HOW TO USE WATERCOLOR - Introduction Tutorial Video Lecture - Master

good morning and welcome back to the
CalPERS news YouTube channel so today's
video is going to be starting a series
of watercolor tour videos that I'll be
making partly because a lot of you guys
have been asking about when I was going
to start making these watercolor
tutorials and unbiased videos so it's
about time I just gave the crack without
further ado the introduction to
watercolor so to start off what we're
going to need is some supplies first
you'll need some sort of paper it could
be a sketchbook or specifically
watercolor paper I'll be using 300 GSM
cold press watercolor paper for this
tutorial now you'll need some paint you
can use disk cakes work color tubes or
even watercolor pens it's up to you for
this video I'll be using Windsor and
Newton's cotton in watercolor pans
watercolor is a water-based medium so
these dry pans or cakes need a bit of
water apply it to activate the paint
it's recommended to lightly wet the
patterns before use or even misting them
lightly with the spray bottle next
you'll need some brushes different
brushes have different effects and
purposes so I'll go through these in
another video as their specific brush
heads suitable for watercolor for now
any brush we'll do next
grab some paper towel or tissue paper or
even a spare piece of paper that will do
this will be used to drive your wet
brushes and wipe away excess water and
even sampling colors before you plant
them do your work lastly you'll need to
grab a cup or jar of some sort make that
two and for them with water one will be
for dirty water and paint and the other
will be for clean water try get into
this habit as early as possible
otherwise you end up like me who
constantly mixes them up the purpose of
having clean water is so that when you
go to apply watercolor the color will
come out a lot clearer brighter and
stronger as opposed to using dirty water
which often makes colors murky and muddy
now let's start off with some basics for
now we'll talk about only two different
types of watercolor brush techniques
that you can use there is wet on wet and
wet on dry these are two techniques that
you can use to paint for starters and
eventually you can start to mix them up
even and use them both to create awesome
effects once you understand how they
work and their advantages first let's do
get wet on wet technique
the technique is when you apply wet
paint onto a wet surface so for this
first example what we're going to do is
wet the surface of the paper generously
with the water still wet and bTW let's
apply a generous amount of paint and
that's the effect you get the paint
slowly disperses into the area and shape
which you painted with water and
eventually it dries up to stay in the
paper and create a soft effect while the
paint is still wet you actually can
continue to work the paint a bit more
into the paper so you can do bleeds and
even gradient effects next we're going
to use a more subtle effect of wet and
wet techniques first apply some water
and spread it onto the surface with a
brush so that the paper soaks it in a
bit apply a bit of paint and voila
it's a Fanning effect the paint spreads
out to wherever the paper has been wet
so it creates this interesting effect
but the best thing about it is that it's
easy to blend colors because while the
paper and paint is still wet you can
easily work the paints of blend and
create gradients the next technique we
look at is wet on dry it's where we
apply wet paint onto dry surfaces the
advantage here is that you can use the
paint to create bold strong colors in
defining shape and forms basically it's
great for outlining and creating detail
lastly we're going to be using a
combination of both techniques so the
more you get used to watercolor and
experimenting with it you start being
able to mix and use both techniques here
I'm using wet and wet first to create
the soft bleeding effect and then wet on
dry to create the fine details you can
even apply wet on dry first and then we
work the paint while it's still wet with
clean water so that the effect
eventually becomes more wet on wet
technique this way you get the best of
both worlds of sharp details and subtle
blending I'll go through these
techniques in more detail in a future
video but for now let's use the
knowledge and apply it in creating a
portrait first with watercolor the rule
is that you paint light to dark
especially if you plan on painting in
layers like I do here for the hair I
want to use both techniques
I can create crisp details on the hair
strands and some nice blends in the mass
of hair for variation like so I also
wanted to add a bit of color to the skin
in the form of a blend blush so I'll wet
the surface first and then apply a wet
on wet technique to create a nice
gradient if the paint has gone too far
but it's still wet don't worry you can
still fix it all you need to do is use
some paper or tissue and suck it up and
erase the paint while it's still
activated to add lips I'm going to use a
wet and dry technique to create the
sharp detail the outline of the lips
like so for her clothing I wanted to
create a similar mix of techniques like
I did with the hair but this time I
wanted to apply a blend of colors so
first I wet the surface of the paper and
add the pink like so while it's still
wet I begin to add the blue creating
sharp details and outlines at the top
next I start to blend the colors like so
in water a gradient while using both
techniques the pink did fade a little
bit so while the paint was too wet they
added more colors to saturate it and add
some pop to the pink once the first
layer dries though you can go over it
with wet and dry techniques to create
fine details and emphasize form I can
use it to create strands of hair or even
add a little flecks like this watercolor
is very experimental and intuitive
medium so the best way to learn is to
explore and experiment as much as you
can try out different color combinations
try mixing up your own techniques and
eventually you'll develop a sense of
what works best for you remember what a
color is a water-based medium so it's
not just how you apply a paint it's also
how you use the water to apply it you
can create different effects by applying
different amounts of water experiment
experiment and experiment that's
honestly my best advice feel free to
leave a comment down below guys of any
suggestions for videos or topics want me
to cover and I'll try my best to do all
of them thanks for watching guys I'll
see you soon