Red Maple Leaf – collecting leaves for watercolour studies
Here’s a Red Maple Leaf watercolour sketch for today. The beautiful autumn colours of the Red Maple Leaf are a stark contrast to the leaves of evergreens.
There aren’t any autumn leaves in Spring, but I keep a store of Autumn leaves for watercolour studies. The striking red tones of this red maple leaf caught my eye last Autumn. The maple leaf has a lovely shape, which I wanted to paint. When I’m on a walk I am always looking on the ground as well as around me, you never know what you will find. If you want to be able to identify leaves or are looking for something a bit more unusual, it’s worth visiting a an arboretum. At an arboretum you’ll get to see different varieties of trees and there is usually a plaque in front of the tree, with it’s common name and botanical name.
Red Maple Leaf painting process
I have tried to capture the redness of the leaf and it’s fading pink tones. There are some green and brown areas remaining on the leaf too. I created three palette watercolour mixes as you can see in the photo. Also I used just one watercolour brush, which is a sable brush. I have tried to keep the layers of watercolour paint to a minimum, so the pale tones could show through. Overall I’ve attempted to capture the vibrant reds and the flowing shape of the leaf, which first drew my eye to the red maple leaf.