Health & Fitness
DIY: Watercolor Fall Leaves
Create a cool watercolor leaf painting using one leaf or a variety of leaf patterns.
Go outside with the kids and gather a few different kinds of leaves from the yard to do this project. The color of the leaves doesn't matter, but a variety of different shapes is best. This art project is ideal for young children, but adults may also find some creative and challenging techniques for painting watercolor leaves too!
To start, lightly trace the leaf shape onto watercolor paper (or plain white paper) with a pencil. Use light strokes and try to capture and draw the details of the veins too. Now use colored markers, colored pencils or crayons to go back over the leaf outline and the veins of the leaf. Repeat this process if you are going to make other leaf patterns on the same piece of paper.
Get out the watercolor paints and add some color! But first, dip your brush into the water and "paint" a little clear water on inside the leaf outline. Now, get some paint on your brush. As you now paint the inside of the leaf, your paint will "bloom" as you touch your brush to the moistened paper. This style of watercolor painting is called "wet-on-wet". Start with orange and paint a small area. Rinse your brush and use some yellow paint and watch how the colors blend into each other! Another interesting technique is to use your brush to also add a few clean water drops while the paint is still wet. Alternatively, try carefully painting clean water over the semi-dry paint to add streaks or the illusion of veins.
If you drew the outlines with crayons, markers or colored pencils, the watercolor paint will "resist" the outlines. This will produce a bold result. This can also be done by carefully painting the leaf outline and veins with white or black glue (black paint mixed with glue). Make sure the glue dries well before painting if you use this type of 'resist' technique. Note that the outlines drawn by water-based markers can bleed and blend into the watercolor paint, but this can make a more realistic and dramatic image too!
The Ankeny Art Center is located at 1520 SW Ordnance Rd and can be reached by phone at 515-965-0940 or email at: ankenyarts@ankenyartcenter.com. Be sure to check out our classes, exhibits and special events too at www.AnkenyArtCenter.com