As an artist, you may be thinking of experimenting with different types of mediums. There are various ranges of mediums in art and being an artist you will have to choose your favorite medium to work with. It may be anything from water color paintings to acrylic paintings. Actually water color painting is a very rare painting medium among the professionals but still some people really loves to make paintings with water colors. There is a great advantage of it the more your practice the easier it becomes. So when you have come to read this article, it’s for sure that you love water colors. So you are going to learn to paint a basic leaf with water colors.

How to Paint a Basic Leaf with Water colors:

Supplies:

Water color set

Water color brushes (#0, #10 and #20)

Watercolor paper

Palette

Various types of leaves from the garden

Method:

1. The first thing you have to do is prepare your color palette and test the colors on a separate piece of paper. Never be
afraid to play with colors and shades. Until you reach to your desired shade, go on experimenting with colors.

2. Here’s a chart of colors that has been used in this tutorial. This will really help you to choose the color for your project. The colors used for this project are Permanent Sap Green, Green Blue Shade, Raw Amber, Blue Green and Burnt Sienna.

3. Lightly draw an outline of a basic leaf and fill it with wet brush. This will actually make the spreading of the first layer easier.

4. At first apply the lightest shade of green you have prepared and let it dry.

5. Once the first layer has dried up, apply the second lightest shade above it and notice the bleeding of color.

6. So apply a layer of the same color and while the paint is still wet, tilt the paper slightly towards the tip of the leaf so that the paint travels there. You will the darker concentration on the tip of the leaf.

7. Now allow the previous step to dry out and again apply yet another deeper shade of green.

8. So you have noticed water color is all about layers. The more you will apply various shades, the more beautiful it will look.

9. Now dip your brush and apply it over the surface of the leaf. While it is still wet, apply a light layer of raw amber to the righter side of the leaf.

10. While the paint is still in a wet condition, load your brush with burnt sienna and allow paint to drip onto leaf. You will now notice that the paint colors bleeding into each other.

11. Drip the paint in various areas as desired. This will help you to make the paint more attractive.

12. With a thin wet brush (#0), draw in some veins and allow drying. You can continue to add more details if you wish.

13. Now here is the picture of the entire process you have done from the first and how it has changed. Notice the progression.

14. So practice the process and once you become familiar with it, you can start enhancing the details.

15. Practice and have fun drawing various types of leaves. Experiment with different shapes and sizes.

The only warning we are going to give is that water color painting is very addictive. The more you will experiment with it, the more you will fall in love with the process. So the thinking of that you should make all your practice. But we will always suggest you all to go through the process and enjoy while doing it.