Watercolour Green Ash Leaf Botanical Illustration in Procreate (1) (PDF Step-by-Step Tutorial) | IMN

Bring the elegance of nature into your digital sketchbook with this ash leaf botanical illustration tutorial—designed especially for Procreate and created using the Realistic Watercolour Brush & Canvas Set. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced artist exploring digital watercolour, this guided lesson will help you develop a clean, minimalistic style like real watercolour.

This in-depth PDF guide walks you through my complete process for creating a realistic botanical illustration of a green ash leaf in Procreate, using my watercolour brush set. You’ll see every stage clearly broken down — from initial sketch and colour planning to layered washes, texture, and final details.

This guide is designed for artists who prefer to work at their own pace, with high-resolution progress images and clear written explanations. It is formatted to be used in “Split View” alongside the Procreate app for easy reference while you work.

Time to complete: 6-7 hours

watercolour botanical illustration green leaf procreate

The ash leaf is a beautiful subject for botanical illustration thanks to its elegant structure and distinctive details. Composed of multiple slender leaflets arranged in pairs along a central stem (or rachis), the ash leaf has a graceful, feather-like form that naturally lends itself to minimalist design. Each leaflet tapers to a fine point and often features gently serrated edges and a delicate central vein, providing just the right amount of detail for watercolour texture to shine through. This combination of symmetry, variation, and organic flow makes the ash leaf both visually striking and meditative to paint—perfect for practicing layering, brush control, and subtle colour blending in digital watercolour.

watercolour green ash leaf botanical illustration in procreate

What You’ll Need

To complete this illustration, you’ll first need:

An iPad with the Procreate app
Apple Pencil or compatible stylus
The Realistic Watercolour Brush & Canvas Set
The PDF Tutorial (link below)

What’s Included in the Purchase

Here’s a preview of what you’ll receive:

x1 Step-by-Step PDF Tutorial to use in “Split View” alongside the Procreate app
x1 Full Extracted Timelapse Video from Procreate
x1 Colour Palette
x1 PNG Sketch Outline

watercolour botanical illustration in procreate green ash leaf

See a time-lapse of the illustration here (also included in the tutorial pack):

Ready to Get Started?

Once payment is complete, you’ll automatically receive a Dropbox link to a ZIP folder with all the files—please be sure to save them to your device so you can access them easily whenever needed.