Learn to draw and paint a cupcake in watercolor & watercolor pencil! Video

hi mayor Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we are going to sketch this
cupcake here this was also much
requested and it's a very quick and easy
tutorial I'm going to sketch it with my
spectrum aquablend pencils you can use a
regular pencil but I'm using this so
that it will show up really well for you
I'm starting with kind of a trapezoid
shape
I've got these two slanted lines flat
line across the bottom which I will then
curve out apologize for that noise there
it is the weekend holiday weekend here
lots of noise in my home but we'll try
to we'll try to work around that most
you guys say that it doesn't bother you
so I hope that's the case
notice these lines are going parallel to
the edges and when we get to the center
they're going up and down okay
now we're going to put our cupcake stuff
with like a vanilla cupcake or whatever
I'm just like kind of putting just a
little scribble a line in there just to
signify that and then I'm going to put
my frosting on and that's going to be in
kind of swirly shapes like that really
fun thing to draw here and I just did
this out of my imagination but when I
sketch that and I'm just going by that
to get my to sketch it for you today and
then our little cherry on top kind of
nestled it into the icing there and I'm
not going to sketch the stem on because
I'll just paint that on with my paint
okay
the water pump noise is bugging me so my
deposit will come back after that stops
being noisy while the pump was going I
took the chance to grab some paint put
it on my pallet or you could see it so
what we have here is some raw Sienna or
you can use ultramarine mm you can use
yellow ochre or raw Sienna it doesn't
matter
I've got some burnt sienna alizarin
crimson ultramarine blue and cerulean
blue so first thing we're going to do is
wet the bottom of the cupcake and this
will liquify what we sketched with which
is kind of like a cerulean color anyway
and I am just gently going over it with
my soft brush generally wanting these
watercolor pencils if I was doing this
all in watercolor pencils I would use a
stiffer
brush like a royal aqua lawn or evany
splendor something that's just like
almost like what you would use for like
tole painting for like pushing around
like a light a consistency acrylic paint
but I don't really need to especially if
I haven't used that much and I also want
to give a little pink to edge to mic up
there so I'm just tapping it up you
could sketch out in with a watercolor
pencil as well now for a shadow I'm
grabbing ultramarine blue and I am just
kind of putting it along the bottom and
along the edges a little bit that's just
going to give it more of a rounded feel
and then I'm going to grab some cerulean
and just dab some of that in there too
just make sure you get that pigment
right up to those edges that you just
pushed up and that'll give you that
definition that you need and I like
ultramarine and cerulean because they do
some neat granulation and it's just
going to give an interesting texture
onto this now choose a couple different
things we can do for the detail lines
they're the easiest thing to do is just
to grab your pencil while it's while the
paper is still wet now these lines are
not going to be able to be blended out
so you know choose wisely I'm just going
to throw in a few of those little fluted
lines the cupcakes have with this same
boy sketched with okay just remember to
be very cautious of the way your lines
go remember how I told you when we were
drawing we're going along we're going
with the edges and as it gets to the
middle goes straight then it goes to
lean towards the closest edge again now
we don't want to do the cupcake spongy
you know the cakey part right now
because we have we have that wet cupcake
liner and it's going to bleed if we do
that so we're going to skip up to the
frosting area and again I am wetting
this because I want to put a wash of
color and that's pretty gosh I could
have just colored it in with that pencil
and that's another thing I like about
these pencils the aqua blends they're
light fast that's the first thing that I
really like the other thing I really
like is that this is a super soft brush
and it is liquefying it just fine I
don't feel like I have to dig and scrub
to get the color out and that's what I
hear as a big complaint for a lot of
people is that
they have to dig and scrub now something
we can do here and I showed you this on
my leaf tutorial is that I can wet my
brush and hold it right to the tip of
that pencil and I can get a lot of
pigment that way if I decided oh I want
a little more pink in there I don't want
it all to be that crimson color so I can
use that and that way I won't get the
hard lines so we used it in the cupcake
wrapper purposely to get the hard lines
but if you don't want hard lines you
want to use it like a paint maybe your
you have to pick you're trying to decide
whether you want pencils or you want
paints this is how you can use them like
a paint so you don't have to buy
everything at one time
because it can be expensive it can be it
is expensive when you're first getting
into a hobby and you're trying to decide
what you're gonna use most and you don't
want to make a costly mistake you know
this is a this is a product that can do
a couple things so and if you already
have watercolor pencils as long as
they're a decent quality they're going
to work the same way so don't feel like
you have to go buy these they're nice
but if you already have some that you
like you know use those so now I'm just
going in with this crimson and I am
adding some of the deeper colors this is
a wash so it's gonna blur out quite a
bit so I'm just adding it kind of where
the the frosting is overlapping okay and
I'm going to let it flood out and I'm
going to go ahead and paint this cherry
while I'm at it now since this is red I
can do this I wouldn't want to do this
next to something that was a totally
different color if I had green frosting
on there I would not paint the cherry
now because it would just flood and make
a mess okay so now what I want to do cuz
I do want a little bit of a highlight on
the cherry I'm just going to wrap a
paper towel around my finger and I'm
just going to blot in the middle and
that's just gonna give me a little bit
of a highlight there we will be doing
some work with a white gel pen for those
really sharp highlights but I do want it
a little bit lighter in the middle
because it's going to give it that
roundness that I want and we can go
ahead and mix up our color for our
shadow while that's drying we'll just
mix it on our pallet and we're going to
do one of my favorite greys it's burnt
sienna which is a nice reddish brown and
it is ultramarine blue so I'm going to
rinse my brush off real quick and grab
some of the ultramarine blue and get a
nice grey that way
all right maybe a little bit more blue
to cool it down a little bit more there
I like that now if I wanted that gray a
little purple I could go ahead and grab
some crimson grab some of this color and
I can make a more of a purple eyeshadow
it just depends on what you want for
your shadow so I think at this point I'm
going to quickly use my heat tool to dry
this and then we'll come back and add
some more okay I dried that for about 30
seconds with my heat tool and I am going
to use a wet brush and I'm going to wet
the bottom of this paper basically what
I want to do is I'll make a soft soft
shadow so if I wet around the area where
I want the paint to flow I will end up
with a soft edge because I'm not going
to put so much paint in then it's going
to flow all the way out here so I'm
wetting beyond where the colors going to
be then I'm going to load my brush up
soaking up all of that nice dark color
and look at that see how it just kind of
feathers out like that's my paper is
nice and wet and some papers is going to
do that more on like I know it's like a
wood pulp paper will flood let the paint
flat out a little bit more if it's got
good sizing on it and I find the
Strathmore greeting cards do have good
sizing I think it's very equivalent to
the distress more 400-series it's in the
brown wrapper and it's not it doesn't
have those tractor tractor marks like I
feel like the 300 series Strathmore
paper has that almost looks like a
tractors gone over it it has those
telltale marks it's kind of kind of
funny now I won't get a little darker so
I'm going to grab a little bit more blue
without adding any more water to my
brush and brown mix that up a little bit
more intensely I'm going to put that
right up a little bit closer and let
that flood into what I already have
going in that's just going to give me a
little bit darker shadow and the thing
you're going to notice with water color
is it dries lighter so I like to get the
ILAC I'm pretty bumpy brave when it
comes to the water color I go in with a
with a darker color usually right off
the bat okay so we're gonna let that dry
and let's move up to the cupcake area
let's liquefy what we have here and
soften up our lines you can make this
whatever flavor cupcake you want I just
happen to have a vanilla one here I
rarely I rarely have vanilla
cake because I can do an eggless cake
I'm vegetarian so I don't need eggs or
dairy I can do an eggless cake using
vinegar and cocoa powder and it leave
ins just fine but it's very hard to find
them to get to do a vanilla because
vinegar really shows up you don't taste
it in chocolate cake but it shows up in
a vanilla cake you can leave it out but
it doesn't hold its cakiness it just
kind of like crumbles which you know
does it matter it tastes good but it's
not that appealing I'm going to grab a
little bit of that color add it in to my
burnt sienna just to darken it a little
bit more so I have nice and dark under
the shadow under the icing so I want a
really thick icing and I want it to cast
a shadow cuz it's so thick then dot and
creamy
yeah um while I'm at it I will grab a
little more Brown grab a little bit of
that dark put my stem on my cherry and
just mmm you could go to a smaller brush
if you know this kind of scares you but
look at that if you use it up on its tip
like that use a brush straight up and
down you'll get a really good you can
get really good definition but if you're
having a hard time like you're getting
too much water go ahead and a smaller
brush because you won't get as much
pigment in water we'll try that I'm not
a small brush painter I must say but I
will go ahead and do that and I should
be moving this but I want you to be able
to see my reference photo and everything
so I'm just going with straight alizarin
crimson now and adding that shadow I
deepening the color on the edges a
little easier to control with a smaller
brush I will give you that because
sometimes when you go in with the big
brush you end up putting up too much
color and you have to go in and remove
some which is kind of wasteful that's
something I learned from Anna Mason's
class over at craft C and all if it's it
should still be it should be Labor Day
when this is posting last day for their
big sale they have 50% off all classes
check out the link in the video
description and if you purchase anything
through that link it doesn't matter what
you buy could be cooking class could be
a painting class crafting class doesn't
matter it helps support my channel and I
do appreciate that
alright so now we've got some nice
roundness to it I think I want even more
of a shadow I'm going to grab a little
ultramarine into that crimson
makes a nice purple just gonna add a
little bit of that towards the bottom
there not too much because I don't want
it to dead in the color I just wanted a
little depth there you go
okay so we're gonna let that dry and now
I'm gonna go in I'm gonna start working
on the frosting in the middle there I'm
going to take my crimson I'm going to
add it right to that area that had a
little touch of blue let's go so
cerulean I think that'll be a little
softer and then let's start adding some
shadows here so I'm gonna go in there
make that nice division and then I'll go
in there
okay so now we've got our three
different divisions of shadow I am NOT
going to get on to this bottom area or
top area right now because I have too
much contact with the with the wet areas
so I'm just putting in these kind of
curving lines kind of like you know if
you use the star tip and you wear icing
something you'd have that you'd have
that that kind of fluting of the of the
icing and that's kind of what I'm doing
it up I'm just putting a little bit more
paint on my brush giving the bottom of
the lines a little bit more thickness
you probably do this with one stroke if
you had a bigger brush there we get a
little bit more on this edge here
beautiful nice nice and nice and
frosting II I'm do the same thing up
here and it's all these little layers
that make it look realistic it's that's
name of the game there and the nice
thing we're gonna use a gel pen and
think I really like it's a little bit I
don't know a lot of people call it
cheating it is a little bit of cheating
I guess because we're not reserving the
white of the paper but I'm telling you
using a gel pen is really fun because
this is like at the end you could put
those little it's like you could put the
icing on literally we put the icing on
the cupcake we put those little shadows
in and it's it's really fun and art
should be fun you know I mean well it
doesn't always have to be fun but I
think most of us are here you're
watching because you want to enjoy this
hobby and
I'm here to help you do that so that is
my goal and I feel like I should have
some maybe some rough art you'd see the
edges of the fluting up here too so when
I get those points there this little
fall away into a shadow a little bit and
um I'm just gonna blast the heat getting
real quick so I can look down here a
little bit this thing's amazing it's my
I wouldn't have been buying it if you're
not a rubber Stamper as well because you
know it's you could use a hairdryer just
as easily but if you got one it's really
great just a little touch of blue in
there to cool it down and I'm gonna put
in some of those some of the icing there
too please feel free to turn your work
as you're going I'm just keepin mind on
one spot just because it's it's easier
for you to watch you guys don't get
motion sickness well we're going for
something small like this
you're just making little suggestions
just of the texture just with those
lines is all you really need okay so now
let's go with the blue and go in the
cupcake wrapper which is dry and
grabbing that ultramarine blue I think a
bowl grab a little cerulean there too
because I've got both colors happening
and I'm going to go in and add some more
lines they're a little bit darker than
our pencil ones just the suggestion you
don't need to paint every little detail
just need to give it the suggestion that
we've got that little fluting there on
the wrapper and we've got some shadows
happening you see if you're using a
small brush you need a wider stroke use
the edge of it works great works like a
charm
I apologize for so many watercolor
tutorials I know some of you guys are
probably like Lindsey we want to stamp
um I'm still getting caught up after
summer and the kids just started school
a couple days ago but they have a long
weekend so you know it's us or nothing
and I did have a lot of requests for
this so I know somebody's gonna
appreciate it
okay so now let me just see if that
cherries dry that cherry is dry now we
can start doing some high highlights and
again we got our trusty gel pen so what
I'm gonna do is put this the most
permanent highlight up there on the top
of the cherry and do a couple over here
look how glossy that looks now is not
fun so let me see if that's the actually
these are dried pretty quick so I'm just
gonna go ahead and put some highlights
hopefully my hand is not right in your
way I've got to turn it I'm sorry
because otherwise I'm gonna put my hand
right in that wet paint
and if your papers wet your paint for
your gel pen probably will not work on
it and you'll just need to be patient
and I'll let it dry just to get a little
bit up there
and if you find that your highlights are
too bright for you you can do a wash
over them when they dry with your with
your paint not a big deal and then a few
and the cupcake wrapper I'm just going
to do I'll just do some where they're
dry anyway once you learn the form you
know how the edges taper and you can
really you can really sketch anything
and there you have it
really fun and easy to do would make a
wonderful birthday card and hope you
give it a try please give me a thumbs up
if you enjoyed this video and I will
link to the products that I used as well
as a link to that craft csail page in
the video description so even if you're
watching this after the 50% off
everything sale is gone it'll take you
to where all the painting tutorials are
on sale anyway so you might find
something that happens to be on sale
that you want to buy even if it's six
months down the road which is kind of
fun thank you so much for watching and
till next time happy crafting