TRANSFORM Your Watercolor Painting With These TIPS!

Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons to capture in watercolor, but it can also be one of the trickiest. The bright colors often turn muddy, and the dark areas can easily take over the whole painting. But in today's video, I'll show you how to paint an autumn scene step by step, using this gorgeous reference of a leaf on water. But don't worry, the tips I share here apply to all kinds of autumn landscapes, from forests and trees to skies and reflections. Hi, I'm Françoise, welcome or welcome back to my channel, your resource for watercolor and watercolor pencil art that looks loose and realistic all at once. The real-time tutorial of today's painting is available on my Patreon if you'd like to follow along. A limited palette is one of the easiest ways to make your painting look harmonious and professional because fewer colors mean less hassle and easier color mixing. For this piece, I chose indigo, a warm yellow and a vibrant red, inspired by my photo reference which is mostly blue and orange. These are perfect for cozy autumn with bright and warm tones against deep darks. For example, I personally prefer warm yellows for autumn painting, like this Indian yellow, over the very common lemon yellow because it creates a warmer, cozier feeling. This also has to do with style, it's my personal tip, not a rule. With red and yellow, I like I can use them separately for variety or mix them to get oranges, which I barely ever use as a single color. And indigo helps create a strong dark, which is essential in autumn. I find it reflects the season's transition from bright summer to dark winter. And now check this out. With yellow plus red and indigo, you can mix various browns. And with yellow plus indigo, various greens, by simply adjusting the paint ratios. And that's great since autumn has all those colors. And I didn't mention purple, but you could do that with red and indigo. Contrast makes autumn colors feel alive, and that's important for any season, but it's especially true for autumn. Our photo is a gift here because notice how orange and blue are complementary colors. They're opposite on the color wheel, so they naturally pop against each other. Now it's up to us to let that happen in the painting. And with landscapes, I start by wetting the sheet, because this gives me a soft first layer to build on later. And you've heard it before, always start with your lighter colors. In autumn painting, that means your yellows and reds first, greens if you have any, so your indigo doesn't overpower them. Notice now that I'm keeping some purposeful whites, and I'm also leaving the leaf untouched, so it glows later. But I paint the reflections to let colors blur into the water. Whites are powerful in watercolor, they create that natural light and make bright colors shine. I could have decided to mask the leaf, and of course you can do this if it's easier for you right now. But over time, I've found I like to paint everything in one go, so it doesn't look like I've added something, like this leaf. And you can see that now that I've added indigo, how well that reflection of the leaf blends into the painting, while also popping off the page. And that's because I'm working on wet, and also because I started with the orange tones first. And that's a great example of the start with the lighter colors first. Just like colors, movement gives life to a painting, and I use my paintbrushes and brushstrokes to render that. In water, for example, straight strokes suggest calm surfaces, which is the case away from this leaf, while curved ones tell a different story, as you can see around our leaf. And in this painting in particular, it does suggest that that leaf just landed on the water and disturbed it. And you can apply that to everything. For example, in the forest, movement can come from tree directions. Bent trees against straight ones create variety and story. And this is something I explore more in my new Misty Forest Skillshare class, where I show exactly how brush direction can suggest grace and rhythm in branches. For tools, when it comes to movement, notice I switch between paintbrushes. A few seconds ago it was a large round brush with bigger, looser strokes, and now it's a smaller one that is pointed at the tip for more precision. For a smaller painting though, just a medium and small round brush is enough because beautiful paintings don't mean fancy tools. And if you paint along with me already, you know I always, always use the same stuff for everything. Once the first wash dries, many people tend to move on to the main subject, and here will be the leaf. But at this stage, the painting often looks pale and unfinished, because depth comes from building layers. And that's why I wet the sheet again, after it has dried, to strengthen both the brights, yellow and red, and the darks, indigo. Some colors may overlap and create greens or browns you don't see in the reference, but trust me, they exist in real life, when we look closely, we can even see them in the reference and that's what makes a painting feel realistic, so please don't ever worry about that, and overlap colors a bit. And if you're new, instead of doing a big second wash like me, try breaking it into smaller layers, although I would not recommend to start on such a large sheet. Painting in layers is less stressful and it gives more control to the artist, and it also works well if the paper can handle it. My paper is ash cold press, 100% cotton, with a weight of 300g per square meter, and it takes layers very very well. And that's why I'm doing a third layer, I didn't have time to work on wet for long enough for the second one, I wanted to place more shadows and first details in the water. And now, look at the before and after between the first, the second and the third layer, and what layering can do to create incredible mood in a watercolor, and again, autumn painting is going to benefit from that. At some point, it's gonna be time to bring the main subject forward, and here it will be the leaf. And you don't need to wait until the background feels 100% finished, I actually think it's better to complete it to a rough 80% and paint the main subject. And that's because it will make it easier to adjust the background around that subject once it's finished, and I'll show you what I mean a bit later when I add detail in the water around the finished leaf. I use yellow and red, and I vary how I mix those colors for a natural look. I always keep some white spots for freshness and contrast, whenever that makes sense for what I'm painting. I like to tap the brush on paper to start creating texture, and that's another way to leverage brush strokes. Edges are such a game changer in watercolor painting, it's how I manage to get my art to look loose, but realistic too. Sometimes, for example, I soften an edge, fully, before the paint dries, with a clean and damp brush, and sometimes only partly. This variety adds realism, while keeping everything loose. But again, my way to do it has to do with style first, I've seen paintings with a lot of harsh edges that look very cool and unique, so I'd suggest to try and use this tip in a way that makes sense to you. Notice how reflections mirror the leaf, but in a softer way, and that ties both parts, the real leaf and the reflection, together. I try to mirror the colors with a bit more red added to the right part of the leaf. Details are important, with a light hand though. For example, if you don't want a leaf to look super tight, you wouldn't want to try and draw the veins in a way that's hyper realistic. What I do is suggest them with broken lines and soft shapes. To achieve that, I do it on wet first, and later on dry. This looks natural, and it avoids that stiffness from wanting to paint everything exactly like in the photo. Final touches make all the difference, and here we'll focus on a lightened shadow. Pleasing with a bright yellow at the end makes the leaf glow even more. It's one of my favorite techniques because it takes seconds, and I love that all the detail I've added beneath stays intact, despite that transparent layer. And splatters! It's a simple but effective technique, always. It adds texture and life, and it works great with natural elements. I darken shadows beneath the leaf first, to suggest better ripples and movement in the water, so the fact the leaf just fell and touched the surface seems believable. Lifting paint for highlights is an easy way to add sparkle, and up contrast and realism. Just reactivate the area you want to lift with water, blot with a paper towel, and you instantly get some white back. The goal is not to get back to bright whites, a subtle touch is fine. And if you take a look at the overall painting, it's really the color vibrancy, with the shadows and all the highlights that make it so pleasing. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed the demo. That painting is a bit advanced though, and that's why I'm creating a full Watercolor Autumn Forest course, where we will start with simple trees, and progress step by step through a series of forest scenes, for late beginners and intermediates. You'll also get bonuses like special forest techniques, and even a module about fun tools that make autumn watercolors extra magical. You can sign up for my newsletter in the description below so you don't miss the sneak peeks, and the release in a few weeks. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time!