Note that this is a follow-up post to Painting with Watercolors for Beginners. If you have not yet read the Painting with Watercolors for Beginners post, I would recommend giving it a look before examining this post!
Painting from Life or a Photograph
I almost always paint from a photograph because a photograph is constant. The lighting doesn’t change as the sun goes up or down, and you can take your sweet time. A good, high-quality photo is ideal so you can observe details. I recommend practicing with this photograph of an apple; just follow along with this tutorial in order to learn about some basic techniques and good habits to form.
Change Your Paradigm
The trickiest part of the whole painting process is really seeing the photograph. What I want you to do is try to change your paradigm. Stop seeing the apple as an apple, and try to see it as an object made up of shapes, colors, and shadows/light spots. It’s not an easy thing to do, so don’t feel bad if you’re squinting and scratching your head right now. These visuals, however, should help you. Here’s how you should see the apple from a shape perspective:
As well as from a simplified color perspective:
Here are the shadows and highlights; all unmarked areas are medium tones:
To begin painting, you can either paint directly over a printed-out version of the image using a light box as shown in the herbal watercolor tutorial, or you can free-hand the subject in pencil. I know that you may not have a light box, so in this tutorial, I am going to free-hand using a pencil. Don’t worry about the pencil sketch looking exactly like the photo; “good enough” is just fine. {If you wanted an exact replica of the apple, you’d just frame the photo! This painting will be your interpretation of the apple.}
Paint a Base Layer
I like to paint a base layer when I am using watercolors. This is only one way to do it, but it’s the way that works for me, and that’s why I’m showing you. To make the base layer, use light shades of your simplified colors. In this case, the simplified colors are green and red. You can wait until you’re done with the “body” of the apple to add in the stem; small elements take second priority to big ones.
Layer on Additional Paint
From here on out, it’s just a layering process. As shown in the sphere video in the Painting with Watercolors for Beginners, you’ll want to tackle your medium tones next. I have chosen to use two medium tones: a stronger concentration of red {for the red side}, and a mixture of green and brown {for the green side}.
As you blend the medium tones into the lighter tones, take care to preserve your light spots. Basically: just avoid painting over them.
Once you’ve blended your medium tones, it’s time to add in shadows. I always, always paint shadows darker than they appear in the reference photo. For a long time, I was timid about adding strong shadows; and consequently, I painted pieces that weren’t quite convincing or compelling. I would suggest experimenting with a color other than black for your shadow. You usually think about shadows as being black, right, but the shadows on the apple look more purplish to me. That’s why I’m going to use violet hematite for my shadows.
You’ll want to paint the violet/purple on your illustration wherever your shadows appear in the photo. “Tease” each shadow out by using water and a light touch, again, as shown in the sphere video.
Add the Finishing Touches
At this point, your apple should be looking more like a real apple than a blob comprised of a couple of colors. It may, however, still be lacking some details. To identify those missing details, examine your illustration vs. the photo. You may notice that you’ve missed a shadow here or a dot there. Add them in as you see them! Here’s a tip, too: on larger art pieces, especially, you’ll reach a point in which you know the artwork doesn’t look quite right, but you can’t identify why. If that happens, leave the artwork alone for a few hours or overnight. When you see the artwork again with “fresh eyes”, it will be obvious to you what you need to do. Since this is a small piece, I was able to create it in one session. Here are a series of photos outlining the details I added:
Once you are satisfied with how your illustration looks {and you add in other details like the stem, which takes a minute or two}, you’re finished! I know with certainty that I am done because a few hours after creating this painting, I absentmindedly attempted to pick the “apple” off of the table I had put the illustration on. I was grasping for a 3D object!
Painting Without Using a Reference
Most subjects painted without a reference will turn out delightfully imaginative and appealing. I love painting florals and patterns without a reference {like in the Botanical Watercolor Wreath Tutorial}; that’s the “look” I’m drawn to!
Sometimes it may be impossible to draw something using a reference photo. For example, it would be very difficult to paint “Fritz the Fruit-Foraging Fox” {an adorable illustration by Teagan White} from a reference photo. It’s not every day you see a smiling, walking fox in a sweater and trousers, after all.
Despite not having a reference photo, you can tell that artist White implemented knowledge of shading and contouring. The insides of the fox’s ears, for example, are darker than the rest of his face to signify depth. The little grapes in his basket have shadows and light spots. The scarf has three different shades in order to show you the different folds. In short, White has used her knowledge and experience of drawing things from real life or a reference photo in order to paint using only her imagination. For this reason, I would recommend practicing painting from reference photos before you try creating an illustration like the fox above from imagination alone.
Using Ink and Watercolor Together
Combining ink and watercolor will always give you a striking effect. However, you must use a waterproof ink if you don’t want the ink to run when you apply paint to it! I prefer to use Ziller Soot Black.
Wait several minutes (or several hours, if you can) for the the ink to completely dry. Once the ink has dried, you can go over it with watercolor paint.
Do Your Own Thing
Part of the beauty of doing anything creative is you can ignore what you’ve been told and do your own thing. I’ve said this before, but Picasso was a classically-trained painter who could create extremely realistic pieces at a very young age. Despite his classical skill, he chose to ignore convention, and he — in concert with fellow painter Braque — came up with Cubism. That’s the playful, offbeat style Picasso is famous for.
Through blog posts like these, I am giving you the knowledge that I have of watercoloring; but I want you to feel free to distort or modify that knowledge to come up with your own style! That’s the beauty of creativity … you can take into consideration what you know, but you don’t have to implement it! If you have any more questions about watercoloring (or advice for others), please feel free to comment! Thanks very much for reading; it’s a pleasure to have you here.
Warmly,
Very nice job of introducing watercolor basics without getting too technical. I love how you are making art accessible to folks. I hope you will do more with watercolor instruction.
Lindsey, Thank you for your beautiful work and for sharing it with us…FREE!! I am just beginning watercolors. When you are drawing first with the pen and ink, what kind of pen do I use?
Can I ask which watercolor set you’re using for this tutorial? It seems as if you’re using a different one from the Greenleaf & Blueberry from the last post…
Hi Lindsey, I just love, love, love your blog! You seem to be so practical, yet so gifted – a great combination! I was wondering how you ‘knew’ to put yellow (a very basic description, but hopefully you get what I mean!), on the elephant in your drawing above with the tiger? And with the tiger, I would have instinctively painted him all over the orangey/yellow colour, where you have left most of him/her uncoloured. I guess what I’m asking is do you know ‘why’ you do what you do – (and I don’t!), or is it a case of novice to expert? It’s what you learn as you go along?
Thank you so very much for sharing your wonderful knowledge and experience – it’s a joy to learn from you!
Barb
New Zealand
What is the best way to practice?
Hi Michael! I’d consider starting a sketchbook journal — that’s a great way to practice your watercolor skills. 🙂
Thank you… This is a very good tutorial on how to divide an object into shapes/blobs of colours etc. I am trying to do watercolour right now, and I have been struggling with drawing shadows. I suppose I should just stick with painting fruits for a bit lol.
I loved checking our your part 1 and 2 on watercolors for beginners. 🙂 Do you use anything on your finished watercolor paintings to seal/varnish them, etc? What (if anything) do you recommend? Thank you.
Hi Amy!
I generally use Microglaze to seal watercolor paintings; you can read about what it is and how to use it in this blog post. 🙂
Thanks! I’ll check it out. 🙂
This is so so helpful! I’ve been fond of watercolour since childhood but I never quite mastered it and gave up on it. Now I’m set to pursue it with renewed determination, and I’m glad I found this post! Thank you Lindsey!
Oh, yay!! I’m happy that the post inspired you — thanks so much!
I had never done watercolour painting before and a quick Google search brought me here. It’s incredibly daunting to see all the beautiful artwork with watercolours but I’m going to stuck with the shapes drawing in your first tutorial for at least a month😔
It’s my big dream to paint a watercolour bunny and a feather! With a little practice, I may just about do that😊
Baby steps! You’ll absolutely get there, just practice your shapes for now! Since everything you could possibly want to paint is made up of shapes, shading shapes is a very important concept to know. 🙂
You are such an inspiration! I have just recently started learning watercolor painting… and there’s one question that I couldn’t find anywhere for the answer…
How do you hide the pencil drawings in your paintings? Do you rub them off after painting over them? And which pencil should we use for drawing? HB?
Hi Cindy!
I just use a regular mechanical pencil (0.7) to draw outlines, and I try to make sure the outlines are done with a very light hand. When you watercolor over them, they’ll be undetectable, or nearly so! If you find that your outlines are heavy, though, you can always gently go over them with an eraser such that they are just visible to the naked eye.
Thanks for the tutorial! I have a burning desire to do watercolors… but I am so bad at drawing freehand that it just won’t work that way for me. So I’m have to trace things and I’m struggling quite a bit with figuring out what I can do without having to trace or draw freehand. Are there certain techniques that you can do with the different types of brushes? Like making flowers or leaves… is there a specific stroke you would use???
Thanks,
Kay
Hi Kay!
I don’t really use specific types of strokes — the main trick is to just follow the contours of the object you are drawing. For example, if you’re drawing a face, make sure you are making brush strokes that follow the circular/oval contours of the edge of the face. Watercolor painting is one of those things you get better at with practice, so just keep doing it! 🙂
Great tutorial, Lindsey! Thanks, now I won’t be able to get that song out of my head for days! 😉
It was in my head the entire time we were in Seattle … you unknowingly had a companion in the repeating mental song dilemma!
Wonderful tutorial! I need more courage regarding my shadows… Can’t wait to apply this to my work? and your “play that funky music” project made me laugh loud enough that I woke the dog!
I’m sure your dog appreciated it! No one wants to sleep through a little Play That Funky Music. You can’t deny that you want to play it on Spotify now!
Wow … what a pleasant Tuesday morning surprise, Lindsey! As always, you’ve shared a wealth of information in a most understandable format. Thank you so much! As Bron states, simple words but heartfelt.
The Tuesday morning post was a surprise to me, too! I was in Seattle for a wedding, so I had scheduled the post to publish at 2:00 PM on Tuesday while I was gone. Unfortunately, I inadvertently set it to publish at 2:00 AM. Whoopsie-daisies! 😉
I just found your blog and I’m enjoying it so much. I’ve been doodling calligraphy on everything, and now can’t wait to try out some watercolors! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your knowledge!
I am a big fan of watercolors! I’m glad that you’re going to give them a try … I think you’ll love them!
Thank you. That’s about all I have, but it is heartfelt.
Also, I’ve slowly been reading back over all the wonderfulness I missed before I found your blog, and you are getting more excellent all the time (and you were awesome to start with). Um. I think I’m going to go and eat an apple. (Start small right? Study the apple, from the inside out…).
Ah, old blog posts! Some of them are pretty lamentable, but it’s all part of the growth process. 🙂 And I fully endorse starting with eating an apple! At the very least, you’ll need energy to actually paint the apple. Though that, of course, means you’ll need to make sure there are at least two apples around, unless you have a particularly voracious appetite.