We were at that store that sells food that is good for you. I don’t want to use brand names, so I’ll call it… um… Entire Foodstuffs. We were picking up a lot of stuff for the kids, who will be here tomorrow! It is very exciting.

It has been pretty warm lately, and green as can be. I have been in awe of the trees and plant life on the West Coast since I moved here in ’08.

Back in the parking lot, I noticed a single, bright red leaf among a clutter of green at the base of the tree, next to the car. This is the kind of scene that I love to photograph: beautiful contrast, intricate patterns on one particular leaf, and… a blemish.

I think the blemish on this particular leaf was due to a bird. Not a hungry bird, but rather a bird that had previously eaten and was flying directly over the leaf in question.

Today’s experiment

I am trying a ‘resting phase’ of practicing art today. I have not read much of Paul Klee’s writings lately. I am trying to let the messages sink in.

My experiment today: The red leaf.

Red Leaf
9″x12″ 140# Hot Pressed, Watercolor Block

I started by sketching the outline of the blemished area. The original photograph showed a lot of detail, which I attempted to recreate with black lines. But the decaying, or eaten-away part of the leaf was predominantly white; like the ash of a cigar: one thinks it is black, but its real color is white.

The rest of the outline was a standard leaf shape except for the bottom left. The first natural subdivision of this leaf (as marked by the first branching of a vein), turned under on the upper outline. I believe this is where the leaf attached itself to the twig. Normally, I would have taken a second picture from another angle to clarify this point, but I thought I had all I needed in the first photo.

There were so many colors in this leaf, the least abundant of which was green. The deep red color seemed to begin at the blemish. Was it some foreign substance that caused the blemish and the red coloration? The red turned to orange, and yellow, especially where the sunlight fell directly on the leaf. The sun illuminated the lower portion of the leaf, shining through from behind.

Some of the sections on the top portion of the leaf displayed convexities between major vein offshoots. I was able to represent this crudely by darkening one side of the crease and lightening the adjacent area. I need some more practice in this technique.

I used cadmium yellow pale for the veins. Fortunately the yellow was not all absorbed by the underlying red, thus rendering the veins visible.

A special color appeared where the sunlight shone through the surface illuminating every detail. This type of lighting reminded me of the oblique light, either early in the morning or shortly before dusk. I love to photograph anything that reflects this kind of light. If this light fell on a brick wall, one would be able to see every grain of sand on every brick. I certainly did not represent it properly in this watercolor sketch.

Finally, I painted leaf shapes in different shades of green, for the background. I did not use the photograph for a guide in this instance. I just made up leafy shapes. I used crude brush strokes in constructing my background leaves. Hopefully they are not too distracting. The green background allows for maximal contrast  with the red leaf in the foreground.