How to Paint Foliage in Watercolor

Plant and tree leaf foliage often appears in watercolor paintings.

The word foliage refers to the leaves of plants, especially trees, either individually or growing together in clusters and groups. Foliage is often depicted in watercolor paintings. Its forms are used as compositional elements in the designs of naturalistic landscapes. It is sometimes the focus of the composition, or sometimes appears as a background element. Renaissance artists painted foliage in a realistic, botanically correct manner. Sometimes each individual leaf, stem and branch was painted. The German artist Albrecht Durer was one of the first Europeans to extensively paint foliage in watercolor. Foliage patterns can be watercolored as stylized forms or their patterns can be abstracted and painted nonobjectively.

Things You'll Need

• Camera
• Pencil
• Drawing paper
• Watercolor paints
• Artist's brushes
• Watercolor paper
• Mixing palette
• Drawing board
• Tape

Instructions

1. Before attempting to paint complicated scenes of foliage, familiarize yourself with the trees and plants that grow around you. Draw the leaves with pencil and paper to get a feel for their shapes and patterns. Make small watercolor studies of your leafy subject matter on the spot. Photograph the landscape at different times of the day, during the changing seasons and under various weather and light conditions. Refer to your preliminary drawings, photographs and studies as you plan out your finished watercolor painting.

2. Work out your composition in pencil on watercolor paper. You can also paint the drawing's outlines directly with thinned-out watercolor paint. Precisely draw out your composition in detail so you can watercolor it keeping within the lines, or just suggest your forms with brushstrokes. Focus on the overall composition and not just on small areas of detail. Integrate the foliage harmoniously into the design.

3. Tape your watercolor paper onto a wooden or masonite drawing board before beginning the painting. This will hold it in place and provide a straight white border around your picture. Tilt the board at a slight angle or lay it flat to prevent excessive running of the paint. Block in your background colors with large, flat washes of color. Keep the paint thin so you can build up layers of color. Use a graded wash to set up picture's value structure of darks and lights.

4. Establish a direction of the sunlight in your picture and keep it consistent throughout the composition. Observe how the light reflects and interacts with the foliage. Use the repetitious patterns of light and dark on the leaves as an interesting part of your painting. Try to reproduce the local color of the scene in your painting, or use it as a starting point for your color scheme.

5. Finish your painting by adding in all the small details using your smallest pointed brushes. Paint in the shadows under the leaves with blue or purple tones. Draw in the veins on leaves or define the edges of twigs and branches with darker brushstrokes. Let the white of the watercolor paper show through the painting for the accented highlights and lightest areas of the picture.

Tips & Warnings

• Study the work of Charles Burchfield, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent for ideas on how to paint foliage in watercolor.

• If you make a mistake, rub it out with a wet sponge and paint it over.

• Watercolor can be an unforgiving medium; try to get it right the first time.

References

• How to Draw and Paint: How to Paint Watercolor Trees
• Cathy Johnson: Techniques for Painting Foliage in Watercolor
• Wet Canvas: Painting Trees and Foliage in Watercolour