Watercolor Look with Acrylic paint Plumeria & Dew Drops Video Lecture -

hi friends Lindsey here the frugal
crafter today we are going to take a
look at using acrylics as watercolors so
it'll be a kind of nice way for you to
kind of get introduced to watercolor if
you've only painted with acrylics and if
you're not sure if you want to invest in
watercolors so I want to start I've
already drawn a couple plumeria flowers
I'll draw one with you I'm just so that
you can kind of draw the other ones on
your own and it won't take too long on
the video so I've done a big circle and
put a dot in the middle and I want to
start this with a big petal here and
I'll put a link to the reference photo
that I am using so I'm drawing this
first petal like that not going all the
way down because I know I'm going to
overlap one kind of come around here
it's kind of tucked behind that one
gonna bring that down not go all the way
down because then we have the next one
these are thick overlapping petals and
then on a flower I see very often
because they are a tropical flower and I
live in a very under AAPA qila part of
the world this last petal so there's
like five petals here now because I'm
going to be going over this with
acrylics it's important that if I don't
want any pencil lines to remain that I
really did i erase anything I do not
want to keep at this point because
otherwise I'm going to end up with
they'll be trapped under the thin veils
of acrylic and I won't be able to remove
them so you're probably thinking Lindsey
you're going to be using acrylics as
watercolors what um yes the thing is if
you work on paper which I am working on
watercolor paper if you work on
watercolor paper you can thin down your
acrylics a lot because watercolor paper
is absorbent it'll be very similar to
using acrylics they'll actually probably
have a little more bonding power because
of the acrylic emulsion you do not want
to thin down your acrylics like I'm
doing today on canvas because it's just
not enough sticking power
okay so just keep that in mind if you're
on an absorbent material like cloth or
paper you're fine
anyone with cloth you may want some
textile medium just to make sure that it
doesn't it doesn't come loose so I'm
going to be doing a technique just like
I would with acrylics I'm using my
acrylic with my watercolors I'm using my
acrylic brush though because I don't
want acrylic paint on my watercolors and
I'm gonna start with wetting one of the
petals
here and you have to work fairly quickly
because acrylic paints dry really
quickly on your pallet so I have what
the pedal there now I'm going to grab a
little bit of um of yellow and I'm using
a squirt bottle to moisten the paints on
my pallet so I don't get too much water
in there so I want it nice and milky on
my brush and I'm going to add that in
there and you can see how it's flowing
like a watercolor wood it's very pretty
along the edge there now I'm going to
grab a little bit of this rose color mix
it right in there nice and inky and I'm
going to add some of this along the edge
there and I think I want a little bit of
that color in on its own just kind of
let it float and foreshadow I can do the
rose and some say little blue don't put
out very much paint when you're doing
this put it out and then just give it a
little mist with like a spray bottle or
something so that it can just stay damp
and if you do have a mistake or you get
some mud you go ahead and blot it up
right away with a wet paper - I'm sorry
a dry paper towel otherwise you just
want to let it dry I'm going to bring
that up a little closer just so you can
kind of see what we did right there okay
and I could soften that still whelps wet
once it's dry it's dry and you can't
move it but if I want I can just kind of
brush some clear water over that whoops
I got some white paint on that towel I
need to get a fresh towel I can brush a
little bit of water on there and lighten
it up I mean blot it a bit if I want to
okay but you can only do that while it's
wet once it dries it goes through a
chemical change and it's not movable and
so we're going to go around and do that
to the interior part now these
overlapping areas I'm gonna leave dry
for now got some crud on my brush go
ahead and add that in there the yellow
flows really well and these are the
acquire color acrylics I suggest you
try what you have and see if that works
and if not you could give these a try a
big set of paints I think is about forty
seven dollars so it's not crazy
expensive I don't they're not going to
fiddle full quite as well as watercolors
but it's something you can try if you've
been curious about it I show change my
water before I begin this I just did
another demonstration with those and I
didn't change my water I got some pretty
water
though sometimes when you thin down
paint it does affect the light fastness
of it so that's something to consider
and with any work on paper it's best
practices to frame it under glass
because it just doesn't have the you
know you know you don't have a nice
thick film of paint with a nice thick
binder and there to protect it your it's
like the paper in the raw and basically
the raw pigment when you're thinning it
down this much so you do want to take
precautions if you want your artwork to
last if you're just fooling around or
it's going to be an art journal or
something you don't have to worry about
it so much do the last one and then you
can go ahead and paint all the other
interior parts of the petals just like
this on the other flowers I'll show you
how will do the bud though in a second
because we have to let those parts dry
before we can go and do those little
overlapping areas and this is kind of
fun to do if like you finish up an
acrylic paint here like oh what goal is
paint left I don't want to throw it away
but this stills a nice clean paint what
can I do we can do this okay now I'm
going to go over to this and I'm going
to wet this little bud here and I am
going to put in this nice bright red
here along this edge and you can see it
flow I think that's what's pretty about
watercolors is just seeing the paint
kind of do its thing and then I'm just
going to mix up a little bit more of the
purple and do that at the bottom and
that flow upward
you can drop in paint if you want to
make it a little more textured and now I
think I also want to UM make the branch
so I think I'll take some of that purple
and grab some yellow together make a
nice Brown well that mix and ice cream
and I just have that much of the other
color in there opposites make your Brown
so when it was green and they grab some
red it made it more Brown and that's
pretty watery pigment I am NOT going to
add more water to it I'm just going to
go ahead and paint in my stems at this
point what you're really not going to
see much of you're just a little little
lost-and-found stem that's all we really
need pull the eye through the picture so
we're going to do that same technique as
I did on those petals on the interior
parts of these three flowers and then
we'll come back okay so the same
treatments been done to the other
flowers and now we're going to do is
glaze on to the curved petals and you
can do that with whatever colors you see
but in the reference photo I see like
yellow towards the bottom so what I'm
going to do is just kind of glaze on a
really light yellow along the bottom of
each of these kind of turn petals and
then on some of them I see that there's
kind of like a little bit of a gray so
I'm just going to pick up a little bit
of the red a little bit of the blue make
kind of like a purpley gray it's super
super subtle okay and actually I can see
this one kind of only inside of that so
I'm going to go ahead and add that there
you can add that there this one I can
see it on the outside of the turned area
so I'm going to add that there
and just kind of go through whatever you
see your shadows
I just want to get that form and this is
just a quick um just a quick demo so
don't you know you can put in way more
time and on this I'm going to put some
red in the center and drag that out into
the petals cuz I see that as well before
that dries I'm going to clean my brush
and soften and I can drip in a little
bit more if I want to to make the
transition a little bit easier
I find it excuse me I find it more
difficult to use acrylics like
watercolors than just going in and using
watercolors right off the bat I feel
like I personally have a lot more
control just going in with watercolors
but probably because it's what I'm used
to and you want to do that same thing to
the other flowers remember the reference
photo is linked in the video description
so you can go ahead and check that out
so that you can kind of be looking at
what I'm looking at as you paint so go
ahead and do that to the other ones as
well you do that together
there's not a lot of there's not a lot
of shadow you can just kind of glaze on
that yellow and then see what needs to
be added after and I'm doing this fairly
quickly over here I can actually add
glaze on some more color except like the
color a little bit deeper here on this
pedal you know just adding water into
your paint so that you get a little bit
more transparent and just soften edges
so it looks more like watercolor
some people just don't like watercolor
everyone oh they wanna they want to get
that look in your art Journal or on a
painting and this should gives you the
option with one type of painting rather
than having to have you know watercolors
if you're not going to use them for
anything else I do though think a handy
little sketch a sketch book box above
that of watercolors is handy because you
can be painting at the drop of a dime a
little bit of a shadowy purple color
there this this flower happen to be a
little bit more darker and shadowy or so
I just want to represent that so it's
just um
you kind of have to be quite I don't
fuss ease the right word yeah you have
to constantly be watching the amount of
paint you put on and it can be a little
um I don't know it can be a little just
fussy too to be constantly mindful of
that
now I mixed up a darker purple and I'm
going to go in and just kind of draw
some veining x' on this little bud here
and get that in there I think I want to
do some sort of background um so what I
think I'll do is wet an area beyond
where I think I'm going to want the
background and then just dripping a
little bit of liquidy paint because I
don't want a real solid background by
month of flowers to stand out a little
bit I think I'll probably use that
phthalo blue color that I have on my
palette because it's nice and dark and I
have quite a bit left over from earlier
painting so I'm just going to drop it in
there and see how well it spreads
I like seeing a paint spread like this
because it makes me think that it
probably is not a lot of filler in it
and that's a good thing you don't want
chalky paint even unless you're you know
buying chalk paint for home decor or
whatever you don't want your artists
paint to be chalky because can take the
vibrancy out of whatever you're trying
to paint I kind of like that little
sparkle in there so I'm going to leave
it once I get to an area where I'm
getting close to the edge of what I've
wet and rinse my brush and I'm going to
turn my paper so I can reach to a little
bit better and I'm going to wet another
section I do like this because now it's
starting to look a little more free a
little less fussy and I cannot stress
enough that this is just a quick little
demonstration I think I may put a couple
dew drops on here excite a couple of
people request dew drops so stick around
I will show you how to make dew drops in
a bit so I just wet that edge where the
blue paint was in that wash and that can
help to flood out a little bit I just
want to avoid hard edges in my
background I kind of like that little
ruffly bloom there that's fine I just
don't want to have a
really hard edges oh I see I had a bunch
of aqua left on my on my plate as well
but I don't think I want to use that
because that's kind of an opaque color
and I think it's going to make it look a
little chalky
I think that's one of the things I enjoy
about watercolor so much is just that
that flow how they just kind of burst
and flow and if you were just trying to
do like a watercolor background on an
art journal or card or scrapbook page I
mean you totally do that with there's no
point to buy watercolors just for that
you know if you just want to get that
watery look just totally totally do a
bulb with acrylics and would look very
pretty and you'd have the you have the
benefit of knowing that if the card got
wet or whatever it wasn't going to make
the paint reactivate which you know
could be a concern if you're doing a
postcard or mail art something like that
I think it's important to see what your
materials will do and of course try
whatever acrylics you have these
particular ones are by cosa ku sub oh my
gosh
Kasab a I'm probably saying it wrong
it's a Japanese company but it's a
lovely pain it's a lovely artist acrylic
the pigments that are used in it are
very um very what well you'd be customed
to you know the they're good pigments
not like fatal dyes that you know kind
of the cheaper paints use no but I would
think that this would probably work with
any artist acrylic or even craft acrylic
this is kind of I was kind of a little
worried when I started this was like oh
I don't think I really like this but now
that I'm getting this background in and
I see the contrast between the
background and the flowers I'm actually
liking it because I was kind of thinking
this this video was never gonna see the
light of day I'm not posting this but um
but then after I'm blaming them like you
know what I'm gonna do like that so now
I'm deciding whether I want to keep
those hard edges there where the wash
ends if I want to book them away think
I'm just gonna throw a little water
there just to soften it out a little bit
but I like that so what I'm gonna do now
is let this dry and then I'm going to
come back in and we're gonna do some
dewdrops on some of our petals here okay
dew drops are deceivingly easy what
we're gonna do is go through and
actually draw a few ovals and circles on
your petals so I kind of think of it if
it's sliding down the pedal it's going
to be a little bit more only if it's
laying flat it's gonna be more of a
circle but they're all going to be
different sizes and shapes so keep that
in mind try not to go overboard with too
many but you know put enough in there
that you can you know really um really
play with so I've mixed up I did the red
in the blue they little blue with like a
rose red and a little bit of the yellow
so I'm using the three colors we
primarily use there and I've got a liner
brush and I've got a towel because I'm
going to dab off some of the extra so
what I'm going to do here and I'm going
to zoom right in because you need to see
this a little bit closer because this is
the same process for every dewdrop I am
going to I'm going to outline it a
little bit I'm going to do on one side
I'm going to add color on the inside of
it and then on the outside on the
opposite side of it
okay so just super super a small amount
okay you see that I'm just gonna spread
that it just gonna soften that edge okay
make sure you have that paper towel
handy so you can um you can lighten it
all right so we're going to do that to
another one we'll do it together and
then I want you to do the rest of them
just like that we're going to put some
on the inside up here just outline the
inside spread that around then we're
going to do it let go a little bit more
up there and do the outside underneath
it
all right so so simple we're going to do
that to all of them inside so you're
kind of like outlining the inside and
dragging it in and then we're going to
do the outside underneath it next to the
highlight doesn't take a lot so that's
why I want that paper towel in your hand
because it does not take a lot
I'd like to if I'm going on the outside
definitely if I have to reload I block
my brush off okay we've got one more
over here that I want to do and so I'm
going to go to the inside up here wipe
my brush just face I can fade it out and
then underneath
oops I'm gonna love that because I got
too much there you can actually soften
it go in with a little bit of water
before it sets and you can soften it a
little bit okay we're going to wait to
do the highlight too let's drive it I'm
going to zoom out so you can see it
again
now while I have this brush out in that
color there are other areas where I
might want a little bit of shadow and we
can add that now we just want to make
sure that we don't make our flowers look
dead okay so I might just slice it
underneath the edge I've got too much
that's really shiny there you probably
can't see it but it does do enough to
pick that pedal up okay and you know
what guys if you or if you're an acrylic
if you have watercolors and you went do
this with watercolors there's nothing
I'm doing here you can't do with your
watercolors okay I'm just giving this
option for acrylic since that's
something this paint is known for and I
want to try it out and I figured why not
record it while I'm doing it because if
I don't record it people ask if I'll do
it tutorial and it's that way I'll just
have it I figured I just haven't done
saves me from having to record something
twice so but just by putting in these
really really transparent layers I'm
able to build that shadow without really
deadening the color
and when we highlight women to shoot
over two different options or tell you
I'll show you one option tell you the
other option don't want that edge hard
so just go in there before it sets our
little water break it up but the nice
thing about this if I do it like this
I'm not going to be breaking up any of
the color underneath because it's
already set and dried I also like to
turn my brush as I go so I mean turn my
paper as I go rather so that I can be
comfortable and getting nice easy shadow
in there I don't end up with any really
weird hard lines or I don't want them
anyway I'm gonna do the same thing over
here this one doesn't have quite as
strong shadows so just be a little bit
more easy with that and again look at
the reference photo and if you have any
questions on where the shadows are that
will really help you I want to go easy
with the shadows because sometimes it
can kill the just kind of make the
flower feel kind of dead
and I want a little month ago a little
more red in the middle of that - because
I cause is usually a little bit of red
kind of radiating out from the center
and here I think I had a little bit of
confusion of what petal was in front
because I can see my pencil line I did
not erase that like I should have so I'm
just going to try to enhance that a
little bit and then over here I don't
feel like that needs a heck of a lot of
shading but um I'll do a little bit not
a ton
okay so for the high highlight there's
two things we can do you can simply take
a razor blade and just cut out a little
highlight there or if you've got some
white paint on your palate see if I do
have a tiny bit wet on my palate from
when I was doing an acrylic painting
with this a little while ago and we can
just add a really bright sparkly
highlight this way so either way I think
I was doing watercolors I would just use
a razor blade but you can also use white
gouache now the highlights going to go
on top of your shadow okay just a little
sparkle on top of your shadow think I
need a little bit of water in my pink
it's not wine come off my brush gets
almost dry oh my golly do a little
highlight right on top of the shadow
okay then if you want make sure your
paint is a little liquid if you do this
because otherwise won't come off your
brush you can do a little bit of a
another little highlight just down at
the bottom
very very my paints to dry I think and
just do a little sparkly highlight under
there a little bit more water than my
paint to get it to move
just a little slice and of course if you
had any if you feel like you lost some
highlights since you are working with
acrylic at this point and you want to
you could always just go in and make
those overturn pedals feel a little
thicker and more substantial because
this is thin down water like acrylic
white acrylic so it's going to still
have be a little translucent it will
give you that you'll still be able to
see the petal underneath a little bit
and it will just give you a little bit
more weight to the petals you might even
be able to cover up that pencil line a
little bit and if you do if you're doing
regular watercolor I probably just skip
this this is just kind of like if you
got it on your pallet and you want to
use it and go right ahead because you do
have that option with acrylics to go in
with the light and it's kinda can be
useful and I feel like that's almost a
little bit dark up there so I'm going to
go a little bit glaze a little bit with
that give it an opaque translucent semi
translucent glaze there just to soften
that up and oops did you even see that I
just added some milky white paint there
and there you have it oops I just
dropped some very dirty water onto my
painting I hope you found this useful
and you give it a try with whatever
acrylic paint you have and if you want
to use the ones that I using it is the a
quail ax and this is not a sponsored
video but they didn't send me some for
free to review and I was just trying it
out before I did a review so I would
note that I'm talking about when I
review it isn't that nice and people
know what tech they're talking about I
just think that's nice thank you so much
for watching please give me a thumbs up
if you liked this tutorial and check out
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YouTube for your viewing enjoyment thank
you so much and until next time happy
crafting