Up close and personal QUESTIONS

Artists Develop Art Making Skills:
As I was working on the final drawing for the butterfly, I had to come up with a background behind that was challenging me. I eventually decided with green shading in the background, as sort of a leaf or trees in the back. As I was working on the background, I learned a lot about shading with different types of green. I worked with lighter greens and darker greens, and it took some time to finally figure out how to get the right mix of green in certain areas and to blend it the correct way. I already knew how to work with colored pencils, although before going into this project I did not understand how to blend the colored pencils. My work always looked like a fifth graders artwork, until now!

Artists Reflect:
I analyzed my work when I was deciding whether to final draw the colored pencils or the butterfly. The colored pencils actually did not turn out the way I had imagined, as I did not understand how to blend fully until the end of the project. I eventually decided to draw the butterfly because it looked better and I knew I could make it even better looking in the final piece. I considered how the background to the final of the butterfly would look before I drew it, and also I tried different shadings for the wings of the butterfly before drawing it.

Artists Solve Problems:
As I was drawing the sketch for the colored pencils, I saw it turning out looking not how I had imagined! It looked not shaded well, with not enough contrast and darker and lighter spots. I decided to add more coloring, but put in more work with the butterfly so eventually chose that one for the final piece. The wings in the butterfly also looked a little fake so I tried different blends of colors and it made a world of a difference and made the butterfly look much more realistic.

Up close and personal

REFERENCES for butterfly drawing:

References for colored pencil drawing: 

Thumbnails for butterfly:

Thumbnails for colored pencils:

COLORED PENCIL SKETCH

 BUTTERFLY SKETCH

FINAL: 

Scientific Sketch- Questions

Artists Reflect: 

As I was drawing the thumbnails and the sketches for both the flower and the skull, I could not decide which one I was going to choose for my final sketch. They both had benefits and looked beautiful. I looked at the sketches and thought, "what if I could incorporate both of the sketches into one final sketch." I made a small sketch on the side of the paper of both of the sketches together, with flowers erupting from cracks. The image in my mind looked beautiful, so I started drawing. As I got further into my final sketch, I stepped back and it looked plain. More plain than I imagined. One flower on the sketch took me a day to draw, so I needed something to add that was faster to draw, which is when I came up with the idea to draw vines wrapping around the skull. Once I added this final detail it was done!

Artists Solve Problems:

As I drew my final sketch, my artwork looked plain and boring, as if nothing was going on in the picture. I wanted to add something to spice up my artwork. After looking online, I decided a great addition with the cracks and flowers was to add vines wrapping around the skull and to add shading to the background of the skull. I didn't want to add more flowers because they were so time consuming, and also I wanted the attention to be drawn to the flower that was already there. Vines were the best option. One of the biggest challenges I faced was where to put the cracks in the skull. I decided to put a few on the top part, with flowers and vines erupting out of them. In the end, it turned out definitely not looking plain.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills: 

I never was good at sketching, but through the time it took to make the final sketch I definitely learned some valuable techniques. First, I learned to not just draw a dark line as an outline. The outline had to gradually shade inwards so it didn't look so distinct and fake. Second, I learned for vines and stems, to make the sides darker than the inner part. It makes it look more realistic. Lastly, I learned that art takes time! In the past I always rushed artwork, but great art takes time. I definitely gained skill with sketching pencils, and hope to use them again!

Scientific sketch

References:

These are the thumbnails for the flower

These are the thumbnails for the skull, ended up doing the final sketch of the skull on the bottom right, which is starred. 

Final sketch for my skull:

Final sketch for the flower... I started thinking about incorporating flowers, stems, vines, and leaves into my final piece because I could not decide whether to do a skull or flowers. 

Final Sketch: