Quick Tip 209 - Painting Grass (Watercolor Edition)

one of our viewers in watching quick-tip 201 on how to make grass in oils said this is a very good segment on the technique for acrylics and oils but how do you approach you for watercolor well this will be a little different in subtly you watercolor folks [Music] I always like to say that water color in all painting have nothing in common not nearly as much in common as watercolor and pottery do because in watercolor and in pottery the control of what happens depends a whole lot on the water so when we're doing techniques in watercolor we're for the most part approaching like totally different than we would in oil now there are many many watercolor techniques and many watercolor approaches and so you'll find maybe that other watercolor painters might might approach this different from the way I'm going to project what I'm going to do I'm taking the same photo I used in quick tip 201 and I'm going to use the same bunch of grasses here and and just show how I would do that in watercolor and then those of you who work in water car might explore this and those of you who don't work in watercolor might fund that maybe you want to give it a try so first of all I like to start every watercolor painting wet on wet so the first thing I would do before I do that though I like to pull them before I wet the paper I like to pull the color out onto the pallet and so I'm going to pull I've seen here in these colors I'm seeing lots of yellow green and so first of all I'm going to go in to my color I have SAP green this is I use mostly the Daniel Smith watercolors there are a few Windsor Newtons on the palette but not that many so I'm going to pull out a good batch of SAP green that doesn't have much water in it now we know that in watercolor we get our lights by adding more water rather than adding light so I always like to pull out thick batches of color in order to be able to get the darkest darks I need now I need something else to that Green is not going to be dark enough news neither is it going to give me the variation that I'm seeing here so I'm seeing some I'm seeing some cool green some blue greens in the shadow portions of the grasses and that I'm going to pull out on ultramarine blue so I'll get a good patch that's not old green blue is it I think it is I think in my water color there this is something else that happens that the altmer in blue you had another car mixed in with it but that's okay I'm just going to pull that out anyway because the main thing I needed their meeting for is for the the coolness of it and in the darkness so I'll do that Pellatt night there was making a little racket alright now I see that now in water color I can get that lighter variation of the yellow with a lighter portion of the SAP green but I like to enhance that just a little bit so I'm going to pull out here this is this is the cadmium we love deep and still put a little bit of that out here just to give me that ability to make those grasses just a little warmer now they're country those are going to ask when you pull out this yellow well I could pull out any yellow I have on my pallet that's just the one that I happen to choose all right now I'm just going to keep this this basic so the first thing I would do after getting the colors out on the pallet is then to wet wet the paper now that usually for a larger painting I'll wet the paper by using a spray bottle but since this is just a quick tip I'm just going to wet it with a brush this is a one inch on watercolor brush you say everybody always likes to know that because the watercolor brushes are a whole lot more varied than brushes that we have for wall painting so this is a cheap Joe dreamcatcher one inch is my favorite of one inch brush now I'm going to on wedding that now the next thing i watch for is for that wetness for that wetness to sort of loses gloss and this is one reason why watercolor doesn't make a real good material for doing all the quick tips that we do because it does have a timing factor and so you have to be aware of summing technical things but as that is beginning to lose this gloss I'm seeing that the gloss is relatively even I'm going to move into the SAP green now I'm going to give a very light wash and I'm getting it just a you can see that I'm adding a little bit of water that's in the brush to that SAP green the stroke I'm going to use for for this first layer of paint is a sort of a vertical stroke where I've got the brush held at about a 45 degree angle and pushing that kind of as a vertical stroke and I'll move it in two directions like that so that kind of overlaps now what I'm trying to imitate there I want I'm looking for the lightness in that grass because with watercolor with watercolor we work from well it works it works better to work from light to dark now so I'm going well that's still wet for a little bit of this yellow in there just just a little bit not much now as the grass moves into the existence it gets it gets less defined and it gets a little cooler so what I'll do there is pull just a little bit of ultimate ultimate blue and have more even more water in the brush and I'll pull out the excess of water and then I'll begin to work that into the distance sort of like that I'm just going to use just about this much I'm not trying to do the whole picture here just that much now I need to watch for that watch for the wetness of that because in watercolor if we hit if the water that we have in the brush of paint we have in the brush is wetter than the thing that's on the paper it causes what we causes back runs and those of you working watercolor be really familiar with that's something not desirable so now what I'm going to do I'm looking at how wet that you know how dry that is as seams as grass or anything that has texture as it moves into the distance it loses more and more of its texture definition so what I'm going to do here is pull some paint just on the tip of the brush have the brush relatively dry pull some paint just on the tip of the brush and put a little bit blue in there I don't look that don't want that prominent now I'll hold the brush like this and I'm just going to give it a real just a sweep across to and let the let the the the lines that are developed by the brush between between those sweeps let those be the texture are the value variations that I'm seeing as that texture moves into the distance I'll bring that down a little bit still in the making sort of a sort of a diagonal suite not straight across but sort of a very subtle diagonal sweep as I'm moving across now as they as those things are getting closer those of clumps of grass are getting closer to us they're getting a little bit more definition and here too this is still very damp and the brush is still damp I'm going to to real wet the brush but I'm going to pull them the majority of the water out of the brush I'm just going to use the tip of the brush I'm moving the tip of the brush into that SAP green you toss a little bit of that ultramarine blue just a little bit of it let's see it text it right here be sure that's what I want okay now in the distance what I'll do here is I'll hold the brush hold the brush and angle and just give it a slight push like this just a very short push now this will go down darker and would write it lighter so I'm going to give that another short push as it's coming down I'm gonna give us a little bit more gives it a little bit more to sweep as it's moving into this is okay more another short push now I'm leaving I'm letting these little short pushes here represent these look these little clusters that we're seeing there so just just giving it a push where I touch the brush to the paper and just lift it up it's all I need now here's thing but watercolor it as as I continue to work this continues to get drier and that's a good reason to start in the back and come forward because that enables whatever is in the back to be a little bit more blend a little bit more in which is what happens as we look in the distance things get more blended and so now I'm won't as this is coming closer here I'm seeing a little bit more distinct color and so what I'm going to do that is touch touch it so that is still damp but because I'm doing a quick tip and I want to up to do this in one fell swoop I'm going to reach back into these two colors pull the excess water out of the brush and I'm just going to do something like this just the sort of darken a little bit the area that in front now I will take the tip drive the brush and take the tip of the brush and sort of lift out just a little bit don't have to lift out much lift out just a little bit that will that will interpret those sort of lights we see there now let that get a little bit drier now I'm ready to go in for the heavy stuff so I'll reach in for the darker stuff I'll reach into the the dark of the green and not very much water just on the tip of the brush all right now see in the distance there there's sort of a clunky one so I'm going to just hold the brush down and give it give it a hold it down and give it a move upward sort of like that that sort of does that and I'm going to reach while I've got the one that still depth going to reach for my round brush full major part of the water out and I'll give a slight blend to the bottom portion of that shadow area that shallow and grass now I'm just going to continue that process down now I'm just using a portion of the brush and allowing the brush to move upward but I let it move upward at one angle on the back now I'm gonna kind of vary those angles a little bit like we see them buried here and just give a very short push and then I'll go back with my round brush dampened and just touch the bottom part so that we can see those shapes coming out of the earth there and then we will go and reload the brush and this time get the paint just a little bit darker and I'm going to go ahead and just give that frontal there a longer push because we see those grasses in front longer than we see the dresses in the back so I'll give that a longer push and come use this as a guide here as I'm doing that and so I turn the brush in one way kind of pushed a little bit and then lift it up and let the let the bristles of the brush form that kind of grassy texture that we're looking at where don't want to overdo it's better to under do them to overdo and I've been looking damp on the brush let's see what else so forgot it indent with the brush if I want to if I want to lift out some of those lights I can dampen the brush and just sort of let it let it sit where I want the lights lift it out and then give it a little bit of a push like this let's sit right there damp brush and just give it a little bit of a push and that can help lift out some of those light bristles that we see in front now just to give it a little bit of a final touch wonders to minute no I want to lighten this you can do people say you can't lift that watercolor well you can if you know how this team seems to me to be too too much the same values go as it's going across and so what I can do while it's still damp you can pull the major part of the water out of the brush and just let the brush sit on those and sort of lift them out push them up just a little bit don't want to overdo that give that a little bit more softness touch it right in here give it a little bit more softness now the only thing left to do as that gets drier that's when water color works as the paper gets drier then your your your brush marks are going to get sharper the edges of the brush marks are going to chakra and so as it gets drier here when it's pretty much drive to touch and it still feels very wet to me then I can get a little bit more definition in the grasses now I'm gonna do a little something here that I may regret but I'm going to load the brush again right here sell almost used all my green paint but I'll load the brush again and this time I'm gonna use this kind of stroke where I allow let's get the bun need to get a little bit wetter where I allow the the tip of the brush right here to do the actual mark making and so I maybe I see just a little bit Nisour here okay I see a few of those I see a few of those clumps of grass that a little sharper right there you see about doing that this is still a little wet so it's not making as sharp as I want it and that that that means that that means that we would need to wait until that dries completely for you to be able to see exactly how sharp let me try a little bit right here so this is maybe a little bit drier now see that just that is so typical water color if the paper's least bit damp those edges are going to to get softer and softer so you may not see well this will wait just a moment longer and that's enough I had a hairdryer I know if I had my hair dryer in here I could give it a little hit with a hairdryer and you could see that but don't have the hairdryer here so I'm going to try let's try another area over here I've got to be careful I don't want to put too many darks too annoying to get it to up I don't get it too busy let me I could maybe I can do something right here let's see if I can there we go that that will show you a little bit more about what working just with the tip of that brush can give us give it a little bit more shadow at the bottom there is your just a little bit more of an idea there now now we've got the hairs of the brush kind of split give it a little bit more texture like there we go now you can see it's a little bit drier down here and you can see a little bit more what I'm talking about I want to talk about when I talk about that sharp edge that you can see so that pretty much is the that's pretty much the wet the method I would use now it seems that kind of incomplete because you don't have the other stuff around it but if if for example you want to get more variation in the background you can do - still relatively damp you can do that same sort of thing where you can get I see some streak of light showing there and so I could kind of work there brushing a little bit here and get a very soft lift out of light if I see - if I see edges that there that are too strong like I'm seeing right in here then I can just take the brush while it's still damp and give it just a little bit of with clean water on the tip of the brush give it just a little bit of massage there same thing right here give that just a little bit of massage and that would take away that that streakiness so that's that's a brief and very basic method for doing pretty much the same sort of thing as I was doing in quick what is it - quick tip 201 so give that a try hope you enjoyed this quick tip if you have questions or a suggestion for a quick tip if is comment right down here in the youtube comment box and take a trip over to dynamite comm and look at all the things we have there for you including full length video tutorials while you're there sign up for a newsletter so you always be informed of our latest adventures thanks for watching [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: In the Studio Art Instruction

Views: 12,098

Rating: 4.9351354 out of 5

Keywords: in, the, studio, art, instruction, in the studio, art instruction, with Dianne Mize, Dianne Mize, SauteeLive, quick tip, Painting, 209, Painting Grass (Watercolor Edition), how to paint, watercolor, watercolors, fine art, easel, canvas, palette, brush, online art lessons, online art instruction, online art classes

Id: Zx1_-vOrvoc

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2019