Leaves and Brush tutorial (SAI and others)

Hello, all, and welcome to my very first tutorial! I've had several people ask me how I did the leaves in a piece I recently completed, so here it is!

Please note that while the program I used (and therefore, the screenshots that go with it) is SAI, but the techniques work with any program that supports layers and layer modes such as overlay and multiply. I myself go back and forth between SAI and Photoshop CS6 in nearly every piece I draw.

Also, with this being my first tutorial, please let me know what you think of it, both as a tutorial and its general layout/design, etc.  I hope everything is straightforward and easy to read.

Thanks for looking, and I hope it helps!