Illustrator Practice Leaf 1

So I've been exploring illustrator a little more and trying to learn more features. I've been practicing new skills on a simple project. I went out found a leaf and scanned it in on the computer:

I took in it into illustrator and played around with a few things for a while. After a little while I had this:

In this one I created my own brush, played around with layer modes and made a new gradient. I'll keep exploring around and posting what I make with it.