Macro Leaf

The subject of this piece is a macro (up close) view of a leaf. I picked a certain area of a leaf I picked from the woods outside my school to create so it would be a full composition--so it would have no blank spaces. For this work I first used pencils to create the basic shape of the leaf and from there I used water color crayons for my first layer, and then used water color paint for the additional layers. I first put down water color crayons to make the veins and the rest of the leaf and then applied water to it. After that I added more layers and darkened/lightened some areas with water color paint. I chose this leaf because I loved the way the veins contrasted with the red of the leaf and I loved the bright colors. In this I used contrast by making some colors darker and some lighter. I also balanced the color on both sides of the image too so neither side was overly bright.

The veins in this leaf created leading lines in this painting. The veins lead you through the image as leading lines are supposed to. I also used a sharp focus on this painting because it is a macro view of the leaf, so I needed to focus on all of the details because it was close up. At first I just used watercolor crayons, and it turned out ok, but there wasn't enough contrast of darks and lights. To create this contrast I used watercolor paint on top of the watercolor crayon and added black to colors like the red to create darker shades of red. I also added more orange to where it looked more orange on the leaf I was working from.

I created this leaf the way it was to most accurately depict the look of a leaf. I feel like my style of painting took over too, as the strokes were loose and not very detailed or realistic. I liked this project because fall is one of my favorite seasons, and leafs like this remind me of fall. I think I could have been more detailed with small lines coming off the stem and in the body of the leaf, but this would have been difficult with watercolor. The hardest part of this was using watercolor to create a realistic image. I don't have much recent experience with water color so it was hard to adjust at first but I got used to it and I think it turned out well. I'm most proud of how colorful this is. I think the reds and orange turned out vivid and bright. This shows how I can learn to use a certain type of media again and create good artwork with it even though I may not have much experience with the media.