Underwater Seascape with Watercolor Fish #watercolorpainting

Hey friends, welcome to this class. So we're going to paint this fishy. So we're going to wet everything, everything. Don't worry about anything. Just wet the paper. I'm going to use a large brush actually for this because I want to cover this pretty quickly. This is a flat 60. It's a flat 60 da Vinci's Cosmos pen and I dip my brush in water and then I'm going to start with the yellows. So I want water to milk like ratio because I actually do want the paint to spread at first. Like I'm not looking for a lot of control. So like over here, around the eye is a good spot. And then here, even though we see brown, but yellow will be very nice for an undertone here. I want that pop of the color, the yellow there. And I'm going to go back to that Imi Desolant yellow here and whatever you can find, like another area maybe with some of that yellow popping in there. I want to go right away for the browns actually because I am going to use some of that Van Dyke brown. This is my Iso yellow and Van Dyke brown. So as you say, to quickly change my mind based on like, wait a second, I don't want to add the darks yet, like the blues, because that's like the darkest color. Why don't we work a little more on these fins with the two colors, which is my Iso yellow and Van Dyke brown, because again, like with the blues, it's going to be very easy to get kind of carried away and add it everywhere. Next thing we don't have, um, much light or areas where we can like kind of add the browns, right? So back to square one, this was Cobalt Blue leftovers, Quinacridone Red, and there's my Cobalt Blue and Phthalo Blue and all that. And this is where I'm going to add it. So I actually am going to go for a little thicker paint and some of the Van Dyke brown. This is darker, this is all kind of darker, more of the Quinacridone Red, Phthalo Blue, like right here. I do want the paint to spread, so still trying for that milk-like ratio, but it might be like more like a half, half and half to coming up soon. Now a little bit of that purple, just right here, and you'll start seeing, like you see that I'm kind of rushing through a little bit now, and that's because the paper is drying. Now that I want to be fast here, painting quickly, I don't. I would rather take my time. And here's the thing, you can wet the back side of the paper and you will actually have more time. I just kind of like, like keeping my paper in the block, if that makes sense, because it's just kind of like, I avoid this buckling, extra buckling of the paper, it's just easier. But it does make it easier overall when you have the chance to pre-wet the paper on the back side too, because then you have more time. You actually gain twice as much time to apply colors with a wet. So this is more of the blues now. This you can see like, okay, this is not spreading much. Why is that? It's because paper has dried quite a bit there, but I want thin over here. So now I'm just kind of gonna be really rushing through here. Um, not much time again left to apply these colors, and trying to use the tip of my brush and going for these darkest tones. Now this is a little bit of Van Dyke Brown, so I'm grabbing Van Dyke Brown and the blues. I am gonna go for these darkest places, now darkest areas. Here's the thing, um, this is so like, damp, almost feels damp. I'm using creamy paint. I really don't want the paint to spread too much, but I also like, don't want to apply colors if the area dried. Like, I don't want to do this wet on dry. So just, if it becomes wet on dry, I wouldn't do anymore. I'm just gonna go only for the areas that are still wet, where I can still do the wet on wet. So no wet on dry. If I want wet on dry, then my approach will be very different. But I'm going for the softness, and then here with the tip of my brush, just, um, trying to divide these fins. So here's the thing, if you're new to my teaching, or in general watercolors, this might feel like, oh man, this is so fast. Here's the thing, wet the back side of the paper, and then you will gain more time. You will find yourself like, wait a second, I can do this. I have twice as much time. I have maybe 20 minutes, and that's the most, but you will have twice as much time. You will have like, 35 minutes maybe, uh, if you the back side of your paper as well. If you're okay with it, I'd say go for it, because that'll be so much easier. I also want to, um, lift colors, and before that, I want to grab a little more of that Monday Brown here, without trying to paint every single scale. So I, I just personally, I can't do it. It's just not for me. That's why this is my approach, just to do it like this, wet on wet, and go for shadowy parts. That's where you're applying colors, and then there's some lines here, but try not to add paint toward the areas that you feel like dried a little bit too much, and it just starts to feel down. Like, don't worry about it, okay? Just leave it. I have creamy paint on the tip of my brush, and I do see myself lifting very quickly now, in a second, before this is too dry. Again, a little more blue on my brush, just to separate these scales without trying to work on them, like individually, just popping with a little more color here and there. Okay, I'm gonna clean the brush, and then what else? I can lift the colors. So for example, right here, wipe your brush on a towel, and then lift. So I want to separate some parts, some of these elements, and then here, actually, I'm gonna grab my favorite brush to lift colors, which is my Rigger, my Rigger size 2, and in between the lines, over the fins. It's a little late here, but I'm still doing it, and it's too straight up, like I didn't do a good job there. Right here, I'm gonna lift in between, wiping my brush on a towel, and then lifting. And I want to clean my brush often, so I don't drag that paint over to the next area, and then I should add a little more color in between. Otherwise, we can't see that this is a fin. So we need some darks overall, just to show that this is a fin. There you go, and we're done, almost. Not too much, and here, since I have this Band-Aid brown, and this is still wet, I just want to add a little color around it, because it's still wet on wet. Well, partially, the top not. And maybe over here, something like this can be easily done with a smaller brush, just to play. All right, I'm gonna let this to dry, okay? So let's walk away from it and let it dry. All right, my friends, time to add the background. And another thing is, I'm gonna use this Nightfall Indigo, which is a new color by Holbein. It's a granulated watercolor. Here's the thing, you don't have to use this color, okay? You can use, basically, like Follow Blue and Indigo. That's what I would use if I wasn't using granulated watercolors. So that's the only thing. Please don't worry about trying to match or use the same color. You don't have to, okay? So I'm just gonna wet it quickly, and again, I'm gonna guide you through, like, how to wet around those fins. So here, maybe I went a little too far. There you go, because I don't want to misshape my fish. And you can, of course, do it wet on dry, but why do it wet on dry if you know the paper's gonna dry fast and you won't be able to go back to the same areas again? And I'm actually curious to see what's it gonna look like. I'm gonna add, like, something to it, maybe if it's not dark enough. So this is the Nightfall Indigo. Let's see what it looks like. So overall, when you look at the reference, the top part is darker, so I might actually still add some Indigo. And here, where we have the fins, we have to be careful so not too much paint just flows in there. Okay, this part should be much lighter. I'm just gonna push some of that water away over the edge. It's still gonna dry lighter. And now I'm going to grab some of this Indigo from the top and some Phthalo Blue, even something like Quinacridone Red to make it even darker, just from the top. But now I have to go really close toward the fish, so I'm using the edge of my flat brush. And you can use, like, different colors. That's the thing. That's the thing about painting, like, a background or just, like, following, like, a tutorial. Like, you don't have to use the same colors like I am, okay? So here I'm gonna go back again, very close to that mouthy part. Because, see, here's the thing. What's gonna create a contrast is this darker tone from the background against the light part of this belly of the fish. So here's another way I'm going to show this to you with a paper towel. First of all, the edges of my washi. This paint can easily come back up. Yes, it is kind of like a waste of time because now this is all dry and I need to add more color. But there's a big risk of this paint flowing back here. So what's better to do, right? I think this is more important, to remove these drops. Now I'm gonna grab the same colors just to add them here. I need way more of this indie, uh, hollow blue to match the colors. And this is, this looks like a heavy cream when I first grabbed. So I'm just grabbing some more paper towel, basically, just to remove these drops. Just so it doesn't drop down, uh, drip down there. So that's pretty much it for now. I did lose, I see like some of this part of the fin. So I'm just gonna try to lift it a little bit. This should be more like separated. Let's see if I can do that. So this is a fin. So I'm just kind of adding more to it, basically. Just because it's wet on wet now, like this is wet, so I'm doing this wet on wet. Wiping my brush, even more so. All right my friends, I'm keeping everything here soft as is. I'm not going to start working on details. This was the only area of the head. And just to show, like, that I have a fin here. Um, I feel like maybe I can lift a little bit for the, um, the scales. This is my round two brush Songbird details. And as you see, I'm just looking for the scales, just to separate parts of it. And that's it. So, um, once this dries a little more, then I'm going to probably try to remove some of the sketch lines. But other than that, that's pretty much it for this painting. So thank you so much for your time, and please let me know if you have any questions.