Hi Virginia

I tend to try and use diagonal shading, following the lines of growth, pushing harder to get a darker tone. Circular is good for smooth areas. I avoid cross hatching, and even when working with pen and ink I tend to so lots of dots (stippling) instead of cross hatch. I just had a look at my Youtube channel and there’s nothing there showing me doing a polished pencil illustration. Probably need to fix that. Thanks for alerting me to the omission! It IS hard, the hardest bit is deciding where the lights and darks are, sometimes its super tricky to tell. But in answer to your question, I try to just follow the lines or planes of growth. And make areas just below the veins and towards the tips and margins a little darker. Thanks for asking. x