Holiday Illustration Workshop with La Scarlatte

I've been feeling inspired by artist Pauline Teunissen, 

who calls herself  La Scarlatte.  

You can find her on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@LaScarlatte

and on Substack here:https://lascarlatte.substack.com/

I joined her for a Substack workshop on Thursday afternoon entitled Drawing Winter Botanicals.  We drew and illustrated holiday-themed plants like holly, mistletoe and juniper using Neocolor II crayons.  You can see a replay of the class on LaScarlatte's "Creative Coccoon" Substack.

Pauline shared these reference images from Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/), a source of free photos for creatives.

It was delightful to sketch plants in a community of other artists and to learn tips from Pauline.

As we sketched the Mistletoe, she pointed out that if we followed the natural branching pattern of a plant, we could invent our own designs to suit the composition.

It was inspiring to follow Pauline's technique for using a collection of reference photos and combining them into one composition.

If you feel inspired by these photos, I hope you'll create your own drawing!

Happy Creating!

Osher Figure Drawing: Cowgirl Rising

Recently, my Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class at CMU was fortunate to get to draw model Robin.  We took inspiration from artist Donna Howell-Sickles, who creates mixed media paintings of cowgirls.

Robin took on the role of Howell-Sickles' cowgirl in her poses, expressing pluck and strength.

My class experimented with using bold colors in our artworks, as Donna Howell-Sickles does in her paintings. And we practiced drawing a 4-minute gesture of Robin's long pose on newsprint before creating our final drawings on good paper.

Here are David's drawings, first the 4-minute gesture:

...and his final drawing:

I love how he used his red pastel to dramatic effect.  Using a color in more than one spot in your composition helps to connect the elements of the artwork, creating unity.

Many thanks to model Robin for an inspiring drawing session!

If you'd like to see more of Donna Howell-Sickles' art, check out her website here:

https://www.donnahowellsickles.com/

Happy Creating!

Nature Journal Update: Colored Pencil Drawings

Here's a flip-through of some recent nature journal pages, from hikes in the woods (above) to sitting at the breakfast table (below).

What we draw we connect with. How could I be anxious when I am connecting with my sweet, snoozing cat?

Nature journals are great for recording discoveries -- like the page above remarking on my discovery of a place on Hawk's Hill that reminds me of a favorite place I used to sketch years ago.

I hope you take the time to make some sketches and written observations in your nature journal!

Happy Creating!