more Autumn leaves

Most of our circle's trees are still holding on to their leaves and green. In fact, recent rains seem to have given them fresh life. But I was able to find these interesting leaves yesterday during a morning walk.

autumn in Texas

I found a colorful autumn in this part of Texas after all. Though most of the trees are still fully green and there are flowers blooming everywhere, we found several trees and shrubs going through seasonal color changes.

These leaves were found in NW Houston and in Brenham, while taking walks and looking at houses for sale. Most deciduous trees are holding their green, along with the thousands of tall pines in our daughter's neighborhood. Roses and other flowers are blooming everywhere.

Autumn Leaves in Layers

This year our leaves in Tennessee seemed to take forever to turn to autumn colors, but when they did they were brilliant.  Then it seemed cold quickly moved in and the leaves began floating to the ground creating colorful layers.

Creating layers of fallen leaves with watercolor is a fun way to prolong the season.  Go for a walk, gather some colorful leaves and enjoy layering them in watercolor!

For more details on layering, visit my blog post:  Fun with Fall Leaves--Creating Layers

Autumn Sassafras Leaves

It has been fascinating to watch the gradual change of the leaves on the sassafras sapling that sits near my feeders and the bird bath.

Above is a sketch of the sapling created half on the tan book facing, half on smooth hot press watercolor paper in my sketchbook.

The leaves turned yellow after a couple of freezing nights and then revealed spots of red. On some leaves, red completely filled the space between veins, and on others, the red appeared as random smudges with no particular boundary. Observing the overnight changes was magical.

 

I also realized, I only noticed these details because I was watching for color so I could paint them!  We certainly take in our world differently when we see it through our artist eyes!

Visit my blog post on enjoying movement and surprise in watercolor in my "Fun with Fall Leaves" series at Vickie's Sketchbook.
To learn more about the how and why of autumn color visit:  Why Leaves Change Color 

Having Fun with Fall Leaves!

There is nothing like the palette that autumn brings to our senses, as leaves turn from shades of green to a wide array of yellows, gold, orange and red.  This spectacular display is due to the interplay of three pigments found in leaves:  chlorophyll (green), carotenoids (yellow-orange) and anthocyanin (red).  

As temperatures drop, trees stop producing chlorophyll, enabling the other color pigments to shine through. Going for a walk this time of year gives your eyes new colors to feast on every day. 

I brought these leaves inside out of the chill to enjoy painting them.  All this color means the chlorophyll in the leaves has been broken down into nitrogen, sugars and starches and moved to storage cells in the twigs in preparation for winter.  Isn't that facinating?  

Visit my blog series Fun with Fall Leaves and enjoy reading about the amazing science behind autumn beauty at this link: Why Leaves Change Color

Autumn leaves

maple leaves, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is painting the leaves. But the drought conditions make me search longer for leaves to sketch.



Not much color this year. Many are dried and crinkled before falling from the trees.Others fall while still green.



Some seem to fall as small branches instead of individually.

Foliage, part two - Carolyn A. Pappas

I finally got around to doing some scanning and uploading of my nature sketching sketchbook, so this sketch is about a month old. This sketch was another one done by looking out my window, although from a different angle. It reminds me a bit of this drawing from last year. The colors in the leaves have changed a lot over the past month; there are more reds and rust colors, as well as more of the birch trunks visible. I will have to do another version as it looks now.

Friday morning . . .

Friday morning . . .
Originally uploaded by vickylw

. . . and a few things I picked up.

It's hard to believe these are the first Autumn leaves I've sketched this year. Leaves changing colors is my favorite part of the season.

Fernleaf fullmoon Maple

We are searching for a colorful tree for the eastside of our house. My hubby ran across this wonderful tree and brought me home two leaves to show me the color, it is amazing. He might of brought me the whole tree if it wasn't $200!

Fall Leaves & Praying Mantis - Laura Gillis

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.... there is so much to be thankful for.

One thing I am thankful for is that I got a surprise day off so I had a little extra time this weekend. So, I got back to nature and did the praying mantis (one of my favorite insects) and some fall leaves.

Fall leaves from the park... a sweet gum and a burr oak. Ink & watercolor on Hemp paper in the nature journal.

A praying mantis for the Bug Book... ink & watercolor in the Moleskine watercolor journal