A Case of the Mondays, #4

For this Monday, the October illustration in my Cavallini calendar didn't need any embellishing, but I was intrigued to study the color palate closely:

Bonus assignment:  Take a close look at these colors.  Where do they exist together in nature, either in pairs or as a group?  Are they hues you choose to work with?  If so, what draws you to them?  If not, why not?

A Case of the Mondays, #3

For this week's Monday inspiration, I stepped outside and gathered up some fall leaves to embellish these 2 pages from the lovely Cavallini nature calendar I have up in my office:

I just used a little double sided tape...and presto! chango!

Bonus Assignment:  What natural elements can you spot that would embellish your office space?

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.

End of the calendar year...

A nifty thing about reaching the end of the year is that I can rip apart my calendar and use it in art projects. This past year, in my office I enjoyed the 2008 Cavallini "Birds & Nests" calendar; each month portrayed a different luscious painting of...you guessed it...birds and nests (and eggs). These pages were from January and December. Even though the calendar images were huge, I suppose the actual paintings were very delicate (considering the size of the postage stamps and cancellation marks). I suppose that's 1867. Makes me want to learn some basic calligraphy.