A Day for Experimenting

These two are very different from any of my previous work.  Using Canson Mi Tientes blue and Artagain black.

A Christmas Card

My brother is a fan of the Victorian illustrations of Frances Brundage.  I created this one of one of her classics as a Christmas card for him.

Acorn Squash

Of all the pieces I've done, I believe this is my favorite.  I drew it by hand, used masking fluid to preserve the highlights and underpainted the entire squash with colored pencil to which I applied Gamsol (solvent) to remove the wax binder.  I then used graphite pencil to shade the values.  There is only one color of green (the lightest) on this entire painting.  Love it!

Fall Landscape

Done as Lachri's November challenge.  I don't think I enjoy doing landscapes.  This was done with a watercolor underpainting.

A Course in Drawing the Natural World

I am taking a MOOC with Newcastle University in Australia.  What is a MOOC?  A Massive Open Online Course.  The course is to teach accurate drawing of nature: plants, animals, insects, rocks, etc.  According to a podcast the BBC produced about this MOOC, it is the first of its kind for an artistic subject.  There are about 12000 students. Overwhelming.  However, I've found a Facebook group with only about 350 people in it and it is easier to share and engage with this smaller group.  Here are some of the exercises/assignments for the first four weeks.

There's  a lot of emphasis on keeping a field journal and painting while observing specimens. I don't plan to do much of this.  I sort of buy the value of working from the actual item, but as I am not doing this for science I think I'll just take a picture and work from that.  The flower I picked while in Florida at Bud and Pat's was wilted before I had got my beer and settled in to draw it.

But if it makes me more observant, it should also make me a better artist.

PS.  To get permission to cut a piece off this Cassia Pat introduced me to the homeowner saying that I am an artist.  I didn't correct her, but it still doesn't sound true.

Drawing Nature

I am in my second week of a Newcastle University (Australia) course on drawing natural history.  We are working at this stage on accurately drawing what is seen using pencil only.  My first assignment got a pretty poor (but passing) grade.  I am hoping to do better on the next one.  Here's what I've done so far.

The Pangolin in the center is actually the latest one and the bottom one was my first effort.  The pencil sharpener is the answer to 'Which of things is not like the others?'