How to Mix Watercolor Greens & Paint Beautiful Leaves | Beginner Tutorial, by The Chic Artist on YouTube. 22 min 57 s.
- Video length
- 22 min 57 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Set out a warm yellow, a cool blue, a ready-made green and burnt sienna on your palette. Keep a jar of clean water and a paper towel nearby for rinsing and testing.
Load your round brush with yellow, then touch just the tip into the blue. Mix on the palette, starting with more yellow than blue, and test the color on scrap paper.
Change the ratio to build a range: mostly yellow gives a fresh lime green, while mostly blue gives a deep cool forest green.
To mute a green, add a tiny amount of burnt sienna or a touch of red, the opposite of green on the color wheel. Add more water for a pale wash.
For earthy greens, mix burnt sienna or yellow ochre into a blue-green puddle. Use these duller tones for stems and background leaves.
Press the loaded brush onto the paper, drag while easing the pressure, then lift at the end. This one-stroke motion gives a leaf with a wide body and a pointed tip.
Paint a few leaf shapes: flick the tip for sharp points, curve the stroke for rounded leaves, and vary the size and direction of each one.
Group your leaves in loose clusters, mixing light and dark greens and letting some overlap. Leave small gaps so the greenery looks airy.
Tips and common mistakes
Mix a fresh puddle for each leaf and avoid scrubbing the brush on paper, which dulls the color.
Keep one or two muted greens in every cluster so the bright greens stand out.
Let a layer dry before painting a darker leaf over it, otherwise the colors turn muddy.
Test every mix on scrap paper first, since watercolor looks lighter once it dries.
Questions
Do I need special green paints to paint leaves?
No. Two colors, a warm yellow and a cool blue, give you most greens you need. A ready-made green and burnt sienna just make mixing faster.
How do I stop my greens from looking flat?
Vary the yellow-to-blue ratio and add small amounts of burnt sienna. Place light, muted and deep greens next to each other in the same cluster.
Why do my leaves look blobby?
You are probably pressing too hard for the whole stroke. Press at the start, ease the pressure as you drag, and lift the brush cleanly at the tip.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
