Onto the second assignment for my workshop!
This one is about a princess who gets stuck in an enchanted forest for many years and encounters some interesting characters. In preparation for our next assignment which I haven’t looked at yet as I want to finish this one first, we were to draw 100 flora and fauna on tracing paper with a mechanical pencil, blending the pencil marks with the eraser. It was much fun, but I gotta tell ya, nearing the end there I started to wane as you may be able to tell. Nonetheless, being a little behind on the assignments, I was tempted to cut this one short and move on, but I felt I’d be doing myself an injustice (kinda cheating myself out of the experience) so I am glad I kept going.
The drawings were not meant to take too long – less than a minute each – and I would get stuck on some for longer and others I’d zoom through. It certainly helped with my lack of sketching skills and my bad habit of criticizing my drawings as I go along. There was little criticism here as I was focused on just getting through the 100. That in itself was a valuable experience for me. Glad I stuck to it!
Now I have to draw 3 animals using the eraser as my tone tool – eek!
Phew! That is an exercise in persistence! I have a hard time “letting go” when I’m drawing flora and fauna. I tend towards trying for exact biological illustration (I think it’s my wildlife bio background) and I’d like to get better at sometimes being able to get at the essence of the thing, without getting bogged down in the realistic details. I think this exercise would take me weeks! But hmm it might help me get past that block, I bet.
You should try it, Amy! I have a hard time sitting down to draw because I take so long trying to make it look realistic, I can only imagine how it would be for you with your background! It’s a great way to loosen up!
Wow, I can understand why that was a valuable experience. Good for you for getting through it.
Yes, it was a mountain of drawings to overcome – whew!
Oh, catching up here… Please! Please! Bring these when you come over next week. I so want to see them in person!
Love how you stuck to it. They look amazing & I love seeing some NS influence here.
I will – so fun! 🙂