Watercolor WIP - The Leaves

First I want to thank those that are following along. At this point you should have your background done and it should be throughly dry.

At this point I lay out my palette for my leaves: Sepia, burnt umber, cerelean blue, windsor red, windsor yellow, Hooker green, quinacridone red, quinacridone yellow.

I start by giving the branches a light wash of sepia:



and then add a second darker wash on the shadow side of the branches:



Next I will lay in some of my underlying accent color, in this case yellow:



I give all the leaves a light wash of red:



Let your painting dry in between washes (I sometimes use a hairdryer to speed the drying process). I now start to concentrate on each leaf and start adding more colors to each one, I will continue adding colors letting the painting dry between layers, until I get the look I want on each leaf. In this last picture I have started working on the bottom leaves, On the two large leaves in the center I dropped a bit of kosher salt into the very wet paint (being careful to keep it just where I wanted it). When the paint is dry brush off the salt and continue painting.



I still have a lot to add but will continue along in this manner until I have completed the painting. I keep my paint fairly juicy so that in each area the paint colors will mingle with each other as I drop them in. I keep my wet areas separate from each other as I paint so that no wet leaves are next to each other as I don't want them blending into each other. I will add blues to the leaves to achieve the purplish colors found in the leaves and darken some of the yellow highlights, I will remove some paint from the veins of the leaves, and add some yellow and beige so that they will stand out. I will add salt to some of the other leaves as I like the effect it gives. I will be back on the 29th with what I hope is my finished painting. Thanks again for following along.