Demonstration
Step 3
1 I applied my text as we did in the exercise. I placed the right-hand piece lower, but the colour was too strong and would have made the text difficult to read.
2 I also added a little more light-toned paint using a painting knife.
Step 4
1 My next stage was to paint outlines of simple leaf and fruit shapes in a cool grey mixed from three primaries and white. These represent the healthy summer growth, now gone and decaying into autumn colours. I introduced the cool grey to contrast with the previous warm yellows and oranges. 2 I began to use real leaves, painting neat acrylic on to the underside of the leaf and laying it onto the support. I covered it with a piece of kitchen roll and gently pressed down to transfer the vein pattern to the painting’s surface. Prominently veined leaves, like hazel, are best for leaf printing.
Step 5
1 I continued to build up the leaf prints. I wanted the sense of leaves falling so I applied them randomly as though they were tumbling to the earth, and increased the density at the base of the painting to imply a depth of fallen leaves.
2 Despite the random arrangement, I took care not to print over the text, as I wanted it to remain legible.
3 I used fingerprints in red and purple to suggest a bunch of berries at the base of the painting.
Step 6
1 I painted a winter tree from my sketchbook reference. I wanted to suggest the winter was looming, though the colours from the background suggest there could still be a few leaves remaining. To create the haze of tiny outer twigs, I applied neat acrylic with a fan brush.
2 The oak leaf in the lower centre was painted directly on the support, again using sketchbook reference.
3 I then added a few clumps of small berries, applying neat paint with a small swab.
Step 7
1 Below the oak leaf, I added my first leaf cut from textured paper. This has a more substantial feel than the printed leaves. Once dry, I modified the colour.
2 Two more trees were added. This time I traced sketchbook images onto tissue paper and used gloss medium to stick them to the support. The pencil lines then acted as a guide for overpainting.
3 The central tree was carefully placed over a leaf print so the underlying colours showed through to suggest autumn colours.
4 I also added the outline of simple, dark leaf shapes, to imply further decay and eventual disappearance.
Step 8
1 In this final stage I added a few more cut paper leaves, using textured paper and snippets from a magazine. Those were modified with neat acrylic applied with a painting knife. The tones were darker to balance the dark trees and to give more weight to the lower section of the painting.
2 Magazine clippings are excellent for collage, as the fragments can be selected for their colour or tone. Once in place they can be adjusted with paint or other media.
3 The leaf at the bottom left was modified to show its changing structure. The lowest leaves were dark and strong, the middle pair were colourful but weaker, and the top one was just a skeleton of veins as it finally decays.
4 Finally, I modified the text with thin glazes of colour, to unify it with the rest of the image.