Painted Leaves on Canvas

I’m very fond of (Read: OBSESSED with) leaves and try to use them on many of my projects. On a trip to our back-garden, I found these lovely leaves (name unknown, sorry!!) which were shaped like trees themselves.

I thought they would look beautiful on a canvas, and set on to press them. You can use any leaves which are beautifully shaped. For pressed leaves, I simply put in the leaves which I like in between newspaper folds and placing a small pile of newspapers above. If you want, you can press them under heavy weights like books, but I rather the newspaper methods as it preserves some of their textures, instead of flattening them totally.

Its really up to you how long you want to press these leaves. For me, overnight pressing seems just fine. Here they are; the leaves look beautiful and adequately pressed. (Sorry for the poor quality pictures; my camera is still in for repair and I had to suffice with my cellphone camera) :o

My intention was to paint them onto a canvas, but I didn’t have them handy, and couldn’t wait for another day to start painting, so I used a piece of Thermocol or Styrofoam sheet, whichever name you call it by, as I had good supply of large sheets of it. You can cut a rectangular piece of suitable size. Mine is around 15”X10” sheet. 

I like the texture of Styrofoam when painted upon, though I detest it when plain white. So I painted it in various hues of green acrylic paints: bamboo, metallic green chrome, sap green & Khaki.

Here is how the sheet looks, once finished

Pretty already!

Now I placed the leaves on a newspaper and painted them in hues of metallic red and gold yellow. There was a tinge of orange as well, if you can just see it. I love fall colors!

After the paint had dried, I applied a generous coat of glue on the reverse side, and stuck them onto the painted sheet.

You can apply ModPodge, really. (I envy you, as we do not have Mod Podge in India) A few strokes with it, and you are done.

I painted two more leaves metal red and stuck them on either sides. To bring a natural, rustic look, I glued wood twigs randomly. The end product looked like this (Click on the picture to view the texture and shades more closely):

Is it not pretty!! My husband loved it and immediately fixed it onto our bedroom wall.

I’m lovin’ it!!
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