Sketching a leaf using charcoal and white pastel pencil

I work a lot with Canson Mi Teintes paper. Apart from soft pastels, its surface is ideal for charcoal and white pastel sketching. I buy these sheets in bulk and then cut out the size as required, which leads to lots of leftover pieces in different sizes. Hence I use these "Leftover cutout pieces" for my different experimental and study works. I keep them all safe in a folder so that I can retrieve it as and when required.

Using one such small piece of beige coloured Canson Mi Teintes paper I created a leaf along with its shadow as seen below. It is a simple dry leaf folded and raised at one end. However due to the drying up process it has folds at several places. This leads to dramatic shadow formation at the surface which gives one the opportunity to create the folds within the leaf. It is a small sketch but a great source of learning experience.

In the shadow

Charcoal and white pastel pencil sketch on Canson Mi Teintes paper

Size 4.5" X 6"

This is my third sketch in the " Leaf "  series. I created two of them earlier. CLICK HERE to view one of them.

 A beautiful quote.

" There is no greater harm than that of time wasted." Michelangelo