Loose & Easy Peony Watercolor Tutorial (Real Time) Video Lecture - Master

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
happy new year I've got to say that
Danielle with the New Year's turning
over in different parts of the world
right now and we've got about um I got a
boat I would say six hours to go here no
we've warned that more like eight hours
to go here on the East Coast when I'm
filming this but uh I thought oh this is
this is good drew I'll do like a Happy
New Year painting
I wasn't tending to review these Lucas
paints but I have I cannot find my um I
can't find this big swatch that I made
and I don't feel like we were us--
watching it so we're just gonna do a
nice big peony flower I think today so I
just flicked on a little water because I
want it to be kind of fun and loosen oh
it's New Years and fun and loose and I'm
gonna dab in some of this yellow um so I
got my swatch Ian this is a little
swatch it lives with my paints um so I
can't tell you what exactly name it is
it's kind of a CAD yellow actually it's
just a warm yellow use whatever warm
yellow you have you don't have ten
Decimus dabbing in that texture they
would find in the middle of a peony
flower um this is just kind of like
gonna be going from my imaginations I'm
not exactly sure what I'm gonna end up
with um I'm just gonna do use a
different water bucket because I got
some fuzz on that one
cats um I am going to paint in some
petals with water and I think I'm going
to use this pretty permanent rose here
that one I dunno uh you always know your
favorite colors right and I just love
the flow of this paint I think that as
far as like value as far like if you
looking to get professional paint at all
at a very reasonable price I don't think
you're gonna get a better value than the
Lucas I had a little bit of a kind of a
prejudice against this paint because I
had a long time ago there was a really
good deal on Lucas studio and I didn't
understand that it was the that it was
the student grade when I bought it and
it was back when out when anybody could
order from that website
a SWR supply warehouse it's actually a
sister company to Jerry's our grandma
used to order from there a lot for my
business and um and so that was just it
was like a really good deal and I just
grin
and it was there the paints are very
chalky and opaque and I was like well
this isn't for me and so I kind of
ignored it ignored that paint line for a
long time and then I saw Marty Owens
review and he gave it a really good
recommendation and it occurred to me
that I wasn't using the professional I
was using the student grade and that's
why it wasn't like you know anywheres
near as good as my engrams now I'm
grabbing a little lizard on crimson hair
um so I decided to give another chance
and I had the 12th set and I was very
impressed with it with the quality it
was much more pigmented than I remember
and I'm just going in kind of adding
some these darker shadows as I
jibber-jabber here um and I decided to
take a chance because I saw this big set
on sale for 114 and if you've ever
priced out you know half pan watercolor
sets of 48 pans they are upwards of $400
generally for most of professional
brands that they're very expensive and I
thought well I could I can I can handle
that that's not too bad of a price so um
so I did that and um and I'm very
pleased with it no I wanna make a nice
tart color for the center I don't want
it to be too um I think I'm gonna go
with you know what let me do this stem
first because I'm thinking I'm just
deciding whether I want to blue in this
at all so we get that stem in there and
figure out what I'm going to do for
color um I like this uh this is the
green gold yes they call it yellow-green
is actually um the same pigment is green
gold and I would tell you that if I my
chart here I think it's P y29 rpg-29 is
not sure but one of those and you know
what if you want to go with a that's
Prussian blue let's repression world I
feel like Persian blue right now - a
little pression blue in there and some
of that limit just like drizzle and drip
for me we're having a really doing a
really loose loose painting today I
don't even know what this paper is
actually I think it's artistic oh but I
find it on the floor I was cleaning my
office it had gotten really bad
so and I'm kind of I'm filming in my
office today hopefully it sounds alright
but it got really really messy and and I
found this on the floor I'm like well
why don't I give this a try and see how
how this goes I think but I think it is
it doesn't feel like it's a cellulose
paper it feels like feels like artists
to go and go with that that's what I
think it is right a little more that the
one thing the one negative thing which I
hope it's if it would happen on every
palate is I did notice that I got some
blue staining I think it's from I mean I
was using a lot of into thrown blue
that's the thing I like about the 48 pan
set is that you there's a lot of single
pigment colors here and a lot of them
are there's a lot of unusual ones like
you got your basic cadmium and you know
your ultramarine and cobalt and the
stuff that you're accustomed to but
there's also some unusual ones you just
kind of fun to uh
to play with that I'll file like that uh
I like that or not I'm going to splash
the water and Nancy for everyone
anything um so it's kind of really fun
to to play with now I'm going to take a
smaller brush actually this is one of
those ones for my smart art box I wish I
have tries to try to figure out what
brand it is because it justice s85 on it
huzzah they're really nice Mike and if
they're affordable I like to grab some
for my for my students I'm going to take
some of that alizarin crimson make a
really deep kind of bow of color and I
want to add some of that in there I kind
of like where they bleed in to the
yellow it gives it kind of like a finger
II texture and it will bring in a little
bit of brown and often you do see a
little bit of that rusty kind of color
on the on the pollen
these colors mix very cleanly because I
think most of them are single pigment
colors or a high percentage of them are
so it just gives you a lot of
versatility
now just because of color a single
pigment doesn't mean it's going to be
super vibrant it just it it usually
usually means that but I mean not all
pigments are vibrant sometimes it just
means you're getting a more pure color
but some are going to be opaque some are
going to be a little muddy it depends on
what the what the pigment you're using
are if it's PR 101 I mean that's so
that's quite a muddy a muddy muddy color
and there are some mixes that are that
are glorious like SAP green is a mix and
it's such a beautiful color it's a
convenience color it's really nice to
have it though because especially if
you're plenty of painting you might not
what I have to stop and mix that color
save your your other ones too I'm just
going in trying to find some darks here
separate some of the pedals the pedals
are still wet so we are going to have
some bleeding we're supposed to get more
snow tonight another snowstorm so I'm
staying in on the years we'll watch the
ball drop from home my son's got over to
he has a friend he goes over every ever
New Year's Eve he goes over to this one
of his friends house and and he's
already safely over there so I don't
have to worry about him on snowy roads I
was worried about the weather and drugs
on New Year's Eve so I hope whatever
you're doing tonight that you are safe
and sound and having a great time all
right let's see I didn't tape this down
either because I wouldn't like
completely wetting anything I don't
think I really needed to I'm gonna add
some just some color into these big
won't add more big lots of color
actually maybe something I don't like
that leaf so we are gonna been disguised
a bit this is a Zen brush these are
found there I think most any size is
about $4 I found this at a little art
shop in Belfast Maine called fiddleheads
but I think that like Michaels I don't
have Michaels near me I know a lot of
you guys will ask me to review Michael's
products but I get to Michael's once
when I go to a big stamp show in
Springfield Mass so I don't I don't get
in there right often but but they do
have these n brushes and I don't know
what it run align the glue you can
always find them at the big art stores
online I'm not sure why they might be
more of like a kind of big box craft
store brand but but they do like their
brushes and I find them to be a really
good value so if you've ever if you ever
in the market for some brushes and you
see these I wouldn't hesitate there
they're a lot of fun I'm not sure I like
what's going on there either but uh
let's try a little darker green I were
just playing snow years
don't forget time boom there's something
with that maybe we'll put some little uh
maybe some vines vines are really fun to
do the liner brush or any sort of
spinning thirsty brush I get this one
here I this is another thing I've got
all these colors here but I'm still
using the same like four colors just
because I have more colors it doesn't
mean I use more colors in a painting it
just means I have the option of using
different colors and I might like
ordinarily use I like doing a fun kind
of imaginative paintings like this
because you don't have to worry about it
turning out a certain way because
there's no certain way it's supposed to
turn out what you just do whatever you
want to do veins it vines are really fun
especially in watercolor because you
don't have to worry about your brush
running out so easily it doesn't run out
so easily I'm going in with a thirsty
brush here this is a these mimic
squirrels very similar to the Zen's
they're they're better quality I think
but but they're very stellar enough
water on there I started my do some just
some little
leaves on some of these vines
this is what happened happens when I
start to paint I don't have a plan sorry
maybe do some like little purple
blossoms let's see how let's see how
purple comes out if we use this blue
that actually is fresh and blue it has a
little bit of a of a green base to it
but if we add it with this crimson let's
see how it does it still makes a decent
purple though add a little we can add a
little bit of this umm permanent Rose in
there to add a little water let's add
some clean water so we don't get mud and
now we could do some little this little
blobby flowers there I don't know what
these are violence maybe they're just
kind of a kind of blob oh and over here
we get that into the yellow that purple
yellow negate each other and they're
making kind of a black I have no idea
what I'm gonna do the painting it's just
kind of for fun kind of for folks up for
fun painting from some paper I found the
floor use what you have guys seriously I
like what the out what the pink is doing
in this field of green it almost gives
it the look of like like some dainty
flowers I think part of the reason I
want to fill that is that I'm not
someone who really likes a white
background I know a lot of people love
to do those bright white backgrounds for
me it just seems so Stark I don't really
care for a white background myself now
I'm going to start defining some petals
even when I'm doing something that's
fairly realistic and um and you know
tightly painted I still like to start
off the painting as loose as I can
almost want that purple that we made
earlier for it around here we can
sharpen up some of those darks oh yeah
we use that primal before remember we
use that in the middle here
I do notice a little shift you're always
going to notice more of a shift in light
to dark in your painting when you are
working really wet because as it dries
it loses its glossiness and also
depending on the paper to some papers
will seem to make your colors wash out a
little bit more I found my colors stay a
lot brighter on a gelatin sized paper
you can add pals too even if you don't
have even if you can sketch it out you
can like I've got this big blob there
let's say I want to make that a couple
different petals I can make this one
petal and just add shadow in behind it
sparked that with some clean water drop
a little more color in there so it
doesn't look too outline II
can make that a puddle there you can add
another puddle let's try adding a puddle
on top of that pedal so let's go I look
for like kind of the water spots and
figure out okay where where would be a
nice nice place for me to naturally have
a pedal since you're doing some kind of
imaginative painting here people have
been asking me about imaginative
painting versus using a reference photo
for me since I'm most comfortable
painting flowers that would be what I
would what I would do without a
reference photo would be like flowers
and I could probably put in another
petal over here and bring that up a
little bit and got a shadow above it
maybe kind of dip it in a little bit so
it's going or shape there we go and then
I'm going to wet the edge and blend it
over and remove some paint if I need to
I like how that yellow from the center
kind of bled into that petal it's pretty
and if you want to have some more petals
on the outside you can go in with some
darker color you just got to find a
place where you could naturally fit one
the end like maybe you could put one in
right there just mind your wet edges
because it is going to want to blend in
with any wet paint you have on your
paper like I'm getting a little soft
edge there because of that so just kind
of keep that in mind and we be able to
put another one over here kind of like
what's going over there maybe just a
tiny one I don't want to put too much in
there and since I do have two dark
petals there I feel like I need to do
something elsewhere to make it balance
out maybe just a little darker pedal in
here and this is really you know just
kind of go on your instincts it's okay
if you can kind of see some stuff
through the pedal because you would have
like they're they're kind of translucent
you would see some of that stuff between
the pedals now I want to do with some
details in here just doing those little
stamens leaving the the brighter yellow
at the tips of the flowers alone and I
can do a hammer I feel a little bit more
of that bright yellow I think I'll go
back to my first brush that was also
this is a regular synthetic not one that
was really soft and just kind of tap-in
give it a little more brightness and
texture I think some the thing about
these paints is that they'll different
variations of transparency and you just
want to kind of keep it be aware of that
so if you're doing something like this
you might want to paint this a little
more opaque because you want to kind of
stand out just keep that in mind as
you're working
I feel like I want more background I
think I'm gonna do some blue have some
of the blue I've already used so we need
to take a big juicy brush I'm going
right over those those little vine veins
and stuff so I'm just going to go and
really lightly and I'm going to take
some of that some of this pressure
balloon when I grab a little green in
there I just kind of fill it up a little
bit
there we've got one loose fairly
abstract peony flower for you I hope you
found this fun it was fun to paint it
I'm going to flick a little bit of that
color down here to and all over my table
that's alright because it's covered in
paper so that works um
Happy New Year I hope you enjoyed this
please have a safe wonderful evening
until next time happy crafting