The Mother of all Watercolor Tutorials ~ No BS

Hey guys, welcome back to yet another video on watercolour. Prime objective of this video is to show you the materials I really do prefer from my quick watercolour sketches. At first we have here is my new mixed media sketchbook known as the Koma Travel Sketchbook. It's A5 size, 128 pages, 130 gsm, natural shade, acid free, recycled paper. Up next we have Pentel Graphier 1000, 0.7 thickness, 2B darkness. I'm pretty happy with it, using it for the last 4 years I believe. Coming to the brushes we need only 3. A mop brush size 0 by Raphael. A snappy synthetic brush for detailing round 6. This is Escoda Perla. And the third one is again a synthetic snappy brush round 8. And that's it. Watercolour without water is not possible. So any kind of water reservoir is good. Having a water spray is a must I believe. So I have here is a tiny little spray bottle called the Gadget Bite. It's pretty affordable. And finally we have here is a tiny little palette called the Loom Tree. Kind of a weird name, the seller is generic. But this little palette really feels good in hand. Don't forget to spray it well before use. Okay here is a quick tip for the beginners. If you are using a mechanical pencil, extend the lead a little more than usual. So that it becomes fragile and breaks easily. And now you left yourself with no choice than to sketch like a pro light and loose. Now it's time to do some real work. I always start off with a frame. And immediately after that I decide the horizon. The horizon line divides the frame into two main parts. The earth and the sky. Today in this demonstration I want to show some big tall buildings. So I kept the horizon towards the bottom. Leaving ample space for the sky and the buildings. After that we need to decide the vanishing point. One of the most crucial parts of any composition. For those who don't know a vanishing point is a point on the horizon line. Where parallel lines appear to meet creating an illusion of depth. After that I quickly wanted to sketch the figures in the foreground. These figures are big because they are closer to the camera. For me a lot of imagination goes into making an artwork. In this particular situation the photograph was taken while the cameraman was sitting just behind those figures. So these two are the main figures. We can also sketch few in the back. Remember whenever you get a chance to create some depth do it. Time to sketch my most favorite subject the cars. Try to see the whole scene in your mind's eye as if you are standing there. This creates magic on paper. Like while sketching these cars I can imagine some figures on the other side of the street. Try to be loose and instinctive. Whenever there is an inspired thought, an idea, the intuitive nudge from within is there. Act on it. So we are almost done with the sketch. Few windows here and there. Few glow signs on the walls of the buildings. Which I'm sketching with the help of these perspective lines. Okay, we are done with the sketch. Now it's time to fill in some color. I'm starting off with ultramarine blue adding some cobalt teal to it for the sky. I would like to keep the sky fairly simple because we want our viewers attention on the figures and the buildings and the cars and the street. Yeah, we are done with the sky. Now the plan is to paint the building's underlay wash and as the sky is still wet this underlay wash of the building will creep into it creating an illusion of light hitting fog in the sky. I want the glow signs to be teal so that we get a nice teal reflection on the street. Pardon me, I almost forgot to mention it's a rainy day and the sun is about to set. So everything except the sky needs to be very dark to create a cozy nostalgic evening mood. To balance the underlay wash, I'm adding a bit of burnt orange. Now you may ask why burnt orange? Why not any other color? Because burnt orange and teal are like husband and wife. They fight with each other but lives together. Orange and teal is a very classic combination. If you have paid attention, you might have seen it in a lot of movies. So I'm adding a bit of new gamboge to burnt orange to make it a little more brighter. So we are done with the first wash. You can sprinkle some clear water from the brush to give it some texture and then dry it with a hair dryer. Now as we are done with the first layer, we can move on to the second. And for this step, I'm using Princeton Heritage round 8 brush. The plan here is to mix a big puddle of gray with which we will complete the rest of the painting. As you can see, I'm adding a bit of neutral tint to get that desired value. I would like to fiddle till then I feel confident about it. Before even I put my brush on paper, I would like to spray it well because I want to give watercolor more freedom to explore. Throughout the entire process, remind yourself about the vanishing point. This will help you create the closed signs and the windows of the buildings. It's always dark towards the bottom of the buildings which also helps separate the objects on the middle ground and foreground from the background. Moving on to the street, we'll paint it with the same puddle of gray but with a bit weaker values. Spray it well because we want more drama here. Now we cannot just drop the grays here and there. We need to mimic what's up there. We need to know where the lights are reflecting. So we'll skip the grays in accordance so that the underlay wash shows up. I dip the round 6 brush in water and pulling the water out with my fingers so that we can create some tire marks on the wet surface. Now it's time to paint the figures with the darkest darks but these appear visually wrong so I have to paint them bigger than what I've sketched. I don't want to paint these figures with just neutral tint so I'm mixing a bit of burnt orange to make it warmer. So I intentionally made some mistakes so that I can show you how easy it is to fix them. You never have to be scared of ruining your painting. Fear is your biggest enemy. It literally destroys creativity. If you feel confident while you are painting, confidence will be transmitted from the painting to the viewer every single time. No exception. This part of the sky is looking a bit too empty so we're gonna put some street lights and other stuff in it. The teal light from the glow sign will reflect on the car surface and some figures. Alright, this last step is not a necessity for you but certainly adds atmosphere between our subjects. Many people told me don't ruin your painting by splattering white gouache over it at the end. But guess what? It's not the end. I'm still painting, dude. Okay, enough is enough. We are done with the painting. Here's b-roll with the nice music. Enjoy. Wait a minute. I forgot to tell you. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button because it takes a lot to make this video. Like the video if you really did and type down your valuable thoughts on this video in the comment box below. And if you are interested in pen and ink, you must check A Bottle Ink, my new channel on ink and ink wash. The reference image of this painting will be posted on the community tab but will be available only for the channel members. Alright folks, I'll see you in the next one. Stay safe. Bye-bye.