The average artist pays too little attention to the foliage in flower painting. He starts out to paint a flower and the leaves seem like a secondary consideration. Any handling is often thought to be good enough. This is a great mistake, as the treatment of the leaves may be the making or marring of a decoration. Many people are of the opinion that they are very easy to paint. This is another mistake. They are just as difficult and require as careful handling as the flowers or fruit itself. It would be very hard to give definite instructions on this subject. The many varieties with their various beautiful edges and veinings, need individual handling, just as much as flowers do. The shape of the article on which the decoration is placed, has much to do with the handling.

There are, however, a few rules that will generally apply.

Leaves must present a crisp appearance. To accomplish this, the color should be applied with as few strokes as possible. All detail work must be left for the second firing. Large regular leaves can be completed with two strokes—using the dark color for one and lighter color for the other.

The student should aim to make irregular leaves as simple as possible. It stands to reason, however, that more strokes will be necessary for these than for regular ones. In china painting, lights are supplementary. It is the shadows that give real character to the subject. These should be fired first, and the lights second.