Drawing Runner Beans

As my germinating peas did not survive being dropped on the way to my art lesson, I have put some more in another jam jar to germinate and while I am waiting I began to draw some germinating runner beans. 

I have already drawn the seed but I decided to do some leaves.  First after I had decided on which view was best I took a photo against a black background.  This background means all the detail stands out and the edges are sharp.  I don't use this photo to draw from but to remind me of placement as the plant changes.

I next did a sketch; I'm afraid I didn't take a photo of my first sketch which was just a mass of lines, angles and boxes but I did take one of it after I had tidied it up and lifted out the excess graphite.

I then traced the sketch onto tracing paper and then transferred it to some hot press paper ready for the colour. 

If you want to see how the tracing is done please follow this link to youtube: Gaynor Dickeson on tracing, where she explains and demonstrates the technique very clearly.

I then started by filling in my dark tones very lightly, taking note of the colours as I did so.  I mainly used greys and indigo to start with but then I began to fill in the greens, remembering to leave large spaces of white for the light which hits the leaf.

Its not finished yet and its just an initial drawing before I do the actual composition but it has given me a good feel for how the leaf sits and how its constructed.