Melanie
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Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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I recall these tiny beautiful jewels darting by at a stream in a forest. At first sight I thought they were dragonflies but I knew something was off about them, something different. I took a photo. Before I started this course and nature journaling. But I remember it like it was yesterday because I was fascinated by these tiny, flying blue gems. I went home and looked for quite a while until I found them Damselflies. I never knew what set them apart in particular, just that I knew as a whole they looked different aside from the obvious overall size difference between a Damselfly and a Dragonfly. So I dug out my photos (as it is currently way too hot outside 98 F) and used that instead. And this worked great. Drawing both made me pay attention, much closer attention, to the tiny details what makes them actually different. Great exercise. Loved it. Will come in real handy with some of the songbirds that look so similar. And so many other similar beauties.
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Gesture drawing is so important and yet so difficult. Yes, one notices how the animals move, where the legs bend and how, the tail’s length in relation to the entire animal, just everything one wouldn’t notice without trying to capture it. And going from memory surely will bring errors. I got a long way to go for this exercise to be helpful to me.
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LOL, well let’s say the beginning and end never connected. I see some similarities but definitely hard to make out. The Bird of Paradise and the bird were the only ones you can make out what they are. I thought the newt would be easy but I botched that one. I remember doing this as a kid. It was a game to draw blind folded and I was better at it as a kid drawing something out of my head onto paper without looking. Will need to practice this more. I mean loads more. Was fun though.
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The biggest challenge for me is the new medium, Water Color. I am a colored pencil artist by heart and I have complete control over every stroke, while water color seems to have a bit of a mind of its own. The graphite sketch looked accurate and to the point until I added water colors to the bird and boom, ruined. But that is exactly why I am taking this course. Sketching from a photograph is easy since you have all the time in the world to get every detail correct. Doing sketches from the living is a whole other story and I am hoping this course will help me with that. To me the biggest advantage painting/drawing over a photograph is I learn all the details. How the feathers are aligned and shaped for example. Trying to capture it on paper helps me also memorize the subject, in this case the Yellow Warbler, better. Seeing a photo of the bird is not the same as drawing the bird. Studying and copying helps me the most when it comes to remembering. It’s the same when trying to remember text. If I just read it and try to memorize it I have a harder time recalling the text versus when I write the text down. It helps me memorize better. It was easy to capture the pose and shape of the bird. The wing feathers were a challenge to capture. Also I noticed while drawing this bird, that the beak wasn’t just one dark color (aside from the light reflection I mean). I would have not noticed that would I have not tried to draw the bird.
Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)