Ever since I saw these mulberry leaves close up on a walk in Door County, Wisconsin, I was intrigued by the varying looks in texture and value of the distinct individual leaves and wanted to record that diversity as most botanical artists would--for others to observe, learn from and enjoy as well. I also wanted to exaggerate the planes pushing the foreground leaves forward and the background leaves distanced, so scratched the foreground leaves with polarized lighting/values, crisp edges with the background scratching limited to midvalues and softer, diffused edges, with the final "background" leaves gradually disappearing into the black ink of the scratchboard.