Simple & Relaxing: Paint a Ladybug on Dandelion Fluff

Hi everyone, this is Nia, and today I'm going to be painting this tiny ladybug floating on a dandelion fluff, and I'm just going to start out by masking the edges. I'm just using regular masking tape here. I came across this picture on Pinterest and I really love the soft blue background complementing the little red ladybug, but I feel like I want to add another dandelion at the back to get the idea of them floating and drifting together. I wasn't sure how I wanted to frame this in the beginning, so I just drew out or sketched really lightly the dandelion fluff. I tried to place it right at the center of the page, and then I added another one which is a little bit smaller on the top right, so it looks like it's slightly further in the background, but later I thought that there's too much space on the left side, so I shifted the main dandelion to the left. I also made it slightly larger so the ladybug can also take up more space. You can see I've also changed the position of the ladybug so it looks a bit more comfortable drifting with the dandelion fluff. Once I'm done with the sketch, I want to make sure everything's nice and clean, then I'm going to mask the ladybug as well as the stem of the dandelion fluff. I also tried masking some of the really soft lines of the fluff, but later when I take off the masking fluid, those lines were a little bit too thick for my liking, so instead of masking it, I would just use bleed proof white so I can control the weight of the lines. But if you are painting this at a larger scale, I think it would be possible to mask off some of those delicate lines. Even with this, I only masked off a little bit because I was going to pair it with some bleed proof white anyway. Notice how I've made the stems a little bit thicker? This is so it looks a bit more sturdy compared to the lines of the fluff. Okay, once I'm done masking, I just want to make sure the masking fluid is completely dry before I paint over them, but let's just go over the colors now. I'll be using Lamp Black by Daniel Smith, Crimson Lake by Holbein, Vermilion by Holbein, Yellow Ochre by Holbein, Cobalt Blue Hue by Holbein, Paint's Grey Bluish by Schmincke, and Bleed Proof White by Dr. Paige Martens. This masking fluid dries a bit more opaque, but it is a little bit hard to see because it's white. I can see the middle of the ladybug is still a little bit sticky, but I'm just going to be very careful as I do a light wash with just water to cover the background. Once the paper is nice and damp, I'm going to use a light consistency of just Paint's Grey Bluish and I'm just going to randomly paint it around. The background is very blurry, so I'm going to alternate with different colors varying in value. Now I'm going to introduce a bit of Cobalt Blue mixed with some Yellow Ochre. As you can see, there are some yellows and slight bluish green in the background, but I'm not trying to recreate the exact same picture as the reference. I'm just going to randomly place it. I'm going to slowly build on a thicker consistency as I layer on more color. And by the way, I'm still working on the damp surface. You can see this has a bit more Yellow Ochre, so it's a bit greenish. And you can also add some darker blues by just using a slightly thicker consistency. I like to personally darken the corners a little bit more, so when we take off the masking fluid, there will be a nice contrast between the frame and the picture. It might look a bit messy now, but as the background dries, the color and the blend would be much softer. I want to create a bit more contrast between the background and the dandelion fluff, so here I'm just putting in a slightly thicker consistency of Paint's Grey Bluish. I'm fairly happy with the color so far, and this isn't in the reference, but I think it'll be nice to have some bokeh effect. So I'm just going to take off some paint in a circular motion using a clean dry brush, and whatever excess paint I've picked up, since the surface is still nice and damp, I'm just going to dab off the excess on the tissue right next to me. For the circles, I like to play with the size as well as the placing. Some of the circles might overlap each other, some might be light all throughout, whereas others, I like to do a light outline with a slightly darker center. If any parts of the background is drying up and you can't really lift any paint, you can also use a clean damp brush instead of a dry brush to reactivate the surface beforehand. Then once the paint is activated, then you can start to lift and use the same method I'm showing you here. Some of my watercolors were a little bit crumbly, and you can see there are some pigments which have scattered all around my page. For the larger ones, I'm just going to follow the circular motion, and if I accidentally spread out too much pigment, then I'll just take off the excess. I feel like I've created enough effect here, so I'm going to set everything by drying it off with a hair dryer. This makes the drying process much quicker. Once my paper is completely bone dry, then I'm just going to use my finger to take off the masking fluid. This is a new masking fluid that I'm using, and I'm so happy that it was so easy to take off compared to the ones I've used in the past. This step isn't necessary, but I just wanted to help myself visualize where I want to place the spots on the ladybug later on. But after I paint the base color, the pencil sketch won't show through anyway. But let's get to painting. For the base color, I'm going to use a really light consistency of vermilion. I'm going to paint one side of the wing first, leaving a really small area following the curvature as the white of the paper, and this will be the highlight. I feel like the left side is a little bit lighter, so I'm going to slowly build the value using a slightly thicker consistency. I also want to add more of a rich red, so here I've mixed in some crimson lake into the vermilion, painting one side of the wing first, and you can see there's a really thin line that I've indicated in the middle to separate the left and the right side. You can see I've also left a larger space showing the base color, which again will be the highlight. Then I'm going to slowly build the value. Here I've added a bit of pinkish gray bluish to the crimson lake to darken the sides and also the center. For the head here, I'm using a medium to thick consistency of lamp black, and just like the wings, I've left a little bit of highlight following the curvature. Next, for the spots of the ladybug, I do want to make sure that the base color is completely dry, and I'm first going in with a medium consistency mixture of base gray bluish with a little bit of crimson lake, and against the red, the color will be a really dark gray. And as I'm spreading out the spots, I do try to follow the curvature as I'm drawing these out. Now for the spots on top of the darker reds, I'm going to use lamp black, and this will subtly enhance the highlight on the curvature. I'm imagining maybe a little bit of the body is showing at the bottom of the wings, so I'm just going to add a really light outline on one side with the lamp black. For the stem of the dandelion, I decided to use a mix of cobalt blue hue with yellow ochre and a touch of vermilion. I start with a light to medium consistency. I also painted the bottom, which I'm guessing is the root. Then I'm going to slowly build up the value by adding a bit more vermilion into the mix, and also use a slightly thicker consistency. I'm adding it to the center because I want this to be backlit slightly, and I also added more of this reddish brown randomly around the stem. To separate the stem and the bottom, I'm just going to add this really dark brown while the surface is still damp, and I'm going to slowly build on the value to create more of a three-dimensional form. Now I'm going to move on to the fluffy part. Firstly, I'm just going to fix up some of the lines. You can see the edges are a bit messy, and this is why I also recommended in the beginning to not use masking fluid for this part of the painting unless you are painting at a larger scale. So I try to use a little bit of blue to clean up some of the edges of the lines, then I use a clean damp brush to also soften the blend so the lines doesn't look too harsh and thick. This especially applies to the tips where I want it to look the most delicate, so you can see I try to just use a clean damp brush to smudge some of those lines. After that, I'm going to use a thick consistency of bleed proof white. I've also switched to my dagger striper brush to create more delicate fine lines. You can see I can control the lines much better this way, and I can even play with the line weight. Here I just try to make sure that the connection between the fluff and the stem kind of makes sense, so I darken the bottom slightly, and here I try to blur out some of the lines again to create a little bit of depth of field so some fluff look a bit more blurry and out of focus, whereas others might be a bit more defined as it's closer to our view. I just use a clean damp brush to reactivate and smudge the white, then I'm going to re-layer more once the surface is completely dry. You can see by just adding subtle blur to the dandelion fluff, it looks a bit softer and a bit more delicate, and after painting on the defined lines, I'm going to add some tiny little dots running along some of the curved lines to represent tiny little droplets from the morning dew. For the last little detail, I'm just going to use a black pen to draw on the antennas, and maybe a little bit of the leg showing as it's trying to grapple the stem, and I'm just going to do some final touch-ups. I'm going to redefine the edges of the stems. This is to make the edges look a bit sharper. I'm just going to outline one side using the bluish green mixture. I'm also going to slightly darken the center of the root, and that's basically it. Once I'm done with both of the dandelions, I'm going to reveal the painting by unmasking the sides. And here is the finished painting. It was quite a simple one to paint, and I hope you'll enjoy painting along to this one. You can also change the color of background to create a completely different mood, and let me know your thoughts and what changes you would make in the comments section. Like usual, the list of tools as well as my social media links will be in the description box. Thank you so much for watching till the end, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye!