Sketching Fall Leaves in Watercolor!

Fall has arrived and the colors are reaching their peak in my neighborhood.  I gather up brilliant leaves on every walk.  

Here are yesterday's leaves.

I picked out three sassafras leaves that drew my eye, and made pencil sketches of each, then laid in a wash of azo yellow and let it dry. This technique, called glazing, creates glowing, rich colors when you paint other layers of color over top.  

After the yellow wash dried, I drew in the leaf veins with a white wax crayon to create a resist and keep the veins yellow.  I brushed in layers of oranges made from azo yellow mixed with either alizarin crimson or pyrrol red.  I added table salt to some of the wet washes and let it all dry.

After the salt completely dried, I brushed it off and added some final marks.  The salt didn't have a big effect on the washes.  I think the paint had begun to dry and wasn't at its best point for this trick.

I love adding the little spots where a bug chewed the leaf, etc.  These create a more realistic appearance.

Autumn leaves are a wonderful subject to draw and paint -- they're small, beautiful and endlessly fascinating. And it's such a human habit to gather natural treasures, especially in the fall harvest season. A walk in nature with some creative time is a lovely way to slow down and practice self care.

I hope you take some time to create with fall leaves!

Happy Creating!

Summer Morning Painting

In an earlier post, I mentioned the trick of taking a walk and finding views to paint. The scene above is one of those spots found on a morning walk.

Planning ahead saves time, and you know just what to carry with you. I brought my pochade box, my Strathmore Visual Journal nature journal, paints, water and brushes. The pochade box allows me to work flat, an important trait for watercolor painting.

I took the photo above to use as a reference in case I didn't finish outdoors.

I also used the photo to help me to see the shadows in the scene more clearly.  Shadows can have nuanced lighter and darker areas.  They can vary from light shadows with dappled spots of light to deep, dark holes. Our eyes are naturally drawn to areas of high contrast, so these are good to incorporate into your paintings to draw the viewer's eye in.

It always amazes me how much I can see in a photo that I didn't see in person.  I encourage you to use a photo to help you see the values in your scene, but paint in person so you get the freshness of the landscape.

Happy Creating!