Spring series Episode 3: Red plum blossom Chinese painting tutorial

Hi everyone, I'm Kate. Welcome back to my channel. Today we're going to paint something a bit more traditional and this is the red plum blossom. Let's get started. I'm starting with some flowers. The red flowers is a mix of orange color and the china red. I'm painting a couple of clusters of flowers first before I paint the tree branch because I want these flowers to be shown on the foreground. The tree branch is going to be in black ink so it will be really strong and dark. I cannot cover the black ink with any colors other than the ink itself. So I'm painting some flowers first. Now I'm switching to use a large brush to paint the tree branch. The main branch is and then when it branches out then it will be thinner. I'm using the same brush to paint the thinner branches but if you are more comfortable with the smaller brush just go ahead and use the smaller brush because it is easier to control. I just like to use a large brush because I can get some raw look. Every artist is very different. I've seen some artists use different brush for a different color or a different brush for a different type of strokes so go ahead if you have the tools and use whatever you have to paint. By the way if you are new to my channel the large brush that I'm using right now is made of goat's hair which is soft and the small brush that I'm using is made of wolf hair and it is stiffer. Plum blossom is one of the most popular flowers in Chinese culture. Other than the beauty and fragrance plum blossom is one of the four gentlemen in Chinese art. The four gentlemen is the collective term of four selected plants that symbolizes some of the Chinese virtues. Each of the flowers represents a season orchid for the spring, bamboo for summer, chrysanthemum for autumn and plum blossom for the winter. It is because plum blossoms in the winter and it is a harsh winter condition so its perseverance is considered one of the significant Chinese virtues. There are a lot of different species of plums. The Chinese plums are in white color, pink close to red and some light green color. I'm painting this red color this week because it is Chinese New Year and I like it to be a bit more festive and happy. Now I'm adding a bird on the tree branch. The belly is a mix of yellow, orange and red color. For the wings, tails and the hat I'm using black ink that goes well with the painting. And this is the second bird it's flying and the beaks are in orange color. The flying bird's wings is outside of the paper and that's okay. I'm using ink to paint the pistols. In the real world they should really be in yellow color but it won't show. So in traditional Chinese watercolor then we use ink. A lot of artists would use a finer brush to paint finer lines and small details like this. I don't have a smaller or finer brush so I'm using the same brush that I use for the rest of the painting. But if you do have a smaller brush or finer brush then go ahead and use your own tools because it will add some more details to it. I'm adding a touch of splashes with orange and red color. You're not going to use a single color for the splashes because you want some variations and gradients as if there are some flowers that are smaller or further away. Thanks for watching. I hope you like this video. Please subscribe and press the bell notification button if you haven't already. I'll see you in my next video.