The title of this video is a bit deceiving,
because you don't really paint the light in watercolor,
but you preserve them.
But regardless of how it works,
having a good sense of lighting
can make things look more dimensional
and convey the mood of the painting more clearly.
So let's talk about it,
and I hope this video will enlighten you
and light up your day.
Sorry for the bad pun.
I'm a dad.
(gentle music)
Hi, this is Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
Our visual is made with light.
The reason we can see the world around us
is because of light.
All of the colors we see are also made from light.
So when it comes to painting light,
we shouldn't just think of it as simple light and dark.
After all, darkness is simply the lack of light.
But light is not binary.
There's almost an infinite amount of brightness
in between light to dark.
Our job is to understand
the range of brightness in the scene,
simplify them, and recreate them in a painting.
So in this video, I'm going to break that process down
based on each layer of a painting.
And I will be using the example
of these two small paintings I did
for my art community group on Patreon.
So the first wash:
painting watercolor is very different from opaque mediums
such as oil, acrylic, or gouache.
You can't paint lighter value on top of dark value.
Sure, you can use opaque watercolor or gouache,
but you will lose the transparent nature of the watercolor.
So in order to have light in your watercolor,
you need to preserve the light
by using the white of the paper.
However, light has many different colors.
So we need to use the transparent nature of watercolor
to give colors to the light,
sort of like light going through colored glass.
And that I do most of the time for my first wash.
So when you hear me say I'm painting colors of the light,
that is literally what I'm doing.
Now, there are times when I go ahead
and paint something slightly darker in the first wash,
because I want to utilize the wetness
so I can create some wet-on-wet effects.
But generally, the first wash is for bright light value.
Before you start painting,
it's always a good idea to look at your reference,
find the lightest value, and use that as a reference point.
The second wash: after we paint the colors of the light,
we are moving to the middle value.
These are the areas that have less light.
a very important thing to keep in mind
is that just because something is receiving light,
it doesn't mean it is a light value.
A black object lit by the sun
will now make it a light value.
It is usually more of a middle value.
Like my face is lit by a huge light,
but it's not going to be as light,
as bright as my white T-shirt.
On the other hand,
a white object like my T-shirt here in the shadow
might not be so dark.
It can be in the middle value as well.
So that is why I say
you should find the lightest value in your reference
and use that as a reference.
You might be surprised
how many things are not as light as you think.
That being said, middle value
means there's still a good amount of light there.
So you still want to have
that transparent quality of watercolor.
Now, for the third wash, finally,
we're shifting to the dark value.
This is the part where things are cutting off
from the light.
There's pretty much no direct light on the surface,
and the ambient light is occluded as well.
Unless you are painting a night or a shady scene,
the dark value usually is not a huge part of the painting.
Students often make the mistake to paint everything
that's not directly lit by the light a dark value.
The world is not a simple light and dark.
There are a lot of middle value in gray areas.
So only save the dark for some areas that is really needed.
I hope these quick tips are helpful for you.
Now, let's go over the process of these two paintings
and see how we can interpret different lighting scenarios
with the same process and approach.
If you find my video helpful, consider giving it a like.
If you want more, be sure to subscribe to my channel.
So let's start with a line drawing.
Now, this is a very small painting,
so I didn't do all that much with the line drawing:
just the basic perspective,
and try to get the structure in.
This is a very simple one-point perspective.
However, the train is a little bit complicated.
I try to simplify it as much as I can though,
So they're just cylinders, boxes.
If you understand the basics of perspective,
you should have no problem.
The photo is provided
by one of the premium VIP from my Patreon.
So if you're interested in the full, unedited,
live recording video,
you can check out my Patreon page.
The link is in the description down below.
Anyways, after we've done the drawing,
we clean up the drawing just a little bit.
And like I said earlier,
don't rush into painting: analyze your reference first.
So in this case,
I need to find the lightest point in the photo,
which is the sky.
And I will use those as my reference point
for the lightest light.
So here comes the first wash.
The first wash is the color of the light,
like I mentioned earlier.
So everything is very transparent,
with a little bit of color.
Because it's really transparent,
the light will still go through,
and you can still see the white of the paper.
Now, since the paper is wet,
I use this chance to do some wet onto wet
and paint the steam above the train.
So I treat the steam just like a cloud.
They're pretty much the same thing anyways.
I want the steam to look soft,
yet with a good amount of volume.
So wet onto wet is a good way to do that.
So when you do that,
make sure you make sure it's a little bit thicker.
If it is too watery, you might create cauliflower edges.
On top of that,
the shape will not be able to retain yourself.
It's just going to flow out of control.
So make sure you use a thicker mixture.
Adding some more shape, a little bit darker.
So that creates a better volume.
And that's it for the first wash of this painting.
And let's move on to the sunset one.
So the lightest point of this photo is obviously the sun.
There's nothing brighter than the sun,
so I'm going to leave that pure white
and paint the light around it.
Through the cloud, there's some golden light,
and above that there's a little bit of pink,
and eventually turns a little bit cooler.
So in the live demo,
I actually finish the first painting first,
then I start painting this one.
But in this one, I want to separate each wash
to show you how I approach each painting.
I believe that might be a little bit more helpful,
so you can focus on the first wash, the second wash,
then the third wash.
Now, same thing as the other painting.
I start to paint the steam above the train.
Now, this steam is a lot darker
because it's backlit by the sun,
and we don't have a lot of skylight because it is sunset,
so it's a lot darker.
So to make sure,
it needs to be a lot thicker and a lot darker,
especially when you do wet onto wet.
Usually, it's going to dry lighter.
So if it looks just right,
chances are it's not going to be dark enough later on.
So I also start to connect that
to the darker side of the sky.
And I continue to add a little bit more dark.
Now, the painting's starting to dry
before I have the chance to finish this.
So it end up looking a little bit dirty,
but fortunately, at the end I do a glaze
and that actually wash off some of the paint,
and I get to do it a little bit better.
Now, back to the morning version.
I start to paint the background.
The background mountains are a little bit closer
to middle value.
And because I started to paint this shape
while the paper is still quite moist,
so you get to see a little bit of softness in those shapes,
which is great because there's some smoke,
some steam in front of it,
and they are in the distance.
So that actually looks better.
And I connect that to the ground, the grass,
the gravel under the track.
They might be lit by the sun,
but compared to the sky,
they are nowhere near as light.
Now, if you look at a photo closely,
you will see some lighter and darker variation
within the middle value.
But like I said, our job is trying to analyze our reference,
simplify them, and reconstruct them in the painting.
So a lot of time, I would just simplify them,
connect the shapes,
and try not to dig into the detail too much,
and keep my values simple.
And here I'm starting to paint the side of the train.
Now, notice that even though the side of the train
is led by the sun, they are not light value
except the bright highlights in the head of the train
because of the sun reflection.
But the majority of the lit side of the paint
is actually middle value.
So like I said earlier in this video,
sometimes things lit by the sun
doesn't mean that they are light value.
Something that's lit by light and light value
are not the same thing.
So here I paint the whole train in middle value,
leave a little bit of light here and there,
but majority of the train is the middle value.
And I connect that to the bottom of the train
and to the ground and so on.
Now, I did get a little bit ahead of myself,
painting a little bit of dark value in it,
just because I want some wet-onto-wet soft shape.
And now back to the sunset scene.
So I go ahead and paint the train.
I start off with something a lot darker,
because it's going to be very dark anyways.
But for the rest of the train, I paint the middle value.
And just like the other one,
the lighter side of the train
is actually closer to middle value.
Because if you compare that
to the light of this painting which is the sun,
it's nowhere near as bright.
Which is why it is so important
to have the brightness reference point,
so you have a better idea
how dark and how light other things should be.
So the process is very similar to the other painting.
I paint the middle value and I start to connect shapes.
And I change the color in between,
but the shapes are mostly connected.
So I paint some trees and foliages in the background.
That connects to the train
because they are all middle values.
And I start to paint the bottom.
Because this is a sunset scene,
there are a lot more darker value shapes.
So I can wait to paint a lot of these darker shapes
when I'm doing my third wash.
Now, back to the morning version.
Here I start to add the darks.
And once I'm starting to add the darks,
things are looking much more dimensional
because I start to define the structures
of the objects such as the train, the tracks and so on.
And again, because I'm painting those
while it is still a little bit moist,
you will see some soft edges,
which I actually like quite a bit.
These soft edges are making the painting
look a little bit more interesting,
a little bit more atmospheric.
And here you notice I paint a little bit more
with the tip of my paintbrush.
So the shapes are more controlled,
and a mixture is a lot thicker.
One interesting thing is the red on the head of the train.
But if you squint your eyes,
you can see it become part of the dark value.
So when you try to simplify the value,
squinting always help.
And with that, this version of the painting is finished.
Now, let's jump back into the sunset version.
Again, this is the third wash,
so I'm starting to paint some dark values.
There are a lot more dark value shapes here
because this is sunset,
so I start to paint with a lot thicker mixtures.
I started with the tree in the foreground
because it is a little bit easier to paint.
I can just use the brush and the paper texture,
and I connect that to the dark on the ground.
And here I start to paint the dark on the train again.
Again, quite a bit dark value here.
So I really need to have thicker mixtures,
and I need to have enough of them
so that can give me a good amount of coverage.
This is one of the reason why I always suggest students,
especially beginners, to paint smaller paper
because you don't have to mix as much mixtures
to finish a painting.
You will also have an easier time
to control each individual wash.
And again, once I paint some darker values,
you start to feel the structure of the train.
And it also makes the light brighter
because you pump the contrast.
So sometime, if you don't see enough light in your painting,
it might not be because you don't have enough light.
It might be because the darks are not dark enough.
Here I'm adding a little bit more value to the sky,
some more details in the background.
And again, I add that dark red on the head of the train.
And the painting is about to finish.
But at the end, I feel like the sky for the sunset scene
is not dark enough.
It needs to be a little bit darker.
So I did a glaze right after I finished the painting.
And because I did that right after I finished the painting,
it is not very, very dry yet.
So the glaze actually dissolved the mixture
I painted for the steam,
and it kind of gave me a second chance
for me to work on it.
I was really happy,
because I didn't like how it turned out earlier.
So this essentially saved my painting.
I was able to add back the moisture
and do some wet onto wet.
I can paint.
I can paint the steam a lot bigger and a lot softer.
I really enjoy the whole process,
and I like how they both turned out.
Here are the finished paintings.
I hope you like these paintings,
and I hope this process is helpful for you.
(gentle music)
I always say to student,
it is really important to observe the world around us.
Light is the reason we get to see anything.
So pay attention to it and study it
when looking at a painting reference.
Don't rush into painting
without observing and analyzing the reference.
That's it for today's video.
I hope you enjoyed this.
We are in a very turbulent time right now,
and it's hard not to worry and feel anxious about tomorrow.
I wish you well.
And if you are able, treasure the time with your loved ones
and enjoy creating art to the fullest.
I'm Eric from Cafe Watercolor.
See you next time.