For this painting challenge, prep a piece of watercolor paper, approx. 10" x 10", on a board, either stretched or taped. Draw a 9" x 9" square, and then divide that square into nine 3" squares.
Now, choose 3 pigments to use for your underpainting. (I used yellow, rose, and cerulean blue -- a primary triad.) Paint a separate wet-in-wet mingling in each square. In some of the squares, use all 3 colors. In a few of the squares, use 2 of the colors. And, in the last few, use just one color and some water. Keep in mind that this is an UNDERPAINTING, so keep it pretty light. You'll be adding a drawing and more washes on top of this, so you don't want to get too bright or too dark at this stage.
While this is drying, find some references for your leaves -- either real leaves or photos of leaves.
When the paper is dry, paint your leaves in each square. Actually, you're painting the veins of the leaves and not the leaves. Notice that I haven't painted the outside shape of any leaf.
Now comes the fun part. Paint each shape, leaving the veins un-painted. Each shape will have just two colors -- paint the first color over the entire shape, and then just touch the edge of the shape with the 2nd color, right next to the vein. Let that color mingle with the first color -- don't do too much fiddling with your brush to make them mix. If it's not mingling -- if it looks too much like an outline -- it's because you're not using enough water with your first color. If it is too dry, your color won't mingle nicely.
Keep painting until you've painted all the shapes with beautifully-mingled colors.
These paintings are from my workshop last year . . .
I can't wait to see yours!
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