Hi it's Anna Mason and in this watercolour tip video I wanted to show
you how I paint the textured hairy shell to this delicious Coconut. I begin by
creating a really detailed drawing. Most of the thick hairs and markings on the
Coconut can be marked out in pencil because the shell is quite dark and that
means that the pencil marks won't be visible through the paint. We also need
to include the darker vertical stripes to the shell getting their angles
correct so as to help give the shell its 3D form. The first stage of painting is
to use one of my larger brushes to apply a very watery pale brown wash, which is a
match to the lightest tones or values within the shell, found in the lighter
hairs. I then change to use a smaller brush so as to have enough control to
fill in the hairs on the outer edge of the shell. Once this layer had dried, I
did what I always do next and that is to work on the darkest tones or values. So I
used a thick black mix, which I actually created from a combination of Payne's
Gray and Burnt Sienna, so as to get a lovely rich effect and I applied it with
a small brush in lots of short strokes, so as to achieve the rough texture.
I then watered down the mix a fraction and extended this colour out to all the
areas I could see, which I felt were this dark. The shell is so textured with so
much tonal variation within each little area of it, that already this meant
working at a high level of detail.
Next I moved up the tonal range to work on the darker mid-tones.There were grey
colours within this part of the shell's tonal range and also browns, so I had to
pay close attention to the hue as well as the tone of the mix that I was using.
Next I again worked up the tonal range into the lighter mid-tones with a fairly
watery pale brown mix, which I applied with a medium brush to larger areas,
whilst being careful to avoid painting into any smaller areas which were
lighter in tone, so needed to be the colour of the original layer. With that
layer dry, I applied a second into the mid mid-tone areas which needed to be
darker and it's this layer that starts to give the curve to the shell. After
working into the cut edge of the shell too, I could now see that my lightest
tone wash was too pale, so I could begin my adjustment phase by applying a layer
of pale watery grey paint to those sections that needed it, being gentle
with my brush strokes so as not to disturb the dry paint underneath. I then
made a further adjustment to darken some of the mid-tones and also brighten the
hue of the colour a touch, to better match what I could see in my reference photo.
These sorts of subtle adjustments can only really be made as the painting
develops, because of the way that we perceive colour as relative to the colours
that are around it. For the same reason I could only
continue with my adjustments to the shell, once I'd painted in the flesh part
of the Coconut and I'd got that as dark as I felt it needed to be. At which point
I went through a further round of adjustments to darken the darkest tones,
the mid-tones, where I could add even more hairy texture detail in the form of
little line brush strokes - at the right sorts of angles. Then I darkened the
lighter tones again, before adding a few extra details once I'd darkened the flesh
a little more and could take a step back and see what finishing touches my
painting needed.
A full video class of this Coconut is available now in my online School. If
you've enjoyed this tip video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and I'd
love it if you'd share this video with your friends and if you'd like to take
one of my tried and tested video classes for free, hop on over to AnnaMasonArt.com
where you'll find even more resources to help you pick up your brush and paint
the way you've always wanted to. Remember, you won't improve your painting unless
you make the time to paint. So be sure to schedule in some me time this week and
paint something you love. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon with
another tip for creating watercolors with 'Wow'.