How I Design My Animated Watercolor
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Every painting begins with an idea — sorry, no photo of my mind! Once I can see it in my imagination, I look for something to help me plan what I’ll paint and later animate.
1. Inspiration
Here is a leaf twig I found on Pixabay. It’s only to give me an idea of what to draw and paint.
2. Painting the Leaf Twig
Here is the finished leaf twig painted with shimmering metallic gold watercolor. I really wanted it to shine.
3. Size and Scale
I left it large because it’s always easier to make something smaller than larger when editing digitally.
4. Creating the Background
I painted the background using the wet-on-wet technique with Daniel Smith Prussian Blue. First, I brushed horizontally. After it dried, I turned the paper and painted vertically for the YouTube short format. The overlapping strokes created a beautiful tone.
5. Setting Up for Animation
Before I paint, I use a special template that helps me match the proportions needed for a YouTube vertical short video. It shows me exactly where the main subject should go.
6. Why So Many Pieces?
I’m not painting for a gallery — I’m painting for animation. Each part becomes a separate layer that moves and transforms when I animate it. Because of this, I don’t need the most expensive watercolor paper. I use Fabriano 140-lb watercolor paper. It’s not the highest grade, but it’s perfect once stretched properly and can handle a reasonable amount of wash.
7. The (Future) Animation Plan
The leaf twig, painted with metallic gold watercolor, will eventually be animated in Canva (a gentle float from the top of the canopy to the bottom, where it dissolves) and finished on a green screen. The background is static — it doesn’t move — so I scan it, cut it to size, and place it into Clipchamp as the base layer.
The dissolve is another matter. I painted three versions of the dissolve:
- One with a few small gold spots,
- One with many more gold areas,
- And one completely gold.
These stages will later be animated in Synfig, a vector-based animation program that uses tweening to make it look as if I painted hundreds of in-between steps.
8. Bringing It All Together
Right now, you can watch a short photo-video that walks through the finished watercolor steps. The full animation is still in progress and will be shared later.
Thank you for reading my watercolor process. Come back soon to see the completed watercolor animation of the golden leaf twig! I’ll also be sharing how I make my own metallic watercolor paints from scratch, using methods inspired by the old masters.
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