I am really enjoying this challenge. This is the first time I engage in painting leaves, I tried flowers before but usually I don´t like the final version.

Painting for most of them wet over wet is new for me. I am finding very useful to stop overthinking and apply the dark spots totally random.

Somehow I still feel the final painting looks too opaque with wet over wet.

With this skillshare challenge I was able to paint 7 leaves and 6 mushrooms, feeling the complexity level was going from beginner to medium level. The thing that challenges me the most is to work so fast when the paper is still wet to create the color mixing effects, but I got better. The results of the last mushrooms shows that level of detail I was able to add.

I recommend to use ink or liquid watercolors to provide vibrant colors even if working on wet on wet technique.

I absolutely fell in love with the mushrooms and now I am using the last days of autumn here to spot some with my camera and start painting more fungi.

Thanks for all the explanations, details, the only thing I would prefer in future videos is for you to provide a list of the color mixes we will be using as my watercolors take about 1 minute to activate.

Promise I will be starting new skillshare courses with you @inkpapersquirrel <3

With love from Mexico,

Belén Moreno

12 day Challenge - image 1 - student project

Day 1 Cherry

Cherry trees have large, lanceolate-shaped, glossy green leaves with toothed edges. Leaves appear on early-blooming cherry trees after the flowers. In fall, cherry tree leaves turn warm shades of orange, golden-yellow, bronze, and red.

Due to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antibacterial activity of polyphenols, petioles and leaves should be included in the daily diet. They can be used for the preparation of various tea or food and beverages addition.

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Day 2 Ginkgo biloba

Commonly known as ginkgo or gingko also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago.

The most helpful components of ginkgo are believed to be flavonoids, which have powerful antioxidant qualities, and terpenoids, which help improve circulation by dilating blood vessels and reducing the "stickiness" of platelets.

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Day 3 Oak

Since the earliest ties between humans and oaks, a very strong symbolic image of oaks has developed in which these trees have become associated with longevity, strength, stability, endurance, fertility, power, justice, and honesty.

There are still many healing properties and uses for the majestic oak tree and its acorns today. Oak leaves can reduce blood pressure. Oak leaves contain the substrate which is similar to anti-hypertension drugs, which makes them very effective in reducing blood pressure in patients with hypertension.

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Day 4 Ash

Ash leaves have:
Branches that grow directly across from one another.
Compound leaves.
5 to many leaflets with smooth or finely toothed margins.

The bark and leaf are used to make medicine. People take ash for fever, arthritis, gout, constipation, fluid retention, and bladder problems. It is also used as a tonic.

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Day 5 Maple

Leaves: are simple, 5 lobed with very few large teeth, which are about 4" wide. The sinuses (division between the lobes) are rounded. The leaves are also a bright green towards the top,and pale green down to the bottom. These leaves turn bright yellow, orange or red in the fall.

Many maple varieties have been found to contain a large number of phytochemicals and several beneﬁcial properties such as antioxidant, anti-tumor, and anti-inﬂammatory activities.

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Day 6 Chestnut

Most chestnut species are tall trees, commonly with furrowed bark when mature. The toothed leaves are lance-shaped to somewhat oval. Most male flowers are borne in long upright catkins; female flowers are arranged singly or in clusters at the base of short male catkins. The spiny bur surrounds one to seven nuts, depending on the species, and splits upon maturity. The seeds lose viability rapidly and typically germinate shortly after they fall to the ground in autumn.

The nuts of the European, Chinese, and Japanese chestnuts have local importance as food and are exported in large quantities. Small nuts of the European chestnut are used as feed for livestock or are milled into flour; choice nuts, called marrons, come from varieties developed to produce one large nut in the bur.

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Day 7 King Trumpet

These powerful superfoods have been shown to lower cholesterol and help with weight loss. They've been linked to a lower risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. And king trumpet mushroom extracts have also been shown to have anti-viral properties and to support bone health.

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Day 8 Porcini

With its unique hearty, nutty and earthy taste, porcini mushrooms are a delicious way to amp up the flavor of just about any dish while also adding a boost of nutrition and health benefits.
These mushrooms are loaded with iron, fiber and antioxidants. They’re also high in protein and have a meaty, savory taste.
Plus, they come with many health benefits and may help improve digestive health, promote weight loss, reduce inflammation and even kill off colon cancer cells.
From porcini pasta to stews and soups, it’s clear that this powerful mushroom can be a great way to help take your health to the next level.

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Day 9 Suillus

Suillus luteus is an edible mushroom and a member of the Bolete family. The latin translation is swine for Suillus and muddy is the latin translation for luteus. The cap of the mushroom is slimy or ‘slippery’, as the alternative name Slippery Jack suggests. Slippery Jack is a name may be used to describe other members of the Suillus genus.

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Day 10 Chanterelle

Chanterelle mushrooms are an excellent source of polysaccharides like chitin and chitosan. These two compounds help to protect your cells from damage and stimulate your immune system to produce more cells. They're also known to help reduce inflammation and lower the risk of developing certain cancers.

Chanterelles have health-boosting polysaccharides, fatty acids, phenolic acid compounds, beta-glucans that acts as gut prebiotics, and about fifteen different amino acids.

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Day 11 Lactarius Indigo

Fungi play a critical role in maintaining the health of ecosystem’s the world over. For instance, every inch of soil in a forest is loaded with various species of fungi, some of which help form the “internet” of the forest, connecting trees together into a resource- and information-swapping network that survives more through collaboration than competition.

Indigo milk cap mushrooms are one such fungal species that serves to help their host trees gain access to more nutrients and water while also connecting them to other trees in the “wood wide web.” In exchange, the trees feed the milk cap mushrooms carbohydrates which they produce through photosynthesis.

Thanks to fungi, there is no waste in a forest system – everything is reused and recycled. In fact, if modern fungi species had been around during the Carboniferous period, we’d have almost no fossil fuels today, because the mushrooms would have consumed the wood and plant materials that would eventually form our coal and oil deposits.

For the uninitiated forager, there are blue/purple species of poisonous Cortinarius that might be mistaken for indigo milk cap mushrooms. Once you’ve seen both types of mushrooms, they’re hard to mistake.

The two easiest ways to tell indigo milk caps and Cortinarius mushrooms apart:

• Cortinarius species do NOT emit any latex when cut or scraped; indigo milk caps emit a bright blue latex when cut or scraped.

• Indigo milk caps produce a cream-colored spore print; Cortinarius have a rusty brown-colored spore print.

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Day 12 Amanita Muscaria

Arguably the most iconic toadstool species, the fly agaric is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually red mushroom, and is one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture, including in video games—e.g., the extensive use of a recognizable Amanita muscaria in the Mario franchise and its Super Mushroom power-up—and television—e.g., the houses in The Smurfs franchise

Although poisonous, death due to poisoning from A. muscaria ingestion is quite rare. Parboiling twice with water draining weakens its toxicity and breaks down the mushroom's psychoactive substances; it is eaten in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. All Amanita muscaria varieties, but in particular A. muscaria var. muscaria, are noted for their hallucinogenic properties, with the main psychoactive constituents being the neurotoxins ibotenic acid and muscimol. A local variety of the mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the indigenous peoples of Siberia and by the Sámi, and has a religious significance in these cultures. There has been much speculation on possible traditional use of this mushroom as an intoxicant in other places such as the Middle East, Eurasia, North America, and Scandinavia.

Belén Moreno

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