| At this step, I've started making the rough shape of the leaves. I started down in the lower left. Look for angles on the edges of the leaves, as shown by the blue bars. You'll notice that mine aren't the exact size or position of the original. I saw that some of the ones in the photo overlapped, and mine didn't, I was just moving quickly through the project. Also, I edited torn leaves, and completely changed the big leaf second from the right. I just made one up, based on other leaves in the picture. There was a time when I thought this was untrue, even somewhat dishonest, but in a case like this, I'm just trying to make a drawing of a vine. People spend little time looking at my work, it's in very public places, and I've got to quickly communicate an idea. But don't let this be a stepping stone to misleading people. The advertising world is full of garbage promises that aren't true. The way this would be a problem is if I was making an ad for someone that sold allegedly perfect grapevines, and the original picture was of their product. |
|
| Now I've added more detail. I was moving quickly, so I in no way copied every little jag and tooth along the edge of the leaves. Instead, I tried to include the most noticeable features, then I just glanced at the areas in between to see which of the two patterns they fit. See the two magnified patterns at right. One is saw toothed, one is cupped. Other types of plants may have patterns different from these. I just noticed these two in this picture.
In this sketch, I drew in the veins with a #2 pencil, but don't do that, use a peach colored pencil instead, as seen below.
In the picture, you'll see one of those curled stem things that vines grow in order to attach themselves to things. The one in the picture is below the leaf farthest to the right. I have pulled it out and made it more obvious. That little graphic element packs a lot of punch. I use it in different projects, including scrollwork, logos, even caligraphy. It says life and abundance without words. As a related note, next time you look at furniture from the 1800's, notice how often they used plant or animal elements in their design. This brought life into the home. These days, you have to be restrained where you do that sort of thing, it's not in current style. Restaurant menus are OK, but the idea of incorporating LIFE into our work is an important concept
|
|
|
