth mentioning because well I used
a pattern and so what you know what
getting that paint on the paper is hard
enough work please don't ever feel like
like it isn't because you used a pattern
I mean there's such there's such
stereotypes there I'm giving you a
pattern for this because I know that
painting it is is gonna be quite a bit
of work that you know if you want to
jump right in there that's fine okay so
know what I'm gonna do is work on I
think I actually get that stem in there
so I'm gonna go back to my round and I
am going to make myself a nice brown
with the green and the red so we're
gonna mix our green and our red here and
then that makes a pretty dark brown add
a little bit of yellow to that to warm
it up a little bit a little of that
lemon same color we've been using we're
not using a lot of colors here that's a
nice high light brown color and I'm
gonna just tap my brush on my paper
towel because it felt a little too juicy
and I'm gonna go in and paint this
branch just gonna be careful not to
paint over my berries but you can paint
over the masking fluid I don't know how
long the take this took me a while to
paint the first one but I don't know if
I have a lot of that probably waiting
for the masking fluid to dry and I was
watching izombie yeah I was a little I
have to go to update my shop today
Brewer and got her cross-country meet of
a busy day busy busy day alright I think
I'm gonna also paint in those berries
well I'm at it cuz they're I mean just
have to be careful around the brown but
it's not gonna be the end of the world
if I get a little brown on the berry so
I'm just gonna try to keep their nice
round shape as I'm doing this but I mean
we're gonna be fine-tuning everything
after we take our masking fluid off
anyway so I'm really not even not even
gonna be too concerned just wanna paint
him in and since the only thing that's
what near them is the estimates only
thing I really have to
about but I think that would just give
us some shadow colors anyway so it's
really nothing to worry about here you
know you could always you totally have
permission to do this
you could always paint this once and
then go to like staples or your favorite
coffee shop and have them make copies on
card glossy cardstock and use that for
your Christmas cards you know cuz
painting you know I don't know how many
Christmas cards you send but if you send
a lot that could be a little prohibitive
to hand paint that many cards but if you
come up with like maybe you try this
painting like four or five times and one
is just perfect you can always have that
copied and send that out and then you
could keep your original and frame it or
something I honestly think that this
would be a good one done is an
eight-by-ten I think I'm gonna do this
in my adult painting class that I do at
the library next week because I think
that uh I think they would enjoy that oh
right so let's see I think we're pretty
dry up there I'm just gonna let me just
show you about how to dry this with the
heat gun hold it back okay don't get too
close keep it moving
okay look you would get hairdryer don't
make that masking fluid
keep it moving
and don't do it for too long okay so if
you must like I must because I'm
impatient Oh a lot of things to do today
okay so now I'm going to load up my
brush to paint the Holly so what I'm
gonna do is I am going to do the lemon
yellow on the tip of my brush like pull
my palette over here so you could see so
lemon yellow the tip of my brush I'm
going to do the green on the lower part
this is a lot easier with an angle but
you can do it with a flat and I want it
a little bit lighter on the outside of
my leaves and I'm taped to my table I
should be on a I couldn't find my little
clips to clip it till I couldn't find my
little board as a matter of fact
although I did do that but so I am just
going to keep my light to the outside
and dark to the inside and go right
around like that I think I need to mix
new puddles on my palo though because it
kind of dried up from the last painting
so it's get yourself some nice juicy
puddles you want them very heavy with
pig named pigment you don't want them
water you want them juicy but watery you
want a lot of paint but you don't want
it watery paint but you want it liquid
you know what I mean high concentration
all right so I'm cleaning off my brush
I'm loading the tall part in the yellow
tall part of the angle brush I'm blowing
the low part in the green do this side
so each side is done separately and if
you're taped to a board by all means and
move your your paper so it is more
comfortable to paint and this is
extremely awkward and I'm just gonna
kinda fudge the middle of that one looks
that's a really big leaf I should have a
bigger brush that's that'll to find them
I think I think I'm like my penis
crossed over maybe not there I can blend
that out
and now with the end of your brush put
in that center line and we're gonna do
that much better on these other ones I
think I'm gonna sneeze excuse knees oh
no I'm not false alarm oh wait a minute
oh no no I'm good
I'd some on the edge of a sneeze I think
you never know when they're gonna show
up
alright so I've loaded up my brush again
just to show you half and half
um and just wiggling it along the edge
loop it around do it on the other side
so you're gonna have darker in the
middle hope my head wasn't in the way
and if you get any weirdness just kind
of work it back a little bit and I'm
gonna put this line there what that I'm
trying to scrape away the paint so that
I get a lighter line like I did on that
one and that one
so yeah that's working oh my sneeze has
gone away I don't think I'm gonna sneeze
now we didn't know the same thing up
here
Oh be a contortionist here next time I
go off to go find another motherboard I
probably took it out of the library and
left tonight
since I just used it though I just used
it last week hmm don't worry what you're
masking fluid cuz you can paint right
over that I was handling this brush so
much better in less than my sample well
I think it's probably because I didn't
tape it down and I moved my my paper
around but it was buckling an awful lot
and I didn't really like that I thought
that was that was troublesome okay I
might have to lift it up though my
goodness gracious
eat this one
right scrape our veins in that won't get
darker I didn't get to in time
oh that one's darker too hmm oh well
life's too short to worry about that I'm
gonna do this guy over here it's funny
the same artist using the same sketch
he's paying differently each time so I
know all your paintings are gonna be
completely original looking because
we're different people and we're even if
we're using the same sketch mine don't
look the same from from picture to
picture alright I'm gonna take a look
here okay
so now I think I'm gonna add some
shadows on to the berries I'm gonna
switch to a smaller round this is one of
those mimic brushes from Jerry's are to
Rama then I'm liking the other ones that
the clear handled ones are royal aqua
lhans I like those too so I am using
some red and some green touch of
ultramarine blue trying to make it a
little bit more like a deep deep purpley
grey color I'm trying to think of where
the shadows are going to be and I'm
putting them in a little dark cuz I'm
gonna be going over with a little red in
a little while too so I'm not gonna
worry about that
I can if you have any weird edges you
can go clean him up right now I might
have a shadow under where the snow isn't
like kind of resting on them and I
didn't leave highlights I could've I
could have painted in highlights with my
masking fluid but I didn't that's
alright we can always use like a little
knife to carve out our highlights no I
grabbed some of the red on its own
that's beautiful crimson color and you
just kind of blend it in there with that
deeper color give a little tonality
and we will need to make sure all the
paint around the painter paper is dry
before you remove our masking fluid
there's another tip for you because if
it isn't it will tear and the wet paint
can smudge under the area that you've
been protecting with the masking fluid
so you just you know you don't go
through all the work of putting masking
fluid on a waiting for it to dry to uh
to have it ruined all right we're gonna
let that dry and we are going to take
this script liner here it's a number two
liner from creative markets one of the
other mimics it's the gray handle mimic
which I believe is a faux squirrel and
I'll bring my palette over got this
pretty inky pretty watery and I'm twist
twirling my brush and I like a liner for
this because it holds so much paint and
I won't have to reload very often so you
hold you brush it pretty much straight
up and down and just flick out your
little veins there you can do that to
each of the holly leaves here
so you can get quite a few before you
have to reload this is a fun one to
paint I hope you're enjoying it hope
you're trying it I know some you guys
say like you like to watch it first
through and then try it I think that's a
smart move
now this by curving the stroke you're
gonna make those leaves look like they
have a little bit of rounding this to
them just like they do you know how to
kind of fold down the middle a little
bit and they kind of poof out in the
center so that's a great way to get that
effect instead of making stick straight
lines which would give you a more flat
leaf you know a little bit of a curve
and don't worry if you go off the leaf
because it's a little bit darker in the
background don't think you're gonna see
it okay now I feel like I'm kind of
missing a little background there I'm
gonna go back to this noir for I believe
it's a four round and somewhat dark
green green mixed with a little bit of
uh red just to fill in that background I
just kind of missed it I guess I did
there - that happens no biggie okay and
now we're gonna dry it and then we'll
remove our masking fluid which is always
very exciting so
remember keep it moving don't put that
heat tool close don't leave it on one
spot too long all right so to remove the
masking fluid you can roll it with your
finger but I find that the recipe for
smudging this is a rubber cement pickup
or actually what this pee this one is
came from this honkin huge one I found
it Harbor Freight it's actually called
like a sander cleaner or something it's
like a big hunk and piece of rubber that
people used to clean the stuff off their
sandpaper and grinders and stuff but the
same exact stuff as you get at the art
and craft store but this is the size you
can get the art craft store and the
thing from Harbor Freight is like the
size of a brick of Velveeta so I my
husband cut me off a piece of his
because I lost mine that I paid you know
too much of the art supply store with
and so that's what this is right here
just to give you a hint you know if
you're if you have one of those cleaner
things you might be able to use that if
not if you know a woodworker that does
and ask them to cut off a piece of that
for you if not good that you know it is
you won't you'll never use a huge thing
like that I just you just want to
preemptively chop it up into small
pieces cuz you know you're gonna lose it
and hide them you know everywhere on
your craft stash or something but you
know otherwise you can go to staples you
can get a rubber cement it's called the
rubber cement pickup alright so now
we're getting or revealing our beautiful
white paper but it is a little Stark you
know because hey that's white look at me
see just to show you the difference this
is my finished painting here and that's
with just removing the masking fluid
that is super white the snow is not that
white so what we're gonna do is we're
going to take that number for ground
we're gonna use a little bit of
ultramarine blue we're only using colors
we've already used ultramarine blue
putting that right out there and then
I've got that mix of green and red and
made that brown and pick up a little bit
of that add it to it so it's not super
blue but that's kind of the color of
like the sky reflected in the snow right
there it's just a very faint grayish
blue color so we haven't used that many
colors I'll put a list of the colors we
used in the video description and I'm
just stippling very gently with the tip
of this brush I'm just stippling in some
snowy shadows here
you don't want to put too much pigment
in a for you if it looks too dark you
can dab it off that's really when you
think you're looking at white snow
you're seeing so many other colors you
just don't realize it it's okay like my
brush is pretty dry and picking up wet
paint with a dry brush so it's kind of
splitting apart a little bit and it may
kind of make you cringe to tap your
brush like that you're not gonna hurt it
I don't think just doing a little bit
like this you're not grinding it into
the paper you're just kind of tapping it
shadows on all those little clumps of
snow you don't need to deficit it too
much hope this video uploads quickly
I've had some issues last the last few
days about when I was uploading I don't
know if my computer's been going to
sleep or what the heck's been going on
but it hasn't it's like frozen and then
I and then I have to kind of turn the
computer off and close out you know
close out of the internet and go back on
and then it you know resume where it was
but it's very weird - do you like oh my
gosh I've had that uploading forever
okay um no do I want to do I think I
want a shadow on the on the stem there
I'm gonna take eltra marine blue again
with that that Brown that I made make it
nice
almost it'll look almost dark almost
black here can you see that and I'm just
gonna add that to the bottom edge of
actually you know what I think I want to
add it add to either side of that branch
you can add a few thorns in there if you
want to get it's a nice texture a few
little stems
I don't you will see the stems on those
little berries but put some in there you
find any shadows that you want also if
you see like if you feel like your
leaves aren't bright enough you can um
mix a little bit of that that brownish
dark we made in with your green and
check this out so this is a little bit
easier than sideloading I'm gonna clean
this brush or incy wincy okay so it's
wet
okay lightly dab it but it's still
pretty wet just gonna pick up the color
on the tip
only and then any place I think well I
don't have enough definition definition
there I'm gonna go right up to the leaf
with the tip of that brush and there's
just color on the tip and like the rest
of the brush just has water on it and
there water in the rest of the brush is
just gonna be enough to carry that
pigment out so fades - nothing like that
I feel like that's just so smooth that
needs to be rushed up a little bit so it
doesn't really look like snow so I'm
just kind of breaking that up a little
bit - and that you know you're pretty
much just kind of tweaking at this point
if you need to bring back some edges you
can do that I try not to fuss it and
overwork and I know it can be very
difficult but I think it's just a fun
project my project to work on a great
masking fluid product snow is is a fun
thing to use masking fluid for I'm
usually not a big huge fan of masking
fluid because I don't like waiting for
it to dry but like that why do I have a
white spot hovering in the air that it's
a sunny day obviously our leaves won't
be this bright if it wasn't so we don't
need to hover no so we'll just get rid
of it but there you have it I mean if
you want some brighter highlights on the
berries and go ahead drop something on
the ground and I can just kind of carve
out or if you don't want to do that
because my my fuse is very scary you can
use a colored pencil or you know
whatever you want it's your picture
there's no art police or not Johnny door
and say that did not only use watercolor
paint didn't scrape out some you can
scrape out a little bit of snow if you
wanted to I mean just remember once you
scrape that paper you don't want to
paint over it cuz gonna make it really
dark but there you have it here's a
finished one I did add some splatters to
it that's completely up to you if you
want to do that if you enjoyed this
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watching until next time happy crafting