Leaves.&.Inks

[Leaves.&.Inks]

Howdy, you can call me Leaf!! I’m a graphic design student in the US, and I’ve been making art for most of my life. I like to use a variety of mediums, such as watercolors, inks, digital, and others!! I love drawing things from nature, fantasy, character art, and sketches/ doodles :)

I eventually hope to have some of my work up on a print on demand site, and will update this when that happens, along with a specific post. I decided to switch my art tag, one that hopefully will be more reliable than #leaves.&.inks (the old one worked only sometimes). Don’t worry if there was a specific piece you were trying to find under the old tag; it’s still up and I reposted it under the new one as well :D

Notable Tags

(new) ART TAG: #leaves and inks

Text posts: #rustling leaves

Inspiration: #insp

You can also find me on:

instagram: leaves.and.inks

artfol: leaves_and_inks

Personal/inspiration blog: @a-forest-of-leaves

I hope you enjoy my work, and have a great day!! ^^

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🦇SOME ARE BORN TO THE ENDLESS NIGHT🦇

The last piece in this series!! I love watching the bats fly about in the summer, they’re just so neat and cute!! I drew this one on the back of the failed possum piece I mentioned in my vulture post haha

leaning on calling this series “The Cycle” but I may workshop it a little, maybe incorporate something with the song titles in, but I’m not so sure yet. This was a fun project though, so hope y'all enjoyed it as much as I have!! :D

I have a few ideas for more series in the works, and want to resurrect some old ones too, I feel like sticking to something with consistency can be good for me, but for now I’ve got a few WIPS that need a little polish :)

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a large brown bat head drawn in black and white ink, looking down and to its left in ¾ view. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, the inner ear is left mostly tan, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. the bat’s mouth is open, showing it’s teeth, and the ends of the wings are folded up at its sides. The illustration crops at the base of the neck, its ears, neck fur, and the clawed ends of its folded up wings overlap the shape. There is a larger circle surrounding the head, filled with vines with aster flowers, stylized leaves, and blue foot mushrooms. Most of the plants and fungi are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants and fungi are radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top and bottom of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: Crop on the bat’s face, details in the white ink becoming more apparent. The image crops right after the end of the snout, the beginnings of both ears, and just short of the neck

Image 4: Crop focusing on the plants and fungi, along with the bat’s left ear. it crops midway through the eye, the right, closest ear, and features the top right quarter of the illustration. /end ID]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🪶 CAN’T KEEP MY EYES FROM THE CIRCLING SKIES 🪶

Another bird!! originally the theme of these next two pieces was going to be scavengers, but I discovered that possums reallyyy don’t translate super well into this style and layout, so I’m gonna pair this black vulture one with a different, not scavenger animal instead :)

[ID:A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black culture head, looking down and right in ¾ view. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. it crops at the base of the neck, its beak and upper neck feathers overlapping the shape. There is a larger circle surrounding the head, filled with vines with aster flowers, stylized leaves, and blue foot mushrooms. Most of the plants and fungi are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants and fungi are radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top, bottom, and right of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: Crop on the vulture’s face, details in the white ink becoming more apparent. The image crops right after the end of the beak, and right after both eyes

Image 4: Crop focusing on the vulture’s feathers and plant/fungi life. Only the top right quarter of the illustrated page area is in frame. /end ID]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

[threefeline]

to anyone who puts tags on my art: i see them and i love you

[Leaves.&.Inks]

[lesbiacebian]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

When I heard this song when it was trending, I knew I had to use it for some fish art!! I got a lot of footage at this pond, so I think when I’m done with this series, I’m gonna have to do a reel with no music- the birdsong is really peaceful :) for this video however my paper bag paper covering the camera was rather loud, so fish song it is!! Also for clarity, the little frog in the corner is not mine, I found it by searching “art” in the instagram stickers ^^

original post linked here

[VD: a large, sunny pond in the woods with lily pads in the foreground close to shore. The water ripples in the wind. There is a small cartoon dancing frog with a paintbrush, beret, and pallet in the top left corner that cuts after a couple of seconds. Coming from the bottom left corner, a hand covers the screen with a plank piece of tan paper. the video cuts, revealing a close up shot on an illustration of a fish, which then is pulled away by a hand from the camera. The illustration is a black fish (a shad) head and front flipper, looking down and right in profile view. It’s mouth is slightly open. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. it crops at its gills on the left hand side of the circle, it’s mouth and fin overlapping the shape. Behind the head at the same level of its late eye, the tail fins can be seen. A larger circle surrounding the fish head are vines with wild geraniums with stylized leaves and thorns. Most of the thorns, vines, and leaves are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the video cuts again to the hand holding the illustration more still. it then cuts again to tilt the illustration left to right in the sun. Finally, there is one more cut where the hand lowers the illustration out of frame, then focusing on the bank of the pond, rippling water, and the lily pads. /end VD]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🐟 BARRACUDA 🐟

… which this american shad is certainly not!! I’m determined to keep up the classic rock naming, despite it not making a whole lot of sense here 😅

I was going to queue this and have it come out the same time as my instagram post, but I changed my mind and feel like posting this a little early :)

I’ve recently come to three conclusions:

1)moving is very annoying, especially if you’re one to misplace/lose things as it is

2)I may be biting off more than I can chew per usual with my summer plans, but I really hope not

3)storage space is Cool and Fun, and I wish it was more functional now that I’m home for the summer

But hey, I’ve got things mostly sorted now. A lot of its gonna be ongoing, but it’s manageable at the moment. Anyways, here’s my newest in the paper bag series!! Between this and my salmon for the daily drawings (you can find those on my instagram in the story highlights, I’ll link my profile below!!) It’s been nice drawing some fish!!

Link

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black fish (a shad) head and front flipper, looking down and right in profile view. It’s mouth is slightly open. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white, and the illustration itself sits within a white circle. it crops at its gills on the left hand side of the circle, it’s mouth and fin overlapping the shape. Behind the head at the same level of its late eye, the tail fins can be seen. A larger circle surrounding the fish head are vines with wild geraniums with stylized leaves and thorns. Most of the thorns, vines, and leaves are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the shad drawing, Over top of the plants radiating out from the center of the fish head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top, bottom, and right of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: Crop on the shad’s face, details in the white ink becoming more apparent. The head is now tilted up, and crops most of the gills and plant life out.

Image 4: Crop focusing on the Shad’s scales and plant life. Only the top left quarter of the illustration is in frame. /end ID]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🐇🌾AND IF YOU GO CHASING RABBITS🌾🐇

number three, and the companion piece to every rose has its thorn! so far i’m keeping up with the classic rock naming, though I stretched it a little with this one considering this guy’s a hare, but alas

I struggled with getting the eyes right on this.. not sure if it’s 100% but it’s better than what it started off as, so I see that as a win. Didn’t think this would be the first hate I posted, but it certainly won’t be the last! I love them, they have a stare that seems to stare into your soul, and seemingly bring some sort of omen.. I just think they’re really neat :) I would love to see one in the wild someday!!

There will be more of these coming!! I currently have 3-4 planned, but if I have 4 I gotta make it 5 somehow, so I may stick with 3 for now. I officially finished my finals a few days ago, so I’m hoping for some more consistency this summer!! I’ve got quite a few WIPs I want to finish, along with some other ideas, so stay tuned!! :D

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black hare head, with white ink details. It looks at the viewer straight on, its snout pointed downward. it sits in a white circle, it’s nose and ears breaking past the border. All the details and the eyes are sketched in with white, and has black pupils drawn in sketchy, horizontal lines. some fluff of the base of its neck can be seen behind it. In a larger circle surrounding the hare head are vines with roses, leaves, and thorns. the roses are black, the petals drawn in in white. most of the thorns, vines, and leaves are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. the roses break out from a larger circle behind them and the hard drawing, this one being a white outline. Over top of the roses radiating out from the center of the hare’s head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has creases in it.

image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered, with the ends of the top and bottom vertical white lines cropped.

image 3: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered.

image 4: close up on the hare’s right ear and the roses, vines, and leaves, showcase details in the white line work. it crops right at the base of its ear, at the top third of its ear. it only showcases the top left quarter of the roses and circles. /end ID]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

Quick little process video of this guy! If you’d like to see more shots of the finished piece, it’s up on my profile and linked below!! :D What’s your favorite animal?

I had a lot of paper bags lying around, and decided to put it to a new use by recycling the paper into this series, and it’s been a lot of fun!! I just love the look of black and white ink on toned tan paper

Link

[VD: a hand coming from the left side of the frame working on an illustration on toned tan paper. Above it are two notebooks on either side of the frame; the left one has a pattern, and the right one has a cardboard back. in the center is the opening end of a gold drawstring pouch. In the bottom right corner a hand steadies the page. The illustration is a black wolf head, its nose pointed down. It’s ears are pointed up and back, and it has wild long fur on its cheeks. it overlaps a white circle behind it. in a larger circle surrounding the wolf head, still only in pencil sketch, are vines with roses, leaves, and thorns. The roses break out from a larger circle behind them and the wolf drawing, along with a pencil sketch of radiating lines. The paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it. the hand, holding a white pen, begins to draw in the pupils so the wolf is flaring at the viewer, looking over its furrowed brow. in the top right is text that reads “⚠️ fast-moving imagery” that disappears after a few seconds.

Frame two switches over on the word “eyes” in the song, and shows more progress drawing the pupils. Each subsequent shot after that changes on the beat, showing a different show of adding white fur details in the brow area of the wolf. Once the lyrics begin again, a new shot also begins, and is a zoomed in panning close up of the original piece. the roses and vines are now in black ink with white details, along with the larger circle having a white outline and the radiating lines sketched in white. the camera pans left to right, showcasing details in the flowers, along with the now complete wolf’s face. on the word “smile”, there are a few more shots that play subsequently and change on the beat. the first one is a slightly shaky zoomed in shot on the right side of the wolf’s face on an off-kilter angle, showcasing eye and fur details done in white ink. the second shot shows details in the roses and vines, and the third shot showcases details both in the roses and vines, along with the wolf’s ear and top of the right cheek. the last shot zooms out on the piece, putting the wolf’s head in the middle of the frame and cropping the left and right edges of the flowers slightly./end VD]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🌾 ROLLING ON THE RIVER 🌾

I was able to work on this much sooner than I thought!! don’t worry, I plan on doing all the suggestions (and maybe more, we’ll see) I just got a bit of a plan for how I want to go about it :)

It’s been nice working on this series. I find it so easy to overthink my process and art, constantly trying to make things perfect or fit certain criteria. Sure, by nature of being a series, I am thinking about matching it to the other pieces. But being able to step back from the usual worrying about nit-picky details and just drawing fun animal on recycled material has a great. It feels like i’m making art for the sake of it again, something I haven’t felt like I’ve done a whole lot of the past couple years or so. I gotta say, I can probably thank the “daily” drawing challenge I did on my instagram story for putting me in this mindset!!

Hoping to get the other two animals I have planned done soon!! I’ve mainly been working on them to take a break from assignments, and considering finals are approaching, there will be lots to take breaks from (if I can afford to haha). Hope you’re all doing well!!

I hope I can keep up the naming these after songs/lyrics, I’m not so sure I can 😅

You can find the first post in this series linked here!

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black heron head looking up in profile view and to the left, its beak slightly opened. it sits in a white circle. All the details and the eye are sketched in with white. it crops at its neck in the bottom right quarter of the circle. the Heron is also stylistically fluffier in comparison to the real animal. In a larger circle surrounding the heron head are vines with wild geraniums with stylized leaves and thorns. Most of the thorns, vines, and leaves are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. Some plant material breaks out from a larger circle behind them and the heron drawing, Over top of the plant life radiating out from the center of the heron’s head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top and bottom of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: crop on the heron’s eye and beak. details in the feathers and beak are more apparent. the crop cuts off just before the neck, the tip of the beak, and most of the vines and flowers.

Image 4: crop focusing on the geraniums and vines. details such as the thorns and leaves are more apparent. along with the ends of the sketchy, radial lines. the crop only showcases the top right quadrant of the piece, cutting out all but the top of the Heron’s neck, most of the white circle, and most of the other plants. /end ID]

[Leaves.&.Inks]

🥀EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN🥀

Howdy everyone! When I initially did the rough version of this in one of my classes, I knew I wanted to use craft paper. Problem is, I don’t have any at the moment, so I went with the next best thing; a paper bag! I’ve been working with some recycled/found materials in one of my design courses, it was fun to carry that over into my personal art too.

I’ve really been enjoying making traditional art in general lately, but specifically with brush pens and white ink. I just love how it looks on toned paper like this. This was a really fun visual style to explore too; I’ve been trying to strike a balance between being more expressive and being accurate and this was a great way to experiment with that! It was also interesting to see what animals I have more practice drawing; I didn’t reference the wolf at all and feel pretty okay about it, but when I tried sketching a deer from memory,, that definitely changed haha. I have plenty of paper bag left, should I do more of these? If so, what types of animals do you want to see?

[ID: A hand holding a black and white illustration on tan paper with uneven edges. behind it is a white tapestry with a pattern made up of illustrated green leaves, slightly out of focus. The illustration is a black wolf head glaring angrily at the viewer, looking up through its brow and its nose pointed down. It’s ears are pointed up and back, and it has wild long fur on its cheeks. it overlaps a white circle behind it. in a larger circle surrounding the wolf head are vines with roses, leaves, and thorns. the roses black, the petals drawn in in white. most of the thorns, vines, and leaves are colored in black, but some are just a white outline. the roses break out from a larger circle behind them and the wolf drawing, this one just bring a white outline. over top of the roses radiating out from the center of the wolf’s head are sketchy white lines. the paper is thin, and has a slight scaled pattern to it.

Image 2: cropped version of the previously described illustration. the photo goes to the edges of the page, and the illustration is centered. the radial lines on the top and bottom of the page are slightly cropped.

Image 3: zoom on the eyes of the wolf. details around the pupil are more apparent, along with fur and scrunch lines on the snout. some of the roses and vines are visible to the right side. the crop cuts off at the base of its ears, right before it’s nose, and the fur on the right side of its face.

Image 4: crop focusing on the roses and vines. details such as the thorns and leaves are more apparent. the wolf’s nose is also visible in the top left corner. the left most rose is slightly cropped, along with the ends of the sketchy, radial lines. /end ID]