Watercolor Leaves, a la Rosie Sanders

Rhododendron leaves, watercolor on Bristol

I love Rosie Sanders. From her gorgeous book of English apples (aptly named The Apple Book) to her oversize watercolor irises, her work never ceases to amaze me.

So of course when I came across her instructional DVD on how to paint leaves in watercolor, I had to try it. I'm not as deft with watercolor as I'd like to be. I've used it abstractly to good effect for years and I use for travel sketches and the like, but I'm less familiar when it comes to making watercolor realism happen; I've always reached for the oils if it comes to that.


Since Rosie is one of the best, I ordered the DVD and waited as it made its way across the pond. It's really good, well-produced with several segments on different leaf effects. I watched it straight through and went to work.

The first experiment was a little sad, and it happened to some variegated pothos leaves (Epipremnum aureum.)

experimental pothos leaves

As you can see, my colors were not only muddy but off, and you can't tell the variegation from the highlights. Honestly, it's just kind of generally ham-handed. I chalk this one up to a.) overworking wet watercolor; b.) trying to mix on the page instead of on the palette; and c.) being in a rush and not thinning my glazes enough.

But hey, for a first attempt at using a technique, it's not really that bad. It's...well. Moving on, then.

A twig of winter rhododendron leaves from the yard were my second subject (Rhododendron sp..)

I'm not sure which species or cultivar they are; it was June when we moved into this house last year, and I'll need to see them bloom before making an attempt at identification. (I suspect they're either native species rhodies, or something cheap and plentiful. There's an awful lot of them.)



Since I was able to identify a few specific issues with the pothos painting, there was no point in repeating them. I used a much lighter hand this time, and made sure to get my mixes right before starting.

I did a color study first.

Not knowing better, I wanted to try Daniel Smith's Green Apatite Genuine as my base green. I felt like the granulation of the earth pigment would add to the sort of mealy green of the winter leaf. I love all of DS's Primatek colors, but I've since learned that many of them aren't great for using under glazes, as they tend to lift.

I got lucky this time, though. Mixed with Prussian blue, Hansa yellow, and a touch of brown madder, it worked.




I made sure I had a good drawing first, then started by outlining the highlight areas with a very thin mixture of Prussian blue and cobalt violet.


I then just worked around the drawing, developing it as slowly and thinly as I could, using dilute layers of green apatite genuine, Prussian blue, and Hansa yellow.


Brown madder was my main red (and I added it to my green in the warmer sections of the leaves) though I did add a touch of raw umber to the stems near the end.




The pic below represents the stage of "oh my god, is this done? This isn't done but how do I finish it and not eff it up?" Panic near the end of a painting is a specialty of mine. It's how I know I'm almost there.

The answer seemed to be to calm down and glaze.


It need to be darkened somewhat overall, particularly in the shadowed areas, but I also to bring it all into a coherent-looking painting. So I used a basically yellow wash over almost the whole thing (leaving off the white highlights,) sometimes modifying it with Prussian blue to keep the coolness of the shadows and receding planes.



Once I was happy, I removed the spray of leaves from its little tube and sliced the stem at a diagonal so I could paint that too.

And there it is!

I'm very happy with this one. It has better depth of color, fewer muddy spots, and a real clarity and specificity. As far as critique, I'll say that I wish it weren't so light in key, and that there were even fewer streaky, muddied spots. I also lost the small flower bud in the center; I didn't handle the values well and it just disappeared.

I also may not try a full WC painting on Bristol again. Somewhere in my studio there's any kind of paper you can imagine (I'm a paper hoarder, no joke) and I wanted to try out the Bristol; it worked okay, no buckling or tearing, but I think the surface isn't as forgiving of wet working as a nice-quality hot press watercolor paper. 

On to the next thing...!