There’s something so calming about painting simple leaf shapes in watercolor, I love that even total beginners can make beautiful watercolor leaves with just a brush, water, and a splash of color.
Fall Watercolor Leaves
Layer 2–4 warm colors (rusty orange, golden yellow, olive green) and blend with a larger brush for an autumn feel inspired by these 20+ Fall leaves images
- Using watercolor markers draw the outline shape of the autumn leaf
- Using 2 to 4 colors quickly adds more colors and details to the leaf
- Add a few spots of orange here and there
- Using a large paintbrush and little water, slowly blend the colors. Use a little water, and let the colors blend but not get watery and run into each other
Fall Watercolor Leaf Painting Video: https://youtu.be/0QT_4y5HvgY
Rainbow Watercolor Leaves
Apply two contrasting colors per leaf, then blend gently with a damp brush. Create a lovely mottled effect with the watercolor salt technique
Simple & Rustic Leaf Shapes
Paint small dabs of color along a stem line, then connect them with a wet brush to form leaf shapes — it’s such an easy way to build foliage!
- Using your paintbrush, draw a leaf outline shape.
- Fill this shape with color and just a little bit of water
- Next add a touch of another color towards one end of the leaf shape
- Blend the color slightly to achieve a gradient color.
Add simple patterns on top of your leaves once they dry, I share many Leaf Drawing Step by Step ideas that you can incorporate here.
Enjoy this Easy Watercolor Leaves Youtube Playlist and I hope you pull out your sketchbook and paint with me! I will continue to add more and more videos to this playlist, so make sure you bookmark it or come back and check.
Tips for Painting watercolor leaves:
- Start with less water — it’s easier to add more than to take away.
- Let water do the blending for you — gentle pigment movement makes magical color mixes.
- Don’t worry about perfection — soft edges and organic shapes are what make watercolor leaves so pretty.
In conclusion, watercolor leaves are a great way to practice your painting skills. If you’re enjoying painting these watercolor leaves and want to keep the creative flow going, there are so many fun techniques you can try next. Playing with watercolor and pen together is a great way to add definition and detail once your paint dries, and it pairs beautifully with leafy designs. You might also love experimenting with simple watercolor flowers, which use the same loose blending approach and feel just as relaxing. And if you’re in the mood to go a little bigger, painting a colorful watercolor tree is a fun next step, it’s basically taking these leaves and letting them grow into a full, expressive piece.
Hi I’m Smitha! I live in Minnesota with my husband and two daughters. You’ll always find me painting florals in my sketchbook. And I love the sheer joy of making something with just my hands! But my bigger love is capturing it all on camera Read more.
Thanks for stopping by today! If you learnt something from this tutorial, do share this post with a friend or on social media! Tag me @smithakatti #smithakatti I’d love to see what you create!
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Watercolor leaves are one of my favorite warm-up exercises to start a sketchbook page because the colors blend themselves and create gorgeous movement on paper.
Make sure to check out my previous Tutorials!: Leaf drawing step-by-step tutorial, How to Draw a Maple Leaf with Markers, Watercolor Flowers Tutorial, and Watercolor Tree Tutorial
If you love drawing and painting, like I do here are a few more to try- Pumpkin Drawing Easy, 6 Easy Painted Pumpkin Ideas , and Color Mixing Chart. All of these are easy to recreate tutorials and I hope you enjoy them!
