Painting Leaves

  
I've been painting leaves this past week.  The inspiration was from a post by Vickie Henderson on the blog Sketching in Nature.  You really should check out the post as her leaves are gorgeous and far more detailed than mine.  

I loved painting the leaves as it was a satisfying, yet fairly simple process. I thought I would share with you how I painted the leaves in case this gorgeous time of year has you ready to channel your inner artist and you want to give it a try.

First, you need to collect some leaves - the best ones are leaves that have a variety of colours on them or have little holes or imperfections so there is something interesting to paint.  

Then trace them on to your paper.

And then begin painting the leaves starting at the tips.  It works best if you do a combination of painting as well as wetting an area of the leaf and then dropping paint into the water to let the colour flow along the wet area and blend with colours that have already been painted.  

Remember to leave little holes (white areas) even if there aren't any on your actual leaf as it makes the leaves seem more realistic.  You might also want to use tiny amounts of blue to blend with your yellow, orange, and red as it gives a good effect for the edges and the dried up damaged parts of leaves, like in the edges of the yellow maple in the photo below.

How are the colours where you live?  Ours are past their prime, but there are still some trees with leaves which makes me happy. 

I came across this photo I took of some red maple leaves from last year at the cottage and just had to re-post it.  Aren't they magnificent?

Linked to Fall into Fall Party at DIY by Design