{"id":11101,"date":"2023-03-13T19:31:23","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T19:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/?p=11101"},"modified":"2023-12-20T21:20:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T21:20:12","slug":"out-of-focus-reference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2023\/03\/out-of-focus-reference\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Three<\/a>This is another composition that I found in a bunch of photos that I took over the summer. The lighting is a bit odd, and I\u2019m not sure how it\u2019s going to turn out. As a matter of fact, the photo<\/a> I have is a little out of focus.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m using Arches hotpress watercolor paper, Mars Lumograph, and Grafwood pencils to make this drawing. Arches\u2019 paper holds deep blacks yet you can render delicate details on it too, and Lumograph and Grafwood are both excellent drawing pencils. I\u2019m using the Lumographs for the dark textures and the Grafwoods for the light leaf hatching because they are so true to their value range. I\u2019ll talk more about the pencils I use later.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>As always, I start with a tracing made from the photo. Then I load my reference photo into the CopyIt<\/a> app on my iPad and draw from there. I\u2019m very nearsighted, so I work with my glasses off, with my nose a few inches away from the drawing. I\u2019m comfortable working like this, and I\u2019m sure it has contributed to my highly detailed drawing style, since I\u2019m naturally so close to the details.<\/p>\n

The large left leaf has a lot of subtle detail, and the detail is maddeningly just out of focus in the photo, making it look ultra soft. I\u2019m using a Grafwood 4H pencil to draw this leaf because of it\u2019s tight value range. I can\u2019t push this pencil much darker than the darkest notes that you see here, and that makes it fairly easy to draw the mottled design of the vein pattern without making it too dark. The 4H Lumograph, on the other hand, has a broader value range and could have easily left behind hatching that was too dark, making my life much harder.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not exactly lying about the detail on this leaf, but I am exaggerating it. I\u2019m over drawing the dark notes and under drawing the light notes to tighten up some of the softness in the focus by creating contrast. This is producing a slight three-dimensional look on the leaf\u2019s surface. I didn\u2019t plan to do this. I\u2019m not that clever. It happened by accident when I overshot my values one morning, and I decided I liked the look and went with it.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>I\u2019m not exactly lying about the detail on the small leaf in the middle but \u2026 okay, yes I am lying. I took the photo into Photoshop and darkened the leaf by a few steps, and that version is what I\u2019m drawing from. I darkened the leaf because even though it has a reddish hue and stands out in the color version of the photo, its values are actually not that much different than the big leaves that are on either side of it. In other words, it would get lost in a grayscale drawing unless I intervened. So I intervened.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m using HB and B Lumograph pencils to draw this small dark leaf because of the lovely range of dark tones I can create with them.<\/p>\n

Because of the soft focus of the photo, I wasn\u2019t sure this drawing was going to work out. Now that I think it might, it makes me wish I hadn\u2019t crammed the drawing onto a sheet of paper with small borders. I was being frugal and saving paper, you see. Now, if the drawing is ever framed, there are very few options for the framer. Oh dear. There is a lesson to be learned here, I think.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>The large leaf to the immediate right of the small leaf has a quirky mix of veins. Some are thick and some are mere wisps. Drawing them is mind-numbing, since the nearly invisible veins take an extremely light touch to draw. I take many breaks and come back with fresh eyes to make sure I\u2019m drawing them close enough to reality. I\u2019m using a Grafwood 3H pencil to draw this leaf\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

I have to admit that this veiny leaf is not my favorite to draw. It\u2019s not very sculptural. It\u2019s ALL about the veins! I used to sculpt jewelry out of wax for a living, and the part of me that loves shape is still very much alive. Yes, I do love texture too, but I like it with a healthy dose of form underneath.<\/p>\n

This leaf turned out to be about the same value as the big one on the left, when it was supposed to be lighter. But then, I did draw the big left leaf awfully light. If I had to grade myself on how this drawing was going so far, I\u2019d give myself a C. After a glass of wine, I\u2019d give myself a C\/E. (E for effort.) Time to finish this thing.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>Between the leaves, the middle top is a particularly out of focus area in the photo. I\u2019ve switched back to my Mars Lumograph pencils, so I can easily create the dark tones seen there. This area is not very pretty, it sort of hangs there in the middle of the drawing, and I\u2019m laboring over it. I feel the urge to add a few twigs that fade into the dark background as the photo shows, so I\u2019ve taken what I can from the photo and edited heavily with the help of my imagination to create a dark twiggy fill. But I get the feeling that the finished area looks more like a tapestry than a three-dimensional nature scene, so I think I\u2019ve stumbled here.<\/p>\n

The right corner is a mishmash of leaf and weed parts. Honestly, the photo is so blurry in this area that I\u2019m extracting as much information as I can to help myself draw this thing and that thing and hoping it\u2019ll all come together in the end. I\u2019m rather okay with the outcome, even though my hatching stretched reality quite a bit. You can see a weed there, and I think that\u2019s a nice touch in the composition.<\/p>\n

This drawing has been a rollercoaster ride of success and failure for me. It certainly has made me grow as an artist. I had to discover near impressionistic hatching to fill in some blurred areas, and cross my fingers and hope for the best in other areas. This caused a lot of under the breath and right out loud cursing, but I\u2019m glad I tackled this one. And in my heart, I\u2019m happy to know that my medium can still challenge me after all these years.<\/p>\n

Keep drawing everyone,
\nCarol<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n\"three<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is another composition that I found in a bunch of photos that I took over the summer. The lighting is a bit odd, and I\u2019m not sure how it\u2019s going to turn out. As a matter of fact, the photo I have is a little out of focus. I\u2019m using Arches hotpress watercolor paper, … Continue reading “Three Leaves”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-graphite-pencil-drawing-lesson"],"yoast_head":"\nThree Leaves - Carol's Drawing Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Working with a slightly out of focus reference photo, I go on an emotional roller coaster ride as I fight my way through this drawing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2023\/03\/out-of-focus-reference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Leaves - 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The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson"","block_context":{"text":"Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/graphite-pencil-drawing-lesson\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"withered leaf step four rosinski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/withered-leaf05-rosinski-300x288.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8419,"url":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2021\/03\/begonia-mixed-textures\/","url_meta":{"origin":11101,"position":1},"title":"Begonia With Mixed Textures","author":"Carol","date":"2021\/03\/31","format":false,"excerpt":"Still in a winter hunger to gaze at flowers, I went to my over-wintering begonias for a subject this time. I decided to experiment and combine brush blended smooth hatching with unbrushed regular hatching in this drawing to emphasize the textures I saw. I\u2019ve never done that to this degree\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson"","block_context":{"text":"Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/graphite-pencil-drawing-lesson\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"begonia-photo-rosinski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/begonia-photo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7541,"url":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2020\/10\/lilac-leaves\/","url_meta":{"origin":11101,"position":2},"title":"Lilac Leaves","author":"Carol","date":"2020\/10\/18","format":false,"excerpt":"I don\u2019t know why my process didn\u2019t work as usual this time, but for some reason my muse was not in the game. It took a very long time to find a subject to draw. I took dozens of photos every day, but no single shot captured my attention in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson"","block_context":{"text":"Graphite Pencil Drawing Lesson","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/graphite-pencil-drawing-lesson\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Graphite Pencil Art, Lilac Leaves, Rosinski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/lilac-leaves05-rosinski.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":215,"url":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2007\/07\/drawing-pencil-comparison-chart\/","url_meta":{"origin":11101,"position":3},"title":"Drawing Pencil Comparison Chart","author":"Carol","date":"2007\/07\/10","format":false,"excerpt":"I've made a comparison of common drawing pencils and I've marked the best choices for sketching and fine art. Enjoy! Brand Range Quality Price Best Fine Art Choice Best Sketching Choice Derwent Graphic Pencils 9B - 9H Excellent High X . Cretacolor Fine Art Graphite Pencils 2H - 9B Average\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawing Inspiration"","block_context":{"text":"Drawing Inspiration","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/drawing-inspiration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7292,"url":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2020\/05\/violets-drawing\/","url_meta":{"origin":11101,"position":4},"title":"Drawing Of Two Violets","author":"Carol","date":"2020\/05\/23","format":false,"excerpt":"The flower that means spring to me more than any other is the violet. They are a little challenging to draw since the green and violet colors are nearly the same value in greyscale though. I plunged in anyway just to get the chance to stare at my favorite spring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Drawings"","block_context":{"text":"My Drawings","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/my-drawings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Violets drawing six by C. Rosinski","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/violets06-rosinski-300x164.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3053,"url":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/2015\/05\/tongue-shellfish-from-the-isle-of-carol\/","url_meta":{"origin":11101,"position":5},"title":"Tongue Shellfish From The Isle of Carol","author":"Carol","date":"2015\/05\/26","format":false,"excerpt":"This Tongue shellfish lives in warm blue waters surrounding the Isle of Carol. It can swim along in an inelegant way by flipping its short tongue back and forth through the water. It moves gracefully, however, when inching across the bottom of the sea, one tongue length at a time,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/category\/fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Imaginary Tongue Shellfish","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/shell-with-tongue001-125x125.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11101"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12284,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11101\/revisions\/12284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toadhollowstudio.com\/wp_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}