This week I've been painting succulents. I painted one of them on Fabriano paper
and the other one on Arches paper. Today I want to talk briefly about the paper
and I'll demonstrate the different techniques that I used on each succulent.
I've painted quite a few different succulents over the years.
I like to paint them when they're in the sun because I get all those
gorgeous cast shadows that help to add interest to the painting.
I mentioned in another video it takes a while to get used to painting on
different brands of paper. You've got to give yourself some time to
adjust to the new surface. I've used Arches paper now for nine years
and only recently I've been trying a few other brands.
Last week you saw me use Langton prestige watercolour board
and you've also seen me use Fabriano Artistico paper.
I really enjoy painting on the Fabriano paper
because the washes go on beautifully and I find that it's really easy to lift
the paint off after it's dried. It's great if you're painting something
that has lots of lighter areas and you want to show the highlights. I
used it when I painted my elephant painting and it was
very easy for me to lift the colour off these areas here after I'd finished
painting it. It's not so great however if you have a
tendency to fiddle with your painting like I do. I
find the more layers that I put on the paper the easier it becomes
to disturb the pigment and I can end up with a patchy mess if I'm not careful.
That's one of the reasons that I like using Arches paper.
I've found that the paint seems to be more stable on Arches paper.
I'm less likely to disturb the previous layer of paint when I start to fiddle
with my current layer. It's just something I''ve noticed as a
difference between the two papers. With these two succulent paintings I
used different techniques on each painting. On the green succulent I worked wet on wet a lot
whereas on the blue succulent I worked mainly wet on dry. I layered the paint
on the blue succulent more than I did on the green succulent
so I''m glad I used Arches paper for that one.
I washed the blue succulent all in at once
but on the green succulent I painted each leaf individually.
I also painted the cast shadows as I went
with the blue succulent whereas I painted them on at the end on the green
succulent. I'll start with the green succulent.
This is the succulent that I painted on the Fabriano paper.
I thought that I would put a wash of Winsor lemon underneath and that would
lift the green because I'm using Sap green here. I
didn't bother mixing a colour and I thought that that lemon underneath
it would lift it and make it look a bit brighter.
So I've wet that particular leaf that I'm working on now
with water and I'm dropping on some Sap green.
Nnow I've got some darker pigment. I'm still using Sap green here
it's just that it's darker now.
Now I've got some pink on my brush for the tip. This is
Winsor and Newton's Rose Dore and the paper is still damp. So that paint
bleeds down onto the green.
Then I start washing in some more of the leaves with Winsor Lemon.
Then after I had a few washed in I started to add the green to them.
This is a wash of Sap green over the top of this one.
The winsor lemon is dry.
Now I've got the darker sap green and I'll run that down the middle.
I want the edges of the leaf to be lighter in colour.
Then I dried that off and I used some more
Rose Dore on the side. Thisis the curved over part of the
succulent leaf. I paint that on dry paper. It's watery
paint so there's not a lot of pigment in it.
Here I've got a bit of Winsor lemon so it's lighter there down the bottom of
the leaf.
Now I''ve got more Rose Dore. This time I've wiped my brush over the pigment
that's on my palette. It's a bit darker.
I got a bit more paint then
and then I put the watery Rose Dore on that side as well.
Noew I'm going to switch down to a liner brush - a smaller brush.
My brush is wet and I'm wiping it over the pigment.
This colour is Alizarin Crimson and I want it
quite dark now and my paper is still damp from the when I put the paint on-
the paint hasn't dried yet. I'm darkening the tip of the leaf.
Now I can take the paint out of my brush, dab off the
moisture on a cloth and use it to soften the edge
where the dark colour meets the light colour.
That brush was a bit small so I've got a bigger brush now and I'm doing the same
thing -
so slightly damp with a little bit of water not much.
I painted in two more leaves
and now I'll start this one. I'lll wet this one with water because I want to
work on damp paper. I want the paint that I put
on here to have soft paint edges so that's why I'm
wetting the paper.
I put the water on evenly. I make sure there's no puddles lying
anywhere and while that paper has a sheen on the
surface that's when I go and get the paint and I
start to put the paint on. I want the paint to move
so you can see it bleeding across the water.
This is the pink that I used on the outside of the
other leaves - the rose Dore. When this pink meets the yellow I want
it to have soft edges.
That paint is still damp. Now I've got some
Alizarin crimson. I'm dabbing that onto the damp paper.
That darkens that area.
That yellow there is still damp from when I wet it before.
Now I can put some green over the top of that
so I get some Sap green
and I paint that on.
I paint it carefully up against the edges of the other leaves
and again because my paper is damp that gives me those soft paint edges.
I don't want any hard lines on the body of the leaf. I only want the hard lines
around the edge of the leaf
and I can get some darker pigment and drop that on
where I want it to be slightly darker.
After I painted all the leaves in in the same way
then I started to paint the cast shadows on.
This is a layer of Sap green that I'm painting on dry paper this time.
You'll see when I show you the other succulent
that I painted the cast shadows as I went.
I didn't wait till the end.
After I painted all those shadows in I came back and
painted a few more markings that I didn't paint earlier.
This is Alizarin crimson. I'm painting this on damp paper.
Then it was time for the large cast shadow that this succulent is forming.
here I've mixed up some grey from Burnt sienna and French ultramarine.
I didn't want this to be too dark. On my reference photo the shadow is quite dark
but I knew if I painted it that dark on here that it would overpower the
succulent so I kept it lighter in colour
and I thought I'd drop in some of the Alizarin crimson that I used on the
succulent itself just to add interest to the grey and
also repeat the colour. And of course I can't help myself. I love
my watercolour blooms so I dropped some water in and that
added some texture to the shadow.
So there's my finished painting.
Ok now for the blue succulent. I decided to use
Cerulean blue for this succulent but I knew
that theCcerulean blue would be too bright
so I mixed some Burnt sienna into it to grey it down slightly.
So what I've got here is a mix of Cerulean blue and Burnt sienna.
Cerulean blue is a granulating colour so it's going to give me a bit of texture
on the leaves.
As I mentioned this painting is painted on Arches hot pressed watercolour paper.
This time I'm washing in the whole succulent all at once rather than
painting each individual leaf separately. I could do that because
this succulent is only one colour. The only other colour that it's got is around
the edges of the leaves - so that allowed me to paint the entire
succulent in at once and then I can add the cast shadows as I
go.
I'm also going to drop in some Winsor lemon because I can see some
yellow areas on the succulent.
So I drop that in while it's wet.
I dried that off. I re-drew in my center so I could see it better
and thenIi mixed up some more of the Cerulean blue with Burnt sienna
but I made it darker this time- so I used less water
and then I started to paint in some of the darker shadows with it.
It was a bit tricky in the center here making sense of it
but once I got this center part done then it was quite easy.
You can see here quite clearly how the Cerulean blue has created that textured
effect on the surface.
Here I'm using some Perylene green to paint in the darkest areas.
I kept going with the center and once I got past that fiddly area it was quite
easy.
here I'm painting on a cast shadow. I'm using Cerulean blue mixed with a
touch of Burnt sienna. It's the same colour that I used to
wash the succulent in but it's darker - more pigment,
less water. I painted in the shadows on dry paper.
It's quite straight forward but I need to make sure I get the shape of it right
because the shadows form the edge of the leaf in
front.
Here I'm painting a cast shadow that's on the back of the leaf.
This time I'm using Cerulean blue on its own with none of the Burnt sienna mixed
into it.
As I moved further out the shadows got darker and darker
so for these darker shadows I mixed some Perylene green
with Cerulean blue. I painted these on the dry paper as well.
I'm glad I worked on the Arches paper here because I came back and I did a bit of
fiddling with these shadows and I think if I was working on the
Fabriano paper that I wouldn't have been able to do that quite so much.
Up here at the top of the succulent I'm painting the
colour inside the leaf. It's a bit darker in here.
I'm using Cerulean blue mixed with Burnt sienna
and I'm also painting on dry paper here. Before that paint starts to dry I drop
in some more Cerulean blue just on its own and that
darkens that area there and it makes the painting look a
bit more interesting.
As I said earlier I didn't do very much wet on wet work on this painting.
Most of it was painted on dry paper. There was a little bit of wet on wet
work which I'm doing here. I'm wetting the paper and I''m going to
put some marks on there with the paint and I want the paint to spread softly
with the water and create some soft edges.
I'm still using my shadow colour here. It's the Cerulean blue mixed with
Burnt Sienna.
Towards the end of the painting I started to paint on the edges.
I used Alizarin Crimson here. It's fairly watery so it's not too dark.
When the pink area hit the shadows I put a bit more pigment into it to
darken it slightly. So it was lighter in the sun and when it
was in the shade it was a bit darker. Here I'm adding a bit more colour into
the shadow area. Towards the end of the painting is when
I start adjusting all the colours or the colour values. Here I'm deepening
the coluor slightly in the center to push it down further into the succulent.
So I'm painting another layer of paint over the top.
I'm using Cerulean blue here and here at the end of the painting I
started to fiddle with my shadows a bit more.
I felt that this one here wasn't quite dark enough. I wanted to put a bit more
colour on it so I wet it and then I've got some
Perylene green here. This is where I say I was glad that I
was using Arches paper because I'm able to fiddle
with it here. Whereas if I was on a different paper I
risk disturbing that layer of paint there
that I've got and then I end up getting in a patchy
mess if I'm not careful but with the Arches paper I'm able to do
that. I also decided to drop a bit of French
ultramarine in there as well to add a bit of interest.
And there it is finished. I hope that was helpful to you.
Every painting is different and it's good to find different ways of
approaching them and it's also good to have an
arsenal of different techniques that you can draw on when you need them.
I'm going to make a full length tutorial of
both of these paintings and I'll put them on my Patreon
site in a month or so. Let me know in the comments what
your thoughts are on the different watercolour papers.
I haven't used many different papers so your input is always useful to me. Thank
you for watching. A like on my videos is always
appreciated and please subscribe if you haven't
already. I will see you next week with a new video. Take care.
today i want to talk be beautifully i want to talk briefly
whereas on the blue succulent i worked mainly wet on dry
i layered the paint on the blue succulent so cute
last week you saw me use lengthen prestige watercolor board
and i've
i mentioned in another it's also good to have
good to have an arsenal of different techniques that you can draw on when you
need them i'm going to
let me know in the comments what your thoughts your thoughts are
let me know what your thoughts are