How to Paint Foreground Leaves

Paint leaves with various shades of green.

Painting detailed foreground leaves presents a challenge to any artist, but with careful preparation and a little practice, you will be able to achieve a beautiful result. Oil or acrylic paints are ideal for painting leaves from life or from a photo.

Things You'll Need

• Premounted white canvas of desired size
• Paint palette
• Acrylic or oil paint in Sap Green, Olive Green, Ivory Black, Terre Verte
• F pencil
• Artist brushes in sizes 0, 00, 1
• Paper towel

Instructions

1. Plan your painting. Decide how large you would like the leaves to be and choose a canvas that will accommodate the leaves with at least a 1-inch margin on all four sides. If you are painting real leaves, arrange them above or beside your canvas in the way you would like to paint them. Familiarize yourself with the shapes and unique features of the leaves.

2. Prepare your palette. Squirt a dime-sized amount of each of the following paints onto your palette: Sap Green, Olive Green, Ivory Black, Terre Verte.

3. Sketch the leaves with an F pencil. Draw the outline of the leaves and any salient features the leaves might have, such as veins, wrinkles, or defects. Gently shade in the areas of the leaves that are in shadow.

4. Outline the leaves with a size 0 brush coated thinly in Sap Green paint. Dab the brush on the paper towel to remove leftover paint.

5. Outline and fill in the leaves' stems using a size 0 brush coated thinly in Olive Green. Remove leftover paint with the paper towel.

6. Fill in the body of each leaf using a size 1 brush coated in a pea-sized amount of Sap Green. Remove leftover paint with the paper towel.

7. Mix Ivory Black with Sap Green on your palette using the size 1 brush. Use more Ivory Black for the very shadowy areas of the leaf and less for the less-shadowy areas. Remove excess paint with the paper towel.

8. Add shadows to the leaves using the size 1 brush and a pea-sized amount of the paint you mixed in the previous step. Blend the shaded areas of the leaves together with the nonshaded areas to create more realistic shadows.

9. 

   Painting a single leaf allows you to capture minute details.

   Add the finishing touches to the leaves using a very thinly coated size 00 brush. Use Terre Verte to paint the leaves' veins. Use Olive Green to add any spots that the leaves might have.

10. Allow the painting to dry for at least 48 hours, or when the paint is cold and hard to the touch.

Tips & Warnings

• These instructions use paint colors commonly found in many leaves. If your leaves are uniquely colored, you may wish to use different paint colors.

• If you are painting leaves larger than 2 inches, you may wish to use larger brushes than those specified in these instructions.

References

• The Accidental Artist: How to Paint Leaves
• Oil Painting With Ethan: How to Paint Leaves on Trees in Oil
• Tip Deck: How to Paint Leaves