Autumn Leaf Watercolor How-To

After my personal project series for November (a set of watercolor autumn leaves), I thought it might be fun to give a quick tutorial using one of the paintings from the series:

First step, sketch out the shape. I use a super light touch when drawing because pencil can been easily seen through watercolor paints but can be erased once the paint is dry. Sometimes I even go over my pencil lines with an eraser to make it as light as possible before painting. On this leaf, I didn't draw every single detail, it was just a quick contour drawing of the leaf outline.

Next, painting! I start with the lightest paint colors first:

On this leaf, I laid down a layer of light yellow with a medium round brush, and while it was still wet, I added touches of green using just the tip for smaller strokes. That way, the colors blended on their own to create a variety of shades. I went over this a couple more times, adding more pigment in a couple of places to make the color differences more vivid.

Lastly, the final touches:

While the painting was just slightly wet, I added a small touch of red for the veins, using a light touch with just the tip of my brush, knowing that the veins would bleed out wider because the paper was still wet.

Once the paint is totally dry, I do over the edges of the shape lightly with an eraser to pick up any pencil lines that haven't been covered by the paint. It cleans up the edges and makes the image look sharper. Then, I sign that sucker, and in this case labeled it on the back, and moved on to the next one.

Today is the last day to get the special introductory rate on the leaf bundles from this series. Tomorrow the price increases to $90, so be sure to stop by the shop and check out the other artwork up on in there too!