LOOSE LILACS
Lilacs are beautiful four-petal flowers, and tiny buds that is easy to translate to a loose watercolor painting using only 3 colors from Daniel Smith. The 3 colors I used are Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Quinacridone Rose, and New Gamboge from the Daniel Smith Essential Watercolor Set. I also made a review of the Daniel Smith Essential Watercolor Set that you can check it out. With the use of Silver Black Velvet brushes sizes 6 and zero that holds a lot of water, I was able to make beautiful strokes. I finished the loose lilac watercolor painting with handmade metallic watercolors that helped to enhance the loose watercolor lilac painting. You can watch the full tutorial that is beginner-friendly, quick, and easy to do.
REALISTIC BLUEBERRIES
Painting these realistic blueberries in watercolor can help you learn:
- To paint from a reference photo
- To show light and shadow in the watercolor painting
- To paint with a limited palette
I like painting in watercolors using a set of limited colors, and in this watercolor painting, I used only four colors: Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine, Sap Green, and English Red Ochre. These paints are from Winsor & Newton Professional, and Daniel Smith. In this watercolor painting tutorial, I used a brush set from Heavenly Paintings by Kristine Art that are great for realistic watercolor painting.
FEATHERS
In this feather tutorial, you will learn how to paint using analogous colors. Analogous colors means using three colors that are sitting side-by-side in a color wheel. Looking at the photo above, you will see a combination of red, orange, and yellow. You can see also blue, red, and purple, then you can see yellow, green, and blue. The colors don’t make muddy colors because I avoid the complementary colors. Complementary colors are two colors that are opposite in the color wheel like blue and orange, yellow and violet, or red and green as examples. Complementary colors when mixed, it can turn to brown, or gray. Also, in this tutorial, you will be able to practice simple brush stroke that is essential in watercolor painting. I also use some metallic colors like gold, silver and white to elevate the painting, and splatters at the end.
GRADIENT SKIES
Painting gradient skies can be done in wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques. I highly suggest reviewing the color wheel and observing the different colors of the sky when it is sunset before painting gradient skies.
Complementary colors are the two colors that are opposite in the color wheel. Complementary colors are beautifully blended with each other if done using a wet-on-dry technique. Most of the time, when complementary colors are mixed together you may get brown, or gray. For orange and blue, it can turn to green. In doing the wet-on-dry technique, these complementary colors can be blended together beautifully without creating brown or gray.
Analogous colors on the other hand are three colors sitting together in a color wheel. One example of the analogous colors are blue, violet, and red. These colors are beautifully done with either wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry techniques.
DOOR & BRICK WALL
This painting takes time to finish because of the details, but it’s fun to do. I did a dry brush technique on the brick walls and added some shadows on every brick. The light source is coming directly in front of the door and the brick wall, so I painted the first layer of the wall with a light wash of yellow ochre. The shadows and lines created depth on the door and on the walls beside it to make it look farther. The side walls made it look closer to the viewer. I added some details with the Sakura Pigma Micron Pens. If you don’t have drawing pens like the Sakura Pigma Micron Pens, you can use a small brush with a pointy tip and add some details with milk to cream the consistency of your watercolors.
You can see my review of the Sakura Pigma Micron Pens here.
Bianca Santiago 