1. Watercolour Leaf Design…

2. Try sketching some Organic Shapes… Leaves! Look at real leaves to observe the shape or outline; Think about what kind of line will help you draw the shape (Curvy? Angular?); Practice sketching the basic shape of different leaves on newsprint or in your sketchbook; Include some detail, such as lines to show the veins in the leaf.

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4. Planning Your Design… Choose one leaf ‘style’ from your sketches, to use in your watercolour design. Lightly draw your leaf shape using pencil onto watercolour paper, and remember to try: Vary the SIZE (large, medium, small…) OVERLAP OFF-THE-PAGE Use of space… Balance the design

5. Next, trace over your leaf shapes with a waterproof marker. This is just part of a leaf design to show the black outline…

6. Introducing Watercolour A watery medium (the Prang ‘pan’ watercolours require lots of water to be added!) Watercolour brush – holds lots of water ! (Tip: Hold the paint brush just like your pencil in your printing hand!) Watercolour is transparent (can see through layers!)

7. Try a small ‘wet-on-wet’ sample first to practice the technique…

8. Wet-on-Wet Technique 1. Wet the paper/shape (use clean water!); 2. Apply the first colour to fill in part of one leaf shape. (Wash = even area of watery colour); 3. Apply a second colour (wash) to fill in any remaining areas of the leaf shape. TIPS… Use the brush to guide the paint; when the two wet colours touch, they will ‘run’ together, creating interesting blends. … Know when to stop and let the paint blend end and work its magic! (Don’t ‘over mix’!)

9. Wet-on-Wet Technique After a practice/sample, start filling in each leaf shape using the wet-on-wet technique. TIP: Work around the page so that one leaf has time to dry BEFORE you paint any leaves touching it so the paint doesn’t run.

10. Wet-on-Wet Samples

11. Watercolour Leaf Design Paint each leaf shape using the ‘wet-on-wet’ technqiue Limit colours: 2 colours per leaf works well for wet-on-wet Use imaginative colour combinations if you’d like! Next day… Paint the background using only 2- 3 colours with the wet-on-wet technique