Tucson Botanical Gardens: Botanical Art in Watercolor – Fall Foliage

This class is a great introduction to watercolor techniques for botanical art. We will explore Fall Foliage through a unique medium that has been used by artists and illustrators throughout the years. When the seasons change into fall, depending on where you live, leaves from trees and shrubs will transform into a variety of beautiful colors such as yellow, orange, and red! In the first 20 min of the workshop, we will explore basic watercolor techniques to get us warmed up. The remaining portion of the class will be focused on using watercolor to recreate our autumn muse.

Main Concepts:

• Basics in watercolor color application & techniques
• Explore organic shapes and line contour

Materials Needed:

• 2H or 4H, & HB pencil, eraser (Streader), kneaded eraser & ruler
• 140lb 9”x12” Cold press watercolor paper
• Watercolor – Main ones used in this class: Winsor & Newton-cadmium pale yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, black ivory, Cadmium pale hue red, cadmium deep hue red, alizarin crimson (optional addition -ultramarine blue) *Any brands and substitutions of colors work.
• Colored Pencils – Verithin Prisma color pencils work best – small set works
• Brushes: # 3, #4 #6 Long Round brushes, #3 or #5 Synthetic inexpensive brush for mixing
• 2 water jars/cups, towel, or paper towel
• Mixing palette
• Photo of autumn leaves
• Optional – Small spray bottle or eye dropper
• Optional before workshop – tracing options: Tracing paper, light box or bright window to transfer subject to watercolor paper