Virginia Creeper in Graphite Pencil

I apologize to anyone allergic to Virginia Creeper or fighting it as an invasive plant. It’s hard to get rid of and is considered a weed around here. In fact, the concerned citizens of my town have ‘suggested’ that I not grow it on our fence anymore. I thought it looked lovely there. I took the photo reference for this drawing of a plant that survived the big yard clean-up of summer ‘23. It was slightly beat up and unloved, which is probably what attracted me to it.

I am using Arches Hotpress Watercolor Paper and Mars Lumograph pencils as usual. Arches paper has a smooth finish that allows for fine detail, yet it is textured enough to hold dark black, while Mars Lumograph pencils are always of excellent quality.

Instead of getting right to the drawing, I always have to spend a lot of time redrawing the traced line drawing, which is annoying. I especially need to redraw the veins in leaves because I can’t trace them nearly thin enough. This line drawing was particularly dark for some reason, so erasing and redrawing are taking longer than usual.

Even though I’m not very far into this drawing, I like what I see and am excited about it. The lighting sculpts the leaves well, and the few leaves I’ve drawn seem to have a presence on the paper.

I love drawing the beauty of foliage. The grainy graphite ‘washes’ that create the leaves are gentle on the eye yet varied enough to be fascinating. I adore the way I can manipulate the graphite with my eraser and pencil tip. These are the reasons I draw.

After making this scan and comparing my work to the photo, I’m brought back down to earth. Love aside, I’ve missed the value in a couple of leaves. I have drawn them too lightly and have to redo them. Damn.

I spend a considerable amount of time focusing on detail in my drawings. However, I try to prioritize value, which can be challenging. When accurately drawing a detail, it’s relatively easy to see if its shape is captured correctly. When it comes to value, though, accuracy is more of a guessing game that requires many judgment calls.

I use the same basic steps to draw each leaf with both value and detail. Here’s what they look like:

First, I touched up the leaf’s line drawing, paying particular attention to the vein structure, which is important because it adds structure to the leaf.

Next, I hatched the leaf using sharp H and 2H pencils according to the value pattern.

Finally, I corrected values and added small details. I muted the vein lines with my eraser and added dark shading on the leaf. I decided not to erase the dark line around the outside of this leaf because it will be situated against a dark background, and the line will blend in.

I’ve changed my lighting situation and can now see and draw details better. I have always worked with a light on my left side. My iPad is on my left side, too, which is where I keep my reference photo. However, the light above my iPad often washes out some of the details in the darker areas of the photo. I purchased a small rechargeable book light that I clip directly onto my drawing board. Turning off the larger light over my iPad lets me see all the details in the shadow areas. This may lead to me going detail crazy since I lean that way anyway. We shall see.

I am being extremely careful as I hatch in the leaf values because all the leaves are interrelated in this drawing. If I incorrectly draw the value of one leaf, it may result in incorrect values for nearby leaves. This happens to some degree in any drawing, but it is especially true in this one. It feels a little like juggling as I try to maneuver all the leaves into their true values.

After using my new lighting set-up for a while, I’m happy to report that I’m not feeling the impulse to draw every new detail I see. Instead, I feel like I can select and draw only the specific details I want to include. Although I’m aware that it looks like I’m including a lot of detail, believe me, I’m not drawing it all.

Each leaf is unique and catches the light differently. The veins in one leaf can range from tight and hard-edged to blurry and barely there. The edges of some leaves taper to small points, and some are outlined with a thin, bright line. Each leaf receives individual attention, allowing me to bring out the serene beauty of the grayscale world.

Dark areas between the leaves are also important to the composition. While they contrast with the leaves and give the drawing depth, they are challenging to draw well. They require some knowledge of manipulating thick layers of soft graphite, which can easily turn into a gray mess. I find it’s best to work slowly and in layers. I’ll show you how I draw a dark area with subtle detail.

First, I sketched the details in the area. The details were hard to see, and I’ve misplaced a couple of them. This will be all right since the area is going to be very dark and indistinct.

Next, I used a sharp 4B pencil to hatch in the darkest parts of the area. I used a sharp lead so that it would get down into the grain and cover as much of the paper as possible. Then, I used a sharp 2B pencil to hatch in the next lighter details. You can see how the 2B hatch doesn’t cover the paper as thoroughly as the 4B does.

I filled in the rest of the lighter areas using a sharp B pencil, paying attention to the value pattern. I also shaded the short stem you see to the left with an H pencil.

 To finish, I lifted small dim highlights with an eraser that I’d trimmed into a point and refined those shapes with a sharp B pencil. I also used the B pencil to bring into focus a few other details.

The last quarter of the drawing contains two very dark areas, multiple dark leaves, and one curved and crinkled dark leaf. I am focusing on one part at a time to prevent getting overwhelmed. With its numerous intricate details, the crinkled leaf’s left side is the most challenging part to draw. It has so many tiny details that I had to settle for an approximate illustration rather than an exact copy of it.

Here are some useful tips for drawing dark areas: For a darker hatch, keep the pencil sharp to avoid skipping over the paper’s texture. Using a hard lead on top of a soft lead is easier than the other way around. You can use a hard lead to darken and smooth out a soft lead’s hatch. It is usually better to draw around light spots rather than trying to erase them later on. Take some time to learn how to produce different shades of darkness using various pencil grades. Finally, learn how to create hatches that fill the grain of the paper without crushing it.

I like how my drawing turned out. The new light I got helped me see and draw dark values and details better than ever before. Although I was aware of the issue with the leaf values, I still shaded some of them too lightly. However, I can forgive myself for this since I’m only human and not a machine.

Happy drawing everyone,
Carol