Autumn Leaves

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.