hey everyone I have some good news my
channel has passed 50,000 subscribers
and I know that's not the most
impressive achievement around here but I
remember when that number was zero so
this is a milestone for me and I just
want to say thank you for stopping by
and checking out my videos so recently I
did a sketchbook to her video and many
of you asked for a follow-up to that
where I film how I actually go about
painting one of these so today will
brave the February cold and go outside
and paint something but first a quick
recap of my materials everything fits in
this hiking pack that I got on sale for
10 bucks inside is my custom-made
sketchbook I buy individual sheets of
thick durable paper at a local craft
store and then I get it all spiral-bound
these sketches are tiny maybe three and
a half inches wide and they are all
painted directly from life check out my
painting sketchbook video for a much
more comprehensive presentation that is
a foldable plastic palette and inside I
keep dried watercolor paint if you want
the names of every color check the
comments section here are three
synthetic hair watercolor brushes two
flat one round this little guy is my
water container you can't see it but
there's a clip on the bottom so I can
clip it to my sketchbook this is a tube
of white gouache paint which allows some
opacity in an otherwise transparent
medium this is my pencil and my favorite
red ladybug pencil sharpener I also have
a roll of black electrical tape a black
marker and a ruler and you'll see why
later this is a box of Conte Stix which
I use for final touches and of course no
painting setup is complete without the
paper towel all right so let's pack up
our bag walk down the street and find
something to paint shall we
[Music]
this is pretty nice
now before I paint anything I need to
know what's so special about this what
is the potential from a design point of
view well first thing is it's very
vertical so it might fit well into a
frame like this now I'm looking for a
focal point the focal point is like the
thing that made you stop here for me
it's that light that's cutting through I
like the simple contrast of light above
dark below that is the one simple thing
I want my sketch to be about I also
enjoy that stair-steppy contour that the
roof lines make kind of falling back
into perspective leaving behind a nice
triangular shape for the sky next I'm
looking for small shapes good
composition to me is a balance of big
medium small there are some fun small
shapes breaking up the rooftops here a
bunch of windows of course and a lot of
random small stuff on the street
remember I don't have to include all
those things but they're there for me if
I need them and now that I know what
this scene has to offer I can paint it
[Music]
I begin with a very loose completely
unfinished drawing I'm just putting
things roughly where they need to go I'm
thinking about my focal point the light
cutting through those buildings as long
as my composition highlights that I can
find everything else in the painting
process oh by the way the reason I like
a red pencil is that red just sits well
under the painting what I'm doing here
is I'm splashing water overtop of all
those dry watercolors it reactivates
them and makes them workable again here
I'm mixing up a blue wash for the sky
and when I put it down I'll make sure
there's a nice helping of water on there
so I can work other pigments into that
wash this is weird red in the sky but
with a wet wash you can really manage
how these two pigments blend together
the wash is still wet here and I'm
putting in some slightly darker blue up
at the top because there's a lot of
water on the brush that paint will
become lighter when it dries here I'm
preparing another wash this one will
cover the entire rest of the painting
the buildings and the street a lot of
people are very timid when putting down
watercolor washes I say forget that go
the opposite way
make sure the painting knows that you're
in charge here it's a simple shift in
attitude that really frees you up for
expression plus these early washes are
so light that I basically can't go wrong
while my sky wash is still wet I'm gonna
get in some of the tops of the buildings
and I'm mixing a little bit of gouache
in with the paint to give it a bit more
thickness
I just love how that wash bleeds into
the sky its expressive beautiful and I
barely have to do anything it's one of
the many reasons I love wet media here
are some of the neighboring rooftops
same thing here I'm letting them bleed I
don't even care the reason I don't care
is because that's not my focal point if
anything I want those rooftops to feel
less important and soft edges are a
great way to do that I'm mixing up a
darker value for the shadow side of that
roof be very careful here this shape is
important the light side bleeds but I
want the shadow side to remain sharper
okay remember my focal point well here
comes the big graphic shape of shadow
look how careful I am when I'm drawing
this because this is critically
important it's what my sketch is all
about so I need to get it in pretty
early I'm using a mixture of cool blues
to contrast with the warm light but of
course I'll mix some warms in there as
well just for variety the wet into wet
watercolor ensures they'll mingle
beautifully and if I feel like I want a
color to retain its identity a little
more I'll just give it some gouache in
the mix I want the buildings on the
sides of this painting to be nice dark
pillars of value they're kind of anchors
that keep your eye inside the
composition remember that everything you
paint should be there to serve the
picture if you don't know why you're
including something chances are your
painting will suffer I want to point out
that at this early stage the painting is
starting to work there's a picture there
getting an early read boosts my
confidence and helps me know the
direction to go next
it's the analysis I did before painting
that helped me do this in other words I
set out in a direction from the very
start the fully detailed subject and my
super simplified painting just a light
wash to indicate some interesting local
colors
if you're interested in looking cool I
don't really recommend doing this anyway
I feel like I have enough big and medium
sized shapes in the painting now I'm
getting to some smaller shapes I'm
tackling the windows first because
they're super easy to draw now remember
I don't need to include every window the
subject is not my boss see the thickness
of that mixture that's thanks to the
gouache gouache gives watercolor a bit
of opacity and body I couldn't possibly
tell you every single color that I'm
mixing I'm only thinking warm versus
cool
[Music]
whenever the painting feels like it's
starting to stiffen up I give it a good
spatter here I'm beginning to address
the shapes of the cars that are on the
street but I always have to remind
myself not to take anything too
literally instead of seeing cars try and
simply see small shapes speaking of
small shapes I'm going back to find a
few more of them in the buildings
I'm also expanding the value range now
adding darker darks
[Music]
here I'm laying some lighter richer
blues on top of a darker shadow I
couldn't do that if I didn't have wash
on the palette
[Music]
that Street is littered with small
shapes dark windshields light
windshields shadows underneath cars
people signs the painting process begins
to slow down here as you have to
consider what each of those small shapes
is doing for your composition I'm trying
to go for this effect where the bottom
third of my composition is busier with
small shapes while I leave the top 2/3
pretty open
[Music]
a great way to compress so much detail
in a small painting like this is to
merge shapes together if you don't know
what I mean by merging shapes well I
have an entire youtube video about just
that it's called merging shapes here's a
late edition of a dark building on the
right side again to channel the viewer
into the middle of the picture here I'm
using the splayed hairs of the brush to
my advantage it helps me get a kind of
hatching texture for free that's what I
focus on in these later stages by now
the fundamentals are all in place so I'm
just focusing on building various
textures I also want to remind you it's
winter time it's cold out here
I am losing feeling in my fingers I mean
I love sketching but I'd like to go home
without hypothermia
I've tried painting with gloves but it
seems to sacrifice the quality of the
painting braving the elements is part of
what makes outdoor sketching so
thrilling to me it's not only a
challenge of doing a good painting but
managing the environment while you do I
find this experience so valuable for my
overall aptitude as an artist okay
you see those power lines I'm gonna try
very carefully to get those in I only
get one shot at this
[Music]
every power line needs a friend the
reason I'm putting them in is I think
they add just a bit of interest to an
otherwise bland sky and my absolute
favorite part peeling off the tape and
revealing those nice clean edges the
reason I use black tape and why I'm
adding a black border now is it helps
value comparison especially on white
paper
these sketchbooks double as my journal
I'll have a record of this day for the
rest of my life well that wraps up this
stage it's time to get out of the cold
back home I take a break from painting
and Michou comes to help warm me up
now I break out the Conte sticks and I
just start darting around the painting
adding little color notes because the
Conte is so rich in chroma it's very
easy to wreck a painting at this stage
so I'm very careful with what I'm doing
in fact half the time I don't even do
this stage the painting can often stand
on its own but the Conte does add some
gritty texture over top of the smoother
paint and I don't have the subject in
front of me anymore so I'm just
improvising when you see the painting
close up like this you can really see
how abstract everything really is and I
really enjoy that it's an expression of
the subject not a literal copy of it so
a few dots here a few dots there a
little bit of finger smudging here and
we have ourselves a finished sketchbook
painting well I hope you enjoyed that I
just like to thank my wife for recording
this out in the cold with me I also want
to thank my patrons for their generous
support and thank you for watching I'll
see you next time
you
[Music]