Foliage Issues

I've finally gotten my workshop back in (relative) order. It's amazing the devastation that settled in during the eight months I was gone. During my absence, my shop became a general dumping ground of odds and ends and all genres of junk, a portion of my ceiling began to collapse, and I lost electricity (somewhere there was a break in the cable), so mold and mildew began setting up house. It took me quite a while, but the junk has been cleared away, I screwed a board to the studs in the ceiling to hold it in place, and electricity, a dehumidifier, and lots of bleach have evicted the mold.

I decided that I wanted my first panel back to be something fun and cutesy (mainly because I'm afraid that my skills have rusted, and starting with something simple seemed to be a good idea) and I settled on a summer night sky and a big-eyed-little-bug of an owl. After a ton of image pulling, I've finally managed to sketch out the little cutie I felt I was waiting for, but now I'm having a lot of trouble with the background. I want him sitting on a branch on a summer night, but I'm having issues with (of all things!) the leaves. Leaves! How ridiculous is that? No one has issues with leaves! The main difficulty I seem to be having (besides my lack of drawing ability) seems to be trying to create a jagged and interesting line of leaves and open sky, and at the same time, not filling the border between the two with impossible cut lines. Sigh. I really wanted to start cutting soon, but first it seems I need to overcome my foliage issues.