There is a grove of red maples (Acer rubrum) growing in a park nearby. Their leaves turn a brilliant red around this time of year. Last autumn I picked up a handful of nice leaves and pressed them, unsure of what I was going to do with them at the time. I've been doing more ink pen drawings lately, and I thought I would experiment with drawing on a leaf instead of paper.
The dried leaf is pretty delicate, so you have to be very gentle when drawing on it. I used a typical water-based ink pen, like the kind you'd use to sign legal documents with. I also practiced a couple of times on paper (seen in the background) so I'd be more confident when drawing on the leaf itself.
This bird is supposed to be a peregrine falcon, but I think I'll have to practice a bit more to really be able to portray the species accurately. I'll probably do more of these soon!
~Mel.
