Last week, the instructor asked us to bring in some leaves this week because she was going to demonstrate how to mix colors on the paper.
But yesterday I happened upon an online demo about that very subject, so I decided to give it a try.
For my first study, I traced three of the leaves I had dried and just went ahead and painted them. But I keep forgetting how much lighter the pigments dry! So I re-wetted the two large ones, and went over them again. The smaller one I left as is because some of the leaves are kind of pale. All I did to that one was to add some spatter, like the original model.
One trick I discovered is to take a very small brush and extend all the main lobes into a sharp point. I find that makes the leaves look more realistic.
My second study was this single large leaf, that I painted in class, today. I was fascinated by the paleness of the colours, their vibrancy.
At what point does a maple leaf decide it's going to put on this more subtle kind of show?
(This one will enlarge if you click on it.)
And then I painted this third study, of smaller leaves.
That poor little maple leaf sure took a beating from Nature.
I used violet for the speckles on the little yellow one. And I like the way the purple one turned out, with its very realistic veins.
(This one will enlarge too.)
I made the veins by scratching with the end of a brush that has a bevel designed especially for that purpose, apparently.
Not to brag, but my leaves were the nicest of the whole class. Yet nary a compliment from the instructor. Hm.
But my favorite leaf is not there. It's
this oak leaf that I allowed to dry out in the open, where it acquired some interesting curls.
