Earlier this week, I saw a TikTok video of an artist painting some pretty and colorful sprigs of leaves. I can't quite tell if it's created on a canvas, or if it's a cake decoration. But it seemed like something I could attempt.
The original video shows the stems being drawn, then the leaves beginning as a line of dots along the stem. The dots are then smudged out with a finger to create the leaf shape.
My canvas was much smaller than the original. I used 5" x 7" pieces of watercolor paper as the base. With a pencil, I drew a circle that's 4-1/2" in diameter. Then I free-formed the stems. Once I liked the shape, I inked over them with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie.
I tried a number of techniques to make the leaves. First, I tried smudging with my fingertip. But the scale was far too small for that to work. Then I tried a couple different sizes and shapes of paintbrushes. That was somewhat better, but still not great. Finally, I used my dotting tool to put down the drop of paint, then drag it into a pointy leaf shape.
In my first attempt, I used bright colors similar to the original video. They're OK. But I thought I'd try something else. I chose some pastel colors for the next attempt, and liked them much better. I got better with the leaf shape the more I practiced.
I'm sticking with "progress, not perfection" this time.
I'm proud of myself for stopping my regular activities and making myself try this Flash Craft. For me, getting started is the hardest part. Once started, my entire focus shifts, time ceases, and I'm in the flow of creating. It's meditative. The entire process only took a couple hours from set-up to clean-up.
I'm not entirely sure how I'll use my sprigs, but I'm leaning toward turning them into greeting cards.
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