Paint Realistic Watercolors - How to Paint a Salamander

In this video we take a look at the real salamander we will be painting in this course, the Red Backed Salamander, Plethodon cenereus.  We head into the woods near my studio in Vermont, flip over some decomposing logs and with patience are able to find a salamander.  After wetting our hands to protect the salamander's slimy coating, we carefully hold the beautiful creature to observe it.  We notice the rust-colored band of color along the back giving the salamander its name and notice the cool, spunky way he walks.  After taking a couple of photos we return the salamander to his home under the mossy log. 

If you do not live in the woods like I do, no problem.  The area where I grew up in Rhode Island was the opposite of my pristine surroundings now, here in Vermont and I found more salamanders down there!  The little patches of undeveloped land here and there were very badly polluted, but nature finds a way.  There are even salamanders in New York City in Central Park, so if you put your curiosity to work I'm sure you can find a natural environment near you.  Salamanders are found in nearly every biome on the planet.

In this video we go over the list of materials you will need to make this painting.  You can download this list as a printable PDF using the link here in this section.  If you cannot find the exact materials I describe here, it's not a big deal.  The main thing is that you get watercolor tubes in the colors I've specified and round watercolor brushes in the sizes I've specified.

Here I give a quick summary of what we will be doing in the upcoming series of videos where I teach you how to make a painting of a salamander.  To start things off learning how watercolor works, I'll teach you the two techniques I use with watercolors:  Wet Washes & Dry Brushing and will give you a chance to practice the two techniques.  Using the reference image I've provided as a guide, we'll then make a pencil drawing of a salamander, taking the time to get it right.  I'll show you how to use a string to get the proportions right in your sketch too.  Next we'll put to use our Wet Wash technique to put in a layer of orange watercolor.  Once that layer dries we go in with the black watercolor paint and fill in the edges of the salamander using our Dry Brushing technique.  Finally, we add some very small highlights with white gouache to really bring the painting to life!

In this video we explore the two fundamental techniques I use to make all of my paintings - Wet Washes & Dry Brushing.  Let's keep it simple.  With these two techniques you can make a painting of anything and have plenty of control.  Wet Washes are for filling in big areas where you want an even coat such as a background.  Dry Brushing is used for the finer details like pores & hairs.  In this lesson I show you the difference between the two and how to execute them.  Watch the video & then play around practicing them.  Have fun!

In this video we start our painting of the the salamander using the reference image provided as a guide.  We start off by making a pencil drawing using a regular #2 soft lead pencil.  Do NOT use the pink eraser on the end of the pencil!  Instead of this use a kneaded eraser/ gummy eraser.  This helps prevent damage to the paper and smudging.  To get the proportions right in our sketch we are cutting a 9" piece of string and make marks on it 1.25" and 4.5" from one end.  The 1.25" mark is for the front legs and the 4.5" mark is for the back legs.  With this string, we can turn any 9" squiggly line you make into a salamander sketch with the proper proportions by marking the locations of the front & back legs!  Pretty cool, right?  For the purpose of this lesson, our line will look like the squiggly line in the reference image provided.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself here.  This is just a drawing of a salamander, we're not assembling a space craft, LOL!  Take a deep breath, make a squiggly line, and mark off the leg locations.  Then use this as a starting point for making lots of very light ovals with your pencil for the head & legs.  Don't start off pressing hard with your pencil, just make lots of super light lines and then erase the ones you don't like.  Eventually you will end up with some ones you do like and you can keep those lines.  Feel free to watch the video once, then watch it a second time and sketch along with me listening to me coaching you along as we go.

In this video we put to use the Wet Wash technique you learned in the "How Watercolor Works" video and then practiced in the assignment.  Now that you've finished struggling through the process of making the pencil drawing & getting the proportions right, here we get to the fun part, painting!  Just like we practiced, we start off painting with just plain water, no paint at all, being careful to paint inside the lines of our pencil drawing.  Once we've painted the body of the salamander with water, we add the Brilliant Orange watercolor paint and watch it spread to fill in the body.  This is a pretty simple step.  It is super important to let this layer completely dry before starting the next step.  Once it looks dry and no longer feels cold to the touch, we are ready to start dry brushing with the next video.

Here we put to use the 2nd technique you learned & practiced in the "How Watercolor Works" lesson:  Dry Brushing.  Using black watercolor paint we will dry brush the sides of the salamander, making him look like he has a racing stripe down his back.  In the next video we will interrupt this straight line with irregularities to make it look more realistic, but only after this layer is completely dry.

As we get further along with this painting it starts to come to life.  Each layer adds another level of detail and makes it look more realistic.  In this video we do more dry brushing and add lots of tiny spots & jagged lines to make the salamander look like the real thing we saw in the woods.

I think the highlights are the funnest part of the whole painting.  They are the smallest part of the whole process, but they have the most impact.  In this video I show you how less is more with the highlights.  Just a few dabs of white gouache in specific locations suddenly makes the painting look like it is a shiny salamander ready to crawl off the page!