When I paint birds in watercolor that have got different colors on them I try
to make a soft smooth transition from one color to another. Today I've got a
few different ways to show you how I do it.
I get asked a lot of questions about painting in watercolor and the other day
I got an email from someone and she asked when I paint birds that have got
different colors on them and I have to but one color up against another how do
I do that without getting a hard sharp edge where the two colors meet? Well
today I've got a few different ways to show you how I do it. Have a look at
these Eastern Rosellas that i painted. These birds are red on the top and
yellow lower down. So how do I paint that line where the two colors meet without
getting a hard defined line. iI's all about soft and hard painted edges and the
water on the paper. Whenever I paint - the whole time I'm
painting I'm deciding whether I need a soft edge or a hard edge in a particular
place and that will determine without my work on wet paper or dry paper. When I
painted these Eastern Rosellas I didn't film myself so I'm going to show you how
I painted the edge where the two colors meet on another piece of watercolor
paper. If you don't know the difference between a soft paint edge and a hard
paint edge I'll quickly show you here. This is Arches cold pressed paper that I'm
painting on. I've wet one little section of it with some water. When I drop some
paint onto the wet surface I'll get soft fuzzy paint edges. The
paint moves with the water on the paper
whereas when I paint on dry paper the paint goes exactly where I put it and the
paint edges are hard or sharp as opposed to soft and fuzzy. If I paint on wet
paper but I take the paint right to the edge of the water line then I'm going to
get a hard paint edge again. Here I'm taking the paint right to the edge of
the water line there and you can see it's giving me a hard edge because it
won't go past where the water is sitting. So my water runs out to here. I
haven't taken the paint all the way to the edge there
and you can see that it's giving me those soft paint edges on this side of
the shape. So if I want soft edges I must keep the paint away from the edge of the
water. So let me show you how I don't paint my Birds. When I'm trying to merge
two colors together I'll start with the yellow paint because it's the lightest
I'm painting this on the dry paper and that needs to dry before I put the red
paint on it's dry now so now I'll put the red paint on the top half and I
paint that on the dry paper because I'm on the dry paper I get those hard paint
edges where the two colors meet and that's not what I want so that's how I
don't paint my Birds so let me show you one of the ways I do paint them I'll
just draw a bird shape on quickly and then again I start with the yellow
because it's lighter I paint the yellow on the dry paper okay I'm going to dry
that with the hairdryer now it's dry and now I want to wet the top half with some
water so this is where the red will sit I had to wait for the yellow to dry
otherwise the paint would have bled into this wet section that I'm wetting now
now I've taken the water line down to the edge of the yellow but that's not
right I can't leave it like that because if I do and I put the paint on
I'll get the hard paint edge again like I did when I showed you this shape here
here I took the paint right to the edge of the water line and I ended up with
that hard line and I don't want that instead what I need to do is take the
water past the edge of the yellow so I need to put the water on top of the
yellow so here you can see the water the paper it's extending paths to the
edge of the yellow there so now I can paint the red paint on while the paper
is damp and where the two colors meet I should get a soft fuzzy edge rather than
a hard sharp line
so that gives me that soft fuzzy edge there is one thing I need to watch so
when I paint like this I need to make sure that I don't have a really wet
brush I've got water on my paper I've got water in the paint I need to make
sure my brush isn't full of water too otherwise there'll be too much water on
the paper and the paint will flow down too far then I'll end up in a mess and
I'll have to keep wiping the bottom of the paint to stop it from flowing too
far into the yellow here it's flowing too far down so be aware of how wet your
paper is and how much water you have in your brush and adjust those levels of
moisture if it's not working for you I have an entire video devoted to the
different levels of paper witness so have a look at that if you need help
understanding it I've made that mistake many times where the paint flows too far
into the color below I need to mention too that I usually paint flat on a table
I really paint on an angle and that helps to keep my paint where I put it as
I said though sometimes I'm a bit too eager to put the paint on the paper
after I've read it I need to slow down a little and let the water absorb into the
paper slightly okay that was one way that I transition between two colors
here's another way this Rose Robin that I painted his pink on the top and white
on the bottom I painted this one differently so I'll show you what I did
there the photograph were used as a reference to paint this little Robin was
taken by a friend of mine called Roger fence if you have a look at the area
where the pink feathers meet the white feathers you can see that there's a soft
transition there I could have painted this bird the same way I painted the
Rose Ellis the only difference would be that there is no color lower down
because it's the white of the paper that you see but I decided to do something
different so I'll show you what I did with this one I've wet the body of the
Robin with some more and I've taken the water down further
than I will take the paint down so my paint will finish here roughly but the
water I've taken to here on goes the paint while the paper's wet you can see
at the bottom there where I've stopped the pink paint that I've got soft paint
edges now I've dried the paper and I'll wet the bottom half with water and here
I do the same thing I take the water into the pink feathers which is further
than I need it to go then while it's still wet I can drop in my random little
gray feathers here and there and I can put some of them on the pink feathers as
well I've tried everything off and now I want to darken the pink feathers that's
nowhere near as dark as it needs to be so this time I've only taken the water
to the edge of the pink feathers I haven't extended it down past into the
white feathers because the paper is wet I can drop in other colors and the
colors will blend together and when I get down the bottom here where the pink
feathers meet the white for this I can use my brush and feather the paint out
onto the dry paper so I just pull it down further onto the dry paper so
instead of having a hard dramatic paint line I've got a softer jagged feather
edge the third way I can show you how I
transition between two colors is with this little bird that I painted
yesterday this is a bee eater here on the back of the bird I had to blend the
burnt sienna into the yellow so let me show you how I did that here on this bee
eater I'm going to whip the back all over it so once I get water all over
there I can put my paint on top of the damp paper
I'll start with the lighter color and I'll paint that on mother paper stamp
this is Naples yellow that I'm using so once I've got the yellow where I want it
then I pick up the darker color and I start to paint that on and the paper is
still wet the yellow is still wet now as I get closer to the area where the two
colors meet I wash the paint out of my brush and I can use the brush to pull
the paint down onto the yellow so I'm using the paint that's already on the
paper and I'm pulling it down into the yellow and my brush is only slightly
damp if I need a bit more paint I can pick up a bit more but I have to be
careful that the burnt sienna doesn't spread down too far into the yellow so I
need to make sure that I don't have excess water on my brush there's enough
water on the paper I don't want to add to it with a really wet brush so that
water on the paper there has given me time to blend those two colors together
softly and then I get that lovely soft paint touch where they meet here I'm
painting some more of the yellow over the top what if you've gone ahead and
painted a hard edge on your painting and you don't like it and you want to try
and fix it I've got a way that might help you improve it this fairy when he
has white and gray feathers on the lower half and a lovely dark blue plumage on
the top half so I paint the blue feathers on damp
paper so that I've got time to drop other colors in before the paper dries
like I did on the rose robin this is indigo that I'm painting on here and
then before the indigo dries I drop in some French ultramarine
and then some Windsor violet then I start to add some dark Payne's gray
along the bottom edge now the paint has only just dried and I'm using my damp
brush to run it on the edge of the dark gray feathers and some of that dark
color will bleed down onto the white paper and that helps to make that hard
paint line less obvious it softens the transition between the light and the
dark that doesn't always work because my paint might have been dry for too long
or I might have used a staining color and the colors gone deep down into the
paper but give it a try because it might help you salvage an area of your
painting that you don't like I hope to add more videos like this where I can
show you problems that occur and how you might be able to fix them or at least
avoid them in the first place I hope this video is helpful please give
it a like and don't forget to subscribe and I will be back soon with another
video for you and that will determine whether I work on wet paper or dry paper
when I painted these Raziel is when I paint multicolored Birds
try again and that will determine whether I work on wet paper or dry paper
the third way I can show you how to transition between two colors is with
but give it a try because it might help you salvage an area of your who would
have thought this is a heart I hope this video was helpful please give it a like
and don't forget to subscribe and I will be back soon with another feeling
another video I was going to say another video