Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs. Mayes, and I am so pleased you have chosen to learn with me today.

We are going to have a great lesson.

And I'm here to support you for any challenges you might encounter.

Let's get started.

Let's have a look at the outcome for today's lesson.

I can use watercolours and a paintbrush with increasing control.

I think that's going to be a really great lesson and I know you're gonna enjoy using a paintbrush today.

Let's have a look at our keywords for today's lesson.

Our first word is paintbrush.

I'm going to say the word and I would like you to say the word after me.

Let's have a go together.

Paintbrush.

Very good.

Watercolour, excellent, well done.

And reflections.

Okay, very good.

Let's have a look at the meanings.

A paintbrush is a tool that you can use to put paint on the paper.

You might have used one before.

Watercolour is a type of paint that you mix with water to make it look soft and see through.

They're one of my favourite kinds of paint.

A reflection is when you see an image of something in a shiny surface just like water.

Here are our learning cycles for today's lesson.

Our first learning cycle is working with paintbrushes.

This is really important before we begin on our making marks with paintbrushes in our next learning cycle.

This is a tool used by artists to apply paint.

Have you ever used a paintbrush before? You might remember using one with paint before now.

Paintbrushes like to be treated in a certain way by artists.

Pat the paintbrush likes to have his bristles lightly touching the paper.

This is when we don't press very hard at all, but use our paintbrush really gently.

What does it feel like when you lightly touch your hand with your paintbrush? Does it feel gentle and soft? Have a go at practising now.

Try and get as light as you can, so it's almost like a Feather running down your hand.

Let's have a look now at some of the things that Pat the paintbrush does not like.

He says, I do not like being left in water pots.

This means the bristles in the end of our paintbrush can bend outta shape making them hard to use again.

He does also not like being left to dry in paint.

This means the bristles go all hard and stick in one shape, and this makes again it really hard to use our paintbrush another time.

He also does not like his bristles making a fan shape because he's been pressed too hard on the paper.

Again, this bends our bristles outta shape, making it hard to get nice fine lines when we next come to use our paintbrush, let's have a look at what happens to poor Pat the paintbrush if we use him in this way, if artists do these things, it can be hard to use the paintbrush again, the bristles bend outta shape.

Can you see that these five bristles now don't make a lovely fine point, but unfortunately they've ended up all bent outta shape.

That's gonna be really hard to use again as an artist.

The bristles might even become hard with paint, so they won't hold any paint the next time we want to use them.

This paintbrush does look a little bit sad, doesn't he? Let's have a look now at how we can treat our paint brushes to keep them happy.

Artists need to keep their paintbrushes happy.

They can do this by making the bristles make a nice neat point when they're finished.

Washing the paint off the paintbrush when they are finished and leaving the paintbrushes on top of the pot rather than in the water.

This pot has a little groove for you to leave your paintbrush in, but some pots don't, so you can just leave it to the side.

Now it's your turn to answer a question.

True or false? Artists should always leave their paintbrushes in water after using them.

Pause the video here to give you time to answer that question really carefully.

I know you're gonna do really well.

Let's have a look at the answer together.

It was false.

Did you get that right? Let's have a look at why.

If artists leave their paintbrush in water pots, the bristles can become bent outta shape.

This makes it hard to use the paintbrush again, so we always make sure we take our paintbrush out of the water when we are done using it.

Artists can use paintbrushes to make different marks with watercolour paint.

Here are three different sizes of brushes.

Sophia says, "I can choose paint brushes in different sizes to make different marks." That's a really good point, isn't it? That thick brushes going to give some lovely chunky marks, whereas the much smaller one will give fine lines.

Sophia can choose different sized paintbrushes.

What is the thinnest line she could make? What is the thickest? This artist is exploring thin and thick lines made with watercolour paint.

They're not pressing their paintbrush down really hard, and here you can see the really fine lines they're achieving by using just the very tip of their paintbrush.

Right on its tiptoes if it was walking along.

Next, the artist is trying to make some thick marks with the very same brush.

Can you see they're adding just a little bit more pressure and the paintbrush isn't on its tiptoes anymore.

It's nice and firmly being pressed down.

Not so hard though that the bristles make a fan shape.

Sophia says, "I can use the very tip of the paintbrush to make a thin line." Sophia could also use her paintbrush when it does not have much paint on.

This is called a dry brush and really useful for layering our watercolour.

So we get our paintbrush with a little bit of our paint on.

We then take off some of the paint with a tissue.

Squeezing out the paint so the paintbrush is quite dry, and then using this on our paper to create layers of very, very dry paint.

This is what your paint might look like after using that technique.

Sophia can also use a technique called stippling with her paintbrush.

This is when an artist makes little dots with their paintbrush.

Again, just using the very tip.

Here's what that painting technique might look like.

Sophia says, "This looks like lots of little splodges of paint." Really useful if we want to create sea foam or spraying water.

Have a look carefully at this clip.

How is the artist using the paintbrush to create a splatter effect? Can you see that they're holding the paintbrush really close to the paper and spraying by using their thumb? This is still really controlled.

By holding our paintbrush close to the paper, we can really manage where our marks go so they don't spread too far away.

This artist is using watercolour paint and a? Well done if you've got paintbrush.

Now we are going to have a go at one of our painting techniques together.

I'm going to make splatters with my paintbrush.

It looks like this.

I'm holding my paintbrush on the side and gripping it with four fingers.

Then I'm using my thumb to achieve those splatters.

I'm holding my paintbrush really close to the paper so I can control where those splatters go.

Now it's your turn to have a go at that same technique.

You are going to make splatters with your paintbrush.

Pause the video here to give you time to have a go at that painting technique.

Well done, that was some great splattering.

Your artwork might look a little bit like this with your splatters really well controlled.

Artists can make controlled splatters by holding their hand really close to the paper.

Now it is time for your first task of today's lesson.

You are going to use your paintbrush to make different types of lines, thin lines, thick lines, dry brush, stippling, and those splatters that we've just explored together.

You could also use flicks, long smooth marks made by moving the paintbrush in one direction.

You can make strokes that are straight or curved.

Think about which might be useful for our water.

You might create swirls, circular or spiral motions with your paintbrush just like I've done here.

You might try wet on wet as well.

Short quick marks made by tapping the brush lightly on the wet paper to make dots.

You can pause the video here to give you time to complete that task.

I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Wow, that was some amazing work and some great experimentation with your paintbrush.

Let's have a look at what you might have come up with.

You might have created splatters.

You might have tried putting wet watercolour paint onto a wet surface.

You might have tried using a dry brush.

Or created flicks with your paintbrush.

You might have made swirls in your paint as well.

Now it is time for our second learning cycle.

In this learning cycle, we are making marks with paint brushes.

Artists such as David Hockney, created "Lithograph of Water Made of Lines and Green Wash," in 1978.

Hockney in this work has used a mixture of thick and thin lines to represent water.

The artist Zaria Forman also uses light blue and white lines to represent ice and water in her work, "De Vicq Glacier, Antarctica," made in 2018.

Watercolours can be a really good material for painting water.

This is because they can be layered on top of one another like this.

Jun says, "When looking at paintings of water, I can see thin blue lines and thicker green lines at the same time." This is what Jun might mean.

Artists can use their paint to make an artwork look like water.

What do you notice about these lines? You might have noticed that the artist has used two different colours of water paint.

You also might have noticed that the artist has used thin green lines on top of thicker blue lines.

This helps the water to look more realistic.

Have a look carefully at the artist making the artwork.

How is the artist using the paintbrush to create a reflection? Can you see that they've waited for the blue lines to dry and then painted their green lines on top creating layers of paint.

Using a paintbrush and watery paint, makes the water look like it is reflecting its surroundings.

It's really effective, isn't it? It helps to make the water look like it is reflecting the surface around it.

Now it's your turn to give this task a go.

I'm going to use thin lines of watercolour on thick lines of watercolour just like this.

I have waited for my first layer of paint here to dry.

Now it's your turn to have a go.

You are going to use thin lines of watercolour on thick lines of watercolour, making sure you give them time to dry in between your layers.

Pause the video here to give you time to have a go at that task.

Well done, some excellent ideas there.

Did you notice that your paint is see-through so we can see the blues through the green? By waiting for the first layer of paint to dry, the second layer stays really clear.

Other artists might use a different technique to represent water.

"Waves," by Maggie Hambling made in 2010, is an example of this.

The artist has used splatters and swirls to make the water look like it is moving.

What other marks might an artist use to make it seem like something is moving? Think back to some of our flicks we were using earlier.

When our paintbrush moves quickly, it can make the water look like it is moving quickly too.

Let's have a go together.

I'm going to make swirls and splatters like a really rough sea.

I'm swirling my paintbrush in different colours of paint.

Then I'm going to use some of those flicks of paint on top.

Controlling my paintbrush so I make sure I know where my splatters are going.

You are now going to make swirls and splatters like a rough sea too.

Have a go flicking your paintbrush and moving it in those small circles just like I've done here.

Pause the video to give you time to complete that task.

Excellent job well done.

Your swells and splatters really look like moving water.

Using swells and splatters can help to make the water look like it is moving and this water looks like it is moving in a very rough way, doesn't it? Now it is time for your final task of today's lesson.

You are going to choose one of the clips below.

The first clip, we can see waves moving in across the shore and it's a really rough and stormy day.

That water is foaming and crashing.

The second clip has water, which is a little bit calmer.

It's rippling gently through a little river or stream.

We can see that the water is calm and there are no white foamy areas on it at all.

A gentle leaf might be moving along the stream too.

You are going to create paint marks in your sketchbook.

Inspired by the water that you see using watercolours.

You might try mixing splatters and swirls.

That might be really useful for the rough sea that we see there.

You might try layering paint to show reflections like we've already practised.

You might create wavy and curved lines with your paintbrush to show the water moving gently.

And you might use a dry brush and stippling to show different textures of the water.

I really can't wait to see what you come up with.

Pause the video here to give you time to complete that task.

Well done, that was some amazing work and experiments with your paintbrush to represent water.

Let's have a look at what you might have created.

You might have used swirls and splatters, which can help make the water look like it is moving.

In this case, maybe that rough sea that we saw earlier.

You might have used thin paint over thick paint to show the different water and its reflections.

You might have tried stippling and flicks making the water look like it is gently moving through a stream and you might have used dry brush to layer your paint, helping to create that texture of foamy water.

Let's now have a look at what you have learned in this lesson.

You now know how to care for a paintbrush.

Remember the things that Pat the paintbrush did not like.

You now know how to use a paintbrush to create a wide variety of marks with watercolour just like this image here.

And you also know to use marks to depict water, including the reflections that you might see.

I think you have really done so well in today's lesson with all of those different experiments with watercolour paint.

What a wonderful job you have done and some great artistic experiments.

I will see you again soon.

Thank you so much for joining me for today's lesson.

Bye.