From Windy Inspiration to Watercolor Creation

A Step-by-Step Look

Jul 07, 2025

What’s up! 😁

The other day, it was extremely windy here. It’s usually not this windy in the summer, more of a fall thing, but then again, this whole year has been unusually gusty.

Anyway, that evening, when I was out with Kili, I looked up at the treetops and watched the leaves go absolutely wild. I thought: what if I took a picture and tried to capture that moment… but in watercolor?

So, I snapped a photo that evening. And today, I wanted to share it with you!

I’ve been thinking pretty much every day about using my watercolor pencils. But as you know from my last post, DISTRACTIONS! Or to be honest, it’s like I don’t have a start button...

This evening (not the same evening I took the picture), I decided to finally give it a go. Plus, I wanted to try out my new Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, two flies with one stone!

I transferred the picture to my iPad, grabbed my A5 watercolor sketchbook, and started sketching with my new graphite matte pencils. Oh wait! Three flies with one stone!😄

Once the sketch was done, I picked up my ink brush and began to ink. I didn’t want solid, continuous lines; I wanted spaces, one side smoother, the other side showing the shapes of the leaves, to really make it look like they were blowing in the wind.

After the inking, I grabbed my watercolor pencils and started laying down the colors of the trees, working from light to dark. I even added a bit of purple, either to create depth or… because I just like purple, honestly. 😅

Usually, I take pigment directly off the pencil with my brush, but this time I wanted to use the pencils the “right” way, drawing first, then adding water.

When it came time to activate the colors with water, I didn’t need much, these pencils are so pigmented. But I accidentally chose the wrong brush at first. I had just bought new brushes for gouache, but they don’t hold water well. They sucks… and they were expensive for my taste...

I filmed the whole process, and you can watch the video below if you’d like! 👇

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It turned out much better than I expected. And no, this isn’t a tutorial or anything, I just wanted to share the process with you.

I didn’t add a background because it felt like too much. In my past attempts, backgrounds just ruined the whole painting. So this time, I focused on the blowing trees, nothing more.

Sometimes it’s just better to focus on one object rather than many.

Putting down the colors with the pencils first, then adding water, was a lot of fun. As a final touch, I added some extra shadows by taking pigment directly off the pencil.

I’m totally going to do more of this! It was so much fun. I’ve even been thinking about taking my 24-pencil set outside with me to try it there, let’s see if it works, or if it’s just too much.

Until next time! Happy Drawing 🙂