English ivy is recognisable by the distinctive shape of its cascading, trailing leaves. In this project you will focus on the repetition of the leaves and their lobed appearance.
› Hot-pressed watercolor paper
› Pencil
› Mixing palette
› Scrap watercolor paper for color testing
› Water jars
› No. 10 round brush
› No. 4 round brush
Yellow Light
Phthalo Green
Sap Green
Ultramarine Blue
Base color
Yellow Light + Phthalo Green
Midtone
Phthalo Green + Sap Green
Dark Tone
Phthalo Green + Sap Green + Ultramarine Blue
Stems
Yellow Light + Sap Green
1/ To make your own composition, work from the top left to the bottom right and sketch the ivy crawling and cascading down the page. Draw the leaves with three or five lobes, starting with larger leaves at the top and gradually making them smaller further down the stem. They can be abstract and loose.
2/ Dip a wet No. 10 round brush in the yellow-green base color mix and work your way from top to bottom, gently painting in the shape of each leaf and leaving white spaces in the centre for the veins.
3/ While the paint is still wet, load the No. 4 round brush with the midtone mix and add this to the middle of the leaves so that it spreads outwards but leaves the edges distinctly lighter, capturing the marbled texture of the leaves. The inside color should be significantly darker than the outer one for a clear contrast. Use less of the midtone on the background leaves and those that are behind others, and for some leaves use no midtone at all.
4/ Still working wet on wet, and starting back at the top of the plant, drop the darkest mix on either side of the leaf vein near to where it meets the stem. Make the leaves at the top of the plant darker and more dramatic, and less so as you move down the plant. Do this by diluting the pigment as you work down the page, adding the midtone to the leaves nearest the bottom. Step back from the painting to judge how the color change is developing.
