MF

Tried all 3 techniques. Dry on dry was a discovery for me and achieved great textures, which will come in handy for wood. Discovered that each brus or watermen size gave a different texture effect. Also, the exercise gave me plenty of new ideas for wet on wet, for skies and blurry objects in the distance for depth (trees, bushes) Wet on dry was my "go to" most of the time. Will expand my techniques from now on. Thanks!

  Learned a lot from the exercise. Took breaks and looked with a fresh eye when I started again, and spotted wrong negative shapes, or relationships or light areas missing. Lots of erasing. Still to learn to press very gently and not darken too soon for more clarity of shadows and lights. Great exercice. Learning a lot!

I compared a spruce tree to a larch tree in my front yard. The weather is still cold so I did most inside, and went outside to sketch the branches. I discovered many details I had never noticed before about each of the tree. This summer, will observe the leaves growth and fall to answer all the questions generated by the comparative study. Thank you. This exercise opens our eyes. Elaborating the comparative study in my sketchbook gives an outstanding sketch page.

Enjoyed the build up and practice with each technique. The squint up exercices really helped. For Chiascurro, I used to switch pencils (from H to 6-8B) to obtain darker tones, now, with practice, I kept the same pencil and achieved the light and dark effect. Happy! It will be much easier when I draw outdoor.

Each new image was a slight improvement in gestures; I realized that every time my hand accelerated, it created a distorsion on width or length. Meeting the starting point, or not, showed clearly how far my angles went too wide or narrow when changing direction. Trying to imagine a clock inside my head to guide me on the angles changes. Lots of practice needed still, but happy to see that my hand is starting to connect to my eyes. .

I started journaling the flowers in bloom in my backyard, alone, no one around, very private and unsure of myself. With time, I took courses on drawing and watercolor, and months later put together a portable journaling kit which I brought on my vacation trip at the beach. The relaxed pace helped me try all kinds of drawings and, slowly, I immersed myself in my drawings and was astonished at the results which gave me strong emotions of pleasure and content, every time I looked at them. To my surprise, the extended family eventually took a peak and enjoyed them as well. I was finally opening up my secrete universe to others and sharing my love of the nature and enjoyment in drawing. It drew me closer to others and started many conversations. I guess I came out of the closet after many months and years of drawing alone ans keeping it very private. Now, after 3 vacations, I feel totally relaxed to get my set up out in the open, and enjoy the simple and natural conversations and exchanges when people I don’t know come to me to look, comment and share feelings about my drawings. I have grown as a person from shyness and a strong desire for privacy to a person who now enjoys sharing my love of the nature. With time, this very private hobby and passion of mine drew me closer to people and bring me much peace and content. I was not expecting this added bonus. Artistically, each drawing got better simply by continuing to draw, experiment various mediums, tools, papers etc. It is now part of me, a source of happiness and a way to illustrate how deeply I feel the beauty of nature which somehow translate on my drawings. I hope this course help me cross this new step to go out regularly in nature and woods to capture all the beauty I see. I joined an ornithology club, this community is helping me go on outings regularly and start my new adventure.