Otter in line and wash

Line and wash is where painting meets drawing and in the ideal world the sum of the parts is greater than the individual elements. In this course, we will paint a lively and loose portrait of an otter using a scribble ink line and then adding washes of transparent watercolour.

It is suitable for those with no experience of line and wash, but a little experience with watercolour is assumed (mixing a wash, working wet on dry and wet in wet).

Please watch the introduction video and check out the materials list to see if it is the right course for you. During the course you will learn many different skills which you can use throughout your art practice, including planning, exploring alternative colour combinations, combining line work and watercolour to their best advantage, making the line work full of character and allowing colours to mix on the paper surface.

You can build your painting and drawing skills, at your own pace, at a time to suit you. These are recorded in full time - no skipping the important parts! All lessons are pre-recorded, so that you can access them at any time from anywhere in the world and repeat them as often as you want. You have lifetime access.

You are also invited to join my online community, which is a great place to share your art, ask for tips or get to know other artists from around the world. You can join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/watercolourstudiowithlizchaderton/

The original reference photo comes from Pixabay. This site is incredibly useful, offering royalty free photography which artists can safely use without infringing copyright. It is free to join at www.pixabay.com.

In this video we will start with the original reference and decide how we want to crop it, what format we wish to work in and what size we will paint.

Spending a few minutes planning helps us immeasurably.

In this video we will learn techniques for accurate and confident drawing. We will look for shapes within our subject, learn to compare proportions, look at vertical and horizontal lines and also touch upon a few ways of checking the accuracy of what we have done.

Even if you are not confident in your drawing skills, let me assure you that you can do it. Drawing is a muscle which needs regular exercise to strengthen and hone. We can get very rusty if we don't draw regularly.

However, I have also provided a traceable outline if that is your preference.

Anyone can scribble, can't they?

In this video, I share lots of tips for creating flowing random scribble, showing you what happens when you change your pen size and how to loosen up if you feel a bit tight.

I suggest you start with a few simple geometric shapes, to really get the ink flowing.

Now that you are all warmed up, it is time to start inking your otter. This video takes you through each stage in real time.

Masking fluid, also known as frisket or drawing gum, is a tool to help us paint complicated light subjects against a dark background. In this video I share some of the do's and don'ts.

Now that you understand some of the pros and cons of masking fluid (frisket/drawing gum), you can apply it to the inked otter and allow it to dry, before moving on to the watercolour.

Colour brings emotion to our paintings, while the tone (the light and dark) helps to define volume. As long as we get a good tonal range and stick to the tonal map of our subject we can use whatever colours we like. In this video I share how I select my colours and the properties I am looking for.

While you are welcome to use the same colours as me, I would encourage you to experiment and select a palette which appeals to you.

At last it is time to add washes of colour to our otter. Join me as I allow watercolour to do its magic!

Mistakes happen to the best of us! After my first layer of watercolour, I felt there was something missing. In this video I show you how I selected another colour to add to my painting and how I integrated it into the piece so that it didn't look like an afterthought.

We also remove the masking fluid and add final touches.

I hope you have enjoyed this course. In this video I share a few ideas of what you can do next.

Don't forget to join my Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/watercolourstudiowithlizchaderton/ to share the results and please tell your arty friends if you have enjoyed this course.

You might be interested in other line and wash courses which you can see here on Liz Chaderton Studio.