Falling for Fall with Lisa Spangler

This is a live recording from our demo with artist Lisa Spangler from November 16th, 2023. In this demo, Lisa demonstrated how to paint leaves in time for the fall season. She shared color-mixing techniques and tips for quickly painting fall foliage while on your autumn hikes and neighborhood walks!

Read a more in-depth post, “Leaves and Shadows”, from Lisa on our blog post!

Falling for Fall Supplies

• Watercolors by Daniel Smith, but use what you have! 

  Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Gold, Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Coral, Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Burnt Scarlet, Transparent Red Oxide, Van Dyke Brown, Venetian Red or Indian Red, Organic Vermillion, Cobalt Blue, and Indanthrone Blue

• A leaf

• Pencil

• Kneaded eraser

• Brushes, big and small

• Pocket knife (Lisa really recommends having one of these!)

• White gouache or Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleedproof White

• Sketchbook or paper (Lisa used a Hahnemühle sketchbook for the leaves and a handmade book from Arches 140# cold press paper) 

Lisa’s Three Palettes

• Her trusty old Art Toolkit/Greenleaf & Blueberry collab palette with Mayan Red, Mayan Blue, Mayan Violet, Mayan Yellow, Red Ochre, and Yellow Ochre from years ago (most of these colors are not available anymore)

• Her recent cactus collab palette with Letter Sparrow

• Her Folio Palette that includes the Daniel Smith watercolors listed above

About Lisa

Lisa Spangler started working with watercolor a few years ago while recovering from 6 surgeries for a torn ACL. During rehab, she would walk to a pond in her neighborhood, using her Art Toolkit Pocket Palette to do a little sketch as a reward and let her leg recover before making the trek back home. Now, she sketches while hiking and backpacking. Lisa is on a mission to share the joy of sketching outdoors with everyone she meets! You may have spotted her artwork for the papercraft industry at Target, JoAnn Fabrics, and Michaels.

In addition to sharing her art online, Lisa works for a nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving prairies in her home state of Texas.

Check out Lisa’s website and Instagram page to see more of her art and keep up with other news!