Summer Smoke and Sizzle
Hello Everyone! Welcome to Summer. I have already experienced a variety of weather conditions from cooler temperatures with smoky haze to full on summer heat and humidity.
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| Chocolate Mint Geranium |
Today, I am thinking about goals. At work, I had my mid
point review this week and my manager mentioned that I should start thinking
about where I want to be at the end of 2024 to start developing goals or
resolutions for next January. I have transferred the conversation to my personal
life and started it by re-assessing the 2023 goals.
One of my personal 2023 goals was to take Drawing 1 and 2 at
the Chicago Botanic Garden, drawing is difficult and I had been wanting to take
a class for a long time. I budgeted and planned my vacation time because in my experience, art classes are intense and their homework is not something you can squeeze in
a couple hours on a Saturday or while half asleep after a work day. I chose
this class because the instructor, Marlene Hill Donnelly, is a scientific
illustrator for the Field Museum. I greatly admire technical illustration – you
can convey information in a beautiful way without the extra complication of
color. Technical illustration is used in so many fields such as architecture,
archaeology, biology, engineering, etc.
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| Architectural Drawing from the Library of Congress Archive |
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| Fish Larvae - I have the source somewhere in my archives! |
I am nowhere close to this but one can have big dreams. We started in class by warming up our eyes and hands with gesture contour drawing. The gesture is supposed to be quick, rough, and to capture the personality of whatever you are drawing. Then, you go back for the contour drawing on top of it which is slower and more accurate.
After
a few weeks, the drawings progressed by using different measuring tools,
practicing with lighting, incorporating cross contour lines, and trying new materials.
This is a successful homework assignment – accumulating different layers of
tracing paper to create the final drawing of a shiitake mushroom. The first
layer is a gesture contour on a grid, the second layer is a more refined
contour, the third layer captures the initial cross contour lines, and the
fourth layer is the complete assignment with cross contour lines demonstrating
shading. 
Gesture Contour Drawings of Lily
Mushroom Layer 1 
Mushroom Layer 2 
Mushroom Layer 3 
Mushroom Layer 4
My class critique included that the cross contour lines needed
randomness in length and more follow through (curve at the edge) so I did the
fourth layer a couple more times and now, I am content.
Final Mushroom
We
ended the class working on film or vellum and painting our shades with carbon
dust.
Sketchbook Page of Homework Assignment 
Sketchbook Page of Quick Light Study (Top) and More Careful Vellum (Bottom)
There were not enough students for Drawing 2 so that class was cancelled. Looking back, I am OK with that outcome because I needed time to absorb. Unfortunately, I haven’t spent much time with a pencil and paper since but I did sign up for another class in Fall.
So that’s the big update. No baking or craft news. Reading is moving along. I am in the midst of The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed, an important and thorough work. My favorite book of the year so far is Wild Ride: The Rise and Tragic Fall of Calumet Farm Inc., America’s Premier Racing Dynasty by Ann Hagedorn Auerbach. Another expertly researched book covering four generations of a family in the business or lifestyle of horses – and I wouldn’t call it a tragedy. I admire similarities between this book and last year’s favorite, Prairie Fires: The American Dream of Laura Ingalls Wilder: multiple generations of family drama, money, dysfunction. Now that I have been on the planet for multiple generations, I see commonalities between these families and those I encounter in everyday life. Have a wonderful summer!
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