Botanical Watercolor Painting: Eucalyptus Leaves

Hello and welcome to my class! We will be painting watercolor eucalyptus leaves and branches using shades of green and brown. I will start my class with a short three minute practice video of my supplies and colors used while demonstrating leaf shapes and forms. Then, I will demonstrate this watercolor painting of eucalyptus leaves with voiceover explaining my process from start to finish.

Here are some key points we will cover in this class.

• Learn how to mix various shades of green to create realistic looking leaves and stems. 
• Using a pointed round brush to create various shapes, thick and fine lines and detailed edges.
• Negative space painting a second and third layer of leaves behind the first layer.
• Utilizing dry brush technique and wet-into-wet techniques
• Softening hard edges 
• Fixing mistakes in watercolor
• Having fun!

Supplies:

1. Silver Brush Limited, Black Velvet Series, round size 8
2. Turquoise d' Pthalo Sennelier watercolor paint or Turquoise Pthalo Green shade. (any shade of blue-ish green will work, or you can mix a blue and yellow to get the shade you desire.) Note: These particular colors are very staining, which means they are difficult to lift out of your paper. Any color in the Pthalo family is staining, but very beautiful. 
3. Raw Sienna (or Yellow Ochre)- Holbein
4. Sepia-Holbein (any shade of brown will do, raw umber, burnt umber, etc. Just a dark shade of brown.)
5. 140 lb cold pressed watercolor paper. I use Arches, or Fabriano, or Daler Rowney Langnton.

Follow me on instagram to check out my latest paintings and in process projects!

• Getting Started: Practicing Leaf Shapes
• Part One: Watercolor Eucalyptus Leaves
• Part Two: Watercolor Eucalyptus Leaves
• Part Three: Watercolor Eucalyptus Leaves
• Part Four: Watercolor Eucalyptus Leaves
• Part Five: Watercolor Eucalyptus Leaves