Simple Watercolor Ferns For Shavuot!

I shared these watercolor fern paintings with you last year for the Jewish holiday of Tu B”Shevat, though i just had to share them again as they are so simple and perfect for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, coming up this Saturday night. We fill our homes with greenery for Shavuot, which means flowers, plants, and often the kids go out into the fields and collect anything that seems appropriate. This year the holiday of Shavuot is back to back with Shabbat, meaning we will have to decorate the house on Friday afternoon, ruling out all that fresh greenery, and possibly even flowers, as they just won’t look all that great once the holiday rolls around. And, for those outside of Israel, Shavuot is a 2 day holiday, meaning Shabbat, Shavuot, Shavuot, or Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So, I say, in addition to some lovely new houseplants, which is always great, go for some non-perishable decorations, like these watercolor fern paintings. And if you prefer you can always cut them out and make a garland, which could be quite lovely, so go for it and chag sameach!

if you have 30 minutes or so you can whip up some gorgeous watercolor leaf paintings and learn about practicing your brush strokes a win win crafting experience!  It turns out that the first step is learning brush control, using a round brush, and leaves like the ones used in my fern illustrations are created with just one stroke. Pretty great I must admit, and so relaxing to paint. A friend was over the other day and she thought I had stamped all these little leaves! Of course there are so many designs one can make once you master the one stroke leaf, so give it a try and enjoy!

You’ll Need:

• watercolors (any paint and any paper can be used for this)
• watercolor paper
• round watercolor brushes, I believe I used a size 1 and a size 4, but certainly a larger brush can be used as well

How To:

1. First practice painting individual leaves as follows: fill brush with paint, holding brush at an angle touch point of brush to paper, press down on brush and make stroke of desired length, then slowly life to form a point.
2. To paint ferns as shown, first paint a centers stem, and then paint leaves along both sides, decreasing size of leaves as you move towards the top.
3. That is it, enjoy!

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