HI there! Use reference, get a nice leaf ref and start looking for the details.
right now its really simple and plain, not wrong, just not that interesting.
You're kind of missing some subtleties of leaves and I think you need to study them more. Even when you're painting stylized textures you can still hint at the subtleties.
Leaves are like veins, they start out big then narrow down and branch out. What you end up with are a bunch of little cells that are bouncing and reflecting light in slightly different ways.
You don't need to show every cell but you do need to acknowledge they are there when painting impressionistic textures. Those veins would be thinning and branching and you're going to pick up on some of the major branches. Also hinting at the subtle shifts in the cells will help.
Another part of the problem seems to be that you're just going off of what you know about leaves, they're green and they have branchy strands in them. But they have thickness and slight variations in composition that gives them variation in colors.
Don't just go off of what you know about leaves, but settle on an actual leaf and study it and paint it like an impressionist painter would.
Replies
right now its really simple and plain, not wrong, just not that interesting.
Leaves are like veins, they start out big then narrow down and branch out. What you end up with are a bunch of little cells that are bouncing and reflecting light in slightly different ways.
You don't need to show every cell but you do need to acknowledge they are there when painting impressionistic textures. Those veins would be thinning and branching and you're going to pick up on some of the major branches. Also hinting at the subtle shifts in the cells will help.
Another part of the problem seems to be that you're just going off of what you know about leaves, they're green and they have branchy strands in them. But they have thickness and slight variations in composition that gives them variation in colors.
Don't just go off of what you know about leaves, but settle on an actual leaf and study it and paint it like an impressionist painter would.