Since the wild plants around my house are now gone and I was searching for my next drawing without much luck, my dearest friend sent me a photo of one of her plants to draw. (Thanks again, Mac!)
Tracing all those wrinkles was a bit tedious, but I think I struck a good balance by adding many leaf wrinkles, not all of them.
This is one of the most complicated drawings I’ve ever done, and I’m starting with the most difficult leaf. I didn’t trace all the detail lines on the leaf in the upper left corner because I thought I could sketch them as I went, but that’s proving challenging. There are so many lines that it’s hard to know where to start, and I’m struggling to find anchor points that would help me position them.
This photo is so detail-rich that my eyes can lose their place, so I’m drawing a few times during the day instead of one long, intense session. That makes drawing the details easier, and I can see and correct mistakes with fresh eyes before they spread to other areas.
The leaf in the upper left corner is so detailed that I was having trouble keeping the details in proportion, so I turned on the grid in my Copy-it app and cut a proportionally sized square hole in some paper to mask off a single section of the drawing paper. I use the Copy-it app on my iPad to hold the reference photo. It’s an extremely useful app.
Drawing with masks is challenging. They block out everything except the section you’re working on, giving you a severely limited view of how the rest of the drawing relates. And if you’re not careful, the masked areas can end up looking blocky and disconnected.
I must be getting old and set in my ways, because I initially resisted working with masks. However, as I approach the end of the first quarter, I’m finally feeling more comfortable with this technique. I’ve established the drawing square size, so it’s easier to place, and I’m getting used to working in small square areas.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been thinking about how to keep my passion for drawing alive. I turned 72 in August, and I’ve decided to keep drawing for as long as I can. I’ve drawn my entire life, and I would be lost without it.
When I was five, my mother decided she wanted to be a television repair person, so she began carefully drawing diagrams of the inside of TVs. This was back when TVs had tubes. I sat beside her and drew the diagrams too, labeling each tube. When she saw me printing words, she thought, for a brief moment, that I was a budding genius. She had me ‘write’ a few words, and I carefully copied the letters as I saw them, drawing the bottoms first, then the tops! Well, my mom decided I wasn’t a genius after all, just a good copycat. I was disappointed when my mom decided I wasn’t special, but I kept drawing anyway. And I don’t intend to stop as long as I can hold a pencil.
I can’t draw these leaves exactly as they are because they are so extraordinarily detailed! I’m aiming to capture 70% to 80% of the detail, which should make them look realistic and give me enough wiggle room so that I don’t collapse from detail overload!
I’m finally comfortable working in masked squares. It feels normal to focus on each small portion of the drawing. I wouldn’t want to work this way all the time, but at least I’m comfortable doing so for this drawing.
It’s a little hard to show you exactly how I’m drawing because of the masked squares. My drawing is on a magnetic whiteboard, and I’m using magnets to hold the mask in place. I can’t scan with the mask on, so you’ll have to imagine it.
I begin drawing each section with the leaf’s darkest details. Using a B pencil, I hatched in the darkest details in this section.
Working ridge by ridge, I hatched the leaf’s lightest and midrange values with 2H and H pencils. Each ridge has a thin, light border line. I carefully hatched around that line.
When I was done, I touched up the edges around the mask because, no matter how hard I try, they never quite line up when I remove it.
The most challenging part of drawing these leaves is the tiny patterns on each ridge. These patterns merge to create an overall texture, and it’s easy to lose track when drawing them. I’m constantly moving my eyes back and forth between the drawing and the photo, matching the intricate patterns and shadows that overlay each part of each leaf. Sometimes I draw what’s there well; other times I miss the mark. The patterns are so dense that I hope I can get away with lots of mistakes.
I just realized the squares the Copyit app creates over the photograph aren’t the same size! They are shorter near the bottom of the screen. I’ll need to adjust my frame size. Bummer!
Adjusting my frame size is too difficult because I have to guess its dimensions, so I’m drawing the remaining part of this quarter by eye only. That’s tricky and slow! The details are so dense that they blur together when I focus on them, but I’m making progress.
I honestly can’t tell how I’m doing on this drawing. The patterns and textures are too dense for me to judge my progress accurately. I think I’ve come close to drawing the leaves as they are, and I hope that’s good enough.
Finally, I’m using H and 2H pencils to go over the ‘finished’ drawing and correct the overall shadow pattern. The leaf detail was so intense that I missed the larger, overlying shadows in some spots.
Here’s a shot of my work setup, in case you’re curious. I work on a flip-up tabletop easel box on the end of our couch. I hold it on my lap. You can see some of my tools in the drawer. I use a magnetic whiteboard as my drawing surface and hold the paper to it with several small, strong magnets.
Until next time,
Happy drawing!
Carol