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An experiment in simplicity. I used only three tones: one dark, one light, and the unmarked paper. I think it’s very expressive, in spite of or because of this limitation.
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.”
This willow goes by many names: Pacific willow in my field guide, but also red, whiplash, and shining willow (the translation of the scientific name). What I’ve drawn here is not a leaf, strictly speaking, but a stipule: a little quasi-leaf that grows at the junction of a twig and the stem of a leaf. And the ones on S. lucida are fuzzy and shiny, which is more than I care to try to get across in my drawing tonight. It’s been a pleasant, but long and full, day, and one steeped in art. Earlier, I drew a copy of a self-portrait from one of Cezanne’s sketchbooks, and a clandestine portrait of an old man on the bus.
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!
Sermons in Stones 
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