Sprig of Little Flowers, graphite and colored pencils on watercolor paper, Photoshop.
This little sprig of flowers was growing in our garden. It seemed sweet and simple and was fun to draw—somehow it almost feels like a small “scientific illustration/comic art,” the way it turned out with the pencil lines clearly visible.
Freesia, watercolor pencils, graphite and colored pencils on water color paper, Photoshop.
From a bouquet of spring flowers I bought to put around the house when my wife returned from a recent trip to Michigan.
Two Tulips. Graphite, watercolor pencils and colored pencils on watercolor paper, plus Photoshop.
I started with the black and white pencil drawing of these same tulips I did yesterday—I traced the outline of that onto watercolor paper using a light table, because I wanted to create a color version of the same thing.
Pronghorn skull from the Burke Museum, Mammalogy Collection, University of Washington, Seattle. Colored pencil on watercolor paper, cleaned up in Photoshop.
(Antilocapra american, family Antilocapridae)
I wanted to capture the roughness of the sheaths on the horns versus the smoothness of the ivory skull. (Pronghorns shed their sheaths annually, but underneath is a horn made of bone.)
Skull of a spinner dolphin, Stella longirostris, Order Cetacea, from the collection of the Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle.
Colored pencil on watercolor paper, cleaned up in Photoshop.
The Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus is like a slightly smaller version of New York’s Museum of Natural History. The museum has excellent natural history exhibits as well as an incredible collection of skeletons, pelts and information about mammals, insects, reptiles and birds.
As I am interested in scientific illustration, Jeff, the Mammalogy Collection Manager, generously let me visit “backstage” and draw something from their collection. This spinner dolphin skull was sitting out from a previous researcher, so I decided to draw that.
One lovely part of the experience of drawing something for hours is really connecting with the thing it is you’re drawing. I fall in love with my subjects every time. Who was this dolphin? What was its life? What did it experience?
Hyacinth. I bought this plant at my corner grocery store because I was looking for something to draw today, and it was so beautiful! Now it’s in my studio/office. Colored pencils on bristol paper.
