Watercolor Leaf Printing

I’ve been attending a really fun “Water, Paper, Paint” class at our East Branch library taught by a very talented Connie Walts. She has based her class on the book by the same name.

I’ve not really explored working with watercolors much lately, so this was a fun way of reintroducing me to the media. In the class last week one of our exercises was to print with leaves.

I like working with natural things, especially from our yard. On an earlier post I shared my hammered leaf printing. That was fun, but this took much less effort!!

Watercolor leaf print
Watercolor leaf print on watercolor paper

I had so much fun in class, I decided to try it here at home. First to pick out some leaves.

Figs
Fig leaves

These fig leaves are so pretty. Look at those figs!!

Fig leaf
Fig leaf

Now to pick paper. I decided to use some scrapbook paper in my stash I don’t like.

scrapbook paper
scrapbook paper

Next, I painted the back of the leaf with watercolor paint.

Painting leaf
Painting leaf

Then pressed the leaf on paper.

Place and press leaf on paper
Place and press leaf on paper

I like to make sure the leaf has contact with the paper so I took my paint cloth and pressed on the leaf.

Using my paint cloth to press leaf
Using my paint cloth to press leaf

The finished print. I added white paint pen to give some definition to the leaves. I love my white paint pens!!

Finished watercolor leaf print
Finished watercolor leaf print

I do like the scrapbook paper much better with the leaves. That was fun!