I went for a walk across the shore on a beautiful bright sunny day and collected a bag full of objects. Since then the weather has really changed with a drop in the temperature and some stormy days.  I am preparing to work on a page of beach objects in brown inks.  On Sunday  I chose the oak leaf,  piece of fern and the two red berries from this collection and added the skeleton leaf for this little composition.  This beautiful leaf was in my garden and I picked it up as I walked down the path to my door and I knew instantly I had to draw it.   As I have been playing with my new "dip in" pen and ink I decided this was a perfect subject for the fine nib of the pen.

I drew the shape of the leaf with all the intricate lace patterns with a pencil and then started to fill in the lines with the pen and sepia calligraphy ink.  I loved the detail and tried to capture all the tiny lines,  and although it was a very slow process dipping in the pen and using the ink it felt really nice and relaxing.  I had my head down for many hours engrossed and eventually  I managed to complete it adding a little grey ink with a fine paintbrush.   

Then I used my acrylic inks to paint the oak leaf, a curling piece of fern and two berries. I used green, sepia, grey and red to mix my colours.  I used the ink pen to give outlines to them, and also on the veins of the oak leaf as I experiment with pen and ink.
It was quite a stormy day,  I could heard the wind whistling through the house and hailstones showers peppering  the glass at the windows, with a really dark threatening sky. I was content to draw all day.  Late into the afternoon, I realised the paper looked whiter and brighter, as I looked up I noticed the room seemed lighter too.  I thought the day must have improved and the sun was showing through the clouds.  To my surprise as I gazed out of the window I saw the most wonderful rainbow, a double one.  So I thought I would share it with you, the view from my garden.

I have now reached page three in my square book.  Meanwhile my other new book is home to many different pens and drawing pencils in brown and sepia tones, as I experiment with them. If you use inks or sepia, do you have any hints, a particular brand you could recommend? I will let you see how I progress with my sea objects in sepia as soon as it is completed. 

Hope you like the leaves.  

Thank you for the lovely comments.                             Millyx