Fragile Oak and Fern

It is really cold and frosty. I went for a walk and under the giant oak tree I saw all the oak leaves pale and flattened, thin and fragile in shades of creamy yellow ochre. Some of them so thin and fragile they remind me of tissue paper. The fern is the colour of raw umber, stands alone in the empty banks of the hedgerow.
This year I only found a single acorn under this giant tree. I was puzzled as I always find them here each year. Maybe when I went searching I was too late, Or, as my husband suggested, Did the squirrels collect them all early because they knew it was going to be a cold winter. I don't have the answer, but it is certainly very, very cold and the snow is here.
Anyway this little drawing was done from specimens I collected last year. The many different interesting shaped acorns, their little cups, some oak leaves and a little fragile piece of Fern.
I have used my Derwent coloured pencils, colour soft or artist. The colours remind me of this time of year and a walk on a frosty day.

Carolina shells

As promised I am posting the drawing of shells I completed for Carolina. She was the one who won my give away, and she requested shells. I posted "the original", all the way to Peru and nearly three weeks later Carolina left a comment to tell me it had arrived safely, three minutes earlier. I think it is fair to say she seemed very pleased with her prize.
Also, I now know these shells are called "Haitian tree snail shells", thanks to another blogger telling me. So I googled them and discovered they are also known as "candy striped" and "rainbow" shells. It was the lovely coloured stripes which attracted me to buy them from the craft shop.
They have been painted in their true colours, I matched them as near as possible for both colours and patterns. They are so lovely, a joy to draw and paint.
So now somewhere in Peru, one of my original drawings is giving pleasure to someone else, that is a really nice thought.

Red Berries all in a row

I love red berries and they are always popping up in my drawings. When I am out for a walk it is impossible to pass them without picking a little bunch. Sometimes they are recorded, but if I am not quick they soon lose their glossy skins with the heat indoors. Sometimes they are the star of a picture, as they just seem to add the finishing touches to a little arrangement of leaves or shells. Then I always throw them outside for the birds to find.
When I bought this Moleskine zigzag book I knew it had to be full of red berries. I started it last Autumn and returned to add more to it this year. It is a little hard to photograph, because of the long shape, so I am posting several little sections. I quite like the way you just see little glimpses of different pages. The berries are Hawthorn and rosehips from the hedgerows. Some have been coloured using acrylic ink, some with acrylic paint and then there are a couple of pencil studies. I think it might look nice spread out as a Christmas decoration. I have started a second zigzag book of sycamore helicopter seeds. Hope you like the red berries all in a row.

Shells by candlelight

It was such a wild stormy night over the weekend. The lights were flickering and we thought we might lose our electricity, one part of the village did last week. So I lit candles and put one next to me as I was drawing. I was only playing, seeing what the shells would look like on the brown tags.
I painted them in acrylic paint, which was a little thick and didn't spread too well on this "new" paper. So I just carried on, not seeing too well, paint not mixed too well and colour matching by candlelight. It gave me a sense of what it must have been like years ago, writing and drawing in the evening.
So three painted tags, I could improve them but decided to leave them, they are what they are....painted by candlelight. Press for close up.
Thank you for the lovely comments, it is so nice to read them.

Inspiration from the Sea

I have been drawing and painting shells, the prize for my give away, which is on its journey to Peru. I do not want to spoil the surprise for Carolina. After it arrives I will post it here for you to see.
I can always find inspiration from the sea as I collect objects washed on to our local beaches, especially shells, feathers and pebbles. I often buy starfish and patterned shells to draw, beautiful shells from other lands.
But I can always find plenty of feathers because the estuary is home to many species of birds. All these objects go together so well, the patterns and colours of natural objects just seem to compliment each other.
I have a love of tags. Today I bought some brown ones to paint shells or berries or leaves on, putting little things I love on something else I love.
A little display inspired by the sea, hope you like them.

Pencil seedhead

I was in the garden and collected some really beautiful poppy seed heads. Then I discovered one which just looks like a little bird cage. The main structure of the seedhead all but disappeared except for the delicate ribs and the top circular fluted piece. It is like a piece of sculpture.
It reminded me of a drawing I did for my exhibition of a big fat chunky poppy seed head, and here it is. It is drawn with a HB pencil. I have this framed picture but have not looked at it for a while. It was nice to peel back the brown wrapping paper and discover this drawing. I remember sitting and drawing it in a different chair, the light coming from the right side. I always try to draw with the light coming from my left side. As I am right handed the shadows don't get in the way.
I liked the finished result. Hope you do.

Some of my Favourite things

Here are a few of my favourite things made into MOO cards. Just to give you an idea of some of my nature drawings. At this time of the year it is red berries, seed heads and curling leaves. It is also a time to catch up and draw feathers and shells which I have collected at the beach.
Thank you for your lovely comments for the give away. All your names were written on a piece of paper and my husband picked out the winner. It is CAROLINA. I will start on a drawing for her prize and post it on here soon, and then to Carolina.
The other 8 people are going to be the proud owners of a set of my artcards. If you can send me your name and address by email I will post yours to you.
Photograph of the art cards above. I hope you will enjoy your prize.

Grey like the day

It is a very grey day with low hanging clouds. There is no view of the hills, just grey in every direction. It is so dark indoors, not good for drawing or for photographing this latest drawing. I collected these leaves, they are very dark on the front and this silvery grey on the back of the leaf. I used blue, white, brown and yellow to mix the shades, using the acrylic inks. The red rose hip berries just glowed against the leaves. I loved the delicate shapes of the leaves, the heat of the room has made them fold up even more.
I have collected lots of red berries, they will brighten up this grey day. Press as usual for close up.
Love to hear your comments, thank you. I am going to have a give away, leave a comment and a natural object you would like me to draw. I will pick the winner on Friday 13th November, lucky for someone, as I will draw that object for them and send it to them as a gift.

Objects found at the beach

It is a very stormy day. Living by the sea means we really feel the force of the winds and the storms. It is on days like this when all kinds of debris gets washed up by the sea. I like walking on the beach to see what is left in the tide line.
On a walk I found some interesting treasures to draw, berries, leaves, shells and a mermaids purse. It always amazes me how the red berries some how find their way to the beach. It is an old drawing but today reminds me of my beach walks. Take a peep at the bottom of my blog and see a walk on one of our beautiful local beaches, a place to collect feathers and shells.
This one was painted in watercolours. Press for close up.

Autumn Finds

As the wind blows the trees are becoming more and more bare. The leaves and seeds are scattered everywhere. As I walk around the village I collect a few samples of Autumn leaves and seeds and berries. This little arrangement was the result of my collecting. I just placed them on my paper.... a couple of dark brown patterned leaves, a maple leaf, red berries and two sycamore "helicopter" seeds.
So many wonderful coloured leaves, that all attract my attention. I have been bringing some home almost every day. I will not be able to record them all. So instead I just spend a little time looking and observing their colours, shapes and patterns.
I am really enjoying using my new acrylic inks with a lovely sable paint brush, rather like using watercolours. As usual, press picture for larger view.

Wild Flowers I collected.

I had been for a walk and picked a bunch of wildflowers from the hedgerows in my village. They were placed in this jug and after a day or two started to droop and some had died. I was about to throw them out when I just saw something that made me want to draw them. There was some interesting shapes and a pleasing composition. So I quickly captured what I saw.
It was painted in water colours over the pencil drawing. It is simple and yet I like it, but then I do like wild flowers and their simple honest shapes. These are all plants and flowers I have known all my life, collected since I was a little girl and brought home as a gift for my mum.
Press for close up.

Autumn Gifts

I like Autumn. I like the anticipation of all the natural objects that I will find and want to draw. As the weather becomes wet and stormy leaves are being blown off the trees and the ground is littered. The seeds from trees are also being blown and scattered just as nature designed. The colours are changing, Autumn is creeping in every where I look.
The other day this little butterfly blew into my garden and was caught in a spider web. I found my oak leaf on the shore, the salty water has given it a rusty orange colour along the veins. I collected the sycamore wings a while back and love the twisted stalk, and I picked the fresh red shiny berries on Saturday. They go went together in my drawing as signs of Autumn, things I have found at this time of year.
Time for something new so I bought myself some acrylic inks, this was my first time using them, and I really like them. I chose my usual set of colours, and for this drawing I used just three of them sepia brown, yellow ochre and red, and here is my finished result. Thought it would be good to let you see the real specimens too. Press picture for close up.

My thirty year old drawing

I did this drawing thirty years ago. It was one of the subjects for the O level Art exam, for the children, when I was teaching. As the teacher I had to provide the objects for them to draw in the exam, in this case root vegetables. I went to my sister to see what she had in her garden and she pulled up this turnip for me. It was so much more interesting than what I could find on the market stalls.
I don't remember if any of the children chose it to draw but I loved it and took it home with me to draw.
It has been framed and hanging in my house for thirty years, the cartridge paper is pitted with brown stains and the paper is crinkled. I haven't looked at it for years, but I see my style in it. It would be the lines and textured qualities which would excite and inspire me to draw it. I alway loved working in pencil, a nice sharp HB pencil. Of course my eyes were better then, I now need my glasses to draw all the detail.
It holds a fascination to me, I love the detail I captured, yes I am proud of this one. I spent many many hours on this large drawing.

A Few Simple Tools

It is what I really like about drawing. You find something that inspires you, in this case a really beautiful gull feather and then with a few simple tools you make a drawing, something unique.

Everyone has their own style, the way they draw and their own marks that they use. It is a dictionary of your own individual marks that you have collected, it is like your finger print. You use them without even realising they are yours alone, hence the uniqueness of your work.

Just like every feather, shell, leaf, acorn or natural object has its own lines, colours, shapes, and patterns which are unique. It is this variety that makes nature so fascinating, the same but different.

So with A few simple tools, my HB pencil (nice and sharp), a pad of lovely smooth bristol board paper and the feather I found in the sand. It had such a lovely clean crisp shape against the pale brown sand, just lost by a sea gull.
Lost, but not for long. It then found its way to my blog.
Press picture for close up.

Lords and Ladies

I love red berries and when I found these three stems of "Lords and Ladies", I just had to draw them. Due to all the wet weather all three of them had rotted away at the base of the stem. The weight of the berries, along with the weakened stem and they had all toppled over. So I rescued them before they all rotted and decayed in the wet soggy grass. The berries are poisonous but I have known this since being told as a child. That is why they are in the plastic bag, I can touch and observe and of course keep washing my hands afterwards.
So that evening I spent four hours quickly getting them down on paper. It was an attempt to capture what I first saw, the bright glowing berries on a gloomy wet day. I hope to draw one with much greater detail and record the lovely way the spathe (once the green hooded leaf), shrivels up and folds like paper at the base of the berries.
I like the shiny berries, still orange coloured and some at an even earlier stage of green. Later in the autumn they turn deep red. They really shine out bright red and glow in the hedgerows on their tall stems, just as everything else is turning brown.
I painted them with acrylic paints...yellow, red, green and yellow orchre mixed my colours. There is something so nice to start with paper and a pencil, paint and a brush and create a drawing, inspired by Nature. Thought you might like to see the real thing, the lords and ladies, found 30th July 2009.

Starfish

Yet another of my favourite things, a beautiful starfish.
I have a collection of different sizes and shapes, white ones, a blue one and some little tiny ones. They all sit on the shelf in the bathroom displayed with pebbles, shells and sea urchins, so I see them every day. I bought them over the years from shell shops or flower shops, they are not found on our beaches.
When I was teaching they were always a favourite drawing lesson, the children loved the shapes. For an observational drawing I encouraged the children to really look at the patterns on the starfish. I often pick them up and just look, they really are so interesting.
My pencil drawing still remains at this "work in progress" stage. I like it here, sort of half done, yet you know what it is. Maybe that is how it is going to stay.

Dragonfly gift

I had a gift today. It was a dragonfly, a beautiful blue dragonfly that someone found on their car bonnet. It was dead. They put it in a box and send it for me to draw.
It is now a browny colour and still has some blue showing, but it has been dead for a few days. The wings are slightly damaged.
I adore dragonflies and have drawn them many times. I have both an artcard and a print of my drawings of a dragonfly. As I live near some marshes where they live I am so lucky to see them each year, usually August onwards. Perhaps this hot weather has brought them out.
My drawing is one I did last year in inktense crayons, to try out the colours and crayons. It is not as detailed as my other dragonfly drawings and was a little too near the bottom of my paper, as I was experimenting and didn't worry too much about the composition. I will do some sketches of my new specimen. I often receive presents of feathers, but a dragonfly ..even better.
Hope you like it. Will post some of my Dragonfly gift soon.

Beach Pebbles

I have selected and painted some of my pebbles. Each time I go for a walk on the beach I carefully choose a few lovely pebbles to bring home. It might be their colours, or it might be the pattern or it is the smooth rounded shape....but when I find the right one ....I just have to have it. I really like the grey ones with white circles and stripes, they are probably my favourites.
After selecting the ones to draw I placed them in the circular shape on my paper, and I do love this little arrangement, it turned out perfect.
I used acrylic paints. Press for larger view.

Tiny Blue shells

When I go for a walk along my local beaches I collect feathers, shells, leaves, pebbles and seaweed. The shells here are usually tiny, cockles, mussels and crab shells, nothing very fancy. But I like these really tiny striped shells. I like their simple shapes, their pretty stripes and the fact that I found them. These were all blue ones on the stretch of beach I was walking. At a different beach they are brighter colours like yellow, pink, blue and orange stripes.
They are simple and yet beautiful. They are so thin and delicate and yet survive the strength of the sea as they are washed up on my beaches. Just like a child I find them and add them to my treasures. I painted them with watercolours.

Fragments of china and drips of tea

I collected the fragments of china and the old brown oak leaf on the same day. They were found by the lake at Coniston. I love these little pieces of china, what did they used to be and who did they belong to? The answer I will never know but it is fascinating to think about.
I found them together, so they went in a drawing together and then I dripped my tea across my paper...I think it was meant to be, maybe they were a teapot and cups and saucers. They are painted using watercolour paints, press picture for close up.
Welcome to all my followers, please leave me a comment , I would be pleased to hear from you.

Nine Shells

I love shells and collect them whenever I go for a walk on the beach. I have some gorgeous ones from holidays abroad, bought in shell shops. The other day I saw this bag full of twenty pretty striped shells in the craft shop. Of course I had to buy them and bring them home to draw. I have never had this shell before so I was really taken with the colours and patterns. Each one has different colours but they all felt so summery, like striped rock, deck chairs and beach hut colours.
On the bag, it said they were a waste product from the food industry.
I have used acrylic paint to get the bright clean colours, which is what attracted me to them, see the different coloured striped pattern on the nine I chose.
Press picture for more detail. Roll on summer and days on the beach.

Feather

I have been walking on the beach and collecting more feathers. My collection grows as I can't resist picking them up and bringing them home to draw. They really fascinate me and I love the lines and patterns of feathers.
The beach always inspires me, feathers , shells and pebbles all attract me and I arrive home with my pockets full. So looking forward to summer and spending days walking along the beach and seeing what the sea has washed up. Always odd shoes, rope, shells, crabs, seaweed, wooden objects and plastic beach toys lost or abandoned. Then the thrill of a message in a bottle.
This feather is drawn using a HB pencil. Click on picture for close up.

Virtual sketch Date April Challenge

Here is my drawing for the April challenge for the Virtual Sketch Date. It is the beautiful photograph taken by Jeanette Jobson of a Rhododendron bud.
I sketched it out last night and today completed the drawing by using black ink pens.
I have enjoyed doing this challenge, loved the shapes in the bud and the leaves. A good subject for me. I completely missed even seeing the March challenge!
I do like this group as we all start from the same image and yet everyone ends up with their own individual picture. So I am off to see all the others now,
see here

Blue leaf

I have been trying my hand at painting. I bought some canvas boards for acrylic paint. The leaf was a pencil drawing in my sketch book, which I did a while ago. I decided to use blues, mixed with white, green, yellow and a brown. It was painted to try out the board and something unusual for me to paint the background.
I quite like the finished result, a bit of fun as the colours are straight out of my head.

My Moo Cards

I have been seeing Moo cards on other peoples blogs and so I thought I would have a go. It took me so long uploading the images and then messing around with finding the right images to print. I am not the greatest on the computer, so things take me ages to do, that is why my blog is so simple in its layout.
Well I was quite excited when the moo cards arrived. I couldn't believe how small they were. After playing around for a while here is a little arrangement of most of the cards. I think the fish worked really well and the dragonfly and peacock feather. I do have some rejects, it was fun seeing some of my drawings as tiny Moo cards. Whats the verdict? Press picture for close up.

Fir cones

I collected some fir cones when I was out for a walk the other day. I like them as a drawing subject. They have fascinating patterns and shapes. I like the challenge of capturing all the detail and have to really concentrate to record them accurately.
If it is warm they will open up and then make it difficult to finish the drawing as all the shapes and patterns will have changed. So I try to finish them in one go or at least sketch out all the details before this has chance to happen.
This pair of cones is a favourite drawing which I did a while ago. It is done using a HB pencil. Press for larger picture.

Ladybirds

If I had to pick a favourite insect it would be hard to choose just one. My answer would be, my favourites are ladybirds and dragonflies, really love both of them.
I have just been working with infants in a school doing some art work. We were drawing insects. I took lots of pictures and books for the children to see and then we did drawings and then made prints of the insects. Then printed on fabric with our blocks. We had a really nice time and all the children enjoyed using the printing rollers and making their prints. There is something so exciting and magical about peeling back the block and seeing the printed image.
I showed the children some of my drawings and they ooooo-ed and arrrrrr-ed, I think they were impressed ! They all took home one of my artcards, I gave them all the dragonfly to remind them of our day.
I had my ladybird sheet of drawings but couldn't find it. So the children never got to see it. I have drawn a real ladybird many times but these were actually from a book. I know ladybirds well enough to draw them from memory, but by using the book I could draw different coloured beetles that I have never seen. I think I used Derwent inktense crayons. Anyways hope you like them.

Virtual sketch February Challenge

This is my drawing of the February 2009 virtual sketch group challenge
It was painted using acrylic paint and then I used some coloursoft crayons on the water over the paint. I don't ever do scenes or landscapes so this was a really hard challenge for me. I have to confess when I saw the scene I didn't feel like doing it. I am glad I did and was pleased when I completed it. For me it was getting out of my comfort zone and trying something new.
My picture measures about 14 x 16 inches. Press to see larger.
I will go and look at everyone elses pictures now.

Three fine feathers

I did this drawing of the three feathers and haven't yet made my mind up if it is finished or not. I like it as it is, but yet feel there are little bits here and there that need a little more work. Sometimes I regret not leaving a drawing, as the extra work spoils what was already there. Of course, you just get to see the picture, you didn't see the earlier versions. So I thought I would post this and maybe I will add the extra bits another time.
I drew it in pencil and added colour with a fine brush and acrylic paint. For those of you that don't already know, I collect feathers. They are one of my favourite subjects to draw, I love drawing all the different feather shapes. Hope you like my .... Three Fine feathers. Press to see it larger.

edm 211 "in the style of " .. Leonardo Da Vinci

I am always collecting oak leaves and acorns. I planted some acorns and recorded their growth. The idea was to then somehow draw and record this progress. I have drawings on pieces of paper, others in sketch books so when I saw this challenge I decided to use my oak drawings as the subject.
I have recorded " in the style " of the great master Leonarda Da Vinci. He made lots of detailed and observational drawings of the same subject on one sheet and often used inks and red chalks. So I have used sepia ink, drawing and writing with a paint brush. Derwent drawing pencils in sanguine, venetian red and terracotta were used to add the reds on the acorns and leaves.
He had extraordinary interest in so many subjects. There is no doubt about his accuracy of his subject and it is his observational skills that I admire. Seeing his drawings, especially his natural subjects always inspires me.
I had lots of fun wetting the paper and blotting the ink to give it an "old" feel. I have finally put my sequence of the growth together, yet I feel humble to even attempt to make it look like his wonderful work. Hope you like it. Might do more on it and post that later.
Press for larger image.

Snowdrop..edm 209 draw a shadow

It is the first spring flower. Clumps of the white snowdrops are growing at the bottom of my garden and I have picked a little bunch and put them in my kitchen window.
It was interesting to draw as it really makes you see this pretty flower. The delicate little green stem holding the white drooping flower head. The three petals and then the little cup shaped centre with the pretty green markings. A simple flower yet it holds such promises that spring is on the way.
It made a lovely shaped shadow, my edm challenge 209 draw a shadow. It is drawn using a HB pencil. Press for larger image.

Autumn Leaf

I like autumn leaves and each time I go for a walk I collect a few. With so many to choose from, what influences my choices? Sometimes it is the curling shape that attracts me to pick it up, sometimes it is the colours or patterns or the way the stem bends. I like to find unusual leaves, skeleton leaves or the dock leaf eaten by beetles and then resembles a piece of lace.
I see images that I want to capture in my drawings. Even if I do not actually do the drawing of the collected leaf it was not wasted, because I would just look, study the shapes, the colours, the tiny details and store it in my memory. Sometimes just looking is enough, seeing the object and closely observing, learning and understanding something about that leaf or shell or acorn or feather or whatever.
They are all different, all unique, with their different shapes, sizes, colours and patterns. That is what I love about natural objects, so much to see, so much to inspire, the same but different. There is such beauty in these simple objects.
This sycamore leaf was collected in Autumn, the colours were changing to softer greens and orche yellows. The detail of the small brown cuts and tears, bruised and fragile after falling from the tree, and tossed in the wind. Gradually this leaf will become more and more damaged, eventually becoming small fragments of dust. So in the drawing I capture a moment in time.
It is worked in Derwent coloursoft pencils, on A3 sized paper.

Clementine.

I have just completed this drawing for the challenge to draw a clementine.
It is the first time that I have ever drawn from a photograph on my computer screen, so I did find it challenging. I worked from the large image as I am a detail person. It was really interesting to do and I did enjoy the experience. I only started it Friday night and it needs to be posted today, so I would probably have liked to spent a bit longer on it, but time is running out.
It is my first time take taking part in Virtual Sketch Date, so looking forward to seeing everyone elses work, all with the same picture only each doing it their way.
It is drawn using a 0.5mm Pentel mechanical pencil, on white watercolour paper. It is about five hours of drawing. I am happy with the outcome and it made me draw something new.

One of my favourite shells .....edm 207

I have lots of shells which I have collected over many years. If I was on holiday I would bring them home off the beach. In my suitcase all the shoes would be packed full of tissue wrapped specimens. Then many were bought from shell shops. When I was first married our bathroom window was full of my shells. Our bathroom now has mainly starfish and a few shells on display. A large glass container in the kitchen window is crammed full of my beach finds. I still can't resist buying new shells, they have such wonderful colours, shapes and patterns. I buy them to draw but never quite get around to doing it. I know where all my shells come from.
I have a chocolate box full of shells found on my 50th birthday, the chocolates were a present and we were in Madeira at the time. Then I found a shop with cabinets full of unusual shells for sale. I kept going back to see them all.
The shell I have posted for the edm challenge was bought from out of the cabinets and then painted while I was at Madeira. I love it for the maroon colours, one of my favourites. I love it for its simplicity and yet it is so beautifully patterned. And of course for the memories that this little shell brings flooding back.
It is painted in watercolour paints. Hope you like it too.

Helicopters

Since I was a child we have always called these sycamore seeds helicopters. They twirl around as they fall through the sky. The ones I usually collect are from the sycamore tree but I realise they are part of the maple family. They come in many different sizes, shapes and variations. Usually they are a double helicopter, sometimes I can find three together. They generally grow in clumps on the tree and fall in pairs which split to give the single seed.
I have many detailed drawings of them in different stages of their life, as they become thinner and very delicate and a sort of skeleton like the leaves. And on my artcard where I put 30 helicopters with three red berries found together in the snowdrop orchard in January. I brought them home, placed them on my paper to look at and thought they would make a great drawing.

Skeleton leaves

It is really cold and frosty here. There is nothing left in the hedgerows and verges except a few pale bleached seedheads and lots of empty snail shells. It is the time of year when all the leaves are thin like tissue paper and slowly breaking down into small fragments.
There amongst the heaps of dead leaves I can find the beautiful skeleton leaves. They are stripped back to their tiny veins, the very thin delicate lace patterns of their structure now revealed. I collect them, carefully untangle them and press them to keep them like antique treasures, each one so precious.
As I draw the patterns I admire the beauty and think myself so lucky to have found this natural work of art. It is drawn in pencil, with a very sharp point, on A4 size paper. Press to see it larger.

Curling Leaf

A New Year, so I bought a new sketch book, with some ideas whizzing around in my head. I have been planning a drawing project for this coming year.
Meanwhile I have been brushing up on my drawing skills, by drawing acorns and oak leaves. I love using pencil, a sharpened point and a piece of paper, just observing and recording something I found. A moment in time captured, then months later you find that drawing, it evokes a memory of a walk, a place, a day out in the countryside.

This curling leaf is a favourite drawing of mine. I like the crisp shape and the way it curls around. We had been out for a walk and I had collected some leaves. I sat that evening drawing them. I loved the shadows cast from the curling leaf by the electric lamp. I think they make the drawing so much more interesting, the elegant shapes of the leaf and the delicate shadows.
I am going to do more pencil drawings in 2009 as I really enjoy using a pencil. Press the picture to see it close up.
Happy New Year to everyone.