An outside, accent wall at a shopping center.
Stripes in Wood
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Category Archives: Art
Mammal and Bird Illustrations
Our homework assignment for Week 5 in the Natural History Illustration 101 course was to submit an outline sketch of a mammal and to provide a few sketches of a bird. I chose these two subjects because I have good photographs of them.
Dama Gazelle, from Africa
Black-bellied whistling tree duck
Golden-and-Silver Honeysuckle Illustration
I’m taking an online course on Natural History Illustration. The homework for Week 4 was to illustrate a flower. We have this honeysuckle on our back fence (and it’s blooming!), so I snipped off a piece and used it as my subject. As soon as I submitted this photo for my homework, I noticed I hadn’t listed the measurements or even the color of the leaves. Lesson learned? Maybe.
A Portrait of Tim
Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, Salvator Mundi, sold for $450.3 million in November 2017 at a Christie’s auction.
The next day Tim Diggles posted this photo of himself in a similar pose to that of Salvator Mundi. (I follow Tim’s blog.) Tim offered this photo to those of us who do not have $450.3 million to spend (much less to spend that much money on only one item). I took him at his word and downloaded the free photo.
Sunday I printed his photo and used it to draw his portrait. I’m just now learning how to draw faces and this was my first complete effort using a photograph as a reference.
Fortunately I worked on this drawing Sunday afternoon while I was with a group of friends, one of whom is a retired art teacher. She gave me some pointers and I managed to correct some of my errors. I didn’t correct the spacing of the eyes: I drew them too far apart. I left them alone, as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to erase all my lines well enough for a second effort.
With thanks and apologies to Tim Diggles.
Object Drawing 1
I signed up for a free, online course through edX: Natural History Illustration. I must have thought I had some free time. I don’t, but I signed up anyway. Here is my object drawing for the first assignment: cattail, gourd, petrified wood (just in case you can’t tell). I’m not sure what the reference notes are supposed to include for a natural history illustration. Thank goodness for Wikipedia, is all I can say.
It's a long story ... 