Fall Leaves Number Two

This was my second attempt to paint autumn leaves.  I had a beautiful photo from which I worked, I just had to simplify the image. 

I really enjoy mixing most colors I use from the primaries of yellow, rose and blue.  There are several triads from which to pick.  For this piece, I chose Cobalt Blue, Quinadridone Rose, and New Gamboge or Permanent Yellow Deep (both yellows are so similar, I don't know which one I used)
I also added sap green to the pigments for the leaves.  I mixed and mixed and layered and layered until I had the effect I wanted.  I wanted the lavenders and yellows to produce  a wonderful glow. I also wanted the subtle greens to buffer the complementary colors.

The background was painted with mixtures of Winsor Blue, red shade, Sap Green, Permanent Yellow, Quinacridone Rose.  I mixed up puddles of all the hues  I wanted to use. I wet the background, waited a bit (for the paper to begin to dry) and painted in the colors with leaf shapes.  I lifted out some shapes with a clean, almost dry brush to show light coming through. 

After the background dried, I rewet some areas and dropped in more color, tilting the paper to let the colors run together.

I wanted the corner colors to be dark and dull. 
FOR MORE PAINTINGS OF LEAVES, visit my website.  Just GOOGLE pacific northwest watercolors.

Autumn Leaves

I have been collecting fall leaf photos for a long time knowing that some day I would paint a series of autumn leaves.  This was the first attempt for red maples leaves.  I wanted the leaves to be very vibrant so I used Winsor Red for the brightest colors.  Then I wanted to vary the colors from bright red to gold, to mixtures of red, gold and blue.

I chose Winsor Blue, Red shade for the blue and Winsor Yellow for the yellow/gold tones.  I painted all the red leaves first varying them with lighter shades, and mixtures of red and blue, or red and yellow.  Then I decided which leaves should be brighter and layered over them 2 or three times with the Winsor red. Some of the bottom leaves where painted with varying mixtures of red and yellow  after wetting the leave shapes.  The colors ran together a bit, which I liked.   

The background was painted in without masking.  First I painted the top and middle shapes, then the bottom.  I painted over some of the leaves on the bottom and the top.

This was my first try with leaves and I was pleased that it became more of an abstract painting than a realist one. 

This watercolor completed in late 2011 for new greeting card.  I used three primary transparent watercolor pigments for the blossoms, cobalt blue, Quinacridone Rose (Daniel Smith) and Aureolin Yellow.  To get the darker shades, I layered over dry paint as many as 4 or 5 times.  In the shadowed part of the blossoms, I sometimes dotted in blue, and rose paint and let it mix on the paper. 

For the leaves I underpainted with Aureolin Yellow, then mixed Sap Green with Yellow, or Cobalt Blue.  For darker greens, I used the sap with rose or with a rose and blue mixture (lavender).  The background was painted wet into wet with cobalt blue, yellow and sap green.  The background pigments were brushed in with thick and juicy paint.  I painted arount the leaves (did not mask them). 

To view the inside of the note card just Google Pacific Northwest Watercolors and click on "greeting cards".