The Simple Trick Behind This Watercolor Maple Leaf 🍁 Autumn Watercolor Painting, by Nasim art on YouTube. 12 min 35 s.
- Video length
- 12 min 35 s
- Time to do it
- 40 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 10
What you need
Steps
Place a sheet of 300 gsm rough watercolor paper on a flat board. Pick a maple leaf sticker that fits the middle of the sheet with room around it.
Press the leaf sticker onto the dry paper and smooth its edges down with your finger. Paint must not creep under the sticker.
Wet the paper around the sticker with clean water and the size 12 round brush. Leave the sticker itself dry.
Mix indigo with a little ultramarine and drop the blue onto the wet paper around the leaf. Let the paint spread on its own.
While the paper is still damp, touch in yellow, light orange and cadmium red along one side for an autumn glow.
Add sepia or cobalt blue in a few spots for depth, then stop and let the background dry completely, flat and undisturbed.
When the paper is bone dry, lift one corner of the sticker and peel it off slowly. A clean white leaf shape stays behind.
Wet the leaf shape with clean water using the size 6 brush. Drop yellow and light orange near the leaf tip.
Work cadmium red and deep orange toward the stem, and add a little sepia or indigo where the leaf folds or sits in shadow.
Switch to the 000 liner brush for the veins and stem, and tidy the leaf edge. Let the painting dry flat.
Tips and common mistakes
Press the sticker edges down firmly, because paint seeping underneath ruins the crisp white shape.
Peel the sticker only when the background is fully dry, or the paper may tear.
Test your blue and orange mixes on a scrap of the same paper before you commit.
Keep the leaf area dry while you paint the background wash around it.
Questions
Do I need masking fluid for this technique?
No. A leaf-shaped sticker does the same job and peels off cleanly, which is why it suits beginners.
Can I use smooth paper instead of rough?
Yes, but rough 300 gsm paper holds a wet wash better and is less likely to buckle.
What if paint leaks under the sticker?
Let it dry, then lift the colour with a clean damp brush, or hide the mark with a darker wash on the leaf.
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.
