I found this small tree start under a bush when I was looking for photos to draw and noticed a bug had moved into its leaf. I took a picture just because I thought the leaf shape was interesting and went on with my photo hunt. Well, of course, the small tree sprout with a bug in its leaf was the only photo I was interested in drawing, even after several days of picture hunting. So, here it is. I call it Less Than Perfect.
As always, I’m creating this drawing on Arches hotpress watercolor paper, and I’m using Mars Lumograph and Grafwood pencils.
I usually start in the upper left-hand corner of the drawing, but I have reservations about starting the drawing with this extremely dark shadow area. The logical reason is that it would be easy to smudge as I work on the rest of the drawing. The illogical reason is that it seems like such an extreme statement so early in the drawing. I like to ease into a drawing, take my time, meander a bit at first. Also, those pine needles look really hard to draw.
You might have noticed that I’ve drawn more pine needles than there are in the photo, and you may be wondering why in the world I did that. It turns out that the needles aren’t hard to draw, they’re just time-consuming. Each one is fuzzy along each edge, so they take a bit of patience to pull off, but they are basically just groups of thick lines.
I’m also using a filter that brings out more needles, and I’m not sure how many of them I want to include. I decided to draw all the extra needles now and then eliminate some of them, or perhaps just soften and dim them, to suit the composition after more of the drawing is done. I’ve left them a little rough and unfinished for now.
I often draw big round Redbud leaves, although I don’t set out to do that. It just usually turns out that my best photos are of Redbud leaves. Their wide circumference catches the light beautifully and holds interesting smaller shapes, too. Although I do wonder if I’m repeating myself, these lovely leaves keep calling me back to them.
It’s been a while since I’ve used a brush to lay down value, but the barely there values of the middle leaf had me back at it again. My hardest pencil is a 4H, and it was just a little too dark regardless of how lightly I laid down the hatch. So I dug out a small brush and dusted on a light layer of graphite over the leaf body.
Hatching the very light details took a delicate touch, too. I used my 4H Grafwood for these details because the limited range of this pencil made it less likely to leave behind dark notes.
I’m always amazed by how thin the stems are on these big leaves. I have to measure, measure again, and fight the urge to draw them thicker than they really are. However, these leaves don’t weigh much, and the stems have to be supple enough to bend in the wind without breaking.
My dear friends, I must interrupt this post to tell you about a sad anti-art event that just occurred at my home. Some ‘concerned citizens’ complained about the wild state of our yard, and a code enforcement officer told us that we had to cut down my lovely foliage. That foliage has been the source of the photos for my art for years.
I love drawing the delicate undulations in a leaf’s body. Each leaf I draw reminds me of how infinitely varied nature is, and I feel humbled trying to draw it with my simple pencil. So, while my yard looks naked after two days of cutting down trees and vines, this will not defeat me. I’ll drive to our nearby parks to gather photos for my drawings, if I have to!
I took a peek at the photo compared to the drawing in Photoshop, and I’m drawing the entire piece several steps lighter in value than intended. Now that I see what I’ve done, however, I like it. The brighter leaves lighten the scene and create more depth, so I’ll continue with this version.
I’m relying heavily on a contrast filtered version of this photo to fill in the detail of some of the background leaves in the lower right corner. They appear to be just blank leaf shapes in the original photo, yet somehow, the contrast version finds vein and shadow details. The contrast filter I’m using is the ‘Magic/Special/Adams’ setting in the photo editing app BeCasso.
I have more news about our yard. The men who did all the trimming piled all the limbs in a half circle around our property near the road, (we live on a corner lot.) There are A LOT of limbs, but the men said the city would pick them up. Our code enforcement officer is not so sure the city WILL pick them up, and we might be left scrambling finding someone to haul them all away. We’re waiting to hear back from the city now.
I’m having a difficult time with the part of the leaf where the bug is living. It’s the center of attention, and the pressure is on to get it right. I do not work well under pressure. I need the paper to be pristine here because it has some of the brightest highlights in the scene, and erasing a mistake always risks a chance of a smear that can’t be completely lifted. So, I’m nervous about getting the bug home’s details in the right spots.
After a few tries, I finally have drawn a fairly good replica of the bug home, but it’s not nearly as impressive as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, I’ll probably have to explain to people who view the drawing what it is they are looking at.
After a more work on the bug home and the surrounding area, I realized that my highlights aren’t as bright as in the photo. The highlights give the bug home a lot of its presence in the scene. Without them, it blends into the leaf. Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can do about this. Since the paper is off-white, the highlights simply can’t be any brighter than that.
I’m hatching in the remaining big light center leaves instead of brushing in their values because their shapes are a little more complicated. I hope this will look okay. You can see a difference between the brushed and hatched leaves, but I think everything will blend in well enough because I’ve used hatching on the darker surrounding leaves already.
I’ve decided to use fewer pine needles in the upper left-hand corner, so I’m editing them back to about how they look in the original photo. I remember reading somewhere that the eye likes a place to ‘exit’ a composition, and I think that’s what I’m going for by creating a black space in the pine needles … it just feels better to my eye to have that dark space there.
Now that I’m done, I think it would have been better to have either hatched all the leaves or used a brush to lay in the value on all of them, because it bothers me that they don’t match. Live and learn.
The bug home is very disappointing because it blends in with the leaf so well that you can’t tell where it is or what it is. I was so excited about the bug home that I had built it up much larger and more detailed in my mind. In the future, I’ll try to create an inner atmosphere where my seasoned artist’s mind can step in and manage my overexcited child’s mind when she finds the next cool thing to draw.
Final news about our yard problem: Yes, the city will take our limbs, but they have to be stacked in a more orderly manner. The limbs have to be facing the same direction. They are mostly facing the same direction now, but there are a few stragglers. So, my husband and I are unstacking and re-stacking our piles of limbs to make sure they are correct.
Happy drawing to you all, and may you never find a code enforcement officer at your door.
Carol
Carol, I gave a little laugh at you starting the drawing in the left hand corner. Years ago in a mail order cartoon course, the teacher pointed out that as a left handed person- I had to start inking in the right hand corner.
He had figured this out by just looking at my work. So to this day, so many years later, I start drawing in the right hand corner.
I’m enjoying your posts and encourage you to remember that pruned foliage grows back really fast!
Best wishes
Susan Pickens
Yep, I’m right handed. :) I’m glad you enjoy my posts and thank you for your encouragement about my poor pruned foliage! And you’re right … it’s growing back as I type! Mother Nature is marvelous.
Your drawing is even better than the photo. It’s perfect and beautiful. I love reading about your drawing and how you determine what and how to draw it. Also, I feel your pain about code enforcement. I have not experience this firsthand, thankfully, but I understand feeling attached to foliage, plants and trees as well as frustration with the exacting nature of complying with codes.
Hi Michele – Thank you for liking my drawing … because I was feeling a little down about how this one turned out. I’m also happy to hear that you enjoy reading my posts because I do enjoy sharing my inner process. We had so many limbs, small trees, and etc. cut down and stacked up that the city still has not cleared them all from the edges of our property! Yes, I miss my lovely foliage. I felt embraced by it. It IS growing back though, and I think there will be many photo/drawing opportunities before long. Hopefully, I can keep it within code this time around!
Carol,
I am an entomologist and was able to immediately recognize the bug home in your drawing “Less Than Perfect.” I would tell you that it is spot on! Leafrollers are common on redbuds, I think because the leaves are so thin and malleable. I just retired from my university and have picked up graphite pencils to draw the fine details of natural objects and scenes. Like you, I love my redbuds and so I was sad to learn that your neighbors considered your yard to be untidy. Don’t mind them, just continue to find your joy wherever and whenever it crosses your path. Thank you for posting your work, lessons, and experiences. It has really been a help to me.
Hi Astri, Thank you so much for identifying the bug that made a home in my redbud leaf! It tickles me pink that you could identify it from my drawing. Graphite pencils are perfect for capturing fine detail and I hope you are enjoying studying nature in this way. I’m happy and relieved to report that my redbuds came back with a vengeance after they were cut, and I have many beautiful big round leaves in my yard again. As I’m sure you understand, nature and art is how I express myself, and my messy yard with its various leaves is my sanctuary.