As the new school year settles in and everyone begins to adjust to their routines, it seems like a good time for a dose of creative stimulation. With the loss of summer’s freedom, it can be tough to find time for scribbling, but fear not! Your next scribblin’spiration is here and this time it is… autumn leaves!

 

What better time to embrace the change in seasons and use them for our artistic gain? The beautiful changing foliage is all around you, providing inspiration each day. You might take this inspiration literally and focus on drawing trees and leaves. Go to a local park or look in your backyard for a great landscape sketch. Collect leaves to study, press, or trace. Or use them as a starting point to create something different, abstract, or even unrelated.

photo by Pantone, via Plenty of Colour

 

The beauty of inspiration is that it can take you anywhere—different qualities of the leaves can stimulate your mind, perhaps even an image or association you have with them may arise.

 

There are so many elements within changing foliage to find inspiration; one of the most noticeable is certainly color. The rich greens, golds, reds, and oranges create a glowingly warm palette for the season. Try using these hues as a jumping off point for your project or picture.

 

photo by Corbis, via The Guardian

 

Another interesting quality of leaves is their shape—each type of tree’s leaves boasts a different figure and you can find all shapes and sizes on the ground. Experiment with the scale and design of leaves to inspire your creation. Also consider large-scale shapes, such as whole trees or forests. How are trees’ shapes affected as the leaves begin to fall?

 

photo via Fermilab Today

 

Finally, don’t overlook texture. The green leaves emerge from summer smooth and supple. As autumn advances, those leaves become dry, brittle, and crunchy. Play with surface and touch in your work to explore this element.

 

What images or ideas to changing leaves bring for you? See how they influence your art all season long. All you have to do is peek outside your window for a dose of inspiration!

 

 

 

 

 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Summer (1573)

 

Giuseppe Arcimboldo – Autumn (1573)

Well, it’s finally happened. Somewhere in the endless stretch of humid days, sun-kissed skin, and nightly cookouts, September snuck up on us. I don’t know about you, but I find that September—not January—always feels like the beginning of a new year. Whether you are a little one or have a little one, the new school year marks the passage of time more tangibly than midnight on a snowy winter night. With fresh school supplies and maybe a few new outfits, autumn feels like a natural beginning. A huge perk of this season for me is always the produce (leave it to me to think about food). Picking apples, carving pumpkins, sipping butternut squash soup… the list goes on. When it’s time to bid adieu to peaches and plums and say hello to apples and pumpkins… who better to inspire us than Giuseppe Arcimboldo? This bad boy right here defines the phrase, “an oldie but a goodie.” Painted in the sixteenth century (almost 500 years ago!), Arcimboldo’s innovative portraits are wildly creative and show that art can be technically masterful and have a funny bone. The seasonal produce painted in Summer and Autumn documents nature’s transition throughout the year (the series also includes portraits of Spring and Winter). Take a good look at his pictures and see how many different fruits and veggies you can spot! Do you have a favorite season? What makes you love it?