September 14, 2019 by Sheri Garvin

Homework

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A study in my various pencils – this is a common thing to do to get comfortable with the tools for the current project.

The Natural History Illustration course has been fun and a lot of learning is happening. Some of the homework included unfinished sketches demonstrating the learning techniques.

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First activity was to work with natural items, breaking them down into geometric shapes, working their curves, etc. and this shell really showed me how rusty I am.

Week 3 Garvin

We then did field sketches of birds. Some people really finished them out. I need to spend time doing more of that, but part of my problem in the field is thinking things have to be perfect. I am working to let go of that and just get it down on paper first. Also, this was sketch paper and I knew better than to try watercolors, but did it anyway. It is a learning and reminding process.

Week 4 Flower Garvin

I learned about studying flowers and how to turn them into geometric shapes (not pictured), measure, and make notations. This lesson was interesting, but I found it a bit too detailed for me. I love seeing these types of illustrations. I hate doing them.

Week 5 Raccoon 1

This was about learning how to quickly capture form and essence of mammals. Now we are getting into my “love”.

We studied skeletal structure, which I actually found quite fascinating. I used one of our raccoons who was trying to get to our bird feeder as my model and tried 3 different gesture drawings for each pose. This lesson was real helpful and I enjoyed it immensely. I may be studying skeletal structures a bit more!

The preliminary blocking activities were very helpful. I normally jump right to this type of gesture drawing above, but doing the 2 preliminary gestures made doing this one so much easier and correct. That was an interesting ah-ha for me!

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This was a practice on how to block off parts of birds using circles, ovals, and geometric shapes – which is difficult for me to do. We also looked at how their skeletal structure is made.

I am going to have to practice this a lot more and, for once, I am excited about practicing!

August 17, 2019 by Sheri Garvin

19th Century Illustators

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From The Dictionary of Sidney

I regularly try to take a course that inspires my art and creativity. I just started one from the Univ of Newcastle, Australia, on Natural History Illustration.

This morning has been an introduction to historical illustrators from the Hunter Valley area in Australia. I have fallen in love with Helena and Harriet Scott’s work from the mid 19th century.

From ABC.net.au

Their work is exquisite.

NOTE: There is actually an ap of their work. Talk about making the old new again!

Resources:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/dec/26/harriet-and-helena-scott-the-sisters-painting-butterflies-in-colonial-sydney-in-pictures

https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/collections/archives/scott-sisters/harriet-and-helena-the-scott-sisters/

https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/harriet_and_helena_scott

October 21, 2018 by Sheri Garvin

Inktober Week 3

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Day 16 – Angular – I was just starting to draw a Great Egret I photographed at Eagle Creak this month. As I was playing with the lines (in nature they so often replicate, lending a beautiful symmetry to the animal or bird), ta da – Angular happened by accident. I think it has the most likes of any on my Instagram.

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Day 15 – Weak – I could not get the image to work, so I started doing my quick 10 second drills to loosen up my hand. I was flipping through Google images and when I was done, these made me laugh so hard that I shared them.

This was a hard work week, so I went off script in order to keep inking. Other than these first two, I did not follow the prompts and just had fun and used the time to loosen up.

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Hispid Corbis Rat / Red-Breasted Nuthatch study (saw my first one on our feeder this past week! Had to commemorate a “lifer”. The rat was from Google images.)

Below is my first ever fan art. Then the ravens took 2 days with the first being for the initial sketch.

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I love James and Margaret, who have made a backyard habitat in CA their home. The “caretakers” of that space give this loving pair of ravens food puzzles on their deck and interact with them in very fun ways. I have been wanting to sketch these guys for some time and took this opportunity. I think they would look very great in paint! Next project!

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Corvids are extremely smart birds and I have learned so much from James and his only love, Margaret. It is amazing to watch their story unfold. You can follow them and their fellow inhabitants of that backyard on Instagram or Facebook.

October 18, 2018 by Sheri Garvin

Inktober Week 2 – Compiled

For the word, Precious, I had to do my newest nephew, Isaac. However, I am not confident with portraits, so I worked him up in graphite pencil first. Then inked it. I plan to keep working on more portraiture, because it is such a challenge with great reward when you get it right.

Flowing is in process. Cruel was next. I did a fast sketch just for fun and have no intention of reworking it. I did not like this prompt until I thought of how cruel it is when birding to discover a wonderful one was behind you the whole time. In this case, a Sandhill Crane. I shared a throwback to last year to show I really can draw these birds. Cartoon style is still a struggle for me.

I skipped Whale and went straight to Guarded. This was a very technical drawing, so I sketched it first, then inked it.

We ended on clock, which did not inspire me, so I skipped it. I am batting a low average this Inktober. 5 last week and 4 this week. We will see if we can’t beef that up next week.

November 2, 2017 by Sheri Garvin

Inktober Week 4

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The above image was my favorite for this week. I was trying new things – this was my niece having a hard time of it when she found her daddy’s jeans hanging on the line. It is one of my favorite moments. Faces and emotions are not easy to capture. I vow to work this next year to do better with them.