PIY Fall Leaf #2

This is a simple tutorial for painting oak leaves. You could make them with pointed tips, like Fall Leaf #1. Rounded tips go much faster, though.

I used two colors – raw sienna and antique yellow/gold. You could change these up, of course.

Paint the leaf veins with some Raw Sienna. You could use a darker brown – say, Burnt Umber – if you have some around.

I always paint the veins first. Always. It just helps me ‘see’ the curvature of the leaf.

You could certainly skip this step and go straight to the basecoating. It’s up to you. Try it both ways and see what works for you.

Paint the outline of the leaf with raw sienna. Even if you choose pointed tips for the leaf.

Basecoat the entire leaf. This is 2 coats. Can you tell how you can still see the veining under the basecoat?

Highlight the leaf with antique yellow/gold. Where do you paint it? Wherever you want!

I tend to highlight more on one side of the long vein. But it’s up to you. If you don’t like the first result, paint another coat of raw sienna. Or mix the raw sienna & the yellow/gold together. It all works.

I went over the veins with a liner brush and the yellow/gold. It looks brighter here than it actually is. But you get the idea. You could also mix the raw sienna and the yellow/gold together on the brush. Or you could line part in raw sienna and part in yellow/gold.

Pretty simple, don’t you think?

Colleen

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