Revising a gesture sketch is something I've never done before. That aside, I find I was really looking for the negative spaces. This gallinule cries for color, however - can't wait!

This exercise was difficult but I think it came out reasonably well.  I tried the fox and it did not turn out so well.  I can see where drawing from life instead of a picture is going to be very difficult.

SCHLITZ AUDUBON CENTER: Holds a photo shoot every year. Photographers come from all over the country to participate. They also have   a raptor program every few weeks. Participants can sketch, draw, paint or photo the birds. I have a few quick sketches from one of these events. My photos are better than my sketches. I have been attending the Audubon's painting classes and hope to improve/ learning a lot about the resident 'Birds'.

I see that I need much more practice here!  I made an improvement over my 60 sec sketch but not quite the quality I hoped for.  Looks like 3 yr old drew it!  Creating darker shading will help to create depth.  I think my original was so out of proportion that it would need to start over completely......but I tried! I

Proportion and negative space were both quite challenging at my first attempts; now I feel they are really helpful and, bit by bit, I'm getting better at using it :)

Kaia's Drawing: 

Kaia's Mom's Drawing: 

I drew this little wren from a photo taken on a hike.  This course has been very helpful—hard to to say what has been the most helpful! I think what has helped me most is to be practical and realistic about what I can accomplish in the field.  If all I can do is make a few shapes and write down how I feel and what I wonder about it—well that’s enough.

What I find most difficult is fitting the drawing on my paper. Unless I use a ruler to go from large to small, and use proportions, I run out of room! The techniques I find most helpful are negative space and short sketchy lines. I  chose to draw the marsh wren because I really liked the photo and my gesture drawing were all done very small.

I took off on a new venture with this assignment. The challenge? To apply the drawing techniques to capture the details of a wolf spider I observed, at great length, in my garden. It was uncovered while I was weeding… by hand, no chemicals or mechanical devices. I took a photograph to work from. It seemed overwhelming at first, however, proportional techniques, keeping negative space in mind, and using short sketchy lines, mark-making, value, and breaking my subject down into shapes and relationships helped immensely.

Using negative space to find the distances between things is coming naturally, but shading correctly is posing more of a problem to me. Or, maybe it's not the shading so much as shading but also retaining details while doing so. Once I shade something it all seems to get blurred and the details aren't crisp and clean like they are in nature. Finding and using negative space has probably been the most helpful technique in this course so far. It helps a lot when something looks wrong but I can't tell what. 

I really enjoyed refining this drawing. Getting the values right is always the most challenging and it is important to know when to stop and not overdo it. I think the use of a Staedtler Mars Lumograph Black 6B and 8B pencil on top of a drawing done primarily with a mechanical 0.5 F pencil helped me a lot in achieving this.

The initial sketch is coming naturally, but refining it with more detail - especially shading, is difficult. I like the technique to imply patterns and texture, I would have been hung up in the past with trying to sketch every detail as I focused on specific areas and parts of the bird.

The general shape of the bird has come more easily to me, but the difficulties have been making the bird look more realistic and feet have always been a struggle for me, but luckily this one's feet are more hidden. The most helpful technique I've learned so far is the gesture sketching itself, it gives the bird such a natural look.

I chose one second of the `Red Fox P&K on an Alaska Beach´ to do my draw, I said one second because the amazing hyperactivity of the fox cub it´s only comparable with the tenderness that the video demonstrate, but deepening in the feeling that provoked in me, I think I found this emotion like the best technique that I need to express it, helped and using the skills that we learned in past lessons, of course, I just hope I got it.

I loved this practice. Starting with the quick sketch allows for such freedom and a loose quality. Following with refinement makes the piece really pop and highlights the bird's natural beauty and motion. I find focusing on negative space invaluable! It's such a fantastic, easy way to confirm proportions and accuracy. Getting the right position is still a struggle for me but the negative space really helps with that.

Getting the proportions right.  Sketchy lines has helped me with this.  

I am finding the mark making and value shading is coming more easily the more that I practice it.  I find myself naturally shifting into looking at the negative spaces more often too.  Taking proportion measurements is something that I would need to do more intentionally.

I really enjoyed re-learning gesture drawing. That is the key to field sketching success! My big ah-ha moment! Drawing is definitely a skill. Although I consider myself to be a life-long artist, I am very out of practice and I feel rusty. One of my goals with this course is to establish more regular drawing time back into my life. I like the cross-hatching inside the mouth for darkness.

Going back to the quick drawings and correcting the details was fun - I was amazed at how many things needed tweaking. But was also pleased that I could see the problems and fix them.