This month for my Patreon postcards I decided to honor the beautiful autumn season by painting the forest. But not in a typical way – I wanted to do something fun and vibrant. Using an ink and wash style, I set out to create drippy trees that expressed the moving energy of the forest, dropping it’s leaves and shifting from color to color as the days go by.
Painting drippy autumn forests using watercolor ink and wash technique:
This month I used my new Etchr cold pressed watercolor postcards, and I was pleasantly surprised! At first I thought they might be too thin for such a wet technique, but they held up just fine. While wet, they did bend/buckle a good deal, but as they dried, they flatted out naturally. I ended up liking them better than my Strathmore watercolor postcards.
It all starts with a simple line drawing, then a background layer, painting around the tree trunks (and some branches). In the first wash I use a variety of colors, letting them bleed and flow as they may.
The final layer is the shadow on one side of the tree using blues and purples. In the end, the white space almost looks like snow! This made me happy because I love late autumn/early winter when the seasons collide.
Watch the entire process here:
