I drew this leaf and took photos of my steps! Here’s a guide to my thought process 1: Started with an outline of the leaf in graphite pencil 2: Used a kneaded eraser to erase a lil bit of the pencil 3: Used the compliments of the color of the leaf as an undercoat? I forgot what you call it lmao… The compliment of green is red, and the compliment of yellow is purple 4: I used a kneaded eraser to erase a little bit of the colored pencils because I didn’t want it to look really red 5: I started with a layer of light green 6. I DID A LITTLE BIT OF MINING OFF CAMERA- But anyways, what I did was use darker green for the shadows first, lighter green for the parts not covered by the shadows, and lightest green for small highlights and the veins 7: Did the same thing again on the other side! Make sure to /start/ with VERY light pressure and a sharp pencil tip to get the layering well! I technically did transparent layering but not.. to a significant degree. After it gets dark enough, do some burnishing to the darkest parts and the lighter parts. I looked at a reference while I did this to help figure out where the shadows and highlights went! I took my own reference image and you can do the same! :) Keeping the edges clean and crisp is also very important.
I’m quite proud of this but of course I have a lot to learn! I know it’s not hyperrealistic, but I’m pretty sure you can tell it’s a leaf at first glance….? "^^ I’m open to some constructive criticism as I would love to improve! :3 I could’ve used lighter pressure on where I drew the veins, you can see the red but… it’s okay! It gives it flair lmao
