Caroline

I can't find the before picture..! I did it before I got my Canson sketchbook and seemed to have misplaced it. However it wasn't as good as this one. I am super proud of the result. Techniques used: pencil first, taking my time, erasing some lines prior to adding colors. Watercolor experience: better feeling of the pigment/water ratio, layering, layering and layering more to add value & depth. Beak and eye done at the end. Letting the layers dry. Using wet on wet (to my biggest surprise!), using a dry brush to clean certain elements. Feeling so good about this result.

Drawing the branch felt easy to start but the closer I got to the head the more challenging it became. I ended up putting my finger on the computer screen to remember where I was. But the more time I spent looking at the lines while drawing, the more accurate the drawing became. I have to say I am super happy with the result. 

I don't know if it's gesture drawing or the course in general, but through these exercises, I am definitely practicing everything we have learned so far: comparing tails, shapes, colors, identifying the light, remembering specific traits, organizing the page to my liking to leave space for annotations. It's not easy but I watched the fox video 4 times to do my drawings. I can't wait to try it in the field.

1. I went outside and picked 2 branches with different leaves from my backyard. It was cold and my son wanted to stay inside, so the compromise was that we would stay in, but that I would draw while he played. I learned going back and forth between my 2 examples. Whenever I noticed a detail on one, I would check for a similar element on the other, and so on. I ended up observing much more than what I anticipated. I also picked a maple branch with leaves that were pretty much dead. I was surprised by my own choice... and how much beauty I found in something that was past its prime.  2 - I realize that drawing first and writing around the drawing flows better for me. I might just keep a page for writing and another for my drawings and light notes.

Mushrooms growing in the middle of an oak tree. Themes: Scale & Quantity, Patterns, Changes.

I love this page, it feels like we were there with you. Love the structure of your layout.

I can't believe how much progress I made in such a short amount of time. Applying the various techniques doesn't come natural (obviously), but I really enjoy the process of thinking hard and also making mistakes. I'm very excited and I feel more confident with each try.

Pretty easy to draw as it didn't move :) Colouring with my son's pencils was challenging (it's Labour Day here, so can't go to the store to buy watercolor, oh well). Loved the details of the "fur" around the eyes, as well as the claws. Not sure I would have noticed had it been a bird just passing by. I would say that these are probably the type of details that are critical to identifying birds properly.

The pandemic has "forced" me to enjoy my immediate surroundings. I've never spent so much time in my backyard to observe nature (rather than plowing through a list of to-do's like lawn moving, and cleaning garden beds). My husband, son and I have spent hours walking in the woods trying to enjoy the moment, but also to identify birds, trees, shrubs, mushrooms.  We started buying books, then applications to help us in this journey. Then one day, my son asked me to paint a blue jay for him, and I was so pleased with the result, I feel that documenting this process that came naturally to us is the next thing for me. I absolutely loved the realness and movement of Holly's journals (both 2016 and 2019), her use of colour but also how she placed the dates beside each element in 2016, or how she used a gradient of yellow and green to write 'March 2019' in her second journal.