Botanical Drawing

I have started taking Botanical Drawing I. This is a basic drawing class with the only subject matter being botanicals. The first day we did several 1 min. gesture drawings.


The instructor then brought in an aloe plant. We looked at it and discussed it for 5-10 min. Then, to my dismay, she took it out of the room and told us to draw it. Luckily for me, I am a little familiar with aloes, because the only thing I could really remember was the brown plastic pot and the dead leaves hanging down.

Christopher

This is Christopher. A wonderful bear that one of my dear sister's gave me many years ago. Christopher has moved all over with me and has always had a special place in our bedroom to sit. My children know this is one stuffed animal they are not allowed to play with. The youngest keeps asking when I will be done so that she can give him a hug.

After struggling with plants curving in on themselves this seemed like a fun thing to draw - not lots of curves (haha). The bear's face and feet are wood and I don't know how to show the grain properly. I tried a little but it doesn't look right to me. My lovely daughter said the right foot looks "weird". Oh well - such is life.

The Artistic Jaunt Begins

Webster's defines a jaunt as a journey undertaken especially for pleasure. This also defines my attempt at learning to draw (and all those things which follow).

Learning to draw is something I have always wanted to do. Several months ago, I was looking thru my sister's blog (Quotidian Curiosities) and decided I really wanted to learn to do this. So, I got a piece of paper and sat down and drew a horse. My sister encouraged me to go to Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters and read what he had to say about drawing. She also encourage me to join the Everyday Matters Group. Both of these things I did.

While reading post by members of the Everyday Matters group the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" kept coming up. I picked up this book and began to read it and do some of the exercises. At the same time I checked out just about every book on learning to draw, paint, use colored pencils and other techniques from the library. I also attempted some of the Everyday Matters challenges. I realized I really enjoyed this and wanted to learn more. Thus began my Artistic Jaunt.