Before describing today’s effort, I want to show you my shading study: I picked the unripened fig from the tree and placed it on the patio table. I correctly rendered the shape of the fruit and the shadow, but I don’t think I got the texture right. I showed this study to my wife, Joy. She […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: At the risk of becoming succulent-obsessed, today’s study is yet another succulent. I bought this one at a food market. I thought it was a perfect complement to my orange-flowered one. These flowers were just as difficult to draw as the orange ones. What I found very difficult was estimating the differences in tonal […]
The saying goes, “If you can’t sing good, sing loud.” I know, the grammar is not perfect, but this is what I was thinking as I finished up today’s experiment. Today’s watercolor experiment: Soon after I finished yesterday’s watercolor I remembered something: glazing! I had forgotten that glazing (layering a transparent color over another color that […]
I spent a lot of my day trying to conquer the shadings of green of the unknown succulent (hereafter known as U.S.). I applied the principles of shading I read about in John Ruskin’s book, Elements of Drawing, by drawing straight lines rapidly and at varying angles to each other, to create a cross hatching. The […]
This succulent actually does have a name, but I lost the label. It was curling off the pot (as you can see below), so I took it off and put it in the proverbial ‘safe place’. So now it is the unknown succulent, since I can’t find the label. Today’s watercolor experiment: I have been […]
As we get closer to the publication of our introductory volume of neuroanatomy, my colleague and principle author, Andrew Lautin, MD and I will be sharing our work on this blog. Here is the preface to our Introduction to Neuroanatomy. Preface: Various strategies are available to study neuroanatomy. One strategy encourages the student to privilege […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: Yesterday I experimented by painting a close up of a portion of one of the succulent plants I have (Hockey Brush). I used mixed media paper (a smooth, Bristol-like finish) and a 1″ hake brush. I originally said the brush was 1/2″, that was incorrect. I liked the composition, but the colors all lay […]
Change of pace, today. Many of my posts lately have been devoted to creativity and the visual arts. I am also working on an introductory volume of neuroanatomy with my colleague, Andrew Lautin, MD. Today’s post is about one of the early contributors to neuroanatomy. Marcello Malpighi (1628 – 1694), was a 17th century Italian […]
Today’s watercolor experiment: There was a sale on watercolor brushes. I have so many already, but I couldn’t resist these. They are called hake (rhymes with hockey) brushes. I have two of them. One is 3.5 inches wide and the other is 2 inches wide. I purchased a 1 inch and a half inch brush. […]
After yesterday’s less-than-stellar pencil drawing of the back yard, I took some advice from John Ruskin, 19th century artist, through his book Elements of Drawing. In the first few pages of ‘Elements’ there are some basic exercises intended to instruct a beginner in uniform shading of and area, and shading from dark to light with a pen or a […]
