 Welcome to Monet Café. I'm artist Susan Jenkins. I think you're gonna love this lesson. I get questions all the time about watercolor under paintings and they really can make such a difference and bring forth vibrancy to your pastel artwork. So get ready to have lots of fun and learning and if you don't mind go ahead and like this video. Comment. I'd love to hear from you. Subscribe to my channel for more free content and if you would like to become a patron of mine on my Patreon page it's only five dollars a month which helps to support this channel, keep the free videos coming to Hungry Artist all over the world and you get extra content. So come join the family. Now let's dive right into this lesson. This month we've been focusing on autumn colors and in a recent video I did two little autumn tree studies and I chose this study to complete a more serious piece on some sanded pastel paper. Now here's a little intro from me. Please pardon my appearance often. I just want to paint. I don't want to fix up. All right, here we go. All right, so I have my studies done of my autumn trees and I did learn a lot. I learned that I want to exaggerate color and I found that I really liked some of the magenta colors that I pulled out in the second one here. And so I've got to now determine which one of these I'm going to do. I started out thinking I would do this one but I was kind of liking this one too and I I like sometimes to not feel bound by the reference image and just use it as a guide and I think I'm going to get a little Suggestive and have some fun with this one. I think I'm going to do this one. So now I've got to determine what surface will I use and That's a question I get all the time is how do you know what surface to use? Sometimes it's just having fun sometimes it's for mixing things up a bit and Sometimes in this case, it's so that I can get some Luminous color and I think I'm gonna I'm literally making this decision as I'm filming right now I think I want to use something where I can do a wet underpainting and play with an underpainting of some vibrant color to add some of the more Traditional autumn colors on top. So I want some of that fun color. So let's get started and find out what color or what paper I'm gonna choose to do this the surface. I'll be using is Luxe archival professional sanded paper I love this paper. It is acid free, of course And it takes water beautifully and it stays nice and flat the sanded surface is excellent You can get lots of pastel layering with this paper Now you can buy it in different sizes. I'll be using a sheet of 8 by 10 the watercolor I'll be using is a set of 48 watercolors by my Lang I think I'm saying that right someone told me how to say it in my last video. It's a beautiful set I love the colors. They're vibrant. It even comes with some metallic colors And I just really happen to love the vibrancy of these colors It comes with one of these little color charts and it's pretty affordable It's around $30 on Amazon and that's a really great price for watercolors of this quality again 48 beautiful colors I will have links to all of the products I talk about in the description of my video here the reference images from unsplash.com I'll have a clickable link to this image. However, I did crop it To a more pleasing composition if you're a patron of mine You will get the cropped version in my patreon post, but you guys will also see it as I paint So now I have some water, of course I have some paper towels and Just for control as to how much water is on my brush and I have a few different brushes I prefer to use a larger brush. I'm not trying to get in here with watercolor and and paint little teeny tiny leaves Or anything. I'm trying to get broad loose Impressionistic strokes of color for an under painting that's going to have an influence on My final painting I get the questions all the time. Why do you do an under painting? it really can create an impressionistic beginning and Give you a direction and an inspiration to get started when you're painting So I just dipped my brush in some water Just so you know the brush I used was one very similar to the smallest in this set that you can find on dickblick.com It's like five bucks for all three brushes. Nice cheap brushes are really good for doing under paintings I think with this one I'm gonna get a deep a deep Violet red and purple right here, and I'm gonna use a Pretty good paint to water ratio. I don't want this too dripping Right now and I want it to be a little bit Dark, so I'm kind of mixing the purple. What's it called fresh purple and violet red? And it's going to have those warm undertones Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take my brush and I'm going to hold it in a really loose way I can tell I can already get this darker. What I'm doing is I'm giving the suggestion of this kind of evergreen tree and You can make your strokes a little bit kind of sideways sometimes because that's how the trees typically grow and this one actually has some branches that are Boy, he's really busy out there on the road. I always talk about I'm on a busy road. My husband and I we hope to move we have some property where we're building but It's we're not there yet, and it's nice and quiet out there, and I'm building a new Monet cafe studio So hopefully that will happen one of these days. So I think I even want a little bit more water I want it to be a little more drippy Grabbing both those colors again. I know that there's going to be some more darks like towards the center There's a lot of darks down in here. So I'm getting a little bit more of that dark purple trees are typically darker in at the Towards the trunks they get really Dark because there's a lot of things congregating there now. I'm going to get a little bit more of that rosy color and Make it just a little darker and This doesn't have to be exactly like the tree or anything. We're just getting in some shapes and inspiration and getting on getting the the Just the concept of the tree and the energy of the tree So that's a lot of fun there. Okay. Now. I have me some nice. I love these. I love these watercolors They are just so vibrant and pretty Now I got some darks over in here and down in this area I know I've got my little reddish colored tree here So I think what I'm going to do first is get some of that in the great thing about water color is you can Just let the water flow and have fun. So let me see what color I might want to Get one of these magenta colors. I know the tree is going to be red. So I'm tempted I think I'll try this magenta color. Let me see which one it is Maybe that's a little bit too. I Know you can't see what I'm doing It's a little one of them. I just tried was a little too cool All right, I think I've got one that'll work and I'm sorry my easel is shaking I hope when I get in the new Monet cafe that I will be able to Have an easel that is stationary. I have a lot of things. I want to do I never mean to sound like I'm complaining But I do have some wish list things and I got to tell you guys that's the beauty of My patreon group. I'm so grateful any of you who are patrons of mine You have really caused Monet cafe to keep going over the years I'm telling y'all sound like the mailman, you know how they say through rain and flood and what literally through flood because My husband and I have been through so many challenges Taking care of loved ones who've had cancer the loss of loved ones my mama so lots of things and and I keep on trucking because of my faith in the Lord and the good Lord's grace and also because of the support of Mona of my patrons on my patreon page who find me often right here on Monet cafe. Okay, so I'm gonna get one of these darks I think what I'm gonna do often you can mix some colors to get a good dark I don't want to go with black. That's boring, but I'm gonna get some dark since some of these areas in here I think I'm gonna mix maybe this deep hookers green Maybe with that Usually you can mix Complements and it'll neutralize if you get a neutral color, but often you can mix a green a red and a blue and Get a pretty good dark. So let me try. I think I got that right. So let me try. I think I'm gonna try this hookers green and that Actually, oh that Prussian blue Hookers green and Prussian blue. I think those are gonna make a nice Nice dark. Let's give it a try. I'll see if I can hold this up here and show you Yeah, and I need to Need to add something to that. Maybe this purple here. Oh Yeah, look at that. That's a nice dark. Isn't it a little more purple? Look at that pretty pretty. I love that. Okay, so I'm gonna get that on a little bit more diluted It's pretty thick right now. I actually have a little section that's more diluted Yeah, that's so pretty a little more diluted and I have one that's a little more More paint to water ratio So what I'm doing in here is I'm just coming in here and I'm just scumbling in some of these these dark colors in here Just kind of where I see the darks. They mix so beautifully Look at that. That's the neat thing about watercolor. They just start blending and mixing now. I'm gonna get more of the Really dark less water and I'm looking over here. I'm looking at my my edited Study and I'm looking at my study. I did and I'm looking at My Reference image at the same time. Alright, so now I'm squinting my eyes and I'm seeing these darks I just lightened this up with a little bit of water and there's a little trail back in there So I see that it's right in there I'm not gonna try to paint it, but I'm just giving myself an indication of that and I'm gonna take some of this dark. I Gotta remember Prussian blue hookers green and purple and I'm going to get in a little bit more dark Remember I'm gonna be adding pastel to this So I don't have to get too crazy with it with getting everything just right but this is just to remind me that there'll be some Darks somewhere in the centers of the tree. I Find that when I do watercolor under paintings with pastel, they're usually kind of popular I think people are just kind of curious about it and and they're fun. Oh my goodness. They're so much fun All right Now I think I am going to get maybe some of these sienna colors back here But I don't want them to be too warm yet because I'm going to add the real pretty warm colors with the Pastels See, I think that's a sienna. I'm doing a sienna and kind of a cool red I think I'm just experimenting. All right. Here we go. So this is kind of warm But I'm giving an idea of where this one tree is right back here It comes up a little higher than halfway just right here. I need a little more water. I like how in my My little study. I had some of these Kind of taller looking and they're kind of coming down into this area I'll get some more of these sienna colors back in here They're getting a little more neutralized because I don't want them to steal the show my my show stoppers are going to be these trees right here and then I do have some nice greens going on back in here, but I think what I'm going to do is get a Maybe a little bit more I'm going to keep this cooler because I'm going to add warm colors. I think I'll get maybe some of this color and just lighten it up a bit For my trees back in here because I can add other colors with pastels And I've just got all these neat little things happening here. It's just a little guide a little roadmap For some trees that are all just kind of layered On top of each other and I'll start developing them More as I go along now what I'm doing is I'm mixing some of the colors that are already on my palette Together instead of adding new colors and what it's doing is it's neutralizing those colors so they're not going to stand out quite as much as some of the other ones and It's kind of lightening them too, which is what happens when things go into the distance Fun fun fun and did I mention that this is fun? It really is Okay, so I think I'm gonna come in here. I've got just kind of some separation here I'm gonna add a little bit more of my pretty magenta that I had because this one is my my important one One that's really the main focal point Yeah, those magenta's with that purple worked Really nicely and I think that's what I was loving in the little photo edited Study that I had I'm going over my red tree, but that's okay was That little bit of that magenta just peeking through. Oh my gosh And guess what purple and orange are kind of like complementary colors So by putting this purple down in this foreground tree when I add the pretty orangey colors on top It's just gonna really pop and look so pretty together I wanted to point out at the beginning stages here that much of what you lay down early on with watercolor is Going to lighten up quite a bit watercolor lightens up and you'll notice the more water that I add I start just having fun with it. It is going to lighten up even more We've got gravity working the water is going to when I start adding the colors in the sky It's going to drip down. So you'll see me do a little trick at the end to actually make that work in my favor All right, here we go back to the lesson see how it just makes this so Impressionistic and see how I can go right over the purple this looks archival definitely works beautiful beautifully with Watercolor All right, you see how we got that going on now. We got our main trees We got a few distant trees happening We got a little bit of background a little bit of dark and now I'm going to start working on that middle ground And I'm going to keep this even though my reference image had a lot of detail it had little Me middle ground mountain with lots of little trees then it had a huge mountain in the background snow capped mountain and I liked it more simple. I'm keeping this a little bit loose and abstract This one right here is the turkey blue. I have never heard of turkey blue I liked the set because most of the colors are named by their traditional color names, you know like Prussian blue Pains gray cobalt blue ultramarine blue, but this turkey blue. I had never heard of turkey blue before I think it's this color right here. Look at that color. Oh my gosh. That's so pretty I think I'm going to tone it down a little bit with maybe that ultramarine color. I'm sneaking in some of these Blues that are behind here, and I think I'm going to probably add a little bit more of some magenta purples back here as well But this is a good way to get started. I'm using the sides of my brush and just kind of Putting things in a general place nothing too specific What I'm going to do I'm just going to Bring my strokes up here like this. I'm just kind of bringing them into the tree a little bit Give a little influence of that color and it does it pulls up the color a little bit So be careful if you do that because I just sort of messed that up Alright, I think I'll get a little bit more This is kind of a greenish blue. Yeah, that's pretty too. Do you see how this is just fun? and all this is is a way to get started with your painting have a guide and Play have some fun. It's so fun to play with color. Oh my goodness. So I'm just gonna let that kind of mix together Just doing kind of some broad strokes in here And then I'll get that pretty blue mountain in the background as some of these are too light right here But I can fix that. Okay, some of that purple in there fun fun fun and Then I'm going to go up higher with my pretty blue Like the background mountains. I want to see which one is the sky blue. I think it's this one right here Sky blue it's right here And yeah, it is a sky blue. That's a very pretty blue. It's mountain kind of comes here it goes Down and then up a little bit I'm gonna get my shape in and then I'll come back and develop some of the color again Alright, so now that sky is I don't it's light, but I don't want it that light I want to give something up there and let me see what am I gonna do? I wish I could do kind of like just a little pale pale How about I do a lavender pink pink and it'll connect these two So I've got kind of a magenta pink and I added a little rose red to it What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make it really watery and I think what's gonna happen is see how I think Is it's gonna make the blue that I put on the sky stand out even more Things are usually darker up in the topper topper top part of the Heavens and it gets lighter as you get down closer to the horizon So I'm just adding some water to my brush and I'm gonna let that kind of drip down into the mountain back there so And then I might just kind of scumble the two together a little bit. I think I'll add a little bit more of my little mountain color It kind of disappeared I'm speeding up this last part of the watercolor underpainting just a bit and I want to give you guys a little bit more information about Doing a watercolor underpainting Watercolor dries lighter than when you apply it so you can already see that my Second level of trees is quite a bit lighter It also on this Luxe archival and with watercolor paper colors tend to just blend and bleed into one another So you can see my big main tree a lot of the teals that I added Have shrunk my large tree, but that's okay. I have so much ability to go back and add So you're gonna see me do that in just a minute I also added just a little bit of green kind of just to distinguish where some of the other Background trees were now you can see how I'm going in with some Thicker to paint paint to water ratio more paint than water And you can see how it's getting in those nice darks And if you're a newbie to under paintings and especially watercolor under paintings I mean it looks kind of like a big mess. You're like really would you start a painting this way? But the reasoning is multiple one is that it creates that Impressionistic loose beginning that already has some exciting color and even if you do put your pastels on top and cover a Majority of it. It still has an influence that the underlying color really does still have an influence But you can see how this is getting very drippy. It's all kind of looks like it's melting into All the colors into one another so I'm gonna show you a little trick and gravity was working against me All my colors were dripping down and that's why I kept losing some of the trees But not to worry. This is something I did. Oh, I can't remember how long ago it was But I thought you know what? Let me flip this upside down and let some of this color just drip and have fun And so this is a really neat way to allow trees to grow upward by flipping your paper Upside down and now you'll see how the colors start to blend and bleed into one another And don't worry yours to probably do exactly what mine does they all kind of start melding into each other But it really does create a nice loose soft beginning I think you'll see how soft it looks once I turn it back over. I Really loved the soft end result and I may have spent more time than I needed on some of the beginning stages But I really enjoyed the process and I preached that a lot on this channel Is that art is not just about the end product, but it's about the joy in the journey as well And now once my loose underpainting is dry I will begin to add soft pastels and I've chosen some beautiful autumn colors Of course, you know the traditional colors of autumn, but I have also Chosen some more unconventional colors as well that I'll even add to the in some purples and Some magentas and pinks and here you can see once the underpainting is dry I mean look at that loose color and how it's all just blending into each other. It does dry like I said Quite a bit lighter, but I just loved how all these colors worked together and now I'm ready to paint. I Am speeding up the pastel painting portion But I'm gonna give you commentary as I work and as I mentioned in my last video you can slow-mo Any of my videos there's a little when you're on YouTube There's a little gear icon Kind of at the bottom right of every video if you click it you can choose the speed and you can slow it down So you can watch this almost in real time if you choose to now what I'm doing I got my darks in on top of my nice underpainting. I'm using a little pastel blender This is made by pan pastels and I just really love these little blenders They're lots of fun and I wipe them off as I'm working with them to change colors Now I'm adding some of that gorgeous purple And if you're a patron of mine, you will get my color notes that I'm making over to the left I'll include that on the patreon post and my patrons. You're also going to get slower content I'm going to give you this footage Slowed down with a little more commentary and I think maybe you can see that the underpainting served Definitely as a guide. I don't have to think as much because the underpainting already set the the large shapes for me And it also set the stage for my color palette I'm choosing as my initial pastel layers some of the colors that I chose with the watercolor notice It's very cool. I'm even using some of these magenta's so a lot of blues purples and magenta's by the way That's a piece of pipe foam insulation I've used two blending tools in this video literally the stuff you can buy at the hardware store And I used it to soften up those mountains in the distance to make them feel really far away now I'm using kind of a neutral Earthy magenta color and some pink to give an indication of those Really distant autumn trees on the background mountain there you can see there are some autumn trees that are very far away So I'm just suggesting them. I'm not making the color quite as brilliant I know I'm gonna be having some greens in the foreground trees So now I'm using really neutral greens to sprinkle in on those middle ground mountains And the way that color works in nature is things cool off the further away they are So that's why I use kind of those cooler greens on the very distant hills and mountains. They're so far away They really cool off. They're often blue or purple And so we're really getting that feeling of distance already with the distant mountains now, I'm just kind of suggesting in that one tree that's in the front as you can see it's a little brighter and lighter in value and I'll develop it more, but I'm getting in some of that warmth now and It really is looking neat with the cooler tones behind it So much about pastel painting has to do with layering and I often talk about Layering your values that means the scale of dark to light Layering them your darker values first and gradually Layering your middle and lighter values last and the reason for that is because that's how the nature of things are in towards the inner parts of that tree is going to be dark and The lightest parts of the tree where the sunlight is hitting or light is just hitting or reflecting Are going to be the middle and lighter elements So I like to describe it as we're building the tree and the elements from the inside out and Someone mentioned in a comment recently that that really clicked with them It it made sense and there actually is an advantage to watching this in a sped-up version Because you can kind of see it come to life and see these principles Really work and go. Oh, I get it. I did need to add a little bit more dark To that tree again building it from the inside out that largest tree I noticed it had Just some darker areas in closer to the trunk and I'm going to gradually add the lighter Needles and branches onto that. So it's really like a dance. You know, you're just kind of working it and Analyzing it and once you know some of these principles though You can have confidence that what you're doing is going to work I remember when I was first painting a lot of my challenge was Not having the confidence to know that what I was painting was even going to work because these Pastel paintings and many paintings from other mediums. They go through this Awkward stage and you feel a lack of confidence. You feel like am I even doing this right? But that's the way it's supposed to look during these stages We really are again building things from the inside out and it takes a little while before they start to Materialize and become what you are actually trying to paint now I am going to say what I say in a lot of my videos. I have the advantage of watching my video footage I know not everyone films themselves while they paint. I do encourage it to do that It will help you learn, but I see so many stages While I'm doing these voiceovers that I like some of the three-quarter I would say it's usually around three-quarters of the way done and I know if you're listening to this Andrea one of my patrons She has to chuckle at me saying this and doing this all the time But maybe one day I'll I'll really stop and wait a day or so before I add any more pastel And and I might decide to let it be so I liked this stage It was really loose if I had just developed the ground a little bit more But I like the final two But a part of it is that I just have fun now I'm adding some pinks in here and this is what I was saying at the beginning about getting Exploratory with color and having some fun. I think some of the unusual colors Really make it pop and come to life. There's some magintas in that large tree as well Now I'm gonna slow up here and zoom in a bit to show you my edition of purple I love to use purple to make colors pop. I wish I knew the Brand and the color number of this purple. I'm using I really like it You can tell I've worn it down to almost nothing So it might be a mountain vision actually mountain vision has some really nice purples But can you see how that purple and some of those magintas I added before Really give that a fun look to this autumn tree I'm using kind of a lavender light lavender pinkish purple and some blues to lighten the mountain at the tops and further away And to soften that edge between mountain and sky and while I finish up here I wanted to talk a little bit more about the underpainting and you might say why did you even do an underpainting? Most of it is covered up Like I said before though There is a slight influence of the underpainting in little areas that might be peeking through and your color Does appear a little bit different on an underpainting than it would if you just Painted on the cream or the almost white surface of the pastel paper It also inspired me the color got me going It gave me an idea of where I wanted to head with some of the underlying colors Even when I laid them down with pastel Making some little tree branches here with this prism of color new pastel But the underpainting I believe is Very very beneficial to artist for many of the reasons I've already stated just to recap And I'm going to have these written in the description of the video. So why an underpainting one It's loose and painterly if you like that painterly style It's a great way to start two you establish your shapes and your values early on Three you can add color excitement those underlying colors that will peek through and motivate you while you paint Four you actually have a guide you have a roadmap your painting is you're not just starting in the middle of nowhere And five it is fun. I really enjoy under paintings I'm wrapping it up here, and I'll show you the final in just a second But remember if you're a patron of mine, you'll be getting my color notes I'll be giving you on the patreon page a slower version of this And lots of other goodies my cropped reference image. So god bless my patrons I have to shout out to you guys because you're why I keep these free videos coming to Monet cafe Here's a close-up of some of the final marks and the final which I have in my etsy shop I hope you guys learned a lot. You always bless me with your comments. So please leave me a comment And if you recreate from any of my tutorials, I love it when you tag me You can tag me on instagram at susan jinkins artist on facebook at the art of susan jinkins and as always God bless and happy painting