Dried Variegated Croton Leaf

It must be winter because I’m drawing a dried leaf! This leaf came from my Variegated Croton. It drops thick leaves that curl into small sculptures as they dry. I collect them, so I always have a few to choose from.

Before I get into the drawing, I’d like to take care of some other business. Some of you may be happy to learn I’m now using a grammar-checking program. Coming from Indiana, I knew my Hoosier accent came through in my writing. However, I didn’t realize how much it came through until I tried a trial version of grammar-checking software! It sits in the corner of my screen and counts the number of mistakes I make, which is somewhat intimidating, and underlines those mistakes in red, blue, and purple. I haven’t broken the color code yet.

I decided to pay for the full version of the grammar program and, to my horror, was shown even more mistakes. Who knew there was a need for so many commas in the world? So, I apologize for all the blog posts with bad grammar and missing commas. I promise to do better. Now, back to the drawing.

I’m drawing this leaf on Arches’ hotpress watercolor paper and using Mars Lumograph pencils as usual.

I’m applying the hatching using 2H and HB pencils at the stem end of the leaf. At this stage, I’m concentrating on sorting out the line drawing by deciding what all these lines represent.

I’m having trouble placing all the mottled details where they belong. They look so similar that I keep losing track of where I am, so I’ve used a grid. The Copyit app in which I keep my reference photo has built-in grids, so I drew a matching grid over my drawing. I’m only using the horizontal lines, though.

As the detail work proceeds, I’m using 4H through HB pencils to create the values and a Mono Zero eraser that I have cut down into a tiny point to erase fine detail. All the details are tiny, even though I’m drawing an enlarged leaf by a factor of two. I use very sharp pencil points because a dull pencil tip is too wide to draw some details.

I’m a little worried about the prominent dark spot at the middle top of the leaf. I’m unsure if I can pull enough detail out of it to make it look attractive. The mottled details in the body of the leaf are coming along at a snail’s pace because they are so intricate they are hard to see.

The problem with seeing the mottled details was related to the size of the reference photo, and not because the details were too intricate. All I needed to do was enlarge the size of my reference photo. Silly me. This is such an easy fix! (It could be my aging eyes need things to be a little larger now, and that’s uncomfortable to admit.)

I draw the details by lightly outlining them, then carefully hatching them to the correct values. I use a brush to make some of the very light values on the leaf. They are lighter than I can make with my 4H pencil, my hardest lead.

My details are still somewhat wonky and out of place, but I’m feeling better about the leaf now that it’s farther along. Maybe it’s just starting to develop more of a presence on the paper, and I’m picking up on that. In any case, it’s easier to work on a piece you feel good about, so I’m happy about this change of attitude.

I tend to draw details too large. No matter how hard I try to keep things in proportion, they always end up larger than the space meant for them. So, if there is any trick to drawing heavily detailed subjects, it’s knowing your tendencies and keeping them in mind as you draw.

You can get by with details being slightly out of place or too big or small on a subject like a leaf. Although I’m trying to get the details placed correctly, moving on from frustrating areas without a 100% likeness is nice, which is why I don’t draw portraits!

I’m drawing the darkest part of the shadow under the stem with a sharp F pencil. I’m using a smooth hatch with no visible hatch lines. The edges of the shadow are slightly soft, and I’m drawing them with a 4H pencil using hatching that runs perpendicularly to the main leaf shadow and gradates into the white of the paper.

I’ve started to look for “things” to draw in the details now. It helps me see and place all these crazy details if I name the “crooked turtle” or the “lopsided dragon” in my head as I draw.

A couple of highlights in the leaf are brighter than the paper’s white background. I can’t make them brighter than the paper, and I’m not going to darken the background, so they’ll have to remain paper white. Since highlight and shadow give three-dimensional form to shape, I hope that the dark highlights do not make the leaf look flat.

When there are too many details to reasonably draw, and that is the case in the bottom half of the leaf, you have to draw the most prominent details and hope that’ll be enough to fool the eye. Checking my work is odd because I’m not drawing reality as it is. I’m drawing 50% to 60% of the truth, so I must suspend one-to-one comparison and move into a wider acceptance of variation. However, with the addition of the details on the bottom half of the leaf, I can see the leaf’s form starting to develop. This is a relief because I wasn’t sure the form of the leaf could compete for attention with these intense details.

I’m relying on the grid lines to help place a ‘landmark’ detail that I can easily recognize and find on the leaf. That helps me anchor and draw the rest of the details in that area. Then, I move on to the next landmark. It’s slow-going, but it works.

The truth is I don’t love this leaf. I like how the leaf is shaped, but the texture detail is overplayed. It’s like nature went on a binge and crammed too many details onto it just for kicks and giggles. But I will carry on. Chin up and all that.

I’m sticking with my scheme of drawing only 50% to 60% of the details of the leaf correctly. It gives the impression of a fully detailed leaf without the tears. Art should not make one cry, shout, or scream. Cussing and drinking come with the territory, but some emotions cloud creativity. You need creativity, even when drawing mind-numbing detail, because it helps keep you awake.

The tracing failed in the bottom right part of the leaf, and I had to re-draw the line drawing, so this step started with colossal frustration. However, the tracing usually fails me in some way during most drawings, so this didn’t surprise me.

I’m carefully drawing the turned-up side of the leaf. There’s no faking it here. This detail must be drawn relatively accurately because it’s not a mishmash of unrelated and scattered spots like the rest of the leaf. This is an essential part of the drawing. It catches the eye and is a focal point.

The turned-up part of the leaf is darker on the left and lighter on the right under all of its detail. That’s always a challenge for me to draw well. I concentrate so much on drawing the details that I forget the overall, or under-all, shadow pattern.

I’m starting to work on the shadow under the turned-up part of the leaf, and I’m worried I’m going to screw it up! It’s the last thing I need to draw, and that’s a lot of pressure. It needs to be smooth and even or opposite the texture of the hectic pattern of the leaf. I need to shift gears to draw it. It’s time for a cup of tea and some quiet time before I begin.

I’ll use 2H and 4H pencils to draw the lighter ‘halo’ around the shadow. It’s hardly there, and I must hold my breath when I’m hatching in that area to keep my marks steady enough to blend into nothingness.

It took a couple of tries to draw this shadow satisfactorily. The scanner magnified any slight unevenness in the hatching, so there were a few tense moments and quite a lot of cussing. It’s a good thing my grammar program wasn’t listening.

Keep drawing everyone,
Carol