A leaf can be quite complex to draw if you want to mark out all the details. But it is usually not required – as most of the times, the leaves would be in background. In such cases, few notches with varying tones of green is sufficient to indicate foliage. Most of the times, it is desirable not to put in a lot of details.But in cases were you need to show the leaf in the foreground, it would be required to put in some details.

And also, painting a leaf is a good practice that can help you improve your digital painting skills.

As with any other painting, start of with drawing a simple sketch. There is no need to go over board and fill it up with details like the minute veins. A faint indication of the stem should be sufficient. I have put the sketch in a separate layer.

Next choose a color – the midtone. I usually prefer a less saturated color – but this usually is a style preference. I paint the colors in a different layer.

Note that I am not concerned about staying with in the lines. I can always clean it up later – and advantage of the digital medium.

Take a ligher color and the same fat brush with slight transparency. See how the color makes the leaf bulged in the middle and not a flat thing.

One stroke with a darker color fills up the stem.

This time around, take a leaner brush, the mid tone color and mark out the spine and the veins.

Take a smaller brush and start to detail faintly. Assume a light source. I took it to be at mid-right. See how I consistantly put the hightlights and shadows on each of the minute veins but still keep it pretty un-focused.

I do not like the stark outline of the sketch. I bring down the opacity of that layer, and in the paint layer, I use a dark shade of green to give the outlines. This also gives me more control on defining the shape of the leaf.

I complete the outlining and then erase off the extra paint around the leaf. Also, I give fine strokes on the right bottom edge of the leaf – highlights should always be kept as minimum as possible.

After I finish up cleaning, I either put the shadow in the new layer, or on the background layer. This would depend on how you would organize your work flow.