Autumn time - Mushroom time

Oct 2

Mushrooms are a wonderfully simple and rewarding subject, especially for beginners in painting.

Why?

So, what could be more fitting than painting a mushroom together in our SketchVibes series?

Exactly — nothing!

Today, we’ll paint a button mushroom in watercolor — step by step, and completely relaxed

Grab a mushroom, get comfy, and take out your sketchbook — mushroom cream sauce comes later. 🍂

Materials - What you´ll need

One button mushroom (Champignon)
Watercolor paper or watercolor sketchbook (e.g., Clairefontaine Fontaine watercolor sketchbook)
Brushes
- da Vinci Dartana Spin, size 7
- da Vinci Cosmotop Spin, size 4 & size 0
  👉 These three brushes came in a May & Berry set — maybe you have it at home, too!
Pencil (HB or B)
Eraser (e.g., Tombow Mono Zero and/or a plastic eraser)
Water jar, rag, ceramic palette or plate

Watercolors

Schmincke Horadam
- 667 Raw umber
- 653 Transparent sienna
- 478 Cobal blue light
Winsor & Newton
- 507 Perylene maroon

💡 Tipp: You don’t need these exact shades — just use whatever comes closest to your mushroom.

What matters are warm browns and cool shadow tones. You can also mix brown and blue to create depth.

Find a spot with good light where you can work with focus.

Lay out your materials and place your mushroom so you can observe it closely.

Start with a light pencil sketch — mine looks darker in the photos so you can see it better.

Take a close look at your mushroom: it basically consists of two main shapes:

Mix Raw umber, Transparent sienna, and Cobalt blue light.

You can either dampen the area with clean water first or go straight in with color.

The shape is small enough that both methods work fine.

Pay attention to where the light falls — keep those areas very light.
Then move on to the stem.

For this, mix Raw umber and Transparent sienna again, but add more Cobalt blue light and dilute with plenty of water.

That will give you a lovely pale beige.

💡 Tip: Be careful not to let the stem color bleed into the cap if the cap is still wet.

Now let’s intensify the cap color:

If your first mix turned out quite light, make the same mix but with more pigment and less water.

Work in layers:

Depending on how wet the paper is, you’ll get either smooth transitions or crisp edges — both can be beautiful, so go with the look you like best.

Want a warmer tone? Add a touch of Perylene maroon for a subtle reddish hue.

Because of the mushroom’s shape, it makes sense to add cast shadows under the cap.

For this, I mixed Cobalt blue light, Raw umber, Perylene maroon, and water.

Keep the mix very light — better to build up shadows gradually than go too dark right away.

Happy with the overall look?

If you’d like to add a bit more, you could:

Write or paint the name of the mushroom.
Sketch a small illustration of a mushroom dissaction next to it (makes your sketchbook feel like a nature diary!).
Add notes about your sketch, e.g., the color mixes you used.

Highlight specific features of your mushroom, like little notches on the stem.