I forgot to shave but I already hit the record button
so let's just go with this.
A solid join is crucial for painting.
This is why I dedicated an entire section
for fundamental drawing in my online course
because this is one of the most common issues I see
in my students' work.
So today, I'm going to spend extra time making the drawing,
paint on top of it with glazing
and get a painting out of it.
(tranquil piano music)
Hey this is Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
Drawing is the best way to plan for your painting.
As Ben Franklin once said,
"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."
That's why I encourage students
to really work on their fundamental drawing before painting.
That doesn't mean you have to be a master draftsman
but generally the better you are at drawing,
the easier it is for you to paint a good painting.
So I thought today I'm going to draw from this photo I took
in Pasadena California.
I will make it more detailed and refined than usual
and I will actually figure out a value
and do shadings completely
and then I will paint on top
of this drawing with watercolor.
This is a very good exercise
especially if you are new to watercolor
because this master will make your painting much easier.
Since we let the drawing doing most of the heavy lifting,
we have fewer things to worry about
when we are painting.
Okay, let's jump into it.
Okay, so we start out by doing just a loose drawing
of a big shape.
Let's not commit to anything yet.
What we are trying to figure out
are the placement
and the scale of the things.
So just big, general shapes for now.
Figure out a structure a little bit
and we're also going to start drawing the figure.
Now, there's no figure in the photo
but I decided to add the figure.
So now we are certain the dome
and the building is going to be there.
So we are going to slow down just a little bit
and start to draw a little bit darker
and one of the important thing
when you are doing this type of drawing
is that don't life your pencil much.
Keep the line flowing.
The little hairy line
that we used to do when we were little,
this is a very bad habit.
So keep your line flowing.
So I'm also starting to shade the drawing.
So this drawing, I'm actually going to add value to it.
So the shadow area, I'm going to do some shading.
I am using hatching
so I'm building up the value with consistent, short line.
And some of the area I was just going
to draw a little bit harder
and make it darker.
So this is a very refined drawing.
This building is actually the City Hall of Pasadena.
It's quite beautiful.
I've been there several times
when I was in art school there.
I've never been inside
but I've been to the outside
of the building several times.
Now, even though we're doing some detail
of this building in this drawing,
it's important to know that you don't have
to make it super accurate.
The important thing is still the big shapes.
So here you can see I make the building actually
a little bit longer,
a little bit slimmer.
But it's okay, the overall shape is still there.
So I did quick outline of the tree shape.
Again, try to make it organic.
I'm speeding up so you don't have to watch the whole hour
of the drawing and painting.
But when you doing that, spend a little bit time in drawing.
For this piece in particular,
you are definitely going to benefit by investing more time
in your drawing before painting.
I'm going to shade some value in the dome.
Adding a little bit of shadow on the right side.
The light is coming from the left.
So we wanna make sure
that we already established the lighting
and the value in this drawing.
Again, typically I don't shade in my drawing for painting.
But for this one, we're going to do a nice
and complete shading for this drawing
so that when we are painting,
we don't have to think about what value to paint
because it is already on the drawing.
Keep your line organic.
There's no need to use ruler or things like that.
While it is helpful
if you can do very nice and straight line,
we are not making a mechanical drawing
so keep you line flowing and alive.
That will be much more interesting to look at.
Now, I am drawing the car.
There's no car in the photo reference
but I am going to just add that
because what we are looking at
is the parking lot so that looks really stale
and a little bit stiff
so I'm going to just draw some cars driving down the street
and one car, that's a little bit closer to us.
So I'm basically draw all those cars from my mind.
And the two figures.
There's just two figures and the scenery
so we just need to capture the gesture
and the proportion of the figures.
If you haven't watched my video about the small figures
and the scenery,
definitely go check it out after this video.
So we got everything in the drawing.
Now, typically if I'm going to start painting,
I'm just going to start now
but in this particular one,
I'm going to shade pretty much everything
so I'm going to do the shading on the trees.
So the tree I'm going to start with a single value.
And group them all together.
And now the secondary values,
I'm painting the dark side
of the tree so mostly the bottom and the left.
Really look at the photo reference
and try to see the shape of the shadow.
Now I'm starting to shade the car.
Now, it's very easy to start focusing
on the individual stuff
but remember, we want to group things
as much as possible
and we will be doing that later.
Now I'm shading the tree on the left.
It's a big area and I'm using a mechanical pencil
and I'm using hatching.
So that's taking quite a bit of time.
But I have a vision already
that I'm going to connect the figure and the bottom
of the left car.
And the shadow that's casting by the buildings
on the left.
That's outside of the frame.
Going to connect all of them together.
Now, I'm not going to complete my shading to the bottom
because I know that is just going to be the dark value.
Now, I'm drawing the tree in the foreground.
It's on the top left corner.
So that's just going to be a flat shape but pretty dark.
So that's going to be used to sort of frame the painting
and the subject in
and here is the finished drawing.
It took me about 30 minutes to finish.
All right, so here comes the first wash.
Now, the first wash, I'm going to pre-mix some color
for the blue sky.
Key to make sure wet and transparent
so it's very easy to paint.
Now, as you can see, you are going
to see the pencil drawing underneath.
So everything in the shadow,
you can just paint over with no problem.
But I do want to preserve the light
of the building so you can just paint over the trees
and things like that.
Now, I'm going to mix a warmer value,
almost kind of yellow, bright yellow
and I'm just going to paint in the light on the building.
Now, do remember that those light value is going
to fade off quite a bit.
So don't worry about if you are a little bit more saturated
than you planned it to.
So now I'm mixing sort of like a neutral gray
with cobalt blue and burnt umber
and I'm just filling in the first values
on the car and the road
as well as the figure.
And look at how the pencil line's still showing through.
So you can just glaze them over very safely
and still know where everything is
and how dark it should be going.
So I'm blowing this dry
so I can start working on the building again.
The sky is a little bit too faded.
So I'm going to do another glaze later
but I want to start working on the second layer
of the building first.
So the top of the dome, the spire,
I'm going to mix sort of like a brown's color
with cobalt turquoise
and burnt umber.
Now, the dome itself is quite warm.
So make sure you give it a nice warm reddish color.
Now I'm using some blue color
and I'm going to paint the shadow side of the building.
Now, this is where the type drawing really pays off
because you know exactly where to paint.
So you're pretty much just covering up
all the pencil marks here.
And I'm also mixing a dark color
for all the openings.
Now the building is taking shape.
I'm mixing a nice warm green color
for the trees.
Now, these trees are quite dark
if you look at the photo,
it's a lot darker then the building
so make sure you keep them nice and dark.
And connect all the trees together as a group.
And the bushes on the road.
I'm mixing a dark cool gray
for the shadow part of the tree.
We paint those dark shape wet onto wet
but the mixture is quite thick
and I'm using the tip of my brush
so the shape are still quite controlled.
And use the tip of my brush
and start to paint some tree branch
and tree trunk, a little bit of random shadows
in the background
and now I'm painting the side building,
painting the roof.
So the painting is going to turn out
a little bit more dirty.
It actually kinda feels like an old photo type of feel
because their value information underneath
and we are painting transparent color on top.
So it will feel a little bit more dirty,
a little bit more noisy.
But it should still holds up pretty nicely
if you have a solid drawing to work with.
So now I'm painting the dark value of the car.
It's pretty much just a cool gray
and now I am painting the whole shadows on the row.
Again, try to group them together.
This is pretty easy
because we already have the information we need underneath
so we just need to fill that shadow in.
And now I'm starting to paint the tree on the left.
Same process.
Get the first value in.
And then we paint some darker green underneath.
So the funny thing about this painting
is that the painting actually takes a little bit less time
than the drawing
because I pretty much know exactly what I'm going to do
and the visual reference
of the drawing makes it very, very easy
so it actually doesn't need to spend a lot
of time figuring out what to paint.
So this is why I said it's going to be a very nice exercise
for people who want to get into watercolor
and have a nice, solid fundamental drawing skill
because the drawing is doing a lot of heavy lifting
and when you are actually painting,
all you're really doing is to fill the colors in
and paint the appropriate value.
Now, I'm adding some more darker values, darker details.
Like the grill of the car
and the traffic signal.
And a little bit darker details in the background.
The cars and things like that.
Just because you didn't draw some
of the stuff in the background,
doesn't mean you cannot add into it.
Still practice your creative freedom
when it comes to adding details.
As long as you execute your plan relatively close
to your originally vision, you should be good.
So adding some soft details on the road
just to make it a little bit less flat.
And now I'm painting the foreground tree.
It's just going to be a dark shape
so I'm just using a dark value
and watch my brush stroke.
Try to varying your brush stroke a little bit
so it looks nice and organic.
Adding a few more dark details.
So the painting is pretty much done.
We did what we set out to do.
So at this point,
we're just adding a little bit details here and there.
Using some wash to put some highlight back.
Some of the area gets a little bit dirty.
And now we're going to do a glazing on the sky.
The sky looks a little bit too washed out.
So we're just going to make the sky a little bit darker,
a little bit bluer.
Paint around the building, preserve the highlight.
And there we have it.
I hope you like this painting.
A little bit different than what I usually do
but I encourage you to give it a try.
So I hope this video is helpful for you.
Remember, the core of this painting is the drawing.
We're just using watercolor to put colors on it.
I usually don't work this way
because I want to keep my painting cleaner,
however, this is an easy way for you to paint
if you are just getting started.
If you like this video, please like and subscribe.
Got any other question, leave me a comment down below.
You can also go to my website at cafewatercolor.com
to download my fast track watercolor PDF guide.
I'm Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
See you next time.