🍂 Autumnal Trees
Watercolor & Mixed Media Techniques

Live Online Workshop with Sophia Rodionov in Recording 

Paint Trees the Way Autumn Feels - Bold, Free, and Completely Yours ✨

Autumn trees give us permission. Permission to use colors we usually hold back. Permission to let the paint run, glow, and burn. Permission to stop being careful.

In this workshop we will paint autumnal trees and landscapes in three different approaches - from flowing, almost abstract watercolor, through deep contrast on a dark background, to a close-up personal Tree of Life that comes straight from your heart.

Three techniques, one subject, and one bigger goal: to quiet the inner critic, open up your own creative voice, and feel real freedom in the painting process. 🤎

What You Will Create During the Workshop

  🍂 Artwork 1 - Flowing Autumn A loose, semi-abstract landscape of autumn trees, born from water and gravity.
  🌑 Artwork 2 - Glowing Trees on a Dark Background Flowing trees with deep value and opacity contrast.
  🌳 Artwork 3 - Tree of Life A close-up, bold, personal tree that reflects your inner state.

💡What Makes This Workshop Special

This is not only about painting a pretty tree. It's about using one generous subject to explore how differently it can be told.
  ✅ how to let water and gravity do the painting for you
  ✅ how to build a semi-abstract landscape that still reads as trees
  ✅ how to manage deep value contrast against a dark background
  ✅ how to create opacity contrast - transparent watercolor next to opaque marks
  ✅ how to combine watercolor with drawing materials for texture and energy
  ✅ how to push color further and paint a tree that carries your own inner state
  ✅ how to use what you already have in your studio - no special shopping needed
✨ You'll leave with three artworks, three ways of working, and a much braver relationship with color.

What We Will Do - The Program:

    1️⃣ Flowing Autumn - Loose Semi-Abstract Tree Landscape A playful, joyful warm-up. We use the natural qualities of watercolor - flow, blooms, gravity - to create a semi-abstract landscape of autumn trees. Mostly watercolor, with a touch of drawing materials and extra tools for texture. This is where we loosen the hand and free the mind from the limits we carry.

    2️⃣ Glowing Trees on a Dark Background We stay loose and flowing, but now the trees live against a dark background. Here we manage deep contrast of color and value, and add a little opaque paint - gouache or acrylic ink - together with crayons and watercolor pencils, so opacity contrast becomes one more visual tool in our hands.

    3️⃣ Tree of Life - Close-Up on the Trunk Now we move in close, to the trunk and its details. The colors get even bolder and wider, and the tree becomes personal - a tree that symbolizes your inner state. I call it the Tree of Life. Spontaneous, free, thinking outside the box, and letting the creativity you already have finally come out.

⏳ About 4.5 hours total.

🍂 Who This Workshop Is For

This workshop is perfect if you:

🍁 love autumn colors and want to use them boldly, without fear
🍁 feel tight or overcareful and want more freedom in your painting
🍁 want to experience how watercolor flows when you let it lead
🍁 are curious about mixing watercolor with gouache, ink, crayons, and pencils
🍁 want to paint something personal, not just copy a reference
🍁 are a beginner looking for a joyful start, or an experienced painter ready to loosen up

Materials List

As always, work with what you already have in your studio. There is no need to buy anything specially. After the workshop you can decide whether any of the materials we used would be a good addition to your own studio.

📜 Paper
• 3 sheets • 100% cotton, cold press or rough, 300 gsm
• The techniques need freedom and space to flow, so please use no smaller than: A3 (29.7×42 cm), 11×14" (28×35.5 cm), or 12×16" (30×40 cm)

🖌 Brushes
• Large soft hake brush (for wetting paper) • Asian style or classic round brushes (medium and large) • Flat synthetic brush • Small round brush + long point rigger (for details)

🎨 Paints
Use your usual palette. For your convenience, here are the colors I use in almost all my paintings:
• Ultramarine
• Sepia
• Quinacridone Sienna (Daniel Smith)
• Nickel Azo Yellow
• Pink Quinacridone or Quinacridone Coral
• Opera Pink
• Olive Green
• Dark Olive Green or any dark green
• Light Blue with white pigment (I use Old Holland Scheveningen Blue Light)

🍁 Your autumn colors: prepare a few colors that you personally associate with autumn. They don't have to be "tree colors" - think of your own memories and feelings of autumn, the moods and moments it brings back. These colors will matter, especially in our Tree of Life.

✏️Mixed Media Materials
• Watercolor pencils • Crayons (watercolor or wax) • Optional: gouache or acrylic ink in white, plus a few autumn colors like orange and yellow

💡 Everything here can be replaced or skipped. Working with watercolor plus dry materials only - watercolor pencils and crayons - will be absolutely fine as well.

💧 Other

• Water container
• Sea sponge
•  Paper towels
• Water sprayer
• Drawing paper + pencil 2B-4B for sketching
• Board (plastic or plexiglass) to attach your paper
• Any texture tools you enjoy using

✨ The Promise

After this workshop, you won't just have three autumn paintings.

You'll have:
  🍂 a feel for letting watercolor flow on its own terms
  🌑 confidence with deep contrast and dark backgrounds
  ✏️practical ways to mix watercolor with opaque and dry materials
  🎨 more courage with bold, personal color
  🌳 a Tree of Life that is truly yours
  ✨ and that light, free feeling in the process that's so easy to lose and so good to find again

Community & Support

You'll also have the option to join our private community space, where you can:

• share your artworks
• ask questions
• receive feedback (if you want it)
• connect with other artists

Access

The recording may be found to your Library, where you can watch and paint at your own pace.

💎 THE FLOW ROOM INFORMATION

Before you decide — there are two paths here.

If this class speaks to you and you'd like to have it as your own — you can purchase it directly below, with lifetime access.

But if you find yourself returning to learn again and again, The Flow Room might be a more natural home for you. It's a subscription studio where this class is already included — alongside streams, workshops, and immersive learning — across three tiers: Emerald, Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst.

This very workshop belongs to Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst tiers.

Both paths lead to the same painting table. The question is how you like to travel.