Christmas Cupcakes Watercolor Painting Tutorial REAL TIME Video Lecture

hi Lindsey here the frugal crafter today
we are going to paint some delicious
Christmas cupcakes and I'd much rather
hang them than bake them for two reasons
for one the calories there's no calories
and painting and to a painting is
forever you bake some cupcakes you make
your big mass they get eaten you got
nothing to show for it
you always have that painting if you
would like to learn how you can save 50
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sometimes I want to show you the photo
because we're trying to give a certain
technique and it's so handy if I can
pull that photo up on the screen and you
can see exactly where the shading is or
exactly the texture that I'm trying to
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subscription now let's go to the table
and I'll show you how to paint those
cupcakes this is the photo we're gonna
paint from today this is of course from
graphic stock and I've had this painting
or this photograph rather in my folder
of painting ideas for quite a while and
I just really liked it and I guess I was
kind of on the fence on whether I was
gonna do a tutorial on excited enough
people would really enjoy seeing it but
the more I looked at it the more I
really thought it would make a nice
tutorial so that's what we're gonna use
today I will put the pattern on my blog
for you to trace that if you want to as
you can see I really scaled it back
instead of putting everything in there I
put the pinecone which I thought was
kind of pretty and I'm an InFocus
cupcake and then an out-of-focus cupcake
so this is gonna be the star of the show
this cupcake in the middle but then
we're gonna have some textures and
colors in the background to kind of just
to kind of give it a little bit of depth
because when you're working with a
still-life it can be difficult to get
get that sense of perspective and depth
so I've taped my paper down I was just
wetting it to make sure that that it was
gonna give me that nice white border and
what I'm doing now is just I'm gonna wet
the entire paper and I'm gonna put in a
very soft wash
the thing when you're working with
watercolor and layers which is what
we're gonna do today we're into fairly
detailed painting is you want to kind of
unify everything at the beginning and
then we're gonna be working light to
dark there are some points we're gonna
put some dark color and just to
establish values but for the most part
we're gonna be working light to dark
so what you want is a nice uniform Sheen
across your paper and I'm gonna grab
some ultramarine blue and I'm using my
mission gold palette I really like the
size of this palette because I can keep
it pretty much oh and all on screen for
you which is really handy and I also
want to get the other colors I plan on
using today I plan on using some nice
bright yellow this is py 65 it's kind of
like a Indian yellow it's just a really
nice warm yellow and I want some I think
some burnt umber burnt sienna I don't
care for the mission gold burnt sienna
not much because it's kind of got a gold
green gold base to it so I'm gonna start
with those colors I know I'm gonna need
some reds so I'll go ahead and grab some
this is um kind of like just a neutral
it almost like a nap fall right there
and I just want to kind of get those
colors right off the bat I'm gonna start
in with my blue I'm just going to get a
little bit up here and you can see my
brush isn't completely clinks it's
picking up some of that red but that's
okay because I want to have a unifying
color in there I'm gonna add a little
bit of the burnt umber to it and that's
gonna give me some kind of gray this
burnt umber is PBR 7 which is a very
customary brown pigment that's used in
burnt umber and burnt sienna I'm gonna
grab a little bit of yellow into that
Brown and kind of bring that down here a
little bit no more the blue to gray it
up a little bit I'm gonna try to avoid
painting too much in that front cupcake
but I don't mind getting the color on
the the objects that are not the center
of attention I don't want to get
anything that's like not really gonna
match so I'll do look how this yellow in
the frosting area of the in behind
cupcake and do a little bit of the brown
in the cake area and I can also grab a
little bit of that brown and put it into
the pinecone area too and that would be
kind of like the latest areas of that
and let's see I think I'll do some super
light yellow very watery the mission
goal paints our super vibrancy you have
to be kind of careful with them I do a
little bit of that kind of in the
frosting area here that will just save
me a little work down the road that in
there I could put a little about in the
wrapper as well cuz that's gonna be
really light and I'll grab a little bit
of that Brown just put a little bit in
the cake area these are gonna dry nice
and soft so I'm not really concerned
about put any hard edges or anything
weird if I do see any puddles or any
hard edges all this go with my dried off
brush I just wipe it on a paper towel to
take off the extra moisture and I'll go
in and just soften any edges that I
think look a little look a little harsh
so now we let this dry and we will come
back and we will start our first layers
now that the background is dry I'm gonna
go in and start working on this cupcake
in the background I think that it's nice
if you have a if you have kind of an
area on your painting you can start in
on that isn't the focal point because it
can be a little nerve-wracking to get in
there and paint that focal point area so
I am just going to paint the area here
that's gonna be the cake and as long as
I am careful where I put my water the
the paint is only gonna go where the
water is so I'm just dabbing in this
color this is that burnt umber you can
use burnt sienna PBR seven is the
pigment name and I'm just dabbing some
of that in I'm keeping it a little
darker up towards the top and then I
think I'm gonna add a little yellow
ochre let me see what that yellow ochre
looks like up some of that in there I
like yellow ochre it's a very useful
color so even though I didn't use in the
wash I think I will add some of that in
now and the reason I'm dabbing is
because I want that cakey texture
now if I want a little more texture I
can crumple up a paper towel or a tissue
and I can just gently kind of stamp in
there and lift up some and it will leave
behind a little bit of texture it will
take up some of your pigment though so
just kind of keep keep that in mind now
I'm going to skip to another part of the
cupcake I am going to skip up to the the
fondant leaves here and I'm gonna wet
those and we are going to do some green
and I'm going to grab some SAP green and
mix it in with a little bit of that that
ultramarine because I think that the SAP
green on its own is just too vibrant for
this and I'm just going with that color
float around in there and I want the
illusion of ripples in the fondant so I
am going to go in with a little bit more
blue and kind of add that where it
appears the bend is in the fondant and
I'm doing this wet into wet because I
want that matte I want that till it have
that matte texture when all blended I
want any hard edges and then we will go
over here and we'll let this guy watch
out for beads of water on your brush
because if that slides down your brushes
you're going that's gonna make a mess
and it could leave a big water stain on
your paper this one I want this to be
fairly light and then I'll be glazing
over a shadow on the edge of the of the
leaf later because it's it's got a
little shadow on the edge you can see
here see that shadow on the edge so I'll
be glazing that on later and then this
little guy back here you can barely see
him so I'm just gonna click with a
leftover paint on my brush I'm just
gonna paint him in just like that
there we go now if you have any puddles
what you want to do again just like we
did in the background is just dry your
brush off and set it in the puddle and
lift it up and that way you'll be able
to take off the extra extra paint and
water without without leaving a white
spot if you blot with a paper towel
you'll leave a little white spot and
some texture like we did on purpose with
a cake now I'm going to skip over to the
pinecone and the the tips of the
pinecone are light and that's kind of
like what our wash is so the other
colors I need to get is that reddish
brown in there and I need my darkest
darks but I think I'm gonna do the
reddish-brown first you can kind of see
on the insides of some of those areas so
I'm gonna take that red that we used and
I'm gonna take that Brown see
reddish-brown you make it the same way
it seems like we would and then if it's
too bright I'll grab a little bit of
that green mix and that will tone it
down because green is the opposite of
red and it'll make a nice little nutrify
nutrify nutrify neutralize it
so I'm just gonna go in I'm just
painting around the tips that are gonna
be really light and I am bringing in
those little scales I think that's what
they're called scale the pinecone into
the center now it wouldn't hurt if you
just painted everything but the the deep
shadows because we are we can paint the
dark over that but we do need to
preserve the light so just make sure if
you're going in and painting around you
don't paint on top of our light areas
that we sketched out again refer to the
photo or refer to my sketch on my
website for that I'm not gonna go in and
do everything just because it's kind of
a waste of paint and waste of time I'm
just gonna go in and get the areas where
I know there's some of that later Brown
lighter reddish brown just go ahead and
put that in and then I can I can go in
with a dark later I think well you know
we could do that right now let's take
that Brown well make a good puddle of it
you need quite a bit of it and we're
gonna add some ultramarine blue to that
try not to get too much water in your
paint blot your brush off if you fit if
you find you're getting way too much
water
wipe your brush off with a paper towel
so you don't add a bunch of water to it
so I'm going in and I'm adding my darker
color here where it's where it's more in
the shadow so it's lighter up here cause
light can get tall getting those little
scales and light it up but down lower it
can't the light can't delete something
traveling that far down so we end up
with the darker areas and truth be told
I think I have a little too much water
in my mix but I can go and glaze some
more shadows over here later if I need
to this is kind of the out-of-focus part
still this is stuff in the background so
I'm really not too concerned with it but
it's better to get it in there right all
right off the bat if you can
okay I'm gonna let that dry kinda
reminds you like Christmas tree with uh
with snow on the boughs doesn't it
alright so we kind of gotten our gotten
our feet wet a little bit getting comfy
now we can start working on this and I
think I'm gonna start with a wrapper
because it's not touching anything else
that's wet and I'm gonna go ahead and
get my ultramarine blue with a little of
that brown make it make a nice light
kind of gray a cool gray color very very
light you see on my palette is very
light there and I'm gonna go ahead and
glade just give everything a cut like a
shade of that just give everything a
wash you really have to look when you're
um when you're painting you really have
to look and see what undertones you see
I can see that it's it's it's a white
wrapper but I could see the undertones
and then it's got definitely more of
like a gray like a cool gray undertone
so that's why I'm mixing it up and I
like to use the colors that I've already
used because it just gives me a much
more natural look now we do have some of
that cake
color from the from the other cupcake
that we just painted so we will be able
to go in and add a little bit of that in
there like from the bottom where you
don't see so much of the wrapper and
then I mean the goal is not to copy the
painting exactly grab a little bit of
that cakey color the goal is to you know
create artwork that is inspired by but
we can definitely put our own spin on
things a little more yellow Volker in
there that's a little dark I'm using
cotton paper that's another thing that's
really helpful if you are working on a
painting where you're gonna put a lot of
glazes and layers because it doesn't it
absorbs the paint a little bit and it
lets you layer on top without lifting up
all the paint that you already put down
so it is kind of helpful it also can
take a little bit more abuse meaning you
can like scrub it and it's not going to
fall apart and pill and give you those
little icky balls of paper
and remember your paint will dry a
little bit lighter especially if you've
used a lot of water there so that can
dry that's just layer one that's not how
it's gonna end up looking it's just how
it's looking right now now that want to
mix up a nice frosting color I like that
yellow ochre but I feel like I need some
of the other yellow too and maybe even a
little bit of that brown red I want a
nice rich frosting color and I just want
to make sure it's got that it's got that
warmth to it
the yellow ochre in this in this and the
set has a bit of a green undertone to it
so I got to make sure I have a red to
balance it out okay that's a little on
the dark side the yellow on these
cupcakes are quite yellow and I don't
want them quite that yellow so I did I
did kind of dumb down a little bit by
mixing so what I'm gonna do here is I'm
gonna go in and actually put some of the
darker colors and that's that's I know
it's darker than what it is in the photo
but I want to make sure I can kind of
see where where my shadows are so I'm
starting just by putting in these beads
of lines of color and then I'm gonna be
spreading it out I know it seems a
little bold but it will it'll be fine
trust to me okay so I got quite a few
colors in there and I rinse my brush and
just kind of use my fingers to pull off
the extra water because I don't want my
brush super dry and then I'm just going
in along those edges and softening out
my lines
it's almost looks like a caramel
frosting now mister the vanilla
that shadow under that little bit of
fondant leaf to bring that shadow down
under that fondant leaf as well and it
just doesn't take very much paint
and that's the thing about artistic
expression if you want to have a darker
icing or different color altogether you
can do that just softening up a little
bit here let me get back in with my
color nose more it's more highlighted
over here but I still want to have some
nice some nice color I really want this
to stand out from the the other cupcake
so I want that to have much more
contrast I'm just kind of imagining
those lines going beyond the fondant
there and getting my colors in I'll use
different parts of the brush if I want
to smooth an edge I'll use the edge of
the brush so it can carry that pigment
and water across and give me a more
natural look
during the wolf shout out to those
berries
anything that looks too bold you can go
and just brush some water over and it
will soften it up
okay now I think we're gonna skip over
here and we're gonna do that cupcake
wrapper very similar to how we did that
one let's go ahead and wet it we don't
have to be very particular because this
is our kind of out of focus in the
background cupcake just make sure that
edge there is fairly dry or leave a
little gap so you don't end up smearing
your paint in between doing the gray
that we mixed up top and we're doing you
take your color on the bottom
and a wide net up I went a little out of
the lines that's okay all right now we
can go on to the berries on this cupcake
so I'm gonna go right in with that red
that we have used already so we want to
keep using the same colors and I'm going
to paint them in just mind if they're
tucked behind of like a lump of frosting
make sure that you you don't paint the
frosting you just kind of paint the part
of the berry you can see just make sure
if it's touching anything else that
you've already painted that that is dry
now to give that a little highlight and
you can use a q-tip if you have one or
you can just kind of wrap your paper
towel around your finger and just give
it a little dab up at the at the top on
one side it'll look you don't be too
careful about it it will look fairly
natural but getting that nice round
somewhere and there gives that sense of
around us obviously there I like to do
little tricks like that it's no it
doesn't take a lot of time but it does
give you the results that you're after
and now I'm just gonna like touch that
was back in my hand it feels like this
is dry enough that I could go in and
work on the cake area clean my brush off
and I think we got a little bit of wet
paint there um I think I'm gonna
actually go ahead and paint in dry right
on dry paper
I'm gonna take my burnt umber if that
line starts feathering it means your
frosting is still a little wet so it's
not what you want that happens just to
kind of take a break blot it take a
break and come back in a few minutes now
I'm gonna keep this edge wet see how I'm
just kind of wiggling that around
keeping that edge wet and then I'm gonna
pick up some of my yellow curry colors
you can use straight yellow ocher if you
the normal yellow ok the yellow ocher in
here is a little odd so I've got to pick
it up a little red to negate the green
tones in it so if you are using the
mission gold perfect pan set keep that
in mind and I'm just kind of quickly
going through and painting the edge just
brushes a nice sharp point so I can get
in there into those little divots in the
cupcake waxy wrapper there the little
folds pleats
as long as you keep that edge wet you
keep working on that wet ad you
shouldn't get streaks it should be
pretty
I should stay pretty smooth alright and
we can always add more shadow after so
that's fine we're going to keep that
like that now I think we can work on the
berries and the leaf fondant leaves here
so I think I'll start right off of the
berries I am going to go ahead and pick
up that color i'm not wetting at first
because you only need to if it's a small
area and i am going to paint in each of
these fully yeah frosting should be
plenty dry on this one remember we're
going to be doing more detail in this
front cupcakes so and we're gonna be
doing much less on the one in behind so
that this one will appear to have to be
closer to us and give us a little
perspective
I'm going ahead and adding some shadow
just adding a little more color to the
bottom to ground it and give it a little
one more shadow and I think we'll give
it a little highlight on that front one
at least anyway wrapping around my
finger and just pressing I just helps
that little gumdrop look a little
rounder there and we'll let that dry and
we're gonna move on to the the fondant
there and I'm gonna mix up my color
I will yellow in that little more blue I
just wanna knock back the intensity on
that color it's a little bright mmm that
might be a bit dark I'm gonna start that
up here that darker color then keeping
that wet edge I'm gonna go pick up some
of the color on its own there I think
that will work just keep kind of you can
pull some of that first color that we
mix down if you need to like if you find
that you're getting like a really hard
edge
you know a smidgen of water there you
want to avoid puddles is what you want
to avoid if you get a puddle you're
gonna end up with uh with a backwash
well watermark you can go back if you do
need to go disturb some of that first
layer the first color you put where it
starting to dry just go in and disturb
everything if you have to do that
because that way everything can kind of
dry at the same rate there and so you
can do that over here same deal
you want those edges sharp where the
icing is do you want those edges nice
and hard on this for foreground one
anyway
and we can only just see like a little
sliver of color from this in the back
you have to be careful around those red
berries if they're still wet you're
gonna end up with some feathering but I
want to put that in there because the
red the greens gonna make the red look
brighter there all right now I can go
back and we can work on the icing on the
back cupcake we're gonna do the same
thing
I'm just blotting out I have a little
puddle there just want to get rid of
that I think actually might want to put
like a little bit of a highlight on our
leaves to here so they have that a
little bit of a ripple
there we go I know it's a little harsh
but I'm not done yet
all right for the in behind cupcake
we're do the same thing as we did on the
foreground one but we don't need to put
quite as much detail oh I dropped some
water there got to be careful about
dropping water on your background cuz
you can have some watermarks if you're
not careful so I can going way softer
and easier back here I'm not worried I'm
not you're worrying too much about it
I'm just getting some color in
suggesting some ridges and the icing and
that's pretty much it because I don't
want this to be as as a focused and
detailed Izzie the foreground one that's
all I'm gonna do to that no no I'm gonna
work on the cupcake wrapper here because
that's nice and dry so I'm going to grab
some Brown a little bit of the
ultramarine blue and I'm gonna start
here at the bottom and just pull up some
of those creases and pleats
you want to pull in some more cakey
colors I'm going in with the brown the
keke color that I mixed in there and
adding some of that in there because I
don't want it to be too dark
they'll set all blends that's what helps
make it look realistic
dragged in from the tip of a crease and
just kind of pull it down so a lot of
times it's the creases that are touching
the cupcake and where they're touching
that makes the wax paper more
translucent you see more the cake color
coming through any time if you're not
sure just stop stand back or give it
upgive Europe picture a little break and
when you come back usually see it with
better eyes I feel like my my wrapper
needs to be a little wider over there so
I'm going to go ahead and fix that right
now making some more that gray with the
blue and the burnt umber ultramarine
blue burnt umber and I'm just feeling
like this needs to be wider
it's in the photo there's like a
pinecone in the way so it's hard to see
what's happening there but there is a
really the wrapper is so light it blends
in with the background so now that I'm
looking at that like there's just not
enough stuff on that end of the cupcake
so now I'm just going in with a wet
brush and blending it so see I think a
lot of people think watercolor is just
really difficult because you can't
change your mind if you make a mistake
you totally can just try to find a way
to blend it in the other stuff you've
been doing there I think that's but I
feel like it has a little bit more of a
substance substance there we're also
going to be working with some shadows
we're gonna need shadows on the table
otherwise their cupcakes are just
floating around in space and that's not
good so we're gonna do some ultramarine
blue burnt umber gonna make ourselves a
nice grey shadow color and this will
work out because it's colours we already
we're using if you need it graer add a
little more blue okay no the shadows
aren't super hard if you look at the
photo again our shadows are fairly soft
their darkest up next to an item right
the darkest right next to an item and
then they fade out okay so they're not
they're very they're very gentle so
there's a couple different ways we can
achieve this I'll start up here and show
you on this one I think that's dry
enough yeah so we can start by picking
up color you can work on a dry paper and
remember about the wet edge I was
telling you keeping that edge wet okay
so we go in and we put in our shadow
color lights coming this way okay it's
our shadows gonna be darkest next to the
object I got to be careful glad to just
paint that wrappers though I gotta be
careful there okay so I'm just kind of
pulling it out and I'm running out of
paint and that's all right now I've just
rinsed my brush off and I'm pulling that
wet edge over more
completely clean my brush blot it so I
don't have a wetter brush 90 paper and
then I'm just softening that last edge
you have to be careful though because if
you especially if you're working on a
wood pulp paper you might lift just end
up lifting what you have underneath and
then that could be give you some kind of
weird halo marks and that's not
necessarily what you want
I think the rapper might've been a
little wet there because my shadow is
kind of going up into the rapper but I
might have just dropped some water there
that might have been why okay so that's
one way you can do your shadow and I had
we did the bat we did a background item
so that we didn't have to worry if it
wasn't perfect the other way is a little
bit less scary sometimes and that's what
the area of the eye thing we want a
shadow so if I wet under this pinecone
and I'm gonna wet out beyond where I
want that shadow to go so I'm gonna pull
it down near this cupcake just wet a
little bit be honest this is gonna give
us a nice soft edge shadow so the key is
here we're gonna add paint to this that
same color we mixed but we are not gonna
let it we're not gonna let it go out all
the way to that edge we're just gonna
put enough paint in there then it can
kind of float out on its own and I
apologize for the for the furnace what
I'm gonna do is finish the shadow and
then I will pause the camera and we will
continue on after the furnace is shut
offs not much I can do about it it's
just get cold air in Maine so we get the
furnace noise I'm just gonna stop in
that out and then you can blot it a
little bit if you feel like it's going
too far all right so let that dry and
then we will come back and add the
shadow to the foreground and now we're
going to do the shadow on the front and
I am gonna do it the same way we did the
one in the pine cone because I think
it's a little easier and especially if
your backgrounds painted already so I'm
wetting the paper I'm kind of giving the
shadow a path to follow basically is
what I'm doing and I am going to put in
my gray I'm gonna put it darkest like
right here two flights coming in from
here this is gonna be the darkest area
this opposite area
here and get need a little bit more blue
in there and we're just gonna kinda
guide that around you want it darkest
right where it's touching and then we
can pull it out just rinsing my brush
and blotting it because I have a little
too much pigment on there I think this
as I mentioned before these colors are
very very strong
and if you get too much you can go ahead
and blot it the thing I really like
about altar marine blue and either bred
Sienna or burnt umber is that you get a
really pretty granulation which is like
this texture in the in the paper
it's from the paint as the pigment kind
of settles out it's so pretty and I just
I love that those colors do that I'm
just call it that fade out to kind of
nothing here so I'm just gonna let this
area just so that it can kind of fade
out nothing there okay now I'm gonna
take some of my really light kind of
yellowy Brown here that I mixed it's
kind of like that leftover frosting
color I grab a little bit of that darker
Brown but it's really really light I'm
gonna get any of these little tips of
the the pinecone that didn't get painted
they just kind of had a little bit of
that you can see the background wash on
it and I'm gonna paint those in because
they need to have a little bit of
substance I like to whenever possible go
from the mix on my palette you know
rather than right into fresh pans of
color because those are colors I know of
already use so I know they're going to
match and they're going to look good you
can leave some of the later colors
showing as well that will give you a
little sparkle and highlight we are
gonna need a little bit more dark in
this pinecone but that's gonna get a get
us started I'm just gonna do a quick
little dab for a highlight okay now
we're gonna work back to front we're
gonna do this pine this cupcake that was
called the pinecone cupcake in the
background they're just making a little
bit of a darker frosting color there one
adult blot your brush because you can
it's better if you're not sure to have a
little less paint on your brush
some of these creases in the frosting
I'm just trying not to lay my hand down
no wet shadow wash that we just put in
there little darker underneath that
fondant
I also want to put a little bit of dark
under the under the icing a little bit
more because that's gonna cast some
shadow there and you can also just dab
tiny little specks because cake has that
kind of spongy texture so I kind of like
to go in put my shadow down and then to
kind of make the shadow kind of fade
into the cake just kind of do these dabs
so I get a little texture out of the
deal to there and then grab some of this
later color that we had used in the cake
in the foreground we're just gonna kind
of flick up I'm gonna move my hand I
don't want to I don't want to set my
hand in the shadow from the foreground
of a cupcake and I'm just putting in
some accent lines nothing too distinct I
just want to get that texture that
little bit of form but not a lot of
detail because I want the detail to be
on the four foreground cupcake but I do
I need something you know I need
something there now we're going to go
back in that darker green so we're doing
our SAP green plus the ultramarine and
we're gonna add some shadows onto the
fondant all right any place that's under
icing we can also get the edge some of
the edges if we see some edge that's got
a little bit of a dark texture to it we
can get that in there over here this
whole edge has is darker give this that
kind of two-tone look from the shadow I
think I went a little bit a little low
on that but and actually that Berry's
casting a little bit of shadow so we're
gonna go ahead
that in there and I want a little bit on
back here and I think I'd have a little
bit of shadow under that I sing there
probably held off putting that a shadow
on the front cupcake because I keep
wanting to stick my hand in it and then
if you want to add any other little
shadows you can go ahead and do that or
if you want to soften these shadows just
try not to disturb the pink underneath
too much but you can add shadows to show
like a ripple in the fondant all right
and then on the berries we're gonna go
in with that red and just kind of put
shadows along the bottom you want to do
it in like a curve so that you keep that
the shape of the berries and just be
careful around anything you've just
painted so that you don't end up
smearing it or having the paint float
into a wet wash I think we're pretty
well set up here
yeah if using student grade paints you
might even want to go with a stiffer
brush to mix this up so that you end up
with a nice rich dark and I'm gonna go
in here so if I look at the photo again
see how dark it is in this the deepest
deepest depths of the pinecone that's
what we're gonna do there okay I'm gonna
work I'm gonna start the bottom and work
my way up so you're gonna see a lot of
dark right underneath the lightest
brightest parts of those because the
Atty in two scales because you're seeing
the the depths of the pinecone make it
less less dark as you go up so sparse as
you go up and you'll want too much out
to the edges because the light can get
in there you just want to really
concentrate it in the center
there I don't think we need much more
now honestly there well that's pretty I
think so anyway okay now we're gonna
work again on that a foreground cupcake
and finish this picture off because this
is where all the detail is gonna be this
is this is uh this one's for all the
marbles right here in front and we are
gonna start with the berries we'll go in
with our bright red and we can add well
first let's go into the red then we can
darken it a little ultramarine let's do
this one on the back first we're gonna
paint around or around our highlight
kind of you can really get back any
edges that you lost while that's still
wet grab a little blue move that red
it's gonna make almost a dull purple
we're gonna put that at the bottom of
our red and that's gonna give us a
little contrast clean your brush before
you go to the next one
do the same thing over here try to leave
a little gap between this and the other
one so you don't have that shadow go
anywhere you don't want it then we're
picking up the mixed purpley color for
our shadow on this if it seems like that
Center is all too harsh just clean your
brush blot it off and just touch your
brush along the edge there help soften
that alright we're going again with this
one in the front working back to front
it just kind of helps you get a little
practice so when you do get to the
foreground one you are all set to go
you've got all the practice done and see
how that that purpley color we mix looks
so dark but it looks natural get too
much just blot your brush and go in and
pick some of that up and I'm gonna
soften the top of that just by cleaning
my brush blotting it there a nice
natural look
and I can blot it some more if I lose
too much highlight there okay so I feel
like I want to do a little bit more of
the frosting before I go into the leaves
here I think I'm gonna grab a little bit
that I'm gonna add a little purple of
that into that yellow my mixed let's do
that let's see what that looks like
let's give me a nice Brown and I feel
like I do want this to have kind of a
little bit of a of a like like a caramel
color so I want to make sure I have
shadow under the leaves
and I can blot my brush I can just go
right along the edge of any of those
marks I've made and soften them out if I
need to and you can have your your
frosting more yellow like it is in the
photo that's completely up to you I just
felt like I needed a little bit darker
color there but you know personal
personal preference do whatever you like
to do
and if you feel like you want some white
highlights you can always go into some
white paint it's nice to use the white
of the paper if you can but you know
sometimes it doesn't work out do what's
right for your picture
now I'm looking at the K key part here I
think I like the wrapper just fine I
think I want that a little more text
from the cake so I'm gonna go in with
the burnt umber
and I'm gonna kind of do what I did on
the one and back I'm going to hopefully
that I think is drying up there
I'm gonna add in my brown and then I'm
going to dab to get the texture
just make sure that line is nice and
sharp and coming right up to the icing
cuz you want that shadow to be right
under the icing okay that gives it a lot
of a lot of weight I think now I feel
like I want to know that I look at that
and you look at the wrapper I feel like
the wrapper needs to be a little bit
darker so what I'm doing I'm just
grabbing a little bit of that dark color
wheezing the pinecone and I'm just gonna
do it very very light slice along the
bottom and then I'm gonna drag up just
some little pleats and I'm making a line
shorter as they go across so I'm getting
most of my shadow most of that
definition across from where the
highlight is from where the lights
coming in I also did that same shadow
there at the bottom of that cupcake
graphic now for this guy I'm gonna go
again I'm switching brushes to one
that's not quite as pointy and I'm
taking that mix of the ultramarine blue
and SAP green and I'm gonna use that
shadowy mix along the edge here where we
have that thickness of the fondant we
can see and I'm gonna add it up here
under the icing I'm going to add it over
here on this thickness of the icing and
under this frosting there for a shadow
and I can even add a little bit in this
ripple here you do have to be careful
not to lift the paint from underneath
you know lift the original paint you put
down so it is a little tricky because
it's colored we did put that on pretty
thickly so it doesn't want to lift it up
a little bit but not too bad you can
always fill in a little bit if you need
to this brush is also a little bit
stiffer than the than the one we used
before I feel like I want that a little
bit brighter there okay
now the last thing that I like to do is
actually go into that much smaller brush
or a little smaller these brushes are so
pointed that I don't feel like I need to
use you know many sizes but I think I'm
going to go into this smaller one and
I'm gonna get some frosting color maybe
with a little bit more yellow enix I
want to kind of glow a little bit a
little red and I think I'm just gonna go
in and put the brightest kind of
Christmas
you know details and and edges in there
just to give it that little extra touch
of something extra touch a detail I
think I'm making a little bit of a burnt
umber in there that red is really strong
there and yeah you can kind of take your
time with this and just get as many
details in there as you want you're not
gonna buff that too much with a tiny
brush but I think that it really I think
it really helps to kind of sell the
detail and sell the scene that you're
trying to make
I love the look of the fluted frosting
and we're only doing this on the on the
on this front cupcake because we don't
want to we don't want all that detail in
the background we just want that in the
foreground
you can go ahead and add any little
shadows like under berries under the
fondant any place you think you'd have a
little bit you'd see the icing a little
bit darker go ahead and put that in now
that's gonna help give weight to those
other objects can you glaze over some of
your other lines and it will look really
natural like I'm doing there
you can always plot something if you
make a mistake don't worry about that
and I feel like I wanted a little bit
darker in there so I'm gonna grab a
little bit of that darker color that
we've been using for shadows which is
the ultramarine blue and burnt sienna
and I'm gonna add a little bit in there
just cuz it feels like cuz I made the
frosting darker it feels like I need a
little bit more deeper shadow and I
might need that here and there
throughout the picture too just to kind
of make it make the values agree go by
the reference photo but also kind of
kind of go by what other colors you've
chosen to use and see if you need to
make any other adjustments that will
make your picture look better all right
now it's just about done I'm kind of
feeling okay I'd like to have a little
bit more shadow on the on the foreground
so I am just going to do a very gentle
shadow I'm just taking my soft brush
adding some water to that shadow we mix
we get just a smidgen more ultramarine
blue and I am just going to apply it on
top of what I've already done for a
shadow but I'm not wetting the area
first cuz they just want to get
something fairly fairly soft so I'm just
gonna wet the edges of that shadow and
just kind of spread it
there I just felt like one sometimes
after you get something painted you
realize boy I just need that it needs a
little bit more shadow you don't quite
you don't quite realize it until after
you painted it and just up in this
corner I want a little bit more because
everything's really packed and tight
there so I want that to have a little a
little depth and underneath this guy -
I'm gonna a little bit more shadow and
having that shadow behind the cupcake -
is going to give it a little bit push it
to the foreground a little bit more all
right there and that pretty much does
that I think it really helps to have
things in different levels of focus if
you feel like you want to go back and
add a little more detail to the cupcake
in back you can I think it looks nice to
have that contrast and back I'm thinking
maybe a little bit of shadowing it's
shadowing in the on the cupcake in back
so I'm taking some of that that a grade
that we mixed and adding it to the icing
color and I think I'm actually just
gonna give that cupcake him back a
little bit of a wash of that to kind of
help maybe push it back a little bit
more because I feel like it's kind of
encroaching forward a little bit there's
all kinds of little tricks the more you
paint the more you'll know these little
tricks you can do to help you know make
one item stand out more than the others
don't want a ton of detail if you have
everything detailed in a picture then it
looks very flat and I can play with a
little bit cooler color back there
having this some that gray with a little
more ultramarine blue and that cupcake
in back and that will help pull that
away a little bit too so I'm gonna
spread that out cuz that's a little bit
dark
okay the little tricks you can learn
tricks to the trade then all you gotta
do is sign your name and you are done
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