I can see it will take me longer than I thought to work my way through this course. I practiced using sketchy lines and techniques for shaping and texturing. My circles are getting better! I have to learn to hold my pencil more lightly and freely and use more wrist than fingers for control. Loosen it up......I don't know when I will be ready for color. After this unit I will have something to post! I am inspired to draw the milkweed pods I just cut down in my front yard. Happy sketching all.....

I liked using stippling for this drawing, maybe because it's already kind of a bumpy subject.

I understand chirascuro the best and can see the light and shadows on the objects I draw.  Deciding what type of mark to use is an area where I need to practice more.  The red pepper is my favorite of the fruits and vegetables on this page, possibly because I used straight hatching, which seemed to work better than curved hatching for the other objects.  The navel orange might have been more recognizable if I had used stippling.    

I tried to use a different style of shading for the sphere, the apple, the lemon and the miniature pumpkin to varying degrees of success. I most enjoyed stippling the lemon, which felt almost meditative after a time, though I fear the outcome looks rather more like a kiwi fruit in texture. I struggled most with miniature pumpkin and couldn't get the combination of cross hatching and contouring to work, which was frustrating.

I'm still working giving depth and dimension this acorn.

I am still working on light and dark- trying to get some clarity in my drawings- mostly using graphite until I can get in right more consistently. Shagbark hickory nuts were a good subject. I still want to work on light and dark going forward. It's one thing to get convincing and clear lighting on an inanimate object and quite another to apply it to a living object that moves. I will continue to work on this on each journal page as it progresses. I'm not sure what to do about messy looking writing; maybe ink rather than pencil.

maybe trite subject matter, but plentiful

At last! This is the image of Leonardo (a nature journalist!) I unsuccessfully tried to upload with my little leaf and pumpkin drawings earlier. (Here we were practicing chiaroscuro and different ways of shading, including hatching). Marty Patton (who is running waaaaay behind)

I thoroughly enjoyed sketching some leaves, a pumpkin, and an etching I found of Leonardo (who was, among other things, a master nature journaler--right? His notebooks intrigue me more than his finished paintings). I took a photo of my sketch, saved it as a jpg, and then inserted it (multiple times) in the "insert image" spot--where it does show up, but it takes up the whole screen and obliterates the "submit" button. If I try to return to the original page, I lose it all. Advice is welcome! (I did contact the Cornell help page and did what I thought I was told--saved it as a jpg and inserted it.) --Marty Patton

I’m a beginner, so I know this takes oodles of practice, but I struggle with the various forms of shading. Mine look too mechanical. Are there any reassures you can recommend that will help me draw more natural and realistic three demential figures? Regards, Barry

My attempt at giving depth to the pictures using the shading techniques

I tried to work on dark and light on various objects I found to draw. I feel like I understand light and shadow better, but it is an ongoing process. I am very much enjoying seeing everyone's work on such a huge variety of subjects. It is helpful and "enlightening". Edirh

I tried to put a bright highlight and a dark cast shadow on this mango

It was great fun trying out all the new techniques, some of which come easier than others!

This is SO much fun! I'm learning a lot with vast space for improvement!

It was not so easy to see where and how to apply the chiaroscuro technique.  The blending the shadows was difficult, although the cast shadow and the highlight were the easiest to find and to apply.  I'm feeling more comfortable putting marks down on the page and these lessons have given me confidence in drawing new objects like onions, succulents and chili peppers that I have not drawn before.  I want to work on chiaroscuro and shading in the upcoming lessons as well as applying those techniques to watercolor paintings and paintings with color in general.

Here is my attempt. I found my greatest challenge to be the very shiny bright spot reflected off the left side of the moon shell. I feel it would have been easier if I had used color, which would have made it possible to leaves a white spot at that location. Though the harsh shadow on the right looks...really harsh, it was indeed that stark.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the whole contour/shading thing!😊

I was confused by the difference between contouring and shading, and all my drawings kept ending up heavy and dark because I was trying to convey too much I think. I watched a couple of cool YouTube videos by Alphonso Dunn and really liked the starkness of his drawings. I tried to apply some of what I learned here in a pencil drawing. I think it works especially because the flower itself is a simple subject. Doesn't work so well on oak leaves (results not shown lol).

  I used blending a lot on the deer skull. I am certainly paying attention to detail more.

It was good to learn a variety of marks to use for shading, and it is getting easier to put pencil to paper. I would like to try more stippling  - its a challenging skill.