Smithsonian Sketches

This Friday the first year students in my program were taken to the Smithsonian Institution Naturalist Center in Leesburg, VA for the day to relax--before Anatomy class starts--and sketch from the animal specimens they have there. The Center itself is not all that big, but there are so many types of animals and bones and minerals to look at that it was pretty overwhelming. Anyways I made several sketches throughout the day:

The first drawing I made was of a skull of a Smilodon californicus (sabre-toothed tiger), which I picked both because I was still used to drawing bones from the hipbone project, and because I really like prehistoric animals, a lot. This probably took about 40 minutes, and is done in pen.



Next I drew a few much quicker sketches, probably about 10-15 minutes each, if that. They are of Martes foina (beech marten, top), Colinus virginianus (northern bobwhite, left), and Ondatra zibethicus (muskrat). All done in pencil.



After those I felt like doing another long drawing, so I drew an armadillo because they have really interesting anatomy (and they're related to the extinct glyptodons, another prehistoric mammal). Drawn in pen, and shaded with graphite.



Lastly, I drew one of the two giant polar bears they have on display. This one stood probably 8-9 feet tall, and was really impressive to look at. Another quick pencil sketch.



That's all the sketches I have, because I spent a lot of time mesmerized by the collection. It was definitely a worthwhile trip.

Ashes to Ashes, Carbon to Dust

Hi everyone! I wanted to keep this blog to show what I am up to at school (and my art in general) for the next couple years.

Well, I recently finished up the first project for my graduate program in Medical Illustration. For the first 2 weeks we worked on the traditional Hopkins initiation assignment, which is the drawing of a hip bone using carbon dust. To start the project I hung my assigned hip bone in front of a gray piece of paper and lit it how I wanted with a desk lamp. Next to the set up I taped a piece of paper and, while keeping my head directly in between the bone and the drawing, I compared proportions until I ended up with a drawing that represented my exact view of the bone set up. I had never drawn with such a strict viewpoint before, and wouldn't have considered it if it hadn't been required for the project, but it worked pretty reliably.


Once the proportional sketch was done, I used a light-box to transfer it to nicer charcoal paper. Then I started with the carbon dust. With a broad paintbrush I built up thin layers of gray with the carbon until it approximately matched the tone of the background paper behind the bone. From there on, I used increasingly smaller brushes to work out the volumes of the bone and to define the value of the shadows and body, and I pulled out highlights with erasers, and smoothed tone with a chamois. After a lot of work and sore eyes, I ended up with the piece below (approximately 11.5" x 16.5"):



Drawing with carbon dust was a new process for me, but it basically felt like I was painting the entire time, even though it was with dry media, which was neat. It reminded me (in a refreshing way) of some early assignments at I had in undergrad. I am happy with how the piece came out, and I am hoping to do more drawings using this technique when I get a chance. However I will note that this drawing is nothing like the majority of projects I will be doing. This was an exercise in pure observation.

Soon I will be starting up Anatomy and a couple of other medical classes, so it will be a while before I get to upload new school projects, but I'll hopefully have some personal pieces in the works in the meantime.