Acorns and maple leaf watercolor tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Linda here the frugal crafter
and I got a request from YouTube viewer
Tiffany who asked me if I could do um
the leaf tutorial with traditional
paints watercolor paints so I said sure
and what we're gonna do here I described
the leaf from my front yard we're gonna
trace it cuz remember there's nothing
wrong with tracing especially when
you're first learning because you're
actually going to draw things the way
they actually are instead of how your
brain thinks they are you can draw this
with a pencil or I'm just using a
watercolor pencil this is one of the
inktense pencils they are my favorite
and I get asked about watercolor pencils
quite a bit I really like these they are
expensive just like any artist quality
watercolor pencil um so you know you
really have to decide whether you want
to make that investment I think if you
buy them by the piece by the pencil
they're between two and three dollars a
pencil or you can get a set and save
some money does a little buggy on there
stick I just got this in my yard I'm
getting a send-up I'm taking outside
after after I'm done this video then you
go back on that leaf there dude there we
go you just hang out there you'll go
back upside when I'm done and I'm gonna
also put a couple acorns in here I
wanted to make it a little different
than the oven the watercolor pencil
tutorial I had just done so I'm just
gonna sketch on my little acorn here I
want to put a couple of them on there
cuz I likey corns we have a couple big
oak trees out front in our yard um got
that one and I'm just kind of setting
these to the side where I'll be able to
see them while I paint and maybe I'll
just do these two little caps that are
kind of hooked together maybe I'll do
ones with acorns on them let's see how
do they looks like just you know I just
start off with a sketch and these are
watercolor pencils so I will be able to
I turn them into paint when I go to
paint them you can always sketch on a
separate piece of paper though and then
I transfer your design on with um with
like some graphite paper not carbon
paper they make graphite paper and you
can reuse it over as iliyan times and it
is
so that you don't damage your watercolor
paper or whatever you're working on all
right so this is going to be that's how
it's going to be it's gonna be right
setup for you and that way it will fill
the screen a little bit better so I've
got all my items over there so I can
look at it while I pay I'm going to zoom
in a little bit though so you can see my
painting better now you if you're
watching this on youtube there's like a
little button in the corner and you can
click it and make it big if you want and
if you need to you can pause it so what
I've done is I sprayed my watercolor
palette and I'm going to use my flat or
angled you use an angled or a flat
whatever or whatever brush you have it
doesn't even have to be this brush I'm
going to wet the the leaf right up to
the edges some of that I want to go
right into that watercolor pencil
because I want that to kind of get
locked into the paper so when I go to
paint a background if I decided needs
one I won't end up having that line
smeared into my background so if I'm
talking fast I apologize I was just down
at the school we're having a big the
school has a big Halloween party every
year and my son's on Student Council and
I went to take him down because he was
volunteering to decorate the Haunted
hallway if I cut harrangue into doing a
little more volunteering I decorated
last night but uh they needed a little
more help this morning there's so much
work to be done I don't think anyone
ever realizes what goes on to make the
the kids parties happen at the school a
lot of work that your your school's PGG
is a very a very hardworking group I can
or PTA is a very hardworking group I can
assure you all right I've got some
cadmium red there I mean I put some
cadmium yellow I'm just going to get
some ice fall colors going on my palate
here and little SAP green which is I
think my favorite color
I think SAP green is just as lovely all
right and maybe a little yellow ochre
you can use raw Sienna if you don't have
yellow ochre
and let's start with that so what I'm
going to do and maybe a little little
Bootsy an O or Indian red whatever you
have there for a warm brown all right so
what I'm going to do is I'm just going
to start adding some color in on my leaf
you can use whatever brush is
comfortable for this I'm just going to
keep going back and forth with my
different colors putting it here and
there I don't want to over blend I
really want the paint to do its thing so
I'm just kind of placing it in there and
letting the paint and the paper do what
it wants so I think when people um say
that their paint looks muddy it's
because they're they're messing with it
too much you really need to let your
paint do its thing it knows what to do
it's going to look better if you just
let your pain to its thing than if you
try to force it to do what it doesn't
want to do I think that's why people
find watercolor to be the most difficult
medium is because like when you're doing
an oil painting or an acrylic you can
paint over a mistake you can sit there
and mess with it for hours if you want
to to get it just the way you want it
but watercolor if it kind of has a mind
of its own and it wants to do its own
thing and you kind of have to respect
that now my leaf doesn't have I don't
want to move that leaf because I don't
want to drop that bug under my painting
my lip doesn't have any great net but I
know sometimes that these maple leaves
do so I'm gonna put some in there it's
my artistic license and as it mixes with
the red it does turn a little brown but
that looks natural and I want to drag
that um that red down into my stem oh
right
now I think I want just a few little
darker areas on some of the edges of my
leaves remember this is going to dry a
lot lighter what I'm going to do is make
a dark with my favorite mix we all know
what that is if you've been watching my
tutorials it is ultramarine blue and
burnt sienna
very natural dark and a little bit more
of the burnt sienna because I wanted a
little warmer just dripping some of that
in there and I can use
the tip of my brush is to give a little
bit of definition and just kind of trace
my edges if I feel like I've lost it or
maybe some of my paint has gone outside
of the edges I can kind of define them a
little bit and just add a few little
specks here and there because you don't
want it to be exactly perfect that's not
how our leaves look they have speckles
and you know little bites taken out of
them from our little buggies that are
living in the trees it's not perfect now
while this is wet we're going to use our
favorite tool my favorite tool the cut a
piece of credit card so the next time
you want those those uh you have a
leftover gift card you've used up don't
throw it away use it for your painting
and we're just gonna scrape in a few of
the veins and this looks really natural
because um you're just darkening the
colors are already there you're not
adding something completely new now I
just really like that look I'm gonna
leave that to dry and while that's
drying we're gonna pop over here and
work on our little acorns and I am going
to switch to a round brush because
remember how I said before well if
you've been watching my tutorials I say
match the brush with the thing you're
painting so I think a little round brush
is gonna paint those acorns really well
I'm gonna first go in and I'm going to
just wet the Acorn and give it a base
color I'm not going to worry about the
cap being separate from the acorn nut at
this point I'm just going to wet them
and throw in some base color it's
actually kind of pretty with this uh
just as watercolor pencil that I chose I
used an intense amber color pencil I
really enjoy those pencils um pretty
much everyone to know that that's it has
them says they really are happy with
them but you can always buy one or two
at a time and see if you like it before
you invest in too many of them all right
so I'm going to use a college of already
use because that's how I roll I don't
like to have discord I like to have
harmony in my paintings so I'm gonna go
in some of that brown
I throw in some SAP green got out of the
lines it's gonna turn into a bigger
acorn because of that
well my print my yellow ocher just
trying to keep the solo out of it I'm
not going to worry about about any
detail at this point that will come
later and we're going to fatten the sky
up because I made it to be a guy when I
was out of the lines there a little bit
that's alright he'll be behind this one
they're not a big deal alright now I'm
going to go over to my heat gun and dry
this up so we can add the final touches
okay I just dried that with my heat gun
and I'm going to define these little
acorns so I'm going to make a darker cap
color I'm going to use my burnt sienna
and ultramarine I want to get it a
little bit darker and I'm going to go in
just put a little bit of a definition on
that little more burnt sienna for the
stem there
take time you know you want to spend
well I see take your time but you don't
want to spend so much time on it that
you're like overworking it but you do
want to UM but you know you do want to
make sure that you're not rushing you
know if you're trying to keep up with
the with the video here and you're
painting right along with me then pause
it and you know wait until you've got it
just the way you want it and go ahead
and start the video up again you know
it's going to be there forever you can
always go back in and check it out
well that's drawing I'm just going to
scooch over to the leaf a little bit and
add a little bit of definition add some
of those little specks and spots these
like leaves get usually around the edges
just to make it look a little more
natural
doesn't have to be perfect you want to
perfect you want to look like it
actually is growing out their nature and
maybe a little bit more dark on that
leaf on the stem
I'm going to block that a little bit I
feel like that's going to run into the
Acorn itself and then want to lift it
out a little bit that a little bit to
have a little line there that's not
quite right so we'll lift that little
yellow ocher on that to kind of make it
come forward because that's the acorn
cap in front I think the hardest thing
about water colors and I suggest letting
it dry so you can get into the next part
it's give me so frustrating because you
just want to move on to the next part
and sometimes a lot of times I'll have
several watercolor paintings going at
once because I'm impatient and I want to
get to the I want to finish it up maybe
I don't want to use my heat gun I'll
just get to it
alright I'm going to flip this around
because I want to see what it's going to
look like right-side up so I'm going to
work at it working from the other side
for a minute just to uh just to see no
acorn caps have a little bit of texture
on the little cross-hatching texture so
I'm going to do that with my credit card
here depending on how wet or dry your
acorns are you'll either lift up and
scrape away paint or you will describe
the paper and make the lines darker and
that's alright it just gives you a
little bit of a little bit of interest
well the acorns are drying and I've got
this turn right set up for me upside
down for you I'm going to add a shadow
and I'm going to sideload it and I'm
going to do um kind of like a grayish
blue so I'm gonna mix my um ultramarine
and think I'm a little SAP in there
green it up a little bit and a little
burnt sienna because I do I want it I
want it to have a colorful shadow but I
don't want it just gray I want to kind
of like a bluish gray nice and cool
alright so what I'm going to do is I'm
going to blot my brush off and just pick
up the color in the corner and then I am
just going to
go around the edge and see how the color
just kind of floats out like that if I
get it looks too hard of an edge for me
then I'll just go in with the plain
water and feather it out some more here
on the stem I think I'll just go right
along the edge because I do have a
little bit harder of a shadow there
under the stem and it wouldn't
necessarily be touching it if the stem
is up higher
can't put a shadow on the egg under the
cones yet because they are still too wet
and I will just end up bleeding my color
out I'm just going to go along the edges
here now what is too soft the fused
shadow
and if I move my leaf over I can show
you what I mean because that's just kind
of shot I'm getting on the leaf right
now so if I set that here you can see I
think you can see I'm not sure with the
with the video camera if you can see
I've got a lot of light pointed here but
the shadow under there especially like
under the tip is just very soft and
blurred because how the leaf bends and
curls and you know more light gets under
here and less there I want a little bit
of a shadow under that side but just but
very little so I'm just getting a tiny
bit of paint and like I mentioned before
move your your paper so that you can
reach and paint comfortably just a very
very soft shadow and I'm not going to go
under the stem on this side look a
little hard edge there I'm going to
paint right over that and lift up that
hard edge and just smooth it out that
happens sometimes if you get a little
bit extra water pulled up you'll get
this weird hard edge and I don't like
that so I'm just wetting over that I
hope you can hear me I'm kind of getting
into mellow mode sometimes I mumble i
mumble in belo mode times see if your
paper is cool to the touch your paint is
still wet so what I'm going to do is go
over dry it one more time and come back
and finish it up all right
that's dry so I'm going to put some
shadows under the acorns and we will be
done I think I will stamp a little
sentiment on there as well so that it
can be a lovely greeting card so right
it's right in it for me upside down for
you at the moment cuz I need to be able
to get under here and I am just going to
put in this aside loading by the way
just a little bit of a shadow to help
ground these elements and I'm just going
to work with the tip here and get in
there
there we go and soften it out with some
water if it got to darkest little too
dark here so gonna soften out a little
water and I'm getting a little backwash
so I'm just gonna paint over there lift
make it all the same wetness so that I
don't get that weird line I'm just kind
of wiggling a little bit of a shadow in
there
I know I want a little bit darker where
they're close together because less like
light less light would get in there
and maybe got that shadow a little bit
over here and maybe just just a blur
over there just a little bit there to
ground it and there you go it's a pretty
easy easy painting project and you can
go find these items in your yard
hopefully and then you cannot have
something to go by as you paint I do
think the shadow should be a little bit
darker on the under the acorns because
they are a heavier more solid item so
they would have more shadow than the
then the leaf
I want to stamp a sentimental in there
so what I'm going to do is use this as a
wood not one so it might not work as
well as the as the acrylic ones I've
been using some of our gonna very
carefully ink it up so they don't get
any ink on the background of the stamp
hopefully I think this is I don't know
where the stamps from I'm thinking it's
stamping up but I couldn't not hundreds
in Shore I'm gonna try to line it up
good pardon my my head in the shot and
they're on that bed so there we have it
our finished card in eighteen and a half
minutes it was slightly quicker than the
color pencil card there you have it I
want to thank you so much for watching
if you like this video please give me a
thumbs up if you have a suggestion for a
future painting tutorial leave a comment
and I will do my best thank you so much
for watching until next time happy
crafting