Watercolor Winter Deer Stag Painting Tutorial

Hey guys welcome back to my channel. Today we're going to be painting a winter stag. This one was so much fun we're going to use so many different techniques to create the effect of snow. So I hope you guys enjoy this video let's jump in. The first step to painting this stag is to use masking fluid. I'm using my fine line resist pen to mask out all the tips of the antlers. Something I love about this pen is that it has such a fine point on it and it's a self-cleaning mechanism and you don't need any brushes to apply the masking fluid. You can see it creates wonderful tiny little spots and lines and if you mess this up or have to use something clumsier like a brush don't worry we're going to go back in and refine all those edges at the end. But for now we're just trying to get all of the tips of the antlers, any areas that are covered in snow, protected with the masking fluid. I'm also using the tip of the resist pen to apply tiny little dots even overlapping the deer. This is going to be suggesting the snowfall and I'm masking out certain areas in the deer that are going to be lighter in value like the muzzle area. I'm also creating some larger snowfall maybe suggesting snow that's closer to the viewer. Just have fun with this part, take your time and apply as many snowflakes as you want with the masking fluid. Once you're happy with the placement of your masking fluid make sure to let it dry naturally. Never use a heat tool on masking fluid or the fluid will become bonded to the paper. Today I'm using my Libenzan itty-bitty synthetic brush and I'm starting with Burnt Sienna. With a light wash of Burnt Sienna with some water mixed in I'm starting with a single layer of that watered down reddish brown and painting the inside of the antlers. I'm applying a little bit of yellow closer towards the tip, this is Gamboge Nova on my brush, and so we have this wonderful gradation from the watered down Burnt Sienna to the yellow and then when we remove the masking fluid we'll have those wonderful white tips on the antlers. So continue this process for each antler painting them in with that watered down Burnt Sienna all the way up to the base of the head. Use a small enough brush so you can paint accurately and stay inside of your lines and again apply a little bit of yellow blending it into the Burnt Sienna. Make sure you're not using too much water you don't want any unwanted blooms and remember too much water equals lack of control. Dab your brush on a paper towel to help control how much water is on your paper. I'm now going in with a second layer this is Burnt Umber it's my nice dark brown and I'm using this to paint more specific details within the antlers. Some of those details include linear texture, the striations that you often see in the bone of the antlers. Don't make it too liney or it could look sort of gaudy and illustrative but once you have a layer of Burnt Umber on you can go back in, I'm using Indigo here, and add darker values. The more you pump up your values and the more contrast you have between light and dark especially on those antlers the more realistic they're going to look. Now right now this might look really dark to you because it's the only thing we've painted the background is still completely white but once we add the background it's really going to make those antlers look wonderful. So you can see I did this in about three different layers. Since we're working in thin layers they should dry fairly quickly. Use the same exact steps for the other antler. Start with your Burnt Sienna and paint the tips of the antlers more yellowish and then add a layer of Burnt Umber using more detailed brush strokes and then you can go back in with a nice dark layer of Indigo to add the darker shadows on the antlers. Before we go on if you guys feel like maybe this video is moving a little bit too fast I wanted to let you know that this tutorial is available in real time. Just head over to emilyolsonart.com where you can sign up to become a member of my Watercolor Mastery Program. For just a small amount per month you can access over 60 fully narrated real time tutorials and I'm adding more every month. All right let's get back to the video. Now for the background I'm using my Princeton Neptune Synthetic Squirrel size 12 round brush and I'm starting with water. I'm going to work in sections for the background since I want to apply some different fun effects for snow. So I'm painting all the way up to the left antler a little bit beyond it just to make sure that some blending happens. I'm starting with Hooker's Green and this is suggesting some evergreen trees behind our stag. If you want the green to be a little bit more natural or darker you can mix in Indigo. Here I'm using Moonglow. Moonglow is one of my favorite colors for washy backgrounds because it's a tritone color and it's fun to see how the colors split up and separate when you're using the wet and wet method. In the center of the painting I'm applying a little bit of turquoise blue introducing some more pops of earthy blue colors. I'm slowing down and painting more carefully around the antlers and around the ears. Now where you have masking fluid you can be a little bit sloppier with your brush strokes and it won't matter. I'm now adding some blooms. This is something you'll want to make sure that your timing is correct with the drying of the paper. If the paper is too dry this won't work but if it's too wet the blooms will just wash out and disappear. So you'll want your paper to be at a stage where it's just starting to dry before you drop in droplets of water and you can see how they spread out and create these wonderful frosty effects in the background. Moving towards the center of the painting I'm now applying some water and then some indigo using nice broad brush strokes. I'm also using Moonglow again. Aim for color harmony when you're painting a background. If you're applying hooker's green for example on one side of the painting make sure that you're incorporating it in other areas as well. And here I'm putting in some hooker's green on the right side to help balance that out where we put the hooker's green on the left side. I'm using really quick broad brush strokes, lots of water, and even some dry brush methods so that we have some interesting textural effects across the surface of the paper. I'm also applying some more blooms on the side of the painting. If you want to lift some of that paint back out to create the effect of blotches of snow you can do that. So here I'm removing some of the paint just with a damp brush and lifting it back out and I'm darkening up here at the base of the painting. Now moving on to the deer. I wet the deer first in the inside of the body with clean water and now I'm using burnt sienna to paint the entire body. Along the edges you can alternate with some yellow ochre or some burnt umber to mix up your browns. Make sure that it's not all the same color. That's not necessarily what we see in the reference photo. You'll see different changes in color temperature, warmer and cooler, so adjust your colors accordingly. Burnt sienna is a very warm brown and it's a great base tone for this right now but I'm going to have to go back in and go much darker a little later. So I'm slowly building up that color on the body of the deer, pulling some light colored values into the head, and then while the body is still wet I'm dropping in some indigo using more specific curved brush strokes. You'll notice I move my brush in the direction the fur is growing and because the fur on this deer is quite shaggy and long, he has almost a beard below his head, I'm using long swooping curving brush strokes. I'm loving my synthetic brush by Labenzon. It has nice springy bristles but also comes to a perfect tiny point and it's working really well for creating this stiff textured fur on our stag. I've mixed more burnt umber into my paint to create this nice dark brown and you can see where we applied the masking fluid the paper is being perfectly protected so that we'll have wonderful drops of snow coming in front of our deer. On the left side I'm using broader washes of color. This is another way to apply lots of paint all in one area and then while that's wet I'm dropping in some more indigo creating the contours and the musculature along the neck of the stag leading down towards the legs. You could leave these details out but if you did it wouldn't look nearly as powerful or as strong. So where you see those dark shadows where the neck separates from the shoulder coming down towards the legs, go dark right there. Paint nice strong shadows and even while you're continuing to paint broader shapes use tiny brush strokes to suggest the fur. Coming into the ears now I'm using very watered down burnt sienna with a little bit of yellow ochre for more of a warm hint of color and I'm using just a flat watered down wash on each ear. This is serving as a nice base layer of color. In the center of the head we see some very dark red browns so I'm going in with my burnt sienna once again. Be careful to avoid areas that are lighter in value such as those patches of light colored fur above the eyes. I'm working more carefully in the head continuing to use my very small synthetic brush. For areas of detail especially in the focal point it's smart to work in layers and to start light to dark so I'm using very light values for now. As a second layer I'm going back in with indigo and burnt umber, a little bit of moonglow and creating darker shadows where I see those contours in the head. There's some soft curly fur in the center of the head. You can use burnt umber or moonglow or paint spray, whatever dark color you have to paint those shadow shapes inside of the head. I'm using short quick brush strokes to create some fuzzy texture on the inside of the ear and also a shadow shape and this is moonglow quite watered down I'm using to paint the outsides of the ears and in the center of the ear watered down burnt sienna is a good color. Continue to build up your layers, add more details. This is where it's fun. I just love painting details. I could get lost in them. For the nose I'm using indigo to paint the darkest values first. I'm avoiding the nostrils. Oftentimes on an animal you'll see little rims around the nose that are catching the light and so you can see I'm working really slowly trying to avoid those highlights. The highlights are so important for creating realism. Painting a dark shape just above the nose and smoothing that out with watered down burnt umber. You can see I created a gradient from light to dark leading up towards the nose and then since the top of the nose was still a little too light I just took some water and I'm scrubbing the paint that's already on the paper covering it with a layer of watered down paint reactivating it and then for the eyes I'm just using my indigo and burnt umber mixture. Make sure to avoid highlights in the eyes. Use a small enough brush so that you can paint slowly and carefully and be sure that you can rest your hand on something for extra steadiness when you're painting these kind of tiny details. Once the eyes are in he really starts to come to life. Now you can remove the masking fluid. You can use clean dry fingers or you can use the reverse end of a brush or a paper towel. Whatever method works for you. I like to use a large soft brush to remove the masking fluid from the paper but you can see it worked wonders preserving the white of the paper underneath and the antlers look wonderful and snowy. Now we do need to touch them up a little bit. The separation from where we painted and where the masking fluid was removed is quite stark and creates some really hard lines so I'm taking some light mid-tones and just connecting the colors of the antlers into the white areas so that it's more softened around those edges. I'm also continuing to add some more details to the head, darkening up where it's too light in certain areas. I'm adding a little more fur texture along the muzzle and a nice skinny line for the mouth, darkening up along the neck. All of these are just fun finishing details that you can continue to add and this will really help pull your painting together. Adding just a few more details, a few more strands of fur to that neck and to the chest. Now this edge of the neck was too harsh so I'm softening it by wetting it and then scrubbing along that edge so that it looks nice and softened. Now I have some white opaque gouache on my toothbrush here. I have an old toothbrush and I'm just pulling my thumb towards my palm, releasing that paint in a springing motion towards the paper and this is producing some wonderful snow effects. If you want to go back in with a fine brush and just add more distinctive snow you can. I'm also softening the edges around those areas that we protected with the masking fluid and using the gouache on my brush to add some fur texture on the ears, above the eyes and just adding little highlights that may have gotten lost under the paint. I'm also adding some more fur texture underneath the mouth. All of these are wonderful little finishing touches and there is our finished stag. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you found this video helpful hit that like button and hit subscribe if you're new here so you never miss any new videos and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment below. I'll see you guys in the next video. Thanks for watching!