Ink pen and water-soluble crayon

This week at #sketchbookskool is with Cathy Johnson. I love her work and I really like her lessons. First homework assignment was birds (or a squirrel, or some little creature). Unfortunately there isn’t a bird in site right now due to all the snow we are getting, but luckily for me I take a lot of photos. These gulls were at the Searsport Harbor a couple of years ago, I have always admired them and thought they would make nice painting subjects. Gulls are not as easy to draw as one might think.

One thing I really like about this lesson is the idea of learning about your subject–drawing as if you were working on a field guide. There are a lot of different types of gulls. These are most likely Herring Gulls, but the one with the dark eye could be a Thayer’s Gull.

The gull in graphite is not as successful as the one I did in ink. I find it interesting that I seem to do a better job when I use tools that I can’t erase! Funny.

Graphite and water-soluble crayon