Category Archive

I took a break from this one (MacKenzie willow) about 2/3 of the way through, then liked it so much when I opened my sketchbook again that I didn’t add another mark. Nor did I look back at the reference photo to see what I was leaving out by stopping. I like the spirit of it, and isn’t that the aim?

And here is yesterday’s leaf, from a peach tree.

Criss-crossed by shadows, this bonplandiana leaf, of all the ones I saw online, said “draw me.”

Drawing six leaves takes six times as long, but sometimes I just can’t resist the shape of a whole twig of them falling like this. And I’m on vacation.

Tomorrow we go to the Art Institute of Chicago, the home of so many works of art that I have seen only in tiny little reproductions in books. Hopper, Cassatt, Seurat, Monet. So much inspiration in one building!

This is a weeping willow leaf, and its scientific name is Salix babylonica. That has to be a reference to the beginning of Psalm 137, right?: “By the waters of Babylon, we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.”

The willow may weep, but it’s hard to be sad when you’re looking at one, or sitting under it. It’s such a lovely, sheltering tree.

Having gone into such delicate detail with the previous drawing, I tried to do the opposite with the interesting light on this leaf. How quick and rough can the marks be and still get the shadow across? I’m not so good at quick and rough, and immediately started refining. An old story, and not only in visual art.

With Salix exigua, we enter the category of toothed simple leaves!

–I spent a lot of time with this drawing yesterday! We had a terrific four-hour campus vision workshop at UUCPA, and I drew during a lot of it. With all that time, I sank into delicious detail. Will I go back to it and do more? Maybe, maybe not.

One thing is clear: these leaves, which seemed rather bland when I first looked at photos–they were flat, literally–sure seem a world away from flat and bland now.