Hello there!
Thank you for popping by to read!
I just made my second tutorial video : a watercolor painting of a baby elephant 🙂
This fantastic animal, Kai-Mook was born in Antwerp zoo in 2009. This painting I make is a remake of a painting I made at that time.
Don’t make the paper wet first: this is a painting on dry paper. I use Arches cotton paper, cold pressed with fine structure, 300 grams. Prepare two brushes with fine points. I use a sable brush by Winsor & Newton, a series 7 number 4 (but another brand with a fine point will do as well) and a synthetic Escoda brush of the Perla -series, number 8. Real good material and quite cheap. Flexible and very fine points. You can do everything with them. At the end I will use a miniature brush to add details.
Load one brush with paint and one with clear water. I did everything in Sepia color. First a dark Winsor & Newton sepia and secondly a warmer sepia by Holbein.
After having made the drawing in pencil you can start painting. I erased the drawing a bit to make it quite light, because when you watercolor on the pencil, the arabic gum that is in the paint will fix the pencil lines to the paper and you will have trouble erasing afterwards. So unless you want to see your drawing lines, make them light enough.
I paint with the two brushes: I put sepia on the dark parts and at the same time I dilute the paint with the clear water to spread it over the drawing and make soft edges. Some edges I will leave sharp in the most important parts of the painting. These sharp edges will render the granulated elephant skin and its wrinkles.
The very last lines I did with a very fine sable brush: a number 0 miniature brush
Painting in monochrome (just one color) is a good exercise to think about the values of light and dark in a painting, shadows and light. Don’t be afraid to go really dark to make your painting come alive with nice contrasts.
But don’t overdo it either… I had some trouble here to know when to stop… 🙂
This painting is also a good drawing exercise: drawing with the pencil and also with the brush.
Enjoy happy painting 🙂
And: tell me if I can help you with some extra explanation if you have questions: comment below or email me.
Load one brush with paint and one with clear water. I did everything in Sepia color. First a dark Winsor & Newton sepia and secondly a warmer sepia by Holbein.
After having made the drawing in pencil you can start painting. I erased the drawing a bit to make it quite light, because when you watercolor on the pencil, the arabic gum that is in the paint will fix the pencil lines to the paper and you will have trouble erasing afterwards. So unless you want to see your drawing lines, make them light enough.
I paint with the two brushes: I put sepia on the dark parts and at the same time I dilute the paint with the clear water to spread it over the drawing and make soft edges. Some edges I will leave sharp in the most important parts of the painting. These sharp edges will render the granulated elephant skin and its wrinkles.
The very last lines I did with a very fine sable brush: a number 0 miniature brush
Painting in monochrome (just one color) is a good exercise to think about the values of light and dark in a painting, shadows and light. Don’t be afraid to go really dark to make your painting come alive with nice contrasts.
But don’t overdo it either… I had some trouble here to know when to stop… 🙂
This painting is also a good drawing exercise: drawing with the pencil and also with the brush.
Enjoy happy painting 🙂
And: tell me if I can help you with some extra explanation if you have questions: comment below or email me.
Hello Barbara,
I really like your work and I would like to use one of your drawings to use on the front page of my blog. How can I do that?
I am writting here cause I didn’t find any contact form elsewhere, maybe I have missed it.
Waiting for your kind reply.
Thanks
Dear Aude,
OK now I know I have to make a “contact”-page 🙂
No problem to use one of my drawings, as long as you mention my name somewhere near the drawing.
I will email you
Love,
Barbara
Barbara, Your work is absolutely amazing! I am not an artist but I do appreciate beautiful art-work. You have a gift and I hope you realize the joy your artwork will have on the viewers of your aesthetically appealing artwork.
Beautiful elephant. You are a very talented artist and I thank you for doing this video. I have learnt from it.
Oh thank you so much Gillian! This comment means a lot to me‼️
I received your email about the elephant but there was no video included
Hello
You can find the video on my you tube channel: https://youtu.be/Zia8l1LIZX0
Tres bon!
Baby elephants are very attractive for their cuteness. Thank you Barbara for this class where I was able to learn about watercolor values and working with layers.
Please continue to inspire us.
Thanks and blessings to you!
thank you so much dear Juan !
Merci Barbara!!j’ai appris qu’il faut un deuxième pinceau avec de l’eau !!! je l’oublie toujours !!et effectivement c’est beaucoup mieux pour adoucir les contours !!!!et aussi j’ai appris comme les ombres sont importantes !!!!
Merci beaucoup très cher Claude !
This is delightful, Barbara. Stay safe and enjoy your sketching. If you enjoy it as much as I do you must be a happy woman. Best wishes
yeees thank you Kathleen ! I enjoy it indeed a lot and am very happy ! 😀
Muchas gracias Bárbara,un elefante bebé precioso.
Gracias por enseñarme lola
♥️♥️♥️
I am taking your workshop on toolkit soon. i would like to know where you buy your brushes. i watched your video with watersoluble graphite and would like to have the Japanese brush with the red handle. where do you buy that kind of brush?
Hello Jane,
I bought it on a Japanese website. They ship all over the world. Here it is: https://pigment.tokyo/en/products/1368
Do you mean that one?
it’s a wonderful brush! You just have to convert the yen in your currency to see the cost and add some taxes.