Try These 3 Techniques to Fix Your Flat Watercolor

Hello my friend welcome to this new watercolor tutorial. In this particular tutorial I'm going to show you how you can use the free technique to make your flat watercolor to something more more into depth and the light and more values in your your artwork. This is going to be really interesting because many watercolor beginners I have seen that they are stuck with the flatness of the painting and they treat it this medium as like a flat medium. They don't get the various values or the various techniques which makes them this particular artwork in a different level. So I hope this particular tutorial will help you to reach to that level where you'll see some more depth and light and many other values into your painting. I've just drawn this side by side and I've already painted this for your reference what basically how basically the beginners are doing today and how you can transform this to this and I've drawn the same subject here almost like the drawings are same. So let's go ahead and I'm sure that after watching this entire till the end you'll have a lot of understanding what I'm just trying to explain here. Hello my friend before we jump into this tutorial I'm offering you one of the very interesting watercolor lesson and this is going to be absolutely free for you. This lesson is about how to paint loose watercolor and the looseness in watercolor painting is a very interesting subject to paint on and you should be knowing how to paint that. There are some of the very interesting technique and there are certain practice which is required and I'm through this watercolor lesson I'm trying to explain that step by step. This is going to be really interesting for you and most a lot of people who receive this tutorial so they are just thanking me they're just saying anything I'm really enjoying this tutorial and that really made some changes in their watercolor journey. So I would like you to just check that out the link I've given in the description and I'm sure that you'll have really good time with this lesson. Now let's jump into this tutorial. So very first thing I want to talk about here is this use values not just color. This is very important and this is why the lack of this you will end up with with this most of the time because there's no values there is no there's a just a flat color being applied here all over the place here right and there's no proper values has been given here mostly all of those are basically it's a mid-tone so we need to come out of that from that mid-tone you know the application of the color. So let's work around that so the very first thing I will be doing here is I'll be using the same color I don't want to deviate from that I'll use the same orange I'll use a little bit of Burnt Sienna and I'll apply here this this okay and I will leave this white line instead of you here you see this black outline but that's not the idea I want to have this white as outline here and same thing goes here as well so let me just complete this so I'll add this here as well okay so I've just added here this color now thing is what value I was talking about here is if you just have the same color here it won't look good you need to have some values here and that I can bring in just adding a little darker pigments here in other side let's say for this side I'll add a little darker pigment here this side not too much not so hard just a bit of depth here and some bit of here this side as well so you'll have a very nice blending all of this side okay so now you see instead of just a plain very flat color you are actually adding a bit of color here and that basically adding a lot of values to your artwork it brings a dimension to your artwork right you have also used this white we have just kept it here right now we'll go ahead and we'll work on the wall of this so I'm using it here again the wall of this structure and I'm pretty much leaving some white visible here and there because that's pretty much the light basically we get there in the structure and that brings a lot of richness to your artwork okay now here again I'm just adding some values here putting some depth some more darker pigments here okay let's see this how basically came out compared us to we did this pretty much the same thing now we'll work on the further one we'll use same orange color for the roof okay we have some roof here we have some roof here I'll add a little more color here for this roof and I'll add a little bit of burnt sienna into this all of this so that brings a very interesting flavor into our painting it's not just about the orange you just see whenever you are looking at the reference and you can just see what all the values are there which you can bring in into your artwork now same thing goes here as well something here there's a lot of terracotta structure in this particular scenery okay so I've just given here now you see look at here how you have we have I mean normally we see like how how being this just apply the plain color here but what we did here is we just played around we just taken some bit of you know though we are we are working on a first layer but we're just trying to get the flavor on it just trying to do something here and there to get its real pleasure of its terracotta the roof right and this is something like it's amazing okay so we also want to have a depth more depth here into this painting so far away these buildings are pretty much these terracotta these roofs are pretty far and we are just adding very lighter pigment here with the help of the lighter pigment of ultramarine blue and all that okay so that actually adds a lot of depth here now let's come back to this place we are basically adding exactly the same thing what we did here but we are not making a very plain just like you know adding we have been painting this entire wall in one color we're just trying to get that you know some seeds here something like this this all seeds comes here then the seeds comes falling it falls in this section we are still doing the first layer okay now this is all is required and we are just pretty much doing it covering all that thing make it more like a real feel to it okay now see how can you just compare so let's imagine that you have applied you painted you started painting any other subject and when you paint something like this and you apply the one single color and there's no any proper values you know one single color just applied it here that doesn't make it makes very flat and your artwork will look really really boring so let's avoid that okay now this is the this is the very first you know the idea i had now the second technique i would suggest to you is this layer with glazing this is very important in especially in a watercolor the glazing is super important layers in terms of getting this glazing and getting your artwork more like a very vibrant and more about the transparency so the transparency of your artwork is happen only through the proper glazing technique and that you need to develop what you see here is can you see any of the area where you see this the the vibrance the vibrancy of the transparent effect watercolor is known for known for its transparent effect it's glazing the beauty of glazing and that is something is missing here so how we can bring it here i'm going to show you and you need to develop this so you need to work as a layer so what you see here consider this as a first layer we just applied it here all over the place we have just done this as a first layer we got some great values here now now it's time to make some more layers we can call it a second layer now for doing this all i'm just doing here is i'm just thinking okay what are the places we can just add more value right so i'm adding this two color because i need somewhere we need a little more darker pigments here so i'm adding ultramarine blue and burnt sienna together and i'm just trying to get the the values of the darkness wherever it is required so you need some darker pigments here in this section some better things here right so this is the moment we are applying this particular technique into our artwork it start looking very shiny that will start reflecting its beauty right now let's work on this window so we have just applying now you see imagine that you have done this you have taken the color and applied it here very flat it doesn't add any values to your artwork you need to have some variation into your artwork so this is how basically we can just do it adding some values here with a proper amount of light and and depth and it also brings the very good amount of the richness in your artwork now see having i've just applied a bit of layer here somewhere and that brings now you look at here also this are these are the things mix pops out your your artwork start looking at it start showing its beauty now we have this these all the windows some of the values and everything we doing it here is with the proper help of these these values of same color here a little darker than this just adding a some bit of fun element into this and it starts reflecting reflecting its the core value now the far away this building has these windows here again we need to have some more windows here we are doing exactly the same thing what what we have seen here we are not doing anything extra the only thing what we are we are just trying to achieve here is having a proper amount of glazing the proper amount of depth okay now you see the moment i'm just trying to apply the color here ultramarine blue because we need to have some values some interesting values here so we we are just getting all of these using these okay we're just just applying a very very subtle very little strokes here and there and things are actually start reflecting its beauty can you see that and the moment we learn this particular technique if you just develop this you see the tremendous you'll enjoy like a watercolor you'll never forget about watercolor you will be always like and you'll leave everything you'll start saying no watercolor is that i i love it and because the reason i'm just telling you because a lot of people they just left watercolor because they believe they just convinced themselves that okay watercolor is not for me i can't paint and that is very disappointing as an artist as a as a you know being a big fan of watercolor if people are saying that no i can't paint watercolor because the watercolor is very unforgiving i can't manage that those things i'm pretty much you know very disheartened i mean it's a very disheartening statement whenever i i hear this kind of a statement from from people okay now see other values i'm just trying to bring in here that gives a more contrast i'm just adding a little bit of red here and that brings a lot more contrast in our painting and this is how basically the glazing happens here i see this beauty of this and i'm not doing anything something very uh you know complicated stuff it's just simple very simple way of applying the glazing layers the third layer whatever you call it okay it's just that i'm just applying a i'm just trying to apply a mold depth into this okay and this is warm you can have some interesting texture or you know this kind of a texture blending the color blends etc this is super amazing to work on okay so you see here's how the depth is actually uh developing here things are getting more darker here and then it shows the focal point and then it goes all the way the places which is in a far distance these are the object these are probably the buildings which is in very far away from from this from this area and that is something very interesting to you know very interesting to see and paint because uh that's the that's the area where you need to develop this is the area where you need to develop and this is how basically we develop it what i'm just doing it right now for you okay a lot of things maybe windows here windows because there's a lot of interesting values which you can have like a um this kind of a seeds which falls here because these are the query plot uh these are the things are very near to your eyes etc right so this is what uh is uh the your second uh technique i was talking about and this is the last but not the least this is control edges this particular technique is way way way more so more important in your watercolor any painting you are making it now what i mean by controlling edges is you look at here these edges right these edges is everywhere with the same values with the same intensity with the same color and everything is basically it's a cut out it looks like a cut out right but when you when you apply these edges in us places like a hard distance if you'll apply these edges it won't look good so what i mean here is you need to develop edges to give a focal point mostly what you want your audience to look at if you look at here you see everything here but when i see here i see this particular dome okay and uh surrounded areas probably this area where i just wanted to give a more focal point there's a more focal area to i want my audience the moment they'll start looking at this they should be able to see this and they say oh okay i'm just looking at the storm that's the idea so the whole idea here is to make look uh make people to look help them to look at the area where you want and that happens only when you give a proper amount of edges what you see here is i've already given here these hard edges everywhere right here these hard edges like in this example you see here this one this is these are the hard edges okay and because of this this is so prominent okay anything which is near to your eyes like this example this is probably your near to eyes you can make this but i've just wanted to diffuse it i just there's a there's another area where you even though it is your near to your eyes but you wanted to give a just think about how lens works in the camera okay you wanted to give a more focal area these rest of the things are actually getting blurred and this is what you need to develop it any painting you make you should have these focal point pointer the focal area where the people can just immediately go and see it okay what exactly it is they'll get an instant idea what what i'm just seeing it okay so that's the reason you see here the hard edges but when you look at these things these are those don't ignore this this is so important these are the tiny little lighter colors but thing is if i make these things so hard color it won't look good there you'll not get a proper perspective and the depth into your artwork and another way you can just do it to make enough lighter i mean the more like a wet on weight kind of things which is far distance and all i'll make a new video for that to how you can just work on that but for now this is what i wanted to say the hard edges and these edges are you know is your part of your focal point and you can just do it what i've just done it here in our second layer itself when we did this glazing okay but for you for this for your better understanding i'll just make on a very quick uh i mean one example here for you to understand now see this is completely it's it's a flat right here now i want to make this a edge now i'll just take this very carefully and this is something this particular area this roof i want to make it more like a focal point now the moment i've just given this depth here a little darker pigment okay you see here these i'll just take this ultramarine blue and mix it with one sienna ultramarine blue so the moment i've just given here and i see this hard edge came right the edge here this area and edge you see here it's a hard edge that came into existence and that's the beauty that's the beauty of having such kind of edges in your artwork now if i just make it a little more some work here and there and this example i'll make this suppose this is the another roof at this moment and this is the let's imagine that this is the roof and you got this this particular roof and things like that now you see this edge right let's see this edge i was talking about this okay this is absolutely this is the the best way you can you can make this hard edges wherever it is but you need to be very careful it shouldn't be all the places the same values it shouldn't be all the places it shouldn't be too much of hard edges if you're having a too much of hard edges it will be something you'll be end up with doing something like this a little better than this but definitely you'll have a little little very uncomfortable situation when you'll have you know giving a hard edges everywhere so just be a little mindful about that so yes this is the three areas i wanted to talk about this particular technique which will take your watercolor learning to a different level i hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you did i'm inviting you to join my watercolor art community this community where you want to be because you will be meeting a similar mindset of people and the same values and the same vision what you have and you will also have a very structured watercolor learning week by week and it's not just about the watercolor it's more about making a connection making a real connection with a similar mindset of people and i'm seeing a lot of people they are improving they are going from one level to another level and this is how their progress is happening in this platform so i'm inviting you to join this global watercolor art community and i'm sure you're going to like it and i'll see you next video very soon you can watch this particular video for you and if you wanted to be part of this patreon watercolor art community you can join this community clicking on this thank you so much and have a great day