Easy! How To Paint Leaves 🍃 Step By Step Painting Tutorial In Acrylic

Hi everybody, it's Joni Young here again with another quick tutorial for you all. Today I'm going to be showing you how to paint leaves, so a few different leaves in a really simple way so you can all add these to your landscapes. I have the following colors and brushes here. Let's start off with Light Olive Green by Liquitex Basics, then I've got Light Green by Holbein and Sap Green by Holbein, Titanium White. I have a number six flat brush and a number two long liner rigger brush. So if you guys are ready to learn how to paint some leaves, don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, it's free, and let's go ahead and get started. Now the very first leaf I'm going to show you how to paint is a large green leaf, pretty basic that you could use and include in many of your paintings, and I'm going to be starting the painting off with this little flat brush. I'm going to get it a little bit wet and my base color is going to be Sap Green, so you just want to have enough paint on there, you don't want to have too too much, you want to have enough to work with. So just add a little dab there on the end of the brush, start by adding a little stem right here, so I'm going to lightly just pull and then make it just a little wider here at the end of the leaf. And we're going to think of sort of a round pointy first and then start to take our brush and we're going to just kind of zigzag like this and then we're going to make it bigger and then start to make it rounder. You can do this from the bottom of the leaf first where the little stem is, I'm just going to add some more paint to my brush, or you can do it from the top like I did here. So it's just wiggling and then still continue to wiggle as you bring it back in here. Okay the next thing I'm going to do, pull a little bit more paint on my brush and we're just going to paint in back and forth to the center. We'll start on this side and see how I'm pulling it in like scooping like this as we get down. So you can always change the shape too, you can make it a little bit wider or go back with another layer making it outlined darker or reverse with a lighter shade. There's so many different types of leaves out there but the point I'm trying to make is have a combination of light and dark shades of green or whatever the colors are that are in the leaf that you're trying to paint. So see how it's starting to look a little bit lighter in the center? So I'm going to take a little bit of my light olive green now. I'm just going to mix this here in the middle and take a little bit on the end of my brush. I'm going to turn it over and just apply that little bit of paint over the end. I might need a little bit more here. I'm going to rinse my brush out. Now the easiest way to apply the little lines and veining in the leaves I find is to dry this layer off first. So I'm going to go ahead and dry this off however you can add yours wet on wet if you like. It just sometimes takes a little bit more effort, a little bit more paint. So I'm going to be using the long liner brush, rigger brush next for this step but I'm just going to take a couple minutes to dry this off quickly. Okay so it's all dry now and the next thing I'm going to do is take my little cup of water here, my liner brush. You can use any type of liner brush you want, any size. Because I'm going to be doing some long lines I thought it would be more effective and easier to use a long thin liner brush for this just in case you're wondering why I chose the long one versus a short one. What I want to do is add the veins and the pattern in the leaf lighter than the rest of the shades we already have for our base coat. So again I'm just going to take a little bit of water. It's pretty warm in my studio so things are drying quicker. I'm going to take a bit of white and I'm going to take my light olive green here, a little bit more white, mix that up, make sure it's not too too runny otherwise it's just going to be too see-through and you won't really notice it. It won't show up very well. Okay so I'm just going to start from this little stem here and I've got my handle pointing towards this so I'm kind of lining my brush up like this in the same diagonal way as the leaf is. I'm going to start there and then pull pull pull pull take some more paint and we'll do that again pull pull pull pull pull and then let off as we get out towards the end. Okay and then we're going to just start coming in here over and out over and out over and out so go over and then scoop under. Okay now we have some simple little lines there and we'll do the same thing here over and out scoop under over and under over and under. I always tell my students it really makes the brush stroke more effective when you say it out loud especially when you have something that you have to repeat a lot. You learn better this way when you repeat it either in your head or out loud. Of course I'm saying it out loud so that you guys can hear. Okay so there is the first one now you can add extra highlights and define it a little bit more with more white if you want more dark green around the outer edge but this is just a basic introduction to how to paint a few different leaves so I'm going to move on to our next leaf and this one is just going to be a smaller version of this one here minus the jagged little edges serrated edges that it has so I'm going to use this brush again. I really like using flat brushes and filbert brushes for leaves but I've demonstrated quite a few times how to paint leaves and foliage flower petals etc with filbert brushes so I thought I would show you guys how you can do that with a flat brush as well so I'm going to go ahead and get started with the base coat I'm going to take my dark sap green and then we're just going to make a smaller one here use the end of the brush and then start to pull out wider and then it'll be narrower then now this is just like I said a smaller narrower version of this and no jagged serrated edges but you could definitely add that just tighter quicker little movements in zigzag with your filbert or your flat brush I'm just going to pull a little stem down here so we can tell which end is which and then I'm going to take a little bit of my light green and just start adding that inside the darker outline I'm going to rinse my brush out and then I'm going to outline it you might not need to do this I slightly went over my edges and I want it to be a little bit darker so I'm going to add a little bit more just by holding my brush straight like this and then using only the end of it just the end right here I just got a little leaf in my hand that I went out and picked out of my garden just so I could use this as a little example to go by okay and then we're going to do the same thing here now it really helps me to steady my hand and my brushstrokes by placing my pinky in particular on the canvas of course you only want to do that if you have a dry canvas and you don't have any wet paint on there I'm rinsing my brush out and I'm going to go over to my liner brush again I'm going to take some white a little bit of the light green so there's so many alternatives for greens that you can use if you want to change up the temperature of your leaves you know if your paintings leaves in sunlight or in the shade then you're you're getting into warm tones and cool tones but I'm just going to add a little bit of white here so we have a few shades lighter quite a few shades lighter than this light green now I'm going to add the line from the little stem so let's just a little bottom of the stem here go inside of it with a little dab and then go over add a little bit of a line in there and then again just add some little lines that go down kind of on an angle like that you can round them out a little bit more or just make them straight across it's up to you how you want yours to go but this is just just little basic examples just to give you guys a start just an introduction to painting leaves now I'm using more paint for this one because I didn't take the time to dry this leaf off so you can see what it would be like to add your brighter lines here and veining of your leaves wet on wet not a big deal it just is a bit easier shows up quicker better faster when you dry it the base coat off first okay the next leaf I'm going to show you how to paint it's one of my favorites it is ivy so I have a whole veil curtains of ivy outside of my studio and I just picked this one here to go by so I'm going to show you how you can paint ivy these look really really pretty in landscapes around archways and in gardens and you know climbing up houses you want to work on painting cottages and all that kind of stuff so I thought I would incorporate this one so I've got a really simple tip for painting ivy leaves and I'm just going to get my flat brush a little bit wet I'm going to take a little bit of my light green and the dark sap green and what we're going to do first is paint a heart okay so it's going to be like a narrow heart though so I'm just going to place my pinky here because it helps steady my hand I'm going to use the corner of the brush on an angle bring it up and then just paint a heart one that's a little longer narrower here and that doesn't dip down so low okay and then we're just going to paint this in at this point it doesn't matter how you paint it in just get it all painted okay for the next step we're going to add two triangles so where we have this half circle we're going to come out and add two points on either side and then just kind of make sure they're blending in together now depending on the ivy leaf you're painting you may want to make yours come down a little bit lower I'm just going to paint a few of these to demonstrate that shape again so I'll add another one here heart heart and a rounded triangle you can make them a straighter edge a little more edgy if you want or round them like that okay I'm going to take more green sap green and come from the outer edges and just pull that in towards the center you can make them bigger at any time okay and then we want to have our little stem so I'll make it a little thicker there just gently pull over and then bend pull over and then bring it in now because my paint is wet I'm able to kind of go through here this one worked a bit a bit better when I pull through here I actually lifted the dark green paint off exposing a lighter shade below that so that's one way of adding those lines in there I'm just going to clean this little edge up here a little bit okay I'm going to dry this off and then we'll come in with our lighter lines and highlights okay it's all dry now go back over to our liner brush dip it in the water just a little bit of water on there and I'm going to take both of my lighter greens here with my white and I just roll it around there twist and roll to mix the paint up and then to load the brush itself because you really want it to stay nice and thin and skinny and you want most of the paint which isn't very much but you want the paint to be mostly on the end of the brush so we're going to start in the center here our stem right there come inside go right through the center to the tip you can make a little bit thicker if you want okay then we're gonna take some more paint on the end of our brush and we're going to pull those lines out in each corner here or point you want to bring them down and then just bring a few that go straight out then you can add a few little I'm just going to take some of this paint out here some little they almost look like little branches kind of just wiggle a few like that okay and one that goes right through the stem to the tip and then they go out to the corners of those little triangles we made let's go ahead and do this one stem all the way to the tip and then to the corner and then a few in here and then little lily branches now all these are a little bit different so don't think that you have to make each of your leaves the exact same okay and then you can use a smaller brush than this if you want or like I mean a shorter brush or you can even use a round brush but I'm just going to come along the edge here and add a little bit more of my sap green and you can also do a little bit of veining with this this is just a little bit more detail takes a little bit more time but depending on how much effort you want to put into your leaves and you know how much shadows and highlights and patterns now you can also paint your ivy leaves a little darker and then just come in with a lighter green for the veining but I kind of like to come back and add some darker layers after so we have all these different shades so just applying a bit more of the sap green makes it darker because you're just adding another layer over the first one okay so I want to demonstrate next how to paint a fern leaf which I have right here I just picked this out of our garden as well so I'm going to show you guys how to paint a fern leaf I love painting these and I've demonstrated them quite often in my tutorials throughout the years so what I'm going to do is just start with my liner brush and a little water right here get it wet and I'm going to take my light olive green a little bit of that light green in there too and some white I'm just going to start like this so just a full in little arch like this rinse that out and go right over to the flat brush so I'm going to take some sap green I'm also going to take some of the light green so these two again these two right here this is more of a cool green and this light olive green is more of a yellow green so it's warmer and what I'm going to do is just start with the biggest leaves on the bottom and I'm just going to pull push and then let off so use the end of the brush push and then let off so that you're going to be getting narrower ends they get narrow when they come back into the little stem here as well it's just a little bit water just to thin my paint out and make it a little bit more fluid and easier to use okay point to the brush push and let off push let off and I'm almost twisting a little bit as I'm letting off we get a little stem going into that stem and all you do is just keep following that same pattern and then we're you can start to change the direction they all have so much character like there's so many ferns here on the island and they kind of each one is so unique they all have their own um kind of way that they grow and way that they you know sometimes they'll just really exaggerate the movement the curve the shape and some of them just stick straight up so you really can't go wrong can feel really free painting these and now I'm going to come up here gently push and I'm going to bring it up so I'm turning the direction I'm changing the direction a little bit and then they're going to be smaller and smaller and smaller and then we're just going to tap up here for these small ones and then we're going to twist let off we're going to start working on the ones on this side so I'm going to go switch over to my other hand here push let off push let off I'm going to brush up some more I'm going to start from the center here and make this a little bit thicker you really want to blow the end of your brush up gradually making them a little smaller as we get up to the top here I'm going to add another leaf right in here it really helps you guys learn when you're seeing me paint something in repetition like this and it will also help you when you practice in repetition so you're not going to get it the first time maybe you will and that's awesome but I want you all to know that um I've been painting for well over 20 years now I've been painting a long time and with practice and with time you eventually feel one with a brush and you'll get more comfortable and like anything in life you need to practice practice practice and don't be hard on yourselves trust me because I've been there when I there's so many times where I'm like that's it I would throw out my paintings and I decided that I quit and I didn't want to be an artist anymore but I just want you guys to know that everybody makes mistakes everybody fails before they succeed with everything in life it all takes work and practice but if you really love painting and art and you really want to learn how to do it stick with it and don't give up okay just keep practicing but I'm hoping that these tutorials are reaching many of you all over the world and that was my goal was to make this channel so I can after teaching in a classroom setting for years I thought I would branch out for YouTube and be able to reach so many more people if you guys are one of them and you're watching now and you're learning from my channel and enjoy it please let me know in the comments I love reading comments from you guys I'm just going to add a little bit more of the green the dark sap green here just on the end of my brush like this now sometimes you get depends on what fern it is but sometimes they're a little serrated like this one so if you wanted to take a little bit of extra time you could just kind of tap tap leave a space and tap and then just keep adding and adding to each leaf like that but I really like just a basic simple fern leaf like this and fern leaves are really similar to painting palm leaves so if you wanted to learn how to paint a palm leaf I've got lots of tutorials for those you would just paint the little leaves here a lot longer I'm going to come in now and add the last little touch for a shadow here on either side of the little stem so we're going to leave it bright inside that base color that we use we're going to leave it inside and all we're going to do is just lightly outline and I would like to do this in one seamless um brush stroke but it's a little bit hard especially with the angle I'm painting on for filming purposes right now so I'm just going to do it a little bit at a time here I have some room here um so I'll just keep painting a few leaves here now you could do sort of a one stroke leaf scoop up all three colors like this I just want to make sure that they're on the ends of my brush and then push wiggle and then let off push wiggle twist and let off so these are really easy you could go back and make it heart shape if you want for a different type of leaf I'll add a little stem in a minute but I'm going to come in with a darker green now just the sap green and again push twist off and you can make a whole bunch of these I wanted to paint some close-up leaves on something you know maybe like a lilac bush or um leaves on roses now leaves on roses are a little more jaggedy like that so you would have sort of the same shape as this one this one's more of like something you would actually see on a hydrangea actual size too they're pretty big and then a little bit so this is how I would um paint a leaf for a rose a little bit darker green there depending on the rose you could either do light lines for your veining inside or dark but yeah super easy to paint leaves I'm just going to add a few stems and then we'll call this painting tutorial all done I'm going to take my liner brush my greens and add a few little stems like this because that's part of painting leaves right you can paint a leaf and then kind of like well what do I do how do I paint a stem so just a few little pulls like that gentle little pull and then kind of flick now you've learned how to paint leaves different kinds of leaves today ivy leaf a fern leaf hydrangea leaf or just any any plant that has a big leaf on it like that and I've got tons of tutorials waiting for you now on flowers so you're going to learn so much with these how-to tutorials where I go in depth and just focus on one specific thing so hope you guys are learning a lot and staying motivated to paint thanks so much for watching and subscribing to my channel and there are so many exclusive painting tutorials over on patreon for you guys as well I'll have links below for all of that and I'll see you guys soon in another video I want to wish you all the best bye