Sample scratchboard

 The last part of the semester (in our Intro to Natural Science Illustration class) we've been focusing on learning scratchboard, also called scrapper board.  It was pretty challenging to get started as I've never even touched the stuff before, but I think my sample illustration turned out pretty well...

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

(click to enlarge)

The class final will also be in scratchboard, which reminds me... the first term is almost over!  Can you believe it?!?  All the class finals are due two weeks from yesterday (our last day of Fall quarter), which means the next time I post my work I'll be back in Long Beach enjoying a 5 week break from school.  After that, it's essentially one long 4.5 month push till the end (we only get one week off in between Winter and Spring terms).  It's crazy to think of all that will be done in that short period of time...

In other news, we enjoyed our last field trip of the year at the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Wednesday.  I, oddly enough, spent my time sketching plants from one of the tanks (Sea Grapes and Surfgrass) while most people were drawing the wildlife that is so abundant there.  I discovered a beautiful little fish that I hope to illustrate in the future (perfect for a color assignment)...

Juvenile Blacksmith (with Sea Grapes and Surfgrass behind)

 Next Thursday will find me enjoying friends and family up in the East Bay and I can hardly wait!  After that, it'll be a crazy push to finish my final scratchboard, my final Photoshop painting, and 2 field sketching assignments (I'll post more of my field sketching work while on winter break).  So don't expect to hear from me again until early December.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Something old... something new...

My first attempt at our last ink assignment proved disastrous, so last night I decided to start over completely (and it was due today!).  I'm so glad I did though, cause I'm much happier with this piece (and I can sleep when I'm dead right?):

Our assignment was to create a "collection" of items that were somehow linked to each other...  I chose the almond and all it's reproductive parts.  There were so many amazing illustrations done on this theme (by all my classmates) and I wish I could make copies of all of them to share and for future inspiration, but perhaps they'll show up again someday in the student galleries.

Also due today, was our first Photoshop painting!  We used black and white work from a previous drawing assignment and colored it in using Photoshop.  I'm pretty happy with my little skipper, remember him?

That's all for now.  If you'll excuse me I'm going to fall asleep now...

Ink Textures

Our 3rd ink assignment was to create 12, 2 inch squares filled with different textures...

Click to see larger

I quite enjoyed myself, though I ended up with the worst kink in my neck...

Besides ink textures we've been working on photo manipulation in Photoshop, painting in Photoshop, skeleton drawing and live animal drawing in our field sketching class, and much more.  I'll finish my Photoshop painting by Tuesday and post that soon.  And once I get my sketchbook work back from my teacher (it's currently being graded) I'll post a few of my sketches as well.  

I'm currently working on our 4th and final ink drawing.  I'm really excited about it and it's kind of hard to describe, so I'll just wait and show you next week after I finish (it's due on Tuesday, so I'll post it after that).  Once that's finished, we're moving on to scratchboard and there we'll stay for the duration of the program (only 4 weeks left).  I'm pretty excited, but a bit nervous too because I've never used scratchboard.  Fortunately our first assignment is much like the one above - practicing different transitions/textures on scratchboard.  Our final for the class will be in scratchboard too!

Anyway, time for dinner.  :)