Watercolour Class 3: Painting greens and foliage

Following on from previous notes keep a limited palette choose one blue and use at most 2 yellows and a red to grey off the greens as red is the complimentary to green. Aureolin is an excellent green as it mixes well with any blues and is in itself a greyed off green. Sunlit fields and light leaves look great mixed with aureolin and a little blue. Paint leaves as large washes with just a few sharp notes to indicate leaves.

Tree trunks and branches need to be painted in blues, purples, golds and burnt sienna, using burnt sienna and ultramarine blue in the darks.

White trees are blue tones on top of the branches as they reflect the sky colour and gold or reds underneath as they reflect the ground colour. Do not be afraid of colour as this is not a time for raw umber or burnt umber. Caligraphic touches at the end will sharpen up the whole painting and add those final touches.

Cheers Lyn Fraser- Roberts