I used my leaf in sepia as the basis for this drawing. As you can see, it’s not nearly as dark and shiny as the sample leaf I included in lower left hand corner [not the sample I used when beginning this drawing]. This drawing has already been burnished, so I suspect adding more color from CP isn’t a good option. Do you have tips on how to begin a rendering when the leaf has a dark and deep color, so that both color and highlights appear in the final drawing? My apologies if I missed something about this in the video. Do you begin with a very dark wash? I began with some really dark sepia CP before beginning the color, but the basic level of deep green color in this rendering isn’t a good match for the leaf itself. Thanks for your help.
26 May 2020
Hi Mary. In general, these drawings are looking good! You happened to choose a challenging subject: a shiny leaf! The key to a shiny leaf is that the highlights must be well-placed and also very bright white. Do you see the highlight in the photo of the real leaf? The one that sort of follows the veining on the bottom right? If you re-create a highlight like that, your leaf will look shinier (and, bonus, you get some more secondary vein definition!) The other key to making this work is, as you said, getting that deep green color. Have you used Chrome Oxide Green? That’s one of my favorites for a dark green leaf. In combination with Dark Sepia, Chrome Oxide Green can get you some lovely deep color. In order for all this to work, you’ll want to plan the placement of those highlights right from the beginning, so that by the time you reach the end of the drawing, those highlights are still the pure white color of the paper. If you can get those bright highlights in contrast with the deep green, you get: shine! 🙂 I know this is a lot of information, but I’ll say again that leaves are a lifelong journey, and by practicing them over and over again, you’ll develop a technique that works best for you. 🙂 Keep at it; you’re doing great. Oh! Also! You can totally still add CP on top of a burnished drawing!
Thank you so very much, Vern, this info is a great help. In addition to not planning the highlights, I didn’t plan the darks well. When doing a dark, deep green like this one, do you ever do a dark wash first, while leaving areas for highlights untouched? Perhaps only doing it on the darkest parts of the leaf, going in with a lighter wash on the other areas, always leaving paper untouched where the highlights are going to be? I have the dark indigo and the chrome oxide green in A Durer WC CP, so plan to follow up on your suggestion on a new rendering. Thanks again, your input is a huge help. had no idea you could color over a burnish, thanks for that too.
I used my leaf in sepia as the basis for this drawing. As you can see, it’s not nearly as dark and shiny as the sample leaf I included in lower left hand corner [not the sample I used when beginning this drawing]. This drawing has already been burnished, so I suspect adding more color from CP isn’t a good option. Do you have tips on how to begin a rendering when the leaf has a dark and deep color, so that both color and highlights appear in the final drawing? My apologies if I missed something about this in the video. Do you begin with a very dark wash? I began with some really dark sepia CP before beginning the color, but the basic level of deep green color in this rendering isn’t a good match for the leaf itself. Thanks for your help.
Hi Mary. In general, these drawings are looking good! You happened to choose a challenging subject: a shiny leaf! The key to a shiny leaf is that the highlights must be well-placed and also very bright white. Do you see the highlight in the photo of the real leaf? The one that sort of follows the veining on the bottom right? If you re-create a highlight like that, your leaf will look shinier (and, bonus, you get some more secondary vein definition!) The other key to making this work is, as you said, getting that deep green color. Have you used Chrome Oxide Green? That’s one of my favorites for a dark green leaf. In combination with Dark Sepia, Chrome Oxide Green can get you some lovely deep color. In order for all this to work, you’ll want to plan the placement of those highlights right from the beginning, so that by the time you reach the end of the drawing, those highlights are still the pure white color of the paper. If you can get those bright highlights in contrast with the deep green, you get: shine! 🙂 I know this is a lot of information, but I’ll say again that leaves are a lifelong journey, and by practicing them over and over again, you’ll develop a technique that works best for you. 🙂 Keep at it; you’re doing great. Oh! Also! You can totally still add CP on top of a burnished drawing!
Thank you so very much, Vern, this info is a great help. In addition to not planning the highlights, I didn’t plan the darks well. When doing a dark, deep green like this one, do you ever do a dark wash first, while leaving areas for highlights untouched? Perhaps only doing it on the darkest parts of the leaf, going in with a lighter wash on the other areas, always leaving paper untouched where the highlights are going to be? I have the dark indigo and the chrome oxide green in A Durer WC CP, so plan to follow up on your suggestion on a new rendering. Thanks again, your input is a huge help. had no idea you could color over a burnish, thanks for that too.