Watercolor Autumn Illustrations

1. Intro: Hi, I'm [inaudible] and I 'm really love free watercolor. There is a great way to create lowly and cool fun illustrations using autumn leaves, watercolor, and the imagination of course, and this course is about it. I show you a detailed process of drawing and explain points that are important for successful work. As a result of this course, we will create the 5Qs to illustrations and will be inspired to do more. Yes, Arbutus can be fun [inaudible] activity. So, if you, like me, have a little artist, just show them the idea and let them create their own worlds, in autumn leaves. Let's start. 2. Stuff needed: Firstly, I want to say that it's not necessary to buy a lot of expensive special tools to start your creative watercolor practice. I show you my stuff and say about alternative things which are also possible to use. It's my watercolors. I use professional paints and health pens or tubes. But if you don't have it, it's not a problem, you can use even children watercolors. It's okay. We need paper. Any paper for watercolors multitude. I prefer cotton paper in separate sheets. In these case, very comfortable to use tablet. It can be any cardboard and paper tape. Use any brushes as you like. I will use some medium-size grilled brush. Kim brush smaller and very thin brush for really small details. Pallet for mixing colors can be plastic or ceramic. I use small ceramic plate for my care. We need water, paper napkins, a pencil and a razor, and also a white wash, and a white pen, or both of them. 3. The choice of suitable autumn leaves: The first thing you should do is to take your family, or friends, or yourself and have fun and go for a walk to far forest or just around your house in search of beautiful leaves. Of course, you can skip this step and take credit to use templates of leaves which I've prepared for you. You can find it as attached course materials. 4. Making leaves flat: If you leave collected leaves for a couple of days at home, it will be impossible to use them for our project because they become deformed and dry. So use the iron to save the form. Iron leaves carefully from two side like this, or use old book for this purpose. But in this case, drying process takes a few days. But it's also possible. 5. Example 1 Shading watercolor wet on wet: Let's start from easy example in wet on wet technique. As you see a sheet of paper fixed on the tablet with paper on top. Choose one of your leaves and make outline of it on the paper. Do it carefully, keeping all small details and defects of a leaf. It makes counter more natural. Done. Then thoroughly wet paper inside the contour. Water should be clean. To check whether all the leaf is wetted, look at it from an angle. Now think about colors you want for this leaf. I would like to start from yellow. Just to watch as the what a color wonderful spread on paper. It's like a magic I think. Then I add the leaf. Orange, make a few brush sprays. Red, some pure water, remove excess water and fix the edges. While the paper is wet, it's possible to add colors and make changes. When you are satisfied with the result, let the work dry. The paint is dried and I want to draw on top a lot of multicolored leaves. Large and small, transparent or vice verse also intensive, as you wish. Draw dark outlines [inaudible] and enjoy the work. 6. Example 2 Autumn landscape with a beautiful sky and a small house: The second illustration will be leaf and maple leaf. As well as in the previous lesson, firstly, I make an outline and do it carefully. Ready. Draw a line of horizon, and a small rural house, almost like in your childhood years, with the pipe. Done. I take a clean water in my brush and make the upper part where this sky will be wet. House leaf, dry. Then draw a beautiful sky using your favorite blue colors. If you want an overcast sky, add dark and gray colors. In some places remove paint, add some pure water. Make edges more outlined. Remember only while the water color is wet, it's possible to make changes. Don't wait for the sky to dry, start drawing grass. I take the olive green, the line between the sky and grass is blurry, it's absolutely okay. Green, aluminum oxide. If you think there is too much green in the sky, remove it by using a clean brush. Sometimes water color can be unpredictable, so be ready to fix any situation. Now, I think it's okay. Let's continue with grass, I take Sienna and mix it with olive green. The closer to us, the warmer the colors should be. It is a reason the why I took Sienna, it is a warm color. From below, I emptied blades of grass by colors and pure water. I added a little dark tones in the grass and wait for the sheet to dry. Begin to drawing the house. I would like to use brown and red for it. The color shouldn't be too bright because the house in the distance from us. Blur the bottom of the house. There isn't clear dividing line between it and the grass. Let the colors softly integrate into each other. Roof, let it be dark green, check whether the red is dry, if so, draw a windows and pipe does in this sky, add some splashes and remove the excess. At the end you swerve a gel pen or brush and add some bright blades of grass. I think it's enough, illustration is ready. 7. Example 3 Landscape with mountain background and berries on foreground: In this work, I will use only two colors, they're are indigo and cadmium orange. Inside indigo you can use any gray which you like or mix blue and black. In this illustration, we don't make paper wet previously, and I make a weak solution of indigo. Lift the tablet a little, its more comfortable, and begin to fill the leaf. 8. Example 4 Starry sky: For the next illustration, I choose a blackberry leaf. It consist of three leaves and has a hole in the middle. It's optional only for creative effect. Choose any you like. We will draw a starry sky on it. In this book, we will need dark colors like violet, sepia, indigo, and maybe purple. Also for this illustration, it's convenient to prepare two containers with water because we are going to draw quickly and it's important to have pure water available. Make the paper inside the contour wet, leaving small dry patches. There is the future stars. Let's do magic. Take the violet and watch the watercolor spreads. It's wonderful. Leave white patches in some place, indigo. Work quickly, as the pen doesn't have time to dry. Watercolors runs beautifully. Take clean water and make a lot of splashes. Some colorful splashes around. I'm trying to create an artistic mess on the sheet. Take the smaller brush, squeeze it, and remove excess paint around the white spots creating a glowing effect. Also, I splash the white gouache, and now going to fix the edges in some place. All this can only be done if the layer is still wet. If not, stop when it becomes dry. Done. We do dry completely. The paint is dried, and I add some white splashes again. Use a little brush for this. Mix white gouache with yellow watercolor, and draw several yellow stars. The final touch, shooting star and a meaningful phrase. That's all. 9. Example 5 Autumn forest and reflection in water: For the last illustration, we need a beak and wide leaf. Draw a line of horizon, trace their reflection in the water. Various sketching with no details. Coast and trees on a hill. Colors, we need indigo, cadmium yellow, orange, and red. Mix indigo with water till yellow turns. From the top of leaf contact, I begin to draw the gray fall sky, dilute with water down to the line of Horizon. Then again intensive tone, it is water surface. In this place we put a lot of colorful bright spots. Take a thin brush and paint trunk on the ground, they will spread a little. Now, wipe till dry. Using more intensive but still watery tone of Indigo, I draw [inaudible] on horizon line. There's a reflection in the water moist than previously. Repeat the outlines of trace, add that color in the top of trace reflection. We need to create a gradient from light to dark tones. This tree is highest and its reflection should be the longest. Foreground. Coast, has a clear border with water, and I use saturated tone of fluid. Trees, take indigo and brave movements draw trunks. They shouldn't be straight as supposed, make them more natural. Mark the trunk and for that joint. The trees don't seem to be cut off from the ground. Take a thin brush for the tip, in this case your lines will be more natural and craft. Some trunks and branches may be more pale, creating a sense of volume. Now I'm going to leaves on trees. I call that part of illustration of where there are no trees to protect this area from drops of colors. Mix intensive cadmium red, and make a lot of splashes using the little brush. Yellow, white plus red, look at the result. I want to add some branches on the tree is big ground to create a connection between the foreground and background. Ready enjoy the result. 10. Final Thoughts: Thank you for being with me here. Let's look what we've got. I will be happy to see your class projects and get some feedback from you. If you really enjoyed the class, please give me a thumb up. Thank you. Goodbye.