Deanna
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Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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This course was so thoughtfully put together and great for those, like me with very little drawing skills. It took me a year to finish this, mostly because I was spending time practicing the lessons, and I got about 3/4 of the way through the lessons and ended up on a hiatus for a few months before picking up my pencil and paints again. Starting a blank journal page still is a bit intimidating but every once in awhile, I'll do something I'm really happy with. I know I'll get better, the more I practice so I'm trying to draw on a more regular basis and practice things I'm still not very good at, such as value and shading techniques, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting lessons as I continue to practice my renderings and as I venture out more as the weather gets better. Thank you, Liz for this course. It's been an invaluable learning experience for me.
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I was able to apply a combination of the drawing techniques and what I think I've improved the most is the proportions. I still need to work on everything but figuring out the 3 dimensional stuff, shading and value etc. is something I think is the most difficult for me.... and the watercolours. I still haven't figured out the watercolours yet so I snapped a picture of the pencil drawing before I started painting. Painting is fun though but I need to work on that a lot more and also know when to stop. I think I need to work on everything still, including patience.
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I found the landscape harder than the birds. This is my first introduction to watercolours and I really love how the colours can bring the sketches alive. This is a combination of watercolour pencils and watercolours. When I initially bought the paint set for this course, I accidentally got the irridescent sparkly paint set but I've found a good subject to test out those sparkly watercolours!
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Gesture drawing was the hardest - I think the clock ticking made me all tense... but it was fun. I still have lots of room to improve on proportions and value. When I went back to refine my drawings, the proportions were often out of whack more often than not, but I found negative space, and judging proportions using the pencil helpful. I just have to remember to use all of these techniques as I draw. These are all new techniques for me, so I ended up spending time in this section just practicing the various techniques that were presented here. I think I will improve as I practice, but I'm going to need a lot of practice for this to come naturally.
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1. I choose to draw two regular visitors to my patio for my comparison study. The dark-eyed juncos are year round visitors while the chestnut backed chickadees have only appeared this fall/winter. It's made me wonder why they aren't here year round (at my feeder, anyway) and if there is competition for nesting sites and food with their cousins, the black-capped chickadees which are more numerous. The chickadees prefer the peanuts I leave out for them and the nuthatches while the juncos are content to hop around on the patio and in the planters feasting on the suet crumbs that other birds with messy eating habits (such as the flickers) fling around when they hang and feast from the suet block.
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I still have some work figuring out what marks are best to depict shadow and light. I've been drawing my cat and while I don't quite get the proportions right, I think I have been able to capture the texture of her fur. Chiaroscuro is something I still need to work on especially the subtle gradient from light to dark and figuring out the shading to capture the shadows properly, but I am awfully happy with how much I've progressed so far, as a total beginner. The posts by others are both intimidating and inspiring but I love the openness and willingness of everyone who posts for sharing. It's truly inspiring to see what others are sketching.
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Yes, it's definitely felt weird to start drawing with no instructions and I need to figure out proportions! but this was a lot of fun and I appreciate drawing from a photo until I hone my sketching skills....
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This course is both daunting and exciting at the same time. For me, nature journaling, I hope will help me develop my sketching skills and remind me to slow down. I'm not sure what my process or style will be. I respect the different styles and journals we've been exposed to and I think I will just let my style and process evolve as I go. This is all very new to me hence the daunting part since I am a total beginner and have no drawing skills whatsoever. It will be fun, I think to see how I progress over time and it will be a nice record of just the neat and precious little things that I will see and experience over the days, seasons and year(s), if I manage to keep it up. I'm really looking forward to beginning this and seeing where this leads to.
I found the landscape harder than the birds. This is my first introduction to watercolours and I really love how the colours can bring the sketches alive. This is a combination of watercolour pencils and watercolours. When I initially bought the paint set for this course, I accidentally got the irridescent sparkly paint set but I've found a good subject to test out those sparkly watercolours! 
I
1. I choose to draw two regular visitors to my patio for my comparison study. The dark-eyed juncos are year round visitors while the chestnut backed chickadees have only appeared this fall/winter. It's made me wonder why they aren't here year round (at my feeder, anyway) and if there is competition for nesting sites and food with their cousins, the black-capped chickadees which are more numerous. The chickadees prefer the peanuts I leave out for them and the nuthatches while the juncos are content to hop around on the patio and in the planters feasting on the suet crumbs that other birds with messy eating habits (such as the flickers) fling around when they hang and feast from the suet block. 
![IMG_4645[1]](https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/hm_bbpui/663411/7qyayfjrlzrg62omnqil9j4mx1wth1a4.jpg)
Yes, it's definitely felt weird to start drawing with no instructions and I need to figure out proportions! but this was a lot of fun and I appreciate drawing from a photo until I hone my sketching skills.... Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)