Easy Watercolor Holly Leaves (Christmas Painting Tutorial)

Learn how to create easy watercolor holly leaves in this Christmas painting tutorial. In this online art class, follow along step-by-step to paint and draw this beautiful winter plant, for beginners and more experienced artists.

Painting holly for the holidays or the winter season has never been easier with a simple sketch for the leaves and berries and loose paint strokes to build up the color little by little.

Watercolor painting of a spring of holly with paint brushes.

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Materials
How to Paint Easy Watercolor Holly Video Tutorial
Transcript
Art Lesson
Variations
Tips and tricks
Direction Card
What to do with Your Sketch
Structure of a Holly Leaf and Berries
Frequently Asked Questions
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Need a project idea for a Christmas, holiday, or winter arts and crafts? Look no further, painting holly is simple and fun.

Painting or sketching holly on blank Christmas cards or holiday cards is a very fun and elegant project. Not to mention, it is a great way to share your watercolor art with friends and family.

Holly is one of my favorite subjects to paint in the winter when the berries turn bright red. The leaves are equally fascinating to depict because of their curved spiny leaves and tough but shiny surface.

Materials

Pencil
Watercolor paper - I am using 140 lb. Strathmore Vision cold press watercolor paper cut down into a 6 x 9-inch piece.
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints such as Crayola or Prang. Avoid cheap or off-brand watercolor boxes because the colors will not be very vibrant. Don’t worry if you don’t have the sam colors, you can use whatever you have on hand. I am using:
- Cerulean Blue
- Cadmium Yellow
- Viridian Green
- Prussian Blue
- Cadmium Red Light
- Alizarin Crimson
- Yellow Ocher
- Burnt Umber
Watercolor brush - a soft round watercolor brush will work well. I am using a round number 9 and number 4.
Water - A cup should do but if you will be doing a lot of painting and don’t want to change the water as often, use a small bucket.
Paper towel or clean rag - for wiping the brush

How to Paint Easy Watercolor Holly Video Tutorial

Transcript

Read Transcript

Welcome to Artlooklearn. I am so excited to show you how to create easy watercolor holly leaves. Let's jump right into our tutorial. Start by drawing in your sprig of Holly. This is the stem. Make sure your pencil lines are very light so that they won't show up underneath your watercolor paint. I'm making mine a little bit darker than I would otherwise so that they can show up on the camera.

I am just adding the little lobes on each leaf. Now holly leaves are actually kind of irregular, they don't have a set number of lobes that they always have, unlike some leaves. So they can have three or four or basically any number of little spiny points and so it's okay if they're a little bit irregular or if one side has an extra point that the other side doesn't have.

I am just going to add in a few little round berries clustered at the center and then a few more peeking out from behind this leaf.

All right, now I'm erasing my guidelines that I drew down the center and any other lines that are overlapping that I don't need.

Do just remember to keep your pencil lines really light.

Now I'm going to start with one leaf at a time. I'm using a wet-on-wet technique so I am painting it in one leaf just with clear water.

I don't want to have too much water but just enough to kind of dampen the paper. Now I'm going to add a little bit of Cerulean Blue. Clean out my brush again and then add in some yellow. I'm using Cad yellow [cadmium yellow] but you can use whatever you've got. I'm just drawing a kind of an indication of the stem and then maybe a few highlights on the leaf.

I'm slowly building up the color layer-by-layer so I get lots of variety of color and a really nice kind of loose mottled effect on the leaf. I'm also going to make sure to leave a few little highlights on the leaves. Those will be white, they'll kind of indicate a shine or highlight on the leaf.

So this green color, I'm using a viridian green and it's mixed with a little bit of yellow as well as just a teeny dab of red. Now I'm going in with that same viridian green mixed with a teeny dab of red and it is without the yellow so it's just a little bit darker.

Now you can kind of see this leaf starting to come together now with dark areas and light areas and a big variety of color. Hitting the edges of the leaf with just a little bit of the, dab of the, the darker green. I also want to make sure on the side of that center yellow, the stem, the stem yellow to put a little bit of a darker green, kind of right next to it. That'll give it a little bit of variation between the colors, so you can really start to tell the difference in the surface.

Now I'm going in with a little bit of Prussian Blue to just make a little bit of low light color there coming through and blend it out a little

[Music] bit. Oops, I went outside my line, just picking up that color kind of lifting it off with some clean water. Now I'm going to repeat that same process with the rest of the leaves.

So one leaf at a time, paint it in with clean water. Add a few little dabs of Cerulean Blue, kind of in random areas. Now adding some yellow. Add in the stem area, make it kind of irregular and then a few other little highlight

areas and some of that light green again. Just a nice really earthy, earthy green but still nice and bright and [Music] cheerful in a few areas. Making sure to leave that little high white highlight in a couple of places.

Loading up my brush with some Viridian Green again, mixed with just a teeny dab of red for those darker greens.

And make sure to add a little patch of darker green to one side of that center Line it helps make that center stand out a little bit more and helps, helps sculpt out the shape of the surface of the leaf. And again lastly, a little bit of blue, Prussian Blue or other dark blue, just for a few little low light areas. Then I'm going to blend that out and now I'm just going to repeat that process for the rest of the leaves.

And you can see when the paint is dried that the colors dry a little bit lighter and they really kind of mellow out a little bit. Now I'm going to paint the stem. I'm using a Yellow Ochre on the top part of the stem and on the bottom I'm going to use a burnt umber that just kind of indicates that light is hitting one side of the stem and when it dries it'll blend together a little bit more.

Hitting the stem of each leaf with a little bit of that brown as well and then a few little nodules or texture on the stem.

Now I'm going to going to switch paint brushes to a smaller brush so I can get a little bit more detail in these

berries. Using my yellow, I'm going to draw an O shape on each berry, leaving the middle white. That is going to be the highlight on the berry.

Now using red, just going to go around the outside of that yellow shape and add the red.

And if they're not perfect don't worry, berries are never perfect in nature.

And lastly, I'm going to go in with a little bit of this crimson color

And just dab a little bit of the Crimson around on one side of each Berry. This just gives a little a little bit more color variation and a little bit more depth.

Thanks for watching and check back soon for more online art tutorials.

Art Lesson

A light pencil sketch of holly leaves next to some drawing pencils. — Lightly sketch in holly.

A holly leaf with some blue, yellow and green watercolor paint next to a paint palette. — Add green paint, leaving white highlights.

A watercolor painting of a sprig of holly with the leaves and stem painted in next to a watercolor palette. — Paint tan and brown in the stem.

A holly leaf with some blue and yellow watercolor paint next to a paint palette. — Add some blue and yellow paint.

A holly leaf with some blue, yellow, green and dark blue watercolor paint next to a paint palette. — Paint in dark green and blue.

A watercolor painting of a sprig of holly, up close showing the process of painting red, yellow and crimson into the berries. — Add yellow, red, and crimson in the berries.

Sketch, using very light lines that will not show up under the watercolor paint.
Sketch in the stem of the holly sprig. Draw in the center guideline of the leaf. Then sketch in several rounded scallops connected by pointy spines on each side of the leaf.
Surprisingly, holly leaves can vary in the number of lobes and spines that they have. It doesn’t matter how many scallops you add to each leaf. I recommend adding between 3 and 5 points.
Draw in the rest of the leaves. Add a few berries clusters around the middle and a few more peaking out from behind a leaf.
Erase any overlapping lines and the center guidelines of each leaf.
Work on one leaf at a time. Paint clean water into the leaf area. Just enough to dampen the paper.
Paint a little bit of Cerulean Blue (or light blue) in several random places on the leaf. Then rinse out the brush.
Add a stroke of yellow (cadmium yellow or other yellow hue) down the middle for the center vein. This line can be broken or irregular. Add one or two other yellow highlights to the leaf.)
Mix yellow (cadmium yellow), green (viridian green), and just a tiny bit of red (cadmium red light) together to make a light, earthy green. Paint it in some areas of the leaf.
Leave a few spots white, or paper color, for highlights. Also, leave some room for the dark green paint.
Mix green (viridian green) and a tiny bit of red (cadmium red light) to make a darker green. Paint this in several areas of the leaf, especially around the edges and next to the center vein.
Dip the paintbrush into dark blue (Prussian Blue) and add a few low-light areas near the center of the leaf and on the spines. Using clean water, blend the dark blue color out just a little bit.
Paint in the stem using a tan color (yellow ocher) for the area where light is hitting and dark brown (burnt umber) for the shaded side.
Using a smaller brush, add color to the berries by painting an “O” shape in the middle of each berry in yellow paint.
Paint a circle outside of the yellow. Then dab some crimson paint on the bottom of each berry.

Variations

Watercolor painting of holly leaves and berries with splatter effects next to paint brushes, a paint palette and a squirt bottle.

Squirt water on your painting while you are working on it for a loose splattered effect.
Paint with a different color palette. Instead of using yellow, green, and blue try using three other contiguous colors such as orange, red, and purple.
Draw and paint while looking at a real sprig of holly or a photo of it. You could paint as many leaves on your holly plant as you like.

Tips and tricks

Make your pencil lines very light so they don’t show up underneath the paint.
Don’t forget to leave several white spots on each leaf for highlights.
Paint slowly but keep the individual strokes loose.
But don’t worry if you don’t have the same paint colors that I am, you can use whatever you have on hand.
Keep practicing! This is a great project for beginning painters and more experienced artists.

Direction Card

Watercolor painting of a spring of holly with paint pallet and paint brushes.

Easy watercolor holly leaves (Christmas painting tutorial)

Equipment

Pencil
Watercolor paper - I am using 140 lb. Strathmore Vision cold press watercolor paper cut down into a 6 x 9-inch piece.
Watercolor paint - tube watercolor paint on a pallet or a box kit of watercolor paints such as Crayola or Prang. Avoid cheap or off brand watercolor boxes because the colors will not be very vibrant. I am using Cerulean Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Viridian Green, Prussian Blue, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ocher, and Burnt Umber. But don’t worry if you don’t have these, you can use whatever you have on hand.
Watercolor brush - a soft round watercolor brush will work well. I am using a round number 6 and number 4.
Water - A cup should do but if you will be doing a lot of painting and don’t want to change the water as often, use a small bucket.
Paper towel or clean rag - for wiping the brush

Instructions

Sketch, using very light lines that will not show up under the watercolor paint.
Sketch in the stem of the holly sprig. Draw in the center guideline of the leaf. Then sketch in several rounded scallops connected by pointy spines on each side of the leaf.
Surprisingly, holly leaves can vary in the number of lobes and spines that they have. It doesn’t matter how many scallops you add to each leaf. I recommend adding between 3 and 5 points.
Draw in the rest of the leaves. Add a few berries clusters around the middle and a few more peaking out from behind a leaf.
Erase any overlapping lines and the center guidelines of each leaf.
Work on one leaf at a time. Paint clean water into the leaf area. Just enough to dampen the paper.
Paint a little bit of Cerulean Blue (or light blue) in several random places on the leaf. Then rinse out the brush.
Add a stroke of yellow (cadmium yellow or other yellow hue) down the middle for the center vein. This line can be broken or irregular. Add one or two other yellow highlights to the leaf.)
Mix yellow (cadmium yellow), green (viridian green), and just a tiny bit of red (cadmium red light) together to make a light, earthy green. Paint it in some areas of the leaf.
Leave a few spots white, or paper color, for highlights. Also, leave some room for the dark green paint.
Mix green (viridian green) and a tiny bit of red (cadmium red light) to make a darker green. Paint this in several areas of the leaf, especially around the edges and next to the center vein.
Dip the paintbrush into dark blue (Prussian Blue) and add a few low-light areas near the center of the leaf and on the spines. Using clean water, blend the dark blue color out just a little bit.
Paint in the stem using a tan color (yellow ocher) for the area where light is hitting and dark brown (burnt umber) for the shaded side.
Using a smaller brush, add color to the berries by painting an “O” shape in the middle of each berry in yellow paint.
Paint a circle outside of the yellow. Then dab some crimson paint on the bottom of each berry.

Notes

Make your pencil lines very light so they don’t show up underneath the paint.

Don’t forget to leave several white spots on each leaf for highlights.

Paint slowly but keep the individual strokes loose.

But don’t worry if you don’t have the same paint colors that I am, you can use whatever you have on hand.

Keep practicing! This is a great project for beginning painters and more experienced artists.

What to do with Your Sketch

A name place setting painted with watercolor holly on a plate next to a fork.

Paint holly leaves on holiday cards and send them to all your friends and family. Watercolor these lovely winter leaves on a large piece of construction paper and use them as a placemat for a special meal.

You could also create festive homemade gift tags painted with holly.

Paint the holly leaves and berries on place setting name cards to use at your next gathering. You could also frame and hang your holly for an extra special holiday decor around your home.

As always, you can add your painting to your portfolio to help keep track of your creative journey and process.

Structure of a Holly Leaf and Berries

Holly trees or bushes, are plants that have pointed green leaves and colorful berries. There are more than 500 species and they grow around the world.

The appearance of the leaves and berries can vary greatly depending on the type of plant. The number of spines on the leaves often differs depending on the species and how many predators are in the area.

Scientists have found that leaves near the bottom often will have more pokey spines than on the top. This is most likely to ward off hungry animals such as deer or it may be related to the age of the plant or leaves.

While most garden holly is spiny all over, not all holly leaves have spines. Some have smooth edges.

While often symmetrical, the lobes do not always mirror across the central stem of the leaf. Occasionally, some leaves are rounded on one side with several spins on the other.

For this painting, I recommend drawing each leaf with 3 to 5 spines on each side. If your leaves have a few more or a few less spines, go for it! Your drawing is correct.

Painting of holly in watercolor with paint brushes and a paint palette.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you watercolor paint holly leaves?

Paint a little bit of light blue in several random places on the leaf. Add some yellow highlights and a stroke of yellow down the middle for the center vein.

Leaving a few areas white, for a white highlight, paint some areas of the light green. Then paint the remaining areas dark green.

Add a few small strokes of dark blue for the low-light areas near the center of the leaf and on the spines.

How do you draw easy holly?

Sketch in the stem of the holly sprig. Draw in the center guideline of the leaf. Then sketch in several rounded scallops connected by pointy spines on each side of the leaf.

Draw in the rest of the leaves. Add a few berries clusters around the middle and a few more peaking out from behind a leaf.

How many spines or lobes do holly leaves have?

The number of spines on the holly leaves often differs depending on the species and how many predators are in the area. Some holly leaves have no spines while other have many smaller spines.

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Please leave your questions, comments, and ratings below!