I never noticed...

I'm taking a Botanical Illustration class right now. It meets once a week and goes for about 2 months. I always thought it would be so cool to hang out with just a little notebook, a pen and small tin of watercolors and capture the natural beauty of the world around me. And I was right...it WOULD be really cool. It might even be in the realm of possibility for me if I actually practiced what we learned in class (ahem).

One thing (among thousands of others) that I never noticed was how illustrators depict the 3-dimensionality of objects by using curved lines and cross-hatching. I've been looking at my beautiful new Cavallini 2010 Flora & Fauna calendar for 6 weeks now and just this moment realized it is the perfect example of what our teacher was talking about. Notice how the curved lines on the outside of the flower and the cross-hatching on the hanging pods really bring those elements to life.

Surely even I can do that, right? So gentle readers, I pledge to you that I WILL practice before the next class and I WILL post what I draw as a means of keeping me honest.

And that reminds me...I think I still have an onion sitting in my bag of art supplies. We started painting it in class 2 weeks ago and were supposed to finish it. I took a close look at the millions of miles of minute veins and quickly found something else to do. I WILL tackle those veins, even if I have to snip off all the hairs but one from my smallest paintbrush to do them.