I have a thing for sketching leaves. They’re one of my favorite things to sketch while out hiking for a number of reasons: they don’t take long, so I don’t hold up my hiking companions, and yet they allow me to get a sense of place and seasonality. Are they a blue green? Yellow green? Waxy? Fuzzy? Changing color? Are there insect bites? What kind? There’s a whole universe to explore in a single leaf.
They’re also one of the first things that I started sketching and really helped build my watercolor skillset. I learned so much about glazing, charging in color, and brush control from sketching leaves. Here are a few of my favorites.
Leaf Studies
Fetching Foliage, Wildflower Magazine
It was an honor to have my leaves published in Wildflower Magazine 2018 | Volume 35, No. 2, pages 10-11.