Assignment 1

 For my first assignment (Society of Botanical Artist Diploma in Botanical Illustration) I had to create a value graph, pen and ink stippled illustration, clean line drawing in pencil and a small toned illustration. I chose a viola for the pen and ink (I found a plant at a local nursery), tulips for line drawing (I bought a container of tulips that were just starting to bloom) and bark of a shore pine (I found on a coastal walk) for my tonal drawing. I spent many hours between all these assignments, as I was working very slowly and meticulously. It was a perfect assignment for winter. The biggest challenge was the tonal drawing of the pine bark as I had to include an overlay of tracing paper and indicate where I used all ten values. Believe me, finding 10 tones was nearly impossible. Light grey and black were easy to distinguish but anything between tones 3, 4, 5 and 6 starting to look all alike. I spent close to 50 hours on these assignments not because it required 50 hours but I was just being cautious, slow and a perfectionist. I really enjoyed the shading of the bark the most. I received 9 (out of 10) for all three drawings and was very satisfied with feedback.