Oak leaves

'Mighty oaks from little acorns grow'

I'm currently working on a project involving oak leaves. The work for this isn't finished, but I thought it would be interesting to show you the process from my initial paintings to developing more of a motif based design.

Design 1

Layers of watercolour paints make up the colours of the leaves. Once the paint is dry lines are drawn over the top using drawing ink and a dip pen. Finally, white paint is used to add thick lines over the top of the leaves.

Design 2

I used the testing paper for the first design for this piece! Adding thicker bands of colour down the middle using watercolours. Once dry an ink design was drawn over the top. Can you see how this design has simplified from the first painting?

Design 3

I switched the process around for this final design, starting first with the ink drawing using black drawing ink and applying this with a dip pen. Three thick stripes of colour are added using watercolour once the ink was dry.

Right, back to work. I have the final design to work on now!

Have a great day!