How to Paint a Leaf in Watercolors

I know it's a little late in the season for fall decor, most of you are already thinking about Christmas  by now, right? Well, lets give one last hoorah for fall with some Watercolor Leaf Art! You can impress your Thanksgiving crowd with your artistic skills! 

Materials:

watercolor paper- 5x7

leaf

pencil

watercolor paints

paintbrush

gold acrylic paint (optional)

black ink pen

Step 1: Grab a fresh leaf off a tree or from the ground and lightly trace the outline onto some watercolor paper in pencil.

Step 2: Optional- if you want to add a cool golden effect to your leaf, start out by painting in a few areas of the leaf on your paper in some gold acrylic paint.  You can water the paint down or leave it nice and thick.  Your choice. Let this paint dry.

Step 3:  Pick a color scheme- like greens and yellows for one leaf, or reds, oranges, and pinks.  Paint in the remaining areas of the leaf with these colors, varying the shades throughout.  You can paint on top of the previously painted acrylics in some areas or paint around it in others.

Step 4: With an ink pen, trace the outlines of your leaf to give it some definition.  Let the ink dry before the next step so that it doesn't smear all over your paper.

Step 5:  Now look at your actual leaf from outdoors.  With your pen, recreate the veins inside the leaf and.....you're done!