Macro Leaf

Artist Statement

We started off this project by going outside to pick up things we found. I really wanted to find a cute little mushroom, but could only find big scary ones so I picked up some flowers and dainty leaves instead. Once I got into the classroom Lindsey gave me one of the leaves she found and I thought that one would be more fun to draw since it had pieces bitten out of it from an insect. I put little yellow flowers into some of the holes and taped it down. I started off by painting a pinkish background, using watercolor, because I wanted the leaf to stick out of a border. Then I drew outlines of the leaf and flowers with a pencil and then colored the leaf in with different green, brown, yellow, and black colored pencils. I started to use a yellow colored pencil to do the flowers, but the red background was making it hard for them to show up. So I decided to paint the flowers and the stems of the leaf with acrylic. I thought this would help them stick out more. I thought I wasn't going to like the end product very much, but I actually ended up liking it. I think I could definitely add more detail and I think the leaf could have some more color variation.