Learn Fun and Simple Autumn Watercolors

1. Introduction: It is autumn. I am so excited for this season. I love the colors. Beautiful. And there's just so many beautiful elements. So in this class, we are going to be trying out different elements and then putting them together to create some interesting projects. I'll start with the different materials that you would need, the color schemes, going over some simple elements that you can try and then moving on to some more complicated projects. This class is all about pacing yourself. You can try to do all the elements together. You can take your time. It's really relaxing, and it's perfect for beginners. Let's give ourselves this time to paint, relax, create something beautiful, and just tune out to the stresses of the world. 2. Materials: Let's talk materials. So the first thing we would need is our watercolor paper. I'm using a rough paper, 300 SM, 100 person cotton, so it has a beautiful texture that's going to go really well with our projects for today. We also need two different sheets of paper. So the practice paper, you can pick whatever size. I'm using 14 by 12 inch, and our art or our final paintings are 7.5 inch by 7.5. Don't worry, all the details are mentioned below, so you can have a look at descriptions. After that, we're going to need a round brush. I'm using a simple round brush. This is size four from golden maple. Make sure that the brush you get has a very nice thin shape, which is going to be great for thinner details, as well as holes oh water. To add into some of our details, we'll also be using an ink pen. You can just use a normal pen, but I really like the way an ink pen looks and feels, and you can also load in the color ink that you want. So my set is from Ferris wheel press, and they have beautiful set of inks that have a little bit of shimmer in them. So I'm using the brilliant beanstalk. It's a green color with a silver shine. Uh, I love this set. It's a beautiful color and really works well with our autumn theme. You can see the ink bottle and I've loaded it up into my bell. Next, we move into our paints. I'm using white knights. So the first one is cadmium orange. It's a really deep orange color, perfect for our autumn theme. The next is our green, again, a very deep green color from white lights. The next colour we're going to be choosing is a yellow cadmium yellow. Followed by our umber. So a deep brown color. Mm. The next we're going to go for a lighter orange. This is our golden deep. We now move into our reds. The first one is our ruby is a bright red colour. M. Then we have English red, it's a slightly brownish, reddish mix. You can see that color. It's really nice for your tree branches and goes with our autumn theme. And finally, we have carmine has a slight pink color to it, which is going to be, again, a great addition to our autumn color palette. In addition, you would need either white gouache or acrylic paint. Now that we have our main materials, you would also need some white tape to hold out the borders. You would need some water. So make sure you have all of your materials ready before we get started, and some tissues, pencils, eraser, just the basics. Once you have all your materials ready, let's get started with our projects. 3. Pumpkins, Beech leaves, Mushrooms and more: We are going to explore different autumn elements, starting with the simplest one mushroom. For the head of the mushroom, we're going to do a semicircle using carmine as we blend it with water, add a little bit of cadmium orange to give the mushroom a little of an interesting shade. Continue adding water and blending it out. Add in more cadmium orange to this splendid mix. And you can see I'm adding it only to the right side. Using clear water, we're just going to add the details for the stock. Using our umber, we can begin adding just thin lines for the base. Once the paste has dried, we are going to be adding the scales for the mushroom using white or uache or acrylic paint. So you can see how I'm just kind of lumping them together. And what I'm going to try to do is have them more closer and bigger at the bottom. And then as I move up, it's going to get smaller and smaller. Now, using our ink pen, we can begin adding details. The first thing I'm going to do is add a line for the edge of the mushroom. Next, we're going to paint the bottom of the scales, and this gives it dimension. It looks like the shadow and also makes it look like it's not just on top of the mushroom, it actually is lifted up a bit. H. We're going to then add some lines along the ring and some more details for the stem. Mm. Our next element is horse chestnut leaf. Very interesting shaped leaf. And so we're going to start with our pen to outline where the different leaf sections are going to go. And you can see how I'm created a star shape. And this is going to be the basis of where we paint out each leaflet. So switching to your round brush and taking in green, we can start by painting out some tear drop shapes. Use water to blend out, and at the tip, we're going to give a little point While it's still wet, we're going to add cadmium yellow for a wet on wet technique. Now, let's add some quick strokes along the edge to show the edge of the leaf. Move on to the next leaflet, using a lot of water so that it's very diluted at the beginning. And then as we move to the edge of the leaf, we're going to use our green with less water to deepen up the color. The next side, following a darker green, and then adding yellow to blend it up. Now, all three have been the same length, same height. But as we move into the different leaflets, we're going to change the length of them. For this one, we're going to use yellow, and we're going to make it slightly shorter. Mm. Dropping some green at the edge for a wet on wet technique, you can use a dry brush to just blend it out a bit better. Let's follow the same length for the other side. And this time taking green and adding more deeper shapes to it. The next leaflet is going to be fairly small, so keep in mind, you can see how short that is compared to the rest. And we're just keeping it very light in color. Yeah. Let's follow the same length for the other side using yellow and then adding a little green. So you can see how I keep switching colors between, and that gives the leaflet very interesting shades of colour and just makes it very unique. Mm. Mm. We're going to let this dry for a bit, and once it's dried, let's add in our details. So using my pen, I'm going to do the stem all the way from the top to the bottom for all of them. Next, add in the curves for the leaves. Again, just bring it all together. M. Mm hmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. And we've done this leaf. Let's move on to our next leaf, which is beach leaves. I like them because there's a lot more color blending that we can really play around with for autumn. So starting with my pen to plan out where my leaves are going to be, it's just such an easy process, and then we can start painting. So I'm using my round brush and taking in cadmium yellow and beginning with the first leaf. As I move upward, I'm going to use cadmium orange to deepen up that color and give that autumn wipe. For the edge of the leaf, I'm using English red. And you can see how that color actually adds a little bit of that brown tinge to the edge of the leaves. Let's continue playing around with each leaf in a similar manner, starting with a cadmium yellow, using water to blend it out, and then adding some cadmium orange to deepen up that color. And then once it's done, using English red for the edges. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Quick tip for the next leaf, what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring it downwards. This brings movement to the leaf and just makes it so much more interesting. So just paint a downward leaf where the edge is pointing down and follow the same steps with the yellow, water, cadmium orange, and then the Anglsh shred. Let this try, and then we're going to use our pen to just mark out our lines, starting with our nerves. Is it called nerves? I've been painting for so long, but I still don't know the parts of a leaf, which is so funny, and I google it every single time, just to make sure that I get the right name for it. So yeah, the apex and the veins, that's what we're doing. And it's so easy to do them with the pen compared to trying to, you know, use a paintbrush. I just is easier to control and it looks so nice. To switch it up, we're now going to do a white pumpkin. Now, 'cause it's white, it's hard to pick out the color. So what we're instead going to do is use a very light brown umber, very water down, and that is going to be our pumpkin design. So starting with an oval shape for the middle pumpkin part we're going to do the next one, again, with our umber, watered down. And you can see how I'm doing a little bump and then just filling it up with water. Let's continue the next one, making it less reducing the width. So same umber, watered down, giving a little bit more of a curve along the edge and reducing the width. Following the same technique on the left side as well. A pro tip here is to leave a thin gap between your layers. And that looks very interesting because it makes it look like it is highlight and very, again, very interesting so you can keep a small gap. Continue adding the pumpkin details for the back of the pumpkin just painting out curves. Now, as a striic, we're just going to add a little bit layer of umber along the edge just to show the shadow. I love your painting to dry up, and then using our ink pen, we're going to add in just some of the lines for the pumpkin. You don't need to do all of them, enough. And the stem, which is very, very important. How fun are these? So the next one we're going to do is maple leaves. We're gonna start again with our pen to mock it out. So the first thing I'm doing is our stem and just planning out how our leaves are going to be. Because, again, with maple, you just need to make sure that they are placed correctly. After the middle one, you have two along the sides in the form of a downward. And then we have one just perpendicular and then upward. So it's I don't know how to like I don't know how I would call it, but you can see the shape, you understand it, and that's basically the shape for maple. We're going to wash on our brush and then take in our Ruby, so red color start with a very long leaflet. And you can see I'm using a lot of water to just blend it out and add in some cadmium orange and then just mix it together. Adding some lines along the edge for the details. The next one, again, going with our cadmium orange, very long and following similar step. Now, we're switching back to our Ruby, our carmine, but show one you want. And these ones are going to be shorter. You can see how that's much more shorter than the first one we did. Adding a little water and then doing the shortest one. And there you go. That's half of the maple leaf, following the exact same steps to the left side. Et's repeat the same thing on the other side for the other branch. And then allowing it to dry completely, we're going to use our pen to just add the stem and the veins for I don't think, in this case, you actually need to add in the veins because it's not going to be ispilt. You just might as well just do the main the main vein, and that's enough. M. Can we really have autumn without some berries? So we're going to do some red muscous rowing berries and starting off with our stem, and we're going to just plan out where our berries are going to go. It's just gonna be easier once we get to painting. Just do a straight line and you can see how I'm just doing tranches from that. And this where each of the berry is going to be connected. Using carmine like to our first bury. While it's still wet, adding in cadmium orange for bytont technique. And the next berry is going to be a half. You can see how it's just peeking through in orange. Let's go back and take carmine again, and we're going to do the next berry. This is three fourth with a little bit of it going behind. Here, we can switch to ruby just for a deeper red color. Four. The next berry using clear water, we're going to just drag out some of that paint for a berry at the bottom. Want to stil wet, add in some shruby and continue painting it out. Take in carmine, continue with another berry. Mm hmm. Mm hm. Mm hm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hm. Mm hm. Mm hm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Once we're done with the berries, we're going to add in our leaf. It's very simple. So using green, we're just going to do a curved leaf. Very simple. Use clear water and blend out the rest. With the berries, the leaf basically is the same on either side. So you'll see me doing this. It's the same shape. You're just going to make sure that you do them on both sides, right and left. Once it's dry, let's add in some details, outlining the main berry that was on top. And then we're just going to add our small green area just to show the bottom of the berry. You don't have to outline everything, but just some of them that have completely blended through. Okay. And next adding in the main vein for the leaves. M. 4. Maple, White Oak, Acorns and more: Mm hmm. Now let's paint a simple orange pumpkin. So this one is fairly easy. You're going to use cadmium orange to make the center and then drop in a little bit of cadmium yellow. What this does is give a beautiful shade to the pumpkin and just make it more tree dimensional. Add a lot of water to just blend out the colors. Once that's done, we can go ahead and add the next section of the pumpkin with a deeper cadmium orange. Mm. Mm. As I move to the back, I'm making it even more deeper in color. And you can see how I left those tiny gaps between the layers for the outlines. And it's that simple. We're going to let it dry for a bit, and then we're going to use our pen to just outline some of the details and add in the stem. M. Mm. Another common autumn tree whit ok, and we're going to do the leaves for this one. Using the pen to just draw out our stem, we're going to have three different leaves for it, for the shape of it. So we start small with a small, and then we make the length of it longer, and then again go back to small. You can see what I'm doing there, and this is just going to make it easier when we get into painting. To start off, let's use green to start painting out the outline. All I'm doing is following the length of the line that we just drew and adding a gentle curve at the top. So you can see we're basically doing waves in a way. And that's an easy way to paint out these leaves. Now, as we come down to switch up the color so we get a nice autumn shade, we're going to go ahead and add in a different shade. While it's still wet, let's take red, ruby red, and just drop it in along the bottom for our autumn effect. Following the same step for the other two leaves. This time we can change around the color. So it's really up to you if you don't want to do the entire thing green, you can start with the red, add a little bit of green, can really play around with it. The main thing is to get the sheep right and to get the autumn colors. Mm. Once you're happy with the final leaves, let it dry. And then using our pen, we're just going to go over the lines just in case they blend it out and just making them a little bit more clearer. And Now, let's move on to our acorns. So I picked one of the basic acons with a couple of leaves, and we start with the stem again. It just gives us such a good baseline of where everything goes. H. Starting with red ruby red, I'm going to do a long line for the leaf. And then using cream, adding in the side details for the leaf. So the extensions following a scallop shape. And you can see because it's still wet, the wet on wet technique produces beautiful results. M. Now, acons are so easy to paint. When I first thought about it, I thought it would be difficult, but it's actually much more simpler than you think. Just go ahead and with your umber, a very lightened down water done umber, draw paint out the caps of the acon. And we're just going for a semicircle shape. Next using our brown, which is going to go ahead and paint the acorn with a U shape. Once this is dry, we are going to use our pen to mark out our details. So thin lines across the curve of the acorn, adding a little dot at the bottom, doing the same thing for the other one as well, curves along the edge. And then at the bottom. For the caps, we're just going to do crosses. So you can see how I'm just doing palern and then crossing it out. And that gives the texture that you need for acorn. That was so simple. So now we're going to move into the next one, which is our Birch. Sorry. Birch leaves, yes. Okay, so the birch leaves, the reason I wanted to do this is because the shape of the leaf is a little bit different. So what tends to happen is sometimes all of these leaves just look the same. And so when we paint it out, it all looks the same. So we want to have different varieties and shapes going on. Also the placement of the birch leaves, you can see how one stem has just brought out two different leaves. And so the placement also matters. So we're going to start off with our green and we're going to do a wide shape that just connects to a tip. You can see how that goes. It's like a diamond shape almost. Use some clear water and blend it out. And while it's still wet, we're going to add in some nice colors for a wet on wet technique. You can truly have fun with this. I'm just keeping it very simple. So using the burnt umber to add some deeper prawns along the bot. Continuing these steps for the remaining leaves, an extended V shape like a diamond, and then just using water and plenting it out with the wet on wet technique, adding multiple colors to the leaf to just give it that autumn feel. M. M. Mm. Mm. Once the leaves have completely dried, we're going to take up been and just add a couple of more details. So adding the main vein and then some extended veins along the edge. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. So this is our second last painting, and I think this is the most interesting one and I think the most important in a way, we're going to do sunflowers. So I started off with our deep brown color to do the circle for the center. Gonna have a big circle, and I like adding it as dots because it gives it a little texture. In the middle, we're going to add our English red. So it's a slight tinge of red coming through, which looks really pretty. Wash out your brush, and then we're going to take our cadmium yellow, and we're going to start painting out our petals one at a time. Start with a thin line and then just gently pull it across in the form of an elongated diamond. Continue this all the way. As we move to the bottom of the flower, we're going to go into shorter petals. And as we move up again, going into longer ones. So this makes it look like the flour is bent, which is a little bit more realistic. M. Now, let's try sunflower that's turned a bit towards the left. For that, we are going to do the back part of the sunflower and then the front. So doing our diamond shapes for the petals, You can see I've done a semicircle, just the top half. For the bottom half or the front that we can see, I'm just going to do a couple of petals. So just three of them. I've left that space in the middle for the center of our flower. Using Ingles shred, we're just going to fill up the center. In case you have paint coming onto your petals and it's just merging a bit more than you want, just wash on your brush and use a dry brush and just lift back that paint, the unwanted color. Et's do another sunflower bud. This is going to be a very close sunflower, so it's not fully bloomed yet. In the process. And for that, we're going to just do a couple of petals right on top, and that's it. We can use a little bit of brown to show that it's just peeking through, but it's not completely opened. Using cream, we're going to add in our leaves. What I like to do is make sure that the leaves are connected to the flowers, so just keeping them really close to the main flowers. Mm. Mm. Add a bud, which is fairly easy to do, an extended line and then a circle, slide bump for the bud. Gonna let it dry and then using my pen, I'm just going to make some outlines along the bud to give that texture. M. This is our final painting, and it took me a while to kind of figure out how I would want this to look. It's our pine cone. So for the pine cone, I'm going ahead with umber, just using a very light layer with a lot of water mixed in and just painting out egg shape, an inverted egg shape. You can see what I'm doing here. It's a little bit obvious. Go ahead, adding a little bit of English had as we go towards the top. Now for the edge, we're going to do scallop like a very scallop edge. You see how I'm doing that, adding some shapes with our English red. Let's allow this to dry, and then we're going to do another layer, and that's going to outline our pine cone details. Taking a deep brown. We're going to make these shapes. You can see how it's kind of, I don't know how to describe them, but kind of like patches. So along the edge, it's just going to poke outside. But in the center, we're going to have it more prominent. They're not proper circles, just very irregular shaped. And this really works with what we're going for. When it comes to the edge, you can just extend it out. You don't need to outline the whole thing. Continue adding them. And as we move upwards, we're going to make it shorter and much more smaller in size. M. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm hm. Mm hmm. Notice, as we're going up, we're just making it smaller, as I mentioned. Now, let's extend it and paint out our branch. And this is our completed pine cone. These are our beautiful, fun autumn elements. I hope you really enjoyed them. And next, we are going to combine them and play with them to create some interesting projects. 5. Project 1 - Pumpkin Magic: For our first project, I've taped down my sheet all the way through, and then using a really big brush. I'm adding in water to paint out a beautiful background. So we're starting with a wet on wet technique, making sure that the paper is really wet. So when we add in our colors, it blends really well. Once you go back and forth and make sure that your paper has absorbed in the water, we can begin by adding in our color. Now, I know at the center, I am going to have my elements. So I'm just going to make sure when I add in the colors, I add them to the edge of the sheet. So using that big brush, you can use a smaller brush. It's fine. I just found that this was a little bit more easier. I'm going to start by carmine and then a little of cadmium orange along the edges. You can see how I'm trying not to get it to the middle just to avoid, you know, the center elements from getting ruined. Gently tap your brush so you can get some splatters while the paper is wet because when it blends and dries up, it's going to be much lighter, and you can see how that looks. Very interesting. I've switched into my thinner brush, and I'm just going over the edge with the dark colors so that they are going to be much more wispul when we remove out our tape. So just go over it, make it very rough. It doesn't need to be really fixed, and play around with the sheet. While this is drying, let's kind of think about ideas of what we can add to the center. Maybe we can add in two pumpkins, some birch leaves, and acorn, or pine cones, or maybe we can do some sunflowers. Just brainstorm some ideas of how you want it to look. Generally focusing on one main element. So if the sunflowers are going to be the focus, everything else around it is going to be smaller. If the pumpkins are going to be in focus, then everything else around it is going to be smaller. Just keeping that in mind and creating some ideas. You can even plan around placements, maybe not having everything to do just at the bottom, but to bring it, like, midway through the sheet with write ups and stuff, if you want to say happy Thanksgiving, happy happy autumn or a court, anything like that. Mm hmm. Once you have decided on what your details are going to be, make sure your sheet dries completely. You can allow it to dry overnight just so it really blends through. And then we start with our elements. So I'm going to do pumpkins for this one as my main focus. I'm starting off with our orange and yellow, exactly how we practice and going about and painting out my main pumpkin. I've kept it a little bit to the left, so I have space for a second one. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. I'm going into the next pumpkin with the umber, so making it a white pumpkin. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Now, for some smaller elements, I'm going to go ahead and do acorns. I think that would be a good addition to what we have. Mmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Et's add in some berries to the left side. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm hm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Looking at the paste, I feel like there is some empty spaces that I'd like to fill. So a little bit on top, there's a lot of empty areas as well as the bottom. So I'm thinking if I should do some beach leaves or play around with some of the other leaf elements that we have. I think that would be better instead of adding something different. So let's plan out our leaves and then we can begin painting. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm hmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. The fun part with knowing the elements is you can play around with them as much as you want. You can really add in the details. You can add in different type of leaves. So I did the birch. You can add sorry, I did the beach leaves. You can do the birch, as well. You can play around with the horse chestnut leaves, or you can add in a mushroom. So just different things. They're all under the same theme, so there's just so much of flexibility. I'm going to add in some stars with my pen, some circles to just complete the look. Once everything is completely dry, just using our tip and drawing it out, being very careful. Yeah. And this is our final painting. Look at how fun that was. Now that you know the elements, just putting them together. 6. Project 2 - Sunflowers: How about another one of experiencing and experimenting with our elements? Starting with our base, using clear water, just adding a lot of water, letting it soak into the paper before we start with our background. For this one, I'm going to go in with our cadmium orange, so very deep orange color, just going over the edges with this Let's now dropping some cadmium yellow to again bring in that autumn feel gently tap your brush with the yellow so that you get some nice textures, details going into the background. And now I'm going to use my thin brush and just over the edge again with the yellow just to make sure everything just brightened up a bit more once it dries. We're now going to let this dry completely. And once it's dry, we can get into painting our elements. So for this one, I'm going to be adding pumpkin and sunflowers as our main elements. These are going to be our focal pieces, and then we have other details around it. So starting with our orange pumpkin, Mmm. Et's now paint in our sunflower to the side. We're going to do a set of sunflowers, so we have one that's full, one that's a half, some buds going on. Mmm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmmmmm Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Use your green pen and add in your details for the pumpkin once it's dried. Now that we have our two main elements, we can get into adding some details. Maybe we want to add a leaf or a mushroom or an acorn or anything that is very autumn. Mm In this case, I decided to go with maple leaves so we could have a set of maple leaves on either side. Mm hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. And then some birch leaves as well. So it's a variety of leaves going on, and that's going to give a really nice look to our painting. Mmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mmm. Once you add in the veins for the leaf, we can add in some simple circle, some stars to finish off our painting. If you want to add in a coat for you to frame, that's also a really nice idea. I kind of wanted to keep it simple just to have it autumn. But I think eventually, I would like to actually have a coat written on top and then just have it framed. And I think that's such a great, even autumn gift to someone, a very nice Thanksgiving gift, something special that they can keep. The watercolor effect just makes it lighter and more special. H. 7. Thank you for Watching: I hope you enjoyed this class. I wanted to give you something quick, fun, bunch of elements that you can play around with, and you can really enjoy and create so many pieces this autumn. Drop in your projects in the project tab. I'd love to see them, as well as your reviews and testimonials. It means a lot to me to have a look. Stick around for my upcoming classes.