Fall Leaf Watercolor Painting Tutorial Video Lecture - Master the Art

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today by request I'm going to show you
how to paint this leaf that I painted on
vacation and um so that you can see it
I'm gonna draw it fairly darkly with
water-soluble colored pencils these are
the spectrum aqua blends which are kind
of neat these are the ones I'm keeping
on my table at all times because they're
light fast and that's not something you
normally see with a watercolor pencil so
um that's all I'm kind of using these
more than anything else at the at the
moment so the first thing I'm gonna do
and if you're at home you could draw
this with a regular pencil you could
draw this on like a scrap paper and
transfer a transfer paper or a light box
or your window or whatever and that we
can always use your drawing again if you
do that so I'm gonna be pretty dark with
my lines here and I am just kind of
looking at my leaf and sketching it but
you know what you can do you can always
go outside pick up a leaf this is just a
maple leaf and trace it it may be like
this one's kind of curved and we have a
little foreshortening so that's a little
you wouldn't get that from tracing but
if you just want to paint a leaf and
you're a little intimidated by the
drawing go ahead and do that because
it'll get you to the point where you're
painting and tracing will teach you how
to draw it don't let anybody tell you
that it's bad it's it'll get you there
okay and then I'm actually going to
switch over to the screen one because
this these are these lines are going to
liquify and it's gonna mix in with
whatever I have for paint so I want to
make sure I don't have any colors where
I don't where I don't want them oh
please excuse I'll if I mention this
please excuse any weird noises you hear
it is the weekend there's a there's a
lot of cutting noises going on here
because my family's home and that's a
good thing okay so now we are going to
wet the area and use some of these
colors here I'm using my Cottman
watercolors they are a student line of
paint so they're not anything crazy
expensive you can find them at any of
your craft stores pretty much and I'm
just using this um this uh faux kolinsky
brush so I'm gonna start just by no
wedding I want to get these lines let
them soften a little bit be careful not
to wet outside of
or leaf because if you do that it's
going to feather your colored pencil
line so what I'm just trying to do is
just dance the brush right up against
those lines to liquefy my color on this
area here with leaf is turn that's gonna
be light so I'm just gonna leave that
alone for right now because I don't want
the darker color that I'm gonna have on
the inside to blend now if you are water
coloring and you're a beginner and
you're having a hard time with your
paper pilling like the paper coming up
it may be inexpensive that your papers
inexpensive but it might be your brush
is too stiff so if that happens try a
softer brush now if your water coloring
and you can't get your colors dark
enough it could be that your brush is
too soft and it's just not releasing
enough pigment when you go to lift it
off the pans one thing I do if I'm using
student grade paints is I will take a
spray bottle and I will spray my paints
before I begin and that that really
helps the the colors blend so I'm going
to start off with some cadmium red deep
and if you're using the American version
of the Cotton's you'll notice that these
are actually real cadmium x' if you're
using the European version they use hues
I believe there's like more regulations
on what they can use in paints that
might have been like a cadmium ban or
something out at one point so so that's
the difference between those two sets
and and I'm using the American set here
which has 24 whole pans the European set
has 45 half pans they're both fantastic
sets and if you shop around you can get
them for a song right now because I
think they're changing their packaging
that's what I've been told so the
paint's gonna be still good it's not
gonna go bad not with watercolor anyway
so you might as well you know if you're
looking to buy but wants cheaper I don't
need a fancy new palette I'm more
concerned about the paint that's in
there than the then you know how modern
my palette is and I don't mind the
plastic some people don't like the
plastic but I don't mind it now I'm
gonna go in with some CAD yellow now you
will notice if you're using a genuine
cadmium versus a hue that it's a very
strong color a little bit goes a long
way
really high tinting strength so you can
water it down quite a bit because
cadmium pigments tend to be more opaque
on their own but because there's such a
bright color in such a strong color you
can you can tint them down you can add
water to them to make them more
transparent they're still nice and
bright and they're also very light fast
because they're a mineral based pigment
I'm gonna do a little SAP green in the
middle you know this SAP green I have
refilled I know it's gonna be strong
because it's one that I've refilled with
my M gram so I'm tapping it off of my
pallet a bit just to make sure I don't
have any big globs of paint they'll be
difficult to control and my my papers
are wet so it's gonna feather so I don't
wanna I don't want to drag it over the
redder I'm gonna get Brown you can't
have some Brown in your fall leaves
that's totally fine but I just want to
make sure I can control it a little bit
and so this is also the SAP green for my
brush but it's also liquefying the the
SAP green pencil now if all you have is
pencils watercolor pencils that is a
great thing you can use you can pick up
color from the tip of your pencils take
your wet brush lift it like that and
paint right along with me just like you
had a pan of paints or you could gently
color it in and then you could and then
you could just brush over it with the
water I find when I'm using watercolor
pencils I prefer a synthetic brush that
is like a traditional synthetic not a
super soft one because it has a harder
time dealing with the pigments now I do
want a little bit of a brown in there
but instead of mixing on the paper what
I'm gonna do is take a little bit of
that CAD red that I was using and mix it
in with my brown with my green and see
how it makes it pretty Brown there you
know if I want it a little warmer I'll
use more red I can even add a little
yellow in there get just the right color
that I want and then I can throw some of
that in here and there I do
it's these neutrals that are gonna make
your brights seem brighter so this is
what we call an overall wash and there's
the noise and how is talking about that
would probably get that's the the water
pump because our laundry is going but
I'm almost at the point where I need to
let this dry anyway so I'm just gonna
finish putting in this wash of color and
then I will pause the video and come
back once it's all
and another thing I want to point out is
that you want this all drawing at the
same rate so if you see some parts
starting to drive another practice
really wet then just kind of go in there
and and re wet those areas so they dry
at the same rate otherwise you're gonna
have some back washes and some blooms
which can be pretty but for this leaf
it's not really gonna go with it so so
just make sure everything's drying at
the same rate at this point if you want
to adjust your colors like add more red
you can do that just blot your brush if
it's really wet because you do not want
to add a bunch of really wet liquid on
top of this or you will get the back
runs alright so at this point I'm gonna
let it dry and we'll be back when this
is dry okay this is all dry the next
thing I'm gonna do is use a white gel
pen and go in and put the veining on my
leaf and feel free to turn your work so
that it's comfortable for you to manage
and what this is going to do is give us
those nice bright highlights but they're
gonna be too bold if we just left them
alone so I kind of like to put them in
here at this point because we can wash
over them to tone them down later so
it's kind of a neat trick this is just a
little greeting card that I'm working on
extract more 140-pound watercolor
greeting cards and I just get them you
can get them in packs of ten thirty or a
hundred and since I use these a lot for
my free classes I do at the local
library I buy in packs of 100 because
they work out to be about 25 to 30 cents
apiece that way and you really just
can't beat it I do enjoy the paper I
find it's very forgiving for beginners
because of the sizing in it it's just uh
just really easy to lift especially if
you're using like a common watercolor
alright and if you are looking for
classes speaking of classes crafts he
has all their classes 50% off this
weekend for Labor Day and I'll put a
Philly at link in the video description
and if you purchase anything through
that link it helps my channel it helps
me bring these free tutorials to you
every day
now I'm going to grab a little bit of
the CAD yellow and I'm just gonna grab a
little bit of this mix that Brown mix
that I did there to kind of tone it down
a bit and we're gonna do this turned a
part of the
leaf and I didn't bother pre-wetting it
because it's such a small area we don't
really need to so I'm just glaze over
that just giving it a wash rather and
then I gotta let that dry before I do my
shadow there so that's what's happening
there actually should have done that
wash first because then I could be
working on my shadow underneath we can
mix up our color for the shadow right
now that's not gonna take too long to
dry I want to give that gel pen plenty
of time to dry too so we're gonna do for
our shadow is we're gonna take the we're
gonna take some ultramarine blue and
we're gonna take some burnt sienna or
you could use light red you could use
English red anything that's like kind of
a reddish brown most of those Browns use
the pigment PR 101 and you can balance
them out really well to get a really
nice really nice gray to a purpley gray
to a warm Brown you know just depending
on how you balance with colors and how
find the pigments ground alright so what
I'm gonna do is just zap that with a
heat tool first set right that's dry and
I am gonna wet the area where I want to
put the shadow okay I'm not gonna wet
the stem area yet because I'm just gonna
I'll do that cuz it's such a fine area
I'll do that on its own but I'm just
gonna go in and wet this area here now
the the paper I worked on for this and
I'll just pull this over so you can see
it was the a Fabriano studio which is I
think if you if you need to get into
like a cheap paper for practice that is
probably the cheapest you can get that
is decent quality and you can get it in
75 sheets of 90-pound or you can get it
in 50 sheets of 140-pound
and it's it's just it's a really good
value it's 25 percent cotton and it
won't take a ton of abuse and scrubbing
but it's not bad so that's my little pic
there if you're looking for an
inexpensive practice paper or paper to
swatch of colors on that sort of thing
oh right so I'm real wedding this area I
can see it's already the pit the water's
already dried up a little bit
and now I'm gonna go in with my with my
mix and you want to make sure you
definitely have enough there so that
you're not you don't have to remix in
the middle of your of your wash here
before it dries I am going to go ahead
and throw this shadow in there want to
connect at the end and I'm just bringing
it back out there I could see I probably
used light red in that mix rather than
burnt sienna because it does have more
of a purple cast to it either way it's
totally fine and just putting it darker
up against the leaf and letting it kind
of fade out it's it's so much more
forgiving to do a faded wash that is to
try to do one that's super that's you
know super hard edge because then it
tends to look a little if you don't have
it exactly right it looks very fake now
I'm just kind of pulling out the color a
little bit while I have less of my brush
just to give it a softer edge what a
little more blue in that I think cuz I
think it's gonna look nicer so I'm
soaking that right up into my brush I'm
going to add that closer to the leaf and
that's just gonna make that color pop a
little bit more because it's it's a
compliment blue and orange are
complements so they're going to give you
a little bit more of a bold color just a
little bit in there too and we're gonna
let that dry that's right though we can
go ahead and work some more on the
flower not the flower the leaf oh my
goodness I'm gonna go in with some old
some SAP green maybe add a little touch
of blue to uh since I've already added
that a shadow I want it to appear
elsewhere in the picture and I'm gonna
darken up a little bit on the stem there
and I'm gonna add a little bit in on my
veins remember we're just suggesting
detail here I think we're a lot of
people get into trouble when they're
water coloring is they try to paint in
every last detail that's fine like if
you're if you are just doing one small
thing like a strawberry or raspberry and
you just want to pursue per detail it
but I find I like water color a little
bit that
one's a little more suggestive and loose
and now I'm gonna take some of the cad
yellow it's such a pretty color and I'm
gonna wash over some areas with that and
if it touches onto that green that's
fine
this is gonna this is kind of a glaze
I'm trying not to disturb the color
underneath too much but I want to kind
of intensify it maybe knock down some of
the white gel pen a bit little bit on
this upturned leaf just be careful not
to get into your wet wash there
underneath it you do have to watch out
for that area there and you can see I'm
not being that fussy about it grab a
little bit of that red now when you mix
warm colors together like a warm yellow
on a warm red you get very vibrant
colors when you mix a warm and a cool
ticket together you get more muted
colors so if I was to mix cadmium red
which is a warm red with phthalo blue I
would get a kind of a muddy purple I
like to think of it though more of like
just mixing on the color wheel you mix
your color friends together the colors
that are next to each other on the color
wheel you get vibrant colors you miss
you mix your you know distant cousins on
the color wheel you get muted colors
that's how I like to think of it but if
that helps you remember I just read that
somewhere I'm like oh that makes sense
that might help some people remember so
I thought I would pass it along and then
I'm going to do a little bit of this red
on the stem too because that will help
darken bits of it and I think I'll
switch over to a smaller brush so I
won't put so much pigment down and I'm
gonna go back in with it yellow and
brighten up part of the stem as well
just maybe just do it right on the edge
so some of it will kind of Sparkle out
and then we're going to need to let this
dry again so we can put our final
details on now I painted this I was
sitting out by the campfire I picked up
a few leaves that had already turned and
I have no idea how long it took me to
paint this I just had fun and I wasn't
like you know trying to paint it
superfast or anything so just kind of
keep that in mind here you can see what
I mean about cadmium is being very
opaque I can kind of dab in these colors
and there they're like showing up on top
of the wash underneath so it's kind of a
handy thing to to know i'm Grabel to
make myself a little mud here because I
want a shadow in here so yeah we call it
mud if it's not what we want we call it
Mickey in neutral if it is what we want
and purposeful mud and the King into too
much trouble this small brush at this
stage of the game and maybe a few other
little darker passages over here so
anything I'm painting now is stuff I'm
okay with it getting being blurry and
smudging out but I don't want to put
those really dark shapes in there yet
because the paper is wet and it's not
gonna it will be muddy and it won't give
me that crisp line that I desire and
maybe just a little bit more that Red's
my favorite color so I'm always like
trying to sneak a little more in there
you don't have to put so much in there
if you don't like it but I love the rid
okay so we're gonna let this dry and be
right back in a minute okay our finest
our finest our finest our final layer we
can do two things to make our dark so
I'm gonna show you one one would be
mixing opposites so we take our red that
we've been using and we add some SAP
green to it those are the those are
probably our two most opposite colors
and look at that makes a really nice
rich chocolatey dark brown color the
other thing we could do would be
ultramarine blue and burnt sienna like
we did for our shadow completely fine
whichever we want to do there this one
is really dark so I'm just gonna go with
it cuz I can tell it's gonna look good
and that way I don't waste paint even
though this is a student great paint and
I have you know enough paint to choke a
horse
I still do not waste it I mean why
why would I so and I already showed you
how to mix up that dark color I feel
like I want a few more of those dark
specks over here I don't know what they
are really if they're like bug eggs or
or what they are but you see them on the
leaves a lot when you take the time to
go pick up some leaves and paint from
them which I highly recommend that's
what I recommend learn the techniques
here maybe even paint along with me
pause the video as needed but then go
pick up a leaf and see what it looks
like and really observe it and and paint
your own from nature I hope you found
this helpful I'll put a I'll put a list
of supplies that I used in the video
description I will put links to to these
products these are usually on sale at
hallmark scrapbook which is nice
Simon Says Stamp also carries it so if
you prefer to buy them there I haven't
seen the big art supply stores carrying
the spectrum aqua blends they are
marketed more towards crafters but I
love that they're light fast and they're
so affordable so I would definitely give
them a look if you're looking for
watercolor pencils if you already have
watercolor pencils use of what you have
you do not need to go buy new ones
you're just sketching a line here
basically so it's not like you really
need these to be late fast and you could
always draw that with a regular pencil
too please don't feel like you have to
go buy something special use what you
have but I will put links if you are in
the mood to do some shopping thank you
so much for watching please give me a
thumbs up and share this with your
crafty friends until next time happy
crafting