Well my snail has been named as I said before, “Cuthbert”, after St. Cuthbert the patron Saint of Northumberland. I did some more studies of him as he’s growing.
Cuthbert close-up, in color
This is a close up of the watercolor study I did, it’s shown below first as a black and white ink.
Pages 2 + 3 studies in ink
Click on the images to read my notes. Cuthbert has already grown a few millimeters; the dark part on his shell is new growth.
Page 2 of colored studies
Here’s the same studies colored in with watercolor.
Page 3 of colored studies
This is the last page of my studies. I added to these pages on different days until I filled the two pages, but most was done in the first sitting.
Well Cuthbert says hello and goodbye, time to go and eat more carrots! Don’t worry, more snail sketches coming again! Don’t forget to visit my shop to see glossy note cards and other gifts with my sketches, paintings and photographs on them.
How did you get him to move slowly enough to sketch? 😛 Seriously, I really like how you handled this. A lot of people – me for instance – have a difficult time with line and wash, because the former seems to overwhelm the latter, and it ends up looking like a page from a child’s colouring book. Can you recommend any instruction books on watercolour for someone trying to learn on his own?
Funny, I’m surprised that they move faster than I expected! I left the table for a short bit, came back and Cuthbert was sliding up the brass lamp! haha.
With the line and wash problem, I’d have to see what you were doing, but maybe look at my line drawings and see if that helps. Do them as a good finished drawing but with not everything described, leave some for the watercolor to ‘describe’. I like to keep my line drawings kind of loose and sketchy, these I did with no pencil drawing first…so what you draw is what you get!, no erasing! It’s kind of fun sometimes, keeps it loose.
BTW, I keep compiling ideas and lessons, I want to do my own book for teaching all this. I’ll post it on the site when I get something done.
PS. I checked out your drawings, very nice!
PPS!! I forgot, I have a post coming up with stages of my painting on two snails, keep checking back, or sign your email in the subscription box in left column to get my posts sent to you. Cheers!
re: PS. Thanks.
Hi Ms. McAndrew! What a lovely blog you have. I especially appreciate it since I’ve joined an organization at Cornell known as Outdoor Odyssey, which guides 5-9 day camping trips for incoming Freshman. Through the training trips I’ve done with them, I’ve learned a lot about nature, as many are natural resource or plant science majors and that sort of thing. I’ve certainly seen some of the creatures on your blog on my trips! I’ll be guiding a 5 day backpacking trip in the Catskills this August.
Also, my best friend at Cornell is a fine arts major, so I visit her in studio a lot and sometimes think of you.
Finally, I would like to thank you again for the notebook you gave me for Christmas some time ago. I finished it in the three months of summer 2009, which I believe was a record time for me.
All the best,
Jen
Hi Jen,
I’m so glad you used the journal, you’ll think of me when you pull it out to read perhaps. I’m having a great time studying the creatures and landscapes here in England, I’m filling my field sketchbooks quickly as you can see. Please do share my blog with your Cornell friends, I’d love to share the science side with them and the art of course. I’ve started a shop on Zazzle to sell my artwork and photographs on notecards and lots of other gifts…please have a look and share it with your friends.
I also sent a friend who was the Cross Country coach at Buffalo state when I went there, your blog, he’s a great guy, we used to run together. I sent you his name on FB, Dave B. The other, John is a good friend who runs marathons.
please let me know how the backpacking goes!
Mary