Painting leaves

At first sight the leaves do not appear to have sufficient variation in colour to be visually exciting to the artist, but on closer study you will discover its many variations of green and some interesting textures.The structure of a leaf is beautiful, with its sturdy thick surface but some with smooth surface and long body tapering into various proportions.

Once the leaf if taken out it will last quite a long time before showing signs of wilting. There is no frantic rush to paint it before its colour fades away.

There are no hard rules to follow in drawing and painting leaves. First do a careful study and put down an accurate basic shape of each leaf and work into a finished drawing.

To start with, draw the subject with a sharp HB pencil, then first, apply the transparent wash of colour. On the leaves with No. 2 brush or No. 5 using a weak mixture of light green in which the tube its marked sap green and lemon yellow.

Later, finish the final leaf with a No. 1 brush once the wash has dried. Then add the details.

Starting with a pointed No. 1 brush, carefully mark the position of the main veins. Before starting to paint, first position the leaves balanced upright with a vase behind for support. Then draw the leaf or leaves with a pencil before laying the first pale wash.

As the stage 2 after the initial wash of colour has dried, start applying the shading on the leaves.Sit and watch carefully at the leaves where the darker colours appear and where to shade the darker tones.

Use a mixture of dark green, prusian blue, and lemon yellow to shade the base of the leaves and where the leaves show a dark colour when leaves bend over.

As stage 3, concentrate on the body of the leaf, darken the colour slightly using sap green and lemon yellow mixed with a little ultramarine blue.

On top of this paint the delicate lines have to be drawn on the stems of the leaves with a vertical brush strokes from bottom to top. A larger No. 2 brush is used here for the broader washes.