WATERCOLOR TUTORIAL // How to Paint Waves

good morning good morning how are you doing today first off happy new year to welcome the new year I thought I'd start off with a video on how to paint watercolor waves and so that's what we're doing today but before we get into it a thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring today's video if you're looking to make a professional looking website or an online portfolio Squarespace has got all the tools you need to make your website today from scratch let's talk materials for this exercise we're going to need some paper brushes paints masking fluid white ink and a pencil in this video we're going to try to tackle three different watercolor wave effects the first one we're going to look at is a simple bird's eye view of waves crashing and for this we'll only need one color indigo here are mixing two bowls of different dilutions of indigo by adding water one's a darker mix and the other is a lighter mix please ignore the two swatches on the right side though those were just tests of what each mix would look like if it were diluted even further so let's get into it the first thing we're going to do is build a gradient wash starting off by applying the diluted indigo paint and slowly working our way up darker as we work our way up towards the darker end of the gradient start adding more paint and eventually using the darker mix of indigo [Music] ideally you want the surface to still be wet by the time you get to the end just so you can still rework the paint to smooth out the gradient if necessary like you see me doing here a quick tip though make sure you always wet the brush generously throughout the whole entire process and try to work loosely and quickly and once that all dries lightly sketching where you want the wave breaks try and be really really loose with these lines to create natural-looking shapes and once that's done we can start defining those waves by painting them in start painting along the wave break line that we just drew using the darker paint then you're going to want to dip the brush into water to get a lot of clean water in the brush and start pulling the paint downwards like so this pulling technique will allow the paint to have a gradient effect as the paint starts to disperse downward into the clean water you'll really want to make sure each wave break is completely dry before going on to the next again we're using that same point of need where we apply the darker paint along the way of line first then with a really wet brush we go along the edge of the already laid down paint [Music] now we just continue repeating the same process for each of the wave breaks as we start working our way down words we use increasingly lighter washes and that's because the overall aim is to create waves that get lights are down the page and a lot of areas are obviously meant to imitate shallower areas water and vice versa with the darker areas with those first layers of weight brakes done now we just go over the wave break washes again to deepen them and build a bit more contrast and just the heads-up working with so much water will allow for water effects like blooms and bleeds to take place try to loosen up a little and let these happen even if by accident as they'll actually add to the overall effect and I think that looks pretty cool now that we've defined those wave breaks with some contrast you can already see the effect started to take place but we're not quite done yet so now let's get out the white ink with white ink and a brush go ahead and paint over the outlines of the wave breaks like so try to vary the thickness of your lines as this will actually make the waves look a little more natural and realistic [Music] [Music] then we can go ahead and start detailing the waves by adding the little foam ripples there's no real rule for this but I like to think of it as drawing wobbly shapes of varying sizes and connecting them [Music] once the waves are all done let's add some little splatters just for a finishing touch if there is any excessive or unwanted splatters you can easily just remove them by dabbing them with tissue paper and that's the first exercise the second exercise we're going to try is an abstract wave effect so first off let's apply paint to the page try to be loose with your brush and create some random shapes like so also you'll really want to make sure that there's a lot of water and paint on the page because the next thing we're going to do is blow this splatter effect only works well if there's enough paint and water on the page now with a loaded wet brush use a pulling technique to start pulling the paint downward fading the gradient to clean water with the paper still wet apply some dark paint in patches like this to create blooms and then let it all dry now we can start creating foam ripples with the lighter diluted paint start painting in some random wobbly shapes of varying sizes leaving a small gap between each of the shapes basically we're trying to achieve a similar foam ripple effect to the first exercise that we did but instead of using white ink we're actually using a negative painting technique to build the foam ripples once that's all dry we can repeat the same process lower down so again apply the paint blow blow again pull the paint downward paint the ripple shapes then repeat one last time [Music] finally let's get out the white ink and start adding some white details here I'm just outlining some parts of the splatters to define the shapes of it more and then finishing up with some flicks of white ink and now the last exercise and for this one we're going to do something similar to the first but a bit more advanced because this time we're going to be using color transitions to create a sandy beach scene first off lightly draw in some wave break shapes with a pencil and don't forget to keep loose with those lines we're also going to draw in some little oval shapes which will be boat decks from above and now we can get at the masking fluid and apply that to the oval shapes that we just made for the scene we're going to need three colors indigo today lothe turquoise I think that's how you say it they know they'll own the holo other day and burnt sienna with these colors we're going to mix four bowls of paint a darker mix of indigo by only adding a little bit of water a lighter mix of indigo by diluting with a lot of water a bowl of diluted phthalo turquoise and lastly a bowl of burnt sienna diluted with a lot lot a little water you have to keep adding water until it's a light sandy color and so your color palette should look something like this so let's start off by loading our brush with a lot of water dipping into our diluted burnt sienna and then creating a gradient from dark to light while lifting still wet quickly clean the brush and dip into the Sailor turquoise now we can start applying to the page and blending it to make a soft transition like so once we're about midway we can start adding a little bit of integrator to our brush and transitioning from the turquoise to the Indigo by the time we get to the top if the paint is still wet we can go over to smooth out transitions or to add some blooms to deepen some areas I'm adding some turquoise to the shallow sandy areas and indigo to the deeper up areas you may have already noticed by now but the indigo and turquoise dries a lot less vibrant than what they look like when they're wet so let's go over it all with another wash to build some saturation we're going to do the exact same thing as before but we can be a bit more bold with our application of paint once that all dries it's time to start defining the wave breaks we can begin by adding Taylor turquoise along the first wave break like this then with clean water on the brush start blending it all onto the sandy shore and again while it's all still wet I'm just tweaking by adding some more indigo to the upper deeper part which is just a bit a bit more contrast in the next wave break we're going to start off by using indigo this time and pulling downward with clean water again basically these exercises just require a lot of repetition so we're going to be repeating the same step for the last wave break I also decided that the brace could use a bit more contrast so I went over a few sections with indigo and lastly just as before now we get out the white ink and start painting some foam [Music] once the outlines are done then we can start adding the foam ripple details [Music] and of course a few flicks of white if you're feeling it but we haven't completely forgotten about those oval boat shapes we've masked off earlier paint over the shapes like this to create cast shadows using indigo once the shadows are dry we can peel off the masking fluid and then paint the boats in with any color you like I'm just going to be using red and the yellow cuz those stand out a lot and look really cool against the blue backdrop and tada all finished and before we wrap up I want to thank Squarespace again we'll be in the sponsor of today's video if you're someone in search of a platform to build a website of your own from scratch Squarespace has tons and tons of tools and features that will allow you to easily build anything to suit your needs whether you're an artist in need of a professional-looking website to showcase your artwork or a business owner looking to sell products on a clean online shop so if you'd like to try your hand at designing your own dream website Squarespace does offer a two week free trial and also a 10% discount of your first purchase just by visiting the link in my video description and also the last thing I want to do is encourage you all to experiment with these techniques as much as you'd like and even feel free to adapt them to your own style and make it your own these are techniques I had fun making up and experimenting with in my sketchbooks so much so that I even ended up using these ways for some of my exhibition pieces so go nuts go crazy maybe even try your own spin on painting and watercolor waves anyway that wraps up today's video I hope you guys are having an awesome day make more art and I'll see you guys soon [Music]

Channel: kelogsloops

Views: 4,005,067

Keywords: art, painting, drawing, waves, how to paint, watercolor, tutorial, beginner, watercolour, basics, artist, illustration, winsor newton, materials, techniques, landscapes, nature, water, ocean, beach, scene, surf, beginner watercolor, brushes, masking fluid, ink, sketch, practice, advice, tips, art tip, watercolor tips, how to draw, how to watercolor, step by step, arches, abstract, art style, style

Id: J-LDUK-XhRM

Length: 12min 1sec (721 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020