These grape leaves, softly glowing in the sun, were drawn from a reference photo from last year. I like the rhythm of their growth on the vine, hanging over weathered wood.
I am using Arches hotpress watercolor paper and Mars Lumograph pencils (6b to 4H). The Arches paper has a unique texture that can hold both deep black and delicate fine detail, while the Mars pencils never feel gritty and have a beautifully wide value range.
As I often complain, transferring a line drawing to my drawing paper takes forever, and I end up erasing many of the lines I carefully transferred. So, I decided to be more frugal when setting up my line drawing this time. Because of that, I needed to do quite a bit more drawing by eye, but that was okay. You can see the line drawing I transferred in the bottom half of the drawing compared to the lines I added by eye in the upper right quarter.
As I drew in the first bit of background around a leaf, I thought to myself that the dark, weathered wooden background makes a good contrast to the light leaves. The background isn’t as difficult to create as I feared it would be, but it is time-consuming. I keep drawing the background details larger than they are, which throws the pattern off. I tend to draw all things larger than what they are, so I’m fighting an inborn inclination.
Here’s how I drew the background.
First, I sketched an outline of the background details. They weren’t exact, but that’s okay because the details will blur into each other a bit.
Next, I used my B and H pencils and hatched the sketch into something that did NOT resemble the background at all! Not one bit of the background I drew matched the background in the reference photo. I completely fumbled it.
I pulled out my Mono Zero eraser to pick out highlights and began rebuilding the background. It didn’t have to be perfect, but I wanted it closer to reality than what I have here.
Using my B and H pencils and my Mono Zero eraser, I laid in the background patterns I saw in the reference photo as well as I could without going insane with detail overload. I used the leaf to the right to help place the details and as a reference for size. This time, it was a closer match.
The background is becoming easier to draw now that I have the size of the blotches worked out. However, the background’s texture and value change as it moves around the picture, making each square inch different.
Damn. After finishing the background in this quarter and drawing my first leaf, I realize I have drawn the background too lightly. If I leave it like this, there won’t be enough contrast between the leaves and the background, and the leaves won’t stand out enough. I seriously thought my values were on the spot. I will need to work on the background again, and I’m dreading it.
Surprisingly, and thankfully, the background isn’t as hard to darken as I thought it would be. The details are already drawn, so all I have to do is carefully darken what is there. This is an example of how I darkened the background. The difference is subtle but less busy and slightly darker.
The art of drawing a leaf is not just about replicating its undulations. It’s about making choices. It’s about deciding which details to keep and which to omit, a process that empowers you to create a unique interpretation of the leaf’s natural growth pattern. After all, drawing every detail is exhausting, and that’s where your artistic discretion comes into play.
These leaves are fairly easy to draw, but they are delicate. I draw them with sharp H, 2H, and 4H pencils, drawing around veins and gradating the hatch to create the hills and valleys of the leaf’s surface.
I’m editing out some leaves to improve the composition. This always feels good at first because I’ve gotten rid of a pesky problem, but then I have to figure out how to fill in the hole left behind. Fortunately, adding some imaginary background usually does the job.
Here’s how I draw a leaf.
I touched up the line drawing by adding any detail the original skipped. I kept my lines light because this leaf has a light overall value.
Using a small brush and a 4H pencil, I began to add value to the leaf, starting with the vein on the upper left side. At this point, I primarily used the brush for shading. Although it was a bit messy, I could add value to the right areas without too much out-of-control smudging. I used the pencil to fine-tune the shading and add hard edges.
I worked with the 4H pencil and my Mono-Zero eraser, which I had sharpened into a point, to create the delicate shading around the leaf’s veins and anywhere else that needed darker detail. I left the dark line around the outer edge of the leaf because it will blend into the surrounding background as I draw it.
I’m unsure how it happened, but the reference photo is larger than my drawing. It shows more area around the edges than I have on my line drawing and keeps throwing me off as I approach an edge. I could re-crop the reference photo in Photoshop, but I’m too lazy, so I’m suffering through and complaining about it here instead. Thank you for listening.
Theoretically, cutting the reference photo in two seemed like a dandy idea since it was so tall. In practice, the two halves of my drawing don’t match up very well. I can hide some mismatches in the background clutter, but the large central leaf with all its veins will be a headache to blend together.
I’ve given up. I can’t draw the big central leaf with my reference photo cut in two! I can match and draw details but must see the values in a united leaf to draw them properly. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if my iPad and computer were communicating better. I can ‘send’ a photo to my iPad, which is where I keep my reference photo, but the iPad only ‘receives’ the photo when it’s in the mood. I’ve lost a few days of work waiting for my iPad to cooperate.
I have a complete leaf in my iPad to work from now, but the big leaf is highly detailed, and I’m trying not to panic. It’s easy to lose my place as I draw. I keep one finger on the reference photo to mark my place while focusing on that specific lobe of the leaf.
The area around the main leaf is also highly detailed. I wish I could block it off into one-inch squares that I could draw one at a time because my brain wants training wheels. I’d do this if I were working from a hard copy of the reference photo.
The big central leaf I’ve been drawing is challenging because each section is crammed with different kinds of details. Although they might seem like assorted ‘leaf wrinkles’ to the casual observer, they each have a unique shape and value. I’ve been splitting up my drawing time so that I don’t get leaf fatigue.
Now that I’m drawing the last quarter of the drawing, I’m concerned that the main leaf won’t stand out enough. I tried my best to get the background values dark enough, but that’s probably where the problem is. I suspect I’ve drawn some of them too lightly, and now they compete with the main leaf for attention. I won’t know until I’m done because I have to look at the whole drawing to tell. If this is true, I’ll have to fix the problem by darkening values again, which won’t be fun.
To finish the drawing, I added some detail to a leaf to the left of the main leaf and softened some detail in the upper lefthand quarter. I think the main leaf stands out enough, although the background competes with it for attention a little. I’m happy with this drawing. I think it captures the way the sunlight hit the leaves that day.
I’ve joined Instagram! I’m carolrosinskiart there if you want to find me. I’ve noticed that most people there draw a bird, an apple, or a flower without a background, and their drawings are lovely. It makes me wonder why I draw full backgrounds, with only a few exceptions. Drawing the subject without a background would be much faster.
Consider this drawing, for instance. I could have sketched the primary leaf and a few smaller side leaves. It would have focused more on shape and texture rather than on lighting and environment, and it would have been completed weeks ago!
However, I must draw how I draw because it completes a circuit in me. From taking photos in the rain when the lighting is beautiful to my daily drawing sessions and writing for this blog, my process brings me satisfaction. I’ll turn seventy this August. Seventy!!! So, at this stage, I don’t want to change how I work, but occasionally, I may experiment with drawing something more than an occasional leaf or shell without a background.
Happy drawing everyone,
Carol