I’ve painted quite a few fall leaves in the past couple of weeks, but I was especially struck by the deep, rich colors of these leaves from the Kousa dogwood tree in our yard. It seemed like every possible autumn color was right there in the leaves on this one twig – deep burgundies, rich golds, and shades of green ranging from chartreuse to teal.
 |
| Two-page spread in 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ Stillman and Birn Beta Series sketchbook, ink & watercolor |
The leaves had layers of color which I tried to capture by layering my paints in multiple washes. Colors used were:
Yellow ochre
Raw sienna
Aureolin
Permanent rose
Carmine
Ultramarine blue
Olive green
Hooker’s green
Burnt umber
Burnt sienna
The rough bark was a lot of fun to paint.
Aren’t these seed pods cool-looking? And they’re edible!
The drawings of the twigs and leaves were done with a Noodler’s Nib Creaper Flex Pen filled with Noodler’s Walnut ink, which was permanent on this Stillman and Birn Beta paper.
The border design and lettering were drawn with a brown Pitt pen, then painted with colors that echo the tones in the leaves.
2 Comments
You are a color genius!
I love this page, Leslie. Such rich, luscious colors! Love the border too, and am now following you on Pinterest.