Treatment
The drawings, which should be carefully detailed as to form, and intimate detail—in fact diagrammatic—can be in pencil or ink outline, light and shade is generally unimportant, though it may be lightly suggested.
With regard to colour, except in examples of special suggestion, little time need be wasted in still life renderings, though suggestive colour schemes may well be noted, but the drawing should at least be lightly tinted, this serving the double purpose of fixing the pencil lines, and defining the silhouette shapes.
These studies should form material for designs, not at first ambitious, but dealing with single leaves or flowers, and deriving from them details suitable to some form of decorative expression. These can be expressed in flat colour, with or without outline, or further ornamented by treatments suggestive of veining or striation. The blotching of some leaves during autumnal changes or any natural markings can often be turned to decorative account.