Painting Tropical Leaves and Houseplants in Watercolor: Calathea

1. Welcome: Hello, creative friends. It's Soo Ling here from Malaysia and welcome to my class, Painting tropical leaves and houseplants in watercolor. In this class we're going to paint a couple of leaves from this plant called Calathea makoyana, also known as the peacock plant. The leaf might look a bit complicated, but I'm going to show you how to draw and paint them in a few easy steps using just basic watercolor techniques. So it's absolutely suitable for beginners. All you need are basic watercolor supplies to get started. So if you're ready, let's dive in. 2. Your Project: Your project for this class is to draw and paint the calathea leaves. You can choose to paint either the green or the red version of the leaf, or both if you like. A drawing template and some images are available in the resource section for your reference. After you have completed your painting, don't forget to share a photo of your artwork in the project area. I would love to see what you have created. 3. Basic Supplies: So here are some basic supplies you will need for this class. First, the subject of our project, a calathea leaf from my own potted plant. Of course, for you, there are some references in the resource section that you can download. Then you will need your drawing tools. Pencil and eraser. I'm using an HB pencil here, but any sketching pencil that you have will do. It would be good also if you have a kneaded eraser to lighten the pencil marks later. Watercolor brushes. I have Princeton heritage brushes, size number 6,4, and 2 for this class. You can have a couple of different sizes of brushes ready so that you can switch them when you need to. For paper, I'm using Canson Aquarelle 300 GSM cold pressed paper. Although this is made of cellulose instead of cotton, it's good enough for practicing. You can certainly use a 100% cotton paper if you have. For watercolor paint, I mainly use the tube ones from Winsor and Newton. You can use whatever types that you have. Color mixing palette. Any type will do. A glass of clean water. Paper towels to remove excess water or paint from your brushes. It would be handy to have small pieces of paper to test your colors. In the next video, we will start drawing the leaves. 4. Drawing the Leaves: So I have here a calathea leaf cut out from my own potted plant. I have taken some photos of the leaf so you can download them from the resource section. This leaf has a green upper side and a red underside. I'm going to draw the green one here. And then the one with the red side here. You can paint either one or both if you like. I'm going to sketch the leaf directly onto the watercolor paper. So I'll put the leaf next to it. If you don't want to sketch or draw, you can print out the template in the resource section and trace it onto your watercolor paper. First, I'm going to just draw an outline of the overall shape of the leaf as a guide. The pencil line can be very light at this moment. Now I'm going to draw in the darker lines of the actual shape of the leaf. The leaf has a wavy edge. You can erase as you go. So I'm erasing the remaining light pencil lines now. I'm drawing the thick border. Next, add in the leafy-shaped stripes. I'm drawing some simple lines first to mark the area for the stripes. So now moving on to drawing the red underside of the leaf. Basically, you just have to repeat the same drawing process. 5. Green Leaf: Painting the Base: So before we start painting, I just want to go through briefly on the colors that we are going to use. I'm going to use only these four colors from Winsor and Newton. The first color is sap green, which I will use it for the base of the green leaf. And for the stripes, here and also the border, I will mix up a darker green using sap green and indigo. For the stem, I will mix some yellow ochre with sap green. And then I will add in a touch of Alizarin crimson to get a reddish brown color. Now flip to the other side. For the base color, the main color will still be Sap Green, but maybe with a little bit of indigo mixed in. But I might change my mind later. We'll see how it goes. As for the stripes and border, I will mix alizarin crimson with indigo to get a deep red, kind of a burgundy color. So let's start. So now I'm getting a sap green color ready for the base of the leaf. I'm going to test it on the paper first. I want the paint to be watery, with the color remains quite saturated. Okay, I'll go with this. To start off, you will just have to fill the base of the leaf with sap green, applying the paint directly onto the paper. So this is basically a wet-on-dry technique. Very straightforward and easy to work with. After the first layer of sap green. If there are areas that are a bit light and you want to add a bit more of color. This is what you can do. You apply a bit of paint on the side, then clean your brush, tap it on the paper towel to remove excess water. You don't want to have a wet brush. You want it just to be damp enough to blend the areas here. On the other hand, if you want to lighten up certain areas, you can lift up the colors using a clean, damp brush as well. Because the leaf is not flat. So definitely there will be areas that are darker and lighter. You can continue to do this on the areas where you see fit. In the next video, we will move on to paint the stem and the stripes. 6. Green Leaf: Painting the Stripes: So now I'm going to paint the stripes and border of the leaf. I have mixed up a dark green using sap green and indigo. And this is how the color looks. Once again, here we are going to use the wet-on-dry technique like previously, which is painting directly onto the dry surface. So you carefully paint and fill out the areas. And as you can see at the border here, the edge is actually not a smooth line. So along this line here, you will paint using short brush strokes. You can fill in the midrib of the leaf as you go. Next, I'm going to add some lines or veins between the broad stripes. These are the veins that I'm talking about. What I'm going to do now is to soften the uneven edges here. I'm applying a small amount of the watered down dark-green paint. You can also use sap green if you want to. Just remember to apply only a small amount. And using a clean damp brush, you blend the area to soften it out. You can also soften the harsh lines if you want to. Just remember to use a damp brush and not a wet one. You can do the same along the midrib. So you can now just continue to complete the other side of the leaf using the same techniques. To create some shine on the leaf, again you can lift the color using a clean damp brush. Sometimes if the lifting is not obvious. You can use a paper towel to help. For the stem of the leaf. I will mix a tiny bit of yellow ochre with sap green to get a yellowish green. And then just simply fill out the stem. Apologies for the out-of-focus video here, I didn't realize my camera was doing its own thing again. Now dropping in a reddish brown here, which is a mix of Alizarin crimson with the yellowish green. Softening the harsh edges between the two colors. In the next video, we will finish up this green leaf with the final layer and some touch ups. 7. Green Leaf: Finishing Up: To complete this green leaf, I want to add another layer of a darker shade of green to the stripes and border. So I have mixed sap green with more indigo this time. So I'm applying the darker green starting from the inner side of the leaf. Then I clean my brush, get rid of excess water by dabbing the brush on paper towel, and then blend the edges. I'm also applying the darker green along the side of the midrib. So basically you're going to repeat this for all the stripes and also the veins. The last step that I'm going to do is to create some highlights by lifting the color here. Do be careful to not overdo it to avoid damaging the paper. Also try not to press onto the paper too hard as you brush over the area. So this is the completed green side of the leaf. 8. Red Leaf: Painting the Base: Moving on to painting the red version of the leaf, I decided not to mix sap green with indigo for the base color. So for this part, it will be this color. And for the stripes and border, I'm using Alizarin crimson darkened with a little bit of indigo. This color that I'm using is a mix of sap green with a small amount of alizarin crimson. But you are free to mix your own combination or use a different shade of green. As long as it looks different from the previous green leaf. Basically you are repeating the same process, like how you painted the green leaf. Again, for areas that you would like them to be darker, you can add more paint and apply the blending technique. In the next video, we will work on the stripes and stem. 9. Red Leaf: Painting the Stripes: Moving on. After the base color is dry, you can fill up the midrib and stem with the yellowish green, which is a mix of yellow ochre and sap green. Then drop in a light mix of Alizarin crimson with the yellowish green. So continuing on to painting the stripes, because I have added just a tiny amount of indigo to Alizarin crimson. Therefore, the colors still looks pretty bright at the moment, but we can add a darker shade of red later. So using the same method as shown with the green leaf, we fill up the stripes and the border of the leaf and put in the veins as well. Now adding some shades with the sap green- alizarin crimson mix. Continuing to the other side of the leaf. In the next video, we will wrap up this red leaf with some finishing touches. 10. Red Leaf: Finishing Up: So the final step to finishing up this leaf is to add a layer of darker shades. I have added a bit more indigo into Alizarin crimson to create a darker red. Again, we are using the same lifting and blending techniques as used in painting the green leaf. Adding veins within the stripes. Soften the lines with a damp brush. Now, continuing on to the other side. Finally, cleaning up the midrib, you can pick up some of the yellowish green paint or just use a damp brush to kind of sweep along the midrib. This helps to smoothen out the unevenness. So now we have completed both the green and red versions of the calathea leaf. 11. Thank You: Congratulations for completing the class. I hope you've had a good time painting the calathea leaves. Please don't forget to upload photos of your completed artwork in the project area. If you have any questions regarding the techniques, feel free to drop them in the discussion area. Lastly, please leave a review if you've enjoyed the class or if you have any feedback for improvement. Thank you for joining me and I'll see you in the next class.