Easy Watercolor Painting | Fall Leaf

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What’s your favorite season?

I have always enjoyed the fall season. It’s great waking up on a fall morning, sitting outside feeling a cool autumn breeze on your face while you drink a hot cup of coffee. But my absolute favorite part about the fall is seeing the leaves change colors. It always takes my breath away.

Today we are going to create our own colorful fall leaf in an easy watercolor painting. If you’re like me you’ll want to hang this up around your house to decorate for the season. I always re-decorate depending on what season it is. But enough about me, let’s dive in and learn how to paint a fall leaf using watercolor.

What supplies will you need?

Supply List:

1. Pencil
2. Eraser
3. Thumb Tack
4. Watercolor paper
5. Round paintbrush
6. Flat paintbrush
7. Watercolor paint Burnt Sienna, Permanent Rose, & Cadmium Yellow
8. Two cups of water
9. Paper towel

If you would like to see all the art supplies I recommend, check out, “My Supplies” page. Click HERE to check it out!

Let’s Sketch!

Step 1:

Before we can paint our leaf we need to sketch out the type of leaf we want. Today we are going to be drawing a maple leaf. So how do you draw a maple leaf? I’m glad you asked.

Begin drawing at the bottom of the leaf curving upwards. Next, make three triangles with the middle triangle will be slightly longer than the other two.

Now draw straight up to create three more triangle shapes with the middle one being longer than the other two.

Begin drawing downward, then angle your pencil outward to create another set of three triangles as we did before. Lastly, draw a line curving downward to meet your starting point.

Step 2:

Now we are going to erase our pencil lines to where we can barely see them. I know it may seem silly, but it is very important to do when using watercolors. Watercolor is very transparent and we don’t want out pencil lines to show through when we reach our finished product.

Step 3:

This step is a lot of fun and will add just a little bit extra detail to our painting that will really help it stand out! We are going to use a thumbtack to indent the vein lines in our leaf. It’s really fun to watch how the paint reacts to the indents in the paper.

Using the tack draw a line from the bottom center to the top. Then draw lines from each triangle point back to the center line.

Mixing Paints

1. Mix together Cadmium Yellow + Burnt Sienna. Use more Cadmium Yellow than Burnt Sienna to create a warm yellow.
2. Mix together Burnt Sienna + Permanent Rose. Use more Burnt Sienna than Permanent Rose to create a pink-orange.

Let’s Paint!

Step 4:

In step 4 we will need to work quickly. We are going to use the wet on wet technique which will require our first layer to still be wet when we add our second layer. Note: If you notice your first layer is drying add another thin layer of that same color paint or water over the entire painting before painting in your second color layer.

Take your medium round brush and dip it into the warm yellow paint, and begin painting in the entire leaf.

While your first layer of paint is still wet dip your brush into your pink-orange mixture and paint in the entire left side of the leaf and the edges of the right side.

Wait for this layer to dry completely before moving on to step 5.

Step 5:

Now we are going to add a second layer to make our leaf more vibrant. Take a medium round brush and evenly apply a layer of water over the entire leaf. Add just enough water to where you can see the water shine, but not to where it pools in a corner or in different sections of the painting.

Once your painting has an even layer of water over it take your medium round brush, dab off any extra water, then dip it into the pink-orange mixture and begin painting in the entire left side of the painting and the edges of the right side as we did before.

Wait for this layer to completely dry before moving on to step 6.

Step 6:

We are now going to add vein lines to the leaf. To do this we are going to add a little bit of water to our pink-orange mixture. Adding water will help our vein lines be less bold and blend more subtly into our previous layers.

Now that water has been added to our mixture, take a small detail brush and begin painting over the lines you created with the thumbtack.

Step 7:

All we have to do for our last step is add splatter I love the splatter technique. It has always been my favorite. It is so simple, but can really add to a painting.

To do this add a lot of water to both mixtures. Then load your medium round brush up with one color mixture, tap the brush on your finger over your painting and watch the paint do its magic. Repeat with the second color mixture.

YOU’RE DONE!

Congrats!

I hope you enjoyed creating this fall painting with me today! Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest to see more behind the scenes. If you’d like to learn more watercolor techniques or don’t want to miss out on any upcoming posts sign up for our weekly newsletter, where you will also receive a FREE color wheel cheat sheet and a floral camera printable. Comment below letting me know what your favorite season is! I’d love to know.

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Hope to see you again real soon!