As I mentioned earlier, I took a painting class this summer with the wonderful Elena Guttman. In her Dynamic Abstract classes we explore different artists and apply her teachings about their style to our own work.
In a recent class about Picasso, we not only fractured shapes, but colored each shape with lights and darks and selected color.
I needed a subject to practice this technique. What should I draw? I pondered this as I looked at the sky I could see through the curtain of grape leaves that were curling over our arbor. There they were - lovely curling shapes, tendrils, overlap, gorgeous shades of green and sky.
I spent days working this image using hard color pencils on soft paper. Each area is painted individually. An interesting and difficult assignment - but worth the work. Its very different from my usual work. I havent't yet really incorporated this into other images - but maybe soon.
I photographed it, and dried it flat in my notebook. Then I drew it - striving to build the colors with color pencil - only a few - building from dark to light, showing the pattern, and keeping the contrast. 
I think I succeeded in capturing this leaf.
