Want to add some nature to your design?  Why not start with a realistic leaf.  Learn the simple way to make a leaf in this tutorial.

1) Create a leaf shape using a pen tool

2) Turn your leaf shape into a selection by right clicking your pen path and clicking, make selection.

3) Fill your selection with a natural green color such as #283b03 which I will use.

4) On a layer above the leaf, choose a different natural color of green, prefrerably a color that resembles a shade of brown green, I will be using #5f6a38. With a 0% hardness regular circle brush, roughly paint over the leaf leaving some of leaf visible. Erase and tweak if needed. After you have what you want, make a selection of the original leaf shape on your first layer (by hold the CTRL button and clicking the layer preview) and press CTRL + SHIFT + I all at once to invert the selection, then delete. Your new effect will be only on the leaf now. Deselect and continue. Here is my result.

5) Repeat step four with various natural leaf colors, make sure you have each new color on a new layer so you can go back and modify your effects later!

Here

6) Now that you have what you want (I presume now that your at this step J) lets continue. With your pen tool, create a line going from the tip of the leaf to the bottom of it like this:

Once you have your line, set a regular brush with a size of 3 px, and 100% hardness. Give it a natural leaf color that will stand out slight on your leaf. I will be using #6f7000. Then go back to your current pen tool line, make sure you have your pen tool, right click the pen path, click Stroke path, select Brush, make sure that stimulate pressure is Unselected. Click ok.

Delete the pen path, adjust the opacity and get rid of the excess handging off the leaf…

7) Then, on a new layer…take your brush out aain, with the same color you made the first line, make some small branches coming out from the center one. Make it rough, remember nature isn’t always symmetricall and even….

Go back with a smaller brush and add some more if you want:

Make sure you get rid of the excess branches you create not on the leaf ;)

Merge the branch layers…adjust the opacity:

8) Select all of your leaf layers, right click them…duplicate..then press CTRL + E to merge them into one. Now you will have a merged version above all of your other layers.

9) Set your newly merged layer to Soft Light in the blending options drop down (on the layer window)….adjust the opacity on the layer and also the branches layer….

10) Burn and dodge your top layer to make it look a bit more leafy :D

11) Now add a stem below all the othe layers…using the pen tool of course. Remember, make the penn tool line, get a brush ready at 3px, get a good natural green color to match your leaf, # 112c00 for me. Stroke the pen path (right click with the pen tool out, click brush, uncheck stimulate pressure, click ok.

12) mess with each layer, tweak them, make various leafs..merge them, use the burn and dodge tools and you can have a ton of leaves for any design. Hope this helps….there is an included PSD for reference only! Have fun

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