How To Paint (and draw) Holly and Berries

Hi! How are you? Good, I hope. Today I’m gonna share a couple of ways to paint holly. One, pictured above, looks all artsy and complicated – but it’s not. Just a few colors of paint that are layered on top of each other.

Then there’s this holly leaf. Like the leaves I painted on the PB KnockOff. No shading or highlighting. Does that make it easier? Personally, I don’t think so, but you can decide for yourself.

Before we get started, I got a question for you bloggers reading this. Have you ever gone back and read some of your early posts? Good Heavens!!! I posted the first holly tutorial just last year in October and thought I’d just give you a link to it today.

Then I read it. Then I looked at the photos. And then I opened Photoshop and started re-editing all the pics. What in the world was I thinking, just 12 short months ago? Lighting was bad, photo files were huge, etc., etc.

So here’s an easy way to draw a holly leaf.

Start with a simple curved line.

Then add some sides to the curve and make a little bridge.

Do the same thing on the other side.

And have an eraser handy in case your points don’t match up. Mine never do. I’m just sayin’ . . .

I use a liner brush and outline the holly leaf first just so I get nice sharp points.

Then basecoat with the same color as the outline.

With a lighter green, add a little curved ‘vein’ and a few swoops.

That’s it!

Here are the ‘simple’ holly leaves . . .

. . . and here are the highlighted and shaded holly leaves. Same paint colors, just different method!