- Hello, lovely people,
and welcome to what I hope will be
a beautiful, calming video for you.
Maybe you want to do something while you watch this.
Maybe you want to paint along with us.
Maybe you just want to find out
what on earth we manage to paint.
I've recently been approached by Skillshare,
which if you don't know, is an online learning platform.
They have a variety of classes
that teach you really a whole range of things.
My God, I had a look at it.
Some of it terrifies me.
It's about how you could do better
in your career and productivity,
or graphic design, which also could be your career.
But also fun stuff, like hobbies and that type of stuff.
And the reason they came to talk to me
is because where they didn't have captions before,
now all Skillshare originals,
and many of their other courses have captions,
which is very exciting.
But I didn't want to just do a little like,
boom, spot and talk about it.
Instead I thought, it would be really exciting
if Claudia and I actually gave...
There's now a dog in this video.
Wouldn't take no for an answer.
So instead of doing a little spot, where I just say,
"Oh, Skillshare is this, you should join up.
If you click the link in the description,
you'll get a two-month free trial,"
although you do,
instead, I thought that Claudia and I
would take on one of these tutorials
and challenge each other to see who could do it best.
So, we picked a course that is
all about watercolor painting
and we're going to try and paint each other in a,
as close as we possibly can,
whilst also being inspired by this beautiful,
beautiful bunch of flowers.
Stay watching until the end to find out
what beauties we create,
and have your say on which is actually better.
I mean let's be honest,
I take five times as long to do everything,
so probably not mine.
(crickets chirping)
In the meantime, don't forget that you can join
7 million other creatives who use Skillshare
to enhance their career,
better themselves or their hobbies,
generally be awesome human beings.
If you want to up your Instagram game for instance,
there are all types of courses on that.
Photography, they've got that.
Editing, they've got that.
Just lovely fine arts stuff, they've got that too.
Even gardening, which we really need,
because our garden's a waste land.
(light jazz music)
- Well, this is a nice activity.
- You're happy I pulled you in for this kind of a video?
- Yes.
Right, I've got some paper.
- Yes.
- That we can sketch our initial--
- Okay, beauty - plans.
initial drawings, and plans.
I'm not the tidiest of people.
- [Claudia] Yes, but you've got very controlled hands
for small detail. - Yes!
- You love that kind of stuff.
- I'm weirdly good at drawing.
- Where is I'm way more where like,
I love stone carving.
- [Jessica] Yeah, massive things.
- [Claudia] Acrylic paintings more my thing.
Watercolors, I've always botched up.
It's just like I just get too carried away,
I'm too impatient and the water and everything
just merges.
- (laughs)
- It's not like a nice watercolor bloom.
- Matilda, I have to say,
I do actually use
my right arm.
There we go.
- I put this in - Get the dog down.
Just to look at for an inspiration.
- Oh, yeah.
- This we bought in Malacca in Malaysia,
which is a very artistic place and they have
lots of artists live there.
It's got these old nyonya,
which are kind of quite influenced from, like, the Dutch.
- When was this, - Yes.
when they went there.
Then they've got the shutters and things,
but you can see it's quite still,
like penciled marks here.
And so on, and then they've just sort of done
this kind of wet wash kind of look,
which is a bit different from the video we watched
which was more controlled, - Yes.
like, what is it, wet on dry?
This is, I think this was done,
look at me, talking like an expert now.
- Oh, she knows everything now.
- Oh, wet on wet.
- Oh, yes, okay.
- This is the watercolor paper that I've got.
- And they're obviously recommended acid free stuff.
If we want to cheat,
well it's not cheating
but I have got watercolor pencils.
- [Jessica] For sure.
- [Claudia] So you can like--
- Always an option.
- Get some really fine marks with that.
- Yeah.
(light jazz music)
- (laughs)
(light jazz music)
- I'm kind of drawing as I go along.
- Uh huh.
- I mean I'm planning as I draw kind of thing.
- I feel quite stressed about this already
because I know that you're going to go,
"That doesn't look, do you think that
really looks like me?"
Like when I did the Sims of you.
- You did hilariously!
So we made each other in the Sims.
Claudia made me look like a drag queen.
Can you look down but at me?
Sorry, no (laughs)
- (laughs)
(light jazz music)
- [Jessica] Oh, I'm putting it down.
- Okay, fine. (laughs)
- (laughs)
- [Claudia] So, what we call pans...
- [Jessica] Yes,
have you got tubes?
Okay, we've got pans.
- And tubes.
- [Jessica] That's a pan.
These are tubes.
- [Claudia] Should be like an art exam.
I'm going to be hungry soon,
it's 1:30 already.
- You're always hungry.
- 45 minutes, darling.
- 45 minutes.
- We'll just do as much as we can,
doesn't need to be finished.
(laughs)
- Did you make me look like a drag queen?
- The placement--
- She gave me flower boobs.
- But the placement of them was...
- Starting now.
(urgent cello music)
(boing, boing, boing)
(urgent cello music)
- (laughs)
- Every time, I look...
- Literally just staring in one place.
Please, please.
- I'm trying, I'm looking at you.
(urgent cello music)
- Okay, we have 30 minutes left.
- Oh my God.
- Do me a favor.
Put your head in a position
and just keep it there.
- I'm trying.
- You don't have to rub out the whole...
- It's happened.
- (laughs)
- [Claudia] But the idea is that you draw it
and then very lightly rub it all out,
isn't it?
- 25 minutes to go.
- Oh my God.
- That's it,
this is just one of our many sets
of watercolor paint.
We came into this relationship with like
two sets of each type of paint, each.
At least my Dad would be proud
of this video.
My Dad is an artist.
He is amazing.
I will never be as good as him.
I realized that when I was like, three.
- Aww.
- I had a little breakdown about it.
- So you were, what, three, - (laughs)
so he'd have like
how ever many years he was that old
to practice like that.
- Yeah, yeah, no, I've lived with an intense,
intense, "My art will never be good enough" feeling.
(urgent cello music)
(alarm rings)
- Oh my God.
- What? No, no it's my medication!
- Oh, gosh.
- It's fine.
- I was like, "What!".
- Okay, not a lot of time left, honey.
To be fair, I've not even started painting you.
- You've just been leaves.
Am I just leaves to you?
- (laughs)
- [Claudia] Guess the whole idea, as well is that
we're so used to things being so instant now,
with digital processing and like Photoshop.
"I want it to be like that color" and it just
like fills the whole thing.
Like, having to do things by hand,
the reason it's rewarding is because
it takes patience and time
and like time actually is, you know,
a really special thing that we should value.
You know, we see someone's artwork
- Yeah
- Or craftwork, the reason we value it
and like it so much, I think,
is because you realize how much time
went into it. It's like--
- Right, wonky cakes taste better.
- Yeah, I got that.
- Their made of love, not by machine.
- [Claudia] I must say, having watched that video
on Skillshare I do feel a bit more confident
with my technique of watercolors.
I've always struggled with watercolors
but just having watched that, and like watching
someone do it and taking the time to sort of have it
explained to me--
- [Jessica] I'm pleased with these overly detailed leaves.
- (laughs)
Unfortunately, none of Claudia remains painted.
- (laughs) But--
(alarm rings)
Oh, no!
- No!
- Let's give ourselves an extra, we started at
twenty-five til, - Yeah.
Let's give ourselves an extra 10 minutes.
- Ten minutes.
(urgent cello music)
- Why don't we both be like, "Hey, let's paint a flower."
- I know, well I did say that to you.
- (laughs)
- This morning, to be fair.
I did say, "Why don't we both just paint a flower?"
and you were like, "No, we're going to do portraits."
and I was like, "Christ, that's like the hardest thing
you can probably do in a watercolor."
- Yeah, I hate me, too, right now.
So, we've eventually reached the point where we have
to be like, "This is the end now. We have to stop
doing this."
We've definitely pushed over the limit
of when we were supposed to be going.
But, you know what, I'm actually kind of calm with that.
- Yeah.
- I'm quite chill with it.
- I've had a lovely time.
- Because I feel very relaxed about this whole painting.
I would like to, I did say at the start we were going to
get you guys to choose who had done the best
portrait but I really think
(laughs)
there's no point in that.
- Maybe it should be--
Because there's no contention.
- Maybe rather then the best portrait
it should be the best painting technique.
- So, there's my painting in which
Claudia's face does not feature,
or there's Claudia's painting
which wins.
It's amazing!
Look how good that is.
- [Claudia] Aw, thanks.
- [Jessica] That actually looks like me.
I'm so impressed.
- [Claudia] I think yours is lovely.
I really like your painting technique.
And we just stamp them-- - Wow.
With your Chinese stamps.
- Oh.
- We bought these in Malacca, back to that--
- We didn't buy them, we got given them.
- Oh, yes, there was--
- as an engagement present.
- Yes, from my auntie that apparently
you started to draw
a little bit. - (laughs)
It's all starting to tie in one another.
- Yeah, yeah, look, there we go, that's Claudia's auntie.
- So, I'm a rabbit as I'm the year of the rabbit.
Chinese zodiac sign.
And then what was inside?
Is it rabbit?
- [Jessica] No, it's your Chinese name.
- Oh, is it?
- Because you have a Chinese name.
- Yeah, yeah, Gum.
I knew it was--
- [Jessica] And mine is like an attempt at Jessica.
(light jazz music)
- There you go, I hope you have enjoyed
painting with us.
Obviously, one of us was much better then the other.
But it's fine, it's fine.
And don't forget, if you're interested in Skillshare,
which I'm kind of obsessed with now,
click the link in my description
and you'll get a two month free trial.
It's very good, again, lots of videos have
captions.
Yay.
And after that it's only 10 dollars a month.
If you've liked this video, please subscribe,
hit the like button, join The Kellgren-Fozard Club,
all of that goodness,
and if you have other challenges that you would like
Claudia and I to partake in
please, do let us know in the comments down below.
And I shall see you next time.
(smooch)
(urgent cello music)