Sketching Fall Blueberries
Watercolor Sketching Tutorial

Painting Demonstration 1

I'm doing a few sketches in my garden today. It's a beautiful day, surprisingly warm with fluffy white clouds across a bright blue sky.
The red blueberry leaves are beautiful, glowing in the sunlight against dull greens of the azaleas.

I've always thought blueberries such a useful and ornamental plant. Easy to grow once they're established. Buckets of fruit if you mulch them with compost. Beautiful, little dumplings of white flowers and bright red leaves in the fall. Almost the perfect plants!

Painting Demonstration 2

I included the pencil drawing for 2 reasons. First, sketchbooks generally leak over pages at some point, but there's no need to let that even affect your new sketch. It just doesn't matter! Second, for a little sketch like this, it just takes a few lines, drawn lightly. Don't draw every leaf!

Painting Demonstration 3

I paint the bright leaves first, since I'll be negative painting around some of them. It's much easier to paint them and go around them rather than around pencil lines! This really is just a continuation of the drawing.
I let this dry partially afterwards so the dark wash will not fill the leaves. I also use a tiny bit of wax crayon to reserve some whites and oranges.

Painting Demonstration 4

The next step is where the fun starts! I start with some grayed colors in the background, then start dropping in dark ultramarine and burnt sienna. A bit of pthalo blue and azo yellow to liven things up, but I still have my nice gray background for the leaves to glow against.
In a real painting, not a sketch, I would probably stop to let this partially dry at this point.

Painting Demonstration 5

But this is a sketch, so I move on! I pull out some of the background with my rigger to create branches. I add a bit more detail. The blueberry leaves are cooler red than the oranges I've painted, so I dash some quinacridone red around. A little bit of cool purple against the orange leaves gives shimmering shadows.

Painting Demonstration 6

I add a few rigger branches in gray browns and add a bit more liveliness with the leaves.
Here, again, I'd stop in a real painting and let it dry a bit more.