Succulent Drawing In Graphite

This small succulent lives on my windowsill. I love the way the leaves radiate from the center.

I used Grafwood pencils on Arches paper for this drawing because the combination creates a smooth texture that mimics the texture of this plant. Only two pencils were used for the entire drawing. I used an H pencil for the leaves and an HB for the shadows. The photo is at the bottom of the page. You’ll notice that the photo is less than perfect. Some of the tips of the vertical leaves at the center of the plant are blurred, so I drew them ‘in focus’ by using my imagination and by looking at other parts of the photo for inspiration.

The First Leaves
The most important thing about the first leaves was their values. The rest of the drawing would reference the values depicted here, so it was important to get them right. After I hatched-in the leaves, I lightly brushed the hatch into a slightly darker value while smoothing out the hatch lines at the same time with a soft angle cut brush.

To draw the light area around the edge of each leaf, I hatched out to it, then brushed blended the edge of the hatching out into the leaf edge. That smoothed the edge of the hatching and also gave the leaf edge a little value.

Drawing Detail As I Worked
I drew details around each leaf’s edge as I worked. The tracing might look complete to you, but it was a very loose drawing with only general landmarks.

There was so much detail in the ruffled edges that I didn’t want to draw all of it, so I decided to draw the largest ruffles and only about thirty to forty percent of the tiny ones. That was enough to give the impression that I’d added a lot of detail without making myself crazy actually drawing each tuck and curl.

So that the leaves wouldn’t have dark outlines, I lightened each line to the value of the leaves around it by tapping the outline with a kneaded eraser. I was happy with how the hatching looked at this point. It reminded me of watercolor washes, only more controlled.

Values and Edges
Aside from their shadows, the only thing that separates some of these leaves are their white edges. Because their values are so similar, the leaves would blend together without a clear boundary, which makes rendering the white edges a very important part of the drawing. I tried not to overemphasize the edges though, because when something is so important, I tend to do that.

As with the previous leaves, I ‘drew’ these edges by hatching up to them and then lightly brushing some value into them, however I added a few fine details with my pencil tip.

Inner Leaves
This inner part of the plant held most of the smallest details, and I had to re-draw all the detail there because my tracing simply could not capture these tiny lines.

The values were more varied at the center because of the angle of the leaves. The main light source coming from one point gave each leaf a different shaded value, and the small leaves were curled, giving each value a gradated nuance. Additionally, these leaves cast subtle shadows that made the plant look three-dimensional. I used very sharp leads to shade these small details, and I blended the hatching with the point of a small angle cut brush.

The little pieces of dirt on the leaves added nothing to the composition, and I preferred the smooth appearance of the finished drawing without them.

I often save the most important part of the drawing until last, as I have done here. I do that because I like to test pencils and hatching methods on parts of the drawing that aren’t as important as the central viewing area. It’s also good to have the center of attention surrounded by established values when you’re drawing it.

Keep drawing everyone,
Carol

Author: Carol

I'm an artist, an accidental author, and lover of life. I grew up in Yorktown, Indiana, and I've been writing (and drawing) this website since 1999. View all posts by Carol