Cynthia

Your drawings are so spare and yet so full of the defining details!  Thank you for your inspiration!

I love your detective work to find where that cracked egg may have come from!  The chicks are darling!  Having your thoughts along side the drawings gives me more ways to reflect and record my sit spot observations for the future.  Thank you.

This was very engaging for me.  Sitting still is not my forte!  I surprised myself by staying for the whole 20 minutes on the sixth step of twelve looking down on a patio of flagstone, and above and to the right of me was a cascade of wisteria coming from a grassy area with bird feeders.  To the left were two tall fig trees, and in front of me even taller sets of river birches.  I was captivated to hear and see birds return after flying away when I first sat down. The silence lasted for minutes, but slowly I began to hear many different bird calls, at one point it was true cacophony!  A catbird practically shouted at me, and a sparrow came to drink water from a puddle about 20 feet in front of me.  When I turned my head, he/she flew away, but then crept back to the puddle to drink and splash again.  Some birds practically landed on my head when flying by!  Another sight that expanded my sense of observation was the number/variety of "greens" that could be identified as I sat there turning my head to the left and right, above and tho the ground.  It is summer here and the trees have all leafed out, grasses are tall and bearing seeds, and flowers are in all states of development.  I was also aware of the many different shapes and textures of leaves and seeds I could see from the fuzzy lamb's ear plant to a waxy succulent and a shiny reflective leaf from a birch tree. The weather was sunny although a thunderstorm was expected.  It never came.  What a peaceful time!

Hi Morgan,  I see so many different kinds of mark in use here and the values are so clear.  You skills are still with you!

What a delight!  Thank you for the good laugh, and the great drawing.  I love the folds especially.  The soft lines really define the winding of the paper at the top.  I'm so impressed by how few lines can be as important to the image as the complex set you have for the folded edge and the column.

Your color work in this painting has so many lessons!  Thank you!  It's gorgeous and alive.

Hi Stefania, I agree with Paula and Leonora.  There are people in this class with much higher skills than mine, but we need to keep that from discouraging us.  Like Paula, I have to tell myself, "I can do this!"  I have to practice, and as I go I will see more, and refine my skills.  So will you.  Your apple, by the way, looks like an apple.  Check my "eggshells" which to my husband, look like hamburgers!  The chiaroscuro is very hard for me too.  We'll see and understand it better as we practice.  I'm rooting for you too!

I had to laugh when my husband told me my eggshells looked like hamburgers.  I experimented several more times, but have not quite mastered (well, not even close!) the values that make such a difference in definition for sketches.  I know what I need to do, but can't quite meet the goal yet.  I'll keep the lessons learned in this section as I go along.

HI Lauren, Somehow your sketch captures a lifelike quality.  The warbler seems to be pondering the viewer!  I am so taken with him (or her).

Hi Sarah, Your attention to detail is amazing here!  And, you've reminded me that I wanted to keep notes in the journal!  Thank you!