Beginning Watercolor by Yao Cheng

Beginner | 2 hours 8 min

Taught by Yao Cheng

Learn the fundamentals of playing and exploring with watercolors from acclaimed artist Yao Cheng. Yao shares her process of selecting the proper paints and brushes to get started and teaches how to blend colors to create a unique palette. The essential information provided in this class will help you learn how to apply watercolor to different surfaces and create basic shapes using fun, easy techniques.

Learn how to:

Control the opacity of the paint
Blend colors to create a palette
Blend colors on the paper
Use various techniques, such as pulling and dipping
Paint basic shapes

Chapters

Part 1: Supplies and Basic Techniques
Part 1 Overview00:58
Materials04:32

Painting Basics
Working with paints17:57
Blending techniques09:54
More blending and dipping techniques 06:13

Painting Shapes
Painting circles12:28
Painting triangles07:43
Painting an allover pattern07:59

Materials

Here’s what you’ll need:

Watercolor (Yao recommends beginning with Winsor Newton watercolor tubes in the following colors: lemon, yellow deep, yellow ochre, brown ochre, orange-red shade, scarlet lake, opera rose, permanent sap green, cobalt turquoise, manganese blue hue, Prussian Blue, ultra-marine violet, Ivory-Black)
Watercolor paper (Yao recommends Arches cold-press watercolor block)
Bone folder, craft knife, or ruler to separate watercolor paper pages
Paint palette
White and gold gouache
Variety of paint brushes (Yao recommends: Round tip – size 6, 14 and 20; Mop brush – 16mm; Small angle brush – 10mm; Flat brush – ¼” and ¾”; Round oval brush – ¾”)
Water for dipping brushes (one for cool colors and one for warm colors)
Spray bottle
Paper towels
Color reference photo to create color palette (see PDF download)

Downloads:

Yao_Cheng_WatercolorSupplies.pdf
Yao_Cheng_WatercolorMarkMaking.pdf
Yao_Cheng_Beginning_Watercolor.pdf

Member Gallery

Browse members' projects from this class and share your own work! Learn how to take great photos here.

ADD YOUR IMAGE

Discussion

Notes

Your timecode tags and notes for this section

Transcript

Beginning Watercolor

Now Playing

Part 1:

Beginning Watercolor: Supplies and Basic Techniques

Yao Cheng

Watch Preview

Chapters Materials Gallery

Part 2:

Beginning Watercolor: Mark-Making and Expressive Brush Strokes

Yao Cheng

Now that you’ve had a chance to play with color and basic techniques, you’re ready to get to know your paintbrushes. This class is all about exploring the effects you can achieve with different brushes and strokes. To practice these techniques, Yao will show you several ways to paint trees and leaves, and at the end she’ll show you how to paint simple wreaths full of greenery.

Watch Preview

Chapters Materials Gallery