Drawing Nature

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.