Nature Journal Update: Shaggy Mane Mushroom

 

It's mushroom season! Recent rains have brought mushrooms popping up in the woods along our favorite trails.  Here's a pair of Shaggy Mane Inkcap mushrooms a fellow hiker pointed out to us last Friday.  What a delight to sit and sketch this gorgeous mushroom!

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Shannon

I had alerted my students that I planned to do some creative activities with color in Friday's class, and asked them to bring their pastels, chalks or other colorful media to the session.  

During the 3-minute gestures, I invited my students to begin drawing with a lighter color to make their first messy marks.  After a minute, we changed colors to a contrasting/darker hue, and captured our final contours and shadows. Our model Shannon held some uplifting 3-minute poses.

As we progressed, I added more colors to my palette, finishing with white for the highlights, fuchsia for the midtones, and blue for contours and shadows.  

I love using bright, contrasting colors to create drama in a drawing.

After we finished our gestures, we talked about methods for drawing the hands, and practiced with a 15-minute hand study.

We finished up with a long pose.  I took the colorists approach to my pastel drawing of Shannon, following the rule that you can use any color you like in a composition, as long as it is of the same value (light to dark) as the original color in the scene.  It felt freeing and energizing to create with bold colors, and I played with swoops and swirls in the negative space.

Many thanks to model Shannon for her strong poses and creative inspiration!

Pittsburgh Figure Drawing Meetup with Emily

David and I held a virtual open studio session, featuring guest model, Emily.  Here are my drawings from tonight's session. Many thanks to model Emily for her beautiful poses!

Two-minute gestures:

Five-minute gesture:

Ten-minute pose:

25-minute pose:

Osher Figure Drawing Class with Model Amelia

We had a wonderful class with model Amelia last Friday morning.  We took a break from studying the construction of faces & feet, foreshortening and other structural challenges, and just played with ink and watercolor paint.  

A fresh perspective awoke in me, and I fell into the joy of figure painting.

We began with 3-minute gestures.  I used India ink, starting with a mass gesture in watered-down ink, and finishing with full-strength ink to find contours and shadows.  Because I was working at an easel, my wet brush occasionally dripped ink down the page.

Amelia brought us wonderfully fresh, challenging poses to work from.  She held her gestures rock solid still.  

After our gestural warm up, I demonstrated mixing flesh tones & shadows in watercolor for the class. We finished with a long pose of about an hour.  A lovely getaway into the Zen of painting.

Amelia arranged the pumpkins and gourds around herself to complete her scene.  

Many thanks to model Amelia for her lively gestures and inspiring long pose!

Inktober in an Enchanted Woods

I spent a few hours sitting in an enchanting pine forest at Raccoon Creek State Park with my nature journal.  I used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils and a Micron pen, touching some of the drawings up with a wet brush to create washes of color.  I love the intense colors of the Inktense pencils against the bold black of the Micron pen.

Here are the pages from my nature journal. 

I felt the cares of daily life wash away as I sank into the pine straw and connected with nature.

Here's a sketch of the cozy spot where I tucked away, sitting against a massive pine tree among the ferns.

I hope you get a nature break today!

Making an Autumn Leaf Stamp

Inspired by the beautiful autumn leaves, I wanted to create a print for some greeting cards.  I began with leaves picked up on a walk, and sketched them in my nature journal.

When I was happy with my sketch, I made a copy to play around with, adding swirls and other design elements in pen.

I transferred my design to the block I intended to carve using an old trick. I laid down several heavy layers of graphite with a 4B pencil on a separate sheet of paper, then placed the graphite transfer paper graphite down on the stamp block, and placed my design face-up on top.  I drew slowly over each line with my mechanical pencil. 

After transferring the design onto the stamp block, I carved away everything but the design I wanted to print.  I used Speedball Lino Cutting tools to carve a Speedball Speedy-Cut block.  This is the type of block that's soft as cream cheese, and super easy to carve.  You have to be careful with the edges to keep from getting broken.

Finally!  I had the stamp cut.  It's best to wash off your stamp before stamping with it the first time -- I skipped this step, and wish I hadn't!  As I inked the design onto cards, little discarded bits on the stamp made goobers on subsequent prints. 

I cleaned up the stamp and pad, and then created some exciting artworks!

One delightful discovery I made after I printed a bunch of cards was that the design worked no matter which way I turned it.  Now I have a stack of fresh cards to send to family & friends, and that makes me happy.

Welcome Autumn!

Nature Journal Update: More Pencil Drawings!

The beauty of fall is a balm to the artist.  Here's a walk through my nature journal.

 

Sycamore leaves along a wandering creek.

Wild Blue Lobelia growing along the creekside.

A tiny Spiny Softshell Turtle I noticed as I sat alongside Raccoon Lake.

A colored pencil sketch of flowers blooming across the lake from where I sat.

Thanks for coming along on the tour.  I hope you get a bit of time in nature today.