For the past six weeks
I've mostly put aside Photoshop to try my hand (literally) at making
art in a non-digital way: with paper and pencils. I was lured by the
exquisite drawings of plants and animals in the promo video for the edX course, Natural History Illustration, from the University of
Newcastle in Australia. The two lecturers would “demonstrate in a
simple step-by-step manner how to record the beauty of the natural
world in a realistic way.” The next thing I knew I was clicking
the Enroll button.
Since the course was
touted as being suitable for beginners, it started simply with an
exploration of drawing materials, the types of lines they would make
and ways of shading with them. But it moved on very quickly after
that, requiring an observational drawing of three natural objects.
Oh, was that ever hard to do! The information on the course said it would require 3 to 6 hours per week. I'm fairly sure my time
on this drawing exceeded those 6 hours.
I had taken a lot of art
classes in college, decades (yes, decades) ago but never continued
drawing after that, so I was amazed that I was able to do this well.
It required a tremendous amount of concentration, and the process
hovered between pain and pleasure. After it was finished, I had to
open up my drawing pad and admire my achievement every time I went
by.
The next drawing was for
the lesson on the structure of flowers. About the only thing I have
blooming at the moment are bright pink tall garden phlox, so I sat
for several more hours squinting and holding a magnifying glass up to
a stem of those while trying to get shapes and proportions right. I
probably used my erasers as much as my pencils.
Next up was animals, and
since I have an abundance of cats, I drew two of those. Hmm, I'm afraid the
proportions are a little off on both of them.
And finally, the FINAL
assignment, a fully-rendered drawing of a plant or animal. What to
choose?
Something not too
difficult... How about the big American White Pelicans that winter
at White Rock Lake not far from us? No complicated coloring or
patterning on their feathers; they're just white with black wing tips
showing when they're in flight. So I found this great photo on the
White Rock Lake Wildlife Flickr group...and a couple of days later
wondered how I could have ever imagined that drawing this bird would
be easy. I started on Friday, started over on a larger version on
Saturday, worked on it more on Sunday, worked on it lots more on
Monday, and then spent basically all of Tuesday slowly, slowly
filling in feathers inch by painstaking inch.
I'm still intending to put
some indication of water in the drawing, but all I needed was the
bird itself for the assignment, which I duly submitted on time, took
the final exam and finished the course. YEAH!
The course was basically
an introduction to and a sampler of various types and techniques of
natural history illustration, obviously fairly cursory in a six week
span. I personally would have preferred a slower pace, as there were
suggested tasks that I simply did not have time to do. It was
presented via both videos and written material, with links to
additional resources, such as You Tube drawing videos which I
utilized extensively. I don't think you could learn to draw as a
complete beginner by taking this course, but there were students who
were attempting to do so, and well as already-accomplished artists.
It was especially interesting to see all the different responses to
each assignment: the different skill levels, the different styles and
the different plants and animals drawn by students all around the
world.
So despite the amount of
time it consumed, I'm glad I took this course, not the least because it got me drawing again. And I vow to continue. But at the moment Photoshop is feeling neglected, as is my dear old sewing machine.
