I was asked by Marie (on Instagram) if could film my drawing autumn leaves.

Below are two videos, slowed down to as much as I know how to.

I am still learning about filming and editing. I am also very ‘aware’ that I am recording and conscious about how I draw. The result is that is probably not what I would do without being under this pressure I put on myself.

However, the technique and process are the same.

One day, I would love to record and give commentary along the way. This time I was mentally making notes along the way of things I wanted to tell you.

First step, collecting the wonderful autumn leaves yesterday along the street in my suburb in Melbourne. I choose them for their colour and size, so they would look good on the page. The leaves had already dried and changed overnight. By tomorrow they will probably all be crinkly and crisp. Still fun to sketch but the vibrancy will have gone from some of them.

I choose which of my collection to sketch and got out my pencils to have within reach. Sharpened pencils, clean water and I was right to go.

I love to draw and the first joy is to sketch them out on the page in a colour of the leaf. I don’t do an initial sketch with a HB pencil, just dive straight in. This colour becomes part of the leaf colour. With so many colours on these leaves, I could have chosen from a few colours.

I then add colour to some major areas of the leaf. With watercolour pencils (like watercolours ) you can’t put light colours on top of dark colours. If there are any areas that are going to be yellow, orange, or light green (in this case) they are put in early. The big blocks of darker colours are added.

You can see how I use the pigment on the page as a very small palette, dragging the colour across an area with the paintbrush, so that they fade to light tones.

That is one of the things that I teach in my Watercolour Pencil classes – discovering the range of colour and tones you can get from the one pencil.

The other thing to note is how the colour of a pencil can change once water is added. Sometimes, but not always, it can become very intense.

These are two great reasons to practice and play with your pencils. Have fun, explore and scribble on the page!

I move between the two leaves as this allows one to dry while I work (is that the right word? It is not work at all) on the other. Once an area is dry, I can add more layers. It will either be more of the same colour to make it darker, or another colour. For example, the Grass Green. As I add more to make some areas bright. I also added Pine Green ( a darker colour) to add specific detail or darker areas.

Here is the list of FaberCastell watercolour pencils that I used in the first video.

• Magenta
• Caput Mortuum
• Deep Red
• Orange Glaze
• Naples Yellow (this is not in my everyday sketchkit, but was out on the table, so I used it)
• Light Chrome Yellow
• Grass green
• Pine Green
• Burnt Umber

I made a second video adding the extra leaves to the page. This was with a few different colours.

The shadows were added at the end. They are Payne’s Grey.

The size of my Moleskine Watercolour Sketchbook (13cm x 19cm) allows me to play work on small areas of a page. You may also notice how I like to use the sharpened pencil to add finer details.

The colour of these leaves did change as I sketched them and by the end of the day, they had changed shape and colour as they dried out. But that is the joy of sketching leaves, Each one is different and the colours are different on each one. There is no right and wrong.

I encourage you to have a play with your watercolour pencils and let me know if you have any questions.

My Travel Sketching with Watercolour Pencil classes are held in Melbourne.