My husband and I wanted to go for a drive to see the leaves changing color this year. We were going to load up the dog, head off to a park, and make a day of it, but it kept raining through the peak of the season. So, to celebrate our very wet autumn I drew this leaf with rain drops on it.
Brush Blended
I used my brush blended technique to draw this leaf. That means I brushed each hatch layer with a small brush. It was a good technique for drawing this leaf’s smooth texture and shiny water drops. I used Arches hotpress watercolor paper and Grafwood pencils because they both work well with this technique.
The First Values
I started by hatching and brushing the values of the leaf around most of the water drops. However, I did brush blend over some of the closely clustered drops, so I could get an even looking value on the body of the leaf between them. Graphite smudged with a brush lifts easily with a kneaded eraser, so it was an easy fix later on.
Drawing Water Drops
I drew the water drops by drawing around their brightest highlights, as you see here, because I misplaced my beloved Sakura electric eraser! The Sakura spins a nib that allows me to erase pinpoint details.
The shadows cast by the drops give them height, and their body values give them the luminescent quality of water. The drops also magnify whatever they are sitting on, so veins in the leaf become very large and distorted when they run under a drop.
Water drops are always unique, even if they are in the same light and on the same surface, so there is no set formula for drawing them, but the right tools help.
Each water drop contains a mix of hard and soft edges. To draw the edges, I used hatching made with sharp pointed pencils followed by brushing. I also used a wedge-shaped rubber tool (called a Kemper Wipe-out Tool) to erase tiny soft highlights.
Finished Leaf, But Not Without Trouble
After I drew the shadows under my leaf, I was horrified to realize that I’d drawn the leaf’s values too lightly. So I put the drawing away for a while as I contemplated taking up rock climbing for a hobby instead of drawing.
After several days, I decided rock climbing, while creative and bold, wasn’t for me, and I had nothing to lose by trying to redraw the leaf around the water drops. After a few days of work, the leaf you see here is what I ended up with. I thought I’d scanned the lighter leaf, but I must have forgotten to do that in my bad mood. You’ll just have to take my word for it, this version is better!
My Sad Eraser Story
Having come to grips with my good Sakura electric eraser flying the coop, I bought a similar looking one for under ten bucks made by Ohuhu! The exclamation mark on that sentence is there because the Sakura cost forty dollars. I was able to add the highlights to my water drops with it, but it wasn’t easy.
After using the Ohuhu eraser, I can say that the nibs don’t keep a point as well as the Sakura eraser nibs do. Also, the Ohuhu nibs are made of a softer material that can smear the graphite. I have a smear on this drawing that I can’t remove, so I’m very disappointed in the Ohuhu eraser. I’m setting out eraser food every night in hope that my Sakura will come home someday.
Keep drawing everyone, and keep track of your erasers!
Carol
Very nice, Carol. You certainly captured the spirit of that leaf, and the droplets.
I had some luck with your acorn lesson.
I, too, have a Sakura eraser. It’s a great tool for precision work.
It’s winter here in Western Oregon. For an indoor pastime, I’m taking up microscopy. I’m fascinated by protozoa and plan to make a collection of drawings.
You can see some of my work on my FaceBook page.
-Burton
Hi Burton, I’m glad you found the acorn lesson useful! Drawing microscopic subjects sounds fascinating. :)
Kemper Wipe-out Tool is that like a colour-shaper? Drawing leafs and stems tends to be challenging for me, not always able to the smooth-ness or shading just right. Think I’ll try your method.
Hi Dorothy, The wipe-out tool is similar to the colour shaper only larger and the tips are real rubber so that you can gently erase with them. You can clean the tips with your kneaded eraser, and as you do that the kneaded eraser clings to the rubber making it an even better eraser. The wipe-out tool is actually used for ceramics and pottery.