BOTANICAL PAINTING – botanical watercolor made easy

BOTANICAL PAINTING made easy – in this full length watercolor leaves tutorial, I explain how to achieve these botanical leaves …

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hi i’m helen and in this week’s video we are going to be painting this beautiful contemporary leaves in watercolor so make yourself a comfortee and let’s dive in i always begin my paintings by taping down my watercolor paper to my watercolor board as shown i’ve printed out the photograph i’m going to be using as my reference photograph i’ve put some lead on the back just by using an ordinary pencil like this flipping it over and tracing it down with a mechanical pencil once this is done i use my color chart to match my colors and we’ll just do a quick material run through the greens i’m using are leaf green sap green and olive along with indian yellow burnt umber the rather strange looking cobalt violet along with payne’s gray the paper i’m using is saunders waterford hot pressed paper at 300 gsm and i will put all the equipment list in the description box below with the line drawing in place i look at my color chart to select the colors that i’m going to use for my first wash i’ve decided to use cobalt violet with payne’s gray for this it needs to be really really watery and i’m going to apply it to some of the leaves and also this leaf here where it has a disappearing edge where the light hits the top i’m going to also use this tone on the stalk of the leaves as shown it has to be really weak now that this color has dried i begin to mix the yellowish tone within the leaves you can see me mixing leaf green along with a little bit of indian yellow yet again to a really weak and watery consistency and applying it where shown i’m always looking at my reference photograph throughout these paintings so i can see exactly where i’m going with each tone and each color i’m applying this tone where i feel it is needed just carefully cross referencing with my reference photograph botanical painting is all about matching your colors accurately as well as your tonal variations next up mix sap green with a little bit of payne’s gray to make a vibrant darkish green working through leaf by leaf i’m going to apply this colour negatively working around the veins to form the shape of them it’s a rather time consuming process and you’ll need a steady hand but it’s a really enjoyable thing to do i’ll continue this process throughout each leaf looking at the reference photograph as usual as i work through you can see me on this bottom leaf just painting around some of the tiny little highlights within the leaf itself using a damp brush to blur the paint into the paper this creates a really soft edge the next bit i use the tip of the brush to create a harder edge and then blending it into the paper like this [Music] do [Music] most of the paints that i’m using for this tutorial are made by windsor and newton apart from the leaf green which is made by holbein i actually love winsor and newton as a brand and i would probably say that they’re my favorite and if you have a favorite brand just drop them in the comments i’m always interested to know what paints you like using [Music] i’ve watered down some of this paint here to match the colors of the photograph once again blending it into the yellow tones that you can see me doing here [Music] still working negatively around those veins [Music] i’ve let the paint dry a little and then i’m adding a simple just plain water glaze with a slightly larger brush this will help merge the colors together [Music] next up i’m going to mix sap green with a little bit of cobalt violet along with payne’s gray and once again working through the leaves one by one negatively painting around those veins as i said it’s a little bit time consuming but really enjoyable and relaxing [Music] as i apply this color over the initial wash while the disappearing edges on this bottom leaf i make sure that i blend into the existing wash with the damp brush as shown this will retain some of the initial color but still giving it a really soft natural looking blur once again working through bit by bit [Music] [Music] [Music] i’m now going to mix cobalt violet with burnt umber and a tiny bit of payne’s gray this will form the base color for the stalk and i’m going to apply it using a smaller brush in a stippling motion to form texture just by wiggling my brush it can help create the illusion of bumps within the stalk when this is dry i add another mix of payne’s gray to burnt umber and i’m going over it again using the mid and darker tones to create the illusion of a bark like texture now that this is dry i have two mixes on my palette sap green and sap green with a bit of payne’s gray and once again i’m going through the leaf bit by bit to try and match up the colors to my photograph i’m just dipping in and out of these two mixers to make it look really natural and organic we don’t want any flat colors as i’ve said tonal variations are just as important as colour correction [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now that the leaves are dry we can start to think about the negatively painted veins within them mix burnt umber with a little bit of copper violet to a sort of medium consistency i also added a tiny bit of payne’s gray apply this color to where you’ve negatively painted around the veins the veins are looking too stark because they’re white at the moment and we need to add this natural brown color to each of them [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] vayne’s now painted in i’m mixing a dark green again with sap green with a tiny bit of olive green and also some payne’s gray using the tip of my very small number one size miniature brush i’m outlining some of the areas of the leaves just to give them a little bit of a sharpness and i’ll also do the same thing around each of the negatively painted veins this will give the illusion of the veins being slightly raised because they’re not actually flat within each leaf once again this takes a little bit of patience but it’s so rewarding once it’s done working through leaf by leaf carefully looking at the reference photograph as you go through if you are interested in learning about botanical painting consider joining my patreon site where every month you’ll get a brand new full-length tutorial as well as weekly updates and small mini videos to help you along your watercolor journey and if you are enjoying this video remember to give me a thumbs up and consider subscribing to my youtube channel so that you don’t miss new episodes coming out every single tuesday [Music] [Music] using the tip of this very tiny brush i’m outlining some of the areas that i’ve painted this gives it form a definition working around some of the negatively painted veins and also around the outside of the leaves to help sharpen them up [Music] sharpening up every single leaf within the plant to bring it to its conclusion and now back over to me thank you for watching and i really hope that you found this video helpful if you enjoy painting these leaves you may also want to try painting this lily where i show you how to paint it using a similar technique so click through on the video and i’ll see you there thank you for watching and until next time

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